fee no very striking marks of capacity and genius in his work, and his ftile appears to be affected, and frequently obfcure. There are, however, good materials in this publication, and many hints and remarks, that may fuggeft falutary views and ufeful measures to legiflators; but we cannot approve of the too great propenfity which this writer discovers to modify penal retraints according to the reigning manners of the time; for though this is prudent in fome cafes, yet it may favour corruption in others; and it is one of the purposes of penal legislation to correct the manners of a people, as well as to prevent thofe enormities, that ftrike at the fubfiftence of civil fociety,-though here we acknowledge, indeed, the imperfection of its influence. The work before us contains three Parts. In the first, the Author fixes the nature of crimes, and places them in feveral claffes, agreeably to their names, kinds, and importance, which vary, increase, or diminish, according to the climate, government, manners, and religion of the country in which they are committed. To the lift of crimes is annexed a correfpondent lift of punishments, all adapted to the nature and moment of the crimes. In the fecond Part, our Author examines the nature and ftrength of the different kinds of evidence, direct or prefumptive, that are generally adopted in the trial of delinquents. A matter of the highest confequence, and not injudicioufly difcuffed. The third Part exhibits a plain and easy method of procedure, adapted to avenge, fpeedily, the injured citizen, without infringing upon the rights of the accufed. But if it is of confequence to fociety that punishment be inflicted upon the disturbers of its peace, it is ftill more effential to reftrain the hand of the delinquent, and to prevent the violation of juftice and order, Our Author, therefore, treats two questions relative to this important object. The firft,. regards the best method of preventing crimes; the second, relates to the execu tion of good laws, with which the public tribunals are intrufted. The number and conftitution of thefe tribunals, the nomination of the judges, and the permanent or temporary duration of their functions are amply confidered under this article.

II. La Mechanique appliquée aux Arts, aux Manufactures, à PAgriculture, et à la Guerre: i. c. Mechanics applied to Arts, Manufactures, Agriculture, and Military Operations. By M. BERTHELOT, Mechanical-Engineer to the King. Volume I. 4to. 141 Pages. Enriched with 120: Plates. Paris. 1782. -This curious and valuable work is the fruit of intense appli cation and expenfive experiments, carried on during forty years, and compenfated by many ufeful difcoveries. The King and the Royal Academy of Sciences have honoured the inventions of this ingenious Mechanician with folid proofs of their approbation; his mills have been conftructed at Bicitre, by the order

of

of government, and his carriages for cannon have been adopted in all the fortified cities and ports of France. We find here a multitude of curious machines circumftantially defcribed, and reprefented in engravings; and the Author offers his affiftance to thofe, who may be defirous of having any of them conftructed.

III. Voyage Pittorefque, ou Description des Royaumes de Naples et de Sicile, &c. i. e. Travels, reprefented in a Series of Engravings, through Naples and Sicily, together with a Defcription of these Kingdoms. Part I. Containing an Account of their Revolutions Maps, Plans, and Views of the Kingdom and city of Naples, its Palaces, and Sepulchral Monuments-an Account of its Poets, Painters, and Musicians-a Description of Mount Vefuvius, and a Hiftory of its Eruptions-a View of the Manners and Cuftoms of the Neapolitans, and of the Government, Commerce, and natural Productions of their Country. Felio. 250 Pages. Enriched with 50 Plates, together with 40 Head-pieces, reprefenting Medals, Portraits, and Paintings. Price about Six Pounds Sterling. Paris. 1781. Thefe beautiful engravings, preceded the defcription which is here published, and appeared fucceffively in feparate numbers fince the year 1778. The drawings' were made upon the spot by Meffis. Després, Renard, Chatelet, Paris, &c. and they were engraved by Meffrs. Prevet, St. Aubin, Aliamet, &c. all artifts of the first merit. The explication is the work of the Abbé St. Non, and the part of this publication that is relative to Natural Philofophy and the Arts, has been revised by learned men of the greatest eminence, and by the most celebrated artists.-The SECOND PART, which will foon be published, and of which fome of the plates have already appeared, will contain accounts of Herculaneum, Pompeia, the Campi Phlegrai, Campania, or the environs of Naples and Capua, and a Differtation on the Roman Shows. The two following parts or volumes will contain defcriptions of Magna Græcia and Sicily.

IV. ADELE et THEODORE; ou, Lettres fur l'Education, &c. i. e. ADELE and THEODORUS; or, Letters concerning Education; containing all the Principles, that are relative to the different Plans of Education, which are to be followed in forming the Characters of Princes, and Perfons of both Sexes in Civil Society. 3 Vols. 8vo. Paris. 1782.-The Public is indebted for this performance, which has very great merit amidit feveral imperfections, to Madam GENLIS, whofe Theatre, which has alfo education for its object, is well known *. These lerters undoubtedly contain wife and ufetul inftruction, conveyed

An English translation of it was recommended, in our Review for April 1781.

REV. June 1782.

in a most entertaining and agreeable manner. The imagination of this French Lady is lively, and fometimes leads her a dance (as the faying is); but, nevertheless, found reason, good taste, and an extenfive knowledge of human nature and human life prevail in this work, which is one of thofe fenfible and well defigned romances, that are adapted to form the manners of youth, and to ferve the cause of virtue. There is a great variety of portraits in thefe letters, and malicious interpreters have confidered many of them as perfonal reprefentations ;-but such fufpicions are illiberal: that is levelled at me, may often be a cry against moral writers, who paint life, and catch the manners living as they rife; but it proves no more than that the complainant has looked at himself in the glafs,-not that the glass was particularly held up for him.-Thefe letters will be of fingular ufe to thofe who prefide over, or are concerned in the education of youth, and indeed for fuch they seem to have been principally intended. The file is lively, eafy, and elegant: it has all the tone of a woman who has kept the best company; and we find often in the expreffion, and in the reflections that reign in this performance, the true philofopher, though without the beard.

V. Leçons elementaires d'Hiftoire Naturelle et de Chymie, &c. i. e. Elementary Inftructions in Natural Hiftory and Chemiftry; in which it is propofed, 1ft, To give a methodical Summary of all the Chemical Knowledge that has been obtained from the first Periods of that Science to the prefent Time; and 2dly, To exhibit a comparative View of the Doctrines of Stahl, and of fome celebrated modern Chemifts. By M. DE FOURCROY, M. D. Member of the Royal Society of Medicine at Paris. 8vo. 2 Vols. Price 12 Livres. Paris. 1782.-This work is ufeful for beginners, may affiti thofe that have proceeded fome length in the endless path, and will be read with pleasure even by adepts.

VI. Memoires concernant l' Fiftoire, les Sciences, les Arts, &c. i. e. Memoirs concerning the Hiftory, Sciences, Arts, Manners and Culloms of the Chinefe. By the Miffionaries of Peking. Vols. VII. and VIII. 4to. Pr. 21 Livres. Paris. 1782.-The publishers of this work are much obliged to the labours of the late Father AMIOT, whofe pen was always in motion, till death ftopped it, for the materials of these two volumes. But we are furprifed to fee the whole feventh volume filled with a Treatife on the Military Art of the Chinese, compiled and tranflated by that learned Father from Chinefe authors, and which was publifhed in the year 1772. This fhews pretty clearly, that the materials for the continuation of thefe Memoirs are not abundant. There is a Supplement to this treatife, published at the end of the 8th volume. At the head of this volume, we find

the characters of feveral famous men among the Chinese, tranf lated by F. Amiot from the writers of that country. These are followed by two eflays; one on the hierogliphical manner of writing, the other on the Chinese language. Thefe are the labours of M. CIBOT, who has treated thefe fubjects with erudition and acuteness, and enriched his Effays with ample notes, in which he difcufles feveral points, hitherto little known, relative to the natural history of China, and the ftate of arts, fciences, and manners in that empire. We are indebted to the fame author for the Differtation on the Chinese Pleafure-gardens, in which there are fome curious details. But upon the whole, these two volumes do not permit us to fay of this work, Crefcit eundo.

VII. Chronologie Phyfique des Eruptions des Volcans eteints de la France Meridionale, depuis celles qui avoifinent la Formation de la Terre, jufqu'à celles qui font decrites dans l'Hiftoire. i. e. A PhyficoChronological Account of the Eruptions of the Volcanos (now extinguifhed) in the South of France, from thofe Eruptions that were near the Period of the Earth's Formation, to those which are recorded in Hiftory. By the Abbé GIRAUD SOULAVIE. Paris.-Though this publication forms the 4th volume of this Author's Natural Hijiory of the Southern Parts of France, yet it may be confidered as a work apart, and is accordingly fold feparately. Our philofophical traveller ftops fhort in his excurfions through the mountains, to meditate on their ancient conflagrations, and avails himself of their modern eruptions to determine the times and periods of thofe which they must have undergone in the remoteft ages. Three methods of inveftigation, founded on the following plain and palpable truths, are employed by this ingenious Naturalift: one current of lava that appears under another, is the anterior of the two-when found on a fhelly rock, it announces a fubmarine volcano-when it covers a flaty or fchiftous fubftance, with impreffions of plants, it fhews that the place was enriched with vegetables before the eruption-when found on the pudding-flone, it indicates the ancient course of a stream, which has been changed by a volcanic effufion. On thefe plain principles our Author builds his hiftory of the extinguifhed Volcanos in the South of France, which forms fix diftinét fucceffive epochas.

VIII. CAI SILII ITALICI de Bello Punico fecundo Poema, ad fidem Veterum Monimentorum Cafligatum. Fragmento Operis Integri Auctum; Editio Princeps, Curante J. B. LEFEBVRE DE VILLEBRUNE. 4 Vols. 8vo. 1782.-This is the firft correct edition we have of this Roman poet. The happy and elegant corrections of the text have been drawn from four manufcripts, and the first edition published by Pomponius in the year 1471, which feems to have been unknown to all former editors. The work is alfo rendered more complete by a long fragment, found in Hh 2

the

the library of the King of France, and the whole is accompanied with a French tranflation, and enriched with a learned and ju dicious preface, which contains, among other things, a compafative view of the epic poets, ancient and modern. Those who defire to purchase this valuable edition of Silius Italicus without the French tranflation, may be furnished with the Latin poem alone, which Mr. Lefebvre de Villebrune has published apart.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For JUNE, 1782.

POLITICAL.

Art. 17. Corruption corrected: Or the Axe laid to the Root 4to. 15. Bew. 1782.

MIDST the acclamations of his country, the author thinks he

A has an undoubted right to discharge his rocket; and like a

fchool boy in the rear of an applauding multitude, to exprefs, by an after-fhout, his feeble approbation.' APOLOGY prefixed, p. 1.-In this After-Shout we have HuzZA for Fox! HUZZA for BURKE! SHELBURNE for ever! KEPPEL for ever! CAMDEN! CONWAY! BARRE'! ROCKINGHAM! RICHMOND! &c. &c. Huzza for ALL!

In difcriminating the fpecies of oratory by which Demofthenes and Tully are respectively characterized (in order to introduce fome remarks on the eloquence of Mr. Fox), the author juftly confiders the illurious modern as perhaps the most convincing and interesting orator that has yet appeared on the ftage of public life.'

Art. 18. The Criterion: Or, Difquifitions on the prefent Adminiftration, addreffed to Sir George Saville, Bart. By Jofeph Williams, Efq; Author of Confiderations on the American War. 4to. 1s. Hookham. 1782.

Mr. Williams appears to be a man of fenfe, but, in this performance, at least, he thews himself to be a defultory writer; throwing out hints and remarks in a loose, abrupt, unconnected way. He treads the whole circle of political ground; but it is difficult for the reader to ascertain, with precifion, what the Author would eftablish or avow, except it be his utter reprobation of every idea of American Independency: A point on which he infifted more at large in his "Confiderations on the American War," mentioned in our Review for April, p. 300.-What he now means by his title of "The Criterion," is not very obvious to us.

Art. 49. Impartial Reflections on the Conduct of the late Admininiftration and Oppofition, and of the American Congress: In which the Caufes and Confequences of the deftructive War between Great Britain and the Revolted Colonies are particularly confidered, and an immediate Suspension of Hoftilities is earnettly recommended. 8vo. 1s 6d. Nicoll.

This Writer improves the many opportunities afforded him of blaming the errors of all parties; of courfe all parties will be even with him, and defpife his cenfure. He makes occafionally a number