to supply the place intended for whom, M. de V. was invited over. We now meet with an extract of not fewer than a dozen pages from Mr. Coxe's travels, which the writer calls a réchauffé historique. We thought that it might be possible to find, in some part of the third volume, (which relates the amours of Catharine,) a passage or two to have extracted, as affording either information or entertainment; but, after a careful perusal, nothing appears besides what is too gross or otherwise too contemptible for insertion. On the whole, the former part of the first volume may possibly be taken from the papers of some ill-informed and incompetent reporter, who perhaps was at Petersburg during the time of the revolution in 1762: but all the rest is a coarse manufacture from works already before the public, interspersed with anecdotes void of foundation, and observations destitute of common sense. With regard to the embellishments, which are neatly engraved, the frontispiece to the first volume is inscribed Peter III. assassinated by the orders of his wife Catharine II.' The scene is passing in a strong vaulted dungeon; whereas every body knows that Ropscha, where Peter III. met with his death, was a small wooden hunting-box, a few versts from Oranienbaum, afterward converted into a linen bleachery, and since entirely demolished. The chamber was not very large, being only about 30 feet by 20; and many people still remember the emperor's little iron bedstead, with green silk curtains in one corner, with his slippers, morning gown, &c. as they had last been used; and have taken particular notice of a musket-ball sticking in the beam which passed across the ceiling. The frontispiece to the second volume has under it, Pugatshef causes Charlef to be hanged in presence of his wife.' Here we have the magnificent edifices of a large town of Italy or France, with the costumes of no country on earth, to represent the interior of a miserable fort in the regions of the Ural.-The third and last decorations is, Catharine II. goes to visit Potemkin in his hermitage.' In this picture, the sudden exclamation of the prince, in a fit of the spleen, that he would turn monk, has ingeniously produced a cell with wooden chairs, death's head, a crucifix, sandals, rope-girdle, cowl, &c. and two ladies entering in grand negligé; all to embellish a story that never had even the slightest foundation in fact. ART. T..ki ART. III. Essai sur les Antiquités du Nord, &c. i. e. Essay on the Antiquities of the North, and on the Antient Northern Languages. By CHARLES POUGENS, Member of the National Insti tution of Bologna, and of the Philotechnic Society of Paris. 8vo. pp. 152. Printed for and sold by the Author at Paris. 1799. London, imported by De Boffe. THIS HIS is the second edition of what the author calls only a fragment of his philosophical history of antient and modern languages, designed to be prefixed to a dictionary of the French tongue, on which he has been labouring during twenty years.We are glad to find that philology continues to be cultivated in France, in spite of the various revolutions which that country has experienced, and amid the din of arms and the horrors of war. We feared that polite literature would be totally neglected, and that the Muses would quit a country of republicans, who talked so much of liberty, equality, and the rights of men: but we gladly find that this has not been the Excellent works in every branch of learning have appeared within the course of the last six years; and the present publication is a proof that lexicography is not neglected. case. Philosophers and men of letters (says the author) have long wished for a complete dictionary of the French language. To the labours of the Academy, all paid due homage: but it was observed with pain that this justly celebrated society had confined the various acceptations of words to phrases of pure invention, instead of extending their meaning by quotations from the great writers who have illustrated the language, and pointing out the different shades which men of genius have assigned to the same word.—It was also complained, by persons of taste, that a third part of the work was employed in recording a number of obsolete proverbs and idioms; and may we not add that, notwithstanding the important melioration effected by the learned men who had the care of the edition lately published, this new impression answers not entirely the expectations of either natives or strangers.-Shall the French nation, then, be the only one without a complete Lexicon? The Italians have their Vocabulary of Crusca in six folio volumes; in which, after good definitions, we find a just arrangement of all the various acceptations of which each word is susceptible, accompanied by examples from the best classics of Italy.-On this model, the Academy of Madrid composed their Dictionary in six volumes in folio; of which a new edition, considerably augmented, is now preparing for the press.-The Portuguese, although almost without literature, have a Vocabulary in ten volumes;-and England, which before 1755, had only a dry and defective nomenclature, has found in Johnson alone, without any cooperator, a man who has enriched his country with a dictionary in which are found at once, the etymology of words, their definition, Johnson's etymologies are often false, and for the most part Borrowed from Junius and Skinner. Rev. and and the illustration of them, by quotations from the best English writers. Jealous of the superiority of other nations in this respect, I imagined that I alone also might, by exerting still more pains and perseverance than Johnson, adopt and (perhaps) perfect his plan.-It was towards the end of 1776, that I began to lay the foundation of this laborious undertaking; and since that time, I have been totally occupied about the means of executing it. I have visited a great part. of Europe, for the purpose of consulting libraries and learned men; and I have thus employed the greater portion of my fortune in trawelling, and in making researches always difficult, and often very expensive. Here I content myself with giving a very brief account of the plan which I have followed; reserving details for the preliminary discourse, which I mean to prefix to my first volume. That discourse will be followed; 1st, by a Philosophical History of Antient and Modern Tongues. 2d, by a Dissertation on Etymology, in which I shall lay down the rules which my own long experience, and the communications of the learned, have taught me. 3d, by a Philosophical Syntax. 4th, by comparative Tables of the identities which I have observed among the homogeneous words of a great number of idioms, apparently very different. Finally, by a sort of Universal Alphabet, composed of all the simple sounds, whether vowels or consonants.' The author next gives an extract of his plan, which is very judicious, and which we recommend to every one who would compose or improve a national dictionary. 'The last volume (says he) will be entirely devoted to remarks on the French language, and to various means of embellishing it by a comparative study of antient and modern idioms. Here I place the Repertory of a certain number of new words, selected with a scrupulous exactness from the too great multitude of neological terms, which have latterly infested the language of our Fenelons and Racines. To these I have added many old words, which a false taste had proscribed; and words which, by a prudent neology, we might borrow from other tongues; complementary substantives and adjectives which we still want; contraries, privatives, and negatives, omitted in the Dictionary of the Academy; augmentatives, diminutives, and pejoratives, which we have lost, but which other nations have had the good sense to preserve.-In fine, such words, whether in old French, or in languages related to it, as complete what may be called the different families of grammar.' This is certainly the plan of a great work; which, if well executed, will be a considerable accession not only to French literature, but to philology in general: for which reason, we have given a translation of nearly the whole of the author's account of it. . Of the Essay which follows, we shall speak briefly. It contains a good account of those writers who have principally di rected rected their labours to illustrate the dialects and antiquities of the North, with many just reflections on the subject. It is agreed (says M. POUGENS) among the learned of all na tions, that it is impossible to obtain a perfect knowlege of northern antiquities, without a previous study of the principal idioms which prevail, and have prevailed, in those hyperborean regions. The judicious Hickes has detected a number of gross blunders in many of the most celebrated archeologists, such as Minshew, Coke, Verstegan, Skinner, Lindenbrock, Becanus, and even Grotius; who, through the want of a due knowlege of the antient northern dialects, have fallen into strange mistakes.' The author insists on the necessity of studying the antient northern dialects in the text of the writers of the country, which are but little known to the greater number of the learned men of Europe. During the last twenty years, many precious manuscripts have been published, which throw great light on the history, religion, usages, and literature of the Scythians, Goths, Islanders, &c.-The Rhunic monuments in Sweden were, for many ages, as little known as the hieroglyphics on the Egyptian pyramids. The first Rhunic alphabet was given by two brothers, John and Olaus Magnus: but it was very imperfect.Buræus, with more attention and accuracy, examined the antient monuments, of which he gave exact drawings.-The work of Olaus Wormius, entitled Danica Literatura Antiquissima, was published in 1651; and soon afterward his Lexicon Latino-Runicum: But the important work, (says our author) to be consulted on this subject, is undoubtedly that of the learned Englishman Hickesius [Hickes]:-yet his performance, so rich in matter, and abounding with so many excellent remarks, ought not to excuse the student of northern antiquities from consulting the manuscripts lately printed at Copenhagen and Upsal; such as the Orckneyinga Saga, Island's Launama bock, the Viga Glums Saga,' &c. &c.-M. POUGENS rates highly the writings of Buxhornius, Leibnitz, and Ibre; and be gives a short analysis of their principal works relating to northern antiquities.-Annexed is a pretty copious notice of the best publications on the religion, history, and idioms of the antient nations of the North. ART. IV. Dissertation Historique sur les Libertés de l'Eglise Gal THIS tract, which is most probably the production of some Eng- tack Ged..s. tack on the General Assembly of the French Clergy; who in 1682 published the famous Declaration, which contains the four principal articles of what is called the Liberty of the Gallican Church; and which were afterward so ably defended by Bossuet and Dupin. The substance of those articles is-That the power of the Pope, and even of the Church, is purely spiritual.— That, consequently, kings are not, with respect to temporals, subject to any ecclesiastical power; nor can be deposed directly or indirectly by the authority of the keys; nor can subjects be dispensed from their oaths of fidelity.-That the plenitude of papal power, even in spirituals, is limited by the canons, particularly by those of the council of Constance-and that, although the Pope, as the vicar of Christ, has a principal part in the discussion of questions concerning faith, and although his decrees extend to all churches, yet his judgment is not irreformable, without the Church's assent. Moderate as this declaration is, and submissive as are the terms in which it is couched, it was not relished by the Roman theologues; and it has ever been combated by those who were sticklers for the absolute supremacy of the Bishop of Rome. The Popes, however, only murmured, and did not olest the French clergy in the enjoyment of their liberties; which, after all, were more imaginary than real; and which, but for the parliaments of the kingdom, would often have been violated by the clergy themselves, or at least by a great part of them. The university of Paris, indeed, stood staunchly to its principles, and required from every graduate a subscription to the four articles. Its union with the parliaments formed the strongest bulwark against the encroachment of papal usurpation: while the Crown, strange to tell, more often favoured the pretensions of Rome than its own privileges, or those of the Gallican Church. If a letter from Louis XIV. to Innocent XII. inserted in this pamphlet, p. 69. be genuine, it gives a cu rious picture of the duplicity and superstition of him who was called the Great:-"I am glad (says he) to acquaint your Holiness that I have given the necessary orders, to the end that the ordinances contained in my Edict of the 2d of March 1682, concerning the Declaration made by the clergy of the kingdom, which the circumstances of the time obliged me to make, be not executed!" This was evidently sacrificing his own interest, and the interests of his kingdom, to the Bishop of Rome; and secretly undoing all that his clergy and parliaments had established as fundamental maxims of the Gallican Church; which by his own ordinance he had confirmed, and enjoined to be strictly observed throughout the kingdom. His Edict of 1682 orders the Declaration of the Clergy to be registered in all the Parliaments and Bailiwicks, in the Uni |