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on his Majefty, his heirs and fucceffors, fubject to the controul of parliament, and to fatisfy all damages done to the East India Company."

Art. 13. American Independence the Intereft and Glory of Great Britain. In a Series of Letters to the Legislature. 8vo. 1 s. 6 d. Wilkie. 1774.

These letters were feparately published a few months fince. The Writer confiders the American colonies as diftinct independent ftates. His arguments are chiefly derived from the fpirit of our conftitution, and the liberal principles of reafon and equity, on which he contends that communities governed by a power in which they have neither control or participation, are in a ftate of flaveryThat the freedom and happinefs of a people fuperfede every poffible claim of government-That mankind have a better right to preferve their liberties than any power can have to abridge them-That the diftance of the colonies renders it impoffible to govern them by authority of parliament, without fubverting the principles of all free governments, and therefore he propofes, that an act of parliament be paffed, in which the several colonies fhall be all "held and declared to be free independent ftates, each to be subject to fuch law and government only as now fubfifts, or shall be hereafter enacted and conftituted within itself by its own proper legiflature: and that of each and every of the faid independent ftates, his Majefty is and shall be held to be the fovereign head, in like manner as he is of the legiflature of Great Britain."-Dean Tucker, from very oppofite principles, deduces the fame conclufion; and, convinced as he was of a right of fupremacy vefted in parliament over the colonies, he, after difcuffing his feveral propofals, finally concludes the exercife of fuch right to be impracticable, and that, from confiderations of felf-interelt, it is now incumbent on us to renounce the claim to it. Art. 14. A fummary View of the Rights of British America: 8vo. 1 s. 6 d. Kearly. 1774

This fummary was intended to convey to the late convention of the delegates of Virginia the fentiments of one of their members, who was prevented from attending by an accidental illness. It affords a concife and fpirited review of the rights and grievances of the colonies, deduced from their first fettlement, and propofed as the fubject of an address to his Majefty from the several "States of Bri tifh America."

To this pamphlet is prefixed, an addrefs to the King, feverely reflecting on the late meafures of government, and written with much freedom and boldness, but by whom we are not told.

Art. 15. A Letter to Sir William Meredith, Bart. in Answer to his late Letter to the Earl of Chatham *. 8vo. I s. 6 d.

Kearfly.

Sir William Meredith's Correfpondent certainly fucked in his opinion of the Quebec act, at the Cheshire Cheese; the following extract fmells strongly of the porter and tobacco:- This is a legiflature with a vengeance; and yet with all those badges of flavery about

For this Letter, fee Review for Auguft laft, p. 149.

REV. Nov. 1774.

Dd

it,

it, it will appear free as the winds of heaven, when compared with its finished ftate; the devil himself not being able to devife more infernal claufes and provifions than are enacted, to render what is called a legislative council the executive engine of whatever diabolical fchemes the worst of princes may conceive.'

The letter abounds with flowers of the fame fpecies of rhetoric; which, when emphatically delivered by this Demofthenes, with his infpiring tube in one hand, while he thumped the other, with due cadence, on the iron bound table, were doubtlefs anfwered with burfts of applaufe! Such plaudits he may receive undisturbed; and with these he would have been fatisfied, if he had ever read the old fable of The Harper; which is pointed out for his future confideration.

Art. 16. Mr. Edmund Burke's Speeches at his Arrival at Bristol, and at the Conclufion of the Poll. 4to. 6d. Wilkie, 1774. These popular fpecimens of election-eloquence, having greatly attracted the notice of the Public, in their primitive news-paper appearance, the prefent Editor judged them worthy of the more refpectable and more lafting form of a pamphlet.

Art. 17. The Miniftry in the Suds; or, Jack with his Golden Chain in the Parliament-Houfe. In which is prefented to the Public the true State of the Case between Mr. Wilkes and the Minitry. 8vo. 3 d. Bew. 1774.

The wit and humour of this performance are merely typical, î. e. derived from the curious manner in which the pages are printed; one-third of the words are in the Roman character, another third in Italic, and the remainder in CAPITALS: an ingenious device, no doubt. But the credit of it may be due, not to this patriotic genius, but to the political writer in the Public Ledger, from whom he seems to have pilfered it.

DRAMATIC.

Art. 18. Songs, Choruffes,

&c. in the Dramatic Entertainment of The Maid of the Oaks; as performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane. 8vo. 6 d. Becket.

Thefe will be included in our account of the Maid of the Oaks, at large, which is preparing for our next month's Review.

POETICAL.

Art. 19. Juftice; a Poem. 4to. 1 s. 6d. Kearfly. 1774A flaming invective against the prefent government. It is infcribed to a City Magiftrate, and it feems to be city-poetry:

Such trains as SETTLE's felf might deign to hear. Art. 20. A Second Letter from Oberea, Queen of Otaheite, to Jofeph Banks, Efq. Tranflated from the Original. 4to. Is Johnson.

We, probably, owe this wanton piece to the Author of the former Letter; the ftyle and poetical merit being very fimilar: fee Review, vol. xlix. p. 503.

The late Lord-Mayor.

MEDICAL

MEDICA L.

Art. 21. A Letter to Dr. William Hunter, Phyfician Extraordinary to the Queen, Profeffor of Anatomy in the Royal Academy, and Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, on the dangerous Tendency of medical Vanity; occafioned by the Death of the late Lady Holland. By William Rowley, M. D. and Manmidwife. 8vo. Is. Newbery. 1774.

We have had occafion more than once to review the productions of this Writer; but he was then in an humbler character than that which he now fuftains; it was in that of an enterprising surgeon, advertising a great number of cures in cancerous, venereal, and other cafes. We fee him now raised into the higher fphere of medicine; where, however, not being well received by the grandees of the faculty, he challenges one of them to fingle combat: but we fear he will be difcomfited, as his education and training do not feem to have qualified him for making the beft ufe of his weapons.-To drop all metaphor in fo grave a matter as that before us, Dr. Rowley thinks that he has been ill treated by Dr. Hunter, because on his being mentioned at Holland house, Dr. Hunter faid, He thought it would be highly imprudent to admit a ranger; that he [Dr. R.] might increafe her Ladyfhip's pain, and that Dr. Hunter did not think it poffible that any relief could be obtained.'

This certainly was not treating Dr. Rowley in the civileft and kindeft way; but whether he has any reason to complain of an injury feems to us to be somewhat doubtful.

The circumstance on which he lays the greatest stress, is, that he had fucceeded in the case of Miss S. who had been under Dr. Hunter's care, and whom he had given up as incurable. He even hints that Dr. Hunter was acquainted with his fuccefs at the time he prevented his being called in at Holland-Houfe. This is the important point on which the pamphlet should have turned; and it should, therefore, have been stated with clearness and precision. We think Dr. Rowley fails here. If it be, because his infinuation is not true; the refentment which he wants to raise in the Public towards Dr. Hunter will devolve on himself. If it be owing to his not knowing how to express himself on fo plain a fubject, we are forry that his acceffion of dignity has not introduced him among scholars who would have given him a little affiftance. The Reader will judge for himself in this cafe.

After having given an account of the fteps which Dr. Smith of Oxford, Dr. Hunter, and Dr. Fothergill had unfuccessfully taken, he plumes himself on his own fuccefs, and then adds, the lady continues in perfect health, can ride on horseback, walk up an afcent, and can use any exercife without the leaft inconvenience whatsoever. You was well acquainted, Sir, with my being confulted in the cafe of Mifs S. You vifited that lady in Tavistock-street, after she became my patient. Upon your inquiring of Capt. S. whether I had pofitively pronounced the cafe curable, you was informed, that I made no pofitive affertions, but expreffed fome hopes of fuccefs. To this anfwer you honourably replied, "that you thought I had acted like a man of candour and judgment." You was likewife well acquainted

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with my fuccefs in the cafe of Mifs S. at the time I was propofed to be confulted by Lady Holland's friends; and you have seen the lady (Mifs S.) in perfect health fince the cure has been effected.' Dr. Rowley feems to be fufficiently inaccurate, as a writer, to have made the mistake in the last sentence involuntarily: but we are afraid it is a ftudied period, and that it contains bona fide, a falfehood. It is true that Dr. Hunter faw the patient (Mifs S.) after her cure; but it was not before Lady Holland's death: it was only a few days before this publication; and we now understand that the lady was fhewn to Dr. Hunter, that Dr. Rowley might have it to fay, be bad feen ber, and bad reafon to think he was well; and by confounding the tenfes of his verbs make the reader think it was before, when it was fome time after Lady Holland's death. If this fhall be found to be altogether the cafe, fuch procedure will certainly be deemed illiberal, unmanly, and ungentlemanlike; and the candid reader will refent it accordingly.

For what Dr. Rowley fays in regard to Lady Holland's cafe, and to the manner in which her diforder was treated by the learned phyficians before named, we must refer to his pamphlet. Art. 22. The Commentaries upon the Aphorifms of Dr. Herman Boerhaave, the late learned Profeffor of Phyfic in the University of Leyden, concerning the Knowledge and Cure of the feveral Difeafes incident to Human Bodies. By Gerard Van Swieten, M. D. Tranflated into English. Vols. XV.—XVIII. 8vo. 11. 4s. bound. Horsfield.

1773.

Thefe four volumes complete the English translation of Baron Van Swieten's most valuable work. They comprehend his fifth (and laft) volume in quarto. See Appendix to Review, vol. xlvii. p. 552. They contain the commentaries on the Small-Pox, Epidemic Difeafes, the Stone, the Venereal Disease, the Rickets, the Rheumatism, and Boerhaave's Materia Medica; or prefcriptions adapted to his Aphorifms concerning the knowledge and cure of difeafes; intended as a Supplement to Van Swieten's Commentaries: amended and revised from his own copy.There is alfo, in the 18th volume, a copious General Index to the whole fet; befide an Index of Diseases, an Index of the Indications and Forms, and an Alphabetical Lift of the numerous Authors cited in the courfe of this work

Art. 23. Obfervations on Antimony, read before the Medical Society of London, and published at their Requeft. By John Millar, M. D. 8vo. 25. Johnfon. 1774.

In this pamphlet Dr. Miliar takes abundant pains to difabuse the public, with refpect to their belief of the perfect innocence and fuperlative efficacy of Antimony; which he reprefents as one of the most dangerous delufions of the prefent age.' To fupport and aggravate the charge against this mineral, he accumulates teftimonies, ancient and modern, to prove that its ores contain arfenic, and fometimes lead; to which may be added copper, filver, and other heterogeneous, and not very falutary fubftances. But as nobody fwallows the ore of this mineral, he proceeds to thew that even the

*This wants proof.

Antimony

Antimony of the fhops may fometimes poffibly excite tumults in the ftomach, in confequence of the menftrua it may meet with there.

But granting,' fays the Author, that there is no arfenic in Antimony, it cannot be affirmed that it does not contain poison, fince by unfolding its texture by the force of fire, it is rendered highly virulent; and by the addition of various fubftances, in the ftomach, it becomes violently emetic.'

A common reader would imagine, that the Author was going to communicate to the world fome hitherto unknown proofs of the extence of a poison in this mineral, which is brought to light, or into activity, by the force of fire.' Nothing more however is meant by this tremendous term, poifon, to which the reader foon becomes familiarifed by the frequent ufe of it throughout this effay, than that the Regulus, or the metallic, and only active part of this mineral, is, by the force of fire,' difengaged from its other conftituent principle, the fulphur, and is poffefied of a violent emetic quality, even when exhibited in a small dofe.-But furely there is no occafion for all the Author's parade of quotation, and exuberance of poof, to inform us that pure Antimony, a fubftance fo mild and innoxious in its crude ftate, contains a principle which, when let loofe, requires fome dif cretion in the management and use of it; nor are they by any means fufficient to convince us, that on account of the activity of this principle, we fhould dread and avoid it as a poifon. For reafons nearly fimilar, opium, mercury, and other powerful drugs might be reject ed from practice; for they two are poifons in the hands of the ignorant and indifcreet.

After the clofe of his long hiftorical account of the opinions and practices of others relating to this drug, the Author gives us the refult of his own experience of it; and after aftonishing us with three inftances of extraordinary cures performed by it, he astonishes us no lefs by immediately adding that he has fince used it in many thousand cafes, but never, even in flighter difeafes, with the fame fuccefs ;that it generally failed, where milder medicines have proved effectual, and in fome inftances has been prejudicial.'-We must leave the reader to form his own opinion, from this refult of Dr. Millar's experience.

Though we must condemn the Author's exaggerated reprefenta tions of the dangers attending the ufe of a medicine, which, notwithstanding its anomalies or inequalities, is daily used with fafety and advantage by thofe who are qualified to difpenfe it; yet we must acknowledge that a temperate inquiry into its febrifuge or other powers, (which poffibly may have been too highly rated) and the recommending a proper degree of caution in the exhibition of it, are peculiarly feasonable at this time: when certain feeret and fafhionable preparations of this mineral are liberally difpenfed, and

That mineral fulphur has a power of correcting poison,' the Author fays, is clearly proved by experiment;' for arfenic, he adds, the greatest poifon,' is rendered almoft harmless by being combined with this fubitance, which, in confequence of the Author's lax phrafeology, is here erroneously reprefented as an univerfal antidute,

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