pondence as often as I find opportunity-Many gentlemen I doubt not, will readily contribute their affiftance to fo falutary a defign, and conftitute a general court of criticifin in the London Magazine, to shew that an author cannot be defpicable and ingenious, powerful and weak, ignorant and learned, at the fame moment, as he is now frequently reprefented by the different Reviews. A task of this kind requires very little trouble; the bare tranfcrip tion of oppofing opinions will be enough for the purpose; or if the tranfcription is too troublesome, the barely fending the contradictory characters given of a writer, in print, will be equally effectual. By this means the public will at one glance, be able to judge for themselves on contested points of literature, and have befides the Impartial Review, conftantly furnished by the London Magazine, an epitome of the Monthly and Critical to affift in the felection of their authors.-It is unneceffary, gentlemen, to fay more upon the fubject-I proceed therefore to the execution of my plan, and now prefent you with

The prefent publication is not entirely free from that difgufting petulance and affectation, which generally characterize the performances of its author. Filled with that little vanity, which fo frequently attends on contemplative and retired men, he deli vers his oracles with an air of the utmost authority; and seems to confider himself as feated on the pinnacle of the temple of wifdom, from whence he looks down with a fapient disdain on the reptiles that crawl below him." The CRITICAL REVIEW for March, Speaking of the fame performance, men

tions it thus:

"The diftinguished author of this pamphlet, though he has condescended to defcant on a fubject already hackneyed by other political writers, ftill maintains that originality of thought peculiar to himself, as well as that fplendor of diction which illuminates all his other works. Like Cæfar, knocking at the gate of Amyclas, he is ftill indocilis privata loqui, and elevates the mobs of Middlefex, and the fupporters of the bill of rights, into that confequence, by his manner of repre

IN

By Jonathan Idle, Efq;

N the MONTHLY REVIEW for laft April, p. 330, we have the following character of Thoughts on the late Tranfactions refpecting Falkland's Island. "The few writers who treat difpaffionately of public affairs, are in titled to the thanks of their fellow-citizens; but it is not fo with thofe who would fcatter fedition, or who would exalt the prerogatives of the crown by overthrowing the liberties of the people. In this latter clafs we are unwilling to place the author of the performance before us; notwithstanding that, as the champion of the miniftry, he attempts to vindicate its conduct in relation to the late tranfactions with Spain; and that he confiders those who have cenfured it as the bellowers of faction."

Though perhaps there is no great force of argument, or strength of reafoning in the pages before us, we must, however, be candid enough to remark that their literary merit is very confiderable.

nor the other could have derived from the most triumphant cavalcade to Brentford, or the moft tumultuous affembly at the London Tavern.

From the herd he fingles out their leader Junius, one whofe fpecious talents exalt him into an antagonist whom no writer can blush to oppose: 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 fuperiority 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.

We may fairly fay of this perfor mance, after having perufed it with an uncommon degree of diligence and attention, that it will bring conviction home to all thofe whofe judgements are neither warped by party, nor feduced by intereft. To this we may add, that the author of the Rambler never lofes the moralift in the politician, but still continues to blend the benevolent

benevolent effufions of a mind impregnated with a thorough fenfe of every civil and religious duty with fuch falutary advice, as may best inftruct us how to preferve the internal happinefs and political interests of our native country.

MONTHLY, April 1771.

The Loves of Medea and fafon; a poem, in three books. Tranflated from the Greek of Apollonius Rhodius's Argonautics. By the Rev. J. Ekins, M. A. late fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Rector of Quainton, Bucks. 4to. 3s. 6d. Payne.

1771.

The Argonautics of Apollonius were of fuch high repute in antiquity that Virgil has not fcrupled to borrow very largely from that writer, both in the conftruction, the fentiments,and image. ry of his neid; yet we have never tranflated him; and indeed the dry detail of his fabulous heroes, and their uninterefting exploits in the two first books, is very forbidding. The prefent tranflator has wifely enough, therefore, omitted them, and fallen only on that more interesting part which defcribes the loves of Medea and Jafon. But a mediocrity of art and genius (which if we allow Mr. Ekins, we grant him rather too much) was by no means fufficient here. And indeed, this is a very tame and inadequate tranflation. To point out the feeble lines were endlefs; but the tranflator has fometimes as little propriéty as poetry. He reprefents the blooming Medea as an old hag, who, in the morning,

"Smooths her parched cheeks: She then gives orders to the female band, [ftand!" Who in attendance near her chamber

CRITICAL on the fame.

It now remains to fpeak more particularly of Mr. Ekins's performance, which we have compared, in many of the most interesting paffages, with the original; and hesitate not a moment to congratulate the literary world on fo valuable an acquifition. We fhall point out, indeed, a few inftances, in which he has not given the fenfe of his author fo fully as perhaps was poffible; and yet, we know not whether, on the whole, the poem could be more exactly rendered into Englia verie, without injury to its spirit. Mr.Ekins is

peculiarly happy in transfufing the tenderness of Apollonius into his own lines; and if at any time he finks beneath his author, it is when our language would not fupport him in the imitation of daring Grecifmus.

We believe the reader will join with us in hoping, that Mr. Ekins will add the rest of the poem to this performance. A poet is not well underftood but by the whole of his work; and if Mr. Ekins declines the talk, we know not who will venture to appear as his rival.

MONTHLY, Feb. 1771.

Free Thoughts in the present State of public Affairs, in a Letter to a Friend.

We perceive nothing in this letter that can induce us to recommend it to the public.

CRITICAL on the fame Performance. The pamphlet, upon the whole, is an ingenious expoftulation with the opponents of government.

MONTHLY, April 1771.

Reflections upon the present Dispute between the House of Commons and the Magifrates of London, 8vo. 1s. Bladon.

According to the fpirit of our conftitution, the members of the House of Commons ought to hold no language but what the people fhould hear, or be informed of. They are elected for the purpose of fupporting the general rights of the nation; and when they complain that their speeches are published, it is naturally to be suspected that they are inclined, in fome refpect, to betray their conftituents. The publication however before us, in compliment to administration, fhould vindicate the Houfe of Commons in their late tranfactions with the magiftrates of London. It is written with no extraordinary ftrength of argument, or elegance of compofition; yet from its ftyle and manner, we thould be apt to afcribe it to a perfon of fome eminence in the literary world-the author of Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland.

CRITICAL on the fame, April 1771.

This publication is no lefs fpirited and judicious than feafonable; and whoever perufes it for the fake of information, will be convinced, that the power which the Houfe of Commons has exerted, is warranted by the principles of the conftitution.

ARTICLE I.

Journal of a Voyage round the World in bis Majefty's Ship Endeavour, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771. Underta. ken in Purfuit of natural Knowledge, at the Defire of the Royal Society, &c. 4to. 1 vol. Becket.

Though Dr. Solander and Mr. Bankes, the principals of the voyage in the Endeavour, have both advertised against the Journal before us, we fee very little reafon to doubt the authenticity of the writer, who gives us feveral fenfible accounts of the newly discovered countries in the fouthern hemisphere. The following defcription of the favages on Otahitee, or King George's Inland, will, we are confident, afford much entertainment to the reader.

"The island, which the commander of the Dolphin twenty-gun-fhip had named King George's Ifland, is by the natives called Otahitee; and confifts of two peninfulas, joined by an ifthmus. The greater peninfula is called Otahitee-Nua, and the lefler Otahitee-Eta. The former indeed is fometimes called Obreabo, in honour to queen Obrea, The whole length of the island is fifteen leagues, and its circumference forty leagues; Port Royal bay is fituated near the west end. From thence the coaft extends eaft by fouth, about nineteen miles, to a reef of three small iflands, forming a bay called Society Bay. From this the land inclines into a deep bay at the ifthmus or juncture of the two divifions, of which the fmalleft is nearly oval, and furrounded by a reef, which runs parallel to the shore, at about two miles diftance; this has feveral apertures or paffages which afford fafe anchorage within. The north fide of the inland is likewife defended by a fimilar reef, but the ground within is foul and unfafe for veffels of burthen.

The foil of the ifland, on the more elevated parts, is dry, and confifts of a red loam, which is very deep; but the vallies are covered with a fertile black mould. The

inland is under the government of a fingle chief, whofe authority is unlimited, and who appoints deputies that prefide in different diftricts, to preferve good order, and collect thofe impofitions or duties, which by long eftablishment have become his due. And though no particular laws have been enacted among them, yet certain penalties or punishments, from long ufage and ancient custom, are annexed to certain crimes or misdemeanors. Thus, for example, thofe who steal clothes or arms, are commonly put to death, either by hanging or drowning in the fea; but those who fteal provifions are bastinadoed. By this practice they wifely vary the

oa. 1771.

punishment of the fame crime, when committed from different motives; judging, perhaps, that he who fteals cloth or arms, fteals because he is either idle or avaricious, qualities which probably will always continue with the offender to the disturbance of fociety; but he who fteals from hunger is impelled by one of the most importunate defires of nature, and will not offend again, unless the fame impulse recurs, which it is not likely will often happen.

The natives of Otahitee are unequal in ftature, fome of them being fix feet and three inches in height, others not more than five feet and a half; commonly however they are tall and large in fize, but not strong and vi gorous; their joints being more flexible than thofe of the moft delicate European women I have ever feen. From infancy they habituate themselves to dancing, according to their own peculiar mode, which confifts of very extravagant distortions and gefticulations, together with various inflexions of their bodies and limbs, which being frequently practifed, feem, like the effect of early habit in our tumblers, to be the caufe of that cnlarged motion in their joints, which prevents their attaining a degree of ftrength proportionate to their fize. In fitting they commonly incline very much forward, but in walking they carry themselves very erect, even when advanced in old age.

Their complection is brown, but, muchlighter than that of the natives of America; fome few among them appeared almost as white as Europeans, and feveral had red hair, though it is commonly black and strait.

Their garments are made from cloth manufactured by themselves from a vegetable fubftance produced by a tree, which we named the cloth-tree. Thefe garments vary in their figure, and in the manner in which they are worn; circumftances, which though regulated with fuch rigid exactness in European countries, with them depend on fancy, caprice, or the ftate of the weather, as to heat, cold, rain, &c. In the day-time they have always a covering about the pubes; and in dry pleasant weather they commonly wear a piece of thin cloth, about two yards in length, having a perforation or hole in the middle, through which the head is paffed, and which hangs loofely over the fhoulders; but when in their houses this cloth is frequently taken from the neck, and rolled about their loins. The women efteem it as moft ornamental to enfold the pubes with many windings of cloth, which they draw fo clofe about the middle, and round the upper part of their thighs, that it is a confiderable impediment to thein in walking. Both fexes indent or X X X

prick

but perhaps not with much propriety. They have fome notion of a future life in another ifland, to which they expect to be tranflated after death; but it does not feem as if they confidered it as a ftate of retribution for the actions of this life, fince they believe that each individual will there enjoy the fame condition in which he has lived here, whether it be that of a prince, a mafter, or a fervant. They believe the ftars to be generated between the fun and moon, and fuppofe an eclipfe to be the time of copulation. They likewife fuppofe the greatest part of the earth or main land to be placed at a great distance eastward, and that their island was broken or feparated from it while the Deity was drawing it about the fea, before he refolved upon its fituation.

Though thefe people have no particular mode of divine worship, we frequently obferved that in eating they cut a small piece of their food and depofited in fome retired place as an offering to Maw-we,

When any difputes arife among the people concerning property, the strongest retains poffeffion, but the weaker complains to the Erei, who, from a political defire of main taining equality among his fubjects, generally gives it to the pooreft of the contending parties.

Their funeral rites are of a fingular kind; the dead body is depofited in a house built for that purpofe at fome diftance from the common habitation of the family, and laid on a floor elevated feveral feet above the ground, being covered with fine cloth; then a kind of prieft, called Heavah, cloathed in a mantle covered with gloffy feathers, and commonly attended with two boys painted black, ftrews the body with flowers and leaves of bambo, and carries prefents of fish, and other food, which he depofits by the fide of it, and for two or three days after is conftantly employed in ranging the adjacent woods and fields, from which every one retires on his approach. The relations in the mean time build a temporary house, contiguous to that which contains the corpfe, where they affemble, and the females mourn for the deceafed by finging fongs of grief, howling, and wounding their bodies in different places; after which they bathe their wounds in the fea or river, and again return to howl and cut themselves, which they continue for three days. After the body is corrupted, and the bones become naked or bare, the skeleton is depofited in a kind of ftone pyramid built for that purpofe*.

II. The Hiftory of a Voyage to the Malɔuine

(or Falkland) Islands, &c. translated from Don Pernetty's Hiftorical Journal written in French, 4to. 15s. Jefferys.

This voyage was made in the years 1763 and 1764, under the command of Monf. de Bougainville, in order to form a fettlement; the principal advantages however, likely to refult from the undertaking, are fome difcoveries in natural history, which may afford entertainment to the public curiofity, though the tranflation is by no means fuch as we can mention in the ftrongest terms of approbation.

III. Remarks on M. de V's new Difcoveries in natural Hiftory, in a late Publication, intitled, Les Singularites de la Nature, 8vo. Is. 6d. Robinfon and Roberts.

A laudable attempt to maintain the fcripture hiftory of the general deluge, against the fubtleties of fophiftry, and the charms of a lively imagination.

IV. The Life of Henry St. John Lord Vifcount Bolingbroke, 8vo. 1s. 6d. Davies.

We are at a lofs to conceive with what view the life of a character so perfectly known as Lord Bolingbroke's is now prefented to the public; especially one fo wretchedly written as the prefent; which is almoft a continued chain of palpable inaccuracies.

V. Difcourfes on the Parables of our bleed Saviour, and the Miracles of the Holy Ghoft, with occafional Illuftrations. By Charles Bulkley, 4 vol. 8vo. 5s. Horsfield.

This is one of the few articles in which true piety, blended with fterling good fenfe, is powerfully calculated to promote the happiness of mankind.

VI. The generous Hufband; or the Hiftory of Lard Lelius and the fair Emilia, containing likewife the genuine Memoirs of Afmodei, the pretended Piedmontefe Count, from the Time of bis Birth, to bis late ignominious Fall in Hyde-park, 12mo. 2s. 6d. Wheble.

Licentioufnefs in league with ftupidity, attempting to pafs a late unhappy affair in high life, as a literary article of importance upon the credulity of the public.

VII. A Letter to the Jurors of Great-Britain, occafioned by ar. Opinion of the Court of King's-Bench, read by Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, in the Cafe of the King and Woodfall, and faid to have been left by bis Lordship with the Clerk of Parliament, 8vo. Is. 6d. Pearch.

This writer is a warm, yet a sensible advocate in the caufe of the people; his zeal never betrays him into any unbecoming intemperance, and his arguments must be read