temple feven hundred and eighty-eight feet; and entrances, of a like nature, leading from the north and fouth, complete the figure of a crofs over the rectangular oblong fpace. All the galleries have, on each fide, triple rows of mafly ftone pillars, of highly laboured workmanship. Thofe in the front line are the largeft and most fuperb, having a huge lion with the mouth wide open, fculptured, in bas relief, above three distinct capitals, over which stand a feroll and a richly ornamented cornice. Statues of the fize of life are attached to many of those pillars, raised on pedestals, reprefenting gods, and departed heroes, who paid obeisance, or performed pilgrimages to this temple. On each fide of the galleries, ftone pavements are raised to the height of three test, on which the pillars are erected, with fteps afcending to them. The roofs of all the galleries are flat, composed of ftones reaching acrofs from the projection of one cornice to that of the other, eighteen feet broad in the centre walk, and the fame on each elevated fide, so that every gallery is thirty-fix feet wide; and the roof of the middle paffage is raised thirty feet from the floor. The number of pillars within the temple amounts to two thousand fix hundred and twenty-eight. The edifice is enclosed, in an area, by a heavy stone wall twenty feet high, eight hundred and thirty feet from eaft to weft, and fix hundred and twenty-five from north to fouth.' II. 13, 14.

There are upwards of two hundred Brahmins attached to this temple; besides inferior priests and servants without number. There is also a troop of dancing girls, who,' as Mr Cordiner delicately expresses it, are prohibited from marrying, though not bound down to a life of virginity.' The temple, though situate in a place of immemorial sanctity, is, for the most part, of recent construction, the antient fabric having been mostly demolished by the Mahometan conquerors.

The pearl fishery of Ceylon is carried on in the bay of Con daatchy, on the north side of the island, and extends over a range of fourteen banks, from twenty to thirty miles in length, and from one to two in breadth; the depth of the water from three to fifteen fathoms. The pearl oyster is said to arrive at maturity in seven or eight years, and to die soon after: no pearls aré found in them till they are four or five years old, and then only of a small size. Soon after their death, their whole subtance is washed away by the waters, and the banks where they abounded afford only an unprofitable heap of empty shells. It has hitherto been found impossible to transplant them from one part of the coast to another. The banks are surveyed in October, and those which are judged fit for fishing are let out in lots in February thereafter the fishing begins in March, and lasts for thirty days. In 1804 there were three hundred boats, each with two divers, employed. They dive by the help of a stone of sixty pounds weight attached to the feet; and, when they reach the bottom, VOL. XIL. NO. 23..

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throw themselves on their face, and heap every thing they can move into their basket: when it is full, they pull the rope as a signal to hale it up; and ascend, partly by its assistance, long before the basket can be drawn from the bottom. They are seldom under water more than one minute; and Mr Cordiner seems positive that they never have been known to exceed two minutes. Sometimes one boat will bring in 35,000 oysters, sometimes only 200 or 300.

The pearls are found in the fleshy part of the oyster, near the hinge, and generally in a heap, or cluster: 150 have been found in a single fish. Adventurers on a small scale open their oysters, of course, as they fish, or buy them; but the renters throw them all into great heaps, and permit them to rot and decay before they look at them. The whole of their putrid contents are then separated from the shells, and placed to dry on cloths in the sun. The dried stuff, in the form of a kind of earth, or sand, is then divided into small parcels, and handed successively to a series of persons, who spread it on plates of porcelain, or brass, and pick out all the pearls which it contains. Mr Cordiner examined the produce from 17,000 oysters, which did not weigh three quarters of a pound, and contained no perfect pearls of the first or second order. They are sold, without sorting, for about 80%. a pound weight. The yearly produce seems to be from 100,000l. to 150,000/. a year.

The account of the campaign against the Candians in 1803, is very clear and compendious. Our troops took possession of the country and capital with very little difficulty; but disease weakened them so prodigiously, that they soon found themselves unable to maintain their position; and, after being induced to capitulate, on condition of being allowed to return to Columbo, were treacherously massacred, with circumstances of the most atrocious cruelty. The account that is given of the capricious and murderous ferocity of the Candian sovereign, indeed, is almost beyond credibility; yet this savage inhabits a vast palace, enriched with all sorts of European luxuries. The walls of one room were completely covered with mirror glasses, in pieces seven feet high and four broad. His capital is situate in a plain of considerable extent, surrounded on all sides by woody and precipitous mountains. It consists of one main street, nearly two miles in length, very meanly built, and without any sort of fortification. The volume concludes with a long medical report on the the fever of the country; and a chapter selected, we know not for what reason, from old Robert Knox's account of Ceylon.

Upon the whole, we take our leave of Mr Cordiner in good humour. There is, to be sure, but a scanty allowance of origi

́nal

nal information in his two quartos, and rather an excess of dull fine writing, as well as of compliments to the ladies and gentlemen of the settlement: but as he very honestly confesses in the title-page, that he was chaplain to the colony, all those things were to be expected; and the reader has no right to complain. He seems an honest good-natured man, with a laudable desire for information, and a taste for all kinds of trifling details. We congratulate him on his safe return from the tropics; and advise him to publish no more quartos.

ART. VI. The Plays of Philip Massinger, with Notes critical and explanatory. By W. Gifford Esq. 4 vol. 4 vol. 8vo. London.

I

T rarely happens that any person, who has indulged himself in severe reflections and dogmatical assertions on various subjects, can pass through life without occasionally running foul of some of his own sentences. The first work that brought Mr Gifford's talents into public notice was the Baviad and Mæviad; a production which certainly displayed genius; but written in a style of satire so harsh and overbearing, that if the corrupt taste, which was spreading itself rapidly over the country, had not loudly called for animadversion, the public mind would probably have been disgusted by its asperity. The general object and aim of his satire was praiseworthy; but some passages seemed rather to have been dictated by moroseness, than by the fair spirit of enlightened censure. Óf that nature we think the attack upon the harmless, if not laudable, amusement of Mr Kemble, who collected old plays, which would otherwise in a few years have been lost for ever.

• Others, like Kemble, on black-letter pore,
And, what they do not understand, adore;
Buy at vaft fums the trash of antient days,
And draw on prodigality for praife.

Though no great catalogue-hunter I love to look into fuch mark. ed ones as fall in my way. That of poor Dood's books amused me not a little. It exhibited many inftances of black-letter mania; and, what is more to my purpose, a transfer of much trash of antient days to the fortunate Mr Kemble. For example, Firft Part of the Tragicall Raigne" of Selimus Emperour of the Turks, 11. 118. 6d.' &c. &c. Baviad,

V. 192.

For our part, we beheld with pleasure a distinguished actor expending a part of the hard-earned profits of his profession, in forming a collection, which may be beneficial to the stage. The

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contest with the Duke of Burgundy, he has passed this unmerited eulogy on their victories. In this instance, they cannot properly be said to have contended for liberty, excepting inasmuch as the liberty of any belligerent would be endangered by failure, as they were the first aggressors; and Charles gained no important advantages over them, if we except the capture of Granson, which was quickly wrested from him.

• Vouloit ledit Duc laiffer reposer fon armée, qui eftoit fort defaite, tant a caufe de Nuz, que par ce peu de guerre de Lorraine ; et le demeurant vouloit il envoyer en garnifon, en aucunes places du Comté de Romont, comme auprès des villes de Berne et Fribourg aufquelles il vouloit faire la guerre, tant pour ce qu'ils la lui avoient faite, ellant devant, Nuz, qu'auffi pour avoir aidé à lui ofter la Comté de Ferrete, et parce qu'ils avoient ofté au dit Comté de Romont partie de fa terre.' Phil. de Comines, liv. 5. c. 1.

Secondly, the statement of the relative forces, is directly contrary to the account given by the same very credible writer, who says that he had the circumstances from those who were present. At the battle of Granson, the Swiss army was inferior in numbers, but strongly posted. The Duke ill-advisedly advanced to dislodge them. The van, being unexpectedly attacked by the Swiss, was ordered to fall back; and the body of the army, mistaking their retreat for flight, was thrown into confusion, and fled without having been engaged. The Duke lost only 700 men ; but his reputation suffered greatly. His own allies fell from him; and the forces of the old league and the new confederacy of Basle, Strasbourg, &c. were joined by those of the Duke of Lorraine and the imperial towns of Francfort, Neuremberg, &c. At the battle of Morat, the confederates were superior in number, well equipped, and stronger in cavalry. We quote again the same author.

• Lefdits alliez, comme il fut dit par ceux, qui y efloient, pouvoient bien eftre 31,00o hommes de pied, bien choifis et bien armez, (c'eft à fcavoir 11,000 piques, 10,000 hallebardes, 10,000 couleurines) et 4000 hommes de cheval. - Le duc de Lorraine arriva vers lefdites alliances peu d'heures avant la bataille et avec peu de gens.'

He afterwards states, on the authority of the Prince de Tarentes who saw the Duke of Burgundy's army counted while it was passing a bridge, that it was well equipped; but it consisted of only 23,000 regulars, besides artillery, and those who attended the baggage.

Qu'il avoit compté et fait compter l'armée en paffant fur un pont, et y avoit bien trouvé 23,000 hommes de foulde, fans le refte qui fuivoit l'armée et qui cftoit pour le fait de l'artillerie.'

The Duke lost in that action 8000 of the regular troops. We now come to the battle of Nancy. The allies were in force and

the

the Duke's army, discouraged by defeat, and reduced to less than 4000 men, of which not above twelve hundred were effective, He gave battle in a fit of desperation, and was slain.

J'ay entendu par ceux qui le penfoient fcavoir, qu'ils n'avoient point en l'oft quatre mille hommes; dont il n'y avoit que douze cens en eftat pour combattre. Le duc choifit le pire, non obftant toutes les remonftrances qu'on lui avoit faites du grand nombre des alemans, qui eftoit avec ledit Duc de Lorraine, et auffi de l'armée du Roi, logée près de lui; et conclud la bataille, avec ce petit nombre de gens epouventez qu'il avoit.'

We have dwelt upon this note, because we are always anxious to maintain historical truth; and because we cannot better exemplify the haste and inaccuracy with which Mr Gifford sometimes. appears to write. It seems, from a note in vol. 4. p. 167, that he must have printed the first volumes, before he had even read through the author he was editing.

This expreffion reconciles me to a paffage in the Parliament of Love, vol. 2. p. 291, of which, though copied with my beft care, I was extremely doubtful. It now appears, that Maflinger ufes candour, in both places, as fynonymous with bonour.'

We are far from wishing to reproach Mr Gifford with mistakes, to which men of genius, who write from recollection, are frequently liable; but it is our duty to repeat, and to urge strongly for his consideration in future, that those who can trespass on the public with such inaccuracies, should be very careful not to attack those who have preceded them with bitterness of language and harsh reprehension. Indeed, in some passages, Mr Gifford appears to have been irritated by so strong a spirit of impatience and anger against Coxeter and Mason, that we are inclined to think, if either of those unfortunate editors had been within his reach, he might have closed his arguments like George a Greene, in an anonymous old play,

And for greater proof

Give my man leave to fetch for me my staff;

I'll prove it good upon your carcafes.'

From almost every page in Mr Gifford's edition, it appears, that his constant aim has not been simply to rectify what was inaccurate, to cast aside what was superfluous, and to add what might be necessary or useful for the information of the reader, but to build his own reputation on the ruin of that of his predecessors. This object is pursued with such assiduity, that he frequently falls into the very error which he would reprobate in them. For instance, in the Duke of Milan, we find this note. Scarabs, means beetles. M. Mafon. Very true; and beetles means scarabs.' Vol. I. p. 279.

Some unlearned readers might perhaps be thankful for Mr

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