fays, "that Hubert's depofitions are remarkable for a fimplicity and naïveté, which it is almoft impoffible to imitate." With what contempt would he have treated fuch an argument, had it been urged in favour of Mary?" But (continues he) at the fame time, it must be acknowledged, that his depofitions contain fome improbable circumftances. He feems to have been a foolish talkative fellow; the fear of death; the violence of torture; and the defire of pleafing thofe, in whofe power he was, tempted him, perhaps, to feign fome circumftances, and to exaggerate others. To fay that fome circumftances in an affidavit are improbable or falfe, is very different from faying that the whole is forged." This is a doctrine which I believe never before appeared in the laws of evidence. If a depofition or confeffion refts folely upon the credi bility of its author, in what land can that court of justice exift, who will not reject the whole, if they find any part of it to be falfe? Does not a fingle prevarication every day quafh the most plaufible evidences? How ought it to operate in this cafe, when the party, as the doctor himself admits, was influenced by the fear of death, and the violence of torture? And I can almost venture to fay, that no evidence obtained under the fear of torture ought to be admiffible.

Had Mary's enemies been confcious that thofe papers were genuine, they were poffeffed of the means of coming at the most corroborating proofs of her guilt, without depending fingly on their own affirmation, that they were of her writing. Dalgleith, on whom the box was found, was feized on the twentieth of June, 1567, fix days after he was examined; and a copy of his exami. nation, attested by Sir John Ballenden, is ftill extant. Was it not natural for Morton, who had then the box and its contents in his cuftody, to have obtained all the lights he could concerning it, efpecially as the parties were prefent, and on the fpot, to have corroborated, or confronted the criminal? Not a word, however, relating to the box, or the papers, is to be feen in Dalgleish's examination; nor was Dalgleish executed for fix months after. Is not the omiffion of fo material an evidence, a ftrong proof that the papers were not then in being, but manufactured afterwards? When Murray mentioned thein in the council and the parliament, in the manner we have already feen, why was not Dalgleish then produced to confirm Morton's ftory, and to leave the fact without a doubt? What is ftill more extraordinary, Paris was alive at the time when the commiffion was fitting in England; but he was kept in a prifon belonging to the regent, at St. Andrew's, under the daily, dreadful, apprehenfion of torture and death. What credit is to be given to the teftimony of a hair-brained, low-bred, Frenchman under fuch circumftances, especially as his confeffion (for it is pretended he made two) that most affects Mary, is full of inconfiftencies and improbabilities?

Our author's remarks on the arguments made ufe of to establish the authenticity of the filver-box letters, are equally fenfible and acute but as we have already extracted fo much from this part of the work, we fhall only obferve in general, that Mr. Guthrie feems in reality to have clearly refuted several im portant allegations which are advanced by the reverend hifto. rian on whom he comments; and that he has both greatly increafed

trunk. The veffels of the flesh communicate with it. From them it receives a fluid; and probably it is the reeeptacle of fome part of the fap. In extreme dry weather fuch a ftore may be neceffary.

Tranfverfe fections of the ribs of leaves difcover it. When minutely traced, it is found to run up to the ovarium, where it forms the feeds and their capfules.

From this furvey of the anatomy of a plant, it is evident that there is a correfpondence between all its parts. By means of a variety of ftrainers, different juices are prepared from the fame mafs. Matter, confidered as matter, has no fhare in the qualities of bodies. It is from the arrangement of it that we have fo many different fubftances in nature. We may eat the earth, and we may drink the water that moistens it, and yet, from the modification of its part, it is capable of producing both bread and poison.

We reafon improperly, when we fay that every plant takes from the earth fuch particles as are natural to it. A lemon, ingrafted upon an orange ftock, is capable of changing the fap of the orange into its own nature, by a different arrangement of the nutritive juices. A mass of innocent earth can give life and vigour to the bitter aloe, and to the sweet cane; to the cool houfe-leek, and to the fiery muftard; to the nourishing grains, and to the deadly night-shade.

• The fibres of a root are fuppofed to be fimple capillary tubes: but, upon a minute infpection, we difcover them to confift of the seven component parts of the plant. At their extremities we obferve a fpungy kind of excrefcence pierced with innumerable fmall holes. Through thefe the nutritive juices of the earth are abforbed. When a plant has been pulled up, it will be retarded in its growth, until nature has renewed that fpungy nipple.

The bark and leaves of a plant imbibe, at proper feafons, the moisture of the atmosphere. At other times they perfpire the fuperfluous nonrishment. This opens to our view an extenfive prospect of the vegetable economy.

We have already feen that all the parts of a plant are the fame. They only differ in fhape. The roots are formed tharp and pointed, to make their paffage eafier through the earth. The leaves are made broad, to catch the moisture of the air with more readiness. When the root of a tree happens to be elevated, inftead of being retained within the earth, it affumes the appearance of a perfect plant, with leaves and branches. Experiments fhew us that a young tree may have its branches placed in the earth, and its roots elevated in the air; and in that inverted state it will continue to live and grow.

VOL. XXX. August, 1770.

The

ing them, which neither the one nor the other could have derived from the moft triumphant cavalcade to Brentford, or the moft tumultuous affembly at the London Tavern..

The reader is here prefented with a fuccinct account of all the former expeditions to Falkland's Iflands; together with fuch defcriptions of them as were given by the feveral adventurers who landed there for the fole purpose of enquiring into their extent and fertility. Whether fuch a territory-Ithaca fcopulos, Laërtia regna-was of fufficient confequence to justify us in undertaking an immediate war; and whether the behaviour of Spain, on our requifition, proved haughty enough to furnish us with a pretext for rifing in our demands, is in great measure the object of enquiry to this able writer, from whose pamphlet we should certainly have made large extracts, but that a work which depends on arguments regularly deduced, as well as facts impartially stated, is never well understood when dealt out piece-meal to the reader. Our author's fubject at last conducts him to treat of those who befriend the prefent expiring faction, either by fcribbling for Newspapers, or bellowing in the Common-council. From this herd he fingles out their leader Junius, one whofe fpecious talents exalt him into an antagonist whom no writer can blush to oppose:

quo non folertior alter

Ere ciere viros, martemque accendere cantu :

and without any affiftance borrowed from perfonal invective, or confidence derived from hiding, like his opponent, behind a cloud, has attacked him with that confcious superiority of fpirit, which a juft caufe alone can fupport, and that elegance of fatire which nothing lefs than the most intimate acquaintance with polite literature could infpire. As this part of his pamphlet is in fome measure detached from the reft, we fhall at once entertain our readers, and enrich our Review, by extracting it.

This thirft of blood, however the visible promoters of sedition may think it convenient to fhrink from the accufation, is loudly avowed by Junius, the writer to whom his party owes much of its pride, and fome of its popularity. Of Junius it cannot be faid, as of Ulyffes, that he featters ambiguous expreffions among the vulgar; for he cries havock without referve, and endeavours to let flip the dogs of foreign or of civil war, ignorant whither they are going, and careless what may be their prey.

Junius has fometimes made his fatire felt, but let not injudicious admiration mistake the venom of the fhaft for the vigour of the bow. He has fometimes fported with lucky malice; but to him that knows his company, it is not hard to be farcaftic in a mask. While he walks like Jack the Giant-killer in a coat of darkness, he may do much mifchief with little ftrength. Novelty captivates

the

the fuperficial and thoughtless; vehemence delights the difcontented and turbulent. He that contradicts acknowledged truth will always have an audience; he that vilifies established authority will always find abettors.

Junius burst into notice with a blaze of impudence which has rarely glared upon the world before, and drew the rabble after him as a monster makes a fhow. When he had once provided for his fafety by impenetrable fecrecy, he had nothing to combat but truth and juftice, enemies whom he knows to be feeble in the dark. Being then at liberty to indulge himself in all the immunities of invifibility; out of the reach of danger, he has been bold; out of the reach of fhame, he has been confident. As a rhetorician, he has had the art of perfuading when he feconded defire; as a reafoner, he has convinced those who had no doubt before; as a moralift, he has taught that virtue may difgrace; and as a patriot, he has gratified the mean by infults on the high. Finding fedition afcendant, he has been able to advance it; finding the nation combuftible, he has been able to inflame it. Let us abftract from his wit the vivacity of infolence, and withdraw from his efficacy the fympathetick favour of Plebeian malignity; I do not say that we fhall leave him nothing; the cause that I defend fcorns the help of falsehood; but if we leave him only his merit, what will be his praife?

It is not by his liveliness of imagery, his pungency of periods, or his fertility of allufion, that he detains the cits of London, and the boors of Middlefex. Of ftile and fentiment they take no cognizance. They admire him for virtues like their own, for con. tempt of order, and violence of outrage, for rage of defamation and audacity of falfehood. The Supporters of the Bill of Rights feel no niceties of compofition, nor dexterities of fophiitry; their faculties are better proportioned to the bawl of Bellas, or barbarity of Beckford; but they are told that Junius is on their fide, and they are therefore fure that Junius is infallible. Thofe who know not whither he would lead them, refolve to follow him; and thofe who cannot find his meaning, hope he means rebellion.

Junius is an unusual phænomenon on which fome have gazed with wonder and fome with terrour, but wonder and terrour are tranfitory paffions. He will foon be more closely viewed or more attentively examined, and what folly has taken for a comet that from its flaming hair fhook peftilence and war, enquiry will find to be only a meteor formed by the vapours of putrefying democracy, and kindled into flame by the effervefcene of intereft ftruggling with conviction; which after having plunged its followers in a bog, will leave us enquiring why we regarded it.

'Yet though I cannot think the ftile of Junius fecure from criticifm, though his expreffions are often trite, and his periods feeble, I should never have stationed him where he has placed himself, had I not rated him by his morals rather than his faculties. What, fays Pope, must be the priest, where the monkey is a God? What must be the drudge of a party of which the heads are Wilkes and Crosby, Sawbridge and Townshend ?

'Junius knows his own meaning and can therefore tell it. He is an enemy to the miniftry, he fees them growing hourly ftronger. He knows that a war at once unjust and unfuccefsful would have certainly difplaced them, and is therefore, in bis zeal for his country, angry that war was not unjustly made, and unfuccefsfully

con

inftructive of literary productions. There is a happy mixture in it of the utile and the dulce; it amufes and captivates our fancy, without the fiction of romance; it gives us a large proportion of moral and political information, without the tedioufnefs and perplexity of fyftem. It promotes and facilitates the intercourse of countries remote from each other; it difpels from our minds unreasonable and gloomy antipathies against thofe manners, customs, forms of government, and religion, to which we have not been bred it makes man mild, and fociable to man; it makes us confider ourselves and all mankind as brethren, the workmanship of one Supreme benign Creator; a truth as obvious to reflection as neglected in condu&t.

It must be owned that Mr. Baretti's travels are both entertaining, and improving. His articles are feldom trifling; they are well arranged; and in general distinctly, and spiritedly related.-Here are objects for men of all taftes; for the antiquary, the philologift, the poet, and the po litician. Inftead of pedantically cenfuring fome inaccuracies of language which have unavoidably escaped him, we must obferve that to fuch English as he writes it is but rare that a foreigner can attain: he has indeed feldom difcredited his book by weakness of intellect; but he has hurt it by want of temper, on many occafions; by a peremptory, and magifterial tone, which makes a writer of middling parts contemptible, and even the greatest genius lefs refpectable. He decides in a moment, and in an Ariftotelian tone, queftions, in their nature controvertible; questions which have agitated the minds of men infinitely fuperiour to him in learning and penetration, and whose opinion likewife has been different from his decree. But this circumstance is rather disadvantageous to himself than to his reader; whenever it comes in the way, it will be fuperfeded by common candour and fagacity.

Good books of this kind do not always meet with the favourable reception which they deferve. Because there have been lying travellers, the veracity of almost every traveller is fufpected. If we read any thing very extraordinary of a foreign country, we withhold from it our belief, and conclude, that it never exifted but in the fportive and impofing imagination of the narrator: yet if he relates to us nothing to excite our amazement, we pronounce his work dry and unentertaining. Here it is the bufinefs of judgment to discriminate betwixt appearance and reality; to reflect that there are throughout the world many phenomena in nature and in art, which to people confined to one fpot, may appear, at first fight, incredible; and, that many anecdotes and circum ftances,

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