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Mr. Atwood juftly observes, feem to have been adopted for the purpose of avoiding the difficulties which occur in folving moft cafes in practical mechanics; for if the effects of forces could be truly eftimated by a measure, confifting of the quantity of matter moved and any power of the velocities, there could be no occafion to confider the variation of the forces of acceleration or resistance, fince the ultimate effects produced would be known, without further investi gation, from the due application of the hypothefes.

In the tenth and laft fection, the principles of rotation in free space are deduced from those which our author has demonftrated in the fixth fection, concerning the rotation of bodies round fixed axis.

The confined limits of our review, prevent us from' giving any extracts from this ingenious publication. We will venture to recommend it, however, to our philofophical readers, as a work well worthy of their attention and regard.

ART. IV. Firft Principles of Philofophy, and their Application to the Subjects of Tafe, Science, and Hiftory. By John Bruce, A. M. Profeffor of Philofophy in the Univerfity, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Third Edition. 12mo. Edinburgh, Creech. London, Cadell.

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UR Author having obferved the imperfection of the art of logic, comparatively with other branches of knowledge, and that the treatises on this fubject are usually commentaries on the fyftems of antient philofophers, or detached difquifitions into metaphyfics and criticism, was induced to find out a remedy to a defect that appeared to him to be grofs and illiberal. Accordingly, he confiders logic as the comprehenfive fcience which explains the method of difcovering and applying the laws of Nature. The fubject in his opinion, divides itself into two branches. Under the one branch, he treats the natural history of the faculties of the human mind; the method of applying them for the purposes of discovery; and the foundation of the sciences, with the evidence which establishes the laws of Nature, and renders them rules in the arts. Under the other branch, the Author applies the first principles of philofophy to the fubjects of tafte, fcience, and history.

The prefent volume contains only heads or difquifitions, which are meant to affift the attention of the Author's pupils: It is not, therefore, our business to exert any anxious care in its examination. It is our duty, notwithstanding, to ob serve, that it affords a flattering promife of his prelections.

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He aims at originality of thinking; and this is a great praise to any member of an Univerfity. For, in general, the learned fraternity of profeffors are the laft to adopt the rifing improvements of the times, or to deviate from the paths of confecrated error. It would feem that they were intended to embalm the follies of the age that preceded them.

With the heads of our Author's lectures on taste and criticifm, we are particularly pleafed. His ideas appear to follow in a train; and if we may be allowed to judge from his divifions and definitions, his rhetorical fyftem muft poffefs that ripenefs of inveftigation, and that fpirit of philofophy, which we in vain fought for in the lately published Lectures of Dr. Blair. In an age fo luxurious in literature as the prefent, it is a pain to us to remark, that books are too often fent into the world, without adding to .information. Original writers are not common in any age; when they show themselves, neither fashion, nor caprice, nor party can opprefs them. If the lectures of our Author correfpond with his pro fpectus, we have not any doubt, but that he will establish the point that he belongs to the clafs of writers who think for themselves; and not to that order of Authors, who fancy themselves immortal when they adopt the inventions, and fteal the fentiments of other men.

ART. V. The Hiftory of Scotland, from the eflablishment of the Reformation till the Death of Queen Mary. To which are annexed Obfervations concerning the Public Law and the Conftitution of Scotland. By Gilbert Stuart, Doctor of Laws, and Member of the Society of Antiquarians at Edinburgh. In Two Volumes. 2d Edition. 8vo. 12s. boards. Murray.

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Tis with particular pleasure that we attend this hiftorian, in his candid and liberal reprefentations of thofe parts of Mary's conduct which have been fo grofsly distorted hitherto. And we are happy to fee a woman and a queen,a worthy woman and a refpectable queen, after two centuries of obloquy, rifing bright at last under the hands of impartial history.

In vol. 1. 355. Dr. Stuart enters thoroughly into the nature of the Famous Letters. He difcuffes the fubject with great judicioufnefs and vigour. And we fhall therefore exhibit part of his account.

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The xx. day of June June MDIXVII. is fixed as the era of the difcovery of the letters. If this difcovery had been real, the triumph of the enemies of the Queen would have been infinite. They would

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not have delayed one moment to proclam their joy, and to reveal to her indignant fubjects, the fulness and the infamy of her guilt. They preferved, however, a long and profound filence. It was not till the iv. day of December MDLXVII. that the papers receceived their first mark of notice or diftinction. From the xx. day of June to the Iv. day of December many tranfactions and events of the highest importance had taken place; and the most powerful motives that have influence with men had called upon them to publish their discovery. They yet made no production of the papers, and ventured not to appeal to them. In the proclamation which they iffued for apprehending Bothwel, they inveigh against his guilt, and exprefs an anxious defire to punifh the regicides; yet though this deed was pofterior to the xx. day of June, there is no affertion in it to the difhonour of the Queen; and it contains no mention of the box and the letters. An ambassador arrived from France in this interval, to inquire into their rebellion, and the imprisonment of the Queen; yet they apologized not for their conduct by communicating to him the contents of the casket. Sir Nicholas Throgmorton was fent to Scotland by Elizabeth with inftructions to act with Mary as well as with her adverfaries. They denied him the liberty of waiting upon her at Lochlevin where he was detained a close prifo ner; and they were earnest to imprefs him with the idea that her love of Bothwel was incurable. He preffed them on the fubject of their behaviour to her. At different times they attempted formally to vindicate themfelves; and they were uniformly vehement on the topic of the love which the bore to that nobleman. There could not poffibly, therefore, have been a happier period for a display of the box and the letters. They yet abstained from producing them to him. They were folicitious to divide the faction of the nobles for the Queen; and there could not have been a measure so effectual for this end as thefe vouchers; yet they called no convention of her friends to furprize and difunite them with this fatal difcovery. They flattered the proteftant clergy, attended the affemblies of she church, and employed arts to inflame them against the Queen; but they ventured not to excite the fury of these ghoftly fathers, by exhibiting to them the box and the letters. They compelled the Queen to fubfcribe a refignation of her crown; and they had the strongest reafons to be folicitous to justify this daring tranfaction. The box and the letters would have ferved as a complete vindication of them; yet they neglected to take any notice of thefe important vouchers ;' and were contented with refting on the wild and frivolous pretence that the Queen from fickness and fatigue was difgufted with the care of her kingdom. In fine, when the Earl of Murray went to Lochlevin to pay his very remarkable vifit to the Queen, and proceeded to extremities the most rude, indecent, and cruel, he did not reproach her with the box and the letters. Yet, if thefe papers had been real, it is incredible to conceive that he would have abstained from preffing them upon her. For it was his purpose to overwhelm her with diftrefs. It was not long after this vifit that he accepted the Regency, and completed his ufurpation of the government. The conclufion to be drawn from this enumeration of concurring particu

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• When the adverfaries of the Queen had atchieved the overthrow of Bothwell, and had thrown her into the prifon of Lochlevin, they had occafion to fear her return to popularity, and her deliverance from confinement. They were not abfolutely certain that Elizabeth would refufe to take the part of the Queen; and they had apprehenfions from the interpofition of France. They accordingly held confulations about the method the moft efficacious for their fecurity and protection. When the Earl of Murray affumed the Regency, it was abfolutely necefiary that they fhould come forward with their vindication; and from their being poffeffed of the power of government, they could manage their vindication to the greater advantage. Accordingly in this critical period they in reality made their defence. In a privy council aflembled by the Earl of Murray upon the iv. day of December. MDLXVII. An inquiry was concluded, which had been agitated for fome days, and of which it was the object to examine into the conduct of the Lords Barons, and gentlemen who had acted against the Queen. This was in fact an investigation made by them elves into their own behaviour and actions, The event was as favourable as might be expected. They pronounced, that from the time of the murder of the King, till the period of their deliberations, they had acted as faithful and true fubjects; and that every extremity to which they had proceeded against the Queen, had its fource in her own misconduct. They affirmed that he was a party with the Earl of Bothwel in the King's murder, and that this murder had been committed with a view to their marriage. To fupport this conclufion, they appealed to the letters which the had written to him; and they mentioned them as the chief and juftifying causes of their rebellion. It appears not, however, that the letters were read in this council, or examined in it; but it may be concluded at least, that they were now actually in exiftency. Upon the Iv.day then of December, MDLXVII. the letters received their first mark of dif tinction.

In the act of this fingular privy council it is obfervable, that the enemie's of the Queen impute to the letters their knowledge of her guilt, and point to them as the fource or fpring of their rebellion. Now, according to their own account, the letters were not disco vered till the xx. day of June. Yet there is nothing more certain than that they were in arms, and had difplayed their hoftile banners in the month of May. In confequence of their order the Queen was. even committed to the caftle of Lochlevin upon the xvI. day of June. The letters therefore could not poffibly give rife to events which were prior to their difcovery. This is to reverfe altogether the laws of nature. Previoufly to the period in which they acknowledge that they first faw the letters, they affect to have been governed by them. This act of council, a folemn deed of their own, is therefore an exprefs evidence against the authenticity of the letters.

But let this act of council be confidered in the light the most fa vourable to them, and be tryed by tranfactions of their own, which were abfolutely pofterior to the xx. day of June. It was upon the XXVI. day of this month that they proclaimed Bothwel a traitor. In

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this act of proclamation they impute to him the murder of the King; but they charge him alfo with treafon, as the ravifher of the Queen; affirm that her marriage with him was forced, and that he was under bondage; affign as their reafon for taking arms, their defire to punith him as the author of the murder and the rape; and command the fubjects of Scotland not to aflift him in any refpect, under the penalty of being accounted partakers with him in thefe horrible crimes. Now if their act of council is to be believed, and if the letters are genuine, they were at this very time under the strongest conviction of her guilt, confidered her as a devifer and accomplice of the murder, and believed that her view in the murder was to accomplith the marriage. They could not therefore with any probability have charged Bothwel as exclufively guilty of the murder, of having commited a rape upon her in order to accomplish his purposes, and of being expofed to the laws of his country for the joint crimes of murder, treafon, and ravishment. This evidence is not. fingle and unfupported. In a laboured manifesto on the subject of their rebellion which they delivered to Throgmorton upon the x1. day of July, they exprefsly "represent the Queen as free from any concern in the death of her hufband. They directly acknowledge that the crimes of Bothwel had put arms into their hands; that he had accomplished the murder in order that he might compel the Queen to marry him; that in reality the marriage was effected by force and power: and that he kept her in captivity. They exprefs it as their firm perfuafion that he had schemed to take away her life, as well as that of the prince her fon. These are pofitive and definitive declarations; and they are the most abfolute contradiction to the fenfe of their act of council and to the authenticity of the letters. In a regular and formal deed, which they iffued upon the xxI. day of July, they defcribe the wickedness of Bothwel, and pofitively affert, that after he had committed the murder, he treafonably affaulted the perfon of the Queen, took her captive to Dunbar, and keeping her in bondage, constrained her to mary him. To the fame purpose additional evi dence might be brought; but thefe vouchers are fufficiently powerful and inftructive. For if it had been true that the confpirators had been poffeffed of the letters upon the xx. day of June, and had been actuated with refentment against the Queen as art and part of the murder with a view to the marriage they could not poffibly in a pofterior day of that month, and in the month of July, have described her as under bondage, as innocent and ravifhed, as compelled to marry, in danger of her life, in constraint, and in captivity.

'This remarkable act of Murray's privy council is the key to difcover the forgery of the letters. It is not to be controverted that they received in it their first mark of diftinction. There is no previous memorial of them in history; and if there had been any, the confpirators would not have failed to have produced it. They had iffued many proclamations and public papers; but in no proclamation or public paper preceding the Iv. day of December, did they ever announce or appeal to the letters; although it was infinitely their interest to have done fo. It is impoffible that this could have been their line of conduct, if the letters had been genuine. It is only to be accounted for on the hypothefis that they are a for

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