as well for the rules contained in the accidence, as for the author's knowledge of the Tuscan pronunciation. But whilst we bear a willing testimony to the merits of the work, we cannot forbear a smile at the parade with which it is introduced. Mr. Tourner's titles of PHILOS. THEOLOG. and LEGUM DOCTOR, we should have passed over with the silence which Italian degrees deserve: but the affectation of uncommon learning ought to have been less apparent, or the claim to it better supported. It is not because the Polandish and Russian languages are uniformly soft, that the inhabitants speak Italian better than they do any other tongues, but because there is enough of characters in the Sclavonic dialect to signify the powers of almost all the European letters. A Russian, therefore, will catch the rough tones of the English or German, as easily as the liquid ones of the Italian or French; for he not only is used to a labial sound before several of his own vowels, but he has also a native guttural, as hard as the Spanish X. There can be no doubt, in the mind of any philologist, that the French and Spanish are derived from the Latin, as legitimately as the Italian. The first of these idioms, it is true, has a great mixture of Celtic in it; but five-sixths of the Spanish words are to be traced up to Latin roots, notwithstanding any-thing that Mr. Tourner can say to the contrary. We entirely agree with our author, that the language of communication, in teaching another language, should be that which is natural to the learner.' For this reason, it certainly is a bad practice to teach Italian through the medium of French; and it is still a greater absurdity to employ a Frenchman as a master, where an Italian can be got. However, we cannot so readily assent to his doctrine, that any peculiari ties in the French pronunciation can prevent the different articulations of different languages. On the contrary, we know more than one Frenchman, who speak English as well as natives, though they never heard a word of the language till they were twenty years old. The first great evil to an adult, in learning a new tongue, is to affix a sound to a letter which he has not in his own idiom; and the second is to give sounds more guttural than his vernacular tongue gives the letters it has. On these two principles, we know of no man who would experience more difficulty in acquiring foreign pronunciation, than an Italian.

NOVELS, &c.

ART. 37.-Lorimon, or Man in every Stage of Life. A Novel. By M. D'Arnaud. 2 Vols. 12mo. 7s. Boards. Lane and Newman.

The author follows the effects of a neglected or perverted education through every stage of life, and traces the various miseries which it occasions. Even in the successors, these miseries are continued from the same cause; and the man who neglects his children, and leaves the young idea to shoot in the distorted manner which passions and fancies may direct, will find their unkindness sharper than a serpent's tooth. His real friends are insulted and despised: his pretended ones forsake him in the hours of poverty and distress: his children neglect him, and feel, in their own persons, the effects of his misconduct. It is a great fault, in a moral view, that the relief is at last brought him by a natural child; for he, too, had been neglected: but this loose morality is too common in French novelists; and the result should be guarded against

by the translator. Few works from that nation will admit of translation, without a careful revisal, and many changes.

-

ART. 38. The Vale of Conway: a Novel. By a Lady. 4 Vols. 12mo. 12s. Boards. Vernor and Hood. 1803.

This is a pleasing little tale; and the eventful changes of fortune, though somewhat too trite, frequently interest us. The characters are, however, slight etchings: they want the strong marks of originality and novelty. The work is printed at North Shields and the author, who probably resides in that spot, or the neighbourhood, has given many pleasing and interesting descriptions of its situation and

scenery.

ART. 39.-Kerwald Castle, or the Memoirs of the Marquis de Selanges. Translated from the French, by Mrs. Barnby. 2 Vols. 12mo. Wilkie.

Were an imprimatur' ever admissible on English ground, it would be in the choice of works worthy of being made our own We have crudities enough of native growth, without being obliged to import others equally immature and disgusting. The present author, who merits little regard, has to complain, however, of ill treatment from the printer and translator. The errors of the press are indeed numerous : but the language is still more incorrect. The punctuation, in particular, is remarkably defective. The perip tia (change of fortune) springs from a motive scarcely adequate to the determination. A father refuses to yield his daughter's hand, because her suitor was not born in wedlock; and consents to the marriage, because the ceremony takes place twenty years after his birth.

ART. 40.-Lioncel, or the Emigrant: an historical Novel, translated from the French of Louis de Bruno, a Native of the Banks of the Ganges. Embellished with Frontispieces. 2 Vols. 12mo. Stockdale. 1893.

6

We should have given our imprimatur to this artless little tale, which is said to contain events which have really happened, and which at least might have happened. The whole is highly interesting and pathetic. It affords, we believe, a faithful picture of the enormities of revolutionists, and we will add-if addition were necessaryto the detestation, which every one must feel of French principles and French practices.

MISCELLANEOUS LIST. ART. 41. An Enquiry into the Causes of the Errors and Irregularities which take place in ascertaining the Strengths of Spirituous Liquors, by the Hydrometer, with a Demonstration of the Practicability of simplifying and rendering this Instrument accurate. By William Speer, Supervisor and Assayer of Spirits in the Port of Dublin. 8vo. 1s. Payne. 1803.

The strength of spirituous liquors varies, it is well known, with the state of the atmosphere; and to ascertain this variation several ingenious methods have been devised. From the revenue being concerned in the investigation, the subject has, indeed, been profoundly

studied; but there are still irregularities attending the use of Clarke's' hydrometer-that generally employed at present-which are pointed out, in the work before us, with great judgement. To obviate them, the writer has devised a very simple plan, which seems to offer considerable advantages to the dealers in spirits, and to the public in general it is described by the inventor in the following words.

This new hydrometer is made of hard brass: the ball is shaped in the form of a pear, being nearly two inches in diameter at its greatest dimension, and two inches and a quarter in length: the lower stem measures one inch and a half, and is in shape a prism, each side measuring one eighth of an inch; to the lower end of this a round weight is fixed, the diameter of which is seven-eighths of an inch The upper stem is in length five inches and an half, and is an octagon, each side being somewhat less than an eighth of an inch wide: each of these sides is graduated for a temperature engraved on the top, the lowest being 35, the 2d 40, and so increasing by five until it reaches 70. The zero, or proof of point, is marked, and the gradations of strength (numbered at every 4th) amount to sixtysix, and those so clearly distinct, that at the over-proofs they will admit of a sub-division and by that means indicate an half per cent. These divisions are not at equal distances; an error which takes place in the present Irish, and several of the old hydrometers, but widen in proportion as the specific gravity of the spirit diminishes; and being graduated with spirits of known strengths at every 4 per cent. the intermediate per centages are adjusted by interpolation.

To prevent any error which might arise from taking the indication of strength from the wrong side of the stem, an index is applied on the top of it, with an opening to shew the figures which point out the temperature. This index, which applies merely to the purpose here mentioned, may be removed lower to any part of the stem, but above the surface of the liquor, without affecting the accuracy of the instrument, as neither its weight or dimension is changed; and being of a different colour from the stem (sanguined steel) it forms a contrast with it, and, as it were points to the indication sought for, by which every danger of error, in this respect is removed.

Although this is the only use of the index, when the temperature shall be found one of those eight marked on the stem, yet it is necessary that the instrument shall accord with the four intermediate degrees between each of the adjoining slides; for this purpose one of two other indexes of different weights are occasionally substituted for the first one, in order to lighten the instrument so as to accord with the decrease of gravity which takes place in the spirit by the increase of temperature. Therefore the manner of using the instrument is as follows:

Supposing the temperature to be 50, nothing further is required but to place the index No. 1, (each being marked so as easily to be distinguished) on the side marked 50, and immerse the instrument, which at once shews the strength. Should the temperature be 51 or -52, instead of index No. 1, use that marked No. 2:-Should it be 53 or 54, use index No. 3, the instrument having been adjusted with these two auxiliary indexes, in the one case at a temperature of 514, and in the other 534, these four intermediate temperatures are so ac

corded, as to be either the actual one, or within half a degree of it.-And they apply in all cases, to the four intermediate degrees of temperature, and no other appendage required to enable the instrument in this plain and simple manner to measure sixty-six gradations of strength with an accuracy which, it is presumed, is fully sufficient for either revenue or commerce. No weight requiring different immersions to find out that which is the proper one; no temperature omitted to create doubts, or false indications of strength; no fraction in the per centage to operate either against the revenue or the merchant; no gradation of strength left unascertained, or determined by conjecture; no doubt remaining as to the correct strength of all the various gradations; and no second inspection and subsequent combination to be made, requiring the aid of, and liable to the errors of, a sliding rule. P. 36.

ART. 42.-The Speech of the Right Hon. Lord Carrington, delivered at the Board of Agriculture, on Tuesday, March 15, 1803. Printed by Order of the Board.

Publisher's Name. 1803.

4to. No

This speech, pronounced when lord Carrington left the chair of the Agricultural Society, gives a short account of its transactions during his presidency. It was partly in the eventful season of the dearth; and the chief point which now relates to the public, is the circumstance which threw some odium on the society. Amidst several resolutions adopted from the county of York, one of them related to the abolition of tythes, or was rather in favour of a commutation instead of tythes. His lordship disclaims, for the society, every view of that nature, and attributes the introduction of the resolution to inad

vertence.

ART. 43.-Extracts from a Correspondence with the Academies of Vienna and St. Petersburg, on the Cultivation of the Arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, in the Austrian and Russian Dominions. To which is prefixed, a summary Account of the Transactions of the Royal Academy of London, from the Close of the Exhibition 1801, to the present Exhibition at Somerset House, 1802. By Prince Houre, Member of the Academies of Florence, and Cortona, &c. 4to. 2s. 6d. White. 1802.

This may be styled an annual history of the Academy, from 1801 to 1802 Mr. Hoare, who is the foreign secretary, proposed to open a correspondence with the several academies in Europe, to obtain a general knowledge of the present state of the fine arts in different countries. In this volume, we find only the letters from Vienna and Rus sia but they afford a pleasing view of the abilities and taste of these academies; and the former letter was accompanied by a work, entitled, A History of the plastic Arts at Vienna, of which an abstract is added. We trust this plan will be continued; and that, when the devastations of war shall have ceased, diplomatic correspondence and dispatches will be pleasingly superseded by these reciprocal communications of national taste and judgement.

APPENDIX

ΤΟ

THE THIRTY-EIGHTH VOLUME

OF THE

NEW ARRANGEMENT

OF THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

ART. I.-Histoire des Mathématiques, &c. History of the Mathematics. By J. E. Montucla. (Concluded from Vol. 37, p. 495.)

WE now enter on the fourth or last volume of this cele brated history, which comprises large and detailed accounts of improvements, during the eighteenth century, in astronomy, navigation, geography, music, &c. with several smaller additions, in the form of supplements, to former articles, and concludes with a short narrative of the author's life. To this vo→ lume is prefixed an engraved portrait of the editor De Lalande, in the same manner as the former is embellished with one of Montucla himself. The tables of contents of each book are here, however, strangely omitted, notwithstanding their use, and the regularity with which they were continued throughout the former volumes; it is a departure from the original plan and practice of the author, which the editor must find it difficult to justify. The books, nevertheless, are still divided into articles, or large sections, as before.

. The fourth volume commences with book V, part V, of the history, and treats of the astronomy of the planets, of the stars, and of eclipses. The first article or section in this division gives an idea of the system of the world. The eighteenth century has been exceeding favourable to the science of astrono my, having communicated to it more numerous and more important discoveries and improvements than all the ages that have preceded it. In the earlier centuries, the very limited and im-' perfect state of geometry, of optics, and of analyses, necessa APP. Vol. 38.

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