to which I have here alluded, I shall beg leave to inform the reader, that, in tranflating this author, I have experienced all the difficulty of giving familiar and vulgar objects a decent drefs. In relating the cuftoms of the barbarous nations, with which, even when they are most uncouth and minute, a curious and fenfible inquirer into antiquity would wish to be acquainted, I have fometimes feared that I fhould incur the contempt and ridicule of polished times I flatter myfelf, however, that the ingenious and the candid, will impute thofe expreffions which may excite the difguft or rifibility of the illiterate, not to my mifapplication of language, but to thofe ideas, which, as a faithful tranilator, I was obliged to convey.

"We are as apt to fail in tranflation as in original writing; though a capacity for compofition must be greater than that which qualifies a man to tranflate If this is a problem, it is a problem of easy solution. The vanity of too many prompts them to commence authors: but every one who has gained a fcholaftic knowledge of the French tongue, fancies that he can tranflate; without reflecting, that to tranflate well requires talents at least fuperior to common abilities; and that he is, perhaps, far from being an adept in his own language, which, in a talk of this kind, is another indifpenfable requifite; and from which his attention may have been diverted by our established and abfurd mode of education.

"Of myfelf I fhall only profefs, that I have endeavoured to tranflate Sabbathier as he fhould have written, if he had been an Englishman. How I have fucceeded, is not to be determined by my perfuafion.

After fo ingenuous and candid á display of our tranflator's pretenfions, the feverity of criticifin would be fomewhat appeafed, did even juftice call for its exertion; which, the fame juftice induces us to fay, it does not.

ART. VIII, The Debtor's Pocket Guide, in Cafes of Arrefl; containing Cautions and Inflructions against the Impofition and Extortion of the Serjeant at Mace, Bailiff, Gauler, &c. Shewing how a Perfon is to conduct himself on an Arrest: the Sheriff's Power in taking or refufing Bail: the Remedy a Perfon has against an Officer för Extertian on taking Bail, or for any Seve ity or Ill-ufage to a Perfon in his Cuftody, or in a Lock-up Houfe: The Charges fuch Houfes have a right to make under the Statutes and Rules of the fuperior Courts made for that Purpofe, with the Remedy against them if they exceed their Bounds: The Method of putting in and perfecting Bail above on the Return of the Writ, to prevent the Bail being fixed, and the Plantiff obtaining an alignment of the Bail bond; with an Account of the Fees the Sheriff and bis Officers are entitled to on different Pricefs. The best and most approved Method of bringing the Wit of Habeas Corpus, with plain and apt InStrutions

Aructions for conducting and executing the fame with the real Expences ibereof as fettled by the Mafter and Prothonotaries of the refpective Courts. To which are added, Directions for procuring the Rules of the King's Bench and Fleet-Prifons, with the Expences attending the fame. By an Old Practitioner. 8vo. 28. Richardfon and Urquhart.

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After fo full and explicit a title page, it will be needless to give our readers any farther account of the contents of this blication, than may ferve to affure them that the author, for an old practitioner, appears to have done his readers tolerable juftice. Not but that this pocket-guide is better calculated for the use of attorneys and folicitors, than for fuch unfortunate perfons, as may ftand in need of their affiftance under the oppreffive fituation of civil arrefts. We fay oppreffive, becaufe, tho' they are called civil arrefts, the civility of them is often less than is practifed in the most barbarous and favage nations. Setting afide perfonal infults and private extortion, for which no remedy can be legally had for want of fufficient evidence of the fact*; the open oppreffion, apparently connived at by the courts, is fhameful. Indeed the whole collection of authorities, contained in this book, is little less than a downright mockery of ftatutes and rules of court; when we are told, in the very faft page that

Notwithstanding the foregoing Statutes, and the determinations of the courts of Juice thereon, cuftom has established the following fees:

For levying execution

For executing a writ of poffeffion over and above the

fheriff's poundage by ftatute

per diem

Man in poffeffion on execution, if he finds himself,

O 3 6

026

If found by the houfe, per diem

All other demands of bailiffs, ferjeants at mace, &c. are matters of extortion, for which they are punishable by the statutes and rules and orders of the courts of Justice.

It were to be wifhed this old practitioner had fet forth the

Though not always for want of witnefs: but the brotherhood are never at a Ifs for witneffes whofe ubiquity can fupport their prefence or prove an alibi, at pleafure, whenever required. A bleffed effect this of the indifcriminate competency of witneffes on oath! How abfurd that the affidavit of even a bailiff's follower thall be taken in courts, which feem to think the whole fraternity fo unprincipled, as not to require a bailiff himself to take the oaths of fupremacy, allegiance or any oath of office! In a word, the perfon, aggrieved by thefe people, notwithfarding the remedies here pointed out, will find the remedy generally as bad as the d feale.

T 2

tho

authority of that custom, which hath established fees, notwithflanding the ftatutes and rules of court; and how it comes about that thefe demands, as far as they vary from fuch ftatutes and rules, are not acts of extortion and punishable. And yet were a remedy applied to thefe, there are fo many ways and means of fecretly oppreffing an unfortunate debtor, according to our prefent laws of arreft, that it is greatly to be wifhed some material alteration were made in the mode of recovering debts, particularly finall debts, in a country of fuch extenfive credit and commerce. "It is in vain," fays the celebrated author of the Rambler, "to continue an inftitution, which experience fhews to be ineffectual. We have now imprisoned one generation of debtors after another, but we do not find that their numbers leffen. We have now learned, that rashness and imprudence will not be deterred from taking credit; let us try whether fraud and avarice may be more eafily restrained from giving it." It is ftrange that, tho' the expediency and policy of fuch a ftep may not ftrike our government, the example of our North-British neighbours, at a time when it is the ton to adopt fo many of their political maxims, does not recom- mend itself to adminiftration.-Will it be faid that the Scots are not fo commercial or credit-giving a people? Be it fo; but is that the cafe with the Low-dutch? among whom a debtor, by giving up his all, may obtain a releafe from his creditors immediately; nor can the meaneft citizen be perfonally arrefted for less than thirty pounds fterling.-What a cruel abfurdity in a country of fuch boafted liberty as England, that a poor man may be arrested and thrown into prifon on the furmise of of his being indebted forty fhillings! Surely ways and means might be found out to make the recovery of fuch finall debts more eafy both for the debtor and creditor, than by the prefent means of perfonal arreft! What better end can this practice ferve than that of making provifion for a numerous tribe of the inferior retainers of the law, in the multiplication of arrefts, to the diftrefs of the debtor, and not feldom to that alfo of the creditor ?-And is this a good end? Would not by far the greater part of fuch gentry be more politically provided for, in being employed against the enemies of their country abroad, than in kidnapping their fellow-fubjects at home?—It is lamentable to think that the excellent defign of a charitable contribution ftill fubfifting, fhould be neceffarily in a great meafure defeated, by proving the means of increafing such arrefts and, of courfe, affording fubfiftence to the vile in relieving the miferable.-There is no human inftitution but will be liable to abufe; notwithstanding which, the humanity and

policy of our bankrupt laws are admirable, and would be peculiarly efficacious to the relief both of debtors and creditors, if under proper reftrictions they were fill extended. Why fhould not the Lord's act extend that relief to a debtor, who eyes but a fiall fum, as a commiflion does to one who owes a larger-And why fhould the creditor of him, who owes a large um, not have the fame right to keep him in prifon on a groat a day, as hath the creditor of one who owes lefs ?-There is fomething as inexplicable to a common underflanding as there is fhocking to common humanity, in the indifcriminate imprisonment of debtors, little or great, fuppofed or real, unfortunate or criminal, at the caprice of refentful creditors. At the fame time the frequency of our infolvent acts, by which the most fraudulent are generally the greatest gainers, is a ftriking proof of the inexpediency, the inefficacy, the inutility of fo impolitic a practice. While neceffity has no law, our prifons must be under the neceffity of thus frequently difgorging the human victims that have been facrificed to cruelty.

A new infolvent act is faid to be now under the confideration of the parliament. For heaven's fake, for the honour of their humanity and the credit of their understandings, let thein build it on a broader bafis than moft preceding ones. Let them found it on the principle of univerfal equity, and not fuffer the pitiful confideration of petty and partial inconveniences to do that, which they will have conftantly to do over again. It has been faid, by old practitioners, that the legislature purposely encourage the practice of arrefts, becaufe of the revenue which thence accrues to government, through the ftamp-office; that revenue, arifing from, what is called, the Marshallea court, alone, amounting to a very confiderable fum.-If this be true, we will venture 'to declare fuch a motive as inhuman as it is impolitic. Surely a more falutary method might be found, to raife that fun from the labour and industry of men at liberty to earn a fubfiftence, and spend, however extravagantly, the wages of their labour; than is that of wringing it out of the neceffities of men under confinement, fubfifting on the contribution of their friends, or ftarving on the charity of ftrangers! -It is deemed fufficiently unjuft to encourage private vices, on the principle of their proving public benefits: but to premote the private oppreffion of individuals, to put a few pounds into the public treafury, is fo highly unbecoming the wifdom of the legiflature, that we can hardly think it enters into the little schemes of the lowest of our modern financiers.

Properly the Palace-Court, inftituted by Charles I. in which one of the partes should strictly belong to the King's houfhold; tho', by the perverfion of practice, includes now all perfons refiding within twelve miles of the King's palace."

PAMPHLET S.

POETRY.

ART. IX. The Prediction of Liberty. By James Thistlethwaite. 4to. 25. Williams.

If Mr. Thiftlethwaite were not fo furious a patriot, he would probably be a finer poet; an apt and pleafing vein of verfification appearing, now and then, in the course of this ftrange, poetical, political prediction. Hear him begin.

Soft breath'd th ambrofial figh that kifs'd the trees,
And frolic nature sported in the breeze :

The lark high mounted, wild on æther borne,
Commenc'd his carol and proclaim'd the morn:
Bright beam'd the fun in matchlefs glory mild,
The earth look'd joyous and creation fmil'd.

So far fo good: but would any body imagine this placid exordium to be a prelude to, what a crown-lawyer might almost venture to call, high-treafon? Yet fo it is; our poet feeming to be one of those geniuses, of whom a much better poet has faid,

Some men there are, that have good store of wit,

Yet want as much again to manage it.

Or, perhaps, a better apology might be deduced, for the ungoverned fury of our author's patriotic zeal, from his own con reffion that he was under the power of enchantment.

The goddefs fpake, whilst wild enchantment sprung,

And dropp'd like heaven's own manna from her tongue. For it was to Mr. Thiftlethwaite himself, it seems, that the god def's Liberty addreffed this prediction: fo that he might be as much under the power of fafcination, upon the opening of her mouth, as, they fay, a bird is at that of a rattle-fnake. In this fituation, it is no wonder he forgot to record the era of this prophecy; which is a pity; as the good people of England or Eutopia might have prepared themselves for the dreadful event, they are here foretold. When thus the Goddefs." Ere with wonted force Five times renew'd the fun hath urg'd his course, His annual course, and giving matter birth, Call'd vegetation from the cells of earth. Ere yet five years have fully waxen old,

And five times heat prevail'd and five times cold;
Know that this land, this hapless land shall feel,
The ruthless edge of war's avenging steel:
E'en as thou fee', fhall be with ruin crown'd,
And all her beauties proftrate on the ground."

of A ruthless war, indeed! And yet there can be no other way crowning a land with rain but by proftrating her beauties on the ground! But our poet does make woeful work of it throughout the piece.