Much good sense and useful instruction are contained in this little volume. It is divided into eight chapters; of which the first three are more general than the others, and relate to the management and education of young females. Among other things, Miss Wakefield recommends more active diversions than are commonly allowed, such as running races, trundling a hoop, jumping with a rope, &c; she also pleads for maternal and domestic instruction; or, where this cannot be readily attained, for select day-schools. The five concluding chapters are devoted to the four classes into which females are here divided. After having pointed out the appropriate duties and pursuits of the first and second or higher orders, this intelligent writer attends to the transition from affuence to poverty, which is not uncommon in the fluctuation of human affairs; and she therefore judiciously proposes some employments of a lucrative kind, which in such an event might be the means of procuring a respcctable support. The next class includes several gradations, involving the daughters of every species oftradesmen below the merchant, and above the meaner mechanic' from these are entirely excluded plays and novels, with every work tending to inflame the passions, and implant sentiments of the omnipotence of love and beauty, as containing a bancful poison,' for (it is added) nothing can be more distant from the plain, sober, useful qualities of a housewife, than the 4 excellencies of the heroine of a [common] novel.' A variety of employments are suggested for women, and it is lamented that the men have in so many instances incroached on what is properly the female province. The observations offered respecting the fourth class are not less pertinent and instructive than those which relate to the others. Hi. Art. 22. Parsing Lessons for Yourg Children: resolved into their Elements, for the Assistance of Parents and Teachers. By Mrs. Lovechild. 12mo. 9d. Newbery. Parsing Lessons for Elder Pufils, resolved into their Elements, for the Assistance of Parents and Teachers. By Mrs. Lovechild, 12mo. Is. Newbery. 1798. 6 In former years, not very distant, our youth knew little or nothing grammatically of their own language, unless they were taught the Latin or the French, and even then they too often became very imperfectly acquainted with grammar. Considerable care has been ma nifested of late (judging at least by the productions of the press) to correct this error. The little tracts before us are parts of a series of books for this purpose. In the preface to the first, Mrs. Lovechild observes that the office which she assumes is humble, that of Dame behind the curtain to prompt such mothers who are diffident of themselves. I am the old woman who offer my service, and flatter myself with the hope of leading the dear little people with ease and satisfaction.' This is intended for younger children, but is in much the same form with that which follows, and which is contrived to perfect what has been before attempted. The four sets of lessons in cach appear to be suitably directed, both to engage the attention and to employ the capacity of the young scholar.-The good old Dame designs well; her method is amusing; and she has already, we are told, had the sa tisfaction of finding that her labours have been acceptable. Art. Hi. Art. 23. The Little Teacher, for Reading and Spelling well. By a More pretty methods of learning A, B, C, and more pretty pic tures from Nature, to excite the infant pupil's attention.--Messrs. D. and H. seem to be in a fair way, by their alluring cuts, to cut-out all their rivals in the Lilliputian elementary branch of literature. BOTANY. Art. 24. Nereis Britannica, &c. &c. i. e. Nereis Britannica; or a White. 1795, 1797.. 12s. 6d. The class of plants, which the publication before us is intended to elucidate, has longer perplexed the inquiries of botanists than any other. This circumstance is not surprising, as their place of growth, general form, particular structure, and mode of propagation, are all so different from those of the vegetable inhabitants of the land, that analogies derived from the latter are a very obscure and dubious guide. So' minute, indeed, is the system of fructification of the marine plants, that it was not till after several accurate observations made with mag mifying glasses of high powers, that the ingenious author of this work was enabled to discover the curious particulars described in the' preface to the second fasciculus. These are incapable of abridgment: but it is enough for us to say that the experiments ended in the detection of real seeds, proved to be such by procuring their actual vegetation. The genus Fucus is arranged in six divisions, thus characterized by Mr. Stackhouse: Fucus. Fructif. a jelly like mass, with imbedded seed-bearing gra nules, and external conical papilla-terminating. CERAMIUM. Fruct. a jelly-like mass, without the seed-bearing granules; internal, universal, papillæ invisible. CHONDRUS. Fruct. an ovate, rigid, imbedded pericarp, containing seeds in a clear mucus, and prominent in either surface. SPHÆROCOCCUS. Fruct. external globular pericarps, adnate or immersed; sessile or pedunculate; containing seeds as above. CHORDA. Fruct. a mucous fluid in the hollow part of a cylindrical frond, with naked seeds affixed inwardly. CODIUM. Fruct. invisible; frond roundish: soft and spungy when wet; velvety when dry. The two fasciculi contain the descriptions and figures of 39 species and varieties of Fucus. They appear to unite accuracy with elegance in a very meritorious degree. MILITARY AFFAIRS. Art. 25. A Treatise on the Duty of Infantry Officers, and the present The Ai. The first impression of this very comprehensive treatise was pub lished in 1795, and we regret that it has hitherto escaped our notice, because we do not recollect ever to have met with so much useful information, for an officer, in so small a compass. The work is now in general circulation, and has in a manner become a book of authority; and several military authors have not only freely borrowed, but have literally copied from it. We remark by the printer's date, as well as by a judicious alteration in the instructions for forming a close column on a central company facing to the rear,' (p. 162,) that the author has had the satisfaction of seeing a second impression required, although no notice is taken, in the title-page of the copy before us, of its being a second edition. Art. 26. Instructions for Hussars, and Light Cavalry acting as such, in Time of War. A Translation. 8vo. pp. 147. 2s. 6d. Egerton. 1798. Although no name is prefixed to this translation, we understand that it is the production of a young British Senator, (Mr. Rose, jun.) who commands a corps of yeomanry cavalry; and who, besides. several intelligent notes, has added a sensible and modest preface: from which we take the following extract. He has reason to think that these instructions (which came into his hands in manuscript) were in use in a body of troops, highly dis tinguished for its good conduct in one of the confederate armies, and that the principles inculcated in them are those, to which the best Hussars now known conform. The reader will immediately perceive that many ideas, and, in some places, nearly whole paragraphs occur in them, which are to be found in those given by the King of Prussia to his light cavalry: but this, as the translator is much more anxious for the utility of this work, than that it should wear an ap pearance of originality, he must consider as an advantage which it possesses. A treatise of this sort should be a compilation of such ideas alone, as experience has either suggested, or approved. In general, these instructions are more detailed than the King of Prussia's: but wherever they appear to have omitted any thing essential contained in his, it is added in a note. Use has likewise been occasionally made in them of Count Turpin's Essai sur l'Art de la Guerre. A few notes have been subjoined from such parts. of Lindenau's Treatise upon Winter Posts, as were applicable.' Pref. p. 8. A work of this kind cannot fail of being highly serviceable, particu larly to the yeomanry and volunteer corps; and we are happy in having an opportunity of again expressing the sincere satisfaction, which we always feel when we see young men of fashion and fortune devoting their time to the service of their country.. Art. 27. The Officer's Manual in the Field; or a Series of Military 1798. The two preceding articles instruct an officer how to move a battalion, and to conduct a small body of troops. form and After he haa Suth...... Do has obtained this information, he will be qualified to enter on the present work with pleasure and advantage. It contains a series of examples of the principal operations which occur in the course of a campaign,' and is designed to elucidate and render familiar the various objects of the military profession, by exhibiting detached plans, which comprehend both the position of an army with respect to its enemy-the nature of the ground upon which it is to act-the methods in which manœuvres, marches, and attacks are to be prepared and executed, and to give certain precepts of this difficult science, the rules of which, as well as their applications, are almost innumerable.' The plates also exhibit every operation of a siege, from the first investment of a fortress to the final assault. The text is little more than an explanation of the plates, which are sixty in number, very neatly executed, and admirably correct, except in a few instances. The letter E quoted in the references to Plate 36 is not given in the plate itself, but we have no difficulty in finding the point which it was intended to mark. Neither are we at a loss to perceive that the numerical figures in N° 3, Plate 43, are intended to express the dimensions in feet, although no notice is taken of them in the explanation. The profiles Nos 2 and 3, Plate 42, are in the contrary direction to N° 1, in the same plate; which might lead a novice in fortification to mistake the rear for the front. The banquettes in N° 3, however, would probably shew him the error. In page 50, plate 48 is misquoted for plate 47. We have been able to find only one point on which we can attack the author's Generalship; and that is at the passage of the iver plate 15, where, though on the side from which the army crosses he has very properly placed platoons of infantry which have advanced to occupy the bridge and to support by their fire the dragoons, (who have already taken post on the other side of the river,) in case the latter should be repulsed by the enemy, yet no notice is taken of the island which divides the stream and unites the bridges; and which ought certainly to be lined both by infantry and ennnon, if any attack is apprehended before the whole army has crossed. IRELAND. Art. 28. The Case of Ireland reconsidered. In Answer to a Pamphlet intitled, "Arguments for and against an Union considered.” 8vo. 2s. Debrett. The intention of this important pamphlet is to explain the hardships to which the Roman Catholics of Ireland are subjected, and to prove that what they endure is unjust, and not necessary to any good or useful purpose. The author, who is himself of that persuasion, writes with feeling, but with great temper and strength of argument. We believe that many of our readers will be gratified by the following extracts, which appear to express the sentiments of a sensible man, and a friend to just government. He declares himself no enemy to a fair and broad union for the good of the whole country,' but he is against a narrow insidious union, playing the fears of one set of men against those of another.' A a REV. MARCH, 1799. • The Suth.....d. The union,' says he, is a secondary question-Give the people of Ireland cause to be content. They may be satisfied by an union, they may be satisfied without it, but until they are, no form of government will avail. Do not listen to those idle ill-tempered exclamations, the people of Ireland never can be satisfied! Ask yourselves calmly, Has a fair trial ever been made? Ask yourselves-not what has been done, but what remains to be done?' The question which the author principally examines is, "whether three fourths of the people of Ireland ought to be shut out from the full and equal benefit of whatever constitution she is to have?" No sentence in Arguments for and against an Union considered * has obtained more notice, than that which states nine tenths of the property of Ireland to be in the hands of the Protestants, who are scarcely one fourth part of the population. If this statement be correct, the mean ratio of individual property is as twenty-seven to one. In addition to the weight of this unnatural disproportion of property, the hardships thrown on the unfortunate majority are thus in part described by the author: The religion of three men out of four, which is the religion of the country, is Catholic, and is allowed no support from government. The religion of one man out of four is Protestant, which is the religion of the state, and is endowed with the tithe of the whole kingdom, besides great property in land.' Among the peasantry, the proportion of Roman Catholics is much greater. They are the poorest peasantry in the world, get least for their work, and pay most for their land; have the most numerous families, and have no help from their parishes to support them. After paying a tithe, exacted generally with very great rigour, to support the established religion, of which they never hear but by the tithe-proctor, they must out of their poverty pay something to their own priest, who, nearly as poor as themselves, lives with them and renders them many services. The people of Ireland, till within these few years, were not admitted into Protestant schools, were not allowed to have schools of their own, nor to be educated abroad.' On the endeavour to compare the union between England and Scotland with the proposed union between Great Britain and Ireland, the author observes, In Scotland, the religion of the people was permitted to be the religion of the country: it was not barely tolerated, but established and confirmed, by all that human wisdom can devise, before the articles of union were discussed in parliament. In Ireland, the religion of the people is not permitted to be the religion of the country: it is scarcely tolerated; the religion of a small minority (a political phenomenon) is the established religion of the state.' The writer is very justly severe on a maxim advanced in the Argu ments considered, that," when once the hope of changing is at an end, and the hope of forcing such a change destroyed, dissatisfaction would sink into acquiescence, and acquiescence into content." Here (says he) the people * See M. R. Feb. 1799. p. 216. of |