and his tutor undertake to teach her virtuous principles, in which the likewife coincides. The young fpark then, under thefe circumftances, propofes to marry her: On this the relates her real history; which, to be fure, gives him additional joy. Her parents arrive, and many ftrange difcoveries enfue; as-that her lover's tutor is her dear uncle, that the clerk with whom the eloped is a woman, who, in this interval, had been at Martinico, and now came home very rich; with many other furprising events, which conclude the wonderful progrefs of Virtue.

Art. 30. The Portrait of Life, or the various Effects of Virtue and Vice delineated; at they daily appear on the great Theatre of the World. In a Collection of interefting Novels. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5 s. fewed. Bell.

These volumes are a much cheaper bargain than most of those of a like nature that have been published for fome time paft. Here are near forty novels, fome of them very tolerable, and not ill-felected; and any one of them, by filling up the outlines, and enlarging the defcriptions, with a due fhare of colloquies, might be expanded into two paffable volumes of modern memoirs. In confirmation, it may be added, that many of them (perhaps all) are abitracts of independent works, or of epifodes found in them. Art. 31. The Majquerade; or, the History of Lord Avon and Mifs Tameworth. 12mo. 2 Vols 6 s. Robinfon and Roberts.

At the King of Denmark's ball, Mifs Tameworth meets with Lord Avon; who, according to the custom of masqueraders, and of Novellifts, conveys her away, by ftratagem, from her friends. He then conducts her to the country-feat of one of his companions; where the lady foon falls in love with the affiduity and charms of her betrayer; and generously rewards his paffion by marrying him.-Lord Avon's caufeiefs jealoufy, in different circumftances, forms the greatest part of the not very interesting story before us; yet thofe who are lovers of this kind of entertainment will not, perhaps, regret the time they have employed in perufing thefe two volumes.

Art. 32. The Fortunate Blue-Coat Boy: or, Memoirs of the Life and hoppy Adventures of Mr. Benjamin Templeman, formerly a Scholar in Chrift's-Hofpital. By an Orphanotrophian. Imo. 2 Vols.

6 s. Cooke.

A rich young widow falls in love with Benjamin Templeman, one of the Blue-Coat Poys of Chrift's hofpital, as he was finging an anthem the fends for him to her houfe, ftuffs him with plumb-pudding, charges him to come again on Saturday, and the next weck they are married.

We are not a little alarmed at the publication of this dull and uninteresting romance, which appears to have been actually written by one of the "Gentlemen educated at Christ's hofpital." What will become of the Reviewers, if this numerous band of charity-boys fhould follow their comrade's example, and run their callow heads against the prefs. Mercy on us! what a deluge of hiftories, memoirs, lives, and adventures, fhall we have! Their very titles would more than fill our Monthly Catalogues; and we fhould, therefore, be obliged to exclude them altogether, or to lump them into one lot, like an auction-purchafe ;- Six and thirty novels this

F4

month

!

month, by the Blue-Coat Boys of Chrift's Hofpital: each 2 vols. 5 s. fewed. Noble, Lowndes, Wilkie, Cooke, Bell, Rofon, &c. &c." Art. 33. The Male-Coquet: or, the Hiftory of the Hon. Edward

Aftell. Izmo. 2 Vols. s fewed. Robinfon and Co.

The character from which this work takes its title, is here very imperfectly drawn. Mr. Aftell is rather a coxcombly rake, than one of thofe Narciffus-like, or Lady like, gentlemen, called a male-coquet : a character which hath neceffarily nothing to do with rakifhnefs and debauchery-This is all we have to fay to a light and flimfy performance, that differs little from the rest of those mushroom romances which our expert novel Spinners will manufacture in a week, with as much eafe as that with which Ambrofe Phillips could turn a Perfian tale for half a crown.'

Art. 34. The Fruitless Repentance: or, the Hiftory of Mifs Le Fever. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5 s. fewed. Newbery.

The very name of Le Fever unavoidably led us to expect fomething tender, interesting, and affecting; but, alas! how were we difappointed! When we had laboured through these z Vols. thought of Le Fever no more; and nothing but the Fruitless Repentance remained.

LAW.

we

Art. 35. Obfervations on the more ancient Statutes, from Magna Charta to the 21 of James I. cap. 27. With an Appendix, being a Propofal for New-modelling the Statutes. By the Honourable Daines Barrington, Justice of the Counties of Merioneth, Carnarvon, and Anglefey. The 3d Edition, with confiderable Additions, 4to. 16 s. in boards. Baker, &c. 1769.

The 1 and 2 Editions of this valuable, learned, and even entertaining work were published without the Author's name The ad impreffion came out in the beginning of 1766; and from that edition we gave our Readers the article on this fubject, which they will find in the 35 vol. of our Review, p. 66 seq.

For our opinion and recommendation of this performance, in the above-mentioned article, we have now only to refer our Readers to that Review; and to add, that, in the preface, the Author makes fome kind of apology for having withheld his name from the preceding editions; the reafon for which, he fays, did not arife, either from thinking it could be below any one to appear before the public in the character of an Author, or because he had advanced any thing in which he did not at least mean well.' I must own, however,' he adds, that as I was confcious of many defects in the work, I rather chofe that they should be animadverted upon as the inaccuracies of an anonymous writer, than that I fhould have been criticised by name.'As however, it hath happened, from various caufes, that he hath been yery generally mentioned as the Author, he now obferves that it would be a ridiculous affectation not to acknowledge himself anfwerable for the contents of a work, which he modeftly apprehends to be fill chargeable with numerous imperfections.'

With refpect to the additions made in this 3d impreffion, they truly appear, as the title profeffes, to be confiderable; and Mr. Barrington makes his grateful acknowledgments to thofe friends to whom he has

been

been obliged for new materials, hints and obfervations. for the improvement of his work.

MATHEMATICS.

Art. 36. A Syftem of Aftronomy. Containing the Investigation and Demonstration of the Elements of that Science. By W. Emerson. 8vo. 7 s. bound. Nourfe, 1769.

We have already mentioned feveral parts of the useful Cursus now publishing by this able mathematician; viz. his algebra, mechanics, optics, &c. His defign in the prefent work is the fame as in the former volumes, i. e. to lay down the principles of the fcience which is the fubject of it, in as narrow a compafs as he could, to make it intelligible: accordingly, he here fhews the manner of calculating fome of the principal aftronomical problems, omitting things of leffer moment, in order to keep the book within due bounds, fuitable to the other parts of the courfe. He defcribes the fyftem of the world, with the motions of the planets, and their periods. He gives the principal aftronomical problems, with their folutions by spherical trigonometry and by the globes ;-the elementary part of aftronomy, being what depends upon obfervations;-the theory of the primary planets; the theory of the moon and her fatellites; and, laftly, the calculation of eclipfes.We also observe, by the advertifements, in the news-papers, that our author hath likewife juft published his mathematical principles of geography. and his dialing; in one volume; and that the last part of the feries is in the prefs.

Art. 37. The English Malady removed: or, a new Treatife on the Method of curing the Land-Scurvy, Leprofy, Elephantiafis, Evil, &c. 8vo. 2 s. 6 d. Pearch.

The Author may, for aught we know, be able, with the aid of brimstone or mercury, to cure the itch; but we wish he had himself been cured of the itch-of fcribling, before he determined to pefter us with this illiterate piece of quackery.

DRAMATIC.

Art. 38. The Court of Alexander.. An Opera. As it is performed at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. 8vo. I s. Waller.

This Burletta gives us the bumours of a drinking bout at the court of the Grecian hero; which, indeed, feems to be no great violation of the truth of history.- One would have thought that Mr. George Alexander Stevens +, the author of this mock-opera, could not have made his Macedonian name-fake madder than he found him ready made to his hand; but he has really made a more crack-brained monarch of him than even Nat. Lee has done and we have a Clytus too, like the ruby-faced Bardolf, the boozing companion of old Sir John. All this might have done very well for Sadler's Wells. As a fpecimen of the author's talent at this fpecies of writing, we fhall give his burlesque of a famous compofition of Purcel's:

In the fame fize, and at the fame price, with the other volumes. † Well known for his humorous LeGure on Heads,

MAD

MAD SONG.

(Sung by Alexander the Great, immediately after his killing Clytas.)

They tofs me on high,
Till I knock at the iky;
Then down, down I go,
To Antipodes below.

What with wine and wenches coiling,
Like a hot-bath my brain is boiling.
Zounds! what's the matter?
How my teeth chatter!

I'm to an ice-house turning;
And now, now, now, now, now,
I don't know why or how,

I'm like a glafs houfe burning.

The principal merit of this entertainment confifting in the mufic, the want of that agreeable adjunct, is a great difadvantage to the piece, in the perufal.

.. We remember a former laughable production of this kind, from the fame hand. entitled, Diftrifs upon Diftrefs; or, Tragedy in true Tafte: See Review, vol. vii. p. 79.

POETICAL.

Art. 39. The New Circuit Companion; or, a Mirror for Grand Juries: a familiar Epiftle. 8vo. 1 S. 1 S. Ireland printed. London reprinted for Bingley. 1769.

Lawyers, judges, juries, and minifters of flate, are the fubjects of this Hibernian fatire; which appears to have been written by fome tyro of the long-robe; and is conceived in a vein of careless eafe that feems to regard correctness and criticifm with equal indifference. Take the following lines as a specimen :

Now, ftarting from the dream of Law,
The Jurors to their room withdraw,
Where with true gentlemanly bounty,
They tax the poor, and fleece the County;
This, the fair plan their fathers drew,
With generous ardour they pursue;
The precedent before them ftands,
No fear it perish in their hands!
So pious they tranfmit it down
With eager zeal from fire to fon!
"A word, Sir Chriftopher-you know
I jobb'd for you a year ago

The Road that leads, you jolly dog,
From your new lime-kiln to the Bog-

For all, at times, I have done the fame
Your services, in turn, I claim;

My Bridge the eftimate is four

I'll finish for three hundred more."

"Three hundred, Hugh!why people swear
There's scarce a drop of water there,'

“ 'Pshaw !——Rot their infolent furmises!-
I'll bring the River next Affizes.”

It appears, from the prefatory advertisement, that the Author of this epiftolary piece of eafy poetry,' as it is there ftyled, died before its publication. It is addrefled to his wife; and, though not a fhining performance, it is not altogether unworthy of public notice. Art. 40. An Ode to the People of England. 4to. is. Kearsley.

1769.

The Author of this Ode feems to have entertained fome alarming apprehenfions, with refpect to the fafety of Britain's liberty. He laments the difcord of the times, and talks, we hope on no very fure ground, of TYRANNY unheathing the word:-But the following detached ftanzas will give our Readers a more fatisfactory idea of this piece, than any thing we can fay of its fpirit and tendency: Stan, X. • What, what avails the golden ftore

Of Ceres-What the bounteous lore

That Plenty's felf can fhed;
What the rich tribute of the fields,
What all the bleflings Nature yields,
If FREEDOM droop the head?-

Stan. XV. Say what avail the wifeft laws,
If bafe Evafion draw the cause,
Or plead the culprit's part;
If paffive juftice fheath the fword,
Or draw it at a tyrant's word,
To wound the patriot heart?-

Stan. XIX. Was it for this, in gen'rous tide
Of purple glory, hero's dy'd,

And feal'd with blood the laws?
See Alfred's, Edwards, Henrys rise,
And thwart the gloom with ftern-fet eyes→→→
And roufe us to the cause.—

Stan. XX. Was it for this, the deep difgrace
Of England, in the Stuart-race,
A CROMWELL wip'd away?
For this unbound the iron chain
Of Tyranny, and gave again
Fair Freedom to the day?-

Stan. XXVII. Die rather in the glorious caufe,

Than ere refign your facred laws :
Behold a BRUNSWIC reign!

If dire Oppreffion rear its head,

Your power + fhall ftrike the Hydra dead
And FREEDOM live again.

Art. 41. The Drivers: a Dialogue. 4to. 1 s. Cambridge

I

printed, and fold by Dodfley, &c. in London.

Stupid folemn doggrel, in a kind of Inn-yard paftoral. Frank, a poft-chaife boy, has been in Scotland: Roger, a waggoner, enquires what fort of country Scotland is, and what the people there fay of Wilkes and Forty-five? Frank gives a beggarly account of po

†This address is to FREDOM's fons, collected under her banner, in the 24th and 25th ftanzas.

verty