From a volume of this miscellaneous nature many entertaining extracts might be selected, if we had room for their insertion. We have been particularly amused by the anecdotes of several distinguished characters, particularly Generals Gates, Hamilton, Pinckney, Putnam, and Arnold; Mr. John Randolph; Thomas Law, Esq. brother to Lord Ellenborough, and some others; and with a curious and interesting account of the adventures of Generals Whalley and Goffe, two of Charles the First's judges. Upon the whole we can recommend Mr. Jansen's Stranger in America as a work that abounds both with information and amusement, and we have no doubt but that its reception will be such as to induce him to publish a Second Volume, for which, as he informs us in his preface, he has sufficient materials.

The plates, of which there are twelve, present views of Philadelphia, the High-street, and Second-street; Boston; Hell-gate; Mount Vernon; the Philadelphia Theatre, &c.

Mr. Jansen's account of the American stage, and the melancholy fate of several English actors, is given in another part of our number.

The Works of Sallust; Translated into English by the late Arthur Murphy, Esq. Author of a Translation of Tacitus, &c.

This translation was among the manuscripts which Murphy left behind him, and was purchased at the general sale of his effects. The fame of his Tacitus will also recommend the present work to the public; but independently of the acknowledged merits and ability of the translator, the volume is made valuable by a life of the historian, very elegantly written, by Thomas Moore, Esq. the translator of Anacreon, who has availed himself of all the classical authorities which had been consulted by his former biographers, and added some information from the life of Sallust by M. de Brosses.

This learned Frenchman visited Italy in the year 1739, and has given a particular account of the site of the celebrated gardens of Sallust.

"With the wealth of the injured Africans he laid out those delicious gardens, which still "look green" in the pages of antiquity, nd which were long the delight and the wonder of Rome. There,

(continues Mr. Moore, with elegant and happy irony,) in the midst of parterres and porticos, with an Italian sky over his head, and the voluptuous statues of Greece before his eyes, the historian produced those rigid lessons of temperance, those strong delineations of character, and those connected views of motives, events, and consequences, which deserve so justly to be called "Philosophy teaching by examples." There, reposing in the temple of his Venus, after an interview, perhaps, with some fair Libertina, he inveighed against the sensuality of the Roman youth; or, reclining amidst vases and pictures which African gold had purchased, composed his elaborate declamations against the rapacity of provincial governors."

Mr. Moore closes his account of the life of Sallust with the following very just observations on his merits as a writer and historian.

"Sallust shews the fallacy of a standard in criticism, as there is scarcely a fault in his writings, which some have not praised as a beauty; and, on the other hand, scarcely a beauty which some have not censured as a fault. While Quintilian admires the brevity of his style, there are others who condemn it as vicious and affected; and Julius Scaliger, with a still more capricious singularity of opinion, declares that diffusion and prolixity are the most striking defects of Sallust. The speeches, interwoven with his history, which some critics value so highly, are considered by others as false and inelegant fabrications; and Cassius Severus has classed them among the failures of genius with the verses of Cicero and the prose of Virgil. The authenticity of these harangues is certainly too questionable to admit of their exciting such a lively degree of interest as might atone for the interruption which they cause in the narrative; and even the dramat.c illusion that should be preserved, is destroyed by the uniformity or the historian's style, which confers on the rough uneducated Marius an array of language as dense and artificial as it gives to the polished and eloquent Cæsar. Without, however, entering into the minuteness of criticism, or pausing upon any of those heretical opinions which we have mentioned, we may consider ourselves orthodox in looking to Sallust as one of the purest models of historical composition; as a writer, whose style, though formed on the study of the Greeks, is peculiarly his own, and original both in its faults and its perfections, being often affected, yet always vigorous, and sometimes too brief, yet never obscure. The precepts of virtue too with which he has enriched his works are truly philosophical, and most admirably inculcated; and we have only to regret, while we read and admire them, that these flowers of moral eloquence are not native to the heart of him who utters them; but, like Virgil's branch of gold upon the gloomy tree

* Quos inter (says Morhofius, Polyhist. lib. iv. cap. xi:) Joh. Petrum Maffeium quoque fuisse Erythæus refert Pinacoth. ii. p. 53. "Illud," inquiens "in eo ferendum non erat, quod Sallustium Crispum, Romanæ decus historiæ, ad sui judicii calculum revocare et damnare audebat; ideo fortasse, quod divinam ejus prudentiam illustremque brevitatem," &e.

in the shades, are a kind of bright excrescence, “quod non sua seminat arbor."

A portrait of Mr. Murphy, a very fine likeness, from a bust by Turnerelli, appears in the front of the volume.

Some Account of New Zealand; particularly the Bay of Islands, and surrounding Country; with a Description of the Religion and Government, Language, Arts, Manufactures, Manners, and Customs of the Natives, &c. &c. By John Savage, Esq. Surgeon and Corresponding Member of the Royal Jennerian Society. Large 8vo. plates. 5s. 6d. Murray. 1807.

This little work bears a very appropriate title. It professes only to give some account of New Zealand., The materials indeed, are but scanty, but as far as they extend they will be found worthy of attention, and the author is certainly to be commended for withholding his doubtful conjectures upon interesting points, particularly those of religion and government, when no certain information could be procured.

Mr. Savage observes, that many of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, have been described by successive navigators, but that New Zealand, an island, as to extent and population, far superior to any of them, has not been spoken of by any voyager since the time of Captain Cook, and that that celebrated character visited parts of New Zealand very remote from those which our author has described, whose remarks are confined to the Bay of Islands, and the shores immediately surrounding it a part of the country of greater importance to Europeans than any other, on account of the ocean in its vicinity being very much frequented by spermaceti whales, and the ample supply of refreshment it affords.

Mr. Savage brought one of the natives of New Zealand to England, and from him he received many particulars of the country which he had no opportunity of acquiring from personal observation. The parting of this man, whose name was Moyhanger, with his relatives, is minutely described, and as this ceremony was attended with circumstances which shew that affection is a very prominent feature in the character of a New Zealander, we shall transcribe the passage, as a specimen of the author's composition.

Moyhanger had remained on board the ship several days be

fore our sailing, happy in himself, and determined to see the world; his friends and relatives came daily to see him-some approved, and some condemned his resolution; but Moyhanger remained unshaken, and the time arrived when he was to go through the ceremony of taking leave.

"The canoe containing his kindred came alongside, and as soon as it was made fast to the ship, Moyhanger's father came on board. After a little preliminary discourse, the father and son fell into each other's arms, in which situation they remained near twenty minutes, during which time the right eye of the father, was in close contact with the left eye of the son: abundance of tears were shed, and a variety of plaintive sounds uttered on both sides. The venerable appearance of the father, who is of their religious class, made the scene truly interesting.

"When this ceremony was concluded with the father, Moyhanger descended to the canoe, and embracing his mother, mingled his tears with her's, in a similar way to that which had taken place between the father and himself-the same plaintive sounds were uttered, and evidently a great deal of affection expressed on both sides; but the time taken up in parting with his mother, was not more than half of that which had been employed in taking leave of his father. His brother came next; when a similar scene of grief occured, but of shorter duration: his sisters were embraced by him, but in a less ceremonious manner.

"This interesting ceremony being concluded, Moyhanger ascended the ship's side, and all parties appeared cheerful and happy.

"In the early part of this parting scene, the appearance of affliction was so great, that I was induced to interrupt it, by desiring that no separation might take place between friends so much attached to each other; but I found that it was a matter of course, whenever a native quits his parents, and that I should offend all parties by retracting my permission for Moyhanger to accompany

me.

"I wished to make a parting present to the venerable father, and I thought that some poultry might be acceptable: the old man declined every thing I could offer however he had no objection to my making presents to any other part of his family; and we accordingly very soon got the better of this difficulty.

"When the canoe left the ship, the father and mother kept spreading their arms, and looking towards heaven, as if supplicating the protection of a superior power, in behalf of their son, during the whole time they remained within sight."

Mr. Savage does not conceive that the natives of this island are cannibals in so ferocious a degree as has been generally represented, but that they eat human flesh only in times of great scarcity of food, and after a conquest; and in the latter case, the victors do not devour the whole of their prisoners, but are content with shewing their power to do so, by dividing the chief of the vanquished tribe among them. He thinks that an European who should act with hostility towards them,

would be treated in the same way, but not if cast defenceless on their shore.

The harbours we are told are safe and capacious, the country beautiful, the soil favourable to cultivation; and the natives in all respects a superior race of In dians: advantages that hold out great inducements for colonization, which may hereafter deserve the attention of some European power.

Comments on the Commentators on Shakspeare. With Preliminary Observations on his Genius and Writings : and on the labours of those who have endeavoured to elucidate them. By Henry James Pye. 8vo. 7s. Tipper and Richards. 1807.

Mr. Pye is a man of learning, a respectable poet, and an agreeable writer. His knowledge of books also, we believe to be considerable. We were pleased, therefore, to see his name announced to the public as the author of comments on the great poet. We expected much from his taste, his judgment, and his research; but much indeed have we been disappointed. We have found nothing but shreds and patches; frivolous observations; long extracts from the best commentators; with idle and illiberal sarcasms on their labours. The Preliminary observations on the genius and writings of Shakspeare occupy only seven pages, the greater part of which is taken up in some loose remarks respecting Shakspeare's preservation of the unities; a quotation from Swift, noticed several times lately in the newspapers, to shew that aches was used by him as a dissyllable; and other points equally stale and uninteresting.

"These observations are made from the edition of Mr. Nichols, in eight volumes, thick 12mo. 1797;" and not from the variorum editions of later date, which Mr. Pye, as a commentator on the commentators, in the year 1807, would have done well to have consulted. It is very easy to say this note is unnecessary, that is tedious, and the other absurd; and a few memoranda may be soon swelled into an octavo volume by extracting a long comment from Mr. Steevens, another from Mr. Malone, and then observing "Malone, or Steevens, is clearly in the right.' Very many pages are thus filled.

By the diligence and perseverance of ingenious critics, the sense of many passages in Shakspeare, which for