recital of facts already known, and only endeavours to reafon upon them in favour of opinions of which he is himself firmly convinced, but which he thinks are not generally understood, or fufficiently explained.

ART. XVIII. Hiftoire Chronologique des Operations de l'Armée du Nord, et de celle de Sambre et Meufe. Depuis le Mois de Germinal de l'An 11 (Fin de Mars 1794), jusqu'au même Mais de l'An 111 (1795). Tirée des Livres d'ordre de ces deux Armées. Par le Cit:yen David, temoin de plupart de leurs Exploits. pp. 260. 8vo. De Boffe.

THIS

HIS hiftory is dedicated, with perfect propriety, to the officers of those two armies. Though they were themselves the actors, in the heroic exploits here recorded, David hopes that they will not be difpleafed to fee them brought together and preferved in one volume. Thus, too, he rightly obferves, they have a view of the plan which, by different actions, they carried into execution. He divides the campaign into two parts. The first gives an account of the operations of the fummer, from the beginning of the campaign to the paffage of the Meufe: the other, thofe of the winter, involving the conqueft of Holland.

Citizen David is clear in his arrangement, exact in his dates, and lively and picturesque both in his narration and description.

EXTRA C T S.
From the Preface.

At a time when France was in a frenzy; when all the furies of hell were let loose, and took up their dwelling among us; when the greater part of our fellow-citizens feemed to be wrapped in that alle gorical cloak which poffeffes the property of rendering thofe that it involves mad with fury; when fons, poffeffed of devils, made attempts on the perfonal liberty of their parents, hufbands renounced all confidence in wives, and wives in hufbands; minifters of juftice transformed error, and even virtue, into criminality, and crimes into vir, tue-in fuch times, being incapable of feigning either folly, madness, or fury, I had nothing to do but make my efcape. To abandon my country, never to return, was an idea that filled me with horror. In fpite of her madness, she was ftill dear to me; and I was not without hopes of her recovery. I therefore took refuge with the army.'

It is, perhaps, to the armies that the French nation, as well as this individual, muft ultimately have recourfe for protection.

TACTICS

TACTICS of GENERAL PICHEGru.

The tactics of General Pichegru are of a nature altogether new and original. His fyftem confifts wholly in purfuing the enemy with out intermiffion, in courting opportunities of engagement, in keeping his whole force together, without dividing it for the purpofe of carrying on fieges, to reduce only fuch as are neceffary in order to fecure proper politions, without feeming to be at all concerned about the reduction of fuch ftrong places as he had left behind him.

This fyftem of military tactics was the only one that was fuitable so our fituation; and, farther, it was the only system that fuited the character of the French. It is not to be doubted that our troops were full of courage and bravery; but the greater part of them was newly levied, and not fufficiently trained in fieges, for the purpofe of undertaking a fiege of any difficulty. Farther ftill: the French foldier is too ardent and impatient to go through with a chain of operations that require perfeverance. In the field, he darts forth as an eagle, and fights like a lion. But a long and arduous fiege repels, and, ofttimes, even difcourages him. In order to have a military body of men, perfect and invincible, it would be neceffary to carry on fieges with Swifs troops, and to have French armies of obfervation. But while a general has only Frenchmen under his command, he ought not to let them grow reftive by remaining long in one place, but to keep them always in breath, and always within view of the

enemy.

If Pichegru had obeyed the orders of the Committee of Public Safety; if he had not known the character of the French, and adopted an unufual fyftem of tactics; he would have facrificed fifty thousand men, at least, before our towns in Hainault. Perhaps he might have beaten. And even, in cafe of fuccefs and victory, he most affuredly would not have been able to push his conquests even to the northern fea, and the confines of Weftphalia.-The King of Pruffia was the only fovereign, among the coalefced powers, who fet the plans of Pichegru at defiance, and the only one that did him juftice. About the beginning of the campaign that monarch wrote a letter (published in a Belgic newspaper) to the following effect: It is impoffible to fave your territories from invafion, The French have armies atways fpringing up one after another. Be not deceived: their generals purfue a wife fyftem of tactics, which difconcerts ours, and gets the better of them.'

PERSON and MANNERS of PICHegru.

Pichegru, formerly profeffor of mathematics at Brienne, is five feet five inches in height; of a large fize, without being corpulent; and, in a word, formed in the very mould of a warrior. His appearance is, at first fight, fevere and forbidding; but it foftens in converfation, and infpires the greatest degree of truft and confidence. His politenefs has no fort of refemblance to what is called etiquette, which

is

is commonly nothing elfe than duplicity and roguery. His politeness is without affectation, and perfectly fincere. You may fee at once that he is obliging from a franknefs of difpofition, and naturally good. But he has nothing about him of what was heretofore confidered as effential to a courtier.'

This publication must be very entertaining to military men. It is fo, indeed, to every reader of anecdotes, characters, and political reflections. .

ART. XIX, Letters from Simkin the Second to his Brother Simon in Wales. Dedicated, without Permiffion, to the ancient and refpectable Family of the Grunters. Is. 6d. Debrett. London, 1796.

THIS

HIS is the production of a wag, who follows Mr. Burke as a gadfly does the elephant. His wit, which is always ready, and often palpable, is confiderably heightened by the ftructure of his verfe. The contraft he perceives between Mr. Burke's virulence against the French, and his philanthropy in the cause of the Americans, gives peculiar fcope to his powers of irony and burlefque. He loofes no opportunity or topic of goading this doughty champion for the eternal hoftility of nations, on his cruelty, his injuftice, his fervility to place and power, his irritability of temper, his extravagant imagination, the hyperbolical defcriptions in which he indulges his cupidity, treachery to friends, hollow pretenfions to fenfibility, and all the odious qualities he afcribed, in the most unqualified language, to the prefent minifters, and all their abettors, on their acceffion to the fervice of the public. But the fore place to which he often recurs, and where he is probably most severely felt, is, his heavy cenfure of government, notwithstanding his pecuniary obligations to its bounty:

He fays that the errors of administration

Have calamities brought on this once happy nation :
Now bursting from forrow he rifes in fury,
Abufing the laws, profecution, and jury,

The counfel and judges, perhaps for this reafon,
Horne Tooke was not hang d for committing no treafon!
Then he pities and blames, in one breath, the condition
Of the doctor of ftate, who is furgeon-phyfician;
Who defpairs of his patient, his fafety, and life,
Afraid to make ufe of the cauflic and knife.'

The

1

The Call of the Houfe.

559

The following apoftrophe is at once fo beautiful and appropriate, that we perfuade ourselves few concerned in the impeachment, and even Mr. Burke himself, can read it with indifference:

O, Haftings! this kingdom how hadft thou befriended,
If thy durable trial had never been ended.

Thou didst ferve as an issue to draw off the humours,
And to keep within compafs Burke's dangerous tumours.
It were better, far better, that he were purfuing,
To get rid of his bile, thy unmerited ruin,
Than that he should wantonly bring on the nation,
For want of amufement, perhaps extirpation.'

ART. XX. The Call of the Houfe; or, A new Way to get into Place. In which the Beauties of French Compofition and Elocution are critically difcuffed, and fraternally addreffed, as Models of Imitation to the Members of Oppofition in the House of Commons. By Scriblerus Republicanus. 1S. Owen. London, 1796.

THE

HE title-page of this performance, like many others, is a kind of will-o-the-wifp, calculated not to inform, but miflead the reader. We expected from it a burlesque on the eloquence of oppofition, which, though much better than it is, would ftill be contemptible enough to the fycophants and admirers of minifters. On this invidious theme, however, the author is fufficiently fparing. His only object feems to be, the expofition of French extravaganza in that hyperbolical phraseology which diftinguished their speeches and correfpondence during the revolutionary mania. But his wit is fo tame, and his farcafm fo gentle, that the nonfenfe in the text becomes actually lefs ridiculous by the very ridicule the comment would excite. It were well for certain authors to fay explicitly, whether they would be thought in jeft or earnest, left some dunce of a critic take them by the wrong handle, and ferve them as the monkey did the cat, who fcorched her beard when it was meant only to finge her tail.

ART.

ART. XXI. Analysis of Refearches into the Origin and Progrefs of Hiftorical Time, from the Creation to the Acceffion of C. Caligula: an Attempt to afcertain the Dates of the more notable Events in ancient Univerfal Hiftory by Aftronomical Calculation; the mean Quantity of Generations, proportionate to the Standard of Natural Life, in the feveral Ages of the World; Magiftracies, Natural Epochs, &c.; and to connec!, by an accurate Chronology, the Times of the Hebrews with thofe of the co exiftent Pagan Empires. Interfperfed with Remarks on Archbishop Usher's Annals of the Old and New Teftament. Subjoined is an Appendix, containing Strictures on Sir Ifaac Newton's Chronology of ancient Kingdoms,, and on Mr. Falconer's Chronological Tables, from Solomon to the Death of Alexander the Great. By the Rev. Robert Walker, Rector of Shingham, Norfolk. pp. 432. 8vo. Cadell and Davies. London, 1796.

THE

HE faucinefs of Reviewers fometimes paffes over works, even of refpectable fize, with a few general obfervations, comprised even in a few lines. Some authors have therefore adopted the policy of copious titles, which fecure, at least, an intimation of their general defign and pretenfions: a policy which we are far from condemning; efpecially as it faves the trouble of drawing up a brief analyfis. Mr. Walker's design is concifely fet forth in his title-page. It is a faithful analysis of an Analysis of Chronological Researches, that are to form a work to be printed on a fine paper, and elegant type, in two volumes quarto, price 21. 2s. to be paid when copies are delivered to fubfcribers.'-It is the ultimate object of this work, to accomplish Sir Ifaac Newton's arduous enterprize, so as to make facred hiftory fuit with itfelf, with the annals of paganifm, ♦ with the natural measures of time, with national æras, with the courfe of nature in the generations of men, and with civil 'magiftracies.' Chronology can be carried no farther back than the most remote period in historical time-that first point, which Mofes calls the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth. All beyond is the region of pure aftronomical operations, which mark imaginary limits in ante⚫ mundane duration.'-Thus Mr. Walker precludes all the embarrassments which chronologers fometimes feel from the hiftorical records, and aftronomical tables, of ancient nations, as Egypt, India, and China. In the following fheets, a fubject coeval with time, and wide as the planetary fyftem, is exhibited in miniature.' For this end, the Hebrew books, the most ancient and best attested in the world, are prefumed to afford the moft certain intelligence.'-He maintains the authority