1

energetic, as the Latin. One monfieur le Perrier managed the controverfy between him and Laboureur, who appears to have been a kind of enthusiast for the excellency of the French. The whole controverfy is extremely uninterefting to the public of England at prefent, but may afford many curious particulars to those who are fond of the French language and learning. 31. The Tragedies of Sophocles, translated from the Greek ; (with a Differtation on Ancient Tragedy) by the Rev. Thomas Francklin, M. A. A new Edition, carefully revised and corrected. 8vo. Pr. 10s. bound. Davies.

We are pleased to find, from this new edition of Mr. Francklin's ingenious tranflation of Sophocles, that the public voice has approved our recommendation of the work *, which is now neatly printed in a more convenient fize, and may be purchased at a confiderable leis expence than the former edition in quarto.

32. The Eafieft Introduction to Dr. Lowth's English Grammar, defigned for the Use of Children under ten Years of Age, to lead them into a clear Knowledge of the first Principles of the English Language. By the Rev. John Ash, of Perfhore in Worcestershire. With an Appendix, containing, I. Some Short Objervations on the various Sounds of the Vowels. II. Eafy Parfing Exercises on the English Language. III. A Select Collection of Books for Boys and Girls, to fhorten the Path to Knowledge. IV. Select Leffons to inflil juft Sentiments of Virtue. I 2mo. Pr. 1s. Dilly.

This is a plain, eafy, compendious fyftem of English grammar, properly calculated for children. In the title-page the reader has a full account of all its contents.

33. A Summary of the Soul's Perceptive Faculties; and also of Dialectic or Logic: introductory to the Theory of Mind. By the Editor of Letters on Mind. 8vo. Pr. 15. Rivington.

Cardan in his treatife de fubtilitate relates, that one of our countrymen, a fubtle doctor, was fuch a deep logician, that only one of his arguments was enough to puzzle all pofterity'; and that when he grew old, he wept because he could not underftand his own books.-This writer without difpute is one of his defcendants: for what can be more fubtle than the following argumentation ?

Let any two things be taken: and they are either both the fame with that which is the fame in both, or is common to them both; or one of them only is the fame with that which is the fame in both, or common to both; or they are both different from that which is the fame in both, or common to both.'

*See Crit. Rev. vol. vii. p. 512:

The

The reader who has an inclination to exercise his reafon in fuch speculations as thefe, may have recourse to this learned tract.

34. A fecond Vindication of the Right of Proteftant Churches to require the Clergy to fubfcribe to an established Confeffion of Faith and Doctrines, in a Letter to the Examiner of the First. By T. Rutherforth, D.D. F. R. S. 8vo. Pr. 6d. Robinson and Roberts. In this letter the author endeavours to vindicate the tendency and force of his argument, refpecting the right of proteftant churches, &c. againft the objections of the Examiner *.

35. An Appeal to the Public, from the malicious Mifrepresentations, impudent Falfifications, and unjuft Decifions, of the anonymous Fabricators of the Critical Review. By George Canning, of the Middle Temple, Efq; 8vo. Pr. 6d. Dodiley.

When we reviewed Mr. Canning's tranflation of Anti-Lucretius we were influenced by no kind of prejudice, no malevolence of heart. We even felected thofe paffages in which the tranflator feemed to have imitated the fpirit and elegance of the original with the greatest fuccefs. Our criticisms were the result of impartial examination: and it is remarkable that not one of them is objected to in this Appeal.

The author has attempted to vindicate his observation on the. length of the Latin hexameter and the English heroic line; but what he has urged in his defence is nothing to the purpofe. We are ftill convinced, that the controverfy is to be determined by calculating the number of words, and not the fyllables, of which thefe lines refpectively confift. That an English heroic verfe generally contains as many words as a Latin hexameter, is an indifputable fact. In Mr. Canning's tranflation of three books of Polignac there are, we will venture to affirm, more lines confifting of ten words, than there are in the whole Æneid of Virgil. It Latin words in general contain a greater number of vowels, and confequently more fyllables than English words, as they certainly do, it does not follow from thence that they convey, in the Jame proportion, a greater number of ideas, which is the point Mr. Canning, upon his principles, ought to have proved. Four English words, he fays, are abfolutely requifite to exprefs the meaning of docebor. -Granted. But this is not owing to the number of fyllables of which the word confifts, but to the genius of the language; a very different reason from that which Mr. Canning affigns. In short, when he alledges, that a faithful English translation, in heroic measure, must ever contain more lines, by one-third, than the original, if composed

* See vol. xxii. p. 317.

of Latin hexameters, because the Latin line ufually confits of fifteen fyllables and the English of ten, he argues upon this principle, that words of three fyllables must be more expreffive than those of one, and those of fix more expreflive than those of two, by one third; which is evidently falfe and abfurd.

He acknowledges that his performance is confiderably longer than the original: and he afligns the reafon we have now confidered. This we faid was an apology for the length of his tranflation. But he exclaims against the word apology, and on that account charges us with a falfification. I account, fays he, for the length of my tranflation.'-As accounting for a real or a feeming fault is generally filed an apology, this expreflion might have paffed without cenfure, if this fagacious Templar had not been a notable proficient in quirks and quibbles.

Mr. Canning, we confefs, has detected an inaccurate expreffion*; but it is-on the cover of our Review, in the department of our compofitor; and therefore the author of this Appeal is extremely welcome to applaud his own fagacity, and enjoy the triumph.

:

We cited four lines from his tranflation, in which he speaks of the mufe fighting for fiction. But he fuppofes, that we did not choose to quote the whole paragraph for this admirable reafon I fancy there was fomething in the preceding lines which went too much against their grain to be pleafing in the repetition.' To what the author might allude we could not conceive, till we obferved, that prefumptuous rebels were mentioned in thofe preceding lines, and that we were charged with having hearts bigotted to clanship and jacobitism.' His reader therefore is to fuppofe, that we are North Britons, and were concerned in the late rebellion. But fuppofitions are fometimes very diftant from the truth; and that is really the cafe at prefent; for the author of the article which has excited this dudgeon in the breaft of the poet, abhors Jacobitifin as much as he defpifes a stupid or an abusive compofition; and he can abfolutely avèr, that he was never out of England,

The reader will perceive fome indecent allufions in this performance; but as we do not concern ourselves with ribaldry, we leave Mr. G. Cg, if he is pleafed with the idea of **** and an 'under petticoat,' to divert himself in his own way. We have here enumerated all the articles of this impeachment; and as we have not been able to discover either learning or tafte, reafon or wit, in this performance, the beft advice we can give the author, is, for his own fake, to recal the impreffion, and apply the remaining copies (which perhaps are ninety-nine in a hundred) to a ufe on which we do not choofe to expatiate.'

*The three first books.

THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For the Month of February, 1767.

ARTICLE I.

The Hiftory of England from the Acceffion of James I to the Eleva tion of the Houfe of Hanover. By Catharine Macaulay. Vol. Ill. 4to. Pr. 155. Cadell.

The Stuart family is, that their stretches of power never

HE moft fenfible argument urged by the advocates for

exceeded those of the Tudor race, their immediate predeceffors. We shall admit the fact, but what is the confequence? It is faying, in other words, that a fceptre ought to defcend from tyrant to tyrant; and that upon the revival of science, the knowledge of liberty, its faireft fruit, fhould be the only doctrine uncultivated and unimproved, But let us confider this argument in a different light.

If the reigns of the Tudor family were arbitrary, they were beneficent, at the fame time. Henry VII. broke the feudal chains of his country, encouraged the fpirit of enterprize, improved agriculture, and laid the foundation of thofe arts which gave England weight and dignity among her neighbours. To Henry V. bloody and capricious as he was, we owe the reformation, and our emancipation from religious flavery. If queen Elizabeth fometimes ruled with a rod of iron, fhe knew how to convert it into a golden fceptre; and her subjects in the glories of her reign forgot the invafions of their own birth-rights. Before we finish this remark, it may be proper to obferve, that Elizabeth, towards the clofe of her adminif tration, relaxed the reins of government, and grew fenfible of the difficulties fhe muft encounter, had the continued to exert the fovereign power beyond its just limits.

We are ignorant of the periods of the Stuartine reigns which can equal the luftre of those abovementioned; and yet nothing Vol. XXIII. February, 1767.

G

is

is more incredible than the attachment of the votaries of that family to the perfons of its princes. We hazard nothing in faying, that it has more than once risen to blafphemy; and that the admitting the Office of Healing into the public Liturgy, was an attempt to clothe the Stewart family with attributes due to Omnipotence alone.

The female Galileo in hiftory, whofe work now lies before us, was born within the compass of that century which adopted this miraculous gift into its religious worship; and fhe writes with the profeffed defign of recalling her readers to the exercise of fenfe and reafon, without refpect to founds and prepoffeflions. We by no means profefs ourselves Mrs. Macaulay's panegyrifts. We have formerly observed, that her hiftory muft speak for itfelf; and it is with no fmall degree of furprize we have perceived it hitherto not only unanswered, but unattacked; a circumftance the more mortifying to us, as we are thereby deprived of an opportunity to fhew our impartiality, by giving full weight to the facts and arguments which may be urged in behalf of doctrines once deemed almoft national.

The volume we are now to review opens with the happy omen of the fpirit of liberty abolishing the courts of arbitrary power, particularly the ftar-chamber, another term for tyranny itfelf. We think it needlefs to trace our author through the arguments urged by the popular members in both houfes against bishops fitting in parliament; especially as we are so far from embracing the do&rine fhe feems to efpouse on that fubject, that we fhall quote from her own history the very weighty opinion of a most reverend father in God, archbishop Williams, in favour of his brethren and himself fitting as lords of parliament.

Williams made a long fpeech on the occafion: he pleaded that part of the coronation-oath which is relative to the church and faid, "That the king's confcience was fo upright, dainty, and fcrupulous, that it ought not to be put upon swallowing fuch gudgeons as to fill itself with doubts and difficulties * The other arguments he made ufe of were, the priestly government of Judea; the great power of churchmen in all Chriftian commonwealths from the age of Conftantine, par

*It would have been a happy thing for Charles and his family, if his upright, dainty, and fcrupulous confcience," had restrained him from infringing that part of his coronationoath which was relative to the liberties and privileges of the laity

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