evinced, by many judicious and credible experiments, that ipecacuanha is the beft remedy now in ufe for this difeafe. This gentleman feems therefore to have favoured the public too late with his quack medicine, which he had much better have kept to himself. The treatife before us clofes with a letter which feems to have been written by the author to himself, and has nothing better in it than an advertisement to the pubfic, that the Nevill-holt water is to be fold by Mr. Owen, ať his mineral water warehoufe within Temple-bar, wholesale and retail.

Upon the whole: though the execution of the work before us be exceedingly bad, yet as it is employed on fubjects of the first importance in medicine, we may venture to say of the author, in the words of Seneca:

Magnarum rerum, etiamfi fucceffus non fueris, boneftus eft ipfe

conatus.

IX. The Hiftory of Mifs Clarinda Cathcart, and Mifs Fanny Renton. Two Vois. 120. Pr. 6s. Noble.

HE principal fubject of this novel, which appears to be the production of a female pen, is, like that of moft others, Love. From the ufual ftrain of these compofitions, one would be apt to conclude, that love is not only the principal, but almoft the fole paffion that actuates the human heart. This we confider as one of the moft dangerous confequences refulting from the too general prevalence of thefe kind of writings. The youth of both fexes, having their minds early tinctured with this unhappy prejudice, are thereby rendered liable to the groffeft delufions. They fondly imagine, agreeably to what they have read in romances, that every thing muft yield to the irresistible influence of all conquering love: but, upon mixing with the world, and ftudying mankind, not as they are reprefented in Novels, but as they exift in reality, they find, to their coft, that they have been miferably deceived; that they have viewed human nature through a false medium; and that though love has a ftrong influence on the actions of men, yet is it frequently over-powered by avarice, ambition, vanity, and a thousand other paffions. With this defect, however, which this piece has in common with many others of the fame nature, it must likewise be confessed to have some share of merit. is neither, indeed, remarkably humorous, nor fingularly af fecting; but is enlivened, now-and-then, with brifk fallies of wit, or at least, of fpirit, and fometimes embellished with tender and pathetic scenes.

It

The

The plan of it is as follows: Mifs Cathcart, a young lady of beauty and fortune, and daughter to Mr. Cathcart, a banker in London, ftruck with the accomplishments of Mr. Renton, eldest son to Sir William Renton, bart. in Yorkshire, falls fuddenly in love with him. The young gentleman is no lefs captivated with her charms; but is prevented, for fome time, from declaring his paffion by the death of his father, whofe funeral is no fooner performed than he privately makes his addreffes. Mr. Cathcart, who, in the mean time, is ignorant of his daughter's prepoffeffion in favour of this gentleman, acquaints her, that he had procured for her an excellent match in the person of lord Darnly, and expreffes his hopes the will give him that encouragement which is due to his rank, his fortune, and merit. This brings on a difcovery of the mutual affection between her and Sir Harry Renton; and her father, who is a fenfible man, approving of her choice, lord Darnly is informed that he has been too late in his application. Enraged at a difappointment which he fo little expected, and resenting the indignity, as perhaps he might think it, of being rejected for a baronet, his lordship forms a scheme, which he actually executes, of carrying off the young lady, who, after having been conveyed as far as the borders of Scotland, is there refcued by one Mr. Douglas, a gentleman of that country, at whofe house she continues till a fhort time before her marriage with Sir Harry.

As a kind of under-plot, which is naturally enough cemented with the principal one, two other lovers are introduced; these are, Mifs Fanny Renton, fifter to Sir Harry, and one Mr. Hope, fon to a gentleman, who had formerly been poffeffed of a confiderable estate in that part of the country; but who having become bankrupt from unavoidable accidents, had been reduced to the neceffity of going over to the West-Indies, with a view, if poffible, of repairing his fortune; and during his voyage thither had perished in a ftorm, while his wife, who accompanied him, and was fuppofed in England to have fhared the fame fate, was happily preferved, by having, a little before the tempeft began, gone on board another thip, to vifit fome acquaintance. Mr. Hope's want of fortune feems at first to form an infurmountable obftacle to the attainment of his wishes, especially as his mistress has the offer of a young nobleman, poffeffed of a large, and heir to a much larger eftate; but the young lady continuing true to her firft engagement, the objections of her friends are at last overcome, and nothing now remains to be done, but that Mr. Hope, who had been bred a phyfician, fhould go abroad for a few years, in order to acquire fome reputation in his profeffion. Juft upon the point of fetting out on VOL. XX. October, 1765. U

his

his journey, he is happily stopped by a most unexpected incident. His mother, upon her arrival in the West Indies, had married the governor of one of the Plantations, who dying childless about ten years after, left her in poffeffion of an immense fortune. With this the now returns to Great Britain, and meeting her fon at Edinburgh, from whence he intended to take his departure, fhe inftantly recognizes him, and puts it in his power to confummate his marriage. That of Mifs Cathcart the fame time; and concludes not with Two other matches

with Sir Harry Renton is celebrated at thus the prefent Novel, like most others, one only, but with two marriages. are made in the courfe of the work, and several, though unfinished, are left in great forwardness; for, as we have obferv ́ed, love, gallantry, courtship, and marriage, form the very foul of modern romance.

With regard to the execution of this work, it is but justice to acknowledge, that the characters are tolerably well fupported, the fentiments generally juft, and the ftile, though often careless, and even fometimes inaccurate, is yet fuch as may eafily be excused in a female writer. We cannot help obferving, however, that there is fomething unnatural in the conduct of the heroine, during her continuance in lord Darnley's poffeffion; for neither at the time of her being seized in the neighbourhood of Iflington, nor in the courfe of her journey of three or four days to Scotland, during which fhe could not poffibly fail to meet with fome paffengers, does the ever give a single scream, or call for the least affiftance; and her delivery at last is owing to an accident, of which fhe could not avoid to take the advantage, 'without declaring herself content with her captivity, and willing to remain in the cuftody of lord Darnly. We much queftion, likewife, whether any lady of fo much livelinefs, or rather indeed, levity, as Mifs Cathcart, was ever fufceptible of fuch a fudden and strong impreffion as Sir Harry Renton is supposed to have made upon her heart; for we believe the old obfervation will fill be found true, that the gay are amorous, but the grave only are conftant: the former have a paffion for the other fex in general, without a strong attachment to any individual; whereas the latter, on the other hand, have commonly a ftrong affection for fome particular perfon, and are, in a great meafure, indifferent to all the reft of the fex. With thefe defects, however, and perhaps a few others, this novel must be allowed to poffefs fome merit, and may ĉertainly be read with as little danger, and as much advantage, as most of the romances that have of late years appeared. The defcription of the love-fcene between Mr. Hope and his iftrefs, the account of the death of Sir William Renton, and

that

that of the interview between Mr. Hope and his mother, are, in our opinion, amongst the most tender and interefting parts of the work. From the first of thefe we fhall give the reader a fpecimen, that he may be enabled to form fome judgment of the manner of this writer.

One day his lordship, (viz. lord Elmor, one of Mifs Renton's fuitors) had afked Sir William and my lady to dine at his feat, and fee the improvements he had made fince the old earl's death. It was not thought proper that I should make one of the party; fo, on that account, the company of my

fifters was not defired.

They were gone about an hour, when who should come in but Mr. Hope! I, at that time, was in the garden alone, mufing on the fituation I was in, and wondering what could be the cause of his abfenting himself from us fo long, when, as I had understood from Mrs. Dawfon, he went out every day an airing.

'Caroline was at her harpfichord, and Nell had gone to call on Miss Wilks, our clergyman's daughter, who is about her own age, When Mr. Hope called, he was told by Helen, the chambermaid, that Sir William and my lady were on a visit, but that the young ladies were at home, and the believed, in the garden. Helen had feen me go there, and, it seems, it was whispered amongst the fervants, that Mifs Fanny was quite another creature, fince lord Elmor was come about the house, which they imputed to my having certainly vowed to be true to Mr. Hope, and which the cruelty and ambition of my parents wanted me to break. This, it feems, was firmly believed amongst the lower fervants, and many wonderful stories of the confequence of broken vows were every night talked over the kitchen fire. Helen, who had a great regard for me, and always faid I was the fweeteft young lady in the houfe, trembled for the danger the thought me in; and out of zeal for my welfare, and to frighten me from the fatal purpose, used, as often as he thought me within hearing, to chant out the melancholy ditty of Margaret's grimly Ghoft. Prepoffeffed with these thoughts, the good-natured Helen was quite happy at the opportunity of fending Mr. Hope to me in the garden alone. I had got to the fhady walk at the bottom of the terrace, and had fat down on the little green feat, which you are fo fond of, and which you know is furrounded with jeffamine and woodbine. I had taken a volume of the Spectator with me; but the beauties of that admired work were unable, at that time, to command my attention.

I was fitting with my head leaning on one hand, the other hanging carelefly at my fide, with the book in it, when Mr.

U 2

Hope

Hope entered the walk. I was fo deep in contemplation, that I never moved till he was got fo close as to kneel down and look up in my face, my eyes being fixed on the ground. Had Margaret's grimly ghost appeared, I could not have been more alarmed. I gave a great fariek, and the book dropped from my hand. Mr. Hope, in the greatest confufion, blamed his rashness, and protested he would rather die than give me a moment's pain. I recovered fo far as to beg he would not make himself uneasy, for the effects of my fright would foon wear off. Would to God! faid he, taking my hand, which he preffed to his lips, that the effect of your goodness and charms-Here he ftopped, and, throwing himself at my feet, faid, Oh, madam! forgive, forgive a creature deftined to mifery. Believe me, I had no intention-I with my lord Elmor and you all the happiness it is poffible to enjoy―Think me not so mean as to have one felfish with. Pardon me, dearest creature, pardon this unguarded moment. Oh, Fanny! can you, will you forgive me ?

Imagine to yourself, my dear Clarinda, the condition I was in. The agitation of my spirits had very near overcome my fenfes.

"Oh! Mr. Hope, leave me, said I. Yes, madam, he replied, I will leave you, never-I took hold of his hand. Don't goBelieve me I never, never will marry lord Elmor. Gracious heaven! exclaimed he, is it poffible? Can my Fanny-But my fenfes deceive me-What am I? I can have no hopes-Such beauty, fuch merit, can never condefcend to look fo low. I begged him to rife, and defired him not to give way to his fears, for that my parents had promifed never to force me into a marriage, but, at the fame time I was determined never to marry without their confent. It is needlefs for me to defcribe the extacy he was in, or the pleasure I felt.'

X. A Review of Mr. Philips's Hiftory of the Life of Reginald Pole. By Glocefter Ridley, LLB. 8vo. Pr. 45. Whifton and White.

Having already reviewed the Hiftory of the Life of Reginald

Pole, (See vol. xvii. p. 413. and vol. xix. p. 17.) we are the better enabled to give our opinion of the work before us. Mr. Ridley, in his deduction of Pole's parentage, has laboured greatly to expose the ambition of the house of York. Was it,' fays he, impoffible, or unlikely, that fome feeds of ambition, which fhot up fo plentifully in all the other branches of the house of York, fhould pafs into the constitution of one defcended from an afpiring race? and that the tainted blood of fo many rebels fhould carry with it, into Reginald's veins, an hereditary corruption? In fact, did not his elder brother, the

lord