the productions of many modern travellers, mere descriptions of places, or common and tedious historical dissertations on the various governments, but more rare and difficult observations on the arts, commerce, and antiquities, of the various countries which he visited; and (which is a merit almost peculiar to himself) faithful pictures of most of the eminent personages of the last century, on the continent; they also contain discriminating sketches of the national character of most of the inhabitants of Europe; interspersed with amusing and lively narratives, written in a charming and easy stile, and with an happy vein of pleasantry and irony. The last journal of his travels* through France, at the critical and eventful period of the revolution, which, in ordinary writers, would have exhibited little more than the occurrences detailed in old newspapers, gives us the reflections of his own enlightened mind. It is a * Entitled, A Journal during a Residence in France, from the beginning of August to the middle of December, 1792; to which is added, an Account of the most remarkable events that happened at Paris, from that time to the death of the late king of France; published in 1794, with this appropriate epigraph: Opus opimum casibus, atrox prætus, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace sævum.---Tacit. The Doctor accompanied Lord Lauderdale, whose health did not permit him to press forward with rapidity. They reached Dover in the beginning of August 1792, and sailed on the 4th for Calais. After his arrival in Paris, the Doctor frequently visited the assembly. He was awoke about two o'clock of the morning of the 10th of August, by the ringing of the tocsin, and alarmed at ten by the firing of the cannon: events that led to the overthrow of the monarchy. It was his fate also to witness the murders, the crimes, and the barbarities of September 1792, when the atrocious machinations of ruiñans, led by designing enthusiasts, deluged Paris with innocent blood. The times being very critical, and rendering a residence in that capital highly disagreeable, the Doctor and his friends thought proper to leave it. The most commendable trait of Dr. Moore's journal is that spirit of discrimination, which, while it arraigns and abominates the atrocities of wicked demagogues, and their execrable instruments, still compassionates the nation at large. connected series of unexampled events, terminating in one dreadful catastrophe. This journal will be advantageously distinguished amongst contemporary memoirs, and employed by some future historians of France, as a fair and candid narrative of the public transactions of that country. The incidents of the wickedness, and follies of men, are coupled with acute observations, and alternately interspersed with the pathetic, and enlivened by the humorous. Having read the great book of life with attention and profit, and his mind being stored with useful knowledge, and elegant literature, it may naturally be expected that Dr. Moore attained a high degree of reputation as a novellist, after having been distinguished as a true, and sagacious painter of foreign manners. His novels. * are very different from those wonderful romances of the present day, and particularly those which we have imported from Germany. They are not distinguished by singularity and inconsistency in their characters, by deep evolutions of events, by rapid conversions of fortune, or by scenes of complicated distress, and of unexpected deliverance Dr. Moore, being endowed with more than an ordinary insight into human nature, and capable of describing its intricacies with discernment, has employed much of the machinery of ordinary incident, and presented them with many pleasantries, and strokes of humour. His object in describing our domestic manners was always to correct and reform them. In his first romance, Zeluco,† he seems to have wished to in * He has published three novels---Zeluco, we believe in 1787; in 1790, Edward, or various Views of Human Nature, taken from life and manners, chiefly in England; and in 1800, Mordaunt, being Sketches of Life, Characters, and Manners in various Countries; including the Memoirs of a French Lady of Quality, in two vols. 8vo. + This Romance abounds with many interesting events. Its chief tendency is directed towards the education of youth. It fully evinces culcate this important moral, the inevitable misery of vice, resulting from those inward pangs of sorrow, remorse, and terror, which a vicious conduct never fails to produce, and from which the most hardened villain, in the midst of the greatest worldly prosperity, is not exempt. In his second novel, Edward, he has rendered truly interesting, on account of her good sense, and unbounded benevolence of heart, a lady who had neither beauty nor accomplishments to recommend her; and excited our most lively interest in favour of his hero, who, in many trying situations, displays invariably an amiable and manly mind.-Dr. Moore's romances do not resemble the modern ones, which have little merit, but that of exciting curiosity, and are thrown aside as soon as the reader's curiosity is gratified. The story, or fable, of his performances must be considered merely as a Canvas on which this skilful observer of life and manners delineates, with an exquisite touch, and high colouring, the fatal effects resulting from uncontrolled passion on the part of a darling son, and unconditional compliance on that of a fond mother. It relates the life and adventures of the only son of a noble and wealthy family in Sicily. While drawing the character and sufferings of his hero, his external magnificence and internal misery, the author considers Himself employed in tracing "the windings of vice, and delineating the disgusting features of villainy." This story is calculated rather to affect the reader, than warn him by example. It is to be hoped, however. that a character so atrocious as that of Zeluco never existed in life, and is only to be met with in the pages of a novel. Many other characters are introduced, accurately described: as well as many maxims of morality, illustrated by observations sometimes new, and always ingenious, solid, and striking. * Edward is a foundling, like Tom Jones, originally brought up in a workhouse, whom chance places under the protection of a lady. By a natural series of events, he is finally brought to the discovery of his respectable and wealthy connections,and marries a beautiful and accomplished heiress, of whom his widowed mother is the guardian, and who in his humbler fortune had given him the preference to suitors, highly recommended by rank, fortune, and merit. such moral pictures as are likely to excite the attention of his age and country. The last romance he published is chiefly of this nature.* We must then consider him rather as a moralist than as a novel-writer-as a sagacious moralist, Dr. Moore has humorously delineated, and ridiculed those weaknesses so common in the world; the affected apathy of the fashionable, the repulsive vanity of titled fools, and the cold insensibility of grandeur-as a benevolent moralist▸ he has eloquently and warmly pleaded the cause of suffering humanity; and declared himself a foe to the slavery that prevails in our colonies; but, far different from those blind enthusiasts, who in a neighbouring country, have called themselves the friends of the blacks, he has only implored for them protecting laws, and wisely advised not their sudden but their gradual emancipation-as an enlightened moralist, he always had in view in his various productions the inculcation of this moral;-that uprightness, integrity, and somewhat of an independent spirit, lead with more certainty, even to worldly prosperity, than hypocrisy, fraud and servility; that independently therefore, of what will most assuredly take place in a future state, no person of a cultivated understanding, and thorough good sense will choose the three latter lines of conduct for his guide. Unprincipled or fanatic men have attempted to palliate or justi fy all the crimes which the French revolution has produced, and which have deluged with blood not only France but *Mordaunt. Sketches of life, characters and manners, in various countries; including the Memoirs of a French Lady of quality---3 vols Svo. Published in the year 1800. The story of this novel is, unlike his former productions, given in a series of letters, from the hero of the work to his friend colonel Summers. In these are contained a variety of anecdotes and circumstances which occurred to him in different parts of Europe All the characters of this novel are extremely well depicted; and this is by far the best of the author's romantic publications, most of the countries of Europe-but, although like a liberalminded Englishman, Dr. Moore first rejoiced at the destruction of despotism in France, in the hope that a fair and rational system of freedom would ultimately be established in a country so rich in genius and so fertile in fancy, yet he soon bitterly inveighed against those scenes of injustice, horror and barbarity, that were acted in France, scenes which have disgraced the name of freedom and revolted the heart of humanity. He may have been accused of partiality, towards the French, he may have been suspected of a bias for democracy; for in these times of political convulsion, prejudices operate with unusual acrimony; but the brain of idiotism alone, could surmise, and the tongue of malevolence propagate the report, that he who had so just a sense of the blessings of a free government, nourished the wish to see altered that well poised fabric of freedom, which was raised by the wisdom and cemented by the blood of virtuous Britons, and thus perhaps to occasion the fall of the altar and of the throne-with what acute feeling and affecting expressions has he not lamented the misfortunes of the family of Bourbon, and the cruel fate of the dignified MARIE ANTOINETTE: "Philosophy," such are his words, "may demonstrate that in a far inferior walk of life, a wo"man who loses her husband and her children, ought to "command our sympathy in an equal degree-when the "voice of humanity has repeated all this, what does answer "the human heart, faithful to its first impressions; it takes a stronger interest in the distresses of a Queen."—It is from men born with similar sentiments, that good monarchs may expect the most unshaken attachment to their persons : because their loyalty is noble and rational—while those servile courtiers who adopt all their prejudices and abet all |