troops, a proportionably augmented fubfidy was to be paid; and if arrears were incurred by him on thofe payments, a fatisfactory fecurity, that is, fatisfactory to the company, fhould be exigible.

After the treaty, two feparate and imperative neceffities arofe, to augment the troops ftationary in Oude, for its defence; the one external, the other internal. The danger of a foreign attack was imminent: on the borders of Oude, Monf. Perron commanded a great force of effectively well difciplined Seapoys, under French officers. The fervice of the country called for frequent detachments from our ftationary force there; and none could be made without leaving Lucknow, the rich capital of Oude; almost the certain reward of an attack. The perfon of the Mogul was in the cuftody of Perron: his own army he called the imperial army. In his name alfo (ftill reverenced by the Mahometans) he would have made war on his revolted vaffal; to whom his own army was hoftile, and with whom, by his own account, his fubjects were difgufted, and he with them. This attack indeed never took place: but while Perron maintained fuch a military pofition, it must have been his object, whatever reasons reftiained him. An increase of the forces ftationed for the defence of Oude, was therefore, on this account, become neceffary.

For this increase there exifted alfo at the fame time an internal and prefent neceffity, at least equal in degree. The country, although there exifted therein certain nominal courts of juffice, was in an abfolute ftate of anarchy: pillage and maffacre reigned in every part of it. The troops of the feveral diflricts received their pay from the Aumils, or provincial collectors of taxes, who were the great nobles of the country. By the authority they poffeffed over them, they dictated to, or controuled the judgments of, every nominal court of the Nabob, or oppofed its acts by open force. The taxes they demanded were not fixed by any fettled rule: their amount in general was, all that their military foliowers. could by force extort.

To this anarchy and extortion the Marquis Wellefley determined that an end fhould be put. To effect this, it became neceffary, that the army of Oude, undifciplined, hoftile to the Nabob, far worfe than ufelefs in an invafion, fhould be difbanded. It was, however, to be apprehended, that they might join the banditti, fcattered over the whole coun-" try, and already fo numerous as not to be reduced to order without the appearance of force: and that they would be aided, openly or privately, by the Aumils and Zemindars;

whole

whofe oppreffive power and extorted profits, a reform in the flate would annihilate. Previous to an attempt at fuch an arduous measure, it would have become neceffary to augment the British force in Oude. The augmentation of the fubfidy followed from that of the troops, by the exprefs provifion of the treaty. It had run into great arrears, for which, fecurity fatisfactory to the company was exigible: but there were only three fecurities pollible: that of the native fhroffs, or bankers, the mortgage of the revenue of a district, or an abfolute ceffion: but the two former were ab. folutely invalid, and therefore not fatisfactory: the latter was confequently demanded and obtained, although with

reluctance.

The writer proceeds now to give his account of the fruftration of the laft and ftrongeft effort of the afpiring defpot of France to establish an empire in India, the annihilation of the army of Perron. The treaty of Balien guaranteed to the Peifhwa, and at the fame tinie to the coeftates of the Mahrattas, conftitutionally under his authority, all their refpective rights. Immediately after the fignature of this treaty, Holkar evacuated Poonah, and the Peifhwa was reftored. Scindia openly and explicitly declared his approbation of it, but inftantly after difcovered by his meafures, which could admit no other conftruction, his determination again to reduce his feudal fuperior into the degrading perfonal controul under which he had long before held him: to ufurp all his power, and again to leave him only an empty title. This refolution, thus demonftrated, compelled us into a war with him, after the ftrongeft endeavours to avoid it, which is here proved to have been defenfive in the ftri&teft fense. A feries of fplendid victories followed, gained by Lord Lake and Sir A. Wellefley; the confequences of which were, that the French force under Perron was intirely diffipated, the old Mogul liberated, and Scindia. received a peace, the terms of which were dictated by moderation.

Holkar, expelled from Poonah, remained at the head of his ferocious hordes, whom he had no other means to fupport, than by making feudatory incurlions on the dominions of our allies, and by his ambaffadors menacing our own. Invited to a peace, he refused to submit to any equal conditions; and his demands, peremptory, extravagant, and novel, were coupled with infolent terms of defiance. Our engagements by treaty in the defence of our allies, obliged us ultimately to have recourfe to arms. By repeated defeats, his total Μ reduction

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXI. FEB. 13.8.

reduction seemed infallible: nor could the aid given him by the Rajah of Bhurtpore, contrary to the faith of treaties, have long protracted it. That Prince having been, after a defence which would have done honour to a better cause, compelled to purchase peace by fubmiffion; Holkar was now chafed to the banks of the Hyphafis, and on the point of falling into our hands. At that very inflant the fyftem of Marquis Wellesley ceafed to be followed by the cabinet of Calcutta: and the dominions of which he had poffeffed himself, without any right, or fhadow of right, were reftored to him. On this, however, it is not the object of the publication before us, or of our own, to make any kind of reflection; nor fhall we add any further remarks on a tract certainly of great merit.

ART, VII. The Code of Health and Longevity; or a concife View of the Principles calculated for the Prefervation of Health, and the Attainment of long Life. Being an Attempt to prove the Practicability of Condensing, within a narrow Compass, the most material Information hitherto accumulated, regarding the most useful Arts and Sciences, or any particular Branch thereof. By Sir John Sinclair, Bart. 2d Edit. 4 Vols. 8vo. Pp. 2234. 3 Plates. 21. 8s. Conftable, Edinburgh. 1807.

THE patriotic and benevolent intentions of the refpectable author of this work, must be allowed to entitle it to a more indulgent reception than could have been granted to the performance of a profeffed book-maker, inftigated only by the defire of furnishing his employer with four ponderous volumes for fale. He informs us, that about the year 1797, having fallen into a weak and enervated ftate, and finding that the health of many of his cotemporaries was equally, or ftill more, deranged, he wifhed to afcertain the caufe of thefe events, and to feek for a method of preventing a decay fo premature. He was alfo aftonifhed to find, in the courfe of his ftatistical refearches, how few of the human fpecies attain any confiderable extent of years, and how much their exiftence is embittered, even during its fhort continuance, by difeafes of various kinds. Thefe circumftances united, naturally directed his attention to the fubjects of health and longevity. He began by endeavouring to procure the reeftablishment of his own health; and in this object, with the

affiftance

affiftance of fome eminent phyficians, he has fortunately. fucceeded; and finds himself in all refpects as well as a perfon born in the year 1754 has any right to expect. He next ventured to give hints to others, whether advanced in life, or in a fickly ftate, how they might fecure the fame advantages; and having had the fatisfaction of receiving, from various perfons, in all ranks of life, the most grateful acknowledgments for the benefits which they had derived from his advice, he was at laft induced to think of a greater and bolder attempt, "that of inftru&ting his fellow-creatures in general, how they could beft preferve their health, and attain a comfortable old age."

Having printed, both in English and in French, a short treatise on health and longevity, containing feveral queftions relating to the subject, he has obtained a variety of communications in answer to his enquiries: he has alfo made a colJection of about two hundred volumes, more or lefs immediately connected with the object of his refearches. From thefe materials he has endeavoured to confolidate into one volume all the knowledge which he confiders as effentially neceffary for the attainment of health and longevity; and he has filled the remaining volumes of this work with an account of foreign and domeftic authors who have written on thefe fubjects, a re-publication of fuch of their works as he judges the moft interefting, and a collection of original communications and documents.

"It has often occurred to me," fays Sir J. S. (p. 1.) "that a plan might be formed, by which human knowledge, regarding at least fome particular arts or fciences, might be fo diftinctly arranged, and condenfed within fo narrow a compafs, as to diminish the neceflity of perufing the innumerable volumes now extant on the fame fubject; and by which men in general might be better informed, and confequently would be better enabled to enjoy the pleasures of their existence, than they are at prefent.""Indeed, in its prefent ftate, (p. 3.) knowledge may be compared to a fmall portion of gold, difperfed throughout a great quantity of ore. In its rude condition, the ftrongest man cannot bear its weight, or convey it to a distance; but when the pure metal is feparated from the drofs, even a child may carry it without difficulty."

"As the prefervation of health is one of the most important fubjects to which the attention of mankind can poffibly be di. rected, why not begin with that branch of inquiry?"—" If fuch a view of the fubject, as is given in this work, be approved of, let it be tranflated, either at the expence of the government, or of a fociety established for that purpofe, into all the principal lan

M 2

guages

guages of Europe; and let premiums be given to those who will tranfmit the most valuable communications upon, or will point out the most effential improvements in the volume to be thus circulated." (P. 2.)

After having laid before our readers this account of Sir John Sinclair's plan and intention, it is our duty either to prefent them with a brief abstract of the contents of thefe volumes, or to affign fome reafon for declining the task. We are therefore obliged to confefs candidly, that we think both our own time and that of our readers would be wasted in making any attempt of the kind, unlefs we undertook to remodel the whole, and make it into a new work; for in its prefent form, although we have perufed it with as much attention as poffible, we have not been able to difcover in it any original merit whatever.

That an author fhould imagine himself qualified for a work of this kind, without being a medical man, merely becaufe its principal object is to prevent and not to cure difeafes, is as abfurd as it would be for a landíman to take the command of a fleet employed in blockading an enemy's port, because it is not his object to give chace to his adverfaries, but only to prevent their coming out. No one of the arts or fciences, as far as we have any acquaintance with them, is comparable for the difficulties which attend it, to the profeffion of phyfic: and it is remarkable, that these difficulties are of fo refined a nature, that their very exiftence is unperceived by vulgar eyes. And, as Lord Bacon obferves,

in all times, in the opinion of the multitude, witches, and old women, and impoftors, have had a competition with phyficians. And what followeth? Even this, that phyficians fay to themfelves, as Solomon expreffeth it upon a higher occafion; If it befal to me, as befalleth to the fools, why should I labour to be more wife?" Hence it happens, that not one medical book in a hundred is worth reading by any body; and not one in a thousand by any but a medical man. Obfervations contradict obfervations, and opinions are at variance with opinions, fo that the more matter we collect, the greater is the obfcurity in which the fubject becomes involved, unlefs the most minute inveftigation, and the most delicate powers of difcrimination, be employed in the comparison. These powers it was morally impoffible that the prefent author fhould poffefs, and his work could therefore confift of nothing but a ufelefs mafs of contradictory and ill-digefted facts, a continued feries of iteration without addition," and a collection of groundless opinions, fuggested by caprice, and adınitted only by an immeafurable credulity.

Notwith