DRAMATIC. ART. 17. Man and Wife; or More Secrets than One, a Comedy, in five Alts, as performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. By Samuel James Arnold, Efq. The Eighth Edition. 8vo. 90 PP. 2s. 6d. Longman and Co. 1809. On a play which filled the house, as long as the house stood, and has gone through at least eight editions in print, what can we bestow but commendations? It must be ftrongly attractive, or it could not have produced these effects. The author very modeftly thanks the Actors, as having contributed to its fuccefs. But in all fuch cafes the obligation is mutual; and the performers are as happy to have entertaining parts to act, as the writer can be to fee them well reprefented. A very amusing character, and rather novel, is Mr. O'Dedi. mus, an Irish Attorney, who feems to be a rogue, and turns out honest. The characters of Fanny and Helen are interefting; and the catastrophe is as unforeseen as any change of the kind that we recollect; nor does it offend againft the laws of probability, more than in fuch cases is ufual and allowed. We congratulate Mr. A. on his fuccefs, and fhall be glad to fee him purfue it, ART. 18. Mufic Mad. A dramatic Sketch; as performed with the greatest Applause, at the Theatre Royal, Hay-market. Written by Theodore Edward Hook, Efq. Chapple. 1808. 8vo. 33 PP. Is. 6d. A more whimfical little trifle than this we never faw; but it feems to have diverted the auditors; and the author by no means appears to be vain of it. He very handfomely attributes its fuccefs to the actors Matthews and Lifton, and fays, that in juftice to them he publishes it, "that the town, seeing how weak it is in itfelf, may know what is due to them." This, and the unaffuming name of Sketch, may furely filence criticifm. NOVELS. ART. 19. The Soldier's Orphan; a Tale. By Mrs. Coftello. 3 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. Longman and Co. 1809. There is certainly ingenuity of contrivance in this production, fome well-imagined fcenes, and well-conducted dialogue. The incidents, perplexitics, embarraffments, efcapes, and fortunate conclufion, will be found much the fame as in other books of the kind. Two or three agreeable pieces of poetry are interspersed. ART. ART. 20. It is not certain that the Author will not be offended with our placing his book in the class of novels, because he tells us it has no title to the name. What we have done, however, we have done. The book is very fenfibly written, and contains fome interesting incidents and remarks; but the whole is fo very obviously founded on the recent and popular publication of Mrs. Hannah More, and indeed is fo acknowledged by the Author himself, that all praise of originality of contrivance is immediately excluded. It is alfo confefled to have been written in hafte, indeed in a lefs perio than a month, though there is no indication of this hafte in the compofition or execution. The book muft be allowed to be refpectable, and may be perufed even after Calebs, without exciting faftidioufnefs. The Author feems calculated for higher things, and in this particular to have haftily taken up time, which might have been better and more effectually employed. Nubilia, as a feminine name, is a strange offence against analogy. BIOGRAPHY, ART. 21. The Life of Abraham Newland, Efq. late principal Cafbier at the Bank of England: with fome Account of that great National Eftablishment. To which is added an Appendix, containing the late Correfpondence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer with the Bank, and a Lift of the Statutes passed relative to it, from the Time of its Incorporation. Embellished with a Portrait, from an Original Painting. 12mo. 163 pp. 55. Crosby. 1808. Long as Mr. Newland was known to the public in his official fituation, and celebrated as he has been, in consequence, by the wit of Mr. Dibdin, we little expected to be called upon to read his Life. We confefs, however, that the task is well performed. The narrative is ably written, without any vain pretence to raife the subject into undue confequence; yet giving him the credit he appears to have deferved for plain and useful talents, united with a focial and agreeable difpofition. The author has skilfully given importance to his work, by connecting with it many hif torical particulars relative to the Bank of England; to which Mr. Newland was fo long a fervant. He has ftated the circumftances relating to the delinquency of Mr. Aftlett; and has fubjoined other public documents, even of a later date. The con cluding fentence may ferve to fhow that the anonymous author is not unskilled in the art of difplaying a fubject in an attractive manner. "The Life of Abraham Newland," fays he, "will not be studied without advantage. No human being was his enemy, enemy, he injured no one, he conferred benefits on all with whom he was connected; he lived in credit and usefuinefs, and he died in peace." It is an error, however, to afcribe to Mr. Newland the lines which he is here faid to have produced for his epitaph, a fhort time before his death. "Beneath this ftone old Abraham lies; Where he is gone, and how he fares, No one knows, and no one cares." P. 109. Excepting a few verbal alterations, this is very old; and may be found, among other places, in Frobisher's Epitaphs, page 146, as written on Sir John Guife. The portrait of Mr. Newland prefixed, is not only a good engraving, but an accurate and characteristic likeness. ART. 22. AGRICULTURE. Obfervations on the Influence of Soil and Climate upon Wool; from which is deduced a certain and eafy Method of improving the Quality of English Clothing Wools, and preferving the Health of Sheep; with Hints for the Management of Sheep after Shearing; an Inquiry into the Structure, Growth, and Formation of Wool and Hair; and Remarks on the Means by which the Spanish Breed of Sheep may be made to preferve the beft Qualities of its Fleece unchanged in different Climates. By Robert Bakewell. With occafional Notes and Remarks, by the Right Honourable Lord Somerville. 8vo. 157. pp. 6s. 6d. Harding. 1808, Mr. B. does not profefs that the management which he recom mends (namely, greafing) is new; but that, although the practice may be of fome antiquity, yet its application, for the direct purpofe of ameliorating the wool, has never been reforted to: The remarks of Lord Somerville appear to us foundly useful; and we with the Author had been favoured with more of them. The character of the work, from the fame quarter, may be adopted by us that it has much brevity, and much ingenuity, to recommend it; that the fubject is a very important, but neglected, branch of rural economy; nearly connected with the fuccefs of our fineft woollen manufactures, and even with the national revenue. : Concerning the wool of Lincolnshire, we obferve, that an excellent ointment has been in common ufe there during twenty years; and we fuggeft, in behalf of poor fheep, in that and other counties, that between hills and vales helters fhould always be made for the sheep to lodge under in violent forms and heavy falls of fnow, which are often fatal to thefe generally neglected animals; and that thofe fhelters might be hurdles put down in fuch a manner as would, in different fituations, beft break off the ftorm. form. Of course, the poor creatures fhould be well foddered, and then they will not break from the ground. LAW. ART. 23. Compendium of the Laws and Conftitution of England. By William Enfield, M. A. Izmo. 374 PP. 4s. 6d. Tegg. 1809. This Compendium may be properly characterized as a clear and well-digefted abridgement of Blackstone's Commentaries, and may be a very convenient manual to those who have not fufficient leifure to perufe the original. We have not obferved that any material point of law is omitted, or mifreprefented. By leaving out the declamatory and difcurfive paffages (which, though entertaining and inftructive, are not neceffary to a right understanding of the fubject) the compiler has brought the whole fyftem of English law into a narrow compafs, and has given us the fubftance of an expenfive work at a very inconfiderable price. We do not hesitate to recommend this publication as one of the most ufeful of the kind, which have come under our notice. POLITICS. ART. 24. To pronounce any judgment on the principles and conduct of a contemporary Review, would be an invidious task. We will, therefore, without giving our opinions, fuffer the refpectable writer before us to fpeak for himself, ftating, in his own words, the chief grounds of his cenfure, and referring our readers for particulars to the pamphlet itself, which, we can venture to say, well deferves their ferious attention. The paffage in the Edinburgh Review, to which this writer. principally objects, is contained in the account of the work of Don Pedro Cevallos, the late Spanish Minifter. It is in the following words: "The caufe of the Spaniards is fo obviously that of the people; the desertion of the court and nobles is fo manifeft; the connection between the fuccefs of the patriots, and a radical change of the government, is fo plainly neceffary, that whoever has wifhed well to them, feels intimately perfuaded that he has been efpoufing the popular fide of the greatett queftion of the prefent day; that he has been praying molt fervently for the fuccefs of the people against their rulers; that he has, in plain terms, as far as in him lay, been a party to revolutionary meafures." P. 8. On On the foregoing paffage, the Author before us remarks, in the first place, that the Edinburgh Review evidently uses the word Revolution, as if it had one invariable meaning, like the words Heat, Cold, Moisture, and Drought. Now let us fee (fays the Author) how far he is right. In the year 1688, we had what has ever fince been called a Revolution' in England. That was begun by an abdication on the part of the reigning monarch, after a grofs violation of his original contract with his fubjects it was carried on by a Convention, affembled with the utmoft temper, and with a full regard to the law of the land, and the forms of the conftitution: it effected a limitation of the crown according to the ftricteft notions of hereditary fucceffion, as far as the fafety of law and religion permitted, under the exifting circumftances: it was unaccompanied by any act of violence: it preferved the conftituted authorities: it refpected all those gradations of rank which are inherent in and neceffary to civilized fociety; and all this in an exigence which unquestionably did diffolve the bond between the governor and the governed, and after outrages on the part of the former which had not a parallel in English hiftory. This then was a Revolution.' Towards the clofe of the last century there was a Revolution' in France. This was begun under the pretext of fome neceffary reforms in the government of that country: it rapidly produced the deftruction of its first movers it annihilated the government which it profeffed to amend it levelled ali diftinctions of rank and property: it produced murder in all its shapes, even the murder of the King himfelf, upon whom perfonally no imputation could be thrown: it destroyed all law: it abolished even the femblance of religion: it grew in horrors as it advanced, and at laft ended in a defpotif as complete as Europe ever witneffed, and as contradictory to every principle of either genuine or fpurious liberty. This then was a Revolution! We have now (he adds) a third political phanomenon before our eyes, which alfo bears the fame name, a Revolution.' This confifts in a general, nay almoft unanimous, confent of the Spanish people, (in which word the whole nation is included) not to levy war against their legitimate rulers, but to throw off a foreign yoke, and repel that enemy who has himself overturned their hereditary throne, and who keeps in captivitytheir legitimate rulers: fo that we have three diftinct states, which are termed revolutionary; a temperate refiftance to unconftitutional acts of the monarch; a lawlefs, murderous, facrilegious fubverfion of every thing that belongs to government and good order; and a patriotic defence of a national conftitution and regal fucceffion against the dominion of a foreign power: yet he who may favour any one of these fyftems of proceeding, is, in the language of the Edinburgh Review, a Revolutionist ;' and Revolution is a radical change of government; it is the cause of the people against their rulers." The Author next confiders the paffage cited in another point of |