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nature of the troops under them. Without these precautions, he would never think that he could act upon certain grounds: he knows, he may venture a motion with fome troops, which he would not dare to attempt with others that are equally brave. One nation is vehement, fiery, and formidable, in the firft onfet; another is not fo hafty, but of more perfeverance: with the former, a fingle inftant determines fuccefs; with the latter, the action is not fo rapid, but the event is lefs doubtful.

• No man is born a general, though he brings into the world with him the feeds of thofe virtues, which make a great man. Cæfar, Spinola, Turenne, the great Condé, Eugene, Marlborough, Wolfe, and fome others, fhowed, even in their earliest years, fuch qualities as ranked them above other men: they carried with them the principles of thofe great virtues which they drew forth to action by profound ftudy, and which they brought to perfection by the help of practice; those who came after them, with perhaps fewer natural talents, have by study rendered themfelves worthy of being compared to them, Cæfar, and all conquerors, had this advantage, that they were able to make their own opportunities, and always acted by their own choice. A man may be a good general without being a Turenne; fuch geniufes are fcarcely feen once in an age; but the more they are raifed above the reft of mankind, the more they should excite emulation. It is by endeavouring to surpaís the intellects of the fecond rate,--it is by ftriving to furpafs, or at least to equal, the moft fublime, that the imitation of them is to be attained. This paffion in a foldier is neither pride nor prefumption; it is virtue; and it is by this only, that he can hope to be ferviceable to the ftate, and add to the glory of his King.

How much foever the honour of commanding armies may be fought after, it degrades him who is not worthy of it: this rank, fo much defired, borders on the two extremes of glory and ignominy. A military man, who labours to make himfeif capable of commanding, is not to be blamed; his ambition is noble by ftudying the art of commanding, he learns that of obeying, and of executing,'

The critical reader will, no doubt, obferve fome flight inaccuracies in the language of thefe extracts; but this circumftance is pardonable in a profeffional man, writing on a professional subject. People of every profeffion have terms and phrases of their own, and even a manner, if we may fo exprefs it, which feems perhaps uncouth to a perfon who is an utter ftranger to them, but which, nevertheless, may render the book more valuable amongst themselves. Thefe extracts fhew, at least, that Captain Smith has ftudied his profeffion, and of course, that he is not an improper person to undertake a compilement of the kind now under

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ander confideration. The work is very copious, and though we have turned it over with due attention, we cannot fay, that any term of confequence, which relates to the art of war, occurred to us, as being omitted.

The full merit of a literary compilation, can never be gathered from extracts out of it: a compiler may felect judicioufly in one inftance, and injudiciously in another; and there are examples of each kind in the work before us. Of the latter clafs, we have particularly in our eye, the long extract from Dr. Hamilton's Differtation on the Mechanic Powers; where, without any reason, that gentleman's objections to Sir Ifaac Newton's 2d Cor. to the 3d law of motion, are introduced, notwithstanding they are obviously ill founded.

But, although works of this kind are always understood to be compilations from other authors, in the choice of which the compiler's judgment is chiefly fhewn, Captain Smith's work is not deftitute of original, and even curious matter; as a proof of which, we fhall give the following extract:

English ARTILLERY, in the reign of Edward VI. that is, about the year 1548, confifted in the following establishment; viz.

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Fee per Day. Per Annum. s. d.

In the room of a fervant,
Chriftian Gold,

Symond Turner,

John Owen,

Thomas Owen,

John Anthony

Gan-fmith,

Engineer,

John Pudney,

Matter Carpenter,

John Johnfon,

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1. s. d. 151 11 8

66 13 4 36 10 0

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Total charges of the artillery for one year

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But in the 109 gunners above mentioned, there are included fees

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John Owen, Gun-founder,

So that only 105 effective gunners remain.

at 12 d.

The

The establishment of artillery in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1597, may be gathered from the following: Allowances to officers within one quarter, ending the last of March 1597.

To Sir George Carew, knight, lieutenant of her Majesty's ordnance, for his allowance. one quarter,

To William Parkeringe, furveyor of her Majefty's ordnance, for his like quarter's allowance,

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To Stephen Riddlefden, clerk of her Majefty's ordnance, for his like quarter's allowance, To John Lee, keeper of her Majefty's flores, ditto, To George Hogge, and John Linewrayce, clerks of the deliveries, ditto,

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s. d.

XVIII

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Majefty's}

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Richard Palfreyman,

VI. 1

Edward Parkeringe

VI.

William Scott,

VI.

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That is 5181. 17 s. 6d. for one quarter's falary.' These two accounts, we are informed, were taken from a manuscript of the late Reverend William Goftling, and communicated by Captain William Goftling of the Royal Artillery. There appears to be fome miftake in the latter, as the feveral fums, when added together, do not amount to any thing like the fum total put down, either in numerals or in the note following them. They form a ftriking contraft with the present ftate and pay of the fame department.

On the whole, we think Captain Smith's book will prove acceptable and ufeful to every military officer who studies his profeffion, and wifhes to make himself master of it.

ART. VIII. A fuccessful Method of treating the Gout by Blistering. With an Introduction, confifting of Mifcellaneous Matter. By William Stevenfon, Phyfician at Wells. 8vo. 2 s. Bath, printed by Cruttwell, for Dilly, London. 1779.

THE

HE mifcellaneous introduction, mentioned in the titlepage, is a very defultory comment on the trite adage vita brevis, ars longa. It is fufficiently ftored with abuse of the

Author's

Author's brethren of the faculty; which, though tolerably fmart and lively, might, we think, as well have been omitted. To depreciate the honefty, fenfe, and knowledge of all others in the trade, is a project rather too hackneyed to be ufed with fuccefs at this day; and charges of this fort, if injudiciously made, are very apt to recoil upon the affailant. Thus, it will only be imputed to an unacquaintance with the writings and practice of modern phyficians, that they are charged with blindly adopting the tenets of their forefathers; when, alas! the real ftate of the cafe is, that fashion, and fondnefs for novelty, have left fcarcely any thing ftable and fixed in the whole medical science. Equally unfortunate may be an attempt at puffing one's felf, when made without due confideration of what others have done before us. Our Author's two Irifh cafes, of the cure of nervous fevers by large dofes of wine, which he felects as inftances of methods of treating diforders not upon medical record,' will only fhew him to be little conversant in the writings of Huxham, Pringle, Lind, Cleghorn, and a multiplicity of others, of equal repute.

Not to dwell any longer, however, on introductory matter, we proceed to the more direct fubject of the piece. The Author gives us two chapters; one on the nature; the other, on the caufe, of the gout. We fhall not pretend to follow him in all, his rambling excurfions about and about the field of argument; it will be fully fufficient to mention fome of his leading opinions on the fubject. He entirely agrees with Dr. Cadogan (whofe manner of writing and thinking he very much adopts) in denying any hereditary propenfity to this disorder. He reprefents all diftinction between the gout and rheumatiím as merely arbitrary and hypothetical; fuppofing, that both of them equally proceed from the accumulation of acrid matter, in confequence of taking in more aliment than the body, when full grown, can expend. How far this notion will agree with the hiftory of the rheumatifm, and the time of its appearance, we leave our readers to determine.

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The gout, then, according to him, is the fimpleft diforder in the world. It is an attempt of the conftitution to make a fore. As fhe is unable to do this herself, art steps in, and with her infallible blifter-plafter, accomplishes the great purpose. What, then, is the diforder cured by this fimple procefs? It is, fays the Doctor, boldly. After the termination of a perfect fit, thus managed, the conftitution is as free of gout as if it never had it.' Notwithstanding this direct affertion, we cannot think our fanguine Doctor means quite fo much as he feems to fay; for a little awkward explanation follows, which appears to admit, that this foul, acrid, fore-making ftuff, still fubfifts in the conftitution, though it cannot be called gout, till it

actually

actually brings on another fit of that difeafe. For, who knows whether it may not rather chufe to fhew itself next time in the form of eryfipelas, fcurvy, haemorrhoids, or the like? We agree with him, however, that it is a point of moment gained,' if the violence of a gouty paroxyfm be, almost totally, carried off by bliftering; and we think him right, in recommending this fpirited method of treating the foe, rather than any attempts to fubdue him by loads of naufeous drugs, which will more probably destroy all remains of a good conftitution. But here, again, our Author, by the warmth of indifcriminate cenfure, has been led to expofe himfelf: for, in proof of this propenfity to overload arthritic patients with the contents of an apothecary's fhop, he cites, not the practice or writings of the most eminent phyficians of the prefent time (whom we may venture to call as enlightened and unprejudiced as himself), but the obsolete fyftems of Shaw and Ball.

The efficacy of the blistering-practice is fupported by two cafes, which are fubjoined to the treatise. One of them is the Writer's own, from which we learn, that he indulges himself in fuch a daily quantity of liquor as elevates, without intoxicating; holding the comfortable doctrine, that liquors, if old and found, are the inward cloathing of the body, in our foggy damp atmosphere.' That, with fuch a principle, he should have no great faith in medical water-drinking, is not furprifing; but, that he should fo warmly difpute the efficacy of the Bath waters, in producing a fit of the gout, is furely rather to be imputed to prejudice than impartial obfervation.

The language of this piece is more distinguished by its spirit than its accuracy.

ART. IX. Lectures on the Catechism of the Church of England. By William Gilpin, M. A. Vicar of Boldre, near Lymington. 12mo. 2 Vols. 6 s. fewed. Blamire, &c. 1779..

HESE Lectures are addreffed by Mr. Gilpin to the young T gentlemen who were educated by him at Cheam school, and they are well calculated to imprefs their minds with juft views of their most important interefts,-to make them happy in themselves, and ufeful members of fociety. His chief endeavour is to engage the attention of youth to the evidences of religion, and the great doctrines of Chriftianity; obferving, very justly, that if the mind be deeply impreffed with thefe leading truths, it requires only a flighter leffon on morals; and that he who feriously believes the gofpel cannot well fail of being a good Chriftian.

In the course of his Lectures, he endeavours to fhew, that fcarce any of the great truths of the gospel were fo wholly new, but that fome notices of them, or at least refemblances, may

be

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