merits the attentive regard of all who are interested in, or who wish to be acquainted with, the fubject. AMERICA. Art. 32. The Conflitutions of the feveral Independent States of America; the Declaration of Independence; the Articles of Confederation between the faid States; the Treaties with his Moft Christian Majesty, &c. Published by Order of Congrefs. Philadelphia printed; London reprinted, for J. Walker. 8vo. 3s. 6d. We must here refer to what we have said in relation to former republications of thefe American State-Papers. See, particularly, Review for February, p. 184. Art. 33. The Treaties between his moft Chriftian Majefty and the Thirteen United States of America. Published by Order of Con grefs. Philadelphia printed, London reprinted. 8vo. 1. Stock dale. His moft Chriftian Majefty promifes in good faith, and on the word of a King, to agree to, confirm, and establish for ever, and to accomplish and execute punctually, all that our faid dear and be loved Conrad Alexander Gerard, fhail ftipulate and fign,' &c. Experience has proved, in inftances beyond number, that there is a honey moon in political, as well as in matrimonial connexions; and to this moon, we may fuppofe the warm terms for ever, mult refer. Time only can fhew what virtuous difpofitions the young virgin states may poffefs; but should any complaints for crim. con. or other causes of divorce be inflituted, and tried vi et armis between the high contracting parties, they will be no more than events of course. MILITARY. Art. 34. An Inquiry concerning the Military Force proper for a free Nation of extenfive Dominion: in which the British Military Etablishments are particularly confidered. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Blamire, 1782. This inquiry refults in an approbation of our prefent militia eftablishment, under a few fuggefted improvements. One is the addition of a week to the annual twenty-eight days for embodying and tra ning the militia during peace: another, that when this term is expired, the ferjeants and drummers of each battalion fhould form a company; and a fuitable number of thefe compofe a battalion, to be commanded in rotation by the field officers of the circuit they are drawn from. The advantage would be great to the fervice, the Au thor justly thinks, from the ferjeants being kept in the conftant exercife of military duty; and the body of drummers, with good manage ment, would prove an excellent nursery for ferjeants, the want of which, during the peace eftablishment, has been feverely felt. The Author, though a strong advocate for militia, while officered by gentlemen truly intitled by their landed qualifications, as the conftitutional defenders of the country, recommends a ftri&t attention to perfection in the manual exercife, and military difcipline and parade, with great good fenfe, on philofophical principles. Deeming the militia and regular forces fully fufficient for internal fecurity, he condemns the extraordinary measures lately recommended through Lord Shelburne, for arming particular defcriptions of the people, not of the the moft fober and orderly, but of the most debauched and riotous claffes, as unconftitutional, highly dangerous, and therefore ala-ming. Art. 35. Confiderations on Militias and Standing Armies. With fome Obfervations on the Plan of Defence fuggelled by the Earl of Shelburne, and fome Thoughts on the Propriety of Military Exercifes on Sunday, and on the Neceflity of a Scotch Militia. By a Member of Parliament. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Kearney. 1782. The Author of thefe confiderations, hurried along by his fondness for new-modelling the militia according to a scheme here propofed, clears the way before him by reciting all the ufual objections against a standing army and having infiited, in very frong terms, on the dangers attending the fupport of regular forces, he with equal facility depreciates all dependance upon naval protection. Fleets, he obferves, cannot be upheld without commerce; and ancient and modern history will inform us that commerce is uncertain. Ships are built of perishable materials, and need continual repairs; confe quently, if they are neglected, they will dwindle away. If a Beet is ruined, either by fuperior force, or by accident, years will not replace it. Ships are expofed to the baneful effects of all the elements, earth, air, fire, and water; a defence depending upon any element, is far from being a certain one; but when it is fubjected to all, it must indeed be precarious. Lastly, even a fuperiority at fea will not always prevent invafion; for winds and tides may lock up one fquadron, and fill the fails of another; a tempeft may difperfe or de. ftroy the British fleet, while thofe of the enemy are fecured in their harbours, or are forwarded by the form! Alas, what can we do now? We used to pat our truft in our wooden walls, and yet it appears that our confidence was fadly mifplaced! To add to our misfortunes, if we even turn our dejected eyes to the militia, we may be equally deluded; and for the following cogent reafons: A militia is compofed of men, and what are men but ftrange untractable beings, perverfe and crazy, both in mind and body? For military ufe, they will fcarcely laft to long as ftout well-feafoned fhips; and taking into the estimate the irregular lives of foldiers, notwithstanding every regiment is provided with a chap. lain, they will need as many repairs. So much are they exposed to impreffions from the elements without, and agitated by the confli& of worse elements within, that if regiments are formed complete today, the number of effective men will be much reduced within the fhort compafs of twelve months. Many of them will die, and many of them will be down under the hands of the furgeons for diforders little to their credit: they are continually loading the parishes where they quarter with baftard children; they often defert; now and then get themfelves hanged for robberies, rapes, and murders; and should an enemy land, numbers of them will be killed, and fome will be fuch rafcals as to go over to them! Under this melancholy view of the natural defects of a militia, the conclufion must be, that neither their numbers, health, nor principles, are intitled to our confidence: it follows of courfe that we are deftitute of all fecurity whatever against the depredations of any invaders who chufe to vifit us. It is happy for the nation, that our enemies have not hitherto perceived thele thefe inviting circumstances: and we can hardly excuse our Author for ftating them, or even ourselves for being betrayed into the prosecution of fo unlucky an argument. But providentially hostilities are ftopped,-for the prefent. The regulations propofed will not, we fear, operate to the cure of thefe radical inconveniences at ending a national militia. They are detailed in ten propofitions, in which the principal article is, to esta blish a cavalry militia in large towns, confifting of light horse and dragoons; the officers to be appointed by royal commiflion, and the captains and fuperior officers to be entitied to the dignity of knights: military discipline, both of horfe and foot, to be enforced only by fines or imprisonment The Author deems the plan fuggested by the Earl of Shelburne inferior to his own, and would have a militia established in Scotland upon principles fimilar with that in Eng and. Art. 36. Speculative Ideas on the probable Confequences of an Invasion, on our late Encampmenis, and on the State of fome of our Sea-ports in England, &c. In a Letter to the Earl of Pembroke. By an Officer in the Army. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Egerton. 1782. A publication of this kind might be intitled, Hints to British Invaders; and were marine enterprizes to be executed with the facility, certainty, and celerity, reprefented by this land officer, we might indeed have been in the dangerous fituation he represents. But in all the wars in which we have been engaged fince the Norman conquest, if the Author recollects how often we have been invaded, and the events of the attempts, he will then perceive why invafions have not been more frequent. What then has been our fecurity all this while against disturbances from foreign enemies? This question we apprehend may be foon refolved: the great armament neceffary for fuch an attempt, the very precarious nature of enterprizes, where the fea is the first and the last enemy to be encountered, in aid of our oppofition upon it; with the almost certain profpect of devoting the whole force, if landed, to the collected powers of the country, which mast speedily overwhelm them. As to filling the country with fortified pofts, and cantonments of troops, to protect us from neighbouring enemies, we shall only remind the writer, that happily we have hitherto done without them. An infular fituation, fuppofes fuch a circumferential line of fea coaft, as cannot be every where fecured by art; wherever, therefore, our floating cailles may fail us, we remain vulnerable; but our foes are fully apprized of the Scotch mottoand if our enemies had fuch bad intelligence as our Author fuppofes they had on a late occafion*, when Plymouth was apprehended to be in danger, it certainly was their own fault, for we furnish enough of one kind or other. MUSIC. Art. 37. A Brief Account f, and an Introductian to, light This Article fhould have appeared in Aug. 1aft. 3 Author's Author's defign in this undertaking is to demonftrate and explain the radical fources of melody and harmony, deduced from the ra tional principles of the philofophy of founds, from arithmetical calculations, and from geometrical divifions in the conftruction of monochords, and to afcertain the different scales of the several genera of the Greeks and the Moderns, by a clear, a concife, and an intelligible method, different from what has been attempted before.' The prefent fheets contain only the Author's manner of finding mufical ratios, by ftrings reprefented by right lines, or numbers, as a neceffary preparative to the lectures themselves. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 38. Ars Scribendi fine Penna; or, How to take down Verbatim, a Week's Pleading upon one Page. A Work of infinite Importance to Members of Parliament, Minifters of State, Gentlemen of the Law, Phyfic, and Divinity. To whom it is most humbly Dedicated. 8vo. 95. Bew. 1782. We can by no means approve the Latin part of the above titlepage; because, among other reafons, we were long puzzled in difcovering how the Author performed his engagement in teaching us to write without a pen! At length, in p. 33. we are directed, inftead of using pen and ink, to write with a Middleton's black lead pencil! In looking over this new Work we perceive nothing, either in the alphabet, or in the modes of combination, to diftinguish it, in any fuperior degree, from others long fince published; and it derives no fanation from the reputation of the writer, because he does not declare himself. We can only add, on examining the fpecimens of writing here given, that lefs regard is preferved to lineal position in combining the characters, than in Triftram Shandy's diagrams of the eccentric manner in which he writes the ftory of his own life. Art. 39. A Poftfcript to the Six Letters written in Defence of Richard Hill, Eq; Member for the County of Salop, against the Illiberal and Unjuft attack of the Burgefs of Ludlow, upon his Parliamentary conduct. By a Freeholder in more Counties than One. 8vo. 6d. Debrett, &c. • Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth - A Burgess of Ludlow lets off an electioneering fquib; the fqub produces a cracker from another quarter; the fquibber then throws up a rocket -which is returned by a pop gun; bounces and explosions are multiplied on all fides, till the whole neighbourhood is annoyed with the fparks, the fmoke, and the imell.-In plain and direct terms, we have had feven or eight controverfial pamphlets, to prove and difprove-what?-Excufe us, good reader, from a repetition of thefe local grievances; we have more neceffary, as well as more agreeable employment before us. If thou haft forgotten (which is not imprebable) the matters brought into confii& fore' by thefe Salopian knights of the quill, turn back to our late Reviews +, and thy memory will be refreshed. If it be afked, what is the purport of this last stroke at the Ludlownian hero? fuffice it to answer, that its defign is to free • Mr. Hill's Sky-rocket is not here alluded to. + For December and March laft. Mr. Mr. Hill from the charge of being him felf the author of the Six Letsers that were written in his defence by a friend. This matter is now, we apprehend, unquestionably decided, though to us it was fufficiently clear before. The Author has alfo given the Burgefs a number of parting blows, fmartly laid on; and to fhew his contempt of that gentleman, he introduces the following anecdote:-The Ludlow champion had reproached one of his literary antagonists with having once been, or pretended to be, his confidential friend, and with having accordingly confulted him about certain fcribbling concerns which had, confequently, received the benefit of his corrections. In his farcastic animadverfions on this complaint of the Burgefs, our Author fays, Be of good comfort, Sir! you are not the first master who has been excelled by his pupil. After the master had built the fteeple of Chichester cathedral, his apprentice railed that of Salisbury with greater elegance, and to a greater height. That mafter, it is faid, went and hanged himself: I will not add, "Go thou and do likewife."-A very civil mode this of bidding an opponent good-bye! A Guide to Health, Beauty, Riches, and Honour 8vo. Is. 6d. Hooper. 1783. Art. 40. This Guide to Health,' &c. is a collection of the moft remark→ able advertisements, and hand-bills, of quacks, money-lenders, borough brokers, men for wives, women for hufbands, conjurers, &c. that our numerous daily papers currently afford. To inhabitants in the metropolis fuch articles are no novelties, but appear the more Atriking by being brought together--and may amuse readers in other parts of the Iland, who do not know what plenty of generous, pub lic-fpirited offers are daily made there for the kind fupply of all poffible human wants, both real and imaginary.-The compiler has prefixed an humorous preface on our great improvements in arts and fciences, as exhibited by the feveral profeffors in their propo❤ fals. MEDICA L. Art. 41. A Letter to the Commiffioners for Sick and Wounded Sea men, &c. relative to the Means of Preventing and Curing the Scur vy on board of his Majesty's Ships. By James Rymer, Surgeon of the Royal Navy. 8vo. 6d. Evans. 1782. This writer does not pretend to offer any thing theoretically new on the subject upon which he treats. He contents himself with pointing out certain particulars with respect to fresh air, diet, and the like, which, in his opinion, would materially conduce to preferve the health of feamen. It is not in our province to determine how far these are capable of being adopted; but every hint which may benefit fuch a useful body of men, certainly merits attention. Mr. Rymer, though not a capital writer, appears to be a man of know, ledge and obfervation in his own line. Art. 42. The Anticipation of the Crifts. Addreffed to the No. bility and Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. 8vo. Is. Bowen. 1782. Let not our kind Readers fuppofe, that this pamphlet has strayed by mistake from the political to the medical lift. The crifis here anticipated is not that of poor Britannia, but of a fever, which, by virtue of a certain hermetic febrifuge, is nipped in the bud, and not allowed |