"Such has been the fuccefs which has followed this mode of praetice; and though there are who fill prefer the painful operation of dividing the fcrotum, and laying bare the teftes, or the tedious and loathfome cure by cauftic, I have the pleasure to know, that many practitioners have followed the plan recommended in my Treatife on this fubject, and have fucceeded to their complete fatisfaction. And hereafter, when contemporary prejudices are laid afide, and old habits, though ftrongly woven, are worn out: when all the different methods of curing the hydrocele are fairly fcanned and weighed in an impartial balance, I have the gratification to think, that the pains which I have taken to introduce a mild and easy method will not be in vain, but will be the means of faving the rifing generation from abundance of pain and mifery."

As this mode of practice may be confidered as yet under trial, we cannot hazard a decifive opinion refpecting it; nor, indeed, is it neceffary. Mr. Earle has given a fufficient number of fuccefsful cafes to point it out to general attention and fhould it be found equally effectual in removing the disease, and attended by fymptoms equally mild, when brought into general ufe, it will undoubtedly deferve, in their full extent, the encomiums above stated.

ART. XVIII. Hiftory of the Government of the Island of Newfoundland, with an Appendix, containing the Acts of Parliament made refpecting the Trade and Fishery. By John Reeves, Efq. Chief Justice of the Ifland. 8vo. 6s. Sewell.

NO perfon will expect a very ancient hiftory of Newfoundland; though, in fpite of the name, the time will come when it may be required, and then this account by Mr. Reeves will have become a venerable memorial. At prefent it is a very ufeful document for all who have any connexion with the Ifland, or any influence in regulating its government. The parliamentary determination on this fubject will be paft before this article reaches the public eye, nor would it become us to aim at any interference in fuch matters. Suffice it to fay that nothing can feem more confonant to justice, than that the permanent inhabitants and fettlers of the Ifland should be placed on at least as good a footing, as thofe who only vifit it for the purposes of the fifhery; and that all parties fhould be obliged, willing or unwilling, to difcharge the debts which they incur in the profecution of their commerce.

The view of the book given by the author is fo clear, that nothing can be fubftituted for it with advantage:

"This narrative will divide itself into four periods, or parts. The firft will clofe with the pailing of ftat, 10 & 11 Will. 3. c. 25. by'

3

which

which the adventurers and merchants were fuppofed to have obtained a preference and advantage over the pretenfions of the inhabitants, and planters. The fecond will end with the appointment of a civil governor, and of juftices of the peace in 1729; by which some stop was put to the diforder and anarchy that had long prevailed in the ifland, especially during the winter feafons. This may be confidered as an advantage gained by the inhabitants and planters. The third clofes with Stat. 15 Geo. 3. c. 31. commonly called in the island Sir Hugh Pallifer's act, which was intended for giving an advantage to the fifhery carried on from the mother country; but, as it obliges both" merchants and planters to pay their fervants' wages, it is equally ab horred by both parties; and both parties have fhewn great readinefs to join in allerting, that the fifhery has gradually decayed ever fince the paffing of this act. The fourth comes down to the year 1791, when a court of civil jurifdiction was established upon principles which, it was thought, would fecure the impartial administration of juftice to the merchant and the planter, the rich and the poor, the mafter and the fisherman."

Speaking of the objections made by the Western merchants to the establishment of a court of common pleas in the island, Mr. Reeves fays:

"Their great objection, which they do not state, but which I will venture to do for them, is this; that they now faw a court established (as they believed) upon good authority, with which they could not trifle, as they had been ufed to do with the feeble judicatures beforementioned; those inefficient courts they preferred, because they could make use of them when they needed their affiftance, and could intimidate the juftices, and obftruct their proceedings, whenever they themfelves were to be the objects of animadverfion. They had been in the habit of feeing this fpecies of weakness and anarchy ever fince Newfoundland was frequented, from father to fon; it was favourable to their old impreffions, that Newfoundland was theirs, and that all the planters and inhabitants were to be fpoiled and devoured at their pleafure; in fupport of this, they had oppofed, as we have feen, every attempt at introducing order and government into that place. It was in this fpirit, that they questioned the king's right to appoint a civil governor, to appoint juftices of the peace, to appoint commiffioners of oyer and terminer; that they complained of the custom-houfe, and even talked of presenting it as a nuifance, because erected on fhip's room; that they treated Stat. 15 Geo. 3. as deftructive to the fishery, because it compels the payment of fervants' wages; and that they brought forward a bill in 1785, in order to expofe the fervants once more to the will of their matters, as to the payment of their wages.

"Thefe clamours were backed with the popular representation, that the fishery should be free, and that a fifhery carried on from this country, as the Western merchants carried it on, was the old and true policy for Newfoundland. But their clains to a free fifhery feem to be thefe; namely, to be free of all infpection from governinent; no juftices, no courts, no cufto:n-houfe. This is what they mean, when they with all

rgfrainti

reftraints to be taken off the fishery, fo as they may carry it on upon the footing of ftat. 10 and 11 Will. 3." P. 166.

The character given of the fishing admirals, as they are called, p. 40. 45, &c. fhows how well it anfwers to leave fuch perfons, at fuch a distance from the fource of government, without controul. Latterly, however, the cafe was changed, and the fishing admirals beng wholly incompetent, and indifpofed to execute the charge repofed in them, fuffered it to flide into other hands; as appears at p. 151.

Nothing can be more clear than the order and mode of narration throughout this piece of local hiftory, which is fully illuftrated by an appendix, containing all the acts of parliament relative to the trade and fisheries of Newfoundland, from the 10th of Will. 3.

As the profits of this work are to be given to the exiled and fuffering clergy of France, we cannot but wish that they may be confiderable.

ART. XIX. The Principles of Eloquence; and the Bar. By the Abbé Maury. French, with additional Notes, by John 6s. 8vo, Cadell.

adapted to the Pulpit Tranflated from the Neale Lake, A. M.

IN criticifing a tranflation from the French language, which is fo generally known, we are infenfibly led rather to examine the utility of the original author, than the fidelity of his tranflator. This will, therefore, we truft, excufe us, if our. attention be directed not fo much to Mr. Lake, as to the Abbé Maury, fo eminently distinguished as he is by good taste and good fenfe. We can only complain, that the brevity of his fections produces an occafional disappointment, when he has contrived to engage our minds by the acuteness of his obfervations, and his agreeable manner of fuggesting them.

Our author's remarks, fo far as they extend, are folid and ju dicious; while his manner of treating the various points on which he touches, is lively and interesting. Inftead of difcuffing his fubject with the cuftomary drynefs of fyftem, he interefts us by that method of rhetorical addrefs, which he himself recommends, and which imparts to his ftyle the effect of dialogue. His remarks on the eloquence of Demofthenes, Cicero, Boffuet, and others, deferve that attention, which, in juftice to the editor, we must add, is confiderably excited by the notes fubjoined, illuftrating the Abbé's fentiments on thefe great men, by the corresponding criticisms of wife and able judges.

As

As a fpecimen of French oratory, we felect the account which M. Maury gives us of the exordium of a fermon preached by a poor miffionary on his first appearance at Paris:

• Mr. BRIDAINE was born with a popular eloquence; and no one ever poffeffed, in a higher degree, the rare talent of arrefting the attention of an affembled multitude. He had fo fine a voice, as to render credible all the wonders which hiftory relates of the declamation of the ancients, for he was as eafily heard by ten thousand people in the open fields, as if he had spoken under the moft refounding arch. In all he said, there were obfervable unexpected strokes of Oratory, the boldeft metaphors, thoughts fudden, new, and ftriking, all the marks of a rich imagination, fome paffages, fometimes even whole difcourfes, composed with care, and written with an equal combination of taste and animation.

I remember to have heard him deliver the introduction of the first discourse, which he preached in the Church of St. Sulpice, in Paris, 1751. The first company in the capital went, out of curiofity,

to hear him.

"Bridaine perceived among the congregation many Bishops, and perfons of the firft rank, as well as a valt number of Ecclefiaftics. This fight, far from intimidating, fuggested to him the following exordium, fo far at least as my memory retains of a paffage with which I have been always fenfibly affected, and, which, perhaps, will not appear unworthy of Boffuet, or Demofthenes.

"At the fight of an Auditory fo new to me, methinks, my brethren, I ought only to open my mouth to folicit your favour in behalf of a poor miffionary, deftitute of all thofe talents which you require of those who speak to you about your falvation. Nevertheless, I experience, to-day, a feeling very different. And, if I am caft down, suspect me not of being depreffed by the wretched uneafinefs occafioned by vanity, as if I were accustomed to preach myself. God forbid that a minister of Heaven fhould ever fuppofe he needed an excufe with you! for, whoever ye may be, ye are all of you finners like my felf. It is before your God and mine, that I feel myself impelled at this moment to ftrike my breast.

"Until now, I have proclaimed the righteousness of the Most High in Churches covered with thatch. I have preached the rigours of penance to the unfortunate who wanted bread. I have declared to the good inhabitants of the country the most awful truths of my religion. Unhappy man! what have I done? I have made fad the poor, the best friends of my God! I have conveyed terror and grief into thofe fimple and honeft fouls, whom I ought to have pitied and confoled! It is here only where I behold the great, the rich, the oppreffors of fuffering humanity, or finners daring and hardened. Ah! it is here only where the facred word fhould be made to refound with all the force of its thunder; and where I fhould place with me in this pulpit, on the one fide, Death which threatens you, and on the other, my great God, who is about to judge you. I hold to-day your fentence in my hand. Tremble then in my prefence, ye proud and difdainful men who hear me! The neceffity of falvation, the certainty of death, the uncertainty

of

of that hour, fo terrifying to you, final impenitence, the laft judgment, the fmall number of the elect, hell, and, above all, Eternity! Eternity! These are the fubjects upon which I am come to difcourfe, and which I ought, doubtless, to have referved for you alone. Ah! what need have i of your commendation, which, perhaps, might damn me, without faving you? God is about to roufe you, while his unworthy minifter fpeaks to you; for I have had a long experience of his mercies. Penetrated with a deteftation of your past iniquities, and thedding tears of forrow and repentance, you will, then, throw yourselves into my arms; and, by this remorfe, you will prove that I am fufficiently eloquent."

Who doth not, by this time, perceive, how much this eloquence excels the frigid and miferable pretenfions of modern wit? In apologizing, fo to fpeak, for having preached upon hell in the villages, Bridaine boldly affumed all the authority over his auditory which belonged to his office, and prepared their hearts for the awful truths, which he intended to announce. This Exordium alone gave him a right to fay every thing. Many perfons ftill remember his fermon on eternity, and the terror which he diffufed throughout the congrega tion, whilft blending, as was usual with him, quaint comparisons with fublime tranfports, he exclaimed, "What foundation, my brethren, have you for fuppofing your dying day at fuch a distance? Is it your youth?" Yes,' you anfwer; I am, as yet,but twenty, but thirty."

Sirs, it is not you who are twenty or thirty years old, it is death which has already advanced twenty or thirty years towards you. Obferve: Eternity approaches. Do you know what this eternity is? It is a pendulum, whofe vibration fays continually, Always-EverEverAlways-Always! In the mean while a reprobate cries out, • What o'clock is it?" "And the fame voice anfwers," Eternity.'

The thundering voice of Bridaine added, on thofe occafions, a new energy to his Eloquence; and the Auditory, familiarized to his language and ideas, appeared at fuch times in difmay before him. The profound filence which reigned in the congregation, especially when he preached until the approach of night, was interrupted from time to time, and in a manner very perceptible, by the long and mournful fighs, which proceeded, all at once, from every corner of the church where he was speaking.

'Orators! ye who are wholly engroffed about your own reputation, fall at the feet of this apoftolic man, and learn from a miffionary wherein true eloquence confifts. The people! the people! they are the principal, and, perhaps, the beft judges of your talents.

It must be confeffed, however, that here are paffages intermixed which would not be tolerated in an English orator of any kind. Allowance must be made for the difference of manners.

We must also remark, that Abbé Maury appears to have been under the influence of a prejudice to which his mind ought to have risen superior, when criticifing the productions of some eminent Proteftant preachers.

His remarks on SAURIN and TILLOTSON are particularly tinctured