fy, the frequent attendant of a fcirrhous liver, are very useful, and of the diuretic kind; and, on the whole, this little Effay deferves commendation.

Directions for impregnating the Buxton Water, with its own and other Gafes; and for compofing artificial Buxton Water. By George Pearfon, M. D. 8vo. Printed for the author. We are fully convinced, that mineral waters may be now very exactly and fuccefsfully imitated. Dr. Pearfon's directions for making artificial Buxton water are eafily practicable, and confequently very ufeful. We cannot extend our commendations farther. Buxton waters are undoubtedly a valuable remedy; but it is still to be proved that they will be so, with an additional proportion of the gas, which, from Dr. Pearfon's former experiments, feems to be a medicine of fome efficacy, and therefore of fome danger, even if we were certain that it would increase their effects without changing them. Every practitioner knows that various, and fometimes oppofite effects, arife from different dofes of the fame medicine.

It is ftill more uncertain, what may be the effects of combining them, with fixed or hepatic air: a cautious trial might be commendable; but we cannot recommend the plan without a little more knowlege of the confequences than can arise from theoretical reafoning. Buxton waters may now be confidered as an old formula in medicine. We may follow the receipt with fuccefs, for we know its effect; but we may leffen its virtues by injudiciously leaving out any ingredient, or we may clog them by additions. It is better to continue to ufe these waters in their prefent state.

POETRY.

The Power of Friendship, a Poetical Epiftle. By Thomas Crosse, Efq. 4to. 15. Bew.

The following Epistle, fays our author, will, I am certain, please those whom it was intended to please, and their approbation is fufficient.' We greatly question the veracity of this prediction; at least we are not included in the number. The Vale of Innocence, a Vifion. Verfes to an Infant Daughter. And Sonnets. By the Rev. John Black. 4to. Is. Johnion. These poems are in general no way remarkable for ftriking beauties or grofs defects. The Second Sonnet, addreffed to Mr. Clarke, we fuppofe the gentleman who vindicated the authenticity of Offian's poems again ft Mr. Shaw, may be confidered as an exception. It is written in an animated manner, and the defcriptive part ftrongly refembles the scenery of the Celtic bard.

Swift fweep the clouds along the blackening sky,
Loud in the wind the toffing trees refound;

The finking gale feems ready now to die,

Now ftronger fwells, and ftrews with leaves the ground.

• The

The ftill and peaceful eve let others hail,
When not a leaf ftirs with the gentle breeze;
When Cynthia's gleam refts on the lengthening vale,
Or glitters broken through wide branching trees.

Sweet is the mild nefs of the moon-light fcene,
The pleasures fweet, ftill, peaceful eves infpire;
Yet fweeter far, O Clarke! to thee, I ween,
This folemn night, in tune to Offian's lyre !
For now thy fancy, fpurning earth and time,

Soars with each fhadowy form, and converse holds fublime.' An Efay upon the Peace of 1783. Dedicated to the Archbishop of Paris. Tranflated from the French of the Rev. J. Fletcher. By the Rev. J. Gilpin. 4to. 25. 6d. Longman.

In our last Number, we reviewed M. de la Fletcher's poem, entitled La Grace & la Nature,' in which the Peace of Paris' was inferted as an epifode. That refpectable man is, we find, lately dead; and his pupil, Mr. Gilpin, has tranflated the episode, formerly a feparate publication, with accuracy and neatness. We fhall felect, as a fpecimen of the tranflation, the following lines, of which the original will be found in the Review for November.

Let us the horrors of that day review,

When Rodney and De Graffe their thousands flew.-
Dreadful from far the bellowing thunders found,
And scatter fudden devastation round:

Now, from the bleeding carcafe rudely torn,
The fhatter'd limbs are to the furges borne,
And fwift-wing'd bolts, along the darken'd sky,
Against an hundred moving ramparts fly.
But fee! the hofts like adverfe tempefts meet,
And death hangs brooding o'er the mingled fleet;
Now here, now there, the vivid lightning flies,
Pale from their caves the unchain'd furies rife ;
The brazen engines launch their deadly stores,
And underneath the troubled ocean roars.

Sulphureous clouds, in fmouldering eddies fweep
From the bright furface of the flaming deep,
And roaring burfts, by fudden flashes led,
Thro' all the trembling world wild terror spread;
Hot purple ftreams thro' the ting'd waters flow,
Drenching the finny tribes that wait below;
While every deck, with mangled members ftrew'd,
And mutilated bodies, bath'd in blood,
One univerfal flaughter-house are made,
Where human victims glut the vengeful blade.
What horrid maffacre! what odious fare,
Do Chriftians for the eager fhark prepare!
The cannibal, who feasts on human spoil,
With horror from fuch carnage would recoil."

The Etymologist, a Comedy of Three Acts. 8vo. 15. Jarvis. This author fpeaks of reviewers, commentators, and dic tionary-makers; but he is by no means acquainted with his fubject: we wish that he were. He talks, for instance, of a reviewer's dinner; roasted pig, punch, and port: he might with equal juftice have mentioned ortolans and champaign. No-he knows nothing of the matter; for it is not always that jefters prove prophets. His play, as a dramatic performance, is beneath criticifm.

NOV E L S.

The Woman of Quality; or, the Hiftory of Lady Adelinda Bellamont. In a Series of Letters. Two Vols. 12mo. 55. ferved.

We fufpect this to be a tranflation; if it be fo, the tranflator need not have been eager to appropriate a novel like this to his own nation. The ftory is contradictory and confused; perplexed without intereft, and terrible without pathos, The language too-but we need not enlarge it will buz through its fhort life unheeded, and be forgotten without a parting figh.

The Lady's Tale; or, the Hiftory of Drufilla Northington. In Tavo Volumes. 12mo. 55. fewed. Noble.

A late

This is an infipid ftory, with little merit in any respect; but we fufpect that it has been a part of a larger work. detection of plagiariím may have made as cautious; and the abrupt beginning and conclufion of the hiftory feems to fupport our fufpicions. This may appear too unreasonable; but hall we hint to the author, that ladies do not now wear masks, or gentlemen night gowns,

MISCELLANEOUS.

Character of the late Lord Viscount Sackville. 8vo. 6d. Dilly, Though there is no fpecies of writing more adapted to the gratification of curiofity than that which delineates the characters of eminent men, few productions of fuch a nature, impartially executed, have ever made their appearance in the world. An undertaking of this kind requires not only keen difcernment, but opportunities of obfervation which can only be enjoyed by thofe who have lived in the greatest intimacy with the perfons described. And from the connection of fuch parties, it is a natural confequence, that the character should be viewed through the favourable medium of friendship. We think, however, that the moral portrait now before us bears a ftrong resemblance of its original; and in this opinion we are no less confirmed by a general comparison of the features, than.

by

by the author's ingenuous declaration, that in paying this small tribute to the memory of lord Sackville, he is conscious that he is ftrictly fulfilling the duties of an honest man.

Lord Sackville was brought up at Westminster school, and took his degrees in the univerfity of Dublin; but the early avocations of a military life, and perhaps a want of taste and difpofition for claffical ftudies, prevented his advances in literature, fo that in fact he was not fo well read as people of his rank and condition ought to be, and indeed generally are; but he knew his weakness in this particular, and, though a willing hearer when these topics were in converfation, never ventured beyond his knowledge. In the modern history of nations, and particularly of his own, he was uncommonly correct; of the memoirs of illuftrious perfons, interefting anecdotes and events, he had a fertile ftock in memory, and with fingular precifion of facts and dates; of many confiderable affairs within his own time he had perfonal knowlege, many others (and feveral of a curious and fecret nature) he had collected from the best authorities he had a happy talent for relating, and having always been given to enquiry and refearch, poffefling withal a very retentive memory, he may fairly be accounted one of the very best companions of the age, though he had neither the advantages of literature, the brilliancy of wit, nor any fuperior pretenfions to a fine tafte in the elegant arts: it is, therefore, much to be lamented, that thefe pleafant and engaging qualifications for fociety were fo fparingly displayed; and that habit had fo contracted his circle, that he could not afterwards, without violence to his nature, extend and enlarge it.

This was conftant matter of regret to me through the whole courfe of my intimacy with him; and I lamented that any man, poffeffing fuch a fund of information, with a benevolence of foul that comprehended all mankind, a temper mot placid, and a heart moft focial, fhould fuffer in the world's opinion by that obfcurity, to which his ill-fortune, not his natural difpofition, had reduced him; for I am verily perfuaded that his bittereft defamers, even the anonymous flanderers that raked into the very dregs of infamy and pollufion to afperfe his character, would have repented had they known him.'

Mr. Cumberland feems to admit that his lordship was not guarded against flattery; and he accounts for this foible in a manner both natural and ingenious. He was fo little used to receive juftice from mankind, fays our author, that perhaps he was over grateful for common approbation; and praife, if by chance he ever met it, feemed to take his fenfes by furprise.' The fubfequent extract prefents us with a pleasing account of his lordship's good-nature and politeness.

In argumentation no man went fooner to the truth, or submitted to conviction with a better grace: though he had the gift of feeing through a queftion almot at a glance, yet he never fuffered his difcernment to anticipate another's explanation, or

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in

nterrupted his argument, how tedious foever. If any one spoke with heat in difpute, or raifed his voice above its natural pitch, or if more than one fpeaker talked at a time, it gave him great pain; these are defects in temper and manners too commonly met with in the world, but to which he never gave occafion, by pushing an advantage too hard upon any one: a fingle word, or even an offer at interruption, ftopt him in a moment, though in the middle of a fentence; and this I have seen him bear repeatedly, and in very many different inftances, without a fymptom of peevifhnefs, taking up his thoughts in the very place where he had left them, and refuming his difcourfe with perfect complacency. To fift out the truth by difcuffion, feemed his only object for contefting any opinion; and whether that was attained by the refult of his own or another's reasoning, was a difcovery he had fo little defire to arrogate to his own fagacity, that he was very ingenious in fhifting it from himself to any other he converfed with; for he was an adept in that art, which tends to put others in humour with themselves, and which I take to be of the true fpecies of politenefs, not laying out for admiration by difplay.'

According to the reprefentation given by our author, lord Sackville was not lefs happily qualified by nature for a high department in the flate than for difcharging the duties of private life.

He had all the requifites of a great minifter, unless popularity and good luck are to be numbered amongst them in punctuality, precision, difpatch, and integrity, he was not to be furpaffed; he was fitted both by habit and temper for business; no man could have fewer avocations, whether natural or artificial, for he was flave to no paflion or excefs, indulged no humour unless that of regularity may be called a humour, which he obferved to a fcrupulous minutenefs; and as for his domeftic affairs, they were in fuch a train of order and economy, that they demanded little of his attention: he had ftudied the finances of the nation, and her resources both in war and peace; had taken uncommon pains to obtain authentic and early intelligence of the councils and operations of foreign ftates, and readily difcerned how the interefts of this country were affected thereby. He was of an active indefatigable mind: intemperance never difturbed his faculties; neither avarice nor ambition corrupted them; eafy in his private circumftances, and totally void of every wish to accumulate, his zeal for his country, and his application to bufinefs, were not fubject to be diverted from their proper exertions: a scene of activity was what he delighted in, for he was full of operation and project, and of a fpirit fo incapable of defpondency, that difficulties and dangers, which would have depreffed fome men, ferved to animate him.

In the interchange of confidence with him it was neceffary to have no reserve or holding back of circumflances, for he had

fuch