All beat by wint'ry wind, or solar ray, No certain danger can their breasts control, i : Having described the blessings of peace, the poet thus adverts to the great cause of the war. "Oh! had those halcyon days from year to year, An An animated description of the Battle of the First of June is next given; and a note respecting fome circumstances of it ought to be preferved as an historical document. "The merits of this victory will always be appreciated from the obstinate resistance of the enemy. The fleets may be faid to have been equal in force, as near as the number of ships in each can be reckoned: the French had most ships of the line; but the English had more threedeckers. But, on the evening of the 29th of May, three fail, difabled, left the enemy's fleet; and, by great good luck, they were joined, before the action of the First of June, by three others. "The French fleet was commanded by officers, who, in the lan. guage of Jacobinifm, were faid to be of tried tivism; the feamen were a chofen body, and ali enthusiasts in the new order of things. A Commiffioner of the Convention was, moreover, embarked on board the Montague; partly with a view to harangue the seamen, as had been fo fuccefstully done in the army; and alfo to watch the conduct of the Admiral. The French certainly exceeded their ufual naval bravery; but British valour never appeared greater. In a general action there never was so much done in so short a fpace; for two English and seven French ships were totally dismasted in four hours. Some of the French ships are reported to have had furnaces on board for heating shot; but they were, probably, never lighted. The French Captains, on leaving Breit, are faid to have taken an oath never to strike their colours; but their confciences were left pretty eafy on that fcore, for the English thot faved them the trouble. "The following note is taken from the second volume of the author's work on the Difeafes of the Fleet. As we may not again have occafion to mention the Victory of the Firt of June, we must beg leave to contradict the statement of fome occurrences on that day, relative to the sinking of the Vengeur... It was faid that the Frenchmen who went down in that ship, as long as their heads were above Vater, continued to cry aloud Vive la Republique!'-and with this expreffion in their mouths funk to the bottom. Somehow or other this account got into the English papers, and foon reached France. But the whole is a falfehood; and I have it from the authority of the British officers who attended to fave the people, and saw the dismal catastrophe. The feene presented a very different fpectacle, "all was horror and dismay; and no fuch words were ever uttered. Barrere, in the Convention, made a fine text of the report, in expatiating on the Naval Victory of his redoubtable friend Jean Bon St. Andre. Votive tablets were immediately decreed to the manes of the fufferers; and a three-decker ordered to be built, and called Le Vengeur. [Vide Med. Nautica, v. ii. r. 19.: Longman and Rees,"] NOVELS 59 NOVELS AND TALES. Adelaide of Narbonne : With Memoirs of Charlotte de Cordet. 4 vols. 12mo. Lane. London. 1800. It T has has long been the practice among novel writers to twine fome fanciful invention with hiftorical facts, and produce from this connection a story of greater interest. The author of this book has availed herself (for we fomehow imagine it to be the production of a female) of this custom, and with no little ingenuity has worked fiction and fact together, laying her scene on the tangent line of La Vendée, introducing many well-known characters of the French, making their propenfities and actions subservient to her well-told tale. She holds the scale of politics with fo even an hand, as far as mere opinion reaches, that it were impossible to learn her own decided sentiments; while she execrates the fanguinary horrors of a Revolution and all the miseries of republican France. For in her delineation of Charlotte de Cordet, she describes her as a repub lican but a rational one;' and in her character of an Englishman she draws him " as a rational royalist." By the way, those who seem to have known that heroine well, do not confider her to have been a republican. As her scene is in the neighbourhood of La Vendée, the time is that of Marat; many of the numerous anecdotes, related about him and his contemporaries, are interspersed so artfully as to become part of her ftory. While her sentiments on the form of government are undiscoverable, those of obedience to the laws of strict moralityof pure religion--are every where fuch as do credit to her heart; and her work may be confidered not less instructive than amusing. Rofella. 4 vols. 12mo. Lane, London. 1800. THIS novel upon novels, ridicules, with elegant satire and delicate irony, the impossible events, unnatural incidents, and indecorous fituations of contemporary writers. A mother who had herself loved and married a-la-mode d'Heroine loses her husband in early life; but not cured of the circulating-library mania looks forward to fee her daughter " puzzled in the mazes and perplexed with the errors" which had so agreeably tortured the Hermiones, Jaquilinas, Geraldinas, Philippinas, Gipsey Duchesses, and beggar, girls of the day. For this purpose she takes her daughter, an unaffected and unconscious girl, á tour into Wales, that castle-bearing country; expecting in every dingle fome hair-breadth eadth Icape, at every inn fome surprising incident, and in every man fome libertine adorer, or prosing swain. The story is so artfully managed, we feel uncommon intereft for the charming Rosella, and even the mere novel-reading Miss, who fees nothing "in the bent of the tale" beyond the story, will find her heart engaged in it. The The characters are well diversified and nicely drawn; betraying a mind of observation. The very touches of fatire tickle rather than wound the feelings of those writers who have deviated beyond nature and propriety. Constantia Neville: or, The West Indian. A Novel. By Helena Wells, Author of the Stepmother, &c. 3 Vols, 125. Cadell and Davies. London. Crouch. Edinburgh. 1800. WE most heartily deprecate the resentment of the fair author of this admirable work, for the neglect we have unintentionally been guilty of towards her. Our best apology will be found in the real truth, namely, that had we perceived in it the smallest traits of those opinions, which it is our duty to reprobate, it would much fooner have been held forth to the world in its proper point of view. A novel, which by its own intrinfic merits hath so well made its way to public estimation, stands not in need of our commendation. We cannot however avoid, for our own fakes, declaring, that as moralists, we recommend it for the purity and soundness of its prin ciples; and as friends to the religion of our country, for that piety and Christian humility, which it so strongly inculcates. We envy not the powers of that understanding, nor the qualities of that heart which are not enlarged and amended by the perusal of this publication. THE DRAMA. Life. A Comedy in Five Afts. By Frederick Reynolds, Efq. 25. Longman and Rees. London. 1800. T 'HERE would be a degree of cruelty in trying the efforts of Mr. Reynolds's Muse by the severe laws of criticism. All his dramatic productions have been written on the immediate folly of the moment; his characters sketched from the fleeting fashion and adapted to fome peculiar performer. His language though not wit is fomething like it; and his aim has been to raise a temporary laugh. The present drama is, perhaps, the nearest to a regular comedy of any he has written; but it was intended for the stage rather than the closet, where it has had fufficient success; and may be compared to bottled cyder, very lively, very palatable, very refreshing, and not very ftrong. The Birth-Day: A Comedy in Three Acts. Altered from the German of Kotzbue, and adapted to the English Stage. By Thomas Dibdin, Author of the Jew and the Doctor, &c. Longman and Rees. London. 1800. THIS comedy is altered from "Reconciliation," a work of Kotzbue's, and, in our opinion, infinitely furpasses the original; it is, in short, one of the most interesting little pieces we have lately perused, and fully merits all the success it has received. Antonio: or, The Soldier's Return. THIS tragedy, which was anonymously played at Drury-lane, and completely coughed down on its only representation, is now published as the acknowledged production of the well-known Mr. Godwin. He has added a short preface to it, stating it to be his first attempt in the dramatic line, and recommending it to a perufal in the closet. Nothing but the vanity or the poverty of its author could have induced such a publication, after the unequivocal marks of contempt with which an unbiassed audience decided upon its merits. The plot, if it can be called one, when it wants every requifite, is beneath the rudest epoch of the stage. The language wants energy, variety, and metre, except a few new-coined words can be called variety. It is totally destitute of incident, unless we call an unprovoked murder incident; nor is there any thing in the whole composition to excite a momentary interest: it is printed as if intended to be metrical; but there is no appearance of meafure, unless he wishes it to be classed under the indefinite scanning of imperfect Iambics, while some of the lines are hexameter. From Mr. Godwin's former productions we looked eagerly for fome new specimens of the new philosophy, nothing lefs could have induced us to read the play through; yet we could find none but what he may foften down, if he pleases, as a sentiment of the character and not his own. When Antonio reproaches his fister with marrying another, after being betrothed to his friend, before her dying father who placed their hands together, he adds " This was a marriage-thou wert Roderigo's wife: So venerable-fo binding-? Adultrefs 1 We feel some regret that this gentleman's abilities are not at all calculated for the stage, because we fancy he would never have applied them that way, if he had not deferted his old wicked ways or they had not deferted him. We could with him to forbear puzzling himtelf and the public with metaphysical difquifitions which neither understand; but fear, from this ill success, that his defultory mind will be again "exerting its energies" in mischief. --fcribimus indocti doftique ว POETRY. |