are either of a brown ftone, like the body of the buildings; or in those where they are only ftucco, befmeared over with a coarse dirty brown colour in imitation of the stone. All the gates and doors, befides their enormous height, are loaded with balconies fupported by brackets larger than what they bear, or fufpended as by a miracle: fo unfightly are all the particulars of their conftruction. The outfide of moft of the churches, even the most stately and fplendid," is, as all over Italy, only a bare wall, ftanding as it were in expectation of a portal; and thefe expecting walls are an eternal pretence for begging in behalf of the poor church, as wanting a neceffary decoration: in a word, thefe churches will always be in want of a portal, for the fame reasons that the church of St. Sulpice at Paris has already been forty years a building. As to the infide of thefe churches, it is rather rich and glaring than fine;- the finest marbles and paintings are crowded into them; and where these are replaced, or divided by gilding, it is with a profufeness, which tires the eye without entertaining it.-But no where does the Neapolitan tafte fhine with fo much luftre, as in the pyramids, or obelifks, erected in fquares fronting the principal churches. In the monstrous expence of them, in the uncouth affemblage of the various marbles, they exceed all the enormities of Gothic rudenels. Such an obelifk was finifhing before the great church of the Jefuits, and only from money raifed by a father of the house, univerfally known at Naples, for felling to the country people little prayers, making them believe that the bits of paper, on which thefe prayers were printed, when swallowed by hens had a wonderful virtue for increafing their fecundity. This new obelisk is more crowded with decorations, and more glaringly fet off than all the ancient: it is the very triumph of bad tafte.' But we are told, Naples has been infinitely more happy in painters than architects. Befides, being a colony from the Bologna fchool, by the works with which Lanfranc, Dominichini, Guido, &c. have enriched it, it has itfelf produced artifts, who, in many refpects, would have done honour to their metropolis, had not the national tafte for brilliancy and the fravagante led them out of the circle, to which the Caracchi had limited their art.'

After fome remarks upon their paintings, and a fhort account of Herculaneum and Poeftum, our Author proceeds to add, A tafte for the higher fciences has got footing in Naples. We were prefent at a private exercife, where the Prince de la Rocella's eldeft fon, who was fearce entered into his fifteenth year, explained Newton's Trajectories with the profoundnefs of a great geometrician, the perfpicuity and enfe of a man of wit, and all the gracefulness and vivacity of his age. Another prince has made great advances in chemifty and difcoverics analogous

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to that science; particularly, he gives to white marble a fixed tincture of any colour whatever, and penetrating through the whole mafs however large. We faw a cardinal's hat of this kind; and near it was a rough piece of equal bulk, which had gone through the like operation: it was broken before our eyes, and the whole infide was of as fine a red as the fuperficies. Something ftill more wonderful is a cube, likewife of white marble, with its furface two feet fquare every way on one is painted a virgin, and all the lamina which are fawed away from the cube, fhew the like image. It is this prince of San-Severo who has recovered the ancient fecret of inextinguishable lamps. We saw one burning in a vault hermetically fhut, and we were aflured it had been there eighteen months, without any fupply to the fubftance which feeds its light. This lamp illuminates the vault of a chapel in which lie the prince's ancestors; and the scope of all his chemical difcoveries is to increase the ornaments of this chapel, which already is but too full of them, Among thofe which he intends to add, we faw, in his palace, a white marble ftatue, as big as life, reprefenting Man in the bands of Sin. These bands are a large net enclofing the figure, which is ftruggling in it. This net, with its numberless mashes and knots, was made out of the fame block; an immenfe labour, which might have been much better employed. After all, it is a mere Gothic piece, and the more fuch, as the figure is nothing near fo fine as it might, had not the net engroffed all the artifts attention. This odd piece at Rome, would fcarcely be looked upon, but Naples reckons it among its wonders.'

Naples, continues this writer, as is known to all the world, is the center of the best mufic in Italy and the non plus ultra in execution. It is to all Italy, in mufic, what Athens was to Greece in eloquence and philofophy; but its mufic, like the other arts, favours a little of the national fondness for the capricciofo and the fravagante.'

The opera, he fays, is the moft fplendid, the moft grand and magnificent dramatic exhibition in Italy, and it may be suppofed in all Europe. Here we are told, the emulation of Neopolitan muficians fhows itself moft diftinguishably: here the finger, after the fignal for an encore, exerts every refource of nature and art, to furpafs himself in each repetition, by the variety of gradations which he introduces into the trills, modulations, and whatever belongs to the expreffion. Slight and quick, it is added, as fome of thefe gradations may be, not one of them efcapes an Italian ear: they perceive them, they feel them, they relish them with a delight, which in Italy is called the foretajle of the joys of Paradife, where, we may hope, there will

will be others equivalent, for thofe nations whofe organs are lefs fenfible to the powers of harmony.'

It had been strange, if a writer, who appears to enter fo much into the spirit of claffical Authors, had not particularly mentioned the fuppofed tomb of Virgil, though taken notice of by most travellers who have written upon this country. He defcribes it, as a lantern or turret; about twenty feet high *, on open arcades, the folid parts of which were formerly adorned with pillars: he mentions as a kind of prodigy much celebrated by Neapolitan poets, the laurel, with which its cupola is known to be exactly crowned; though the tree's only nourishment must be what its roots meet with in the joining of the ftones. All travellers,' fays he, are fure to have a pluck at this tree, which they do by means of a rope with a stone at the end of it. The fide of the mountain where the tomb ftands, inftead of any trees of this kind, is covered with yews and firs. Virgil's laurel, however, recruits its daily loffes, and perpetuates itself with renovating vigour. In the fixteenth century there was only one ftem, which stood in the center of the 'cupola, where we will fuppofe it to have been planted by fome Neopolitan, a warm admirer of Virgil. About the beginning of the last century, a fir, blown by the wind from a collateral part of the mountain, fell with its top on the ftem, thus choak-. ing it; but nature itself repaired the accident, fetting as layers the compreffed ramifications of the root, which now have fpread over the cupola's whole furface.'

We have read with pleasure this author's obfervations, which discover his good tafte, judgment, and learning; and are written in a fprightly and pleafing manner. The tranflation, though upon the whole eafy and agreeable, is in fome inftances a little negligent, incorrect, and obfcure.

We fhall only farther observe that, an appendix to the first volume contains fome pieces relative to Venice, in Italian and English, together with a curious panegyric on Saint Francis ; and to the fecond volume is added an effay, called, a comparative history of the Italian and French mufic.

Contrary to Keyfler, who compares it to a large oven; and who alfo questions the reality of its being the tomb of Virgil

A Treatise on Courts Martial. Containing I. Remarks on Martial Law, and Courts Martial in general. II. The manner of proceeding against Offenders. To which is added an Effay on Military Punishments and Rewards. By Stephen Payne Adye, firft Lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillerv. 8vo. 3's. fewed. New York printed, London reprinted for Murray. 1769. HE peculiar jurisdiction of martial courts is fo fevere, and in some respects difcretionary, that their proceedings, efpecially

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pecially at home, and in times of peace, cannot be too carefully reftricted. Hiftory will inform us, that fome of the moft grievous oppreffions this country has occafionally endured in former reigns, arofe from arbitrary extenfions of martial law; and it may admit of fome doubt, whether our author has given a fufficient anfwer to the opinions of the two great lawyers he produces, in relation to the powers exercifed by it.

• Coke, he obferves, fays, that the putting a man to death by martial law, in time of peace, was adjudged to be against Magna Charta, and murder; and Sir Matthew Hale declares, that if a court martial put a man to death in time of peace, by martial law, the officers are guilty of murder. But Hawkins, a more modern author, is of opinion, that "Where perfons act by virtue of a commiffion, which, if it were ftrictly regular, would undoubtedly give them full authority, but happens to be defective only in fome point of form, that they are no way criminal." And as the act for punishing mutiny and desertion, and for the better payment of the army and their quarters, which is annually paffed, and impowers his majesty to make articles of war, and appoint courts martial, gives them full authority, in time of peace, as well as war, the members of a court martial can run no rifque of being charged with the guilt of murder, or of having acted contrary to Magna Charta, by paffing a fentence of death.'

How far the custom of retaining ftanding armies when the nation is in peace, which has been introduced in modern times, may plead against thefe prior opinions, must be left to fuperior determination: thus much, however, is evident, that to retain great numbers of men, generally ignorant, and of loofe principles, maintained on scanty allowance, with arms in their hands, in due obedience to their officers, and thefe allo, in fubfervience to the civil power; requires a fyftem difficult to adjust, confiftently with a tender regard to thofe who are fubject to it.

In the first part of this treatise, lieutenant Adye undertakes to prove that courts martial are formed on principles of equity, equally with thofe of civil courts.

A criminal brought before a court martial, enjoys the fame privileges as in a court of law, of being tried by a jury of his peers or equals, which the English fo justly boaft of; for peers, 1 think I may without impropriety call them in all cafes, for though the prifoner be only a private centinel, as all the officers who are members of the court are liable to be tried by the fame laws and for the fame crimes, their fuperior rank can be

no

In many foreign fervices, if a non-commiffioned officer, or even a private centinel, is to be tried, fome of the fame rank fit as members of

no reason for not regarding them as his peers. Even in a trial by a jury in a court of law, I do not imagine that a prifoner would except againft a juror merely because he was of a higher rank in life than himself.

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• And befides this privilege of being tried by peers, which a criminal enjoys in one court as well as another, there are many advantages which he has at a court martial, that are peculiar to it, as will be plainly feen in the fequel.'

However well perfuaded our Author may be, that a private centinel, tried by commiffioned officers, is tried by his peers, the position does not appear to be well established; and the more equitable practice abroad, which he mentions in the note, of admitting fome of the fame rank, (real peers) to fit as members of the court, is a ftrong argument against it. Military fubordination is gradatory, from the common man up to the commander in chief; and every officer who feels the obligations. himself is under to his fuperiors in command, is naturally rendered tenacious of his own claims on those below him: hence when a private man is tried on accufations of disobedience or mutiny, his judges are also parties! The effects of which are fometimes feverely felt.

Such prepoffeffions in favour of martial law, may be expected in a military man writing ex profeffo on the fubject; but when he undertakes a work of fupererogation, and aims at depreciating trials by juries, in comparison with courts martial, he certainly betrays his caufe in the opinion of those not influenced by the fame bias.

The most that can be faid in favour of courts martial, is, that it is happy their proceedings have fome fixed code to regulate them; and our Author, who acted as judge advocate by the appointment of general Gage, has fhewn his abilities for the truft, and has laid the army under obligations to him, by ascertaining the modes of adjudication in those courts.

In the concluding effay, on military rewards and punishments, the lieutenant argues like a man of fenfe and humanity; who would rather excite foldiers to emulation in their various duties from a regard to reputation, than render them abandoned by feverities. He thus concludes his useful manual:

Let us, at the fame time that we are fanguine in our wishes for the good of his majefty's fervice, confider that every foldier is a human creature fufceptible of the fame. feelings and paffions with others, and as fuch every method fhould previously be taken to deter them from vices rather than truft to a reformation by punishment: that punishments muft fometimes be inflicted, is moft certain; in thofe cafes let of the court-martial; but in the English fervice, none fhall be under the degree of a commiffioned officer."

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