ners, principles, and relations of Society. We We hav have feldom seen an instance of fo fich a store of information comprised within the compafs of a few pages. In delineating alfo the romantic character and fingular exploits of Maximilian, and the wonderful changes of fortune which distinguished his life and reign, our author has been peculiarly happy. He has exhibited in a new light the conduct of a Prince to whose merits our native historians have been fingularly unjust. With regard to the reign of Charles the Fifth, the author has principally confined his narration to the transactions in Germany and Austria. He has also omitted the history of the Spanish brauch to its extinction in Charles the Second. We have litile to object to this plan in regard to Charles the Fifth; but we confefs we are only reconciled to the omiffion of the Spanish line by the hope that the Author will make their History the fubject of a future work. For our own fake and for that of the publick, we wish him encouragement to profecute this plan, and in this wish we are perfuaded we shall be cordially joined by the readers of the volumes now before us. Per haps the account of the Reformation and the religious contetts in Germany, which form so great a feature in this and the following reign, may by fome be deemed too minute: but in our opinion it will be a fufficient juftification of the author, to advert to the effects which the spirit of religious antipathy has produced in the tranfaétions of Germany, effects which are deeply felt even at the prefent moment. We pass over the following reigns, however interesting, to fix the attention of our readers on the narrative of that eventful period the Thirty Years' War. For a judicious selection of facts, clear and accurate description, bold delineation and firiking contraft of character, and rich and nervous diction, this exquifite morsel of History is fearcely furpaffed by any piece of equal extent in antient or modern literature. Had Mr. Coxe written nothing but this narrative, it would have established his reputation as an Hiftorian. After giving a brief and perfpective account of the terms and execution of the Peace of Westphalia, which clofed this memorable struggle, Mr. Coxe proceeds to trace the vaft plans and wonderful exertions of France to com plete the humiliation of that rival House whole power the had fo deeply Thaken, This period, which extends from the Peace of Westphalia to the close of the war for the Spanish fucceffion, comprises too many great events, profound schemes of policy, and complicated plans of war, to he examined in the narrow limits to which we are neceffarily confined. Suffice it then to fay, that Mr. Coxe has prefented most of the transactions of this eventful ftruggle under a new afpeét; he has evinced his accufiomed felicity in the choice and arrangement of facts and the delineation of character, and has developed the deep and systematic designs of France with peculiar clear ness, precision, and accuracy. In military narration few writers can be compared with him. Instead of dry minute uninteresting details, unconnected accounts of triffing actions, or mangled descriptions of important en gagements, he has briefly yet diftinctly iketched the plans of operation, traced the effects of fuccess or misfortune from circunistances which have escaped the common eye, described the attack of important posts or the most eventful battles with equal spirit and truth, and united the scattered portions of military hiftory, which principally relate to the invation or defence of the French frontier, in one regular and connected system. On this point it may not be unfatisfactory to add, that he has given the first clear and diftinct statement we have feen of the plans formed by Marlborough and Eugene for the reduction of the power of France, and has completely vindicated the injured fame of our great countryman against the afperfions of native and foreign writers. Indeed, if Europe may ever hope for deliverance from the tyranny under which it now groans, we are convinced it must be by fimilar means to those so fully developed in this work. The last volume commences with the acceffion of Charles the Sixth. From the nature of the facts themselves, as well as from changes which had now taken place in the characters of individuals and of nations, it admits lefs of that bold and glowing colouring which diftinguithed the first part; but this is compenfated by the rich stores of diplomatic information which Mr. Coxe has opened to his readers. In this portion of the narrative, he has traced the interminable contesis relative to to the Barrier Treaty, the negotiations with Protfia during the war of the Auttrian fucceffion, and the progress of the difputes which led to the separation of Austria from England, and her fatal union with France. He has given a picture no less authentic than interelling of the perfon, conduct, and manners of the heroine Maria Therefa; d fplayed the fingular character and valt and fanciful projects of Jofeph the Second, and defcribed the fatal effects of his unqualified reforms both in the hereditary countries, and in the Netherlands. He has concluded with a brief but rapid sketch of the short reign of Leopold the Second; and developed the means by which he so speedily fucceeded in reftoring tranquillity and order in his different dominions, and in re-efiablishing that throne which the imprudence and defpotifm of his brother had fhaken to its foundations. In narrating these events, the high character and numerous connexions of Mr. Coxe have given him all the advantages which could have been poffefsed even by a perfon actually engaged in the great revolutions which he defcribes. On these fubjects the curious reader will receive all the gratification and intelligence which might be expected from a judicious use of the nuImerous fources of information defcribed in the Preface. The defects and blemishes of this interelling Hiftory are comparatively too few and trifling to deferve particular notice. We difcover a few inaccuracies of language, fometimes evidently derived from hafte and inadvertence, fometimes the effect of confulting varions authorities in different idioms; and fome typographical errors, though not more than we know, by experience, are usual in the first edition of a laborious work. Perhaps alfo a Foreigner and a Catholic might affert that the author has generally-thewn too much partiality to the conduct of the Proteftants, and occafionally too little towards the Austrian court; and we ourselves think he might have infisted with more force on the claims and pretenfions of Austria in the difputes on, and confequent to, the Barrier Treaty. But these, as well as a few other objections which might be made, are mere questions of opinion. In regard to the choice and exhibition of facts, and the arrangement of the narrative, we believe the most azute eye will dif cover little room for alteration or amendment. The style is not like that of fome of our authors, careless and flovenly, or a tiffue of incongruous, images and metaphors; it is in general pure, polished, elegant; varying with the fubject; at times pathetic without affectation, or bold, animated, and yet nervous, without departing from the dignified fimplicity of hif torical compofition. Among the numerous pallages which prove the hand of a mafter, we may inftance; the reign of the Emperor Albert the Second, the latter part of the reign of Rhodolph the Second; the rife of the civil War in Bohemia; the reign of Ferdinand the Second; the lack of Magdeburgh, the fall of Waldilein; the flight of Leopold from Vienna when besieged by the Turks; the death of Charles the Second of Spain; various battles in different periods of the Hif tory; many parts of the reign of Maria Therefa; and the death of Jofeph the Second. The strong and well-drawn characters are too numerous to be particularifed; yet among others we may diftinguish those of Rhodolph the First and Second, Maximilian the First and Second, Ferdinand the Second, Count Thurn, Gustavus Adolphus, Waldflein, Maria Theresa, Catharine the Second, and Potemkin. On the whole, we congratulate the publick on the poffeflion of a work inferior to none in the whole body of modern literature, whether we confider the importance of the subject, the extent of the period, or the value of the information which it contains; a work which will be read with equal pleasure and advantage by the citizen, the statesiwan, and the foldier. Various genealogical tables illuftrating the connexions and defcent of the Austrian family, and a large map and copious index, are added to the work. It is dedicated to the Rev. Mr. Chancellor Douglas, the perfonal friend of the author, and fon of his venerable patron the late Bishop of Salisbury. 3. The Remains of Henry Kirke White, of Nottingham, late of St. John's Cullege, Cambridge; with an Account of his Life, by Robert Southey. In Two Volumes, 8vo. 14s. Vernor and Co. IN 1803, Mr. Southey, who is hinfelf no mean verfifier, published, in three 8vo volumes, THE WORKS or THOMAS CHATTERTON; and he has now ourselves The Remains of this sweet bard will become both celebrated and popular: but, although we pointedly difclaim the thought of giving any adequate idea of the work by a fingle extract, we lay the following elegant poem before our readers. It is almost the earliest of our Poet's pieces, and was written when he had barely attained the age of thirteen. "TO AN EARLY PRIMROSE. "Mild offspring of a dark and fullen fire! Whose modeft form, so delicately fine, Was nurs'd in whirling storms And cradled in the winds. now added to his own fair fanie, as a gentheman of benevolence and sensibility, by this neat edition of THE REMAINS OF HENRY KIRKE WHITE. We wish not to diminish the pleasure that the readers of the latter work must feel, by an elaborate display of its beauties: but we will not hesitate to affert our conviction, that, ere a very few years thall have elapfed, the names of White and Chatterton will be found alike the themes of eulogy and of regret; nay, if either be preferred to the other, we confider the name of White as the most deferving of enthufiaftical commemoration. Both these wonderful youths died, juft as they had attained to the age of manhood; Chatterton by a Roman death, White by the flow but fure operation of confumption, accelerated by extraordinary efforts to improve himself in academical studies. When we confider an unfortunate youth, fuch as Chatterton was, involved in mystery, fufpected of literary fraud, and repulfed with contempt when labouring to emerge from obfcurity and to attract the favour and patronage of fome great man; our compaffion is excited, and it is not without a firong and indignant compound of grief and horror, that we hear of his voluntary and dreadful catastrophe. But when, as in the amiable instance before us, we view a genius of the highett order, 4. The State of Britain, Abroad and at ers; forbidden by birth, education, and engagement, from every apparent chance of exbibiting its tranfcendant powhill perfevering in honourable ftruggles to engage attention, still hoping, almost against hope, for fome lucky contingency; at length, winning its illuttrious way with unobtrafive excellence to general admiration, and then--finking untimely, but refignedly, into the grave: we behold one of the most interesting, and at the fame time one of the most affecting spectacles, that humanity can either exhibit or contemplate. The death of Chat*terton must be lamented by every lover of-fplendid talents, prematurely cut off from the earth by unruly passions, exafperated by fevere misfortunes, and unenlightened by Chriftianity: the death of White will ever awaken the tenderest sympathy and deepest venera. tion; whether we look to its caufe, its - progress, or its completion. To select a flower from Mr. White's bouquet of everlasting fragrance is, we well know, a very unnecellary task; we perfuade Thee on this bank he threw To mark his victory. In this low vale, the promise of the year, Thy tender elegance. the ftorms Of chill adversity, in some lone walk While every bleaching breeze that on her Chaftens her spotless purity of breaft, And hardens her to bear W. B. Home, in the Eventful Year 1808. By an THERE is not only much good sense neatly expressed in this well-written pamphlet; but it exhibits throughout an air of moderation and candour, that did not fail to engage our approbation when we read it, and we doubt not will enfure a favourable reception from the publick at large. Its author defignates himself An Englishman of no party; we think him, however, at leafl not disaffected to the present adminiftration; and for this patriotic bias if he will admit our conjecture we honestly applaud him. An Englifhman of no party can hardly ever exist: at this momentous crisis, the very pretenfion to perfect neutrality favours more of timidity and cold caution than of manly decifion and honourable principle. This sensible anonymous writer, (whose fame, perhaps, will foon burst the clouds that furround it,) will be pleased to remember, that, at Athens, every citizen who fided with no party was deemed a common enemy. my. We wish not to press the obvious inference of our allufion, but leave it without farther comment to his own feemingly-ingenuous mind. Now or never, we ought to confider civilized Europe as fearfully divided into two stupendous parties; the whole continent (with the temporary exception of Sweden), and GREAT BRITAIN. NO Englishman, therefore, as such, can now fit down under the shade of Britannia's sægis, and calmly style himself an indifferent spectator.TRAITOR, or LOYALIST, utrum horum mavult, accipiat! he can steer no middle courle. We will go farther, and fay, that whatever Briton now madly endeavours to pervert the plain evidence of facis, and thereby to beguile his countrymen; whoever perfifts in throwing unnecessary impediments before the wheels or into the complicated machine of lawful authority; whoever, by vague discussions of abstract and metaphyfical principles of policy or right, now attempts to divert the collected attention, and to paralyze the combined energies of this noble-hearted empire against THE COMMON FOE,Hic niger eft. "At this period of general tribulation, it behoves every man to lay aside self-interefted ideas. His country, his fovereign, the admirable form of government by which he is protected from insult and oppreffion, his religion, his family, his kindred, his friends; and above all, his liberty; that Liberty, which all, as the moralift declares, in public or in private worship; whose tafte is grateful and ever will be fo, till Nature herself shall change: all these are at ftake; and is this a time to poftpone the public good to private confiderations?-Certainly not; though every other interefting perfuafion should fail of fuccess, let this affurance at least have its due influence upon the mind of cach reflecting man: Homo, qui HOMINI CALAMITOso est mifericors, meminit BUI." (p. 14.) With no hoftile sentiment against the present manly writer, we have thought proper to pen this remark: we applaud the spirit and tendency of great part of his work; and think we cannot do better than tranfcribe at the close of our short review the following animated passage, which concludes the pamphlet, "Peace and Liberty have fled terrified from the bloody scene of defolation, and Charity Tits vainly weeping over the pict ture, which Truth enjoins her to design. Albion alone still frowns defiance upon her foes; ftill braves the fury of the storm. Confidently trusting to Providence for the arrival of better days, she proudly contemns the empty threats of a confederated world. The advantages, which our matchless land derives from the maintenance of RELIGION, are equally great, in a moral and in a political fenfe. "To the lower orders of fociety, a sense Of RELIGION is indispensably neceffary, in order that, being left to their own guidance, at an age when youth is most in need of a preceptor, they may learn, from public worship, the relative duties between man and man-that they may have a permanent source of confolation in the hour of distress, when perhaps no human saving hand is near; and that, being dependent on the more immediate bounty of Heaven for their fubfiftence, they may pay a more immediate tribute of adoration to that Almighty Power, which alone can afford them a continuation of what little they may have, and a fupply of the additional articles they may want. "To the middling classes, a fenfe of RELIGION is highly neceffary, that, from their extenfive connexions both at home and in foreign climes (exclufive of the due performance of domestic and focial duties), they may most scrupulously obferve the greatest fincerity and good-will and being, as it were, that independent part of the conftitution which contributes to preserve its wonderful equilibrium, that they may jealously refift every attempted abridgment of their known rights; and yet, at the same time, forbear to intrude on the monarchial and aristocratical systems. "To the higher rank of Britons, a femfe of RELIGION is moft effentially neceffary; that, by virtue of their authority, they may use their very beft exertions to support the permanent interests and real dignity of the State: that they may employ the abundance of their riches in aid of their distressed fellow-creatures; that, by their political abilities, they may invariably endeavour to conciliate the people with the Sovereign; and, by their own irreproachable deportment, may fet a worthy example to their equals and inferiors; remembering, always, the fo lemn affurances of a most able and enlightened Statefman: "All who adminifter in the government of men, in which they stand in the person of God himself, should have high and worthy notions of their functions and destination: their hope should be full of immortality: they should not look to the paltry pelf of the moment, nor to the temporary and tranfient praife of of the vulgar, but to a folid permanent exiftence in the permanent part of their nature, and to a permanent fame and glory in the example they leave, as a rich inheritance to the world*." (pp. 38-41.) 3. A Report of the prefent State of the Established Church in Ireland. THIS Report has been printed and distributed among the Members of the House of Commons, in pursuance of a vote of that House. It contains a Letter from Earl Spencer to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, dated Whitehall, 18th of June 1906, on the State of the Eftablished Church; containing, Inclofure, No. 1, a Circular Letter from the Lord Lieutenant to the Primate and Archbishops of Ireland, dated 16th July, 1806; and Inclofure, No. 2, Queries refpecting the Established Church, and an Ecclefiaftical Report of the Provinces of Armagh, Leinster, Munster, and Connaught. The following is a Copy of Earl Spencer's Letter: "Letter from Earl Spencer to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, on the State of the Eftablished Church. "Whitehall, June 18, 1806. "MY LORD, Among all the important fubjects which are involved in the Government of that part of the United Kingdom over which your Grace is appointed by his Majesty to prefide, there is none on which his Majesty's paternal care for the welfare of his Subjects has led him to look with more anxiety than the present State of the Established Church of Ireland, and the obvious neceffity of adopting, without delay, any proper measure for its fupport, and for remedying those evils under which it at present unfortunately labours. "In having recourse to your Grace on this occafion, I have the greatest fatisfaction in knowing that your habits, opinions, and difpofition, are fuch as to infpire the fulleft confidence of your cordial concurrence in promoting those importantobjects; and I flatter myself that the mode of proceeding, which, upon the most mature confideration, it has been thought advifable to pursue, will infure to us the zealous co-operation of the very refpectable Prelates who are placed at the head of the Church of Ireland; at the fame time that it affords the most unobjectionable as well as effectual means of procuring the information required. "With these views, I have his Majefty's commands to direct your Grace to write to the Lord Primate, and the three other Archbishops of Ireland, defiring that they will, with as little delay as poffible, procure in their respective provinces, and * Burke. On the French Revolution. transmit to your Grace, for his Majesty's information, the most accurate accounts that can be furnished of the actual fituation of the Established Church of Ireland, more especially on the following important points: "The present State of Refidence of the Clergy in each diocese respectively, and the means which exift of enforcing it, the obstacles which may be in the way of it, by the want of churches, of glebe-houses, or otherwise; and the beft mode of applying fuch funds as now are applicable, or may hereafter be granted by Parliament for these purposes. The number of livings in each diocese, of a value too small to afford to refident incum-, bents the means of comfortable fubfiftence. The allowance now given to Curates in cafes of allowed non-refidence of the Incumbent; and the number of Curates who may be refident or non-refident upon their cures. The state of the unions of parishes; the number and extent of each union; the authority by which they were made; and the propriety of their being respectively continued or diffolved. The regulations which it may be proper to establish, by law or otherwife, on this subject, both to prevent any union being henceforth improperly made, and to preferve the churches and glebe-houses from dilapidation, where there are more than one in the united parishes; and, generally, all fuch other matters of information as may suggest themselves to your Grace, or as may occur to the Archbishops themselves, as likely to be useful towards enabling his Majesty to give effect to his benevolent and paternal intentions for the protection and fupport of the Established Church of that part of the United Kingdom. I am, &c. SPENCER.. His Grace the Lord Lieutenant, &c. &c." Next follows the circular Letter of the Duke of Bedford, the then Lord Lientenant of Ireland, to the Primate of all Ireland, and the three Archbishops of Dublin, Tuam, and Cathel, inclof ing to each a copy of Earl Spencer's Letter; requesling "that they will tranfmit to him, with as little delay as poffible, the mofl accurate accounts that can be furnished, of the actual funation of the Established Church of that part of the United Kingdom; expreffing his fullest reliance upon his Grace's earneft affufance and zealous co-operation in forwarding the enquiry; and afluring him, that it will afford him the most heartfelt fatisfaction to be the inftrument of promoting his Majefty's benevolent views towards the protection and fupport of the Church, and of giying effect to his paternal folicitude for |