Navigation," and extended the fame to America. This act, at the Restoration, was among others, with a few alterations, reenacted by the King, Lords, and Commons; but being confidered as a grievance by the colonies, was at firft very little regarded any where in America, and not at all in Maffachusetts Bay, until the Affembly of that colony had paffed an act to enforce the obfervance of it, without which they held it to have no authority there. From this time the power of parliament being feldom and moderately exercised over America, fometimes for the manifeft advantage of the colonies, and always on plaufible pretences, the oppofition which had formerly fubfifted to it, gradually fubfided, and was indeed forgotten, when the late ftamp act, by the novelty of its operation, revived a difpute new to the prefent generation. The people of America had, at that time, a fenfe of their more important rights, but knew not well how to define them: they were befide averfe from contending with the parent ftate, and therefore admitted the power of parliament, as far as could confit with a denial of the juftice of the stamp act. A fucceffion, however, of different measures afterwards obliged them to prescribe different limits to parliamentary authority; and hence, at different times, they have diftinguished between internal and external taxation; between a right of making laws and the right of impofing taxes; and between taxes for the regulation of trade, and thofe for the purpose of a revenue. At the commencement of this controverfy, legiflative authority was haftily conceded to parliament by the colonists; but their opponents having abused this conceffion, and endeavoured to infer from it a right of taxation alfo, the Affembly of Maffachufetts Bay, in 1773, having confidered their political history and feveral charters, retracted this conceffion, and (adopting a fyftem before proposed by an American advocate) maintained the colonies to have been originally conftituted diftinct ftates, fubject to the King, but independent of the parliament; and fince that time the claims and arguments of the colonists have been generally founded upon this fyftem, which therefore becomes an object of importance. The uncommon attention which the American controverfy now claims, has occafioned, and will, we hope, juftify this retrospect. The pamphlet before us appears to have been written by the cele-, brated Mr. Dicken fon. It confifts chiefly of an argumentative part, in fupport of the inftructions of a committee of the province of Pennfylvania to their reprefentatives in Affembly, and well deferves an attentive perufal.-The following extract exhibits the claims and conceffions, propofed by the delegates of a province particularly respectable from the number of its inhabitants, and the moderation with which their political oppofition has been usually conducted.-After profefling true and faithful allegiance to the King, and fubmiffion to all the lawful prerogatives of the crown, the delegates proceed as follows: "But it is our misfortune that we are compelled loudly to call your attention to the confideration of another power totally different in kind, limited, as it is alleged, by no bounds, and wearing a moft dreadful afpect with regard to America; we mean the power claimed claimed by parliament of right to bind the people of these colonies, by ftatutes," in all cases whatsoever;" a power as we are not, and from local circumftances cannot, be reprefented there, utterly subverfive of our natural and civil liberties :-past events, and reafon convincing us that there never exifted, and never can exift, a state thus fubordinate to another, and yet retaining the flightest portion of freedom or happiness. "The import of the words above quoted needs no defcant; for the wit of man, as we apprehend, cannot poffibly form a more clear, concife, and comprehenfive definition and sentence than these expres fions contain. "Honour, Juftice, and Humanity call upon us to hold, and to tranfmit to our pofterity, that liberty which we received from our ancestors. It is not our duty to leave wealth to our children; but it is our duty to leave liberty to them. No infamy, iniquity, or cruelty can exceed our own, if we, born and educated in a country of freedom, intitled to its bleffings, and knowing their value, pufillanimously deferting the poft affigned us by Divine Providence, furrender fucceeding generations to a condition of wretchedness, from which no human efforts, in all probability, will be fufficient to extricate them; the experience of all ftates mournfully demonftrating to us, that when arbitrary power has been established over them, even the wisest and bravest nations have, in a few years, degenerated into abject and wretched vaffals." After recommending the appointment of deputies to a General Congress by the Affembly, they defire, "First, that the deputies you appoint may be inftructed by you ftrenuously to exert themselves, at the enfuing congrefs, to obtain a renunciation, on the part of Great Britain, of all powers under the ftatute of the 35th of Henry VIII. chap. II. of all powers of internal legiflation-of impofing taxes or duties internal or external-and of regulating trade, except with respect to any new articles of commerce which the colonies may hereafter raise, as filk, wine, &c. referving a right to carry these from one colony to another-a repeal of all ftatutes for quartering troops in the colonies, or fubjecting them to any expence on account of fuch troops-of all ftatutes impofing duties to be paid in the colonies, that were paffed at the acceffion of his prefent Majefty, or before this time, which ever period fhall be judged advisable-of the ftatutes giving courts of Admiralty in the colonies greater power than courts of Admiralty have in England-of the ftatutes of the 5th of Geo. II. chap. XXII. and of the 23d of Geo. II. chap. XXIX.-of the ftatute for fhutting up the port of Boston, and of every other ftatute particularly affecting the province of Maffachusetts Bay, paffed in the last feffion of parliament. "In case of obtaining these terms, it is our opinion, that it will be reasonable for the colonies to engage their obedience to acts of parliament, commonly called acts of navigation, and to every other act declared to have force at this time in thefe colonies, other than thofe above mentioned, and to confirm fuch ftatutes by acts of the feveral Affemblies ;"-and alfo "to fettle a certain annual revenue on on his Majefty, his heirs and fucceffors, fubject to the control of Bancraft art These letters were feparately published a few months fince. The Writer confiders the American colonies as diftinct independent ftates. His arguments are chiefly derived from the spirit of our conftitution, and the liberal principles of reafon and equity, on which he contends that communities governed by a power in which they have neither controul or participation, are in a state of flaveryThat the freedom and happiness of a people fuperfede every poffible claim of government-That mankind have a better right to preferve their liberties than any power can have to abridge them-That the diftance of the colonies renders it impoffible to govern them by authority of parliament, without fubverting the principles of all free governments, and therefore he propofes, that an act of parliament be paffed, in which the feveral colonies fhall be all " held and declared to be free independent ftates, each to be fubject to fuch law and government only as now fubfifts, or shall be hereafter enacted and conftituted within itself by its own proper legislature: and that of each and every of the faid independent itates, his Majefty is and fhall be held to be the fovereign head, in like manner as he is of the legiflature of Great Britain."Dean Tucker, from very oppofite principles, deduces the fame conclufion; and, convinced as he was of a right of fupremacy vested in parliament over the colonies, he, after difcuffing his feveral propofals, finally concludes the exercife of fuch right to be impracticable, and that, from confiderations of felf-intereit, it is now incumbent on us to renounce the claim to it. Bt. Art. 14. A fummary View of the Rights of British America: 8vo. 1 s. 6 d. Kearfly. 1774. This fummary was intended to convey to the late convention of the delegates of Virginia the fentiments of one of their members, who was prevented from attending by an accidental illness. It affords a concife and fpirited review of the rights and grievances of the colonies, deduced from their first fettlement, and proposed as the fubject of an addrefs to his Majelty from the feveral " States of Bri tish America." To this pamphlet is prefixed, an addrefs to the King, feverely reflecting on the late measures of government, and written with much freedom and boldness, but by whom we are not told. Art. 15. A Letter to Sir William Meredith, Bart. in Anfwer to his late Letter to the Earl of Chatham *. 8vo. I s. 6 d. Kearfly. Sir William Meredith's Correfpondent certainly fucked in his opinion of the Quebec act, at the Cheshire Cheefe; the following extract smells ftrongly of the porter and tobacco: This is a legifla ture with a vengeance; and yet with all those badges of slavery about For this Letter, fee Review for Auguft lait, p. 149. REV. Nov. 1774 Dd D-t. it, * The Author Major Cartwright it, it will appear free as the winds of heaven, when compared with its finished ftate; the devil himself not being able to devise more infernal chufes and provifions than are enacted, to render what is called a legislative council the executive engine of whatever diabolical schemes the worst of princes may conceive.' The latter abounds with flowers of the fame fpecies of rhetoric; which, when emphatically delivered by this Demofthenes, with his infpiring tube in one hand, while he thumped the other, with due cadence, on the iron bound table, were doubtless answered with bursts of applaufe! Such plaudits he may receive undisturbed; and with thefe he would have been fatisfied, if he had ever read the old fable of The Harper; which is pointed out for his future confideration. Art. 16. Mr. Edmund Burke's Speeches at his Arrival at Bristol, and at the Conclufion of the Poll. 4to. 6 d. Wilkie. 1774. Thefe popular fpecimens of election-eloquence, having greatly attracted the notice of the Public, in their primitive news-paper appearance, the prefent Editor judged them worthy of the more refpectable and more lafting form of a pamphlet. Art. 17. The Miniftry in the Suds; or, Jack with his Golden Chain in the Parliament-Houfe. In which is prefented to the Public the true State of the Cafe between Mr. Wilkes and the Ministry. 8vo. 3 d. Bew. 1774. The wit and humour of this performance are merely typical, i. e. derived from the curious manner in which the pages are printed; one-third of the words are in the Roman character, another third in Italic, and the remainder in CAPITALS: an ingenious device, no doubt. But the credit of it may be due, not to this patriotic genius, but to the political writer in the Public Ledger, from whom he feems to have pilfered it. DRAMATIC. Art. 18. Songs, Choruffes, &c. in the Dramatic Entertainment of The Maid of the Oaks; as performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane. 8vo. 6 d. Becket. Thefe will be included in our account of the Maid of the Oaks, at large, which is preparing for our next month's Review. POETICAL. Art. 19. Juftice; a Poem. 4to. I s. 6d. Kearfly. 1774. A flaming invective against the prefent government. It is infcribed to a City Magiftrate, and it feems to be city-poetry: Such trains as SETTLE's felf might deign to hear. Art. 20. A Second Letter from Oberea, Queen of Otaheite, to Jofeph Banks, Efq. Tranflated from the Original. 4to. Johnfon. I S. We, probably, owe this wanton piece to the Author of the former Letter; the ftyle and poetical merit being very fimilar: fee Review, vol. xlix. p. 503. The late Lord-Mayor. MEDICAL, MEDICA L. Art. 21. A Letter to Dr. William Hunter, Phyfician Extraordinary to the Queen, Profeffor of Anatomy in the Royal Academy, and Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, on the dangerous Tendency of medical Vanity; occafioned by the Death of the late Lady Holland. By William Rowley, M. D. and Manmidwife. 8vo. Is. Newbery. 1774. We have had occafion more than once to review the productions of this Writer; but he was then in an humbler character than that which he now fuftains; it was in that of an enterprising furgeon, advertifing a great number of cures in cancerous, venereal, and other cafes. We fee him now raised into the higher sphere of medicine; where, however, not being well received by the grandees of the faculty, he challenges one of them to fingle combat: but we fear he will be discomfited, as his education and training do not feem to have qualified him for making the beft ufe of his weapons.-To drop all metaphor in fo grave a matter as that before us, Dr. Rowley thinks that he has been ill treated by Dr. Hunter, because on his being mentioned at Holland houfe, Dr. Hunter faid, He thought it would be highly imprudent to admit a ranger; that he [Dr. R.] might increase her Ladyfhip's pain, and that Dr. Hunter did not think it poffible that any relief could be obtained.' This certainly was not treating Dr. Rowley in the civileft and kindeft way; but whether he has any reafon to complain of an injury feems to us to be fomewhat doubtful. The circumftance on which he lays the greatest stress, is, that he had fucceeded in the cafe of Mifs S. who had been under Dr. Hunter's care, and whom he had given up as incurable. He even hints that Dr. Hunter was acquainted with his fuccefs at the time he prevented his being called in at Holland-Houfe. This is the important point on which the pamphlet fhould have turned; and it should, therefore, have been ftated with clearness and precifion. We think Dr. Rowley fails here. If it be, because his infinuation is not true; the refentment which he wants to raise in the Public towards Dr. Hunter will devolve on himself. If it be owing to his not knowing how to express himself on fo plain a fubject, we are forry that his acceffion of dignity has not introduced him among scholars who would have given him a little affiftance. The Reader will judge for himself in this cafe. After having given an account of the fteps which Dr. Smith of Oxford, Dr. Hunter, and Dr. Fothergill had unfuccefsfully taken, he plumes himself on his own fuccefs, and then adds, the lady continues in perfect health, can ride on horseback, walk up an afcent, and can use any exercife without the leaft inconvenience whatsoever. You was well acquainted, Sir, with my being confulted in the cafe of Mifs S. You vifited that lady in Tavistock-street, after she became my patient. Upon your inquiring of Capt. S. whether I had pofitively pronounced the cafe curable, you was informed, that I made no pofitive affertions, but expreffed fome hopes of fuccefs. To this anfwer you honourably replied, "that you thought I had acted like e man of candour and judgment." You was likewife well acquainted Ddz with |