Ago 
undertook, making in all six un- 
suocessful attempts at founding an 
establishment among the Eskimaux ; 
and at length, his creditors refusing 
to hear of any reasonable terms of 
accommodation, a docket was struck 
against him, and he was made a 
bankrupt, after having sunk many 
thousand pounds, and materially in- 
jured his health and constitution by 
this ill-fated scheme.—Mr. Cart- 
wright concludes his Journal with 
a short sketch of the natural history 
of the inhospitable regions he re- 
sided in, and with a poetical epistle 
toa friend, which might as well have 
been omitted ; for, inclined as we 
have been to pardon the many inac- 
curacies of his prose, on the score of 
its being a plain and faithful narra- 
tive of occurrences that really hap- 
pened to him, we see no reason to 
pay the same regard to the wretch- 
ed verses with which he concludes 
his work. 
These volumes are handsomely 
printed, and are accompanied by 
a portrait of Captain Cartwright in 
his Eskimaux dress, visiting his fox- 
traps,—a correct map of the island 
of Newfoundland, and an excellent 
chartof part of the coast of Labrador. 
Of the Origin and Progress of Lan- 
guage, by Lord Monttoddo. Vol. 6. 
‘1792. 
ORD Montboddo, the learned 
author of this work, having 
in his two first volumes, given an 
account of the origin of language, 
and explained the nature of it, with 
respect both to its matter and form ; 
and compared together different lan- 
guages, shewing in what they seve- 
rally excelled, or were defective, 
would have left his work very.im- 
perfect, if he had said nothing of 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1792. 
style and composition; by which 
language produces its effect, and 
answers the purposes intended by 
it. He has, therefore, in his third yo- 
lume, treated of style in general, and 
explained some general characters _ 
of. it; such as the austere, the 
floral: the sublime, the witty, and 
the humorous. In his fourth vo- 
lume he was more particular, and 
divided style according to the sub- 
jects of which it reats, into six 
different kinds; the epistolary, the 
dialogue, the historical style, the 
didactic, the rhetorical, and, lastly, 
the poetical. In that volume and 
the fifth, he treated of the first four 
kinds of style ; and the fifth, na:nely 
the rhetorical, in which the beauty of 
style is most conspicuous, and pro- 
duces the greatest effect, is the sub- 
ject of the present publication. In 
treating of this art, he follows the 
same method that he had pursued in 
treating of the grammatical part of 
language, and of the other kinds of 
style of which he has spoken, profess- 
ing not to write a treatise upon rhe- 
toric, but only to give the philosophi- 
cal principles upon which it is found- 
ed. Itisin this way that Aristotle has 
treated of these arts, and in this re- 
spect his three books of rhetoric, 
and his single book of poetry, muti- 
iated as it is, and little better than 
a fragment, are of very great value. 
Following, therefore, his footsteps, 
and making the best use we can of 
the light he has thrown upon the 
subject, Lord Montboddo proceeds 
to explain the nature, and shew the 
proper use of rhetoric. He does 
not however entirely confine himself 
to the plan of this work, but adds a 
variety of inferences and remarks, 
the result of his own reading and re- 
flection. 
The leading heads of this volume, 
are the matter and object of rheto- 
ric 5 
