conducting thofe public difputations and comparative trials, which for ages prevailed in Europe, and in which the difcovery of truth was no part of the ambition of the combatants." (Lect. 11.)

The three laft lectures of this courfe are occupied with an analysis of the various branches of human knowledge, confidered according to the arrangement of Lord Bacon, as they are addreffed to the memory, the understanding, and the imagination. We do not fee the peculiar propriety of annexing fuch a difquifition to a courfe of logic; nor the benefit to be derived from fuch a rapid review of all the sciences and arts to which human ingenuity has as yet given birth. Under fome of the heads of arrangement, topics are difcuffed which would have found a more appropriate fituation in fome preceding parts of the courfe. Thus, under the head of hiftory, we find a variety of remarks upon the nature of annals, memoirs, and biography; and even a fpecification of fome of the moft eminent authors in thefe departments, fubjects which would have been introduced with much more propriety into fom of the lectures on Rhetoric.

Upon the whole, although thefe lectures might have been. fufficiently ufeful, as addreffed to an auditory of youthful ftudents, we do not think there was any occafion for bringing them before the bar of the public. They do not enlarge our views of the fubjects of which they treat; their author is, in general, fatisfied with following the beaten track, and employing the arrangements, arguments, and even illuftrations of his predeceffors; and in fome inftances, particularly in the lectures upon logic, he has not profited nearly fo much as he ought to have done by the difquifitions of those who have gone before him.

Mr. Barron's ftyle is animated, and in general perfpicuous, but it is not always correct; and on fome occafions it is affected, and makes a near approach to the bombaft. He too frequently omits the relative pronouns which or that, and on the following occafion improperly omits that when ufed conjunctively." His fentiments were refined, his language is formal, his wit is learned; in a word, he feems afraid that fome circumflances fhould difcover Mr. Pope was not a great man." Idiom requires that to be inferted before the words " Mr. Pope was not a great man." In the following fentence we have the fame improper omiffion of the conjunction that, combined with a very inelegant repetition of the words it is. "The formality and parade with which this contrivance of Simonides is reprefented, is apt

to

to mislead, and to make us imagine it is of more importance than it is."

In the following expreffion, the qualifying word only is misplaced. "For the feasons of defpondency are attended only with filence." The author's meaning required him to have written," for the feafons of defponding only are attended with filence;" on another occafion, he writes, "claffical authority is none other than the example of such fpeakers and writers." Inftead of none other, he ought to have faid nothing elfe; as the first phrafe is appropriated to perfons, the second to things.

In fome inftances we have to accufe Mr. Barron of af fectation, as in the repeated ufe of the term novel inftead of new. The following fentence is greatly too pompous for the occafion on which it is delivered. "I have now finished every preliminary difquifition which appeared requifite to elucidate the approach to our fubject, and to qualify us to proceed with pleasure and emolument.' It is a direct Scot

ticifm to employ the word throng in the fenfe of bufy, as is done in the following fentence. "In throng feasons, he has not leifure to inform himself fully of facts, the most important ingredients in a fpeech of bufinefs."

Thefe inaccuracies of flyle require greater animadverfion in a work upon Rhetoric than in any other compofition; but it is no more than juftice to afcribe many of them to the circumftance of the work not having received the correcting hand of the author, before it iffued from the prefs.

ART. VI. A Voyage to Cochinchina, in the Years 1792 and 1793: containing a general View of the valuable Productions and the political Importance of this flourishing Kingdom; and alfo of fuch European Settlements as were vifited on the Voyage: with Sketches of the Manners, Character, and Condition of their feveral Inhabitants. To which is annexed, an Account of a Journey, made in the Years 1801 and 1802, to the Refidence of the Chief of the Boofbuana Nation, being the remoteft Point in the Interior of Southern Africa to which Europeans have hitherto penetrated. The Facts and Defcrip tions taken from a Manufcript Journal. With a Chart of

the

the Route. By John Barrow, Efq. F. R.S. Author of "Travels in Southern Africa," and " Travels in China." 4to. 467 pp. Price 31. 13s. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1806.

MR R. Barrow's preceding publications of this kind have defervedly received an important fhare of public attention and esteem. They are, indeed, confidered as ftandard books; and no collection, whofe object is geographical or ftatistical knowledge, can be confidered as complete without them. Of this prefent volume, however, there are only two portions which excite and fatisfy particular curiofity; namely, the account of Cochinchina, comprifed in about one hundred and twenty pages; and the account of the expedition to the refidence of the chief of the Boolhuana nation, which forms a kind of appendix. Thefe parts of the work are, beyond all doubt, exceedingly interefting and inftructive. Óf Cochinchina very little has been hither to known, and the best informed, as well as the latest writers on the fubject of geography, frankly acknowledge that from deficiency of materials they were unable to communicate any authentic or fatisfactory information. The part of Southern Africa alfo, which is here defcribed, is the remoteft point in the interior of that region to which Europeans have hitherto penetrated. It is by no means our intention to depreciate the other portions of this publication, but all the places touched at, in this and other voyages to China, are fo well known, and have been fo often and fo well defcribed, that although the detail and narrative of Mr. Barrow are remarkably well given, we fhall only direct the attention of the reader to what has, with us at least, the more forcible recommendation of novelty.

Cochinchina is one of four kingdoms divided from the Birman empire on the weft, by a tongue of land of no less than thirteen degrees in extent, which begins where the vast empire of China terminates, in the twenty-fecond degree of latitude. Of thefe kingdoms, Tungquin, ufually written Tonquin, is the only one known by a fimilar name to the natives; the other three marked in our charts as Cochinchina, Tfiompa, and Cambodia, are collectively called AN-NAN. Thefe are diflinguifhed by three grand divifions. In the divifion called Hué, the principal bay is known by the name of Turon, properly Han-san, and hither the expedition directed its courfe from Pulo Condore.

Mr. Barrow places before his readers a fuccinct but neat account of modern Cochinchina, by which it appears to

M m

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXVIII, Nov. 1806.

have

have been greatly diftracted by internal divifions, but at this time, viz. about 1800, there is reafon to believe that the lawful fovereign, Caung-fhung, had re-conquered the whole of the country; and the character of this perfonage is fo remarkable, that there feems fufficient inducement to give it at length.

Caang-fhung is reprefented to be, in the ftri&teft fenfe of the word, a complete foldier. He is faid to hold the name of General far more dear and estimable than that of Sovereign. He is described as being brave without rashness; and fertile in expedients, when difficulties are to be furmounted. His conceptions are generally juft; his conduct firm; he his neither difcouraged by difficulties, nor tumed afide by obftacles. Cautious in decid. ing, when once refolved, he is prompt and vigorous to execute. In battle he is always eminently distinguishable. At the head of his army he is cheerful and good humoured; polite and attentive to all the officers under his command, he ftudiously avoids to mark out any individual as.a favourite beyond the reft. His memory is fo correct, that he is faid to know by name the greater part of his army. He takes uncommon pleasure in converfing with his foldiers, and in talking over their adventures and exploits; he makes particular enquiries after their wives and chil dren; if the latter go regularly to fchool; how they mean to difpofe of them when grown up; and, in fhort, enters with a degree of intereft into a minute detail of their domeftic con.

cerns.

"His conduct to foreigners is affable and condefcending. To the French officers in his fervice he pays the moft marked atten. tion, and treats them with the greatest politenefs, familiarity, and good humour. On all his hunting excurfions, and other parties of pleasure, one of thefe officers is always invited to attend. He openly declares his great veneration for the doctrines of Chriftianity, and tolerates this religion and indeed all others in his dominions. He obferves a moft fcrupulous regard to the maxims of filial piety, as laid down in the works of Confucius, and humbles himself in the prefence of his mother (who is fill living) as a child before its mafter. With the works of the moft eminent Chinese authors he is well acquainted; and, through the tranflations into the Chinese character of the Ency clopedie by the Bishop Adran, he has acquired no inconfiderable knowledge of European arts and fciences, among which he is moft attached to fuch as relate to navigation and fhip-building. It is ftated, on what appears to be good authority, that, in or der to obtain a thorough knowledge of the practice as well as theory of European naval architecture, he purchased a Portuguefe veffel, for the fole purpose of taking in pieces, plank by plank, with his own hands, fitting in a new piece of fimilar fhape and dimensions as the old one he removed, till every beam, tim

bet,

ber, knee and plank had been replaced by new ones of his own construction, and the fhip thus completely renovated.

"The energy of his mind is not lefs vigorous than the activity of his corporeal faculties. He is reprefented, in fact, as the main fpring of every movement that takes place in his extenfive and flourishing kingdom. Intendant of the ports and arsenals, mafter fhipwright of the dock-yard, and chief engineer of all the works, nothing is attempted to be undertaken without his advice and instructions. In the former, not a nail is driven without firft confulting him; nor a gun mounted on the latter but by his orders. He not only enters into the most minute detail in drawing up inftructions, but actually fees them executed himself.

"To enable him the better to attend to the concerns of his government, his mode of life is regulated by a fixed plan. At fix in the morning he rifes from his couch, and goes into the cold bath. At feven he has his levee of Mandarins all the letters are read which have been received in the course of the preceding day, on which his orders are minuted by the refpective fecretaries. He then proceeds to the naval arfenal, examines the works that have been performed in his abfence, rows in his barge round the harbour, infpecting his fhips of war. He pays particular attention to the ordnance department; and in the foundery, which is erected within the arfenal, cannon are caft of all dimenfions.

"About twelve or one he takes his breakfaft in the dockyard, which confifts of a little boiled rice and dried fish. At two he retires to his apartment and fleeps till five, when he again rifes; gives audience to the naval and military officers, the heads of tribunals or public departments, and approves, rejects, or amends whatever they may have to propofe. Thefe affairs of ftate generally employ his attention till midnight, after which he retires to his private apartments, to make fuch notes and me. morandums as the occurrences of the day may have fuggefted. He then takes a light fupper, paffes an hour with his family, and between two and three in the morning retires to his bed; taking, in this manner, at two intervals, about fix hours of reft in the four-and-twenty:

"He neither makes ufe of Chinese wine, nor any kind of fpirituous liquors, and contents himself with a very small portion of animal food. A little fish, rice, vegetables and fruit, with tea and light paftry, conftitute the chic articles of his diet. Like a true Chinese, defcended, as he boafts to be, from the imperial family of Ming, he always eats alone, not permitting either his wife or any part of his family to fit down to the fame table with him. On the fame principle of pride, he would not allow fome English gentlemen to pay their refpects to him at his palace, in the year 1799, because, as he obferved, the unfettled ftate of the country did not permit him to make fuch preparations as were M m 2

due