theory or practice, think himself lefs obliged to the candour and ingenuity of Dr. Lewis, for the remarks he has himfelf thought proper to add, refpecting the later difcoveries and improvements made in Chemistry, and the Arts depending thereon: not a little of which we are indebted for, to the Diaries of his own Elaboratory.

The difpofition of the parts of the subject, in all works of this nature, is generally fo much alike, when any method at all is purfued, that it would be needlefs to enter into a particular detail of the contents of this volume. As it may be expected, however, that we fhould give some specimen of the work, we fhall felect Dr. Neumann's account, and chemical analysis, of the principal wines drank in Europe.

(1.) The Madeira islands, and Palma one of the Canaries, afford two kinds; the first called Madera Sec; the latter, which is the richest and beft of the two, Canary or Palm Sec. The name Sec (corruptly written Sack,) fignifies dry; thefe wines being made from half-dried grapes. There is another fort of Sec wine, inferior to both the foregoing, prepared about Xeres in Spain, and hence called, according to our Orthography, Sherris or Sherry. (2.) The wines of Candia and Greece, particularly the latter, are of common ufe in Italy. Malmfey was formerly the produce of those parts only, but is now brought chiefly from Spain: It is a sweet wine, of a golden, or brownish-yellow colour: the Italians call it Manna alla bocca e balfamo • al cervello. "Manna to the mouth and balfam to the brain.” • Zant and Cephalonia send also to Venice fome good, and no fmall quantity of indifferent wines: almost all the wines indeed made ufe of in the Venetian territories come from Greece and the Morea; of which there are some forts fo bad, and fo cheap, that large quanties are made into Vinegar for the preparation of Ceruffe.

(3.) Italy, not Greece, produces the Vino Greco: this is a gold coloured unctous wine, of a pungent sweetness, the growth of Mount Vefuvius, greatly fophifticated by the Neapolitans. In the neighbourhood of Vefuvius is made the Mangiaguerra wine, as also a thick blackish one called Verracia; and at the foot of the hill, the delicious Vino vergine: the Italians apply this laft name likewife to all the other wines made without preffure. The kingdom. of Naples affords the Campania or Paufilippo and Mufcatel, the Surentine, Salernitan, and other excellent wines, as alfo the Chiarello, much drank at Rome. But the principal <of all these wines is the red, fat, fweet, and greatly poignant one, called Lachryma Chrifti. (4.) The Ecclefiaftical

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State produces the light, pleafant Albano; and the sweet Montefiafcone, a yellowish not very strong wine, which comes the nearest to good Florence, but does not keep well; together with feveral of lefs note, as the Nomentan, Monteran, Velitrin, Prænetic, Il Romenefca, d'Orvieto, &c. (5.) In Tuscany are the excellent white and red Florence; the celebrated hot, ftrong, red wine de Monte Pulciano; the • Montalneo, Porte Hercole, &c. But along the coast of the Adriatic, at Ancona, Rimini, Pefaro, as far as Bologna, 'I met with exceeding bad wines, chiefly of the boiled unfermented kind, heavy, difagreeable, and unwholsome, (6.) In Lombardy alfo there is abundance of bad wines: the Modenese and Montferrat are tolerable; the Marcemino, produced about Vicenza and Padua, pretty good. The other wines moft commonly drank in that province, are the Brescian, Veronefe, Placentine, Lumelline, and Pucine; and in the Genoefe, the Vino di monte vernaccia, Vino amabile or Vino di cinque terre and Vino razzefe. Between Nizza and Savona is produced an incomparable Mufcadine; near Aquileia is the Rofatz, and near Pavia the Vino piccante, (7.) Piemont, and part of Savoy, have excellent light wines. (8.) The Sicilian, Sardinian, and Corfican wines are alfo good: the firft, as particularly the Catanean, Panormitan, Meffinian, and Syracufan, are accounted the best, and are chiefly bought up by the Knights of Malta.

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(9.) Moft of the Spanish wines are composed of fermented or half fermented wine mixed with infpiffated Muft and variously manufactured, or of an infufion of dry grapes in weak Muft. No wines freeze more difficultly than the Spanish, thefe abounding both with unctuous matter and with inflammable fpirit. We have a few of these wines in Germany, as the Alicant (which is a thick, ftrong, very fweet, and almoft naufeous wine,) Sherry, Spanish Malmfy, and that fimply called Spanish wine: but in Spain itself there are many more, Tarragan, Salamanca, Malaga, Cordoua, Galicia, Andalufia, fundry baftards, Vino de toro, &c.

(10.) In Portugal there is plenty of red Port, a cheap, but not a very excellent wine, drank in large quantity in England. The best Vino tinto, a blackish red wine, ufed : by the Coopers for colouring other wines, is faid by fome to be the produce of Portugal. This kingdom deals largealfo in Madera, of which the King receives yearly twelve thoufand pipes by way of tithes. (11.) In France, there is a great variety of wines; of which the ftrong, fweet, full-bodied, fpirituous ones are called Vins de liqueur. There' is fcarcely a province in France that does not produce wine; Languedoc

Languedoc and Provence afford the fweeteft; and the 'fame provinces, with Champagne and Burgundy, the ftrongeft: the wines of the northern parts, as Picardy and Bourdeaux, are the worft; and thofe about the middle of the kingdom, as Paris and Orleans, of a middling kind. The most celebrated of the French wines are, Champagne, Burgundy, Vin de Beaune or Partridge-eye, Cote roti, St. Laurence, Frontiniac, Mufcat de Lion, Cahors, Hermitage, Grave, Vin d' Haye, &c.

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(12.) In Switzerland, the best are the Neufchatel, Velteline, Lacote, and Reiff wine: the Valteline Straw-wine, fo called from the grapes being laid for fome time upon ftraw before they are preffed, is particularly celebrated. The dry-grape wines of the Upper Hungary are in general excellent, and greatly fuperior to thofe of the Lower. They have a delicious aromatic fmell and tafte, a notably diaphoretic and corroborating virtue, and when drank freely occafion no head-ach, heaviness of the limbs, or other inconveniences: they do not eafily become vinewed even in open veffels; and retain their fweetnefs and agreeablenefs for a length of time, though they lofe a little from year to year.

(14.) Among the German wines, the Tyrol are very delicate, particularly thofe of Tramin and Etfch, but they do not keep. (15.) Good Auftrian wine is not to be rejected. Those of Kloiter-Neuburg and Brofenberg are accounted the best, and feemed to me to excel in tafte that of Edenburg in Lower Hungary. There are alfo good wines in feveral other parts of the imperial dominions. (16.) In the Palatinate, the beft wine is that of Worms, especially the fort called Woman's Milk; and next to this, those of < Edinghof and Ambach. (17.) Among the more esteemed German wines are to be reckoned alfo Rhenish, Mayne, Mofelle, Necka, and Elfafs: a certain Writer calls the Rhenifh made in Hochheim [Hock] the Prince of the wines. • of Germany, (18.) The Bohemian, Silefian, Thuringian, Misnian, Naumberg, Brandenburg, and other German wines, are greatly inferior to the foregoing: fome, however, of thofe of Mifnia and the Marchè, made from ripe picked grapes, have this advantage, that they are greatly meliorated by age, fo as to be preferred by many to the Rhenish, Neckar, and Franconia wines, and frequently mixed with others of greater note. The tartifh German wines keep the longest of any fome of them have been kept for two or three hundred years;-and many above feventy;

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feventy; the wine being occafionally racked off into smaller and smaller cafks, that the veffel may be conftantly full. These very old wines are preferved rather for curiosity than ufe, as they not only grow too ftrong for drinking, but at laft quite difagreeable. The beft are thofe of a middle age, ⚫ from twenty to about fifty years.'

The principles of which Wine confifts, fays our Author, are, (1.) Water, the bafis of all fluids: (2.) inflammable fpirit: (3.) a fine faline matter, which arifes in diftillation immediately after the spirit, called by Becher Media fubftantia vini: (4) a groffer falt called Tartar, which in part feparates on ftanding, and adheres to the fides of the cafk, in folid mafles: (5.) a gummy or mucilaginous fubftance: and (6.) a grofs unctuous or refinous one.

The following Table exhibits the quantity of the above feveral principles, in a quart of each of the Wines our Chemift has examined.

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BLACKSTONE on the Great Charters.

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We fhall conclude this article with obferving further, that, befides the merits of this work respecting whatever relates to the Materia Medica, it contains many ingenious hints for theoretical improvement in feveral branches of Natural Philofophy, and abounds with a number of useful practical remarks. We can fafely recommend it, therefore, in the words of the Preface, as a valuable Magazine of chemical Knowlege.

The Great Charter and Charter of the Foreft, with other authentic Inftruments: To which is prefixed, an Introductory Difcourfe, containing the Hiftory of the Charters. By William Blackftone, Efq; Barrifter at Law, Vinerian Profeffor of the Laws of England, and D. C. L. Oxford, at the Clarendon Prefs. 4to. Royal Paper, 15s. fewed. Worral.

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O those who are ftudious and learned in Antiquity, the Introduction to this new and authentic edition of the two Charters, will prove a moft welcome present. To trace the fource of our Liberties to their first rise, to mark the struggles which have alternately forwarded and impeded their establishment, and lastly to attend them to their final confirmation, is certainly one of the most pleasing and profitable researches which can engage the attention of a freeborn Citizen. Our Author appears to have purfued this intricate investigation with indefatigable pains and attention, and to have treated it with his ufual ftrength and accuracy of judgment.

By many, perhaps, this enquiry will be thought more curious than useful. Nevertheless it is of real importance to fuch as are defirous to know, by what tenure they hold those valuable Rights and Privileges, which we are all fo forward to boast of.

It is true, most of those Rights for which our brave ancestors fought, and which are ascertained by Magna Charta, are grown antiquated; as being connected with the feudal fyftem which prevailed at that time: and fome, we must obferve, which are, or ought to be, ftill in force, have been explained away by the conftruction of obfequious Lawyers. The 29th chapter, for inftance, makes the following provifion. "No Freeman fhall be taken or imprisoned, or be "diffeifed of his Freehold, or Liberties, or Free Cuftoms, " or be out-lawed or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed,

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