155. Conjeciura in Strabonem. Edit. Amftel. MDCVII. THE learned reader will have reafon to expect much critical acumen from thefe Conjectures" (as they are modeftly ftyled) when he knows that he is indebted for them to the ftudy and attention of Mr. Tyrwhitt. Strabo indeed is an author who well deferves them, and the Oxford editor, for whofe ufe they are intended, will no doubt avail himself of them in the new edition of that writer now preparing for the prefs. They are addreffed to the Rev. George Jubb, D. D. canon of Chrift Church, &c.-As a fpecimen we will add one or two of his corrections. "Lib. I. p. xxv. A. Ταυία γαρ, και τα περί της οριζούλας και τις αρχικές, νοήσας τις ΑΛΛΩΣ, ΠΩΣ δυναται παραπολυθείν τις λεγόμενος ενταύθα;” "Hæc interrogativè legit Cafaubonus, et reddit, Si quis male animo conceperit,' quemodo poteft, &c. Sed malim affirmativè legere, et AAANE INE conjunctim interpretari alias aliquo modo. Eadem phrafis occurrit, p. cxi. B. ubi iterum Cafaubonus • ΑΛΛΩΣ pro ΚΑΚΩΣ ufurpari vult, fed, opinor, perperam.' « Ρ. Mexxx. C. ο δε βασιλεύς εν ΟΓΚΩ Inμεγάλω πολλα συνεχής ποιες συμποσια terpres reddit, magno apparatu; quod forLaffe ferri poteft. Sed malim fcribere ax Vulgo nempe tredecim tantum homines una cibos fumebat; fed Rex, in aula magra, plures menfas fimul inftruebat." 156. Remarks on the Letters from an American Farmer; or, 4 Detection of the Errors of Mr. J. He&tor St. John: pointing out the pernicious Tendency of those Letters to Great Britain. 8vo. IT is here contended that the fuppofed Mr. St. John is of the clafs of Lauder, Bower, and Chatterton, an impoftor, not a farmer, nor an American; that many things which he reprefents are falfe; and that others, reported as recent facts, are old, if not old womens ftories, calculated to excite wonder and aftonishment.-Inftead of his being an American, this remarker infifis that "it is a fact well known that he is a Frenchman, born in Normandy; and ** that his refidence was chiefly at New "York, where he was looked upon by "the Loyalists as no true friend to Eng"lifhmen," From internal evidence in deed it appears that Mr. St. John could be no farmer; many of his ftories are wery properly expofed as abfurd and ro Mr. Falkner. mantic; and his book is clearly fhewn to be principally calculated to encou rage foreigners to emigrate and fettle in America, which, for that purpose, is painted as the promifed land, the islands of the bleffed; an infidious and fatal tendency, which this writer, as an Englifhman, is highly laudable for endeavouring to detect and counteract. 157. An Attempt to explain certain Paffages of Scripture generally mifunderflood. 8vo. THIS writer, treading in the fteps of Dr. John Taylor, of Norwich, whom he ftyles "illuftrious," and Mr. M-—n calls "d--ble" (fo Doctors differ), endeavours to put what is called a rational fenfe on fuch figurative paffages as "dead in fins,"" born again," σε putting of the old man,” &c which, when understood literally, he says, arc productive, of various abfurdities; and on feveral other paffages of fcripture he puts a conftruction, or translates them to as to adapt them to the Unitarian fyftem (as it is called), for which this author feems a zealous advocate. 158. The Herald of Literature; or, A Review of the most confiderable Publications that will be made in the Courfe of the enfuing Winter, 8vo. THE author of this performance has prefented us with imitations of Gibbon, Robertion, Hayley, Beattie, Sheridan, Payne, Burke, Mifs Burney, and Lady Craven. In many of thefe, it must be confeffed, he is not unhappy. In fome of them, however, particularly that of Mifs Burney, we have not penetration enough to difcover the finalleft refemblance. But the article in this work that will probably attract the moft general attention is, an additional fcene to "The Alchymift," founded upon a fally in one of the parliamentary fpecches of Mr. Sheridan, and given us under the name of that gentleman. The object of this writer's fatite is no lefs a man than the celebrated Mr. W. Pitt. There may be, perhaps, fome archinefs in his humour, and fome keennefs in his wit; but we cannot but declare our opinion that it is, in the highest degree, mifplaced. Mr. Pitt has every claim upon the candour and admiration of the publick. He is the fon of that immortal ftatesman whofe memory will ever live in the gratitude of Englishmen. He came forward, in the fervice of his country, at a time when it was rent by the cabals of faction; and he has always borne his teftimony against that unnatural coalition which feized by violence upon the councils of their fovereign. For a man, thus difin terested and indefatigable, to be attacked with all the wantonnefs of fatire, is to throw down the eternal diftinctions of virtue and vice, and to take away half the motives of heroical and intrepid exertion, There are, however, many other parts of the work not deftitute of entertainment; and, if the reader take care, before hand, to guard against the venom of party, with whatever abilities it may be connected, we would, in every other refpect, recommend The Herald of Literature as worthy of his perufal. 159. Hiftory of the Political Life and Public Services of the Right Honbarable Charles James Fox: 800. THIS is a performance of a very extraordinary kind. The author has, thought fit to call it a hiftory; but he' might, with as much propriety, have ftyled it a fyftem of theology, or an ef fay towards an improvement of Sir Ifaac Newton's doctrine of fluctions. It is, in fact, nothing but a ftring of what the author probably confidered as profound political reflections. We are forry to add, that we are no more able to com mend the ftyle than the compofition of the work. For our part, and we have perufed the work with fome diligence, we think we may fafely defy the author and his admirers, if admirers he has, to produce fix paragraphs, from one end of the performance to the other, (we are not romantic enough to fay, with ftrength of reafoning, or energy of diction) but with grammatical propriety precife ideas, or common fenfe. It must be acknowledged, that this writer has laboured under fome difadvantage, by coming after the hiftorian of the Life of Lord Chatham, a work which, though deftitute, alike with this, of any originality of materials, will yet, we appre hend, furvive the prejudices of a party, or the caprice of a fummer. 160. Ordination of the Reverend James Lindfay, M. A.; with a Charge by the Rev. Dr. Fordyce, &c. WE are happy, in this inftance, to meet with a compofition full of manly feelings and the language of the heart. We have long regarded the publications of Dr. Fordyce as fome of the most ori ginal that have appeared in the English language under the title of Sermons. Dr. Blair may have more polifh of ftyle and refinement of compofition; but we think his countryman at least as much fuperior to him, in an unlaboured flow of eloquence, and the spontaneous effufions of genius. The answers to Mr. Lindfay have more exactness of compofition, and firmnefs of tone, than we ufually meet with in productions of this kind. 161. A Charge delivered to the Archdeaconry of St. Alban's, at a Vifitation bolden May 22, 1783. By the Rev. Samuel Horfley, LL.D. F. R. S. Published (with Additions) at the Requeft of the Clergy. 4to. IN this Charge to his Clergy the learned Archdeacon undertakes to defend the Catholic doctrine of the "Trinity" from the attacks of Dr. Priestley, in his Hiflory of the Corruptions of Chriftianity, of which that writer deems this a principal one. And, 1. Dr. Horfley contends, that this modern hiftorian, "in fupport of his ima"ginary progrefs of opinions from the "Unitarian doctrine to the Nicene "faith," has produced fcarce any argument but what is borrowed from Zuicker, a Pruflian divine of the last century, or Simon Epifcopius, and that all their arguments have been unanfwerably confuted by our learned Bp. Bull, of whofe anfwers alfo Dr. P. has not taken the leaft notice.-Dr. H. then proceeds to controvert the argument, drawn from the affumption of the doctrine of our Lord's mere humanity being that of the Scriptures and the Apoftles, by maintaining that St. John, fpeaking of the Logos (which he had before faid was in the beginning) styles it "this perfon," that being the natural force of the Greek pronoun and that when St. Paul affirmos, of ble God, the first born of every creature, Chrift, that he is the image of the invifiby whom all things were created, viz. things in heaven and things in earth, &c. it feems totally inconfiftent with the na tural and obvious fenfe of these words to suppose them to mean that "Chrift "was the founder of the Chriftian "Church, and was no otherwife the "creator of any thing." As to the pretended filence of St. John, in his Ift Epiftle, about the error of thofe who have maintained the mere humanity of Chrift, the Archdeacon maintains that the phraft of Chrift's coming in the flesh very awkwardly and unnaturally expreffes his being a man, if he was nothing more: and, besides, that Dr. P. has changed the expreffion IN the flesh to Of the fefb, for which there is no warrant in the Greek text, y agus. "The one affirms an incarnation; the "other a mortal extraction. The first "is St. John's affertion; the fecond is "Dr. Priestley's." Ignatius, it is added, who fuffered martyrdom fo early as in the fixteenth year of the fecond century, has this paffage in his Epiftle to the Magnofians: There is one "God, who hath manifefted himself "through Jefus Chrift his Son, who is "his eternal word, who came not forth "from filence," which confutes Dr. P.'s confident affertions, that "we find "nothing like divinity aferibed to Je"fus Chrift before Juftin Martyr," and "that all the early fathers fpeak of "Chrift as not having exifted always." Proceeding from Holy Writ to other ancient writers, Athanafius, it is faid by Dr. P. and allowed by Dr. H. in his Defence of the Orthodoxy of Dionyfius, "no where denies that the Primitive "Church of Jerufalem was Unitarian. "Nor hath Dr. P. afferted it in any 'part of his Hiftory of Electricity. "The truth is, that in neither of those "valuable works the fubject comes in "queftion." In like manner our author obviates the argument drawn from Epiphanius's omitting to mention, in his account of the Nazarenes, "any of "them believing the divinity of Chrift, "in any fenfe of the word," having no information (he fays) on the fubject. Neither does he mention their disbelief of it. Nor is their opinion, whatever it was, or the fingularities of a fect, deemed heretical, of any importance. The pretended acknowledgement of Origen and Epiphanius, as to the identity of the perfons and tenets of the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, alleged by Dr. P. his antagonist afferts is not to be found in either of thofe writers. The impeachment of the credit of Eufebius for affirming that Theodotus was the firft who maintained our Lord's humanity he alfo fhews to have no foundarich, as this is not the affertion of Eufebius, but of an anonymous writer, whom he quotes. Having thus, as he affirms, " overturned the notion of "the faith of the firft Chriftians being "purely Unitarian, the affertion that "the doctrine of our Lord's divinity "was an invention of the fecond race," fays the Archdeacon, "falls with it."He proceeds to fhew that, in the doctrine of a Trinity, the Chriftian faith and the Pagan philofophy wonderfully agree, difcovering it not only in the Platonic fchool, but in the Perfian and Chaldean theology, and in the Roman fuperftition, derived from the Trojans and Phrygians. But for this and his other arguments we must refer to the Charge itself, (to which, we fee, Dr. Priestley has already published an anfwer,) after adding the paragraph with which the learned writer has clofed them:-"It is a mortifying proof of "the infirmity of the human mind, in "the higheft improvement of its facul"ties in the prefent life, that fuch falla"cies in reafoning, fuch misconstruction "of authorities, fuch distorted views of "facts and opinions, fhould be found in "the writings of a man, to whom, of "all men, in the prefent age, fome "branches of the experimental sciences "are the most indebted." 162. Obfervations on Reverfionary Payments; on Schemes for providing Annuities for Widores, and for Perfons in Old Age on the Method of calculating the Values of Affur ances on Lives; and on the National Debt. To which are added, Four Effays on different Subjects in the Dorine of Life Annuities and Political Arithmetic. The Fourth Edition, enlarged into Two Volumes by additional Notes and Flays, a Collection of new Tables, a Hiftory of the Sinking Fund, a State of the Public Debts in January, 1783, and a Poftfcript an the Population of the Kingdom. Py Richard Price, D. D. F. R. S. 2 vols. 8vo. AMONG the many improvements in this edition are, "An Account of "feveral Foreign Societies, and a Con"tinuation of fuch Annuity Societies as are ftill fubfifting in London, to the "Beginning of the Year 1782, particu"larly the Amicable Corporation for per"petual Afurances, at Serjcant's Inn, "and the Society, in Chatham Square, "for Equitable Afurances on Lives and "Survivor bips, the firft of the Kind in "the World, and increasing faft."This the Doctor has had chiefly in view, and this he has, for many years, been concerned in advifing. In the 11d volume are given the Tables, by which the proceedings of that Society are directed, the principles on which they are founded, &c. The publications of Mr. Wales and Mr. Howlett have occafioned alfo several corrections and additions; but the principal are the Tables in the fecond volume, with the explanatory remarks. It is there fhewn (and the author thinks undeniably) that the Tables of the Values of Lives deduced from the London Bills of Mortality, err only by giving them too high; and that, with refpect to the main body of the inhabitants, the unfavourablenefs of London to the duration of life continues much the fame that it used to be. As to Dr. Price's account of the decreafed population of the kingdom, which "great pains," he fays, "have been taken to prove to be "a miftake," though "far from being "decided in it," he ftill retains it, and the gold coin of the kingdom, instead of twelve millions and a half, as he had reckoned it, he now finds, by the fums brought in, to have been, in 1773, about fixteen millions, exclufive of two millions purchafed by the Bank and melted into bars. The laft and principal additions are thofe relating to public credit and the national debt, on which the author thus expreffes himself: read with amazement. Our folly, in this inftance, is without example. Lord NORTH enjoys the fingular diftinction of having contributed more to it than any former minifter. By a war, which has degraded the kingdom, and a diffipation of treafure which was never equalled, he has, in the fhort compafs of feven years, doubled a debt before too rations rife up; and, if poffible, let them call heavy to be endured. And let future genehim-Blessed!" Dr. Price has at leaft the merit of having, like an ancient prophet, cried tion of faying, Liberavi animam meam. aloud, and spared not, and the fatisfac 163. BIBLIOTHECA TOPOGRAPHICA BRITANNICA. NO XVI. Collections, by Mr. Mores, towards an Hiftory of Berkshire, 4to. MR. MORES's plan for collecting materials for a parochial hiftory of the county of Berks, where his family had been feated from the beginning of the fixteenth century, having been already laid before the publick in the Account of Great Coxwell, in No XIII. of this "In the Preface to the third edition I work, our induftrious editor, by his intook notice of a plan, announced in 1773, by tereft with his friend the prefent poffefLord North to the Houfe of Commons, for for of Mr. Mores's Collections, is, in paying, in the ten following years, 17 mil- this number, enabled to deal out the lions of the public debt. It is neceffary I Anfwers which Mr. Mores received fhould just here mention that this plan was from the feveral gentlemen in the counnever afterwards heard of. The remarks I have made upon it were followed by a proty to whom he applied himself. Thefe, pofal for expediting a plan of redemption in efq. were chiefly the incumbents of the except James Petit Andrews, of Shaw, fuch a manner, as to caufe an appropriation of a million per ann. to difcharge, in forty refpective parishes. Thefe parishes, as years, A HUNDRED MILLIONS of the pub. ranged alphabetically in the title, aplic debts, then bearing 3 per cent. intereft. pear to have been Bifbam, ChaddlesThis propofal has not been continued in this worth, Cole/bill, Cumner, Eaft Garston, edition, because I intend foon to lay before Shaw, Shifford, Sparfholt, Speen, Stanthe publick a plan more efficient, and better ford, Suthamftede, and Tattenden. The adapted to the prefent ftate of our funds. I reader will eafily perceive that thefe muft, however, obferve, that having now no accounts are a kind of fupplement to hope that an efficient plan of redemption will the crudities of Ashmole, who contentever be established, I think with regret of ed himfelf with giving the fepulchral Thefe matters are attended to here; monuments, and thofe not correctly.-and though much more remains to be done to make a complete parochial hif tory, yet thefe may be deemed no mean materials for that purpofe. the time and attention I have bestowed on this fubject. Nothing relieves me, but the reflection that the object, about which I have lost my time, has been the removal of an evil which, if no fuch measures as I have propofed are adopted, must bring on a cataArepbe which will make this country a warn ing and a terror to the world. "At the end of the Chapter on Public Credit I have, in this edition, inferted a brief history of the Sinking Fund; and afo, a particular account of the public debts from 1778 to 1783, and of the ftate of our finances to the time of figning the Preliminaries of Peace in January last. This account is, I bel eve, as correct as it is poffible at prefent to make it; and i have choten, tor many reafons, that it should form a part of this work. Hereafter, probably, it will be The places of which thefe accounts are fulleft are, Cumner, Eaft Her dred†, Speen, Shifford, Chaddlefworth, Childrey, and Shaw. Of the others as much feems to have been faid as was in the power of Mr. Mores's correfpondents, who all agree in their good intentions *The Supplement to this parith, numbered 34, fhould have been 25. f Omitted both in the title and index and and offers of fervice, even the worthy Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicefter, at incumbent of Binfield, whofe letter de-St. Mary's Church in Warwick, 1571. ferves a place here for its franknefs: "SIR, Binfield, Sept. 5, 1759. "I received a printed letter from you, about three months ago, with enquiries about the antiquities, &c. of my parish. I had the fame, with many other enquiries, brought me a few years ago by my neighbour Mr. Theobald, of White Waltham, lately deceased, to whom I gave fuch anfwers as were needful, having, indeed, nothing very particular in my parith, that deferves the attention of an antiquarian. Mr. Theobald came and took a draught of my church, and wrote down two or three infcriptions I have there; as indeed he did by feveral of the neighbour. ing churches. In thort, he collected a great many materials, and made a good progrefs in the history and antiquities of the parishes hereabout. The gentlemen that have communicated materials to Mr. Theobald will not choose to repeat their trouble, becaufe, when you come into this country, there is, I think, no doubt but the prefent Mr. Theobald, who is lord of the White Waltham, will readily give you a light of his father's papers. I am your humble fervant, JOHN BIRCH.” To thefe materials of Mr. Mores the editor has fubjoined a few particulars, collected by himfelf, for the parifhes of Aldworth, Shottesbrook, and White Waltham, with plates of monuments in the churches of the two firft, from drawings taken by or for Mr. Aihmole, now in the Herald's Office. Some curious original records are alfo occafionally introduced. We heartily with Mr. Nichols encouragement to complete his promifed intention of printing, in fome future number, what Collections Mr. Mores himself made on this fubject. 164. BIBLIOTHECA TOPOGRAPHICA BRITANNICA. No XVII. Extracts from the Black Book of Warwick, (including a new Progress of Queen Elizabeth, 1572); Me moir, by Mr. Pegge, on Guy Earl of Warwick; and an Original Letter of Sir Thomas More. 410. THIS Number confifts of fome curious Extracts from a Regifter called The Black Book of WARWICK, in the poffeffion of the Corporation of Warwick, relative to the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.-Thele are, 1. An Account of the Celebration of the French Order of St. Michael, by Inftituted by Lewis XI. of France, in 1469. A beautiful MS. of its ftatures is in 2. The Death and Burial of William Par, Marquis of Northampton, and brother of Queen Catherine Par; [the fame year; not the richest man in England, indeed fo poor that the Queen was pleafed to take the charge of his funeral upon herself.] 3. Queen Elizabeth's Coming to Warwick, 1572; [a new progress.] 4. Order of Council to affift John Speed, &c. This industrious taylor was emancipated "from the daily em"ployments of a manuall trade" by Sir Fulke Greville, as he gratefully acknowledges in his Theatre of Great Bri tain, art. Warwickshire. To thefe Extracts is added, A Memoir on the Story of Guy Earl of Warwick, by Mr. Pegge, read before the Society of Antiquaries, but, we prefume, not deemed fufficiently folid for their Archæologia, illuftrated with a print of Guy's ftatue at Guy's-cliffe, in its prefent mutilated ftate *. The rear is clofed with Sir Thomas More's Narrative of a Religious Frenzy at Coventry, in his time, which he had fenfe enough to be ashamed of, but which the editors of his Works had not honefty enough to infert his opinion of in his Works; a moft abfurd dogma of a friar, who preached falvation to the the Virgin Mary. greatest villains, if they only invoked 165. Memoires du Comte de Grammont, par Monfieur le Comte Antoine Hamilton. Nagweile Edition, augmentée de Notes et d'Eclairciffemens neceffaires, par M. Horace Walpole. 40. WITH this much-improved edition of these celebrated Memoirs, of which 100 copies only were printed. feveral years ago, at Strawberry Hill, Mr. Walpole has at last confented to gratify the publick at large. But, as it is only a republication, whatever be its merits or its faults, we fhall not here difcufs them, but only give (in English) fuch additions as are new, which (befides the Duc de Valliere's Library, the fale of which begins next month. The late Simon Greathede, Esq. owner of Guy's Cliffe, nearly re-edified the tower of which the flatue is reprefented to be now the chapel there. The carpenter's fhop, in ftanding, was merely accidental, fome carpenters being then at work in the houfe. The ftatue is in the chapel. EDIT. the |