3 Ev'n glommed York, of thy amede afraid, S At Lollard's tower with fpyryng eye fhail peer The triple crown to feize, if old Cornwallis die. • All Readers (fays our ingenious and witty Author) will, I truft, applaud this concluding ftanza, which returns to the ftyle in which the Epiftle began, in judicious fubferviency to the rule of Horace. fervetur ad Imum Qualis ab incepto procefferit, & fibi conftet." From the fpirit and ftyle of this little piece we fhould be inclined to attribute it to the author of the Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers. It discovers the fame freedom of political principles; the fame acute and fpirited irony; and may in fome refpects vie with that admired poem in pointed nefs of expreffion, and facility of numbers. EXPLANATION. Sullen, cloudy, or dejected. Preferment. • The highest tower in the palace of Lambeth. 5 Afpiring, or ambitious. B..d-k. ART. XIII. An Effay on the Law of Bailments. By William Jones, Efq; of the Middle Temple. 8vo. 2 s. Dilly 1781. EW perfons are apprized of the nature and extent of this FEW practical branch of the law of England, and yet perhaps there is hardly any part of our law which enters more into common life, or is more neceflary to be known by every rank and condition of men. If we are compelled to fimile at the fimplicity of the honeft man who discovered, to his great surprize, that he had talked profe all his life, without knowing it, we cannot but remark how many perfons are involved in the doctrine of BAILMENTS, who perhaps never fo much as heard of the term. Mr. Jones defines it to mean a delivery of goods on a condition, expreffed or implied, that they fhall be restored by the bailee to the bailor; or, according to his directions, as foon as the purpose for which they were bailed fhall be answered:' he justly obferves, that there is hardly a man of any age or ftation who does not every week, and almost every day, contract the obligations, or acquire the rights, of a birer or a letter to hire, of a borrower or a lender, of a depofitary or a perfon depofiting, of a commiffioner or an employer, of a receiver or a giver in pledge: and what can be more abfurd, adds he, as well as more dangerous, than frequently to be bound by duties, without knowing the nature or extent of them, and to enjoy rights of which we have no juft idea? Nor muft it ever be forgotten, that the contracts above mentioned are among the principal fprings and wheels of civil fociety; that, if a want of mutual confidence, or any other caufe, were to weaken them, or obftruct their motion, the whole machina machine would inftantly be broken to pieces: preferve them, 299 and various accidents may ftill deprive men of happiness; but deftroy them, and the whole fpecies muft infallibly be miferable. It feems therefore aftonishing, that fo important a branch of jurifprudence fhould have been fo long and fo ftrangely unfettled in a great commercial country; and that, from the reign of Elizabeth to the reign of Anne, the doctrine of bailments should have produced more contradictions and confufion, more diverfity of opinion and inconfiftency of argument, than any other part, perhaps, of juridical learning; at leaft, than any other part equally fimple.' After this hand fome difplay of the importance of the fubject, in which fomething must be allowed to the warmth of fancy, and fomething to a proper addrefs of the Writer in conciliating his Reader's attention to a dry fyftem of law, he proceeds to treat the subject with the skill of a master. It is evident, that whoever has the goods of another delivered to him upon a truft to restore them, is under a legal, as well as a moral, obligation to take care of them; and is refponfible to the owner, if they are either loft or damaged through his default: but the degree of care that he is bound to beftow varies with the nature of the contract or bailment. In fome cafes he is anfwerable at all events, in others for ordinary, and in others for grofs neglect; and good fenfe and common honefty will portion the refponfibility to the truft, with as nice a difcrimination of circumstances as tomes of cafuiftry, or the diftinctions of a thoufand commentators, can do. In making this obfervation, we do not mean to throw any reflection on Mr. Jones's ingenious and learned performance. He has treated the fubject with all the perfpicuity and grace of which it is fufceptible; and the luminous method he has purfued (firft, of tracing it analytically, or to the principles of natural reafon; then hiftorically, by fhowing the harmony with which thefe principles have been recognized by the Roman, English, and other laws, and when properly understood; and lastly, fynthetically, by recapitulating the doctrine he has expounded in the courfe of his performance, with the rules and definitions that flow from it), is the jufteft model of a Law-tract that we recollect any where to have met with. We affert this with the greater pleasure, as the Public has reafon to expect, from the pen of this able Writer, fome further attempts to digest and methodize the laws of his country. If the method used in this little tract be approved, I may poffibly (fays he) not want inclination, if I do not want leifure, to difcufs, in the fame form, every branch of English Law, Civil and Criminal, Private and Public,' He concludes with his ufual spirit and dignity: 'The The great fyflem of jurifprudence, like that of the Univerfe, confifts of many subordinate systems, all of which are connected by nice links and beautiful dependencies; and each of them, as I have fully perfuaded myself, is reducible to a few plain elements, either the wife maxims of national policy and general convenience, or the pofitive rules of our forefathers, which are feldom deficient in wifdom or utility if Law be a science, and really deferve fo fublime a name, it must be founded on principle, and claim an exalted rank in the empire of reason; but, if it be merely an unconnected feries of decrees and ordinances, its ufe may remain, though its dignity be leffened, and He will become the greatest lawyer, who has the ftrongest habitual or artificial memory. In practice, law certainly employs two of the mental faculties; reafon, in the primary inveftigation and decifion of points entirely new; and memory, in tranfmitting to us the reafon of fage and learned men, to which our own cught invariably to yield, if not from a becoming modefty, at least from a juft attention to that object, for which all laws are framed, and all focieties inftituted, THE GOOD OF MANKIND.' MONTHLY : T. CATALOGUE, For APRIL, 1782. POLITICAL. Art. 14. Confiderations on the American War, under the following Heads American Independency,-Purfuit of the War,-War of Posts, Plan of Operations,-French Policy. By Jofeph Williams, Efq. 4to. 2 s. Hookham. 1782. R. Williams having ferved four years as a military officer in America, and having for twenty years employed himself also in political ftudies, appears to have acquired fuch a knowledge of the fubjects above-mentioned, as (he prefumes) gives him at least as good a title to write upon them as Dean Tucker claims, by fpeculating out of the pale of his profeffion.'- Accordingly he offers to the Public his thoughts on the past and future conduct of the American war; with all its actual and probable confequences. He ftrongly inculcates the idea of relaxing our refentment against the revolted colonits; of a total change in our military operations against them; of withdrawing our troops, except what should remain for the defence of particular pots which he points out; and directing our whole force, attention, and expence, to the navy :-in order to recover the dominion of the fea, and crush the rifing power of France on that element. In this way, and in this only, he apprehends, we may be able to prevent the American fcheme of independence from becoming fatal to Great Britain and be fupports this notion by a variety of fenfible remarks and propofals under each of the heads above enumerated. His reafoning is clear, though his language is incorrect. Art. 15. Give us our Rights! Or, A Letter to the prefent Electors of Middlefex and the Metropolis, fhewing what thofe RIGHTS are: and that, according to a juft and equal Reprefenta tion, Middlefex and the Metropolis are entitled to have Fifty Members in the Commons' Houfe of Parliament; Forty of whom are now placed there by decayed Cinque Ports, and almost unpeopled Boroughs; to the perpetual Nurture of CORRUPTION, and the Rain of the State. By John Cartwright, Efq: Major to the Nottinghamshire Militia. 8vo. 13. Dilly, &c. 1782. This is one of the most important political tracts that hath appeared during the prefent feffion of Parliament. It was written, the Author tells us, in his Preface, fix months ago. He adds, that when it went to the prefs, be did not foresee a removal of minifters fo foon as that event actually happened; but that, however, as no alteration, no amendment, with refpect to the fubject of it, hath yet taken place, he apprehends the publication cannot be impertinent; and although he trufts and believes, that no Administration can now be formed out of the oppofers of the late peftilent miniftry, that will not, that must not have REFORMATION for its bafis, perhaps it may not be useless. Its intention is, to thew the rights of the PEOPLE, and the duty of STATESMEN with regard to thofe rights.' The fpirited, judicious, and patriotic Writer proceeds in his prefatory obfervations, as follows: The removal of wicked minifers can produce no permanent effects, unless followed up by an immediate overthrow of CORRUPTION. It was corruption that fo long fupported fuch minifters, and enabled them to plunge their country into the depths of calamity, and to bring it to the very brink of ruin and defpair, before the torpid beings who fill the Commons' Houfe of Parliament could be rouzed and ftimulated to a fenfe of their duty. Corruption therefore is what we have moft to dread. It must be torn up by the roots, hewn to pieces, and caft into the fire of reformation to be utterly confumed, or we are undone. Of fo generative a faculty is it poffeffed, that if but a branch, a fprig, a bud of it efcape the fire, wherever it falls 'twill again take root, and flourish as luxuriant and rampant as ever. The Septennial and the Triennial A&ts, and the Statute of Disfranchisement of the 8th of Hen. VI. must be caft into the flames. They are the difgrace, as they have proved the curfe, of our country. They carry flavery in every line, and every word is a link in the chain that binds us. Once freed from these fettters, nothing then remains wanting to fecure our freedom but a fingle bill, fuch as that of the Duke of Richmond in 1780, for regulating the detail of elections. GIVE US OUR RIGHTS, and then all will be fafe !' This fhort extract may fuffice to intimate the main purport of this animated addrefs. The nature and importance of those Public Rights, for which the worthy Major fo ftrenuoufly contends, are amply, and in our apprehenfion, fatisfactorily fet forth, in this very feasonable performance; a performance which we heartily recommend to the perufal and moft ferious attention of our countrymen of every rank, from the peer to the cottager: for all are interested in the fabject. Art. 16. A Conflitutional Defence of Government. 8vo. Wilkie. I s. 6d. Among other principles advanced in this anticonflitutional defence of the late adminiftration, as this pamphlet ought properly to be filed, one is, that the people at large, being merely cyphers in the ftate, ftate, have no business whatever to concern or trouble themselves about public affairs; and that after the conftituent body, i. e. the forty fhilling freeholders and burgeffes have elected their reprefenta tives, from that moment their influence ceafes, and it is their duty to acquiefce in the determination of thofe to whom they have delegated their power; and confequently, to murmur or petition, whatever may be the motive, is little fhort of mutiny and treafon. We are told also, that a fheriff, convening an affembly of his county for any other purpose than to elect a reprefentative, lays himself at the mercy of an attorney-general. How far the doctrines contained in this performance might coincide with the ideas of those, to whom the Writer evidently appears as a retainer, we prefume not to determine. With refpect to the prefent adminiftration, however we will hope Non tali auxilio, non defenforibus iftis, &c. In a fawning dedication of confiderable length, the Writer has had the prefumption, we will not fay audacity, to endeavour to make his poifon palatable to an amiable perfonage of high rank, And in the ear of Eve, familiar toad, Half froth, half venom, fpits himself abroad. Art. 17. A fatirical exultation over fome (politically) defun& statesman,— Lord North, belike: but there is no being fure of the Author's meaning, either as to the general defign of his performance, or the particular aim of his various ftrokes of wit and humour,-for witty and humourous, no doubt he intended them to be. His Satire, however, is fo completely hid under his numerous and that we imagine nobody will feel, and few will find it out. Art. 18. Two Difcourfes; on Sovereign Power, and Liberty of Confcience; tranflated from the Latin of G. Noodt, formerly Profeffor of Law in the University of Leyden; by A. Macaulay, A. M.: to which are added, the Notes and Illuftrations of Barbeyrac, with Remarks by the Tranflator. 8vo. 5 s. Boards. Dilly. 1781. When the Rector of the Univerfity of Leyden refigns his office, which he holds only for a year, it is cuftomary to deliver an harangue. This custom produced the Difcourfes of which Mr. Macaulay has now prefented the Public with a tranflation. Of the Difcourfes themfelves, which have been long published, it may be fufficient to say, that their celebrated Author has proceeded upon the fame principles that have diftinguished the writings of our countrymen, Locke, Hoadley and Milton. The Tranflator appears not only to have executed his verfion with exactness and fidelity, but has given convincing evidence of the foundness of his understanding, and of the juftnefs of his fentiments, by the very judicious and excellent remarks with which his performance is enriched. Were it not that plain common fense must of itself reject fuch ill-difguifed poifon with loathing, the firft of thefe Difcourfes, with the notes that accompany it, might ferve as a very effectual antidote to a late Treatife on Government. How diffimilar Mr. Macaulay's ideas are from thofe of the author alluded |