of the war in Spain; the Opposition maintaining that we did too much for that country, and the Marquis Wellesley asserting that we did by no means enough: while those who knew how greatly our exertions were cramped by the depressed rate of exchange, and by the miserable inefficiency of the Spanish councils, had little doubt that ministers were contributing all the aid in their power. The editor of the volume before us does not touch on the impolicy of the seizure of the Danish fleet, or of our Orders in Council in 1807. These acts we have always considered as the great errors committed on our part; and, after having recorded our opinion of them, we have no objection to allow this advocate of ministers to take credit for their arrangements in a country in which they came forwards not to coerce but to deliver.

Art. 30. An Essay on the British Constitution, blended with the Laws relative to landed Property, and the personal Liberty of the Subject; &c. &c. By Agricola. 8vo. pp. 103. Printed at

Taunton.

This author is avowedly a young man, and does not profess to write on law for any other persons than the unprofessional reader and the attorney's clerk: an acknowlegement which, united with the declaration that his tract was composed for his own improvement, and for the purpose of diverting the ennui arising from indisposition, is calculated to disarm the severity of criticism. His essay consists of four parts; the first treating of the commencement of our Constitution during the portion of our history antecedent to the Conquest; the second from the Conquest to Edward I.; the third from Edward I. to Henry VIII.; and the fourth from Henry VIII. to the present time. To this historical sketch the author adds (p. & seq.) few general remarks on topics of a very different nature, such as parliamentary elections, assurances, conveyances, the formation of our courts of justice, the nature of our political constitution, the character of the time in which we live, and finally, by a figure which savours somewhat of the bathos, of bills of exchange and promissory notes. The tract is evidently one of those effusions which the writer, in his maturer years, will consider in the light of a very humble effort,

Art. 31.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Picture of Paris, being a complete Guide to all the public Buildings and Curiosities in that Metropolis; to which is added, an Almanack of the Pleasures of Paris, in Winter and Summer; containing a full Account of all the Theatres, Places of Amusement, Balls, Fetes, &c. &c. at Paris and in its Environs accompanied with Six Descriptive Routes from the Coast to Paris, and full Directions to Strangers on their first Arrival in that Capital. Embellished with Maps and Views. By Louis Tronchet. 4th Edition, corrected and enlarged. 12mo. 6s. Boards. Sherwood and Co. 18:5.

Last year, Frenchmen had reason to be proud of their capital, which possessed matchless treasures; and, if VEDI NAPOLI E POI MORI, See Naples and then die, was the passionate exclamation of Italians, similar language might with more propriety have been applied to Paris. This city, however, may now exclaim, Non sum qualis eram! The

French

French nation and French capital have both fallen from their proud eminence. Here, in this little volume, 70 pages are occupied by a catalogue of the sculptures and paintings collected and arranged in the Louvre but this splendid assemblage of art is now despoiled of its chief treasures, exhibiting pedestals without statues, and frames without pictures. From other buildings, other objects are likewise removed.

The section on the mode of travelling in France will be found useful, and so also may that which follows, containing hints to continental tourists; some of these hints are indeed alarming, for they shew that at many inns neither the property nor the person of the stranger is safe. Minute directions are then given to the traveller on his arrival in Paris; and ladies are cautioned to be on their guard as to French lace,' which generally turns out to be of English manufacture. Due notice is taken of Coffee-houses and Restaurateurs, (tavern-keepers,) the etymology of which latter word is thus stated by a French author: In the year 1765, a cook at Paris began to serve fried eggs, fowls, &c. on little marble tables, without a tablecloth, and had the following inscription put over his door: Venite ad me omnes qui stomacho laboratis, et ego RESTAURABO vos ! Public Libraries, Museums, &c. also fill many pages: but some alterations in the enumeration of their contents will be necessary in a subsequent edition..

In a sketch of the history of Paris, the embellishments which it received during the short and feverish reign of Bonaparte are summed up, and his future schemes are developed;

One of the grandest projects of Napoleon was to have opened a new street, ninety feet wide and about two miles in length, extending from the triumphal arch in the Carousel, which was to have stood in the centre of it, through the whole length of Paris, over the ground of the street called rue St. Antoine, till it joined the arsenal and the scite of ground of the late Bastille at the Barriere d'Enfer, there to terminate in a fountain formed of an immense elephant in brass. The street was to have been named rue Imperiale. If it had been completed, it would have made the most magnificent street in Europe; and the celebrated words applied to Augustus might, with equal truth, have been applied to Napoleon; "Lateritiam accepi, marmoream reliqui."

Observatories, Hospitals, and Charitable Institutions, Manufac tories, Theatres, Bankers, Public Buildings, including Palaces, Churches, Bridges, Prisons, Boulevards, Catacombs, &c. are duly enumerated; after which we have a sketch of Parisian Manners. The environs also of Paris are not overlooked. That part of the work which is called an Almanack of the Pleasures, &c. contains an ac count of all the theatres, places of amusement, public gardens, and fêtes, in Paris and its vicinity. M. Tronchet has moreover given the Divisions or arrondissemens of Paris, with alphabetical catalogues of the edifices and streets. In short, we may report this volume to contain such information as a stranger may expect to find in a complete guide, or travelling pocket-companion. The maps and views increase its value.

Art,

Art. 32. The Belgian Traveller; or, a complete Guide through the United Netherlands; containing a full Description of every Town, its Objects of Curiosity, Manufactures, Commerce, and Inns; The the Mode of Conveyance from Place to Place, and a complete Itinerary of the intermediate Country. To which is prefixed a brief Sketch of the History, Constitution, and Religion of the Nether lands; the general Appearance, Productions, and Commerce of the Country; and the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants. Embellished with a large Map and a Plan of Brussels. By Edmund Boyce, Esq. 12mo. 8s. bound. Leigh. 1815. Travellers collect information for those who are meditating to become travellers, and the embryo-tourist finds these cartes du pays, or guides, very convenient. Scarcely have the United Netherlands been formed into a kingdom, when all the objects worthy of notice which it contains are exhibited to excite curiosity; and the Belgian Traveller' offers his assistance to guide us from place to place, and to be our ciceroni on every occasion on which we may be disposed to loiter. With reference to Holland, Mr. Boyce makes the following correct observations in his preface:

In no country will the tourist be presented with so complete and wonderful a triumph of human industry over the apparently insuperable obstacles of nature. Holland is fairly wrested from the empire of the sea. The power which can truly, and in its full extent, be attributed to divinity alone, has here been exerted by mortal energy; and the inhabitants of the northern provinces have dared to say, and have said with effect, to the raging ocean," Hitherto shalt thou go and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be staid.” A strangely mingled feeling of admiration, pleasure, and fear, pervades the mind of the spectator, when he walks at the foot of some of the immense dykes, and hears on the other side, and only a few feet from him, the surges dashing above his head; and thinks that on the stability of this embankment, depends the existence of many a flourishing town and some hundred thousand souls.'

The account of the Netherlands is not less exact:

In the southern provinces, the traveller will witness the triumphs of human industry in a less imposing but not less pleasing point of view. He will here be presented with the absolute perfection of agriculture. The fertility of a soil naturally poor, the luxuriance, the productiveness, the uninterrupted succession of crops, are unparalleled in the agricultural history of the world.

The kingdom of the Netherlands is not, however, destitute of the real beauties of nature. The voyage up the Meuse, from Maestricht to Namur, is only excelled by some parts of the scenery of the Rhine; and the hills of Luxemburg exhibit all the wild and romantic views of Switzerland on a smaller scale.'

Mr. Boyce assures us that he has laboured to render his compilation a complete guide through a country which he has traversed with pleasure; and he flatters himself that his little volume will not be classed among the many flagrant instances of book-making which disgrace the

press.

The account (he says) of the various modes of travelling, the necessary cautions on the road, the principal inns at each town, the time at

which the different stages and vessels start, the productions, manu factures, and commerce, of every place, and the complete table of coins, are important features of the work."

Ingenuously is it confessed by Mr. B. that he has not himself visited every town, and that probably some inaccuracies may occur: but in all instances he assures the reader that he has sought the best information, and that the general correctness of his Guide may be trusted.

The volume is divided into two parts, the first of which includes several distinct sections on the boundaries, history, religion, constitution, commerce, &c. of the Netherlands; the second gives directions to the traveller, various routes, descriptions of the principal towns, &c. As a specimen of the minuteness to which Mr. Boyce descends, we copy the section on Dutch Inns:

I will suppose the tourist now arrived at his inn. The room into which he is ushered, whether on the ground-floor, or up stairs, will certainly have a bed in it. It is either contained in a small press, or very neatly concealed in a sliding partition in the wainscot. It is usually sufficiently large for one person, but would ill accommodate

two.

The Dutch inn-keepers are said to be interested and imposing. In the inferior inns, and on the roads little frequented, the traveller will find this too true, but in the best hotels he will have no reason to complain of his accommodation. It behoves him, however, to be civil, for the Dutch landlords and waiters often display wonderful ingenuity in teasing the petulant or assuming traveller.

On cleanliness the tourist may generally depend. A beautifully white table-cloth with a silver fork and spoon will be put before him, and his sheets will rival the snow.

2

Of one peculiarity he should be aware, that the Hollanders very rarely eat suppers, and that the stranger who orders this unusual repast will pay dearly for it. Coffee is the favourite evening beverage of the Dutch, but it is generally water very slightly tinged, and drunk without sugar. With half an ounce they make no less than fifteen cups. The inn-keepers are perfectly sensible that foreigners drink their coffee much stronger, and ask whether the traveller prefers it made in the German way. He must then be careful to specify the exact number of cups which he wishes to be made with the favourite quantity of half an ounce, or he will have it brought to him execrably bad, and at the same time be charged immoderately.'

We are persuaded that any person, who is meditating a trip to Holland and the Netherlands, will find his account in putting this Belgian Traveller into his pocket.

Art. 33. A practical Abridgement of the Custom and Excise Laws, relating to the Import, Export, and Coasting Trade of Great Britain and her Dependencies; including a Statement of the Duties, Drawbacks, and Bounties, directed to be paid and allowed. The whole interspersed with the Regulations of the several Trading Companies; Proclamations touching War and Peace; Orders in Council; Treaties with Foreign Powers; Reports of adjudged Cases; and various Matters of exclusive official Information; brought down to 5th April, 1814. Second Edition. By Charles Pope, Controlling Surveyor

*9

Surveyor of the Warehouses in Bristol; and late of the Customhouse, London. 8vo. pp. 888. 11. 58. Boards. Baldwin. 1814. In our Number for September 1812, we took sufficient notice of the first edition of this work, and gave our testimony to the success with which Mr. Pope had laboured to afford a clue to the labyrinth of our Custom-house-laws. The present edition contains considerable additions, relating chiefly to the excise, the India-trade, and the regulations under which the ware-housing system has of late years received so considerable an extension; forming now a large and closely printed volume, and comprizing a great mass of materials in a more accessible form than any that we have seen on the subject. The complexity of our Custom-house-laws, the endless succession of changes in the rate of duties, and the fluctuations in the measures of our Board of Trade, have long been matters of complaint among mercantile men. Let us hope that, when the peace of the world is finally settled, we shall see, for a considerable time at least, a stop put to that long list of edicts which, in our days of war and mercantile jealousy, have so greatly embarrassed trade; and that, if circum. stances do not permit our Custom-house duties to undergo any material diminution, they will at least be brought into a much more simple form. In course, a work like the present can be useful only to persons engaged in commerce, such as merchants, brokers, or shipmasters, but to those we think it will prove a very useful assistant. Art. 34. A Tour through the whole of France; or new Topogra phical and Historical Sketch of all its most important and interesting Cities, Towns, Forts, Castles, Palaces, Islands, Harbours, Bridges, Rivers, Antiquities, &c. &c. Interspersed with Curious and Illustrative Anecdotes of the Manners, Customs, Dress, &c. of the Inhabitants. Embellished with Copper-plates. By John Barnes. 12mo. pp. 112. Darton, Jun. 1815.

We are told in the preface, (dated July 15. 1815,) that these pages were originally written as A Key to Walker's Geographical Tour through France; and the Tour which the title announces is preceded by A General Description of France. It is not, however, accommodated to the above date; for it says that no predominant religion exists in France, and it records Bonaparte's return from Elba to Paris, the army and the people generally declaring for him,' and the aged and unfortunate king being compelled once more to become a fugitive, while it makes no mention of the turn in affairs which was caused by the victory of Waterloo, June 18. The Tour itself may be considered as a kind of school-book for young travellers at home and the plates represent a Paris Diligence, Cabriolet, French cart, and what may be called the Paris cries. The concluding paragraph on the State of Society, &c. is devoted to the subject of French Inns, which are said to be

Not at all inferior to the English in provisions, though greatly inferior to them in accommodation, comfort, convenience, and minor appendages. They abound in good eating and drinking, poultry, eggs, excellent wine and fruit in great variety, and all at a very moderate rate; but as to cleanliness of the rooms, sheets, or tablecloths, chairs, tables, and attendants, they are miserably deficient. The bed-room is often the dining-room, the walls merely white

washed,