The species of cynanche, treated of in this volume, are the tonsillaris, maligna, and parotidæa. In the C. tonsillaris, the repeated, slow swallowing of slightly sweetened vinegar, constantly repeated, for example, during the greater part of an hour, has often been highly useful. When suffocation is threatened, and bronchocele necessary, a very small trocar, in one instance, has been employed with effect; first dividing the skin, that the pressure required may not be too great. Two advantages result-the one, securing any blood from falling into the trachea, the other the immediate relief obtained. When swallowing has been impossible in the C. maligna, we once preserved a child for five days, by nourishing clysters, alternating those of strong broths, and of decoction of bark, with an equal part of Port wine; and immersing him night and morning in a semicupium of decoction of equal parts of Peruvian and oak bark. He recovered most completely; but, in the whole time, he did not swallow a single atom, either solid or fluid. Our author's account of cynanche is very full and accurate, though too extensive, on some points of less importance, viz. medicines not adapted to the complaint. A remedy, similar to the capsicum, mentioned in this volume, we employed twenty years ago, and have continued it with success, viz. constantly masticating two or three pepper corns. We have generally added powdered pepper to our gargles, which we think is sometimes left on the fauces with advantage. The contrayerva also is a useful addition to the bark in gargles, but not mentioned by the author. One inconvenience, which Dr. Wilson has not noticed, we may add; viz. from the too liberal use of cordials and astringents, we have found inflammatory sore throat, rapidly terminating in abscess, introduced. On the C. parotidæa, we find no particular remark to claim our attention.

The Appendix consists, as we have said, of an experimental inquiry into the circumstances influencing the urinary depositions, which appear in febrile diseases. These experiments were first published in 1792; and were made with a view to determine the circumstances which give a predisposition to urinary gravel.

We shall not follow the detail minutely. It appears that animal food will produce acidity, and the discharge of lithic acid by urine, provided indigestion, or any febrile state, prevent the discharge of perspirable matter; but that acids will not increase the quantity of lithic acid, if the skin continue. moist. In general, by increasing the excretion by the skin, the tendency of the urine to deposit lithic acid is lessened. On the contrary, acidity of the prime via will increase this tendency. On the whole, little is added to our knowledge by these experiments; and the nature of the lithic acid, as well as of the

cream-coloured sediment, is now better understood, and renders the present experiments less conclusive.

Some remarks on febrile anorexia conclude the volume. From these, it seems probable that the presence of the gastric juice produces hunger; and its absence is, at least, one cause of dyspepsia. Some modification of this opinion will, perhaps, come nearer the truth; but our article has been extended too far to allow us to enlarge on it.

ART. V.-The Political and Confidential Correspondence of Lewis the Sixteenth; with Observations on each Letter. By Helen Maria Williams. 3 Vols. 8vo. 1. 1s. Boards. Robinsons. 1803.

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THESE volumes appear to be fortunately timed in their publication for every event which tends to render the present possessor of the French throne an object of public hatred and disgust, must necessarily recall the memory of the past with feelings of a livelier interest and regret. Each letter is first published in the original French; it is then followed by an English version; and, as noticed in the title-page, the editor afterwards adds her own observations. As to the letters themselves, they bear so many intrinsic marks of authenticity, that they leave little room for the suspicion of spuriousness; and yet, so often has the spectacled and recluse critic, as well as the man of the world, been imposed upon by confidential correspondences, that we have scarcely been able to shake off all scepticism from our hearts. Why has not miss Williams openly informed us of the means by which the autographs fell into her hands, or, at least, into the hands of the French editors, her friends, who, while she was preparing them for publication in England, were at the same time preparing them for publication in France? The private papers of the unfortunate Lewis were, unquestionably, seised by order of the national assembly; and although we have every reason to suppose, from the testimony of M.M. Clery and Bertrand de Moicville, that he had purposely destroyed many of his most important archives anterior to such seisure; yet this may account for the possession, by the republic, of the originals of a variety of letters addressed to him by his friends: but, unless we imagine that he always took copies of his own letters-a conception which we can scarcely indulge with respect to many of those now presented-we are still at as great a loss as ever to account for the mode by which the latter were obtained, scattered as they have been, from the dispersion of the persons to whom they were addressed, throughout almost every country of Lurope. This collection is said to be taken from an intended

French edition, prepared and digested by persons strongly attached to the royal cause.

It was the intention of the king's friends to have published those papers in two volumes. The first contained simply his letters, and were destined" à nous montrer Louis XVI homme privé," to present the private character of the king. The second volume contained all that could portray him, comme homme public," as a public character; and consisted of his discourses, memorials, observations, writings, the analysis of a few of his works; "all which objects, united, were to present us the last king of France, as a prince really enlightened, made to govern men in the solitude of the cabinet, fitted to become the counsellor of a king, worthy of executing, capable of judging men, and transmitting his judgements to posterity." This work was supposed by the editors to offer a full justification to men who were prejudiced, to awaken in generous minds grateful recollections, to excite remorse in the hearts of the king's persecutors, to give useful instructions to statesmen, and teach crowned heads that it is not sufficient to possess the virtues of Trajan and Antoninus; that the courage of heroes, and the policy of great kings, are equally necessary, joined to the wisdom of a Sully, and the firmness of a Richelieu."

The purposes of the intended French editors have been religiously observed with respect to the king's letters, and also with respect to such of his other papers as have never yet appeared; but it seemed to me unnecessary to swell these volumes with the mass of papers that have been already published, and which are to be found in the journals of the times, and in most of the memoirs or annals of the French revolution. The chief merit which these papers possess in the eyes of the editors, is that they were written by Lewis the Sixteenth; and, as such, contain the faithful expression of his sentiments. A very few of those papers, which were but little known, I have preserved : but the insertion of the rest appeared to me unnecessary, for the reasons already mentioned. The titles of the papers which are omitted will be mentioned in the table of contents.

The materials for this monument to the glory of Lewis the Sixteenth have been for some time prepared. The French editors state that they have it in their power to enlarge this collection, but that a choice was necessary. We are therefore in possession of those which are most favorable to the cause which the friends of the late king are anxious to support, deeming the evidence sufficient to gain every suffrage in its favor.

It is unnecessary to mention the reasons which produced the deJay of their publication, and still less the means by which these manuscript volumes fell into my hands. The only important point to be ascertained was that of their authenticity. The French editor, in the note which precedes his preface, states that the originals are deposited in the hands of a personage "who will think it a pleasure and a duty to communicate them to such as are curious or incredulous." This statement is true. But, independent of this external proof, which is conclusive to those who are acquainted with the handwriting of the king, such measures have been taken, as appeared to

me fully satisfactory, to arrive at the greatest supplementary pooof, by consulting such persons as were most likely to be informed on the subject. The proofs which I have obtained from men who now fill eminent offices under the republic, and from others who exercised the highest functions under Lewis the Sixteenth, and who were consequently instructed both as to the spirit and the letter, leave no doubt whatever, with respect to the authenticity of those papers. While they present the king alternately as a private and public man, by his correspondence with individuals, and his discourses to the national representation and to sections of the people, it appears singular that no suspicions entered the minds of the French editors, that the public, who were called only to admire, would sometimes pause to compare and to reason. Vol. i. P. xv.

We confess ourselves among the number of those who sometimes think it necessary to pause in order to compare and reason; and on this account, instead of conceiving it unnecessary to have mentioned the means by which these manuscript volumes fell into the English editor's hands, we conceive it to have been a matter of the utmost consequence; and of equal consequence, that she should have granted some intimation to her readers of the measures she had taken to afford herself full satisfaction upon this subject: for miss Williams can scarcely have the vanity to suppose, that, because she has satisfied herself, she has therefore satisfied the public whom she addresses.. We, indeed, have thought it of so much consequence, and so much our duty to our readers, as to have instituted some inquiry upon this subject: and the result is, that we have traced the existence of the original papers, and can speak as to that of the French manuscript volumes to which she refers as the basis of her own. As to the observations which accompany the letters, however, we still think that it would have been more prudent to have omitted them. The letters are, for the most part, sufficiently obvious of themselves-the period, and the events to which they relate, are within the recollection of one-and the letters of Lewis XVI. and his ministers, can scarcely be thought to be much embellished, or illustrated, by the commentaries of Helen Maria Williams.

every

So much for the personal labours of the editor. As to the letters themselves, they are many of them important; and almost every one of them highly interesting. They confirm our opinion of the great goodness of heart, the sound judgement, and magnanimity, of this unfortunate monarch; and compel us, more than ever, to lament over those misfortunes which were brought upon him, rather by the tempestuous vehemence of the times in which he lived, and the want of energy in his ministers, than by any misconduct, or want of energy, of his own. Prosperity was his chief bane, as it is the bane of most men, titled or untitled, princes or peasants. In the earlier part of

his life, before he was immersed in the vortex of a court, equally corrupted in its morals and its religion by the hoary lasciviousness of his grandfather, he exhibited himself in the vale of retired life as an ornament to human nature; and, when eventually called upon to evince, by a series of unparal-. leled insults, the native dignity of his heart, he appeared to a still greater advantage; and seemed, like the barometer, to rise by the pressure of additional difficulties and afflictions. We shall now select, at random, a few of the letters of which the work consists.

LETTRE XV.

'A. M. de Malesherbes.

13 Dec. 1786,

J'aime et j'estime les hommes, mon cher Malesherbes, qui, par des ouvrages utiles, prouvent qu'ils font un sage emploi de leurs lumières mais je n'encouragerai jamais, par aucun bienfait particulier, les productions qui tendent à la démoralisation générale. Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, et leurs pareils, qui un instant ont obtenu mon admiration, que j'ai su priser depuis, ont perverti la jeunesse qui lit avec ivresse, et la classe la plus nombreuse des hommes qui lisent sans reflexion. Sans doute, mon cher Malesherbes, la liberté de la presse agrandit la sphère des connaissances humaines. Sans doute il est à désirer que les gens de lettres puissent manifester leurs pensées sans licenciement d'une censure quelconque mais les hommes sont toujours si au delà du point où la sagesse devrait les arrêter, qu'il faut non seulement une police sévère pour les livres, mais encore une surveillance active envers ceux qui sont chargés de les examiner, pour que les mauvais livres ayent le moins de publicité possible. Je le sais, toute inquisition est odieuse mais il faut un frein à la licence; car, sans ce moyen, la réligion et les mœurs perdraient bientôt de leur pouvoir, et la puissance royale de ce respect dont elle doit être toujours environnée. Nos philosophes modernes n'ont exalté les bienfaits de la liberté, que pour jetter avec plus d'adresse dans les esprits des semences de rébellion. Prenons y garde: nous aurons peut-être un jour à nous reprocher un peu trop d'indulgence pour les philosophes, et pour leurs opinions. Je crains qu'ils ne séduisent la jeunesse, et qu'ils ne préparent bien des troubles à cette génération qui les protège. Les remontrances du clergé sont en partie fondées : je ne puis qu'applaudir à sa prévoyance. Vous avez promis en mon nomi, dans l'asseinblée du clergé, de poursuivre les mauvais livres, les livres impies. Nous tiendrons notre promesse, parceque la philosophie trop audacieuse du siècle a une arrière pensée, qu'elle corrompt la jeunesse, et tend à tout troubler, et à tout diviser.

'(Translation.)

To M. de Malesherbes.

'Louis.

'December 13, 1786.

prove, by

I love and esteem those men, my dear Malesherbes, who .he useful productions of their pen, that they employ their talents

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