EDUCATION, DICTIONARIES, &c.

Art. 62. The Poetical Monitor, consisting of Pieces select and original, for the Improvement of the Young in Virtue and Piety; intended to succeed Dr. Watts's Divine and Moral Songs. Second Edition. 12mo. 2s. bound. Longman. 1798.

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As this little selection has already received our approbation have only now to announce to the public, on its re-publication, that it has received a small alteration by the omission of a few pieces, the leading thoughts of which were contained in others, in order to introduce some which had not before appeared. The benevolent editor expresses much satisfaction in this call for a second edition, as she hopes that it may contribute some farther assistance to the Shakspeare's-walk female charity-school; to the benefit of which this publication had a particular regard.

Art. 63. Geiriadur Cymraeg a Saesoneg.-Welsh-English Diction ary. By William Owen. Part iv. large 8vo. 7s. Boards.-4to. 10s. 6d. Williams. 1799.

A character and specimens of this work having, on mentioning the former parts, been already given in our Review †, we have now only to announce the appearance of this 4th part; in which Mr. Owen's undertaking is carried on, and successfully conducted to the end of the letter I.-The 3d part concluded the first volume. Art. 64. The New Universal Gazetteer, or Geographical Dictionary; containing a Description of all the Empires, Kingdoms, States, Provinces, Cities, Towns, Forts, Seas, Harbours, Rivers, Lakes, Mountains, and Capes, in the known World; with the Government, Customs, Manners, and Religion of the Inhabitants; the Extent, Boundaries, and Natural Productions of each Country; the Trade, Manufactures, and Curiosities of the Cities and Towns, collected from the best Authors; their Longitude, Latitude, Bearings, and Distances, ascertained by actual Measurement, on the most authentic Charts; with Twenty-six Whole Sheet Maps, by the Rev. Clement Crutwell. 3 Vols. 4to. 21. 28. Boards.

Robinsons. 1798.

Of compilations which treat of a science daily advancing towards perfection, it may usually be affirmed that the last is the best. The mechanical labor of alphabetical arrangement being facilitated by the assistance derived from preceding publications, the modern compiler corrects at leisure the errors of his precursors, improves on their method, and incorporates the facts which recent discoveries have added to the mass of human knowlege. How widely the boundaries of geographical science have been extended by contemporary travellers and navigators, a retrospective view of our monthly labors will demonstrate. The names of Niebuhr, Bruce, and Forster; of Cook, Vancouver, and La Pérouse; will evince the necessity of correcting and enlarging our gazetteers, by means of their accurate and dearlybought information. In other respects, the times are less propitious. The land-marks which have withstood the shock of ages are now

See Rev. vol. xxi. N. S.

P. 222.

See our xviith vol. N. S. p. 4to; and vol. xxii. p. 233.

levelled

levelled with the dust; and humanity inquires, with anxious curiosity, by what bloody sacrifices they must be replaced? The forms of government sanctioned by the approbation, or by the long acquiescence, of populous and enlightened nations, have suddenly been overthrown, and the statesman scarcely dares to calculate on the chances of their restoration.

Amid such general convulsions, while each year beholds a republic annexed to a neighbouring kingdom, or a kingdom converted into a republic, a work like the present can only exhibit what Europe was into what fair divisions the policy of former ages had apportioned this quarter of the globe; and for what forms of government the ancestors of the present race fought and bled,-exclaiming, with short-sighted gratulations, Esto perpetua!'

To toil through a voluminous gazetteer exceeds the patience even of a reviewer: but we have examined a variety of articles in the work now before us, and have found abundant reason to applaud Mr. Crutwell's diligence in the collection and judgment in the arrangement of - his materials. His work is beyond comparison more copious than any preceding publication of the same nature, and we deem its comparative value at least commensurate with its bulk. The new and old divisions of France are both inserted. We think that it would have been an improvement, if the longitude had been invariably stated either from Greenwich or Ferrol; and if the French or German orthography had been uniformly preserved in the names of certain places. Ghent is to be found under its German name, while Brussels, Mechlin, and Basil, must be sought under their French appellations. Antient geography is not introduced,' says Mr. Crutwell; it was intended to describe the world as it is.' Yet this department we think, is more strictly within the province of a Geographical Dictionary, than a detail of sieges and battles, which certainly belongs to history. The wars of Italy and the Low Countries in and since the reign of the Emperor Charles V. occupy no inconsiderable portion of such publications, which seem to us unnecessarily swelled by this circumstance. Geography is an indispensable companion of history: but it should neither encroach on the province of the latter, nor omit what is necessary to elucidate her more antient records; which require, still more than the recent, the assistance that she is qualified to bestow.

Our cursory inspections have inspired us with a faverable impression of the general accuracy of this work, though many exceptions might be adduced; and we have to regret that Mr. Crutwell has not availed himself sufficiently of the county and parochial histories of England, and of the statistical accounts of Scotland, to render his statements of population so complete as they might have been.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 65. Omnium; containing the Journal of a late Three Days Tour into France; curious and extraordinary Anecdotes; critical Remarks; and other Miscellaneous Pieces. By William Clubbe, LL.B. Vicar of Brandeston, Suffolk. 8vo. 6s. Boards. Rivingtons. 1798.

If summer be the most proper time for Tour-making, it seems also the fittest time for Tour-reading. Foote, that pleasant observer, recommended the "light summer kind" of literary manufacture for warm weather, as most suitable to the listless season, when neither mind nor body is much disposed to fatigue.

Mr. Clubbe's little volume, now before us, seems happily calculated in this view. It is "light" enough, in all conscience, both in quantity and character; and it is so fortunately diversified, in respect to the subjects introduced, that the reader may pass, with little trouble or regret, from paper to paper,-from piece to piece,-from prose to verse, and from verse to prose. We need not enlarge on this publication, as we gave, it is apprehended, a sufficient estimate of this writer's abilities in our (not severe) remarks on his Horace see Rev. for October, 1797, p. 216, &c.

Art. 66. The Political and Moral Uses of an Evil Spirit. By George Hanmer Leycester, A. M. of Merton College, Oxford. 8vo. 28. Egerton.

Mr. Satan, we are again + called by your able and ingenious advocate Mr. L. to make you our lowest bow, and to confess our manifold obligations. The clergy have long said that there is no living without you; and according to the logic of your friend, it would be How ungratefully have you, Sir, a great pity that there should. been treated by the human race! How have they mistaken as well as reviled you! What they have considered as temptations and seductions, you have meant as wholesome and effectual lessons of morality! You are, to be sure, what on earth is called a flogging preceptor; you make us feel the lash pretty smartly but then you make us fearn what we ought to know, when no other master can accomplish this good end. You, by your well-applied discipline, often bring us, sad dogs! to our senses. So says Mr. L. and he proves it in the nicest college logic; which demonstrates things in the most methodical and convincing manner, and can shew to the satisfaction of any audience, that two and two are to day more and to-morrow less than four.

may

:

As this logic of Mr. L. is only intended for grave university-men, who have been what they call hoaxing the Devil most unmercifully; the multitude are still permitted to say all the evil of the old gentleman that they can prove: but it is requested that no one henceforth will unload his own cart-full of sins into the Devil's stage

waggon.

Art. 67. The Baronage of Scotland; containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Gentry of that Kingdom, collected from the public Records and Chartularies of this Country; the Records and private Writings of Families; and the Works of our best Historians, illustrated with Engravings of the coats of Arms. Vol. I. Folio. pp. 623. 11. 118. 6d. Boards. Cadell jun. and Davies. 1798.

Printed by subscription.

This is a 2d part. Of the 1st, we gave an account, Rev. vol. xxiv. N. S. p. 472.

The

The late Sir Robert Douglas, in his Peerage of Scotland, pub. Eshed the family history of the greater barons, or nobility, of that kingdom. His future labors were dedicated to the stelle minores. In the present work, Sir Robert designed a delineation of the genealogies of the Baronets, and the lesser Barons, or landed gentry of Scotland, by tracing the line of their ancestry, by enumerating their pedigrees and intermarriages, by mentioning their employments whether civil or military, and by recording the remarkable achievements performed by them. Had he lived to finish it, say the editors and continuators of the work, he would have accomplished an im portant desideratum in the history of Scotland. For the information of those who may be disposed to concur in this opinion of the editors, we have only to mention that 562 pages of the present volume comprize that portion of the design, which Sir Robert lived to complete; and that the editors have thought it unnecessary to bring his history up to the present time, by adding to it such family events as have subsequently occurred, or the armorial bearings which he had omitted: but the latter are promised in a second volume. An addition of thirteen family histories, and a copious Index, constitute that portion of this work for which the public are indebted to the editors. Art. 68. The Secrets of the English Bastile disclosed. To which is added a Copy of the Rules and Orders by which the whole System is regulated. By a Middlesex Magistrate. 8vo. 1s. Rivingtons.

1799.

The proper regulations of prisons, both of those which are intended for safe custody before trial, and of those which are appropriated to the punishment of offenders after conviction, is an essential and important object in every well-constituted government; and where sufficient attention has been directed to this object, in which the interests and comforts of so many miserable creatures are deeply concerned, it is almost equally necessary that the public should receive accurate and authentic information, in order that the cause of truth may not suffer from ignorance or design. These remarks are suggested by some late inquiries into, and some violent misrepresentations of, the present state of the new house of correction for the county of Middlesex; which indeed have produced the pamphlet before us, containing a history of the institution, and a copy of the rules by which the whole system is regulated.' These regulations have received considerable assistance from the labours of Sir George Onesiphorus Paul; by whose laudable exertions the prisons in the county of Gloucester have been much benefited.

The pamphlet appears to be the production of a sensible, candid, and well-informed mind.

It may not be improper to observe that the question was lately agitated in the Court of King's Bench, whether persons under a charge of treason could be sent for safe custody to this prison by virtue of the warrant of a Secretary of State; and the Court determined that there was nothing in such a proceeding, that was in opposition to the statutes by which houses of correction are instituted and re gulated.

REV. MAY, 1799.

Art. 69. An Arrangement of Provincial Coins, Tokens, and Medalets, issued in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Colonies, within the last twenty Years, from the Farthing to the Penny Size. By James Conder. 8vo. PP. 330. 7s. 6d. Boards. Cadell jun. and

Davies. 1799.

Mr. Addison has observed that it is certain that medals give a great light to history." They undoubtedly assist in the confirmation of events and facts, and contribute to their elucidation. Some readers will have their doubts concerning such collections as that here before us, whether, though they may be of use, they may not at the same time occasion perplexity and mistake. We agree, however, with Mr. Conder in remarking that, the man who exerts himself to increase the stock of useful information, or who endeavours to advance, vary, or multiply the innocent amusements or enjoyments of life, has a claim to the patronage and support of the public.' Great attention has been employed by the author to render this work acceptable. The order in which the several subjects are disposed is clear and pleasant, and a suitable Index is added.

Among the coins not local, are several of white metal; one of silver, value three pence, we observe at Armagh in Ireland; the rest are principally, or wholly, pennies, half-pennies, and farthings; or, as the last class is ludicrously termed in the reverse of one of them, youngest sons of fortune.

In a sensible Preface, written by the late James Wright, Esq; of Dundee, which introduces the work, it is observed that, if from the two thousand varieties which are here described, we make a large deduction for those that are contemptible in design, rude in workmanship, trifling, absurd, and merely formed to obtain a paltry profit from a few collectors, there will still remain perhaps one third worthy the notice of the medallist of judgment. These he devides into six descriptions; views of remarkable buildings; representations of great commercial and public works; striking emblems of the industrious genius of the country; portraits of illustrious men; historical events, and characteristics of political parties; representations of animals, landscapes, &c.' This gentleman appears to have written con amore; and with the fervour of an enamorato he produces apposite and weighty arguments in favour of his subject; but some readers may be inclined to smile, when, after having mentioned a general view of the state of architecture in Great Britain as exhibited by coins, he adds; the preservation of which, at the distant future period when three or four thousand years shall have elapsed, (should the world last as long, the pieces may,) must be of extreme utility and value to posterity.'-Among other proofs of his zeal, he sug gests the formation of a society in London, under the designation of The Medallic Society of Britain. To this he sees no objection, unless it should be the gloomy aspect of the times; which, as it does not prevent several more useless expences, will not, he trusts, forbid an attention to the proposal. By this mode, he observes, they might indulge some of the worthiest feelings of human nature, in the patronage of poor and meritorious artists; and they may instruct and de