have here found :-we throw aside the pen of criticism; recollecting, as we do, (with not over-fond remembrance,) that we too have been young writers. MEDICAL, and CHIRURGICAL. Art. 21. Obfervations in Defence of a Bill brought into Parliament, for erecting the Corporation of Surgeons of London into a College; and for granting and confirming to such College certain Rights and Privileges including a Sketch of the History of Surgery in England. By Thomas Chevalier, A. M. a Member of the Corporation. 8vo. pp. 105. 2s. 6d. Johnson. It is well known to every one who is connected with the practice of surgery in this metropolis, that a petition, signed by the majority of the Court of Assistants, of the Surgeons' Company, was lately presented to the House of Commons; of which the principal objects were: 1. That the Corporation should be erected into a College; that the names of its officers should be changed, and instead of Master, Wardens, Examiners, and Assistants, be called President, Vice Presidents, Censors, and Council. But though the names were changed, the number, power, and duties of each, respectively and together, were to remain exactly the same. · 2. The second and principal article was, That business might in future be legally transacted in the presence of ONE President or Vice President, and four Censors; and that if ever the President and both the Vice Presidents should happen to be dead at the same time, the senior surviving Censor might convene a Council for the election of others in their stead. 3. That the College thus constituted might be able to hold freehold property of the yearly value of one thousand pounds, (the sum allowed to the Colleges of Edinburgh and Dublin) without incurring any of the penalties of the statute of Mortmain. 4. That the jurisdiction of the Court of Examiners (or Censors) should be extended to ten miles round London, but with respect to future settlers only in the additional three miles; and that the penalty for practising surgery without their authority, should be increased from five pounds per month, to ten. There was also a clause confirming the endowment for a course of chirurgical lectures; and directing those lectures to be given by one of the members of the Council: and another clause which required the candidates applying for examination, to be of the age of twenty-one years. In every other respect the bill resembled the old act.' A bill, in consequence, passed through the House of Commons. but was, on the third reading, rejected in the House of Lords. This rejection is stated to have been owing to the unexpected opposition of some members of the company, who were not of the Court of Assistants; and who, from the existing bye-laws of the company, were not eligible to that office. In the present pamphlet, Mr. Chevalier has defended the principle of the bill in question with moderation and coolness; and, we think, with justice and ability. 14 This This dispute is still pending: a petition for a charter having been presented to the Crown by the Court of Assistants, and by several members of the company. Art. 22. A Dressing for Lord Thurlow, prepared by a Surgeon. 8vo. Is. Cox. Art. 23. Reflections on the Surgeons' Bill: in Answer to three Pamphlets in Defence of that Bill. By John Ring, Member of the Corporation of Surgeons. 8vo. pp. 288. 4s. 6d. Boards. Hookham. 1798. We couple together these two flippant performances, although written on different sides of the question. Though also of very dif ferent extent, yet, like equal quantities of dirt in opposite scales, they sully the machine indeed, but make no alteration in its proper ties as a balance. Art. 24. A practical Essay on the Club-Foot, and other Distortions in the Legs and Feet of Children, intended to shew under what Circumstances they are curable, or otherwise; with thirty-one Cases that have been successfully treated by the Method for which the Author has obtained the King's Patent, and the Specification of the Patent for that Purpose, as well as for curing Distortions of the Spine, and every other Deformity that can be remedied by mechanical Applications. By J. Sheldrake, Trussmaker to the Wesminster Hospital and Mary-le-bone Infirmary. 8vo. pp. 214. 7s. Boards. Murray and Co. 1798. From the cases related in this publication, several of which are witnessed by professional gentlemen, it is evident that much benefit has been derived from the means applied by Mr. Sheldrake, in various distortions happening to young children. For a description of the instruments employed by him, we must refer to his book; as any extract that we should make would be unintelligible without the figures by which the volume is illustrated. Art. 25. Essays on the Venereal Disease and its concomitant Affections, illustrated by a Variety of Cases. Essay I.-Part I.-On the antivenereal Effects of Nitrous Acid, oxygenated Muriate of Potash, and several analogous Remedies, which have been lately proposed as Substitutes for Mercury. By William Blair, A. M. Surgeon of the Lock Hospital and Asylum, and of the old Finsbury Dispensary. 8vo. pp. 252. 4s. sewed. Johnson. 1798. In this pamphlet, Mr. Blair first brings forwards the several testimonies which have been advanced in favour of the nitrous acid, and other similar remedies, in the cure of the venereal disease in its different stages. He next relates his own experience; which has almost uniformly been unfavourable to the newly-recommended practice; and which consequently tends to confirm the established method of cure-by mercury. Twenty-four cases are here recorded, of the venereal disease in its primary state, and twenty-six of confirmed syphilis. In all of these, either the acid of nitre, the citric acid, or the oxygenated muriate of potash, was freely exhibited; in most of them it failed, and the cure was established by mercury. The The experiments seem to have been fairly conducted, and to be candidly related. POETRY and DRAMATIC. Art. 26. Ode au Roi de la Grande Bretagne : Ode to the King of Great Britain. 4to. pp. 21. Cambridge, 1798. De Boffe, London. This anonymous poem seems to come from the pen of a truly loyal Emigrant from France, who has not spared his Republican country men; and indeed, supposing their original plan of obtaining a free government to have been a good one, in establishing it they have certainly disgraced the cause: first by assassinations and the guillotine; and since by an unbounded spirit of conquest. A well-written Advertisement opens this poem, in the spirit of counter-revolution; and the poem itself, which the author tells us is the first which he has ever ventured to publish, is by no means contemptible. The famous poet Rousseau, the Pindar of France, seems to have been the author's model. The compliments to our King are neither inelegant nor fulsome: but unluckily for the author, few of our countrymen, with whatever facility and pleasure they may read French prose, are fond of verse in that language. More of our poets have been translated into French, than French poets into Eng fish. Shakspeare, Pope, Young, Thomson, Gay, &c. have been long since known in France by metrical versions. Art. 27. Nilus; an Elegy t. Occasioned by the Victory of Admiral Nelson over the French Fleet, on August 1, 1798. 4to. 2s. Nicol. The author of this poem is not a new acquaintance to us, either in verse or prose. As a poet, we long since allowed him to be possessed of merit ; and as a traveller, to be an entertaining and interesting narrator. In both these characters, we thought that seeds of promise were discoverable, which in time and by cultivation might spring up and produce flowers and fruits of considerable value. It is with reluctance, therefore, that we own that the production before us has not quite fulfilled our expectations. It appears indeed to have been composed in haste, on the spur of the occasion," according to mo. dern cant: but Pegasus does not seem to have felt this spur, nor to have mended his pace from its puncture. Some of the stanzas are John Baptist Rousseau; born at Paris, in 1669. + We are unable to discover the author's reason for styling this poem an Elegy. We should rather suppose it to be a song of triumph, in celebration of a signal victory obtained over our country's most inveterate foe. Had it been intended to lament the death of Admiral Brueys, or the destruction of the French fleet, the title would have been appropriate but, as Mr. I. clearly means an encomium on the intrepid Hero of the Nile, NELSON, and his gallant associates in renown, the appellation of Elegy, either from its derivation or its use, is inexpres sive of the purpose of his production. See Vol. Îxii. of our Review, for 1780, Eastern Eclogues. So embarrassed in the construction, that, on three or four perusals, we were not certain that they were English, nor that we perfectly comprehended the author's meaning. Egyptian darkness so much prevails, that we should suppose that some mystagogue had wrapt the whole in impenetrable obscurity. Inaccuracies of language may be ascribed to hurry, or to the press: but radical defects must fall on the author himself. Yet, during the Inebriation of public joy, the subject which occasions it should skreen poetical effusions from critical severity, particularly if the adventurer be a young sinner: but we supposed the author of the present poem to have been, by this time, thoroughly initiated in all the mysteries of a writer's craft. The following three stanzas are presented to our readers as the clearest and most pleasing in the poem : 6 For NELSON comes !-with bold adventure warm, Art. 28. Three Dramatic Pieces of Metastasio: The Dream of Scipio; The Birth of Jupiter; and Astrea appeased. Translated from the Original by Francis Olivari, Professor of Modern Languages. 8vo. pp. 106. Dublin. 1797. We take it for granted that the translator of these admirable little dramas is an Italian; and therefore we may venture to call his atchievement an extraordinary performance for a foreigner: as it has ever been found more difficult to translate into than from a foreign idiom. Signior Olivari seems to have made himself master of our language beyond the usual limits of one who is not a native of Great Britain: Baretti wrote English prose tolerably well, but he never attempted verse; and if the versification of these poems be not of the first class, the translator may comfort himself with recollecting that Milton's Italian Sonnets bear no comparison with his Paradise Lost, nor with his Allegro & Penseroso. We have compared the first of these pieces with the original, and find the sense fairly given: but the elegance and poetical spirit of the' celebrated author are wanting, as must ever be the case in translating poetry; unless it be undertaken by gifted men of equal genius with the original author, such as Dryden, Pope, and Gray. In the first of these dramas, Scipio's Dream, the poet seems to have personified Fortitude, Resolution, Firmness, in the character of Constanza, rather than Constancy; which in English is usually applied to the passions of love and hatred, friendship, unvaried habits, &c. REV. DEC. 1798. I i We We cannot allow space either for quotation, or for verbal criti cism; otherwise, we might produce some of the speeches of Publius, Fortune, and Constancy, in which the admirable sentiments of Metastasio are very well expressed; and other parts of the dialogue, in which a slight change in the diction, or construction, would render the version unobjectionable. The next two pieces abound in sublime sentiments, particularly the last, Astrea appeased; in which the speeches of Clemency, Rigour, Apollo on equality, and Astrea on inequality, are admirable. These important points are fairly and fully discussed; as are those of selflove, and the passions. These moral dramas, as well as most of Metastasio's operas composed during a residence of 50 years at Vienna in the service of the court as Imperial Laureat, were written as birth-day Odes-not to lavish praise for what is done, but to tell princes what they ought to do. Some royal virtue is recommended and displayed in each of these pieces; which, though all originally written for music, and performed by the greatest vocal characters of the time, contain lessons of morality, prudence, and virtue, of infinite importance to the welfare of mankind. Art. 29. The Irish Boy, a Ballad. 4to. 1s. 6d. Kearsley. 1798. This ballad feelingly describes and laments the horrid cruelties and devastation which have so unhappily taken place in Ireland, in consequence of the recent rebellion there. The pathos and simplicity of the poem remind us of the pleasing and affecting ballads of Shenstone. The two concluding stanzas, though not the best in respect of the poetry, merit particular notice for the conciliatory spirit that (so very seasonably) breathes through them: Let us drive Party-rage from our breasts, In each sufferer a brother behold; To the houseless and hungry, the woe-worn and sad, Let us ne'er in the wretched recognise the bad, Nor in the depress'd view a foe.' We have been particularly struck by the benevolent introduction of the half-famish'd cat, and the poor faithful and affectionate dog, found among the ruins of a burnt-down cottage: but for what relates to them, we must refer to the poem.-It appears, from various melancholy accounts, that, in the general calamity which has so much desolated that lately flourishing country, the innocent cows, and the tamed and domestic animals of every kind, have had their full share. Few men, however, extend their care so far from their own immediate personal concerns! Art. 30. Saint Guerdun's Well, a Poem. By Thomas White, Master of the Mathematical School at Dumfries. 2d Edition, greatly enlarged. 4to. 28. Robinsons. This poem has been noticed in a former Review, Vol. xix. N. S. p. 125. It is now considerably enlarged, and rendered somewhat more |