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fer, croffing the others at right angles, dividing the whole into leffer fquares. The walls are built on a foft freestone rock, high above the cirrúmjacent country; and are faid to have been built by the Mercian lady Ethelfleda.

The structure of the four principal streets is without parallels they run direct from eaft to welt, and north to fouth, and were excavated out of the earth, and funk many feet beneath the furface. The carriages are driven far below the level of the kitchens, on a line with ranges of fhops, over which paffengers walk in galleries, which the inhabitants call the rows, fecure from wet or heat. In the rows are likewife ranges of shops, and steps to defcend into the street.'

Several Roman antiquities have been discovered about Chefter at different times. Among these is an altar, erected by Flavius Longus, tribune of the 20th legion, and his fon Longinus, in honour of the emperor Dioclefian and Maximinian; and a ftatue of Mithras. Coins of Vefpafian, Conftantius, Trajan, Hadrian, &c. have at different times been found. In the account which the author gives of earls of Chester, we meet with the following ludicrous anecdote.

Ranulph fought a retreat, from the attacks of the Welsh, in the caftle of Rhuddlan; which underwent a violent siege for some time; till Roger Lacy, conftable of Chefter, collected a formidable band of fiddlers, and other motly minstrels, who had affembled together at a fair at Chester, founded by Hugh Lupus, one leading privilege of which was, the protection of whores, rogues, thieves, and vagabonds, of every denomination, during its continuance, from reftraint of punishment.-With this regiment of refiners did Roger march into Wales, where, strange to tell, they played fo good a tune, that it in a fhort time clofed with the raifing of the fiege; for which fervice, Ranulph rewarded Lacy with full power over all the scrapers of caigut in the coun ty; a privilege which his fon transferred to the family of the Duttons, in Cheshire; and it is within the recollection of many perfons now living, that the anniversary of this whimsical folemnity was regularly celebrated, on the festival of St. John the Baptift, by a proceffion of the minstrels to the church of their tutelar faint in Chester :-to the no small amusement of the spectators.'

The author afterwards gives an account of the citywalls, boundaries, corporation, churches, streets, &c. with a chronology of remarkable events in Chefter; fubjoining a ground-plan of the city, which appears to be accurately delineated. To the hiftory of Chefter, is added a fummary of the life of St. Werburgh; with an historical account of the images upon her fhrine (now the epifcopal throne),

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in the choir of Chefter. The author appears to have been industrious in his researches; and has mixed entertainment, as much as he could, with the information he has been able to collect.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE. POLITICA L.

A Letter of Advice from a French Democrat to an Englife Revolutionif, 840. Is. 6d. Deighton. 1792.

THE

HE eager indifcriminating violence of a warm democrat comes fo near to what a fober reflecting author would confider as open, obvious, well-pointed irony, that we have fome difficulty in determining under which clafs the Letter should be arranged. We have good reasons for thinking the whole to be ironical; but the irony is not fufficiently clear, and the ferious argument, in fome parts which relates to the affairs of France, makes the defign, on the whole, equivocal. The object of the democrat is to show his correfpondent what steps fhould be pursued to compafs another re volution in England; and, in this view, the Letter is of importance-Forewarned-forearmed.'

Reprefentation and Petition from his Highness the Nabob of the Carnatic, prefented to the House of Commons, March 5, 1792. 8vo. 15. 6d. Debrett. 1792.

The mysterious politics of India are too deep and intricate to be fathomed by a literary Reviewer. We have carefully read over the petition, and think, after making every allowance, that the nabob Wau Lau Jau Ummeer ul Hind Omdat ul Mulk Aufuph ud Dowlah Unwer ad Dien Cawn Bahauder Zuphar Jung Separ Saular, fovereign and foubahdar of the Carnatic, Payenghaut, and Ballaghaut, has been hardly dealt with, though we perceive at the fame time, that the faid nabob Wau Lau, &c. &c. &c. feems to have been the first who broke the treaty, by fuffering the arrears to accumulate wantonly and unreasonably.

A Letter to the Right Hon. W. Pitt, on the Subject of a Tax for raifing fix Millions fierling, and for employing that Sum in Loans to neceffitous and induftrious Perfons. 4to. Debrett. 1792.

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The plan of this benevolent author's project is briefly as fol lows: That the fum of fix millions fterling be raifed by a capita tion, or poll-tax: one million of which fhould remain in the hands of government during the term of seven years; and five millions to be lent among honeft and induftrious tradesmen, manufacturers, and others, who ftood in need of fuch affiftance.

That

That fuch a plan, judiciously regulated, would encrease public profperity, feems highly probable; but the maft faithful and impartial conduct of the trustees would be necessary for carrying it into execution. In juftice to the projector, it may be proper to add, that the Letter is fubfcribed with the name of Andrew Becket.

An Address to the Right Hon. W. Pitt, on the Probability of a Revolution in this Country. 8vo. 15. Ridgway. 1792. The old complaint of corruption in government, mixed and fermented with the doctrine of the Rights of Men.

The Queftion confidered; How far the prefent flourishing State of the Nation is to be afcribed to the Conduct of the Minifter. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Ridgway. 1792.

The author of this pamphlet affects the ftricteft impartiality in the investigation of his fubject; and we with it could be added, that he has equally obferved fuch a rule in the progrefs of his argument. The feveral public tranfactions which he confiders are, indeed, the most proper data by which a judgment may be formed of the merit or demerit of adminiftration; but he does not state the confequences of thofe data with fufficient accuracy; and in endeavouring to extenuate the good effects of certain public meafures, he seems not to reflect that the profperous ftate of the nation, which he readily admits, ought not to be afcribed to the operation of any one or more individual measures, confidered feparately, fo much as to the general and complicated result of the whole. With respect to the author's idea, that an administration formed of men of great landed property, is preferable to one which is fupported by public opinion, he is not likely to make many converts to his doctrines; and few, we believe, would rejoice in the fecurity of an adminiftration, which depended more upon its qwn aristocratical influence, than the general fentiments of the nation.

Memoirs of Hildebrand Freeman, Efq. or a Sketch of The Rights of Man. A recent Story founded upon Facts, and written by Himself. Svo. 1s. 6d. Edwards. 1792.

The Memoirs of this friend to the natural equality of mankind are defigned to show practically the progrefs of the mind early tinctured with the levelling doctrines, and carefully investigating the fubject from obfervation and reafoning. The defcriptions of the proceedings of the national affembly feem to be copied on the fpot, and we might have been tempted to tranfcribe the account, but that, from accident or defign, it has already appeared in feveral of the newfpapers. The following obfervations appear to us yery accurate :

⚫ Gloomy

Gloomy as thefe experimental views were, I had fill fome glimmer of hope in the laws; thefe may, in time, thought I, regulate all abufes-They are now afloat upon a new principle, and it must be by the operation of thefe, and thefe alone, from which all good government can be expected. With this view I examined, with as much accuracy as I was able, the different branches of the civil, military, and economical departments, which I found fo far from coalefcing and ferving mutual purposes, they rather checked than impeded each other. The original caufe of all this I found to arife from two principal difcordant parts in the government, viz. democracy and royalty.-The fpirit of the new government confifted of the firft-the form was only preferved in the fecond. This occafioning a mutual diftruft, every propofition on one fide, however ultimately good for the ftate, is received coldly by the other- the love of country, of fame, of virtuous popularity, are out of all confideration; and the great object of reach, debate, and affiduity (the conftitution having no fundamental balance to preferve its equipoife and temperature) is to aim increafing powers for the different parties.'

Perhaps his conclufion is equally juft: it is the opinion that we have often had occafion to offer.

• I had now finished my furvey of the new conftitution of France, not through the organs of party pamphlets, or interested people, but from an active and diligent enquiry made by myself upon the spot. I confidered it as it stood upon paper, and, as it was afterwards reduced into practice; and the refult of all was, that I was now convinced the Rights of Max, as laid down in the abstract manner of modern philosophers, are a mere pedantic abule of elementary principles, which, in the attempt, muft loofen the bands of governments, and be destructive of all focial freedom.' CONTROVERSIAL.

Jefus Chrift the only God. Being a Defence of that fundamental Doctrine of the Chriftian Religion, against Arianism and Socinianifm. Addreffed to the Rev. Dr. Priestley. By J. Bellamy. 8vo. 25. Sibly. 1792.

We do not recollect that we have ever met Mr. Bellamy in the field of controverfy; yet he wields his weapons with the addrefs of a veteran polemic, and is a champion with whom Dr. Priestley will not, probably, difdain to contend. He attacks his restless, enterprising, antagonist very properly, on the little evidence to be attained even in fubjects of natural philofophy, where the fubject is expofed to every trial that can be fuggefted, and traces many of Dr. Priestley's doctrines to his system of Materialism. With refpect to his peculiar fyftem of Unitarianifm alfo, he endeavours to prove historically, that the Ebionites, and the followers of

Paul

Paul of Samofata, were confidered, in the earliest ages, as heretics.

The fource of this polemic attack is what Dr. Prieftley had faid, in his Letters to the Members of the New Jerufalem Church.' Mr. Bellamy is a follower of Emanuel Swedenborg, and tells us, that he never understood the fcriptures till he was taught in the fchool of this very celebrated myftic-may we add, this visionary enthufiaft? He attacks Dr. Priestley on many parts of his Letters, and endeavours to fhow, that he has either misunderstood or misreprefented the baron's doctrines, particularly respecting the Divine influx, marriages in a future ftate, and the fuppofed union of the Divine Effence to a human body. On this latt fubject, as the remark is fhort, we shall transcribe Mr. Bellamy's obfervations.

• But before I enter upon it, I must not omit to inform my readers of the injuftice you have done the baron, in mifreprefenting his writings. P. 32 and 64, you charge it upon him, as an affertion of his own, "That the divine essence is united to a human body." He fays no fuch thing; but on the other hand, shows the impoffibility of fuch an union; and what appears illiberal on your fide, you know that he denies fuch an union, at the very mo, ment you are charging him with it; for you give his own words, P. 32, where he fays, "For the human nature cannot be tranf inuted into the divine effence, neither commixed therewith." Whenever your pen is again employed, let candour prevail with you never to be guilty of fuch an impropriety, as it appears to be done with intent to deceive thofe who are fearching for truth, or gain profelytes to your own opinions. Such fubterfuges we have no idea of." We hefitate not to meet the full force of prejudice, by admitting the imputations of our adverfaries in their most ob noxious forms; confident that truth ftands in no need of fuch a shelter, as that to which you have recourse."

On the whole, we do not think our author equally fuccessful in his particular attempts to convict his antagonist of misrepre fentation and error, as he is in his more general oppofition; and when, for instance, the baron faid that form may be predicated of God, and that form was virtually human, the doctor was not, we fufpect, very wrong in faying, that Emanuel confidered God as having existed in a human form previous to his incarnation. Where is the difference between a form virtually the fame, and a femplance formally?

An Anfower to the Second Part of Rights of Man. 8vo.

Rivingtons. 1792.

Is. 6d.

Our author, with great calmness and good fenfe, follows this inflammatory author in his various wanderings, and detects his

numerous

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