the law had made no provifion; or when the witnesses have avoided, and perhaps by the contrivance of the party; or laftly, which is the most common cafe, when the attainted perfon having himself abfconded, and fled from juftice, has thereby made fuch an extrajudicial proceeding juftifiable. It is allo as certain, that neither of these things can be pleaded in the prefent cafe, which I need not be particular in fhewing, because not fuggested, nor is there the leaft colour for fuch fuggeftion. And yet I pretend to know the people in the charter governments fo well, and to be fo thoroughly acquainted with their meek principles of obedience, that I dare affirm, if fuch an act should pafs, however, rigorous and fevere they might think it within themselves, they would not let fall an indecent word of their fuperiors, but would receive the news with the loweft fubmiffion fo great is their loyalty to the king, and fo profound their regard for the refolutions of a British parliament, the wifeft and moft auguft affembly in the world.' Quantum mutati !

23. The Neceffity of repealing the American Stamp Act demonstrated: or, a Proof that Great-Britain must be injured by that Act. In a Letter to a Member of the British House of Commons. 8vo. Pr. 1s. Almon.

This author endeavours to prove, that it is for the interest of Great-Britain that the ftamp-act should be repealed.' In difcuffing this point, he attempts to fhew, that as to pecuniary obligations between the colonists and: Great Britain, the balance is in favour of the former; and that the blood and treasure which the colonists spent during the late war, on account of their mother country, has brought her greatly in their debt; that there is no neceffity for a ftanding army in the colonies, nor should they be taxed for fupporting of it; and that there is no reason they should support any share of Great-Britain's debts, or ease her of part of the burden of her taxes. In anfwer to all this, and many other reafonings of the fame kind, with which this pamphlet abounds, we must refer our reader to the laft article. We shall rejoice if the parliament should think proper to enter into the complaints of the colonists, and give them relief; but we think that there is a great difference between a complaint and a claim. The author of the piece before us does not plead for any compaffion towards the colonifts, on account of the ftamp-duty; but he speaks, as if through him they claim to be exempted from it, and from paying obedience to the authority of the British parliament, who impofed it.

VOL. XX. December, 1765.

24.

A Letter to a Member of Parliament, wherein the Power of the British Legislature, and the Cafe of the Colonifts, are briefly and impartially confidered. 8vo. Pr. Is. Flexney.

This writer is an advocate for the conftitutional power which the legislature of Great-Britain has to tax our colonies. He has made fome very pertinent obfervations upon the laws and liberties that colonifts can claim. Was it (fays he) within the compafs of my prefent defign, to enter into a progreffive recapitulation of the different modes, by which the feveral colonies have become parcel of, and annexed to, the dominions of this crown, whether by difcovery, conqueft, or treaties; I fear the law of nations would point fo ftrongly to the prevailing diftinction, between the nature of municipal laws, and thofe of a newly acquired appendage to any empire, as muft exclude them from the advantageous and honourable fellowship I have affigned them; I chufe, however, for the purpose of coming more fpeedily and directly to the point in iffue, to wave this piece of history, and that their own arguments may be received in the fulleft scope and latitude they can poffibly bear, am willing to admit their pretensions to be co eval with thofe of the people of England in general.'

This writer must pardon us, if we think that he has mifapplied the word municipal in this paffage; for the municipal Jaw of the Romans was precifely that of a newly acquired appendage to their empire. This municipal law differed from the civil law, or the Lex Civitatis Romanæ; nor can we call any part of the law of England municipal; because Great-Britain is as independent an empire as that of Rome was.

25. The Grievances of the American Colonies candidly examined. 8vo. Pr. Is. Almoh.

This is a remonstrance against the stamp-act, and the other taxes impofed by the British parliament upon the colonies. The author obferves, that a duty of three-pence per gallon on foreign melaffes imported there, is what the article cannot bear; and, confequently, muft operate as an abfolute prohibition. This (fays he) will put a total ftop to the exporta tion of lumber, horfes, flour, and fish, to the French and Dutch fugar colonies; and if any one fuppofe we may find a fufficient vent for thefe articles in the English Weft-Indies, he only verifies what was just now obferved, that he wants true information.'

The author then proceeds to impeach the power of the British parliament to establish ftamp-duties in America. We are very unwilling to intereft ourselves farther in this debate, which feems at prefent to be drawing towards a crifis. We therefore

6

refer

refer our readers for an answer to this, and all other arguments of the fame kind, to our review of a most excellent pamphlet on that fubject, published ten months ago (See vol. xix. p. 226). Upon the whole, we cannot help thinking that the American advocates deal too much in declamation, and in references to ancient and prophane hiftory. The firft carries with it no argument; and any that is drawn from the fecond must be imperfect and inconclufive, till we can difcover, in ancient and modern times, a conftitution like that of Great-Britain; in which it is not in the king's power to difpenfe, by charter or otherwife, with the common law of England, which the anceftors of the American colonists carried over with them; and, while their defcendants live under it, they are to be bound by the acts of a British parliament.

26. The Importance of the Colonies of North-America, and the Intereft of Great Britain with regard to them, confidered. Together with Remarks on the Stamp-Duty. 4to. Pr. 15. Peat.

This pamphlet (if we miftake not) is a catch-penny, as it contains only fome common-place obfervations, picked up from other publications on the fame fubject. The purpofe of writing it, befides that of getting money, feems to be, to perfuade the legiflature, that it can, confiftent with its own dignity, sufpend the execution of the stamp-act for a year.

27. An Account of the Island of Newfoundland, with the Nature of its Trade, and Method of carrying on the Fishery. With Reafons for the great Decreafe of that most valuable Branch of Trade. By Capt. Griffith Williams, of the Royal Regiment of Artillery.. To which is annexed, a Plan, to exclude the French from that Trade. Propofed to the Adminiftration in the Year 1761, by Capt. Cole. 8vo. Pr. Is. Owen,

The name of capt. Cole, the editor of this pamphlet, is fufficient to give it a fanction, or at least to obtain it a reading from every gentleman who is concerned in the progress and improvement of the advantages accruing to Great-Britain by the late peace, and by the regulations it established in the Newfoundland fishery. The title-page of the pamphlet gives us a ftrong reafon why capt, Williams, the author of this ac count, is well qualified for writing it; and indeed his obfervations are so just and so precife, that they carry conviction with them. As to the plan, of which capt. Cole is the author, we have fome reason to believe that it will foon come under the cognizance of a higher court than that of criticism; and though at prefent we are well fatisfied of the practicability of his scheme, yet we think it most decent to referve our judgment of it at prefent. We know that the fuccefs of mercantile and maritime affairs depends upon circumftances that can

be

be known only to merchants and failors; and we are unwilling to undergo the ridicule of the fophift, who pretended to give lectures on the art of war in the presence of Hannibal. 28. The Wanderer: or; Memoirs of Charles Searle, Efq. Vols. 12mo. Pr. 5. feed. Lowndes.

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We can, by no means, recommend this as a fhining performance of the kind. The story is too complicated, and there is too great a fameness in the characters of its agents, to admit either of an abridgment or an analyfis. However, if we should mention this novel as deftitute of all merit, we might wrong the author; if we should recommend it as excellent, we might mislead our reader.

29. The Council in the Moon. 4to. Pr. 1s. Wilfon and Fell.

We are fo dull, as not to know the meaning of this performance. The author lays his scene in a little republic in the moon, where every member of the community was forbad, upon pain of expulfion, to eat cheese with his bread.' A council was called to repeal this whimfical law, and a debate follows, in which the speakers are defcribed fo as to make it plain that the author, though he denies it, has fome private characters in view. The arguments for and againft cheefe-eating are urged with fome degree of humour, and the moral, with which the author concludes, is that, when men's opinions are suggested, rather by fome ruling paffion, peculiar caft of character, or reafons merely local, than by a candid, liberal, and unbiaffed examination, they are justly liable to a suspicion of being equally deftitute of truth and impartiality.'-We have fome idea that the whole has an allufion to certain academical characters and difputes..

30. Letters on the Fall and Refloration of Mankind. By Stephen Penny. 8vo. Pr. 1s. Sold by the Author, in Rosemary-Lane.

The author of this performance affures us, That to be deeply read in the histories of ancient times, and critically skilled in any, or in all languages, cannot be a qualification at all neceffary to fit a man to receive, or communicate the words of life.'

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This obfervation is evidently made in vindication of those Ipiritual adventurers, who take upon them to preach the gospel, without any pretenfions to human learning. But, alas! all the world knows how the fcriptures are mangled and perverted, and involved in darkness and mystery, when illiterate dreamers fet up for illuminated preachers.

Erratum. P. 459, 1. 28, in fome of the copies for time read true.