be ranked with the pooreft fcribblers in Grub-Street. We think her, indeed, much inferior to a Burney and a Brooke, female writers who have figured fo honourably in the file of romance. To fpeak as critics, we think her reputation fomewhat greater than her juft pretenfions; though, fo far as it is productive of emolument to herself, we are by no means defirous to detract from it. But we can honeftly afcribe to her a confiderable degree of feeling and fenfibility, and no mean efforts in the ftile of the pathetic. While thefe qualities are valuable, and while novels continue to be a commodity in fo great requeft, we cannot wish to fee the public better ferved, upon ordinary occafions, than by the author of the Recefs.

ART. XII. Criticisms on the Rolliad. Part the Firft. Second Edition, corrected and enlarged. Svo. s. 6d. Ridgway, London, 1785.

WE noticed the first edition of this humorous and acrimonious publication, in our Review of April 1784. It now appears with fome alterations, and many additions. The novelties in this edition are chiefly the dedication to Sir Lloyd Kenyon, the lines on Mr. Dundas in No. 3, all the latter part of No. 8, from the verfe

"With the Queen's leave, your Warren's ivory bed ;"

The verfes, &c. on the Houfe of Commons' clock, in No. 9, and the whole of the two concluding numbers.

That the fcourge of the writer, or writers of this publication has loft nothing of its feverity, will appear from the following character of Mr. Dundas.

--- Whofe exalted foul
No bonds of vulgar prejudice controul.
Of fhame unconscious in his bold career,
He fpurns that honour, which the weak revere;
For true to public virtue's patriot plan,

He loves the minifter and not the man;
Alike, the advocate of North and wit,

The friend of Shelburn, and the guide of Pitt.
His ready tongue, with fophiftries at will,
Can fay, unfay, and be confiftent ftill;
This day can cenfure, and the next retract,
In fpeech extol, and ftigmatize in act;

Turn and re-turn; whole hours at Hastings bawl,
Defend, praife, thank, affront him, and recal.
By oppofition he his king shall court!
And damn the people's caufe by his fupport.
He like fome angel, fent to fcourge mankind,
Shall deal forth plagues,-in charity defign'd.

The

The Weft he would have ftarv'd; yet, ever good,
But meant to fave th' effufion of her blood:
And if, from fears of his controul releas'd
He looses rapine now, to spoil the East;
"Tis but to fire another Sykes to plan
Some new starvation-scheme for Hindoftan;
Secure, to make her flourish, as before,
More populous, by lofing myriads more.'

The additions to No. 8 are upon India matters; Mr. and Mrs. Haftings, the Tea-act, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Steele. In the lines where the breakfaits of the prefent age, and those of our Saxon ancestors, are contrafted, and the effects they are fuppofed to produce enumerated, there is much good writing and keen fatire. Mr. Pitt's breakfast with Mr. Steele, at Brighthelmftone, is likewise a delicate morfel for the fatirical appetite. In the 13th Number, Merlin being asked, why he obferves fo cautious a filence with regard to the oppofition fide of the houfe? falls into a violent paffion; and, after having tried in vain to speak, at last exclaims," Tatterdemalions, fcald-miferables, rafcals and rafcallions, buffoons, depen"dants, parasites, toad-eaters, knaves, fharpers, black-legs, "palmers, coggers, cheaters," &c. &c.

Thus obliquely informing us, that the fole merit of the minifterial writers confifts in calling names, in abufe, without wit or poignancy. The 14th number is dedicated to an account of the education and no-learning of Mr. Rolle. A column is fuppofed to be erected on the fpot where he went to fchool.

On this hallow'd land,

A column, public monument, fhall stand:
And many a bard around the sculptur'd base,
In many a language his renown fhall trace;
In French, Italian, Latin, and in Greek:
That all, whofe curious fearch this spot fhall feek,
May read, and reading tell, at home return'd,

How much great Rolle was flogg'd, how little learn'd.'

The infcriptions are next produced in Greek, Latin, Italian, and French; all tending to throw a ridicule on the hero of the Rolliad.

Such are the novelties of this edition, which are equal to any thing in the firftthe wit flows as eafily and abundantly, and the proportion of acid is by no means leffened.

ART. XIII. The Reports of the Commissioners appointed to examine, take, and fate the Public Accounts of the Kingdom; prefented to his Majefiy, and to both Houses of Parliament; with the Appendixes complete. By John Lane, Secretary to the Commiffioners. Volume the Second, 4to. 11. 1s. Boards. Cadell, 1785.

TH

HESE Reports had been publifhed before, each feperately, as it came from the hands of the commiffioners, though certainly not with fuch authenticity and correctness as they poffefs in the present form. This volume contains the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth reports. Of the first four of these, as well as of the inftitution of the commiffion of accounts, and the fpirit and tendency of the reports of the commiffioners in general, we have already given an account in our Review for April, 1784. What remains for us to do, is to lay before our readers the drift or object of the twelfth report, which concludes the volume before us.

This report relates to the manner of paffing the accounts of the treasurer of the ordnance, in the office of the auditors of the impreft. It was prefented to his Majefty, upon the 9th of June, and to both houses of parliament upon the 11th of June, 1784.

The office of ordnance is governed by a mafter-general, and a board uuder him, all appointed by feparate letters patent. The board confifts of five principal officers; the lieutenant general, the furveyor general, the clerk of the ordnance, the ftore-keeper, and clerk of the deliveries; any three of whom form a board. The duty of these officers, both collectively as a board, and in their feperate capacities, being described, the commiffioners proceed to inquire by what general rules the business of the ordnance is conducted in the feveral depart

ments.

Among other obfervations, tending to the establishment of fuch regulations as may form a fyftem of oeconomy, whether of receipt or expenditure in the ordnance department, the commiffioners declare, that it appears from this inquiry,

That the auditor of the impreft is employed upon the ordnance, as upon the navy and other accounts that have been before us, in little more than comparing different entries of the fame fums, and examining the formality of vouchers, and the accuracy of computations and caftings: those circumftances of the account in which the intereft of the nation is the moft materially concerned, the terms of the contract, and the fidelity of the execution, are not within his reach; the board of ordnance alone are intrufted to decide upon them, and upon the authority of the fignature of the board officers he admits the voucher for an expenditure to be true in every circumstance,

except in those which, being confidered as the leaft important, are ufually committed to the care of inferior clerks.'

The commiffioners have not been able, in the progrefs of their inquiry into the manner in which the public accounts are audited in this office, to discover, from those which have hitherto come under their confideration, any folid advantage. derived to the public, from the examination given to them by the auditor of the impreft; and, for that reason, they have fuggefted the propriety of exempting them from his jurifdiction, and the urgent neceffity of relieving the nation from fo heavy, and to all appearance fo unneceffary an expence.

In conclufion, the commiffioners lay before the public the following important information.

The office before us is an office of control; it is inftituted as a check upon the public accounts: the allowance of the auditor being neceffary to every article both of the receipt and expenditure, the state of the account, as between the public and the accountant, muft continue unknown until the balance is ascertained by the auditor at the completion of his examination; and confequently, that balance, however great it may be, if in favour of the public, remains with the accountant; if in favour of the accountant, remains with the public, until that period. Hence it may be the intereft of the accountant to purchase, at a high price, either delay or expedition in paffing his accounts; and, fhould an officer be corrupt, the permiffion to receive fees and gratuities is an obvious method to obtain it; and, therefore, we are of opinion, that the payment of fees and gratuities by the perfon accounting, however confined by ufage as to the quantum, is a mode ill adapted to the conftitution of this office, and to the nature of the business there tranfacted.

We do not fay, or mean to infinuate, that we have discovered any inftance of fuch abuse in this office; but the mode is open to it; and a wife government does not wait for the mischief; it guards, as far as human prudence can guard, against the poffibility of the evil: it prevents or removes the temptation.

• But there is another, and still more weighty reason for a reform in the mode of defraying the expences of this office.

The fervice of the prefiding officer bears no proportion to the magnitude of his profits. A deputy auditor tells us, in his examination annexed to our eighth report, that the whole business of the office is tranfacted by the deputy and clerks; from the year 1745 until the year 1781, that is for thirty-fix years, he did not recollect that the principal ever executed any part of it: to him, therefore, it was a perfect finecure. The bufinefs of the office is of the fame kind now it was then; the quantity is increased; and that increase requires an addition to the number of clerks: but it does not make the intervention of the principal officer more neceffary; the whole of the business is properly the labour of clerks only; and, therefore, though the prefent auditors have paid an attention beyond their predeceffors, by regulating their offices, accelerating the public accounts, and bringing

up the arrears; yet should men lefs active hereafter fill thefe ftations, they may again fink into finecures, and exceflive ftipends be paid every year to officers unprofitable to the public. In the year 1782, one of thefe officers received net fixteen thousand five hundred and fixty-five pounds eight fhillings and eight pence; the other, ten thousand three hundred and thirty-one pounds, five fhillings, and eleven pence: in the year 1783, the one received net fixteen thousand two hundred and thirty pounds four fhillings; the other, fixteen thousand three hundred and feventy-three pounds three fhillings and four-pence.

The public cannot afford to maintain officers of any defcription at fuch an expence. This nation is in debt above two hundred and thirty millions: it raifes every year, to pay the intereft and charges attending that debt, above eight millions feven hundred thousand pounds; of which above nineteen thousand eight hundred pounds, the bank fee alone, is to be paid every year to thefe officers, for bufinefs from whence the public derive no benefit: and, should additions be made this year to the public debt, uniefs the legislature will interpofe their authority, these fees of office will have their addition likewife: the profits of the auditors of the impreft rife in proportion to the increase of the public diftrefs. Upon these reasons we ground our opinion, that the public good requires that all fees and gratuties, in the office of the auditors of the imprest, should be forthwith abolished ; that the profits of the auditors themselves fhould be reduced to a reason-' able fandard; and that every officer and clerk in the faid office fhould be paid, by the public, aceitain fixed annual falary, in proportion to his rank and employment, in lieu of all falaries, fees, and gratuities whatsoever and we continue to adhere to the opinion we have stated in our last report, feeing no reafon to depart from it, that no right is vefted in the auditor, either by the letters patent by which he holds his office, or by ufage, that can be oppofed to this reduction and regulation.'

The gentlemen, who have acted in this revived commiffion of public accounts, unite great application and talents for business, with public fpirit, political knowledge and invention; and a very pleafing and correct manner of writing. The commiffioners of public accounts are the moft zealous, diligent, and efficient of all our reformers.

In the papers that form the appendix, and by far the greater portion of this volume, the facts that the commiffioners allude to, and on which they ground their reafonings, are recorded, and properly authenticated.

ART. XIV. An Addrefs to the Landed, Trading, and Funded Interefis of England, on the prefent State of Public Affairs. 8vo. Is. 6d. Stockdale. London, 1786.

THIS publication, which feems to have been written under

the moft ferious impreffions of the prefent dangerous, and new, and unprecedented fituation of Great Britain, contains

a new