The lawns and cambricks are álio in a flourishing state; and as it is a deûrable object to render Ireland independent of other countries for its fupply of flax-feed, the legislature wifely difcontinued the bounty on foreign feed imported, and encreafed the bounty of home produce. By thefe means, in the last ten years, nine thousand acres have been added to this useful purpose.'

The limits of our review will not permit us to follow the author through all the finely ornamented villas in the neighbourhood of the bay of Dublin; the defcription cannot fail, however, at once to gratify, and flatter his countrymen.

A Tour from Dublin to London, in 1795, through the Isle of Anglefea, Bangor, Conway, Llangollen, Shrewsbury, Stratford on Avon, Blenbeim, Oxford, Windfer, Hampton Court, Twickenham and Kenfington. By John Ferrar. 8vo. 136 pages. Dublin. 1796.

THIS pamphlet feems principally intended for the inftruction and edification of fuch of the irish as vifit England. Here, as before, Mr. F begins his labours with an eulogy on travelling,' and as he appears determined to be pleafed with every thing around him, it would furely be very ungrateful, not to be pleafed with him

in return.

0.

ART. VII. Obfervations on the Manners and Cuftams of Italy, with Remarks on the vaft Importance of British Commerce on the Continent; aljo, Particulars of the wonderful Explosion of Mount Vefuvius, taken on the Spot, at Midnight, in June, 1794, when the beautiful and extenfive City of Torre del Greco was buried under the blazing River of Lava from the Mountain; likewije, an Account of many very extraordinary Cures produced by a Preparation of Opium, in a Variety of abftinate Cajes, according to the Practice in Afia; with many Phyfical Remarks collected in Italy, well d ferving the detention of most Families. By a Gentleman authorized to invefligate the Commerce of that Country with Great Britain. 8vo. 279 pa. Pr. 6s. in boards. Cadell and Davies. 1789.

THOUGH the title page of this book be liable to the ftrictures, in our last number, on the title of Mr Eton's Travels, with the farther refemblance of a bill of fale, and an advertising hand-hill, that it announces fomething very like a quack medicine; yet the publication, whatever may be the virtues of opium, or the medical fkill of Mr. Brooke of Bath, who undertakes, in a poftfcript, to adminifter it, is perufed with pleafure; and, in a few initances, furnishes information that may be useful. Such is the account it gives of the great importance of the trade with Italy to Great Britain.

P. 212.- -The general trade from Great-Britain and her colonies to Italy is of vaft importance, as almoft every article of English manufac tures are imported.

The infide of genteel houfes are adorned with English furniture, and East and West-India goods are greatly confumed by refpectable

families.

The author, in lead of taking out a patent for his medicine, has determined to wait on thofe who may defire a perfonal interview.

All

All kinds of British falted fish, both wet and dry, are imported in great abundance; and fuch families must be poor indeed who cannot purchase fome for their meals on faft-days.

Thefe importations into italy in time of peace are brought by, English fhips, in number from eight to nine hundred yearly.

If it be computed that there are in all Italy no more than fixteen millions of fouls, we may allow eight millions to be clothed in British manufactures, and that twelve millions of people, in fome degree, have at their table three days per week fome fort of Briti falted fish.

This commerce, fo exceedingly beneficial, I hope will be watched and well protect d during the war, as no part of Europe (of equal magnitude) is of fuch confequence to England as this continent.'

It is an irkfome thing to attend to all the grammatical errours with which modern publications fo greatly abound; and certainly we do not confider it as any part of our bulinefs to teach writers of books grammar. But there are fome grammatical errours that importune detection, as they are of a kind that are extremely common, and by many thought very proper. Of this kind of offence againft grammar we have an example in the first line of the fecond paragraph in this extract. Instead of are adorned, Mr. B. fhould have written, and is adorned: for it is the infide of the houfes, not the houses, that is the nominative to the verb to which it refers.

Although this little book be not wholly devoid of utility, and that, as above obferced, independently of the alleged panacea, yet it is as a fmall piece of entertainment only that it may be recommended. There

is but little, indeed very little novelty in the accounts it gives of places,. manners, customs, laws, &c. But Mr. B. paints from nature, and appears to be a man of ftrict veracity; and the narratives of fuch perfons are always liftened to as they ought to be, without difguft, and even with a degree of fatisfaction. An intereft is always infpired by one who relates his own feelings, who defcribes the difficulties of his own fituation; and, on the other hand, makes you a partaker in his pleasures and pains. As we have given a fpecimen of fomne fmall portion of this volume, that may furnith ufeful hints, fo we shall now, for the amufement of our readers, extract the following pleafant ftory.-Mr. B. being fome years fince in the city of Milan, and dining with an auftrian officer who had married a young english lady, the requested that he would accompany her to a convent of friars fome miles diftant, which was the most elegant of any in the country.

P. 229. Some of her female acquaintance having lately been there in men's habits, fhe had alfo prepared herfelf in the like manner to go the next day; but her cicifbeo had refufed to accompany her, through fear of excommunication, for conducting a female into a convent of friars without a licence. On my afking her husband if he was to be of the party, he replied, "I beg, fir, you will make no ceremony, as we feldom go together on fuch jaunts; and you will do us both a favour if you will accept the charge, as I with her not to be difappointed; my friend will give you a letter (as an Englishman) to the prior of the con-vent, and the can pafs as your fon.'

Being about to return to Leghorn, I wished to decline the offer; but as the faid the going and returning would not exceed two days, I at laft confented. On afking how the was to be equipped? I have. (fays he) a military riding-habit, and I fhall take with me a pair of my

husband's

husband's satin small-clothes. That the fervants may not know our intent, they are to ftop with the carriage at a village three miles from the convent, and there wait our return. At the village there will be a country carriage to take us on to a farm-house, about a quarter of a mile from the convent, where I shall drop my habit-petticoat, and put on the small-clothes.” • Ate you fure, madam, (faid I) that they will fit you?'" Yes, fir, because I wore them at a masquerade laft carnival."

We accordingly fet out at fix o'clock the next morning, and arrived at the farm-house at five in the afternoon. The farmer shewed her into a room, for which, and his fecrecy, the prefented him with a trifle. In adjusting her drefs, fhe called me into the room, exclaiming that the breeches were too fmall: Understanding that part of the drefs better than fhe did, I defired the farmer to give me fome packthread to expand them behind; he brought me the only piece he had in the house, which was more fit to faften a boat to a fhip, than for fuch a delicate purpose, and after much pulling and hauling, the with difficulty got

them on.

We now walked to the convent, and delivered the letter to the procurator, Father Francis, (the prior being on a journey) who offered us every civility, hoping we would stay a few days there, and he would do himself the honour to fup with us that evening at any hour we chofe; and after drinking a glafs of excellent wine, he invited us to walk in the garden. The lady complained to me in English of her tight breeches, (the friar not understanding that language) fo we fat down on a marble feat; but her fpirits being too active to attend to the dry difcourse between me and Father Francis, and fpying fome autumn figs hanging over our heads, fhe fprang up to gather them, but the tightness of her dress prevented her from getting both feet on the feat, the foot that was on the marble fliding too far, so ftrained the breeches that they were split from ftem to ftern.

I defired a lay-brother to fetch her great coat, and to tell his taylor to bring a needle and thread; for the breeches were almost divided into two parts, and were kept together only by the waistband, therefore she could not well ftir, till they were repaired. The lay-brother having brought the great-coat, I put it on her, and foon after we faw the taylor running across the garden towards us: I won't have this greafy fellow (fays fhe) to handle me over;'" Why then, madam, I must be your taylor;" and kneeling down, with the thread about my neck, I fet about repairing the forefail. "Diavolo!" (cried I) What is the matter? (faid the peeping friar) I have pricked my finger terribly, fir." For God's fake (faid the lady) make hafte, that we may get into the house, as it is growing dark.' Uncouthly as I did the business, it was fufficient to enable her to walk with the great coat round her, and Father Francis conducted us to the prior's chamber, where he left us, while he performed the duties of his office with his brotherhood.

"We

At ten o'clock, the table being fpread for fupper, Father Francis joined us, and we spent the evening very agreeably. Looking round the apartment, I obferved to him that there was but one bed. have no more unengaged, (faid he) but you and your fon can lye together for this night; or he fhall fleep in my field-bed, and I will repofe on a fofà." Well, madam, (faid I) you know the alternative; will you go to the friar's chamber, or repofe in this? Here, moft affur

edly,

edly, (faid fhe) otherwife I fhall be difcovered." So wifhing the friar a good night, I do the fame to you.'

"Evil be to him that evil thinks."

As to the defcription which our traveller gives of the explosion of Vefuvius, it is the defcription of a painter, and a man of feeling, but not that of a man of science. To fuch a man, to a Hutton, a Bergman, or a Spallanzani, the fcene exhibited to Mr. B. muft have fuggefted a variety of obfervations and comparifons with other objects.

Mr. B. was unfortunately induced to quit Italy with the lofs of much property, through the invafion of that country by the French. He is now at Bath, deprived by cataracts on his eyes of fight: a bleffing, however, which he is not wholly without hopes of regaining. We fincerely with his book an extenfive fale, from a regard both to the character and circumftances of the author.

ART, VIII. The Hiftory of America. Books 1x. and x. containing the Hiftory of Virginia, to the Year 1688; and the Hiftory of New England, to the Year 1652. By William Robertfon, D. D. Principal of the University of Edinburgh, &c. 8vo. 249 pages. Price 5s. in boards. Cadell and Davies. 1796.

THIS pofthumous publication of the celebrated Dr. Robertfon's would prove it's authenticity by it's own internal evidence, were it not placed beyond all doubt by the declaration of the editor, William Robertfon, efq., advocate and agent for the church of Scotland, the principal's fon. The matter is important and interefting: it is clearly arranged, chiefly in the order of caufe and effect; with a few natural and pleafing digreffions. There is a remarkable dignity and ease in the tranfitions; and the ftyle is proper, perfpicuous, and fluent. The views that guide the felection of materials, the reflections and fentiments interfperfed in a narrative, rather than a didactic form, fuch as might be expected, not from a very profound fcholar, or ingenious philofopher, apt to indulge in refinement and paradox; but from a man of found judgment, and well acquainted with mankind from a converfancy both with books and the world.

Mr. R., our editor, fays, in an advertisement, p. v, The original plan of my father, the late Dr. Robertfon, with refpect to the Hillory of America, comprehended not only an account of the difcovery of that country, and of the conquefts and colonies of the Spaniards, but embraced alfo the hiftory of the british and portuguese establishments in the new world, and of the fettlements made by the feveral nations of Europe in the Weft India iflands. It was his intention not to have published any part of the work until the whole was completed. In the preface to his Hiftory of America, he has ftated the reasons which induced him to depart from that refolution, and to publifh the two volumes which contain an account of the difcovery of the new world, and of the progrefs of the fpanish arms and colonies in that quarter of the globe. He fays, "he had made fome progrefs in the history of britifh America;" and he announces his intention to return to that part of his work, as foon as the ferment, which at that time prevailed in the british colonies in America, fhould fubfide, and regular government be re-established.

re-established. Various caufes occurred in preventing him from fulfilling his intention.

During the courfe of a tedious illness, which he early forefaw would have a fatal termination, Dr. Robertfon, at different times, detroyed many of his papers. But, after his death, I found that part of the Hiftory of British America, which he had wrote many years before, and which is now offered to the public. It is written with his own hand, as all his works were ; it is as carefully corrected as any part of his manufcripts which I have ever feen; and he had thought it worthy of being preferved, as it efcaped the flames to which fo many other papers had been committed.'

The grand principle, from which our mafterly hiftorian deduces the principal objects that enter into his narrative, is that spirit of difcovery, navigation, and commerce, which followed fo foon after the invention of printing and the mariner's compafs: a fpirit which took place in England towards the clofe of the fifteenth century, as well as in Spain and Portugal, and which ftruck into all directions, fouth, east, weft, and north; the coafts of Africa, of the Cafpian fea, the western hemifphere, and the northern ocean, The circumftances that influenced the varying fpirit of the english government are duly and accurately noticed. This fpirit influences the conduct of the people at home, and the colonists abroad: while that conduct reacts upon the public councils. But the moft curious and wonderful principle of ac.. tion, and fource of migration and colonization, is that horrour of religious constraint, and that love of religious independence and liberty, which, in the northern english colonies in America, was the happy, though bitter, fpring of political freedom; and which, operating uniformly amidit various accidents, for near 150 years, has at laft produced the great american revolution. In the early conflicts of the puritans, as they were called, with the feverity of the elements, the tyranny of war, and the adverfity of fortune, we fee human nature in an interefting and heroic point of view: but have occafion to lament the weakness of human nature, when in a more advanced state of the colonies of New England, Maffachusetts Bay, &c. we behold the fame fpirit of intolerance raging among the different fects of puritans, that had forced themfelves, or forefathers, to quit their native land, and feek for an afylum amidst the empty and favage forefts.

The grand and prevailing purfuits of difcovery and navigation were not neglected by Henry VII, or wholly under the reign of his immediate fucceffor. But, P. 25, by the progrefs which England had already made in navigation and commerce, it was now prepared for advancing farther; and, on the acceffion of Elizabeth to the throne, a period commenced extremely aufpicious to this fpirit, which was rifing in the nation. The domeftic tranquillity of the kingdom, maintained, almoft without interruption, during the courfe of a long and prof perous reign; the peace with foreign nations, that fubfifted more than twenty years after Elizabeth was feated on the throne; the queen's attentive economy, which exempted her fubjects from the burden of taxes, oppreffive to trade; the popularity of her administration; were all favourable to commercial enterprife, and called it forth into vigorous exertion. The difcerning eye of Elizabeth having early perceived, that the fecurity of a kingdom, environed by the fea, depended on its