、 1776. Review of New Publications. where money is plentiful. This is certainly the cafe in France, where, in no manufac tures, nor in agriculture, are they employed with regularity; whereas, in England they do not experience this variation near to much. And it is to this I attribute the amazing number of beggars to be met with in every part of France. I have heard gentlemen in England complain of their beggars: were they only to land at Calais or Boulogne for one haif hour, they would change their ideas. Nor can you go into the most unfrequented parts of the kingdom, without finding it the fame. It is melancholy to fee fo many beggars in the midft of the fertile plains of Lunneville and Nancy; and yet more melancholy, to reflect on the great tracts of wafe toreft-land in Lorain, efpecially in the fouthern parts, which, cultivated, would maintain fo many more people. The want of improvement is as much owing to the want of wealth, as to the government; but it must be allowed, that their poverty is partly owing to the ill adminiftration of government. In all abfolute monarchies, there must be great inequality among mankind: the nobility will be immenfely rich, and the lower claffes in poverty and as the great spend their wealth in the court and the capital, and fearce ever see their eftates, the money that is in the nation gets into a wrong channel: manufacturers of luxury receive great encouragement, and the inferior ones, of utility and agriculture, are neglected. Thus, in the midst of wealth, thefe may be poor, which in England cannot be the cafe, from the great diffufion of wealth." We wish that the money of this nation may not go into a wrong channel, but from the late fyftems of adminiftration, and the conduct of the great, England is likely to have as great an inequality among its inhabitants, as France, or any other abfolute monarchy. CLXXVI. A Short Hiftory of English Tranfactions in the East Indies. 35. Dihy. Tranfactions! which are of a nature that will draw after them confequences greatly to the prejudice of the government, if not of the people of England, unless prevented by fuitable remedies: and what remedies can be expected, when fome of the chief actors on this theatre of rapine and bloodshed have been fince rewarded with feats in the legiflature, with the direction of the Eaft-India company, and with the favour of government! The author of this history is fenfible and difpaffionate. The following particulars may be depended on as authentic. "The company and their fervants could now obtain the money of the inhabitants of India, by the various means of rents, revenues, and trade: and the use they made of 603 604 Review of New Publications. ftated. Lord Clive calculated the duty on falt, beetle nut, and tobacco, would yield an hundred thousand pounds a year to the company; this be fuppofed equal to half the profits of the trade itself; and if Lord Clive was as near in this, as he was in his calcu1.tion of the dewannce, the fum then received from the inland trade in ten years, would be two millions, which added to the fums proved or acknowledged to be received, makes the whole fum "twenty four millions fix hundred and forty thoufand fix hundred and twenty-one pound: fterling." "The natives hopes of changing for the better, vanished on hearing, immediately after the English had got poffcffion of the government, that they had itfued ordersthat cafes and civil contracts were to be made void on a day-that a few perfons only known to them as generals in the army, had laid duties on neceffaries, of more than a third of their value, inftead of the fortieth penny with which they ufed to be chargedand that their new governors had taken things of daily ufe into their own hands to fell as they pleafed. But the dif.ppointment of the natives food but a fhort time on the teftimony of report. They faw the English agents and factors fpreading themselves over all their country-they faw them endeavouring to get their money, their jewels, and the most valuable of their goods from them, by means they had never heard of before. Happy would it have been for them had they feen no other effects of the English government than thele-But the defires of ambition are not lefs boundlefs for power, than thofe of avarice for riches - The natives were equally the fubjects of both. And the pro perty of the people not flowing into the hands of their mafters fo rapidly as fome of them defired to complete their fortunes, and return to England and feeing the monopoly of falt, beetle-nut and tobacco, was difproportioned to their defires, for they could not be ufing the burjaut every day, and without it the conteft was flow and tedious, the natives parting with their pence with the fame fparing band as the agents parted with their filt. Money in this current came but by drops, it could not quench the thirst of thofe that writed in india to receive it. An expedient, fuch as it was, remained to quicken its pace-the natives could live with little falt, but not without food. Some of the agents faw themselves well fituated for collecting the rice into ftores-they did fo. They knew the Gentoos wou'd rather die than violate the precepts of their religion by eating flesh. The alternative would therefore be between giving what they had and dying. The inhabitants funk-They that cultivated the land, and faw the harveft at the difpofal of others, planted in doubt fcarcity enfued-then the monopoly was cafier managed the people took to roots and Nov. food they had been unaccustomed to eat.Sickness enfued-the rice-holders overftood their market-many of the people died before they bought.-In fome diftricts the languid living left the bodies of their numerous dead unburied. At length an horrid peftilence and dreadful famine raged together. Those who fell not in defpair and death, were roufed into furies, and fear at length opened the inhuman doors which the hand of power had kept clofed for the terms of avarice, whofe infatiable appetites made fuch monsters of its flaves." CLXXVII. A Fragment of Government; being an Examination of what is delivered on the Subject of Government in general, in the Introduction to Sir William Blackftone's Commentaries. With a Preface, in which is given a Critique on the Work at large, 35. 6d. Payne. Our fhrewd and critical examiner thus ftates his defign: "To do fomething to inftruct, but more to undeceive, the timid and admiring fludenti to excite him to place more confidence in his own ftrength, and lefs in the inability of great names :-to help him to emancipate his judgment from the hackles of authority: to let him fee that the not understanding a difcourfe may as well be the writer's fault as the reader's-to teach him to diftinguish between fhewy language and found fenfe :to warn him not to pay himself with words : -to fhew him that what may tickle the ear, or dazzle the imagination, will not always inform the judgment:-to fhew him what it is our Author can do, and has done; and what it is he has not done, and cannot do :to difpofe him rather to faft on ignorance than feed himself with error :-to let him fee that with regard to an expofitor on the law, our Author is not be that should come, but that we may be ftill looking for another. "Who then," says my objector; "hall be that other? Your felt ?” ——— No verily --My miffion is at an end, when I have prepared the way before bim From the excellent obfervations which occur in this FRAGMENT, we wish our Author to go on with his examination; for though the learned Judge's Commentaries have great merit, there are many paffages noxious as well as unfound which deferve notice and animadvertion.-The examiner remarks, "When leading terms are made to chop and change their feveral fignifications; sometimes meaning one thing, fometimes another, at the upfhot perhaps nothing; and this in the compafs of a paragraph; one may judge what will be the complexion of the whole context. This, we fhall fee, is the cafe with the chief of thofe we have been reading; as for infance, with the words "Society' State of nature'- original contract'-not to tire the reader with any more. ⚫ Society' in one place means the fame thing as a 4 ftate 1776. Review of New ftate of nature' does: in another place it means the fame as • Government.' Here, we are required to believe there never was fuch a state as a ftate of nature: there, we are given to understand there has been. In like manner with respect to an original contract we are given to understand that fuch a thing never exifted; that the notion of it is ridiculous at the fame time that there is no fpeaking nor firring without fuppofing that there was one." :: " CLXXVIII. Three Dialogues concerning Liberty. 25. Dodsley. An excellent and judicious performancein which the cause both of civil and religious liberty is clearly ftated and ably defended. Our limits will not permit us to give more than the following important extract. "It has been affirmed, that when men enter into a political fociety, they make a formal or a tacit furrender of their natural rights to that fociety; and, as it were, compa& or agree fo to do. The drift and tendency of this affirmation is to establish the authority of all ruling powers, juft or unjust, But! and to debafe and entlave mankind. no maxim was ever more falfe, or lefs founded in nature. Men neither do, nor can mean, by entering into government, to give up any of their effential natural rights: they mean, by the aid of government, to maintain and fecure them. They do not mean to fubjugate themselves to the will of tyrannical masters, nor even to political laws, when diffonant and repugnant to the principles of their nature. Their intention, as well as the true end of government, is quite the contrary. For, if men had paid a punctual obedience to the laws of their nature, the inftituting of civil laws, and confequently of civil magiftrates, would have been quite unneceffary. Civil laws were inftituted to enforce obedience to the true laws of human nature. Therefore civil laws, which contradict or are repugnant to the true laws of human nature, are not in confcience binding. And all civil laws, and ali civil magiftracies, ought to be formed, altered and corrected, confirmed or abolished, according as they agree with, or are repugnant to, the true laws of human nature On the whole, the just rights of human nature, founded on the divine principles, which the all-wife Creator hath originally imprefied on the human fpecies, are utterly unalienable by any means whatsoever! No rights of princes, no powers of magiftracy, no force of laws, no delufive compacts, grants or charters, can ever entitle any part of mankind to deprive their fellow creatures of these natural rights! All the nations upon 'earth (thofe in the most favih, as well as thofe in the most free state) poffefs an innate, inherent, and indifputable right, to affert their liberty at all times! Nor can any thing be more glorious than the attempt, founded on juft principles, even if it fail: for then we fhall feel the fublime fatisfaction of being actuated by thofe divine principles, which, from their native truth and beauty, as well as from our inward fenfe of them, we know to be the laws of God!" CLXXIX. An Appendix to the Origin of Printing. 1s. Bowyer. The following lift will give our Readers a general view of the rife and progrefs of printing; probably fome books might have been printed earlier in a few of the places, than the dates here given, but there is no certainty. Mentz, Augsburgh, Rome, Oxford, Paris, Strasburgh Westminster, Fuft and Schoeffer, 1457 John Bemler 1466 SConrad Sweynheim Arnold Pannartz, 1467 St. Albans, Anonymous, London, Harleim, Will, de Machlinia, 1481 John Lettou 1484 Jacobus Begaard, CLXXX. Liberal Opinions; in which is continued the Hiftory of Benignus, written by bimfelf, and published by Courtney Melmoth; vols. 3 and 4. 55. Robinson. Our author appears to be well acquainted with the world; his fentiments are liberal, and his manner lively and entertaining. Among other useful reflections, is the fol lowing: "And fo Benignus, thou art feriously, and bona fide, running up and down the worldafter happinefs? Hic labor, boc opus eft! Oh puerility, oh inexperience! pr'ythee give up the expenfive purfuit of travelling after fuch matters, and learn all that it was ever in the power of human nature to teach you with respect to a knowledge of mankind in two words, know thyfelf; for in that knowledge is included and exhaufted every variety, and every novelty under the fun. Men wafte the flower of youth in turning over books, going from place to place, hearing what other people fay, and gaping at what other people do measuring earth and feas, wafting their fortunes, perplexing their heads, and blinding their eyes, and then fitting themselves impudently down in an elbow chair, exclaim, with all the pomp of ignorance, that they have feen, and that they know the world. Dear bought, and far fetched, in good truth. One might accommodate one's felf, fir, with fix times the intelligence, without ftepping over one's own threshold. Turn the eye inwards, inwards-your health, my good friend; clofe argument Review of New Publications. 606 my How, fir, faid I, is it poffible I can acquire as much experience from pry'thee don't put me out, anfwered the gentleman, I have read, and ftared, opened my eyes, and opened my mouth, and afked advice, and taken my own way, as much as any man. For above a dozen years was I, as the poet fays, an idle gazer on the light of heaven; and I might perhaps have been an idle gazer still, if I had not found out, that it was all vexation of fpirit. One book told me one thing, which I faw abfolutely contradicted in another; and the friends whom to-day I confuited, were of quite a different opinion the next morning: fo at laft, fir, I e'en gave up the hope of wifdom in mere defpair, fold off all my books, avoided the company of friends, and in despite of authors, and all their works, took the liberty, like a freeborn Englishman, to think for myself. Are books then ufclefs, in your opinion, fir? faid I, a little eagerly. I have not faid, rejoined the ftranger, that they are, but a page of one's own heart is more worth, my dear boy, than a folio of dull printed elaborate compofitions-of fuch things as are now daily vomited from the over-charged prefs. Volumes generally expatiate upon facts, that the genius of old Flaccus would have compreffed, and that without crouding the fenfe, in a fingle leaf. Now as to making the grand tour in fearch of happiness, I never heard of a more fleeveless errand: why, I tell you again, aye, and I'll maintain it, all which is done or faid in the whole world, is written on the tablet of a fingie heart. CLXXX. Richardfoniana: or occafional Reflections on the moral Nature of Man, with Several Anecdotes interfperfed. By the late Jonathan Richardfon, junior, Efq. 49. Dod. ney. Admirably calculated to establish a set of principles for a prudent and virtuous conduc in life; the reflections and rules illuftrated by real occurrences. CLXXXII. Morning Thoughts: or, poetical Meditations, Moral, Divine, and Mifcellaneous; together with other Poems on va rious Subjects. By the late Jonathan Richardfon, Efq. with Notes by bis Son lately deceased. 4s. Dodsley. An ufeful collection-The poetry indeed is not highly finished, but the fentiments are clear, juft, and important, and evidence the author to be a man of real virtue and piety. CLXXXIII. The Spleen: or, The Offspring of Folly. A Lyri-comi tragedy in four Cantos. By John Rubrick. 25. 61. Bew. A fplenetic fatyr on Mr. Colman-fabrieated by genius and resentment. Nov. the Holy Scriptures. By John Peacock, 28. Vallance. Some are good, and others below par. CLXXXV. The Devil, a Poetical Effay. 1s. 6d. Dodfley. The following lines are selected as a speci men of this piece : "Let not their foolish creed prevail, Horns, cloven-feet, and faucer eyes. Far other, if I rightly ween, With beauty's outward form combin’d, . From hence we clearly understand, CLXXXVI. Reflections on the most proper This officer fays he served the laft war in America, and yet he thinks if the men of war keep a due look out, the Americans will want not only ammunition, but the common neceffaries of life. He is for avoiding burning their towns, and for profecuting the war by Canada and Carolina, and thus he fays "the rebels may be foon conquered," provided multitudes flock to the King's ftandard. CLXXXVII. Every Woman ber own Phyfician; or the Lady's Medical Affiftent. CLXXXIV. Songs of Praife compofed from Containing the Hiftory and Cure of the various Difeales 1776. Review and Lift of New Publications. Difeafes incident to Women and Children. By More fidelity and care appear in this Medical Affiftant, than in Wefley's Primitive Phyfic; but it is dangerous to trust in any kind of general prefcriptions. CLXXXVIII. Occafional Difcourfes in the Royal Navy; in the Years 1756, 1757, and 1759: To which is added one on the Peace in 1763. By the Chaplain of bis Majefty's Ship Terrible. 4. Robinfon. CLXXXIX. Sermons on the Evidence of a future State of Rewards and Punishments arifing from a View of our Nature and Condition: Preached before the University of Cambridge in 1774. By William Craven, B. D. Fellow of St. John's, and Professor of Arabic. 8vo. Is. 6d. White. CXC. The proper Happiness of the Ecclefiaftical Life, in a public and private Sphere. A Sermon preached before the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, at bis primary Vifitation at Uxbridge, July 4, 1776. By Jobn Langborne, D.D. JS. Cadeli. CXCI. Sermons, by the Rev. Ed. Sandercock, vol. 2. 5s. Nicoll. The above Difcourfes and Sermons are judicious, and inftructive. CXCII. Sacred Annals; or the Life of Cbrift, as recorded by the four Evangelifts, with practical Obfervations, &c. by T. Morell, D. D. 35. 6d. Longman. Thefe annals are well compiled; the fections of a proper length; and the obfervati ons are copied from fome of the best authors, particularly from Dr. Doddridge. CXCII. The Conduct of the Primitive Fathers in the Reception and Tranfmifion of Books afcribed to the Apoftles and their Companions. 1. Bew. This pamphlet is a tranfcript of the principal objections refpccting either the works or characters of the primitive fathers, confidered as witnefies to the authenticity of the New Teftament, with obfervations upon them. The author is well acquainted with his fubject, and candid. He leis forth the integrity of the first ecclefiaftical writers, and their circumfpection in the reception and tranfmifiion of books afcribed to the apofties and their companions: and concludes, “that whatever books they deemed genuine, ought fo to be deemed by us, if the internal teftimony of the books themfeives do not fortid it; and whatever books they rejected, eught to be rejected by us, notwithstanding the venerable names which they affumed, or their confident pretenfions to a divine original." CXCIV. Three Letters addreffed to Mr. English, late Preacher of the Methodist Chapel in the City of Chichester. By a Layman. To which is added a Poftfcript. 410. Is. Baldwin. Senfible and convincing. But fo long as fome of this class of preachers can get the 607 young and unwary, and filly women to at tend and maintain them, learned churchmen and diffenters may publifh and expose them as they please, for what they care. CXCV. Naked Thoughts on fome of the Peculiarities of the Field-preaching Clergy. In a Letter to a Friend. By a Member of the Church of England. 8vo. 6d. Pridden. According to this writer, the field-preach. ing clergy violate their fubfcriptions both of the Articles and Canons, as well as all the oaths and folemn promifes of regularity and conformity, they have made at their ordinations. Perhaps he will not be forry if we tell him, that field-preaching is alfo a violation of the laws of the land, if the late conduct of an Effex Juftice is to be justified, who fined a field-preacher in the fum of twenty pounds, and fome of his hearers five fhillings each for attending him. PUBLICATIONS THIS MONTH Take your Choice! Reprefentation and Refpect, Impofition and Contempt. Annual Parliaments and Liberty, long Parliaments and Slavery. 19. 68. Almon. Written Law, the Security and Happiness of a free State. Addrelled to all fuch Perfons as are liable to ferve on Juries. 19. Corrall. MEDICAL. Practical Obfervations on the Cure of Hectic and Slow Fevers, and the Pulmonary Confumption. To which is added, a Method of treating feveral Kinds of internal Himorrhages. By Mofes Griffith, M.D. 25. White. MISCELLANEOUS. A general Hiftory of the Science and Practice of Mufic, from the Etablishment of a Syftem thereof, to the prefent Time; with Memoirs and Anecdotes of the most eminent theoretic and practical Musicians, Specimens of their Works, and Remarks thereon, &c. By Sir John Hawkins, 5 vols. 61. 6s. Payne, Introductory grammatical Remarks on the Perfian Language; with a Vocabulary, En |