where the number of vibrations were as 2 to 1: a fuppofition which is fo far out of the way, that we cannot imagine how he could make it; because it is manifeft, from Mr. Whitehurst's account*, that he knew it would affign the difference between any two pendulums, let the ratio between their vibrations be what it will; and he affigns his reafons for making choice of the two numbers of vibrations which he did chufe. Whether that choice was ill or well made, is another affair: we think many arguments may be brought both for and against it. We mean not to take either one fide or the other : the public are greatly obliged to every gentleman who bestows his thoughts and time on a subject of fuch great importance. **After the preceding article had been written for fome time, two letters from Mr. Keith were received.-The Reviewers have nothing to do with what paffed between Sir John Miller and Mr. Keith; they never faw Dr. Rotheram's letter to Sir John Sinclair ; and, in other refpects, they perceive no reafon for altering their opinion, at prefent, unlefs it be in what relates to deriving a standard measure from drops of diftilled water, and which the reader will find at p. 61 of the Review for laft May. We fubjoin the paragraph of Mr. Keith's letter which relates to this fubject. In your Review for May, you feem to prefer a ftandard taken from a drop of diftilled water: I fhall mention only one experiment to fhew the inequality of drops of water. I dropped 64 drops of once diftilled water from a very fmall necked phial into a tea-fpoon. I next put this tea spoon above an empty wine-glafs, inclining the mouth of the fpoon a little downward, till the water formed into a globule on the back of the fpoon and dropped into the glafs. The drops, which were collected in this manner on the back of the fpoon, were perceptibly larger than thofe dropt from the phial, and amounted only to 36 in number. And to a practifed eye it was evident that the first of these 36 drops was the largest, and that they gradually decreafed in magnitude, as the tea-fpoon was depreffed in the mouth, and elevated at the other extremity.-Thefe drops were then poured from the glass into the phial; and 63 were counted out when dropped a fecond time in the spoon. One drop was loft, having ftuck to the fides of the wine-glaís and tea-fpoon.-I have fince repeated this experiment very frequently, and have made many others on the fubject. The refult has been a conviction that the quantity of water which forms itfelf into a globule, will be greater or lefs, according to the degree or angle of elevation, according to the fhortness of the time in which it forms a drop, and according to the fize or shape of the aperture from which it falls, or over which it is made to drop. Therefore I gave up this ftandard, to which 1 was at firft very partial.' When we made the remark to which Mr. K. here alludes, we only faid that a standard derived in this manner, if it could be done with fufficient accuracy, had fome advantages over every other; and, therefore, we thought it fhould not have been abandoned until it had been fhewn, by experiment, that drops of diftilled water * See Rev. vol. 1xxvii. p. 379. could could not be made with fufficient equality for the purpose. Mr. Keith's experiment is the firft which we have feen recorded; and therefore we have given it in his own words: leaving it with our readers to determine whether it tends to prove, or to difprove, the poffibility of producing drops of water with fufficient exactness, when they are all made in the fame manner, as they, undoubtedly, ought carefully to be done. We again fuggeft to Mr. Keith, that this is a fubject in which calculation cannot be fubftituted for experiment-the latter must precede the former, or we fhall have no datum from which we may compute. The bufinefs of experiment is to determine with exactnefs, from fome invariable principle in nature, a magnitude of any moderate extent whatever, either linear, fuperficial, or folid; though the firft would, perhaps, be most convenient. Then comes the bufinefs of calculation and legiflation; which is to determine what part of this magnitude will be a proper unit for the purposes of commerce; and, lastly, the bufinefs of the mechanic, who is to determine, by fubdivifion, the exact length of that unit on the ori ginal ftandard. It is in the firft of thefe only, (though Mr. Keith feems not aware of it,) that any real difficulty occurs: the two lat ter can be done with eafe and exactnefs. Mr. Keith's importunity, and our regard to his immenfe labours in this business, have induced us to depart, in fome measure, from our ufual plan. POETRY and DRAMATIC. Art. 23. A Collection of Odes, Poems, and Tranflations, by Law. tence Hynes Hallaran, Mafter of Alphinton Academy, near Exeter. 12mo. Pp. 128. Trewman, Exeter. Mr. Hallaran feems to be a worthy and well-meaning man, and we heartily wish he may attain his end in publishing thefe poems: -that end, he tells us, is prodeffe et delectare; the prodeffe for himfelf, the delectare for his readers. Art. 24. An Irregular Ode to Peter Pindar, Efq. on his Odes to Mr. Paine. 4to. 9 Pages. 6d. Robinsons. 1791. When the rights of man are brought into question, the ladies, we fee, and we rejoice to fee it, are not idle nor unconcerned beholders of the conteft, In France, many of the fofter fex' have boldly entered the lifts: but none of the female champions (of the literary clafs*,) have been more diftinguished, either for abilities or fuccefs, than Mademoiselle de Keralio, now Madame Robert.-la our own country, the Mefdames Wolldonecraft, Macaulay Graham, Robinson, and Williams, have alfo taken the field, and nobly combated on the fide of liberty. The unknown Young Lady,' whose work is now before us, has taken the other fide; and being a fpirited afferter of the ariftocratic caufe, fhe warmly praifes Peter * In France, the caufe of liberty has lately been aided, and not feebly, by Amazons of a different clafs: but we hope never to fee any such mingling in the ranks of our fair defenders of the rights of man. Rev. SEPT. 1791. H Pindar, Pindar, Efquire, for his late exertions against the fons of faction;'. hailing him as the Abdiel, faithful found,' &c. Be thine and Burke's the choiceft bays, The virgin's timid voice fhall chaunt your name, This will, perhaps, make some readers ftare, when they recollect Mr. Pindar's former productions, of dates not very remote, in which crowns and fceptres were kicked about as unceremoniously, as Cromwell did the speaker's bauble in the House of Commons. As to the extent of this lady's genius for poetic compofition, we cannot pretend to form a decifive judgment from fo fmall a fpecimen: but, as far as we can be warranted by the perufal of this temporary impromptu, (for as fuch it is laid before the public,) we confider her poetical talent as by no means undeferving of cultivation. We would advife her, however, not to be too hafty in communicating to the prefs any future production of the Mufe, but to allow herself ample time for correction, and finishing; and by all means to avoid that difagreeable and vulgar abbreviation of the word beneath,' of which fome of our minor poets feem, of late, to be very fond, and which we have frequently reprobated. the infidious aim, Is bold Rebellion's caufe 'neath Freedom's name.' Whenever we fee an attempt to fupport the structure of a line by fach wretched props, we fhall certainly use the freedom to kick them down. Art. 25. Oedipus, King of Thebes, a Tragedy, from the Greek of Sophocles: tranflated into Profe, with Notes critical and explanatory; by George Somers Clarke, B. D. Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. 8vo. PP. 93. 25. Rivingtons. We are informed, by an advertisement, that this fpecimen of tranflation in profe was undertaken at the fuggeftion of a friend, who was of opinion that fuch a verfion of the Greek tragedies, if properly executed, would poffefs obvious advantages over the metrical tranflations, and prove of fuperior utility, as well to the claffical ftudent, as to the English reader.'-We cannot implicitly agree in opinion with Mr, Clarke's friend. If the labours of the claffical ftudent be leffened by the faithfulness of this prole tranflation, the tafte of the English reader is neither confulted nor gratified. The fpirit and the beauty of the original are gone; all is vapid and dull. We will venture to affert that, under its prefent appearance, every English reader must be disgusted with this "moft finifhed perform. ance" of the divine Sophocles; this "chef-d'œuvre of antiquity," as it has been called. Many of the notes which accompany the tranflation, are taken from Dr. Franklin; the remainder are principally critical, and prove the writer to be a man of learning and judgment. EDUCATION. EDUCATION. Art. 26. The Hiftory of Little Grandifon. By M. Berquin, Author of the Children's Friend. 12mo. PP. 175. 1 S. Stockdale. 1791. Little Grandifon is a more wonderful history than the great Grandifon. Richardson exhibited, in the character of the original Grandifon, his idea of a perfect man; and Berquin, together with the name, has engrafted the qualities on childhood. He has, however, formed a pretty little feries of inftructive adventures;-if we conceive children of twelve or thirteen years of age, to talk, write, and behave, like adults of twenty or thirty. In the 3d vol. of our New Series, p. 222. we gave an account of a work with a title refembling that of the little volume now before us. The publications feem to be fimilar: but we have not the other by us, to compare, in order to difcover whether it be the fame ftory, amplified. POLITICS and POLICE. Art. 27. Rights of Englishmen. An Antidote to the Poifon now vending by the Tranfatlantic Republican Thomas Paine, Secretary for Foreign Affairs to Congrefs during the American War. In reply to his whimsical Attacks against the Constitution and Government of Great Britain. By Ifaac Hunt, A. M. of the Colleges of New York and Philadelphia, an American Loyalist. 8vo. pp. 91. 25. Bew. 1791. It has long been a practice with feveral of the Scotch and Irish, to leave their own homes for the kind purpose of teaching Englishmen to pake and pronoonce their native language; and here we have an American, who, with equal benevolence, has obligingly undertaken the task of inftructing us in those peculiar rights to which we are entitled as Britons. For our part, as we are glad to learn all that we can, from whatever quarter it may come, we should make no objection to Mr. Hunt on the fcore of his being a foreigner, if he did but adhere to what he profeffes: but instead of giving us a theory of the rights of Englishmen, he indulges himself in a practical difplay and imitation of their wrongs: for among such we shall ever reckon fcurrility, defamation, and abufe, on whatever queftion, or on whatever fide of it, they be employed; either by our own countrymen, or by others. This American loyaliit fays, he will not wafte his time in tranf planting the flowers of fcurrility from the hot-bed of Mr. Paine's riotous imagination.' There feems to be little need of fuch artificial help. The foil appears naturally favourable to these flowers; the crop of which is much too rank to require any recruiting from other grounds, or forcing by additional manure and higher cultivation. The fovereign-depofing, bishop-kicking, title-levelling American independant, Mr. Paine, has brought over,' we are told, from Penfylvania, a tremendous bloody tomahawk, to fcalp the government and murder the conftitution of Great Britain.' In Mr. Hunt's glafs, Englishmen will fee all the prominent, difmal features, the fcowling brow, the hard and brazen front of this dingly, ugly, vo H 2 racious, racious, boasted monfter from America,' this fellow-brute to the lions in the tower,' as he is afterward styled. The rest of Mr. Hunt's parterre, not filled by fuch choice flowers as the above, is occupied by fuperficial and captious remarks on Mr. Paine's twistical reflections, as he calls them; by trite and fhallow obfervations on the three principal forms of civil government; and by ftale and vapid encomiums on fuch parts of the Englifh conftitution, as men of all defcriptions unite in admiring. Art. 28. Parallel between the Conduct of Mr. Burke and that of Mr. Fox, in their late Parliamentary Conteft, in a Letter to the former. 8vo. PP. 39. Is. 6d. Bew. 1791. Amid the great questions which have lately been agitated, in the controverfy between the friends and enemies of the French Revolution, the conduct of two individuals, in a particular debate, feems to be of little relative importance. To tell us that Mr. Burke was in the wrong, and Mr. Fox in the right, did not require nine and thirty pages of laboured language; which, though fometimes very fine, is not always very accurate. We wish that the people, intead of a blind zeal for any party, or a filly confidence in any man, either in adminiftration or oppofition; by each of whom they are caft off, and whistled back, as beft fuits their own purposes; would think for themselves, and look a little more to their own interests. The party of the people is the only party worth contention; though it has always been that which all other parties are ready to treat with contempt, whenever it does not fuit their own intereft to do otherwife. We like this writer beft when he lofes fight of his rival heroes when he leaves men, and talks about things. He has made fome just remarks on Mr. Burke's letter to a member of the National Affembly; and has, with truth and reason, refuted the fenfelefs clamour about republicanifm, with which fome have laboured fo hard, of late, to drown the call for reformation. Thefe republican confpirators are of about as much reality and importance as Bayes's army at Knightsbridge!-A few men, I believe, there have always been in England, who, in the ardour of private fpeculation, are enamoured of Republican government. But recent events have encreased their boldness rather than their numbers; neither are they to be confounded with the immense body who exe. crate your fentiments on French politics, and defire a temperate reform in our own government. That body of men, certainly not the lealt refpectable and enlightened in the kingdom, cannot witness every day producing new proofs of the wanton and profufe ambition of the Ministers of the Crown, without wifhing that the people poffeffed fome effectual controul over the Government. Far from defiring a pure democracy, they only afk for fome portion of it: far from being hoftile to the Conflitution, they only defire that its principles fhould be realized-that it should become what it pretends to be. Were this obtained, all the enlightened part of thote whom * The barbarous folecifm, "you was" occurs more than once, pages 5 and 27. Mr. |