Bradley's explanation, which we conceive to be the only correct one, by fhowing that the tube of the telescope is not directed to the ftar, which deviation is the aberration. The aberration in latitude and longitude is first computed; and it is fhown when these are increased and diminished by the aberration; when they arrive at their maxima, and when they are nothing. But as it is of importance to know the aberration in right alcenfion and declination, rules have been invented to deduce thefe from the former. The rules here given are demonftrated by Mr. Simpfon in his Effays; they are not, however, fo good as those which have been given by M. Cagnoli in his Trigonometry, which the reader will find very fully explained by M. de la Lande and Mr. Vince. This fubject is concluded by pointing out the method by which the aberration of a planet may be found. The next chapter is upon the methods of finding the latitudes and longitudes of places upon the earth's furface. The practical methods of finding the latitude are given, and fome others are added, which are merely theoretical; and thefe are all explained in a very clear manner. In respect to the longitude, the author begins with fome general explanatory circumstances respecting the subject, and then proceeds to treat of the various methods which have been invented for the folution of that problem; and he bestows a juft tribute of praife to Dr. Mafkelyne, to whom we are indebted for bringing the lunar method into practice, and for propofing and computing the Nautical Almanac, in order to facilitate the computations. The whole of this fubject is treated in a very eafy and familiar way, and will be found very useful to the young ftudent. The laft chapter is upon the diftances, magnitudes, and number of the fixed ftars. The author has given the latest difcoveries upon this fubject made by Dr. Herfchel; and added fome very proper reflections upon the proofs of a Deity, as flown by the works of the Creation. The work concludes with fome Aftronomical Tables, and an explanation of their ufe in practical aftronomy.

From this account of the work, the reader may expect to find a great quantity of matter, well adapted to the ufe of ftudents in the fcience of Aftronomy. We have fairly pointed out its merits and defects, and truft that the author will do us the juftice to believe, that we have not produced the errors and deficiencies of his book for the fake of cavilling, but from a wish to see a work of confiderable merit rendered more perfect.

S

BRIT. CRIT, VOL. XX. SEPT. 1802.

ART.

ART. IV. The Metrical Mifcellany, confifting chiefly of Poems hitherto unpublished. 8vo. 224 pp. 6s. Cadell and Davies. 1802.

THE elegance of this collection of Poems will not probably be denied by any reader, critical or uncritical; nor will curiofity want its incitement, when the eye traces, in the Table of Contents, the names of the Hon. H. Erskine, Mr. Rofcoe, Dr. Darwin, Mr. W. Spencer, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Fox, Mr. Mathias, Mrs. Riddell, the Dutchess of Devonshire, and various other perfons of diftinguithed talents, as authors of the Poems contained in the volume. The title-page informs us, that the chief part of the contents had hitherto been unpublifhed; and a fhort advertisement fubjoined gives the affurance, that nothing of that kind has been brought forward without the concurrence of the author; fo that, while the public is gratified, the private individuals have not been injured.

From works fo various in their contents, we can only felect a few specimens, affuring our readers, that the remainder have in general a greater or lefs degree of merit. In the prefent cafe, we cannot but declare that, whatever we may cite, we must leave behind a very large proportion of Poems, at least equal in poetical beauty. We fhall begin, then, with a Poem by Mrs. Riddell, whom we understand to be the editor of the collection. It has no title in the page where it ftands, but in the Table of Contents is called

"THE REVERIE.

Come duky fhadows of the night,
Companions of the midnight hour;
Sleep binds his fillet o'er my brow,
And filence guards the lonely bow'r:
Ah come, this reftlefs mind engage,
Soothe it with retrospective blifs;
Recall the joys of early life,

And all the prefent gloom difmifs.

2.

Give me one golden minute back

Of those when profp'rous fortune fmil'd;
When friendship footh'd each paffing care,
And pleasure's witching voice beguil'd:
Call back thofe dreams of fond romance,
That lull'd me with their fpecious name,
With faith's firm pledge, and honor's vow,
Love's foft deceit and tranfient flame.

3. Dreary

3.

Dreary and toilfome is the path

When life's aërial schemes are flown;
When kind illufions cheat no more,
And fober reason claims her own:
Burns then the ardent patriot's fire?
Avails the ftoic's boafted aid?
Alas! hear godlike Brutus mourn
How "Virtue's felf was but a shade."
4.

The world's wide defert I furvey,

With fainting ttep and cheerlefs breast;
No foul congenial blends with mine,
I tafte no blifs, 1 feel no reft:
Fled the bright forms which fancy drew,
Nor hope's gay vifions cheer my eye!
Oh, drown the fenfe of prefent woe!

Oh, fave me from reality!" P. 81.

This is a picture, truly poetical, of a mind fixed chiefly on worldly profpects and joys; but we truft that the fair author has other and better hopes, views, and fupports, at thofe moments when poetry gives way to the true and only confoling profpects of religion. The picture is melancholy in all af pects, but dreadful if not thus duly enlightened.

The following Song, attributed to a Mifs C, has ftill more pathos, and more juftness of sentiment.

"The tears I fhed must ever fall,

I mourn not for an absent swain,
For thoughts may paft delights recall,
And parted lovers meet again.

I

weep not for the filent dead,

Their toils are paft, their forrows o'er;
And those they lov'd their fteps fhall tread,
And death fhall join to part no more.

Her's are the pangs of wounded pride,
Of blafted hope, of wither'd joys
The flattering veil is rent aside,

The flame of Love burns to deftroy.

4.

In vain does Memory renew

The hours once ting'd in tranfport's dye;
The fad reverfe foon tarts to view,
And turns the past to agony.
Ev'n Time itself despairs to cure
Thofe pangs to ev'ry feeling due;
Ungenerous youth! thy boaft how poor!
To win a heart-and break it too.

5.

No cold approach, no alter'd mein,
Juft what would make Sufpicion start,
No paufe the dire extremes between;
He made me bleft, and broke my heart.
From Hope, the wretched's anchor, torn,
Neglected, and neglecting all,
Friendlefs, forfaken, and forlorn,

The tears I fhed muft ever fall." P. 120.

of

Among the best of the Poems in this collection, but too long to be extracted, is the laft, by Mr. T. Smyth; by whom there are feveral others of great beauty. Mr. Fox alfo fhines with much luftre as a poet, in one or two inftances. But it is with concern that we fee, in this good company, a Song or two, marked with the initial R. high merit certainly, in point of poetry, but of most mischievous tendency, at the time when they were produced. The first," From the Vine-cover'd hills," p. 25, was received and confidered as the ça ira, or Marfeillois Hymn, of Britain, and was doubtless expected by many to produce an equal effect. But the quiet good fenfe" of Britain prevailed, and the Hymn has become harmlefs, indeed, as to political influence; but remains a fhameful memorial of the frantic wildness of a particular party, at that period; and a ftill more fhameful infult upon the memory of Mr. Burke, every one of whofe predictions, cenfured in it, has been more than juftified by events. That the writer himself fhould not now be ashamed of having ridiculed that great man, for effufions which time has shown to be the voice of true wifdom, or of having called his admirers" pedants and fools," whofe better understanding

* Better, furely, "wretch's anchor." Rev.

They follow a Poem by Mr. Roscoe, and are ufually attributed to him. He has feveral pieces of much merit in this volume.

has fince been proved to demonstration, is fufficiently strange; but, if he feels not thofe things, his friends thould feel them for him; and not force into notice what would with much more kindness and propriety be configned to oblivion.

We have little more, that is particular, to remark on the collection; a few trifling errors, fuch as Aicon and Lionella, for Acon and Leonilla, in the tranflated Epigram, p. 92; rest for left. p. 56; idem for eadem, a few times in the Table of Contents, &c. are not of much confequence. The Directions to the Porter," in p. 129, are from the French, which might have been mentioned. The book is elegantly printed, and in all refpects attractive.

ART. V. Subftance of the Speech of the Right Honourable Sir William Scott, delivered in the House of Commons, Wednesday, April 7, 1802, upon a Motion for Leave to bring in a Bill relative to the Non-Refidence of the Clergy, and other Affairs of the Church. 8vo. 58 pp. White, &c. 1802.

UR attention, and that of our readers, has been drawn, by feveral able pamphlets, to the fubject of the laws refpecting clerical refidence; but we have now before us, that which is of much more confequence than any private fpeculations, the mature and declared opinion of the able man who has undertaken the patriotic tafk of propofing to the legislature, fuch regulations as the prefent times require. The present tract profeffes to contain the Subftance of the Speech, in which Sir William Scott explained to the Houfe of Commons, the confiderations and the principles on which he had founded the Bill which he then propofed to bring into Parliament. We shall take for granted, that the Speech is here accurately reprefented, as to its fubftance and arguments, and thall therefore analyse it with the utmost care, that we may, as clearly as poffible, convey its true intentions to our readers.

But before we enter upon this analysis, we must pause to congratulate the public on having fuch a bulinefs entrusted to fuch hands. To a man matured in the education of Oxford, diftinguished as a fcholar in that noble Univerfity, where he first difplayed those talents, and that character, which have secured to him the honourable diftinétion of being her reprefentative. To a man at the head of the civil law, and called to the councils of his Sovereign; deeply verfed in the knowledge of our ecclefiaftical conftitution, and qualified by wisdom and experience