and therefore it could not arise from the circumstance of the Duke of Cumberland's sending orders, accidentally written upon this card, the night before the battle of Culloden, for General Campbell to give no quarter.

Mr. Singer winds up with an anecdote, and a remark, with regard to card-playing, which deserve repetition.

"The celebrated Mr. Locke is reported to have been once in company with three distinguished noblemen, his contemporaries," (rather superfluous!) "Lords Shaftesbury, Halifax, and Anglesea, who proposed cards; when Mr. Locke declined playing, saying he would amuse himself by looking on. During the time these noblemen were at play, he was observed to busy himself by writing in his table-book. At the conclusion of the play, Lord Anglesea's curiosity prompted him to ask Locke what he had been writing. His answer was, In order that none of the advantages of your conversation might be lost.' And producing his note-book, it was found to be the fact. The inanity of such a collection of disjointed jargon, it is said, had the desired effect on the three noble philosophers," &c. p. 276.

The remark is from Henry's History of Great Britain, by way of an apology for cards, as a happy invention, which, adapted equally to every capacity, removes the invidious distinctions of nature, bestows on fools the preeminence of genius, or reduces wit and wisdom to the level of folly.

The Appendix contains some very desirable articles. Amongst them is an admirable one, entitled, " A conjecture concerning the origin of playing-cards and the game of whist," which will be found an hypothesis as probable as it is amusing. It is written by Dr. Buchan, who seems, from his various labours, to consider the world and its concerns with a philosophic mind, which, though often employed in the most serious investigations, rejects none, however foreign or trifling, that has a tendency to discover truth.

We have now merely to observe, that the arguments and matter of this elaborate volume are so multifarious and involved, that we hope to be excused by the reader of the work itself for not having seen our way more clearly through it. Mr. Singer has hunted with the free help of the whole black-letter pack, puppies and all, from old Dance down to Mr. Haslewood, and such a collection of game has rarely been stowed in one pouch. We have done the best our compass would permit, to give a general idea of the mass, which, however, as it respects its merits and variety, we confess is very imperfect. Most people who take up the book will think they had some previous knowledge of the subject, but very few will reach half way to its conclusion without being entirely cured of that flattering opinion.

Mr. S. acknowledges himself to be "a literary novice," and there are certainly blemishes which we might be ungrateful enough to point out; but we are not critics made of such vile stuff as to take delight in dwelling on spots ubi plura nitent.

ART. X.-Prescience: or the Secrets of Divination. A Poem, in Two Parts. By EDWARD SMEDLEY, Jun. London. Murray. 1816. Price 7s. 6d.

THE title of this work might seem to import the revelation of divers recondite mysteries; but the wisdom inculcated by Mr. Smedley is much of the same cast with the aphorism of Socrates, which confessed the ignorance of man, and tacitly bade him rest his hopes on the counsels of a higher intelligence. That prophecy is reconcileable with the plan and goodness of Providence, we are forbidden to doubt by that Book of Life, in which Mr. Smedley professes himself a sincere believer. His present object is, to dwell with rapture on the high destination of the human soul-to prompt its aspirations, which he considers as a pledge of immortality-and to show the connexion between gratitude to the Creator and the principles of liberal and virtuous action or enjoyment, as they are respectively manifested in the inspired agents of Heaven-the poet, the lover, and the patriot. Though poetically and tastefully alive to the elegant fictions of mythology, he fairly decries the superstitions of heathen foresight, of astrology and witchcraft. The aniles fabella of augury had before been refuted by the ample illustration and keen philosophical argument which pervade the writings of the Roman orator.

The poem commences with a noble flight of imagin

"In the black skies where clouds eternal roll,
And night inshrouds her undiscover'd Pole;
Where hous'd with darkness, in their earthy cell
The shivering sons of lengthened winter dwell;
No sun, scarce peering o'er some ice-clad height,
Streaks the red orient with his hues of light;
No beams of evening, in their course delay'd,
Pierce the deep void of universal shade;
Till the slow months with doubtful gleam illume
The cold and dreary wilderness of gloom;
And o'er the far horizon faintly play

The chequer'd shadows of imperfect day.

"Yet often there, above, beneath, around,
When stirs no sign of life, or light, or sound;
When cheerless Nature bosom'd on the deep,
In night and silence sleeps, or seems to sleep;
Flashing strange portents o'er the astonished heaven,
The fleeting meteors of the North are driven;
Shake their red tresses from the troubled sky,
And cast one momentary beam and die.

"So to this prison of dull clay confin'd,

In darkness broods the imperishable Mind.

Fain would it urge through realms untried its course,
And drink the floods of knowledge from their source;
Trace each mysterious secret of its frame,

Know whither tends its doom, and whence it came.
Yet as its glance to nobler scenes ascends,
Some grosser film the glorious vision ends;
Thick clouds of Sense o'er all the prospect roll,
And check the aspiring energy of Soul:

Till chill'd and baffled on its lowly way,

It chides the lingering night, and pants for day."-pp. 7—9. We extract, from the second part, one of the happiest passages in the description of the poetical character:

"Nor wonder ye, in whose cold bosoms dwell

No fancies rous'd by Poesie's sweet spell;
Ah! wonder not if more enamoured eyes
View all creation big with prodigies.
Silent and chill to nature's throne ye steal,
And dim the grandeur which ye cannot feel:
Gauge ocean's fulness, mete the fields of sky,
Then all the glory of her works deny.
In vain to you her mighty book is spread,
Its sense is hidden, though its signs be read.
In vain your priests from morn till eve divine,
No spark ethereal rests upon their shrine:
The fabled Baal whom their vows obey,
Babbles, or sleeps, or journeys on his way.

"Not so the gifted child to whom belong
The holy love, the thirst unquench'd of song:
To whom the rarer boons by Heaven assigned,
The glow, the brightness, and the flame of miud.
There nature's hand its choicest seeds has shed,
But fenc'd not in the garden which it spread:
There, with its own luxuriance quick, the soil
Spurns the restraint, outruns the spur of toil
And in despite of very riches, breeds

A waste of fatness with a maze of weeds.
Mingled with herbs of mickle grace and power'
Springs many a fading, many a baleful flower;

And the tall forest's stately boughs between

The thriftless ivy intertwines her green."-pp. 59, 60.

There are several impressive delineations of natural scenery, which our limits constrain us to pass over. Mr. Smedley

sometimes indulges in licenses, which every ear will not approve :

"Hous'd in such houselessness."-.p 43.

"He trod not blindly, though his bodily eye."-p. 68.

This latter can, perhaps, hardly be sanctioned by the ex ample of Milton, to whom it refers; for epic blank-verse may be allowed a range, which cannot suit with the heroic couplet.

Our general opinion of this poem is highly favourable to the author's command of style, his activity of mind, and elegance of versification.

ART. XI.-Histoire des Factions de la Révolution Françoise, par JOSEPH LAVALLE'E, ancien Capitaine d'Infanterie, ancien Chef de Division à la Grande Chancelliere de la Légion d'Honneur, &c. &c. 3 vols. 8vo. Murray, Albermarle Street. 1816.

No sooner had the pseudo-philosophers and inexperienced politicians of France, sent abroad the uncontrouled spirit of innovation, than every thing excellent was threatened with deterioration or tuin. The barriers which the laws of God and man usually oppose to violent passions, were broken down, and a people naturally mild and polished changed into a herd of merciless barbarians. France then became the centre of alternate tyranny and anarchy. Faction rose after faction like the waves of a stormy sea, threatening all states alike with destruction. A change so sudden and so general in the manners and disposition of a great nation, was considered by many people, as an anomaly in the history of the human mind. And we admit, with our author, that to the factions which ruled France, not to the mass of the nation, must all the crimes which stained the early part of its revolution be attributed. His work is written purposely, indeed, to rescue from obloquy the great body of his countrymen, by pointing out the real authors of the crimes which desolated their native land.

Those who were surprised at the demoralization of France when the revolution broke out, ought to have remembered. that it had been prepared for excesses by the corrupt state of society. The morality of the nation had received a severe No.XIV. VOL.II.-Aug. Rev.

2 U

wound under the regency of the Duke of Orleans; and that was encreased considerably during the latter years of Louis XV. The nation groaned under the weight of taxes levied, in a great measure, to satisfy the extravagance of the Prince and his mistresses. Louis XV. was no longer Louis le bien aimé. Given up wholly to the most unworthy pleasures, and callous to the miseries of his people, he was universally despised-by many even hated; and both the clergy and the nobles, who condescended to worship the idol of the day, partook of the contempt which followed him to the grave.

He was succeeded by Louis XVI., a prince endowed with qualities more solid than brilliant, and which, therefore, fitted him more for a private than for a public station. Destitute of resolution and ever distrustful of his own powers, he was the tool of his ministers, who led him into errors as dangerous to himself as they were injurious to the people whom he loved. Of these errors the assistance which be gave to the British provinces in America was one: we need not add, that the recall of the parliament exiled by his predecessor, was another. From one or both of these measures, the ill-digested, ill-assorted ideas of liberty which were gaining ground in France, received a fresh impulse, and were rendered instrumental to the overthrow of the monarchy. This event was accelerated by the wealth and popularity of the infamous Duke of Orleans. The state of ferment was increased by the alarming situation of the finances, laid open to the public by the compte rendre of Necker. Surrounded by difficulties, and yielding to the suggestions of incompetent advisers, his majesty resolved to convoke the states. general of the kingdom.

The situation of France, at the period alluded to, was truly alarming. The court was weak in its decisions, and uncertain in its measures. The hauteur and pretensions of the nobles were excessive; whilst the tiers état had notions no less exaggerated of the rights which belong to men united in society. The parliament appeared indifferent to the vital interests of the state; the financial embarrassments were rapidly encreasing; the factions were organizing riots and murders; whilst the well-disposed awaited in silent awe and in seeming apathy, the bursting of the storm which threatened the kingdom.

The states-general met at Versailles on the 4th of May, 1789; and on the 17th of June following, the tiers état, abjuring the ancient name of states-general, adopted the novel