fidered as merely ferving to give a turn to the fcale, and are thus thrown into the bargain; while we are obliged to pay a fhilling for our entertainment - and as unprofitable a fhilling, in the prefent cafe, as we ever recollect to have laid out.

Art. 61. The Family Party; a comic Opera, in Two Acts. As acted at the Theatre-Royal, Haymarket. 8vo. PP. 24. 15. Debrett. 1789.

If thefe little dramas contribute to our diverfion on the boards, it is generally deemed merit fufficient: the audience laugh, without attending to niceties of compofition; and the author's end is answered. When a farce does more, when it contains wit and humour enough to afford us a quarter of an hour's rational amufement in the perufal, it may be confidered as a work of fupererogation. To this praife, fo far as it goes, the " Family Party" hath as good a title as most productions of the kind.

NOVELS.

Art. 62. The Life and Adventures of Anthony Leger, Efq. 12mo. 3 Vols. 99. fewed. Wilkins. 1789.

Memoirs of a fharper. The artifices employed by Mr. Leger in the exercise of his profeffion are fuch, we think, as would have excited alarm in idiocy itself. They are of much too grofs and palpable a kind; and yet the hero is faid to have been at all times fuccessful. The ftyle of this performance is fuited to the subject.

Art. 63. Emma Dorville. By a Lady.
By a Lady. 12mo.

Hookham. 1789.

2s. 6d. fewed.

This is one of thofe performances which, in a very little time, must pass from the fhop of the bookfeller to that of the trunk-maker or the pastry-cook.

HASTINGS'S IMPEACHMENT.

Art. 64. A Third Letter from Major Scott to Mr. Fox, on the Story of Deby Sing; Two Letters relative to the Expences attending the Trial of Warren Haftings, Efq.; and a Letter to Mr. Burke. 8vo. Is. 6d. pp. 56. Stockdale.

• The Third Letter to Mr. Fox completes the ftory of Deby Sing. The Two Letters which [here] follow it, will fhew to what consemptible trifles the pretended affertors of the rights of mankind have defcended in this year; and I have added a very admirable letter under the fignature of Outis, because in one of the Oppofition papers that Letter is given to me. I should be proud indeed to acknowlege it, if I had any right to it; but I know not even the name of the writer. JOHN SCOTT.'

Author's Pref. This publication will not difgrace the two that have preceded it; for our accounts of which, fee the Reviews for June and Auguft.

COOKERY, &c.

Art. 65. The Complete Confectioner; or the whole Art of Confectionary: forming a ready Affiitant to all genteel Families, giving them a perfect Knowlege of Confectionary. With Inftructions, neatly en

By a

graved on Ten Copper-plates, how to decorate a Table with Tafte and Elegance, without the Affiftance of a Confectioner. Perfon late an Apprentice to the well known Meffrs. Negri and Witten of Berkley Square. 12mo. pp. 196. 12mo. pp. 196. 10s. 6d. bound,

Mathews. 1789.

This work contains 237 Receipts for making Bifcuits, Wafers, Drops, Prawlongs. Jellies, Jams, Effences, Waters, Ice Creams, Water Ices, Preferved Fruits in Brandy, Preferved Sweetmeats wet, and Dried Fruits. Of their merit we cannot fpeak from experience; and an opinion on a practical book, formed on any other bafis than experience, muft neceffarily be vague and unfatisfactory.

THANKSGIVING SERMONS continued: See our laft.

The Chriftian Duty of Thanksgiving.Preached at Hanworth, Middlesex, April 23, on his Majefty's happy Recovery. By Thomas Lancaster, Curate of Feltham, and Mafter of an Academy at Parfon's Green, Middlefèx. 4to. I S. pp. 22. Beetham. A proper improvement of the very folemn and important occafion. The preacher earnestly afferts, and recommends to us, the duties of praife and thanksgiving to God, for general and particular mercies; and after thewing that the duty of gratitude, being of continual obligation, calls upon us, perpetually, to prove our fincerity by the rectitude of our lives and manners, -he, not unfeasonably, introduces the fubject of Sunday schools, in order to recommend an establishment of this kind, in the parish where his fermon was delivered.

Preached at the Epifcopal. Church at Lydgate in Saddleworth, April 23, 1789, on the happy Re-establishment of the King's Health, &c. By the Rev. Thomas Seddon, A. M. 4to. pp. 18. IS. Rivingtons.

We are certainly more fortunate than ever Solomon was, for we meet with many new things under the Sun. Learned divines and philofophers are continually amufing us with their novelties. Mr. Seddon has given us fomething quite new in the Dedication of this fermon, in which he tells us, what we are confident Solomon never heard of, and would never have found out, that an Antitrinitarian, both religiously and legislatively speaking - FOR CHURCH AND STATE ARE BOTH TRINITARIAN is an enemy to every form of government but republicanism; p. 5. What he means by the State being Trinitarian is not explained; but this is certain, that if the belief of the Trinity be neceffary to the prefervation of our conftitution, the Teft A, as it now ftands, can be no fecurity to it, fo as to prevent the Church (to ufe Mr. S.'s curious expreffion) from being the expanded gate by which innovation will enter to overturn the State.'

The Sermon alfo is fomething new. It confifts of a string of fentences often as little connected as the Proverbs of Solomon, though not quite fo pithy. But what is wanting in other refpects, is made up in royal adulation. The King (fays Mr. S. p. 13.) as a confcientious honeft man has never been furpaffed. Has he ever been

* This word does not occur in any dictionary that we poffefs.

equalled?'

equalled?' and as for our gracious Queen, her illuftrious virtues can only be exceeded by herfelf.'

Naught but herself can be her parallel.

If the King and Queen can relifh fuch flattery, Mr. S. may get fome good preferment; and provided this object, fo devoutly to be wifhed, be obtained, it must be of little confequence to Mr. S. what opinion the republic of letters (in which there is much Antitrinitarianifm) entertains of his Thanksgiving Sermon.

A few other fermons on this fubject ftill remain.

SINGLE SERMON S, on various Occafions.

I. Preached in the Parish Church of Charles, Plymouth, February 22, 1789, being the Anniversary of the establishing of Sunday Schools in Plymouth. By Robert Hawker, Vicar of the Parish.. 4to. PP. 34. IS. Law, &c.

This difcourfe is published for the benefit of the Charity. The text is Luke, i. 79. The fermon is well worthy of perufal; but we can only extract the following note: In the beginning of the year 1787, two Sunday fchools were opened in Plymouth, one for boys, the other for girls: the whole expence of which for the year, for books, school-rent, firing, and candles, including four guineas to each teacher, exceeded not twenty pounds, although every child was taken in for whom application was made, and the numbers of both schools added together were fomewhat more than 200. The last year, 1788, the numbers were increased to 261, and the average expence not greater.-It fhould be obferved, indeed, the benefactions for each year, from the liberality of the fubfcribers, much exceeded that fum, and was therefore applied, with much advantage to the school, in clothing, apprenticing, and occafional rewards for good behaviour.'

We have inferted the above, because it affords a hint which, in fome cafes, may not be unfeafonable.

II. Preached at the Mayor's Chapel in Exeter, September 17, 1788, before a Society of Gentlemen, educated at the Grammar Free School, in that City. By John Marshall, M. A. Master of the School. 4to. pp. 19.. 1s. Wilkie.

Little more can be faid of this fermon, than that it was fuitable to the occafion. The preacher's topic is, The great improvement which the Chriftian religion has made in the world with respect to literature.

CORRESPONDENCE.

In answer to our refpectable Correfpondent, Dr. Duncan (with whom we are truly forry to have even the flightest difference, for we dare not deem it more), we can only plead the great difficulty of expreffing any fentiment fo guardedly as to fecure it from being mifconceived or perverted ;. as perfons are affected by it, or difpofed to view it: and we are concerned that any mifapprehenfion fhould have taken place as to the article of which he complains, to his prejudice.

Nevertheless, on the most cautious reconfideration of our account of his Vifitation Sermon, vol. lxxix. p. 470, we find ourselves unable to retract any expreffion in it: utterly disclaiming, at the fame time, the remoteft intention of reprefenting Dr. D. as an apologift for the vicious lives of his younger brethren; and quite enamoured with the complexion of the prefent times.'

Oppreffed as we are by the unceafing influx of fresh publications, we are reluctantly obliged to decline laying the long juftificatory extracts contained in his letter, before our readers; though we would moft willingly give him every degree of satisfaction in our power: ftill confeffing, that however fuch a compliance might fatisfy him, it would not altogether fatisfy us, nor, we believe any indifferent critical reader. In the difcuffion of complex fubjects, detached portions may bear different aspects; and we readily admit that Dr. D. has produced fuch paffages from his fermon as are best calculated to elude our observations on it: but would it not have been better to have cited thofe particular paffages on which our obfervations were founded, which were all referred to, and which we ftill think fully justify them? We are called back, with regret, to a fubject, which, nevertheless, on public confiderations, ought not, and by its notoriety cannot, be fmothered; and we must confefs, that the departure of the clergy in general from the punctuality of decorum, at which the Doctor fo tenderly glances, and which is fo inconfiftent with the folemn obligations into which they enter, meets us boldly wherever we caft our eyes! If they do not lead, do they not clofely and habitually follow, every mode of public and private diffipation whatever? This is either truth, or it is flander; does not Dr. D. allude to the known fact, and endeavour to qualify it? Yet, will the general relaxation of morals that he pleads in extenuation, acquit the profeffional teachers of morality and piety, whofe peculiar duty is to ftem the torrent of licentioufnefs, and whofe example operates far ftronger than their pulpit difcourfes, for a glaring transition from their old fcrupulous purity of manners †, to a worldly compliance with every fafhionable levity that is recommended by the fanction of gentility? -But we quit a fubject which is copious and interefting enough to hurry us beyond our limits: we lament it, as we are firmly perfuaded that the worthy Dr. D. alfo does; but Vifitations are utterly inadequate to the cure of evils generated in careless Ordinations, in which forms ftand for effentials, and in which management is fometimes reforted to, for the support even of forms!

Anfwers to Cantabrigienfis, and many other Correfpondents, are neceffarily deferred till next month.

We understand Dr. D.'s friend to mean advocate, and in this fenfe we reply to it.

+ So far from thrinking from the unkind fufpicion of favouring hypocrify, we beg leave to repeat the occafion of it, and will abide by the decifion of the quellion; "whether it may not be better to incur the risk of a little hypocrify, than to congratulate ourselves on a degree of effrontery that fecures us from it ?" Rev. loc. cit.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For OCTOBER, 1789.

ART. I. A General Hiftory of Mufic, from the earliest Ages to the prefent Period. By Charles Burney, Muf. D. F. R. S. Vols. III. and IV. 4to. 21. 2s. Boards. Robinsons, &c. 1789.

OF

We

F the numerous hardships incident to the laborious occupation of periodical criticifm, perhaps none calls more for the commiferation of the public, than the never-ending task, which, like the ftone of Sifyphus, is inceffantly rolling back on us poor Reviewers, of drudging through "fuch reading as was never read." It falls, indeed, too often to our lot to read, not only what nobody has read before us, but what nobody ever will read after us. Yet most inconveniences have their compenfations, and even Reviewers are not without their comforts. do not mean to speak of the beef-fteak and bottle of Port, which, now and then, find their way up to our apartments; but of comforts peculiar to ourselves. When, after having long toiled on in rough and dreary roads, like Homer's mules, Пoλλa d' αναντα, καταντα, παραντα τε, δοχμια τ' ήλθον—we find our felves fuddenly delivered into fome cultivated fpot, gliding smoothly over a green-fward carpet, furrounded by refreshing and pleafant objects who, that understands the philofophy of contraft, will not eafily imagine the high relative luxury of our fituation? Devenere locos lætos, et amoena vireta Fortunatorum nemorum, fedefque beatas ! Without ftopping to apply all this, let us now proceed to the review of Dr. Burney's Hiftory of Mufic. But, whatever hafte we may be in to fhew the liens on this occafion, let us first congratulate the author on bis having, at length, feen the end of his labours. We believe, that we might alfo, without being thought to degrade the dignity of our office by an uncritical degree of complaifance, extend our congratulation to all that part of the public whofe curiofity is interefted in the fubject of this ingenious and entertaining work-but, let us leave the musical reader to congratulate himself,

When