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If the Lords and Commons are equally difabled to hold employ ments in the State, the weight of power will then fall into the hands of a Separate party, and will create a separate intereft, which will be always attended with infinite mifchiefs, and may probably terminate in the deftruction of the liberties of Parliament.

Whilft gentlemen of great fortunes, eftates and interefts in the counties of England, fhall, by reafon of their credit and weight in their counties, be the only perfons thought capable of holding employments in the State, the power of employments (be they contracts or otherwife) will not be directed to hurt the liberties of the people, becaufe the gentlemen who difcharge them are interested in the most faithful execution of them.

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But if ever gentlemen of fuch fortunes, eftates and interefts with the people, fhall be the only men in England incapable of public employments, all the offices must be filled with others, who will have a lefs concern in the liberty and happiness of their country, and must be more easily drawn into meafures against that common intereft, in which their own fhare is fo much less confiderable.——›

The objection of dependance on the Crown arifing from trusts of this nature, is merely invidious; for a gentleman of one thoufand pounds per annum in his own right, will never leffen the fecurity of his eftate on any confideration, even of double the fum enjoyed by favour. He may ferve the King with greater affection for the honour or advantage accruing to him; but if he hath human reafon, he will not balance a moment, when his only option must be, Whether he will hazard his liberty and fortune, or his employment.'

Dangerous as it may be, to repofe too unreferved a confidence in any fet of men engaged in the adminiftration of government, the above argument has much more fobriety in it, than is found in many fenatorial declamations, calculated to work on the prejudices of thofe who are apt to confider minillers, and all perfons employed in na tional affairs, as ex officio enemies to their country. How far it may coincide with Montefquieu's idea of the union of the legislative with the executive power being deltructive to liberty, or how far fuch abstract propofitions can be adhered to in practice, are points which must be left to the ingenuity of those who have abilities and leisure for the investigation.

DRAMATIC.

Art. 17. The Loyal Shepherd: or, The Ruftic Heroine, a
Dramatic Paftoral Poem, in one Act. To which is affixed, several
Sonnets, Ballads, Acroftics, &c. Written by T. Goodwin. Svo,
1 s. Setchel, &c.

A wretched collection of trash!
Art. 18. Gallic Gratitude; or, The Frenchman in India.

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Comedy in Two Acts, as performed at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. By J. S. Dodd. 8vo. 1s. E. Johníon. 1779: Suo fibi gladio hunc jugulo! Here are the arms of the French turned against themselves;-a Farce taken from that language, and converted into a national fatire. The piece is not defpicable, nor is its merit beyond mediocrity. The chief aim of the writer feems to have been, to ferve and celebrate a theatrical heroine of the name

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of Jackfon, whofe picture and panegyric are prefixed and fubjoined to his performance.

CONTROVERSIA L.

Art. 19. Three Letters to the Reverend Dr. Price: Containing Remarks on his Faft Sermon. By a Cobler. 8vo. 6d. Bladon. 1779..

I am a Cobler, and the fon of a Cobler,' fays this arch letterwriter, but he does not inform us what kind of cobler; whether he means to rank as a cobler of fhoes, a cobler of fouls (not feals), or a cobler of the flate. We apprehend, he is of the last mentioned class;-fome baftard, perhaps, thrice removed from Sacheverel, or Filmer. A merry-begotten one, no doubt, he is, and, with his laudable zeal, and happy exertions, he may figure in time, at the head of fome of our ftate-cobling Boards: a Lord of Trade, belike, or a Commiffioner of the Customs, or Standard-bearer to the Penfioners. He is certainly entitled to promotion, in reward of his attachment to the powers that be, and of his popular defence of their meafures, in oppofition to the antiministerial writer, Dr. Price; whom he really combats with a good deal of fhrewdnefs: and it is bat juftice to his abilities to add, that he is one of the Doctor's most fpirited antagonists. We wish we could likewife have faid the most candid, and the most liberal.

Our theologico-political Cobler is even poffeffed (perhaps in virtue of his calling, for all coblers have, or fhould have, a dath of the comic) of fome portion of that rare quality, humour, very little of which is feen in the polemical papers of the prefent times.

MATHEMATICS.

Art. 20. Elements of Algebra, for the Ufe of Students in Univerfities. 8vo. 3 s. 6d. boards. Cadell. 1779.

This little tract, as we learn from a fhort Advertisement prefixed to it, was drawn up for the ufe of Students attending the Author's lectures, and is not offered as a complete treatife on the fubject. The work is divided into three parts, preceded by a fhort introduction, which contains fome pertinent remarks on the nature, extent, and object of algebra, with its advantages over common arithmetic. The Author then proceeds to define the terms, characters, and notation of which he makes ufe; after which he treats of what he calls fundamental operations; that is, of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division; demonftrating, in a concise manner, the principal rules, &c.

He then proceeds to the doctrine of Algebraic fractions, proportion, the nature, management and methods of folving fimple equations; to involution and evolution of quantities, the doctrine of furds, the resolution of equations which involve pure powers, and also quadratic equations. He next explains the nature of indeterminate problems; of arithmetical, geometrical, and infinite feries; and concludes his first part with an Appendix, fhewing the use of logarithms

The following paffage will juftify this drawback on the commendation due to the Author's abilities:- Blush, Doctor :-if there is any blood in your veins, let us fee it in your face.' p. 31.— Bluth, Cobler, blush!

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in refolving algebraic queftions, the application of algebra to phyfical problems, intereft, annuities, &c. &c.

In the fecond part, he treats of the origin and compofition of general equations, their transformation, and refolution, by different methods.

The third part is employed in the application of algebra to geometry: He here explains the methods of expreffing geometrical magnitudes algebraically; alfo how the different orders of lines are expreffed and defined by algebraic equations; and fhews how to determine the figure and general properties of curves from thofe equations, together with various other circumftances relating to this very curious and difficult fubject. He concludes the book with fhewing the nature, ufe and conftruction of the loci of equations, and alfo how to conftruct the equations them felves.

From this account the Reader will perceive, notwithstanding the Author's modest Advertisement, that his book is not a mere fyllabus; and we venture to pronounce that it will be found useful to all who ftudy this difficult and extenfive fcience, either with or without a tutor, as it contains many curious and useful particulars, not to be met with in larger treatises of algebra.

Art. 21. The Seaman's complete Daily Affiftant: Being an easy and correct Method of keeping a Journal at Sea Containing Rules for working the Cafes in plain (plane) Middle-latitude, and Mercator's failing, by the Tables of difference of Latitude and Departure.And for finding the Latitude, Longitude, Amplitude, and Azimuth, by Obfervation. Illuftrated by a fufficient Number of Examples. Likewife Rules fhewing, how the Allowances are to be made for Lee-way, Variation, Heave of the Sea, fetting of the Currents, &c.-And to correct the dead Reckoning by an Obfervation in all Cafes. The new Method of finding the Latitude by two Altitudes of the Sun; and the finding the Longitude by the Moon's Distance from the Sun, or a fixed Star, rendered easy to any common Capacity. To which are added, the Tables of Difference of Latitude and Departure to 300 Miles of Diftance; the new Solar Tables, and Tables of natural Sines; with a larger and more correct Table of the Latitudes and Longitudes of Places, than any hitherto published, together with all the Tables neceffary for the Seaman's Uie, in working a Day's Work at Sea. The whole conftructed upon a new Plan. By John Hamilton Moore, Author of the Practical Navigator, and formerly belonging to the Royal Navy. 8vo. 3 s. Robinfon. 1779.

The Reader will readily judge of the true intent and complexion of this work, from the quantity of matter contained in its title-page: the proportion, however, which generally obtains in things of this nature; namely, that the quantity of matter in the book is inversely as that in the title pige, fails here.

Mr. Moore, befides precepts in abundance, and a new journal, gives us tables of difference of latitude and departure to every degree, as well as to every point and quarter point of the compafs, up 0 300 miles of distance, a table of meridional parts, a table of the fun's amplitude for every degree of his declination, and to each degree of latitude from the equator to the polar-circle, and a table

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of the variation of the fun's declination to every ten degrees of longitude, all taken from Hafelden's old Seaman's Daily Affillant:-A table of the refraction of the heavenly bodies in altitude, a table of the disc of the horizon, and a table of the correction of the moon's altitude for the joint effects of parallax and refraction, taken from the tables requifite to be used with the nautical Almanac:-Tables for finding the fatitude by two altitudes, and a table of natural fines from N. Faick, M D. who had before borrowed them from another person. Thefe, together with fome others, of lefs ufe, from different Authors, render the work more comprehenfive, and of courfe more useful, than the old one, to fuch perfons as understand the ufe of the tables, without the help of the precepts which are annexed to them by the Compiler. But the precepts want that perfpicuity for which Hafelden's book has fo long been admired; and this circumftance renders the prefent volume ufelefs to fuch as have occafion to confult them: moreover, in attempting to plume the feathers which he has borrowed, the Compiler has betrayed a deficiency of knowledge in the fubject on which he has undertaken to write.

For example, not content with the defcription of the nautical day, and the manner in which feamen keep their accounts of time, as he found it in other authors, he adds, "Therefore, the declination ufed in fettling any day's latitude, must be the declination for the following day in the table of declination. Thus, in fettling my latitude on Wednesday, May 6th, or finding my latitude at the close of that day, I use the declination for Thursday, May 7th." Now all this is abfolutely wrong, for the 6th nautical day begins on the 5th, at noon, according to the common, or civil account of days, and ends at noon on the 6th, at which time the 6th aftronomical day begins; to which inftant, namely, the end of the 6th nautical day, and beginning of the 6th aftronomical day, the declination of the fun is computed in all tables whatfoever; confequently, as the feaman al ways makes up his reckoning at the end of his day, and the beginning of the astronomical one of the fame name, he must ufe the declination put down in the tables for that day, and not the declination for the following one," as Mr. Moore advises. This miftake, which runs through all Mr. Moore's nautical writings, is the more extraordinary in a perfon who tells us, he has formerly belonged to the royal navy: but, we will venture to affirm, that on board no fhip in the royal navy could he ever have worked an observation, at noon, without differing from every other perfon in it.

From among the many unfortunate additions made by this Author, we fhall only felect one more, viz. page 6;, he gives the common rule for computing an azimuth (which is to be met with in every book of navigation), namely, Add the complement of the latitude, the complement of the altitude, and the fun or ftar's polar dittance into one fum: from half that fom, fubtract the polar distance, and note the half fum and the remainder.' So far our Author runs with the herd; but in order to fupply the deficiencies of all who wrote before him, he adds," But if the half fum be less than the

See p. 162, of his Practical Navigator, zd edit,

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polar diftance, then fubtract it from the polar diftance †." Now, if Mr. Moore had but luckily recollected, that it is impoffible for any one fide of a triangle to be greater than the fum of the other two, he would immediately have feen that what his forefathers had done, in this refpect, was quite fufficient; and that his addition was entirely a work of fupererogation.

Art. 22. The Univerfal Syftem: or Mechanical Caufe of all the Appearances and Movements of the visible Heavens; fhewing the true Powers which move the Earth and Planets in their Central Rotations. With a Differtation on Comets, the Nature, Caufe, Matter, and Ufe of their Tails, and the Reafons of their long Trajectories: likewife an Attempt to prove what it is that moves the Sun round its Axis. 8vo. Is. boards. Buckland. 1779. The Univerfal Syftem feems to be written by a fenfible man*; and to contain a sketch of an ingenious theory, calculated to remove fome difficulties in the fyftem of the univerfe, as explained both by Cartefian and Newtonian philofophers; and though the Author's reafons may not be confidered as demonftrations, yet the probability and ingenuity of fome of his conjectures render this brief fyftem worthy the attention of aftronomers.

PHILOSOPHICAL.

Art. 23. An Account of the Experiments made at the Pantheon, on the Nature and Ufe of Conductors, &c. Read at the Meetings of the Royal Society. By Benjamin Willon, F. R. S. &c. 4to. 3 s. 6d. Nourse. 1778.

We have already noticed this account of Mr. Wilfon's Experiments, in our Review of the laft volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions [Monthly Review, June 1779, page 415]. The relation of thefe Experimental Obfervations is here republished, in a separate form, for the benefit of thofe, we fuppofe, who may not have an opportunity of confulting the Transactions. We fhould further ob ferve, that to this republication the Author has annexed fome new experiments made with the Leyden phial, refpecting the proper termination of conductors: but these cannot be rendered intelligible, without a fight of the plates that accompany them.

It may be acceptable to electricians to be informed of a method, here defcribed, by which Mr. Cavallo repairs coated phials, &c. that have been cracked or perforated, either by a fpontaneous difcharge, or other accident.He removes the outfide coating from the fractured part, and then makes it moderately hot by holding it to the flame of a candle; and while it remains hot, he applies burning fealing-wax to the part, fo as to cover the fracture intirely; taking care that the thickness of this wax coating may be greater than that of the glass. Lastly, he covers all the fealing wax, and part of the furface of the glais beyond it, with a compofition made with four parts of bees-wax, one of refin, one of turpentine, and a very little oil of olives. This he fpreads upon a piece of oiled filk, which he applies in the manner of a plaiiter.- With this method,

+ Practical Navigator, p. 149.

The Preface is figned John Lacy.

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