• orange and lemon-juice; twice as much white-wine as limes juice, and four times as much brandy, with fugar.'

From what reign, or from what authority, this article may be deduced, is out of our power to determine; but the ridiculousness and abfurdity of it muft ftrike every one in the leaft acquainted with what has been meant by this compofition, for, at leaft, thirty years paft.-Let us fee how the prefent have improved upon the antecedent Lexicographers.

Punch,' fay they, is alfo a name for a fort of compound drink, much used here, and in many parts abroad*, particularly in Jamaica, and feveral other parts of the West Indies.

Its bafis is fpring-water, which being rendered cooler, brifker, and more acid with lemon-juice, and sweetened again to the palate with fugar, makes what they call sherbet; to which a proper quantity of fpirituous liquor, as brandy, rum, or arrack, being added, the liquor commences punch: • the proportion of the ingredients are various; fome, instead of lemon-juice, ufe lime-juice, which make what they call punch-royal; this is found lefs liable to affect the head, as well as much more grateful to the stomach. Some alfo make milk-punch, by adding as much milk to the fherbet, as there is water. Others ufe green-tea, inftead of water: and what› they call chamber-maid's punch, is made without any water,' of lime-juice, fharpened with a little orange and lemonjuice, twice as much white-wine as lime-juice, and four ⚫ times as much brandy, with fugar.

• Several Authors condemn the use of punch, as prejudicial to • the brain and nervous system.'

Punch has, of late years, grown fo cuftomary a liquor, that there are very few unacquainted with either the compofition or the qualities of the several ingredients; to talk of lime-juice fharpened with orange or lemon-juice, is as inconfiftent withcommon experience, as if a man fhould propose to make verjuice fourer by an addition of cyder. The late Editors of the Cyclopædia are certainly culpable, for retaining such an article; but the Compilers of this work must be deemed inexcufeable, for inferting it in a New Dictionary.

In the compofition of the PULVIS FULMINANS, which con-fifts only of three ingredients, one of them is unfortunately omitted: that the experimenter may not be disappointed of his fun, we

That our Readers may the better determine the importance of thefe gentlemen's transformations, the altered, omitted, and tranf-. pofed parts, are diftinguished by Italics.

ad

advertise him, to add to the directions here given, two ounces of falt of tartar.

It will hardly be imagined, that we have had leisure to examine critically every article in these volumes; what we have already mentioned, chance threw in our way; and these we apprehend, in a great measure, fufficient to fupport our accufation: if further evidence fhould be thought neceflary, we may refer to the articles, Reproduction, Reptile, Rhubarb, Stale in mufic, Sophifm, Stable, Tin*, Truffles, Verditer, Vermilion, Understanding, Undulation, and Weight; from all which, and many others, this Society of Gentlemen can derive no other honour than that of being deemed fervile copiers.

However, if the merit of a work of this fort ought to be determined by the quantity it comprehends, thefe gentlemen are entitled to a confiderable fhare of the public esteem; for never, to our remembrance, was more matter, or a greater variety of fubjects, comprehended in fo narrow a compafs. The addition of the duties payable on exportation and importation, to the articles of commerce, though not properly appertaining to a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, is not unufeful; but their topographical infertions are too flight to fatisfy an inquifitive reader.

With refpect to the plates, they are very numerous, and, in general, tolerably executed; but there is reafon to believe that no great fums were expended for original drawings, as most, of them appear to be no other than copies from other Dictionaries, and the Magazines.

* In this article even a typographical error is copied from BarWhere it is faid, the virtues of tin, as a medium, given internally, &c, which undoubtedly was intended for medicine.

Tow.

MONTHLY

CATALOGUE

1.

6d.

For DECEMBER, 1756.

POLITICAL.

Bfervations on the Embargo lately made on the Exports of Beef, Pork, and Butter from Ireland. 8vo. Griffiths.

Tho' the Author of thefeObfervations attempts to prove the great hardship, and illegality of this Embargo, and imagines, he has demonftrated, that we cannot greatly diftrefs the French by it;

yet,

yet, like all writers who oppose themselves to the frict reafon and undifguifed nature of things, he has been reduced to admit what will fufficiently counterballance all his objections to it. For, after mentioning what damages may have accrued from thence, to many in Ireland, which, he fuppofes, may extend even to fome here, he reasonably adds, That nothing can excufe a meafure, big with so much mifchief, but the moft apparent neceffity, fuch a neceffity as cannot be circumfcribed by any rules of 'law.' The most obvious confequence of this conceffion is, that if the executive part of the Government did suppose this moft apparent neceffity previous to, and made it the foundation of, this Embargo; it will follow, that they are juftifiable, upon a principle of his own admiffion: though with this difference, that our Author must be supposed to deny that apparent neceffity to exift, when the Government moft probably concluded it did exift-which is the point left to be decided, between the late Adminiftration, and the prefent Writer.

As there is a strong prefumption, that our Author was aware, the advisers of this Embargo might be juftified, in a great degree, from his own conceffion; to preclude them, as much as poffible, from the benefit of their good intentions in this case, he blames them for doing what appeared the best to their own judgments, by advancing, like a true Demagogue, page 23, That the Miniftry cannot be deemed the fole Judges of this neceffity, in a country where every man enjoys, in fome fort, a fhare in the legiflature:' by which, perhaps he only intends, every Voter, every one who is reprefented. But here it is evident, that as our Author had differed with an Administration before, he differs now with the Conftitution itfelf, and with the Legislature; who have fuppofed the executive power (of which a Ministry may be deemed the political Organs, or Members) the fole Judges of fuch neceffity, especially in the recefs of Parliaments, and left it to them to act in confequence of their judgment, in fuch fituations. At the fame time, we gladly allow, that the good people of this, and of the fubordinate realm too, have a right to think and talk of fuch matters; of which we wish them the continual poffeffion, whatever minute inconveniences it may poffibly, fometimes, be attended with: but there will always be this effential diftinction between these different rights, that the Proclamations of Writers and their Readers, must be confined to their influence in Coffee-houfes, and other places of meer converfation, until fome perfons of further conquence fhall think them important enough for a more fele&t attention, and notice.

Indeed, when we confider this pamphlet thoroughly, we cannot avoid concluding, that the Author really judged the very Embargo he complains of, either more neceffary than he chutes to admit it, or a lefs grievous hardship than he has reprefented it to be; for where he is inftancing the loyalty of the Irish Proteftants,

to

to the prefent illuftrious family, which, indeed, ftands in need of no exaggeration, he very reasonably infers, p. 11, That from a view of diftreffing their enemies, and for the fervice of their King, and their mother country, it is more than probable, they 'would, by acts of their own, have laid themfelves under the hardships accruing from this Embargo, fohighly complained of. We do not mean, by this, to contend for the Infallibility of any man, or Miniftry; but juftice is due to all: and our fenfible Author, with all his chagrin and archness, at certain measures, (in which he is far from being fingular) muft furely allow the prohibition complained of, the fanction of being well-meant; as it cannot be fuppofed fuch a one as our enemies would rejoice at, or purchase. He is capable, no doubt, 'of faying as much on the other fide of this fubject, if his views, or attachments, had inclined him: but we are more apt to respect a prefent good, than to guard against an evil, though it be but a liule more remote: one is the inordinate operation of felf-love; the other, a languid regard for the good of the whole, or of pofterity.

II. A Letter from a Gentleman at Leyden, to his Friend at Amfterdam, of the Motives that induced the King of Pruffia to prevent the Defigns of the Court of Vienna. Svo. Is. Woodfall.

This is a Tranflation of a piece written in French, by a Partizan of Pruffia. The original is printed with it. The motives of his Pruffian Majefty, which it is founded upon, together with the Saxon Memorial to the States, occafioned by that Prince's hoftile entrance into Saxony, have been long before the public.-However, as our times have produced no controverfy of greater moment, whether we look backward to caufes, or downwards to events, it may not be ungrateful to our Readers, to open as much of it, under this head, as may serve to clear the way for what is to follow.

The Motives, or rather the Expofition of them (which, by the way, are no otherwise dated, than from Berlin, 1756,) begin with a courfe of affertions, viz. That, ever fince the conclufion of the Peace of Dresden, the Court of Vienna had been induftriously searching for means to break it; as alfo, that treaties with that Court are no longer refpected by it, than as they are enforced by the fword: That the extravagant duties laid on all the manufactures of Silefia, were not only indications of its unfriendly intentions with regard to Pruffia, but what might very well have warranted reprizals by force of arms: That this aggreflion was, however, but a trifle, in comparison to the other tolid complaints which lay against her, amounting to no less than Ca revival of thofe ambitious projects which the Emperor Ferdinand the fecond, would have carried into execution, if there had not been a Cardinal Richlieu, and a Gustavus Adolphus to oppose them; that is to fay, to impofe fervitude on the Princes of Germany,

Ss 3

Germany, establish Defpotifm, abolish Proteftantifm, and overthrow the whole Conftitution of the Empire; That the Powers now in her way, were France, as Guarantee of the Treaty of Weftphalia; Pruffia; and the Grand Signior: That the chofe to begin with Pruffia firft, under colour of reclaiming a province ceded to that Power by the Peace: That with this view, the treaty of Petersburg was concluded; in which, not content with a defenfive alliance, fhe laid a scheme to embroil the Pruffian and Ruffian Courts; as also the Russian and Ottoman; in both which points they fo far fucceeded, that the Plenipotentiaries of the two former Courts were recalled on both fides, and the Ruffians were kept in arms on the frontiers of Pruffia, from year to year, in hopes that Chance would furnish cause for a rupture; in which cafe the Court of Vienna might have taken part, only as an auxiliary to Ruffia: and that nothing could have hindered an actual war, but the teddy and moderate conduct of the King, in avoiding whatever might be conftrued into a pretext for kindling it. The Expofition goes on, to fhew

That this was the state of things, when the affairs of America began to disturb the tranquility of Europe; a general war an fwering the purpofes of the Court of Vienna, and it being neceffary to them, that the great Powers fhould be taken up with their own immediate interefts: That thefe purposes being unknown at London, the King of England demanded of the Emprefs Queen, the fuccours, which he had a right to expect, both from her good faith, and her gratitude; having lavished his treafures, and his troops, facrificed the intereft of his kingdom, and exposed his perfon, to re-inflate that Princefs in the poffeffions of her fathers: That, to his infinite furprize, he found, notwithstanding, these were to be no otherwife obtained, than by his taking part in the plot against the Pruffian dominions: That his Majefty, whofe fentiments were too noble, and generous, to adopt a procedure fo unjust, not only rejected the propofitions thus made to him, but, to avert the ftorm which threatened Germany, made the Convention of Neutrality, figned at London:

That, hereupon, the Court of Vienna renewed her intrigues at Petersburgh, with redoubled application; and formed a plan for difmembering the Pruffian poffeffions:

That, in order to be fo much the more at eafe in this undertaking, she took advantage of the fituation of France, to draw the French Court into her measures, by the Treaty of Verfailles; and never abated her endeavours till fhe had infenfibly worked up a rupture between France and Pruffia:

That at a juncture fo extremely critical as this, when added to all these, and many more, infiduous meafures, the Court of Vienna was amaffing warlike ftores and provifions in Moravia and Bohemia; making armaments; forming camps of 80,000 men; polting lines of Hungarians and Croats along the frontiers of Silefia; and actually marking out camps on the King's limits:

fo