DRAMATIC. ART. 21. The Man of Ten Thousand, a Comedy, as it is aâed at the Theatre Royal Drury-Lane, By Thomas Holcroft. 8vo, 88 pp. 25. Robinsons. 1795. The moral of this piece has been more ftrongly inculcated in Shak fpeare's Timon of Athens, where the parafites of wealth are exhibited in colours fo glowing, as to leave no chance for fuccefsful imitation. But the Man of Ten Thoufand, Dorrington, is a man of generous fentiments, though not of much judgment; he would otherwife have difcovered better objects of his attention than Major Rampart, for whom he ufes his intereft to gain promotion, though he exhibits no qualities which entitle him to attention; and is difgraced by the fale. hood and the cowardice of Falftaff, without conciliating us by any portion of his wit and humour. We cannot but coincide in opinion with thofe critics who ebjected to the major's perpetual usage of Humph! Hay! Damme! but having taken thofe tro him, we have reduced him almoft to a mute. The incidents, though rather fcanty, are not ill managed, and the dialogue is not deftitute of point and ipirit. The following extract will perhaps give no unfavourable idea of the author's manner. Oli. Mr. Confo!, I thank you for your immediate attention. I want your aid, and fear I have taken a liberty with you, which you may think ftrange. Con. Strange, dear Madam? Allow me to fay, it is ftrange you did not take it fooner. Oli. I have a bufinefs to propofe, to which I am but little accustomed. Con. I know it, dear Madam! I know it! But what matters cuftom? Oli. Good fenfe, I own, Sir, is a better guide. Con. No doubt on't! Be under no alarm, Madam; come to the point at once. I know the world. Oli. Poor Dorington is at prefent in diftrefs. Con, Ay, ay! Poor and in diftrefs. Oh, you are a fhrewd lady! Oli. I am perfuaded you will not think me fo. Con. Dear Madam, I know you to be fo! I never admired any lady's prudence fo much in my life! Oli. I am glad you approve my proceeding. Con. Approve? I am tranfported with it! I adore you for it! Oh, it was a prodigious thought! Oli. A very natural onę. Con. You are a great beauty. So I am a great writ. For why? 1 can command half a million! Show me another man as witty as myfelf. Then, as for perfon, I have a ftraight leg, a comely face, and a fine eye, for I always fee my own intereft. Oli. I do not comprehend you, Sir. Con. Nay, nay, dear Madam, fpeak out, you are threwd: you know well enough modelty is caly a mask. Oli. It may be fo with the knavish, Con. Knavish? All people are knavish at heart. When they are honeft, it is from a knavish motive. Oli. Indeed? Your philofophy is beyond me. Con. I hope no offence, Madam? I would rather the stocks fhold fall than offend you! Oli. (Afide) What is the matter with the man :-My bufiness with you, Mr. Confol, is an affair of delicacy. Con. Speak; fear nothing, Madam; With the ladies, no man more delicate than myself. Oli. You are gallant, Sir. Con. To be fure, Madam! You have made me gallant; have fired me; have put my blood in a blaze! Oli. Mr. Confol! Con. Ay, and Mrs, Confol! Is not that it, Madam? Oli. (Afide Is the man frantic? Con. I fee you will not fpeak; fo I will. I love you, Madam! Con. May my banker break if I do not! Full fifty per cent. better than ever I loved woman in my life! Oli. Amazing! Con. Not at all; I love you; you love me: there is no love loft. Our purfes fhall be as loving as our perfons; one pocket, one pair of fheets, Oli. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! I fhall expire. Con. Expire, Madam? I would almost rather be a lame duck. Oli. Ha, ha, ha! I dare fay, Sir, your grief would be as pungent as your paffion is powerful. I know not what odd accident has blown up this flame in your bofom; but I imagine a fingle word will quench it. You are mistaken. Con. Me, Madam? Oli. Strange as it may feem, even you. Con. How can that be? You are rich, Dorington is ruined; you are fhrewd, I am deep; you are a fpinter, I am a bachelor. You fent for me; and having no call for cash, why did you fend? To do the deep thing, to be fure; and couple at once our fortunes and our affections. Oli. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! How fhall I fupport this extacy of arithmetic! This profufion of fifty per cent. tenderness?" P. 65. ART. 22. The Seaman's Return: or, The unexpected Marriage. An operatic Farce. As it is performed by their Majeflies Servants, of the Worcester, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, and Wolverhampton Theatres. By John Price. 8vo. Is. 6d. Longman, 1795, This was written avowedly to introduce the fongs, which are obviously the best part of the performance, ART. ART. 23. The Rofes; or, King Henry the Sixth. An biftorical Tra gedy. Reprefented at Reading School. Compiled principally from Shakspeare. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Elmfly. 1796. We are very much pleased with the fpirit which prompted, and the tafte which executed this agreeable performance. We accordingly recommend it to general perufal. ART. 24. All in Bufile. A Comedy in five Ads. Written by the Among the indifpenfable requifites to form a good comedy, are incidents confiftent, not neceffarily with truth, but verifimilitude, and a terfe and polished dialogue. The abrupt introduction of Mifs Dalton in men's clothes, to the Afpin family, by a letter of which he is herfelf the bearer; the meeting between Sir Robert Afpin, who takes his taylor for his fecond, and Mifs Dalton with a female friend in a horfeman's coat, are too glaring outrages of probability: and that dialogue is not much diftinguished by its elegance, which admits fuch phrates as " I am fure there must be fonething at the bottom of all this."-"What the devil can fhe be driving at," &c. The characters of Smatter and Miss Aspin, though both outré and extravagant, give proofs that the author is not altogether deftitute of talents for humorous defcription. NOVELS. ART. 25. The Comforts of Arabella, the Daughter of Amanda. 8vo. 81 PP. 15. Johnfon. This is indeed a curiofity of literature, though not fuch as we have formerly feen under that title. It is an Unitarian Novel. Amanda is fent into the country by a gentleman who had feduced her, with an annuity of forty pounds, and there becomes the mother. of Arabella. Penitence, piety, and the inftruction of her child, efpecially in religious duties, occupy the reft of her life. So far the novel, or tale (as it is called, p. 78) is fufficiently inftructive, but we cannot fay very amufing. Having proceeded nearly half way through the book, we perceive the drift of it. Amanda tells her daughter, that the "had formerly attended Trinitarian worship; that being exhorted to think for herfelt with boldness and freedom, fhe enquired seriously, and found"-what?" that there are not three Gods, but one God." pp. 32, &c. And this fhe might doubtlefs have found, without going beyond the book of Common Prayer, to which the had been accuftomed. Her conclufion indeed is a little foreign from the premifes; being this" that the doctrine of the Trinity is not a Scriptural doctrine, but a human invention." P. -35. Arabella's comforts are of a religious nature, and are, in all, feven. The doctrine of atonement is declared not to be one of them. P. 59. A rational I A rational and fober Unitarian education feems to be the great fource of them all. Two pages of veries, fomewhat profaic, on charity in judging," conclude this curious book; which might have been properly entitled, "An Invitation to Unitarianifm, for young Ladies." ART. 26. Elvira; or, The World as it goes. A Novel. Dedicated to Mrs. Sarubridge. By the Author of Sempronia. In two Vols. 6s. Bell. 1796. I 2mo. "The characters here introduced are taken from the life." We hope fome of them are not; yet the volumes are neither unentertaining nor ill-written. ART. 27. Adela Northington, a Novel. In three Volumes. 12mo. 9s. Cawthorne. 1796. These volumes are by no means ill-written; and the tale which they contain may be read certainly without injury to innocence, and with much amufement, if not benefit, by all. ART. 28. The Monk, a Romance. In three Volumes. 12mo. 10s. 6d. Bell, Oxford-ftreet. 1796. Luft, murder, inceft, and every atrocity that can difgrace human nature, brought together, without the apology of probability, or even poffibility, for their introduction. To make amends, the moral is general and very practical; it is, "not to deal in witchcraft and magic, because the devil will have you at laft!!" We are sorry to obferve that good talents have been misapplied in the production of this monster. ART. 29. The Adventures of a Pin. Suppofed to be related by HimJelf, Herjelf, or Itself. 12mo. 157 PP. 35. Lee. 1796. A bundle of ill-connected stories, related without much regard to nature or probability, and little capable of anfwering the purpofe either of entertainment or inftruction. LAW. ART. 30. An Appendix to the Seventeenth Edition of Dr. Burn's Juftice of the Peace and Parish Officers, containing all the Acts of Par liament and adjudged Cafes which relate to the Office of a Fufiice of the Peace, from 32 Geo. ii. to the prefent Time. By John Burn, Efq. one of his Majefty's Juftices of the Peace for the Counties of Weftmorelond and Cumberland. 8vo. 35. 6d. 206 pp. Cadell and Davies, and Butterworth. 1795. With a laudable zeal for the perfection of a book of long-establish ed reputation, the proprietors of Burn's Juftice have prefented the Profeffion with this Appendix, by which the laft edition of this valuable work is rendered as complete as circumftances admit. A new edition, we are informed, is in the prefs, in which this Appendix will be in. corporated. In confequence of the obfervations made by Lord Kenyon, in the cafe of R. Benwell, 6 Term. Rep. 76. a corrected general form of conwiction is given in this publication; and the whole of that title is very ably and fully revifed by a gentleman at the bar, (Thomas Jervis, Efq.) Several other new precedents are added; and particularly a fet of precedents refpecting the Excife Laws, recommended by the Chief Juftice, which we confider as a valuable acquifition; they confit of Forms of Proceedings before Juftices on ftat. 9. Geo. 2. 35. againft perfons found carrying run goods, and on ftat. 11. Geo. 1. 30 againft perfons harbouring or concealing run goods. In this Appendix, Mr. Burn has very faithfully followed the plan of his father's original work. As a new edition of the whole is announced, we may be excused for throwing out a few hints on the subject. In all the republications of law-books, now to frequently recurring, the first care of the editors should be to make no additions but such as are abfolutely neceffary, and thefe in as concife and plain a manner as poffible. We hope Mr. B. will not be feduced by examples into the admiffion of extraneous matter, which would render the work too voluminous and unwieldly. In the recapitulation of a long act of parliament, carried through feveral pages, the act fhould be ftated in a marginal note at the corner of every page through which the recital continues. As the work is at prefent printed, the reader is continually obliged to refer back feveral pages for the purpose of information in this particular. We formerly took occafion to hint that the cafes are frequently given too much in detail; and that it is only neceffary to ftate the principle of every ftatute and determination, and the evil remedied by it. Perhaps alfo it would be an improvement, if the mode of quoting the Term Reports, and Burrows's Reports, was made more confonant to general and modern ufage. Burr. Mansf.-Durnf, and Eaft. 6v. p. have an awkward appearance, at least to those who are used to the ge. neral quotations in law-books: 6 Term. Rep.; 2. Burr. &c. Mr. Burn, we doubt, in the next edition, will pay proper attention to the periodical reports in all the Courts of Westminster-Hall. ART. 31. The whole Law relative to the Duty and Office of a Juftice of the Peace, comprising alfo the Authority of Parish Officers. By Thomas Walter Williams, Efq. of the Inner Temple, Barrister at Law. Vol. V. Part I. 8vo. 3s, fewed. 167 pp. Robinsons and Kearfley. 1795. In a loofe leaf attached to this pamphlet, we are told it is intended to continue this work annually, by publishing a part in every long vacation; and thefe parts are, by degrees, to form a volume. We cannot help confidering this as likely to be productive of much confufion. Arrangement and confolidation are the greatest excellencies of this fort of compilation, which fuch a plan tends completely to defeat. What with fupplements, additions, indexes, &c. a work, which ought to be concife, clear, and well-arranged, will become a hete |