ART. XIV. Letters to a Young Gentleman, on his Setting out for France: Containing a Survey of Paris, and a Review of French Literature; with Rules and Directions for Travellers, and varicus Obervations and Anecdotes relating to the Subject. By John Andrews, L. L. D. 8vo. 63. boards. J. Walter. London. 1784.

TH

HIS performance, though by no means a work of geuius, yet may be of confiderable use to the young traveller. The author has collected a variety of matter within a reasonable compafs: for this both we and the public are obliged to him. He fets out with laying it down as a maxim, that utility, not pleafare, fhould be our object in travelling; that, to obtain this end, we fhould, previous to our quiting our own country, lay in a flock of knowledge, with which our callow travellers are in general totally unfurnished; and that the time neceflary for the acquirement of this proper fund will prevent us from vifiting the continent, till the age of twenty-five, Our letter-writer next goes on, after taking notice of the general appearance of France and Paris, to mention the Parifian Coffee-houses, and the company which frequents them. Comparing these places of rendezvous with thofe of London, he is decidedly of opinion that the coffee-houfe focięty of the French metropolis is infinitely fuperior. He warmly recommends the mixing in that fpecies of fociety, and we think does not fufficiently guard his young friend against the arts of the numerous band of chevaliers d'induftrie, to which he thus expofes him. Indeed we do do not recollect that he has even hinted at the existence of this race, with which the author of this article can aver from his own experience, the coffee-houses of Paris are infefted, Thefe harpies are the more dangerous, efpecially to youth, as their manner is agreeable, fupple and infinuating. Dr. Andrews next recommends an acquaintance with officers of a certain age, with Abbés and the various orders of ecclefiaftics. He then advifes his pupil to study the government and politics of France; and informs him that the French, in general, are much better acquainted with our history than we are with theirs. The French philofophy is the fubject of the next letter. The sketch he gives is flight and imperfect.---Defcartes, Buffon, and the Encyclopedie are mentioned.---The obligations the French philofophers have to our Bacon, Locke, and Sir Ifaac Newton, are paffed over in filence. What he has faid at the conclufion of this letter on the ftate of literature in England and France, appears to be well founded; we fhall give it as a fpecimen of the work.

It is from the consciousness of the motives that lead you abroad, that I expatiate fo largely upon all that relates to literature.

• You

• You will find it, if not in greater request, upon a more agreeable footing in France than among your own countrymen. I do not think, from what I have heard elderly perfons in England exprefs on this fubject, that there is the fame demand for literary talents among our great people as formerly. The rage and violence of parties is a malady attended by many more evil confequences than men are in general aware of. It not only banishes candour from po litical affairs, but it extinguishes the propensity to polite knowledge, and renders individuals infenfible to all other merit than that of being able to affift them in the purfuits of faction.

To this inaufpicious difpofition of the times, is owing the decline of that warmth with which letters were once cultivated; and that indifference for their encouragement, which is become notorious even in the perception of judicious and obfervant foreigners.

Voltaire takes notice fomewhere, that in England on n'écrit gueres que par efprit de parti, little is written but from spirit of party. This ftricture is rather too fevere; but he might have afferted with great truth, that unless a writer knows how to render his pen ferviceable in the caufe of party, he will feldom rife to any confiderable degree of fame and profperity.

I do not by thele reflections mean to imprefs you with a notion, that literary men fhould forfwear the difcuffion of political fubjects: on the contrary, it is fhameful in a gentleman of learning not to be well converfant in fuch matters. What is the purport of education, but to enable men to think, fpeak, and write judiciously on all points of importance, and what is more important than the welfare and intereft of the community at large?

It is not therefore an application to political knowledge that is reprehended; it is the exclufive encouragement given to the zeal and dexterity that are manifested in the caufe of party.

In this unhappy cause it fometimes happens, that a man may render himfelf extremely ferviceable without pofleffing any talents of real utility to the public. Little or no knowledge is required, but of the refpective defigns and circumstances of each party, their fchemes, their manoeuvres, the particularities refpecting their heads and -leaders with all this an individual may be acquainted without any material acquaintance with any thing elfe.

True it is that party writers may be, and often are men of real unqueftionable abilities in a variety of inftances: but still it is not in this light they are brought forward, and meet with fuccefs: it is purely for having laboured in that field, which requires no other talents to cultivate than thofe that are above mentioned.'

In the fix following Letters, which contain a review and examination of French literature, there is nothing excellent. The obfervations bear all the marks of a criticism at fecond hand. Dr. Andrews feems to follow Lord Chefterfield in his admiration of the Henriade, which we fcruple not to pronounce exceffive. As a work of judgment it demands our approbation, but its claims to poetical fuperiority are moderate. We are willing to fuppofe that our author had not read the productions of the younger Crebillon, when

I

he

he mentions him among the novellifts he recommends to his young traveller. There is no author we are acquainted with, either ancient or modern, who has fo unweariedly laboured to excite loofe ideas; and the degree of pre-eminence he has obtained, admits of no rivalihip Surely Dr. Andrews does not imagine, that, at Twenty Five, excitements are neceffary to the commerce of the Sexes But we with not to dwell louger on this fubject, as we confider his infertion of Crebillon as a mere overfight.

The French periodical publications occupy the two fucceeding Letters. Among these is noticed the Journal des Savans, the elder brother of all Reviews now exifting. There is a fund of reflexion and good fenfe in these two Letters.

Letters 21, 22, and 23, give an account of the inftitu-" tions in France in favour of learning, literature, and the fine arts. Of learning and literature he feems to have a competent knowledge, but as to fculpture and painting he ingenuously confeffes his ignorance. It would have been better therefore, had he avoided entering into difcuffions upon the fubject: the blind cannot judge of colours. Yet we find him afterwards, comparing architecture, painting and fculpture, and giving the preference, as a fine art, to the first. This is not a place for entering upon the subject; we can only repeat, the blind cannot judge of colours. With all his want of knowledge in this refpect, his acquaintance with the world, and his good sense, have enabled him to form a very proper eftimate of connoiffeurship; which, for the most part, is nothing more than the fcience of minutiæ, without a conception of the effentials of the art.

To the public libraries are the two following Letters dedicated. There is nothing here, except fome common-place reflexions, that is not to be found in almost every defcription of Paris. We may add to his reflexions our regret, that the fame easy access to libraries is not to be found here as in the capital of France.

From Letter 26 to Letter 31, we have an account of the churches in Paris, and of religious ceremonies. This is ac companied with remarks on a variety of characters, and fome ftrictures on religion in general. He gives the preference, on a comparifon between the churches of London and Paris, to the latter. As to number and internal ornament he is certainly in the right, but he might have obferved with juftice, that they have nothing which can stand in competition with our St. Pauls. His ftri&tures upon the christian religion are not every where juft: among other things, it is by no means true that the fame acrimony now

prevails

prevails among the different fects into which christianity is fplit, as in the darker ages. On the contrary, every one acquainted with history and mankind, is fenfible of a gradual approximation. And though men will always differ upon this, as upon every other fubject, yet they can now carry on their difputes without dooming their adverfaries to deftruction in this world, and to damnation in the next.

An account of the public buildings in and about Paris, of the manufactories, of the walks and gardens, of the change, lotteries, bathing-places and amufements, makes up the contents of the remaining Letters. We fhall give a fhort extract from Letter 43, where the author mentions the combats of wild beafts; to fhew our countrymen that the French fhould look at home, before they reproach us with the rudeness and brutality of our prize fighting.

In order to help out the Concert Spirituel, another place of public amufement has been permitted on high festivals. You will be rather furprised, when I have told you that this place is a bear garden, where dogs, bulls, lions, tygers, bears, and other beasts are baited and worried to death.

This favage paítime is as much frequented as any at Paris, and is exhibited in winter as well as in the mild feafons; which is the more remarkable, as this fcene of blood and carnage paffes in an open area, furrounded by feats which, though covered over head, leave one otherwise expofed to all the inclemencies of weather.

6

Thinking people have often expreft their aftonishment, that fo ferocious a paftime should have been fubftituted in lieu of certainly the more gentle and humane entertainments of the itage. Manners must clearly receive more detriment by indulging in fuch barbarous fights, than by all the fun and laughter, which the jocofest comedy, farce, or pantomime, can poffibly occafion.

You will, I doubt not, rejoice that fo vulgar and base a diverfion is now in England abandoned to the meaneft of the populace, and is not as in France licensed by public authority.

Should you hear the epithets of rude and rough beftowed on the character of your countrymen by the French, which many of them too readily do, I think you cannot answer them better than by informing them, it is not in their power to reproach us with the above barbarities, which have long ago been exploded from the lift of our paftimes".

The concluding Letter is a fort of recapitulation, containing much judicious obfervation; from a perufal of which the British traveller may reap confiderable advantage. From. fome pecularities in the phrafeology, we are led to conclude, that the author has paffed much of his time out of his own country. We could difpenfe with the profufion of ftories and well-known anecdotes, which greatly increafe the fize of this publication; they raife a fufpicion of fomething like folicitude about the bulk of the volume.

ART.

ART. XV. Three Letters to the People of Great Britain, and particularly to those who figned the Addreffes on the late Changes of Adminiftration, and the Diffolution of the Parliament. 8vo. 25. Debrett. 1785.

ALFRED traces the two great component parts of the British conftitution, prerogative on one fide, and the liberty of the people on the other, that is toryism and whigifm, to the contest between the crown and the barons which produced magna charta. On the due balance of prerogative and liberty has the British conftitution been fupported, and when either of them has preponderated, the conftitution has been fhaken, and even, in the opinion of our author, overturned, pro tempore, till by the reftoration of the balance it has recovered and been reftored. Inftances of this he obferves, are to be found in every reign, from the foundation of the conftitution in magna charta, to the prefent hour. Of these he recalls to the memory of his readers only a few, in order to prove that the purity of this conftitution has ever depended, and muft for ever depend, on the critically exact balance of thefe principles; that the profperity of the ftate has ever been the confequence of this ftrict poize, and that, whoever has thrown, or fhall throw too great a weight into either fcale, has been, and will be the greatest enemy to his country."

Before he proceeds to illuftrate the truth of these pofitions, he defines what he underftands by the profperity of a ftate. This, he justly obferves, does not confift in the glory acquired by extenfive conquefts, and brilliant victoTies," but in the greatest portion of happiness to each individual, low as well as high, that the circumstances of huinan nature will admit."

During the wars between the Houfes of York and Lancafter, fometimes the defpotifm of the Prince, and fometines the defpotifm of the nobility, neither of which powers in those days confidered the people, appeared, for a long period, to have fhaken the conftitution afunder; and tyranny, from the one hand or the other, feemed to have established its feat for ever. The bleffings of commerce were heard of no more, England, which under princes who never pushed prerogative far, had feen a fleet of near five thousand ships, had fcarcely one fhip of trade. At that period the members of the House of Commons were attended with no marks of dignity or respect and when this is the cafe, our author does not fail to obferve, "when the House of Commons finks, and is trampled upon by haughty prerogative, com

merce