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20. The Deferter: a Poem. 4to. Pr. 15.

Robfon.

Few of our readers are unacquainted with the taste and abilities of Mr. Jerningham. With respect to this little poem, it will therefore be fufficient to obferve, that in delicacy of ftile and fentiment, it is not inferior to any of his former compofitions.

21. A Birth-day Offering to a Young Lady from her Lover. 4to. Pr. 6d. Dodfley.

The Jews upon certain occafions were ordered by the Levitical law to bring a lamb for a burnt-offering: but when they could not afford a lamb, to offer a pair of turtles. This birthday offering is an offering of the turtles.

22. Female Friendship, or the Innocent Sufferer, a moral Novel. Two Vols. Pr. 5s. Jewed. Bell.

This work, if work it may be called, may be read with fafety, if not with pleasure, for there is no immorality in it. The Innocent Sufferer is, indeed, extremely entitled to our compaffion; but she is not fufficiently difcriminated from many other characters with whom he has either near or remote connections. In fhort, the characters in these volumes are fo loosely marked, the adventures are fo tiresome from the commonnefs of them, and the language is fo inelegant, that we cannot venture to recommend them to readers of fentiment or taste. Those who devour books of this kind, without digefting them, may poffibly be of another opinion: they may fall to with a good appetite to dishes which would turn our stomach. Such feeders have ideas too grofs for a literary entertainment.

23. The Prince of Salermo.

Pr.

Robfon.

35.

The author of this novel feems to have heated his brain by the perufal of old Italian romances.

The prince and

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cefs of Salermo, brother and fifter, are both going ↑ ried to perfons for whom they feel no inclination. fairs landing near the caftle, while preparations are making for the princess's marriage, carry her off. Her brother is dangerously wounded in her defence. They meet at laft, however, after fome fighting, in the feraglio of a Turkish bathaw. This bafhaw falls in love with the princefs, and the prince becomes enamoured with the fultana. After feveral clandeftine interviews, and ingenious ftratagems, the bafhaw and his wife are divorced. They then, all four, embark for Italy: the Turks

renounce

renounce the Koran, and a double marriage brings the history to a conclufion.

24. The Hiftory of Mifs Harriot Montague. In Tavo Vols. Robfon.

Pr. 6s.

We are strongly tempted to animadvert upon these volumes with fome acrimony; but, on fecond thoughts, we are of opinion, that by tranfcribing a few lines from the opening of the Hiftory of Mifs Harriot Montague, we fhall fufficiently acquaint the gentle reader with its real merit, without any critical efforts of our own to guide his judgment.

The history under confideration openeth in the following curious, but not uncommon manner :

In that delightful feafon of the year, when nature throws forth all her hoard of charms, and puts to fhame the weak efforts of art; when the groves were adorned with verdure, the meads and gardens enamelled with flowers; when the little warbling choirifters of the woods begin to make their nefts in the thickeft branches of the fhady bowers; in the reign of our late fovereign George I. there came to fettle at a small village near Plymouth, a French gentleman and his lady, whofe names were Le Montague: they left France, their native country, on account of their religion.'

Ex pede Herculem-Reader, whoever thou art, if thou canft, after the perufal of the above tranfcribed lines, bring thyfelf to proceed through the whole hiftory, thou wilt find-many, many paffages, equally elegant and expreffive, moral and entertaining.

25. The Portrait of human Life. Tavo Vols. Pr. 55. Sewed. Bell.

These volumes contain feveral ftories which have been already published in Magazines, and other periodical productions, and therefore cannot be entitled to much attention. There are, indeed, fome books of this kind which may be admitted into the politeft library without difgracing it; but we do not think that the compiler of the fheets before us has made a happy fele&tion; a fair selection he certainly has not; for he has taken the liberty to re-publifh fome of Marmontel's Moral Tales, which have been read over and over by every reader of fentiment and taste.

26. The fortunate Blue-Coat Boy. Tavo Vols. Pr. 6s. Cook, Mr. Benjamin Templeman, the hero of this hiftory, is, very fortunately for him, indeed, diftinguished among his brother crugs for finging anthems at Chrift Church, by the widow

of a rich old wine-merchant, who had left her three hundred thousand pounds. That pretty fortune, (a jointure of fifty thousand pounds excepted) the bestows upon this youth of eighteen, who, after having had an affair with his nurse's daughter, promifes to make the best of hufbands from gratitude to the perfon who has made fo difcreet a choice. As this extraordinary history contains chiefly the infignificant tranfactions of the hofpital, and the empty, very often illiberal, converfation of the nurie, the steward, the porter, the boys, the widow Getall's fervants, Jack the vintner, &c. &c. it cannot afford any entertainment to readers of a higher claís.

27. The Hiflory of Duelling. In two l'arts. Containing the Origin, Progrefs, and prefent State of Duelling in France and Eng land. Including many curious hiftorical Anecdotes. 8vo. Pr. 35. Dilly.

Nothing but national vanity could fuffer this apology for the moít villainous of all barbarous customs to be published with impunity, especially if, as the editor fays, the author ferves in a respectable military corps in the prefent French king's houfehold, called Moufquetaires, which, were we not afraid of the martinet critics, we would tranflate, gentlemen of the lifeguards. An opportunity, however, to difplay the valour of the French nation at a time like the prefent, when it is fo very queftionable, was not to be refifted.

According to this writer, a fencing-school ought to be the feat of legiflation, and its mafter the umpire of all differences in matters of honour, where no pofitive proofs of either fide can be adduced, nothing being left to probability, examination, character, circumftances, or fuch evidences as are often decifive in a court of juftice. The worthieft and bravest man in the kingdom muft fubmit to have his throat cut by an expert affaffin, his memory declared infamous by a common hangman, and his pofterity divefted of his eftate and honours by barbarous laws, if his arm is not fo strong, and his eye not fo quick, as thofe of the butcher who attacks him. What exceeds all belief is, that thofe quarrels often fprung from the comparative uglinefs of two little drabs, whom these heroes called their ladies or miftreffes; and this favage cuftom is hy this author dubbed the mirror of honour.

He brings the trial by combat or duel with the Francs out of Germany; but as the inftitution itself was but too well known in England, and is fufficiently explained in our hiftories, we shall not here fhock the reader with any repetition of its particulars; only we are to observe, in general, that it is not of English original. Mention is made indeed in the Eng

Tifh hiftory of a duel between two princes; but it was a duel of a generous humane kind; for it was intended to fave an ocean of blood from being fhed, by each venturing his own person against the other; and it was productive of a pacification, though neither was killed.

We must be of opinion, that fome of the examples of due'ling brought by our author have a very apocryphal caft. That between Gontram and Ingelger feems to be little more than the story of the famous Gunhilda, the English princefs, who was married to the emperor Henry IV. and faved by her little page Minikin. Juvenal des Urfins differs from Froiffart and Monftrelet, as to the event of the duel between Carrouges and Le Gris; and we have feen the combat between Aubry and the Greyhound related among English adventures.

The practice of duelling, however laudable it was, according to this writer, received fome modifications, and indeed checks; but our author gives us the canons of this practice of murder in the following words, which muft ferve to excite in the reader fentiments, at once, of contempt and horror,

• The herald at arms proceeded on horseback to the door of the lifts, fummoned the challenger to appear before him, and then ordered the challenged to prefent himself; when he thus addreffed them:

"Now liften, gentlemen, and all here prefent attend, to what our king commands fhould be ftrictly obferved on these folemn occafions.

"I. It is forbidden all perfons whatfoever, excepting those who are appointed guards of the lifts, on the penalty of forfeiting life and fortune, to be armed.

"II. It is forbidden to appear on horfeback; to gentlemen, on the penalty of lofing the horfe; to plebeians, under that of lofing an ear.

"III. It is forbidden to all perfons whatsoever, excepting thofe efpecially appointed, to obtrude themselves into the lifts, on the penalty of lofing life and fortune.

"IV. It is forbidden to fit on any bench, form, or even on the ground, on the penalty of losing a hand.

V. It is forbidden to cough, fpit, fpeak, or make any fign whatsoever on pain of death."

After the recital of these prohibitions, the combatants were to fwear that they had no charms or witchcraft about them.'

One of the chief inducements of this writer in this publica. tion is, to fhew that the French were more expert in this barbarous exercise than the English; and among other inftances he gives us one of a national duel between French and English

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nobility, in which the latter were defeated. He does not, however, confider that of the thirty English noblemen here mentioned, four and twenty of them at leaft were Frenchmen, though fubjects to the king of England. The like may be faid of his other Englishmen whom the French worfted in combats. Thefe, however, were not the men who drew the long-bows in the fields of Creffy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, and with the odds of four Frenchmen againft one Englishman gained thofe glorious battles.

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The rest of the hiftorical part of this publication is to be found in the common place hiftories of the times; and the author's conclufive reflections in praise of duelling entitle him to the difcipline of Bedlam, rather than of criticism. extract in favour of duelling from Mandeville, who was profeffedly a paradoxical writer; the well known combat between Bruce and Sackville; and the duelling fcene in the Confcious Lovers, close this flimfy, yet amufing entertainment, the latter part of which feems to have been difhed up by the edi

tor.

28. Clio: or, a Difcourfe on Tafe. Addreffed to a young Lady. By I. U. The fecond Edition, with large Additions. 8v0. Pr. 2s. 6d. ferved. Davies.

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We have reviewed the first edition of this work; and after animadverting upon a few abfurdities both of expreffion and sentiment, which have been faithfully preferved in this édition, we gave the work, with all its imperfections, a gentle difmiffion. To this edition is added a dialogue containing reflections on the influence the Chriftian religion naturally has on the fine arts, the refult of which is as follows: There are (fays the author) in the foul original fentiments, which, when man has leifure to turn his attention to them, form his dif tinguishing character, his genuine tafte and judgment: these fentiments, together with the elegant arts they give rife to, and his obftinate affectation of worth and dignity, all discover illuftrious marks of regal grandeur in the foul: this beloved grandeur we would fain affume in this life, for prefent paffion naturally feeks prefent enjoyment; and while we are delighted with the fublime idea of human nature, we fondly defire that liberty which is the birthright of innocence: but to confound and humble us, human corruption attends forever, and fcourges man back into vile fubjection, with the terrors of anarchy, confufion, murders, and infecurity. Society and laws are not the effects of choice, but of bitter neceflity, that never fuf

* See Vol. XXIII. p. 422.

fered

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