Where could I feek for comfort, or for aid? Too late I found the wretched have no friend! Whofe vows had met the tendereft warm return, And left my child in folitude to mourn. To guard the facred wreaths by Hymen wove; The canker worm that prey'd upon her heart. Whom once the lov'd-but pitied, and forgave: And funk in filent anguish to the grave. Children of affluence, hear a poor man's prayer, Sink my grey hairs with forrow to the tomb! The whole is clofed with an humorous Palinode to the Re viewers. We muft ingenuously confefs, to make use of Mr. Gray's expreffion, speaking of fome odes in which he and his friend Mr. Mafon had been burlesqued, he makes very good fun of us. He begins, I who of late, in many a flanderous ditty, Burlesqued your profe, and parodied your verfes, Good, piteous Gentlemen, reprefs your rigour, Sufpend the terrors of your dire damnation. Pleas'd in that pretty path, I pac'd no further *, And fing in fimple file of love, and murther. In luckless hour lifted beneath their banners, * Doricè for farther. Dear Dear Doctor Langhorne, you were ever good, Mild as young Nithifdale, or Lady Ellen †, My works, I fear, will quickly fall before 'em, We apprehend the Gentleman, whom he mentions in the last ftanza but one that we have quoted, died fince this poem was printed, as we think too well of the generofity of our entertaining Bard to fuppofe he would attack where there was no power to retaliate. + Vide Owen of Carron, a poem by the Doctor. Mr. Griffiths, &c. &c. &c. ART. X A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany: With Anecdotes relating to fome eminent Characters. By a Gentleman who refided feveral Years in these Countries. 8vo. 2 Vols. 10s. Boards. Cadell. 1779. ANY valuable and uncommon qualities are requifite to MAN form the character of an accomplished traveller : a comprehenfive knowledge of men and manners, an accurate difcrimination of characters, a total exemption from prejudices, the curiofity of youth directed by the experience of age, and the rare talent of patient obfervation, combined with a happy pliancy of temper, that can adapt itself to all the various forms of polished life. The prefent work is distinguished and adorned by feveral of these qualities, in a very eminent degree; and we will venture to pronounce, that the more accurate information any man has attained concerning the continent of Europe, and the more he has feen and examined the state of society and manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany, the more fincerely and warmly will he approve the industry, candour, discernment, and ability of this ingenious Author. His obfervations are chiefly confined to the fubjects announced in the title: but the Reader will be agreeably entertained and instructed by many interesting details concerning the arts, commerce, government, revenue, military ftrength, &c. of the countries here defcribed. Thefe objects are clofely connected with each other, as well as with the general manners of fociety; and it is no fmall merit in the prefent performance, that the Author has fuccessfully diftinguished, and analyfed, the various caufes and circumstances, which confpire to form the durable impreffions of national character. In delineating this character, he enters into no abftract difquifitions concerning the different fyftems of policy; he defcribes not with prolix exaggeration the capricious fingularities of a few individuals; but he paints mankind in groupes, as they appear in camps and courts, affemblies and theatres, and by prefenting a continual fcene of action to the eye, enables the mind of his reader to anticipate his juft and natural, though by no means obvious reflections. A work, executed according to this judicious plan, is well adapted to convey a general, and, as far as it extends, a correct knowledge of the manners of foreign countries; and, by prefenting a faithful and exact hiftorical picture, it helps to deftroy the effect of those wretched caricatures which amufe the giddy and malicious, by flattering the illiberal prejudices of national vanity. Few writers, indeed, will be found more untainted by prejudices of any kind than this agreeable Traveller; and, on this account, his teftimony is the more valuable in favour of the customs and inftitutions of his native country. We shall felect a paffage on this fubject, as a fpecimen of the natural unaffected elegance with which thefe letters are written. I feel as much indignation as you poffibly can, against thofe who endeavour to hurt the peace of families by malignant publications, and I enter fully into Lord 's on fo unmerited an attack. Yet I fhould be heartily forry to see these evils remedied by any restriction on the freedom of the prefs; because I am every day more and more convinced that its unrestrained productions, the licentious news-papers themselves not excepted, have conveyed to every corner of Great Britain, along with much impertinence and fcurrility, fuch a regard for the conftitution, such a sense of the rights of the subject, and such a degree of general knowledge, as never were so universally diffused over any other nation. Such a law as your friend propofes might, no doubt, protect individuals from unjust attacks in print: but it would at the fame time remove one great means of clearing their innocence, and making known their wrongs, when injured in a more essential manner. It would limit the right which every Briton has of publicly addreffing his countrymen, when he finds himself injured or oppreffed by the perverfion of law, or the infolence of office. • Examples might be given of men of great integrity being attacked in the moft cruel and ungenerous manner by people high in office and guarded by power. Such men had no other means of redress than that of appealing to the candour and good sense of the Public, which they used with success. Every man's obfervation may fuggeft to him many kinds of injuftice and oppreflion which the rich, the infidious, or the powerful, can commit commit in fpite of law, or perhaps by the aid of law, against the poor, the unfufpecting, and the friendlefs.-Many, who can filence confcience and evade law, tremble at the thoughts of their injustice being published; and nothing is, nothing can be, a greater check to the wantonnefs of power, than the privilege of unfolding private grievances at the bar of the Public. For thus the caufe of individuals is made a public concern, and the general indignation which their wrongs excite, forms at once one of the feverest punishments which can be inflicted on the oppreffor, and one of the strongest bulwarks that can be raised in defence of the unprotected. " By this means alfo the moft fpeedy and effectual alarm is given over all the nation when any great public misconduct happens, or upon any appearance of a defign against the conftitution; and many evils are detected and prevented, which otherwife might have been unobserved, till they had become too ༴ ་པ། ftrong for remedy. And though this liberty produces much filly advice, and malignant cenfors without number, it likewife opens the door to fome of a different character, who give useful hints to minifters, which would have been loft without the freedom of anonymous publication. The temporary and partial diforders, which are the confequences of public freedom, have been greatly exaggerated by fome people, and represented as more than equivalent to all the advantages refulting from a free government. But if fuch perfons had opportunities of obferving the nature of thofe evils which fpring up in abfolute governments, they would foon be convinced of their error. The greatest evil that can arife from the licentiousness which accompanies civil liberty is, that people may rafhly take a diflike to liberty herself, from the teafing impertinence and abfurdity of fome of her real or affected well-wishers;-as a man might become lefs fond of the company of his best friend, if he found him always attended by a fnappifh cur, which without provocation was always growling and barking. But to prove the weaknefs of fuch conduct, we have only to call to mind that the ftream of licentioufnefs perhaps never rofe higher than it did fome years fince in England.-And what. were the mighty evils that followed ?-Many refpectable characters were grofsly misreprefented in printed publications.Certain daring fcribblers evaded the punishment they deserved: -Many windows were broken, and the chariots of a few members of parliament were befpattered with dirt by the mob.What are thefe frivolous diforders when compared to the gloomy regularity produced by defpotifm? in which men are obliged to the most painful circumfpection in all their actions; are afraid to ་ 2. - to speak their sentiments on the most common occurrences; fufpicious of cherishing government fpies in their household fervants; diftruftful of their own relations and most intimate companions, and at all times expofed to the oppression of men in power, and to the infolence of their favourites ?-No confufion, in my mind, can be more terrible than the ftern difciplined regularity and vaunted police of arbitrary governments, where every heart is depreffed by fear, where mankind dare not affume their natural characters, where the free spirit muft crouch to the flave in office, where genius muft reprefs her effufions, or, like the Egyptian worshippers, offer them in facrifice to the calves of power; and where the human mind, always in fhackles, fhrinks from every generous effort.' We hear that these letters are the production of Dr. Moore, a medical gentleman who accompanied the Duke of Hamilton on his travels. If the Doctor understands the fick part of mankind, as well as thofe in health, he is, doubtless, a very va luable member of the faculty. ART. XI. A Reftitution of the Geometrical Treatife of Apollonius Pergaus on Inclinations. Alfo the Theory of Gunnery; or, the Doctrine of Projectiles in a non-refifting Medium. By Reuben BurNourfe. 1779. 4to. 2 S. row. T HE celebrated problem of Apollonius to apply a RIGHT line, of a given length, between two lines, given in pofition, So that when produced out it may pass through a given point, has employed the thoughts of feveral able geometricians, fome of whom have given us the folution of one cafe, fome that of another; but none, that we know of, have published any attempts towards a general reftitution of the problem before our Author, except Alexander Anderfon, Ghetaldus, and the Rev. Dr. Horsley. It was never, fo far as we know, efteemed difficult to give a folution, of fome kind or other, to this problem: the great point was, to discover the original one, given by Apollonius himfelf, to diftinguifh the feveral problems and cafes into which he divided it, to exhibit them in the fame order; and, above all, to derive the determinations by means of those lemmata -given us by Pappus for that purpose, of which, doubtless, Apollonius made ufe. In every one of thofe circumstances Anderson appears to have been very defective. The principle on which Ghetaldus founded his method of solution does not feem to be very materially different from that which Apollonius must have made ufe of, if we may judge from the account which Pappus has given concerning it; but his fubdivifion of the pro blem |