petuous fool! to forget that for this absence you might have long remained ignorant of the sentiments of her you adore. Most gladly would I instantly fly, myself the second courier, to announce to my Magdalena the joy and health of her devoted. A tolerable article it would make in future chronicles" His Majesty, after some years of coldness and inattention to his fair Queen (wretch that I am!), immediately on completing his voyage into Finland, on the most important affairs, returned with the speed of a courier, to throw himself at Her Majesty's feet, receive her forgiveness, and to retura with the same speed to the completion of the important matters scarcely commenced.'- p. 136.

The appendix contains, besides a very insignificant account of the assassination of Gustavus III., an anecdote of his son, the late' unfortunate King; which the author assures his readers he obtained from private and authentic sources. When the King visited Petersburgh in the year 1796, with his uncle, who was at that time Regent of Sweden, and a marriage between him and one of the grand Duchesses of Russia had been settled, the day and hour were fixed on which they were to be publicly betrothed; the whole court was assembled; and the Empress appeared in all imaginable pomp, attended by the young princess, habited as a bride to receive the King. No King however arrived. On examining the articles of alliance, which were privately laid before him for signature by the ministers of the Empress, at the moment when he intended to go to court, he discovered that they contained engagements, on which he had not previously agreed with the Empress; and in consequence he refused to sign them, notwithstanding the urgent persuasions of his uncle, and all the Swedes of his suite.

Art. 33

Letter to the Earl of Kellie, concerning the Farmer's Income-Tax with a Hint on the Principle of Representation, &c. 8vo. pp. 63. 23. Wilson.

The

but

A very singular composition is here presented to us, by a Mr. Robert Gourlay, a landholder in the county of Fife, on the occasion of an affront, or supposed affront, received from Lord Kellie. author says very little on the professed subject, the income-tax, a great deal on his own political tenets, to which he appears to attach no slight degree of consequence. We regret that it is out of our power to rate them so favourably; since, although he appears to possess feelings of liberality in several respects, he acquits himself most unfortunately as an instructor of the public. Declamation and rash assertions pervade the whole of his pamphlet.

Art. 34. Naufragia, or Historical Memoirs of Shipwrecks, and of the Providential Deliverance of Vessels. By James Stanier Clarke, F. R. S. Chaplain of the Prince's Household, and Librarian to His R. H. 12mo. 2 Vols. 138. Boards. Mawman. Not only does this publication furnish a series of relations which will interest the sons of Neptune, incite them to bear the hardships of his reign, and furnish them with hints for expedients in misfortune, but it will amuse the general reader, by the nature and variety of its contents.

In the section relative to Alexander Selkirk, and the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Mr. Clarke seems to incline to an opinion which has been started, that Daniel Defoe was not in face the an bor of that popular book; and he quotes, from the Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. viii. Pt.1. p. 208, a letter to Mr. Uiban on the subject, which we are also inclined to transcribe.

"Mr. Urban,

"Dublin, Feb. 25, 178.

"In the course of a late conversation with a nobleman of the first consequence and information in this kingdom, he assured me that Mr Benjamin Holloway, of Middleton Stony, assured him, some time ago, that he knew for fact, that the celebrated romance of Robinson Crusoe was really written by the Earl of Oxford, when confined in the Tower of London; that his Lordship gave the manuscript to Daniel Defoe, who frequently visited him during his confinement; and that Defoe, having afterwards added the second volume, published the whole as his own production. This anecdote I would not venture to send to your valuable Magazine, if I did not think my information good, and imagine it might be acceptable to your numerous readers; notwithstanding the work has heretofore been generally attributed to the latter."

« W. W." The inquiry is not, perhaps, of much consequence, unless it were also contended that Lord Oxford did not take the real adventures of Selkirk as the basis of his narrative; yet we should be glad to have the question decided, as a piece of literary history.

Art. 35. Variety, or Selections and Essays, consisting of Anecdotes, curious Facts, interesting Narratives, with occasional Reflections. By Priscilla Wakefield. 12mo. 43. Boards. Darton and Harvey. 18c9.

These Essays seem in every respect calculated to fulfil the intention of the compiler, by instructing without wearying, and amusing with. out weakening the minds of her young readers; and we can safely re. commend Variety' as a very judicious and entertaining little work. Art. 36. Primitia, or Essays and Poems on various Subjects, religious, moral, and entertaining. By Connop Thirlwall, Eleves Years of Age. The Preface by his Father, the Rev. Thomas Thirlwall, M. A. &c. &c. 12mo. 5s. Boards. Printed for the Author. It cannot be denied that these compositions are extraordinary when we consider the extreme youth of the author: but we have never met with any lucubrations of a writer of nine years old, which we should not willingly have resigned till he had doubled his age, and was able to obey the wise though neglected precept of the poet, by revising his work at the end of that period. The difference between eine and eleven, in favor of Master Thirlwall, would not induce us to alter this remark: yet he has excited in us more surprize than most of his young literary contemporaries. We were pleased also to see his attention and talents directed to subjects of moral improvement and of religious instruction; and we remarked in his poetry an acuteness of observation, with an occasional felicity of expression, which made us augur well of his future productions.

We

We observe some contradictions in the essays, and some metrical defects in the poetry, which may be explained by the assertion of the writer's father, that his compositions cost him little effort,and that he seldom corrects a sentence after it is once committed to paper.' His compositions have indeed less the appearance of precocious efforts than of spontaneous effusions from a fertile mind: but to publish without correction is generally a proof of arrogance or of indolence and we would repeat to every hasty poet the mixim of Rousseau, “Le seul moyen de faire des vers faciles, c'est de les faire difficilement." Mr. Thirlwall, senior, should not have made this avowal for his son, because he ought to have prevented the fact, by inculcating the impropriety of it.

Art. 37. The Letters of a Peruvian Princess, by Madame de Grafigny; also, as a Sequel, the Letters of Aza, by Ignatius Hungari de la Marche Courmont: to which are prefixed a Life of Madame de Grafigny, and a short biographical Notice of Marche Courmont, Translated from the French by William Mudford. Izmo. (s. Boards. Sherwood and Co. 1809.

The Peruvian letters of Madame de Grafigny have long been admired for their elegance, and loved for the naiveté and sensibility which they exhibit; and they have already been translated into English more than once, though not in a manner which did justice to the original. Mr. Mudford has succeeded better than his predecessors: but he has perhaps been too literal in his copy; by preserving the French arrangement of the words, his sentences, though not absolately distorted, are frequently stiff and ungraceful; and we are thus perpetually reminded that we are reading a translation. This servile adherence to the language as well as the sentiments of his model has led him into the mistake of making Zilia address her lover by the pronouns thou and you in the same paragraph: an anomaly which is used by the best French authors to denote an increased familiarity, or a heightened feeling, but which in English is both ungrammatical and unexpressive.

The letters of Aza, by La Marche Courmont, are by no means equal in style and sentiment to those which precede them; and Mr} Mudford appears to have been fully aware of their inferiority, as well as of the difficulties which they presented to a translator by their affec tation and extravagance. This knowlege has not, however, aided him to overcome nor induced him to soften the faults of the original; and, at the end of his translation, he rejoices at the termination of his la bour,' without the least contrition for having led his readers through the same labyrinth of absurdity by which he has been wearied.

The biographical sketch of Madame de Grafigny is interesting and well written; and the Historical Introduction' affords many explana. tions which are useful in elucidating the letters. We find also a cha racteristic description of the Peruvians, and of the causes which induced their superstitious submission to Spanish tyranny.

Art. 38. The Traveller's Guide; or English Itinerary containing accurate and original Descriptions of all the Counties, Cities, Towns, Villages, Hamlets, &c. and their exact Distances from London:

together

together with the Cathedrals, Churches, Hospitals, Gentlemen's Seats, (with the Names of their present Possessors,) Manufactures, Harbours, Bays, Rivers, Canals, Bridges, Lakes, Salt and Medicinal Springs, Vales, Hills, Mountains, Mines, Castles, Curiosities, Market Days, Fairs, Inns for Post-Horses, &c. The whole comprising a complete Topography of England and Wales. To which are prefixed general Observations on Great Britain; includ ing a correct Itinerary from London to the several Watering and Sea-Bathing Places; Lists of Inns in London; Mail Coaches; Wharfs; Packet Boats; Rates of Porterage; Postage of Letters; and every other useful Information, equally calculated for the Man of Business and the inquisitive Traveller. By W. C. Oulton, Esquire. Illustrated with 66 correct picturesque Views, and a whole Sheet coloured Map of England and Wales. izmo. 2 Vols. pp. 8co and coo. Boards. 11. gs. Cundee.

It is truly observed by Mr. Oulton, that the reader can scarcely have an adequate idea of the immense labour of such an undertaking as this; and we do not wonder that he adds that, soon after he had conmenced it, he was on the point of relinquishing it in despair. He did, however, proceed; and he declared that he has consulted every requisite authority, and has taken all possible pains to insure the attainment of accuracy, which is so essential in a compilation of this kind. It is not within our power to examine the work thoroughly, and therefore we cannot speak definitively of its merits on this point, which can only be decided by a long-continued consultation of it; and, indeed, as Mr. O. admits, the fluctuating nature of many of its particulars must constantly expose it to the chance of varying from existing circumstances.' We can, however, assure the reader that a vast mass of information is here collected, both for library-use, and for the guidance of the traveller; and that the medallion engravinga annexed are in general very pleasingly executed.

Art. 39 Quid Nunc ? Selections from the Poems of the late W. Cow per, Esquire; contrasted with the Works of Knox, Paley, and others, on Fashion, Cards, Charity, Clergy, Priest, Pulpit, Duelling, Slander, Lying, Duplicity, Domestic Happiness, Vice, Seduction. 8vo. pp. 47. Is. 6d. Hatchard.

By these extracts, the compiler intends to display a picture of the existing state of morals, or rather of immorality; and to suggest those wholesome lessons on the above recited topics, which must be generally reduced to practise before we can be denominated a virtuous people. When this event will take place, Mr. Quid Nune cannot tell us: but in the mean time we shall be glad if his pamphlet has share in effecting it.

Art. 40. Facts and Experiments on the Use of Sugar in feeding Cattle: with Hints for the Cultivation of Waste Lands, and for improving the Condition of the lower Order of the Peasantry in Great Bri tain and Ireland. 8vo. pp. 121. Harding, 189. This anonymous writer begins by assuring his readers that he has Bo interest whatever in the West Indies, and that his object is to serve the great body of the nation by increasing the quantity of grain and

lowering

lowering the price of butchers' meat. He lays it down as the result of his experiments, that one shilling's worth of sugar will save two shillings worth of hay; and consequently that, were the use of sugar understood, the quantity of young stock raised would, in many parts of the kingdom, be greater than it is at present. He asserts that

the use of sugar is one of the greatest enemies in the world to disorders among cattle, and perhaps disease will hardly ever attack an animal so fed.' He is an advocate for stall-feeding, and recommends the following plan for the use of molasses or sugar in the stall:

'Put up twenty head of cattle in a comfortable house, and have a quantity of lyng or heath cut when in full bloom, and stacked, after being exposed three or four days to the sun and air. Separate from the strong and woody branches the part which can be chewed; carry the latter to a trough placed before the young cattle, and sprinkle it over with the molasses, or dissolved sugar. On this food they will thrive surprisingly, and come out in spring superior to the cattle fed on hay, and in many places at half the expence. Lyng can be had in many parts of the kingdom where hay is not to be found.'

Since half the usual quantity of hay will be found sufficient when sprinkled with molasses, the author advises the use of molasses for this purpose on board of all vessels in which cattle are embarked, when the voyage is long, and a stock of hay must be laid in. He recommends it likewise for the cavalry and commissariat departments; supporting his predilection for sugar by the argument that the nourishing quality of hay, clover, &c. consists in their saccharine. properties; and that, if hay be made to undergo the process of boil ing, the virtue will be found in the wash. He relates the case of an cld horse, which had become a mere skeleton, and was in vain turned out to grass, or fed in the stable with hay and corn, but which, when molasses were mixed with his provender, in the course of six weeks was completely recovered.-The cow-keepers form another of the classes to whom the author strongly urges the use of sugar or molasses, as conducive both to the increase of the quantity and the improvement of the quality of milk.

The next subject of discussion is the application of sugar or molasses to the food of sheep. The writer proposes that in land on which coarse grass is produced, such as sheep will not eat if left to themselves, a quantity of molasses, diluted in water, should be sprinkled over the grass with a common watering-pot, and the sheep be then driven to the spot: from which, he is of opinion, they will not stir till they have eaten this hitherto neglected grass down to the root. The pamphlet is concluded by an appendix containing a correspondence between Mr. E T. Waters and the Board of Agriculture, in which the use of sugar is pronounced to be very advantageous. The danger of which the author is most apprehensive is that of giving too much at first; the cattle being apt to eat food, so prepared, in quantities which the richness of the sugar might render dangerous. From the variety and minuteness of his agricultural comments, it is apparent that this author is not a merchant, but a farmer. The circumstances which we have mentioned form only a part of those to which he urges that the use of sugar is applicable; and we do not recollect to have met with a more zealous advocate, in the course of our

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