ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 
momentary obftructions ; and that 
henceforward the oppretlions would 
at leatt be at a ftand: that fuch was 
the nature and practice of the Chi- 
nefe government, that however ad- 
verfe in the beginning to any new 
propofitions, left it thould be fur- 
‘prized into an undue conceffion or 
improper regulation, the fame mat- 
ters might be brought again, when 
the offenfive novelty of the idea was 
over, into a more ferious and dif- 
paftionate confideration; that this 
event right be accelerated by the 
means of letters fent from one fo- 
vereign to the other by the annual 
fhips, which might be done with- 
out impropriety, now that the com- 
munication had been opened be- 
tween them in a fit manner. 
concluded by advifing againft per- 
fifting to continue any longer at 
Pekin.” 
The embafly returned to England 
on the 6th of September, 1794, hav- 
ing been abfent juft two years: Of 
this {pace of time, upwards of five 
months were {pent in China; in 
which country, from Zhe-hol to 
Canton, they travelled on their re- 
turn chiefly by canals, nearly thro’ 
twenty degrees of latitude. 
- The feventh chapter contains an 
account of ihe refidence of the em- 
bafly at Canton and’ Macao; and it 
may be confidered as the laft that 
properly appertains to China, fince 
the cighth is entirely employed in 
defcribing the return homeward. 
_ The firft volume is embellifhed 
with feven engravings; and the fe- 
cond with twenty-eight; bearing a 
reference chiefly to the arts, man- 
ners, and mythology of the Chi- 
nefe. There is alfo a folio volume 
cf plates accompanying the text, 
which are forty-four in number; 
reprefenting, befides fimilar fubjefts 
He’ 
479° 
with thofe exhibited by the other 
engravings, charts of the coafts and 
iflands of China, with tracks of the 
fhips from England, and various 
views of the interior country thro’ 
which the embaffy was conducted. 
Three of them peculiarly attra¢ted 
our attention ;— the tower of the 
thundering winds, on the borders of” 
the lake See-Hoo : the great wall 
of China, near the pafs of Cou-pe- 
koo; of which wall the mafonry 
and brick-work in the towers alone’ 
exceed in quantity thofe of all Lon- 
don: and thirdly, the fcoop-wheel’ 
of China, for lifting water on the 
banks of rivers, for agricultural pur-_ 
pofes. Thefe wheels, which are 
very common in the fouthern pro- 
vinces, are made entirely of bam- 
boo, are put together without a nail, 
and are from fifteen to forty feet in 
diameter. A wheel forty feet in 
diameter will lift, in the courfe of 
twenty-four hours, nearly feventy _ 
thoufand gallons of water. 
The volumes want an alphabeti-. 
calindex. —~ 
‘ 
An Account of Roman Antiquities difco- 
vered at Woodchefer, near Minching- 
Hampion, in the County of Gloucefter. 
By Samuel Lyfons, F. R. S. and A. 8. 
Folio. Price 10 Guineas. 1797. 
WANT of fuch magnificent 
remains of Roman arts as 
thofe which enrich the fouthern 
regions of Europe, has coufined, in 
too great a degree, the refearches of 
the Englifh antiquary to the much 
lefs interefting productions of the 
darker age; and. though far from 
depreciating what is generally, tho’ 
improperly, called Gothic architec- 
ture, yet, from anaffociation ofideas 
connected with the grandeur of the 
*Gg Roman 
