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ART, VI. Memoirs of the Baftille. Containing a full Expofition of the mysterious Policy and defpotic Oppreflion of the French Government, in the interior Administration of that State-Prifop. Interfperfed with a variety of curious Anecdotes. Tranflated from the French of the celebrated Mr. Linguet, who was imprifoned there from Sept. 1780 to May 1782. 12mo. 3s. Kearsley. 1783. HIS work chiefly confifts of a detail of the Author's fufferings, and a juftification of his conduct, in the affair which occafioned his imprisonment. It is written with all the ardour of one who feels himself injured. Detached from the Author's perfonal affairs, the Reader will find little information concerning that mighty engine of tyranny, the Baftille, of which he may not have already received, from a late publication, Hiftorical Remarks and Anecdotes on the Baftille; tranflated by Mr. Howard.-See Review, Vol. LXIV. p. 95.

As a fpecimen of the piece, we fhall extract the following dreadful picture of the fituation of a prisoner fuddenly attacked by disease.

As to thofe tranfitory complaints, or fudden attacks, which can only be obviated by ready affiftance and immediate application, a prifoner muft either be perfectly free from them, or muft fink under them if they are fevere; for it would be in vain to look for any immediate fuccour, particularly during the night. Each room is fecured by two thick doors, bolted and locked, both within and without; and each tower is fortified with one ftill ftronger. The turnkeys lie in a building entirely feparate, and at a confiderable distance: no voice can poffibly reach them.

The only resource left, is to knock at the door: but will an apoplexy, or an hæmorrhage, leave a prifoner the ability to do it? It is even extremely doubtful, whether the turnkeys would hear the knocking; or whether, once lain down, they would think proper to hear it.

Thofe, nevertheless, whom the diforder may not have deprived of the ufe of their legs and voice, have ftill one method left of applying for affiftance. The ditch, with which the caftle is furrounded, is only an hundred and fifty feet wide: on the brink of the oppofite bank is placed a gallery, called the paffage of the rounds; and on this gallery the centinels are posted. The windows overlook the ditch; through them, therefore, the patient may cry out for fuccour : and if the interior grate, which repels his breath, as was before explained, is not carried too far into the chamber; if his voice is powerful; if the wind is moderate; if the centinel is not asleep, it is not impoffible but he may be heard.

The foldier must then cry to the next centry; and the alarm muft circulate from one centry to another, till it arrives at the guardroom. The corporal then goes forth to fee what is the matter; and, when informed from what window the cries iffue, he returns back again the fame way (all which takes up no inconsiderable time), and paffes through the gate into the interior of the prifon, He then calls

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up one of the turn-keys; and the turn-key proceeds to call up the lackey of the King's Lieutenant, who muft alfo awaken his mafter, in order to get the key: for all, without exception, are depofited every night at that officer's lodging. There is no garrifon, where in time of war the fervice is more ftrictly carried on than in the Baftille. Now against whom do they make war?

The key is fearched for: it is found. The furgeon must then be called up: the chaplain must also be roused, to complete the efcort. All these people must neceffarily drefs themselves: fo that, in about two hours, the whole party arrives with much bustle at the fick man's chamber.

They find him, perhaps, weltering in his blood, and in a state of infenfibility, as happened to me; or fuffocated by an apoplexy, as has happened to others. What fleps they take, when he is irrecoverably gone, I know not: if he ftill poffeffes fome degree of refpiration, or if he recovers it, they feel his pulfe, defire him to have patience, tell him they will write next day to the phyfician, and then with him a good night.

Now this phyfician, without whofe authority the furgeon-apothecary dare not fo much as administer a pill, refides at the Tuilleries, at three miles diffance from the Bastille. He has other practice: he has a charge near the King's perfon; another near the Prince's. His duty often carries him to Versailles; his return must be waited. He comes at length: but he has a fixed annual stipend, whether he do more or lefs; and, however honeft, he must naturally be inclined to find the diforder as flight as may be, in order that his vifits be the lefs required. They are the more induced to believe his reprefentations, inafmuch as they are apt to fufpect exaggeration in the prifoner's complaints: the negligence of his drefs, the habitual weakness of his body, and the abjection no lefs habitual of his mind, prevent them from obferving any alteration in his countenance, or in his pulle; both are always thofe of a fick man: thus he is oppreffed with a triple affliction; first, of his diforder; fecondly, of feeing himself fufpected of impofture, and of being an object of the raillery or of the feverity of the officers, for the monsters do not abstain from them even in this fituation of their prifoner; thirdly, of being deprived of every kind of relief, till the diforder becomes fo violent as to put his life in danger.

And even then, if they give any medicines, it is but an addi. tional torment to him. The police of the prifon must be strictly obferved: every prifoner fhut up by himself, by day and night, whether fick or in health, fees his turn-key, as I have before observed, only three times a day. When a medicine is brought him, they fet it on the table, and leave it there. It is his bufinefs to warm it, to prepare it, to take care of himself during its operation; happy, if the cook has been fo generous as to violate the rules of the house, by referving him a little broth; happy, if the turn-key has been poffeffed of the humanity to bring it, and the governor to allow it. Such is the manner in which they treat the ordinary fick, or those who have ftrength enough to crawl from their bed to the fireplace.

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But when thy are reduced to the laft extremity, and unable to raise themselves from their worm-eaten couch, they are allowed a guard. Now let us fee what this guard is. An invalid foldier, ftupid, clownish, brutal, incapable of attention, or of that tenderness fo requifite in the care of a fick perfon. But what is ftill worfe, this foldier, when once attached to you, is never again permitted to leave you; but becomes himself a clofe prifoner. You must first, therefore, purchase his confent to fhut himself up with you during your captivity; and if you recover, you must fupport, as well as you can, the ill humour, difcontent, reproaches, and vexation of this companion, who will be revenged on you in health for the pretended fervices he has rendered you in fickness.'

The following account of the Author is prefixed by the Tranflator:

Mr. Linguet, was for ten years one of the most distinguished counfellors of the parliament of Paris. He fhone equally in oratory and compofition. It has been remarked, that of a hundred and thirty caufes, all of them important, in which he had engaged during that period, he lot only nine. His enemies attributed this unparalleled fuccefs to the charms of his eloquence; his more candid judges, to the delicacy which directed him in the choice of his

fuits.

Whilft Mr. Linguet was thus difplaying his ufeful and active talents at the bar, he employed himself likewife in the cultivation of polite literature and philofophy. The boldnefs of his principles, the novelty of his views, and too great a freedom in his examination of the fyftems established and the fects prevailing in France, made him powerful enemies, even in the ministry, in that country, where, as it is well known, there is at least as much cabal and party-fpirit as in our own; with this difference, that in England the objects are great, and the means public; whereas in France, parties are formed and imbittered for trifles, and mystery prefides over intrigue.

In the revolution which fome years ago interrupted all judicial order in France, Mr. Linguet having fuffered, on the part of the parliament of Paris, and, ultimately, on that of government itself, thofe fhocking injuries of which the particulars may be feen in a work which he published three years ago *, fought an afylum in England. He there undertook a periodical work, entitled Annales Politiques, Civiles, & Littéraires du 18eme Siécle; which met with a very favourable reception throughout Europe. This had been preceded by a printed letter to the Count de Vergennes, one of the French minifters, with whom he had moft caufe to be diffatisfied. This letter has been confidered by the critics as a ftriking monument of energy, eloquence, and candour. It was of fuch a nature as to leave a deep and lafting impreffion on the mind; and it is fufficiently evident that it has not failed of this effect.

At the approach of the rupture between England and France, Mr. Linguet, having quitted the former, through a patriotic delicacy

Appel à la Poftérité, or the first volume of the Collection of Mr. Linguet's Works.

which has been regretted, though not cenfured, by the English; and having perfuaded himfelf, that on the parole of the Count de Vergennes he might go to France to profecute his interefts there; he was arrested, on the 27th of September 1780, by virtue of a Lettre-decachet, and conducted to the Bastille, where he remained full twenty

months.'

ENGLISHMAN! art thou duly fenfible of thy happiness, in being a citizen of that bleft country in which Baftilles and Inquifitions are unknown, except in the horrid recitals imported from the neighbouring fhores of defpotifm and flavery?

ART. VII.

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Outlines of Mineralogy. Tranflated from the Original of Sir Torbern Bergman. By William Withering, M. D. &c. mingham. 8vo. 2 s. 6d. fewed. Cadell, &c. 1783.

NOTHER of the valuable productions of this celebrated

A chemift, which happily has fallen into the hands of a

tranflator who has not only done ample justice to the author, in point of accuracy and elegant perfpicuity, but has added to the value of the performance by feveral useful notes.

The Latin original, printed at Leipzig, appeared in the year 1782. Its title (fciagraphia mineralis) as well as the author's very modeft preface, fhew the moderate opinion which he himfelf entertains of the work in its prefent ftate, or rather of the ftate of the science to which this ferves as an introduction;but the promise he makes of republishing this sketch as foon as future experiments will enable him to correct and enlarge it, juftifies our expectation that, confidering the rapid progress now making in chemistry, it cannot fail to become a book of the first confequence in that branch of philofophy. His arrangement of minerals is founded on the conftituent principles of the feveral fubftances; a method which, as Dr. Withering obferves, may be improved, but never exploded. It confifts of genera and Species; the former deriving their characters from the prevalent component parts, the latter from the diverfity of the compofition. Varieties, as they depend on external appearance, are omitted for the prefent.

After an introductory chapter, fhewing the advantages of this method of arrangement, the author diftributes all foffils into four claffes, the faline, the earthy, the inflammable, and the metallic. Under these heads the genera and species are enumerated, and many chemical properties and affinities of the fubftances are fpecified. Two appendixes are fubjoined, the firft containing a generic diftribution of the more complex combinations, fuch as falts with falts, falts with earths, &c. The fecond an enumeration of the foffils called petrefactions, likewife diftributed in genera, whofe characters are derived from the genera of foffils arranged like the four claffes thereof, fuch as faline earths with an organic form, filver with an organic form, &c.

We

We fufpect that fome ambiguity in the original has mifled the ingenious tranflator in § 33, where he renders acidum calcis ponderofa by an acid conjoined to the calx ponderofa. We apprehend that this is not the acid of a calx ponderofa, but rather a distinct acid conjoined to common calcareous earth, fince, in fact, in another place, $ 97, the tungften is mentioned as a calx faturated with a peculiar acid, perhaps of a metallic nature, for which the author himself refers us to the above § 33, and feems to think it the fame as the acid there mentioned. He will probably, for the future, make ufe of the expreffion acidum calcis ponderofum.

We cannot close this account without pointing out a particular paffage, which, in our opinion, opens a wide field to chemical analyfis. After indicating the method of procuring the acid of arfenic free from philogifton and its calcareous bafis, the author proceeds, Thefe phoenomena are well worthy of obfervation, as they feem to lay open the nature of metals in general. From analogy, it is probable that every metal contains a radical acid of a peculiar nature, which, with a certain quantity of phlogifton, is coagulated into a metallic calx; but with a larger quantity, fufficient to faturate it, forms a complete metal. The radical acid retains the coagulating phlogifton much more ftrongly than that which is neceffary to the faturation. But different metallic acids retain both with different degrees of attraction, In order to obtain thefe radical acids, we muft feparate them from the coagulating phlogifton. If the induftry of chemifts ever effects this, I am confident that metallurgy will be wonderfully elucidated. This therefore is a task to which our labours must be directed. I know that analogy must be cautiously trufted, but it at least leads us to new experiments. Hitherto this operation has only fucceeded with arfenic*; and it is worth notice, that this metal, which holds the fifth place with refpect to its quantity of phlogiston, should be inferior to all others with regard to the attraction by which the coagulating quantity is retained.'

ART. VIII. The Sad Shepherd: ment, written by Ben Jonfon. an Appendix. 8vo. 3 s. 6d.

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or, a Tale of Robin Hood, a Frags With a Continuation, Notes, and Nichols, &c. 1783.

HE fragment of the Sad Shepherd of Ben Jonfon, like the Faithful Shepherdess of Fletcher, is a stronger proof of the poetical genius, than of the dramatic art of its author. Flet cher's Paftoral Dialogue was condemned on its first reprefenta

* The author feems here to have forgot what he has himself said, $12, of the acidum molybdana: and we learn that he has fince dif covered another of thefe metallic acids, which he has called acidum fideritis.