accufation, I asked him in a tone of voice that expressed a disbelief of what he had afferted, "Are you certain of that?" "Sir,” replied Briffot, "I know it, and in due time your countrymen fhall know it." "When that is the cafe, Sir," replied your humble fervant," we fhall believe it." "Until then, Sir," faid he, " I do not defire you to credit me.”

An English gentleman, fitting on my right hand, immediately afked Briffot, If he did not imagine, the English could then turn the scale in favor of the allies? His reply was, " I do not think, Sir, the power of England can effect any other purpofe, than keeping the war alive a little longer; but I am perfectly aware, that nothing is now wanting, to complete the deftruction of your country, but another expenfive war. We must therefore not fuffer you to hide behind the curtain, and obtain all the advantages, without partaking of the difadvantages of the war. We muft ftrike at you first through the medium of Holland.--You have no interest whatever there, but what the Stadtholder can give you, and we shall foon difpofe of him. In a word," faid Briffot, "we fhall have moft of the Governments of Europe against us, and most of the People with us-but that matters not -we must be a free nation in fpite of the world, or we must bravely perish."

In page 36, the author fays, the whole territory of Piedmont conquered by the French.' We wish to know where he gained this piece of intelligence, which we believe will be confidered as perfectly new by the people of England, who very well understand the difference between fome and all, between the whole and a part. In fome places, he falls into inaccuracies not very pardonable. He calls the French minifter, who was ordered by our court to quit the kingdom, Chevaline; his name was Chauvelin. In page 23, he calls the Duke of Brunswick the Hereditary Prince.' He might juft as well call George III." Prince of Wales," because his Majesty once bore that title. During the laft German war, the perfonage in question was ftyled the Hereditary Prince, because his father was then alive, and he was heir apparent to him: but, fince the death of his father, he has of courfe ceafed to be called Hereditary Prince, having actual ly fucceeded to the inheritance. He is now "Duke of Brunswick." The author informs his readers that he will probably publish, at a convenient time, the refult of his perfonal observations, made in a tour of 1700 miles through various parts of France. We cannot fo far compliment him as to fay that he is well qualified for fuch a task; what he promifes is fomething in its nature historical, and an historian ought to be difpaffionate, and not connected with any party but our author is warm, and not only a party man, but evidently a moft determined partizan. His ftyle, however, is eafy and claffical; and on fome occafions he argues with force and great perfpicuity: of the truth of which obfervation, the following paffage will be a good proof:

As far, my Lord, as my feeble understanding will permit me to judge, on this occafion, I cannot imagine Mr. Pitt's or Mr. Burke's labours are in the leaft neceffary to the fuppreffion of atheiftical doctrines, either here or elsewhere.-They furely cannot be generally credited in an enlightened nation, although it is true fuch opinions

have prevailed in France for more than a century. Grotius, the celebrated civilian, in a letter to his brother, written about the year 1642, fpeaks highly in commendation of the philofophy of Hobbs : ftill, I cannot but conceive, that an Over-ruling Intelligence, a Power that governs and directs the universe, is fo evident to the human understanding, that a whole nation can never be established in a contrary belief, although fome men perfuade themfelves, that a matter is a compofite of the elements, ranging in the void infinite, without any extraneous impulfe but acting only from itfelf. Matter, fays an atheist, is, because it is-it moves because it moves: and this is his creed. Surely, my Lord, fuch a doctrine leaves us to combat with a thoufand difficulties, which the belief of a Superintending and Omnipotent Power must at once remove. We know the movements of the heavenly bodies are regular, this can be no matter of uncertainty, as we calculate the appearance of an eclipfe to a fecond of time, and know when the fhadow of one planet will totally obfcure, or partially conceal from us the face of another. This regularity cannot, furely, be the effect of matter acting only from itself, but the evident confequence of fome powerful Being, whofe attributes, and whofe effence are beyond the reach of human comprehenfion. These are things fo evident to my understanding, that I cannot imagine we may fairly apprehend any poffible danger from the atheistical writings of the French philofophers.'

Art. 24. The Evidence fummed up, or a Statement of the apparent Caufes and Objects of the War. 8vo. IS. Eaton.

In trials for high treafon or misdemeanors, in our courts of law, evidence is fummed up in two ways, not only diflinct but oppofite in their nature, and by two perfons who stand in widely different fituations. The counfel fums up, and fo does the judge when he delivers his charge to the jury. The former confiders only one fide of the queftion, the latter every poffible fide of it; the one looks not to the merits of the case, but to the interest of his client; the other to strict juftice between the accufed and the public. Thus partiality naturally guides the one, and impartiality the other. With thefe ideas, fuggefted by the title-page, we perufed this work, and foon found that the author has fummed up as an advocate, not as a judge; that whatever made for his cause he fet out in the ftrongest point of view, while he either fuppreffed or flurred over what might make against it. We mean not to extend this obfervation to every part of the work; for unquestionably it contains fome very correct details, and truths not the lefs wholesome for being fevere:- but, in other refpects, the author appears a mere party man, who lays down premifes which his adverfaries unquestionably will deny, and then he triumphantly draws conclufions, which he thinks irrefiftible; and fuch they certainly would be, if they were deduced from premises admitted on both fides.

This author builds much on the supposed treaty of Pilnitz; and were that foundation taken from him, a very confiderable part of his argumentative pile would tumble to the ground. We have in former Reviews given opinions on the copies of this treaty that have been handed about; and, as we think, have demonftrated, from internal REV, DEC. 1794.

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evidences

evidence, that they were fpurious. The present writer, however, reafons on this treaty as if its authenticity had never been impeached; yet he was aware that the Courts of Vienna and Berlin had published ftate-papers, which contained folemn declarations abfolutely incompatible with the engagements and provifions of the copy which he gives us of the treaty of Pilnitz; for he quotes the following paffage from one of the manifeftos fent into the world in the name of those courts. But yielding to what the honour of all crowns, and the real interefts of all people require, their Majesties declare to Europe, that in the juft war which they have undertaken, they entertain no view of perfonal aggrandizement, which they expressly renounce.' Now it must be admitted, either that the copy of the treaty. of Pilnitz given by our author is a mere fabrication, or that the above affurances, fo folemnly given, were infincere and deceitful. Our author attempts to folve the difficulty at once, by faying that the confederated courts were infincere in thefe declarations, and that they concealed the intention of difmembering France.' This is furely no more than begging the queftion. The cafe of the surrender of Valenciennes, Condé, and Le Quefnoy to the Emperor, quoted by the author, is not in point: a change of circumftances is generally attended with a change of measures. When the above declaration was made to Europe by the combined courts, Louis XVI. was alive, and monarchy was recognized in France: when these three towns were taken, that unfortunate prince had been put to death, monarchy was abolished, and a republic fet up in its ftead. Had our author taken pains to be well informed on the fubje&t, he might have found that the cafe of Verdun was really in point, and manifeftly proved that the difmemberment of France was not an object of the treaty of Pilnitz: for the King of Pruffia took poffeffion of that town in the name of Louis XVIth, and acknowleged that he held it only in truft for that monarch. We may hence prefume that the project of a difmemberment was an afterthought, fuggefted by the events that had fubfequently taken place in France. That a treaty was concluded at Pilnitz is unquestionable, for both Auftria and Pruffia have publicly admitted it: but no authentic account of it has ever yet found its way into the world: even a bare Ferufal of the copy given by the author, and which is the fame that has appeared in various other publications, muft fuffice to convince a perfon even of common information that it is a mere fiction.

We have thought it our duty to make these observations, as several writers have lately confidered themfelves as entitled to quote this treaty as authentic, and under no obligation to prove its authenticity. They will now fee that this is by no means the cafe; and that, as the admiffion of this inftrument is difputed, it is incumbent on them, before they reafon on it, to fhew that it is authentic.

Our author feems to infinuate that Mr. Burke has for many years enjoyed a penfion. This is certainly a circumftance not generally known,' and is believed, we think, by few. His penfion, if we be well informed, is of very recent date; it is not poffible, therefore, that the dread of lofing what he did not then poffefs could have influenced his politics fo many years back, refpecting the French revolution.

Art. 25. Reflections fubmitted to the Confideration of the Combined Powers. By John Bowles, Efq. 8vo. 18. Debrett.

In the midst of the prefent rapid feries of political events, of fuch magnitude as to exceed the grafp of ordinary intellect, and at the fame time fo novel as to render it impoffible to reafon from the past to the future, it is not at all furprising that the most fagacious obfervers fhould find it difficult to fix their judgments on queftions of expediency, and that political opinion fhould veer from point to point with the current of exifting circumstances. The author of this pamphlet, however, is decidedly of opinion that the prefent war must at all events be profecuted, and that the crifis admits of no other alternative than the extermination of the fyftem which now prevails in France, or the diffolution of civilized fociety. So important, as well as certain, does he deem this political dictum, that he judges it neceffary to impress it on the minds of his countrymen by a train of ingenious arguments. Delenda eft Carthago is his avowed principle; and he apprehends no hazard but from the tardiness, or the lenity, of those who have undertaken the task,

That which Mr. Bowles, in this pamphlet, afferts to be impoffible, has actually happened. His profound plan for the establishment of a permanent council in the vicinity of the principal armies is fuperceded; and the transporting [we ufe the author's own epithet] idea of a civil awar of extermination in France feems vanished. It now remains to be feen whether the thrones of lawful fovereigns, and the temples of true religion, may not be better preferved, and the general fecurity more effectually restored, by reverting to the equitable principle that every nation has a right to govern itfelf according to its own will, than by adhering to the narrow maxim that all the governments of Europe muft either be monarchical or republican.

Art. 26. Serious Reflections: or War is Peace. Being an Address to the People of England; wherein is endeavoured to be set forth the Neceffity for a vigorous Profecution of the War. By a Briton. 8vo. Is. Chapman.

The obfervations contained in the preceding article apply fo perfectly to the prefent, that we need only farther remark that, if it be, as this author afferts, and as we readily admit, a duty which we owe to pofterity to preserve our conftitution inviolate, this will certainly be more effectually accomplished by confiftently and firmly maintaining that political liberty on which it is founded, than by felling this birthright to enable ourselves to overturn the Beelzebub principles of France. Whether the principles of France be inherently impoffible and chimerical, is a point which we shall not ftay to argue with the author; the queftion is put to iffue on the ground of experiment; and, before we prefume to make up our minds on the subject, we shall wait the result. MEDICAL, CHEMISTRY, &c.

Art. 27. A Treatise on the Blood; or, General Arrangement of important Facts, relative to the Vital Fluid. With Obfervations on the Theory of Animal Heat. Interfperfed with Pathological and Phyfiological Remarks from the Inductions of modern Chemistry. By Hugh Moifes, Surgeon of the Western Regiment of Middlesex Militia. 8vo. pp. 270. 55. Boards. Evans.

We

We can affure this writer that we are not among the number of critics who, like birds of prey, lie in wait for the discovery of error in the young;' yet, as our duty obliges us to appreciate, as far as we are able, the works which come before us, fo we think that we perform no ill office to authors themselves when we make ufe of our experience to act the part of monitors to them, as occafion may offer. If, therefore, we fuggeft to Mr. Moifes that materials collected as notes in the perufal of different authors,' however useful to the collector, are of little value to the public;—unless, from the lucid order in which they are arranged, or from the mode of reasoning founded on them, fomething of improvement refults;-we hope that he will not regard us as taking an improper liberty with him. The term arrangement seems to be applied with peculiar unhappiness to a work which has not a fingle divifion of chapter, fection, nor even a table of contents; and in which, whatever was the order of the writer's ideas, no train nor connexion will be readily discernible by the reader. The principal fubjects difcuffed in the volume are, the quantity of the blood, its variations, the production of animal heat, the effects of refpiration, the chemical analysis and fenfible properties of the blood, its different conftituent parts, laxity of fibre, irritability, and the effects of different airs on blood. On all thefe points, the opinions of various celebrated authors are related, and long quotations are made from Fordyce, Girtanner, Beddoes, and others; which may be usefully perufed, though given in a very random manner, and without improvement from the compiler.

Art. 28. An Essay on the Rhus Toxicodendron, Pubefcent Poison Oak, or Sumach, with Cafes fhewing its Efficacy in the Cure of Paralyfis, and other Diseases of extreme Debility. By John Alderson, M. D. 8vo. PP. 34. With a coloured Plate. 1s. 6d. Johnfon.

The vegetable, which is the subject of the work before us, has long been well known to nursery-men by its name of poifon oak, and by its acrimonious qualities. It does not appear, from the latest writers on materia medica, that any trials of its medicinal powers have been made, till the prefent: but fome fuccessful experiments with the rbus radicans, a fpecies nearly allied to it, were published in France by M. Fresnoi; and a knowlege of them was a principal inducement to Dr. A. in venturing on a trial of the Toxicodendron in fimilar cafes.

The Doctor begins this work with some general remarks on the frequency and caufes of nervous disorders, and then proceeds to a botanical description of the plant, with a full lift of all its fynonyms. This leads him through two-thirds of his little pamphlet; and the remainder is employed in a concise account of four cases, in which it was medicinally exhibited. They are all inftances of impaired mufcular action and sensation, two of them joined with depravation of the mental faculties; and all received either confiderable relief or a perfect cure from the ufe of the remedy. The powder of the leaves was the form of exhibition; and the dofe was increased from one-fourth of a grain twice in a day, to three grains four times in a day. The fenfible effects were a pricking and a kind of convulfive twitching in the affected muscles, fometimes with a flight vertigo, a pain across the forehead, and a naufea for half an hour after taking it. The twitchings