of Readers; we might have faid to all. The matter, however, not the manner, is the chief thing to be regarded in books intended for improvement in arts and manufactures; and the Author has fhewn himself fo much a master of his fubject, by this little fpecimen, that it is to be hoped, we fhall, in due time, have the fatisfaction of perufing his intended larger work. This introductory part was published in the year 1760.

Art. 22. The Fall of Mortimer. An hiftorical Play. Revived from Mountfort, with Alterations. 8vo. 2s. Kearfly.

The play of Mortimer's Fall, as projected by Ben Johnson, and afterwards written by Mountford, is well known to those who are acquainted with the British theatre. As to the edition before us, we prefume our Readers will hardly require any information concerning the motives of its prefent appearance. Its publication at this juncture, is, indeed, evidently made with a view to a molt illiberal parallel, equally falfe and invidious; the Reviver having made feveral additions and alterations, the more compleatly to effect this fcandalous defign. That there might remain no poffibility alfo of mistaking the virulent intention of the Reviver, he hath prefixed a dedication to Lord Bute, containing a strange mixture of illnature, humour, irony, and abuse.

The reason, fays he, why "I chufe your Lordship for the fubject of this dedication, is, that you are faid, by former Dedicators, to cultivate with fuccefs the polite arts. They ought to have gone further, and to have fhewn how liberally you have rewarded all men of genius. Malloch and the Home have been nobly provided for. Let Churchill or Armstrong write like them, your Lordship's claffic / tafte will relish their works, and patronize the Authors. You, my Lord, are faid to be not only a Patron but a Judge; and Malloch adds, that he wishes, for the ⚫ honour of our country, that this praise were not, almost exclusively, your own. I wish too, for the honour of my country, and to preserve your Lordship from the contagion of a malignant envy, that you would not again give permission to a Scribler to facrifice almoft the whole body of our Nobility and Gentry to his itch of panegyric on you; and of pay from you; and I fubmit, whether a future inconvenience may not refult from fo remarkable an inftance how certain and fpeedy the way to obtain the last is, by means of the first."

It is to be observed, that our Dedicator hath just before been facrificing, as he calls it, fome of the principal characters of the Nobility and Gentry to a different motive. But he goes on; "The progress, my Lord, which almost all the fciences have made in England, has become the jealoufy of Europe. Under your aufpices Botany and Tragedy have reached the utmoft height of perfection. Not only the system of perver, but the vegetable ffem has been compleated by the joint labours

In Cibber's Lives of the Poets, we do not find this play mentioned aming the writings of Mountfort; an omiffion which ought to be fupl ed in any future edition of that work.Mr. Mountfort was a Player, and a Writer of fome talents, in the reign of Charles the fecond; he was affufinated in the fireet by Lord Mohun, on account of fome connections with Mrs. Bracegirdle.

of

of your Lordship and the great Doctor Hill. Tragedy, under Malloch and the Home, has here rivalled the Greek model, and united the different merits of the great moderns. The fire of Shakespear, and the correctness of Racine, have met in your two countrymen."

He now proceeds to abufe Mr. Murphy, on account of his former connections with the theatre, and his fuppofed late connections with a political paper, written in defence of the prefent Minifter; who, he intimates, has likewife fome claim to the honours of the buskin and fock: having, a few years ago, frequently exhibited at the Dutchefs of Queenfberry's. "In one part, fays he, which was remarkably bumane and amiable, you were fo great, that the general exclamation was, here you did not alt. In another part you were no lefs perfect. I mean in the famous fcene of Hamlet, where you pour fatal poison into the ear of a good unfufpecting King. If the great names of Murphy and Bute, as Players, penfantur eâdem trutiná, it is no flattery to say, that you, my Lord, were not only fuperior, but even unrivalled by him, as well as by all who have ever appeared on the great stage of the world. As a Writer, I take Mr. Murphy, rather to excel you, except in points of orthography: as an Actor, he can form no pretenfion to an equality. Nature, indeed, in her utmost fimplicity, we admire in Mr. Murphy; but art, art, characterizes your Lordship."

Our Dedicator proceeds in the fame ftrain to rally his Lordship for the real or fuppofed countenance he hath given to fome other favoured Writers; while we fuppofe he hath neglected the Dedicator.Hinc ille lachrymæ, no doubt! K-n-k

Art. 23. A Report from the Committee appointed (upon the 27th Day of January, 1763) to Enquire into the State of the Private Madhoufes in this Kingdom. With the Proceedings of the Houfe thereupon. Published by Order of the House of Commons. Folio. Is. Whiston, &c.

It appears from this Enquiry, that there are perfons who keep private Madhouses, (as they are called) who do not require any affurance, or even pretence, of the infanity of those who are committed to their care; taking upon themselves to keep perfons confined, when charged with drunkennefs, or other misconduct, by the friends or relations bringing them.

One of the Keepers of these houfes, being asked by the Committee, upon what authority he received and confined fuch perfons? frankly replied, upon the authority of the perfons who brought them; adding, that out of the whole number he had confined during fix years, he had never admitted one as a lunatic.

The particular cafes here enquired into, are but few. To obviate, however, any objection which might thence arife, that fuch cafes are rarely to be met with, and only the abuse and mifconduct of fome few perfons, the Committee report, that a variety of other inftances, arifing in other houses, offered themselves for examination. But that the Committee were restrained, out of a regard to the peace and fatisfaction of private families, from entering into the examination of more cates than they judged to be neceffary to establish the reality of the abuses complained of in the prefent ftate of fuch houses.

The

The Refolutions of the Houfe on this Report was, that the cafe before it, required the interpofition of the Legislature: in confequence of which, a bill was ordered to be brought in, for that purpose.

Art. 24.

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Some Confiderations on the proper Means of regulating Private Madhouses. 4to. 1s. Dodfley.

As the Author of thefe Confiderations hath offered nothing but what will very naturally occur to every perfon of common fenfe, who employs his thoughts on this fubject, we think it needless to enter into the particulars of his propofals; the Gentlemen appointed to bring in the bill which hath been moved for in the Houfe of Commons, relating to this interefting affair, will, doubtless avail themselves of all hints that may be likely to answer the purposes of prevention, as well as of redrefs, in regard to the grievances reprefented, and which aro so justly the object of complaint. K-n-k

Art. 25. A Recapitulation of the State of Eaft Friefland; before, during, and fince the Admiffion of a British Garrison there; by Favour of the King of Pruffia only. 8vo. 1s. Nicoll.

A demand, fays this Recapitulator, being now made by the King of Pruffia for damages and ravages committed by us, while we poffeffed Eat-Friesland, it may not be amifs to fet this affair in a clear light; and I am the better able to execute this, as I was at Embden on the first establishment of their India Company, was an Officer in that department there, and ftaid many months after the English garrifon were taken by the French." We would not advise the Reader, however, to lay too much stress on the circumftance of this Writer's refidence in Embden: the advantages he feems to have reaped from it, being only fuch information as he picked up from his communication with people of the lowest rank; as ignorant of the motives as incompetent judges of the actions of their fuperiors.

That the city of Embden might fuffer fome inconveniences from a garrison of foreign troops, ignorant of the customs and laws of the country, is not to be doubted. But that the damage the province of East Friesland sustained by this means, can amount to any thing near the fum faid to be demanded in reparation, (viz. zoo,cool.) is incredible. We are told in this pamphlet, indeed, that a certain perfon, paid the Eaft-Frieslanders for forage, waggons, boats, &c. what he thought was their due, namely, by cutting their bills in half: by which we fuppofe he means, he paid them half what they demanded. And this, in all probability, was the full value; for the Writer of this article is not unacquainted with Eaft-Friefland, and knows how confcientiously fcrupulous the inhabitants of that country are, of impofing on rangers. Indeed, this Writer feems, in the very next page, to conclude as much; where he tells us, that "a few oxen roasted whole, and a quantity of beer diftributed to the feveral Claimants, would have gained receipts in full from every Creditor to our Government there." A likely story, if they were paid no more than half their just demands!

Again, with respect to the mifbehaviour of the English Officers, in violation of the laws of nations, of the country, and of the privileges

of Embden in particular, we must acquaint this Recapitulator, that he appears to be a very incompetent judge of fuch matters. He thinks it, for inftance, a most enormous affair, that the Captain of one of our men of war, fhould infift on preffing into his Majesty's fervice, an English Sailor found on board a Pruffian privateer; and of course, therefore, fays he, a burgher of Embden. Now, to take no notice whether a native of England, by ferving on board a Pruffian privateer, becomes of courfe a burgher of Embden, certain it is, that whatever privileges his burghership (were he really fuch) might entitle him to, among the Frieflanders, he was, nevertheless, as much a fubject of Great Britain as before. We cannot help thinking alfo, that our Officers were perfectly at liberty to keep what tables they pleafed, be his Majefty's bounty to them, for that end, what it would at leaft, this being a point relative folely to the garrifon within itself, the inhabitants had no concern with that matter. In fhort, before we credit any thing of the violence pretended to have been committed in Eaft-Friesland, we must have better authority for it than that of our Author, or even the corroborating teltimony of his friends of Chelsea Hofpital, at the King's Head and eight Bells near the church, or even the venerable Taylor at the upper end of St. Anne's lane.

To lay truth, we are apt to fufpect our Author himself, by his flyle and manner, to be fome grumbling Invalid, or illiterate Out-penfioner, of the college: for, notwithstanding he talks fo familiarly of the Frederi'cian Code, of Grotius de jure Maritim, and fcatters up and down his fcraps of Latin, he is by no means qualified to appear in print. We hope, therefore, he is not in earneft when he tells us, this pamphlet is only a prelude to a much greater work hereafter, namely, an impartial Hiftory of the late War." What an inundation of hiftories may we not expect, if the cacoethes fcriben i fhould fucceed to the ardor belli, and every difbanded Soldier lay down his fword, only to take up the pen! We would advise the prefent Writer in particular, in the words o the old adage, Ne futor ultra crepidam; at least we would have him refect, that there is a wide difference between a Pamphleteer and an Hittorian. K-n-k

Art. 26. The Statutes at large, Anno fecundo Georgii III. Regis; being the firft Seffion of the twelfth Parliament of Great Britain. By Danby Pickering, of Gray's-Inn, Efq; 8vo. 3s. 6d. in boards.

Bathurst.

This publication contains eighty feven public, and fixty-nine private, As; being the first part of the twenty-fifth volume of the Cambridge edition of the Statutes, now printing by fubfcription; the prefent colkection being publifhed, as we are told, at the particular request of the Subfcribers to that undertaking. It is, nevertheless, to be fepararely fold for the general ufe and convenience of the public; a like volume being intended to make its appearance annually, containing the feveral Acts paffed in the current feffions. K-n-k

Art. 27. The Hiftory of the Excellence and Decline of the Conflitution, Religion, Laws, Manners, and Genius of the Sumatrans.

And

And of the Refloration thereof, in the Reign of Amurath the third, furnamed the Legiflator. Vol. IId. By John Shebbeare, M. D. 8vo. 4s. Kearfly.

In this volume the Author prefents as with the bright fide of the prof pect; exhibiting the happiness of the Sumatrans during the reign of Amurath the third. The scene, however, is, we fear, too defireable to be real: indeed, we have more reafons than one to conceive, this Writer to be no Prophet. But whatever be his pretenfions to prophecy, he certainly hath very little to panegyric; which, it must be allowed, is not the Doctor's talent: this volume being one of the most infipid and unentertaining of all his literary performances.

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Art. 28. Publii Virgilii Maronis Bucolicorum Ecloga decem: or, Publius Virgilius Maro's ten Eclogues of Bucolicks; made exceedingly eafy, and rendered familiar, by the private Tutor. The Words being reduced to their natural Order of Conftruction, and a very clofe and literal Tranflation. With Accents to regulate the Pronunciation in both Languages; together with a geographical, poetical, and historical Index; the Arguments of the feveral Paftorals; and marginal Letters referring to a fanning Table for meafuring the Verfe of every Line. For the Ufe of Schools, and private Gentlemen. By a young Adventurer in the claffical Way, upon the Plan of Dr. Stirling and others. 8vo. 2s. Davis, in Piccadilly.

The title-page of this performance gives a fufficient account of the work.

Art. 29. The Loves of Carmi and Iphis; a Novel, founded on the Story of Jephtha's Vow. 12mo. Is. 6d. Field.

The fuccefs of Fingal, and Gefner's Death of Abel, feems likely to overwhelm us with a deluge of the new-fashioned measured profe, or profe-verfe, or what fhall we call this motley fpecies of writing? Ere long, no doubt, we fhall have the Hiftory of our own Times written in Fingalian or Gefnerian ftrains; and be told, how Pitt arofe, fierce as the eastern blast! loud was the form of war, low was laid the head of the Gaul, his teeth gnash'd on the ground, his lillies were dyed in blood. Then Peace arofe; foft was the down of her wings: fmiling Love, and balmy Friendship went before her; and laughing Plenty, feftive Mirth, and youthful Joy, compos'd her happy train. Thefe, or trains ten thousand times finer than thefe, will, perhaps, diftinguish the age of George the third; while the genius of Milton, and Pope's harmonious Mufe, fly, blushing, to fome other clime, where caprice has lefs influence, and taste is less arbitrary,

Nevertheless, if our tribe of Imitators should, in general, acquit themselves no better than this Gentleman, or rather Gentlewoman, has done, the public will foon be fick of their fuftian performances, and exclaim with the Poet-O imitatores, fervum pecus !for never, except in Erskine himself, did we meet with a stranger hotch-potch of

flowery