- Retrofped of Domeftic Literature.— Hiftory. 
acting agreeably to God’s will, to whom 
they prayed for the deceafed, and made 
this mark, as being particularly refpected 
by all who bore the Chriftian arms. 
“« The Hifiory of Athens ; including a 
Commentary cn the Principles, Policy, and 
Practice, of Republican Governmenr, and 
of the Caufes of Elevation and of Decline 
swhich operate in every free and commer- 
cial State. By Sir Witutiam Youns, 
Bart.” 
This is the republication of a work 
which had already appeared under the 
different Utles of The Spirit of Athens 
and The Hiftory of Athens. Sir W. 
Young has now revived it, and incorpo- 
rated {uch additional matter as his more 
extended refearches prefented to him. 
“* A Compendious View of Univerfal 
Hiflory, from the Year 1753 ta the Treaty 
of Ariens in 1802 ; with Notes to verify 
er elucidate the Paflages to which they re- 
jer. By Cuaxztes Mayo, L.L.B.”’ 
This isa work of great labour and va- 
lue ; -but it muti rather be confidered as,a 
book for reference than for reading—not 
from its great bulk ; although if we had 
been afked for a definition of the word 
Compendium, we certainly. fhould not 
have anf{wered—four quarto volumes 3 but 
from the arrangement, which is ftriétly 
chronological, Mr. Mayo, like-an annual 
regifter, records fucceflively the trenfac- 
tions cfeach individual fate as they take 
lice within twelve caiendar months, -be- 
ginning with the year 1753, and ending 
with the year 1802. Thus with the rani. 
dity ef a failing ftar he glides from one 
country to another, in contempt of the 
intereft of any fubjeét which may folicit 
his delay an hour beyond the appoisted 
period. We are tantalized as Sancho 
Panza was in his fumptucus palace at 
Barataria: no focner are we feated ata 
good dith of narrative, than chronolcgy, 
like Sancho’s fate phyfician, Doctor Pe- 
dro Rezio de Aguero, touches it with his 
relentleis wand, and it 1s whipped out of 
our fight in an inftant. As a book of 
reference, however, Mr. Mayo’s work has 
great merit and utility. I containsa large 
body of ‘hiftorical faéts, chronologically 
arranged, and drawn from authentic 
fources, together with many criginal papers 
on mifcellaneous ftate fubjects, which are 
inferted in the fourth volume. ‘* The pe- 
riod of hiftory (lays Mr, Mayo very tiuly) 
which is comprized in thefe volumes, re- 
commends jitlelf frongly to our atrention. 
The,everts and tranfa&tions of it are of 
the moft interefting nature in them{lves, 
‘to their adverfaries. 
571 
independently of the concern we feel in 
contemporary occurrences.. To trace the 
fignal revolutions which have taken place 
in the courfe of it to their origin, to ob- 
ferve their eff-Cts, to form a judgment re- 
fpecting the motives which have actuated 
thofe who have borne ihe moft ditinguith- 
ed parts in them, and by bringing the hif- 
tories of different fiates fucecflively under 
eur view, to difcover the relation that fub- 
fits between them, and by what fprings 
the feveral:Governments have been moved — 
in their conduét towards each other, is one 
of the mott pleafing and fatisfaétery em- 
ployments of the mind. The defign of 
this work is to facilitate fuch refearches.”” 
Mr. Davigs’s ‘ Celtic Refearches ; 07, 
the Origin, Traditions, and Language. cf 
the Ancient Brtions,’ is a werk which 
gives evidence of extenfive reading, and of 
much critical and antiquarian refearch. — 
Whether the fyf%em of the author is fub- 
flantial or not, it is fupported with great 
Ingenuity and Jabour. The refearches 
1a which this fy fem is unfolded are divid= | 
ed into three effays. The firit is princt- 
pally confined to fketches on the ftate and 
attainments of primitive (eciety ; the fe- | 
cond is on the origin of the Celtz, the tn- 
ftitution of Druidiim, and their preienfions 
tothe knowledge of letters; and the third 
on the Celtic languase, in which its radical 
principles are appreciated and compared 
with the primitive and fimple terms in 
Hebrew, Greck, and Latin. 
“* The Hiftorie and Life of King Fames 
the Sext. Written towards the latter Part 
of ibe Sixteenth Century.” 
The author of this hiftorical morgeau is 
unknown; ror is it afcertained wherher he 
diicontinued his narrative at the pericd at 
which this manufcript concludes, or whether 
it was carried down beyond it, Mr. Mau- 
CouM LainG, whofe Hittory of Scotland 
fince the Union of the Crowns we noticed _ 
at the time of its appearance, 1s the reputed 
editor of this curious volume. He has 
pubtithed it from that copy of the original 
manuicript (now belonging to Lord Bel- 
haven) which the  hittoriographer to 
Queen Anne, David Crawfurd, of Drum-~ 
foy, employed in compiling lis Memeirs 
of the Affairs of Scotland. Crawfurd 
was a portizan of the Queen of Scots, and 
did net hefirate to fupprefs every circum- 
ftance which was unfavourable to Mary 
and to Bothweli, or which was favourable 
The Hiftory begirs 
with the morder of \Riccto and the birth 
of James I. in 15665 it terminates with 
the year 15306 
Po WITICAL 
» 
