bility. From the ftory of the young man brought before Mr. Falkland upon a charge of murder, and releafed by him, it should appear, (a fuppofition confirmed by many other paffages in the book) that Mr. Godwin is utterly ignorant of the nature of the office of a Juftice of the Peace. Homicide is, primâ Facie, a capital Felony. The law has established diftinctions arifing from the circumstances of each particular cafe. The facts upon which thefe diftinctions depend muft be determined by the verdict of a jury, the only judges of fact which the law of this country knows. A Juftice of Peace is bound to commit a man charged before him, by the oath of credible witnesses, if the cafe is not bailable, where the circumftances amount to any reasonable prefumption of Felony. Where a man is flain, and the perfon accufed confeffes the fact, he must be committed. It is not material whether a Juftice of Peace ought to have the difcretionary power attributed to him by Mr. Godwin. The Law of England certainly does not give it, and Mr. Godwin is in this inftance either ignorant of the law, or wilfully mifreprefents it. It is not eafy to fay what grounds are intended to be laid for the commitment of Caleb Williams himfelf. It is no where exprefsly faid that Falkland added the guilt of Perjury to his other crimes, but he must have fworn to the robbery, or Williams could not have been detained. We must now follow Williams to prifon, and here the circumstance to be remarked is the length of his imprisonment. This alfo is impoffible to have happened under the law of this country. If no bill of indictment was found againft him at the next affizes, he could not be detained. I fhall make no further comment upon the ftory of Caleb Williams's fubfequent arreft, under the fuppofition that he was concerned in robbing the Mail, than that he relates many circumftances which might induce, and confirm the fufpicion against him, and not one which could be conftrued in his favour. The perfon advertised was an Irishman. Williams had been endeavouring to pass for an Irishman. On a fudden, he lays afide the brogue, and thinks that fhowing himself an impoftor is fufficient to liberate him from the charge of being a thief. But to return to matters of fact, the most extraordinary and grofs mifreprefentation, or I fhould fay with greater propriety, the moft palpable, and notorious falfehood concerning the law of England, andwhich pervades every part of this work, remains to be taken notice of. The author all along affects to believe that a man may be tried twice for the fame offence. This is the less excufeable as it is of no use in carrying on the Fable. Falkland's jealousy and fenfibility, on the point of reputation, was fufficient to account for his anxiety to prevent the truth, in regard to the murder of Tyrrell, from being brought to light. It was not neceffary to call in the terrors of a public fentence, and execution, nor indeed is this confideration any where represented to have aggravated the folicitude of Falkland, who muft have known that his darling reputation could not be more effectually blackened by a legal conviction, than by a bare manifestation of his guilt. But whatever motive may have influenced Mr. Godwin, it is certain, and univerfally known, that a verdict of acquittal upon a criminal charge, is as complete a bar to any further trial for the fame offence, as the King's Pardon, or an Act of Indemnity. Thus does does it appear that a Philofopher who. has already treated exprefsly of Political Juftice,* and has invented a Fable for the purpose of attacking the moral and political prejudices of his countrymen, and making them acquainted with the truth, in all the inftances in which he has affected to ftate the law of the land, and to reason from it, has ftated it falfely; and it is almoft fuperfluous to fay, that in fo doing, he has outraged Philofophy, Reason, and Morality, the foundation, object, and end of which is Truth. P. S. I had almost forgotten to notice one of the most daring mifrepresentations in the book. In Vol. 2. P. 271, the State Trials are cited in the margin, in fupport of the general affertion, that the law, in certain cafes, directs that prifoners fhould have ftinking water, taken from the next puddle, &c. This any common_reader would fuppofe to refer to the legal treatment of prifoners, as fuch; whereas it is merely the explanation given by Lord Coke of the peine forte et dure, in the fingle cafe of not pleading, (now properly made capital) which was then ftrongly ftated by that judge, only to deter the pri foner from incurring it. It was the punishment of contumacy for fetting public juftice at defiance, and had no general reference to prifoners. Such is the candour of this writer." * B. ** is not, in our opinion, perfectly successful in his defence of Mr. Beresford's Pinnacle. The common idea of it is a high fpiring point," which presents a ludicrous įmage; and it is a bad word which requires a note to prevent it from being ridiculous. The explanation removes the abfurdity, but furnishes no degree of propriety. The complimentary expreffions that accompany his remark demand our thanks. We are happy to have pleafed Philo-Hunter, by doing justice to a great man. The matter to which he objects in his first query is at an end. There were very strong reafons, as well as fufficient precedents for it, while it continued. His query about our number of pages must be founded on a mistake: feven fheets and a half are our regular quantity. The other objections feem trivial, but may not occur again. We are not at all offended at any part of the letter of Nanay, though we do not think his objection well founded, or his propofal very good. We will gratify him in his request as foon as we can. Cats will perceive that we have reviewed the work, on which he fent us fome hints. We could not adopt his remarks, as it is entirely contrary to our rule to infert anonymous communications; left we should occasionally be misled by partial or interefted accounts. * In what manner, fee Brit. Crit. Vol. I, p. 307. DOMESTIC The Authentic Relation of the Voyage and Embaffy to China will be published before the end of this year. It has been delayed folely by the numerous plates, which, however, will not greatly enhance the price to the public. The Society of Antiquaries are preparing for publication a very elegant and curious work, containing an account of the ancient abbeys in Great Britain, with views. The Dilettanti Society are about to publifh a fecond volume of their Ionian Antiquities, which will be of uncommon beauty and value. We understand that the preface will be furnished by the able pen of Mr. Knight. The Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, by Mr. Malone, will foon appear; we have heard it hinted, and we hope with reason, that Mr. Burke contributes to the completion of this literary monument to his illuftrious friend. Mr. Kett, known by his valuable Bampton Lectures, is employed on a work concerning the various branches of liberal education. Some Memoirs of the late excellent Bishop Horne are in the prefs, written by his friend, the Rev. Mr. Jones of Nayland. A tranflation of Livy, by the Rev. George Baker, we now learn, has been fome time in the prefs. Report speaks favourably of it. We learn with pleasure that Dr. Burney is advancing towards a conclufion of a Life of Metaftafio, an interefting work, full of new and well-authenticated facts refpecting that delightful poet. The translation of the fourth volume of Thunberg's Travels will foon appear. A work, entitled the Biographical Mirror, confifting of plates and letter-prefs, will very foon be publifhed by Mr. Harding. It is intended as a Supplement to Granger, and the Memoirs are fuppofed to be supplied by Mr. If. Read. We have been informed, though too late to correct our error in its proper place, that the Tranflation of Gray's Elegy, which we attributed to Dr. Coote, Dean of Kilfenora, was written by Dr. Charles Coote, of Doctor's Commons. 1 THE BRITISH CRITIC, For MAY, 1795. Equidem omnes qui aliquid in ftudiis faciunt, venerari etiam, mirarique foleo. Eft enim res difficilis, ardua, faftidiofa, et quæ eos a quibus contemnitur invicem contemnat." PLIN. EPIST. For my own part, I refpect and admire all perfons who make any proficiency in ftudious purfuits. For literature is a matter of great difficulty, of arduous and even faftidious nicety; and where it is de spised may juftly retort contempt." ART. I. The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. Tranflated into English by the Rev. W. Beloe, F. S. A. Tranflator of Herodotus, c. In three volumes. 8vo. Il. Is. Johnfon. 1795. WE E congratulate Mr. Beloe on the publication of Aulus Gellius. This author, it seems, has been accompanied by a kind of fatality among many of the learned, who have employed their time upon him, and have not lived to complete their meditated editions. Mr. B. however has fuccefsfully defied the omen which for fome time terrified the younger Gronovius. That his ufeful and honourable labours have been transferred from Herodotus to Aulus Gellius, may be a matter of furprise, to those who have looked into the latter author curforily, or who have formed an hafty judgment upon the nature of those books, which are entitled to appear I i BRIT. CRIT. VOL. V. MAY, 1795. in in an English drefs. We readily grant that there are fome things in Gellius too trifling, and fome too recondite for the English reader; fome which he will not be anxious to investigate, and fome which he will not be able to comprehend; but the greater part of the work muft furely be interefting to every man of common knowledge and liberal curiofity. There is much historical matter, and much amufing anecdote. Great infight is given into the manners and opinions of the ancients, and frequent difquifitions occur upon fubjects of general tafte. Gellius, doubtlefs, is not a book calculated for the entertainment of perfons whofe minds are pampered with the trash which is to be found in circulating libraries. They whofe faculties are barely equal to the comprehenfion of a modern romance, or the force of whofe intellect is exhausted in the perufal of a newspaper, will certainly not find much to engage their attention in our author. But they whofe minds are fixed upon liberal knowledge, and upon folid information, will here be enabled to exercife their judgment, and increase their intellectual acquirements. The ingenuous youth, and even the well-educated lady, may here find inftruction blended with amusement: and the bufy pleader and the harraffed statef man, may be allured into agreeable relaxation. The Attic Nights indeed may be confidered as a fplendid entertainment, a cana dubia, where every gueft will meet with fomething fuited to his palate; the fubftantial, the ornamental, the sweet, and the acid, are all to be found in this feaft of intellect. As A. Gellius is now for the first time introduced to the notice of the English reader, we shall sketch out fuch an account of him as we can collect, from the fcanty materials with which antiquity has furnished us. The life of a fcholar feldom contributes much to adorn the page of the biographer: and this obfervation may be applied particularly to our author, who was more diligent in noting the opinions of others, than in promulgating his own, and who aimed far more at the honeft praife of conveying inftruction to fucceeding ages, than of claiming a confpicuous place in the annals of that wherein he lived. His fate indeed, is in one refpect very remarkable, fince he has excited much more difcuffion by what is not known of him with certainty, than many authors by their whole lives. His very name, the time he lived, and even a part of his book, have each been the subject of long and eager difpute. Mr. B. whofe industry and acuteness have been employed to advantage upon the history of the author, as well as the contents of his work, has noticed these circumstances, in a preface written with much vigour of mind, and exhibiting no common fhare of erudition. He decides, in our opinion, properly, against an hoft of fcholars who would call |