a writer like the prefent, who to eafe and correctness of expreffion unites that very effential requifite of a novelift,—a talent for nice and accurate delineation of character: who contrafts his feveral perfonages with confiderable skill and ability who gives to them their appropriate language, fpirit, and manners; and who finally prefents us with a fable or story, tolerably harmonious in all its parts.

The juft and pertinent obfervations contained in the follow ing extract will fhew that our Author is fomething more than a novel-writer: he appears, indeed, in the honourable and amiable character of a philofopher, and friend of man,-for though in the dialogue which we have here selected, a quaker and a petitmaitre compose the fcene, it is very eafy to discover that the quaker, the favourite character, fpeaks the fentiments of the Author's heart.

My next excurfion was to Philadelphia, to do my baisemains to that terrible congrefs, whofe name is to be celebrated by future Livys, as the ancient preferver of the only ftorehoufe for liberty in the four quarters of the globe; where thirty generations of men, exclufive of accidents, may be furnished with what they want. I'll tell you a fecret, my dear Count; I had it from a Quaker, one of the people who never fwear, and very feldom lie.

"The heads of the Kings and rulers of the old world are wormeaten." The man is a farmer, and though I have the honour to be the Marquis de St. Claur, and not to know wheat from barley in the blade, yet, as it is the fashion to vifit him on account of his numerous improvements, I chofe to be in the fashion. His converfation was fo entertaining, his hofpitality fo warm, and his wife fo pretty, that I ftayed three days with him in the country, without becoming an ennuyè, except once, when the differtation upon plants had been ftretched out rather too long. I had the misfortune to gape. "[ tire thee," fays he. I was affuring him to the contrary. "We study here the language of nature more than that of politeness," says he; 66 come, let us take a walk."

In a field, where many fheep were feeding, one of them very often, holding its head awry, ftaggered round and round, fell down, and foon rofe again and eat. The brain of that poor animal," fays he," has worms in it; I muft order it to the flaughter-houfe out of compaffion. We call this diforder the turn; and I am apt to think, kings have it fometimes. Thou knoweft the Americans are ftruggling for liberty. Thy King, and the King of Spain, who dote upon it fo, that they keep it all to themselves, and tell their people it is not for common wear, help us forward in the obtaining it with all their might; and the King of England, who lives but to extend and fecure this bleffing to all his fubjects, is labouring as luftily to deprive us of it. Much in the fame manner acted thy fourteenth Louis, when he revoked the edict of Nantz, to deftroy liberty of thinking at home, and fent millions to fupport it in Germany. What thinkeft thou ?-Did not it denote worms ?"

6

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Poflibly

.

"Poffibly it might," replies I; "but this accufation brought against the prefent Kings of France and Spain, comes not well froin the mouth of an American."

"Thou doft not imagine," fays he, "that I think they can err on this fide. But thou wilt not fay they are confiftent. Let them give their own people that liberty they endeavour to procure us, and they will be as high in my esteem almost as William Penn."

"I should like to know what ftandard you'measure merit by? It feems odd to compare the Kings of France and Spain with William Penn."

"Thou mistakeft; I do not. I know of no point of comparifon between them. One ftandard of merit is the good done to mankind. In reading the hiftories of thy country, one would be apt to conclude Kings thought them felves great in proportion to the mischief they did; and that their fubjects were blind enough to fanctify the error."

"Surely mankind is much benefited by being well governed." "I grant it.-Is thy country fo?”

"We think it is."

"Who doft thou mean by the term we?"

"The public in general."

"The public in general then must be funk low indeed in the fcale of political freedom. Let us for converfation fake turn naturalifts; and confider man by his inward as well as outward marks. The people of thy country, and ours, are doubtless claffed under the náme MAN as a GENUS; let us fee, if the SPECIES may not differ.

"We will begin the comparison with the rank of peasants, that numerous clafs employed in raifing fubfiftence for the whole community. In France, how poor they are! how abject! ftarving in the midst of those delicacies they are daily creating, as it were, for the use of others. See their rags, their black bread, and rancid bacon! If a man of the Nobleffe honours them with his commands, they are abymès infiniment, and ready to jump into a well, to fhew their fenfe of the amazing condefcenfion. View the fame rank in America, and acknowledge the difference. It would be infulting thy understanding to point it out. Every man feels himself a MAN; claims his thare of the common bounties of nature; and above all, of Liberty. It is true, you have a vaft fuperiority in your trinket men, your taileurs, parfumeurs, your perruquiers, and efpecially your cuifiniers; and may a thousand ages elapfe, before America becomes your rival!

"St. Paul fays, whatsoever you do, let it be to the praife and glory of God. A good Frenchman obeys the precept, but his god is the grand Monarque. If half a million are fent to Germany or Flanders, to die of the fword, difeafe, or famine, the King's glory requires it, and we are content. If Verfailles and Fontain bleau wafte the treasures of a nation in ufelefs magnificence, or childish fplendor, it is for the King's glory, and we are content. In return, the grand Monarque, or the grand Monarque's miftreffes, take the trouble to govern thefe obfequious people according to their own. good will and pleasure.

"At prefent, thou feeft America conceives it poffible, though doubtless very afflicting, to fubfift without this species; and when

Z 4

they

they had it, they said not with the French, We are thy fervants, O King, do unto us as feemeth good unto thee.-But, thou art our fervant, O King, execute our laws in righteousness. Doft thou perceive any difference?"

"I do. But Frenchmen have a great deal to learn, and unlearn too, before they can enter into fo licentious a course of thinking, and trample upon the facred majesty of Kings."

"Sacred majefty of Kings! Lord's anointed! Delegates of heaven! Juft lefs than gods! In my youth I also read tragedies, /epic poems, romances, and divinity. Now, I read COMMON SENSE. And what pretty epithets haft thou adapted to the dignity of the facred order? Wilt thou not think we are given over to all uncleannefs of fpirit, living, as we do, unsprinkled, dying un-unctioned. Can there be falvation, thinkeft thou, without a Bishop? Without that order of men so useful to a nation that chufes to think by proxy But to tell thee a fecret, and it may serve to confirm the difference in specie, American heads are so pertinaciously constructed, that rather than not take their own road to heaven, they will take none at all."

"The road to heaven, my dear Sir, has always been represented to us as a thorny path, and hard to find. Why then should we not take guides?"

"I grant thee, to the people of thy world, the path is burthened with incumbrances; and prithee who put them there? I fancy it is the work of thy hierarchy only. They feem to me like pilots who tell of a thousand imaginary fand-banks obstructing the road into port, in order to be paid the pilotage. Scarce any thing to us is fo fafe, fo eafy, and fo pleasant, as the way that conducts to heaven. Love God; love thy neighbour; and be juft. This is our law and our prophets."

"In all the true holy catholic mother church, my dear Sir, there is not a priest who does not derive his defcent, spiritually, from the twelve apoitles. We believe they are called to the facred work of falvation. We believe they know fomething of what they teach. We are fure we do not know. If they inform us right, we have all the advantage of it. If wrong, as we cannot guide ourselves better, we are no worse than we were.'

"Thy plea is fo good a one, that I promife thee whenever the men thou fpeakeft of, prove their descent, exclusively-we will come over unto their faith. Till they do this, thou wilt excufe us, for not trusting wholly our eftates to ftewards, our confciences to confellors, or our fouls to priests. We think all thefe of importance enough to look to them ourselves."

"Well Sir, all that I know is, that you have fucked in one fet of maxims with your mother's milk, and we another. Yours tends to establish reason, that damnable faculty according to our creed; ours faith; which whofoever has enough of, may remove your Apa lachian mountains,"

"Thou art right. Education is all in all.”

Were it within the limits and compafs of our Review, we would willingly follow this lively and ingenious writer through the feveral windings and meanderings of his work; but we muft,

however

however reluctantly, take leave of him, with recommending to our Readers, a performance in which inftruction and entertainment are blended in a manner that is rarely to be found; and which, in the prefent ftate of novel writing, we cannot too much commend. A. B.

ART. VII. An Excurfion from Paris to Fontainebleau. To which is added, an Adventure in the Champs Elifées near Paris; also an interefting Account of the unfortunate Difafter which befel Monfieur Pilatre de Rozier at Boulogne ; 'with a Tranflation of the elegant Eulogium upon him, by the Marquis de Maifonfort: with Abstracts from the Regifters of the Parliament of Paris; containing a Year's Lift of Criminals fentenced at Paris; with the Nature of their Crimes and Punishments; tranflated from the French. By a Gentleman, late of Bath. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Becket. 1786.

WHE

HEN an author fpeaks with a becoming diffidence of his own talents, and pleads guilty to the errors and defects that may have happened in his performance, his modefty foftens the feverity of criticifm. The writer now under confideration may claim the benefit of the above fentiment. In his dedication, and in his preface, he confeffes himself not infenfible of the faults in his work; yet thinks there may be fome things to commend, though there may be others to condemn; and, he adds, 'much as that may be [to condemn], it will neither mortify his vanity, nor wound his fenfibility, as public judgment will only exfufcitate him to correct his own on fome future occafion;' he likewife obferves, that great allowance is due to him for inaccuracies, as he was obliged to leave the corrections of a country prefs to a country bookfeller.

Our Author juffly imagining that fome readers may object ta the many French expreffions' in his book, he offers as an apology, that, he thinks they may fometimes be admitted, as they mark more forcibly the manner and meaning of the perfons defcribed it is true, that we often meet with fuch expreffions, particularly thofe called French idioms, that might suffer greatly by a tranflation.

With refpect to the year's lift of criminals, the writer remarks, that it may appear rather fingular, but that he wished to fee how far it would excite the curiofity of the Public; and that as it has long been a question who have the greater number of thieves and murderers among them, the French or English, the Public may now in fome measure decide that question, and fatiffy their curiofity, at leaft for the year 1782.'

This Author's manner is fomewhat humorous, and generally animated, particularly in his defcription of his honeft Hibernian fervant, O'Callaghan, whofe zeal for the affairs of his master'

often

often drew them both into little fcrapes and difagreeable fituations. He frequently paffes from the lively ftrain to the more ferious, and even to the pathetic, especially when he meets with objects of diftrefs, who feem worthy of affiftance; and, on the fe occafions, we cannot but applaud his benevolence, and appa-rent goodness of heart.

As to the hiftory of Mademoiselle Longvillié, the Author avers that it is founded in fact, and but little heightened: the ftory is melancholy, yet gives the reader an example of benevolence towards a fellow creature, in this young lady's hiftorian, that does honour to the feelings of his heart. The account of poor Pilatre de Rozier contains, we imagine, fome particulars not univerfally known, and is more circumftantial than any we had before feen. It has been generally believed that the death of this unfortunate young man, and of his companion, Mr. Romaine, was occafioned by the montgolfier attached to his balloon; but our Author, whof fays he was on the fpot, gives the following account of the balloon after it fell, and his reafons for differing from that received opinion.

The gallery was broke in feveral places, but the montgolfier was whole, and not a fpark of fire had reached the straw or faggots.

The balloon fell within eight yards of the gallery. I had an opportunity of examining the balloon, and of taking away a few pieces of the part that was finged and burnt, while the coroner and an officer held a long difpute, concerning whofe jurisdiction it happened in. The balloon I found was burnt only about a yard and a half round the top of the soupape, or valve, which was to let out the air. The valve was held only by a fmall piece to the balloon, and the filk immediately round it appeared rended, as from a violent compreffion. The filk which was fewed to the valve had moft of its oil or varnish done away, or gradually diffolved, fo that the filk was thinner than in its natural ftate. This appeared in ragged pieces, about two feet round the valve, while the other parts about a yard round, were thrivelled up, like finged parchment-the varnish was ftill upon it, and fmelled extremely offenfive. No other part of the balloon was affected.

People are much divided here concerning the caufe of the acci dent. Many fay from fome electric matter in the air; others, that it was caufed from the heat of the fire which fupplied the montgolfier, and which dilated the balloon; and others infift upon it, that the fire which fupplied the montgolfier, fet the inflammable air on fire, &c. &c. "But fuch are the conceits of the fpeculatifts, who ftrain their faculties to find what lies upon the furface."

Why is it more probable, that this balloon fhould be destroyed by lightning than any of the many others that have been launched? efpecially when the fky was remarkably ferene, and not a cloud to be feen. The heat of the fmoke of the fire, which fupplied the montgolfier, could not be the caufe, for it was 34 feet from the balloon; and the other reafon is fully as improbable, for the inflam mable air was plainly feen afcending from the top, and if the air

had