542 
proscription : such a priest, in’ our mind, 
is not a-Statesman, but'an invalid and a dig= 
nitary of the revolution.” —See Talleyrand, 
“ When one can say with reason, and 
with impunity, that Louis XIV. was ‘a 
despot, Lonis XV. debauched, Louis XVI. 
weak from too much gentleness, it may be 
permitted to talk of Eugene Beauharnois, 
created Duke of Leutchemberg ; of General 
Bernadotte, created King of Sweden; of 
Lucien Bonaparté, created Prince of Ca- 
sino, &c.,'as history will record.” 
La Biographie des Hommes vivans, des 
freres Michaud.—This biography is written, 
generally, in the spirit of absolute power. 
‘The editors have suffered themselves to be 
led into decisions dictated by party spirit ; 
but the work is impartial when it treats of 
the arts and sciences. These biographers 
make every one guilty that was engaged in 
the French Reyolution. It is to be re- 
gretted that they have sometimes drawn 
their information from suspicious sources, 
and have recorded in their volumes state- 
ments notoriously incorrect. 
La Biographie Nouvelle des Contemporains. 
—This work appears to be directed by a 
spirit diametrically opposite to that of the 
preceding ; one would think, after reading 
it, that there was not to be found in the 
French Revolution a single criminal. Con- 
siderable errors have been committed in 
some of the French articles, and in the 
very small number of Spanish in these vo- 
lumes. The editors appear to be ignorant 
of the state of Spain. They lavish pane- 
gyric on those men who have shewn them- 
selyes to be double traitors to royalty and 
to liberty. This same biography says that 
the generals of the war of Spanish indepen- 
denee (1808-1813) were only chiefs of a 
party, whose bands deliyered themselves 
to royalty. 
The Dictionnaire Biographique et Histo- 
vique, &e. says of Dumourier, vol. 1. p. 
472: “being unable to occupy the world 
longer with his exploits, he takes up his 
pen, and writes a history of his life, a work 
remarkable for the excessive vanity which 
prevails in it—a true political Proteus. 
‘There is no faction for which he has not, at 
one time or another, declared himself a par- 
tizan.”’ 
Histoire du Juré, par M. Aignan, Membre 
de L’ Institut, is a work of higher value to 
the student, the philosopher, and the lover 
of freedom. The author endeavours to 
demonstrate, that the admirable institution 
of juries is natural and inherent to the so- 
cial state of mankind; and the Jewish, 
Greek, Roman, German, English, and 
French histories, have furnished materials 
for presenting it under all its shapes and 
metamorphoses. He takes a rapid view 
of the tribunals of the ancients; and de- 
scending to the pleadings of the German 
courts of law, describes the effects of the 
feudal power on the administration of jus- 
tice. | He ‘then presents the jury as mo- 
Literary and Critical Proémium. 
{Jan 1, 
delled in England, follows it to! Ameiida, 
and thinks he recognises “it th “Fra AB 
spite of the alterations and thutations’to 
which it has there been subjugated. ~'The 
style is apt and simple, learned and precise. 
[We should not quit this article withord' re- 
minding our readers that there is an inge- 
nious, learned, and valuable, though neglected 
work upon the same subject—a thin 40. Prr- 
TINGALE. on Juries, which trates the institu- 
tion (though not, of course, exactly in’its mo+ 
dern shape) to Greece antl Rome ; and which, 
in Athenian erample, in particular, (as the 
Saxon antiquary might more demonstratively 
in the practice of our ancestors ) illustrates the 
real nature and meaning of that noib- mere 
technical appeal to GOD AND THE CouNTRY, 
verbally made in our Courts of Judicature. ] 
Précis de l Histoire générale de la Com- 
pagnie de Jésus, suivi de Monita Secreta, by 
Arnold Scheffer.—The author of this book, 
alarmed at the great spread, and even re- 
establishment of the Jesuits, has ‘brought 
together the history of the origin and pro- 
gress of this formidable society, down to its 
having been publicly denounced in 1773, 
together with a detail of its state since that 
time. A translation is given ofthe Monita 
Secreta, which ‘constitutes the moral’ and 
political code of the Jésuits. It is stated 
in this, that monarchs and sovereigns must 
be made to understand that the ‘Catholic 
religion cannot be expected to maintain ‘its 
ground, without forming am alliance’ with 
politics; which must be effected. with great 
seerecy, and by the members of the order 
becoming connected with’ the great, to be- 
come privy to their most Secret. councils. 
It further states, that it is considered im- 
portant to the society to excite and keep 
up divisions and jealousies among rulers ; 
but that, where a determination to be re- 
conciled was evident, the reconciliation 
should be effected through a Jesuit. ; 
Résumé de 0 Histoire de Pologne, par 
Leon Thrisse, dwells not so. much on indi- 
vidual characters as on that of the nation 
collectively, and on the origin, rise, and 
fall of the Republic. The author is faith- 
ful throughout to his motto, Afalo pericu- 
losam libertam quam tutum servitum, —~ 
Traité de Méchanique Céleste, par Mv te 
Marquis de Laplace, tom. 5, 1. xiij,' treats 
“* Onthe Oscillations of the Fluids’ coyer- 
ing the Planets.”’ After stating briefly the 
opinions of other mathematicians on this 
difficult subject, the author proceeds to state 
his own on the theory of the “de, which he 
supports by a great number of experiments 
made in the harbour of Brest, during sixteen 
years, to ascertain several important’ ele- 
ments, which he considers as affecting the 
phenomena. He concludes, this volume 
with a chapter on the flux and reflux of the 
atmosphere, Which ‘this celebrated philo- 
sopher presumes. to depend on the ‘three 
following causes: ‘ 1st. the diréct influence 
of the sun and ingon on the atmosphere. 
2d. the periodical rise and fall ‘of the ocean, 
which 
