""Twas Gotham call'd-in times of yore

For wise inhabitants renown'd;

And now for wiser than before,

As by my story will be found." P. 10.

Old Simon being absent in the field, Dorothy, his wife, who had buried Jonathan, a former husband, six months before, receives the Frenchman, whose Saint-Louis and coat ornamented with tarnished gold, are not "lost upon her.”

"She asks the stranger whence he's come;

Bids him be seated while he tarries :
With thanks he answers- -(for one home
Have Frenchmen all) Me be from Paris.

What?' cried she,

what? good lack-a-day!

You put one all a heat and fear in !

From Paradise, Sir, did you say?

Speak up I'm rather hard of hearing." P. 11.

This mistake the Frenchman encourages, and Dolly is weak enough to enquire after her late husband. He tells her that he knows him very well, and that he is " ver poor."

"Loudly she sobb'd- Oh, that I knew

"How I could case him of his sorrow,'

Me tell, Madame, how dat you do:
Me see good Jonatan to-morrow.'

< Suppose you two, tree, guinea send,

And coat, vesie, breeches-vat you got;
Très acceptable to my friend,

Dat almost be un sans-culotte.'" P. 13.

Dolly immediately furnishes him with these things, and he de parts. Simon returns, and learning what has passed, abuses her well for her credulity, and takes old Dobbin to pursue the rogue. The Frenchman sees him coming, and hides his prize under a bush. Simon, seeing no bundle, and not suspecting him, was about to proceed further, but

And thought it right thus much to say:

Has any man, who in his hand

Carried a bundle, passed this way?" P. 17.

The knave says, yes, and directs him to a thicket, in which, hề pretends, that he is concealed. Simon begs that he will hold his horse for a moment, and in he dashes after him. The other quickly

The two principal tales that follow, are "The Bed," and "The Hunch-back'd Minstrels." The first has some humour in it, but the last is far superior in point and incident. This piece reminded us of the Little Hunchback, in the Arabian Tales, and of the Two Friars, a story which was related in a number of our work, and has since been turned into verse by Mr. Colman, with irresistible wit and drollery. The difference is, however, quite sufficient to entitle Mr. Thompson to great praise for the invention,

Our poet confesses that it has been his aim to imitate the styles both of Peter Pindar, and the younger Colman; two men, between whom, in our opinion, there is nothing but an odious comparison, the genius of the latter, far transcending that of the former. Mr. Thompson has caught much of the fire, and possesses no small share of the whim and jocularity of his originals. There is yet, however, one thing wanting, the absence of which we do not often complain of--more!

Sherwood Forest; or, Northern Adventures. A Novel, in 8 Vols. By Mrs. Villa Real Gooch. Highley, 12s. 1804.

THESE interesting volumes are introduced by a dedication and preface, which could not fail to awake the attention and conciliate the esteem of every reader of sensibility, for a writer less public and valued than Mrs. Gooch; but for her, whose various fate and rare acquirements, talents and taste, are so well known, no appeal of this nature was in any way necessary. The circulating libraries have not on their shelves six authors of the present day, whose novels afford a greater abundance of instructive lessons and generous

mirth, untainted with indecency or immorality, than those which come from the pen of Mrs. Gooch.

"To you," says Mrs. G. in her dedication to Mr. Wardell, a worthy man, who has done himself honour by relieving the distrsses of the fair novelist-" To you, I now dedicate Sherwood Forest. It takes its title from the place of my nativity; and that consideration united to that of its recording a few forest anecdotes, perhaps hitherto unheeded, may render it interesting to my countrymen, and not wholly unentertaining to others." P. vi.

To presume on these considerations, was far from arrogance in Mrs. Gooch, and in us, who have witnessed the execution of her design, it will be none to promise the reader more satisfaction than the humility of the writer would lead him to expect.

Henrietta Bellman; or, the New Family Picture. A Novel. Augustus la Fontaine. In 2 Vols. Vernor and Hood. 1804.

By

THIS novel is the production of Augustus la Fontaine, the author who has lately furnished Mr. Dibdin with the plot to his ingenious and lively comedy, intitled " Guilty or Not Guilty." The work before us has considerable merit, and exhibits such a pleasing and affectionate picture, in a variety of well-wrought scenes, and characters ably drawn, as secure the attention and delight the feelings of the reader to the end.

Zoflora; or, the Generous Negro Girl. A Colonial Story. From the French of J. B. Piguenard, In 2 Vols. 7s, Lackington.

1804.

ADONIS, a former work of M. Piguenard, was honoured with the approbation of Barnardin de Saint Pierre, and the present is not inferior in interest, whilst it is greatly superior in singularity. "As for those readers," says our author in his preface," who, astonished at some of the circumstances, desire to know whether this narrative, which I publish under the title of a Colonial Story, be true or fictitious, I answer them all with an explicit yes, because, in fact, this story partakes of the nature both of history and romance; the foundation and the characters are the patrimony of truth, but many of the particulars belong to fiction." P. iii.

The relation is good, the language of the translator perspicuous, and the scenery and incidents frequently boast of so much novelty, that the work is, upon the whole, an object of curiosity as well as

amusement.

The Citizen's Daughter; or, What might be. 8vo. pp. 284. Vernor

FEW," says the author of the Citizen's Daughter, "are dragged by banditti through vaulted caverns, immured in haunted towers, or, deprived of their birth-right by tyrannic usurpers, are compelled to wander in mysterious obscurity, through scenes of horror and mi sery-fraud and oppression now are practised under less terrific forms." Cap. 1. P. 2.

There is much good sense and truth in these observations, and the writer has boldly and wisely ventured to pursue the middle path of human life, and neither soared to heaven in search of angels and blessed spirits, nor plunged into hell, and ransacked the infernal regions for devils ready horn'd and hoof'd, for fiends of night, or "goblins damn'd." On earth there is vice enough, the descrip tion of which would fill the soul with horror, and we are so charitas ble as to believe that there is also to be found, in some recesses, made holy by innocence and humility, a sufficient portion of virtue to cheer the hearts of the good with exultation, reverence, and love, Our author appears to have been of the same opinion, and has produced a work that seldom steps beyond the modesty of nature, and is replete with incident, character, and pleasantry.

An Apology for the Conduct of the Gordons, containing the whole of their Correspondence, &c. with Mrs. Lee. To which is annexed, an accurate Account of their Examination at Bow Street, and their Trial at Oxford. By Loudoun Harcourt Gorden, Esq. Gin ger. 8vo. pp. 143. 1804.

a scrap

of La

THIS modest and gallant gentleman informs us, in tin in his title page, That it is not given to Jove himself to love and to be wise at the same time. It is our opinion, that it is not given to Mr. Loudoun Gordon either to love or to be wise; for we will not suffer gross sensuality to pass for the former, nor what Bacon calls " left-handed wisdom," (not to use its vulgar name) to be distinguished as the latter. We have read and heard of many metamor phoses occasioned by love, and the present is of the commonest kind. It has transformed the lady into a fool, and her knight into something worse. Seriously, no man, who did not defy degradation, would have published such a disgraceful pamphlet as the one before us. Silence, in this case, would have been the prudence of the Gordons:

Glad to be hidden, proud to be forgot.

The silly notion of Mrs. Lee, that a bag of camphor, suspended to her neck, was a charm against sensual pleasure, is no new superstition. In Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, V. 2, p. 356. Memb. vi. Subsect. 1. On the Cure of Love-Melancholy, we find the same prescription libidini marime contraria CAMPHORA est, but for the mode of wearing it, which Mrs. Lee entirely mistook, we must refer the curious reader to the page above quoted.

The Works of Richard Owen Cambridge, Esq. including several Pieces never before published, with an Account of his Life and Character. By his Son, George Owen Cambridge, M. A. 4to. pp. 580. 27. 12s. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1803.

THAT a son should be superabundantly partial to the works and character of his sire, is always excuseable, though the effect may not always be praise-worthy; and such is the case in the present instance. Mr. R. O. Cambridge is sufficiently known as the author. of the Scribleriad, a mock heroic poem, and other productions of less celebrity; but there was no public call for a reprint of his works, nor is the addition of several new trifles of consequence enough to warrant, in these days of scarcity of cash, such a heavy and ill-proportioned attack on our pocket. That Mr. Cambridge was a good man, and not the worst writer of his time, is true, but they who have once read his writings, and now hear that they amused him through a long life, will be perfectly content that they should henceforth, with their author, rest in peace.

An Excursion in France, and other Parts of the Continent of Europe; from the Cessation of Hostilities in 1801, to the 13th Dec. 1803. Including a Narrative of the unprecedented Detention of the English, travelling in that Country, as Prisoners of War. By Charles Maclean, M. D. pp. 312. 8vo. 6s. Longman and Rees. 1804.

ACCORDING to Dr. Maclean, his intention was not to travel, like a Holcroft, or many others of his description, for the purpose of writing ponderous volumes of anecdotes and trifles. But his singu lar design was to visit countries infected with the plague, with the charitable motive of improving his knowledge of this disease, for the benefit of mankind. He was, however, variously prevented from going to the Levant, to Cadiz, when this epidemical pest prevailed there, or to Egypt, and was, at last, induced to go to France, where one, jocosely inclined, would think he might have studied the plague in its perfection.

The work possesses much pleasant matter, as well as many ob