can account for it no other way, than that the kingdom Scotland, being, as well as its king, under an interdict, the funeral fervice could not have been regularly performed over him in that country. Befides the report of James being killed in Hume-castle, another prevailed, as if he had been carried out of the battle by four strange men; and another, that he went to Palestine, where he ended his days before the holy sepulchre in acts of devotion and penitence. To mention all the idle notions retailed by the vulgar on that head would be endless. The strongest objection to the body being buried at Shene is, that it was not begirt with the iron girdle. This, however, we have only upon very vulgar authority; and as the chain, by the additions it had received, muft have been, at the time of James's death, pretty ponderous, he might have thought proper to lay it afide for that day; but I am inclined to think he never did wear it but upon certain ftated occafions. In a manufcript of the earl of Nithfdale, in the Scorch college at Paris, mention is made of a chained skeleton being found în Oliver Cromwell's time, wrapped up in a bull's hide, buried in Roxburgh-caftle; but chains were often part of ancient armour, and the story carries with it no fufficient authority to counterbalance the evidences I have brought on that head.'

In treating of the reign of James V. our author presents us with an account, taken from the Harleian collection of MSS. in the British Mufeum, of the first inftitution of the court of feffion in Scotland, with the names of the original members; and the obfervations he makes on the inlet which was opened both to civil and religious tyranny, by that inftitution, are entirely conformable to found' policy. How far the erection of this court of judicature was attended with a regular difpenfation of the laws, and the impartial diftribution of juftice in Scotland, we may determine from the condemnation and barbarous execution of the mafter of Forbes and lady Glamis, which foon fucceeded that event. The laft of thefe tranfactions in particular was conducted with fuch a total disregard of all legal evidence, and every fentiment of humanity, that it fills us with indignation at that enormous abuse of civil power, which dared to fan&ify with the fpecious name of justice, a crime that would have ftartled the most barbarous ages of feudal anarchy.

The facility of James in abandoning the celebrated Buchanan to the fury of the clergy, is an incident which those who are acquainted with the writings of that elegant author, will think of fufficient importance to be mentioned in a General Hiftory of Scotland; fince it is not improbable that it proved in a great measure the cause of the animofity which that historian after

afterwards difcovered against the whole houfe of Stuart. The *ftory is thus related by our author.

James had a ftrong turn for poetry, and had appointed the famous George Buchanan to be preceptor to his natural fon, the prior of St. Andrew's, afterwards the regent-earl of Murray. Buchanan was then in great efteem, all over Europe, for the harmony of his Latin verfification, and a vein of poetry fitted equally to fatire and panegyric. It is an undoubted truth that, during the late and prefent reigns, for reafons that have been explained in the courfe of this hiftory, church-preferments had been generally obtained by court-intereft; and the clergy, at leaft the cloiftered part of them, were incredibly wicked and ignorant. Buchanan, while he was abroad, had been tindured with the proteftant doctrines; and, while he was tutor to the prior of St. Andrew's, had wrote a fatire upon the Francifcans, which fubjected him to a profecution; but it was dropt, upon his difowning himfelf to be the author. James, who knew the falfity of that defence, foon after the death of his queen Magdalen, was fo much difgufted with the fame order, that he employed Buchanan to write another satire against them, which he did; but James thinking it too tame, and not fufficiently poignant, ordered him to write a third upon the fame fubject, and he performed it with fufficient acrimony; which, to fay the truth, is the chief merit of the poem. Though James, in honour, was obliged to have protected the poet he had employed, yet he meanly gave him up to the fury of that very clergy whom he fo much defpifed; for he fuffered Buchanan to be imprifoned; and he must have been burnt alive, had he not (the Mufes holding the cable, fays Drummond) efcaped from his jail, and fled into England."

We thought it the more proper to give this anecdote at full length, as it muft certainly weaken the authority of that claffical and admired writer, in regard to facts that are either contradicted or not authenticated by other hiftorians. We may here likewife add, that the patronage under which Buchanan flourished in the fubfequent reign, which was that of the regent earl of Murray, might naturally difpofe him to too partial a reprefentation of the tranfactions fucceeding this period. But though prefumptive arguments of this fort muft greatly affect the credibi ity of every writer, we must acknowledge, in juftice to Mr. Guthrie, that he never rejects the evidence of that respectable author, nor indeed of any other hiftorian, without fuch cogent and invincible reafons, as fufficiently vindicate his diffent. We must also here fubjoin, in farther confirmation of the impartiality with which this hiftory is conducted, that the author appears to be wholly divefted of that attach

1. Familiaris. Creeper. Above brown, ftreaked with black. Quills tipt with white. Beneath white. Tail of Iz long feathers. Weight 5 drams.

Length 5

Of the vegetable kingdom.

inches.'

SECALE. Calyx a glume of two leaves, containing two flowers. Corolla bivalve, the exterior ending in a beard.

I. Villofum. Wood Rye-grafs. Scales of the calyx wedgedfhaped; fringe of the glume woolly. July. Annual. In woods and hedges.

• HORDEUM. Calyx a glume with fix leaves, containing three flowers, feffile. Corolla bivalve, bearded.

I. Murinum. Wall barley grafs. Culm about fix inches long. Spike resembles an ear of barley. Lateral flowers male, bearded. April-July. Annual. On walls, &c.

2. Nodofum. Knotted Barley.grafs. Lateral flowers

beardlefs. Taller than the laft.

• TRITICUM. Calyx a bivalve glume, folitary, feffile, generally containing three flowers. Corolla bivalve, one valve bellying, the other plane.

1. Junceum. Rufh Wheat-grafs. Calyx truncated, with five flowers. Leaves involuted, pungent, rufh-like. Pe

rennial.

2. Repens. Common. Wheat-grafs, Dog's grafs, or Quickgrafs. Calyx taper, pointed, three-flowered. Culm jointed. Root creeping. Leaves fharp-edged. June-August.

3. Maritimum. Sea Wheat-grafs. Culm about feven inches long, fometimes branched a little. Spike branched; fpiculæ, with eight or ten flowers, alternate, feffile. Leaves as long as the culm, with purplish vaginæ. May, June. Pe rennial. On the fea-coaft.'

1

V. The Age of Louis XV. being the Sequel of the Age of Louis XIV. Tranflated from the French of M. de Voltaire. 2 Vols, 8vo. 6s. ferved. Kearfly.

THI

~HIS work bespeaks itself the production of Mr. Voltaire. It is characterized by that facility and fimple elegance, by that liveliness and poignancy of imagination, which are almost peculiar to himself. It is likewife deeply shaded with the darker part of his complexion; with felf-contradiction; with an abfolute ignorance of material facts, or a fhameful mifrepresentation of them; with a contemptible partiality to his country, and a barefaced difregard to truth.

When a man of a difingenuous mind is, unfortunately for the world, endowed with eminent talents, it is the duty of the honeft critic to distinguish betwixt his genius and his difpofition; to judge them feparately. They are often, indeed, confounded in the prostitution of eulogium; for genius is apt to dazzle and feduce us: in our admiration of the writer we forget the man. But it is the province of the impartial friend of mankind, ftrenuoufly to counteract this prejudice; for the influence of fuch an author is powerful and extensive; it may impofe upon the age in which he lives, and it may mislead pofterity.

Letters have long been a trade; and a very allowable trade they are, in these times; when a man's ingenuity may procure him a fubfiftence; when fo few good offices are done merely from humanity; and when he who wants money cannot expect to receive it, without giving an equivalent in return. In this publication, however, Mr. Voltaire has carried on his. literary commerce in a moft illicit and fraudulent manner, in every respect. The first volume of this account of the Age of Lewis XV. excepting a very few leaves, is a mere copy of his History of the War of 1741. It is a tranfcript of the facts, of the reflexions, of the words which he gives us in that former publication. The author has, indeed, used fome art, fome Literary legerdemain, to deceive his readers, by changing the order of the paragraphs, and writing them in a transposed feries in this new edition of a hiftory which he published many years ago.-'Tis true, he might, very properly, and honeftly, have given us in this work, a fhort review of what he had formerly written, and referred us, for a detail of particulars, to his account of the war of 1741; but to put us to the expence of two volumes, when a single volume of the fize of one of the two might have ferved, to publish a book as a new performance, one half of which is but a repetition of an old one, is certainly a grofs impofition upon the public, and an ungrateful return for the favourable reception which it always hath given to his writings.

It must be owned, that in this contraband dealing, he hath not betrayed fo much weakness as difingenuity. He did not run a great risk of immediate detection; for he was not to be detected without memory, and a patient examination ; a me❤ mory of which the generality of readers are not poffeffed, and a patient examination to which they will not submit.

It is impoffible to write a good book without labour, however near a man's genius may approach to inspiration. But it is not incumbent upon Mr. Voltaire to be laborious, or to poffefs all his former vigour of mind at an advanced age; though

it

that their nature and behaviour appear to be just the fame; fo that what is obfervable in ours, is at the fame time applicable to the whole genus, wherever found.

If we take a curfory view of the different ranks of animals that inhabit our globe, we shall hardly find one that can excite our wonder and astonishment more than this genus; nor is it from that ge neral ignorance of the infect world, that reigns fo ftrongly in these kingdoms, that I am emboldened to fay this; but if we reflect that the beafts, birds, and reptiles, are furnished with powers for living only in the air, and that even the amphibious tribes can perform the office of respiration only in that element; if we alfo confider that fishes, on the contrary, are unable to respire but in water, and when deprived of that must certainly perith; we cannot but conclude, that all these animals are most wifely fitted with means and faculties for filling up the respective orders and ranks wherein they are placed: but let us caft our eyes on the fabjects I am about to defcribe, and there behold a tribe of beings, who, as foon as they leave their eggs, fubfift for a certain number of months, I had almoft faid years, creeping and fwimming in the liquid element, are there invested with organs and powers for exifting, and weathering out the utmost severity and intemperance of the winter; that, af terwards, as the fpring and fummer advances, and the period ar rives when they are to appear in other forms, in the fpace of half an hour, those very organs and powers, that before enabled them to live under water, fhould be fo entirely altered, the very nature and abilities of the creatures fo changed, as to permit them to quit their former element and place of refidence, infomuch that the remaining parts of their lives is fpent in the open air, furnished with wings, and flying about in the full glee of wanton liberty; that, in a very few weeks after, having performed the bufinefs of generation, the fame animals fhould die of mere old age, with their wings quite ragged and worn out, their ftrength exhaufted, and all the powers of their bodies loft by a total imbecility and weakness, which, but a little before, enabled them to tranfport themselves through the air with the fwiftnefs of a bird. If, I fay, we reflect on all these circumstances, we cannot but allow them to be objects of a very extraordinary nature, and well adapted for leading the mind to the contemplation of their Supreme Author, who has thought proper to exhibit to us thefe kinds of infects, thus differing from almoft all the animals in the creation.

They have been variously named by different authors, owing perhaps to the time when they wrote, or the progrefs natural history had made in the world. Some have called them by the name of dragon-fly, others, adder-bolt, balance-fly, perla, libellula or libella. I fhall prefer the laft, as conveying an idea well known to English adepts.

The caterpillars of them all live in ponds and stagnant waters, that are undisturbed by cattle, during the greatest part of their lives, and make their appearance under three general forms, there being but little difference in the colours or marks of their refpective tribes; the various fizes and fhapes being the chief obfervable circumftance attending them. They are all furnished with fix legs, and have each of them four little membraneous fubftances iffuing from the back, or upper part of the thorax; that are the follicles, or cafes, wherein the wings are inclofed. When the young cater pillars iffue from their confinement in the eggs, there is no appear ance of thefe cafes, nor till a confiderable time after; but as they VOL. XXXI. February, 1771. I arrive