gold of Elizabeth; gold which was avowedly lavished on thefe defpicable beings to procure the most important fecrets of state.

A general exercife of brotherhood, and of that charity which reJieves the needy, must be allowed to the Scots, who maintained their poor by voluntary contributions, not by legal affefiments. But of the other fpecies of charity, which makes allowance for those of a different faith, the nation was deftitute. And those, whether epifcopalians or papifts, who differed in their fentiments from the tenets of the national church, were ftigmatised from the pulpits as children of the devil.'

One excefs, that of the bottle, the Scots were perhaps introduced to by their exercise of hofpitality. A traveller, who speaks kindly of his reception in the North, points out the courtiers, the country gentlemen, and the merchants, as hearty votaries to the cause of drinking.'

Although we cannot fee any reason for retracting the ftrictures, formerly made on the works of Henry, we yet allow their utility as a hiftorical dictionary and a book of record; and we think that Mr. Andrews's continuation is equally accurate and comprehenfive, and more entertaining than the original, which he imitates.

ART. II. The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, compiled from the best and most ancient Hiftorians; Inquifitiones poft mortem, and other valuable Records, in the Tower, Rolls, Exchequer, Dutchy, and Augmentation Offices; the Registers of the Diocese of Lincoln; the Chartularies and Regifters of Religious Houfes; the College of Arms; the British Mufeum; the Libraries of Oxford and Cambridge; and other public and pri vate Repofitories. Including alfo Mr. Burton's Defcription of the County, published in 1622; and the later Collections of Mr. Stavely, Mr. Carte, Mr. Peck, and Sir Thomas Cave. By John Nichols, F. S. A. Edinb. and Perth. In Four Volumes, Folio. Nichols, Printer, Red-Lion Paflage.

IN

a preface to volume first of this large work, Mr. Nichols, fully fenfible of the magnitude and extent of the task in which he is engaged, fubmits to public infpection this portion of the Hiftory of Leicestershire, at a much earlier period than was, at firft, intended. When he reflects, however, that fome merit might be claimed, if it were only for bringing to light the profound refearches of his coadjutors; and is alfo confcious that, in all cafes, endeavours have been used to obtain correctness, and to guard against misrepresentation; he looks forward with confidence. The most material of the many reasons which might be affigned for publishing a part only of

fo

*

fo large a work is, that the nature of the plan may be more diftinctly understood. For this purpose a complete hundred is given as a fpecimen of the five which remain; which, it is hoped, will receive confiderable improvement, as well from the merits as the defects of that now exhibited; fince it must be in the power of gentlemen in every particular district, to point out corrections and improvements. Acknowledgments to individuals, too numerous to be here specified, will appear in their refpective places; yet many of them, even in this curfory notice [meaning the notice he was about to take], it would be unpardonable to fupprefs; particularly fo, were not the Rev. Sir Charles Cave to be diftinguished, from whom the groundwork of this undertaking wa obtained; the col•lections formed by his father in the courfe of many years, in addition to the labours of Mr. Burton; augmented by copious tranfcripts from the Chetwynd library, and the manufcripts of Mr. Roper, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Wadland, Mr. Sanderson, and feveral other antiquaries, efpecially thofe of the Rev. Francis Peck, including the registers of Croxton Abbey and Belvoir Priory; and fome few fragments of Sir William Dugdale.'Our author goes on with a long lift of contributors to his undertaking. He is very far from being chargeable with any degree of literary piracy, or a wish to adorn himfelf with borrowed plumes. Indeed, he carries his delicacy on this head to the borders of excefs. The Bifhop of Llandaff had no great merit, nor could expect any public acknowledgment, for having per'mitted our author to infcribe to him views of the dilapidated church and manfion-houfe of Knaptoft; and of the chapels of Mofely and Shearfby, appendages to his Lordship's rectory.' -The Hiftory of Leicestershire unavoidably extends to four • volumes; of which the first contains the various articles of prolegomena; fuch as Domefday, with a tranflation; the Tefta de Nevill, and other records; lifts of lord-mayors who • have been natives of this county; baronets, theriffs, members of parliament, &c.; differtations on the mint at Leicester, 'the Roman roads and milliary navigations, plants, natural history, &c.; with a copy of the returns made to parliament in C 1786, in answer to the inquiry after charitable benefactions throughout the kingdom, as far as relates to this county, which has been procured at a confiderable expence, and of which no part has, before, been printed. The fix hundreds of the county divide themselves, naturally, into the other three volumes.'

We confefs we do not exactly comprehend the argument here. No doubt the author's meaning is diftinct and clear to himself; but there appears to be fome defect in grammar.

Nn4

The

The first part of the fecond volume of this extensive work is alfo publifhed, containing the hundred of Framland.

Although there is no other band of union among the multifarious objects and occurrences that form the matter of provin cial and other local hiftories than contiguity of place, yet, fuch is the intereft that we take in the place of our nativity, the village, town, parish, and county, containing the circle of our early connexions, and recalled at every period of life, and every part of the world, by many tender affociations of ideas-fuch is the intereft we take in the diftrict that forms our home and country, within the general country common to all the nation, that such hiftories are perused with greater avidity by a certain circle of readers than others that admit of more philofophical arrangement and reflection, and contain matter of more general importance. In this natural attachment, not in general speculations concerning abstracted rights and relations, we behold the true germ of real patriotifm. Hiftories had been published of the greater part of the counties of England; but none of Leicestershire fince Mr. Burton's in 1622; although there were many particulars in Leicester and Leicestershire, that folicited the attention of the antiquarian.--Mr. Nichols has not spared any pains or expence to bring forth all that pertains to Leicesterfhire in the moft copious manner, and the moft fplendid drefs. The numerous engravings are executed with great neatness. The paper is a ftout one, and the type proper; neither too fmall, nor yet, like that of fome late gigantic and glaring specimens of typography, too large; but fuch as the eye easily takes in, and perufes without pain. Works of this kind are not only interesting to natives, and others immediately connected with particular counties, but, in fome meafure, fubfervient to the purposes of national and more general hiftory. They serve to afcertain dates and facts; and not a few of the papers brought to light from the obfcurity of various repofitories, illuftrate the opinions, customs, and manners, of the different periods to which they refer.

They who choose to apply, with rigour, the canons of criticifm to a work to which, from its nature, we must allow great latitude, may perhaps obferve, that in writing the hiftory of at county, and even of a town, there was no propriety in tracing' the origin of the British nation to ancient times, and even to` times before the flood; and others, perhaps, may be inclined to fmile at a detailed account of fuch natives of Leicestershire as' had the honour of becoming theriff's and lord-mayors of London.

ART.

ART. III. Wraxall's Hiftory of France.

[ Concluded from our last Number. ]

THE HE firft volume of this work is taken up with a view of the civil, military, and political state of Europe, between the middle and the clofe of the fixteenth century. Although Mr. Wraxall has not ftruck out any new light on this fubject, that has been now treated by many writers of great and deserved reputation, he has the merit of being judicious in the choice of his matter, clear and luminous in his arrangement, and in his diction, plain, proper, and perfpicuous. Though he lights his lamp by the flambeaux of other hiftorians, he does not mimic them, and deck himself, as it were, in their livery, but thinks for himself, and expreffes what he thinks in his own manner; infomuch that we do not know of any thing in the English language better adapted to give the tyre in hiftory a more juft, entertaining, and eafily comprehended review of the European nations, and general principles and fpirit of Europe, for the space of time reviewed.

EXTRA C T S.

• The dukes of Wirtemberg might be confidered as the last of the great German princes, of the fecond order. Their territories, fituated in the circle of Suabia, were not only extenfive and populous, but inferior to none in fertility and variety of productions. Ulric the Sixth, after having been expelled from his dominions, for an infraction of the public peace of the empire, which he had imprudently and rafhly committed, by attempting to avenge his private quarrels with an armed force, faw his duchy ravaged, and fold by the conquerors to the Emperor, Charles the Fifth. That monarch bestowed it on Ferdinand, his own brother; while Ulric, an exile, and a fugitive, wandered for fourteen years, without afylum, or protection, The generous and active friendship of Philip, Landgrave of Heffe, aided by the pecuniary affittance of Francis the Firft, re-established him; and, in the following year, he introduced the Reformation into Wirtemberg.

Involved in the calamities under which the League of Smalcald was oppreffed, he was reduced to fubmit to the conditions impofed by Charles; and his death, which took place foon afterwards, fcarcely prevented the forfeiture of his duchy, reclaimed by Ferdinand, King of the Romans, as reverting to him by the crime of rebellion. It required the wisdom and moderation of his fucceffor, Chriftopher, to obliterate the misfortunes which the imprudence of Ulric had produced. He was the parent and protector of his fubjects; and his reign, of eighteen years, formed an era of repofe and felicity, unknown in Wirtemberg. With the approbation of the states, the

Duke

Duke compofed and published a code of laws, framed on a bafis of equity, and calculated to extinguish the feuds arifing neceffarily from the barbarous and contradictory jurifprudence previously in ufe. Every beneficial inftitution for introducing police, regulating commercial tranfactions, and diffufing civilifation, were adopted by Chriftopher. His adherence to Lutheranifm was not embittered by the fpirit of intolerance; and his active benevolence rendered him equally refpected by the Catholics, as by thofe of his own perfuafion. Under his adminiftration the duchy, which had been ravaged and defolated, became the moft opulent and profperous part of Germany. He was fucceeded by Louis the Third, his fon.

The free imperial cities formed a very important part of the Germanic empire and conftitution. They appear to have been firft admitted to the diets towards the conclufion of the thirteenth century. Under Maximilian the Second they exceeded feventy in number; most of which, with the fingle exception of Lubeck, were fituated in the circle of Suabia, or on the Rhine. In commerce and riches, they were fuperior to the cities fubject to the fovereigns by whom they were furrounded; and they exercifed every act of independence and jurifdiction within themselves. In all the general contributions, enacted by the diets, they were loaded with an unjust proportion: but the emperors, who derived from their affiftance the greatest support, protected them against every attempt of the electors, or princes, to reduce them to fubjection. Among the great imperial cities of the firft order, Cologne was the only one in which the Catholic religion maintained its ancient afcendency. Lubeck, which enjoyed a vaft proportion of the Baltic trade, as well as Nuremberg and Strafburg, were zealous Lutherans. The others, divided between the Romish and Protestant church, admitted the free exercise of both modes of worship, and composed the magistracy or municipal officers, indifferently from perfons of the two oppofite perfuafions.'

FERMENTATION of the HUMAN MIND in the SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

It was not till towards the conclufion of the fifteenth, and commencement of the fixteenth century, that Germany began to emerge from its political obfcurity, and to affume a fhare in the wars, negociations, and concerns of Europe. Every thing, at that period, combined to awaken the human mind, to ftimulate its exertions, and to inflame its ardour. The invention of the art of printing; the introduction of artillery and gunpowder into all military operations; the formation of ftanding armies; the innovations in religion; and the ftill more furprifing revolutions in commerce, in confequence of the discoveries of Columbus and Gama, which transferred the trade of the Eaft from Egypt and Italy to Portugal: thefe caufes united, and acting with force upon a people unacquainted, in a great degree, with the arts, produced a fermentation, of which, at this distance of time, we can, with difficulty, form any adequate idea. Civil liberty, learning,