him, in every respect, like a Prince: nor would the Sultan have any guaranty of the treaty but himself. A conduct, upon the whole, of that true honour, and genuine greatness, which might be recommended, as a model, to Chriftian Powers in general!

Thus have we contracted the matter of this large volume into little more than the heads or contents of it; which, however, have unavoidably fwelled upon us. There can be no doubt, but it has coft the Author much time and affiduity to compile and digeft; his numerous authorities, and the dates of the most material occurrences, being generally referred to in the margin. It seems, indeeed, probable, that he intended to execute his work with great impartiality; as we imagine none of his Readers will find all their political attachments gratified in his detail of every fact, or in his own reflexions on them;-while many, who differ from each other in fuch attachments and notions, will coincide with him in different relations and inferences: a circumftance, which, upon the whole, must be rather in this Writer's favour: fince there can be no doubt, from the conditi on of human nature, but that all Powers and Parties have sometimes, more or lefs, fwerved from juftice, wisdom, and truth. He promises, towards the end of his preliminary difcourfe, to publifh the fecond volume, which will end with the peace of Aix la Chapelle, in 1748, before the expiration of the present year and to the third volume, which will compleat the work, will be added a collection of particular anecdotes, which he has not judged proper to infert in fuch a manner as might interrupt the course of his narration.

An Effay on Currents at Sea; by which it appears, there is Reafon to apprehend, that the Sea is not a Fluid in a State of Reft, except thofe Motions which are caused by the Impulse of Winds, and that known by the Name of Tides: And confequently, that this Earth is not of an uniform Denfity, according to the Suppofition of Sir Ifaac Newton; but that the Currents of the Gulph of Florida, alfo on the Coast of Brazil, and the Northern Indraught on the Western Coaft, are Currents of Circulation, kept up by different Denfities in this Earth, and its Motion round its Axis. By Jofeph Mead. 8vo. Is. Marshal.

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THOSE who have been converfant in the practice of Navigation, well know that ships are often hurried away unknown Currents, which fometimes proves of the most fatal

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confequence; but were we acquainted with all the Currents, their course and velocity, we fhould be often enabled to guard against thofe misfortunes, and correct the Dead Reckoning from a good Obfervation, with much more certainty....

Our Author, in the little treatise before us, has endeavoured to give a new theory of Currents; and in order to this, he attempts to prove, Fift, That the commonly received maxim of the Ocean's being a fluid in a ftate of reft, except what is caused by the impulse of the winds, and that known by the name of tides, is falfe in fact. Secondly, That the earth is not of an uniform denfity. After removing feveral difficulties, he forms the following hypothefis, namely, That there is a Circulation of the Sea, carried on by means of fubterranean communications between places near the Equator and those in high Latitudes; entering at the ends of thofe caverns near the Poles, and issuing at thofe nearest the Equator; and, confequently, the Sea, on the external parts, has a motion from the Equator towards the Poles.

This hypothefis he endeavours to fupport from experience, by fhewing that there is actually fuch a motion in the external parts of the Sea, from the Equator toward the North Pole; and that the northern mouths of these fubterraneous caverns are occularly demonftrated by the Maleftrom, and other whirlpools in feveral parts of the Northern Ocean.

With regard to the former, namely, That the Sea has a real motion from the Equators toward the Poles, he relates the fol lowing occurence, which, he fays, he had from the Commander of a Merchant-fhip, who was allowed to be a Seaman of good repute in the Port of Liverpool.

It was in the month of November, or beginning of De⚫cember, in or near the year 1735, the Hope of, and bound for, Liverpool, from the river Shirbro on the coaft of Guinea, with Camwood and fome Elephants teeth, had a good • Obfervation, by which they found they had the north Chan nel open; the wind continued to blow ftrong between the South and Weft, but most inclined to the former. Having no other Observation for fix days, in which time they carried fail continually. Then, by their Reckoning, they judged they fhould fall in with Cape Clear, on the fouth-west coast of • Ireland, or to windward thereof; but in the following night they ⚫ fell in with the Horse-Rock to the weftward of the Blafques, [on the western coaft of Ireland] and were fo near, that in wearing their fhip (to ftand to the weftward) the sea was re⚫ verberated from the Rock on board their fhip.'

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The caufe of their making the Blafques inftead of Cape Clear, our Author imputes to the Northern Indraught; and is of opinion, that, if proper Obfervations were made, we fhould find that all fhips are carried to the northward in a like infenfible manner. But, in our opinion, this inftance is far from being fufficient to prove a Northern Indraught; for, Cape Clear lies in Latitude 51 Deg. 18 Min. North, Longitude 9 Dega 50 Min. Weft; and the Blafques in 52 Deg. o Min. N. Lon gitude 11 Deg. 56 Min. W. confequently their error in La titude was o Deg. 42 Minutes; and in Longitude 2 Deg. 6 Min. Now tho' the error of 42 Min. might be reafonably imputed to a Northern Indraught, yet the error of 2 Deg. 6 Min. in Lon gitude, could not proceed from thence; and, confequently, thofe who committed the latter, may be justly fufpected of having alfo committed the former. Befides, this relation is told in too fuperficial a manner to establish a point of this importance to Navigation: we are neither informed of the place of the ship when they made their last Obfervation, nor the Inftrument with which it was taken. If they made ufe of Davis's Quadrant, the common Inftrument at that time, the Obfervation cannot be depended upon to lefs than ten Minutes, especially if the Horizon was at that time hazy; and, confequently, the error in Latitude may be confiderably leffened.

Nor does Mr. Mead feem to have been more fortunate in proving that the Maleftrom, and other Whirlpools, are the mouths of fubterranean channels, by which a circulation is carried on. Bifhop Pontoppidan, in his Natural Hiftory of Norway, has given fufficient reafon to believe, that the Maleftrom is not the mouth of a fubterraneous paffage: of which our Author could not be ignorant, because he has quoted this very work; and, confequently, ought to have anfwered the Bishop's objections, before he had taken that for granted which is denied.

We fhall not follow our Author through the other parts of his pamphlet, because if these propofitions are not granted, his whole hypothefis will fall to the ground; and, we imagine, they will require much ftronger obfervations to fupport them, than those offered by Mr. Mead.

See the fubftance of what the Bishop has faid on this fubject, in the Review, Vol. XII. p. 454.

An Effay towards a general History of Feudal Property in GreatBritain. By John Dalrymple, Efq; 8vo. 5s. Millar.

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HE progrefs of the laws relating to land-property in England and in Scotland, as the Author obferves in the preface to this work, is the more to be attended to, because untill the subjects of both countries have a knowledge of each others laws, there never will be a perfect union of the two ⚫ kingdoms.' But befides fo defirable an end, it appeared, that a law once fo univerfal, and ftill fo much revered, during the progrefs of which men arrived from the most rude to the moft polished ftate of fociety; a law which has been the cause of the greatest revolutions both civil and military; a law connected equally with the manners and with the governments of • modern Europe, deserved an enquiry in the Republic of Letters." Two of the greatest names in the learned world are mentioned, whose inspection of this work, muft greatly recommend it to the public, and do honour to the Author.

The first chapter of this Effay contains the history of the introduction of the Feudal Syftem into Great-Britain. A fpecies, it is obferved, rather than a peculiarity, of the manners and inftitutions of the ancient Germans at home, added to a perfect peculiarity of fituation, when they fettled in the conquered countries, was the cause of this peculiar fyftem. The thought of diftributing among a conquering people, the lands they have conquered, and annexing to the gift, a condition of military fervice, being in itself a fimple one, it has been often reduced into practice. But as the colonies from all other conquering nations either conformed to the civil laws of the conquered people, referving to themselves the political and military adminiftration; or retained their own laws among themselves, leaving to the conquered the enjoyment of theirs; fuch a regulation could not be the foundation of that fyftem of laws which the peculiar circumftances attending the Germans, in their tranfmigrations, produced. The Author's account of the matter is as follows, which we shall give our Readers in his own words, as a specimen of his manner of writing.

As there was no general fyftem of government in their own country, they had been subjected, in their various diftricts, to that Chieftain who could do them moft good, or most hurt? • When they iffued abroad then, they went rather as a band of independent Clans, than of independent Members, with a ⚫ fpirit of Oligarchy, and not of Equality.Simple both in their manners and in their views, they could have no concep tion of a standing army, with the expence and difcipline, and

The Prefident Montefquieu, and Lord Kaims; to the latter of whom this Work is dedicated.

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refources neceflary to fupport it. On the contrary, having quitted their own country, in vaft bodies, from neceffity, and being in queft merely of a habitation, they took up with the more fimple thought of spreading themselves all over the country, among the ancient inhabitants. As the nations they conquered were more numerous, fo were they likewise more polifhed, and expert in arts, than themselves; therefore they durft not put fuch nations to the word. Unac

quainted even with commerce itself, they were ftill more unacquainted with the refinement of being made the inftruments of it to others. As long as the most distant views to their native country remained, and as long as continual danger obliged them to be ready for continual defence, the poffeffions, it is true, upon the death of tenants, could not regularly defcend to their heirs, who, perhaps, were not able to defend them, but would be given to thofe in general, who appeared the most likely to be able to do fo; yet, when in courfe of time, that' 'connection came entirely to ceafe, and this bravery was not so continually neceflary, then the poffeffions we are speaking of, in contradiction to all others in the hiftory of the world, which have any resemblance to feudal ones, became hereditary. Being an army, thefe conquerors naturally fell into a fubordination in their fettlement: valiant, their genius as well as fitu⚫ation led them to inftitutions, which made it an obligation upon almoft the whole body, to be ready at a military call; and that fettlement, fubordination, and obligation to military fervice, carried in themselves a fyftem of laws, without the plan of a legiflator; which, however, the laws of the conquered people might for fome time fubfift, could not in the ⚫ end but swallow up all the laws of all the countries where it 'came.'

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Having thus accounted for the rife of the feudal fyftem, our Author next attempts to reconcile the different opinions concerning its introduction into England, viz. whether it was eftablished among the Saxons, or firit introduced by the Norman conqueft? His opinion is, (and his reafons in fupport of it appear to be folid) that it had footing in the time of the Saxons, though many of the lands of England continued ftill to be allodial, and the feudal connections and dependencies but as yet incomplete.

This backward ftate of the feudal inftitutions among the Saxons, he accounts for from their difpofition to cruelty, which led them to put many of the inhabitants wantonly to the fword, and drive many more into France and Wales. Hence more land becoming vacant than they could poffefs, their Chieftains would not, for a grant of land, fubmit to the fevere feudal regulations; REV. Aug. 1757.

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