the cenfors of the College, at this time in the London Gazette Therefore (he concludes) to prevent any danger from fuch impofitions, these medicines will be made up under the direction and management of a Gentleman of the Profeffion, who has undertaken to examine the feveral fubftances, and infpect the preparations, which will be fold under the title of Mr. SAYER'S MEDICINE for the GOUT.' Bravo! Mr. Wood: if this does not do, we shall be apt to fufpect that there is not that fund of “ cullibility” in man, which our old friend Yorick imagined.

POETICAL.

Art. 41. The Captive freed; or, the Refcue of the Mufe. 4to. 6 d. Dilly.

More Bath-Easton poetry! The Mufe is congratulated on her deliverance from the captivity of Bouts Rimées, and Mrs. Miller is praised, and the patience of the Reviewers tried as ufual. This Bard' tells us that wrapt in fragrance' he ' took' his ' filent way on Avon's banks'

whofe winding waves along,

Dies the last trill of many a poet's fong.

Thus, it feems, he took his filent way on the banks of a river remarkable for founds, and the propriety of this might have been questioned had he not evaded the objection by the happieft ftroke imaginable; for, at the fame time he gives us to understand that he had undergone the Egyptian operation of embalming (wrapt in fragrance) so that, in the capacity of a mummy, his way, quoad fe at least, must have been filent.

The next couplet is as follows:

When from those shades where Art on Nature leans,
And reams at large her cultivated scenes.

Now Mrs. Art is here reprefented at once leaning and roaming; but the objection here too is eafily taken off, for the Author, we dare fay, meant nothing more than this, that while Art was roaming about, the leaned on Nature's fhoulder.

Art. 42. Bedlam, a Ball, and Dr. Price's Obfervations on Civil Liberty. A Poetical Mifcellany. 4to. 1 s. Dodfley.

The hand of an artist, capable of greater atchievements, is feen in these random ftrokes and dashes of the pencil:-fomething of Bed-' lam; a laugh at a Pantheon, or Carlisle-house, affembly;-and a ridicule of Dr. Price's political principles, and the faints of New England.

Art. 43. Addrefs to the Genius of America. By the Rev. Christopher Wells. Lecturer of Penryn, Cornwall. 4to. I s. Baldwin. Laments the defection of the Colonies from the parent state; expatiates on the melancholy reverse which America muft, confequently, experience in regard to her once happy fituation and circumitances; and exhorts her to repentance, and a speedy return to her duty :-in which cafe hope is given that mercy may be expected. The poetry will not be thought contemptible by a candid critic; especially if confidered as the product of

an infar.t Mufe, whose feeble wing Ne'er yet took flight before the critic's eye.'

Art.

Art. 44.

An Anfwer to the " Tears of the Foot Guards." In which that respectable Corps are vindicated from the Charges of Puppyifm and Cowardice. 4to. I s. Kearfly. Carries on the fatire against the which it profeffes to answer, but were written by the fame Author, ture, he has here excelled himself, both as to numbers and spirit. MATHEMATICS.

Guards, begun in the pamphlet answers not. If both the poems which is matter of mere conjec

Art. 45. Letters relative to Societies for the Benefit of Widows and of Age. Printed at Exeter, and fold by Johnfon in London. 8vo.

I S.

1776.

Thefe Letters were first printed in the Gazetteer, in 1767 and 1768. They are now republished, by Mr. John Rowe, whofe skill, in calculations of the nature here propofed, those who are acquainted with his treatife on Fluxions can have no reafon to queftion, and, as we apprehend, with a particular intention of conveying neceffary caution to fome Societies established in the city of Exeter and county of Devon. They form part of a plan which the Writer had propofed more largely to purfue; but his defign was fuperfeded by Dr. Price, in his accurate and useful Obfervations on Reverfionary Payments: fee a particular account of this excellent publication in the Monthly Review, vol. xlv. We recommend the following extract from a Poftfcript, now fubjoined to one of his letters by the Editor, to thofe of our Readers whom it may more immediately concern:

If the annual payment made by the husband be 40 s. and the first be at the time of his admiffion into the Society; then, the annuity to be paid to the widow, by London tables, fhould be 71. 9s. but, by country tables, 7 l. 14 s.-Suppofing intereft 3 per cent. and the widow not to be entitled to the annuity if the huf⚫ band die within five years after his being admitted a member. The Republisher of the Letters hopes ferious attention will be given to this by the many Societies for the benefit of widows lately eftablished throughout the kingdom in general; and by thofe in the city ⚫ of Exeter and county of Devon in particular. He reflects on no one; but hopes, and believes, thefe Societies took their origin from motives truly laudable and good.-And he would hope and ⚫ believe the fame good motives will foon caute a reformation.

Thefe Societies, inftead of 7 1. 9 s. or 7 1. 14s. engage to pay the widow 20 1.-What fatal confequences muft fuch Societies in time produce!-Ought they not immediately to reform !! Art. 46. The Nautical Almanac and Aftronomical Ephemeris for 1777. Published by Order of the Commisioners of Longitude. 8vo. 3 s. 6d. Nourse. 1776.

The ufual tables, adapted to the year 1777, with their explica. tion and use.

* See our last month's Catalogue.

SCHOOL

SCHOOL BOOK.

Art. 47. Eafy Phrafeology for the Ufe of young Ladies, who intend to learn the Colloquial Part of the Italian Language. By Jofeph Baretti. 8vo. 6 s. Robinson.

There is no doubt that the familiar dialogue is the best mode of inftructing young perfons in a living language; but there is fome doubt whether, if the attendant English be fpurious, the pupil may not fuffer as much from that as he gains otherwife. This is the cafe with most books of the fame kind compiled or compofed by foreigners. They are so prepofterous as to think themselves mafters of our language, and at the fame time that they are inftructing our youth in the French or Italian, they feldom fail to teach them bad English. We have here fome most ridiculous inftances of that fort. Impugn their nonfenficalnefs' for obtrude their nonsense, brother chambermaid,' &c. In other refpects this book, barring the Author's vanity, which breaks out continually, is not the most contemptible of the kind.

SERMON S.

I. Preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the Abbey Church of Weftminster, Jan. 30, 1776. By James Lord Bishop of St. David's. 4to. 1s. White.

Adapted to the times; but confifting chiefly of general obfervations on the evils of civil difcord and the advantages of peace and union. Complaints indeed are made, without any direct application, of irreverend and unhallowed teachers,' who profane the holy office of religious inftruction to purposes of faction, and, by mifunderflood or perverted paffages of Scripture, unjustifiable censure of legal and gentle rule, enthufiaftic conceits of the advantages refulting from an equality of conditions and independency of all controul, maintain and vindicate the prefent unhappy diffenfions between this kingdom and its hitherto dependent colonies; exciting the capricious and unruly tempers of an enraged multitude to deeds of perfecution and cruelty.'

Toward the conclufion, his Lordship adds, ought we not to have the fullest conviction that the hand of government is become oppreffive, our grievances most urgent, the plan of defpotism self-evident, the ftrides of Popery alarming, the acts of tyranny too fimilar to what was then complained of (referring to the ftory of the day) ⚫ before we become abettors and encouragers of difcontents attended with fuch general distress? It would be juftly confidered as an act of defperation, in the common intercourfe of life, for a merchant to venture his capital not only at an unfavourable moment, but perhaps to certain lofs. And, fhall the happieft people on the earth, bleft with a religion reasonable, charitable, and rich in the expectation of futurity; with a government equal, mild, and established on large and noble principles of freedom; with a profufion of the natural and artificial accommodations of life; protected by laws the refult of confummate wifdom and long experience; administered with prudence, impartiality, and tenderness? Shall a nation fo enviably circumstanced

circumftanced run headlong to the deftruction of these bleffings, 19 points of small value and importance? And, if not on selfish motives, or ill-confidered and delufive arguments, yet, poffibly, on inferior if real caufes of complaint, appeal at once to the cruel and uncertain chance of war; that expedient which nothing but the last neceflity can vindicate?'

II. The American War lamented-Preached at Taunton, Feb. 18 and 25, 1776. By Joshua Toulmin, M. A. 6d. Johnson.

Mr. Toulmin, whofe compofitions we have, more than once, had occafion to commend, has here taken an affecting view of the various evils and miferies that will, inevitably, fpring from the prefent unhappy focial war in the British Colonies. In fentiment the Author appears to agree with Dr. Price; but he profeffes, in his Preface, that it has given him pain to find that his difcourfe is confidered, by fome, merely as political. He declares that his aim was to awaken, by a view of the profpects before us, religious fentiments and reflections, and to promote the revival of piety and virtue.'-' With this design he has addressed the humanity of his hearers. He has endeavoured to place our national fituation in every light that ap peared fuited to intereft the heart, and attempted to give their thoughts a fober, ferious, and devout turn.'

CORRESPONDENCE.

Correfpondent has favoured us with fome farther particulars

A concerning the Writers in the Theological Repofitory, the

communication of which may be acceptable to feveral of our Readers.

The papers figned Pyrrho were written by the Rev. Mr. Graham of Halifax, under which fignature he perfonated a sceptic, though very far from being one in reality. But he knew that the Truth could not fuffer by the most unreserved freedom of inquiry; and he made a feint to oppofe it, under the firmest persuasion that it would thereby be the better eftablished,

The Rev. Mr. Waters of Ashburton was the occafional Contri butor, vol. II. p. 83.

The Obfervations on Judas, and on the natural Evidence of a futare State, figned Pacificus, came from Mr. Badcock of Barnstaple.

The curious piece on the Refurrection, vol. II. p. 345, was communicated by a Gentleman of the North of Ireland to Mr. Archdeacon Blackburne; from whom an answer to it was expected, if the Theological Repofitory had been continued.

The Writer of a Letter dated Whitby, 26 April, is afured that there is not the flightest ground for any apprehension of ministerial influence over the Monthly Reviewers; who have no higher ambition than to be juftly deemed (in the words of our Correspondent) "able Advocates on the fide of Virtue and the Rights of Humanity." When they defert THAT CAUSE, may the indignant Public, for ever, DESERT THEM!

The continuations of the review of Dr. Priestley's fecond volume on Air, and of Dr. Smith's Inquiry concerning the Wealth of Nations, in our next.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For JUNE, 1776.

ART. I. Experiments and Obfervations on different Kinds of Air. Vol. II. By Jofeph Priestley, LL. D. F. R. S. Continued from the Review for February laft, Page 107. Art. concluded.

WE

E have, in the Article above referred to, principally attended to the Author's capital and ftriking difcovery of the conftituence of atmospherical, or elementary, air, as it has hitherto been called; the true nature of which he appears to have fatisfactorily afcertained. For when a philofopher has advanced fo far in an investigation of this kind, as to produce any quantity, ad libitum, of pure refpirable air-indeed purer, and more refpirable, than any that it is the lot of mortals to breathe in common-merely by a combination of a particular acid with any earth tolerably free from phlogiston, he feems to have acquired a right to confider atmospherical air as an actual compound formed of these two ingredients; with the addition probably of a fmall proportion of phlogiston, to which it may poffibly owe its elaftic or aerial ftate; and with an overdose of which we know that it is rendered noxious, and even deadly.The experiments and reflections on which this doctrine is founded, conftitute the fubject of the 3d, 4th, and 5th fections of this work.

In the 6th fection the Author gives an account of several new and curious facts relating to the expulfion of different kinds of air from various fubftances, by means of beat only. In these experiments the materials were either put into a gun-barrel, and expofed to the heat of a common fire; or were placed in glafs veffels inverted, with their mouths immerged in a bafon of quickfilver, where the focus of a large burning lens was thrown upon them. Some of the refults are too fingular to be paffed over without a fhort notice. Such, we may obferve, is the production of inflammable air, from the pureft filings of iron, of watch VOL. LIV. Springs,

Ff