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will not wonder at the refolution of the Parliament to hinder the King from executing his intentions. For, by the law of nature, all have a right to defend themfelves, and to make use of the means in their power. Nor could it reasonably have 'been expected by Charles, that those who had been ruled by him without and against law, and whofe deftruction, as a free people, they were perfuaded he ftill meditated, his promifes notwithstanding: I fay, it could not have been reasonably expected, that people thus ufed, in times of extremity, fhould keep themselves within the exact bounds of law, and thereby defeat the end of the law, their prefervation. Had Charles ⚫ himself observed the laws to which he was fworn, and dealt fincerely in the conceffions he had made in this Parliament, he " might have retained the power of the sword in his own hands; but when it was believed, upon very probable grounds, that ⚫ he was, at heart, the fame man he from the beginning of his reign had been; when those by whofe care, industry, and public spirit he had been brought within bounds, were looked on with hatred by him, and marked out for deftruction; when those who had counselled and advised him in his former illegal courses, were the objects of his esteem and regard, and all this firmly believed by the Managers in the two Houses; are we to admire at, or blame their proceedings? It was human nature, and that not corrupted and depraved, but human nature as created by God himself, and as of right it ought to be, and as indeed it always will and must be, where it is not debased by vaffalage and chains.'

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As to our Author's language, if it is not in the easy ftile of modern elegance, it is nevertheless generally ftrong, correct, and manly, though here and there we cannot avoid being difgufted with the quaintnefs of fome expreffions.

Upon the whole, though this performance may be too fober for many of the volatile Geniuses of the age, yet we may venture to recommend it to the judicious, as a most careful and candid compilation. The curious Reader will find many circumftances of Charles's life, and many occurrences of his reign, entirely new, and others ftated in a more clear, copious, and fatisfactory manner, than is to be met with in any other book: and he will perceive the advantage of having the evidence on both fides brought immediately under his eye, by the care and diligence of our learned and indefatigable Historian.

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Remarks

Remarks on Dr. Batties Treatife of Madness. By John Monro, M. D. Fellow of the College of Physicians, London, and Phyfician to Bethlem-Hofpital. 8vo. Is. Clark.

HIS ingenious Phyfician having premised, in a thort Advertisement, that the immediate caufes of Madness will for ever disappoint our fearch, and that the undeserved cenfures which Dr. Battie has thrown upon our Author's medical predeceffors in Bethlem-Hofpital, were the motives that determined him to fay fomething on this occafion-he obferves, in his first fection, that Dr. Battie's definition of Madness; which he terms a deluded Imagination, does not appear to him clear or precife, nor indeed the true criterion of Madness; which he fhould rather define to be a vitiated Judgment, tho' he does not take upon him to fay, that even this definition is abfolute and perfect. He inforces it, however, by the judgment of Aretæus, in his diftinction between the melancholy and the mad; by the definitions and epithets which the Latins and the French have applied to madnefs; and by reflections on fome facts within his own obfervation.

The second section remarks very curforily on four of Dr. Bat-tie's concerning the feat, the fuppofed and real causes, and the falutary effects of natural fenfation, in which fections, he thinks, there is nothing tending to advance our real knowlege of this diforder. Dr. Monro declines entering into an argument, whether the nerves act as chords, or in confequence of their permeábility by fome exquifite fluid; which laft opinion, indeed,, as we have obferved in a former article*, is not liable to more nor ftronger objections than the former.-But he thinks it odd, that Dr. Battie fhould be offended at the expreffion of Weakness of the Nerves, when he uses thofe of the ill-conditioned state of the nerve; the difuniting and breaking in pieces of the nervous subftance; its imperfection and degeneration; as if they were terms perfectly understood, and to which mankind had affixed certain ideas. Our Author in the fequel of this fhort fection indulges himself in a little pleafantry on Dr. Battie's difcoveries of the extraordinary benefits of the fenfations of hunger and of thirst, and of the univerfal advantage of refpiration in the vital Oeconomy.

In the third fection, on that Anxiety and Infenfibility, which our Author obferves Dr. Battie has introduced as new diseases, for the benefit of the Faculty, he talks of propofing some of Dr. Battie's moft metaphyfical and abftrufe problems on this

• See Review for laft February, p. 148.

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dark fubject, as Prize Queftions, folvable only by the fenior Reclufes of Bethlem.-Indeed, it must be acknowleged, that a few of them seem to plunge profoundly into the medical Bathos, and read, in fome places, not unlike certain parts of Dr. Cheyne's Mathematical Principles of Religion. Having cited them at length, with references to Dr. Battie's treatise,-to expose their inutility at leaft, he fuppofes himself a Patient labouring under this habitual difeafe of Anxiety, and determined, inftead of immediately dispatching himself, firft to confult a learned Physician, who gives him an account of the Causes of his Disorder, in the very terms in which these Problems are expreffed; not without a typographical hint of an ungrammatical escape (if it may not rather be confidered as a very harsh Latinifm) in ufing of for in. It is too evident, however, that few of these fuppofed caufes fuggeft any clear medical indication, but, indeed, as our Author fays, afford as little fatisfaction to the Patient's mind, as relief to his disease.-This method of arguing ad abfurdum, is often happily applicable to any extraordinary but, unsuccessful effort of establishing fuch obfcure caufes, as exceed our powers and opportunities of inveftigation. A few plausible and ingenious things may be fuggefted by the way; but the capital error will be in the difproportion between the Subject and the Difquifitor.

In the fourth fection, which confiders that of Dr. Battie's on the Caufes of Madness, Dr. Monro is very grave, and rarely allows himself to indulge in any reflections, but fuch as are really close and practical. He confiders Dr. Battie's twelve causes of it in a fummary and argumentative manner: he observes the incurable nature of fome, as that of an internal Exoftofis, and of an Induration of the Dura Mater: he admits the fufficience of other causes: he confiders, contrary to Dr. Battie's fuppofition, Gluttony, and Idlenefs, rather as Effects, than Caufes, of Madnefs. This fection, in brief, feems truly rational; as clear as the nature of the subject will admit; and ends in the following fenfible manner.

As au inquiry into matters fo far out of our reach, cannot be attended with any real fatisfaction, we may employ our ❝ time to much more advantage, than in fuch fruitless fearches. The effects of this distemper are plain and visible; let us therefore direct our knowlege to relieve them; and make use • of fuch methods as are warranted by reason, and founded up• on obfervation and experience; leaving the causes of this terrible calamity, which will for ever remain unknown, to fuch as can fancy there is any amufement in a difquifition of fo unpleafing a nature.'

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The fifth fection confiders that of Dr. Battie's On the Regimen and Cure of Madness. In the beginning of it Dr. Monro takes an opportunity to render at once an act of filial duty, and of justice, to the memory of a valuable Parent and Phyfician, in a ftrong and fpirited paragraph: wherein, it must be acknowleged, he glances, more than once, in fuch a manner, as to depart a little from that temper he had hitherto generally preferved. But as this was occafioned by some very intelligible inucndos at the Phyficians of Bethlem in Dr. Battie's treatife, moft Readers will pardon the refentment of a fon, and fucceffor, on this occafion; and many, perhaps, will even commend it, as it is smart without fcurrility. He agrees in many points of Regimen and Management with his Antagonist; tho' he obferves Dr. Battie has limited this neceffary head to the compafs of two pages, while the lefs important part, Of Medicine, takes up very near thirty. In entering on the Cure, our Author hopes, with re-. gard to original Madnefs [whofe fpecific Dr. Battie had faid was referved in Nature's ftore] that Dr. Battie's deep researches may bring its specific forth to public view, no perfon being fo likely to find out the remedy, as he who found out the disease.-In the course of this fection, Dr. Monro attends Dr. Battie throughout the various indications, and the different treatment fuggefted by his different caufes of Madness, which afford our Author many opportunities of exerting both his reafon and his raillery. But in this last he appears to us, to make no deduction for a circumftance much recommended, by fome Connoiffeurs, to Writers, viz. to arrive at an exquifite and affecting perception of their fubject, and to be, as it were, poffeffed by it, which fometimes enables them to out-foar the Ken of a cool and deliberate Perufer.

The fixth and laft fection contains fome further strictures on the practical conclufions and precepts of Dr. Battie, relating to Madness; in fome of which our Author finds plaufible reafons for diffenting from him; and endeavours to prove him inconfistent in others. Dr. Monro affures us afterwards, that his own experience has verified one obfervation of Dr. Mead's on this difeafe, viz.---That fome dangerous diftempers have fuddenly disappeared at the coming on of Madness: and one obfervation of the late Dr. Monro's,---That an Intermitting Fever coming upon a Madness of long ftanding, the relief of the fever has proved the cure of the Madness ;-of which he has feen two inftances himself.

Thus much will fuffice to convey a proper notion of this Writer's occafional reflexions on Madness, and on a late treaLife concerning it; a Writer likely to be judged of perfect fanity

by all his Readers, who do not rigorously infift on Wit's being nearly allied to Madness, of which symptom, we must confefs, it contains many undoubted and entertaining proofs. An omiffion, however, of the little paragraph that concludes this performance, would have confifted well with the candour Dr. Monro profeffes; tho' his Antagonist should have loft a parting compliment by it.. K

Characteristics of the prefent Political State of Great Britain. 8vo. 4s. Millar.

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HE Author of the ingenious treatise before us, profeffes to ftand in opposition to those Writers who have exhibited a difagreeable picture of the prefent age: and he gives us an epitome of his principles in his motto

Prifca juvent alios: ego me nunc denique natum

Gratulor.

It was a tafk worthy of his fkill, to refcue the fubject from thofe Daubers in Caricature; and it muft, indeed, be confeffed, that he has drawn a moft pleafing portrait of the times, finished with a mafterly pencil: but whether the resemblance is juft, must be submitted to impartial examination.

If we truft our Author's reprefentation, we are rich, free, powerful, and happy: If we credit the Writers he oppofes, we are poor, oppreffed, corrupt, and diffolute. Their picture is all fhade, our Author's all light. They awkwardly imitate the ftile of Rembrandt; and, with a dark pencil, love to defcribe hideous wrinkles, and deformed features. Our Author happily copies the tafte of Titian, and brightens the canvass with all the lively glow of colouring.

Perhaps if the light and fhade were properly blended together, we might behold a real likeness. We are far from believing that the nation is more vicious now than formerly: that our Freedom is in danger: or that we are tottering on the brink of ruin. Nevertheless we cannot agree with our Author, that we are much richer, much more fecure, and enjoy many more advantages, than in any former period: or that Britain has been fo very happy fince the Revolution as he feems to imagine.

To prove these propofitions, however, the ingenious Writer endeavours to fhew---That Banking is a very profitable institution, and has greatly enriched the nation: That, though our Taxes are high, we are much richer than when they were much lower and carry on an exclufive and profitable trade: That, REV. May, 1758. though

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