padocia were highly efteemed in Tyre and Perfia. They were no lefs precious in the eyes of the Roman Emperors, who did not permit even Confuls to poffefs the divine animals' of the first quality, or purest breed, of Cappadocia. In fhort, they were then, what the Arabian horfes of the monaki fhaduhi breed, purer than milk, are in the prefent day, the very beft of their kind. The many quotations in fupport of the fuperior excellence of the antient Cappadocian horfes, which it would be improper to introduce here, may be seen in Bochart's Geog. facr. col. 175, and Hierozoicon, col. 109, and in Gothofred's Differtation on Philoftorgius." Vol. I. p. 209.

We recommend the above inquiry to thofe of our friends who are fond of horfes, as it may tend to illuftrate the natural hiftory of one of the most useful animals that mankind have rendered fubfervient to their wants.

Mr. Macpherson has, we muft allow, beftowed fome pains in afcertaining the period of the difcovery of America. He very properly obferves, that although the accidental discovery of Winland (fo called from the fpontaneous production of grapes) by the Icelanders, has been described at some length by Forfter and Mallet, there are fill many people, even among thofe of general reading, who believe that no European ever fet foot in America, before Columbus. The prevalence of this opinion is furprifing, when we confider that the works of both thefe authors have been tranflated into English; and the facts themfelves are unquestionable, being authenticated by the teftimony of contemporary authors, and of others who lived foon after that time, but all of them long before the time. of Columbus. So that, without detracting from the merit of that illuftrious navigator, who planned his voyage upon fcientific principles, we cannot hesitate to acknowledge, that the difcovery of the Western hemifphere belongs of right to Biorn, the fon of Heriolf.

At the fame time that Mr. Macpherson thus juftly deprives Columbus (or, as he chufes to denominate him, Colon) of the merit of being the fole difcoverer of America, he explodes the ftory of Madoc, on which Mr. Southey has lately employed his poetical talents, as a mere invention of Dr. Powell; in this we agree with him, as no manufcripts, or authentic testimonies on this head, have yet been produced.

In treating of the importation of negroes into the European fettlements in America, Mr. Macpherson has not corrected the error into which his predeceffor had fallen, who fays that about the year 1508, the Spaniards began to import negroes into Hifpaniola, from the Portuguefe fettlements on the

Guinea coaft. But the authority of Herrera may be adduced, to fhew that this importation took place feveral years earlier, viz. in 1503.

We have already noticed the imperfect acquaintance of Mr. Macpherson with natural history. In fpeaking of the state of England, as it is recorded in the Doomiday book, and in the other records of that period, he fays "that many proofs may be adduced to fhew, that vines were cultivated to a greater -extent in feveral parts of this country formerly than now, and that confiderable quantities of wine were made from them." (Vol. I. p. 331.) He does not feem to be aware that the cultivation of the true grape was ftill more impracticable in that age, when the land being lefs cleared than at prefent, occafioned the feasons to be more fevere: and that there can be little doubt but the term " vinetum" or vineyard, was in thefe documents ufed for grounds applied to the culture of the currant bush, Ribes vulgaris, which is a native of the country. But the author is to little confcious of the difference between grapes (vitis vinifera) and currants, that he has fuffered the following paragraph to ftand in Vol. I. p. 75.

"The tree, or fhrub, bearing currants, or grapes of Corinth, is by fome authors faid to have been brought from the island of Zant, and planted in England about this time. This delicious fruit or grape has long ago become fo plentiful every where throughout Britain and Ireland, that it would be difficult to con vince fome people that currants were not originally natives here; which is alfo the cafe of many other fruits, plants, roots, and flowers. Dr. Heylin, in his Cofmography, obferves, that the people of Zant were very poor when the English began to purchase their currants, and wondered to what end they annually brought away fuch quantities, afking them, whether they used their cur. rants to dye cloths, or to fatten their hogs? He adds, that our trade thither has enriched thofe iflanders.' Vol. II. p. 75.

From this paragraph, it is evident that the author fuppofes the fruit fold by the grocers under the name of currants to be really the fame with the common garden currant; instead of which the former are well known to be a true grape, the produce of a small low vine, growing principally in the island of Zante. But this grofs miftake is fully equalled by another which we find in Vol. III. P. 155.

Two phyficians, to whom the author of this work fhewed the cochineal in the Company's vaults, were perfectly fatisfied, that the infect, which produces it, is the fame with our British lady-bird;

lady-bird; and that its fuperior excellence was acquired purely by the infect feeding on the fine red juice or fap of the Mexico shrub, called the prickly pear, agreeable to what has been afferted by divers authors. Anderfan].

"The prickly pear is a plant which grows fpontaneously and luxuriantly every where in the Weft-Indies. Its juice is of a rich crimfon colour, which may be used with a pen or a pencil for writing or drawing; but it fades in a few days. However, Mr. Long (in his Hiftory of Jamaica, Vol. III. p. 731) fays, that Mr. Riz, a gentleman of Kingston, produced from it a dye-ftuff fuperior to the cochineal of Mexico. If that can be effected on a confiderable fcale, the prickly pear (now a nuifance, or at best a bad fort of fence) may become one of the moft profitable of the tropical plants. Macpherson]." Vol. III. p. 155.

Mr. Macpherson cannot be faid to have paffed over this paffage in a hurry, fince we find he has actually commented upon it, and, in his comment, has imbibed the erroneous spirit of the original. Every dabbler in natural hiftory knows that the cochineal infect is a fpecies of coccus, a genus belonging to the order hemiptera; whereas the common lady-bird is a coleopterous infect, belonging to the genus coccinella. In a fimilar manner, the patriotic fpirit of the author informs us of fapphires equal to the Oriental, and of topazes (one of them as large as the body of a child of two years old) being found in Scotland; but, to exhibit Mr. Macpherson's ignorance refpe&ting the nature of precious flones, we need only flate that in the fame place (Vol. III. p. 590) he fpeaks of the garnet and the ruby as being the fame kind of gem.

The fuppofed difcovery of Beukelens, refpecting the curing of herrings, which has been repeated in fo many books, feems very properly reduced by Mr. Macpherson to fome flight improvement only in the procefs, which, being adopted by his countrymen, occafioned their fifh to be much admired. The vifit of the Emperor Charles V. to the tomb of Beukelens, has accidentally raifed him to unmerited honours; the herring trade being in fact much more ancient. What the improvement was, is very doubtful. It is frequently faid to be the curing of herrings white; but Mr. Macpherion fays that the moft diftin&t account he has been able to find is in Petit's Chronique de Hollande, &c. p. 184. "Ceux de Byervlyet, [no mention of Beukelens] ifle de Flandres, qui premiereinent inventerent (pour le mieux garder étant fallé) de l'egorger, et lui ofter les machoires, qui le faifoient autrement bien toft corrompre, ce qu'en langue du pays fe difoit kaken, c'est a dire, demacheler."

29

In the fourth volume, p. 35, Mr. Macpherson informs us, that for many years preceding the year 1783, Edinburgh had been celebrated for the manufacture of coaches, which had become an established article of exportation to the principal towns on the Baltic, and especially to Petersburgh. And that in this year," a coachmaker in Edinburgh received an order from Paris itself, for one thoufand crane-neck carriages, to be executed in three years." This is given upon the authority of Creech's Letters in Sinclair's ftatistical account of Scotland. We have good authority to affert that no fuch order was ever received in that city; and we have no doubt of its being merely an exaggerated account of an order which was received in London, at the end of the American war, to purchase a number of old coaches, and fend them to Paris, to fupply the hackneymen of that city.

Count Benyowfky is called by the author, "a man who, if he had lived in the early ages of the world, would have been ranked among the most eminent founders of nations, and been deified as a benevolent friend and improver of the human race." (Vol. IV. p. 117). This character of a man, who, by his own account, was little, if at all better than a robber, must be confidered as a continuation of Mr. Macpherfon's flanders upon kings; otherwife it comes with peculiar impropriety from him, who conftantly calls pirates, the common enemies of mankind.

Refpecting the termination of the Maroon war in Jamaica, Mr. Macpherson fays, (Vol. IV. p. 353.) that in June, 1796, the remainder of thefe unfortunate people, with their families, were tranfported to Lower Canada, where, by the treaty of their furrender, they were promifed the enjoyment of lands and liberty. But the fact is, that by the original treaty made between General Walpole and the Maroons, it was agreed that they should not be fent off the island. The treaty was infracted by the government of Jamaica; and the Maroons were actually tranfported, at a great expence, firft to Canada, and afterwards to Sierra Leone. This breach of the treaty was very properly refented by General Walpole; for, when the affembly voted him five hundred guineas for the purchase of a fword, he declined their gift, by a letter, in which he ob liquely charged them with falfifying the treaty, when they entered it on their minutes. This conduct of the General will be remembered with honour, as long as integrity fhall be refpected; and it forms a ftriking contralt to the pufillanimous and faithlefs action of the Jamaica government. Mr. Macpherfon, who is the author of "Geographical II

luftrations

luftrations of Scottish History," reviewed by us, in our Vol. X. p. 84. has annexed to the prefent work, what he calls a commercial and manufactural gazetteer of the united kingdom. This seems to be, in general, pretty accurate. We have, how. ever, noticed a few inftances of exaggeration, and of that national partiality, of which his countrymen are fo frequently accufed. In fome inftances, we apprehend, that he has alfo fallen into the error of ftating a manufacture to be carried on in a town, when the real cafe is, that the wholesale dealers in that commodity refide there, and collect the goods from the small manufacturers in the circumjacent country. This, at least, is what he has done in refpect to Walfall. In this town, he fays, there are manufactures of nails, in making of which, women and children, as well as men, find employment." But the fact is, that no nails are made in Walfall, the factors of that town procuring them from villages, all of which are at a confiderable diftance from Walfall.

We cannot help confidering it as an omiffion, that while this author has noticed at full length the laws and anathemas against ufury, he is totally filent refpecting those against gaming. This is the more remarkable, because the oftenfible motives for these laws, and their effects in refpect to commerce, are fimilar; while the real motives of the laws againft gaming are much. more connected with trade.-The Kings of England, and the Pope, agreed in appearance refpecting the condemnation of ufury; and Mr. Macpherson has rightly stated the real motives of the former to be the throwing of the banking trade into the hands of the Jews, who being merely on fufferance in the kingdom, their property formed a kind of referved ftock, with which the Kings were accustomed to make free when their ordinary revenues were exhaufted. The Pope, as fovereign of Italy, had an equal wish to reftrain the commerce of money to the Lombards fettled in England, who were the partners and agents of the banking houfes in Italy, where the profit of the trade ultimately flowed. Hence the real motives of the laws against ufury are only flightly connected with commerce; whereas the laws againft gaming are avowedly, and indeed really, intended to divert the property of those whofe fanguine temper leads them to prefer fpeculation, into channels where the transfer of this property may produce fome benefit to the induftrious part of the community.

Although Mr. Macpherfon has pretended to review the official accounts of the Eaft India Company, &c. it is evi dent that he has but a very limited knowledge of accounts. Since

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BRIT. CRIT. VQL. XXVII. APRIL, 1806.