and religious conduct, as may for ever be our guide through all the chances and changes of this mortal life.' P. 279.

Every sermon abounds with similar passages; and, to make the author sensible of this defect, as well as to put him into the way of correcting it, we recommend him to take his volume to any one of the farm-houses of Biddenden, and request the honest householder to read one of them to his family. When the lection is over--in the course of which, however, the poor farmer, we apprehend, will find no small number of embarrassments-let the preacher ask him and his family the meaning of such words as truisms-stamina-derogate-asperity-uncontaminated-palliation-voluptuous -promulgated-consonant-transcendently-imbecillitysiniplification-metaphysical subtlety — logical precision luminousness-accumulation of obligations-speculative rea soner-amplification of trivial events-and similar modes of phraseology, which will be found in abundance in every page. It is from an examination of this kind that a preacher, of the same evidently good dispositions which are manifested in these discourses, will learn to adapt his language and style to the capacity of a country congregation.

ART. XIII.-Public Characters of 1800-1801. To be continued annually. 8vo. 9s. Boards. Phillips. 1301.

AFTER the extensive account we gave of the plan, after examining the propriety of the attempt, and the general character of the work, as it appeared in its two successive publications, we have little to add in the introductory part of our article. The editors speak, with cheerfulness, of the encouragement they have received, of the assistance offered, and the probability of improvement in the progress. In truth, assistance, if carried beyond the communication of facts, is delusive. To write with that attention which the public taste demands, is no easy task. and so prone are litcrary men, in general, to indolence, that the object must be interesting, to excite their activity. Fame and money, the great spurs to exertion, can, in this case, have no influence; and we must attribute any extraordinary efforts to an eagerness either to praise or to blame. Froin either motive, the communication must fail in the great point-impartiality. We indeed perceive, in this volume, superior spirit, more extensive information, and, in many of the lives, no common precision or elegance. Many are written con amore, and, with such a minuteness of narrative, that the biographer must have been assisted by the subject of his work, or

the characters must have been the same. To stop no longer in limine, we shall copy the table of contents, and the list of the portraits, many of which are flattering, and some unfaithful, representations.

Mr. Matthew Boulton-Mr. Professor Porson-Mr. PinkertonMr. Wilberforce-Mrs. Charlotte Smith-Sir Ralph AbercrombyLord Dorchester-Earl Stanhope - Dr. James Gregory - Duke of Bridgwater-Dr. William Mavor-Mr. Robert Ker Porter-Mr. John Thelwall-Mr. Jefferson-Mr. Bushrod Washington-Dr. John Gillies-Lord Hobart-Mr. Bidlake-Lord Loughborough-Mr. Dugald Stewart-Dr. Hugh Blair-Mr. Barry-Mrs. Robinson--Mr. John Ireland-Sir William Beechey-Duke of Portland-Sir Joseph Banks-Sir Peter Parker-Mr. Edmund Cartwright-Lord Grenville -Dr. William Hawes-Mr. Edmund Randolph-Mr. Paul Sandby -Mr. John Clerk-Dr. Lettsom-Mr. George Colman-Mr. Alderman Skinner-Dr. James Anderson-Prince de Bouillon-Duke of Marlborough-Lord-Justice-Clerk of Scotland.

The Frontispiece.

We have as usual inserted some outline sketches of those persons of whom we could readily procure correct portraits. We offer these to the public simply as rude characteristic sketches, conveying only general ideas, and probably not in every instance. equally fortunate. We flatter, ourselves, however, that in most instances these outlines will be readily recognized by those persons who know the parties, and to posterity and those who do not know them, will convey an impres sion sufficiently accurate.

The Chancellor-Duke of Portland-Lord Hobart-Mr. BarryEarl Stanhope-Sir Joseph Banks-Mr. Wilberforce-Mr. Pinkerton -Dr. Blair-Mr. Porter-Lord Grenville-Sir William BeecheyDr. Hawes - Dr. Lettsom - Dr. Anderson - Mrs. Robinson-Mr. Bidlake-Mr. Boulton-Mr. Paul Sandby-Mr. John Ireland - Dr. Mavor-Mrs. Smith-Duke of Marlborough-Mr. Thelwall.' P. vi.

The life of Mr. Boulton is what such lives should be-a faithful narrative of facts, not leaning either to extravagant panegyric, or to oblique censure. We shall select a passage, which, though the facts be generally known, is concise and interesting.

Aided by such talents, and commanding such unlimited mechanical power, Mr. Boulton's views soon expanded, and Soho began to exhibit symptoms of the extraordinary advantages it had acquired. The art of coining had long stood in need of simplification and arrangement, and to this art Mr. Boulton had no sooner turned his attention, than, about the year 1788, he erected a coining mill, on an improved plan, and struck a gold medal of the full weight of a guinea, and of the same form as that of his new copper coinage lately put into circulation. The superior advantages of that form are obvious. The impression is far less liable to friction; and by means of a steel gage of equal diameter, money coined on that principle may be examined by measure as well as by weight, the rim being exactly cir CRIT. REV. Vol. 38. May, 1803.

G

cular. Moreover, the intrinsic is so nearly equal to the current value of every piece, that, without a steam-engine and adequate apparatus, every attempt to counterfeit the Soho coinage must be made with loss, The fabrication of base money seems likely, by these means, to be speedily checked, and hereafter entirely defeated. The reason why Mr. Boulton has not yet been employed by government in the coinage of gold and silver, we have not been able to learn.

The mill at Soho works eight machines, each of which receives, stamps, and delivers out, by the aid of only a little boy, from seventy to ninety pieces of copper in one minute. Either of them is stopped without the smallest interruption to the motion of the others. In adjoining apartments all the preparatory processes are carried on with equal facility and dispatch; such as rolling the copper into sheets, dividing them into blanks, and shaking them into bags clean and ready for the die. Without any personal communication between the different classes of workmen, &c. the blanks are conveyed to the room where they are shaken, and from thence to the coining room in boxes moving with immense velocity on an inclined plane, and accompanied by a ticket of their weight.' P. 4.

Of professor Porson, the account is satisfactory and judicious. The author thinks it necessary to declare, that the whole was written without the professor's knowledge or concurrence. With the venial error of friendship, and the candid declaration that it is the work of a friend, the account leans to the favourable side: the harsher traits, when introduced, are softened and extenuated. Of Mr. Pinkerton, the account is also satisfactory, though not seemingly brought down to the era of the publication: it is given with a minuteness of anecdote, which shows the author, in this instance also, to be an intimate friend, and probably countryman, though some circumstances, even of the period described, are apparently concealed, and what the biographer desperat tractata nitescere posse, relinquit.

We need not enlarge on the lives of Mr. Wilberforce and Mrs. Smith. In that of the latter, we almost lose sight of the authoress, in the description of her unmerited and severe treatment, of which we find a full, and apparently impartial, account--we should almost suspect (from a note, p. 49) furnished by herself. The lives of sir Ralph Abercromby and lord Dorchester appear to be sufficiently full and faithful: that of earl Stanhope is very copious, warm, and culogetic; ample praise is given to his philosophical and mechanical inventions; and his political life, in unison with what we have described of the temper' of the work, is very favourably embellished. With extensive knowledge, deep reflexion, and much mechanical skill, earl Stanhope is somewhat quixotical in philosophy, perhaps more truly so in political speculations. We have never seen the sentiments imbibed at Geneva flourish in an English soil.

We read with particular pleasure the life of Dr. James Gregory: it is written with peculiar spirit, knowledge, and elegance. We shall select a passage from the introduction.

It has been not unaptly remarked, that the appearance of a man, whose pre-eminence in any branch of literature and science not only precludes emulation, but, as it were, far distances his contempora fies, frequently proves hurtful to the general cultivation of that particular department of human knowledge. The sublimity of Newton's talents was so transcendent, that it required mathematicians of the greatest abilities to explain his writings, and fill up the chasm inter vening between ordinary conceptions and exalted genius. Newton is without a rival, and, on considering the immense task of reaching the boundary of his powers, we had almost added, without a successor } for no one will venture to assert, that, since his time, the improve ments in the higher parts of mathematics have been so progressive as to admit a comparison with those in other sciences. It has also been ob served, that the celebrity of a father is injurious to the literary repu tation of a son. The successor of Linnæus was a respectable scholar, and a man of an amiable character; but the merit of the great natu ralist threw a shade over the abilities of his descendent. We forbeat to mention similar instances connected with the present time, because our doing so might be regarded as invidious. Although by these preliminary remarks we do not mean, in the faintest degree, to insinuate that the gentleman, who is the subject of this biography, has degene rated from the worth of his immediate ancestor, yet the great and well merited fame of the latter has not contributed to exalt that of his son.* P. 135.

This is admirably executed; and the artful, though highly-laboured compliment, that Dr. Gregory's character might have been more exalted, had not those of his ancestors been so distinguished, should not pass without a remark. The life displays that minute information, which brings su spicion home, at least to a confidential friend.

The lives of the duke of Bridgewater, of Dr. Mavor, who may be styled the children's friend, of Mr. Kerr Porter, and of Mr. Thelwall, need not detain us. The eccentric irregularity of the latter is scarcely palliated in these friendly pages; and, whatever may be allowed to his motives, his conduct is so truly singular, his mind of a mould so uncommon, so little adapted to the arrangements of this era, that, to carry his ideas into execution, would lead to the anarchy which we have so often deplored in other countries. Even in early youth, with respect to his own prospects in life, the same unsteadiness seems to have prevailed; and, were democracy established, we might expect to see him the advocate of monarchy.

The life of Mr. Jefferson is an able and studied defence of that gentleman's conduct, which will be read with different

sentiments by different parties. With some knowledge of the subjects enlarged on, we cannot wholly acquit him. Mr. Jefferson possesses an enlightened mind; but he wants the firmness of a great one. In the present arduous trial he has been fortunate, chiefly from adventitious circumstances, and especially the dispute between England and France. Mr. B. Washington derives all his claim to distinction, in this place, from the will of his uncle.

The life of Dr. Gillies is well written; and the following passage, worked up with all the ardent abilities of this author, to introduce the History of Greece with advantage. We select it, though we are far from agreeing with all the opinions introduced.

His next work was his History of Greece. From this, he probably expected high returns of emolument and fame; and, if such were his hopes, they have not been disappointed. The suggestions of Bolingbroke, the rival attempts of Voltaire, with the still unequalled examples of the Greek and Roman historians, as well as of those of modern Italy, excited Hume, before the middle of this century, to produce the first model of classical and philosophic history, with which English literature was enriched. Robertson, with more of epic and dramatic power, with an equal, or even a more expansive comprehension of mind, in a style, if more monotonous and rhetorical, yet more nervous and correct, but with penetration less acute and inventive, and with a taste in composition less delicately chaste and refined,--next tried his talents in history, in friendly competition with Hume. Gibbon, ambitious to efface by the fame of classical erudition, and of genius and eloquence, the ignominy of an expulsion from the university of Oxford, thought no province of literary exertion, so likely to afford success to his wishes, as that in which Hume and Robertson had so signally excelled. He chose a period of history which philosophical historians and elegant classical scholars had alike neglected, as unworthy to be illustrated, and incapable to become the subject of any splendid and interesting work. His first volumes had already astonished and charmed the world, by evincing that this very neglected period was, of the whole history of social life, the part the most pregnant with useful information, the richest in the stores of philosophy, the most abundant in those characters and vicissitudes of fortune, by which curiosity is chiefly interested, the most susceptible, in historical narrative, of those ornaments which genius and eloquence alone know to confer. These were the masters whom Dr. Gillies thought not unworthy of his imitation--the rivals whom, in imitating, he aspired to excel. No modern language possessed a history at once classical and philosophical, of the origin, the progress, the splendours, and the decline of the people of the Grecian name, though so illustrious, as the authors of all the civilization of the western world. In undertaking a History of Greece, therefore, Dr. Gillies consulted public utility no less than the character of his own genius and favourite studies.' P. 230.

As we have styled these somewhat varnished pages, we