In another expectation we were disappointed, and not agreeably we hoped we were to be fet down in Bafinghall-ftreet; but no, we had to travel another ftage, and, unfortunately, without a change of horfes. To defcend from metaphors, after the excurfion was finished, we found an appendix concerning the invafion of Great Britain, and the probable plans of Buonaparté. Here our author repeats two or three of the reveries that we often fee in newspapers, under the title of fpeculations. They contain no fpecific fact, or any feries of reafoning deducible from fact, they are merely unconnected detachments of pollibilities. This Doctor Maclean truly feems a well meaning man, but every well meaning man is not qualified to write a book; at least to write a book to any entertaining or useful purpofe; and except the names of the English prifoners, that, we prefume, to be tolerably correct, (we know it is not altogether fo, because he has either omitted the name of Mr. Palmer, a man of great fortune and confideration, or denominated him Mrs. Palmer): we can find little acceffion to information from this production. We really wifh perfons would not undertake to inform the public without having fomething to communicate; and therefore we cannot approve of fuch a publication as the prefentThere feems to be a deficiency of print as well as of matter. The octavo page contains exactly the quantity of the duodecimo page of a novel; this however is only, a deficiency in the proportion of two to three, whereas the deficiency of matter is fuch that the whole of the 304 pages might, with great eafe, be compreffed into 16; that is a ratio of one to nineteen. The only materials of the fmalieft value, the lift, and two or three anecdotes, might, by a printer's skill, be fpread over a loose 8vo. sheet. The Festival of the Rofe, with other Poems. By Mrs. Montolieu. 4to. PP. 77. 1802. WE E ought to apologize to our readers for having fo long neglected to notice this truly.elegant collection, which does equal credit to the head and heart of the fair authorefs. In this age of diffipation it is truly gratifying to fee a woman, who mixes in the first circles of fashion, while fhe devotes her ferious hours to the care and education of her children, fill up her hours of leiture with purfuits, at once gratifying to her own mind, and amufing and inftructive, not only to her friends, but to every admirer of original fentiment, and correct and polished verfification. The principal poem, called the Festival of the Rofe, is founded on a custom said to be eftablished in the village of Salency, in Picardy, where the Lord of the Manor gave a rofe every year to that of the young maids who bore the most unimpeachable character. The certain confequence of which prize was a marriage within the year. This cuftm Mrs. Montolieu has very happily transferred to a village in Wales, by which it of courfe becomes more interefting to the Britifh reader. The different claims of the candidates, and the efcapes that virtue and innocence meet from the temptation of folly and vice, and the cenfure of envy and malice, fill up the Poem with incidents that give both variety and intereft to the compofition. The following defcription of Matilda, the Lady of the Manor, and Patronefs of the inftitution, we felect from many other paffages of equal merit : Light as the fleecy clouds that cooled the day Gave grace more play, and wit more power to please.” The trial and triumph of Rofalind, the heroine of the ftory, confift in her refifting, from a high fenfe of duty, the honourable addreffes of Edmund, fon of the Lord and Lady of the village. We could almoft with the hand of Edmund had been joined to the reward of the rofe. Such an event would poffibly have been more gratifying to the reader, but perhaps the amiable poetess has adopted that which is more congenial with her avowed defign, a proper example to her own young family. From the fmaller poems we give the following, which it is imposAble any parent can read without agitation: 66 DELIRIUM. "'Hear'st thou yon fcreams that rend the air? "Now, even now my babe expires, "Yes, from yon pale star flashes rife; We cannot avoid on this occafion to notice the defect of our laws in decreeing no punishment for stealing children; it certainly should be be made a capital offence by the legislature, as a perfon guilty of most abominable crime can only be proceeded against for ftealing cloaths the infant is dressed in. Besides the merit of the poems we must pronounce our eulogy o mode in which they are given to the public, which exhibits a fpec of typography worthy the prefs of Benfley. An Account of the Native Africans in the neighbourhood of Sierra Le to which is added, an Account of the prefent State of Medicine an them. By Thomas Winterbottom, M. D. Phyfician to the lony of Sierra Leone. Two Volumes. 8vo. Pp. 645. Ha ard, 1803. THE HE firft of thefe volumes is topographical and statistical; fecond chiefly medical. The former is divided into fif chapters. Our author commences with a general view of the Afr coaft, thence he proceeds to an account of the country in the vici of Sierra Leone. This defcription feems to be fufficiently accur but without any novelty. The fecond chapter repeats a very w known fact, that the climate of Africa does not admit the fame d fion of seasons that obtains in the temperate latitudes of Europe. whom, who has ever read any authentic defcription of any cour within the torrid zone, can fuch remarks afford information! Dod Winterbottom proceeds to the meteorological hiftory of that part Africa, and delivers what hundreds have delivered before him, on rai tornadoes, &c. and, in order to convey impreffive ideas of thofe p nomena, quotes various paffages from different poets, ancient a modern. To exhibit a tornado he thinks it neceffary to cite Dod Darwin, who, at beft, must be but a fecond hand reprefenter of te pefts in countries that he never vifited. Lucrecius, Thomfon, Sha peare, Cowper, and Virgil, are all quoted, within fix pages, to ill trate a phenomenon which none of them ever faw. This poetical c tion is very well for fwelling out a book, but what purpose it can anfv in meteorological defcription of facts which are beyond the knowled of the poet, we cannot comprehend. We admire Virgil, Shakipea and Thomson, in their feries and connection of defcriptive as well of other matter; but we cannot think poetry well adapted to me matter of fact. It is always either above or beneath the mark. T third chapter confiders the articles of food, and mode of agricultur and presents a very fair, though very common narrative of that fubje without mnch interfperfion of poetry. The fourth follows the A can to his houfe, defcribes his economy in cookery; his viands, an liquors, and other palatable fubftances. Whoever has read Park, w find little new in this account. The towns and houfes of the Afr cans are the fubjects of the fifth chapter. The great object of t natives in chufing the pofition of towns is to guard againft the incu fions of neighbouring tribes. Thence they are formed in places difficu difficult accefs. The fixth chapter comprehends the divifions of labour, the ordinary employments, the manufactures, dreffes, and cuftoms of the negroes. Speaking of their cotton, our author repeats the trite obfervation, that Virgil in his Georgics fhewed he had heard, that there were countries in which trees produced a fubftance like white wool. The Macedonians knew that fact very well near two hundred years before the time of Virgil, and in the manufcripts of Alexander's officers it was handed down to Arrian. Such difplays of claffical literature are extremely useless, if it be an author's intention to demonstrate himself a great claffical scholar, because they are fo obvious to any school-boy; and they are extremely idle in a book profeffedly intended to convey exifting ftatistical information. Juvenal alfo is lugged in for the fame purpose, and the notes, which occupy a great portion of the work, feem rather defigned to enumerate the books that Dr. Winterbottom has read, than to make the reader better acquainted with Africa. A material deficiency in many literary works is the want of unity of defign. Whoever fets about writing a book, fhould have a definite purpose in view, and adhere to that purpose. Dr. Winterbottom profeffes to exhibit an account of a part of Africa, as at prefent known; but a confiderable portion of his matter is irrelevant to his object. The feventh chapter defcribes the amufements and literature of the Africans in more minute detail, but much less forcible impreffion than Park. The following two chapters on the government and manners of the Africans tell, we believe, very truly, what has been told before. The great defideratum in this work of Dr. Winterbottom's, is the want of that additional knowledge which a reader naturally expects from a new book profeffedly written on a fubject of information. He informs us the negroes have woolly hair; that they are great believers in magic, and various other fuperftitions; that flavery is often the punishment of crimes, or the compenfation for debts; that polygamy is frequent; that the features of the negroes are flat; and that their blacknefs is owing to the heat. What can a man mean by publishing a book to repeat what has been so often repeated before. One new fact, or at least one new allegation, of this author is, that certain tribes of Africans, fouth of Mandingo, and defcribed by Park, and others, as cannibals, are not fo inhumanly favage. Park mentions the affertion as a report he heard, but he does not attempt to prove its truth from specific teftimony. Our author enquires into the rank which an African holds in the fcale of the creation. From the best accounts which we have read, we think that all the inhabitants of the torrid zone are much inferior to the inhabitants of the temperate zone, in intellectual and moral powers; and that whenever the one and the other happen to come into competion, the intellectual and moral fuperiority muft prevail. The Africans, it appears from Park, and many other travellers, have a torpidity of understanding, and indolence of disposition which fits them for flavery. From the beginning of time they have been flaves, and until their heads and hearts are changed, great numbers of them will and and must be flaves. Doctor Winterbottom feems difpofed to confider the Africans as naturally equal to the Europeans, and reduced to their prefent degraded ftate from the flave-trade. We believe the flave trade an effect of African inferiority, and not a caufe. As there were always many myriads in Africa of perfons that would fubmit to flavery, and fuch perfons became transferrable from one mafter to another, a flave-trade was a neceffary refult of that understanding and thofe difpofitions in which the ftate of flavery originated. We find the best moralifts of antiquity fanction bondage; and one of thefe is the infpired author of the book of Gen fis. Mofes informs us, that whatever Jofeph did God was with him; hence we are to regard every measure and counsel of Jofeph, that is recorded to us by his hiftorian, as ratified by the Divine approbation. When Pharoah's subjects were in great diftrefs for want of bread, Jofeph offers them provifions on their agreeing to become the bondfmen or flaves of the king. If flavery had been a ftate unpleafing to the Supreme Being, would he have been with Jofeph in extending bondage to fuch a number of human creatures? In fact, flavery is not once reprehended throughout the fcriptures; it is a mere civil condition, the existence of which must depend upon national characters; it is the lowest ftage in that difparity of rank and fituation which proceeds originally from difparity of wisdom and virtue; and which, however more or lefs modified, is neceffary to the prefervation of fociety. A ftate of flavery is, in our opinion, abstractly neither right nor wrong; it mult depend entirely on the circumftances. Though Door Winterbottom afferts that the European flave-trade brutalizes the Africans, he adduces no proof to fupport his affertion: indeed it would be very easy to prove that the Africans, who are employed as flaves in the British plantations, are much happier (according to negro eftimates of happinefs) than in the terrors of war and famine fo very common in their own country. The wars, as Park clearly demonftrates, do not arife from European avarice, but from the prevalence of the fame paffions among the Africans as among other men. Winterbottom does not profeffedly impugn the flave-trade, but one of his real objects evidently is, to recommend that falfe philanthropy that would bestow freedom, without confidering its probable effects either towards the negroes themselves or the British interefts. The fecond volume treats of the difeafes of the Africans, their regimen, and medicines, and appears to contain more of medical information than the first of statistical. We do not find peftilential diforders fo very common among the Africans as among the Europeans; and this our author attributes to the temperance of the negroes. The venereal disease is very frequent. The leprofy is alfo common. The only disease that is regarded by medical historians as indigenous in Africa is the yaws. This is an eruptive distemper, the detail of which would be both tedious and difgufting. In general, we may obferve, that it is communicated by contagion; fomewhat resembles the venereal of the worst kind, but is rarely communicated by the fame m ans. Befides, like the fmall-pox, it never feizes a perfon twice. Our author's obfervations |