SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER, 
TO THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
Vox. 13, No. 89.] 
Junty 20, 1802. 
[Price 1s. 6d. 
HALF-YEARLY RETROSPECT OF DOMESTIC LITERATURE. 
OWEVER great isthe harveft, it can- 
not be faid that in the field of Liera- 
ture the labourers are few; there is doubt- 
lef a confiderable inequality of ftrength 
among them, and fome, perhaps, are fcarce- 
ly worthy of their hire. Here, one fees with 
forrow an emulous, but too eager, ftrip- 
ling tie with hafty hands his fheaf of un- 
ripened corn, which, to his own aftonifh- 
ment, foon fhrinks into worthleffnefs— 
there, the eye glows with indignation at the 
crafty veteran, who invades with furtive 
fickle the rich crop of his neighbour’s 
growth : altogether, the {cene is an inte- 
elting one, and we fhall now take our 
{emi-annual furvey of it. 
HISTORY. 
Mr. BELsHam proceeds in his ** Me- 
moirs of theReign ofGeorge III.”’which he 
has extended through two additional vo- 
lumes (V. and VI.) to the commencement 
of the year 1799. We have more than 
once expreffed our opinion of Mr. Belfham 
as an hiftorian: his noble love of liberty 
we admire, and hearcily join with him in 
the loud eulogies which he beftows on thofe 
great men who have refifted the. allure- 
ments of corruption, and ftood firm againtt 
the march of defpotifm. We are forry to 
obferve, that fometimes the irritability of 
Mr Belfham’s temper does injuftice to the 
native gooinefs of his heart, and the 
foundnefs of his underftanding. 
«« State of the French Republic at the 
end of the Year VIII,” tranflated from the 
French of M. Hauterive, Chef de Relations 
Exterieures, by L. Goupsmiru. The 
tranilator informs us that his author be- 
longs ro the department of Foreign Affairs, 
and is next in office to the Minifter Tal 
leyrand ; that his treatife therefore may be 
regarded as an official publication. _Whe- 
ther it isto be regarded as an official pub- 
lication or not, is, perhaps, immater:al : 
it is certainly the treatife of a maa who 
Monruty Mac. No. 89. 
has viewed with a moft penetrating and 
philofophic eye, the various parts which 
have been aéted by political performers on 
the great theatre of Europe. Although, 
from the title-page of this work, one 
is led to expect a view of the inter- 
nal ftate of France, confined to a very 
limited pericd, the author has pleaf- 
ingly difappointed his readers, by taking 
a comprehenfive, teléfcopic furvey of the 
French Republic, antecedent to the Re- 
volution, together with its numerous con- 
nections and dependencies. Mr. Haute: 
rive ridicules thofe political fpeculators, 
who confider the Revolution as having 
been brought about by the more general 
influence of knowledge, by the agency of 
clubs, and the embarraffment of the 
French finances, &c.; thefe caufes, fo 
fuddenly brought into action, were incom- 
menfurate with the magnitude of the ef- 
f.é&. He confiders it neceflary to take a 
more enlarged view of the fubjeét, and 
looks upon the philofophers who view the 
Revolution in this cireum{cribed light, as 
&< miftaking | accidents for principles, and 
concomitant circumftances for caufes.’”>— 
What then, it will be afked, is that all- 
powerful principle, which has efcaped the 
refearch of former inveitigators, but which 
this author, or more fuccefsful theorift, has 
deteéted ? “ The firit, the moft ancient, 
and mott efleatial caufe of the Revolution, 
has arifen fiom the aétion of the com- 
mercial fyfem, and the {pint of induftry, 
on the focial fyftem of all the nations in 
Europe.”” The manner in which this dif- 
organizing caule aéted with fuch fatal 
force, to unceafingly, {> uniformly—and 
why it aéted more potently and more 
effectually in France than in any other 
country in'Europe, are queftionsy forthe 
folution of which we muft refer “to *tHe 
book ifelf, which, atter making allow 
‘ance, -and--a-very large one~muft--be 
4 NM emade, 
