furprize of the falfe-deck, and the interefting crisis of a trial before a jury of executioners, gave way to the vengeance à-la-mode. Priefts and nobles, commiffaries and clerks, legiflators and directors themfelves, were abforbed in the common vortex, the impulfe was given to the public tafte, and nothing could withstand it. The pre's itfelf, which had fo often given the ton and law to fashion, now felt its fway, and obeyed in its turn. More than fifty journalists, with I know not how many proprietors, printers, tranflators, authors, compofitors, reporters, and retailers, now afcended the iron-cage on wheels, which was facetioufly called the Diligence of Guiana, and followed the generals, orators, and statesmen, who had led the mode. A third convoy was prepared of returned priefts and nobles, and the ftraggling deputies, who had miffed of places in the first; and, three months after, the indifcretion of fixteen more newspapers was punished in the fame fummary and fashionable manner." P. 17. In these statements we believe him to be quite correct; nor lefs fo in the idea, that every expectation of refiftance in the interior of France, any attempt that can cause a civil war, is perfectly vifionary. "Civil wars," he fays, "require not only energy but principle in a people; they must revere their caufe, their leader, and themfelves; they muft feel the juftice of their quarrel; they must be confident of their right; they muft defire one known acknowledged end or remedy. -The reft is the plot of a feraglio, or the revolt of a mob. What energy, what principle do we difcover in this degraded people? what reverence? and for what caufe? for their leaders or for themselves? Of all the different points of view in which that extraordinary series of events, which we call their revolution, prefents itfelf to our horror and difguft, there is none which fo forcibly pourtrays the depravity of their country, as that which fhews it atchieved without a civil war." P. 25. Again, purfuing the fame train of reflections: "A monarchy that had lafted fourteen hundred years, is trampled in the duft: the cross thrown down, the Deity renounced, the king murdered,—all is peaceful and content. And do we think this people will now take up arms for the freedom of an election, or the violation of an article in a conftitution fcarce two years old. That they will fight for Pichegru and Barthélémy, who would not draw a fword for the Capets or the Bourbons; or defend the gofpel of the conftitution, who have betrayed and abjured the religion of their forefathers!" P. 27. Abundant proofs of this truth appear in the fubfequent part, particu larly in confidering the late moft arbitrary edict for feizing English goods; by which, as the author fays, "the executive government enters into every warehouse throughout the whole empire upon the fame day, and plunders every commodity which its officers are pleafed or directed to call English," though paid for, and thus rendered French, On this he justly exclaims, "What fymptom of rebellion do we yet perceive? what holy infurrection, what cry of liberty have we have heard against this broad and general act of tyranny, which pervades every province, and tries every fpirit? What fign even of pain or impatience, what movement of of indignation, what turnings and toffings of rage or defperation do the millenifts of the civil war difcover in the people? What figns of the coming of this deliverer? Do they not fee the directory torture a carcafe from which the vital breath has efcaped? Do they not fee that the life has been pinched and pricked out of it; that they make the war, with the dead and mortified limbs of the empire, which they canno: wield, and which have neither life, nor ftrength, nor motion in themselves?" P. 58. All the latter part of the tract confifts of a distinct and detailed view of the various means by which the ftrength of France, amidit all her fucceffes, has been reduced and exhausted. After which he says, with a triumph furely not ill founded, "Behold the people whofe prepofterous governinent affects the em pire of the feas, without a fhip of war that dares look out of her harbours, and threatens her enemies with her own ruin and calamities! To me, I confefs, the menaces of the French appear like those of other madmen. The ravings of the Luxembourg are like the ravings of the Bicêtre-Do this, or give me that, or I will ftab or drown myself. Yield to me, fays France, or-what? I will come and perith on your fhores :-throw down your arms, or I will dath myfelf upon your coafts-worship me, or I will devote hecatombs of my own children; -acknowledge my fuperiority, or I will tear out my own virals! This I confider as the real fenfe and meaning of her ftate papers, of her declarations, if that can be called fenfe and meaning, which is the very paroxyfm of delirium and folly.-I cannot dread the madness of an enemy, I think it rather our own fafety and our own arms. Can I fee with trepidation or regret his legions rotting in the marfhes of Calais and Oftend, or blighted upon the bleak hills of Normandy? Can I regard the army of England,' but as our glory and our prize, if ever (I know not by what help from heaven or from hell) it were to be embarked upon the Channel? Shall we hesitate to provoke, and call, with our prayers at least, that glorious iffue of the war, in which we may all partake; but which, without fome power above us fhall obfcure and worfe-confound, and impel the enemy upon his ruin, we dare not hope for?" P. 61. An appeal, which follows foon after, to the national virtues of Englifhmen, is too valuable to be omitted. Our countrymen, we are told, "Should confider their impotent menaces but as a challenge to the folid and fober virtues which have fo often defeared them; and contraft once more, with confidence and pride in heaven, and in themfelves, the fterling and ingenuous worth and valour of the British character, to the drunken cries and fury of a multitude, deftined to feed the fifhes of our feas, or to take nothing from us but our prisons and our graves." P. 65. We have been tempted by the merit of this publication to exceed the ufual bounds of our Catalogue articles; but our readers, we doubt not, will thank us for it. ART. ART. 41. A Summary View of the prefent Population of the principal This tract is not confined to the fubject announced in the title-page: it is extended to feveral of the tranfactions and confequences of the revolution of France, and other matters connected with them. The traveller compares the population of one hundred of the cities and greater towns in France, in 1789, with the like number in Great Britain and Ireland, in 1796; and finds the former to be to the latter in the proportion of 325 to 315, or 65 to 63; and, indeed, little doubt can be entertained, that towns of this defcription are nearly as populous in the British iflands as in France. He produces alfo fome tatements of the population of the fame towns in France, dated in July, 1796, to show that, in the short interval of 7 years, their inhabitants were reduced in the proportion of 230 to 325, or nearly in that of 9 to 13. The "fubitance" of the accounts from which these conclufions are drawn, he informs us, is "founded upon a close and deliberate inveftigation, recently made, by a perfon who had refided a great number of years in France, and as many in Great Britain." This writer likewife contends, that the accounts which we have had of the population of France, before its revolutions, were much exaggerated; and, in fupport of this point, he cites the authority of Mercier. His account of the decrement of the inhabitants of great towns is noted above; and here he further adds, that, of the celerity with which population is at prefent decreasing in the country in general, fome notion may be formed from the following circumftance, which he gives on the authority of fome perfons of high fcientific character in that country. That, for four years laft paft, the number of deaths by ordinary caufes," have been as five to three against the births, if not double. This he accounts for from the feparation of parents by wars and imprisonment; the negligence of the offspring produced by ephemeral marriages;" and the fale of drugs to procure abortion having become a regular branch of trade. To thefe fources of depopulation the author urges, there are to be added the number of deaths from legal and illegal murders; from fuicide; those killed of each party in infurrections; thofe perishing in their own prifons, or the prifons of their chemies; the loffes of their armies (and, in ordinary wars, one fourth of every army is fuppofed to die in every campaign) and after all the fwarms of every party, now living in foreign countries, or who have perished in the places to which they had fled. This immenfe aggregate (if all the particulars which ought to enter into it be brought to account) is the measure of the lofs of inhabitants of that miferable country. 66 To this view are added, fome mifcellaneous accounts and reflections. Several of the former are original; and, as far as fuch tragical details can be faid to be curious, they have their curiofity. When the author thought he faw the fall of Jacobinifm in the death of Robefpierre, he erred greatly. If he had written at this time, he would probably probably have faid, the name was then only profcribed, but its prin ciples and difciples were fedulously, though covertly, protected; by a repetition of their crimes, to overthrow new edifices of guilt and folly, called new conftitutions. ART. 42. A Letter to the infamous Tom Paine, in Anfwer to his Letter to General Washington. By Peter Porcupine, Author of the Bone to Gnaw for the Democrats, &c. 8vo. 23 pp. IS. Philadelphia; and Ogilvy, No. 315, Holborn. 1797. This fpirited writer, who never fpares Tom Paine, or any of his ad herents, in this fmail tract, undertakes to convict him of inconfiftency. In this attempt he appears to be complete fuccefsful. His attack thus concludes: "Your tyrants are completely baffled. The effects of your letter are exactly the contrary to what it was intended to produce. There is but one thing on earth dearer to the hearts of all true Americans than their conftitution, and that is, the fpotlefs character of their Chief. Your brutal attempt to blacken this character was all that was wanted to crown his honour and your infamy. You never before funk to a level with the d-d, but now you are plunged beneath them. The vile democrats, nay even Franklin Bache, with whom you boast of being in clofe correfpondence, can fay not a word in its defence. All the apology for you is, that you wrote at the inftigation of the defpots of Paris. Thus the great Rights of Man, the fworn foe of corruption, and the reformer of nations, winds up his patriotic career; his being bribed is pleaded as an alleviation of his crimes." P. 23. We must ever admire the honeft zeal, as well as the strong natural fenfe, and untaught eloquence of Peter Porcupine, whofe quills have forely annoyed the American democrats. ART. 43. A Difplay of the Spirit and Defigns of those, who, under Pretext of a Reform, aim at the Subverfion of the Conftitution and Government of this Kingdom: with a Defence of Ecclefiaftical EftabLifhments. By the Rev. G. Bennet. 8vo. 160 pp. 35. Richardfon. Mr. Bennet divides his tract into feven chapters. 1. On Kings. 2. On Degrees of Rank, as analogical to the Order of Nature. 3. On Ecclefiaftical Eftablishments. 4. A fhort Analyfis of the Spirit and Language of the Men of modern Reform in Britain. 5. Thoughts on the Bill for preventing feditious Affemblies. 6. A View of the Manner in which the Apofties, 'and fome of the ancient Fathers of the Church, conducted themfelves with regard to the Kingdoms of this World. 7. The prefent State of Britain contrafted with that. propofed by the Reforming Body, and fome of its obvious Confequences attempted to be traced and followed out. It will eafily be conceived that, in a tract of 160 pages, thefe dif ferent fubjects do not undergo that ample difcuffion to which their importance feems to entitle them. Yet as far as the author proceeds, his remarks are fuch as evince (with fome few exceptions) great judg ment, ability, and spirit; and sufficiently prove, that, if he had been difpofed to enter upon a more profound investigation, he poffeffed every requifite qualification for the purpose. After After declaring himself " the friend of monarchy as eftablished in this land, from his perfonal experience of the happinefs to be enjoyed under that form of government, he deprecates the "indifcriminate outcry against kings, and expofes, in ftrong and pointed terms, the injuftice and wickedness of those who raise it. "No difcrimination is made. Virtuous princes fuffer because there have been others of an oppofite character. Monarchy itself, under whatever modification, is exploded because it has been abufed. In this way it would not be a difficult task to exhibit fuch a picture of the world in general, as to prove that it is Hell. Of any inftitution if the good be thrown into Thade, and its incidental evils be ftudioufly exhibited to view, there is no beauty but what may, according to this rule, be proved to be deformity; no virtue but what may be faid to partake of the nature of vice." P. 4. On the fubject of "rank" in fociety, after fhewing that, even in a ftate of nature, no perfect equality can fubfift, this author obferves, that "Scripture itself fupports thefe diftinétions throughout as a thing which the Supreme Being authorizes and approves. That if there are princes, if there are nobles, he himself, in his directing providence, has bestowed on them this diftinction; By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. When Chrift fays, render to Cæfar the things which are Cæfar's,' he must be underfood as enjoining the giving him his titles as well as his revenue. The Apoftles alfo, under the influence of the fame fpirit, command us to give honour to whom honour is due. Wherever there are kings, and princes, and nobles, or by whatever name power is called, they are termed in Scripture, the powers that be,' and to them obedience is enjoined." P. 27. In his defence of ecclefiaftical establishments, Mr. Bennet judiciously observes, that those fetaries who are moft clamorous for their deftruction, only wish to fubvert the exifting inftitutions, in order to introduce an establishment of their own: and we are warranted from hiftory to affert, that, if fuch were to be the cafe, instead of the liberal spirit of toleration which prevails at prefent, the most determined intolerance and perfecution would obtain. The degenerate fpirit of thofe modern reformers, who exult in the fucceffes of our foes, and in the defeat of our allies, is ably pourtrayed and juftly reprobated. With their conduct is admirably contrafted that of the Apoftles, who, wherever they went invariably enforced the neceffity of fubordination, and of fubmiffion to the civil powers. The chapter in which this fubject is treated, is peculiarly worthy of attention. Mr. Bennet is entitled to the thanks of his countrymen for his meritorious efforts in the cause of religion, virtue, and focial order; and though our duty, as critics, compel us to notice fome trifling defects in the tract before us, it would be the height of injuftice to withhold that approbation which it unqueftionably deferves. In p. 75 a grammatical error occurs; "Univerfal fuffrage and annual Parliaments is (are) their law and the Prophets." The author is particularly unfortunate in his felection of fimilies for the illustration of his fubject. Speaking of the effects of feditious harangues (p. 107) he |