A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF SUCH AS ARE OF LESS CONSE. QUENCE, WITH SHORT CHARACTERS; NOTICES, OR REVIEWS OF VALUABLE FOREIGN BOOKS; AND THE LITERARY INTELLIGENCE OF EUROPE, &c. "At hæc omnia ita tractari præcipimus, ut non, Criticorum more, in laude et VOL. VIII. FROM SEPTEMBER, TO DECEMBER INCLUSIVE, 1790. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, NO. 72, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, M DCC XC. ANALYTICAL REVIEW, For SEPTEMBER, 1790. ! ART. I. The History of France from the first Establishment of that Monarchy to the present Revolution. In Three Volumes. 8vo. 1458 pages. Price 18s. in boards. Kearsley. 1790. BEFORE the appearance of this publication a confiderable link was wanting, to general readers, and especially to young perfons, in the great chain of history. In the English language there was no history of France which a modern reader could peruse with fatisfaction. The public are therefore certainly obliged to the anonymous author of this production, for affording them information which was not easy to be obtained by the majority of readers; and the publication is peculiarly feafonable at this period, when the affairs of France are so much the subject of general conversation. The first pages of this history are occupied by a brief, but perfpicuous detail of the origin and enterprises of the Franks, previous to the reign of Clovis. The conquests of that monarch, who was originally a petty chief of a tribe of Franks, and his converfion to chriftianity are next recounted. By the united efforts of valour and policy, Clovis, it is well known, poffefied himself by degrees of the whole of the northern part of Gaul, which had been divided among the Visigoths, Alemanni, and other barbarian invaders. The Visigoths, with Alaric at their head, were unable to withstand the force and ability of the victorious Frank, but his progress was stopped by Theodoric, king of the Astrogoths. Clovis, however, in these wars, added Aquitain, from the Pyrenees to the Loire, to his former acquifitions. His career was crowned by the honour of being appointed conful of Rome; in the last year of his reign he reformed and published the famous Salic laws; and in 511 he died at Paris, in the 45th year of his age, and 30th of his reign. The character of Clovis is worthy of an extract: VOL. 1. p. 16. VOL. VIII. N° I. B • Among Among his contemporaries, the valour and victories of Clovis certainly allowed him to claim the foremost rank; but his valour was stained with cruelty, and his victories obscured by injustice. In the invasion of the Burgundians and Visigoths, the most partial historians have described him as the aggreffor; and though in the battle of Tolbiac his fword was drawn against the Alemanni in the defence of his ally and kinsman Sigebert, yet he foon after hefitated not to fecure his throne by the death of that very ally in whose cause he had triumphed. His ruling paffion was to render himself abfolute monarch of all Gaul; and he may be confidered as more fortunate in the execution of his defigns than justifiable in the means he employed. In private life, after his converfion to christianity, he was chaste and temperate; nor does it appear that the husband of Clotilda ever violated the purity of the marriage-bed.' On the death of Clovis, the kingdom was divided among his fons, who soon after made a conquest of Burgundy, and overwhelmed the kingdom of the Visigoths. For a feries of years France continued divided into several distinct states; and the government of the Merovingian princes was cast into shade by the growing authority of their principal servants, the mayors of the palaces. Among these we discover the Carlovingian race rifing gradully into power, under the adminiftration of Pepin; and under that of his natural fon Charles Martel, it grew to such an enormous height, that he was enabled, without sheltering himself under a shadow of royalty, to affume to himself the whole power of the Franks. The son of Charles, Pepin the Short, by his valour, conduct, and his artful negociations with the court of Rome, added to his father's power, the title of king; and Childeric, the laft of the Merovingian race, was shaved, and immured for life in a monastery. The acceffion of Charlemagne to the imperial throne is next related with brevity and spirit. The feeble and turbulent reign of Lewis the Meek, or gentle, concludes the second chapter. A new division of the government took place on the death of Lewis the Meek, and the empire of Germany was separated from the kingdom of France. The remainder of this chapter contains the feeble reigns of the Carlovingian race, and among the most remarkable facts during this period, we difcern the rife and establishment of the dukes of Normandy. The family of Charlemagne was extinguished in the perfon of Lewis the vth, and the crown was transferred to the famous Hugh Capet. The eight following chapters are occupied by the actions of the immediate fucceffors of Hugh Capet; and the 12th opens with the acceffion of the family of Valois. The wars which ensued between this family, and our Edward III, are well known to most of the readers of English history, and are defailed in the two fucceeding chapters. In the 15th, the state of France, previous to the invasion of Henry v. of England, is |