is very fevere on the British government.-The king himself is not fpared; and yet the Author cenfures our court' for the illiberat calumny' with which, as he says, it has been pleased to indulge itfelf against that of Verfailles!'-Surely courts may be indulged in taking as much liberty with each other as a private obferver prefumes to take with them!

Art. 2c. The Detail and Conduct of the American War, under Generals Gage, Howe, Burgoyne, and Vice Admiral Lord Howe: With a very full and correct State of the Whole of the Evidence, as given before a Committee of the Houfe of Commons; and the celebrated Fugitive Pieces, which are faid to have given rife to that important Enquiry. The Whole exhibiting a circumstantial, connected, and complete Hiftory of the real, Causes, Rife, Progrefs, and prefent State of the American Rebellion. The Third : Edition. 8vo. Richardfon and Co. 1780.

This is a new and much enlarged and improved edition of a tract mentioned in our Review for July laft, entitled A View of the Evidence relative to the Condua of the American War, &c. In the prefatory advertisement to the prefent edition, reafons are given for the alteration of the title; with an account of the great additions, and new arrangement' of the work. The whole now forms a regular feries of the tranfactions and progress of the American war. The Au thor is rather violent in expreffing his refentment against the revolted Americans, the minority party at home, and fome of our commanders, mentioned in the title-page, particularly the H-w-s; but we cannot fay that his zeal is without knowledge; for he appears to be a very well informed Writer, as well as a judicious compiler.

Art. 21. Subftance of the Speeches made in the House of CommonS on the 15th of December 1779, on Mr. Burke's giving Notice of his Intention to bring in a Bill after the Christmas Recefs, for the Retrenchment of Public Expences, and for the better fecuring the Independence of Parliament. 8vo. 6d. Almon. 1779.

An excellent Preface to a work laudably intended to correct the prefent prodigal conftitution of the civil executive government of this kingdom. The fpeakers who followed Mr. Burke, in fupport of his truly patriotic defign, were lord John Cavendish, Mr. Dempfler, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Gilbert.

Art. 22. A Letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Sandwich, on the prefent Situation of Affairs. By a Sailor, 8vo.

Wilkie. 1779

If it be afked, who is this correfpondent of lord Sandwich's ?' let the answer be given in the Letter-writer's own words: I am a plain, open-hearted failor, zealous for the glory of my king and country, and ambitious of sheltering my fentiments under your lord. fhip's name; whom I revere as the most industrious and able friend to both.'

As a fpecimen of the jolly Tar's way of thinking about the prefent fituation of affairs,' our Readers will accept the following paffage: Well meaning men are often deluded by a bold affertion, and confident declamation. To win their good opinion of the measures generally taken by administration, and to perfuade them that the En

glish are not an entirely ruined people, is my prefent ambition. To shew them, alfo, that I write the words of truth and sobernefs, and that the prefent oppofition to the neceffary steps taken by his majefty's fervants, in the state, for the safety and honour of their counwy, proceeds from the moft nefarious profligacy of fentiment, is the plan on which I direct my difcourfe to you!'

Honeft Binacle may, no doubt, be a good feaman, and may be ufefully employed, with his friend Sir H. P. when knotting and fplicing, to repair the damages received in a brush with the French; but what has he to do with pen and ink, except in keeping the ship's journal, or log-book?

Art. 23. Ox Government. Addreffed to the Public. By Thomas Wycliffe, of Liverpool, 8vo. 4s. Warrington printed,

1779.

This is a new edition of a tract first published, without the Author's name, and mentioned in the 55th vol. of our Review, p. 317. The Writer has now much enlarged his work throughout; and has added two entire new chapters, one on the Supreme Power of a State (which he lodges with the people), and another on the internal Government of Great Britain. In this last divifion of his work, he propofes a new plan of parliamentary deputation, by which the people would be more equally reprefented than they are at prefent; an object, no doubt, of the utmost importance to the political welfare of this country. Mr. W.'s plan is illuftrated by an out-line map of England, according to his new divifion of the kingdom, viz. into 69 counties, to be reprefented in parliament by 292 county members, and 197 members for parishes.-On this novel propofal, the Author comments in the following terms;

Should fuch an alteration as this be made, then the representa tives chosen by each place would bear fome degree of proportion to its confequence, and the weight that each place ought to have in government; and all the reprefentatives being dependent on their conftituents, under fuch a conftitution of government as this, the voice of parliament would be the voice of the people, and would be, in the stricteft fenfe of the word, SELF-GOVERNMENT.'

But Mr. W. does not confine the confideration of this supposed diviñion of counties entirely to the object of an equal parliamentary reprefentation. He thinks it may be rendered useful to the state in other important refpects; but for thefe particulars we must refer to his treatife at large,-in which the reader will meet with many observations worthy the attention of those who have a turn for fpeculation on plans of national improvement, Many, however, will con fider his project of an universal empire, of which Great Britain is to be the centre, and feat of government, as a moft curious piece of Utopian castle-building; efpecially as the propofal happens to be made at a time when, in the opinion of many, the empire of Great Britain, inftead of being extended on Mr. W.'s vaft and comprehenfive fcale, feems rather to be verging apace towards a mortifying reduction, if not a total fubvèrfon,

LA W.

Art. 24. Thoughts on the Extenfion of Penal Laws. With fome Remarks on a Memorial delivered to the Right Honourable the Lords Commiffioners of his Majesty's Treafury by a Committee of Tea Dealers, Feb. 2, 1779. 8vo. 1s. Wilkie. 1779.

The excife laws, it is well known, received a confiderable acceffion both of bulk and ftrength from a ftatute which paffed in the latt feffions of parliament, and which probably took its rife from the memorial alluded to in the title page. It is natural for those who suffer, to complain; and it is not unwife in those who complain, to point out fuch means as they think likely to prevent, or remedy, the ills they fuffer. The framers and prefenters of that memorial were confiderable traders; and in order to check the growth of (maggling (the practice of which they conceived to be fo injurious to the revenue, and which they felt to be fo detrimental to trade) they subjoined to their memorial a propofal for fome future regulations and reftrictions, that feemed to them most efficacious for this purpose. This propofal excites the indignation of our Pamphleteer. Mark his apostrophe to thefe recreant tea dealers. Bluth, if ignorance will permit you! Be feen and heard no more! Or if you will, be confident, and let oppreffion be the theme! Narfed with the milk of monopoly, follow the practice long fince adopted; combine and crush the little dealers round you, and give over your attempts to undermine the grand and noble fabric of our liberties, which has already cost us fo many millions of treasure, and an inundation of blood to rear and fupport.' This is certainly magnificent language! Voilà le vrai fublime!

Whoever is fond of tracing the coincidences of expreffion between great writers, will be amused to find how nearly in fome paffages this Writer approximates to Junius's Letter to the K-. The following fentences are selected from each, and compared. Our Author thas fpeaks of Mr. Alderman Bull, whofe name, he obferves' with fome concern,' fubfcribed to this offenfive memorial:

I am ftill inclined to make an indulgent allowance for the pernicious leffans" he received from thefe arch-projectors.'

Junius to his M. We are still inclined to make an indulgent allowance for the pernicious leffons you received in your youth." This Author to Mr. Alderman Bull, I am onwilling to think him capable of a direct deliberate purpofe to invade the original rights of fubjects, on which all their civil and political liberties depend.'

Junius to bis M We are far from thinking you capable of a direct deliberate purpose to invade the original rights of your fubjects, on which all their civil and political liberties depend."

This Author to Mr. Bull. Banish from your mind the unworthy opinions with which those interested perfons have laboured to poffefs you.'

Junius." Banish from your mind those unworthy opinions with which fame interested perfons have laboured to poffefs you."

Whether fo unufual a fimilarity of phrafe be the refult of accident or artifice, we cannot determine. We would not, without strong evidence, pronounce this Writer guilty of plagiarism, because We

are

are unwilling to think him capable of a direct deliberate purpose to invade the original rights" of another author.

Art. 25. Thoughts on Martial Law, and on the Proceedings of

General Courts Martial. 4to. 2s. 6d. Becket. 1779.

That celerity of decifion, which the exigencies of war require, is in a great measure ic.compatible with the fcrupulous inveftigation and cautious formalities, which ought to be adhered to in the admi niftration of civil justice. Hence every attempt to affimilate the martial to the common law will be found extremely difficult; if not altogether impracticable. Martial law (we are told by the beft writers) is built upon no fettled principles, but is entirely arbitrary in its decifions, and is in reality no law, but fomething indulged, rather than allowed as law. Yet it is furely to be wished, that those gallant men, whom enthufiafm impels, or public neceffity calis forth, to the public fervice, thould not be left unguarded by the laws of that country which their valour is employed to defend. When we confider how many of our fellow fubjects are, in time of war, amenable to a military tribunal, we cannot but regret that they fhould forfeit as foldiers, the rights they poffeffed as citizens; and that their lives and liberties fhould be lefs anxiously watched over and protected by the barriers of law, than thofe of any other order of men. The dengn of this fenfible and well-timed tract is to reduce into form and precifion, the proceedings of courts martial; and in the courfe of it the Author hath foggefted many valuable hints for the improvement of this mode of trial. He has certainly a claim to the attention and gratitude of all military men; to their attention, from the information he communicates; to their gratitude, for the benevolence he expreffes: -for he acquaints them, that if his efforts tend to fecure the wellbeing or fafety of even the lowest veteran of the camp,' his purpofe" will be fully answered.

AFFAIRS.

MILITARY Art. 26. The Military Inftructor for non-commiffioned Officers and private Men of the Infantry. By Thomas Simes, Efq; late of the Queen's Royal Regiment of Foot; and Author of the Military Guide, &c. Second Edition. 12mo. 2s. 6d. Almon, &c. In this publication, which we do not recollect feeing before, though. it is called the fecond edition, the Author has fupplied the deficiency we remarked in the account of his Military Guide; and by the inftructions and precedents it contains, it promises to be a very useful manual for all intelligent fubalterns and private men in military fervice.

POETICARL

Art. 27. The Vision: A Poem, on the Death of Lord Lyttelton. Infcribed to the Right Hon. the Earl of Abingdon. 4to. Is, Millidge.

The ftory of Lord Lyttelton's apparition-lady, thrown into verfe ; with a handful of good, honeft oppofition-politics, tofs'd in for a make weight, This inexorable poet, and patriot, condemns all the

See Rev. vol. Ivin. p. 303.

G 4

miniferia!

minifterial rogues † to an ignominious death in this world, and eternal damnation in the next:

Nor fhall their punishment on earth atone,

In endless torments they fhall ever groan.'
Oh! oh! oh!!!

Art, 28. Poems, by Mr. Jofeph Holden Pott. 8vo. 1 s. 6d.
Becket. 1779.

This little Mifcellany, confting of Odes, Elegies, &c. carries with it many marks of a cultivated mind. The Odes, which form the principal part of the collection, are easy and harmonious; and if they abound not in any great ftrokes of origiral genius, they are, at leaft, not deftitute of thote graces which spring from a true and elegant taste.

At the end of the volume are added Poemata Latina. Of these, none are wholly without merit; but the laft, in our opinion, is

the best.

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

Art. 29. Cool Thoughts on the Confequences to Great Britain of American Independence; on the Expence of Great Britain in the Settlement and Defence of the American Colonies; and on the Value and Importance of the American Colonies and the Weft Indies to the British Empire. 8vo. 1 S. Wilkie, 1780.

The Author fets out with obferving, that the independence of America has been long fince recommended, by a learned and ingenious author, as beneficial to Great Britain; that the plaufibility of his arguments has made fome profelytes; and that it has even produced a motion in the House of Commons, to that end,' Whether,' fays this writer, the boldness or novelty of the fentiment has been mistaken for truth, I fhall not determine; this, however, is certain, that at the firft view of a propofition to dismember from a fate 3,000,000 of its fubjects, and the far greater part of its territory, reafon takes the alarm, and creates in the mind ftrong fufpicions that it cannot be well founded.'-To prove that it is ill founded, is the main bufinefs of this temperate and judicious performance. By a candid flate of facts, and a series of jutt and pertinent remarks, he fhews the ruinous confequences [to this country] of a plan, by which Great Britain must give up not only the greatest part of its territory, and more than one fourth of its people, but likewife near one half of its commerce, (the trade to Ireland and the East Indies excepted), foreign as well as Colonial. The confequences he deduces are the decay, if not the ruin of the best fources of wealth and strength in the empire: more efpecially, as a great part of what we shall give up, muit fall into the hands of our natural and determined enemies.'

This pamphlet is justly entitled Cool Thoughts. The Author difcuffes his fubjects in a decent and difpaffionate, though very earnest and ferious train: in which the Americans are not abufed as rebels, nor is government traduced with accufations of defpotifm. The

1

This is a mistake, Matter Reviewer! the Author does not fay rogues: he only calls the gentlemen titled traitors, and hellig PRINTER'S DEVIL.

crew,'

* Dean Tucker,

question,