vigorous adminiftration, may atchieve; and in the above-mentioned period the had to boast of her John Bart, her Duqueíne, Tourville, and Dugay Trouin. The five naval wars fhe waged fince the year 1701, have all been difaftrous. The author traces the caufes of their failure not to any fuperiority in their enemies, but wholly to their own mifmanagement; and especially to the fcantinefs of the means that were allotted to that fervice. He quotes particularly the Compte rendu in 1738, by M. de Maurepas, as an inftance of the fuperficial, trivial, and frigid manner in which that fribble minifter, (Miniftre de Boudoir) treated this important branch of adminiftration. The fund allotted to it was reduced to nine millions of livres, and the number of fhips of the line were limited to fifty-four. The mercantile navy, which did not look for encouragement from the government, was by no means in fo reduced a ftate. In the time when the fyftem of Law held out its extravagant profpects, the ships employed in foreign trade were no less than three thousand feven hundred in number. When the war of 1756, which, as ufual, the author afcribes to the finifter views of England, broke out, the French navy was deftitute of artillery, stores, and every other requifite for the equipment of a fleet. At this time, fays the marechal de Noailles, the men at the helm thought of nothing, and even difapproved of those who betrayed any folicitude for the concerns of the nation. England was allowed to capture no lefs than three hundred fhips and fifteen thoufand failors before the declaration of the war. Berryer, the minifter of marine, fo far from endeavouring to repair the loffes fuftained in this difaftrous, not to fay ignominious war, at length difpofed of the ftores, and the whole number of the hips of war taken from the French amounted to thirty-feven, from the first to the fixth rate, and fifty-fix frigates. During the next (the American) war, the French recovered in a confiderable degree. The fucceffes were alternate; but England in the end loft an empire. The French revolution, this author fays, would infallibly have produced a burst of energy, which would no doubt have reached the marine department, had not the fucceeding convulfions (for which of courfe the British miniftry are likewise answerable!) and the treachery of thofe who had the conduct of naval affairs, checked the progrefs that might have been expected. The minifter Monge, in the year 1792, reported to the Convention that the navy at that time confifted of twenty-one fhips of the line, thirty frigates, and fifty-four fmall armed veffels; but befides thefe, it appears in another part of the book, that they had thirty-four fhips of the line in a dif mantled ftate. From this ftatement it is inferred that the prefent marine of France is not one half of what it was a century ago; that it has at different intervals been almost fuffered to decay to a degree of annihilation; and that no fteps were ever taken for its restoration, till the moment in which it ought to have been in full vigour. It is alfo afferted, that in general there has been a deficiency of stores, ammunition, and all requifites for an equipment; that even the commercial navy, though more profperous, from the vigorous exertions of thofe concerned in it, was yet re ftrained in its progrefs for want of the fupport it had a right to expect from government; that events have been trufted to chance, without any fixed aim towards the plan of defence, which the relative fituation of France with refpect to England required. In a word that a dereliction of all found principles, and a neglect of all falutary measures, have in general been the French fyftem of naval policy. The number of French merchant fhips appears from a register published fince the French act of navigation, to have amounted in the year 1794, to fix thousand and twenty-eight. Thefe, fays the author, are the materials upon which fresh fpeculations, refpecting a marine, are to be grounded. The principal impetus that would animate the plans that may be brought forward, would be, in his opinion, to make Paris a maritime town. The collective energy, and the emulating competition that would be afforded by a large metropolis, would, he thinks elicit all the means that might tend to the wifhed-for object, and this would more. over indemnify that city for the fources of opulence of which it has been of late deprived. The article concerning England, is introduced by the follow ing tirade, or rant, in which the author's affectation of candour will probably ftrike our readers as much as the manifeft fymptoms he therein betrays of the main drift of his work." What people is this," he fays, " that agitates the deftinies of all other na tions; that facrifices whole Afiatic kingdoms to its rapacity; that goes to mendicate a commercial monopoly from the followers of Confucius? What nation is this which annually depopulates the fhores of Africa, in order to transfer from thence, to a foil ftreaming with blood, thousands of families devoted by her to labour, chaftisement, and def pair; which feizes on the gold of America, and diftributes it to the courts of Europe, in order to perpetuate carnage and defolation? Does this nation inhabit a climate invariably favage? Are her instructors ftill barbarians? her legislators, men of ferocious tempers? No! it is a people that cultivates with great fuccefs one of the most fertile foils; that has brought to the greatest perfection both the theory and practice of all the combinations of productive labour. She boasts of men of genius who have penetrated into the inmoft recesses of nature. The intrepidity of her mariners has fpread her fame to the frozen regions of either pole; her poets have celebrated the bleffings of liberty; her orators and her writers guard her independence. This people was the first that gave bloody and useful leffons to kings: it is the first that has realized among the moderns the egotifm of the ancient republics, which lead to an exclufive love of one's country. In it all the claffes of fociety are in a continual ftate of activity; every propensity, every exertion, every fpeculation, tends folely to the center of general utility. ........Such is the fpirit which has in our days, procured to this nation a kind of dominion heretofore unknown, which partakes neither of the military fyftem, to which Rome owed its grandeur, nor of the fafcination of fanaticism which founded the empire of Mahomet. With this modern nation the ardour for booty enflames emulation; the first fucceffes are incentives for fresh attempts. In a word, the pride of her pre-eminence has infpired her with an audacity that prompts her to every enterprise however hazardous, and which has rendered her government the arbiter of all the cabinets of Europe. But what nation is this? The inveterate enemy of the French empire-it is Exa LAND!" We have given the beft part of this remarkable paffage, both as a fpecimen of the author's ftyle, and as a proof of the animofity he betrays throughout against whatever may tend to our profperity. The following is a table of the refults he gives us of the progrefs of the British navy, fince the days of Elizabeth. Atthe death of Eliz, in 1604, 42 fhips of war, none fit or the line. Cromwell, in 1660, 160 ditto. William III. At the war of 1739, -1756, -1775, In the prefent war, 282 whereof 130 of the line. "What alarming reflexions," fays the author, " must this view excite throughout Europe. The English navy has in less than two centuries, notwithstanding all its fruggles with Holland, France, and Spain, become near fixteen times more powerful! Her commerce alfo has increased moft rapidly; her population has received an addition of at least one million fince the beginning of this century." He then difcuffes the late conduct of England towards the other maritime ftates, which he reprefents as felfifh, and tyrannical in the highest degree; and concludes with a repetition of the folemn exhortation to all the nations interested in maintaining the freedom of the feas, to fwear an everlasting enmity to the overbearing power that aims at the jole empire of che ocean. It muft, we think, excite the bile of the molt impartial and difpaffionate obferver, who fhall compare this reafoning and thefe affertions with the late conduct of France on the continent. England, after all, has aimed no blow against the independence of any other ftate. The object of her policy, and the ufe of her powerful navy, have been the protection of her trade; nor can the industry of her manufacturers, or the bravery of her failors be a juft caufe of alarm to other nations. The time however feems to be drawing near when without fome especial interference of providence, the words juftice and equity are to be banished from the diplomatic code, when the boasted Jus Publicum and Jus Gentium are to be abforbed in the Jus fortioris, or Jus Gallicum; when it will be a crime to be feeble. We truft, however, England will be ever able to maintain her predominancy at fea, without which the cannot fubfift as an independent nation; and that he will ever bear in mind the memorable warning of the favage Gallic defpoiler of ancient Rome, awfully confirmed by the modern Brennus, VE VICTIS. GERMANY. ART. 57. Joh. Fried. Elumenbachii decas tertia colle&tionis fuæ era. niorum diverfarum gentium illuftrata. Göttingen; 16 pp. and 16 Plates, 4to. In the two first decads, two pieces were still wanting, namely, a Cranium of the most beautiful form, and one of an inhabitant of the South South-Sea islands. In this third decad, which concludes the collection, this deficiency is fupplied. The first plate prefents the Cranium of a beautiful female Georgian, who had been taken prifoner by the Ruf fians in the Turkish war; after which she died at Moscow, and there was diffected by Prof. Hildebrandt, who fent the Cranium to the Baron von Afch, by whom it was tranfmitted to this author. It perfectly answers to the defcription given of the Georgian women by eyewitneffes, and particularly by Chardin. The fixth and seventh plates exhibit two delineations of crania, from the South-Sea, with which the author was favoured by Sir Jofeph Banks. In the former, is given the figure of the Cranium of an Otaheitean, which is the more curious, as the lower-jaw is here preferved; whereas in "bodies, which, in Otaheite, are ufually expofed on elevated fcaffolds, this bone, owing to the exceffive heat, is toon feparated from the head, and falls among thofe of other carcafes; while, from thofe which are killed in battle, the enemy, according to the cuftom of thofe countries, always cut off the lower jaw, which they hang up before their doors, as a trophy of victory. The Cranium of a New Hollander, reprefented in the fallowing plate, differs confiderably from the laft, but ftill in fuch a degree only, as to fhow that they both belong to one of the five varieties into which the author divides the human race. To these three very remarkable Crania, Mr. Bl. has added feven more. In the fecond plate, the truly hideous one of a Sarmatian, with fmall eyefockets, an uncommonly prominent glabella and upper-jaw, which, in this refpect, much refembles that of a negro, though, in others, as the author obferves, it differs very much from the Cranium of a negro. The third plate prefents the Cranium of a Daüro-Chinese, of eightyeight years old, which is fo marked by a flat face, and funk upper-jaw, that the age of the perfon is eafily difcernible in it, even without confidering the lofs of the teeth in the upper-jaw. In the fourth and fifth plates, are two crania of Efquimaux; and, in the three last plates, three of children, the differences in which are as characteristic as in thofe of adults. ART. 58. Anleitung zur Kentnifs der Sternuamen, mit Erlaüterungen aus der Arabischen Sprache und Sternkunde, entworfen von Friedrich Wilhelm Victor Lach. (Aus des Hn. Hofrath Eichhorn's allgemeiner Bibliothek der biblifchen Literatur, Band VII. für die der orientaifchen Sprachen unkundigen befonders abgedruckt.-Introduction to the Knowledge of the Names of the Stars, with Illuftrations from the Arabic Language and Aftronomy, by F. W. V. Lach. (reprinted from Eichhorn's Allgem. Biblioth. d. biblifch. Litt. Vol. VII., for the fake of thofe perfons who are not acquainted with the Oriental Lacguages) Leipzig, 1796. 164 pp. 8vo. (pr. 12 gr.) We hope that aftronomers may be induced by the prefent work, to prefer, among the feveral Oriental names of different ftars, thote which have been tranfmitted to us with the leaft mutilation; how frange, for inftance, muit the names Denebola, or Nebolafed, which are given by aftronomers to the bright ftar in the Lion's Tail, found to thofe who know, that these are only abbreviations of Deneb ol-afed, just as if, in Latin, we were to fubftitute Daleqnis, or Caudale, for Can da da leonis! Mr. L. begins with an accurate defcription of the Arabico-Cufic Sphere, which is preferved in the mufeum of Cardinal Borgia at Velletri, of which he avails himself in what follows, correcting, at the fame time, fome errors of Prof. Allemani. We are then presented with an enumeration of the names not only of fome of the principal conftellations, known to the ancients, but likewife of fingle ftars. This litt, partly of Latin and Greek, but chiefly of Oriental names, in the explanation of which an extensive knowledge of the best fources of information, and confiderable ingenuity, are fhown, appears to us to be, on the whole, very exact and complete; though a few additions might certainly be made to it. Thus, for example, Bayer, in his Uranometria, which, likewife, contains a great number of the ancient names of stars, has, for the first constellation, the leffer bear, the name Ezra, which is omitted by the prefent author, and which has moft probably been formed from the Arabic azgar; the leffer bear, being called in that language, eldab elazgar. To this tract are annexed two fupplemen's, the former exhibiting the different names of the fouthern, as alfo thofe of the newly-formed conftellations (among which, the laft is, the mural quadrant); and the fecond, containing a collection of the technical Arabic terms employed by aftronomers. The author has, likewife, given feveral hints, which may contribute to the elucidation of biblical paffages, in which the names of ftars occur. The following may be confidered as a fpecimen of them. That the Arabic writers, cited by Mr. L. call not only the collection of stars in both the bears, but alfo fingle ftars in the greater bear, benâtnaf (filias feretri) is generally known; but it has, perhaps, never before been fuggefted, that this expreffion may be applied in the explanation of Job xxxviii. 32, where it is faid to Job wy by nua onin, or, as it ought, perhaps, rather to be read, (Num feretrum cum filiis fuis circumduces, or confolaberis?) The correfpondence between and the abovementioned benât nab, is very ftriking, and the name may, of course, lay claim to confiderable antiquity. Ibid. ART. 59. 1. Faune Infectorum Germania Initia. Deutschlands Infe&en. By G. W. F. Panzer. 19-24 livraison; each with 24 illuminated plates, and an equal portion of text. 8vo. Nürnberg. Price 12 gr. ART. 60. 2. Naturfyftem aller bekannten Infekten, als eine Fortsetzung der von Buffonfchen Naturgefchichte. Von Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Herbft. Natural System of the known Domeftic and Foreign Infects, being a Continuation of the Natural History of Buffon. By 1. F. W. Herbft; with 21 illuminated plates. (44-59) 400 pp. in 8vo. Berlin. ART. 61. 3. Annalen der Botanik, heraufgegeben von D. Paulus Ufteri. Funfzehntes bis zwanzigftes Stück; oder neue Annalen der Botanik, nuentes bis vierzehntes Stück. Annals of Botany. By Dr. P. Ufteri ; parts 15-20; or New Annals of Bosany; parts 9-14; Leipzig, 1795-6; in all 870 pp. in 8vo. with 10 plates. BOHEMIA, |