tion' has been, according to our writer, withheld from them. However, the disposition that still appears to favour them is creditable to the legislature; and the inferior clergy will not stand in need of the peculiar patronage of lord Grenville.

ART. 41.-The complete Family-Brewer: or the best Method of brewing or making any Quantity of good strong Ale and Small-Beer, in the greatest Perfection, for the Use of prirate Families, &c. &c. By Thomas Threale, Brewer. To which is added, an Appendix, containing the Art of brewing Porter, and making British Wines. 8vo. 1s. Jones. 1802.

We see no great objection to the author's general plan: yet every ingredient which is brought from the druggist is mis-spelt. A good decipherer is peculiarly necessary: but druggists are in the habit of conjecturing from sounds or spelling which approaches only the truth.

The appendix contains the method of brewing porter, and the art of making British wines: yet can the former wholesome and pleasant liquor be prepared from the following ingredients?

One quarter of malt, 8 pounds of hops, 9 pounds of treacle, 8 pounds of liquorice-root, 8 pounds of essentia bina, 8 pounds of colour, half an ounce of capsicum, 2 ounces of Spanish liquorice, a quarter of an ounce of creolus Indian berry, 2 drachms of salt of tartar, a quarter of an ounce of powdered alum and copperas, half and half, mixed, 3 ounces of ginger, 4 ounces of slacked lime, 1 ounce of linseed, 2 drachms of cinnamon.'

P. 25.

These ingredients, it is said, will produce five barrels of porter. Essentia bina is moist-sugar boiled to a thick consistence, and burnt: colour is the same sugar boiled to a less consistence, and less bitter. The creolus Indian berry is the cocculus Indicus.

ART. 42. Thoughts on the Residence of the Clergy and on the Provisions of the Statute of the Twenty first Year of Henry VIII, c.13. The Second Edition, with Additions. By John Sturges, LL.D. &c. 820. 28. Cadell and Davies.

1802.

The new clauses in this edition are introduced in consequence of the very valuable observations on the first edition, contained in an anonymous letter to Mr. baron Maseres. Dr. Sturges conceives, that, if the author of those observations and the baron had been better acquainted with the condition and circumstances of the inferior clergy,' they would have been less at variance with him on the subject of residence. This circumstance does not appear to us of much consequence: but it is pleasing to see the controversy conducted with the good temper which prevails in this pamphlet.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

X. Y. is informed that the Controversy to which he alludes is under consideration.

The Letter of A. P. S. came too late to be attended to.

THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

NOVEMBER, 1803.

ART. I.-An History of Marine Architecture. Including an enlarged and progressive View of the nautical Regulations and naval History, both civil and military, of all Nations, especially of Great Britain; derived chiefly from original Manuscripts, as well in private Collections as in the great public Repositories: and deduced from the earliest Period to the present Time. By John Charnock, Esq. F.S.A. 3 Vols. 4to. gl. 98. Boards. Robinsons. 1802.

AMONG the conquests of man over the impediments and difficulties thrown in the way of his various pursuits, none is more striking and brilliant than his victory over the ocean. The horse he can tame, to add to his speed; the abstemiousness and the structure of the camel render the sandy desert no longer unpassable; and on the ice, with his skaits or rein-deer, he can travel with safety and velocity. A passage over the ocean, however, was, during a time, impracticable; for we do not reckon it to have. been subdued by the crossing of an inlet, or a timid coasting excursion from one projecting promontory to another. Yet even voyages of extent and enterprise occur in early æras; and, had the desire of commerce and gain among the Phoenicians left room in their hearts for the nobler triumphs of literature, we should have had nautical descriptions of much greater extent, than the confined, meagre, and disputed narrative of Hanno. The views of the antiquary on this subject coincide with those of the scientific inquirer; and each is anxious to explore the history of navigation, and the means by which it is effected, as among the noblest exertions of the hunian mind.

The account of the ancient marine, in the preface, is short and unsatisfactory. It is singular that little is said of the Phoenicians; and the mind of the Romans must have been, in our author's opinion, narrowed by the circumscribed knowledge. of natural philosophy, geography, and astronomy,' which mankind then actually possessed. The Romans did not indeed aim at naval discoveries; but, when they had a maritime opponent, they showed that their genius was as conspicuous in naval tactics, as in military evolutions. The knowledge of geography among the CRIT. REV. Vol. 39. November, 1803.

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Romans was far from circumscribed. The Phoenicians had extended their voyages beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and, by some route or other, had reached the Baltic. They knew or had heard of a great northern island, called, by them, Thule; and, were the geographic parts of Pliny's Natural History to be selected a plan we have long since recommended-it would be found that the knowledge of the Romans in this science was extensive, rather than limited. If we admit the truth of the Argonautic voyage-nor can the outline be easily disproved— the adventurers must have ascended the Phasis, and by some communications with the great rivers which fall into the Baltic, have reached that sea. Many such communications still exist, with a very inconsiderable portage; and the Argo is represented to have been portable. Mr. Charnock is indeed correct, when he says that the splendid descriptions of some of the ancient ships convey a confutation of their own statements. In the infancy of the art, such voyages were impracticable; and we should want little further proof that the history of Sesostris is fabulous, than the account of the vessel he is supposed to have built. Yet, on the other hand, unless our author had quoted the most accurate inquirers,' whom he refers to, who have admitted that neither decks nor beams were introduced into ships till a considerable time, even centuries, after the Trojan war,' we cannot pay much credit to their assertion. In fact, we have no foundation to rest on. It may be true; but the opposite opinion may be equally admitted.

In regard to the extended numbers of vessels composing the fleets of antiquity, the case is different, and no such exception will lie; but fancy, in some instances, pourtrays to itself a visionary picture, and gizes on it with admiration till it becomes convinced of its real existence. It would be an historical heresy, according to the opinion of many, to compare the most inconsiderable vessel in Agamemnon's fleet to a modern boat; yet it is an indisputable fact, that although the dimensions of that vessel might, in some instances, be superior, its form and character of construction were exactly the same. The gallies of war, when the custom of naval hostility was introduced, and gradually advanced in general practice, were certainly improved, and perhaps enlarged; but the peculiar exigences of the state, and the mode of fighting then practised, not requiring an attention to those points which have become necessary since the revival of the science in modern times, the ease with which vessels were at that time built, rendered it possible for a powerful nation to send forth an armament as formidable, in respect to numbers, as it thought proper, or could find persons to navigate and man it.' Vol. i. P. xiv.

The Grecian ships were, we know, not formed for active war, but, as Thucydides expressly tells us, built in the manner of freebooters,' calculated for security, and for making descents. These circumstances, with the necessity there was

that whole armies of Greeks should reside in them for months, · lead us rather to suspect that they had decks. Our author is more correct in his account of their size; for we are told by Homer, that Hector seized with his hand the stern of Protesilaus's ship. The ships on this occasion, it is said, exceeded 1000; but the population of Greece, at that æra, will not allow twenty men to each on the average, even though war and plunder were the only business of those early maritime, or rather pi- ratical, states.

When our author descends to comparatively modern times, or to the middle ages, his account is somewhat more distinct, though still vague and uncertain. We see nothing of the northern powers of the Baltic, except so far as they are connected with English history, and the invasions of this kingdom. Yet, in that sea, naval exertions were considerable, and naval war was frequent among the petty sovereigns of its shores. Several facts of this kind are adduced by Mr. Forster, in his Account of the Discoveries in the North-a work that Mr. Charnock seems not to have seen. The first authentic testimony of the birth of the British navy is, according to our author, the invasion of Normandy by Henry (Beauclerk) in 1106; and the crusading expeditions, which followed, contributed in some de-gree to cherish the infant in its puling youth.'

The different æras of the naval history of Britain follow; to which is added, a chronological and brief minute of the different naval occurrences,' with a list of the fleet which besieged Calais in 1347, and an account of the expenses attending it.

After the period of the third Richard, marine architecture, it is observed, becomes intimately connected with nautical pursuits and events. This subject, taken in its full extent, might be carried through folios heaped on folios, till study sicken at the task, and turn, with apparent dismay, from the mountain of labour.' This indeed would be the case, were there not a spirit of condensation, a general comprehensive view to be taken, of which our author, from his practice, seems not aware. The division of maritime history by sir Walter Raleigh, who meditated a work of this kind, is subjoined; but, though such a history would have been highly curious, the different chapters should not be adapted to a similar work of the present day. Sir Robert Slingsby's comptroller of the navy) Discourse, which may be considered as the civil history of the then existing navy,' though the æra be not mentioned, and Gibson's Observations on the Military Department and Arrangement subsequent to the Year 1603, are subjoined. The latter remarks are admirable in respect to the seamanship displayed, the criticisms on the conduct of former commanders, and the very pointed contrast between seamen superintending ships, and land-officers

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placed in that service-a circumstance too common after the restoration.

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The history itself does not claim our commendation. Subjects are started or, incidentally mentioned, and seldom pur-. sued. Marine architecture is traced to the Phoenicians and Egyptians, without discrimination between the rude conveyances over a river, and ships built to brave the ocean. have, after this, the more ancient claims of the Chinese, without any inquiry into the real chronology of either nation, or the date of marine architecture in each. In the chapter on commerce, and its tendency to promote marine architecture, we find only vague ideas respecting the Phoenician commerce, and a proof that the Phoenicians were acquainted with the British islands, because their appeilation, Cassiterides, is from the Greek; and the solitary story of the Phoenician pilot, who stranded his ship, because he was watched by a Roman, converted into general orders. Our author has caught a glimpse of one trait of ancient history, in the fable of Erythras; but is unacquainted with its force or consequences; and confounds Sesostris with Danaus. In short, the superficial compilation of Huet would have taught him more; and Clarke, in his Connexion of the Roman and Saxon coins, would have elucidated the subject better in a few lines, than Mr. Charnock has done in as many quarto pages: not even is Ezekiel, nor the historical books of the Old Testament, once quoted, when speaking of the Ty-.

rians.

The construction of the ancient ships is the subject of the sixth chapter; and in this we find a long and intricate disquisition respecting the different banks of oars. General Melville

has elucidated this point much more completely in a short compass. The seventh and eighth chapters very indistinctly pursue the subject of marine history and marine architecture in different branches. The Indian word canoe is derived from the Latin canna, a reed, a language which the Indians never knew. The various modes of offensive war, as applied to the marine, are explained, particularly the use of fire-ships. It is singular, however, that, in all these disquisitions, we have scarcely a reference to any ancient author. In one or two places, the words of the author are transcribed without a reference to the passage; and, with the exception of the grappling-irons, where we find quotations from Quintus Curtius, Livy, and Polybius, we have authorities, without being enabled to appreciate the author's accuracy by a designation of the page or section.

The ninth and some of the following chapters contain a cursory history of marine architecture. This narrative, during the ..reign of the emperors, by the assistance of the luminous energetic Gibbon, becomes interesting, and would appear to ad