• The motives which gave rise to this establishment, and the prin ciples upon which it is founded, are alike honourable to the present enlightened age, and congenial with the soundest maxims of policy, humanity, and benevolence.

The necessity likewise of such an institution will appear obvious to all, when we consider the helpless and forlorn condition of many of these orphan objects of commiseration, who in this comfortable asylum will be clothed, have good wholesome food, acquire a decent education, be taught the principles of christianity, and finally, be made useful in whatever course of life they may adopt.

It is environed on all sides with high walls, an handsome iron railing opens towards the grand front; the ground is laid out in grassplots and gravel-walks, and planted with trees.

The edifice forms three sides of a quadrangle; it is guilt of brick, with an elegant stone balustrade; the centre of the western front is ornamented with a noble portico of the Doric order, consisting of four immense columns, which support a large and wellproportioned pediment; on the frieze of which is the following inscription:

"The Royal Military Asylum for the Children of the Soldiers of the Regular Army."

Over this inscription are the imperial arms.

The northern and southern wings are joined to the principal front by an elegant colonnade, with extends the whole length of the building, and forms a good shelter for the children in wet weather.

The vestibule is in the centre of the grand front, on the left are two dining-halls, eighty feet long and thirty feet wide; near these dining halls the boys wash every morning in a stone chamber, built for the purpose, which is furnished with a good cold-bath.

Over the boys' dining-halls are two school-rooms of the same di. mensions; here they are taught to read and write, and cast accounts. The school hours in the morning are from half past nine till twelve, and from half past two till five in the afternoon.

It is intended to establish four trades for the boys, viz shoemakers, taylors, sadlers, and armourers. The two former are already appointed, and the workshops are erecting, and will soon be completed.

On the right of the vestibule are the girls' dining halls, of the same dimensions as the boys', at the extremity of these halls is the girls' bathing-place; this is also furnished with a cold-bath, which can be emptied and filled at pleasure.

One of the school-rooms is fitted up as a chapel.

When the complement of boys and girls is completed, they will jointly amount to one thousand, viz, seven hundred boys, and three hundred girls.

caps.

The boys wear red jackets, blue breeches, and blue stockings, and

The girls wear red gowns, blue petticoats, straw bonnets, and white aprons; they are taught to read, write, and cast accounts, knitting and needle-work of different kinds, and are constantly employed in all manner of household-work. And when the whole establish

ment

ment is completed as is intended, it will be most admirably suited for its purpose, and be a nursery for honest and useful members of society."

The official establisment includes a Commandant, Chaplain, Adjutant, Quarter-Master, Matron, and Assistant.

Three plates exhibit separate views of the three buildings above mentioned.

Art. 41. Relation of several Circumstances which occurred in the Province of Lower Normandy, during the Revolution, and under the Governments of Robespierre and the Directory; commencing in the Year 1789, down to the Year 1800. With a Detail of the Confinement and Sufferings of the Author; together with an Account of the Manners and rural Customs of the Part of the Country called the Bocage, in Lower Normandy; with the Treatment of their Cattle, Nature of Soil, Cultivation and Harvesting of their Crops, Domestic Management, &c. By George Greene. 8vo. 7s. Boards. Hatchard.

We regret that this work has long escaped our notice, since it adds to the store of facts which throw light on the mighty concussions that have happened in our vicinity. The sufferings of the writer, personally, were not inconsiderable; and they are here related in a way which ereates a strong interest in his favour; for the narrative is wholly de. stitute of art, and exhibits every mark of genuineness. The author resided in France as land steward to the Prince of Monaco at Torigny in Normandy; and his observations on the manners and rural economy of that neighbourhood shew that, though a plain man, he attentively noticed whatever passed under his eyes. Tnough the work is now Father out of date, it still strongly engages the attention.

Art. 42.

SINGLE SERMON.

Preached on occasion of the late Naval Victory, in the Parish Church of Wellington, Salop, Nov. 10. 1805. By the Rev. John Eyton. 8vo. 18. Crosby and Co.

This preacher, resolving to be early in the field, has not waited for the day of public thanksgiving to deliver his sentiments on the late signal Naval Victory; the laurels of which are covered with crape on account of its having been purchased with the death of our skilful and gallant commander Lord Nelson: but he has stepped forwards, with out loss of time, to improve, in a religious way, the public joy on this occasion. Mr. Eyton ascribes this victory to the favourable interposition of Divine Providence, in which view he represents it with great propriety as a subject for religious gratitude and praise: but we cannot perceive, on the position of the moral Providence of God, the propriety of Mr. E.'s assertion that the seasons at which we have experienced the greatest national blessings have generally been those at which iniquity has most abounded.' We have often read of the chastisement of nations for their sins: but we do not recollect to have been told that God was most kind when states were most sinful. -The preacher speaks to the general feeling, when he bids us to re

joice with trembling, as the late victory has been dearly bought but we cannot believe, if God be really on our side and fights for us, that we have any ground for trembling because of the increased power of the enemy by land; since if God be for us, how impotent and despicable is all human power exerted against us? and if, according to Mr. E., the Almighty chooses seasons in which sin particularly abounds for the communication of the greatest national blessings, we have a chance for prosperity than we are taught to believe by the preachers of Fast Sermons in general.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Nath, Cosius-and Resurgam -The remarks which we have lately had occasion to make, respecting some disputes among the Society of Friends, have drawn on us the remonstrances of two Correspondents, with the above signature; who belong, we presume, to that society, and to whom our censures have not proved acceptable. We shall not, however, enter into any epistolary controversy on this subject: what we have written, we have written, and by that we shall abide ; conscious that our pen has been guided only by an adherence to those general principles which we shall ever maintain; untinctured by any prejudice against this society, for whom we have always spoken, as we have felt, with much respect; and uninfluenced by any personal motives, directly or indirectly. The parties are wholly strangers to us, in the most perfect sense of the words; and even the letter of Resurgam discloses particulars respecting them of which we were previously ignorant. The insinuations of this correspondent scarcely deserved this notice, and certainly will obtain no more.

We can make no use of the intelligence contained in the letter (as we suppose) of M. Ortolani. If the works to which it refers come before us, we shall in course make due report of them; until which time, it is not our practice to recommend them, as he requests.

J. W. of Bristol is informed that the volumes which he mentions never reached our hands, and that it does not now appear to us necessary to inquire for them.

on the 1st of October.

X. Y.—A Friend-R. B. and several other Correspondents, complain that they have not duly received our last APPENDIX, published The fault in this case must lie with the bookseller, either in town or country: to whom positive orders should be given. We have often heard of similar neglect.

In the last Review, p. 178. 1. ro. from bott. for might', r. may; and line 8. from bott. formay' r. might. P. 179. 1. 20, for είροις read legos.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For DECEMBER, 1805.

ART. I. Collections towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Her ford. By John Duncumb, A.M. Vol. I. 4to. pp. 604. 31. 35. Boards. Evans. 1804.

IT

T appears that the public are indebted, for the materials from which the present publication has been formed, to the pecuniary assistance of the Duke of Norfolk, as well as to the labours of Mr. Duncumb; and we feel pleasure in stating that, as far as it has proceeded, it does credit to the munificence of the noble patron, and to the knowlege and skill of the industrious compiler. In every department in which his undertaking obliges the latter to exhibit himself, he has well discharged his duty; he has properly arranged and carefully digested the documents with which he has been furnished; and his narrative throughout is neat, uniform, and (as far as we can judge)

correct.

We coincide in a great degree with the observations made. by Mr. D. on the merits and circumstances of his subject, when he says;

The county of Hereford, although replete with a variety of materials to attract the researches of the Antiquary and the Historian, has hitherto so far escaped their notice, that no regular account of it has ever been submitted to the Public. As the ground on which Caractacus and the brave Silures so nobly fought, pro aris et focis, against the Roman invaders, and as the frontier, during the long continued wars between England and Wales, it presents an important series of national occurrences; whilst as a province, distinguished from the earliest dates of civilized society, by the residence of ancient and honourable families, holding their possessions by various and peculiar tenures; as a district fertile in its produce, and abounding in scenery of the most beautiful description;-it contains a fund of information, which, if properly collected and arranged, could not fail to be generally gratifying.'

We would here remark that, when the Heptarchy sunk in the kingdom of England, and the antient Britons became tributary, the animosities of the hostile nations were for the most VOL. XLVIII.

part

part displayed in struggles which were on too small a scale to rescue from oblivion the names of the leaders, or to transmit to future times the events which distinguished them: the misery, it is true, was sufficiently intense, but it was too limited in its extent to attract the regards of posterity. Even before Mercia disappeared as an independent kingdom, the brave Silures had ceased to be a distinct people. After Offa had extended his boundary, and fixed his residence in the centre of the county which is the subject of this work, we read indeed of horrible incursions; yet scarcely any thing occurs in these parts which merits the name of war. Previously to that period, there had been a long series of fierce and bloody contests for national independence on the one hand, and for dominion and territory on the other but unfortunately they are involved in fable, and history is almost totally silent in regard to them.

In what the writer terms a General Introduction, he enters considerably into the civil and military transactions of that part of the island in which this district is placed; this is followed by its geography and natural history; and he then details the military and civil history of its capital, which brings to a close the present volume: the next, we presume, will consist of similar views of each division of the county.

According to the example of his predecessors, Mr. D. conducts his readers as far back as he is able into the darkness of time but he possesses too well formed a mind to descend to any particulars which preceded the invasion of Julius Cæsar. In the first chapter of his Introduction, he expatiates on the period which intervened between the first landing, and the final departure of the Romans. He appears to us materially to under-rate the knowlege which the Druids possessed. The political power which this fraternity exercised, the systematic discipline which united the body together, and on which their unlimited authority was founded, the affinity of their tenets with those of the Oriental sects, and the reputation which the order in Britain had attained, (it being consulted for instruc tion by the youth of Gaul,)-these considerations, and the testimonies of antient writers, incline us not to set so low an estimate on the attainments of the Druids as has been assigned by Mr. Duncumb. Nor ought it to be forgotten that their language is indicative of no mean intellectual culture; since in the estimation of good judges it is in a high degree energetic and copious, and there is no reason for supposing that it has subsequently undergone any material improvement.

The author thus describes the battle which terminated the career of the brave Caractacus; and he makes observations on the site of it, which prove not only that he neatly retails what

the