Abufe of Parliaments, faid to have been written by the late Mr. Ralph, the hiftorian who prefixed to it the following advertisement: "As an act of justice to the memory of a great man, it is neceffary to acquaint the reader, that he ftands indebted for this dif courfe to the celebrated Algernon Sydney," Upon the authority of this advertisement, and at the request of a friend, the Editor tells us, he has annexed this treatise to A. Sydney's Works; though by the ftyle in which it is written, the author's manner of reafoning, and the books which are cited in it, he is convinced that it is the production of a different hand. POETICAL. Art. 31. Indolence; a Poem. By the Author of Almida. 4to. 1 s. Becket. 1772. The Indolence which is the fubject of the prefent panegyric, is not fordid floth,' nor the lazy apathy of the ftoics,' but, in the words of the poem itself, Philofophic rest, The inward funfhine of th' unruffled breaft; The public owes this pleafing poem, in praise of still Life, to the ingenious Mrs. Celefia, author of Almida, a tragedy; of which we gave a pretty full account in our Review for February 1771, and to which article we now refer for a critical investigation of this Lady's poetical powers. Art. 32. Two Lyric Effays. I. An Ode to Genius. II. An Ode to Independence. 4to. 1 5. Becket. 1772. There are paffages in thefe odes which would lead us to expect, that he who could produce fuch lines at Seventeen, would not be an unfuccessful wooer of the Muses at Seven-and twenty. Where we fee promifing indications of genius, it were cruel ta damp the ardour of a young candidate for the bays, by being too fevere on his defects. It would be equally cruel, however, not to hint at fuch marks of inattention as he may eafily avoid in his future compofitions. For instance, where he praises that bleft, that equal state That fcorns the fmiles and frowns of Fate,' It feems to be faying nothing when he adds, that a person thus happily fitnated, Unenvying fees the wretch that goes O'er fad Siberia's wafte of fnows.' It is, furely, needlefs to remark, that wretchedness, of any kind, is not the object of envy! Our youthful Bard meant to fay, that an independent man needs not envy the dreary adventurer who expofes himself to toils and dangers in fearch of wealth; but his endeavour to fhew the fuperiority of the condition he would prefer, lofes its proper effect, by only defcribing it as being a better situation than ne that is worfe There There are fome other little flips, which will occur to the critical reader; but we fhall only take notice of the pitiful expletive, p. 7. Each Mufe around did fill the sky, With ftrains of various minstrelfy.' We need not expatiate on fo obvious a blemish it is a fault which, we dare fay, the Author's better tafte will never fuffer him to repeat. Art. 33. The Epocha; or the Review. i s. 6 d. Bladon. M DCC LXXII. 4to. A fatirical view of the times; in which the Author has fhewn more spirit than judgment, or elegance of tafte in poetical compofition. Art. 34. Political Poems: a Compilation. By Junius. 8vo. Crowder. 1772. 1 S. The name, JUNIUS, is a good hit. It will catch the eye of the paffenger as he glances at the quarto and octavo ranks and files, in the bookfeller's windows, Some of Churchill's poems, Goldsmith's Deferted Village, Addifon's Addrefs to Liberty, and a few other pieces, have afforded Junius the Compiler, a collection of extracts and fcraps, to fill up the prefent catch-penny touch; but as it is a patriotic catch-penny, we wifh it all poffible fuccefs: efpecially as the difinterested Editor has declared that his defigns will be answered if the people of England are, by this collection, incited to love their country more, and that he fhall not think his labour fruitlefs, thould the pieces ferve to fan the dying embers of patriotifm, and keep alive its flames in the hearts of all our fellow-fubjects.'-To all which, no good Englishman can have any objection. Art. 35. The Panthem Rupture; or, a Difpute between Elegance and Reason, with their final Separation. To which are added, Pantheon Epiftles; or, the modern Art of polite Letter writing. I s. 6d. Rofon. 1772. 4to. Intended, we fuppofe, as a fatire on the new temple of Taste in Oxford street, called the PANTHEON. Bishop Hall has divided his Virgidemiarum into two claffes of fatirical writing, viz. the biting fatire, and the toothless. The prefent harmless performance may be ranked under the latter denomination; as it feems unlikely to bite any one, except the bookfeller. Art. 36. Songs, comic and fatirical. By George Alexander Stevens. 12mo. 3 s. fewed. Waller, &c. 1772. Stevens is the D'Urfey of the age; but he has outdone D'Urfey as much in the number of his fongs, as he has excelled him in the article of humour. Here is a large volume of thefe merry compofitions, all written by the comic pen of the celebrated Lecturer on Heads, &c. The occafion of their prefent appearance, in a collective body, is thus related by their Author: See an account of thefe fatires, and of the author, in the 7th volume of our Review, P. 351. A paultry collection of fongs + having lately made its appearance, to which the publisher has, with uncommon effrontery, pre fixed my name as the editor, and upon my difclaiming the impofition, has even had the affurance, in a public advertisement, to affert that he had my authority for fo doing;-although I have more veneration for the public, than either to trouble them, or load the daily papers with an altercation between a little country shopkeeper and a ballad-maker, yet I once for all beg leave to ftate the real fact. About four years ago I exhibited my LECTURE at Whitehaven, and having occafion to ufe this man's fhop, he took the opportunity of folliciting me to give him a few comic fongs," because he had a mind to publish a volume to please his cuftomers in the part of the country where he lived;" and at the fame time opening a fong book, fhewed me feveral under my name, which he told me he purposed to print in his collection :-my reply was ;-" Sir, there is not one of thofe printed as I wrote them; and fome to which my name is affixed are really not mine."-" But, Sir, replied my chapman, will you pleafe to give yourself the trouble to mark fuch of them as are yours?"— Why really, Sir, I am ashamed of them."-" Lord, Sir, they'll do very well here; pray, Sir, take the book home, and be fo obliging as to mark them for me.-And, if it would not give Mr. Stevens too much trouble, I fhould be greatly obliged if he would juft put a mark upon any other fongs in the book that he thinks worth printing."-This was done, and the volume returned the next day. From hence I could not imagine he would do more than infert my name to the fongs I had owned; and I folemnly declare he had no authority from me to use it otherwife.-What I did was a meer act of common civility;--I had not then, nor have I fince had any connections with the man; and upon this ground alone he has had the modefty to charge me with a breach of promife by my difavowal.→→ This, among other reafons, has induced me to publish my own fongs, which I now claim as property, and have entered in the hall books of the Stationers Company.' This anecdote of the Whitehaven bookfeller, reminds us of a fimilar ftory, of a scheme laid by the famous Edmund Curl, for obtain ing the Bishop of London's Imprimatur to a new edition of Rochefter's poems. The particulars are well known. NOVEL S. Art. 37. The Involuntary Inconflant; or, the Hiftory of Mifs Frankfort. By the Editor of the Fatal Compliance. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5 s. fewed. Jones. 1772. There are fcenes of diftrefs in thefe volumes, but they fail to affect the heart: we cannot fympathize with what is extravagant, and out of the order of nature. Art. 38. The Precipitate Choice; or, the History of Lord Oory and Mifs Rivers. By a Lady. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5 s. fewed. Jones. 1772. A variety of incidents, fancied without propriety, and expreffed without elegance, cannot furnish entertainment to a mind, in the + Entitled The Choice Spirit's Chaplet, 12mo. 3 s. Hawes, &c. fmalleft fmallest degree cultivated by ftudy or reflection. We should pity. thofe readers to whom this production prefents any thing intereiling. Art. 39. The Triumph of Benevolence; or, the History of Francis Wills. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5 s. fewed. Vernor, &c. 1772. In thefe volumes there is fome knowledge of lite, with a confiderable portion of humour, tenderness, and fentiment. Art. 40. The Fine Lady; a Novel. By the Author of Mifs Melmoth. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5 s. fewed. Lowndes. 1772. The vivacity of this novel gives it a degree of intereft with the reader, which the Author has agreeably heightened by the art with which the flory unfolds itfelf. Art. 41. The Memoirs of Mifs Williams: A History founded on Facts. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5 s. fewed. Johnson. 1772. We have here the reveries of a pious and well difpofed, but weak religionit. Art. 42. Memoirs of Francis Dillon, Efq. In a Series of Letters .written by himself. Izmo. 2 Vols. 63. Hookham, &c. 1772. The details in this performance are most infufferably tedious, and are mixed with a vulgarity which is difgulting in the highest degree.. LAW. Art. 43. A New Law Dictionary; containing the Interpretation and Definition of Words and Terms ufed in the Law; alfo the Law and Practice, under the proper Heads and Titles. Together with fuch Learning as explains the Hiftory and Antiquity of the Law; our Manners, Customs, and original Government. The ninth Edition. With great Additions and Improvements, from the latest Reports and Statutes, to this Time. Alfo many new Titles, not in any other Work of the Kind. Originally compiled by Giles Jacob. Now corrected and greatly enlarged by OwenRuff head and J. Morgan, Efquires. Folio. 21. 2 s. Beecroft, The reputation of Jacob's Dictionary precludes the neceffity of our faying any thing with regard to its utility; but our law-readers will be glad to learn that a new impreffion of this work, which has long been wanted, is at length published, with fuch very confiderable additions and improvements, that, as the Editors profefs, the present book contains 257 pages more than any former edition.' DR AMAT I C. Art. 44. An Hour before Marriage; a Farce of two Acts. As it was attempted to be acted at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. 8vo. 1 s. Johnston. 1772. A prefixed advertisement informs us that Moliere's Marriage Forcé has furnished not only the general defign of this piece, but the fubstance of two or three entire fcenes; that as much of the excellent original has been preferved, as the adapting of the fubject to English manners would permit; and that little more has been added, than was neceffary to the conftruction of a fable, that of the French production being fo naked as hardly to deferve the name. We learn, alfo, that the Author is a gentleman of Dublin; and that this petite piece is a first attempt. We are here, likewife, in A a 3 formed formed of its ill fuccefs on the first night of its appearance on Co. vent Garden theatre. This Farce, however, is not ill written; nor deftitute of either humour or character. It has afforded us entertainment in the perufal; but as we were not prefent when, as the title-page expreffes it, it was attempted to be acted,' we cannot pretend to affign the grounds of diflike on which it was rejected by the audience. Perhaps its miffortune was owing to fome deficiency in respect of that artificial contrivance which feems neceffary to make a play a well, as the phrafe is. If fo, a more intimate acquaintance with the theatre, if the Author chufes to cultivate this pleafing and lucrative branch of writing, will, probably, enable him to guard against any defect of this kind in his future productions. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 45. Refections on Celibacy and Marriage. In four Letters to a Friend; in which the Advantages and Difadvantages of the two States are compared. Svo. 1 s. 6 d. Hawes and Co. 1771. Thefe four letters recite fome ferious yet cheerful converfations fuppofed to have paffed at a weekly club, on the fubjects mentioned in the title. The rules of this little fociety are here exhibited, and the reafonings on each fide of the fubject in queftion delivered with a degree of ipirit, good humour, and good fenfe. We will particularly recommend this little pamphlet to the perufal of the batchelors, hoping that it may be a means of quickening them to enter into the mathonial engagement: by which, if conducted with tolerable prudence and good fenfe, they are fo likely to advance their own peace and happinefs, as well as contribute to the welfare of fociety. In one of the letters the Writer fpeaks of the reiterated accounts of conjugal infidelity in England, with which the papers have been fo much taken up for a twelvemonth paft; and which, it is faid, I here with propriety, mention, as from thence, with much seeming pleasure, libertines take frequent opportunities of inveighing againit marriage. About half a dozen women have, within the year, in all England, been unfaithful to the marriage bed; at least they have been charged with infidelity-every fober mind regrets it—but what are half a dozen to the thousands and ten thousands of good and virtuous women in England, who fteadily walk in the paths of vir tue?-Shall we, for the fuppofed crime of a few illuftrious offenders, think hardly of the whole women in a great and populous nation ?-Above three times that number of men are every year hanged in England for theft and robbery-as well may we fuppofe all the people of England to be thieves and robbers. Illiberal prejudice may think, unjudging calumny may fay, that thoufands are equally guilty-Who are thefe who blush not from a few detached facts, to draw fuch wide, fuch invidious conclufions -Even they who fecretly rejoice in the prevalence of vice; even they who with the fences of chality thrown down-Let us give up thefe unfortunate deferters from virtue and honour to the bitter reproaches of their own heart-let us, with a generous pity, regard thofe families they have dihonoured-but let us not involve in their guilt thoufands whe never heard of their crime, and ten thousands who deteft it.' The |