ART. IV. Carmen Sæculare, pro Gallica Gente tyrannidi Arifto- THIS HIS ode is dedicated to the National Affembly of France; and seems to be the effusion of a mind intimately affected with what should be (we will not venture yet to say what really is) the great object of their deliberations and decifions; we mean, the liberty of the subject, as far as it tends to general happiness. Without entering into a minute criticifm, the poem fpeaks the elegant scholar; but the author appears to be fo heated with his fubject, that, in contemplating the ideal perfection of a government which is yet rudis indigeftaque moles, he seems sometimes to have forgotten that Britain is at present, if we examine the page of hiftory, the best government that has ever exifted. We do not, therefore, cordially approve of the two laft ftanzas in the Carmen Sæculare: 6 Inclyti Heroes Runimedis agri, Qualis, O, vobis ftupor atque fenfus ? En! magis clarum Runimedis agro Mira! nunc Lutetia puriore Gaudet unda, quam Trinobantium urbs ; et The barons would certainly behold with astonishment the levelling fcheme which has taken place in France; but it does not follow that they would, or ought, to confider the French national confederation as fuperior to the affembly at Runnymede. Their efforts laid the foundation of what has been the admiration and aftonishment of modern times, The British Goverment. It cannot yet be determined what will be the complexion of the offspring of the National Affembly. At prefent, therefore, we cannot agree with our author in faying that Paris. enjoys more falutary freedom than London. Nor do we much relifh his advice to imitate the Gallician revolutionists: Albion! Liberos Gallos decet æmulari.' Neither do we think that, in imitating them, we should have, as he fays, much caufe for felf-congratulation: Perhaps, too, it might have been decent, when he held forth the revolution in France in terrorem to kings, Audiant omnes, timeantque reges,' to have made some exception with refpect to our own king, who governs a free people, who form part of the legislature, by ftable and equal laws. poetical and political enthufiafm naturally produce expreffions which do not exactly paint the fituation of the author's mind; and this we doubt not is the case with the writer of the Carmen Sæculare. ART. V. The Metrical Hiftory of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Elkerflie, by Henry, commonly called Blind Harry: carefully tranfcribed from the M. S. Copy of that Work in the Advocates Library, under the Eye of the Earl of Buchan. And now printed for the First Time, according to the Antient and True Orthography. With Notes and Differtations. Small 8vo. 3 vol. Price 6s. iewed. Printed at Perth, by Morifon and Son. Sold in London, by Murray, 1790. PERHAPS no county ever produced another example of fo bold and hardy a warrior, and at the same time a patriot so difinterested, as the hero of this hiftorical poem. The only character that occurs to us, which can with any confiderable degree of fimilitude be compared to Sir William Wallace, is Scanderberg the great. Between these two heroes the resemblance is strongly marked. Both were endowed with prodigious bodily ftrength, both excelled their cotemporaries in all the warlike exercises of their respective age, both were remarkable for patient endurance of hardship and fatigue; the fame boldness of enterprize, the fame promptitude of execution diftinguished the martial atchievements of both, and both were enflamed with the fame mortal hatred to the fpoilers of their country. In heroic valour they were equal; in their life and fate they were nearly alike. Between Scanderberg, however, and the Scottish hero, there is this difference, that the former was the native prince of the country for which he fought, and thus ambition might be the main fpring of his patriotic efforts: but of Sir William Wallace, the fole motive was pure unadulterated patriotism; for he had no pretenfions to the throne, and his conduct clearly proved, that to live or die a freeman, amongst the free, was the fingle object of all his actions and the darling idea of his foul. One would naturally imagine that a nation proud of having produced fo magnanimous a patriot would bring forward, with a degree of pomp and generous exultation, whatever tended to exalt 8 exalt his fame and to illustrate his memory.But no-the cautious Caledonian of the prefent day is much too prudent to introduce, without previous apology, fo obnoxious a character as a Scottish patriot, and thinks it highly neceffary to excufe, to his English brethren, the havoc committed by Sir William Wallace among the invaders of his country. The inextinguishable thirft,' (fays the editor of this work) which Henry gives him, of shedding the blood of the invaders, might please a people in barbarous times; but certainly ought not to have been afcribed to Wallace, whofe mind was too great to defcend to an indifcriminate rage against any people whatever.' If to delight in the deftruction of the invaders and oppreffors of one's native country be a mark of barbarifin, the greatest barbarians on the face of the earth were the Greeks. And the Straits of Thermopyla and the Plains of Marathon, instead of monuments of their glory, fhould be regarded as proofs of their barbarity and rudeness! Perhaps the editor of this metrical history may have embraced the opinion of an author who tells us that the English are better animals than the Scots, for they are nearer the Sun, their blood is richer and more mellow*, and may therefore conclude, that to spill the blood of an Englishman is an act of facrilege for which no provocation can plead in excufe. But either this doctrine of the fuperior richness of English blood was not understood by Sir William Wallace, or perhaps it might tend the more to stimulate his cannibal appetite to deeds of carnage, and was the cause of that unextinguishable thirst of blood of which this polite and tender hearted editor complains fo much. Wallace, however, was no fophift, and seems to have attacked without fcruple the invaders of his country wherever he met them. Sen I off laitt now come out off the weft Quhill chafts and cheyks upon ye gait can fle. Life of Wallace, B. 5. Of Blind Harry, the author of this metrical history, the editor gives the following account. • The date of his book, and confequently the age in which he lived, may be exactly ascertained. In the time of my infancy, says *Bofwell's Tour to the Hebrides. Major, Major, Henry, who was blind from his birth, compofed a book confifting entirely of the atchievements of William Wallace. • Major was born at North Berwick, in Eaft Lothian, in 1446. It was therefore about the year 1446 that Henry wrote, or made public, his entire Hiftory of Wallace. Dempster, who wrote in the beginning of the last century, says that Henry lived in 1361. What Major farther fays of him and his performance is as follows. The particulars which he heard related by the vulgar he wrote in the vulgar verfe, in which he excelled. But I do not believe every thing which I find in thefe writings. by reciting his hiftories before princes or great men he gained his food and raiment, of which he was worthy. Thus we learn from Major, that Henry was a kind of travelling bard. His excurfions must have been confined chiefly to the middle and to the fouth parts of Scotland where the language in which he recited was understood. It was at least fifty-fix years after the death of Wallace, who was put to death in 1505, that Henry was born. But it was not too late for his acquiring, if he had pleafed, the certain knowledge of many things concerning him by tradition which he might put into his book. The actions of Wallace, which had made a deep impreffion on the minds of the people of Scotland, muft have been well remembered in Henry's time, and in their molt material circumftances would be faithfully related. He feems to have confulted with the chief men of the kingdom, efpecially with the defcendants of those patriotic perfons who had been the companions of Wallace. But he disclaims his having wholly depended for information on any unwritten tradition whatever, &c. If his words can be credited, he followed very strictly a book of great authority, and to which he makes frequent references. This was no other than a complete hiftory of Wallace, written in Latin partly by Mr. John Blair, and partly by Mr. John Gray, who had been the companions of Wallace. He gives the following account of thefe authors. They became acquainted with Wallace in his fixteenth year when Mr. John Blair was his fellow ftudent in the fchool of Dundee. Their acquaintance with him continued till his twenty-ninth year, that is till the year his death. of Mr. John Blair went from the fchools in Scotland to Paris," where he ftudied fome time, and received prieft's orders. He returned to Scotland in 1295, and foon after entered into the fervice of Wallace, who was bravely afferting the liberties of his country. • Mr. Thomas Gray, who was parson of Libertoun, joined Wallace at the fame time. They were men of great wifdom and integrity. They were zealous for the freedom of Scotland, and were prefent with Wallace, and affifting to him in most of his military enterprizes. They were alfo I alfo his fpiritual counsellors, and administered to him godly comfort. The hiftory written by thefe two clergymen was attested by William Sinclair, Bishop of Dunkeld, who had himself feen many of Wallace's actions. The bishop, if he had lived longer, was to have fent their bock to Rome for the purpofe of its receiving the fanction of the pope's authority. A lover of history will regret the lofs of a book from which fo much authentic information might have been expected'. Of the merit of this metrical history of Sir William Wallace, Dempfter speaks in the following terms of high panegyric: Henricus quidam, a nativitate cæcus, rara tamen ingenii felicitate, Homerus alter, patriam linguam fupra ætatem fuam ditavit. Scripfit operofum & grande opus, verfu vernaculo, de geftis Gulielmi Wallafii, lib. x.Vivebat anno, 1361.' Thom. Dempft. Hift. Ecclef. Scot. 1. 8. p. 349. Henry, who was blind from his birth, was nevertheless a man of extraordinary genius; or rather he was another Homer who enriched his native language and raised it far above the rudeness of the age in which he lived. He wrote, in vernacular verfe, an elaborate and grand work in ten books of the deeds of William Wallace.' He, however, that fhall look for this other Homer in the writings of Blind Harry will be miferably disappointed. As a hiftory, it poffeffes a confiderable fhare of merit. The adventures are various; the enterprizes perilous and uncommon follow each other with a rapidity that precludes the difguft of fatiety, curiofity is ftill held fufpended, ftill we are interested for the hero, ftill we applaud his exploits, and ftill we favour the juftice of his caufe. With refpect to the language of Blind Harry, it differs from the English dialect of that day principally in a more extensive and frequent use of French words and French phrafeology. The work is beautifully printed upon a writing paper, and reflects credit on the prefs of Mr. Morifon at Perth. The text we believe is accurate, and the notes and differtations are valuable. ART. VI. The Chemical Principles of the Metallic Arts; with an Account of the principal Difeafes incident to the different Artificers; the Means of Prevention and Cure; and a concife Introduction to the Study of Chemistry. By IV, Richardfon, Surgeon, F. S. A. Sc. 8vo. 5s. boards. Birmingham, printed. Baldwin, London. 1790. AS most of the ufeful arts depend on chemistry for their perfection, it may appear furprifing that they fhould be fo fuccefsfully practifed by men who are entirely ignorant of the principles G 4 |