Ifthefe panegyrifts are in earnest in their admiration of Henry the Fourth, they must remember, that they cannot think more highly of him than he did of the nobleffe of France; whofe virtue, honour, courage, patriotifm, and loyalty, were his conftant theme.'

The faults of the nobility and of the clergy were not fuch as merited fo fevere a punishment, but there feems to have been a tacit convention between the monied men and the demagogues, by which the fuperior orders were facrificed, while the latter, as having been precluded by prejudices from high and obnoxious fituations, efcaped. The attack on the clergy was, in Mr. Burke's opinion, not only impolitic but unjuft. This pofition, which he endeavours to prove at fome length, is not, however, very fuccefsfully fupported.

I can never confider this affembly as any thing else than a voluntary affociation of men who have availed themselves of circumstances to feize upon the power of the ftate. They have not the fanction and authority of the character under which they first met. They have affumed another of a very different nature; and have completely altered and inverted all the relations in which they originally ftood. They do not hold the authority they exercife under any conftitutional law of the state. They have departed from the inftructions of the people by whom they were fent; which instructions, as the affembly did not act in virtue of any ancient ufage or fettled law, were the fole fource of their authority. The most confiderable of their acts have not been done by great majorities; and in this fort of near divifions, which carry only the constructive authority of the whole, ftrangers will confider reafons as well as refolutions.'

To fum up the account of their errors, he finds them bold in fpeculation, indecifive in ufeful and neceffary regulations; confident in their predictions, defective in their performances, eloquent, but weak; unable or unwilling to meet real difficulties, violent and forward only in the work of destruction. In short, they appear to be difciples of Rouffeau, whofe fplendid paradoxes, it is faid he owned to Mr. Hume, were intended only to dazzle and furprise; but perhaps, as our author adds in another place, an enemy is an incompetent witnefs. Mr. Burke then examines what this boaled affembly has done in the great work of legislation, judicature, the model of the army, and finance. This part of his letter is excellent. He proceeds on what appears to us the fecureft foundation, their own journals, and defcribes, with a mixture of arch feverity, indignation, and ridicule, their motley work in the department of legiflation, of constitutional and financial knowledge, the regulation of the army, and the minuter circumstances of police. If Mr. Burke had written nothing more than this examination, it would have established his

character as an orator, a politician, and a philofopher. Though we had not already extended our article too far, we should have feared to touch this beautiful fabric, whofe merit depends as much on the connection of the different parts as on the execution of each. We shall tranfcribe, however, a paffage which we think of importance, and one fpecimen of the author's fportive pleafantry.

As to their other fchemes of taxation, it is impoffibie to fay any thing of them with certainty; becaufe they have not yet had their operation; but nobody is fo fanguine as to imagine they will fill up any perceptible part of the wide gaping breach which their incapacity has made in their revenues. At prefent the state of their treafury finks every day more and more in cash, and fwells more and more in fictitious reprefentation. When fo little within or without is now found but paper, the representative not of opulence but of want, the creature not of credit but of power, they imagine that our flourishing ftate in England is owing to that bank-paper, and not the bank-paper to the flourishing condition of our commerce, to the folidity of our credit, and to the total exclufion of all idea of power from any part of the tranfaction. They forget that, in England, not one hilling of paper-money of any defcription is received but of choice; that the whole has had its origin in cafh actually deposted; and that it is convertible at pleasure in an inftant, and without the fmalleit lofs into cath again. Our paper is of value in commerce, becaufe in law it is of none. It is powerful on 'Change, becaufe in Welimiofter hall it is impotent. In payment of a dent of twenty thillings, a creditor may refufe all the paper of the bank of England. Nor is there amongst us a fingle public fecurity, or any quality or nature whatsoever, that is enforced by authority. In fact it might be eafily fhewn, that our paper wealth, inticad of leffening the real coin, has a tendency to increase it; instead of being a fubftitute for money, it only facilitates its entry, its exit, and its circulation; that it is the fymbol of profperity, and not the badge of distress. Never was a fcarcity of cafh, and an exuberance of paper, a fubject of complaint in this nation.'

The following paffage is truly elegant and humorous:

• Their fanatical confidence in the omnipotence of church plunder, has induced thefe philofophers to overlook all care of the public eftate, juft as the dream of the philofopher's ftone induces dupes, under the more plaufible delufion of the hermetic art, to neglect all rational means of improving their fortunes. With thefe philofophic financiers, this univerfal medicine made of church mummy is to cure all the evils of the state. Thefe gentlemen, perhaps, do not believe a great deal in the miracles of piety; but it cannot be questioned, that they have an undoubting faith in the prodigies of facrilege. Is there a debt which preffes them Iflue allignats-Are compenfations to be made, or a main

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tenance

tenance decreed to those whom they have robbed of their freehold in their office, or expelled from their profeffion-Affignats. Is a fleet to be fitted out-Affignats. If fixteen millions fterling of thefe affignats, forced on the people, leave the wants of the ftate as urgent as ever-iffue, fays one, thirty millions sterling of affignats-fays another, iffue fourfcore millions more of affig. nats. The only difference among their financial factions is on the greater or the leffer quantity of affignats to be imposed on the public fufferance. They are all profeffors of affignats. Even thofe, whofe natural good fenfe and knowledge of commerce, not obliterated by philofophy, furnifh decifive arguments against this delufion, conclude their arguments by propofing the emiffion of affignats. I fuppofe they must talk of affignats, as no other language would be understood. All experience of their inefficacy does not in the leaft difcourage them. Are the old affignats depreciated at market? What is the remedy? Iffue new affiguats. Mais fi maladia, opiniatria, non vult fe garire, quid illi facere? affignare-poftea affignare; enfuita affignare. The word is a trifle altered. The Latin of your prefent doctors may be better than that of your old comedy; their wisdom, and the variety of their refources are the fame. They have not more notes in their fong than the cuckow; though, far from the foftness of that harbinger of fummer and plenty, their voice is as harfli and as ominous as that of the raven.'

We must now leave Mr. Burke, whom we have followed with great pleasure and satisfaction; but it would be unpolite to leave him without a word or two at parting. In politi cal fpeculations we have not always agreed with our author; and have occafionally been forced by the contraft of opinions to reflect, that revolutions, or the calamities of kings, have not formerly been odious to Mr. Burke. If we were now called on to defend the conduct of Great-Britain respecting America, we could copy much from our author with very little change. Thefe days are, however, at an end; and, as we have fometimes had occafion to change our own opinions in confequence of new experience, we ought not to deny the fame privilege to Mr. Burke. If we were to give a general character of thefe Reflections,' we should want words to express our fenfe of their merits, on the whole; but impartiality must confefs, that different parts are disproportionally and tedioufly extended; the finer feelings feem to have exaggerated fome scenes, and prejudice to have coloured a few parts of the picture. We have followed the progresfive steps of the French patriots with a cautious and obferving eye, and the opinions we have occafionally given do not greatly differ from those of our author: our feelings too have been fometimes raised to an equal pitch. But with all the faults which may, and undoubtedly will be difcovered in this work, it is impoffible to be blind to its beauties: the deVOL. LXX. Nov. 1790. scriptions

feriptions are animated by all the powers of Mr. Burke's pencil; the humour is elegant, correct, and pointed; the language, in general that of mild expoftulation, flows with an even tenour, and, in fo foft a stream, that while we seem occafionally to look for variety, the with fubfides in the admiration of the elegance with which each fentence is ufually finished. This may appear the warm eager ftream of partiality; but we feel it to be the decifions of ftrict juftice. The actors in the scene may find fome errors in facts, and the experience of fature ages may contradict our author's prophecies; but this work will fill fubfift, as a finished model of elegant compofition and pathetic defcription: it may be always admired, as containing the moft judicious political principles, and a very accurate examination of one part of the British conftitution.

A Treatise on Putrid Inteftinal Remitting Fevers, in which the Laws of the Febrile State and Sol-Lunar Influence being inves tigated and defined, are applied to explain the Nature of the various Forms, Crifes, and other Phenomena of these Fevers; and thence is deduced aad inftituted an improved Method of curing them. By Francis Balfour, M. D. 8vo. 65. Boards. Robinfons.

WE

YE examined the first edition of this work, or rather the first English edition, in our LXth volume, p. 287. In the prefent treatife, Dr. Balfour has rendered the subject most abftrufe and complicated, by the injudicious form which he has adopted, and the harsh terms introduced by an affectation of accuracy. From the obfervations of Dr. Lind and our author, it is probable that the periods of fevers in fome parts of India feem to be connected with the changes of the moon. In England, the connexion is imperceptible, and very generally accidental: in a regular epidemic, the termination is ufually on the fame day, and fome attacks and fome recoveries are found in every period of the moon.

Our author's first problem is, to inveftigate and define the laws of the febrile ftate, and of the fol-lunar influence from the phenomena.' The putrid inteftinal fever is the typhus of warm climates, which is generally attended with putrid matter in the intestines. Our author attributes it to a putrid fomes, conveyed to the inteftines, acting as a ferment on the mucus, which is abforbed in the fame state, and infects the blood. The paroxyfms, produced by this infection, occur near the new and full moons, which thow their influence by the greater number of attacks at that time; fome anticipation of the paroxyfms, at the fame period; and an increafe of their violence. Perfons feem

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feem liable to attack in the intervals; (for the period comprehends three days and a half before the new and full moon) but the tendency is weak and inconfiderable, and the fever soon difappears. The influence of the equinoctial period, and parti cularly of the autumnal equinox, is alfo very great.

The fecond problem is, to employ the laws of the febrile ftate and fol-lunar influence, to explain the nature of the va-' rious forms and crifes of putrid inteftinal remitting fevers, and other phenomena.' In this problem, the former doctrine of the moft frequent attack, during the lunar periods, is repeated, and but little added to it; for, as our author adopts the period of seven days, which feems to regulate fevers at whatever time the attack is, the coincidence must be afterwards apparent, though the changes of the moon have in reality no influence. If Dr. Balfour contends that the feven days are influenced by the moon, the question returns respecting, the greater number of attacks at the change; which it is not contended are observable in colder climates, where the feptennial influence on fevers prevails. The proportion of attacks, in the lunar periods, is to those of the intervals, according to our author's tables, as 9 to

The critical maturity, which, at last, Dr. Balfour is oblig ed to call to his affiftance, to explain the different phenomena, is only the tendency of fever to remit and go off, at particular and regular periods, which alone, we think, will folve all the fuppofed effects of the fol-lunar influence.

The third problem is, to employ the knowlege we have obtained of the nature of the various forms, &c. of putrid inteftinal remitting fevers, to deduce and inftitute an improved method of cure.'

As in the fecond problem, the author's great object is to fhow the connexion between his obfervations on the fol-lunar influence, with the ancient doctrines of crifes, fo in this, on the fame ground, he explains the utility of the most falutary practice in the cure of the fevers. The following rules, which contain the chief parts of our author's practice, we shall select.

Rule I. That the contagious matter must be evacuated, if poffible, before the mucus of the ftomach and inteflines be infected and corrupted; or before an abforption fufficient to ex cite and confirm the difeafe has taken place, by vomiting, purging, and sweating, with the forms of tart. emetic, that are best fuited to these feveral purposes.'

To these observations, I have here to add, first that calomel, in a degree fuperior to any other medicine I am acquainted with, poffeffes the property of loofening and detaching the mucus of the inteftines; that it requires, in general, from 6 to 10 hours to effect this perfectly, and operates best when the patient

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