Art. 39. The Count de Rethel: An hiftorical Novel. Taken from the French. 2mo. 3 Vols. 9 s. bound. Hookham. This novel is fufficiently enriched with variety of incident and fentiment to raise it above the character of infipidity. It is written in an easy style, and, without calling for any vigorous exertions of the understanding, or producing any violent agitations of the heart, may afford an agreeable amufement for a leifure hour.

L A

W.

Art. 40. The Hiftory of the Common Law. By Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Juftice of England in the Reign of Charles II. The Fourth Edition corrected, with Notes, References, and fome Account of the Life of the Author, by Charles Runnington, Efq; Barritter at Law. 8vo. 10 s. 6d. Boards. Cadell. 1779. We have here a new edition of this valuable work, accompanied with many additional references, and a large collection of notes and illustrations. In thefe Mr. Runnington has availed himself of the labours of our modern writers to a larger extent of quotation than the duty of an annotator demanded, or perhaps admitted. This Gentleman's induftry in tranferibing is greater than his judgment in felecting and applying. We are prefented with copious extracts from the works of Judge Blackstone, Mr. Barrington, Dr. Sullivan, Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Hume, and others, on points which no man who is moderately verfed in English hiftory and jurifprudence, can be fuppofed to be at this day unacquainted with. What is fingular enough, the authority of Blackftone is fometimes produced in confirmation of Sir Matthew Hale's doctrine, where Sir Matthew Hale is the very authority to which Blackstone himself refers. This is furely to turn back the ftream to its fountain. At this rate the works of thefe learned authors may be quoted as comments on each other in endless reciprocation. Perhaps, too, the name of Hume appears oftener in these notes than will please a conftitutional lawyer. Mr. Hume's writings, when he treats of the early period of English history, however fubtile and elegant, have no claim to veneration when opposed to thofe of Sir Matthew Hale, and when alleged merely in confirmation of them, they are nugatory in a work of this kind. As a guide, however, to the ftudent on his first entrance on the ftudy of our laws, Mr. Runnington's notes will be found useful and valuable. They will introduce him to an acquaintance with the moft liberal of our writers, and give him fome idea of the extent of the science, and the variety of objects that call for his attention in it, and they will affift him in his further progrefs, by pointing out many of the alterations which the practical part of the law has undergone fince Sir Matthew Hale wrote, as well as the revolutions of opinion concerning fome general questions which this great man has difcuffed. Mr. Runnington has annexed an account of Sir Matthew Hale's life, which (though fomewhat verbose and affected in its style) cannot be perused too often, as it holds out a perfect model of the judicial character. The principal facts which history has tranfmitted concerning him are here recorded with fidelity,

MILITARY.

MILITARY.

Art. 41. A Treatise on the Art of War; or, Rules for conducting an Army in all the various Operations of regular Campaigns. By John, Count Orourke, Colonel of Horfe, Knight of the Royal Order of St. Louis, and Lord Chamberlain to the late King of Poland, &c. 4to. il. Is. Boards. Dodfley, &c. 1778.

A work of this kind, from an officer who has feen fervice, can not fail of being ufeful, in particular, to thofe gentlemen of the profeffion who have not received the advantages of experience. Count Orourke had a command in that Ruffian army which took poffeffion of Berlin, in the year 1760; and, in confequence of his good conduct on that memorable occafion [as we learn from the Poftfcript to this Treatife], he was afterward honoured with the favourable notice and regard of his Pruffian Majefty, and the royal family; in evidence of which, he has here printed certain letters which he received from the King, and from Prince Henry.-There is, perhaps, an air of oftentation in all this, which does not seem to accord, very happily, with the title of a paper of four pages, prefixed to the noble Count's performance, viz. A Lift of Subfcribers.

If any purchaser should object that the fize of this book does not bear the usual proportion to the price, they must conûder the expence of the copper plates, which are fourteen in number; exhibiting the various pofitions and movements of an army. Some of the plans, defcribed in thefe engravings, may poffibly be new-but we have not had an opportunity of comparing this production with former treatifes on the art of war.-On the whole, however, we doubt not but this work will be serviceable to those who are defirous of making a diftinguished progrefs in the study of a science which, certainly, is not of a fuperficial nature, nor to be comprehended within a narrow compass.

MEDICA L.

Art. 42. An Effy on the Cure of Abfceffes by Cauftic, and on the Treatment of Wounds and Ulcers; with Obfervations on fome Improvements in Surgery. Alfo, a new Method of introducing Mercury into the Circulation, for the Cure of the Lues Venerea : With the Remarks of Dr. Hunter and Mr. Cruikshank, Profeffors of Anatomy, in Support of this Practice. By P. Clare, Surgeon. Svo. 2s. 6d. Cadell. 1779.

This is as odd a farrago as we remember to have met with. The fubject which appears mod confpicuous in the title page, has hardly three pages allocted to it; and the work is made up of quotations, cafes, and old ftories, put together in a ftrange random manner. The only thing at all new in this mifcellany, is the proposal of a new method of impregnating the fyftem with mercury. This is, by rubbing calomel in powder, moistened with faliva, on the infide of the cheek, round the orifice of the falivary duct. The Author fuppofes, that this internal friction will produce a more easy and expeditious abforption of the mercurial particles than the common frictions on the furface of the body; and he afferts that experience bas confirmed his opinion. A long annexed paper of remarks on this new practice, by Mr. Cruikshank, contains many curious obferva

tions on the nature of abforption, and is, indeed, by much the most valuable part of the publication.

Art. 43. Gulftonian Lectures, read at the College of Phyficians, February 15, 16, and 17; by Samuel Mufgrave, M. D. Fellow of the College, and of the Royal Society: Containing I hree Lectures, I. On the Dyfpnoea. II. On the Pleurify and Peripneumony. III. On the Pulmonary Confumption. 8vo. 2 s. Payne, &c.

1779.

The firft of thefe fhort treatises begins with a general account of the mechanical effects of refpiration. The Writer criticifes a paffage of Baron Haller's, in which it is afferted, that training is attended with a greater defcent of the diaphragm. On the contrary, he maintains, that in mufcular efforts the diaphragm afcends, and diminishes the cavity of the thorax, thereby topping the courfe of the blood through the pulmonary veffels, On this principle he accounts for various inftances of tempo ary dyspoca; and after making fome obfervations on the feveral kinds of irregular refpiration, he proceeds to illuftrate the nature of the morbid dyspnea. He concludes with laying it down as a principle, that in moit cafes where a dyspnoea occurs, independent of any caufe externally compreffing the lungs or diaphragm, it then originates from a præternatural enlargement or tumefaction of that fubifance, in which the pulmonary veffels are bedded.'

The fecond lecture, on the Pleurify and Peripneumony, is chiefly a commentary on, and recommendation of, Sydenham's method of cure in thofe difeafes; every article of which Dr. Mufgrave thinks founded on juft obfervation and experience. In particular, he infifts on the importance of that great phyfician's much neglected, precept of taking the patient out of bed every day for a confiderable time during the courfe of the disease, the advantages of which he confirms by his own experience.

In the third lecture, on the Pulmonary Confumption, we find little worthy of notice, except fome remarks on confumptive difeafes proceeding from a cold caufe, which the Writer fuppofes directly contrary in their nature to the inflammatory confumption, and requiring a contrary treatment. It was in this fpecies of confumption, he fuppofes, that the warm medicines recommended by former practitioners were particularly ferviceable; and he corroborates their teftimony by adducing fome inftances, from his own experience, of remarkable fuccefs attending the exhibition of camphor, joined with nitre, in these cafes.

To this view of the matter contained in these lectures, we have only to add, that they are written in very pure and correct language; an excellence, the want of which we often lament in modern medical publications.

Art. 44. Thefaurus Medicus: Sive Difputationum in Academia Edinenfi, ad rem medicam pertinentium, a Collegio inftituto ad hoc ufque Tempus, Delectus, a Gulielmo Smellio, S. P. É S. babitus. Tom. II. 8vo. 6 s. Boards. Edinburgh, Elliot and Creech; Murray, London. 1779.

The contents of this fecond volume of Edinburgh Medical Thefes

For the first volume, fee Review, Oct. 1778, p. 305.

are

are as follows: De Incubo, Bond. De Lienteria, Scanlan. De Azditu, Fen Sleigh. De Conceptu, Merriman. De Hydrope Analarca, Langlands. De Ferri Hiftoria Naturali, Præparatis, & Ufu Medico, Wright. De Hydrope, D. Monro. De Aibmate, Abernethie. De Amaurofi, Rofs. De Humore acido a Cibis orto, & Magnifia Aiba, Black. De Ulcere Uteri, Broughton. De Teftibus & de Semine in variis Animalibus, A. Monro. De Morbo Hypochondriaco, Turner. De Mercurio, Owen. De Bile, Ramfay. De CatarrbaƐa, Lander. De Catarrho, G. Fordyce.

MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 45. An Oration at the Dedication of Free Mafon's Hall in Sunderland, in the County of Durham, July 16, 1778. By Brother W. Hutchinfon. 4to. I S. Baldwin.

A learned and ingenious display of the antiquity and importance of Free Masonry.

Art. 46. The Governefs. From the French of Monf. Le Fevre. Tranflated by E. P. Small 8vo. I s. Dodfley.

To those who are interested in the education of children, this little work will be a very valuable prefent. It teaches the neceffity of beginning the bafinefs of education from earlieft infancy, and of obferving a steady and unremitting difcipline. This method is proved to be, not only the most certain, but the mildest also, and the most eafy, that can be pursued in forming the minds of children to those habits of virtue which are to conftitute the bafis of their future character in life.

Art. 47. The Speech of the Earl of Sandwich, in the House of Lords,, May 14, 1779; being the Fourteenth Day of the Sitting of the Committee of Enquiry into the Management of Greenwich Hofpital. 4to. I S. Cadell.

A masterly refutation of the charges brought by Capt. Baillie against the First Lord of the Admiralty.

Art. 48. Thoughts in younger Life on interefting Subjects; or Poems, Letters, and Essays, moral, elegiac, and descriptive. With Memoirs of the Author. By George Wright, Efq; Author of the Rural Chriftian. Small 8vo. 3 s. bound. Buckland.

Our Author is his own biographer: and what critic fo faftidious as to deny him the privilege of talking about his own dear self, when he can plead the refpectable authority of William Lilly the conjuror, and George Whitefield, that" chief of finners"-as he was always proud to call himself, for the purpose of fhewing his humility!

:

Mr. George Wright gives us a fpecimen of this faint-like difpofi• tion for after an enumeration of his good qualities, holy employments, and innocent amufements, he modestly cautions his Readers not to think he is without faults.' No. He hath (as he confeffeth in the difmal cant of fanaticifm) his failings, errors, and fortcomings: thefe afford him ample matter for daily concern, felfabafement, and reformation.' The Author might place this book in the catalogue of his short-comings, and find in it ample matter for felf-abafement and reformation. But vanity is as deceitful as vice: and your scribbling finners (efpecially if they fhould be addicted to the fin of poetry) are of all others the most hardened against con

viction:

viction and becaufe, like the Pharifees, they "think they fee,

RELIGIOUS and CONTROVERSIAL, Art. 49. A Charge, delivered at feveral Vifitations of the Clergy, held at York, and in the Weft-Riding of Yorkshire, in the Year 1778. By William Cooper, D. D. F. R. S. Archdeacon of York. 4to. 1 s. Cadell.

Dr. Cooper exhorts his reverend brethren with warmth and dignity. and he unfolds to them the duties of their station in a manner equally perfpicuous, forcible and perfuafive. He thus expreffes himself on the influence and neceffity of example in the clerical character:

To correct licentioufnefs, awake the lethargic from their fupinenefs and folly, fhew with good effect the pernicious nature and fad confequences of fin, refcue profligate and, notorious finners from their unhappy fituation, pointing out the abfurdity of their proceedings and their danger, the danger of being punished with everlasting de ftruction from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; to do this with good effect, we, my Reverend Brethren, muft be eminent for our virtue, eminent for our learning. It is the remark of a writer*, not more diftinguished for the wildom of his admonitions, than the excellency of his conduct, that " the life of a pious clergyman is visible rhetoric." The expreffion is juft. Such a character is a burning light, looked up to by all with admiration, heard upon every occation with attention, reverence, regard. If our reputation is clear and unfullied, the greatest bleffing we can enjoy upon earth, our preaching will have its full force; for example is more inftructive than precept, and the words of the exemplary will have weight. A clergyman muft confider any piece of preferment given him, not merely as a gift, but as a truft, "honorem illum non folum datum fed etiam creditum ;" and in order to act his part with the greater credit, he will deny himself every pleasure, even the most innocent, which may in any respect obftruct the laudable difcharge of his office. The pious Hooker, when Master of the Temple, laid the foundation of his incomparable work on Ecclefiaftical Polity; but he obtained leave to retire from that confpicuous fituation, into a "quiet country parfonage, where he had more leifure to pursue his ftudies, might fee God's bleffings springing out of his mother earth, and eat his own bread in peace and privacy; a place, where, without difturbance, he might meditate his approaching mortality, and that great account, which all flesh muft, at the lafl great day, give to the God of all fpirits." Let us revere the memory of that valuable man, and as many of us as are poffeffed of benefices in the country, learn, by his example, to make the best ufe of folitude; converfe with learned books, with God, and our own fouls; inftructing our flocks; vifiting the fick; adminiftering the facraments; aiding the indigent; convincing the people by a conduct, rational and uniform, that our hope lies beyond the grave, and that it is not in the power of this world to charm our hearts to a forgetfulness of God, our fellow-creatures, and ourselves.'

• Hooker.

Art.