tion it has afforded us ; and we fincerely wifh he may be enabled to prosecute his plan with alacrity: for nothing, we think, could more tend to promote the improvement of agriculture. We have no reason to be partial to this Author, beyond others who daily pafs under our review, having no farther knowledge of him than his works afford; but it is our real opinion, that Britain poffeffes in him a jewel of great value, if fhe knows properly how to avail herfelf of it. A man of learning, activity, caution, acutenefs, folidity of judgment, and unabating ardour in the purfuit and improvement of agriculture, is a phenomenon that may require many ages to produce. To a man of genius, the walk of agriculture is by no means the moft inviting; because his task is not to invent, but to ponder, to fift, and inveftigate particulars, which though important to the profperity of individuals, are by no means productive of eclat to the inveftigator. The task is laborious, the progrefs neceffarily flow, the emoluments- we are afraid to fpeak on that head-and the honour, unless it be from the difcerning few, very inconfiderable. When, therefore, we meet with one who is evidently in every refpect qualified for the undertaking, willingly offering his fervices in that line, we bend with reverence before him, and wish it were in our power to contribute effectually to the profecution of the plans he may form for the public weal.

When Mr. Marshall firft entered on his agricultural career, we admired the excentric boldness of his undertaking, and felt for the disappointments we saw he muft encounter. With a fpirit and intrepid perfeverance that do him the highest honour, he met thefe difficulties, but did not fuccumb. Experience, inftead of difgufting, only checked the ungovernable ardour of enterprize. The additional knowledge he has now acquired, has produced its ufual effect. That petulant forwardness which was at first difgufting, is entirely done away; we now behold only the candid enquirer after truth, and the judicious obferver of men and things and though our Author is as yet evidently a stranger to many important particulars in the practice of agriculture, yet fhould he be permitted to go on in his career, the improvement he will daily make, muft in time enable him to lay before the Public a body of agricultural knowledge which never yet was equalled in any age or country. Under this conviction of mind, we cannot but most heartily wish him all poffible success.

Though our Author has now, in a great measure, laid aside his fondness for new coined words, we ftill meet with a few, such as rootling, feed process, &c. By mifprinting, perhaps, we find luxurious, inftead of luxuriant; and once or twice, laying and laid, for lying and lay. We wish him to avoid fuch blemishes in future.

We obferve that the word flot, which, in the Scottish dialect, means a young caftrated male of the cattle tribe, is invariably

printed

printed Scot; a Highland Scot, Galloway Scot, Ifle of Skye Scot, &c. It is eafy to fee, that Englishmen, not knowing the meaning of the word flot, and thinking they perceived a certain meaning, by converting it into Scot, have been induced to adopt that faulty phrafe; and having once adopted it, they will gradually apply it to females (heifers) as well as males, which is never, to our certain knowledge, done by the Scotch drovers.It is thus that languages are corrupted, and rendered obfcure.

ART. II. The Modern Part of Univerfal Hiftory, from the earliest Accounts to the prefent Time: compiled from original Authors. By the Authors of the Ancient Part. 38 Vols. 8vo. With a Supplement in 4 Vols. 8vo; and the Plates and Maps, 1 Volume Folio. Payne, &c. For the Price, see our Account of the Ancient Part, in our laft Month's Review.

S this part of the Univerfal Hiftory has been amply de

A fcribed by us, when it firft appeared, we think it un

neceffary to trouble our Readers with any farther account of its contents, or the plan on which it is executed: it may be sufficient, for the prefent, to examine into the merits of this new edition, and to point out the alterations that have been made in it. We are told, that the whole work has undergone a laborious and attentive examination; that the plan has been methodized; that fuperfluities have been retrenched; that parts which had been left imperfect, are rendered complete; and that inaccuracies are corrected on the whole, that the work has now acquired fuch extent, in point of fubject, and fuch effential improvements in regard to execution, as will not only obtain the approbation, but fecure the encouragement of the Public, to an undertaking which has been accompanied with almost unprecedented expence.'

The former edition confifted of 44 volumes; this is comprized in 38; befide 4, which are called the Supplement, containing an abridgment of the hiftories of England, Scotland, and Ireland, compiled from the most approved authorities.' From the confiderable reduction of bulk, which the work has fuffered, it appears that many circumftances are omitted which were in the original publication; and although the editors profefs to have made feveral additions, it does not seem that much room has been left for them. We could have wifhed, however, that, in making their retrenchments, the Editors had not expunged fo many paffages which we highly commended in our former account, and which, befides affording the intelligent reader much pleasure, were of great confequence to the learned and more cu

* See Review, vol. xxiii. xxv. xxvi. &c. to xxxviii. where this work was noticed, with peculiar attention, as it was published. rious

9

rious enquirer. For inftance; the difquifition into the origin of the Chinese, we are forry to find is fo much abridged, that it becomes very imperfect and obfcure. The opinion that Noah and Fohi, the fuppofed founder of that empire, were the fame perfon, was ftrenuously and ably fupported; the arguments for it were ingenious, and the reafoning, used to eftablish it, was cogent. On these accounts, we approved of this part of the work, and lamented that our limits would not fuffer us to lay it before our Readers, fince the force of the arguments would have suffered by an abftract. There may, indeed, be many excufes made for this omiffion; fuch as, that it is not fufficiently fupported by written authorities or records; that it is uninteresting to the generality of readers, for whom this publication was principally intended, &c. Yet in the perufal of a work of this kind, where there muft unavoidably be a great fameness, and tedious uniformity, any ingenious enquiry that may either exercise the capacity of the reader, or afford him room to admire the learning of the writer, diverfifies the fcene, and refreshes the wearied

attention.

The omiffion of thefe more curious and philofophical parts of the prefent performance, is the more regretted when we are detained, for feveral volumes together, with numerous and minute descriptions of the inhuman rites and favage cuftoms of the barbarous nations that inhabit the greateft part of Africa. And what is worse, the fame favage nation is defcribed in different places; the Giagas, for inftance, whofe horrid manners are in the highest degree fhocking to humanity, are repeatedly introduced, together with all their abominable rites and ceremonies, the bare recital of which is enough to make even cruelty itself fhudder.

The language in the former edition was by no means fuch as the importance of the work demanded: it was unequal, owing to the variety of authors concerned in the compilation, and in many places, as we formerly obferved, jejune, puerile, and, fometimes, not ftrictly grammatical. In its prefent form, it is greatly altered in these refpects; the faults which we then pointed out have been duly attended to, and the inaccuracies we mentioned are rectified; the who and the which are not confounded, nor have we any account of the Chineses or Japanefes yet we often meet with inelegancies, to call them no worse, as, the king returned without having ftruck a stroke, or done any harm to any the carpenters fhops confift in a mis-fhapen axe, &c. †' both her's and his relations ‡,' with others of a fimilar kind, in abundance. What fhall we fay of the title of + xiii. p. 85.

Vol. xiii. p. 73.

† xiii. p. 80.

the

the 5th S. of chapter lxxvii. The hiftory of the reign of Gustavus to his death ?'

Hiftorians and travellers cannot always be contradicted in their affertions. We are told, that fome of their [the Japanese] fcymetars will cut through an iron bar at one blow, without breaking, or blunting*.'

From thefe and several other paffages of a fimilar kind, it is evident, that the prefent edition might have been much improved; and though juftice obliges us to acknowledge, that the work has received many emendations, yet much more might have been expected. It is a production of great confequence; and therefore we are forry to fee fo useful a performance make its appearance in an unfuitable drefs.

The divifion of the book is, in its prefent form, not the same as in the laft edition; this being only divided into chapters and sections, the whole containing 99 chapters, befide the conclufion, wherein the geography of the globe of the earth is confidered in a new light, with a view to future discoveries. In this long conclufion, we expected to have found fome account of the late difcoveries in the South Seas, especially as there is a minute relation of most of the early circumnavigators. It is furely the bufinefs of editors, in compilements of this kind, to enumerate the discoveries that have been made fince the appearance of former editions, in order to render the book perfect, to the time in which it is republished. If the original authors had brought down their accounts to the latest dates, or, as the title professes, to the present time,' the Editors ought to have added accounts of transactions fubfequent to the first publication of the work, continuing the original, making the performance as complete as the nature of it would admit, and fulfilling the promise in the title-page, of giving an account of all nations, down to the present time. This, however, has not been done; for few of the empires and ftates have their hiftory continued lower than the year 1700, and none later than 1750. The whole of this conclufion might have been very well fpared, for it contains little that was not mentioned in the former part of the work. A geographical description of the country generally employs the first section of the chapter allotted to the hiftory of it; and to give another geographical account of the fame country, pretty nearly in the fame terms, is a repetition totally unneceffary, and tending only to increase the bulk of a work already too voluminous.

One confiderable addition has been made to the original work, viz. a supplement confifting of four volumes, containing a hiftory of Great Britain and Ireland. What materials the Editors have

REV. Aug. 1787.

• Vol. vii. p. 347.

I

employed

employed in this compilation, or what authorities they have followed, we are not informed; but from the attentive perufal we have given it, we do not hesitate to pronounce it a tolerable abridgment of the hiftory of thefe kingdoms. The hiftory of England is brought down to the death of his late Majefty George II, that of Scotland to the year 1707, and that of Ireland to 1691; from which periods, the hiftories of these two kingdoms are naturally blended with that of England. To a general and univerfal hiftory, fuch an addition may by many be thought neceffary; but to English readers, for whom principally this work is intended, it is the lefs neceffary, fince we have fo many good abridgments already publifhed, and fince the biftory of his own country is fuppofed to be known before any reader proceeds to that of foreign kingdoms.

The plates and maps accompanying this Part of the Univerfal Hiftory are not inferted in the places to which they belong, as in the Ancient Part, but are published feparately, in a folio volume. This is much more convenient, as moft of them are on large paper, and the folding into an octavo form is both troublefome, and deftructive to the cuts. They are 26 in number, among which one is a general Chart of the World, according to Mercator's projection, fhewing the lateft difcoveries of Captain Cook: there is alfo a new Map of the United States of America, agreeably to the Peace of 1783: both thefe are neatly executed, and appear to be accurate. All the maps indeed are new, and their accuracy may be (as far as we can difcover, from comparing them with the moft approved ones extant) depended on: a circumftance of much more weight than neatnels of engraving, in which, however, thefe are not deficient.

ART. III. An Historical View of the English Government, from the Settlement of the Saxons in Britain, to the Acceffion of the Houfe of Stewart. By John Millar, Efq. Profeffor of Law in the Univerity of Glasgow. 4to. 18s. Boards. Cadell, &c. 1787.

M

UCH attention and difcuffion have, within our memory, been beflowed on the important and interefting fubject of the English Conflitution; yet there are itill many difficulties attending it, and many parts of it lie in great obfcurity: fo that the endeavours of any writer to clear it from the clouds in which it is enveloped, and to reflect on it an additional degree of light, muft, undoubtedly, confer an obligation on the Public.

To an Englishman, every bock that treats of the government under which he lives, must be interefting. An eloquent and ingenious foreigner has prefented us with a juft view of the conftitution, in its prefent fate; but he has not noticed those pro

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greffive