which open new views of this curious fubject, and are adapted to carry our knowledge of it feveral fteps farther toward the true theory of this remarkable phenomenon.

M. VAN SWINDEN, during the fpace of eight years, has obferved above 200 of these meteors, compofed accurate and circumftantial defcriptions of each, compared them with the motions of the magnetic needle, the different ftates and modifications of the atmosphere, and with the obfervations of the fame phenomenon, made, during the fame period, in other places, by learned men, whofe accounts he has collected with care. This collection of his own obfervations and reafonings, and those of other eminent men, relative to the Aurora Borealis, he has refolved to communicate to the Public; and as the treatise of M. DE MAIRAN contains the theory, the principles, the combinations, and details, that must be the bafis of all welldirected researches on the fubject in queftion, our ingenious Profeffor propofes to employ his materials in fuch a manner, that they will ferve as a Supplement to the excellent work of the French Philofopher.

M. DE MAIRAN's work contains two parts. 1ft, The Hiftorical and Phyfical-and 2dly, The Syftematic. The former is the principal object of M. VAN SWINDEN's illuftrations and refearches:-the latter he means only to treat occafionally, as M. DE MAIRAN has pretty nearly faid all that can poffibly be offered for the illuftration and fupport of his fyftem. The Zodiacal Light, and the Aurora Borealis, are the two important objects that compofe the phyfical part of his work; the firft of these he treats mathematically, aftronomically, and phyfically; and as it is a part of M. VAN SWINDEN's plan, to complete the lift of observations that have been made on the Zodiacal Light, he entreats the learned, in all countries, to communicate to him any obfervations they may have made upon that fubject. It is well known, that M. D'ALEMBERT† has propofed objections against the Zodiaca! Light, confidered as the folar atmosphere, to which it is difficult to give a folid and fatisfactory answer: neverthelefs, as this light follows invariably the course of the fun, M. VAN SWINDEN thinks, that it muft depend, in fome way or other, on that luminous body; and this confideration is fufficient to justify thofe who adopt the fyftem of M. DE MAIRAN.

In order to fhew our readers the extent and importance of the learned labours of M. VAN SWINDEN, on this curious fubject, it will be neceffary to mention (as he has done in the plan before us) the eflential parts that compofe M. DE MAIRAN'S treatife on the Aurora Borealis: Thefe are, 1. An explanation.

+ Opufcules, vol. vi. p. 333.

X 4

of

of the phenomena.-2. A chronological lift of thefe meteors. 3. The immediate confequences deduced from facts, and the relations which the different phenomena bear to each other.4. The influence of the Aurora Borealis upon certain phenomena, and that also which certain agents may have upon it.— 5. An examination of the caufes which have been affigned to this meteor.-6. The doubts and conjectures to which the discussion of what relates to the Aurora Borealis may give rife.

New obfervations and difcoveries have enabled M. VAN SWINDEN to make interefting additions to each of these articles, and the obfervations and difcoveries he has found in the later works of learned men in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Holland, have been carefully attended to in the execution of his plan. He does not give us here a fummary of his additions. He, however, tells us, that the most important obfervations, among those which he has made or collected, relate to the phenomena of the Aurora Borealis,-to the filence, which, according to M. DE MAIRAN, reigns in all the parts and periods of this phenomenon,- or to the noife, which other obfervers have heard during its appearance,-and, finally, to the Aurora Boreales, (or rather Auftrales) which are formed near the antarctic pole, whofe exiftence M. VAN SWINDEN proposes to demonstrate by new obfervations.

2. With refpect to the chronological lift of thefe meteors, our Author's additions to, and improvement of, M. DE MAIRAN'S excellent table (which goes as far as the year 1751, and contains 1441 of the phenomena in queftion) will be very confiderable. He proposes, first, to continue the table down to the year 1778, or ftill farther,-to complete it by an account of feveral of thefe meteors that appeared before the year 1752, but are not mentioned by M. DE MAIRAN,-to rectify the errors that this celebrated philofopher has fallen into by imagining, that the dates in Frobes's table (which he follows) were formed on the old ftile, and reducing them to the new,-and to give the chronological table, a more exact, inftructive, and convenient form, than it has in DE MAIRAN's work.

3. The third article of that learned work, which contains confequences deduced from facts, and the relations which the different phenomena bear to each other, will alfo be enriched with many improvements from the obfervations and additions of Profeffor VAN SWINDEN. Thefe will be relative to the great height of the Aurora Borealis (which we fhall henceforth call the Northern Light) in the atmosphere,-to the interruptions and returns that prevent its permanent appearance, even in the places that lie neareft to the pole,-and to the correspondence that there is between its appearances and that of the Zodiacal Light. Under thefe articles, our learned Profeffor proposes,

among

among other things, to determine, whether the Northern Lights, feen at the fame time, in different places, are in reality, the fame meteors placed at a great height, or different phenomena, merely local, and not much elevated, as is the opinion of fome modern authors who have treated this fubject fince M. DE MAIRAN. In this difcuffion, our Author will draw confiderable affiftance from the comparison of phenomena perceived, at the fame time, in different places, and alfo from three learned differtations, published by M. BERGMAN, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sweden.

4. As to the influences of the Northern Light upon certain phenomena, fuch as magnetism, the electricity of the atmosphere, and the temperature of the atmosphere, M. VAN SWINDEN proppfes to treat largely on these interesting fubjects. The article of magnetifm has attracted, particularly, his attention, and the observations he has made, during eight years past, on that phenomenon, will be employed with advantage in the present investigation. Under the article of electricity, he will have occafion to discuss the following question, Whether the air is more charged with the electrical fluid, during the appearance or the approach of the Northern Light, than at other times? And as to the influence of this meteor on the temperature of the atmoSphere, he means to inquire, whether it be true, as fome obfervers have affirmed, that the appearance of the Northern Light is ordinarily followed by high winds; an obfervation that has been made by fome navigators, and which Dr. Franklin has endeavoured to explain.

5. The caufes that have been fuppofed to produce the northern light may be reduced to five :-the vapours and exhalations of the earth, which hypothefis is now almost entirely rejectedthe ice and fnow of the polar zone, which opinion has been revived by the learned Abbé Hell, in his Ephemerides of 1777the effluvia of magnetic particles, which was Halley's fyftem-the zodiacal light, which is the fyftem of DE MAIRAN-and the electrical fluid, which has, fince his time, put in bold pretenfions to the honour of producing the aurora borealis. All these caufes our learned Profeffor propofes to difcufs with attention, as alfo to confider the doubts and conjectures which may arise from these difcuffions.

We cannot here infert, for want of room, a fpecimen of the table, or chronological lift of the northern lights, which we find at the end of M. VAN SWINDEN's plan; but we have seen nothing of the kind fo accurate, fo circumftantial, and fo com

• For the Doctor's hypothefis, relative to the Aurora Borealis, fee his miscellaneous and philofophical pieces, lately published; or our account of it, in the Review for last month, p. 207.

plete.

plete. It is, beyond all comparifon, fuperior to that of M. DE MAIRAN in every respect.

Before we clofe this Article, we fhould obferve that the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris have applauded the undertaking of Profeffor Van Swinden, and expreffed their defire of seeing it fpeedily executed, as they think it must contribute, in fuch judicious hands, to encrease our knowledge of the curious phenomenon in question, and of the effects which refult from and depend upon it.

M. VAN SWINDEN has lately publifhed an academical difcourse concerning the Newtonian philofophy, of which we shall give an account in a fubfequent Review. We feel a peculiar pleasure in embracing every occafion that offers of doing justice to the eminent merit of this excellent philofopher.

M.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For A PRI L, 1780.

L A W.

Art. 11. Confiderations on the Laws between Debtors and Creditors; and an Abtract of the Infolvent Acts. With Thoughts on a Bill to enable Creditors to recover the Effects of their Debtors, and to abolish Imprisonment for Debt. 8vo. I s. 6d. Bew. 1779.

TH

HIS Writer is not fufficiently master of his own opinion, to be able to inform or regulate that of the public. He appears indeed convinced himself, and takes fome pains to convince others, that great abufes flow from the laws between debtors and creditors; but till he can point out in human fociety, any inftitution which fraud and villany cannot pervert against the ends for which it was defigned, he must content himfelf with pathetically lamenting the evils which he cannot remedy. Laws are in their nature general. We fee the mifchiefs that their promifcuous operation produces in particular inftances. We forget, or do not perceive, the good effects with which they are attended upon the whole.

This pamphlet embraces a twofold object, and each is dictated by humanity. The Author (whofe humanity, though it be greater than his judgment, certainly merits praife) first takes the fide of the creditor against the arts of the difhoneft and fraudulent debtor: and afterwards, that of the debtor against the cruel and unrelenting creditor. In one cafe, the laws, it feems, are too fevere against the debtor. In the former cafe, they are too mild, and too easily evaded. To correct these oppofite defects (if the charge do not defroy itself by its inconfiftency), and to find a middle path between them, requires the matureft political wisdom. We are afraid that no human laws can reach the human heart; and when an artful head and a corrupt heart meet, they muit always prove an over-match for undefigning fimplicity, though guarded by all the legislative cautions and provifos that ever were fuggefted. The Laws between Debtors and Creditors will be found like others,

"Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too ftrong."

We

We have a better opinion of this Writer's powers of defcription, than of his talents for legiflation. However, as he recommends a ftanding legislative provifion on the principles of the late infolvent acts, we may here fafely truft him lefs on his own credit than on the wifdom of Parliament, which, by paffing these acts fo frequently, has, in effect, fhewn the necefity of a perpetual infolvent act. The chief impediment to this great object, this Writer imagines to be the profefors (we fuppofe, he means the law practisers) of the law; whofe gains, he tells us, rife in proportion to the loffes of others, and to whom the legislature leaves the fubjects of the flate, as fheep to the dogs of their drivers: they are fleeced of all that can be got, and then barked into prifon, that gaolers and their followers may take what lawyers and their fubordinates have left behind.

"There are a part of his Majefty's fubjects, forty thousand or fo, whofe revenues rife in part from the law that arrefts the perfon, and leaves the property of the debtor in his hands, to contend with the creditor. Every man that is arrested, if he is not under a neceffity, is generally in a humour, to go to law with his creditor. Every writ is a dividend to the profeffion of the law; and an act to give liberty to debtors, and their property to their creditors, would be a law, though neither offenfive to justice, mercy, or the good of his Majesty's induftrious fubjects, yet it would prejudice the intereft of a numerous learned profeffion, who live with great, good management on the labours of their fellow-fubjects. This is the great objection against the Bill propofed; and if the learned profeffion unite together in one fcale, they will probably be found to outweigh the most evident interefts of the whole community in the other."

To take off the edge from these harsh and illiberal reflections, we fhall just observe, that the prefent Bill, now depending before Parliament (called Lord Beauchamp's Bili), was not only penned by a great lawyer of the prefent day, but has been alio warmly fupported by him in the House of Commons; the truth is, the most formidable oppofition to it has arifen not from the tribe of men above alluded to (whom the Author wildly reckons at "forty thousand or fo"), but from the trading part of the community, who were apprehenfive that fuch a mealure would clip the wings of credit.

We hope, however, the experiment will be tried; and that the call of humanity, now fo powerfully made on the legislature, will not be deadened by the clamours of mistaken felfishness in some creditors, and the vindictive tyranny of others. T. Art. 12. A Brief Inquiry into the Justice and Policy of Long Confinement for Debt. With a View of all the Infolvent Acts. I s. Bew.

8vo.

Exhibits in a clear manner the ill policy, inutility, and cruelty, of vesting creditors with a power of confining infolvent debtors, to the utter ruin of individuals and their families, and the injury of the community in general.

• Mr. Wallace, Solicitor General.

N.

POLITICAL,