tive to the Excise are become very numerous, a practical arrange. ment was found desirable. In the first volume of the present collection, besides some useful observations on revenue in general, and on the revenues of Great Britain, (which are chiefly taken from Smith's Wealth of Nations, and Stewart's Political Economy,) Mr. Highmore has treated in separate chapters of the establishment of the hereditary Excise, of the court of Exchequer, of the duties of officers, of proceedings by and against officers of Excise, (in which he considers both their privileges and restrictions,) of licences, and of the consolidation act.-In his second volume, he has confined his attention to the laws affecting excisable commodities; and, for the sake of an easy reference, he has arranged the articles subject to the duties in alphabetical order. It is proper to observe that the whole of this work is confined to the laws of Excise, and to those duties and regulations which are committed to the management of the Commissioners of that revenue; therefore, the reader must not expect to find those particulars noticed, though of an exciseable nature, which have given rise to other laws and regulations, and which are committed to different jurisdictions; such as the salt duties, and the laws for regulating the leather trade. Art. 30. A Summary of the Proceedings in Dodors' Commons, in a Cause instituted by Charles Colin Campbell, Esq. against Harriet his Wife, for Adultery; comprehended in the Speech of the Surrogate, who pronounced Sentence in that Cause (on the second day of March, 1796), in the Court of the Commissary of Surry. 8vo. IS. Allen and West. 1796. In February 1793, Captain Campbell brought an action in the King's Bench against Major Hook, for criminal conversation with the plaintiff's wife, who was the defendant's niece, and the jury found a verdict for the Plaintiff, with 3000l. damages. - Soon afterward, the Major published a defence, in which he endeavoured to exculpate his character by invalidating the testimony of the witnesses, which he represented as inconsistent and improbable. This pamphlet we noticed in our 9th volume, N. S. p. 97. In consequence of the verdict, Captain Campbell instituted proceedings in Doctors' Commons for the purpose of obtaining a divorce à mensa et thoro, and thepresent publication contains the sentence of the Judge on the final hearing of the caufe, and a summary of the evidence adduced by both parties on the occasion. We are informed in an advertisement, that the present pamphlet is published on account of the speech said to have been delivered in Doctors' Commons by Doctor Coote, (the judge,) having been imperfectly and maliciously represented in a daily paper, and introduced to the notice of the public by a letter with the signature of Archibald Hook:-this speech, as there retailed, we have been unable to procure: but we have now before us a separate publication containing the Doctor's judgment, evidently written by a hostile pen, and which we conceive to be the same that made its first appearance in a newspaper. These two accounts we have read, as also a letter addressed to Doctor Coote by a witness in the cause, S.R. which is likewise of a hostile nature; we have also carefully examined the evidence on both sides, which is printed in a large 4to. volume; and we are obliged to declare that we see no reason to impugn the justice or the impartiality of the judge's decision, which pronounced a sentence of divorce between the parties. - The evidence brought to support the plaintiff's action, and his subsequent applica tion for a divorce, (a qualified not an absolute divorce,) appear to us clear, connected, positive, and in a great measure unimpeachable; and such as we know, from the very best authority, satisfied the mind of the noble Lord before whom the cause was tried at Guildhall. In the pamphlet before us, we find the following sensible observations; to which, and to the inferences drawn from them, we give our entire assent. Thus have I gone through the evidence in every material point, preserving my mind as a tabula rasa with regard to any undue impres sion. In comparing and contrasting the different statements, I shall have occasion to examine the particulars of the case. At present, I will advance some general observations relative to the probability or improbability of the accusation and the defence. The dilemma may be thus stated. Either the husband has been guilty of a foul conspiracy against the reputation and the happiness of his wife, and many witnesses have conspired to accuse her falsely of gross criminality; or the uncle and niece, regardless of the prohi bitions arising from consanguinity, and forgetting the matrimonial ties by which the lady was bound to another, have committed the crimes of adultery and incest. One of those two events must have happened. It is improbable, on the one hand, that a husband, whose character no imputation has injured, should be so extremely profligate as to charge his wife not only with adultery, but even with incest, without any foundation or just cause, for the infamous purpose of extorting money from the uncle of the lady. This supposition, I repeat, wears an aspect of great improbability; and it becomes still more difficult of belief, when coupled with the evidence of the witnesses, and with the consideration that the character of one only has been impeached: the others remain entitled to general credit, on the respectable footing of fair repute; it cannot be supposed, that they have joined in perjury to entail disgrace and misery upon two persons against whom they had no cause of malignity or ill-will. The other improbability is the commission of incestuous adultery. We must remember, that, when Major Hook returned from India, he was a stranger to his niece. It may be supposed, that he was suddenly captivated, and even infatuated, by her personal attractions; that he did not endeavour, with due firmness, to subdue the rising passion, but suffered it to gain strength, and establish itself in his heart, so as to prompt him to the exercise of the arts of seduction, at the expence of the honour and virtue of his relative. However the mind may revolt at an intercourse of this nature, the incident is less improbable than that of the conspiracy; and, if the witnesses of either party should have been guilty of perjury, the chance is apparently greater against the veracity of the lady's friends than against that that of the other witnesses; for, when persons give testimony in a loose and negative way, they will more easily satisfy their consciences with regard to perjury, than if they should speak in terms of positive assertion they will find some pretext of evasion, some subterfuge of equivocation, by which they may rescue themselves, in their own opinion, from the guilt of perjury; while such opportunities are less likely to arise in the case of those who swear positively to a particu lar fact. Upon this ground, the credit of Mrs. Campbell's witnesses may more reasonably be questioned than that of the deponents who favor her husband, with some allowance, however, for the difficulty of proving a negative.' It is not improper to add that the Dean of the Arches, after having heard the cause on the appeal of Mrs. Campbell, confirmed the decision of the court of Surry. S.R. Art. 31. An Assistant to the Practice of Conveyancing; containing Indexes or References of the several Deeds, Agreements, and other Assurances, comprised in the several Precedent Books of Authority now in print, from the time of Sir Orlando Bridgman to the present period, with short Remarks on the distinguishing Qualities of each Precedent; and cursory Observations on the peculiar merit of the Conveyancers, by whom they were respectively prepared. By James Barry Bird, of New Inn, Esq. I 21110. pp. 194. 38. Clarke and Son. 1796. An index to the precedents contained in the various volumes of conveyancing, which have appeared of late years, promises to be an useful work to those gentlemen who are engaged in that department of the profession; similar tables have been published of writs and other entries, and have been consulted with ⚫dvantage.-The authors quoted in the present publication are, Bridgman, Lilly, Horsman, Williams, and Powell. Why is Wood omitted? Surely Mr. Bird does not mean to insinuate, though his words bear no other explanation, that Wood's book is valuable only on account of the additional matter introduced by Mr. Powell in the last edition. The plan of the present work appears to us to be an useful one, but the author has not allowed himself sufficient time, according to his own acknowlegement contained in his preface, to make it so extensively serviceable to the profession, as a little more labour might easily have render ed it. AMERICA. Art. 1797. conduct conduct or in sentiment. Confidence, or even heart-felt praise, they have nowhere to bestow; and they are too easily betrayed into frivolous irritation and personal satire. The habit of depreciating every thing without favours vanity within. The financial and religious speculations of Mr. Paine have lessened his literary reputation; and this letter will tend to depreciate his personal character:-it betrays the captiousness of self-conceit. There is, it seems, an article of the American constitution, which enacts that any citizen of the United States who shall accept a title, place, or office, from any foreign king, prince, or state, shall forfeit and lose his right of citizenship of the United States.' The detention of Mr. Paine under Robespierre occasioned applications to the American resident at Paris, for interference :-but no official reclamation of his personal liberty ensued; and this Mr. Paine attributes to the intentional inaction of General Washington; whose conduct is defended on the ground of the article just cited. Mr. Paine denies having accepted an office under a foreign state; because a convention to frame a constitution is a different thing from an actual government; and, having refrained from accepting any deputation since the termination of the anarchy, he contends that his right of citizenship remains inviolate. This quibble, in our opinion, ought not to avail him: the members of a convention, exercising sovereign power, ought certainly to come under the description of persons holding offices in foreign states. Had the French Convention been, like our Convention of Saint Alban's in 1647, or like that of North America, an assembly of persons arrogating no power, elected by the friends of liberty for the mere purpose of discussing the best mode of improving the public institutions, and relying on the reasonableness of their wishes alone for their ultimate influence over the legislature, the case would have been very different. Mr. Paine has failed to convince us that his non-reclamation by the American government was, in the President, a dereliction of official duty. He also complains of it on the ground of personal ingratitude and inhumanity; of this we are less able to judge. In revenge, he attacks the military skill of General Washington, which he pronounces inferior to that of the Generals Gates and Green. It is difficult to know enough of the state of the American army, adequately to estimate the utility of General Washington's persevering caution: yet to us it appears probable that a single marked defeat might have dispersed and dispirited irrecoverably the soldiers of independence, whereas no advantage, equally decisive, could ever have resulted from a victory. Mr. Paine also attempts to find fault with a regular complimentary letter, presented by the American resident to the Parisian Committee of Public Safety; and he inveighs against the President of the Unit、 ed States for countenancing Mr. Jay's commercial treaty with England::-a treaty useful to this country, no doubt, but not more so than she had a right to expect. A wise people will always, in commercial treaties, prefer that nation which has the largest body of rich, skilful, and honest merchants and manufacturers: as, in treaties offensive and defensive, it will prefer that nation which has the largest. body of military or naval skilful and courageous forces. REV. FEB. 1797. Art, Tay. Art. 33. A Letter to the People of the United States of America, from General Washington, on his Resignation of the Office of President of the United States. 8vo. IS. Debrett. The worshippers of virtue will look back with triumph on the conduct of the disinterested statesman of America, "the God of this new world," who here accompanies with benevolent counsel his farewel benediction to the people of an empire which he has created and illustrated. Not gifted by nature with the passions which inspire eloquence, which communicate enthusiasm, which conquer dangers by impetuosity, and which hew away difficulties with the sword, he has chosen the more certain road to utility, by exercising in the field the courage of fortitude rather than of impetuosity, of constancy rather than of assault; and by displaying in the senate that soundness of talent, and that calmness of temper, which secure the permanent advantages of judgment in decision, and prudence in action. His retrospective observations are modest, dignified, and affectionate; his prospective animadversions are firm, temperate, and important:-they respect the danger of geographical parties, as opposed to the integrity of the national union; the danger of club and factious politics, as opposed to the influence of the representative body; and the danger of national partialities and animosities, as opposed to the equitable independence of North America in respect to European feuds and squabbles. With a becoming deference for the penetration of future legislators, no remedy is indicated for these tendencies to evil. It may, however, be allowable to suggest that a new division of the empire, into provinces more numerous, would probably tend to strengthen the federal at the expence of the local governments, and thus to increase the cohesion of the whole : - That a new organization of the executive power, which should substitute (as in France) a directory of ministers dismissible by rotation, for the solitary direction of a president, would probably impede the facility of disruption, in case the Western and the Atlantic States should happen with local unanimity to vote for distinct presidents:-That the establishment of some uniform public religion, embracing simply, the agreed opinions of the contending sects, would probably counteract the severing tendency of the Northern States to puritanism of morals and manners, and of the Southern States to libertinism. We acknowlege ourselves sceptical as to the danger of club-politics, where the right of suffrage is extended to the majority; and we believe that the excessive influence of such combinations is symptomatic of a vicious constitution of government. It will always suffice to require the individual signature of every person present in such associations on all their public acts, in order to exhibit these assemblies in the light of an inefficacious minority of the community. To the danger of national sympathies and antipathies, nothing needs be opposed but instruction:-nothing but the profuse translations of the rival demands of European statesmen, and the circulation of those works of the European philosophers which have best supported the principles of a liberal reciprocity in commerce, the mischief of bounties, duties, drawbacks, and prohibitions, the mischief of privileges and monopolies in all cases, and the incalculable ad vantages |