abfolute sway founded on the system of terror. M. Aimé was himfelf an active partifan of the first measures of the Revolution which he appears to have efpoufed from principle; an error not of the heart but of the head. But the fcenes which he has witneffed, and the perfecution which he has fuftained, have, no doubt, convinced him, ere this, that demolition is not the wifeft mode of improvement.

Of the detectable conduct of the agents in the Revolution, of 1797, we have had frequent occafion to speak in appropriate terms; and the more that conduct is explained the greater will be the deteftation which it must excite in all but revolutionary minds. In detail. ing the concomitant horrors of this event, and the proceedings of the Directory and their minions the author forgets to notice the decided ́ approbation given to the conduct of the Revolutionists by Bonaparte and the army under his command; an approbation which it is highly expedient to bring to the recollection of the public, at a time, when a British Senator does not blufh to become the panegyrift of that unprincipled ufurper. The horrors here related, refpecting the republican prifons in France; the treatment of the banished perfons while on board, and after their arrival at Guiana, throw all the terrific tales of the Baftille far into the back ground, and even rife pre-eminent over the recorded ferocioufnefs of the Eleventh Louis. The narrator gives a tolerably accurate account of that grave of foreigners, Guiana. His defcription of the bat of the country is

curious.

"The bats are about the fize of the largest of those which we have in Europe. During the day they remain in the timber-work of the houses, and among the leaves with which it is covered, where it is not poffible to fee them; and in the night they come forth in fearch of food. If they find any one uncovered, they fix upon his feet, inflict a flight wound on his toe, moderating the pain by a gentle motion. of the wings, which at once cools and fets him afleep: they then gorge themselves with his blood, and leave it to flow till the veffels are exhaufted. I faw an example of what I have now related, in the the chamber adjoining to that which I occupied. The person who had been bit was extremely weakened by the abundant bleeding he had undergone; and his fheets were drenched in blood. I have seen alfo hogs who were bit by the bats, fome of which have died.”

The fufferings of the banished perfons at Guiana are accurately detailed, and a lift given of all that arrived at different periods and of the fate of each of them.. Very few of these unhappy perfons will liveto return to their native country; and the new Sovereign of France, with all his boafted clemency and justice, though he have now been in full poffeffion of abfolute power for many months, has not yet thought of reverfing the abominable mandate of the Directory (which he now affects to reprobate though he formally approved it at the time) which configned feveral hundreds of innocent men to banishment, without even the form of a trial.

Five thieves who were tranfported in the fame ship with the politi cal exiles, with fome humour and with much propriety, “ gave them.

Z 4

felves

felves the title of the Directory; they each took the name of one of the five Directors; they alternately elected a prefident, and, that nothing might be wanting to the refemblance, they were become the fcourge of all that furrounded them." M. Aimé contrived to escape from Guiana with Perlet, the editor of a well-conducted Journal which bore his name, and fome others on board of an American vessel which was unfortunately wrecked on the coaft of Scotland. The paffengers, however, were, most of them, faved, and Aimé speaks, with great gratitude, of the kind and hofpitable treatment which he experienced from the Scottish nobility and gentry. He failed from Leith to London, and being recalled to France, embarked in the Thames for Calais on the 20th of March laft.

This narrative contains much interefting information, and is worthy to be preferved as an historical document. We have remarked fome few gallicisms, chiefly in the translation of the past tenses of verbs.

ART. XX. An Anfer to a Pamphlet, entitled the Speech of the Earl of Clare, on the Subject of a Legislative Union between. Great Britain and Ireland. 8vo. Pr. 48. Robinsons. 1800. THE object of this publication is to invalidate the teftimony of Lord Clare not only refpecting the propriety of an Union, but on plain matters of hiftorical fact. On the former fubject Mr. G. utters nothing but vain declamation, and fenseless rant ;, on the latter, the parties being at iffue, we fhall not prefume to decide between them. If Mr. Grattan's fpeeches be of a piece with his compofitions how he could ever have acquired a reputation for eloquence is to us a matter of astonishn ent; for the pages before us are replete with grammatical errors that would difgrace a fchool-boy; the style is extremely coarfe and turgid; and the conftruction of the fentences any thing but English. Mr. G. reproves Lord Clare for calling Mr. O'Connor an unrejerved friend of his; but he cautiously forbears to utter a fingle word on his never-to-be forgotten interview with the traitors Neilfon and Hughes, at his own houfe at Tinnehinch; and is equally filent with refpect to the reftitution of the 50,000l. the memorable reward of Mr. G.'s difinterested patriotifm, to which Lord Clare adverted in his admirable fpeech. But these were tender subjects, and Mr. G.'s mind has been much harraffed of late. His filence, therefore, is excufable.

ART. XXI. The British Garden; a defcriptive Catalogue of hardy Plants, indigenous or cultivated in the Climate of Great Britain, with their genuine and specific Characters, Latin and English Names, c. 8vo. 2 Vols. 9s. Cadell and Davies. HIS is a tranflation of the late Mr. Aiton's Hortus Kewenfis, with the addition of brief explanations of the Linnæan Syftem.

ART.

ART. XXII. Propofals for a Rural Inftitute, or College of Agriculture and the other Branches of Rural Economy. By Mr. & Marshall. 8vo. Is. 6d. Nicol.

MR. MARSHALL is well known as a writer on agricultural fubjects; and his prefent propofals, therefore, as being the refult of deep investigation, are certainly entitled to attention.

ART. XXIII. A Meteorological Journal of the Year 1799, kept in London by William Bent. To which are added Remarks on the State of the Air, Vegetation, &c. and Obfervations on the Dif eafes in the City and its Vicinity. 8vo. 25. Bent. 1800. ACCURACY is the only criterion of excellence in such a publi cation as his; and of Mr. Bent's accuracy no one can entertain a doubt, who has been in the habit of perufing his Journals.

ART. XXIV. Sheridan's Pronouncing and Spelling Dictionary; corrected and improved by Nicholas Salmon. 12mo. 5s. Richardfons. 1800.

WE confefs that we have been unable to discover any thing like improvement in this new edition of Sheridan's Dictionary, which appears to us much more likely to puzzle than to affift the scholar. Some of the new modes of pronunciation are truly fantaftical, not practiced, and scarcely practicable.

REVIEWERS REVIEWED.

SIR,

ART. XXV. TO THE EDITOR.

I HAVE not often an opportunity of reading the Critical Review, but now and then it falls in my way, and I give it a perufal. To the Appendix of the laft volume (XXVII.) I have paid particular attention. I will not fay how I was affected in paffing through its feveral articles, and will only remark that having been much amufed on the whole, I found myself, juft as I was about to part from my agreeable companion, exceedingly difgufted. When I turned over the laft leaf of the occafional retrospect of Foreign Literature, I found myself plunged headlong into the great gulph of poli tics. "Di boni (faid I to myself) is it come to this?" I have long lamented that Reviews fhould at all touch upon political matters, because nothing can have lefs connection with topics really literary. Since, however, political pamphlets are publifhed, and fince Reviewers think it neceffary to notice every paltry publication that iffues from the prefs, I have winked at that ftrange admixture of matters literary and political, which their plan feemed to render unavoidable.

unavoidable. But when I was called upon to read politics, and politics alone, in a work which profeffed itself to be merely Annals * of Literature, my anger began to kindle, and I exclaimed, like the patriarch, Who? where is be, who practices this fubtilty upon me? I, however, refolved to read what was fo abruptly placed before me, a review of public affairs from the beginning of September to the end of December 1799.

To the ftyle of this little after-piece I make no objection. The author manifeftly affects the dignity of Robertson, and I will not fay that he has, in general, failed. But what is become of that British heart, which gives to British history all its intereft? I had not waded far before the author, instead of acquainting his reader that his Majefty finished his fpeech, informed him, that he concluded bis barangue, &c. I ftarted at the expreffion, and began to fufpect the loyalty of a man, who described an action of his King, in words which are more frequently applied to a mountebank, or mob-orator. As I proceeded, I found at the clofe of the paragraph, which mentioned the capture of Surinam, an intimation, that the colony and its dependencies were, after the capitulation, put under the protection of Great Britain. The word protection being infert d in Italics, I felt myself perfuaded that it was nothing less than an illiberal Jacobinical fneer, implying that British protection was of the fame validity as French fraternization.

After a paragraph more, the mask began to withdraw itself, the fleece flipped afide and the fang of the hypocritical wolf began to appear. That noble action, the recapture of the Hermione frigate, is faid to be defcribed in terms too ftrong and hyperbolical, when it is declared by Sir H. Parker, to be as daring and gallant an enterprife as is to be found in our naval annals.' Now, Sir, which ought to be deemed the beft judge of naval exploit; an obscure anonymous Reviewer, or an old veteran of the waves? I have been long in the habit of contemplating, in a collective view, the naval ftory of my country. I glory in that fuperlative valour, which my countrymen have fo frequently difplayed upon the great element. But of all its periods, I am of opinion that of the laft ten years of the eighteenth century, abounds moft with inftances of unexampled heroifm. And among the many ftriking feats which it has difplayed, none has filled me with more astonishment and admiration, than the recapture of the Hermione. Captain Hamilton's letter, which conveyed the particulars of that gallant affair to the Admiralty, 'I could not forbear reading once, twice, and even thrice. I know nothing of that brave man, nor f any one of his officers. My transport in reading of fo brave an action was not augmented and rendered exceffive, by any knowledge o those who were concerned in it. If I view the project in embryo, it must have originated from a heart, which was not only brave, but endued with a delicate fense of honour; a heart which grieved to fee a British frigate delivered up to the enemy, in a manner fo cowardly and bafe as to have no precedent, and which longed to blot out the re membrance of a furrender fo infamous, by recovering the veffel

betrayed.

betrayed. To have thought only of fuch an enterprize, had no attempt been made to put it into execution, would have been proof fufficient of a noble mind, actuated by the most patriotic and liberal fentiment. If a truly judicious plan was alfo arranged, previous to the attack, it reflects honour upon the head as well as the heart of Captain Hamilton. And if a plan judiciously arranged, was as judiciously executed, I know not what praise we can withhold, with any juftice, from the brave men who affifted in it. I am, indeed, Sir, full of wonder and applause, when I confider that one hundred men should, with fo much cool intrepidity, attack treble their number, under the mouths of two hundred pieces of cannon-when I fee them availing themselves of the first moment of furprise and hesitation, and setting fail out of the port, while they kept the Spanish crew in check-and when I perceive them finally prevailing, and maintaining their fituation, with little or no lofs, in the midst of an enemy which fell before them like corn before the reaper. It was an action of fuch magnitude as almoft to surpass credit, and could not have been effected, but by the union of confummate bravery with great profeflional fkill, and the most critical judgement. The Reviewer feems to mention it, as a fact which diminishes the merit of the capture, that the ship surrendered when it was out of the reach of the artillery of Porto-Cavallo. But be it remembered, that its being out of reach was the effect, not of accident, but of that judicious and deliberate defign which accompanied the whole proceeding, and finally crowned it with fuccefs. Daftardly, indeed, muft have been that crew which had surrendered itfelf to 100 men, (many of whom must have been engaged in navigating the ship) while they were yet within reach of 200 pieces of cannon. View it, therefore, in whatever light the words of Sir Hyde Parker do not seem to be too strong and hyperbolical. It was, without controverfy, as daring and gallant an enterprize as is to be found in our naval annals. None but a cold and difaffected heart, could have spoken of an action so attonithing, with lukewarmness and indifference.

If Bonaparte meets with his fhare of abuse from this political critic, I fear, Mr. Editor, it so happens, because his bayonets appear to be fometimes Anti-Jacobin as well as Regicidal. But offenfively as he is pictured, when confidered, by himself, as an uturping monarch, no fooner is he placed at the fide of our virtuous and amiable King, than he appears to this dictatorial cenfurer to become an angel of peace. He appears as one eager to evince his moderation, and defire of tranquillity. Not a grain of animadverfion or blame is beftowed upon his letter, which every Englishman ought to refent as an infult to his Prince; which actually commenced with a bare-faced untruth, and ended with fuch a parfimonious expreffion of respect, as ferved fully to falfify its apparent liberality. An answer was returned to this pert and fpecious overture, which must ever be applauded for its moderation, when viewed with reference to the confular epiftle which occafioned it. A very large majority of both Houses of Parliament fanctioned it with their approbation;

and