Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

quence of more effectual information, with considerable additions; but, it has been thought adviseable to retain their former order, not to disturb the numerous references made to them, as well in the work itself, as by late writers. In consequence, this division will be enlarged from one volume, inconveniently thick, to two Volumes. The additional parts may be had separately, for the accommodation of original subscribers.

:

The Plates will also form an Atlas, or Volume by themselves, arranged alphabetically each subject will be particularly explained; and their utility will be increased by a great increase of references. Such plates as have been injured in working (for several have printed no less than four or five thousand impressions) are cancelled; and New plates are engraved in their stead: others are carefully revised, and corrections and additions are inserted throughout.

The whole will be uniformly printed, on paper of the best quality; and in short, the work will be placed in that state which the Editor presumes will be most satisfactory to the Public, and most honourable to the parties engaged in it.

Four parts of the new edition, each containing six sheets of Dictionary, and six sheets of the Fragments, with at least six plates; are now ready for delivery, and will be continued with all possible speed. The extent of the whole, will, it is presumed, notwithstanding the extensive additions, very little exceed that of the former editions.

John Crawford, Esq. late resident at the court of the sultan of Java, is preparing a description of the Islands of Java, Bali, and Celebes; with an account of the principal tribes of the Indian Archipelago.

Thomas Brown, Esq. will soon publish, in quarto, the Conchology of Great Britain and Ireland; also, in octavo, the Elements of Zoology; both works illustrated by figures drawn from nature.

Mr. G. Russell of his Majesty's Office of Works, has in the press, a Tour through Sicily in 1815; performed in company with three German gentlemen of considerable literary attainments.

A volume of Poems and Songs, chiefly in the Scotish dialect, by the late Mr. Richard Gall, will soon appear.

Mr. John Chalmers, Author of a History of Malvern, is printing a His

tory of Worcester, abridged from the histories of Dr. Nash and Mr. Green, with much additional information.

Mr. Henry Thomson will soon publish, Remarks on the Conduct of a Nursery; intended to give information to young mothers and those likely to become such.

Mr. J. G. Mansford will soon, publish in octavo, an Inquiry into the Influence of situations in Pulmonary Consumption, and on the duration of life.

Dr. J. Maccullock will soon publish, an account of the Western Isles of Scotland, particularly with regard to Geology, in two octavo volumes, with a quarto volume of illustrative engravings.

The continuation of Mr. Bigland's History of Gloucestershire is actually began at the press, and a portion of it may be soon expected to appear.

Dr. James Johnson has nearly ready, a small work on the Gout; containing a popular view of all that is known on the nature, cure, and prevention of that formidable disease.

The Earl of Lauderdale will soon publish, a second edition, with considerable additions, of an Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Public Wealth.

The fifth edition of the British West Indies, by Bryan Edwards, continued to the present time, in four octavo volumes, with a quarto one of maps and plates, is expected early in next month.

R. Southey, Esq. has nearly ready for publication Memoirs of the Life of John Wesley, the Founder of the English Methodists. In 2 vols. 8vo. illustrated by portaits of Wesley and Whitfield.

In a few days will be published, a Narrative of the Wreck of the Ship Oswego, on the Coast of South Barbary, and of the sufferings of the Master and the Crew while in Bondage among the Arabs, interspersed with numerous remarks upon the country and its inhabitants, and concerning the peculiar perils of that Coast. By Judah Pad dock, her late Master.

A new and improved edition is just ready of The London Dispensatory; containing the Elements and Practice of Materia Medica, and Pharmacy, with a Translation of the last editions of the Pharmacopoeias of the London, the Edinburgh, and the Dublin Colleges of Physicians; many useful Tables; Copperplates of the Pharmaceutical Appara

tus, and two additional Plates of the Steam Apparatus at Apothecaries' Hall; the whole forming a Synopsis of Materica Medica and Therapeutics. By Anthony Todd Thomson, F.L.S. &c. &c. One large Volume, 8vo.

A Second Memoir on Babylon : containing an Enquiry into the Correspondence between the ancient descriptions of Babylon and the remains still visible on the site. Suggested by the "Remarks" of Major Rennel, published in the Archæologia. By Claudius James Rich, Esq. will be published shortly-Also, by the same Author, the 3rd edition of a Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon.

An interesting volume will be published in October, entitled Sketches of America, being the Narrative of a Journey of more than Five Thousand Miles through the Eastern and Western States, contained in Eight Reports, addressed to the Thirtynine English Families who deputed the Author, in June 1817, to ascertain whether any, and what Part of the United States, would be suitable for their Residence, presenting a general Detail of the prices of labour, supposed Amount of Annual Domestic Expenditure, State of Trades, Manufactures and Agriculture; the best modes of employing Capital, &c.; likewise the Moral, Religious, and Political condition of the American People.With Remarks on Mr. Birkbeck's "Notes" and "Let. ters," accompanied with a plan of that Gentleman's Settlement in English Prairie, on the River Wabash.Also, an Appendix, comprising various Particulars useful for Emigrants to know, from the period of their leaving this Country, to their arrival, at their destination. By Henry Bradshaw Fearon. In one Volume 8vo.

An octavo volume of Essays on the Elements of Geology, is in the press, and will be published shortly.

The third edition is nearly ready for publication, of A Treatise on some practical Points relating to the Diseases of the Eye. By the late John CunBingham Saunders. To which is added, a short Account of the Author's Life, and his Method of curing the Congenital Cataract, by his Friend and Colleague, J. R. Farre, M.D. illustrated with eight Engravings, and a Portrait of the Author.

In the course of November will be published, the third and concluding Volume of Archd. Coxe's Memoirs of the Duke of Marlborough,

In the Press, and immediately will be pnblished, in 1 vol. 8vo. illustrated by Plates. Pathological and Surgical Observations on Diseases of the Joints. By B. C. Brodie, F.R.S. Assistant Surgeon to St. George's Hospital, and Lecturer on Surgery.

Preparing for the press, A History of Greenland; containing a description of the country and its inhabitants, together with an account of the missions of the United Brethren in that country: from the German of Crantz. The former part will also comprehend valuable details of the original discovery and colonization of Greenland by the Norwegians, the vain attempts made by the English, Danes, and others, to explore the East Coast, along with a succinct narrative of the partially successful mission at Gotthaab. As an Appendix to the whole, will be added a Continuation of the History of the Missions of the Brethren down to the present time, comprising a period of about Eighty years. Work will be accompanied with supplementary notes from authentic sources, including interesting Notices of Labrador.

The

The fourth part of the Encyclopædia Metropolitana will appear in the course of the present month.

Preparing for publication, The Iron Mask, a Poem. By the Author of the Recluse of the Pyrenees.

In the press, The Beauties of Affection, and other Poems.

A Second Edition in 4to. of the Memoirs of John Evelyn, Esq. Edited by W. Bray Esq. is expected to appear in the course of November.

The following Works are also nearly ready for publication.

An 8vo. edition of Northcote's Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with considerable additions.

Recollections of Japan by Captain Golownin, Author of a "Narrative of a Three Years Captivity in that Country." 1 vol. 8vo. with an introduction containing a Chronological Account of the several Voyages undertaken to Japan, from the first period of European intercourse with that Country.

Sketches of the Philosophy of Life, by Sir Charles Morgan, M.D. and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

The Irish Tale, by Lady Morgan, announced under the title of Florence Macarthy, will not appear till November.

THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR NOVEMBER, 1818.

Art. I. Journal of a Visit to South Africa, in 1815 and 1816. With some Account of the Missionary Settlements of the United Brethren, near the Cape of Good Hope. By the Rev. C. I. Latrobe. 4to. pp 406. 2. 2s. London, 1818.

אן

N the islands of Malta and Ceylon, and in the settlement of the Cape of Good Hope, England holds the three most important and commanding fortresses and arsenals of her maritime empire. The two former are not now under consideration, but the latter well deserves a few remarks on its political and commercial value, before we enter upon the more immediate examination of the work before us, of which, though in a very different view, it forms the subject. It is a strange and unaccountable fact, that the British have generally been slow in acknowledging the worth of many of their most important foreign settlements, while the French have been prompt and acute in availing themselves of their negligence and ignorance. We were not sensible of the naval and military importance of Ceylon, till it was taught us by Suffrein; Malta had been the constant object of French intrigue, while we remained insensible of its advantages; and it required a long course of discipline, before our obstinate reluctance gave way to the conviction, that the Cape is the great outpost and bulwark of our Indian empire. Happily, our maritime ascendency has enabled us to rectify the errors of our policy, though at an expense of blood and treasure which might have been easily saved,

There are two roads by which our Eastern possessions have been supposed to be assailable; the one through central Asia, the other by the usual marine route. The latter of these, by the Cape and the Mauritius, endangers the South of India; the former, which leads to the upper part of the Peninsula, comes at once upon our strong bolds and our most valuable territory. Though the passage by the Cape presented the fairest prospect of success, especially while the Mahomedan VOL. X. N.S.

2 L

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

dynasty, the sworn enemies of England, held the Musnud of Mysore, yet the naval superiority of Great Britain, prevented all possibility of achieving so bold an enterprise upon an effective scale, and thus the Cape lost much of its value as an offensive station, although it might still favour the occasional transit of detachments, and essentially assisted the cruising and privateering system pursued by France. The practicability of the land route to India, forms no part of our present subject, and we leave it the more willingly, as we may not improbably be hereafter called upon to discuss it fully. If the Cape, then, was of so much value to France as an offensive station, it became of equal or of greater importance to England, as a defensive post, as the advanced work and watch-tower of her Indian frontier. It serves as a halting place for the refreshment of the crews of vessels bound on voyages to the East; it is an almost indispensable depôt for troops, and with the more healthy parts of Ceylon, forms, in the sea-road to India, two convenient stages, the successive occupation of which, prepares European soldiers, by gradual seasoning, for active service in the hotter climates. The commercial advantages of the Cape, arising from its central situation, are too generally known to need exposition here, and we shall pass on to a brief notice of its importance as a religious station, and as a nursery for fearless adventurers in a nobler and more arduous cause, a cause not stimulated by avarice and ambition. Africa, for various reasons, seems to have a paramount claim on Europe, for the blessings of civilization and religious instruction. The extreme ignorance of the natives, their degraded moral' and political condition, their entire destitution of the means of improvement, together with the simplicity and gentleness of their general character, and, more than all, the bitter and protracted injuries inflicted on them by European avarice, call with an awful and awakening voice, not only for mercy and forbearance, but for the strongest and most persevering exertions of wisdom and benevolence. Unhappily, while Africa presents so wide and important a field for the exercise of Christian charity, the difficulties of access, and the almost utter impossibility of obtaining a secure and fenced foundation for an establishment, added to the destructive influence of the climate, render its coasts hardly tenable by the Christian missionary. The Church Mission has occupied, and retains with exemplary fortitude, almost the only available spot; but notwithstanding the most admirable management, the station is maintained at a distressing expenditure of valuable lives. Under these circumstances, the Cape of Good Hope offers a secure asylum, and a favourable though remote point for the labours of the Christian missionary. Should he even be unable to reach the central glooms of Pagan Africa, yet he is engaged in immediate

and strenuous couflict with the powers of darkness, and is gradually advancing, leading in his train the mingled blessings of conversion and civilization. The missionary establishments in this quarter are comparatively numerous, and obviously demand both great forbearance and vigilant protection on the part of Government, as a political engine of mighty efficacy, at the same time that they require the most active and enlightened assistance and support from those who regard them in a higher light, as a part of those mightier means which God is now manifestly employing for the extension of the kingdom of his Son.

In the great work of converting the Heathen by the instrumentality of missions, the Moravians have, at all times, taken a distinguished part, and with sigual success. They seem too to have purposely, and most disinterestedly and devotedly,, made choice, in the prosecution of their benevolent plans, of those places where men who consulted their own personal comforts, would have been least likely to fix their habitations; and they have, by preference, connected themselves with those kindreds of the nations' whose habits were the most repulsive to European tastes, and whose intellectual structure and range seemed almost hopelessly dwarfed and limited. Yet, in such situations, and among such tribes as these, have these missionaries been made the instruments of mental, moral, and spiritual renovation. In the frozen wastes' of Hyperborean America, and in the barren sands of South Africa, these highly favoured individuals have been enabled to elevate in the scale of being, the Esquimaux and the Hottentot; men once scarcely thought worthy of the buman name, but now made, in numerous instances, "wise unto sal"vation," and " partakers of the Divine nature." Nothing in fact can be more striking than the difference between the Hottentot in his degraded state, the miserable slave of the savage and remorseless boor of the Cape, and the same being under the care and instruction of the Christian missionary; free, but cheerfully submissive; bound by the strong though voluntary ties of religious love and gratitude to his spiritual fathers, friends, and guides.

The Moravians have evinced much sound judgement in the choice of their situations. They have, in this particular especially, consulted as far as possible, the tastes, habits, and interests of the natives; and they will we have no doubt, ultimately succeed in forming a hardy and well trained race of agriculturists and manufacturers. The mission was originally established in 1737, by George Schmidt, who settled at Gnadenthal, then called Bavian's Kloof. He was, to a considerable degree, successful; but having had occasion to return to Europe in 1744, Ohe was not permitted by the Dutch East India Company to resume his labours; the Barristers' and Scott Warings of

« AnteriorContinuar »