Art. 33. A Sermon preached before the University of Cambridge, by H.W. C-T, D. D. &c. Published by Request, and now (for the sake of Freshinen and the Laity) translated into English Metre by H. W. Hopkins, A. M. 8vo. 13. 6d. Kearsley. 1797. This jeu d' esprit, with much humour, and the merit of easy and familiar versification, laughs at the high-church doctrines, and the pious fears respecting the overthrow of church and state, supposed by the author to be predominant in the universities, and productive of much eloquence from the pulpits in those seminaries of learning and 'morals. We consider ourselves as concerned only with the literary merits of the composition, and by no means as deciding on its value as a political tract. Whether the author alludes to any particular sermon or sermons, we are not informed; or whether his verses are merely a vehicle for satire in the form of irony, we do not determine. The following passage will give the reader a notion of the writer's mode of thinking and of treating his subject.

Art. 34

Sure never was there Politician

So despicable a Logician,
So little backney'd in the ways
Of man, in these and former days,
As to suppose that human Fools
Could govern'd be by Reason's rules,
So pure, so naked, and so plain.
No, nothing like it :-present pain,
Or present pleasure, Hope and Fear,
Are the great powerful Levers here,
Which when an able statesman uses,
He moves the mass which way he chuses.'

My Night-Gown and Slippers; or Tales in Verse. Writ ten in an Elbow-Chair, by George Colman, the Younger. 4to. PP. 33. 2s. 6d. Cadell jun. and Davies. 1797.

The occasion, birth, and parentage of this publication are thus set forth, in the jocular preface:

The song of the Maid of the Moor,' the 'Newcastle Apothecary, and Lodgings for fingle Gentlemen,' are slip-shod Tales, written for an Entertainment which I proposed to offer to the Public, at the Haymarket Theatre, during Lent; and two of them were intended to be spoken, (read them, therefore, with a view to recitation) and the third to be sung, as light matter, calculated to relieve the gravity of a didactick performance.

• The whole performance (for reasons unnecessary to mention, here) was relinquished:

But, as it is my custom to avoid the accumulation of my own papers, in my Bureau, I hold it more adviseable to print my three Stories (light as they are) than to burn them.'

These poetic Bijoux are very laughable, and have awakened in us a lively and fond recollection of our pleasant, witty, and very ingenious associate, the author's father; for whose loss we have not yet met with a full compensation :-but our call, at the present moment, is not to lament, but to laugh,—as will all our readers, who have

any

any risibility about them, on perusing the following specimen of the present merry publication:

LODGINGS for SINGLE GENTLEMEN: a Tale.

• Who has e'er been in London, that overgrown place,

Has

66 seen

Lodgings to Let" stare him full in the face:
Some are good, and let dearly; while some, 'tis well known,
Are so dear, and so bad, they are best let alone.

Derry down.
Will Waddle, whose temper was studious, and lonely,
Hired lodgings that took Single Gentlemen, only;
But Will was so fat he appeared like a ton ;-
Or like two Single Gentlemen, roll'd into One.
He entered his rooms; and to bed he retreated,
But, all the night long, he felt fever'd and heated;
And, though heavy to weigh, as a score of fat sheep,
He was not, by any means, heavy to sleep.

Next night 'twas the same;-and the next ;-and the next;
He perspired like an ox; he was nervous, and vex'd;
Week passed after week; till, by weekly succession,
His weakly condition was past all expression.

In six months, his acquaintance began much to doubt him;
For his skin," like a lady's loose gown," hung about him;
He sent for a Doctor: and cried, like a ninny,

"I have lost many pounds-make me well-there's a guinea.”
The Doctor look'd wise :-" a slow fever," he said:
Prescribed sudorificks, and going to bed.

"Sudorificks in bed," exclaimed Will" are humbugs
"I've enough of them there, without paying for drugs."
Will kick'd out the Doctor :-but when ill indeed,'
E'en dismissing the Doctor don't always succeed;
So, calling his host,-he said,-" Sir, do you know,
"I'm the fat Single Gentleman, six months ago?"
"Look'e, landlord, I think" argued Will, with a grin,
"That with honest intentions you first took me in ;"
"But from the first night-and to say it I'm bold"-
"I have been so damn'd hot, that I'm sure I caught cold.”
Quoth the landlord-" till now, I ne'er had a dispute;
I've let lodgings ten years-I'm a Baker to boot;
In airing your sheets, Sir, my wife is no sloven,
And your bed is immediately-over my Oven."

"The Oven!!!" says Will-says the host, "why this passion?"
"In that excellent bed died three people of fashion.

Why so crusty, good sir?" "Zounds!"-cries Will in a taking,
"Who wouldn't be crusty, with half a year's baking?"
Will paid for his rooms; cried the host, with a sneer,
"Well, I see you've been going away half a year,"
"Friend, we can't well agree"-" yet no quarrel"-Will said;
"For one man may die where another makes bread."

The naïveté and drollery of the versification of the foregoing ballad will naturally remind our readers of Prior's humorous detail of his jour

ney to Down-Hall, accompanied by his friend Morley the famous land-jobber. Art. 35. Utrum Horum: a Comedy of Two Acts. As it is now acting with great Applause, at the respective Theatres of London and Amsterdam. 8vo. IS. Murray. 1797.

If this slight production, which the author dignifies with the title of COMEDY, be entitled to no great praise as a dramatic composition, it has the merit of good intent, manifested in the just reprehension of vicious pleasure, and in the allowable ridicule which the writer has thrown on the woeful state of liberty and equality in Holland, under the patronage of France. By way of contrast to the domineering Frenchman who fraternizes with the Dutch citizens, the honest character and spirit of our English tars are represented, with a degree of humour which contributes to enliven, and is indeed the life of, the performance.

Art. 36. The Castle of Olmutz'; a Poem. Inscribed to La Fayette. 4to. 2s. 6d. Kearsley. 1797.

The story of the Marquis de la Fayette, from the commencement of his campaigns in America to his confinement as a state prisoner in the Castle of Olmutz, is here related*. The poet laments the hard fate of this gallant soldier, in strains guided rather by TRUTH than inspired by THE MUSE;a detail more faithful than fanciful. The praises of Louis XVI. are intermingled with those of the hero whose misfortunes are the mam subject; the General being considered as the sincere friend of that ill-fated monarch.

Art. 37. The Lamentation of a Dog, on the Tax, and its Consequences; addressed to the Right Hon. William Pitt. With Notes, by Scriblerus Secundus. 4to. Is. Symonds, &c. 1796.

The dog-tax is the object of this satiric performance; in which the poet seems to be so much at a loss to determine whether he should most aim at humour or pathos, that sometimes the two qualities are so intermingled that it appears rather difficult to separate them. On the whole, however, we are persuaded that the poem comes from no vulgar hand. The notes may, at least, serve to shew the author's reading, and how adroitly he can quote Greek and Latin. The Scaith of France; or, the Death of Sť. Just and his Son, a Poem, By E. Smith, Esq. Author of William and Ellen, &c. 12mo. 6d. Jordan. 1797.

Art. 38.

We did not much admire William and Ellen; (see Rev. N. S. vol. axi. p. 467;) as to this publication, it will add little to the writer's fame, if he obtained any in consequence of his former production. Art. 39. A Political Eclogue. Citizen H. T***e, Citizen T**rn*Y, R.B. Esq. 4to. Is. 6d. Fry. 1797.

An election squib. The spirit of party [ministerial party] which animates it is violent: but the spirit of the poetry is excellent.-A

We rejoice at the information, imparted to us by the newspa that M. de la Fayette has been liberated from Olmutz, through he interference of the victorious Buonaparte.

pers,

humorous

humorous print, engraved in the true electioneering style, is prefixed; highly burlesquing the populace, drawing citizen T**rn*y through the Borough of Southwark, to the Grove-house at Camberwell. Art. 40. The Times; or a Fig for Invasion. A Musical Entertain, ment. By a British Officer. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Becket. This is a political drama, recommending the prosecution of the war. One Englishman kills two Frenchmen (the usual number is three); a parrot sings God save great George our King; and the last scene concludes with expressing a trust that we shall thus ever carry on the war.' We doubt not the good intentions of this officer, but we cannot compliment either his philosophy, or his dramatic abilities. Art. 41. Poems, by Joseph Cottle. Second Edition, with Additions. 12mo. Pp. 200. 4s. Boards. Robinsons. Of the former edition of these poems, which were published without the author's name, we gave our readers an account in the Review. for August, 1796. The additions to the present impression consist of two pieces, entitled, Ricardo and Cassandra, and Lee Boo; the sentiments of which are particulaaly entitled to our approbation.-Of Mr. Cottle's poetic talents, we briefly delivered our opinion in the article quoted above,

MEDICAL and CHEMICAL,

Art. 42. Descriptive Account of a new Method of treating old Ulcers in the Legs. By Thomas Baynton, Surgeon of Bristol. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Robinsons. 1797.

As ulcers of the legs, notwithstanding the various improvements in their treatment which have been proposed of late years with great confidence, still frequently remain obstinate and unyielding, a new method, superior in its success, and easy to be put in practice, cannot fail to attract the attention of surgeons, if properly authenticated. The writer of the present pamphlet appears to have every claim, from education, experience, and candour, to a hearing on the subject from his brother practitioners; and after having explained, in a few words, the essential part of his proposed method, we shall refer to the work itself for the cases and reasonings by which it is supported. Mr. B.'s mode differs from the common application of tight bandage only in the use of slips of sticking plaster, by which the sound skin from the opposite sides of the ulcer is made to approximate, and in a free employment of cold spring water to wet the bandage and dressings. The manner of applying the slips of plaster is by cutting. them of lengths sufficient to pass quite round the limb, with about four inches to spare. They are first to be placed with their middle on the part of the limb opposite to the sore, and the ends are then to: be drawn round across the sore with as much force as can be borne, and the whole ulcer is to be covered with these slips from below up.. wards, including an inch of sound skin each way. After this, pieces. of soft callico, doubled, are to be laid over the part, and a long callico bandage is to be applied round the whole limb from the foot to the knee; and these are to be kept frequently wetted over the sore by cold water poured from a tea-pot. It is to the contraction of the granulations

granulations from the pressure, and the gradual approach of the skin, that Mr. B. attributes the principal effect of this method; and he gives some reasoning from Mr. J. Hunter's ideas on this subject. He has also some remarks on the effect of the abstraction of heat by the cold water; and these he might have farther enforced by reference to Mr. Rigby's ingenious essay on Animal Heat, which contains some remarkable instances of the cure of ulcers by the constant application of cold water alone.

The cases adduced by Mr. B. are very striking and indubitable proofs of the efficacy of his method; and we cannot hesitate in recommending a perusal of the whole tract to our medical readers. Art. 43. Suggestions for the Improvement of Hospitals, and other charitable Institutions. By William Blizard, F. R.S. & F.A.S. 8vo. 38. 6d. Boards. Dilly. 1796.

This volume begins with Reflections on the Subject of Assistant Surgeons to Hospitals, originally written when such an appointment was in agitation at the London Hospital. The arguments here adduced in its favour are judicious, but sufficiently obvious. The next section contains Remarks concerning Circumstances of Distress not within the Provisions of Hospitals, with the Address and Regulations of the Samaritan Society. To those who wish to augment their modes of doing good, the condition of the families of hospital patients, and of many of the patients themselves when discharged, affords a variety of cases for the beneficial exercise of their liberality; and the Samaritan Society here described, and particularly attached to the London Hospital, may advantageously be imitated by the supporters of any other institution of the kind.

Cursory Observations relative to Hospitals occupy the greatest part of the volume. These relate to their site, mode of building, ventilation, diet, management, and other circumstances on which their salubrity and use principally depend. Though they are justly denominated cursory, and display no great connection nor profundity of thought, yet, as proceeding in many instances from the dictates of real experience, and breathing a spirit of enlightened humanity, they are worthy of the attention of all who are concerned in the success of these institutions. The writer acknowleges frequent obligations to the excellent Mr. Howard for suggestions under this head.

Propositions for promoting the Usefulness and Propriety of Hospitals and other Public Charities form the last article. The first of these propositions is for triennial parochial sermons and collections from house to house in London, and within seven miles round, for the benefit of these institutions. Whether this would not look too much like a compulsory mode of enforcing charity, and take from the contributors that choice and distinction respecting the objects which are necessary to interest them in their real success, and which ought to be exerted, we think may not improperly be questioned: the fault of the spirit of charity, in this country, is not that it is slack, but that it is heedless, and perhaps too fond of novelty; and Mr. B. himself seems sensible that the attention and superintendence of individuals are often more wanted than their money. The second proposition is for the appointment of representatives of the several hospitals and

other