lectively, has lately added one which does juftice to the fubject, and credit to the writer. This was thought by the publifhers of fufficient magnitude and importance to appear in a leparate form; but it may be obferved here, that many more of the lives, fupplied by the fame author, are alfo deferving of attention. Dumouriez's account of his own Life*, full of the vanity of that lively and once formidable Frenchman, is in general amuling, and contains fome fcenes which, if the facts can be relied on, are in no fmall degree curious and interefting. The Life of Dr. Horne, by Mr. Jonest, is rather a hiftory of the fludies and opinions of the bifhop, than of the tranfactions and occurrences in which he was concerned, or the fituations to which he was advanced. Even the dates of his feveral promotions are omitted, and the author refers for fuch particulars to Todd's Lives of the Deans of Canterbury. Yet the book is written with the characteristic fpirit of its author, and the appendix contains feveral valuable proofs of the piety and fagacity of the bifhop. But in the clafs of lives the literary world has not, for a long period, feen any thing of fuch intereft and extent as that of Lorenzo de Medici, by Mr. Rofcoe of Liverpool The man, and the period in which he lived, are both calculated to excite a liberal curiofity; and in what manner it has been gratified by the prefent author, we fhall exprefs more particularly when our critique fhall have been concluded. As a kind of fupplement to his general hiftory of mufic, Dr. Burney has given his Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Metáftofio§; and, as every thing relative to that worthy man and confpicuous ornament of the prefent century, muft be interefting, and the nature of his principal compofitions connect him fo clofely with mufic, no better vehicle for fuch fupplemental information could have + No. III. p. 257. No. VI. p. 582 No. II. p. 150. 5 No. VI. p. 656. been been found. In compiling his work, the partiality of the biographer to his fubject has, perhaps, induced him to make his extracts from the letters of Metaftafio rather too copious; but, in all other refpects, the conduct of the work is fuch as the occafion required, and the expectation of the intelligent reader would demand. The Life of Milton, by Mr. Hayley, is* a republication of the life prefixed to Boydell's edition of his poems, with a new dedication to Dr. Warton, and fome few other additions. Two fhort fketches of lives in French, deferve alfo to be mentioned here. These are the Life of the late Dutchess of Polignac, by the fifter of the duket; and that of the Abbé Barthelemy, written by the Duke of Nivernois; the former important, as connected intimately with the hif tory and character of the perfecuted and unfortunate Antoinette of France; and the latter, as giving an authentic account of a man of high eminence in literature. In fome refpects allied to biography is Lavoter's fecret Journal of a Self-Obferver §; an eccentric work, but containing many traits illuflrative of the hiftory of human nature, and fome curious particulars refpe&ting an author, the fingularity of whofe works has made him an object of much public no tice. ANTIQUITIES. Nothing can more properly take the lead in this department than the volume published by the learned Society of Antiquaries. This volume is the eleventh, which, if it be not fo replete with important matter, as fome of the former may have been, contains enough to juftify its publication and preferve the credit of the work. The fifth number of Mifcellaneous Antiqui ties I owes its importance to the efforts of Mr. Denne, * No. VI. p. 642. § No. IV. p. 431. P. 389. No. IV. p. 453. +.No. III. p. 325% who, who, though he has faid fome things haftily, has investigated others with fuccefs Of a fimilar character is Mr. Newcome's Hifory of the Abbey of t. Alban *. The author, on enquiry, we find not to be a young man; and we truft ne will pardon a conjecture, which at leaft will prove to him that no perfonal mot ves could lead us either to ceniure or commend his performance. TOPOGRAPHY. The magnitude of the fcale, on which Mr. Nichols's topographical Hiftory and Antiquities of Leicefterfhire is planned, muft aftonish thote who have not confidered now many objects fuch a work may properly embra e. A county hiftory, howeve, in which fo many of thefe objects are included, fo few omitted, and all particulars fo diligently elucidated, is a new phænomenon in this branch of literature; and, we doubt not, that when the whole fhall be completed, it will be confidered as forming an indifpenfable part of every considerable library. Whether future inveftigators in the fame line will have spirit and perseverance to follow the example thus fet, is a problem hich time only can refolve. No fall Thare of thefe neceffary qualities has, however, been evinced in the conduct of a contemporary work, the Defcription of the Country from thirty to forty Miles round Manchefter. Here we find Mr. Stockuale, the puolifher, amaffing materials and directing his favourite project, at the enormous expence of between three and four thousand pounds; and Dr. Aikin, giving form and confiftency to the whole, and producing from it a well connected and elegant work. It fhould feem that literature is not neglected by her natural allies, when we confider that of these two great and expenfive publications, the one is altogether compiled and V. * No. IV. 507. + No. II. p. 101. III. 261. written written by a printer, the other projected and completed by the fpirit of a bookfeller. The account of a fmall town, comprised in a fix fhilling-octavo, shrinks into nothing by the fide of thefe vaft works, yet fhould Mr. Price's Hiftory of Leominfler be mentioned, as poffeffing merits of a fimilar kind, though in a humbler form and inferior degree. TRAVELS. Travellers continue to affert their privilege of telling their tales in their own way, "of hair-breadth fcapes," &c. and the public feems very indulgently difpofed to give them audience. Captain Taylor †, however, the firft traveller whom we noticed in this volume, inftead of attempting to make the countries through which he has paffed Live in defeription, and look green in profe, contents himself with the humbler office of afcertaining the moft convenient routes, and marking ftages, and diftances. His main object, of facilitating the communication with India over land, is certainly of national importance; and we truft that fo much of his plan as may appear conducive to public benefit, will be, or perhaps has been, adopted by authority. The anonymous Letters from Scandinavia proceed from a lively, rather than a profound, traveller; and the Gleanings of Mr. Pratt, though entertaining, are marked with all the well-known peculiarities of the gleaner. The Travels of Mr. Owen | are written in a more claffical ftyle, but, as we obferved in speaking of them, are rather ingenious effays compofed on the fubject of the places he chanced to vifit, than either a narrative of event's, or an exact description of objects. Mrs. Wollstonecraft, with much inflated affectation of fine writing, and much idle pretence to philofophy, No. VI. p. 695. + On Communication with India. No. II. p. 136. has has mixed in her Letters from Sweden, many particulars that are agreeable and fome that are interefting. Had he been fortunate enough to efcape the philo fophical infection, the might have been a good writer, as well as a more ufeful member of fociety; but there is as much bad talte as bad morality, in the philofophy of French Deifts, by which her mind has been perverted. The travels of this lady bring us, by a very natural tranfition, to POLITICS. Here, as ufual, we have had no fmall fupply of publications, burmore perhaps than ordinary which deferve recapitulation. The political work of the greatest extent and importance, which we have lately feen, is Mr. Plowden's Church and State, our remarks on which commenced in a former volume+ This book though, according to our opinions, not entirely unexceptionable, contains the refult of much reading, much thought, and confiderable fagacity: nor can it fail to be confulted by any perfons who fhall hereafter un-dertake to treat the fubjects there inveftigated. An anonymous book, entitled Philofophical Sketches of the Principles of Society and Government, detained our attention, in the enfuing month, far beyond the proportion of its bulk. Seldom, very feldom, have we feen fo much originality of thought united with fo much foundnefs of judgment; and our hope is, that the author, at whom we now guefs, though we did not when we reviewed his book, will be encouraged to avow his name, and continue his lucubrations. M. Mercier's Fragments of Politics and Hiftory, which fome perfon has thought it worth while to tranflate, contain a mixture of ingenious, acute, and bold obfervations, not all of which are found, but all deli * No. VI. P. 138. p. 602. + Vol. VI. p. 595. Of this Vol. No. II. ‡ No. III. p. 221. No. I. p. 55 |