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ductor; the committee therefore have, in directing the fize of thefe iron bars, made fome allowance for the waste of the iron by ruft.

The fize, as well as number, of the iron bars recommended here by the committee, are only to be confidered as applicable to St. Paul's, and not as a standard for any church or building of lefs dimenfions; as in thefe laft, conductors of a smaller fize, and fewer in number, may answer the purpose as fecurely as the larger. But St. Paul's church is particularly circumstanced it is an edifice not only of great height, but its cupola, to fay nothing of the lead on the body of the church, prefents a large furface of metal to the clouds; on which account it is very liable to receive greater quantities of the electric fluid; and, from large quantities of fuch an elaftic power, great mischiefs may arife to this magnificent building, in confequence of obftructions the fluid may meet with in paffing through it. For thefe reafons we have recommended very large conductors, that it may pafs through them into the ground, as readily as it enters.'

The five fucceeding numbers are obfervations on the transit of Venus.

The XXVIIth is an account of feveral fepulchral inscriptions and figures in bas relief, discovered in 1755, at Bonn, in Lower Germany.

The articles XXVIII. and XXIX. contain an account of the lymphatic fyftem in amphibious animals and fishes, by Mr. William Hewfon, lecturer in anatomy.

Number XXX. relates to the folubility of iron in fimple water, by the intervention of fixed air.

The two next articles contain farther obfervations on the tranfit of Venus.

Number XXXIII. is a letter from John Hope, M. D. F. R.S. Profeffor of Phyfic and Botany in the University of Edinburgh, concerning a rare plant found in the isle of Skye, of which the following is the doctor's account and defcription.

It was found, September 1768, in a fmall lake in the ifland of Skye, by James Robertfon, whom I had fent there in fearch of new or rare plants. The whole of it, except the head and top of the stalk, was under the furface of the water. Wherever the water was fhallow, the bottom of the lake was covered with this plant, whofe roots were so closely interwoven, that in fome places large patches were torn up by the agitation of the waters, or other violence, and found floating on the furface, matted together.

The plant, when feen without its flowering ftem, refembles fomewhat the Calamaria Dill. Hiftor. Mufc, Tab. 80.

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At first fight I fancied it to be the fame, and that the Calamaria had not been found with its flowering ftem: more careful comparison convinced me they were different plants. ⠀

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Although it differs, in many circumftances, from the generic characters of the Eriocaulon, yet I am inclined to think it is the Eriocaulon decangulare, which has never yet been described, or properly figured.'

ERIOCAULON DECANGULARE. RADIX' perennis, folida, interne alba, ex cujus parte inferiore oriuntur plurimæ radiculæ teretes, fimpliciffimæ, pennæ pafferinæ craffitudinis, albæ, fere pellucidæ, per totam longitudinem diffepimentis opacis, tranfverfis, five articulationibus interceptæ, in centro harum per totam longitudinem eft linea quædam opaca. Extremitates defcribere non audeo, quia in fingulis fpeciminibus mihi oblatis, omnes radiculæ ruptæ fuerunt. Sapor radicularum primo infipidus eft, levi poftea cum acrimoniâ.

FOLIA RADICALIA, ex parte fuperiore radicis oriuntur plurima, fub-erecta, fimilia quod ad figuram externam, et fimili modo difpofita ac in Agave Americana: fefqui-unciam longa, lata bafi, margine integerrimâ, fenfim attenuantur in apicem acutum, pagina inferiore convexa; fuperiore concava, nervofa; et fpatia, his nervis longitudinalibus definita, iterum dividuntur diffepimentis tranfverfis, fingulis propriis, ut in figura.

• TRUNCUS fcapus erectus; e centro foliorum oritur, vagina tenui membranacea, apice bifido, duas uncias longa, respectu nervorum et diffepimentorum foliis fimili, inclufus, fubteres, fiftulis feptem in ambitu conflatus, fupra vaginam nudus, contortus.

• FRUCTIFICATIO androgyna in capitulo terminali, globoso, imbricato.

⚫ CALYX communis, fquamis plurimis, nigris, fubrotundis, concavis, membranaceis; parte fuperiore ciliatis; duæ funt feries florum fœmineorum in radio.

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FLOS FOEMINEUS IN RADIO.

Squama, ovata, nigra, fuperne ciliata fenfim definens in unguem brevem, externe adftat fingulis flofculis.

CAL. PROP. perianthium diphyllum, foliolis ovatis, concavis, nigris, fuperne ciliatis, in unguem anguftam fenfim definentibus. Not, cilia fquamarum funt alba.

COROLLA dipetala, petalis albis, oblongis, concavis, fenfim definentibus in ungues anguftos, apice et dorfo ciliatis, et macula nigra in medio fere laminæ notatis.

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PIS

he muft examine the validity of every evidence produced on the fubject. He muft canvass while he fearches for information; and be able to refute falfhood, as well as eftablish truth. The creed of the hiftorian ought to be founded upon argument, and not implicitly received upon authority.

In reviewing this work, we have had frequent opportunities of remarking the judgment and impartiality of our author; his critical difcernment, as an hiftorian, is next to be confidered. We are now, therefore, to view him more particularly in the walk of hiftorical difquifition; a fituation in which his talents appear to be difplayed with great advantage, and where we find him warmly engaged in oppofition to a writer of acknowledged parts. But before we exhibit this controverfy, fo important to hiftory, we shall present our readers with Mr. Guthrie's remarks on a paffage in the celebrated Buchanan, relating to the burial of Darnley.

Various were the conjectures of the aftonished public, with regard to the authors of the horrid tragedy; but the general fufpicion fell upon Bothwell, and his guilt is at this day indifputable. I fhall hereafter have an opportunity of proving unanfwerably, that the writers who throw any imputation on the memory of Mary, do it upon grounds that would be rejected as evidence in the trial of the meanest felon. Buchanan's virulence against her on this occafion,, is not more unjustifiable than it is ridiculous. He talks of omens and prodigies attending the murder, which would be laughed at in a monkih legend, and which fhew the writer to have been actuated by the fame weakneffes which he fo feverely cenfures in others. His mifreprefentations are almost as grofs as his abfurdities. He fays, that the nobles decreed a stately and honourable funeral for the king; but that the queen ordered it fo that he was buried in the night-time, by porters, without any funeral pomp; and that, to encreafe the indignity, fhe ordered the body to be depofited near that of David Rizio, as if the intended to please the ghost of that wretch by the facrifice of her husband's life. The farcaftic, though, in reality, unmeaning turn given to this incident, fufficiently proves the writer's imagination to be overheated on the subject; but the facts themselves happen to be false. That the burying was private is not denied; but the body was embalmed, and had the other funeral honours properly conferred on it. It was then attended by the juftice clerk, the ford Traquair, and several other gentlemen, and depofited in the fame vault which contained that of the queen's father, his firft queen, and those of his two infant children. The privacy of the burial was a matter of prudence, if not neceffity, becaufe Darnley, as well as the queen, having always profeffed the Roman catholic religion, could not have been buried according to the popish ritual and ceremonies, without giving public offence."

We have stepped a little out of the order of chronology in beginning with the above paffage, in order to fhew, that, whatever freedom may appear to be ufed with the reverend hiftorian, whofe opinions are now to be examined, it ought

to be imputed to no animofity in the learned and judicious commentator. Literary difputes are entirely removed from every thing of a perfonal nature, and, when conducted with becoming decency, are not only juftifiable, but liberal. We fhall first lay before our readers the author's animadverfions on what has been advanced by the above historian in regard to the absence of Darnley, at the baptifm of the prince his fon; a circumftance which has been conftrued into a proof of Mary's ill treatment of her husband at that period, But that we may avoid all imputation of partiality, we fhall here wave the privilege of Reviewers, and leave it to the judg ment of our readers to determine on which side the superiority of argument prevails. The following quotation is taken from a note in this Hiftory.

• Dr. Robertson, in his Hiftory of Scotland, vol. i. p. 388, has made fome pretty extraordinary obfervations upon this head, in exprefs contradiction to Camden, who had the very best opportu nities of information. He fays, "First, that no fuch thing as Bedford being commanded by Elizabeth not to give Darnley the title of king, is to be found among Bedford's inftructions."

Answer. No fuch thing is to be found among Tamworth's, We do not find that Tamworth was inftructed to refufe Darnly the royal title; and yet it is moft certain that he refused to accept even of a pafs, which was fo neceffary for his fafety, becaufe it was figned by Darnley as a king. There was no occafion for Elizabeth to give Bedford any fuch inftruction, because it was a ftanding maxim with Elizabeth, as appears in the cafe of Arundel of Wardour, not to allow her fubjects to accept of any- mark of honour or nobility, far lefs of fovereignty, from any foreign power, without her confent.

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Secondly, Bedford's advice (fays the doctor) to the queen, by Melvil, is utterly inconfiftent with Camden's affertion."

Anfwer. Melvil's advice is fo far from being inconfiftent, that it feems to strengthen Canden's affertion. Melvil does not fpeak a fingle word of Bedford's giving any advice on that head to the queen. All he fays is, that Bedford defired him to request her majesty to entertain her husband as the had done at the beginning; but not a fyllable of his giving him the title of king.

"A paper (continues the doctor) printed in his Appendix, number 18, proves the fame thing."

'Answer. That paper proves the very reverse. Elizabeth there mentions her being offended with Darnley's difloyalty, "both (fays the to Mary) in marriage of you, and in other undutiful ufages to wards me, his fovereign." Elizabeth, indeed, afterwards mentions the good offices the had employed to reconcile Mary to her husband; but not a word of giving him the title of king, or that 'can invalidate Camden's affertion, which is the great point in this

cafe.

"Thirdly, Le Croc (fays the doctor), the French refident, mentions the king's abfence; but without giving that reafon for it, which has been founded on Camden's words, though, if that had been the real one, he would scarce have failed to mention it."

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The author will have no reason to complain of injustice done to his Preface in this translation. If we have at all deviated from a faithful rendering of his words, we did fo, to make him fpeak diftinctly and properly. Let him not then rafhly accufe us of ignorance of the Latin. How he might express himself in English we know not: but his Latin ftile is often uncouth, perplexed, and ungrammatical. The following fpecimen from the Preface will corroborate our affertion.

Sive fit error intellectûs, five corruptio voluntatis, five utrumque fimul, præjudicia utriufque generis, tanquam totitidem idola, comitantur homines latitantes in vaftis, etiam et anguftis mundi hujus afpectabilis receffibus.'

It is odd that a man should pretend to write a book in Latin, who poffeffes not even the elementary knowledge of the language. He makes the deponent verb ffatur, a paffive; he makes unum fignify once. The phrafe, ferre præ fe, imports with him, to give proofs of a quality which we actually poffefs; though in its true acceptation, it only means, to pretend to, to arrogate what we actually have not. He makes ufe of modalitas metaphyfically, which is no Latin word; and the Roman guftus is a very grofs, monkish substitute for the English word taste, when that word is applied to polite literature. Many folecisms, even more palpable than thefe, are to be found throughout this book. Precifion, perfpicuity, and propriety of expreffion fhould be observed with a particular care in abftruse subjects, where the vigorous and unbroken attention of the mind is required, to comprehend subtle and abstracted ideas.

We fhould like to know what neceffity there is for writing a book in Latin, in this intelligent and polite age? Our own language feems to be brought to its utmost perfection; and is much fitter to convey the ideas of an English author than the Latin. He may be fupposed to understand it better it contains a greater variety of terms, and is better adapted to modern use. Literary communication betwixt the diffe rent parts of Europe is now eafy and univerfal. A good book written in English, will be understood, in the origi nal, by many learned foreigners; and will foon be tranflated into different languages. A Roman dress will not introduce a poor performance into good company, nor procure it an extenfive and lafting credit. It may, indeed, give it weight with a few academical greybeards; with whom Latin implies fome hidden and magical virtue; but it will not atone for want of fterling worth; it will rather make it ap pear more contemptible in the opinion of the fenfible and fpirited critic, who hath never fuffered his mind to be over-run with the duft and cobwebs of the fchools.

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