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It appears that a person named Staverton had bequeathed the rent of a house to purchase, for ever, a bull to be baited for the diver sion of the town of Wokingham; and the people of this town, to prove that they like the sport and are not wiser than their benefactor Staver. ton, have been in the habit of purchasing a second bull out of the poor's rate, to protract this brutish and cruel amusement. Such a practice merits the most pointed reprobation; and Dr. Barry will be applauded by all good men, for his resolute and truly Christian exertions to shame the people of Wokingham into the suppression of this custom. The brute creation are subject to our dominion; "we stand in the place of God to them," says Dr. Hartley: but it is our duty, even in consigning them to death for our food, to observe the maxim of the poet

"And till we end the being, make it blest."

Dr. Barry reflects credit on himself as a clergyman, by inculcating this principle, in opposition to the prejudices of the vulgar: but, when he remarks that the flesh of the bull is rendered by baiting loathsome, if not dangerous to be eaten,' we apprehend that he will not equally advance his reputation as a physician. Art. 59. The Anniversary Sermon of the Royal Humane Society, preached at the Parish Churches of Kensington, April 19, and of St. Lawrence, Reading, June 17, 1801. By W. Langford, D. D. Canon of Windsor, and Chaplain in ordihary to his Majesty. An Appendix by the Society, on Shipwrecked Mariners, Resuscitation, &c. 8vo. IS. Rivingtons.

To the sentiments and tendency of this discourse we feel not the smallest objection: but, as a composition, it is not such as the name of the preacher led us to expect. In the following sentence, for example, we find a very common thought expressed with much pomposity: It falls not within the conception of man, that injury can be wished for, much more brought on his own person, by any infatuated and wretched being.' Dr. Langford's meaning, we apprehend, is, that it is wonderful that a rational being should meditate and contrive his own injury: but, by swelling out the sentence with the epithets infatuated' and wretched,' he assists us to the conception of its possibility; since infatuated misery may be sup posed, at times, to abandon itself to despair.

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Art. 60. The Importance of Religion to a Military Life: preached September 6, 1801, at the Garrison-Service in the church of St. Peter's Port, Island of Guernsey. By Thomas Brock, A. M. and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. 4to. Is. 6d. vingtons

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Noctura petuntur militia:-the military life is subject to peculiar temptations as well as dangers: but there is no necessity that a soldier should be profligate and irreligious. From the account of Cor. nelius, Acts, x. 1, 2. Mr. Brock addresses the army in a very glowing, serious, and affecting manner; reprobates the fashionable principles of Honour and urges the very perils to which the soldier is exposed, as a peculiar reason for his cultivating a religious state of

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Art. 61. Preached at Knaresborough Aug. 16, 1801, for the
Benefit of the Sunday Schools. By the Rev. Samuel Clapham,
M. A. Vicar of Great Ouseborne, near Knaresborough. 8vo,
IS. Rivingtons.

In addition to charitable exhortation, Mr. Clapham gives his advice respecting the management and superintendance of the children belonging to the Sunday schools, in order that the purposes of those benevolent institutions may be more effectually answered. As there is reason in his remarks, we hope that he will neither preach nor publish in vain.

CORRESPONDENCE.

In answer to A Consant Reader, who objects to our censure on placing the accent on the first syllable of the word conventiele, (Ste Rev. for Feb. p. 133.) we must observe that Shakspeare and Dryden cannot be regarded as authorities for the modern pronunciation of words. Shakspeare, for example, accents òrisons both ways:

"The fair Ophelia !-Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd !"

HAMLET.

"Nay, stay; let's hear the òrisons he makes.”

3 Henry VI.-and elsewhere.

Present custom is the rule, in cases of this kind.

The Chronology of our ephemeral Epic productions is not regulated, in our Review, by the relative date of their subjects, but by the ac tual time of their publication.

Moy.

We cannot pursue the argument with a Well-wisher; and indeed, if what we have already said has produced no conviction on his mind, we must despair of effecting any such change. With regard to a deceased individual, whom he particularizes as a recent subject of our commendation, we may remark that this commendation was bestowed on his literary attainments, amiable manners, and private virtues; and when we spoke of his son, our praise was confined to his possession of abilities, not extended to his political exercise of them on all occasions --In the supplication with which this animated writer closes his letter, we do indeed, as he does us the justice of supposing, most cordially join with him; and we shall be happy if the blessings attendant on its being heard, and granted, should convince him that there is no ground for some of the apprehensions which he enter tains.

In a letter from Mr. Pratt, the author of Bread, or the Poor, a poem, mentioned in our last Review, that gentleman desires to enter his protest' against our conjecture, that imagination had assisted in the drawing of his picture of the poor, in any one trait. In particular, he assures us that the Stratford anecdote is represented without many of the aggravations that might have been added, and is a 3 fact

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fact so generally known, that an inquirer would receive confirmation
of it, at this moment, from the majority of the county.' Mr. P.
adds that he can boldly call on travellers of all denominations, in
proof of his assertion that the cots and cottagers, the little trades
and tradesmen, are in all, yea more than all, the misery and starva.
tion in which he has represented them.'

In a 2d edit. of his poem, Mr. Pratt has transposed its title,
thus; The Poor, or Bread; the former word being deemed most
proper to take the lead, as more expressive of the variety of perma-
nent objects discussed in the work.
G.2.

Mr. Bransby will find that the problem of the Tides was solved by M. La Place, in the Paris Memoirs for 1775. 1776, and 1790; and also in his Mécanique céleste. These works will explain why M. Bernouilli's hypothesis is imperfect, and why M. La Place undertook, on accurate principles, a more complete solution of this problem.-See also the Appendix to our 28th volume, N. S. p. 532.

To C. A. we must repeat the notification so often conveyed to Correspondents, that it is à rule with us not to accept voluntary criticisms on particular works, from unknown hands.

RW.

A Constant Reader writes to us on the subject of a translation of Spallanzani's posthumous work on the Circulation of the Blood. We do not recollect to have heard of such a publication.

Mr. Robinson is informed that his productions will be noticed, as soon as opportunity admits,

Circumstances, which we could not control, have delayed our account of the work which is the object of T. C.'s inquiry but it is not forgotten, nor designed to be overlooked.

A Yorkshire Friend' is received, and will be considered.

:

In the Number for March, p. 270. 1. 16. for xarahhuynva,
read καταλλαγη. P. 317. line penult. for his,' read Dr. Gray's.
P.
318. 1. 259 26. the sentence should begin thus: Had this ar-
gument operated with former writers, Mr. Nisbett would have been
spared,' &c. P. 336. l. 15. put a comma after incumbent.'

The APPENDIX to the xxxviith vol. of the MONTHLY RE
VIEW, New Series, will be published with the Number for MAY.

1.341. C. fr.bott. for printed, r. published.
429.1.29. for war to peace, r. peace to war.
446. l. 8. fr. bott. for "Noctura, r. Nocitura
&C. penult.dele the comme out cultivating.

TO THE

THIRTY-SEVENTH VOLUME

OF THE

MONTHLY REVIEW

ENLARGED.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ART. I. Voyage à la Côte occidentale d'Afrique, &c.; i. e. A Voyage to the Western Coast of Africa, performed in the Years 1786 and 1787; containing a Description of the Manners, Cus toms, Laws, Government, and Commerce of the States of Congo frequented by Europeans; and an Account of the Slave Trave as it existed there before the French Revolution. With a Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, and a Description of the Military Establishment at that Colony. By L. DEGRANDPRÉ, an Officer of the French Marine. Embellished with Views, Charts, and a Plan of the Citadel at the Cape. 8vo. 2 Vols. Paris. 1801. Imported by De Boffe, London. Price 148. sewed.

IT seldom happens to us, in the perusal of a publication, that

the first occasion for remark occurs in the title-page: but, in the present instance, we must begin by observing that the writer of these volumes would have been more correct, if he had been contented with intitling them a Description only; instead of applying the denomination of Voyage to a work which has neither the form nor the substance of a journal or narrative, and in which the voyager scarcely appears, except in the way of occasional anecdote. A false step at the threshold, however, is not always an omen of bad entertainment within; and we believe that the reader will not find it so in this case.

In an avant-propos, the author wastes some time and many pages, in an attack on the notorious impostor Damberger; whom he chastises for various misrepresentations, and for having questioned the reality of le Vaillant's Travels. This suspicion is justly See M. Rev. N. S. Vol. xxxv. p. 247 G&

APP. REV. VOL. XXXVII.

retorted

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retorted on Damberger; who is here accused of ignorance, and of meriting no credit in what he has written concerning the kingdom of Angola.-The following passage, in the succeeding Introduction, promises the world a valuable addition to the knowlege which has been obtained of the interior of Africa: Mungo Park and Browne have attracted the attention of Europe by their excellent travels to the centre of Africa. Le Vaillant, zealous for the glory of his country, is again about to set off in a career which he has so often pursued. It is said that, in his proposed incursion, he intends principally to follow the route of Mungo Park.' There is no reason for apprehending that such a route will not furnish a rich harvest for more than one traveller.

The first volume of this work and a portion of the second are occupied by a description of that part of the Western coast of Africa, which is generally comprehended under the name of the coast of Angola; and which extends from Cape Lopez in o° 44 S. to Ambriz in 7° 20' S. latitude. At a short distance to the south of this, is the Portuguese settlement of St. Paul de Loango; which, the author says, on account of the forbidding reception of strangers by the Portuguese, is seldom visited by the ships of any other nation. The natives themselves give to the whole of the country near the coast, within the above limits, the name of Congo.

M. DEGRANDPRÉ enters early on a defence of the natives of Africa in general against the charge of being cannibals; and he describes the inhabitants of Congo as of a mild, timid, and indolent disposition..

Strange as it may appear, (he says), the very people whom the Europeans reproach with being cannibals urge the same accusation on Europeans; and when any of them are sold to us, they seem to en tertain but one apprehension, that of being eaten. This idea may, indeed, be regarded as presumptive evidence against them: but every thing which they see conduces to fill them with terror. Their fears are confirmed by irons and chains, and by the armed state of prepa ration in which they find us. When they are taken on board, the first objects that meet their eyes are the seamen drinking a red liquor, in appearance resembling blood, and eating meat preserved with salt and salt petre. Alarms, proceeding from such causes, justify no inferences to their prejudice. I traded for 1500 slaves in the year 1787; nearly all of whom I questioned on the subject, and every one shewed signs of horror and disgust when I demanded whether they had eaten human flesh, or had seen it eaten.'

The author calculates that, of 500 slaves bought in Africa, 400 arrive in the West Indies: that one half of those die in three years; and that not more than one quarter of the re mainder leave posterity. Another calculation is made to shew

that,

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