Vor. VI.) = Retro/pe& of Foreign Literature... Sciences, Fe. 
and fatirical: it is a very entertaining 
mifcellany, and feems to be the produc- 
tion of aman of reading and obfervation : 
it continues to be conducted with ths fame 
fpirit, humour, and originality, which 
firt made it popular. “ Dr. Fobnjon's 
Table Talk: this is a feleCtion of anec- 
dotes, &c. from Mr. Bofwell’s circum- 
ftantial biography. As the defcent of 
BUONAPARTE in Egypt has long fince 
been known, it is fufthicient now to ftate, 
that previous to his arrival there, Mr. 
Irwin, queftioning the deltination of 
the geneval’s army to that quarter, from 
the difficulty which would oppofeits pro- 
grefs, publithed “ Az Enquiry iato the 
Feafibihty of ihe Suppofed Expedition of 
Buonaparte tothe Eafi ;” this little pam- 
phlet difplays much local knowlege; as 
does another by the Editor of the hiltory 
of Peter [iI. and Catherine the II. of 
Ruffia, entitkd “: Ob/erwations on the 
Expedition of Gencra. Suonaparte,” &c. 
A fecond volume is publithed of « Bzo- 
graphical Anecdotes, of ihe Founders of the 
French Repudlic :” it yields not to the firft 
in any refpeét. The Editor of the Varie- 
ties of Literature, has been induced trom 
the fuccefs of that work to publifh ano- 
ther, exactly on the fame plan, but un- 
neceflarily, we think, under a different 
title, “* Sele&ions from Foreign Literary 
Fournals.’ The ‘* Annual Regiflers” 
proceed as ufual. Mr. Cary’s * New Iti- 
nerary,’ we have on more than one occa- 
fon found accurate and ufeful. Dr, 
NATHAN Drake’s “ Literary Hours,” 
is a mifcellaneous work of much merit ; 
it is written fomewhat after the manner of 
a periodical publication, and confilts of 
eflays, critical; philofophical, and hifto- 
rical; poetry, and tales. We remember 
to have feen fome of thefe eflays in the 
Speculator, an ingenious work, the -firft 
and only volume of which appeared 
fome years ago. It appears that Dr. 
Drake’s fignature in the Speculator was 
N. The effays, which are reprinted in 
the prefent work, are all of them very 
much altered for the better, 
' We have now conduéted our reader 
through all the various apartments of 
the great National Library, and pointed 
out to them the valuable acquifitions 
which it has received within the laft fix 
months ; we are cbliged to the company 
for their attendance, and take our leave of 
them, with an invitation to repeat their 
vifit at the end of another half-year, and 
to bring with them as many of their ac- 
quaintance as they choole, Valete Amici, 
521 
STATE OF LITERATURE AND THE SCI- 
ENCES IN PORTUGAL. - 
fa Ab Pace the laft twenty years the 
Portuguefe have made. fome fuc- 
cefstul efforts to fhake off the grofs igno- 
rance and fhameful floth with which they 
{o often have been reproached. The prefent 
queen, if fhe have not founded, has at leaft 
fuffered a Royal Academy of Sciences to be 
founded under her aufpices. Its object is 
far lefs futile than thofe ridiculous bo- 
dies which had before ufurped the title of 
academy ; and it has already publifhed 
feveral volumes of its tranfactions; all of 
them containing papers which prove ag 
once the abilities and the patriotic zeal of 
their authors. 
The firft volume of thefe Tranfactions 
appeared in 1789. Several matters of 
public utility are there treated of ; fuch 
as a comparifon of the falt of Setubal with 
that of Cadiz; the means of improving 
the culture of cotton, the moft valuable 
production furnifhed by the Brafils to 
Portugal, and through Portugal to the 
reft of Europe; the agriculture and po- 
pulation of feveral provinces of the king- 
dom; the means of naturalifing in the 
mother country feveral produétions of the 
colonies; the mifchief refulting to the 
Portuguefe from luxury, &c. ‘This vo- 
lume is rendered particularly interefting 
by afhort but luminous differtation on 
that great queftion which ftill divides the 
opinion of men verfed in political econo- 
my: The true influence of mines of the pre- 
ctous metals, upon the induftry of the nations 
that poffefs them, particularly of the Por. 
tuguefe. Lhe author, Doz Rodrigo de 
Souza-Coutinbo, nephew of the laft ambaf- 
fador from the court of Lifbon to France, 
attempts to prove by arguments, fpecious 
at lealt, that it is not to the peffeifion of 
gold and filver mines, but to much more 
‘active caufes, that the decline of induftry, 
both in Spain and Portugal, muift be af- 
cribed. In Spain, according to him, that 
decline is accounted for by the expulfion 
of the Moors; by that of the Jews; by 
the diftant and expenfive wars of Philip IT, 
and by the deteltable adminiftration of 
his three fucceffors. He afhrms, that 
in Portugal the influence of the mines is 
not chargeable with the ruin of commerce 
and induitry ; that both of them had been 
very flourifhing from the time of Emma- 
nuel; but that the mad and unfortunate 
expedition of the youthéul king Sebaf- 
tian, the inteftine commotions that fol-~ 
lowed it, the deftruétive {way exercifed 
by the kings of Spain for fixty years 
(from 
