parts thereof, and likewife that charcoal was imbeded in the folid fubftance of the ftone throughout the whole extent of the

cavern.

The fingular appearances accompanying the above columnar bodies, with refpect to charcoal being imbeded in the folid fubftance of the ftone, feems to have been an effect produced at a time while that matter was liquid fire. That circumftance being duly confidered, together with the durability of charcoal, leaves little room to doubt the origin of the fubitance in which the charcoal or burnt wood is inclofed.

Mr. Whitehurst's work contains fome valuable facts; and v the foundation of his fyftem, viz. actual obfervation, will enfure its permanency. As we fpoke, with approbation of his..£ first attempt, we must not difmifs this enlarged edition without or additional commendation...

10

24

Tolondron. Speeches to John Bowle about his Edition of Don' Quixote together with fome Account of Spanish Literature. By Jofeph Baretti, 8vo. 45. Faulder.

R. Bowle, it feems, is a tolondron: a ftrange word this, and we had almoft deferved the title by mistaking its' meaning. The word literally means a wheal on the fkin, raised by a stripe or a blow; but its common metaphorical in-⠀ › i terpretation is a ftupid ignorant pretender to knowledge we cannot trace the first meaning down to the fecond, unless it be tvr that the fool fhall be beaten with many stripes; and as the ri Spaniards are a very religious nation, perhaps we may be right. Poor Mr. Bowle, this tolondron feems too severe even lev for the greatelt tolondery!' But we have almoft adopted Mr. ads Baretti's rambling method: evil communications corrupt good st manners. We must tell his ftory more fhortly, and it mustinse be remembered that we now speak by the book.'

Mr. Bowle, the editor of a fuperb edition of Don Quixote, in the original Spanish, feems to have been extremely angry with Mr. Baretti, for a reafon that we fhould fcarcely have fuppofed would have excited fo much wrath as is imputed to him. During the publication the two friends, for then, at least, they, were not combatants, dined together, when a proof sheet was brought in, and Mr. Baretti obferved a strange confusion in the accents. He offered his affiftance to Mr. Bowle, which was declined. In our author's future engagement, when he taught two young gentlemen the Spanish language, this edition came into his hands; and then he found this confusion

often

often obfcured the fenfe, and fometimes changed it. The faults were, therefore, rectified in the margin. These corrections are faid to have irritated Mr. Bowle, and to have produced feveral publications. Some of thefe, viz. the Condu&t of the Knight of Ten Stars, and his Italian Squire, (captain Crookilanks and Mr. Baretti); a Letter to a Doctor of Divinity, &c. have been fhortly noticed at different times in our Journal *. In thefe publications, and fome letters in the Gentleman's Magazine, which our author imputes to Mr. Bowle, Mr. Baretti and his works are fo feverely attacked, as to have produced the publication before us.

In this work, which is written in a rambling pleasant manner, though with great feverity, Mr. Bowle is attacked on his ignorance in pronouncing the Spanish; and confequently on the random, and often improper method of placing ac-. cents. He is faid also to be ignorant of the Spanish idiom, and to have given wrong or abfurd interpretations of many words to be vain of talents which he does not poffefs, to be irritable, petulant, &c. In fhort, no tolondron can have a greater number of faults.

On this fubje&t we can form no opinion: the ftory may be greatly changed, when related by a different perfon, though the fame facts are preferved. Mr. Baretti is angry, probably with reafon; and Mr. Bowle may ftill be able to allege very ample provocations, if he is indeed the author of the publications mentioned. As it is more within our own knowledge, we must allow, that Mr. Bowle's Spanish is not always idiomatic; and fome of his words are not very intelligibly explained. Perhaps too he has been more voluminous, in his labours as as an editor, than was neceffary. On fome of thefe fubje&s, Mr. Baretti triumphs with realon; and his triumphs are purfued with little mercy. We cannot commend his moderation in the hour of victory; nor can we approve of his very defultory manner, or the unneceffary bulk of his work. We thall tranfcribe a fhort fpecimen.

My fweet friend Jack Bowle, who, by his own confefion, frequently repeated, and in a bragging manner, rather than taking fhame to himfelf: Jack, I fay, who never could speak a Spanish fentence in his life, but learnt the little he knows of it, in his clofet by himself, nor ever afked any body's advice about his great undertaking; a big name he calls his edition by, as if reprinting and commmenting Don Quixote, were a perforation of Mount Caucafus through and through: Jack, I fay for the third time, has not even an idea about the

Spanish pronunciation, nor about the accentuation, that regulates the reading of Spanish : therefore, throughout the edition and the comment, has placed the accents as the teatotum of his grandfon directed; for he knew (by looking night and day into Spanish books) that, mean what they will, accents are wanting on many Spanish words: and, in confequence of this acute obfervation, he placed a good many here and there, as the teatotum directed, throughout the book; and the teatotum, I must say it, to his immortal honour, has fometimes whirled the right way, and turned up the propitious fide: bat, upon the whole, has proved fo untoward, that, in every one of the pages, not one excepted, throughout his fix quarto volumes, and pretty often in every line of every page, the accents are all placed in the wrong places, or they are omitted, which is as good an equivalent: and 1, who forefaw that this would be the cafe, when I gave a tranfitory glance to one of his revises, the day we dined together at the tavern in Holborn, and pitied the blunder he was going to commit, which I was fure would annihilate his edition, made free to offer him my fervice in the correction of his fheets and would, for the mere fake of literature, have looked them over with pleasure : but, forfooth! the proud tolondron, who did not even suspect he had need of fuch a pair of crutches, rejected the offer, as he never trusted his correction to any body but himself. Well: he has trufted to his great felf, to his knowing felf! But, what was the confequence? He laid out feveral hundred pounds in the purchase of water-bubbles, which are no very merchantable commodity; made his ignorance known to many to whom it was a fecret; quarrelled with his friends, because they would no longer believe him a great Hifpanift; and worked himself into a brown humour, that is likely to laft to his dying day, if wine and gin, copiously drank, do not help to remove it. Is this tolondronery, or cauliflower? Give me leave, I beg, to call it tolondronery double-diftilled, and no cauliflower at all.'

If this difpute continues, we muft beg leave to remind the combatants, that perfonalities never add weight to the caufe of truth.

Address from Sir John Dalrymple, Bart. one of the Barons of the Exchequer in Scotland, to the Landholders of England, upon the Interest which they have in the State of the Distillery Laws. 8vo. 25. Cadell.

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HE author of this Addrefs fets out with obferving, that the court of Exchequer in Scotland, of which he is a baron, at the fame time that it is a court of juftice, is also

the

the board of treafury for that part of the kingdom, and, therefore, bound to understand and attend to the interefts of the revenue. A close attention to the duties of his office focn convinced him, that the diftillery business was an object of far greater importance to the revenue, and to the landed intereft of Britain, than was generally imagined. But he faw, with concern, that the trader and the officer of the revenue, in Scotland at leaft, ftood on terms of mutual hoftility; one complaining always of oppreflion, and the other of fraud; either or both of which must be productive of bad confequences: to the public, and d injure the revenue. An anxiety to reconcile thefe hoftile interefts fuggefted to our author the idea, that, if the tax on the diftillery was regulated by the capacitys of the ftill, instead of being, as at prefent, collected by the quantity and quality of the liquor, it would be almost im-/ poffible for the trader to defraud, or for the officer to opprefs; becaufe, if the meafure of the vefiel was, is once taken, it could not be altered without being immediately perceived.

Sir John Dalrymple communicated his ideas on this fubject: to the public in Scotland; but was refrained by motives of delicacy from pursuing the fame conduct in England, because he thought that the English beft, underflood their own affairs. Scotland, our author informs us, has univerfally declared for the propofed plan; and he is of opinion, that if England attended to the fabject, all England to a man, except fix diftillery houses in London, would likewife declare for adopting it. With regard to thofe fix houfes, our author affirms, that by engroffing the whole diftillery of England, a trifle excepted, a few private perfons enjoy a monopoly against the landed intereft, the people, and the revenue of England. For, by combining together, fays he, they can fix the price of grain as they pleafe against the landed intereft, the price of their fpirits as they pleafe against the people, and the amount of the diftillery tax as they please against the revenue. The manner in which our author accounts for this fingularity dif covers great knowlege of the fubject, but for this we mult refer our readers to the pamphlet.

In confequence of the plan fuggefted by fir John Dalrymple, a general meeting of the landed intereft of Scotland, by delegates from the counties, and of a great number ofomen of property, was held at Edinburgh, in January olaft, and paffed feveral refolutions, unanimoufly, relative to the fubject. One of thefe was, that an application fhall be made to parliament for a new law, for impofing a duty, by way of annual licence, upon each gallon of the ftill, according to its contents, for the whole united kingdom, excepting that part of Scotland which is comprehended under the late diftillery act.

Another

Another article was, that the duty to be fo paid fhould be thirty shillings upon each gallon, both of the fingling and of the doubling ftills. Among the benefits expected to refult from this mode of taxation, it was particularly fpecified, that - agriculture and diftillery will be united to their mutual advantage, whereby the waste lands will be cultivated, and the population of Great Britain increased, in an aftonishing degree.

Sir John Dalrymple informs us, that the refolutions, paffed by the above mentioned general meeting, were communicated by its committee to the reprefentatives for Scotland, in both houfes of parliament. But inftead of profecuting the affair in the manner recommended by the committee, it feems that avmeeting of the Scots members of the houfe of commons, whose names our author knows not, drew up a memorial to Mr. Pitt, asking no more than a temporary relief for Scotland:1996 * 1

If fays the baronet, this treaty fhall end either in a tem porary relief got for Scotland, or in a permanent one, giving thestax by the till to Scotland alone, but not to Britain; England will dose the benefit of that mode of taxation; and, in both cafes, both England and Scotland will fuffer. It is impoffible, in the nature of things, to collect taxes in the fame kingdom by different modes of collection, without the one fide getting the advantage of the other. Either the London diftillers will underfell the Scots, by the advantage which a difcretionary: power in the officer, and confequently the opportunity of brib-1 ing gives to the London diftiller; or the Scots distiller ་་ will underfell the English one, by the fecurity which a tax by the ftill confers on the Scots one. One fide will certainly cry murder, perhaps both; jealoufy and quarrel between the two nations will be the confequence.

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And, therefore, I, who, when appointed a member of the committee of the general meeting of the landed intereft of Scotland to carry their refolutions into effect, was intrufted with an important and honourable branch of duty to serve not Scotland alone, but Britain; and, in terms of the refolu tions of the general meeting, to invite the landed intereft of England to join the landed intereft of Scotland" in this com mon caufe-think and feel it my duty to let the landed interest of Scotland know why I humbly am of opinion, that the. landed interest of England thould oppofe the temporary relief. for Scotland, and fupport in parliament, the permament ar rangement of a tax by the ftill for Britain."

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Our author places, in a ftrong and clear light, the advantages which would result to the diftiller, the landed intereft, and the revenue, from a tax laid on in the manner specified. In the first place, the diftiller would be relieved from the dif

cretionary