armed neutrality originated in the haughty fuperiority afferted by this country over the ships of other nations on the feas; and that the idea was firft ftarted by the late King of Pruffia: but we are here informed that the occafion was furnished by Spain, in the feizure of two Ruffian veffels which were carried into Cadiz; and the plan of the armed neutrality is attributed to another author. The fact is,' (fays the prefent writer,) that this armed neutrality, which gave fo much umbrage to the court of London, and was the cause of fo many conventions, that were figned for the fupport of free navigation, between the feveral courts of Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Pruffia, Vienna, Lisbon, and Naples, on one fide; and that power of Europe, Ruffia, on the other, which, of all the contracting maritime powers, had by far the least number of merchant fhips :-this celebrated confederacy, I fay, was devifed by no other perfon than Count Panin, the Ruffian minifter, and that merely to ruin Sir James Harris, at a crifis when the British minifter had every reafon, and all poffible authority, (Count Panin's alone excepted, who was long an entire ftranger to all his tranfactions,) to think Ruffia upon the point of joining Britain in its contest with America, and with the houses of Bourbon, and of entering into an alliance for their mutual defence.' The detail of the negociation of this formidable defenfive alliance is given with great confidence, and probably, though we know not by whom, with equal intelligence; and the feveral state papers quoted, are added, both in English, and in the original French. N. Art. 61. Political Effays on the Nature and Operation of Money, Public Finances, and other Subjects: published during the American War, and continued up to the Year 1791. By Pelatiah Webiter, A. M. 8vo. pp. 504. 6s. Boards. Printed at Philadelphia, and fold by Dilly in London. These political effays firft appeared in the Philadelphia newfpapers; and the able writer obferves in his preface, that, It may be worth notice here, that thefe effays exhibit not only a difcuffion of the principles and nature of money and national finances, but contain alfo a kind of history of thefe principles compared with facts or their real operation, during the convulfions of America through a feven years' war, when the dangers, the diftiefies, the firmnefs, the terrors, the wifdom, the folly, the expedients, the exertions, the refources, the ftrength, and the weakness, the fucceffes, and difappointments, which appeared under all modes and forms, put every principle into operation, and every conclufion and theorem to the teft; and left no room for false reafonings or idle projections, because their fallacy was fure to be detected very foor by a failure or deficiency of their effects.' The reafonings purfued in thefe papers apply to temporary events, that are now only employment for recollection; yet, as the author adds, it may be agreeable to my fellow-citizens to revise these diftreffing fcenes, as people fometimes have pleafure in viewing places in which they have paffed through forrows and calamities that are now over and paffed.' To Europeans, this volume may be 9 acceptable acceptable as a courfe of lectures from a new experimental fchool of politics and finance; and it is well worth perufal. N. Art. 62. A Letter to Mr. Thomas Paine, in Answer to his Letter to the Right Hon. Mr. Dundas, and his two other Letters to the Right Hon. Lord Onflow. By a Member of the British Parliament. 8vo. pp. 27. IS. Stockdale. If this writer had railed lefs, and reafoned more profoundly, we might have been better entertained, and more inftructed, than we have been, by the perufal of this letter. He has made fome tolerable thrufts at the weaker parts of Mr. Paine's productions, but he does not attack that bold republican in his ftrong holds. We doubt the truth of this gentleman's pretenfions, when he affures his readers, that he has the honour of a feat in the British Senate :— yet it may be a fact ;-nor is it to be fuppofed that every one, who attains that honour, is a LOCKE, or a MONTESQUIEU. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 63. An Hiftorical Sketch of Gibraltar, with an Account of the Siege which that Fortress flood against the combined Forces of France and Spain; including a minute and circumftantial Detail of the Sortie made by the Garrison on the Morning of Nov. 27, 1781, for the Purpofe of deftroying the formidable Works erected by the Spaniards against that Fortrefs. 8vo. large Paper. pp. 148. 6s. Boards. Edwards, &c. 1792. This interefting abftract, the dedication of which, to the King, is figned J. Heriot, is profeffed to have been thrown together chiefly as an explanatory accompaniment to the admirable print published by Mr. Poggi, defcriptive of the fortie made by the garrifon of Gibraltar, on the morning of the 27th of Nov. 1781, for the purpose of deftroying the formidable works erected by the Spaniards against that fortrefs.' The account is well drawn up; it is very elegantly printed, on fine paper; and, independently of the particular purpofe for which it was compiled, is one of those narratives which every true Briton must read with heart-felt fatiffaction. Art. 64. Obfervations on the Writings and Conduct of our prefent Political and Religious Reformers: occafioned by a Letter of Thursday the 26th of July, 1792, in the Paper of the World, with the Signature of Tiberius Gracchus. To which is added, An Appendix, &c. &c. By Percival Stockdale. 8vo. pp. 92. 1s. 6d. Ridgway. 1792. Touch me, and no minifter fo fore-would have been a more fuitable motto for Mr. Percival Stockdale than that which he has chofen. He feems to labour under an extreme irritability of the nervous fyftem, and cannot therefore endure the rebukes of honest criticism. We with not to depreciate his literary reputation, nor to retard his advancement in the line of his profeffion: but we will difcharge our duty to the public, by delivering an impartial opi Thefe N. Thefe obfervations' are very loofe and defultory: fometimes abufive, and fometimes extravagantly complimentary. He fays of himfelf, that he is not afraid to blame, and he disdains to flatter." The firft affertion will be more readily admitted than the fecond. In neither cafe, does he feem to know how to keep a mean. While Paine is a tyrant, Dr. Prieftley a lawless affaffin, the Bishop of Landaff an apoftate, and the National Affembly a bear-garden: Mr. Granville Sharp's character is Chriftianity thrown almoft perfectly into life and action;' Mr. Fox's eloquence is like infpiration,' and his mind is fo penetrating, that he can fee more of the Spirit of a fubject in a week, than a ftupid Bishop would in an hundred years; and of the Quakers he fays, their baptifm has been that of the fpirit of the lambent fire of truth.' P. 55. Had the letter figned T. Gracchus been written by Mr. Stockdale himself, it could not have furnished him with more acceptable materials for obfervation. He fortunately finds in the letter-writer that praife which Reviewers could not beftow on him. Of the temper in which the prefent pamphlet is written, let the reader judge by the following extract: How fimple, how fublime, how affecting to an unprejudiced and feeling heart, is the liturgy of the Church of England! and how dull and cold, comparatively, are the occafional prayers which are compofed, or rather manufactured, by its prefent dignitaries! The former productions are the emanations of reason and inspira tion; the latter are the crude vapours of turtle and Champaigne.' P. 59. The Appendix, which is written to repel the attacks of certain critics who have cenfured his pamphlet relative to his correfpondence with the Bishop of Durham, proves to us that Mr. S. has not learned to kifs the rod: convinced of his own infallibility, he applies to his critics, Bays's criterion of genius and excellence: " if they praise my book, they are men of judgment; if they cenfure it, they are a fet of blockheads." Moo-y. Art. 65. A General View of the Life and Writings of the Rev. David Williams, drawn up for the Chronique du Mois, a French periodical Publication, at the Request of Meffrs. Condorcet, Claviere, Mercier, Auger, Briffot, &c. Editors of that Work. By Thomas Morris, Efq. lately Captain in the Seventeenth Regiment of Foot. 8vo. pp. 68. is. 6d. Ridgway. 1792. It has long been the custom to celebrate illuftrious men in eulogies after their death: but to write their lives while their lives are yet unfinished, and to decide on their performances while they are ftill on the theatre, is one of the refinements of modern times. As we profefs to criticife books, and not men, we shall not difcufs the fubject of thefe memoirs. The diftinction which Mr. Williams has acquired as a writer, induces us, however, to give our readers, from this work, a lift of his publications, in the order in which See Monthly Review for Auguft last, p. 467. R Rev. OCT. 1792. they they have appeared. In the year 1772, Mr. W. wrote a poignant letter to David Garrick, Efq. on his conduct and talents as manager and performer. This letter, which was duly noticed in Our Journal on its first publication, is here reprinted. His next works were polemical Dialogues, entitled The Philofopher. About the time when feveral perfons were endeavouring to produce an ecclefiaftical reform, he wrote Essays on Public Worship, Patriotism, and Projects of Reformation; and a Liturgy on the Principles of the Chriftian Religion. At the time of his establishing a private feminary at Chelsea, he published a fhort treatife on Education. On opening his chapel in Margaret-ftreet, he drew up for the ufe of the fociety which affembled there, A Liturgy on the universal Principles of Religion and Morality. In this place were delivered Leatures on the univerfal Principles and Duties of Religion and Morality, in two volumes quarto, afterward published, in 1779. See Review, vol. Ixii. On the firft application of the Diffenters to Parliament, for an extenfion of privileges, he wrote A Letter to Sir George Saville in defence of unlimited Toleration. In the year 1780, at the time of the riots in London, he published a fmall pamphlet, entitled, A Plan of Affociation on Conftitutional Principles, in which he afferted the right and duty of every freeman to be fufficiently armed and dif ciplined for the defence and protection, of himself and family. The county-meetings and affociations, in 1782, gave birth to his Letters on Political Liberty, afferting the neceffity and practice of national conventions. Since that time, he has published Lectures on Education, and Lectures on Political Principles, delivered to his pupils and their friends. Mr. Williams is alfo understood to be the author of Royal Recollections; Lessons to a young Prince; and An Apology for profeffing the Religion of Nature in the 18th Century of the Chriftian Era. His abilities, which are univerfally allowed to be very confiderable, are now engaged in continuing Hume's History of England. Art. 66. Perpetual and Determinable Annuities reduced to a Level; or a Comparative View of Long and Short Annuities: with £3 per Cent. Reduced, and £3 per Cent. Confols, at the Bank of England, &c. By William Blewert, Author of Tables for buying and felling Stock. 12mo. pp. 120. 5s. 3d. bound. Cadell, &c. 1792. E. Tables of intereft, and annuities, are the peculiar ftudy of the gentlemen on the Stock Exchange;-they will review for themfelves; and to their attention, therefore, we recommend Mr. Blewert's publication.. N. Art. 6. A Vindication of a Right in the Public to a One Shilling Gallery, either in the new Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden, or fomewhere else. 8vo. IS. Owen. 1792. This popular caufe is well pleaded, by an acute and fpirited advocate: but while this zealous friend of the dramatic Mufe was pleading, the impatient gods took the high priori road, and fettled the matter with the theatrical monarch, à la mode de Paris, though though not à la-lanterne-The one fhilling gallery, in Covent Garden, was immediately restored. In this pamphlet, fome general obfervations on the utility of dramatic amufements, with refpect to the common people, are with propriety introduced; and thefe may furvive the immediate occafion on which this tract was published. Art. 68. A Fashionable Caricature; or the Proverbs of our Anceftors prophetically defcriptive of the most diftinguished Perfonages in the prefent Age:-Of the Court, the Senate, the Army, the Navy, the Bar, the City, and the Theatres. Izmo. Is. Thifleton. 1792. This tagging of old faws to living names and characters, is a very forry kind of employment!-Of the manner in which this bufinefs is here performed, take the following fample: •M-e of A-p-b. It is time to yoke when the cart comes to the horses.' It is a fad house when the hen crows louder than the cock.' • When the fox preaches beware of the geese.' If the reader does not admire the foregoing fpecimen, we must throw afide the book, for it affords nothing better. Art. 69. Genuine Senfe; or, a Letter to the Right Hon. George English; including a Letter from Samuel March to Robert Stickler, concerning the Advance of Journeymen's Wages. 8vo. 6d. Brown. 1792. A fenfible, though not well-written, attempt to prove that our manufactures will become dearer in proportion as the wages of the journeymen are raised.-The subject is important: but the difcuffion is difficult; all depends on experience and obfervation: Genius, in the writer, is out of the queftion. Art. 70. Integrity and Content, an Allegory. By Charlotte Pal- Without that rich variety of fcenery and imagery which fuperior genius alone can fupply, a moral allegory in profe is not likely to engage much attention. Of the prefent attempt, the chief recommendations are, that it is neatly written; and that it teaches, in a way which may, perhaps, to fome young minds, be more impreffive than fimple precepts, feveral important leffons of morality. An encomium on the Queen is annexed, which was written during the King's illness, and published in the Times. E. THEOLOGY and POLEMICS. Art. 71. A Review of the chief Difficulties in the Gospel History relating to our Lord's Refurrection: intended to retract fome Errors contained in the Author's Greek Harmony, and to fhew that Dr. Benfon's Hypothefis is fatisfactory. By William Newcome, D.D. Bishop of Waterford. 4to. 15. Johnfon. 1791. This excellent prelate, who, by his other valuable writings on the fcriptures, has been a benefactor to the Chriftian world, with R 2 that N. |