M. Fourcroy observes, that the importance of the proper ties and uses of metallic substances require that they should be noticed with particular care; and he has therefore considered each of them in these Tables according to a similar order, and under similar comparative circumstances: so that, without attempting to present a complete history of these combustiblebodies, he has arranged the contents of the Tables 7, 8, 9, and 10, in such a manner as to convey a distinct idea of the nature, properties, and utility of each of the metals.

The last two Tables, 11 and 12, treat of vegetable and animal chemistry; and of these the author very candidly remarks that they are to be regarded only as sketches of these branches of the science, intended to point out the method of treating organic substances, rather than to give any very detailed account of their chemical properties: the more important features, however, have not been neglected.-M. Fourcroy farther observes, that he has considered the different genera more particularly than the species of these substances; the latter being only compared by those characteristics which are most strongly defined. He has not, therefore, entered into the particular history of vegetable and animal substances, which would have rendered a great number of tables requisite: but he has carefully stated the most essential and recent facts. which relate to the analysis of these bodies.

Mr. Nicholson, whose exertions in literary and scientific pursuits are well known to the public, informs us that he has taken the greatest care to insure the fidelity and precision of this translation, not only in the first preparation of the copy, but by a subsequent collation of the proof sheets with the ori ginal, during the last corrections of the press.'

ART. X. Memoirs of the different Rebellions in Ireland, from the Arrival of the English: also, a particular Detail of that which broke out the 23d of May, 1798; with the History of the Conspiracy which preceded it, and the Characters of the principal Actors in it. To this Edition is added, a concise History of the Reformation in Ireland; and Considerations on the Means of extending its Advantages therein. By Sir Richard Musgrave, Bart. Member in the late Irish Parliament. The Second Edition. 4to. pp. 636. Appendix, pp. 210. 11. 14s. Boards. Milliken,, Dublin; Stockdale, London. 1801.

A PARTIAL historian may be applauded by a faction, and may gratify the sensations of the passing moment: but, when his pages meet the eyes of those who are strangers to his passions and his bias, praise gives way to censure, and the acclamations

acclamations of encouragement are succeeded by the murmurs of disapprobation. Minds of sound judgment and accurate discrimination quickly perceive each infringement of the relation between cause and effect, and readily detect each contradiction. to the principles of human action. Indignant, then, at the attempt to impose, and lamenting the loss of the instruction which they might have derived from faithful reports of important transactions, they either throw aside the work in disgust, or submit to a perusal of it under the tortures of doubt at every step. No performances more rapidly experience their merited fate than falsified or prejudiced histories; which even the powers of genius cannot rescue from the contempt and neglect which are their inevitable destiny. The great masters of the historic art, whose laudable aim was the immortal suffrage of posterity, perceived the necessity of discarding all bias, forgetting all private wrongs, and assuming the most rigid impartiality. If very eminent moderns are not free from prepossessions, they yet venture not to conceal important adverse matter, and are careful to perform the duty of partisans in the most covert manner. If in Davila's narrative the protégé of the Queen mother be never out of sight, no writer lays more fairly and fully before his reader all the parts and relations, all the tendencies and consequences, of the events which he describes; and hence his work, though deficient in the charms of pure idiom, and written in a dialect sui generis, will ever be the study and delight of the best judges. Bentivoglio, Clarendon, and other upright though partial historians, state facts with fairness, and are only guilty of too frequently intermixing their individual opinions; and it is under the semblance of the utmost disinte restedness, that Hume intersperses his own unwarranted conclusions amid a fund of the richest matter. In the historic page, in which the matter of fact has not been the principal object, we look in vain for simplicity, perspicuity, or method; and the narrator who disseminates falsehood, or who conceals the truth, effectually obstructs his literary fame while he indelibly sullies his moral character.

To a man of leisure, who had the means of information within his reach, and who could sustain the labour, the late unhappy commotions of Ireland, in all their bearings and relations, presented a subject which afforded ample scope for the display of the greatest talents, and the highest acquirements. The crooked policy, to which barbarism and superstition owe their long and fatal reign among a people surrounded by the highest culture, refinements, and liberality, required to be analized, its motives to be assigned, and its schemes to be exposed; the machine of the Irish government, connected by its

secret

secret springs with the cabinet of London, was to be explained; the national character of the native inhabitants, and that of the several classes of colonists, were to be sketched-the causes, the origin, and the progress of disaffection were to be laid open, and how far it was owing to inequalities of fortunes and rights, to oppression, to national jealousy, to hereditary animosities, to bigotry, and to delusive speculations ;-an account of the grand catastrophe,-the Rebellion,-the characters of the leaders, the particulars and the event of the struggle, and the subsequent behaviour of the victors and the vanquished, were to be detailed;-and the conclusion suggested by these several matters, namely, the necessity of a change in the Irish system, with the discussion whether the Union with Great Britain be or be not that desired change, demanded its highly merited attention. Such a work, adequately executed; in which the several parties might, as in a mirror, discern their follies, their errors, and their crimes; whence statesmen might have borrowed useful hints, and posterity have learnt important lessons; would have possessed a value that is beyond estimation, would have intitled the author to rank as a benefactor of the empire, and would have insured to him high distinction and permanent fame.

Sir Richard Musgrave, whom we have been accustomed to consider in a respectable light, has executed a very different task from that which we have been describing. The great importance of his subject appears not to have occupied his mind, and the hopes of extensive solid reputation seem neither to have animated his exertions nor to have directed his course. We have to regret that, on the contrary, he has satisfied himself with assuming the character of the historian of the moment, and with labouring to deserve the plaudits of a party. If it could possibly have been his object to incite rulers to adopt harsh measures, to mislead public opinion, to perpetuate hatred, to inflame animosities, to foster the arrogance of the one party, to confirm the desperation of the other, and to procrastinate the return of harmony, the conduct of the work would justify us in saying that he had pursued this object steadily and efficiently. In the measures of the late Irish administration, Sir Richard can see nothing to blame but its over abundant clemency; he dissembles not the satisfaction which he feels, when relating the tragic end of those who paid the forfeit of their offences; and he openly laments the instances in which, to borrow his own phraseology, the gallows has been deprived of its due: while he indirectly censures and obstructs the beneficent effects of the legislative amnesty and the vice-regal clemency, by publishing names, and by proclaiming

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claiming offences, frequently on no better foundation than that of mere rumour. The violations of law and the outrages on humanity, in the late commotions in Ireland, are indeed sufficiently notorious: but we speak here of the author's mode of relating them.

According to Sir R. Musgrave, the papists of Ireland have never lost sight of the forfeited estates; and nothing short of their recovery, of entire separation from Great Britain, and of the extirpation or banishment of the Irish Protestants, will ever satisfy their wishes for remuneration and their desire of reGreater leniency, farther means of instruction, enlarged privileges, and complete emancipation, (he thinks,) will only render them more capable of carrying into execution these fatal schemes; there is no salvation for the empire but in the annihilation of the sect; we are to live in apprehension and insecurity till the present generation passes away; and we are to convert the succeeding, by taking its education into our own hands. We know that bigotry and barbarism are chargeable on the great mass of the Irish catholics: but it appears to us that, while the good qualities which these persons still possess are their own, those which render them odious and dangerous are to be attributed to certain operations of the British and Irish Governments, of the Irish Hierarchy, and of the best informed of their own Clergy. Was not the bigotry of the Low Countries proverbial; yet has it not been alloyed, and does it now give disquietude to the country with which these provinces have been incorporated? Could the religious fanaticism of Ireland exceed that of la Vendee; and yet how speedily was the pacification of the latter effected by a dextrous and energetic government? We are not desirous of holding up French models to imitation but we think that a worse pattern may be followed than that which this pacification holds out to us. If a government, labouring under every disadvantage that can be imagined, could, in so short a spice of time, restore to soundness an important limb of its empire, can it be supposed that a similar task is too mighty for the British, as strong and as firm a government as the world ever witnessed? With these instances recent in our recollection, and with our experience of the British catholics, (than whom the community contains not worthier members, many of them enlightened men, and liberal religionists,) shall we suffer ourselves to be persuaded that our catholic fellow subjects of Ireland are, of all the people on the face of the globe, alone incapable of being taught their true interests and their real duties?

A stern censor of the measures and individuals of the one party, Sir Richard is gentleness itself when the other comes in

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question. His industry has been unable to discover any provocation given to the disaffected; and his discernment can perceive no imperfection of system, no vices of internal economy, no mal-administration, no injudicious or irritating acts, no insults, no violences, to call forth and embody discontent! On the contrary, he leads us to imagine that Nature, in forming the opponents of the disloyal, forgot her wonted propensity to mix imperfections with her fairest productions, and cast them all in a perfect mould. In associating for self-defence, and for the maintenance of law, they never exceed their proper and laudable objects in all conjunctures, and on all emergencies, these are the only motives of which they are conscious: magnanimous in their measures, accurate in their discriminations, and just in their decisions, they punish sparingly and reluctantly. It is not for us to say precisely how much of this representation is or is not consistent with reality: but it is within our province as critics to observe that the author here presents to the philosophic mind a phænomenon new in the annals of the world; viz. the great mass of a people, with a spirit of determination and system scarcely if ever before parallelled, rising against a government on which not even an imputation lies!

Apologizing to our readers for the length to which these preliminary observations have extended, but which the great consequence of the subject will sufficiently excuse, we now proceed to speak more particularly of the contents of this large volume. In executing this duty, we have first to mention a singular and an important circumstance; we mean the erasure, in this second edition, of the author's dedication of his labours to the late illustrious Viceroy of Ireland, in conse quence of his Excellency having withdrawn his permission. It appears to us to be allowable, and it certainly is gratifying to us as strongly corroborating our preceding statements, to present to our readers a copy of the official letter sent to Sir R. Musgrave on this occasion by Col. Littlehales, (private Secretary to the Marquis Cornwallis during his Viceregal government,) as it has already appeared in print:

"Sir, "Dublin Castle, March 24, 1801. "I am directed by the Lord Lieutenant to express to you his concern at its appearing that your late publication of the History of the Rebellions in Ireland has been dedicated to him by permission. Had his Excellency been apprized of the contents and nature of the work, he would never have lent the sanction of his name to a book which tends so strongly to revive the dreadful animosities which have so long distracted this country, and which it is the duty of every good subject to endeavour to compose. His Excellency therefore

desires