Half-yearly Retrofpect 
only a few devotees, writhing themfelves 
in diftorted attitudes, and drawling out 
portions of the Koran with equal loudnefs 
and difcordance.’” A tranflation has ap- 
peared, from the original Italian of the 
Abbé LazzaAROSPALLANZANI’s “ Tra- 
wvels in the Two Sicilies, and fome Parts of 
the Appenines.” ‘The celebrity of SpaL- 
LANZANI, asa naturalitt, philofopher, 
and phytiologift, will excite very confider- 
able attention to the prefent performance: 
his microfcopical obfervations, and his 
experiments, multifarious, indeed, and 
valuable, but many of them attended with 
circumftances of DISGUSTING AND UN- 
-PARDONABLE CRUELTY, are well- 
known to the learned, and many of them, 
even to the unlearned world. ‘The prefent 
work, however, may be read without 
fhock to the feelings of any one, for the 
Abbate, whofe former ftudies haye been 
chiefly devoted to the inveftigation of ani- 
mal and vegetable phenomena, has now 
turned his attention to the minutiz of 
mineralogy. ~For the purpofe of forming 
‘an ample and valuable collection of vol- 
canic matter, SPALLANZANI made the 
circuit of the Phlegrean fields and the 
féolian ifles: the ever-burning craters 
of ZEtna, Stromboli and Vefuvius, fub- 
mitted to his undaunted and indefatigable 
refearch. We have frequently had oc- 
cafion, and feldom more cccaficn than at 
- prefent, to lament, that it is inconfiftent 
with our plan to enter at large into works 
of curiofity and importance; it is evident, 
however, that a retrofpect of fo unre- 
ftri€éted a nature, would {well to a fize 
difproportionate to our other communica- 
tions. . With reluctance, therefore, we 
mutt content ourfelyes with a fimple re- 
commendation of the Abbé SPALLANZA- 
wi’s travels, to the perufal of our readers. 
A republication has appeared of ** Paul 
Hentzner’s Travels inio England during 
the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,” &c. Ho- 
race Walpole tranflated thefe travels from 
the Latin, and printed them at Strawberry 
Hill, about forty years ago ;-to the pre- 
fent edition, which’is correétly and beau- 
tifully printed, the Fragmenta Regalia, or 
Obfervations on Queen Elizabeth's Times 
and Favourites, are added: the engrav-* 
ings which adorn this work, are numer- 
ous, and executed in a ftyle of confider- 
able elegance. Dr. Moopy has edited 
“A Sketch of Modern France,’ written in 
a feries of letters, by a Lady, during a 
tour through that country inethe years 
1796 and1797. Thefe letters are written 
witha great deal of vivacity; they abound 
wn anecdotes, for the mof& part illuftra- 
Surp. Monrary Mac. No, axxul. 
of Britife Literature: 491 
tive of eminent characters, and are evi- 
dently the produétion of an impartial and 
acute obferver. A work of confiderable 
and deferved popularity, is Mifs WiL- 
LIAMS’s *¢ Tour in S2vitzerland;” Mifs 
W. it is well known, refided in France . 
during the dreadful period of its revolu- 
tionary government ; fhe was a Girondift, 
the friend of Madame Roland, and had 
publithed a work in England, in which 
was difplayed, with all its uglinefs and 
deformity, the character of many a fers 
cious fatellite of Robefpierre. Thefe 
united circumftances rendered her fitua- 
tion moft perilous; of courle, it is not 
wonderful, that fhe anxioufly feized the 
fortunate opportunity which prefented it~ 
felf, of obtaining a paffport for Switzer~ 
land; to this opportunity the public is 
indebted for the prefent tour, which now 
excites a double intereft, as it was made 
through a country, whofe moral and po- 
litical features have fince fuffered a 
change, which {carcely any thing lefs than 
conqueft could have fo fpeedily effected. 
Mitfs WILLIAMs’s ftyle of writing is well 
known; lefs elegant than if it were lefs 
ornamented, fhe feems to have no relith 
for that fimplicity of compofition, whofe 
charms are to us infinitely more fafcinat- 
ing than the rich poetic periods, which 
almoft monopolize her pages. The fub- 
lime and tremendous fcenery, however, 
which Switzerland prefents, not excufes, 
but demands a glow of colouring, a free 
and an animated pencil. But the fketches 
of country which Mifs W. has intro. 
‘duced, fhe profeffes to be fubordinate : 
for the main obje&t of the work is to dif- 
play the moral fituation of Switzerland ; 
to exhibit the government and manners of 
the Cantons ; to draw a comparative pic- 
ture of the prefent ftate of Paris with that 
of the Swifs towns; and to trace the im- 
portant and momentous effeéts, which 
the French revolution has produced in 
Switzerland, where a new zra has already 
been eftablifhed by it, in the annals of its 
hiftory. In the perufal of thee intereft- 
ing volumes, we could not but contraft 
the ancient freedom, which the hardy 
forefathers maintained of thefe bleak 
mountaineers, the Swifs, with the dif- 
gufting vaflalage to which their defcend- 
ants had moit inglorioufly fubmitted ; 
“¢ all the peafantry in the cantdn of Bafil, 
with only the exception of the little town 
of Licital, which enjoys a few municipad - 
privileges, are literally Serfs, and an- 
nexed to the foil.””. Three-fourths of the 
inhabitants of this canten, antecedent to 
the late revolution; were abfolute dlaves ; 
38 a {bill 
