MONTHLY CATALOGUE, 1 For JULY, 1769. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 14 Hiftorical Anecdotes of fome of the Howard Family. By the Honourable Charles Howard, Efq; 8vo. 3s. 6d. fewed. Robfon. 1769. PRIDE RIDE of FAMILY, under certain modifications and limits, is neither pernicious nor ridiculous. On the contrary, it may prove highly ufeful, on the principle of emulation, from the influence of example, and from the laudable ambition of duly fupporting the fame that has been tranfmitted from father to son, through an honourable fucceffion of noble or refpectable ancestors. The honourable Compiler of the prefent memoirs, has dedicated them to his fon, Charles Howard Efq; of Greyftock Caftle, in Cumberland; and he modeftly and juftly apologizes for their publication in the following terms: I do not mean this attempt,' fays he, as a chit-chat of my anceftry, being fenfible that nothing can be more ridiculous than for a man to prefume, that the honour, refulting from the good works of his ancestors, devolves to him in right of blood only, without his taking the leaft pains to fhew, by his own good works, that their blood is ftill inherent in him-A cheap way indeed of purchafing honour!-So cheap, that the world will very juftly never admit it. It is from a man's own merit, or demerit, only, that he can expect to rife or fall in the opinion of the fenfible part of the world.' 6 The fool, or knave,' continues Mr. Howard, may hold forth to view a long lift of noble and worthy ancestors, but what other purpofe does it answer than to place him in a more confpicuous degree of contempt? My motive in attempting this detail, was to furnish my well-difpofed readers with fome amiable pictures of a good life; which may be pleafing in the view, and beneficial in contemplating. That they happened to be thofe of fome Howards, and not of any other name, was only occafioned by my being, from my connexions, more familiar with them. The life of a good man I always contemplate with pleasure, and this I look upon to be the most pleafing, as well as inftructive, part of hiftory; inafmuch as it proposes to every man, in private life, worthy examples, which are within his power, for the most part, to imitate: a benefit which he feldom finds in the voluminous accounts of the rife and fall of empires, with which every library abounds. It is certainly pretty to know the precife time, to a day, on which the battle of Pharfalia was fought, or any other memorable event happened; but does not the humane mind pay too dear for this knowledge when it furveys the carnage of the field? When I look at fome thoufands of men, flaughtering each other with unrelenting fury, for the wife purpofe only of deciding, whether they, and many millions more, fhall be flaves to A. or to B. an Alexander, a Author of Thoughts, Effays, and Maxims: fee Review for January, 1768, p. 62. Cæfar, Cæfar, or a Charles of Sweden, fometimes half-roafted by the parched heat of the fun, and at other times almost frozen to death, or perhaps wading up to their chins in a river; that after-ages may know that the greatest dangers, fatigue, or trouble, could not deter them from their fixed refolution of doing as much mifchief to mankind as was in their power.' I withdraw my eyes,' concludes this very refpectable descendent of the Howards, from fuch hateful fcenes, and retire-to view the more ufeful, though perhaps lefs happy merchant, or mechanic, who, while he is accumulating a comfortable fubfiftence for his growing iffue, is ftrengthening the powers of the state, and giving bread to many induftrious families; in fhort, agreeable to the adage, which tells us, that example is better than precept. It is from fuch reviews only, that we are most likely to get the best aids, next to thofe in holy writ, which are neceffary to direct and enable us to fill our places in fociety, with comfort to ourselves, and utility to others.' The contents of this volume are, Mr. Walpole's account of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, from the Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors;-Mr. Hume's character of the fame noble perfonage, from his Hiftory of England;-Sundry letters, &c. written by the Earl of Surrey;-An original letter to Cecil Lord Burleigh, containing a particular account of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots*; printed from an old manuscript in the British Mufeum ;-Memoirs of the famous Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundell; with a defence of his character, against Lord Clarendon, and a curious account of his museum, in a letter from James Theobald, Efq; to Lord Willougby of Parham ;-Some account of Sir Robert Howard, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the reign of Charles II. and author of feveral pieces, particularly the comedy of the Committee, or Faithful Irishman; Memoirs of Lord Howard of Efcrick; Charles Howard, Earl of Carlife; Charles Howard, Efq; grandfather to our Author; and Henry Charles Howard, Efq father to our Author:-To these are added, the office of Earl of Marshal of England, taken from a manufcript in the poffeffion of Mr. Edmondfon, Mowbray Herald.-The whole forms an agreeable mifcellany; and will prove particularly acceptable to those who have a tafte for researches into the history and antiquities of the families of our ancient nobility. *This curious letter is printed in this collection, on account of the Howard-family having suffered so much from their attachment to that unfortunate princefs. Art. 15. Private Letters from an American in England to his Friends in America. Small 8vo. 2s. 6d. fewed. Almon. 1769. The scheme of these letters is explained by the advertisement prefixed: • These Letters are supposed to be written towards the close of the eighteenth century, by a young American; who is stimulated by curiofity to pay a vifit to the country of his ancestors. The feat of government is transferred to America; and England is an almoft deferted, depopulated nation; the condition of which, and the manners of the inhabitants, he describes, as far as he is able to collect them, in the following feries of letters, to his friends in America.' From this it appears that poor Old England is reprefented as quite fuperannuated an hundred years hence; but, however well qualified the Author may be in humour, he is young in chronology for tho' thefe letters, by an Irish kind of calculation, are fuppofed to have been written the latter end of the next century, the joke is rendered compleat, by his mistaking this century for the next, in the above advertisement; merely, as may be conjectured, because we now fay feventeen hundred and fixty-nine! This, though the most obvious blunder, is not the only inconfiftency that might be produced: but great wits are often deficient in judgment, as well as in memory. His humour is next to be enquired into, and a fpecimen of it may be taken from the first letter he fends after his arrival in London: At length I am arrived, as Othello fays, "at the fea-mark of my utmost fail," for, from the little I faw on each fide the road, between Plymouth and this place, am quite out of heart for any further vifit into the country of England., My firft defign, you know, was to have vifited every city in the ifland; the feveral cathedrals, as I had feen the prints of them, were, in part, my inducement; but as I find, from all accounts, that reli-' gion is at its laft gafp, even in the villages, no doubt I fhall fee lefs in the capital churches, as thofe kind of difeafes flow from the head, downwards, and rarely begin, nay, if ever they do, never fucceed when they rife from the extremities. The only change fhall make in my intended tour will be to Scotland; this was originally never intended by me; from their itinerant method of getting their bread, I fhould have thought the country not worth ftaying in, and it is more than barely reported this was its fituation formerly; but at prefent, thanks to a favourite of their nation (above a century ago) that country is, now, the garden of this part of Europe-and though the climate will not admit of ripe fruits, and rich plants, yet have they fuch quantities of money, that scarce a gentleman of five hundred per annum, is now without his pinery; and hot-houfes are more frequent there, I am told, than were naked limbs in former ages. Many jelts, nay they are even tranfmitted to lateft pofterity, by printed books, were once current about a poor fingle paffage by a ferry, across the Tweed; and one among others, was, that when any paffenger paffed to Scotland, they never asked him for money, as being certain he would return, and foon too; but when the very richeft Scotchman paffed to England, they made him pay, as knowing he never would pafs back again, and was a fool if he did. You have often repeated part of an epigram, in those days, which, to common readers, will better explain this, "Had Cain been Scot, God would have chang'd his doom, However, I hear the wandering character of them is quite at an end, for, about a century fince, they crept into fuch favour at court, that scarce was there a confiderable poft vacant, in law, phyfic, the army, navy, nay, the the very church, but the natives of this country poffeffed it. • One One caufe of the depopulation in this part of England was, I hear, owing to this ftrange partiality to them-in fuch torrents did they pour fouthward, that the once poor ferry could no longer answer its original end; fo that from one bridge over the Tweed, which was then thought a very hazardous expence to the proprietors, no lefs than forty-five are ftill to be found, every one of which have, in proportion, their toll answer in intereft to the feveral owners. As the natives of this country ever retain prefbytery principles, it has often given caufe of wonder, no lefs than complaint, that bishops of the established church of England should be raised from their univerfities yet, but too often, has it happened, and, perhaps, is one of those reasons in the univerfal decay of religion fouthwards. Suckled in clannish principles, and nurfed in the cuftom of trying caufes without juries, the jealoufies fouthward were ever ftrongest, when any gentleman of this country, though ingenious to a proverb, afcended the upper bench of law; but as fo many printed accounts of this univerfal error are to be feen in your fo well-chofen library, I will return to my intended fubject, of which I had near loft fight, and, if ever I have occafion to open the cause again, will certainly be more particular, by gaining fly intelligence from the natives here, which is very easily done by making them believe you are defcended from a family of that nation. Our fortune, in America, having been originally made from trade, it was very natural I fhould chufe to take up my head-quarters in the city. By the grand appearance of ftreets, fquares, and almost palaces, from the once county-town of Brentford, I foolishly imagined, this must be from the overflowings of trade, and that the city, from whence fuch treafures muft iffue, ftill was the feat of hurry and confufion-I mean that glorious part of it which is occafioned by traffic. But after paffing a place called Leicester Square, where the pedeftal only of an Equestrian flatue ftill remained, I found nothing but unroofed buildings, common fewers open to the air, and, of course, very offenfive, grafs growing between the interfiices of the ftones, on the foot way, and, in fhort, every thing fymptomatic of defolation. 6 However, I ordered the coachman to drive me towards the Exchange; the fellow laughed, and faid, he fuppofed I had heard there was, now, no fuch place; but that he could thew me the ground it once ftood upon, the fame being, at prefent, a kind of college for repentant profitutes: Thefe candidates daily grew fo numerous, that one or two receptacles were not found fufficient to contain them, as was the cafe formerly; but in fact, it is fuch a clever contrivance to efcape creditors, get cured of a certain diforder gratis, or be rid of a bastard child, that no wonder every apartment has its weeping inhabitants in public, who laugh in private, to think what fools people must be to give up their money to fupport it; and how cordially their penitence is fwallowed by joining in an hymn or two, or weeping at the farcical piety of fome popular dod-ging preacher. Indeed I find moft hofpitals, on due examination, are built to aid and affift young phyficians, furgeons, apothecaries, chaplains, matrons, nuries, with many an et cetera, more than for the fake of the F3 feveral feveral poor objects; but I will explain this, in future letters, more amply; at prefent, as I grow tedious and tiresome to myfelf, fo must [ of course be to others, therefore, not to overload the carriage of incivility at prefent, Adieu.' Thofe Readers who relish the turn of this epiftle, may be gratified with twenty-fix more in the fame style in this collection, which are richly larded with prefent politics, to render them palatable for it is to be observed, that not one mortal whom our American traveller meets with, can inform him of any thing material, but what happened ' about a century ago;' and thefe hints of information are fometimes from perfonal knowledge and memory! Art. 16. A Differtation on the Influence of Opinions on Language, and of Language on Opinions, which gained the Pruffian Royal Academy's Prize on that Subject. Containing many curious Particulars in Philology, Natural Hiftory, and the Scripture Phrafeology. With an Enquiry into the Advantages and Practicability of an Univerfal Learned Language. By Mr. Michaelis, Court-counfellor to his Britannic Majefty, and Director of the Royal Society at Gottingen. 4to, 5 s. Boards. Owen, &c. 1769. An indifferent tranflation of that curious work, of which we gave an account in our Review of Foreign Books, App. to Rey. vol xxix. P. 512, feq. Art. 17. The Vegetable Syftem: Or, the internal Structure, and the Life of Plants; their Parts and Nourishment explained; their Claffes, Order, Genera, and Species, afcertained and defcribed; in a Method entirely new comprehending an artificial Index and a natural Syftem. With Figures of all the Plants, defigned and engraved by the Author. The whole from Nature only. By John Hill, M. D. Vol. 14th, Folio. 11. 11 s. 6d Boards. Baldwin, &c. 1769. For the former volumes of this noble and elegant work, fee Rev, vol. xxxvii. p. 129, 185. and vol. xxxviii. p. 324. Art. 18. An Effay on the Management of Hogs; including Experiments on the rearing and fattening them. For which the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, adjudged the Premium of a Gold Medal. Small 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Nicoll. A perfon who has really and accurately tried the changes of food here enumerated, has fufficiently earned the prize adjudged to him, though the conclufions drawn fhould not happen to be universally true for no profeflion is more influenced by local circumftances than that of a farmer. Mr Young, the author of this Effay, obferves, There are two principal objects in the rearing and fattening hogs; first, to make the greatest advantage of a dairy; and, fecondly, to fubftitute fome other food in the place of that which arifes from cows, when none are kept.' With regard to rearing, he advifes as follows: Hogs that are a quarter (or upwards) grown, may be abfolutely confined to a clover field, until it is neceffary to fow wheat: nine tenths |