relative to a rejection of matrimonial forms, which have been inculcated by certain modern writers. Art. 23. Belville House. 12mo. 2 Vols. 8s. Boards. Chapple, &c. 1805. Every publication, which assumes the form of a novel, or romance, has such a wide and diversified circulation, through the medium of subscription libraries, that we hail with peculiar satisfaction such of them as are calculated to promote good taste, and diffuse sentiments of virtue. Of this description are the two volumes now on our table. We will not say that the author has evinced uncommon ingenuity in weaving an intricate or heart-rending story; nor can we highly compliment him, or her, on extreme accuracy or elegance of composition; but the incidents, though frequently detached, are naturally introduced, they are such as we can easily conceive to arise in the intercourse of real life, and yet are of sufficient importance to preserve the interest of the piece. The leading characters are ably sketched, and well sustained; and we are pleased with the ease of transition from scenes of gravity or distress to those of gaiety and good humour. The writer's style occasionally betrays examples of venial carelessness, but is devoid of pedantry, and approaches to that of genteel conversation. Art. 24. AFFAIRS OF INDIA. The Affairs of Asia considered in their effects on the liberties of Britain. In a Series of Letters addressed to the Marquis Wellesley, late Governor General of India; including a Correspon dence with the Government of Bengal under that Nobleman, and a Narrative of Transactions, involving the Annihilation of the personal Freedom of the Subject, and the Extinction of the Liberty of the Press in India with the Marquis's Edict for the Regulation of the Press. By Charles Maclean, M.D. 8vo. pp. 172 5s Quick, No. 393, Strand. -1806. This bulky Pamphlet contains an account of the Proceedings of the late Governor General towards the writer. It appears that this Gentleman had resided in India for some years previously to 1798: at that period, he had occasion to contradict a false newspaper account of the death of a friend; and in his communication to the paper, he stated that his friend had experienced harsh treatment from a magistrate, and promised to send the editor some remarks on that transaction. We learn that the magistrate in question, on a charge of an assault, without hearing the accused or his witnesses, had refused to admit him to bail, put him under arrest, and sent him under a guard from the province of Benares to Bengal in an open boat, exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather, at a dangerous season of the year. In consequence of the hint, at this behaviour in Dr. Maclean's letter to the publisher of the Newspaper, orders were transmitted to him to apologise for his offence in having so acted, since he had reflected on a magistrate in the execution of his duty. Dr.Maclean, with a spirit which cannot be too much praised, refused to submit to this unmerited humiliation; and he was in consequence, by order of the Governor General, sent to England as a charterREV. Nov. 1806. Y party party passenger. The accommodations of a charter-party passage are, room to swing a hammock among the sailors, and a certain allowance of salt beef, biscuit, and spirits; and such were the accom modations to which this gentleman and his lady were obliged to sub. mit. Why, it may be asked, did the Governor General take the matter from the cognizance of the tribunals? Why did he not leave the magistrate to his action, or direct a criminal prosecution to be instituted? By Mr. Pitt's bill, the Governor or President of the council may, upon his single pleasure, seize and secure any British subject in India, of whatever rank or situation, and upon the accu sation of only one person cause him to be thrown on ship board, or imprisoned, until there shall be a convenient opportunity of sending him to England:" -a monstrous enactment in a British Act of Parliament; and which it is to be hoped will be speedily erased from our statute book.--The detail of these transactions is accompanied with statements and observations which prove the author's devotion to the principles of constitutional liberty: but by the introduction of them he weakens the impression which the tale of his oppressive treatment would excite. It is stated that Dr. M. had no license to remain in India, but then he asserts that thousands besides were in a similar situation without ever having been disturbed. We have heard much of the Noble Marquis's edict against the press, and from this pamphlet we take the opportunity of submitting it to our readers as a curiosity. • Regulations respecting the publication of Newspapers, viz. 1. Every printer of a newspaper to print his name at the bottom of the paper. 2. Every editor and proprietor of a paper to deliver in his name and place of abode, to the secretary to government. 3. No paper to be published on a Sunday. 4. No paper to be published at all, until it shall have been previously inspected by the Secretary to the Government, or by a person authorised by him for that purpose. 5. The penalty for offending against any of the above regulations to be immediate embarkation for Europe. Rules for the guidance of the Secretaries to Government in revising the Newspapers. To prevent the publication of, 1. All observations on the state of public credit, or the revenues, or the finances of the Company. 2. All observations respecting the embarkation of troops, stores, or specie; or respecting any naval or military preparations whatever. 3. All intelligence respecting the destination of any ships, or the expectation of any, whether belonging to the Company or to indivi duals. 4. All observations with respect to the conduct of Government, of any of its officers, civil or military, marine, commercial, or judicial. All private scandal, or libels on individuals. 5 6. All statements with regard to the probability of war or peace between the Company and any of the native powers. 7. All observations tending to convey information to an enemy, or to excite alarm or commotion within the Company's territories. 8. The republication of such passages from the European news papers as may tend to affect the influence and credit of the British power with the native states.' Do these regulations still subsist in India? Art. 25. Remarks on the Oude Question. 8vo. pp. 136. 3s. 6d. Richardson. 1806. We The particulars of this odious transaction are here related with simplicity and pathos, and with all the appearance of fairness and impartiality. Indeed, the author refers for all his facts to documents already published; and he makes his readers sympathize strongly with the oppressed Prince, while he excites no small share of indignation against his oppressors. He ably unravels the sophistry by which it has been attempted to vindicate these proceedings, and exhibits them to the light of day in all their deformity.-Those who can doubt the criminality of them must be constituted differently from us. respect the talents of Lord Wellesley, and highly commend his zeal in the cause of science and letters, but we abhor despotism, however splendidly it may be arrayed. It kills the mind, reduces man to a state below that of the brute, and sows the seeds of abundant misery. -No man can read this tract without feeling extreme concern for the injury done to our reputation as a people, by the late measures pursued in India. We would warn certain great persons, for whom we have much respect, against stepping forwards between offenders and justice, at least the justice which unbiassed public opinion administers. POLITICS. Art. 26. A Dispassionate Enquiry into the best Means of Nations! Safely. By John Bowles, Esq. 8vo. pp. 115. 39. Hatchard. 1806. We do not believe that there are many points in which Mr. Bowles and Bonaparte agree: but there is, strange as it may appear, one sentiment in which both these personages most perfectly coincide. They both profess their warm acknowlegements to the late British minister for the coalition which, in the course of the last year, he brought to act against France; and Frenchmen in general will participate in this feeling. Mr. Bowles, however, is not contented with this sort of countenance, which he must be aware of possessing; he wishes Englishmen to share with him the same convic tion. Let any person', he says, ask himself whether in the summer of 1805, he would not have thought the formation of precisely such a league, an event most devoutly to be wished.' For ourselves, we say, No. We behold Mr. B. shrugging up his shoulders, and lifting up his hands and eyes. Still we say, No. Had we been previously informed that the Arch-Duke was to be sent to Italy, that Mack was to be opposed to Bonaparte, and that the King of Prussia would not co-operate; had we known the weakness or the wickedness of the advisers of Francis II; had we been aware of the want of confidence between that Monarch and his Hungarian subjects; (and Mr. B. must know that it was the business of certain persons to have been informed of all these particulars ;)-instead of devoutly wishing, we should have most anxiously deprecated such a league. Our opinion is that the spirit which money raises can have no great effect in changing the relations of states; we also think that we ought to follow and not to lead the continent, that we should co-operate with it and not incite it, that we should be in unison with its movements, but not goad it. Mr. Bowles affects, in these pages, a deep sense of piety, and a great severity of moral practice; almost sufficient to equip an antient ascetic, a puritan of former days, or a modern methodist; and yet this good christian, without any apparent emotion, preaches up interminable war, and reprobates the very attempt to restore the relations of peace. Art 27. Memoirs concerning the Commercial Relations of the United States with England. By Citizen Talleyrand. Read at the National Institute, the 15th Germinal, in the Year V. To which is added an Essay on the Advantages to be derived from New Colonies in the existing circumstances. By the same Author. Read at the Institute the 15th Messidor, in the Year V. 8vo. pp. 87. 2s. 6d. Longman and Co. 1806. These papers present strong claims to public attention; the celebrity of the writer would occasion them to be very generally sought, were they even of an ordinary kind; and their intrinsic merit would secure to them extensive perusal, though the author were the most obscure of men. Were it in our power to allow to each article that is presented to us its proportionate weight, and were we to apply that rule to these sheets, our notice of them would be scarcely less considerable than that which we usually bestow on a bulky vo lume. In the present instance, however, we had rather recommend it strongly to the politician to peruse the whole of this pamphlet, than attempt any brief and unsatisfactory analysis of its contents. In these memoirs, the dread diplomatist re-assumes his original cha racter; he is the enlightened Bishop of Autun, the philanthropist of the Constituent Assembly, and not the crafty guiletul minister of an odious Directory, or of an insatiably ambitious Consul and Emperor. It is a charge brought against the present ministers of Great Bri tain that they are copyists of Mr. Pitt. Should they furnish one instance more to countenance that imputation, by publishing a late correspondence, a rare treat would doubtless be furnished to the literary and curious part of the world; it would present a struggle be tween the two clearest heads and most capacious and accomplished minds in Europe, but certainly of very opposite habits and practices, though probably not of dissimilar inward convictions and views. While the English statesman was the boast of a free senate, the ge nius itself of liberty at home, the soul of pacific and conservative sys tems abroad, the French minister is the supple instrument of a harsh and rigid despotism in his own country; whose influence as it af fects other states is akin to that which poisons atmospheres, and brings on on awful convulsions of nature. The one died the minister of a government whose every interest coincides with the peace of the world and the prosperity of nations; the other lives the obedient agent of a throne whose stability is sought in universal subversion, and whose baleful prosperity can arise only from surrounding ruin. Art. 28. Considerations for and against a South American Expedition. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Budd. A collection of newspaper communications, of scarcely any value. The question is never placed on its proper grounds, and is considered by persons utterly destitute of the information requisite to cluci date it. : Art. 29. Eight Letters on the Sulject of the Earl of Selkirk's Pamphlet on Highland Emigration as they lately appeared under the Signature of Amicus, in one of the Edinburgh Newspapers. Second Edition, with Supplementary Remarks. Svo. 3s. 6d. Longman, &c. A republication of the insignificant Letters of Amicus serves to shew to what extent prejudice is acting, with respect to the subject to which they refer. The large supplement now accompanying them is somewhat less trivial than the original epistles; in which we own that we can discover little to commend except the intention. No long time has passed since certain senators vehemently contended that enlisting for a short definite term, rather than for life, had no tendency whatever to render the service inviting. By the side of these statesmen, the present writer is unquestionably intitled to a place; since he gravely maintains that feudal manners still retain their predominance in the Highlands, though the system in which they originated has been wholly removed It followed as an inevitable consequence from the new economy, that a number of hands were thrown out of employ. To dispose of these advantageously for themselves, and for the public, was the object of the Noble Earl; and it is evident to all who will keep their eyes open, that his plan was founded in humanity, policy, and science, while its execution displayed a laudable spirit of enterprize. Art. 30. Free Thoughts on Public Affairs: or Advice to a Patriot; in a Letter addressed to a Member of the Old Opposition. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Budd. 18:6. The object of this pamphlet is to prove that we unnecessarily, wantonly, rashly, and unwisely plunged into the present war: but this information, however we may regard it, reaches us rather too late to be of any important benefit. The writer is in the extreme of hostility to the late minister; and so far does this enmity carry him, that it induces him to underrate Mr. Pitt's capacity and attainments. Those persons who, on the one side, denied the abilities of the opposite leader, and who, on the other, represented his rival as the of his country, we have always set down as intolerable partizans, and as persons disqualified for good society. In the decision of the question, which of those eminent men excelled the other in talents, the universal admission of those of the late secretary, while there were some who disputed those of the premier, may be argued enemy |