frictly geographical, but which, in preceding fyftems, have often appeared in the form of a mere lift of names, the evanefcent fhades of knowledge.'

In the preliminary obfervations, Mr Pinkerton enumerates the order of the topics difcuffed:

2. Its

1. The hiftorical or progreffive geography of each country. political ftate; including moft of the topics which recent German writers, by a term of dubious purity, call ftatiftic. 3. The civil geography, including objects not fo immediately connected with the government, as an account of the chief cities, towns, &c. 4. The natural geography.

To the four grand divifions of the world he has added a fifth, which he names Auftralafia and Polynesia, including New Holland, and the lately difcovered iflands in the Pacific Ocean. He has arranged the ftates of Europe in three divifions, according to their real confequence, as of the first, fecond, or third order; and each is treated at a length proportioned to its weight in the political fcale, and the confequent intereft which it infpires. According to this arrangement, Turkey is ranked in the first order;

It cannot fo juftly be reduced to the fecond order; for though perhaps approaching its fall, ftill it boafts the name and weight of an empire.' But certainly it ought to have taken its station, according to its comparative rank and influence, and its prefent and real confequence; and not according to its former, and now merely nominal dignity.

6

The general defcription of Europe is clear, accurate, and full. There are, however, two affertions, of which no evidence is offered; and which we are inclined to think are erroneous. In enumerating the tribes from which Europe derived its firft population, Mr Pinkerton confiders the Sarmatians as diftinct from the Goths and Scythians; and as the fame with the Slavi, the ancestors of the Ruffians, Poles, &c. In the review of A Vindication of the Celts,' we mentioned it as our opinion, that according to the teftimony of the most ancient and beft informed Greek authors, the Sarmatians were defcended from the Scythians; and a more clofe examination of those authors has completely established our belief in that opinion, It is, we know, generally believed, that the Sarmate and the Slavi are the fame: the latter, however, cannot be the fame with the people anciently called Sarmatæ, as their perfons, manners, religion and language are totally diftinct and we are not acquainted with any evidence, which proves even that the Sarmate of the later claffical authors, and the Slavi, are identical. The other opinion of Mr Pinkerton is very fingular, and appears to have been formed altogether by the

E 3

the plaftic power of hypothefis. He afferts, that the fame term was employed by barbarous nations, to denote mountains and forefts; because the former were frequently covered with trees. And from this ambiguity, it feems, the Greeks and Romans were frequently led to mention and defcribe mountains as exifting, where, in reality, there was only a large foreft. Affuming these pofitions, for which he offers no authority, he boldly afferts the Riphæan mountains of the ancients, to have been nothing else than a large foreft running from east to weft. *

In order that the reader may be enabled to form a clear and juft idea of the materials of thefe volumes, we fhall proceed to enumerate the different fubjects which are difcuffed under each of the four grand divifions.-1. Hiftorical or progreffive geography. The different names by which each country has formerly been known, and is now defignated, with conjectures refpecting their etymological meaning, are given: the extent, boundaries, and fuppofed or enumerated population, are mentioned.-The next article refpects the original population. This very obfcure topic is too frequently treated with dogmatifm and unwarrantable confidence, and with an evident leaning to the author's own peculiar hypothefis. It is, however, generally curious and interefting; and prefents many facts not commonly known, and many conjectures and obfervations unquestionably plaufible and ingenious. But we muft caution the reader to watch carefully and conftantly the fteps of Mr Pinkerton, when he treads on antiquarian ground.-Progreffive Geography, Hiftorical Epochs and Antiquities, complete the firft grand divifion. As the first of thefe titles is not to be found in former geographical treatifes, and is highly useful and interefting; and as the mode in which Mr Pinkerton treats the historical part, differs very effentially from that which has been generally adopted, we shall lay before our readers the progreffive geography of Holland, and the hiftorical epochs of Switzerland, as fpecimens of this part of the work. It is generally known, that the Rhine is now comparatively small and infignificant; and that the changes in its courfe, and the frequent inundations

*In the Appendix to his Differtation on the Goths and Scythians,' he advances the fame opinion, and fupports it by an expreffion of Pliny, who applies the term jugum to the Hircynian foreft. But jugum is a metaphorical term, and is applicable to any continued chain; and may, therefore, without any impropriety, be applied to fuch a foreft as the Hircynian was in the time of Pliny. It is highly improhable, that this well-informed author was ignorant of the exiftence of this forest. We are therefore juftified, in applying the term, as ufed by Pliny, to a foreft; although the use of it in this fenfe is, we believe, fingular.

undations of the fea, have frequently altered the boundaries and the appearance of Holland; but the date, the circumftances, and the exact confequences of thefe events, are, in general, very imperfectly known.

The progreffive geography of Holland (fays Mr Pinkerton) becomes curious and interefting, from the fingular phænomenon of the increase of the fea. Upon infpecting the accurate maps of the ancient and middle geography of Gaul, by d'Anville, it will be perceived that the Rhine divided itself into two grand branches, at Burginafium or Schenck, about five miles N. W. of the Colonia Fragana, now an inconfiderable hamlet, called Koln, near Cleves. The fouthern branchjoined the Meufe, at the town of Mofa or Meuvi; while the northern paffed by Durstadt, Utrecht, and Leyden, into the ocean. From the northern branch was led the canal of Drufus, which originally joined the Rhine to the Iffil, a river that flowed into a confiderable inland lake, called Flevo, now a fouthern portion of the Zuyder Zee. This canal of Drufus being neglected, and left to the operations of nature, the Rhine joined the Iffil with fuch force, that their conjunct waters increased the lake of Flevo to a great extent; and inftead of a river of that name, which ran for near fifty Roman miles from that lake to the fea, there was opened the wide gulph which now forms the entrance. The northern and chief mouth of the Rhine was, at the fame time, weakened and almost loft, by the divifion of its waters; and even the canal of Drufus was afterwards almost obliterated, by the depofition of mud in a low country, in the fame manner as fome of the ancient mouths of the Nile' have disappeared in the Delta of Egypt.

The fouthern branch of the Rhine, which flowed into the estuary of the Meufe, as above mentioned, was anciently called Vahalis, a name retained in the modern Waal; the ancient ifle of the Batavi being included between the two branches of the Rhine, and thus extending about Ico Roman miles in length, by about twenty-two at the greatest breadth. The eftuaries of the Meufe and the Scheld have alfo been open to great inroads from the ocean; and the latter, in particular, which anciently formed a mere delta, with four or five fmall branches, now prefents the island of Zealand, and the moft fouthern of thofe of Holland, divided by wide creeks of the fea. This remarkable irruption is fuppofed to have happened at the time that the Goodwin fands arofe by the diffufion and confequent fhallowness of the water. These great changes may be fuppofed to have made a flow and gradual progrefs; and fome of them seem so ancient as the time of Charlemagne : Some of them are so recent as the 15th century; for, in 1421, the eftuary of the Meuse, or Maefe, fuddenly formed a vaft lake to the S. E. of Dort, overwhelming seventy-two large villages, with 100,000 inhabitants, who perished in the deluge.

By a fubfequent change, the Rhine was again fubdivided; and a chief branch fell into the Leck, which joins the eftuary of the Meufe between Dort and Rotterdam, and must now be regarded as the northra mouth of that noble river; while the Vahalis, or Waal, continues to

be the fouthern; both branches being loft in a comparatively small ftream, the Meufe. The lefs important variations in the geography, may be traced in the Francic hiftorians, and other writers of the middle ages. Vol. I. p. 468.

The chief hiftorical epochs of Switzerland, may be arranged in the following order:

1. The wars with the Romans; the fubjugation of the Helvetii and Rhæti, and the fubfequent events, till the decline of the Roman Empire in the West.

2. The irruption of the Alemanni, in the beginning of the 4th century, who are, by fome, fuppofed to have extirpated the ancient Helvetians.

3. The fubjugation of the western part of Switzerland, as far as the river Reufs, by the Franks, who annexed that portion to Burgundy. The Grifons on the caft were fubject to Theodoric and other kings of Italy.

4.

The converfion of the country to Chriftianity, by the Irish monks Columbanus, Gallus and others, in the beginning of the feventh century.

The invafion of Alemannia by the Huns, in the year 909; 5. and the fubfequent contefts with these barbarians till the middle of that century.

6. About the year 1030, the provinces which now conftitute Switzerland, began to be regarded as a part of the empire of Germany; and, in the courfe of two centuries, they gradually became fubject to the Houfe of Hapfburg.

67. The commencement of the Swifs emancipation, A. D. 1307; and the fubfequent ftruggles with the Houfe of Auftria.

8. The gradual increafe of the confederacy; the Burgundian and Suabian wars; and the contefts with the French in Italy.

9. The hiftory of the Reformation in Switzerland.

10. The infurrection of the peafants of Berne, in the middle of the feventeenth century.

11. The diffolution of the confederacy by the French invafion A. D. 1798. '

Under the second and third divifions, Political and Civil Geography, we meet with nothing but what is to be found in other fyftems; but the information which they contain is arranged with more judgment; it is more full and accurate, and lefs mixed with extraneous matter. The last divifion, which is termed Natural Geography, embraces many important and interefting objects, moft of which are entirely omitted, or very imperfectly detailed in former works. What Mr P. denominates the phyfiognomy of the country; the hills, vales, and rivers; their fize, direction, and length; the nature of the foil and ftate of agriculture; the

component

The Ugurs, fo called by the writers of the time. They were a branch of the Voguls, a Finnish race.

component parts of the mountains, their general appearance and height above the level of the fea; Botany, Zoology, and Mineralogy,-form the moft original articles in this divifion. The botanical part, as far as it regards the countries of Europe, appears to us to be rendered dry, and comparatively ufelefs, by being loaded with technical terms. To flip in a whole fyftem of Botany, itself a diftinct and very comprehenfive fcience, under a fubdivifion of a treatife on Geography, appears to us to be quite ridiculous. This branch of the fubject would have been handled in a manner more fuitable to the place it holds, if it had confifted rather of a detail of the appearance and ufe of fome of the moft remarkable plants; efpecially as this is the mode which is adopted in delivering the botany of the other divifions of the world, and is entirely followed in the Abridgement. A fyftem of geography is not intended for the profeffed botanift; nor will it be confulted for fcientific information in any branch: technical terms ought therefore to be carefully avoided. There is a total want of refercnce to authorities, for the facts mentioned under the heads, Botany, Zoology, and Mineralogy; which certainly ought to be remedied in future editions; and which appears fingular, from the number of books referred to in every other part of the work. Mr P. informs us, in,his Preface, that for the botany of the several countries, this work is indebted to Mr A. Aikin, a zealous and intelligent cultivator of natural hiftory. He adds, It may be neceffary to remind the unlearned reader, that the Latin names in this place are unavoidable, because plants not known in England must rarely admit of English appellations.

Having given a general outline of Mr P.'s plan and arrangements, we shall now proceed to particularize individual portions of the work, in which he has deviated, in moft inftances, with confiderable advantage, from the track purfued by former geographers. He justly obferves, that it has been urged as a reproach to modern geography, that by the obftinate retention of antiquated divifions, and the confufed minutenefs of separate defcriptions, it has not made an uniform progrefs with modern hiftory and politics, which it ought to illuftrate.' (Vol. I. p. 333.) Hence many are perplexed, when, in the perufal of modern hiftory, or in the obfervation of events daily occurring, they find thofe ftates acting a principal part, which are scarcely noticed, or merely grouped with others, in fyftems of geography; and other ftates, on the contrary, which thofe fyftems place in the first rank, acting a very fubordinate and paffive part. As an instance, Mr P. particularly notices the House of Austria, which we should be led to confider as, of itself, trifling, and almost infignificant in the affairs of Europe, if we were to form our opinion of its rela tive power and confequence from geographical works: whereas its hereditary dominions alone, entitle it to rank among the chief European