ART. 17. Reflections occafioned by the Frequency of Fires in the Metropolis; with Thoughts on Meafures for adding to public Security, and Remarks on the Law of Arfon. Addreffed to the Right Hon. Lord Kenyon, Lord Chief Juftice of England. By Philanthropos. 8vo. pp. 50. 1s. Robinsons, &c. 1790. This writer is of opinion that the laws for the punishment of incendiaries are inadequate to the public fecurity. It is indeed not a little remarkable, that the wilful deftruction of a fhip, to defraud the infurers, has long been made a capital felony, (4 Geo. I. c. 12.) yet the fetting fire to a dwelling-houfe, for the like fraudulent purpofe, is not within any penal ftatute. It is true, if the house of another perfon is thereby burned, it falls within the common law guilt of Arfon: but if the offender be the tenant of the house, (which is commonly the cafe,) it is not fo confidered by the law as it now ftands. This offence is of fo malignant a nature, that the learned Blackstone juftly obferves, that it is frequently more deftructive than even murder itself, of which, too, it is often the caufe: fince murder, atrocious as it is, feldom extends beyond the felonious act defigned; whereas fire frequently involves in the common calamity perfons unknown to the incendiary, and not intended to be hurt by him." The author of this pamphlet contents himfelf with merely fuggefting the propriety of extending the provifions of 4 Geo. I. to fuch as may be found guilty of fetting fire to their own houfes, with intent to defraud the infurance companies: but as prevention is better than punishment, his chief object is, to propofe fuch precautions and regulations as may tend to render this dreadful calamity (whether arifing from fraud or from accident,) lefs frequent. In imitation of the police of the populous cities of Amfterdam and Hamburgh, he recommends that a FIREWATCH be established, or a patrol of engineers and firemen, through every part of the metropolis, in all hours of the night; and fecondly, a FIRE-JURY, to investigate, ON OATH, the caufes of every fire, as far as may be within reach of difcovery. The reafons on which he recommends this novel fpecies of inqueft are, that the minds of the public might be fatisfied, and that the innocent might be freed from flander; that culpable careleffneís might receive a certain and moderate punishment; and that immediate purfuit, and the vengeance of the laws, might overtake the wilful incendiary, whether actuated by malice or by fraud.

T.

Art. 18. Letters on the Subject of the Liberty of the Prefs. By an Englishman. First published in the Paper of The World. 8vo. PP. 75. 25. Ridgway. 1790.

Thefe letters have been thought to poffefs fufficient merit to intitle them to a longer period of exiftence, than the limits of newfpaper fame can be fuppofed to beltow. They are written with a confiderable degree of animation; and, though tinctured with vanity, are not destitute of folid argument. The points to which the attention of the public is called, are the following:

Blackft, Comm. 1. iv. c. 16.

• First,

First, Whether or no trials for fuppofed libel, by information or indictment, where no proof can be allowed as juftification, and where truth is held to be a libel, be reconcileable to the good fenfe and character of this country?

• Second, Whether publishing hiftories of the dead, who hap pened not to have lived fo as to deferve commendation, be subject to criminal trial: and whether it be worth while to give up all history, and every faithful record, because bad men may not chuse the truth to be spoken?

Third, Whether a perfon giving his name as a fecurity for revenue duty, at the ftamp-office, fhall be made liable, in pecuniary damages, for the literary part of a paper, which it is known he never fees; when the author may be known, and the printer is always to be found?

Fourth, Whether it be conftitutional evidence to bring forward a bond for civil purposes, for fecurity to the revenue, and for the ftrict and honest payment of duties, as a ground for criminal information? Thus turning the very ftreams of public revenue and private faith against the person who gives a bond for one purpose, and then finds it was infidiously given [taken] for another.

Fifth, And whether it fhall now be the law of the land, that one man may at his pleasure commit a crime for another, and involve him in the punishment? Thus taking the law from out of our courts of justice into the hands of individuals, and establishing, that a perfon in one place can have crimes committing for him, without his knowledge, in all corners of the world.'

Our readers will perceive, from the foregoing fummary, that the author has chiefly in view the queftions now depending before the court of King's Bench, in the cafe of the King against Topham, for publishing, in the paper called The World, fome reflections on the character of the late Earl Cowper. As the opinion of the Court is not yet declared, we feel that there is a delicacy in giving our fen timents on a fubject of fo much importance. We cannot, however, refrain from obferving that the fifth propofition of this writer, as above stated, is manifeftly diftorted. The question before the Court was, whether a perfon deriving a fplendid income from the profits of a newspaper, and having given his name as proprietor of the paper at the ftamp-office, is not legally refponfible for the contents, as well as the uninformed printer, who is paid a weekly falary?-We mean to ftate the queftion, not to argue it. With regard to the principal point, relating to the free difcuffion of the conduct and character of the dead, we think the dearest interefts of literature are deeply involved in the decifion. If on the mere proof of publication, a Jury are bound to find a verdict of GUILTY, without being permitted to confider the intention of the writer, or the merits or demerits of the performance, on the ground that this is matter for the fubfequent confideration of the court, we fee great reafon to apprehend that the lights of history and biography will be in danger of becoming extinct, and that there will be an end of free and liberal difcuffion. It will be faid, what reafon is there to distrust the judgment of the court?-but is the verdict of a jury of twelve men

of

of character, that the defendant has been guilty of publishing "a fcandalous and malicious libel" no cenfure? Is the expence and vexation of a protracted decifion, no punishment? It will be faid. again, that if the paper is innocent, the court will reject the words "fcandalous and malicious," as improperly applied to it. It does not appear to us that a court of law has any better means of judging of the merits of the fuppofed libel, than a jury; and as long as the judges exclude the confideration of the truth or falfehood of the writer's account, from their decifion, they will be involved in inextricable abfurdities, when they pronounce on historical writings; the first law of which is, ne quid falfi dicere audeat, NE QUID VERI NON T. ART. 19. Strictures on the Lives and Characters of the most eminent Lawyers of the prefent Day: including, among other celebrated Names, thofe of the Lord Chancellor, and the twelve Judges. 8vo. Pp. 232. 5s. Boards. Kearsley. 1790.

AUDEAT.

The characters of eminent lawyers are confidered as a fort of public property. Anecdotes and popular ftories concerning them are in very general circulation. We perceive few of the facts refpecting the most important of these Lives,' that are not commonly known. A few meagre dates from the entries of the inns of court, ftating when one gentleman was called to the bar, and when another was advanced to the beach, furnish the rest. ART. 20. The Monfter at large: or, the Innocence of Rhynwick Williams vindicated. In a Letter to Sir Francis Buller, Bart. one of his Majefty's Judges of the Court of King's Bench. By Theophilus Swift, Efq. 8vo. pp. 213. 35. ftitched. Ridgeway. 1791.

T.

Mr. Swift, whom, till now, we knew not to be a lawyer by profeffion, earnestly flood forth in behalf of Rhynwick Williams, on his trial; which, no doubt, he did moft confcientiouily, from a full conviction of the man's innocence; and now, we fee he has been, fince the laft verdict paffed, no lefs active in the fame caufe; in order to prove, in defiance both of the evidence, and of the legal determination at the Old Bailey, that Williams is NOT the moniter who perpetrated thofe unmanly, unnatural crimes with which he was charged,-which fome perfon certainly did commit, and of which the jury pronounced him guilty.

Mr. S. here re-tries the trial,-re-examines and cross-examines the accufers and witneffes,-fcrutinizes the facts that were alleged, and weighs the probability of the evidence in the balance of nice and ftrict investigation; and this he does, not with the quirks and quibbling distinctions of the lower order of lawyers, but in the enlarged fpirit of a liberal-minded man, generously concerned for the fafety of a fellow citizen, whom he apprehends to have been unjuftly charged with the commiffion of the fouleit and most unheardof crimes.

Although Mr. S. has exerted himself with confiderable ability in the cause which he fo warmly defends, yet we cannot fay that he has thoroughly perfuaded us of the innocence of his client, notREV. JAN. 1791.

with

withstanding that he feems to have omitted nothing that could poffibly be brought forward, in order to produce conviction in the minds of his readers. He boldly impeaches the characters of the principal witneffes against W. in order to weaken the force of their teftimony, with refpect to the identity of the perfon acufed; and he fcruples not to impeach even the impartiality of the court of justice in which the matter was tried; charging lawyers, profecutors, jury, all with having acted under the influence of that popular prejudice, by which, indeed, the public were univerfally, and very naturally, impreffed, from the fingular odioufnefs and inhumanity of the crimes of which the prifoner ftood accufed:-but, furely, the zeal of Mr. S. has carried him a little too far, even in the defence of what he believes to be a good caufe! It feems, however, in him, to be a conftitutional ardour, which Candour will refer to laudable principles, and goodness of intention.

As a literary performance, we think this the beft production of Mr. S.'s pen that has yet fallen under our notice. We have perused it with confiderable fatisfaction; and should here have difmiffed it with this measure of approbation, had we not thought ourfelves obliged to mention a circumftance which feems to us, in fome degree, to leffen the merit of his work. We allude to his fo frequently aiming at pleasantry, and indulging in fallies of wanton wit, and double entendres, which, in our opinion, diffufe an air of ill-placed gaiety over a publication which certainly requires the most serious difcuffion; fuch, indeed, as he has himself generally employed on the fubject, when he has not occafionally been led into temptation to be witty and farcaftic, at the expence of the female characters whose credit and teftimony he labours to invalidate.

HISTORY.

Art. 21. Gibbon's Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in 6 Vols. 4to, abridged in 2 Vols 8vo. 560 Pages in each Volume. 12s. Boards. Cadell. 1790.

The author, or rather the editor, of the volumes now before us, undertook a difficult task, when he fat down to make an abridgment of Mr. Gibbon's celebrated Roman History.

In his modeft advertisement, he expreffes himself very fenfible of this circumstance; and even apprehends that little merit and much prefumption may be imputed to the attempt.-Certain, however, we are, that he must have exerted great attention and labour, to comprefs fo much of fix quarto volumes into two of the prefent fize; and we believe that he is intitled to the praise both of induftry and accuracy. It cannot generally be expected that an abridgment fhould afford all the entertainment, or indeed all the inftruction, conveyed by the original. It must alfo be allowed, that a performance of this kind may fometimes appear dry, perhaps a little perplexed, and occafionally hearing fome refemblance to an index, when compared with that larger work from which it is derived yet we cannot avoid regarding this as a valuable publication. Some defects no doubt it has, which it may be far more easy

to

to point out than to amend; and poffibly they are of a kind which enter into the very nature of fuch a defign, and which it is hardly practicable entirely to prevent.

One error which offers itself to our notice, is the frequent ufe of a circumlocution, particularly intended to render needlefs the repetition of the fame names. Of this we complained, as a fault in the larger work, and it is rather more objectionable in an abridgment. Here, alfo, we may obferve, that a word is ufed in the first volume, p. 345, which we do not recollect to have feen before, viz. forlornlefs. Should it be found in Mr. Gibbon's work, it is, nevertheless, uncommon and indefenfible.

The compiler has paffed over a part of the original relative to modern Rome; and, we think, he has judged very rightly in rejecting much religious difquifition. Mr. Gibbon had too fair an opportunity for reflections and farcafms on churchmen and ecclefiaftical policy; it would have been unworthy of a man of fenfe, of learning, and of virtue, not to have expofed their folly and iniquity: but when he extends his cenfures to religion itself, and appears, at least, to aim at undermining the evidences of revelation, his measures are truly reprehenfible, and the value of his otherwife highly eftimable work is greatly diminished.

In turning over the pages of thefe volumes, we have doubted whether the character of Julian is not placed much too high; a query which indeed may be more properly addreffed to Mr. Gibbon than to his abridger; as, poffibly, may alfo our farther remark, that in the accounts of the miferable Trinitarian controverfies, there feemed to be fomething like an air of partiality to the Athanafian doctrine, as if that muft undoubtedly be the truth :-but on such a fubject, the hiftorian is not to decide;-real Chriftianity knows nothing of the Athanafian herefy, nor of that of Arius, nor of any other herefy, but that of a man who is imperious, obftinate, and felf-willed, and therefore felf-condemned.

We shall close this article by adding, that the reader will find our different accounts of Mr. Gibbon's work, according to the references placed below *.

BIOGRAPHY.

Hi.

ART. 22. Memoirs of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin; with a Review of his Pamphlet intitled, Information to those who would wish to remove to America." 8vo. pp. 94. 2s. 6d. Clarke, in New Bond-street. 1790.

When we perceive a writer very earnestly take a decided part in any difpute, it naturally cautions us againft giving implicit credit to his reprefentations; for even truth alters its complexion, from the motive of imparting it. In the prefent inftance, we are presented with memoirs of a moft diftinguished character, without a

Review, Vol. liv. p. 188. 388. Vol. lv. p. 453. Vol. Ixv. p. 29. Vol. Ixvi. p. 459. Vol. Ixxviii. p. 468. Vol. lxxix. p. 12. G 2

J21. 221.

name