pendix, this publication is fwelled to the fize of a five-fhilling book. In the enormous introduction we can fee little object befides that of blackening Mr. Young, and pointing him out, as it appears, for a primary object of republican vengeance, in cafe that party fhould by any means prevail. The pamphlet that follows inculcates, in the most violent manner, the doctrines of annual parliaments and univerfal fuffrage. At a time when an unguarded exprefiion has expofed an avowed and ftrenuous friend of the conftitution to a criminal profecution, it is curious to fee that the oppofite party can with fecurity write directly against the conftitution. 65 Unreflecting perfons," fays Mr. Cartwright, may imagine that the King and Lords, as independant branches of the legiflature, ought to have an equal power with the Houfe of Commons. But, in the prefent flate of things, this were naturally impoffible; and, to think them entitled to fuch an equality, were a pernicious error. P. 118. Except for the confufion of the fyntax, this paffage is furely decided enough. But what is the remedy propofed for all political evils? Arm the people to the full extent of property, that is, down to every taxed householder: caufe them to be equally, fully, and effectively reprefented in annual parliaments: exchange the word kingdom for that of commonwealth, and accommodate to that wife and falutary exchange, the whole language and law of the ftate." P. 126. The confequence would be, not as Mr. C. afferts, that royalty, " with its appendage nobility," being difcharged of envy, would remain in fafety; but, as he well knows, that they would both be fubverted. He forgets that the exchange has once been made, and was not found wife or falutary, and that monarchy and nobility were then destroyed. He proceeds by feverely cenfuring all the forms of law and ftate that run in the king's name, and propofes to fubftitute, "Be it therefore enacted by the people of this Commonwealth in parliament affembled, with the counfel and affent of the lords of parliament, and his majefty," &c. This is fpeaking out, at leaft. Mr. C. is very energetic in his endeavour to hold up to contempt the one hundred and fifty-four perfons in parliament connected with boroughs, whom he calls reptiles, &c. But, as Mr. Young very properly anfwers," these one hundred and fifty-four reptiles include many of the firit, wealthieft. and molt refpectable perfons for rank, character, and abilities, which the kingdom has to boat." ART. 41. The Conflitution fafe without Reform. Containing fome Remarks on a Book entitled, The Commonwealth in Danger; by John Cartwright, Efq. By the Author of the Example of France a Warning to Britain. 8vo. 70 pp. Is. 6d. Richardfon, &c. 1795. Mr. Young here replies to the preceding pamphlet, as far as he is perfonally attacked in it, and defends himself, we think, with perfect fuccefs, against the charges of having acted uncandidly towards Mr. Cartwright, and being an apoftate from the caufe of liberty. We fhould conceive him to be exa@ly right in the following affertion concerning his antagonist. "My book" (The Example of France, &c.) "proved a tumbling block in the path of our reformers; they knew that by fair argument they could not anfwer it: the experiment was more than than once made and failed. Mr. C. has not attempted it; he has taken another road, and transferred the attack from the book to the author." P. 44. ART. 42. An Addrefs to the Yeomanry of England. By a Field-Ofcer of Cavalry, who has served all this War on the Continent. Svo. 82 PP. Walter. 1795. IS. A very well-timed and energetic addrefs to the Yeomanry of England, pointing out to them, in ftrong terms, the neceffity of arming themfelves for the defence of their property, and contrafting the advantages which they derive from their exertions, with the calamities which have befallen the farmers of the Low Countries, from their inactivity and wavering conduct. Happy," fays the author, would it have been for the farmers of the Low Countries, if they had forefeen the intention of their enemies, as the English farmers have, and in the fame manner prepared to meet them. Those fertile lands would not have been laid waste as they now are. Those well filled granaries would not have been plundered; nor the opulent farmer firft robbed of all his money and flock, and then driven from his once peaceful abode, where every comfort of life was at his command, to ferve and toil in a diftant country, from whence in vain his tortured thoughts turn towards his native home, which he is doomed to fee no more. This is the real picture of what, one year ago, was the highest cultivated and richest country in Europe. This is the newfashioned freedom, for which every fec.rity and happiness that this world can afford, has been bartered; and a striking example does that devoted land offer of the evils that may arife, from the inhabitants of a country not having fufficient forefight and energy to ward off the attacks, that may be made upon a conititution, which is the foundation of their wealth and happiness. The example of the Low Countries comes more home to England than any other; because the freedom of their government, in fome fort, refembled ours; the effect of it was, in many refpects, the fame; the land was most highly cultivated, and the farmers rich and independent as ours are. But they wanted our innate wisdom and energy, and this deficiency has been their ruin. They food gaping in a flate of ftupid indecifion, partly deluded by the evil-minded of their own country, partly by the promifes of the enemy, till the French invafion foon convinced them, that French freedom was but another name for poverty and abject flavery." The rules for formation and field-exercife are well drawn up, but are not, in our opinion, fo well adapted to corps of yeomanry, as thofe which were given in a fimilar publication, dated from Canterbury, which we reviewed last year. ART. 43. A Letter to the King, with Notes. 8vo. 35 pp. Owen. 1795. The Gonfalonier of Lucca is made to abufe the King of England through the Elector of Hanover. The tenor of the pamphlet is fuch as to prove that the bulwark of our liberties, the preis, is as free as licence itself can make or with it. ART. ART. 44. A Letter addreffed to the People of Piedmont, on the Advantages of the French Revolution and the Nec ffity of adopting its Principles in Italy. By Joel Barlow, Author of the Vision of Columbus, A Letter to the National Convention, The Confpiracy of Kings, and Advice to Privileged Orders. Translated from the French by the Author. 8vo. 48 pp. Is. 6d. Eaton. 1795. If Mr. Barlow's powers of perfuafion were equal to his zeal, another department would by this time have found place in the extended territory of the French Republic. Forty-eight pages of exhortation are employed to difplay the benign tendency of thote equalizing principles, which has filled one of the fincit countries in Europe with anarchy, rapine, and murder. The Piedmontefe are admonished of the neceffity in which they ftand for fimilar changes; and all the crouching arts of democratic flattery are exerted to effect their political converfion. The preface announces a confident expectation of this event taking place in the campaign of 1794. How the people of Piedmont are affected towards the French, the prefent ftate of events is likely to put to the teft; but this we will not hesitate to fay, that if they once receive them as friends, they will foon feel them as tyrants. ART. 45. The Effence of Algernon Sidney's Work on Government, to which is annexed his Effay on Love. By a Student of the Inner Temple. Svo. 287 pp. 45. Johnfon. 1795. Amidst the distractions of party, and the divifions of political opinion, the prefent publication will be received with different degrees of praife and blame. To thofe who fupport the popular theory, this abridgment will prove an acceptable prefent, while thofe who demur to the doctrines themfelves, may yet not find themfelves wholly offended by being put in poffeffion of a treatife in this portable form, from the pen of a man whom all defcriptions of parties have agreed to pity and refpect. The editor, whole civifm is by no means queftionable, engages for a life of this eloquent patriot, whofe name he has already enlifted in the Gallic corps. "Had it been written (fays the editor in a note upon the appendix) at a later period, we fhould have found the citizen more confpicuous, though, perhaps, not fo amorous." P. 274. The Effay upon Love, which this note introduces, is written with an almoft equal mixture of feeling and good fenfe. "Love (fays the patriot) is the most extenfive defire of the foul to enjoy beauty; and where it is reciprocal, is the most entire and exact union of hearts." He then confiders its nature, which he pronounces to be of a mixed character- A mixed creature (p. 275) must have mixed affections; and can love only where he finds a mind of fuch excellency as to delight his underftanding, and a body of beauty to please his fenfes." He next defends the paffion against objectors, and concludes with a handfome eulogium on the fofter fex. ART. ART. 46. A fecond Addrefs to the Right Reverend the Prelates of England and Wales, on the Subject of the Slave-Trade. 22 pp. 6d. Johnfon. 1795. Sro. A feeble and contemptible effort to caft upon the bench of bishops the odium of a continuance of the Slave-Trade. A flight declamation is fubjoined against the war; on which fubject it is fufficient for Englishmen to afk-Were we to fight, or to ftand idle till we were knocked on the head? ART. 47. Confiderations on the prefent internal and external Condition of France. 8vo. 60 PP. Is. 6d. Debrett. 1794 The multiplicity of tracts, to which this fruitful fubject has given birth, renders it difficult for the moft determined care to bring them forward to public notice in their juft and merited order. The "Confiderations" of this author appear to have been written under the influence of the beft principles, and with a defign of effecting the beft ends but the reafoning employed is, for the most part, obscure, and the languge abrupt and inelegant. The changes which have hap pened in France, fince the date of this pamphlet, have destroyed the application of many particulars. In this, however, the public have little to regret, as nothing is difcoverable in the rhapsodies of this unequal writer, but what has already been advanced in more perfpicuous and fafcinating terms. ART. 48. The Plot Difcovered; or, An Addrefs to the People against Minifterial Treafon. By S. T. Coleridge. 12mo. 9d. Bristol. No Publisher's Name. 1795. We abhor, not only as critics, but as men of morals, the custom which has of late prevailed among certain individuals, of taking a detached fentence from a fpeech or publication, and commenting upon it, without any confideration of the context. Mr. Coleridge, whom we have commended as a poet, has done this with respect to un expreffion of the Bishop of Rochefter, which, when explained, was found not only to be harmlefs, but truly conftitutional. The violence of this pamphlet fuperfedes all criticifm; it breathes all the petulance and irritability of youth, affertion without proof, and the abfurdeft deductions from the moft falfe and unreasonable premifes. MR. BURKE. ART. 49. A Letter to Henry Duncombe, Efq. Member for the County of York, on the Subject of the very extraordinary Pamphlet, lately addreffed by Mr. Burke to a noble Lord. By William Miles. The fourth Edition. 8vo. 100 pp. zs. 6d. Debrett. 1796. As might be expected, the pamphlet of Mr. Burke gave rise to many others, of various complexions, fome hoftile, others friendly to him; but the greater part belonging to the former clafs. Among these tracts, no no one is, or can be, more violent than that which lies before us. The writer feems to have exhaufted the treasures of invective, and certainly has not always been fcrupulous in his choice of the topics: particularly in his first edition. As there is fomething very difgufting in controverfy whenever it arrives at this ftate, we fhall fpare ourselves and our readers the pain of enteringinto the particulars of this. What may be objected to Mr. Burke, or to his late pamphlet, is very generally known; to this add all that has at any time been furmifed against him, or drawn by any force of angry interpretation from that production, and fuppofe it delivered with the most tragic vehemence of ftyle, and you will have a correct, though general notion, of the Letter to Mr. Duncombe. The miftake of fuppofing Mr. Burke's juvenile tract on civil fociety to convey his real fentiments, which was meant, on the contrary, as a kind of reductio ad abfurdum, a confutation of Bolingbroke, by fhowing that any extravagances might be made plaufible by his loofe and declamatory mode of reasoning, is fuch as could not have been committed but by very precipitate anger. What Mr. Burke wrote as abfurdities, are quoted against him as opinions. ART. 50. A Letter to Mr. Miles. 8vo. 66 pp. 1s. 6d. Owen. 1796. Mr. Miles has here met with an antagonist as violent as himself. "Such joy ambition finds!" ART. 51. Stri&ures on Mr. Burke's Letter to a noble Lord, on the Attacks made upon him and his Penfion in the House of Lords, by the Duke of Bedford and Lord Lauderdale. 8vo. 15 pp. 6d. Eaton. 1796. Notwithstanding the warehoufe from which it proceeds, this is inoffenfive enough. ART. 52. A warm Reply to Mr. Burke's Letter. By A. Macleod. 8vo. 75 PP. 25. Crofby. 1796. The title-page of this tract announces what kind of temper is to be expected in it. But the fevereft infults it contains, are offered to the English language." Corybantiate," "inebrious," "invalefcened," " inefcated:"-fuch are the beauties that adorn the author's profe. His verfe, (for there is verfe too) may be estimated from the following epitaph, propofed for Mr. Burke. Reader, attend, beneath this ftone was laid But Time, that always hoary fubtile thing, The creatures that from Edmund's body, feek the fkics. ART. |
