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He returned to Berlin, and had not been there long before he repented having ever left his native country. Frederick endeavoured by the most foothing kindness, and the most un. referved and confidential intimacy, to repair his loffes, and add to his com. forts; but his difpofition was naturally peevith and discontented, and he was wretched, with every honour and every pleasure within his reach. Such a temper could infure neither peace to himself, nor gratification to others; confequently he had feveral literary quarrels, particularly with Voltaire and Profeffor Koenig. At length a diforder which attacked him foon after his return to Berlin, and which afterwards proved incurable, compelled him once more to try his native air. He remained two years in France, and then went to Bafle on a vifit to Meffrs. Bernouillis, in whofe arms he died, on the 27th of July, at the age of fixty.

This philofopher poffefled uncommon activity of mind, and a vivacity which manifefted itself in the conti

He

nual motion of his head and eyes. This, with the manner in which he dreffed and behaved in company, gave him a great air of fingularity. was however, occafionally, polite and friendly, and fpoke with confiderable facility and prefence of mind. But he never enjoyed a happy moment. Warm, imperious, and overbearing in his temper, his natural difpetition correfponded not with his philofophy, and was injurious to his peace. He fometimes copied Fontenelle in his style-it would have been fortunate if he had imitated the ferenity of that amiable and happy old man. As a writer, he was poffeffed of genius, wit, and a ftrong imagination. But in all his works we obferve a perpetual attempt at conceit, an affectation of brevity, a drynefs and obfcurity in his remarks, which have rendered him not fo popular as he might have been with greater fimplicity in his ftyle and peripicuity in his method.

(To be continued.)

PETRARCH.

TRANSLATION OF A NOTE WRITTEN BY PETRARCH'S OWN HAND IN THE MARGIN OF A MANUSCRIPT VIRGIL WHICH FORMERLY BELONGED TO HIM, AND IS NOW DEPOSITED IN THE AMBROSIAN LIBRARY, AT MILAN.

"LA AURA, who has been rendered famous by her virtues, and who has been the subject of my verse for many years, appeared to my eyes for the first time on the fixth of April 1327, in the church of St. Clair, at Avignon.

"In the fame church, on the fame day, at the fame hour, in 1348, that Juminary, that fun, retired from the world. I was at Verona, and knew not the misfortune that had befallen me: but the nineteenth of the following month I received a letter from my friend Lewis, which acquainted me with the fatal news. On the very day of her death, her body, fo beautiful, lo pure, was deposited, after vefpers, in the church of the Cordeliers. I doubt not but her foul, to speak in the words of Seneca, returned to heaven, from which it had defcended.

VOL. XLI. JULY 1801.

"That I may never lofe the remembrance of a lofs fo afflicting, 1 have written these particulars in a book which I am continually reading: thus have I prepared myself a pleasure mingled with grief. This lofs, conftantly present to my memory, will instruct me, that nothing here below can contribute to my happiness; and that it is time for me to renounce the world, fince the bond that held me to it by the tenderest attachment is broken. I hope, with the affiftance of Heaven, this renunciation will not be difficult my mind, inceffantly turned to the past, will perceive, that the cares which employed it were vain, that the hopes which it cherished were deceitful, and that the fchemes it formed terminated only in forrow or difappointment 1"

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QUID SIT PULCHRUM, QUID TURPE, QUID UTILE, QUID NON.

An Hiftory of Marine Architecture; including an enlarged and progressive View of the Nautical Regulations and Naval Hiftory, both Civil and Military, of all Nations, especially of Great Britain. Derived chiefly from Original Manufcripts, as well in private Collections as in the great Public Repofitories, and deduced from the earliest Period to the prefent Time. By John Char nock, Esq. F. S. A. Three Vols. Royal 4to. R. Faulder, and all the other confiderable Bookfellers of London.

THIS elaborate performance, on a

Tsubject of the first national importance, is ufhered to public notice, with every advantage that could be expected from the well-known literary talents and profeffional skill of the ingenious Author. Encouraged to purfue fuch an arduous task, and to complete fo comprehensive plan by the mott refpectable Patronage; enabled, as a Member of the Antiquarian Society, to examine the earliest authentic documents refpecting our Naval Hif tory; he alfo had access to the public offices, not only to infpect, but to copy, or make extracts from, every original record that could fupply him with any material information or elucidation of his grand fubject; in addition to which aid, the profeffors and amateurs of nautical fcience gave him free liberty to avail himself of their private curious collections. Thus animated to fulfil a long-existing contract, it appears, that our Author fpared no pains in its execution, and that "the best powers of his mind, and the strongeft efforts of his activity, have been for many years unceasingly devoted to it."

Thefe teftimonials are fufficient to flamp a general character of fidelity and veracity on the work; and we can fafely affirm, that it is executed in a manner highly gratifying to curiofity, and contains an ample fund of hiftorical information, conveyed to the reader in a moft pleafing and enter taining manner; the noft interesting marratives of the origin, progrefs, and

prefent ftate, of Marine Architecture;

being accompanied and illuftrated by elegant engravings of the respective objects of inquiry and investigation.

as

In a review of fo complex a subject

"the hiftorical account of an abftract science," laboured criticism would only ferve to bewilder and perplex the minds of general readers; and we should think it prefumption to interfere with profeffional men, whofe proper office it is to decide on the merits of the fcientifis arrangements, diftributions, and technical explanations, of the three. volumes; from whofe found judgment and candour we make no doubt the Author will receive a moft favourable report. Our duty prefcribes a limited and more easy talk, that of giving an outline or sketch of each volume, exhibiting the most striking and entertaining occurrences, and pointing out the plates, which, in our humble opinion, are moft worthy of public attention, from the comparative view they give of the difference between the ancient and modern conftruction of veffels and ships, for the purposes of war or commerce, in our own and other countries.

In the Preface to the first volume, the fubject of our prefent Review, we find the following curious remark. "The ftrict analogy, in respect to contour, which the gallies of the Romans, and most probably of the Grecians, bore to thofe poffeffed by the inhabitants of many places among the iflands lately difcovered in the South Seas, may perhaps, at a future period,

call

call forth the affertion of fome ingenious commentator and critic, that the circumstance alone proves, beyond controverfy, that the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands originally paffed thither from Athens or from Rome. The British watermen might claim, on the fame authority, the fame genealogical defcent: the wherry of the Thames being, in effect, little elfe than a galley in miniature."

racters in the historical drama of Marine Architecture, most probably owe that attention which they have excited in the minds of the learned, more to the fancy and vanity of their celebrators, and the heightened colouring bestowed on them, than to their true, their natural character and rank.

"The fame obfervations to the different hiftorical accounts of the naval affairs of Britain, for the early ages, are fo inveloped in doubt, furmife, and romance, that little can be collected from them on which mankind ought to place any dependence. Mention, indeed, is inade, fays our Author, of immenfe fleets, raifed as it were by necromancy, and which disappear as the enquirer may endeavour to perfuade himself by the fame kind of influence. The strong degree of popular attachment to that particular purfuit, by which the inhabitants of a country have first raised it into public confequence as a naval power, may induce them to dwell with infinite pleasure on the naval exploits of Uther, Pendragon, and the renowned Arthur; on the victo

The apparently extravagant accounts given by various authors of the fleets poffeffed by nations whofe history they have recorded, and the apparently hyperbolical stories told of certain vefiels, constructed even in the remotest ages, is thus accounted for: "A variety of caufes have contributed, from the earlieft ages of literature down to the prefent moment, and will certainly continue as long as literature fhail exit, to caufe an extravagant ebullition, which may, on many occafions, excite the incredulity of the reader. For instance, the hiftorical ftudent of the prefent day, provided he were totally unacquainted with every illuftrative circumitance concerning it, would cerries of Alfred, and the naval triumph of tainly be inclined to believe, on reading many relations written at the very time, which might confequently be confidered as most authentic, that the Spanish Armada, compared to the fleet of Britain which oppofed it, was, in refpect to the veffels of which it confifted, their magnitude, and lofty appearance, nearly as far fuperior as a vellel of any defcription is to the boat the carries to attend her; yet it will be found on examination, there were only four thips in the whole fleet that were fuperior to the Triumph, commanded by the English Admiral Sir Martin Frobisher. It follows, therefore, that although, in the comparative statement of the two armaments, that of England might be confiderably inferior in respect to tonnage, taken in the aggregate, to that of its enemy, yet the high terms made ufe of to excite wonder and extort applaufe on the valour and general conduct which produced the victory, were certainly carried beyond the bounds of truth or propriety. Of the fame complexion, and moit probably owing to the fame cause, are the accounts of the fleets of Darius, of Xerxes, and of Mark Anthony: the veffels of Sefoftris, of Hiero, of Demetrius, of Ptolomy, and other perfonages, which form fuch prominent cha

Edgar the Great; but admitting the accounts ftrictly true in every particular, yet when adduced as irrefragable proofs of the aboriginal naval fupremacy of Britain, they appear rather to invalidate than fupport any claim that can be fuppofed to rest on fo weak a foundation" and taking the whole evidence, pofitive and circumftantial, into confideration, the result will demonitrate, to unprejudiced minds, "that the pre-eminent rank which Britain has, as it may be faid, for centuries, held among maritime powers, did by no means exit in the more remote ages:-Many other countries or ftates fince fallen into complete decay were her predeceffors and tutors, as well in the art of navigation as of fhip-building; and it is fomewhat fingular, that the renovation of the art, after the ravages committed against fcience by the Goths, fhould have taken place among a people now almost un known (the Venetians) or, to fpeak of them in the highest terms, funk into a very low itate of obfcurity, as a mari time power."

After establishing these truths, by a candid investigation of ancient documents, Mr. Charnock, as a proper introduction to his truly great work, gives his readers a preliminary dif

F 2

courie,

courfe, in which he reduces the maritime history of the world to a regular fyftem, and confiders it as fairly divifible into feven different fections, clearly pointed out by as many remarkable epochs.

The firft may comprehend all that dark and intricate space of time previous to the foundation of Rome. The fecond fecion comprifes a period fomewhat lefs obfcure; it will extend from the foundation of Rome to the deftruction of her rival Carthage; and from thence, a third may find its termination in the convertion of the republic into an empire. The death of Charlemagne may be confidered as the fourth grand epoch, when a revival of maritime purfuits, which had long lain dormant, took place. From this period the science of navigation appeared progreffively gaining ftrength, and obtaining followers, who induftrioutly and moft laboriously attempted to attain confiderable perfection in maritime knowledge; but this knowledge was limited, and may be accounted the fifth fection, terminating with the discovery of the properties of the loadAtone. The fubfequent invention of the Mariner's Compass, stated to be about the year 1260, difpelled the mist which had fo long obfcured that fummit to which the art was, without much difficulty, capable of being advanced, and may, therefore, be confidered as the fixth divifion, which continued on to the commencement of the fixteenth century, when the general introduction and ufe of cannon on board of fhips, together with the contrivance of portholes, gave birth to the feventh and last epoch, by attaching to veffels thofe requifites and properties which, though imperfectly fupplied and provided for in the beginning, have, by repeated experience, gradually improved into that excellence, and almott unimprov. able state of perfection, which the thips built at the present day are, by fome, fuppofed to poffels.

From general history our Author proceeds, in the next place, to an examination of the naval tranfactions of our own country, commencing at the memorable era commonly called the Conqueft, at which period it is evident that Britain had no navy, and that William only made use of tranfport veffels to convey his troops to our coafts, having no ships of force fufficient for a naval encounter, if Harold had

poffeffed a fleet; and as the conqueft was effected, fo was it maintained by an army; for though the Norman invader had rendered himself mafter of the kingdom, he was not able to avert a Danish debarkation of troops three years after that event.

"The first authentic teftimony, then, of the birth of the British navy, is the invafion of Normandy by Henry, furnamed Beauclerc, in the year 1106; and the Crufading expeditions which immediately followed, contributed, in fome degree, to cherish the puling infant." But it must be remarked, that these temporary fleets fitted out on various occafions principally for the purpofe of invafion, confifted only of transport veffels, not equipped at the expence of the Sovereign, but by the different fea-port towns, to which certain privileges were granted, in confequence of their furnishing an eftablished quota of veffels whenever they were regularly demanded by the Monarch; and as foon as the purpose was answered for which they were called forth, they were laid up.

66

To recapitulate the feveral events which took place from this time till the reign of Henry the Eighth, when the naval force of England first acquired a permanent establishment, would be little interefting to the reader, especially in the abridged contracted fcale inevitable neceffity would compel it fhould be given." Notwithstanding this fenfible obfervation, our Author feems to have reconfidered the matter, by giving a chronological and brief minute of the different naval occurrences that took place from the Conqueft to the reign of Edward the Third, which, if not to interesting as those of modern times, is, however, both curious and entertaining; two or three fpecimens will ferve to justify this affer tion.

"A. D. 1215. King John fitted out the most powerful fleet against France that had ever been known in England. Neceffity appeared to require it; for it is reported, that the French navy confifted of one thousand feven hundred fhips. In the fame year, the English fleet, commanded by the Earls of Salisbury and Boulogne, totally defeated the French fleet, and took three hundred fail, driving on shore or burn, ing one hundred more."

1295. A fleet of three hundred and fifty or fixty fhips was fent to Guienne,

under

under the Earls of Lancaster, Richmond, and Lincoln. Three other fquadrons alfo were equipped to guard the coafts. The Yarmouth, or Ealtern, under John de Bottetot; the Portfmouth, or Southern, under William de Leyborn; and the Irish, or Weftern, Commander not named. In this King's reign (Edward I.), fo vehemently was the dominion of the fea afferted, that the Dutch were obliged to obtain licences to enable them to fish on the English coafts."

1340. The French committed great depredations at Guernfey, Portfmouth, and on the western coait. In this year was fought the firit engagement by fea in which any King of England had been perfonally engaged. It appears alfo to have been one of the most defperate, and the first regular action recorded in hiftory. The English fleet, confifting of two hundred and fixty fail of fhips of war, was commanded by King Edward the Third in perfon; the fleet of the French amounted to four hundred fail, of which one hundred and twenty were very large veffels. The action was long, defperate, and bloody. As a prelude to victory, the Great Chriftopher, for merly taken from the English, was retaken by them, and towards the evening many others. As night came on, several endeavoured to fave themfelves by flight. In one of which (the James of Dieppe), taken by the Earl of Huntingdon, after being engaged the whole night, four hundred perfons were found killed. Numbers of the French threw themselves into the fea, feeking refuge, in vain, from the fwords of their enemies, and preferring to encounter a certain and inftant death, rather than risk a cafual one from the hands of the English. In fine, upwards of two hundred of their fhips were taken, and thirty thousand of their men, with their Admiral Bahuchet, killed or drowned. De Keruel, their other Admiral, was taken prifoner; and Edward the Third, as he was the first English Monarch who had ever fought on an element new to English royalty, had the honour of obtaining a victory, than which none was ever more complete and decifive."

"1347. Edward befieged Calais, which was blockaded by fea with a fleet of feven hundred fail." From an original manufcript preserved in the library belonging to the Dean and

Chapter of Canterbury, our Author has been enabled to annex a very curious lift, affording the firft fpecific information on record of the force and numbers of an English fleet. London, upon this occafion, furnished 25 fhips and 662 feamen. Dover, 16 fhips and 336 mariners. It is remarkable what a fmall proportion the inland principal cities and towns furnithed towards this armament. York, for inftance, provided only thip and 9 mariners.

The catalogue of thips, &c. is followed by a correct account of the expence attending the armament, equally curious and aitonithing, if compared with the wages of feanien and falaries of officers at the prefent day. “The Prince of Wales was allowed by the day for his diet, 20s. A Duke for his diet by the day, 135. 4d. If he be of the blood royall, having in his company 300 horfe, for every man and horfe by the day 12 pence.

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The names of the great Princes and Nobiemen, Eftrangers (Foreigners) holden in the King's retinue and pay, not being comprifed in the foregoing account, we infert two articles from this extraordinary document.

"The Emperour to him delivered in preft at dyvers times for his wages 8227. 125. To the Archbishop of Magodonew (Mentz) for his wages and his

men 450. With this expedition," fays our Author, "the exertions of England, in a maritime point of view, might be faid to have cealed for the pace of an entire century. As a proof of this total neglect of naval affairs during the civil conteft between the rival houfes of York and Lancaster, it appears, that Richard the Third had not a single ship calculated to prevent the free pallage to England of his rival and antagonilt Henry; in whofe fucceeding reign maritime purfuits were revived" Commerce became confidered as one of the first fupporters of the State, and the dreadful improvements which were rapidly made in the fcience of naval war, gave birth to that marine which, under fucceed. ing Monarchs, in defiance of a variety of oppofing difficulties, has attained its prefent power and confequence among nations."

Our readers will perhaps be furprifed at the latitude we have taken, when they are informed, that they are ftill detained from the first Chapter of

the

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