be point. More direct proof alfo, of the power of the Malvern, or of diftilled water, in curing cancer, and other conftitutional difeafes, will be required, than we find here detailed. The few cafes given by the author, in proof of this power, are, as he acknowledges, incomplete; that is, "the parties have not purfued the courfe long enough," he fays, p. 75, "for them to receive all the benefit expected from it." It may afked, why then was this publication haftened, and the expectation of the world raised, before a fingle cure had been completed by this fpecific? The fmall benefit received by the patients under cure, may be no more than perfons frequently experience on changing their mode of living, and adopting a more fimple and frugal diet than they were accuftomed to; or fuch as fometimes happens on trying a new medicine, given with pofitive affurances of its efficacy. The high character electricity, medicated airs and baths, the tractors, and many other fuppofed fpecifics, have obtained in the cure of various complaints, is well known, as well as the little title they had to the encomiums bestowed on them, evinced by the low eftimation in which they are now held; and that this new medicine will fhare the fame fate, if ever it comes into any frequent ufe, is highly probable. BRITISH CATALOGUE. POETRY. ART. 16. Flights of Fancy; confifting of Mifcellaneous Poems; with the Caftle of Avola, in Three Acts. By Mrs. J. T. Serres, 8vo. Price 6s. Ridgway. 1805. The author modeftly informs us, that thefe poetical productions were compofed as a relief from the more toilfome avocations of the pencil. The following will exhibit as good a fpecimen of their merit as we could felect: To Lady Hamilton. If Virtue's charms you hope to find, Adorned Adorned with that peculiar grace, ART. 17. Les Champignons du Diable; or, Imperial Muf rooms: a mock-heroic Poem, in five Cantos; including a Conference between the Pope and the Devil, on his Holiness's Vifit to Paris. Illuftrated with Notes. Crown 8vo. 204 PP. 5s. Ginger. 1805. Mr. Huddesford may be called the burlefque hiftorian of the French Revolution, which he has fatirized in various stages of its progrefs with much Hudibraftic humour, and its appropriate verfification. We laughed heartily at the ludicrous expofure of fol lies, and even of crimes (though deeply tragical in themselves) prefented in Topfy-turvy; we have laughed alfo at the prefent effufion; though we confefs that the dofe is rather too copious for our tafte, and that five Cantos of mock-heroics, where Satan and his bad compeers" are the principal agents, are rather more than even the wit and humour of this author can fuftain. We begin, indeed, to have more than doubts, whether thefe infernal beings have not too often been hitched into the ludicrous ftyle to preferve their effect in it; and whether even the vifit of the Devil to the Pope can have any laughable effect among Proteftants, who have fo long habitually connected thofe Perfonages. There is much more humour, in our opinion, in the following general reflection, which opens the third Canto. "What unavoidable stagnation Fish you may have, but none to fry; On drugs and fees lay prohibitions, Or play, like kittens, with their tails." P. 88. The following view of the Mock Imperial Court, and its Mock Emperor, is alfo ludicrous. "Prolific Ordinance Senatûs, Of jacks in office, harlequins, NAPOLEON! Emp'ror, monarch, lord Whofe craft thefe titled toad-ftcals hatch'd ; Defpot of a community Of flaves foi-difant great and free: Prompter, and puppet, firft i' the row Of 's own IMPERIAL RAREE-SHOW." P. 97. Of the remainder, much certainly might be fpared, and we were particularly furprised to find fo ingenious a fpeaker as Belial, on fuch old ground as damn'd hot, damn'd cold, &c. fo long preoccupied by Foote. The object of the Poem is, in England, urexceptionable; it is as the author ftatcs in an advertifement, "To ferve the caufe of order, and the cause of legitimate government, by a ludicrous expofure of the civil and religious policy of a continental defpot, countenanced and abetted by the degrading fervility of the Sovereign Pontiff." ART. ART. 18. A Poem on the Refloration of Learning in the Eaft. By the Rev. Francis Wrangham, M.A. F.R.S. of Trinity College, Cambridge. 4to. 19 pp. 3s. Cambridge printed. Mawman, London. 1805. "The gentlenen appointed by the University of Cambridge to award Mr. Buchanan's Prizes, after having adjudged the prize for the English Poem to Mr. Grant, Fellow of Magdalen College, unanimously expreffed their wifh for the publication of the following poem." Advert. If the gentlemen wanted a complete juftification of their decifion, in the eyes of all the world, they could not have thought of a more effectual way of obtaining it than by this request. It was a compliment at beft, and Mr. Wrangham fhould not have been dazzled by it. Had he once read the pro. duction of his antagonist, before his own was published, he ought inftantly to have stopped the prefs. Inferiority fo very glaring and extreme ought to have appeared, even to the partial eyes of felf-love. This poem is full of all the faults which are most oppofite to the beauties of the other: Darwinian tinfel of expreffion, glare of words with poverty of thought; every thing which drives the reader to defpair of all poetical comfort, from the first page to the laft. We have given, in our account of Mr. Grant's Poem, part of his highly finished character of Sir William Jones; we cannot more ftrongly prove our pofitions refpecting this antagonift than by citing a paffage from his pro daction, on the fame perfonage. "But nobler cares are his : for human kind Strung by that orb, beneath whofe flaming ray With growing speed he preffes to the goal, 'Twas his to bid admiring INDIA fee, prø Law, which in heaven and earth holds fovereign fway; Bad as this is, we can affure our readers that the parts which precede and follow it are much worfe: and when the author proceeds to thank the University of Cambridge for the power to write fuch verfes, it becomes really ludicrous. and should the ftrain, Which now I raife, thy favouring plaudit gain; Thou 爨 Thou gaveft the lyre from which the mufic fprings, Thou gavest the art to fweep it's founding ftrings." P. 13. With every difpofition not to wound unneceffarily, where we are obliged to condemn, we cannot find any matter for alleviation in the prefent compofition. The author fays elsewhere," cæftus artemque repono," with refpect to Poetry, he appears to have laid afide the art before he wrote thefe lines. DRAMATIC. ART. 19. The Cabinet, The Cabinet, a Comic Opera, in Three Acts: firft pérformed at the Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden, on Tuesday, Fe bruary 9, 1802. Written by Thomas Dibdin, Author of "Guilty or not Guilty.""The Jew and Doctor.' "Will for the Deed."-" English Fleet."-" Family Quarrels."-" Thirty Thoufand.""Il Bondocani."" School for Prejudice.""Valentine and Orfon."--" Five Thoufand."-" Birth Day." "Naval Pillar.”—“ Horfe and the Widow.""Mouth of the Nile."-" St. David's Day," &c. &c. &c. 8vo. 88 pp. 2s. 6d. Longman, Hurft, Rees, and Orme. 1805. The great fuccefs of this Opera, on the ftage, must be well known to most of our readers. Undoubtedly that fuccefs was owing principally to the mufic and the performers; and it would be unreasonable to expect in a work, written for fuch purposes, any high degree of literary merit. There is nothing, however, which difgufts in the perufal; and that is much to fay of a modern dramatic piece. A large family of fifteen other dramas, befides. et cæteras, announces the fertility of this author; but large families are generally doomed to be fcattered, and whether thefe will ever be feen together in any one house is, with us, a matter of great doubt; efpecially if they must be exchanged for an equal number of half-crowns. ART. 20. The Soldier's Return, or What can Beauty do? A Comic Opera, in Two Acts, as performed at the Theatre-Royal, Drury-Lane. The Overture and Mufic entirely new, compofed by Mr. Hook. 8vo. Price 15. 6d. Longman and Rees. 1805.. The ftory of this piece is fo very inartificial, that the wonder is, how it could poffibly be endured in the reprefentation. The mufic perhaps might help it off, ART. 21. There |