from Egypt are to delineate the conqueror of Italy, and the fovereign of France. In the introduction and notes, Buonaparte is faid to be famous for cruelties, blafphemies, and frauds a fugitive and a traitor-the object of the fear and hatred of mankind-one whose course has been fraud, whose business has been blood, whofe element is revolution—who is to be admired in a morning for his blue coat and white pantaloons, and in the evening for his white coat and blue ones— who has fpilled more blood wantonly than any commander of ancient or modern times-one of whofe plans was a mixture of idiotifm and phrenfy, completely ridiculous, and truly worthy of the man who conceived it --who talks in a jargon that captain Bobadil would have blufhed at-feems abfolutely incapable of any impreffions of pity or remorfe is an anomalous being, fuch as neither hiftory nor fiction has yet dared to exhibit was guilty of a bafe, cowardly, and malicious calumny-began with a fyftem of fraud and hypocrify, with which he will moft affuredly end-fneaked away from his poft like a midnight thief-is of a contracted and restless mind, incapable of directing any fcheme of policy, yet prefumptuously venturing upon all-is to be pitied and defpifed for fottish flupidity, whining, and hypocritical cant-is a man whose base and cowardly defertion of his army, if there be one spark of feeling, one fentiment of honour, yet left in France, will produce a cry of univerfal indignation and horror, and drive the idol of a fortnight from his imaginary throne. Such is the language used towards an enemy; and, for the fake of these malignant effufions, and this contemptible trafh, the intercepted letters are given to the public. We turn with disgust from the comments of the editor to the letters themselves, which were calculated to make a confiderable impreffion on the public mind, if it had not been weakened by the injudicious attempts of the annotator to raise the feelings of his readers to the fame degree of paffion and fpleen with which his remarks were conceived. The letters are interefting, as they exhibit the motives of a general for quitting his army, his directions for the future conduct of that army, the state in which he left it, and the difficulties which it had to encounter from climate, from want of neceffaries, from internal commotions, and the approaching force of the Ottoman empire. Buonaparte has been feverely blamed for quitting his army; but we do not fcruple to affert that it was the act of a great and energetic mind. To impute it to cowardice, is a mark of prejudice unworthy of notice. He who had expofed himself to fo many dangers, who was then balancing between his duty to his army, and his fuppofed duty to his country, who would venture on the odium that might be thrown on him for quitting his poft, on the dangers of the feas covered with hoftile fleets, on the probability of furmounting every difficulty, and raifing himself above the factions by which France was convulfed, muft poffefs, whatever his other faculties may be, a foul for enterprise, not surpaffed by any of the heroes of antiquity. He affigns for his reafons the dangers of his country: he leaves directions for the next in command. His fucceffor fends an account of the ftate of the army in Egypt, and appears to be fully fenfible of the difficulties of his fituation. At the fame time, it is to be recollected that it is the intereft of the general to paint his fituation in higher colours than the cafe really admits, that, if he fhould fuccced, his triumph may be greater, or, if he should fall, the difgrace of defeat may be palliated. It was the opinion of many, that the French army would be able to retain poffeffion of Egypt, in defiance of the efforts of the Turks and their British allies: but intelligence of a contrary nature has arrived, intimating the evacuation of the contested territory, on the grant of a fafe retreat to the republicans. Upon the whole, we fee no reason for making fuch an outcry against an expedition, which is as juftifiable as the generality of expeditions undertaken by warlike powers. At any rate it can tend to no good purpose to vilify and abuse our enemies; and this mode of pamphleteering the general of the adverfe party does no honour to the character of the British nation. We will not allow ourfelves to attribute the notes and introduction to a perfon who enjoys a diftinguished poft under government, as they bear evident marks of having been compofed in hafte by one who is in the habit of dishing up fuch common-place materials as may ferve for a temporary purpose. The Infpector, or Select Literary Intelligence for the Vulgar, A. D. 1798, but correct A. D. 1801, the first Year of the XIXth Century. 8vo. 5s. 5s. Boards. Debrett. 1799. AN emeritus profeffor of the univerfity of Dublin, relinquifhing his fpeculations on the irreducible cafe in algebra, is now forced on the fhores of the western ocean, and employing his fine achromatic glaffes in furveying the eaftern hemifphere. He has by their means, he tells us, not only discovered the entire forms of the three spectres which have lately disturbed Europe-French philofophifm, German illuminifm, and Englifh unitarianifm; but he has difcerned the spots in purer forms which are giving battle to thefe dreadful monsters. From his exalted station he conceives himself to possess eminent advantages, and propofes to be infpector-general of the literature, morals, and religion of Europe. In this capacity he has given to the public the prefent work, confifting of two parts, written in an incorrect and defultory manner. As a fpecimen of the improvements fuggefted by him, we will only name one, which may excite fome ferment in Paternofter-row. All bookfellers and printers fhould be examined, after the manner (we prefume) of the candidates for a fellowship in Dublin, as to literary and moral qualifications, and fhould not be permitted to exercife their trades without a licenfe. No one could be better employed in this task than our author; and if he should then be allowed to make an index expurgatorius, he might curb the licentioufnefs of the English prefs, and teach us to read and think within found limits. In the unitarian fpectre, Mr. Beltham occupies a much greater fpace than was apparent to our optics, and our infpector must not blame his achromatics for his mistakes in the genealogies of this fect. Priestley is placed at the head; Lindfey, Evanfon, Williams, &c. are called his followers. The order, we think, fhould be Evanfon, Lindsey, Priestley; and Williams does not belong to the fociety. Amidft ftrange tautology and wild effufions, there is evidently in this work a fpirit of religion, which we highly ap prove a degree of learning is alfo vifible, which might have been introduced to great advantage. We will exhibit an inftance of the author's beft manner in the caftigation which he gives to Paine, and the judicious interpretation of a difficult paffage in the Scriptures. • Aping his master, Paine, in like manner, has discovered that the book of Job was originally written in Greek, by fome heathen philofopher, of late date, and thence tranflated into Hebrew ;from the Greek names of the conftellations," Pleiades, Orion and Arcturus," adopted from the Septuagint verfion, by our English translation, in two remarkable paffages of Job, ix. 9. and xxxviii. 32.-not knowing, in the extent and compafs of his ignorance, that the original terms in Hebrew are as unlike in found as in fenfe -"Aish" denoting Urfa Major; "Chimah," Taurus; and "Chefil," Scorpio: while the fourth constellation, "Mazaroth," left, through ignorance of its meaning, untranflated by the Septuagint and our English tranflation, is judiciously rendered by Suidas, in his fecond fignification of Maxpwe"the Dog-ftar" or Sirius; where the Hebrew or Egyptian termination (as in Naboth, or Thoth, Behemoth, &c.) marks his utter ignorance of the Greek tongue alfo. - Μαζερωθ • These inimitable paffages, amidst all the clouds and darknel's attached to patriarchal language and patriarchal astronomy, still bursting forth to the philofophical orientalift, with a radiance the moft dazzling, and with an imagery the moft fublime and beautiful, and yet the most chaste and scientifically correct—which even a Mafkelyne and a Herfchell, a De la Lande and De la Place, might view with admiration and amazement-may thus be less incorrectly rendered, illuftrating each other, in the most difficult and obfcure parts, of the most obfcure poem extant, as it is by far the most ancient-compared with which, Lycophron is plain and eafy : "How can man be juftified with God!- "Canft thou fhut up the delightful teemings of Chimah? Canft thou draw forth Mazaroth in his feafon ? - 'This is the most picturesque defcription of the cardinal conftel, lations, in the primitive sphere-many ages before the Argonautic expedition (when, according to Newton's fanciful fyftem, it was first conftructed,)-and the leading qualities of the feafons over which they were fuppofed to prefide; according to the most ancient Chaldean aftronomy :-Chimah, or Taurus, denoting the expanfions of the earth's bofom in fpring by the fun's genial heat; Chefil, its contractions in autumn, by the cold weather, fo finely denoted by the contraction of the Scorpion's claws, numbed by the commencing cold; Mazaroth, as prefiding over the fultry heats of fummer during his feafon" of the dog days commencing at his heliacal rifing, on the 30th of July, in the prefent age and climate, and lafting for forty days; and who is here reprefented as drawn forth from the receffes of the fouth," or antarctic circle, by an almighty Orion; to face Aifh, or Urfa Major, " revolving in her arctic den, and watching Orion," as fo finely defcribed by Homer, Iliad. xviii. 485. Αρκτονθ' ήν και Αμαξαν επίκλησιν καλεύσιν, "And the Bear, furnamed also the Wain (by the Egyptians), Who is turning herfelf about there, and watching Orion," -and his hounds Sirius and Canicula; and, under the guidance of the fame almighty Arctophylax, prefiding over the oppofite feafon of the winter's frofts. And the drift of the argument, in both ftanzas of Job, may thus perhaps be not incorrectly fummed up: God is all powerful Conftantly regulating the feafons of the year; But canft thou,-puny and prefumptuous mortal! Reverse the diftinguishing characters of fpring and autumn! Or bring on the fultry heats of fummer and frofts of winterEach in their proper season ? Well furely might the venerable but rather impatient Patriarch exclaim, with contempt and indignation"A miferable critic art thou !" -this wooden critic-as Paine describes himself at the close of his unhallowed labours on the Old Testament, which he ignorantly confounds, like his mafter Voltaire, with the Bible.' P. 172. We refpect the author's erudition; and we approve his zeal for religious truth, though we with it to be tempered with more charity. His work may amuse the leisure hours of a few of the learned; but it will not gratify readers of taste, or perfons of a liberal turn of mind. MONTHLY CATALOGUE, POLITICS, &c. Subfiance of the Speeches of the Right Honourable Henry Dundas, on his Majesty's Meffage for declining to treat at prefent with France; and his Objections to an Inquiry into the late Expedition to Hol land. With a Preface, touching briefly on the State of Affairs 800. 25. Chapple. 1800. THIS publication reminds us of the apartments in the capital of the northern part of this ifland, to which, however elegant, there is frequently no accefs but by a ftair-cafe offenfive to the noftrils and difgufting to the fight of the vifitants. The preface is written in one of the highest paroxyfms of anti-jacobinism; a mania which, like jacobinism, is often destructive to 'the best feelings of the human mind; and the panegyric on Mr. Dundas is laid on fo thick, and with fo coarse a trowel, that the writer, we fhould think, must be in danger of lofing the expected reward of his labours. Both speeches have fome degree of merit. The fpeaker boldly afferts his claim to the merit or demerit of refufing to negotiate with Buonaparte; and he accompanies his reafons, which are drawn from the fuppofed inftability and iniquity of the French government, with the usual invectives against the French and their conful. On the inquiry into the failure of the expedition to Holland, he ftates the objects of that enterprise, which were, first, to rescue the United Provinces from the tyranny of the French; fecondly, to add to the efficient force of this country, and to gain poffeffion of the Dutch fleet; thirdly, to divert the enemy from his projected pursuits in general. In two of these objects it fucceeded; in the third it failed; and the gain of two out of three points proved more than fufficient to counterbalance the inconvenience arifing from the lofs of the third. The grounds for |