comprized in those few words. In these military times, great num bers of individuals may consult such a work as this with interest, and profit: but it is impracticable for us to enter into a minute survey and make a detailed report of its contents, balancing its merits and de. fects. Much labour, at least, seems to have been bestowed on it. Art. 37. A Letter to the Right Honourable Wm. Windham, on the Defence of the Country at the present crisis. By Lieut. General Money. 8vo. 28 6d. Egerton. 18c6.

The advice and opinions of General Money merit regard, because he is an officer who has seen service, and, if we mistake not, bore a command in the French armies at the commencement of the revolu tion; in consequence of which he became acquainted with the tactics and discipline of those troops. In the present pamphlet, however, he is too great a favourer of fortifications, or at least of Martello towers, redoubts, entrenchments, &c. to coincide with the judgment of many persons who would not depend on these aids. He advises the o0casional erection of Martello towers, to command the great roads by which an invading army must march towards London, and the formation of strong entrenched camps on the south side of the metropolis conceiving that London would undoubtedly be the first object of an invader, and that the loss of a general battle would occasion the fall of that city. - To the bodies of Volunteers, somewhat modified, he is not adverse: but he agrees with many others in particularly approving of their being trained to act as Irregulars.

Some remarks occur on the subject of artillery, which appear to be judicious. The French Canoniers, says the General, are considered the best in Europe, but it is not so. That opinion proceeds from their cannon being better than the guns used by other powers.' The details on this branch of discussion, and on the other topics introduced by the author, we recommend to consideration from a perusal of the pamphlet at large.

Art. 38. A Discourse, occasioned by the Death of the Right Honorable Charles James Fox, delivered at the Unitarian Chapel in Essex Street, October the 12th, 1806. By Thomas Belsham. The Second Edition. 8vo. IS. Johnson.

A very decorous, respectful, and modest tribute to the memory of our lamented statesman; which arises from no indirect or unworthy motive, but proceeds from the heart, is penned with neatness and elegance and bespeaks a judicious, accomplished, and richly furnished mind. The professions of diffidence with which the eulogist enters on his subject prepossess us in favour of his attempt; and indeed the design is that of no ordinary hand, and the outlines are such as few masters would blush to own. The sketch, if it be not quite ad vivum, (and where is the pencil that shall be found equal to that arduous task!) exhibits the genuine traits of the original.

In this eulogium, the style of the illustrious subject of it seems to be happily copied. Fastidious, indeed, must be those readers who are not pleased with this discourse; and who do not sympathize with the sentiments and join in the testimonies of the

Reverend Preacher. We think that he satisfactorily vindicates the part which he acts on this grave and solemn occasion; and in our opinion, while an eminent and venerated personage is thus honored, the office of the sanctuary is not degraded.

Art. 39. Preached in the Church of All-Saints, Wainfleet, in the county of Lincoln, June 4th, 1805, to the Wainfleet Corps of Volunteer Infantry, by the Rev. Peter Bulmer, A. B. Vicar of Thorpe. 8vo. 18. Rivingtons.

Dedicating his discourse to his much respected Neighbours and friends, who form the above mentioned Corps, Mr. Bulmer speaks in high terms of their loyalty and patriotism, and of the harmony and good will by which their bond of union has been cemented and confirmed.' In an advertisement which follows, he takes notice of the objections, which have been made by the respected brethren of the denomination of Quakers, to these war-associations; and which, on application to one of their number, were in the present instance renewed. To answer and remove them form one design of this writer; and the argument is on the whole well sustained.

CORRESPONDENCE.

We have received a polite letter from M. Mendoza de Rios, relative to our account of his Tables for Navigation, Rev. October last. With those who have read that critique, and are interested in the subject, the subjoined extract from this letter needs neither introduction nor explanation:

The Monthly Reviewers, in their article relative to my Complete Collection of Tables for Navigation and Nautical Astronomy, having made some observations on a passage in my paper published in the Connoissance des Temps for 1793, founded on the doubtful sense they find in my expressions, I think it right to declare, and request them to publish, that I never had the most remote pretension to the invention of Mr. Brinkley's rule to improve and render more general Douwes's method to ascertain the latitude by two altitudes and the interval of time between the observations, as annexed to the Nautical Almanacks for 1796, &c. The first notion I had of that rule was communicated to me in 1791 by that learned gentleman, and indeed my writing the above mentioned paper was occasioned by the remark made on it by a great astronomer, who thought that the usual method for computing the latitude by double altitudes wanted still a farther improvement, to attend to the variation of the Sun's declination in the interval of time; a deficiency which I undertook to supply in that little work. Since that time, I do not recollect even to have mentioned the rule alluded to in any of my publications; but, in such a case, I do not wish to confine myself to the evidence of my long silence and every other concurrent circumstance, and I add this explanation for the purpose of establishing truth with that perfect fairness from which I have never intentionally deviated.

Every thing which comes from the pen of Mr. Cavendish is interesting, and I take this opportunity of stating, that the Tables announced by that learned and ingenious gentleman in his P. S. to my paper in the Philosophical Transactions for 1796, are to be found at the end of my Tables published in 1801, a work which does not seem to have come under the notice of the Authors of the Review.'

In

In the remaining part of this communication, some slight objections which we made against M Mendoza's method of determining the latitude are removed. We took an instance from the Nautical Almanack for 18co, and we relied on the exactness of the latitude (52° ro') there given: but that latitude is inaccurately put down, and, as M. Mendoza points out to us, the Inaccuracy is corrected in the 27th page of the 3d edition of the Requisite Tables. In that edition, the latitude 52 7 2 N, and according to M Mendoza's method, and by a computation which he has obligingly sent to us, it is 52 7 22". In the instance taken from Mr. Lax's paper, we acknowlege that we must have committed some oversight, since by M. Mendoza's computation the latitude is 5'12 30," within 10 seconds of the true result.-The letter contains some other matters of no very great moment: but we are obliged to M. Mendoza for its accompaniment of a copy of his Tables useful in Astronomy and Navigation, printed in 1801. These last we had not seen when we examined the Tables from which the criticism above mentioned and the present correspondence have originated. We feel great pleasure in now bearing additional testimony to the merit of a work which, from its ingenious and elaborate structure, is so highly creditable to its author; and which, from its general and great utility, so forcibly claims the patronage of the public.

Theophrastus junior, author of a

Letter to Lord Moira," wishes

to rebut our observations on the circumstance of his statements being anonymous, in our last No. p. 327: but we abide by our remark, and must extend it to his letter to us. He mistakes, however, in supposing that we accused him of betraying confidential intercourse we spoke only of his attacks on character being made in the dark; and it was not necessary for him to assure us that, being no associate of the Baronet to whom he alludes, he could not betray his confidence, but mentioned only a fact which he witnessed in a public coffee-house at Paris. Nor is this re-iteration any evidence, for again we say, who makes it ?-It would be idle to enlarge on a proposition which is self-evident.

D. S. P. may be right in applauding the design of the poem which he recommends, but we cannot join in his praise of its execution, and my therefore be excused from taking farther notice of a composition which does not strictly come before our tribunal-This note has been mislaid.

R. B. is totally wrong in his conjectures and his inferences; and so he is likely to remain, if he continues to wander in a labyrinth is which we are sure that he can have no thread to guide him.

*The APPENDIX to this volume of the Review will be published on the 24 of February, with the number for January, and will qu sist of Foreign Literature, as usual.

In the last Number, p. 253. 1. 21 for and that we must n T. but that they do not. P. 304. 1. 7. forto,' r. from.

THE

APPENDIX

TO THE

FIFTY-FIRST VOLUME

OF THE

MONTHLY REVIEW

ENLARGED.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ART. I. Oeuvres Choisies et Posthumes, &c.; i. e. Select and Post humous Works of M. DE LA HARPE, of the French Academy. With a Portrait of the Author. In Four Volumes. 8vo. Paris. 1806, Imported by De Boffe, London. Price 11. 128.

יT

HE rank which was so justly assigned to M. LA HARPE among the literati of France, his various works, (many of them possessing high utility and value,) his sufferings in the course of the revolution, and the change which they occasioned in his religious sentiments, render his story in a high degree interesting to curious readers. He claims attention as the associate of Voltaire, D'Alembert, and Condorcet; as an Academician of great celebrity, as a dramatic writer of eminence, and as a first rate critic. During the best part of his life, he was a disciple of the French philosophy, and an active and zealous disseminator of its principles; and he affords, we believe, the only instance of a convert made from that sect to Christianity. Malesherbes, and others of the same fraternity, are said to have repented of the political principles which they once diffused, or at least of the conduct which they had pursued but we have no evidence with respect to them of any farther change.

Of so eminent and remarkable a character, then, we gladly receive the memoirs which introduce the volumes before us; and from which we shall gratify our readers with an abstract. APP. REV. VOL. LI.

Gg

JEAN

JEAN FRANÇOIS DE LA HARPE was born at Paris in 1740. Though his family was noble, he was left a helpless orphan, and owed his education to the compassion of a few pious persons, who placed him in one of those institutions for the relief of such objects, with which Paris at that time abounded. The same benevolent individuals afterward obtained his admission into the University on a charitable foundation; and here it was that his superior talents discovered themselves, and encouraged the most flattering hopes of his future eminence. His existence depended in a manner on his success; and the colleges, it is remarked, owed their celebrity principally to young men in this predicament: since it rarely happened that, thus destitute of friends and depending on their own efforts alone, they failed to distinguish themselves by their talents or their industry. LA HARPE, however, in the more early stages of his Academic course, gave no promise of the great parts which he afterward displayed. He could not struggle with that which he did not understand, and his fine talents disdained the drudgery of treasuring up mere words: but, when he reached the higher classes, his excellent understanding and his exquisite imagination placed him in the foremost rank; and for two years together he gained all the first prizes, a degree of success which was without example. The Academic triumphs of the young collegian were reported in the circles of society; he was made the topic of conversation; and it became so much the fashion to have him in parties, that he was known in the world before he had finished his studies. This flattering notice did not intoxicate him, for he continued his pursuits, and did not rest satisfied with his college atchieve

ments.

At the age of seventeen, the young LA HARPE was introduced to Diderot, who had recently published his Treatise on Dramatic Poetry; and he thus speaks of the interview: "My mind being full of our best classics, and my taste having been formed by the best masters, I exceedingly disliked his work, and stated to him my objections to it with all the tenacity which belonged to my age and my natural turn. He patiently heard me, and our discussion extended to four hours, but he was unable to remove my impressions. I am by nature an enemy to affectation, and I could discover nothing natural in this man: he displeased me; and he left on my mind the conviction of his being a missionary of bad taste, to which he would never be able to make me a proselyte."

When twenty-two years old, LA HARPE presented to the theatre his very successful tragedy, the Earl of Warwick, the merits of which are not unknown to the English reader. We

12

have,