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purposes by geographers, philofophers, aftronomers, phyficians, and natural hiftorians: but it is of the greatest importance to the divine, and to thofe who are engaged in the study and elucidation of facred Scripture. All the eaftern languages bear friking characters of mutual refemblance, fo that a critical acquaintance with any one of them cannot fail to affift in acquiring the knowledge of others. Befides, the most ancient verfions of the Old Teftament, fuch as the Chaldee and Vulgate, and feveral others, cannot be understood without the help of Arabic: but this is more efpecially true of the Septuagint or Alexandrian, which is the most ancient of all; as the Arabic Verfion was (for the most part) tranflated not from the Hebrew, but from the Alexandrian or Greek copy. The Author has adduced two or three examples, in order to confirm the truth of this observation. Should the fcheme, which was fome time fince propofed by Dr. Owen, of collating the Greek copies after the manner in which the indefatigable Dr. Kennicot has collated thofe of the Hebrew, the Arabic would afford very confiderable affiftance. But the fcriptural critic would avail himself in this way, not only by illuftrating words and phrafes; he would likewife be able to gain an acquaintance with the customs and manners of ancient times and eastern nations "ex ipfis fontibus" from thofe learned works which are preferved in this language. The Author concludes with a brief account of fome of the most eminent commentators and critics on the Old Teftament, both Jewish and Chriftian, who have actually, and not unfuccefsfully, applied their acquaintance with the Arabic to the illuftration of difficult and otherwife unintelligible paffages in the facred writings.

Art. 21. Annals of Scotland, from the Acceffion of Malcolm the Third, furnamed Canmore, to the Acceffion of Robert I. By Sir David Dalrymple. 4to. 15 s. boards. Murray.

The reafon why thefe Annals commence with the reign of Malcolm furnamed Canmore, is that the faith of Scottish history goes no higher. If the Author's plan is approved, he propofes to bring hem down to James I. This mode of epitomizing history has cerinly its utility. It is a powerful aid to memory, and facilitates the recollection of the regular hiftorian. But the Author of this work has greatly improved on the general plans of annalists. For by his copious notes he has filled up his narrative into a diffufive body of hiftory; and fuch a method as this carries an obvious advantage along with it, that while the more hafty Reader may pass them over, the more inquifitive may confult them. The notes are, indeed, very curious, and fome of them of fuch a length that the Author was obliged to place them at the end of his work, by way of Appendix.

Art. 22. Young James, or the Sage and the Atheist, an English
Story. From the French of M. Voltaire. 8vo. 2 s. 6d. Murray.
A pleasant, and, in truth, a very moral Jeux d'Esprit of this in-
xhauftible writer; who has here proved himself neither Deift nor
Papift, but a good Chriftian and a ftaunch Proteftant.
Art. 23. Differtatio de Babrio, &c. A Diflertation concerning
Babrius, the Writer of certain Fables we have under the name of

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Afop: To which are added fome Fables of Efop not hitherto publifhed, from the Bodleian MSS. and Fragments of Babrius. 8vo. I s. Payne.

It has been the opinion of the learned, that many of thofe Fables which are called Elop's, were written by other hands; and the Author of this Differtation inclines to give them to Babrius on the authority of an unedited MS. in the Bodleian Library, which had not been confulted by Æfop's former editors. He feems to be right.

Art. 24. Lectures concerning History, read during the Year 1775, in Trinity College, Dublin. By Michael Kearney, D. D. Profeffor of History on the Foundation of Erafmus Smith, Esq. 4to. 2s. 6d. Murray.

Thefe Lectures are clear, folid and fenfible, and are calculated to throw light not only on the study of history, but on the progrefs of government and political fociety.

Art. 25. An Addrefs to the Public on the Expediency of a regular

Plan for the Maintenance and Government of the Poor, in which its Utility with refpect to Induftry, Morals, and public Economy, is proved from Reafon, and confirmed by the Experience of the Houfe of Industry lately established in Dublin. With fome general Obfervations on the English Syftem of Poor Laws; and an Examination of the Chapter in Lord Kaims's Sketches of the Hiftory of Man relative to the Poor: To which is added an Argument in Support of the Right of the Poor in the Kingdom of Ireland to a national Provision. By Richard Woodward, LL. D. Dean of Clogher, and Chancellor of St. Patrick's, Dublin. 8vo. 3 s. Robinson.

Though thefe arguments principally concern our fellow-fubjects on the other fide of the water, the difcuffion of Lord Kaims's principles is of general utility; thofe pernicious principles, fo fubverfive of the rights of humanity, fo grounded on ignorance, and fo replete with falfehood and mifreprefentation! He has the unparalleled infolence to say that the general courts of feffion in England would implicitly favour the rich at the expence of the justice due to the poor! How came the Lords of Seffion in Scotland by this idea? Art. 26. A Letter to a Young Nobleman fetting out on his Travels. 8vo. I s. 6 d. Owen.

This Letter recommends it to the young Nobleman not to travel merely to furnish a Mufæum, but to form the mind, to collect wil dom and policy; to enable himself afterwards most effectually to ferve his country, and if poffible, to improve it by the experience of others. The fpirit of the performance is moral and pious, but the ftyle is without life or elegance.

Art. 27. A Defeription of Killarney. 4to. 38. DodЛley.

Many years ago we gave, by way of extract, in our Review, account of this most beautiful lake and the circumjacent country.

Drawn up by the late ingenious Dr. Smith, Author of the Na tural History of the counties of Cork, Waterford, and Kerry. Ki larney is in the last mentioned county.

The defcription before us is upon a more extenfive fcale, and exhibits a more fpecified and diftin&t view of the feveral objects. It is written with good taste, and cannot fail to gratify the lovers of natural and topical beauty.

AMERICAN CONTROVERSY. Art. 28. An Oration in Memory of General Montgomery, and of the Officers and Soldiers who fell with him, Dec. 31, 1775, before Quebec: Drawn up (and delivered Feb. 19, 1776) at the Defire of the Honourable Continental Congrefs. By Wm. Smith, D.D. Provost of the College and Academy of Philadelphia. 8vo. 6d. Almon.

The Readers of the Monthly Review are no ftrangers to the oratorical abilities of Dr. Smith In this difcourfe we find the warm effufions of a zeal for freedom, blended with historical notes and anecdotes, relative not only to the hero who is here celebrated as

a proto-martyr + to the rights of America, but to others, engaged with him in the fame caufe.'-From all accounts, it appears that General Montgomery was a man of a truly estimable character; and we doubt not but his fate will be fincerely lamented by all who read the prefent eulogy!-for HUMANITY is of no party.

Art. 29. Common Senfe: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America. 8vo. I s. 6d. Philadelphia printed; London reprinted, for Almon. 1776.

The evident purpose of this celebrated performance, is to difpofe the Colonists to renounce the King's fovereignty, and affume the form and the rights of a diftinct independent itate. The arguments employed by the Author for this purpose, are delivered under four general heads, viz.

ift, Of the Origin and Defign of Government, in general; with concife Remarks on the English Conftitution.

• Some writers (fays the Author) have fo confounded fociety with government, as to leave little or no diftinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness pofitively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by reftraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates diftinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

• Society in every state is a bleffing, but government even in its best ftate is but a neceffary evil; in its worst ftate an intolerable one; for when we fuffer, or are exposed to the fame miferies by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we fuffer. Government, like drefs, is the badge of loft innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers

See, particularly, our account of his Sermon on the present Situation of American Affairs: Rev. Aug. 1775.

+ The Author premises, in a note, that he did not intend to appropriate this term, fo as to detract from the merit of Dr. Warren, and other brave men, who fell before, in the fame caufe.'

of paradife. For were the impulfes of confcience clear, uniform, and irrefiftibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the cafe, he finds it neceffary to furrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the reft; and this be is induced to do by the fame prudence which, in every other cafe, advifes him out of two evils to chufe the leaft. Wherefore fecurity being the true defign and end of government, it unanswerably follows, that whatever form thereof appears most likely to infure it to us, with the least expence and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others."

This form he af.erwards defcribes to be that in which all parts of the community, governors as well as governed, have a community of interefts with each other.

The Author next delivers it as a maxim "that the more fimple any thing is, the lefs liable it is to be difordered, and the eafer repaired when difordered." And with this maxim in view (fays he) Í offer a few remarks on the fo much boafled conftitution of England. That it was noble for the dark and flavifh times in which it was erected, is granted. When the world was over-run with tyranny, the leaft remove there from was a glorious rifque. But that it is imperfect, fubject to convulfions, and incapable of producing what it feems to promife, is eafily demonftrated.

Abfolute governments (though the difgrace of human nature) have this advantage with them, that they are fimple; if the people fuffer, they know the head from which their fuffering fprings, know likewife the remedy, and are not bewildered by a variety of caufes and cures. But the conflitution of England is fo exceedingly complex, that the nation may fuffer for years together without being able to difcover in which part the fault lies; fome will fay in one and fome in another, and every political phyfician will advise a dif ferent medicine.

I know it is difficult to get over local or long ftanding preju dices, yet if we will fuffer ourfelves to examine the component parts of the English conftitution, we shall find them to be the base remains of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with fome new republican materials.

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Firft. The remains of monarchial tyranny in the perfon of the king.

Secondly.-The remains of aristocratical tyranny in the perfons of the peers.

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Thirdly. The new republican materials in the perfons of the commons, on whofe virtue depends the freedom of England.

The two first, by being hereditary, are independent of the people; wherefore in a conflitutional fenfe they contribute nothing towards the freedom of the ftate.

To fay that the conftitution of England is a union of three powers reciprocally checking each other, is farcical, either the words have no meaning, or they are flat contradictions.

To fay that the commons is a check upon the king, prefuppofes two things:

Fir. That the king is not to be trusted without being looked after, or in other words, that a thirst for abfolute power is the na tural difeafe of monarchy.

• Secondly.

• Secondly. That the commons, by being appointed for that purpose, are either wifer or more worthy of confidence than the

crown.

But as the fame conftitution which gives the commons a power to check the king by withholding the fupplies, gives afterwards the king a power to check the commons by empowering him to reject their other bills; it again fuppofes that the king is wiser than those whom it has already fuppofed to be wifer than him. A mere abfurdity!

There is fomething exceedingly ridiculous in the compofition of monarchy; it firft excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cafes where the highest judgment is required. The ftate of a king fhuts him from the world, yet the bufinefs of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally oppofing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be abfurd and useless.

⚫ Some writers have explained the English conflitution thus: The king, fay they, is one, the people another; the peers are an house in behalf of the king, the commons in behalf of the people; but this hath all the distinctions of an houfe divided against itself; and though the expreffions be pleasantly arranged, yet when examined, they appear idle and ambiguous; and it will always happen, that the nicest construction that words are capable of when applied to the defcription of fomething which either cannot exist, or is too incomprehenfible to be within the compafs of defcription, will be words of found only, and though they may amufe the ear, they cannot inform the mind, for this explanation includes a previous queftion, viz. How came the king by a power which the people are afraid to trust, and always obliged to check? Such a power could not be the gift of a wife people, neither can any power, which needs checking, be from God; yet the provifion, which the conftitution makes, fuppofes fuch a power to exist.

But the provifion is unequal to the tafk; the means either cannot or will not accomplish the end, and the whole affair is a felo de fe; for as the greater weight will always carry up the lefs, and as all the wheels of a machine are put in motion by one, it only remains to know which power in the conftitution has the most weight, for that will govern; and though the others, or a part of them, may clog, or, as the phrafe is, check the rapidity of its motion, yet fo long as they cannot stop it, their endeavours will be ineffectual; the first moving power will at last have its way, and what it wants in speed, is fupplied by time.

That the crown is this overbearing part in the English conftitution, needs not be mentioned, and that it derives its whole confequence merely from being the giver of places and penfrons, is felfevident, wherefore, though we have been wife enough to fhut and lock a door against abfolute monarchy, we at the fame time have been foolish enough to put the crown in poffeffion of the key.

The prejudice of Englishmen in favour of their own government by kings, lords, and commons, arises as much or more from national pride than reafon. Individuals are undoubtedly fafer in England than in fome other countries, but the will of the king is as much

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