This, though not an extraordinary good line, has something like sense. to recommend it. As the rejected line appears in all the old copies, it certainly was written by Shakspeare, so I shall follow the custom of commentators, and give my conjecture concerning it.

The river Avon is remarkable for its silver eels and golden tench; and as Shakspeare drew all his images from nature, we may reasonably suppose, that these two natural objects made a strong impression upon his fancy, and might be the fountain from which he drew

• His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood.'

Dr. Faustus, who is one of my best-dressed dramatic characters, and whom I consult upon all learned occasions, expresses great surprise that Dr. Johnson should have permitted this line to stand in his edition of Macbeth; and the more so, as he could not but apply to it a certain line in Horace;

"Insigne, recens, adhuc indictum ore alio."

From this specimen of my learned puppet's erudition, the reader may be desirous of knowing something concerning him. He was educated at one of our universities, where he drank much and read little; and after a residence of four years, he quitted his college, with nearly as much learning as he brought into it.

H. R.'

We observe another reading, at p. 57, on a much disputed passage, which we cannot adopt: the Lilliputian Manager reads,

"We have storch'd the snake, not killed it;"

and he adds the following note:

"We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it,

She'll close, and be herself. Johnson. Steevens. Malone. "We have scorch'd the snake, not kill'd it,

She'll close and be herself

First folio.

• The old editions have "scorch'd," but almost all the commentators have changed the word into "scotch'd," upon the supposition that there was a nearer connection between "scotching" and "closing," than between "scorching" and "closing." My Prompter, who is a north-country man, says that there is no such word as "scotch'd." It is "scutch'd," a word chiefly used by the growers and manufac turers of hemp and flax, and implies beating, bruising, or dividing. The wooden-headed fellow of my company who plays the clown, says, that snakes are soon killed by lashing them with switches, and that by smart strokes their bodies may be divided. This has induced some of the gentlemen of my green-room to adopt,

We have switch'd the snake, not kill'd it,

She'll close, and be herself.

The stuffed figure of my company who plays the Serpent in "The History of Adam and Eve," has suggested a reading that is more conformable to natural history.

• We have bruis'd the snake, not kill'd it,

She'll coil, and be herself.

My Prompter wishes the original text to be continued, only substi

tuting "coil" for "close ;" and this he calls a good emendation. I have accordingly adopted it.

After all, I do not consider Shakspeare as under any obligation to his scotching, scutching, bruising and switching commentators. H. R. Shakspeare's original word was undoubtedly scutch'd; which, in some of the northern counties, means a smart but slight stroke with a whip, or flexible rod, sufficient to stun the reptile, but not to destroy it. The word bruis'd, suggested by Mr. Rowe's old Serpent, has no more relation to Shakspeare's idea, than to the operation of a cat o' nine tails.

Several other remarks of this kind occur to us: but, as Shakspeare affords an endless field for conjecture, we forbear to specify them.

On the whole, we have been tolerably amused by the criticisms of our modern Thespis; and, if we do not always agree with him, we can only use the old adage as our apology;

Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius."

POLITICAL, &c.

Art. 38. A Complete State of the British Revenue for the Year ending on the 5th Day of January 1799: being an authentic Copy of the several official Accounts presented to the House of Commons, placed under the following Heads: Public Income. Public Expenditure. Public Funded Debt, and Reduction of the same. Unfunded Debt, and outstanding Demands. Exports and Imports. Arrears and Balances of Public Accountants. Account of the Hereditary and Temporary Revenues of the Crown, and of the Civil-List Grants. An Account of the Revenues which would have been applicable to the Civil List, had they been re served by his present Majesty, of the Amount of the Annuity reserved by his Majesty in lieu of those Revenues, and of the Difference to the Public. And an Account of the Expenditure of the Money granted for the Service of the Year 1798. 8vo. 63. sewed. Debrett.

Those whose attention to public affairs leads them to inquiries respecting the subjects above enumerated, and who wish to form cor. rect estimates in political discussions, will find abundance of inform ation in the tabular pages of this important compilement: the authenticity and accuracy of which cannot, we suppose, be questioned. Art. 39. Examen de la Conduite des Puissances de L'Europe, &c. i. e. An Examination of the Conduct of the European Powers since the Commencement of the French Revolution, and of the natural Consequences by which that Event must be followed. By a Member of the Germanic Body, 8vo. 2s. 6d. Sold in London by Richardson.

The unknown author of this tract appears to possess a very con siderable portion of political science, united with the most profound hatred of French power and principles. The mere mention of a republic seems sometimes to sicken him, and sometimes to rouse him to indignation; and, in adverting to the short duration of the republic formed by the Belgic states on their revolt against Joseph II.

which died within a year of its birth, he expresses most devoutly his wish that all the republics which have budded forth, towards the end of this century, had shared the same fate.'

Influenced by this sentiment, he endeavours to persuade the European Powers, to whom this work is addressed, that the destructive progress of French arms is a natural consequence of the apathy manifested by them at the commencement of the revolution, and of their want of union and energy, when at length the insolence and crimes of the republic compelled them to arm in their own defence; and that nothing but a firm coalition of the states of Europe against France, and a vigorous exertion of their whole strength, can save them from falling individually and successively before that gigantic and unprincipled power.

The work is divided into eight chapters. In the first, the writer applies himself to the German empire, and enters into a minute and able detail of the errors which that body has committed in the management of the war, from the first entrance of General Custine into Germany; in the neutrality of several of the states, their refusal to furnish contingents, and their agreeing to a line of demarcation; in the pusillanimity shewn at Rastadt; in the defection of Prussia; in the want of concord in the military operations of the allies'; in their inaction in Italy, while they made war in the Low Countries; in the waste of time at Valenciennes, and afterward in the easy terms granted to the garrison; and in the treaty of Leoben and that of Campo Formio. All these and a variety of other points are here tonched with an able hand.-Of the conduct of Prussia, he speaks with peculiar disapprobation; and he reprobates, as the extreme of impolicy, its neutrality towards France while that power overran Holland: which, by treaty, by policy, and by ties of blood, the Prussians were bound to defend.

In the second chapter, treating of the states of the North of Europe, the writer panegyrizes the conduct of Paul I. and cautions the allies against entertaining the idea that the system of this prince is founded on views of self-aggrandizement, to result from a new partition of Germany. Sweden he labours to persuade to enter into the coalition, from a view of the danger of its commerce should France succeed against England; and Denmark, the most absolute government at present in Europe, he thinks, cannot hope to be spared if the republic should triumph.

In his third chapter, though he allows Great Britain full credit for her energy in the cause, he does not admit that she has been free from military and political errors. He charges her with having dissuaded Prussia from entering France in the year 1792: he considers the attack of Dunkirk as having been in the highest degree impolitic, and undertaken at a time when an attempt should have been made at striking some decisive blow; and he accuses her of negli gence in Toulon, of having neglected Holland in 1794 and 1795, and of devoting the remains of the French marine officers to destruction, in what he deems the half-calculated and ill-appointed expedition to Quiberon, which should have been supported by a diversion on the coasts of Holland. Roused at length by the insolence of the Di

rectory,

rectory, and by her exclusion from the Congress of Rastadt, he admits that we have at last displayed our true character, and shewn ourselves worthy of our former fame.

The subsequent chapters treat of the conduct of Holland and Belgium, Spain and Portugal, Switzerland and Italy, and Turkey and Poland. They display a very extensive knowlege of the interests of those respective powers, of the conduct which they have pursued, and of the principles which have actuated them in the course of the war. They manifest sagacity and talent, but they betray an exasperated, partial, and intemperate spirit; particularly the concluding chapter; in which we find, summed up in one apostrophe, the moral of the piece: "Yes, sovereigns and nations; You or the French Republic must perish!”

We cannot take leave of this work without translating the following curious parallel between the monarchic and modern republican systems of government:

The antient governments, under which Europe has risen to the highest pitch of glory and happiness of which history has left us a description, rest on a tacit contract between the sovereign and the people; and the Supreme Being, to whom each party appeals to sanction and to guarantee this sacred compact, seems to communicate to it his own immutability. An unison between the policy and the religion of the state gives to the social edifice the solidity of an august temple; and the security of property is the natural result of the permanence of the government, whose interest it is to protect and preserve the possessions of its subjects. Under these, man may attain the highest degree of honour and of fortune: but the paths which conduct him thither are economy, labour, science, talents, and above all, patience :-paths which are indeed long and difficult.

The representative system, on the contrary, establishing as a principle that the multitude is the supreme arbiter of the nature and the form of the government, and is not necessarily connected with nor bound to it, renders its form and its existence precarious. Gover nors and magistrates are thus but the slaves of the blind multitude. They therefore apply themselves to corrupt and flatter it, and soon learn to consider it as their most cruel enemy. Immediately, they begin to precipitate their people into the most absurd and dangerous enterprizes. If fortune favours these, they breathe as long as brilliant success attends their efforts :-if divine justice, or the wrath of irritated nations, sweep them from the face of the carth, their governors still triumph, and smile when they see the heads of their enemies fall by thousands. Such a government has no other allies than war and pestilence. Without power to protect itself, how should it be able to cause the property of others to be respected? Under the unsteady sceptre of such a government, life to the good is a punishment, and to the wicked only a short passage, not worth the care of regulating. The bold intriguer ascends with rapid step towards fortune and honours: but, when he has gained the summit, he is hurled down by some still bolder adventurer who has trodden in his footsteps.'

This tract was written, as we are told, in the beginning of the year 1798. The reader of it will regret that its observations, in

many

many instances, relate to a state of things which has since that time been materially changed.

Art. 40. Substance of the Speech of His R. H. the Duke of Clarence, in the House of Lords, on the Motion for the Recommitment of the Slave Trade Limitation Bill, 5th July 1799: published at the Request of the West India Merchants and Planters, and the Mercantile Interest of Liverpool. 8vo. 2s. Rivingtons.

This speech does considerable credit to the industry and research of the royal orator. The Duke of Clarence appears very sincerely to have opposed the total abolition of the slave trade, and adduces several arguments to prove that the traffic is carried on by the British merchants with more attention to the comfort of the slaves, than is paid by those of any other country engaged in it ;-and that, while the Africans continue in their present state of gross barbarity, the abolition of the trade for slaves could not promote the cause of humanity, while it would materially injure the West India merchant and planter; who, on the faith of Parliament pledged to secure to them a right of importing LABOURERS from Africa, have at present engaged in West India plantation a capital of above 80,000,000 1.

That the negroe slave is better treated by the British merchants and planters, than by those of other countries, is very probable: but that they do not enjoy such a degree of comfort, as we should wish that creatures sharing in human form should enjoy, seems to be fully proved by a fact admitted by his Royal Highness, viz.-the continued necessity of annually supplying, by fresh imports, the deficiency of their propagation. Nothing but an extreme degree of suffering could counteract the first and strongest impulses of nature; and not only prevent the increase but cause an uniform diminution of the species.

Art. 41. The Terms of all the Loans which have been raised for the Public Service during the last fifty Years -with an Introductory Account of the principal Loans prior to that Period, and Observations on the Rate of Interest paid for the Money borrowed. By J. J. Grellier. 8vo. Is. Johnson, &c. 1799.

The title of this pamphlet fully discloses the nature of its con tents. To these who study the history of finance, it will afford interesting information; and even with a view to the general history of the empire, it is not without its use. On perusal of it, the reader will probably be struck with the enormity of the sums which have annually been borrowed since the commencement of the present war. They appear conspicuously prominent in the following abstract of the loans since 1750, which we collect from the work.