EDUCATION. Art. 18. The French Master; or, Elementary Grammar designed to facilitate the Study of the French Language, &c. By P. Maggi, Teacher of modern Languages, York. 12mo. Baldwin and Co. This grammar is composed in the form of question and answer. At page 2. the author defines a diphthong somewhat peculiarly: he considers ia in diamant, fiacre, viande, where the vowels form distinct syllables, as a diphthong; and he calls by the name voyelles composées the ai in Français, and the eui in receuil, where the vowels form but one syllable. In the comparison of adjectives, the comparative degree is subdivided into comparison of superiority, inferiority, and equality; and the superlative degree into absolute and relative. Verbs frequently termed reciprocal are here called pronominal. At p. 139. a convenient table is given of the conjunctions; distinguishing those which govern the infinitive, the indicative, or the subjunctive. Among the interjections, we do not find the bah! so frequent in French conversation. An useful rule is given at p. 147., which we do not recollect to have seen recorded elsewhere, even in the voluminous Chambaud; viz. that a collective substantive follows the number of the word which it governs; thus, La plupart de son temps EST mal employée, but La plupart des enfans SONT cruels.—At p. 161. the article on idiotisms has merit. At P. 167. 7. some English notes are inserted, to be translated into French: but in one the English is more common than elegant; viz. will do herself the pleasure. Why not, as in French, will have the pleasure? These strike us as some of the most peculiar features of a grammar which must of course repeat much of the necessary information, but which is drawn up with neatness, in a compendious manner, and with no servility to models. The preface is written in English, but the grammar itself in French, which renders it less convenient to the pupil than to the teacher. Mr. Maggi announces a similar work on the Italian language. We wished for a chapter on prosody: the laws of French versification being little understood in England, yet very requisite to those who would fairly appreciate the difficulties of the French poet, or who aspire to write a billet-doux in rhime. Art. 19. Remarks on the Practice of Grammarians; with an Attempt to discover the Principles of a new System of English Grammar. By John Kigan. 12mo. Printed at Belfast for Longman and Co. London. Wallis wrote in Latin an English grammar, which is one of the best extant, and has the rare merit of being founded on a knowlege of the Gothic tongues; without a comparison of which, the laws of native or domestic analogy cannot be satisfactorily ascertained. Johnson, Lowth, and other scholars, have not written satisfactorily about the English language, because they were ignorant of the collateral dialects, and have imported laws of Latin grammar which are inapplicable to northern speech. Murray's work is free free from this attempt to legislate on foreign principles, and has therefore superseded the instructions of more celebrated authors. The writer of the remarks before us, which seem to be preparatory to a new system of English grammar, is a native of Ireland, and apparently much attached to logical and metaphysical literature; for he begins by defining terms with needless anxiety, and proceeds to invent new grammatical categories. The words idea and notion are first analyzed; and it is observed, justly, that idea denotes the image which an object of sense leaves in the memory; while notion denotes the conclusion, or affirmation, which we form in our own minds concerning any thing. An idea, therefore, is but an impression, and a notion is a proposition. The author, however, proceeds to compare likewise the words object and thing; and he proposes to restrict the word object to denote that of which he can acquire an idea: using the word thing to denote that of which he can acquire only a notion. Now this use, or rather abuse, of the word thing is intolerable in precise language: for thing always denotes an exterior reality, and is never applied to an abstract proposition; yet of an abstract proposition we may conceive a notion. Mr. Kigan notices the division of grammar into orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody: but this classification is not sufficient. Orthoepy, or right pronunciation, is an essential part of grammar, yet it cannot be classed under any of these heads. Etymology should have been placed first; as orthography follows from etymology, and orthoepy from orthography. : Words are properly divided into nouns and verbs, for these are classes to which all others are reducible but Mr. Kigan, in his disposition for multiplying definitions, has contrived to render these classes indistinct. A noun, he says, p. 12., is the name of any thing (so far, good, and enough: but he goes on) that exists (as if a thing could not exist), or of which we have any notion. Now, after having defined a notion to be a conclusion, or affirmation, it is a necessary consequence that of a thing we cannot form a notion, but only an idea. Nouns, therefore, represent ideas, and verbs represent notions. Nouns are next subdivided into attributive, active, personal, &c., while verbs are subdivided into definitive, descriptive, ascriptive, affirmative, and even comparative; under which denomination adjectives are here meant. Enough has been said to shew, that the most peculiar part of this grammar consists in the metaphysical matter introduced; and as this wants clearness and precision, we cannot bestow any sincere praise on it. That the common rules are regularly enumerated, that several happy examples are adduced, and that the quotations are usually moral and elegant, these are merits common to most books of instruction of this class: but the present is not likely to supersede extensively the established resources of schools, and the received manuals of discipline. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 20. Memorable Days in America; being a Journal of a Tour to the United States; principally undertaken to ascertain, by positive Evidence, the Condition and probable Prospects of British Emigrants; including Accounts of Mr. Birkbeck's Settlement in the Illinois, and intended to shew Men and Things as they are in America. By W. Faux, an English Farmer. 8vo. pp. 488. 14s. Boards. Simpkin and Co. 1823. Although the press teems with the publications of our countrymen who have visited America, each favoring us with an account of the manners and customs of society, practised by our transAtlantic friends, yet so ill do their opinions accord with each other, and even so contradictory are their relations, that the reader may with more justice complain that he is bewildered and confounded, than boast that he has derived any true and satis factory information from them. Mr. Faux declares that the motive which induced him to visit America, and give to the public the results of his experience, was a strong desire to ascertain the real truth, in all particulars relating to that land of boasted liberty. Nothing could be more patriotic; nor could he have brought home a more useful and honorable testimony of his labors than a work written in the spirit of justice, and with that strict adherence to truth, of which he asserts that he was so anxiously in quest. So numerous, however, and flagrant are the contradictions in his journal, and so excessively ridiculous and improbable are many of his anecdotes, that to credit all his relations will require a greater degree of complaisance, we suspect, than the bulk of his readers will be found willing to bestow. After a long and tedious passage, the dangers of which are as tediously recounted in 27 pages, Mr. Faux arrived at Boston; where he assures us that, on landing, all were eager to behold, and gaze, and guess, what I, the foreigner, was, whence coming, whither going, and why! By this, we might be led to suppose that at Boston, (which he had himself described in the preceding page as the grand emporium of Yankee-land,') either the arrival of a stranger is an event of considerable importance, or that he was himself a rara avis in terris; and when we see him, a few days afterward, at Charleston, making a memorandum that the parson 'prayed not for George IV., but for the President; not for lords temporal and spiritual, in parliament assembled, but for Congress,' (p. 50.) it is not surprizing that he should have excited the curiosity of the natives, and have been regarded as something extraordinary. From Charleston he went by sea to Philadelphia, where he witnessed the celebration of the anniversary of American independence, on the 4th of July: on which occasion he does not omit to notice that an oration was delivered, in which General Washington was highly eulogized,' and was compared to Cincinnatus;' that his effigy was exhibited in Vauxhall gardens, &c. A few pages farther, however, alluding to this great statesman, he makes the following remark: The memory of that unequalled 6 man man seems, however, little revered, and his family is not more respected than that of any other person.' (P. 111.) In the course of the narrative, forgetting what he had first said, and then unsaid, Mr. Faux does not hesitate to make the following declaration: Every state in this mighty Union seems emulous of building towns, monumental piles of immortality, to General Washington.' (P. 211.) So much for consistency, and for the reliance which can be placed on the remarks of this traveller. With equal justice and liberality does he paint the character and condition of the Americans generally. We give a specimen : Ignorance, and love of animal indulgence, it is said, here frustrate and set at nought the system of representation. A good man, therefore, cannot get into Congress; but a bad man, not fit for a constable, often succeeds by the means of influential whiskey.' (P. 113.) Again, the following is offered as a picture of the condition of the American people: Low ease; a little avoidable want; little or no industry; little or no real capital, nor any effort to create any; no struggling, no luxury, and perhaps nothing like satisfaction or happiness; no real relish of life; living like store pigs in a wood, or fattening pigs in a stye.' (P. 125.) Once more: The American, considered as an animal, is filthy, bordering on the beastly; as a man, he seems a being of superior capabilities; his attention to his teeth, which are generally very white, is a fine exception to his general habits. All his vices and imperfections seem natural,-those of the semi-barbarian.' (P. 202.) Numerous other passages might be cited, but we imagine that enough has been already quoted to afford a specimen of the sentiment and diction with which this history of Memorable Days' abounds. We cannot, however, dismiss the production, without reprobating the gross personalities in which the author has, on more than one occasion, chosen to indulge himself; and the introduction of private anecdotes relating to the families of Mr. Woods, Mr. Flower, and Mr. Birkbeck, all of whom he visited: these argue a total want of delicacy and good feeling. Misunderstandings entirely of a private nature having taken place between the two latter gentlemen, this tale-bearing Farmer' does not hesitate to lay the whole particulars of their family-dissensions before the public, and, without a blush, concludes by saying that he has given both sides of the question as completely as they could be gathered from verbal statements!' To those whom the more favorable representations of Mr. Birkbeck may have induced to leave their native country and settle on the uncultivated banks of the Illinois, Mr. Faux holds out no very flattering prospect: but we would recommend our countrymen, before they decide on the important question of emigration, at all events to consult other authorities than that of a man who, after having been treated (by his own account) in the most hospitable, not to say the most liberal and friendly manner, has dared to assert, speaking of the American character, that 'religion and duty seem but little understood, and less regarded, except it be to ascertain how little of either may suffice!' They will appeal to some other source, if they wish for solid information as to the actual condition and probable prospects of British emigrants.' Art. 21. An Appeal to Common Sense and to Religion, on the Catholic Question; with a Word on Tythes. By W. J. Baldwin, Esq., Magistrate for the Counties of Cork and Kerry. 8vo. pp. 166. Ridgway. 1823. This pamphlet is inscribed to the Marquis Wellesley in a page so brim-full of hyperbole, inflation, and flattery, as probably to be without a parallel. If the noble Marquis, to borrow a word from Shakspeare, can flapdragon such a huge meal of complimental phrases, he must have an appetite of inordinate avidity, and a stomach of immeasurable capacity. Mr. Baldwin, however, is evidently relieved by this explosion of gas: for, when he comes to the subject of his treatise, he writes like a sensible man, without much extravagance of diction, often sustaining his argument with ability, and always adopting a persuasive and conciliating tone. With the Catholics and Protestants of Ireland collectively he is equally well acquainted, and to them individually he is equally attached: for he tells us that all his father's ancestors, since the Reformation in England, were Protestants; while all those of his mother, probably from the first introduction of Christianity into Ireland, were Catholics. With both parties, therefore, he is alike connected, and he laudably and feelingly steps forwards to assuage the angry passions of both. As the majority of Protestants have no other Orange or anti-Catholic feeling than an apprehension of Catholic persecution or domination, should it have an opportunity of being exercised; and as the majority of Catholics have no other anti-Protestant feeling than a similar apprehension; Mr. Baldwin endeavors to shew that both fears are ill founded, and only entertained from the distance at which political distinctions keep them from each other. The question is, whether Catholics should have an equal admissibility with their Protestant countrymen to all the benefits and situations of that constitution which they, the Catholics, first formed, afterward regained and handed down, and at present equally contribute to support. They ask for the recognition of equal rights and privileges with the Protestants; and if this recognition can be granted without danger to the government, to the church, and to the Protestants, while the withholding of it is a source of discord, insecurity, and weakness to the country, what possible case can be stronger? Mr. Baldwin, first generally, and then seriatim, considers those practical and speculative tenets in the Catholic religion which are by many conscientious people regarded as of dangerous tendency; and, after a comprehensive answer to the whole objections, he gives a specific answer to each. Indulgences, auricular confession, mental reservation in oaths, not keeping faith with heretics, the Pope's supremacy, exclusive salvation, the spirit of proselytism and of religious persecution, Catholic breaches of allegiance, the coronation-oath, the veto; these are the principal or at least the ostensible grounds on |