In fact, the Tumult, the Beggars, and the Prostitutes of Lon. don are the chief fubjects of the poem, but much good writing is employed on them and in the notes many very useful and impor, rant remarks, particularly on the prevention of idle mendicity, and the protection of repentant females. The conclufion of the poem, befides being in itself fine, beft fhows the defign of the whole.

"So London! have I wander'd, fad and flow,
Amid thy fcenes of riot, filth, and woe:
Search'd of thy fplendid vaults the concave deep,
Where murder'd Innocence and Virtue sleep;
And fnatch'd from rotten heaps, with hafty hand,
Sad, awful emblems of a morbid land.

Thefe are the scenes, ye rural parents! thefe,
Whofe joys disturb your home-bred female's ease.
Compar'd with thefe, the grove and flow'ry plain,
Parterre and blue-edg'd landscape, fmile in vain.
Alas! their fimple fummer dreams behold.
Bright throngs of merriment, and ftreets of gold.
There Fashion beams an Eden of Delight;

},

Pride, meannefs, fhameless, craft, fufpicion, spight,
Folly, and rampant Vice efcape their dazzled fight." P. 65.

The remaining poem, called "The Hall of Pedantry," is of the lyric form, and has much merit in expreffion and numbers, but to what it alludes, we are ignorant; apparently to fome new building in an univerfity, but it is not at all explained.

ART. 16. Poetic Sketches. By T. Gent. I 2mo.
Rivingtons. 1806.

4s. 6d.

We like the author's facetious fpirit exceedingly, and wik lingly transcribe the following fpecimen.

AN IMPROMPTU.

O Sue! you certainly have been,

A little raking, roguish creature,

And in that face, may ftill be feen,

Each laughing love's bewitching feature!

For thou haft ftolen many a heart-
And robb'd the fweetnefs of the rofe;

Plac'd on that cheek it doth impart

More lovely tints, more fragrant blows!

Yes, thou art nature's favourite child,

Array'd in fmiles, feducing, killing;
Did Jofeph live, you'd drive him wild,
And fet his very foul a thrilling!

4

A joel,

A poet, much too poor to live,

Too poor, in this rich world to rove,
Too poor, for aught but verse to give,
But not, thank heaven, too poor to love!
Gives thee his little doggerel lay,
One truth I tell, in forrow tell it,
I'm forc'd to give my verfe away,
Because, alas! I cannot fell it.

And should you with a critic's eye
Proclaim me 'gainst the mufe a finner,
Reflect, dear girl, that fuch as I,

Six times a week don't get a dinner.
And want of comfort, food, and wine,
Will damp the genius, curb the spirit ;
Thefe wants I'll own are often mine,
But can't allow a want of merit,

For every ftupid dog that drinks

At Poet's pond, nick-nam'd divine,
Say what he will, I know he thinks,
That all he writes is dev'lish fine,

ART. 17. The Poetical Works of Arthur Bligh, Efq. 12mo. 5s. Lloyd. 1804.

Thefe poems have accidentally efcaped our notice for fome time, but they certainly are fufficiently elegant to deferve commendation. Their characteristic is ease and harmony, and they are of a good moral tendency. They confift principally of fables, of which we give as an example

FABLE V.

THE CONTENDING PLANETS.

Once the planets difputing, "behold how I fhine,"
Cried Saturn to Jove, boafting fplendor divine.
Venus vow'd she was faireft, Mars lift up his voice,
And Mercury claim'd the firft right to rejoice.
From old ocean Apollo, difturb'd at the found,
Rofe fublime and just dawning his radiance around;
Te dim fhade he configned thefe pretenders to praife
'Tis the fure teft of folly felf-merit to raise.

DRAMATIC.

ART. 18. The Weathercock; a Farce, in Two Acts. First acted at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Monday, November 18, 1805. By John Till Allingham. 8vo. 27 PP.

Lackington and Co.

15. 6d.

The fubject of this little drama is a young man who is perpe. tually varying his fcheme of life, fo fuddenly and whimfically, that we have no doubt he would, in common life, have been deemed a madman. Such a character might, with a little judgment, be fo drawn as to have a very ludicrous effect on the stage. Here it is heightened to an extravagant degree; but with what effect on the audience we are not told. In our opinion this farce, abfurd as it is, is not more fo than many modern pieces of five acts, which the courtesy of the stage has honoured with the name of comedies.

MEDICINE.

ART. 19. A Reply to the Anti-Vaccinifts. By James Moore,, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. 8vo. 70 pp. 25. J. Murray. 1806.

If the difpute between the combatants on the subject of the cowpox, which has raged with fo much violence, to the great annoyance of the public, for the laft four or five years, were to be deter. mined by wit, and humour, the writer whose work is now before us, would indifputably bear away the palm, from all the contending parties. He manages that dangerous weapon, with fo much adroitnefs, and is at once, fo gentle, and fo keen, that though like the skilful, but humane furgeon, he is frequently obliged, in order to get at the feat of the diforder, to wound deeply, he yet excites no refentment in the breafts of the patients, who are fenfible he would have acted with more tenderness, if his duty, and a regard for their interests, would have permitted.

But the author does not only excel in wit; the new points of view in which he has placed the fubject, and the ingenious and folid arguments he every where advances, give him a just title to the ferious attention of the writers on either fide of the queftion. The review of fuch a work, after the rude and farcaftic productions we have been obliged to notice, is fo pleafing that we shall indulge ourfelves, and our readers, by laying a few short extracts before them.

The writer begins with giving fome neceffary advice to both parties, which it may be worth their while to attend to. "That vaccination," he fays, p. 1," fhould occafion contention, was a thing of course; but this has been carried to unexpected lengths;

for

for both those who approve, and thofe who difapprove of vacci nation, have accufed each other of murdering their patients. It is to be regretted that they are not more prudent, for the public may give implicit credit to both."

On the schifin among the vaccinators, a party of them contending that vaccine puftules were a common occurrence, though we know they were occafioned by the mixture of variolous, with the vaccine matter, the author fays, p. 7- "No fooner had abufe commenced, than Dr. Jenner, with propriety, withdrew from the conteft. But others warmly efpoufed his caufe. The newspapers became infected with virulent paragraphs; an eruption of confluent pamphlets broke out; inflammatory duodecimos fucceeded, and fwelling octavos full of matter, burft from the prefs. Many ingenious hypothefes were formed to account for the eruptions. Some fuppofed they were fmall-pox, others cow-pox, and a third party a hybrid difeafe. A few minute philofophers, in order to fift this bufinefs to the bottom, determined to examine the matter of the puftules by the folar microscope, and by the niceft the micaltefts. But in the mean time, Dr. Jenner's rules for inocula tion were filently put in practice; upon which the eruptions fud. denly vanished, and no pus could be found to make experiments with."

He then anfwers, fatisfactorily to all whom prejudice has not blinded, the objection to using a beftial humour; from the general healthinefs of the cow, and its pure food, and fhows that no proof has been given that perfons who have been vaccinated, are affected with more, or any other difeafes, than thofe who never were inoculated, either with variolous, or vaccine matter; for fmallpox inoculation, has been charged as often, and as justly, with introducing other difeafes into the conftitution, as vaccination. The author however laughs as heartily at the extravagant fancies of the vaccinators, who have fuppofed they fhould not only now be able totally to extinguish the fmall-pox, but the plague, and many other diseases, against which they have boated that vaccina. tion would prove an antidote; as at their gloomy opponents, who feem to fear man may by the means of this humour, be degraded from his rank in the creation, and like Nebuchadnezzar be con demned to wander with the brutes. "It is difficult to account," the author fays, p. 15, "for the fallies of indignation which burft from the gentlemen, and ftill more for the exultation with which they report every fuppofed failure in the practice;" for I am perfuaded, he adds, "that in their hearts, they lament thefe failures as deeply as Dr. Jenner could, and muft feel unhappiness in proportion to their conviction of the mifchievous confequences of vaccination, although they conceal their diftrefs with the fame art that they difguife their grief to their dying patients, left it fhould imbitter their laft days.'

The author then, in a more ferious tone obferves, that if fuch accidents as have been depicted by the ftrenuous oppofers of vacci

nation, did really occur, they must be ofteneft met with by those who are most deeply engaged in the practice; but thefe gentlemen continue to affirm that they have met with no inftances of fuch affections; they are only feen by thofe who never adopted vacci nation, but who having predicted they would enfue, have now the faculty of feeing, what no eyes but their own, have the power of difcerning.

Mr. Moore next proceeds to a more particular examination of the works of Drs. Mofely, Squirrel, and Rowley, the most popular writers against the cow-pox, and produces fuch inftances of inconfiftency, as muft, we fhould think, make the gentlemen v.ho remain, afhamed of the part they have taken, or if it should not haply take that effect, they will certainly in future be more cautious of their affertions, knowing their effufions will be fubjected to the fcrutiny of fo keen an examiner. We might produce many other paffages from this fenfible little work, but what we have faid, will be fufficient to induce all, who are interested in the conteft, to perufe it, and we can promife, that they will receive more fatisfaction, than from any of the controverfial pieces, on either fide, which have appeared on the subject,

ART. 20, A Practical Account of a Remittent Fever, frequently accurring among the Troops, in this Climate. By Thomas Sutton, M. D. of the Royal College of Phyficians, London. 42 PP. 2s, Robinfon. 1806,

8vo

As the fever here defcribed was attended with violent pain of the head, great proftration of strength, and often with a feeble and quick pulfe, it has frequently been confidered, and treated as low, nervou, fever, but experience has fhown, the author fays, that it is highly inflammatory. For though there is ufually little cough, and the patient does not feem fenfible of any affection of the chest, yet on a moic minute inquiry, and on defiring him to draw in a full infpiration, pain is excited. It becomes therefore neceffary to attend particularly to this circumftance; as when the fever is treated as typhus, with wine, and other cordials, the bark, &c. the mortality from it is confiderably increased, and even thofe who recover, are much longer under cure, and are not fo completely restored to health, as when a different mode of treatment is adopted.

The author having had opportunity of making comparative eftimates of the fuccefs attendent on each mode of treatment, found, that of thirty-feven patients who were treated as labouring under typhus, eleven, or nearly one-third of the number died; and that of ninety-two patients, to whom wine and cordials were given in the early ftage of the disease, but in a more moderate degree than to the former patients, eighteen, or about one-fifth part of the number died; again, when the difcafe was attacked in