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sany. By the Abbé D. SESTINI, Vols. I. II. III. Svor Florence. 1780. The objects that are attentively paffed in review, in these Letters, are the natural hiftory, antiquities, cuftoms, arts, and commerce of the countries from whence the ingenious Traveller writes, and his relations are compofed with fimplicity, candour, and accuracy. Thefe three volumes carry the Reader no further than Sicily. The eleven firft letters contain an account of the Author's voyage from Florence to Catana, of the inhabitants and curiofities of this latter city, and more especially of the celebrated collection of antiquities and narural hiftory belonging to the prince Bifcaris, who has chofen our Abbé for his library keeper and antiquarian. The twelfth and thirteenth letters, which conclude this volume, treat of the amber and grain in Sicily.-The fecond volume contains eleven Letters, in which, among other things, the Author treats of the cultivation of the pistachio-nut, of its commerce, of the moft remarkable plants that grow in the environs of Taormina, Camerino, and Centorbi, of the afh trees and the manna they yield, as alfo of the olive-trees, and the manner of making oil. We find, likewife, in this volume a differtation of Dr. Tozzetti, on two publications of Father Cupani, the titles of which are Orto Catolico, and Pamphyton.The principal contents of the third volume are a relation of two voyages to Mount Etna, accompanied with feveral obfervations on that famous volcanoan account of the Kali of Sicily, of its almond-trees, mulberrytrees, faffron, filk-worms, and other natural productions of that ifland, as alfo of the antiquities of Syracufe. The Public may expect to be entertained, fome time hence, with letters written by this learned Abbé from other parts of the world, as he is actually travelling upon an extenfive plan, defigning, after having paffed through Walachia, and Crim Tartary, to vifit several provinces of Afia and Africa.

X. Storia della Letteratura Italiana; i. e. An Hiftory of Ra lian Literature. By JEROME TIRABOSCHI, Librarian to the Duke of Modena, and Profeffor in the Univerfity of that City. Vol. VIII. 4to. Modena. 1780. This eighth and laft volume of the Abbé TIRABOSCHI's ample work contains the literary hiftory of the feventeenth century, and is not inferior in merit to the preceding volumes, which have been mentioned in the courfe of our Journal.

Rifleffioni imparziali sopra l'umanita degli Spagnuoli, &c. i. e. Impartial Reflexions upon the HUMANITY of the Spaniards in the Weft Indies, defigned to refute fome pretended Philofophers and political Writers, and to clear up feveral Things in the Hiftories of the Abbé Raynal, and Dr. Robertfon. By the Abbé Don JUAN NUIX. 12mo. Venice. 1781. We remember to have read, feveral years ago, an elaborate and fpirited DEFENCE of

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the maffacre that was perpetrated in France on St. Bartholo mew's day, and which, in the joint opinion of all fects and parties in fucceeding times, has been confidered as one of the moft execrable fcenes that ever difgraced human nature. The defender of this maffacre was the Abbé Caveyrac; and the exiftence of his book fhews, that things in appearance impoffible, have really happened, and may happen again. This confideration modifies, fomewhat, the inexpreffible aftonishment we fhould have otherwife felt, in feeing the eighteenth century. produce à vindication of the HUMANE conduct of the Spaniards in the Weft Indies, by a fecond Abbé de Caveyrac, under the denomination of JUAN NUIX. It is true (and candour obliges us to acknowledge it), that the enterprize of M. NUIX is much lefs indecent than that of M. Caveyrac; for the latter acknowledged the French murder, and juftified it: whereas the former puts a negative on the records of hiftory, and pretends that the cruelty of the Spaniards has been exaggerated even by Dr. Robertfon. This, however, is a new matter of furprize; for, if we are not iftaken, the Door has been accufed, by others, of rather foftening by gentle fhading, than expreffing with strong colouring the Spanifh exploits of conqueft and converfion. Be this as it may, M. NUIx, who is a knowing man, and a writer of uncommon merit with respect to ftile and energy, maintains, with a brazen intrepidity, the five following points :-ift, that the cruelties imputed to the Spaniards are falfe, or have been exaggerated by relations and witneff's that deserve but little credit. 2dly, that the violent encroachments of the Spaniards upon the liberty and poffeffions of the Indians are groundiefs calumnies: (bravo!)-3ly, that the acts of violence committed by the Spaniards (we thought from the preceding article that they had committed none) were much lets confiderable than might have been expected in their circumftances, and than thote which had been practifed by other nations:- 4 bly, that these acts of violence were the crimes of particular pans, and were always condemned by the government, and by the nat 5thly, that all the fufferings of the Americans were cundantly compenfated by the fignal advantages they enjoy & under the dominion of the Spaniards.We do not recollect, in the courfe of our reading, any thing like thefe five audacious here given to the faith of hiftory. It is true, they rehom I againit himfelf, and it were to be wifhed, that he felt them; a man muft fcarcely be fufceptible of any in enuous feeling who, to juftify the ungrateful conduct of Ferdinand, King of Spain, to Columbus, covers the latter with invectives, and frys that he was rather the oppreffor, than the difcoverer of starrica. The Abbé Nuix has parts and talents, but he employs unem Strangely. XI. Saggio

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XI. Saggio Orittografico, &c. i. e. An Ory&tographical Effay, or Obfervations on the Nautilitic and Ammonitic Earths of Tuscany, together with a philofophical Table of small teftaceous Animals and other Marine Fofils found in that Duchy, to illuftrate the Work By Father Don AMBROZE SOLDANI. 4to. 146 Pages, enriched with 25 Plates. Florence. 1780. One of the principal objects which the learned Author of this work has in view, is, to make known the natural productions which exift in feveral parts of Tuscany, more efpecially thofe ftones and earths, which contain the remains of a prodigious number of marine bodies, teftaceous, cruftaceous, and zoophytical. Among the various Strata obfervable in the province of Sienna, there is a remarkable difference, with refpect to the quantity of marine infects and fhell-fith, which they contain. The cornua ammonis (called fnake-ftones by the common people) are fo numerous, that Janus Planeus counted above 6700 in fix ounces of mud taken from the borders of the fea of Rimini: this, however, is but little in comparison with the discovery of our Author, who, in in a tufa-earth of the fame weight counted 8000, befides a multitude of fmall teftaceous infects, whofe numbers could not be reckoned without the affiftance of a microscope. After having divided into twelve portions, the remainder of the earth from which he had extracted the larger cornua ammonis, the Abbé SOLDANI found in one of these portions nautilufes, and fmaller cornua, amounting together to 1200; and the result of his calculation comes to this, that the fix ounces of tufa-earth already mentioned, muft have contained above 22400 of thefe little animals. How furprifing foever this calculation may appear, it will not feem incredible to those who confider, what a prodigious quantity of thefe minute beings pafs through a paper in which holes have been made with a needle of the smallest kind. One of the most natural and evident confequences, that the Abbé SOLDANI deduces from his obfervations and experiments, is, that this whole country was formerly covered by the fea.

XII. Nuove Sperienze Idrauliche, &c. i. e. New Hydraulic Experiments, made on Canals and Rivers, in order to afcertain the principal Laws and Phenomena of running Water. By the Abbé LEONARD XIMENES, Mathematician to his R, H. the Grand Duke of Tufcany, Correfpondent Member of the Royal Aca demy of Sciences of Paris, &c. In 4to. 324 Pages. Sienna. 1780. This work is defigned to throw new light on the theory of hydraulics, which has hitherto been principally founded on hyptheles. Experience is our Author's guide. To know the velocities with which fluids move from their furface to their bottom (in which motion there are feveral variations) is abfolutely necessary, in order to take with accuracy, the dimensions of running waters. If, in the whole mafs of the fluid, its motion

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were uniform and permanent, thefe dimenfions would be attended with no fort of difficulty; but the different velocities that have been observed in different parts of the current, have, more or lefs, embarraffed this matter. It is true, laws and curves have been employed by learned men to exprefs, more effectually," the degrees and proportions of thefe velocities; but as these laws and curves, according to our Author, require the confirmation of experience, that fo theory may agree with practice, he has conftructed a machine which is adapted to convey juft ideas of the different velocities in running waters; this machine he calls ventola Idraulica, on account of its refemblance of the weathervanes, that indicate the direction of the wind: as it yields with facility to the action of the fluid, it afflifts the obferver in making a just estimate of the force and degree of impulfions, whether direct or oblique; and, when plunged at different depths it fhews the degrees and variations of velocity in the whole mafs of a river or a canal. The defcription of this machine, and an enumeration of the experiments which the Author made on three different currents, occupy the first part of this work; the second contains an explication of thefe experiments; the third treats of all the questions, relative to the theory of hydraulics, and the application of this theory to practice,

SWITZERLAND.

XIII. Oeuvres de M. Etienne Falconet, Statuaire, &c. i, e. The Works of STEPHEN FALCONET, Statuary, 6 Vols. in 8vo. Laufanne. 1781. Price 15 Livres (or 14 Shillings), This Author is the ingenious Artift, whom the Empress of Ruffia employed to model and caft the equeftrian ftatue of PETER the Great. Though more recommendable as an artist than as an author; he is far from being contemptible in the lat ter quality; but also far from being a first-rate writer, The collection he here prefents to the Public, contains Differtations on feveral branches of the fine arts, Some of these pieces were published before, at different times, fuch as his Reflexions on Sculpture-his Obfervations on the Horfe of the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Antoninus, and his Translation of Three Books of Pliny's Natural Hiftory, relative to the arts, which he partly illuftrated, and partly criticized in a multitude of elaborate notes. He was criticized in his turn, and that feverely. His tranflation of Pliny, and his notes upon that author, laid him more particularly open to cenfure; as the former betrayed a very confiderable ignorance of the Latin language, and the latter difcovered, in many places, a want of judgment, a petulan fpirit of fingularity and contradiction, and an arrogant tone of fuperiority and felf-fufficiency. The critical rod feemed, however, not to have administered its correction in vain :he acknowledged the turpitude of his tranflation, and vamped,

or got it vamped up anew, and gave it again to the Public,
which received it with indulgence, and judged it tolerable in
its new form. He corrected alfo his notes, and foftened the af-
perity of his critical tone. All these publications make a new ap-
pearance in the collection now before us, and are farther revised,
corrected, and improved. They contain, certainly, a multitude
of entertaining and inftructive facts, anecdotes, and obferva-
tions, relative to the fine arts, and therefore deserve a place in
the libraries of the virtuofi. Subjoined to this collection, we
obferve a work of a different nature, which is now published
for the first time. Its title is, Letters to Pofterity, and it con-
tains the fubftance of a correspondence that paffed between our
Author, and the loquacious philofopher Diderot, concerning
the regard which is due to the judgment of pofterity. Whe-
ther the two writers will appear before that tribunal, or not,
is a queftion we do not pretend to determine; -'tis probable
they will, as the one is mounted on the equeftrian ftatue of
Peter the Great, which is compofed of hard metal, and the other
has nestled his name in the enormous encyclopedie, which will
naturally roll down, by its immense weight, to future ages,
М-с

MONTHLY CATAL O G U E,
For OCTOBER, 1781.

MILITARY.

Art. 11. Brief Confiderations on the Expediency of a Plan for a
Corps of Light Troops, to be employed on Detached Service in the
Eaft Indies. By James Kirkpatrick, Efq; Lieutenant Colonel in
the East India Company's Service. 8vo. 1s. Debret, &c. 1781.

THE

HIS propofal was first published about 12 years ago, without the Author's name; and was mentioned in the 41ft volume of our Review, p. 395. Colonel Kirkpatick informs us, in the Advertifement prefixed to the prefent edition, that it would still have remained in the oblivion to which it has long fince been configned, if certain recent events on the Coast of Coromandel, which in fome measure seem to have been predicted in it, bad not made its republication as appofite to the prefent, as its first appearance was to the past, period.'-Indeed, the ingenious Author (who, we find, underftands the ufe of the pen as well as the fword) feems to have written almost prophetically in the year 1769; as events have fince happened, in the Eaftern world, which ftrongly evince the expediency of his plan, by way of preventing fuch mischiefs as have been done in the Carnatic, by the depredations of Heider Ally Karn*: and which, according to

our

It appears, that our difcerning Author was well aware, even so long ago as the year 1769, of the true character of Heider Ally

Kawn,

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