: Lady Emily. That's the art-Lord, if one liv'd entirely upon one own whims, who would not be run out in a twelve-month ? Mifs Alfcrip. Dear Lady Emily, don't you doat upon folly? Lady Emily. You are mistaken. We have, it's true, fome examples of the extravaganza in high life that no other country can match; but withal, many a false fifter, that starts, as one would think, in the very hey day of the fantaftic, yet comes to a ftand-fill in the midft of the course. Mrs. Blandifb. Poor fpiritlefs creatures ! Lady Emily. Do you know there is more than one duchefs who has been seen in the fame carriage with her husband-like two doves in a basket, in the print of Conjugal felicity; and another has been detected! I almoft blush to name it! Mrs. Blandifh. Bless us, where? and how? and how? For heaven's fake, let us change the fubject. You were mentioning a reviv'd cap, Lady Emily; any thing of the Henry quatre? Lady Emily. Quite different. An English mob under the chin, and artless ringlets in natural colour, that shall reftore an admiration fór Prior's Nut-brown Maid. Mifs Alcrip. Horrid! fhocking! Lady Emily. Abfolutely neceffary. To be different from the reft of the world, we must now revert to nature: Make hafte, or you have fo much to undo, you will be left behind. Mifs Alfcrip. I dare fay fo. What will the French say? But who can vulgarize all at once? Lady Emily. We are to have an interchange of fashions and follies pon a bafis of unequivocal reciprocity. Mifs Afcrip. Fafhions and follies nufacture! oh, what a promifing ma Lady Emily. Yes, and one, thank heaven, that we may defy the edict of any potentate to prohibit. Mifs Alferip (with an affected drop of her lip in her laugh). He! he! he! he he! he! Lady Emily. My dear Mifs Alfcrip, what are you doing? I must correct you as I love you. Sure you must have obferved the drop of the under lip is exploded fince Lady Simpermode broke a tooth-Sets ber mouth affectedly)-I am preparing the caft of the lips for the enfuing winter-thus-It is call'd the Paphian mimp. Mifs Alfcrip (imitating). I swear I think it pretty-I must try to get it. Lady Emily. Nothing fo eafy. It is done by one cabalistical word, like a metamorphofis in the fairy tales. You have only, when before your glafs, to keep pronouncing to yourself nimini- primini-the lips cannot fail of taking their plie. Mifs Alfcrip. Nimini-pimini-imini, mimini-oh, it's delightfully enfantine and fo innocent, to be kiffing one's own lips. Lady Lady Emily. You have it to a charm does it not become her infinitely, Mrs, Blandish? Mrs. Blandish. Our friend's features muft fucceed in every grace; but never so much as in a quick change of extremes. Enter Servant. Madam, Lord Gayville defires to know if you are at home? Lady Emily (afide). No brother ever came more opportunely to a fifter's relief: I have fool'd it to the top of my bent." Mifs Alfcrip. Defire Mifs Alton to come to me. (Exit Servant). Lady Emily you must not blame me; I am fupporting the caufe of our fex, and muft punish a lover for some late inattentions-I shall not fee him! Lady Emily. Oh cruel! (Sees Mifs Alton, who enters.) Mifs Alfcrip you have certainly the most elegant companion in the world. Mifs Alfcrip. Dear, do you think fo? an ungain, dull fort of a body, in my mind; but we'll try her in the prefent bufinefs. Mifs Alton, you must do me a favour. I want to plague my husband that is to be-you must take my part-you must double me like a fecond actress at Paris, when the firft has the vapours. Mifs Alton. Madam! -Its only to convey my re Mifs Alfcrip. Oh never look alarmed. fufal to his vifit, and to fet his alarms afloat a little-particularly with jealoufy, that's the mafter torment. Mifs Alton. Really Madam, the talk you would impofe upon me Mifs Alfcrip. Will be a great improvement to you, and quite right for me. Tease-tease, and tame, is a rule without exception, from the keeper of the lions to the teacher of a piping bulfinch. Mrs. Blandifb. But you hard-hearted thing, will you name any ob-' ject for his jealousy? Mifs Alfcrip. No, keep him there in the dark-Always keep your creature in the dark-That's another fecret of taming Don't be grave, Lady Emily (whose attention is fixed on Mifs Alton). Your brother's purgatory shall be short, and I'll take the reconciliation fcene pon myself. The fong in the second act is foft and tender, and introduced with much art, to prepoffefs us in favour of Mifs Alton. The laft line ! "Let the Spark drop from reafon that wakens the flame," partakes more of wit than truth or nature. There is much knowledge of the world, and of genteel life, difplayed in this comedy. Sir Clement Flint is a good reprefentation of a cool, dry, and fyftematic mifanthrope; Lady Emily is a fprightly and amiable woman of fashion; the family of the Alfcrips form an excellent comic groupe; and the affectation of a fine lady by Mifs Alfcrip, is a very happy and : and original caricature of high-life. Clement is too fententious and oftentatious of his moral fentiments. Independent of its other attractions, this drama poffeffes one ftrong claim to the public favour it is perhaps the most moral comedy in the English language; through every page we recognize in the author, the man of virtue and honour;-not the pedantry of virtue or the parade of honour,-but the spirit of the one, and the flower of the other. We congratulate the happy converfion of the public tafte, displayed in the reception of this drama; and we hope that the univerfal applause which it hath received from the pit, boxes, and gallaries, will tempt other authors to the long deferted paths of elegant nature and polished tafte. In an enlightened and refined age, the majo-. rity will ever be on the fide of truth and nature; and there is hardly an instance in any nation, of bad taste being followed and preferred after good tafte was introduced. ART. XIV. A View of the British Empire, more especially of Scotland; with fome Propofals for the Improvement of that Country, the Extenfion of its Fisheries, and the Relief of the People. By John Knox. Vol. I. II. The Third Edition, greatly enlarged. 8vo. 10s. Walter, London. GREAT Britain from its climate, foil, and fituation, feems The destined by nature to be the feat of induftry and commerce. The animal and vegetable productions which it contains, the metals and minerals with which it abounds, together with its manufactures and fisheries, form a great ftorehouse or magazine of those articles which are moft ferviceable to the wants and conducive to the enjoyments of men. natural produce, however ufeful in itself, both for confump-" tion at home, and exportation abroad, is rendered still more valuable, from the oblong form and infular fituation of the kingdom. Poffeffing a coaft of two thousand miles, indented on every fide by lakes, bays or harbours, it communicates ex ternally with the ocean; interfected internally by numerous navigable rivers and canals, all the trading towns are ports, which communicate with each other, and with the four quar-" ters of the world. These kingdoms are alfo happily fituated between the two great divifions of the globe; having Europe, Africa, Afia, and the Oriental Islands on one fide; North and South America, with the West Indies, on the other. By this most favourable pofition, in the centre of the world, they carry on a beneficial intercourfe with both hemifpheres; traverse the ocean with their fhips in every direction, and find a market in every climate of the earth. Thus hath nature lavished favours on this ifland, ifland, which no continent or widely extended mass of land can obtain; and pointed out, beyond a poffibility of mifconception, that the part affigned to Britain, on the great theatre of the world, is an invariable attention to arts, commerce, fisheries, and navigation. The true interefts of the British empire, however, were long overlooked or neglected for the wild and extravagant schemes of extenfive dominion, tranfmarine poffeffions, and commercial monopoly. By the lofs of America, in the last unfortunate war, the golden dream of empire has vanifhed; and a national' debt of two hundred and eighty millions, chiefly incurred in the defence of our foreign acquifitions, has turned the attention of statesmen and patriots to domeftic improvements, and the in-. crease of population in the mother country. The ordinary, as well as extraordinary revenues, have nearly reached the utmoit limits to which they can be carried; the lines of our narrow kingdom cannot be extended, because they are fixed, unalter ably, by the hand of nature: but although its boundaries cannot be enlarged, its foil may be improved; millions of acres now covered with heath, underwood, or ftagnated waters, may be converted to the purposes of husbandry; and by encouraging new branches of manufacture, facilitating inland carriage, and extending the fisheries, populous villages and flourishing towns. may rife in every corner of the kingdom. To call the public attention to thefe important but neglect. ed fubjects, Mr. John Knox published in 1784, a General View of the British Empire, which we noticed in a former review. The favourable reception which it met with, has induced the author greatly to enlarge his work, and, by extending fome fubjects and introducing others, to give a compendious view of these kingdoms, brought down to the prefent times. The part of his fubject which required the moft illustration, and which he gives in the most circumftantial detail, relates to North Britain, a country whofe hiftory and importance are but little known to Englishmen, and which hath been too frequently the object of their jealoufy, averfion, and diftruft. They who imagine that, from the union of the two kingdoms, Scotland emerged from indigence and barbarity to confequence and improvement, will be furprised to learn, from the preliminary difcourse to this edition, the flourishing condition of the northern part of the island, previous to that period, in arts, commerce and navigation. In this edition, Mr. Knox gives a history of fish and of the fisheries in the northern feas, and fuggefts many plans by which the Highlands many be improved in wealth and population, and Scotland become a valuable nursery for feamen, as well as foldiers. Should his thougnts meet with the approbation of the ENG. REV. Vol. VI. Feb. 1786. approbat public, public, the objects which seem to him to claim the first atterrtion, are 1. To open a communication from Lochfine, to the Weft Sea, by Lochcrinan. 2. To raise at least one small market town on the west coast of the main-land. 3. To erect light-houses, beacons, and buoys. 4. To open carriage roads in the north Highlands between the two seas. 5. To cleanse, deepen or repair decayed harbours, extend new ones; and 6. To grant fuch bounties on buffes and boats as may enable the Scottish fishers to go to market on equal terms with Ireland, Sweden, and Norway. To fhew the neceffity of minifters turning their attention to the northern parts of the ifland, our author defcribes the diftreffes of the inhabitants, and the wild projects to which they were driven, in very affecting colours. It is no wonder, therefore, that the refentments of human nature fhould burst forth, upon the first opportunity, against thofe, who, inRead of labouring to mitigate their diftreffes, were daily adding new oppreffions; till having, by thofe means, defolated whole districts of the country, the delufion vanished, and they found themselves under the shameful neceffity of purchafing cattle and sheep to graze the deferted heaths. • This humiliating circumftance was facilitated by an event which their penetration had not forefeen. The Highlanders, who had ferved in the American war, being, by royal proclamation, intitled to fettlements in that extenfive country, were defirous that their kindred and friends fhould partake of their good fortune. Some tranfmitted their fentiments by letters; others, returning from thence to pay a farewell Vifit to their native land, delivered their opinions perfonally, and all agreed in their encomiums upon the new world. They exhorted their countrymen to exchange their barren heaths for the boundless plains of America; they declaimed upon the foftnefs of the climate, the fertility of the foil, the abundance of provifions, the exemption from taxes; the opulence, eafe, and luxury of the people. Thefe alluring defcriptions had the defired effect upon the imaginations of men naturally warm, and impatient of injuries. The Highlanders now firft began to look on their native country with contempt, and upon their oppreffors with indignation.--Shall we, faid they, remain in thefe miferable huts, the objects of derifion, without the common neceffaries of life, or the profpect of better times? No! we will depart to the great country beyond the ocean, where our labour will be rewarded, and our families comfortably maintained. Such was the language, and fuch the difpofition of the oppreffed, the much-injured Highlanders, whether fituated upon the continent, or amongst the islands. In vain did the landlords ufe the most perfuafive arguments, offering terms, which formerly would have been gladly accepted. |