ás many claffes, and be occupied in as various purfaits, as the Livery of the city of London. Mr. Ingram is one of the nightmen of theology, and fearches for gold where a plain and modeft Chriftian would not prefume to obtrude his inquiries. He has already published, in the fame voluminous ftile, An Explanation of the Seven Vials, and the Seven laft Plagues, and Obfervations on the Two Witnefles clothed in fackcloth. So again," fays our author," by their shutting up the heavens that it rain not, is typified, their being debarred the use of the fcriptures, fo abfolutely neceffary for their growth and improvement in all Chriftian graces and virtues " this fpecimen the reader will not doubt of our author's fkill in developing what is obfcure, and elucidating what is unintelligible. ART. 33. The Duties of the Parochial Clergy of the Church of England confidered, in a Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Bangor, at the primary Vifitation, held in the Months of Auguft and September, 1784. By John, Lord Bishop of Bangor. To which is added, an Appendix, containing Directions concerning the Inftruments proper to be brought for obtaining Orders, &c. Together with fome other Matters. 4to. 2s. Davis, 1785.

A plain and useful discourse, worthy of its author.

ART. 34. An Efay on the Rewards of Eternity. 4to. 1s. Johnfon, London, 1785.

This difcourfe gained the annual prize which Mr. Norris inftituted in the Univerfity of Cambridge. We can fay little more in its praife. ART. 35. The Divine Architect, a Sermon, by Dr. Addington.

A wretched piece of human compofition.

ART. 36. The Dying Believer, a Funeral Sermon, by the fame.

The title page of this Sermon is furrounded, as ufual, by a large lugubrious margin; and contains feven-and-twenty lines, which are by much the be in the performance.

ART. 37. Sermons, adapted to the Family and Clofet. By the late Rev. 7 Webb. Buckland, London.

In the first of thefe fermons, which is called "Chrift the Covenant of the People," our author tells us, that the covenant of grace was made in the council of peace, between the Father and the Son, from all eternity, and long before the creation of the world. As there was neither time nor place when this contract was made, its validity may be called in queflion. By making redemption not only prior to the fall of man, but alfo to the fate of innocence, our author does not advert that he involves the Deity in the origin of moral evil, and makes him refemble a phyfician, who throws his patients into a fever, that he may have the honour of curing them. The third and fourth fermons are from this text " Believe in the lord Jefus Chrift, and thou shalt be faved." After attempting to explain, in several pages, what faith is not, at laft he informs us what it is, (p. 106). That it is reing on, trufling in, and believing in the lord Jelus Chrift. This doctrine of recumbency is well explained by the celebrated Dr Barrow. What would we think of a fovereign,' lays that great divine, who, in iffuing a declaration to his rebellious fubjects, should tell them, that he would receive them to grace and

favour not provided they would lay down their arms, and return to a fenfe of their duty-but provided they would come and roll, and lean, and tumble on his Son.' The reft of the fermons are in the fame ftrain. We are informed in the preface, that the peculiar modefiy of Mr. Webb prevented him publishing any thing during his life.' We wish that he had bequeathed a small portion of that peculiar modefty to his friends.

POETRY.

ART. 38. Picturesque Poetry, confifling of Poems, Odes, and Elegies, on various Subjects. By the Rev. J. Teasdale, Minifter of the English Chapel at Dundee. 2s. 6d. Robinfon, 1784.

The merit of thefe poems is much above the common. In many of them the author difcovers a fertility of genius, rarely to be met with among the poets of the present day; and we will venture to fay the whole will afford entertainment to the reader of taste and feeling. In our opinion, the elegiac poems are by far the best in the collection.

ART. 39. The pious Incendiaries, or Fanaticifm difplayed; a Poem. By a Lady. 8vo. 2s. 6s. Hooper, 1785.

The riots in June 1780, and the fuppofed author of them, are the fubjects of this mock heroic poem; in which there is a pleasant vein of fatire, and many good lines. We wish to fee the fame pen employed on a better fubject, for it certainly is not by hudibrastics that the madness of the noted incendiary is to be cured. Amidst four or five hundred lines, it may be expected there are fome very indifferent; but, confidering this poem as a first attempt, which we understand it is, the authorefs is intitled to much indulgence.

ART. 40. A Narrative of Facts; fupposed to throw Light on the Hiftory of the Bristol Stranger, known by the Name of the Maid of the Hayftack. Tranflated from the French. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Gardener, 1785. We must leave this myfterious affair to the determination of fome future period. There are fome reasons, it is true, for fuppofing the Bristol ftranger to be the foreign lady described, but there are equally convincing negative proofs that fhe is not. In the mean time, this pamphlet may be read with pleasure; and we are fure it will draw the tear of pity for the fufferings of the fair mourner, known by the name of the Maid of the Haystack.

MEDICA L.

ART. 41. An Account of the Epidemical Catarrhal Fever, commonly called the Influenza; as it appeared in the City and Environs of Durham, in the Month of June, 1782. To which is prefixed, a Difcours on the Improvement of Medical Knowledge. By P. D. Leslie, M. Ď. F. R. S. &c. Crowder, 8vo. 2s.

In the preliminary difcourfe we difcover nothing that is particularly worthy of obfervation. The account of the influenza is accurate, and may be useful. Added to it is a Letter, addreffed to the author, on the influenza, as it appeared at Newcastle-upon-Tyne,

by

by John Clark, M. D. by which it appears that the varieties of the diforder were dependent on circumftances of fituation fo difcrepant, that it is only from the united reports of phyficians a proper know. ledge of the diforder is to be obtained.

ART. 42. An Inquiry into the Nature and Caufes of Fevers; with a Review of the feveral Opinions concerning its proximate Cause, as advanced by feveral Authors; and particularly as delivered from the Practical Chair in the Univerfity of Edinburgh. Including fome obfervations on the Existence of Putrefaction in the living Body, and the proper Method of Cure to be pursued in Fevers. By Caleb Dickinson, M. D. Elliot, Edinburgh; Robinson, London. 1785.

Our author has collected the beft opinions on the nature of fevers, and has digested them into a regular fyftem, for the use of students; and to fuch this work may prove of great utility, previous to their entering on a courfe of inquiry for themfelves. The doctrines of the Edinburgh school are principally adhered to, although, in fome inftances, Dr. Dickinson widely differs from Dr. Cullen, and points out feveral inaccuracies in the writings of the latter. On the whole, this Inquiry is pursued with spirit and judgment: and if not the beft it is at least one of the best views of the prevailing fyftem of Patho logy in fevers.

For the ENGLISH REVIEW.

NATIONAL

AFFAIRS.

For JANUARY, 1786.

POLITICAL STATE OF EUROPE EOR THE YEAR 1785.

THE year 1785 is, perhaps, the moft peaceable year the world has

feen fince the age of Auguftus. The temple of Janus was shut; actual war had ceafed among all civilized and great nations; warlike preparations were interrupted by negociations for peace; ambition of conqueft feemed loft in a thirst for pecuniary gain; and the ardour of mens minds have been diverted from military to commercial enterprize.

At what period of time, fince the world was reduced under one monarchy by Cæfar, do we find fuch general tranquillity? Internal convulfions, occafioned by ftruggles for the purple, and the revolt of provinces ; the attacks of barbarians on the Roman frontiers; and, beyond thefe, the fierce conflicts of barbarous nations with one another, agitated the world, in fome quarter or other, with never-ceafing hoftilities and alarms. Then followed inundations of unknown tribes inhabiting the vaft, and, at that time, unknown regions beyond the Danube and the Rhine; thofe deftroyers of nations; thofe fcourges of God! To thefe fuccceded all the barbarities and defolations of the

middle ages, in which, the common animofities that divide natione were embittered by religious zeal, and increased by religious pretenfions. Not only were hoftilities carried on between Chriftians and Mahommedans, on the fcore of religion, but, on the fame score, between Chriftians with one another. The Greek church was animated with mortal hatred against the Latin, and the Latin church acted with equal fury against the Greek. The popes and the emperors divided the western empire under their hoftile banners; while the fucceffors of Conftantine, in the eaft, were endeavouring to protract the final diffolution of their government, by ftirring up the Saracens against the Turks. But, about the middle of the fifteenth century, the race of Othman obtained poffeffion of the throne of Conftanti nople, and retaining, for many years, the fpirit and the vigour of con querors, harraffed and alarmed the Chriftian princes with conftant in vafions, both by fea and land. And now the Chriftians were reduced, fometimes, to the neceffity of laying afide animofities among themselves, and uniting in a confederacy against their common enemy.

In the mean time, a new caufe of quarrel and contention fprang up among the Chriftian ftates and princes, in the envy with which they beheld the wealth and the profperity of the republic of Venice, The league of Cambray was no fooner diffolved, than the policy, the good fortune, and the ambition of one of the principal confederates, Jaid a foundation for a new feries of wars, which disturbed and af flicted Europe for the space of one hundred and thirty years. Ferdinand of Arragon acquired, by arms, the kingdom of Naples and Grenada, and, by marriage, Caftile, and vaft treasures and immenfe dominions in the new world. To all these acquifitions his fucceffor, Charles V. added Austria and the Netherlands. The ambition of this prince was inflamed, not fatiated, by fo great an inheritance. His ambition and his quarrels were tranfmitted to his fon Philip II. and from him to the minifters and generals, rather than to the mind of Philip III. In the mean time, the reformation fpread the zeal of religious controverfy over the face of Europe. The house of Austria patronized the ancient faith. The reformers threw themselves, from antipathy as well as for protection, into the arms of its opponents. And thus, from religious controverfy, and from Auftrian ambition, few nations, from the Euxine to the Baltic, were free from the cala. mities or alarms of war from the year 1520 to the conclusion of the peace of Munfter in 1648. Other caufes, befides thefe, provoked war between neighbouring princes, which furnished shelter and encou ragement to all who chofe to take up arms ander their respective ftandards.

From the first Cefars, to the famous æra juft mentioned, it will be difficult to find any fingle year fo generally pacific as the one juft elapfed; or the one on which we have entered promifes to be. The year that one would fix on, who fhould be difpofed to controvert this pofition, and to difprove it by an example, would probably be the year 1516, when an univerfal peace prevailed throughout Europe, on the clefe of that war which was excited and carried on by pore, Julius II, against France, immediately after the humiliation of

the

the Venetian republic by the league of Cambray. But, not to mention the progress of the Spanish arms and maffacres then in America, the Turks were, at that period, extending their conquefts in Afia; and, in the year just mentioned, they accomplished, by their invincible arms, the reduction of Egypt.

The war between the Spaniards and the Seven United Provinces, previous to the general pacification of Munter, was, indeed, interrupted by a truce of twelve years, from 1609 to 1621, But ftil hoftilities were carried on between thefe two nations beyond the Line. War alfo continued, during that interval, by the Austrians and Spaniards on the one fide, and the Duke of Savoy, affifted by Venice and France, on the other. The Ufcocchi too, a race of men that had been driven weftward by the incumbent arms of the Turks, to the coafts of Iftria, and who enjoyed the countenance and protection of the Auftrians, carried on a predatory war against the Venetians. A famous war too, of thirty years, was kindled in Germany, by the pretenfions of Frederic, Elector Palatine, fupported by the proteftant princes of the union, to the crown of Bohemia.

The peace of Muniter did not compofe martial ardour; for the inquietude and turbulency of the Poles continued to harrafs all their neighbours, until they were humbledat laft, in 1657, when they were forced to cede Ducal Pruffia to the Elector of Brandenburg, and to make other conceffions to other princes. In 1652 a naval war commenced betwixt Cromwell and Holland. Cromwell alfo attacked the Spaniards, from whom he wrefted the island of Jamaica. In 1654 war alfo broke out between Denmark and Sweden, which was continued to the death of Charles Guftavus in 1660. This was fucceeded by a war between the Emperor Leopold on the one part, and France and the Turks on the other; which was fcarcely begun, when a rupture took place between the Dutch and Charles II. of England: nor was this concluded, before the ambition of Lewis XIV. of France, for universal monarchy, plunged him, in 1672, in a war with almost all the princes of Europe, which lafted till the peace of Utrecht in 1713.

The emperor was glad to accede to this peace in 1714, that he might be at leifure to watch, and to oppofe the progrefs of the Turks; in which bufinefs he was employed till the pacification of Paffarowitz, in 1618. This peace was difgraceful to the Othmans; but it was neceflary; that they might make refiftance, it poffible, to the prevailing power of Nadir-Shah, who, under the name of Thamas Kouli-Khan, had ufurped, in 1732, the throne of Perfia. Kouli Khan, having humbled the Turks, carried his victorious arms into India, where he made many conquefts, and from whence he carried off, in 1739, immenfe treasures. Returning from Indoftan, he conquered the Ufbec Tartars; renewed hoftilities againft the Turks ; nor was his fury againft his neighbours, and even his own fubjects, allayed, but by his death, which happened in 1747. Meanwhile, war had again commenced, after the death of Kouli Khan, between the Turks on one fide, and the Imperialifts and Ruffians on the other, which terminated in a peace very difadvantageous to the former. ENG. REV. Vol. VI. Jan. 1786.

E