mentioned the work here, for the fake of the lives, we shall not think it neceffary to repeat our notice of it under Poetry. The Lives of Macklin*, and of Morlandt, may conclude our enumeration, though not fufficiently important for us to dwell further on

their character.

ANTIQUITIES.

Such a remnant of Antiquity as the Tomb of Alexander, if that defignation were once completely afcertained, would claim the universal homage of Antiquaries. To the very curious Sarcophagus, now in the British Mufeum, Dr. Clarke has ftrenuously laboured to eftablish that origin; and we are not afhamed to confefs, that we perufed his ingenious Differtation, with much wish to find his arguments juft. That they are altogether irrefragable, we will not pretend to fay: but that many lefs probable accounts have been received without fcruple, we are perfectly convinced. How mortifying to fee the monument itself covered with writing, which, if it could be decyphered, would remove all poffibility of doubt; to have an apparent key to the cypher at hand; and yet to remain in ignorance! We need not, however, despair; even the arrow-headed characters of Perfepolis, appear to have yielded to the affiduity and fagacity of Mr. Lichtenftein. His tract, and that of Mr. Hagemann, relating alfo to Perfepolis, are fufficiently curious to justify their introduction into our pages.

Returning to the Antiquities of our own country, we are called upon to notice the fecond and third volumes of Mr. Malcolm's ** Londinium Redivivum ;

*No. II. p. 177. + No. VI. p. 654. No. IV. p. 345The Rofetta Stone, with three infcriptions, 1. Hieroglyphic, 2. Coptic, and 3. Greek, alfo depofited in the Eritish Museum. See his Tentamen Palæographie, No. III. p. 287. I No. IV. p. 376. ** No. IV. p. 367.

1

a work

a work rendered valuable by much diligent refearch into original and curious documents. Mr. Britton's Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, are a work of a very different kind; adorned with engravings of the most beautiful execution, and with illuftrations of our ancient architecture, of the utmost benefit to the fcience. Nor can the ftudious Antiquary fail to receive gratification, from Mr. Hay's Hiftory of Chichester; a work which would be much improved, by the illuftrations which might be taken from the drawings made for Sir IV. Burrel, and now depofited in the British Museum.

TOPOGRAPHY.

Two books of this defcription, very unusual in merit and intereft, have been analysed in our present volume. These are Dr. Barry's History of the Orkneys, and Dr. Whitaker's History of the Deanery of Craven. The former of thefe writers, the chief part of whofe life had been fpent in the Iflands he defcribes, lived only to complete his publication; not to enjoy the approbation which its merit muft enfure. Dr. Whitaker, known before by his excellent publication, on a neighbouring dif trict, has here rather furpaffed than fallen fhort of his former production; and has entitled himself to an established rank, among the most instructive, and elegant of British topographers. Mr. D'Arcy Boulton's Sketch of Upper Canada ¶, has the merit of prefenting to the reader, a new object of contemplation; and contains, though brief, fome valuable remarks, the refult of perfonal knowledge and obfervation. The Obfervations on the Coafts of Hampshire, publifhed from the papers of the late Mr. Gilpin **, are,

* No. VI. p. 657. + No. II. p. 176. No. V. p. 514. No. VI. p. 585. The Parish of Whalley, and Honor of Clitheroe; See British Critic, xxi. p. 101. I No. II. p. 218. ** No. IV. p. 432.

as might be expected, rather on the picture fque effects of the scenery, than on matters common to the generality of topographers. The work however, is one, which a profeffed topographer cannot overlook.

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.

Few travellers have taken a wider circuit than Dr. Griffiths, whofe book we noticed early in this volume. Whether he will print more in England, or whether he will even return hither, is uncertain his firft communications were made at Paris. With a very fluent and amufing pen, Mr. Carr, author of "the Stranger in France," has given a narrative of a fummer, which he dedicated to excurfions in the moft northern Kingdoms of Europe. His book, entitled from that circumftance, A Northern Summer, will doubtlefs furnish, to many readers, inftruction as well as entertainment. In the narrative of Mr. Turnbull's voyage ‡, we are brought back to our old acquaintances in the South Seas; and not without regret, to find them in fome refpects much worse off than when they were firft vifited by the humane Cook. An anonymous tract, entitled, A Sketch of the prefent State of Paris, is well calculated to cure any Englishman of the defire to live under fuch a government, as is there eftablished. The very name of a military defpotifm, is alarming to thofe who have ever tafted true liberty; but the reality appears, by this account, to exceed all conception. The very idea of fecurity, to property or perfon, is in fuch a ftate ridiculous; and to travel from place to place, without urgent and demonftrable cause, seems to be as impoffible, as if there were no roads. No jaunts for pleasure, no trips to watering-places, no

* No. II. P. 105. + No. V. p. 465. No. II. p. 215No. VI. p. 688.

vifits to diftant friends without a paffport, or without fufpicion of a plot !

POLITICS.

The most important book belonging to this clafs, among thofe noticed in this volume, is that entitled, War in Difguife*. Though our account of it is not finished in the volume, to which this preface belongs, it is concluded in the number publifhed with it, and we may therefore give its general character; which is, that it difcuffes one of the most important queftions of policy, that belong to the prefent times, and in the ableft manner. Mr. Rofe's tract on the Poor Laws †, abounds with the ideas of a fagacious, and humane Statesman; and Archdeacon Heflop, on the Property Tax, throws out many valuable fuggef tions; that we differ from both in a few points, detracts not, even in our opinion, from their merit. Diogenes §, whoever he may be, is worth confulting on fome points, though in others, we think him erroneous; particularly in his idea of a political li

cenfer.

PHILOSOPHY.

Our notice of philofophical works, in the prefent volume, has been confined chiefly to fuch as are in continual progreffion. To the Philofophical Tranfactions of our own Royal Society, of which two parts. are here defcribed ; and thofe of the Royal Irish Academy, of which the ninth volume has now been completely analyfed. It was begun in our pre

No.

i. e.

No. VI. p. 614. Attributed by fome to Mr. St.phen: but we affix not the name, we only mention the report. V. p. 485. No. III. p. 260. No. VI. p. 683. 1804, Part 2; in No. II. p. 112, and 1805, Part 1, in No No. I. p. 67.

V. p. 495.

ceding volume *. Thefe tranfactions, diffimilar in that refpect from thofe of London, contain Antiqui. ties, and Literature, befides Philofophy. We could not, however, prevail on ourselves to remove them to the clafs of mifcellanies, and therefore place them according to that, which we conceive to be their prevailing object. From the fame country, comes a book of very various and ufeful investigation, Dr. Patterfon's Obfervations on the Climate of Ireland +, in which are many difcuffions, highly important to the profperity and improvement of that part of the united kingdom.

NATURAL HISTORY.

A very interefting, and in fome respects a new branch of Natural Hiftory, has been opened by Mr. Parkinfon, in undertaking to confider exclufively' the remains of vegetables and animals, found in a foffil ftate; which he calls the Organic Remains of a former World. The investigation is clofely connected, indeed, with mineralogy, geology, and chemistry, but altogether it may perhaps be best characterized, as tracing the Natural History of that class of productions: of which the author has here gone through the vegetable part, with very meritorious diligence. The completion of Mr. Bewick's delightful work, on British Birds §, leads us to hope, that his judicious labours in illuftrating our Natural History, will not here terminate; and when we recollect with what fpirit and effect, many infects are delineated by means of wooden cuts, in Moufet's "Theatrum Infectorum," we are inclined to wish that his next excurfion may be turned that way. Dr. Skrimfire's popular Effays, introductory to the

$

*See vol. xxv. p. 469. † No. II. p. 172. ‡ No. I. p. 1. No. III. p. 292. Publifhed at London, in 1634, fol.

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