scribes in detail many of the most distinguished buildings. Indeed we have repeatedly had occasion to wish these de. scriptions had been less minute. Mr. Carr's manner of describ ing, is as clear and as little tedious as that of any writer can be on these subjects, and we are certain, from our own recollections, of his general accuracy. But we are convinced that no formal description of the several parts and relations of a complex edifice will convey any thing like a distinct idea of the structure, except perhaps to that very small proportion of readers who are accustomed to the study or practice of architecture, or to those who having seen the object will not need the description. Several articles of information are given respecting the population of Dublin, estimated at 190,000, respecting the rate of exchange between Ireland and England, and respecting the state of the church establishment in Ireland, where there are fourteen hundred and thirty-five parishes without churches. One of the most gloomy subjects of our author's remarks is the mode of executing criminals. He shews that the contrivance used in Dublin ought to be adopted in preference to that employed in London, if, in spite of all that Beccaria and many other enlightened philanthropists and philosophers have advanced, a great nation must retain that sanguinary code of laws, in consequence of which so many wretches are annually hanged.-We give our author much credit for the exemplary patience with which he dwells on several subjects so little allied to gaiety. But nature will return; and he closes and relieves the last dismal subject, by a very smart and ingenious criticism of an Irish boor on hanging. From very many things in the book before us, it appears the Irish nation are eminently distinguished from their neighbours by a certain humourous liveliness of fancy, which poverty, ignorance, and every species of misery, fail to extinguish or repress. Probably no other country in the world would have enabled our author to mingle, with the occasional dryness of statistical and commercial details, and with the descriptions of aggravated misery and vice, so many ludicrous anecdotes, and droll or witty expressions. Among the latter are several brilliant coruscations of the genius of Curran, the celebrated counsellor. One short anecdote we are tempted to transcribe, though not, like Mr. C., as a specimen of the influence of satire, nor because it is Irish, as the same thing might as easily have happened in any other legislative assembly.

Not many years since, in the middle of one of the finest effusions of eloquence ever heard within the walls of the Irish House of Commons, every avenue of which was filled; whilst the crowded assembly were listening in mute astonishment to the orator, the cork of a bottle of porter, which had been conveyed into the gallery, suddenly flew; its sound im

mediately withdrew the public attention, a titter ran round the room, and the speaker abruptly closed a most brilliant oration in chagrin, to find all the attention which his oratory had excited, dissolved by the ridiculous explosion of a little fermenting beer.' p. 102.

Perhaps we shall not be forgiven if we afford the reader no further specimens of Mr. Carr's new acquisitions to his jest book; the following, we think are original; we give them as specimens, without pledging ourselves for their claim to be laughed at.

An Englishman was boasting to an Irishman that porter was meat and drink, and soon afterwards became very drunk, and returning home, fell into a ditch, where Pat discovered him; and, after looking at him for some time, he exclaimed," Arrah, my honey, you said it was meat and drink to you; by my shoul! it is a much better thing; for it is lodging and washing too!"

A gentleman one day tried to puzzle a common bog cutter with the following question. "How far, my good man, is it from Mullingar to Michaelmas ?"-" As far," said the fellow, "as from Whitsuntide to the ace of spades !"

Mr. Carr visited the beautiful scenes in the county of Wicklow, and we should have thought meanly of his taste, if he had adopted, in describing them, a language of less animated admiration. We should have required this language from a man the most parsimonious of strong epithets; but from our author we have a special claim to emphatical terms superlatively magnified, when speaking of grand subjects, because he sometimes applies emphatical terms, especially the word infinite, to very little ones. We have hinted before that brilliant expressions are elicited from him with wonderful facility and copiousness, whenever he comes within the pre.. cincts or the apartments of an opulent villa. In page 200, he describes a visit to such a villa, the lady of which patronises a school of industry for girls. This school it seems is in its nature a losing concern, and costs her some inconsiderable sum every year. In the contemplation of this generosity, Mr. C. is so affected, that his thoughts are transported for once to the joys of heaven, as the unquestionable reversion awaiting such transcendant goodness. We were half inclined to take exception to this language, as somewhat too strong for the occasion; but we stood corrected for this feeling, on reading the paragraphs immediately following, which describe a magnificent and most extravagantly expensive luxury in the appendages of this mansion. That after such a consumption of money, any small sum should have been reserved for a school of industry, and that amidst such a "voluptuous" paradise, there should have been any recollection of so humble a con

cern, appeared to us an excess of bounty and condescension, which Mr. Carr's panegyric had too feebly applauded. But though the traveller's amiable propensity to celebrate good actions becomes peculiarly strong in the genial neighbourhood of rank and elegance, it would be unjust to deny that he is capable of discerning excellence in subordinate stations of life. A little earlier in his book he gives an example, which we will transcribe, and we cannot help it if any reader should deem this a specimen of much more rare and costly virtue, than that which we have joined the author in admiring.

The following little anecdote will prove that magnanimity is also an inmate of an Irish cabin. During the march of a regiment, the Honourable Captain P, who had the command of the artillery baggage, observing that one of the peasants, whose car and horse had been pressed for the regiment, did not drive as fast as he ought, went up to him and struck him; the poor fellow shrugged up his shoulders, and observed there was no occasion for a blow, and immediately quickened the pace of his animal. Some time afterwards, the artillery officer having been out shooting all the morning, entered a cabin for the purpose of resting himself, where he found the very peasant whom he had struck, at dinner with his wife and family : the man, who was very large and powerfully made, and whose abode was solitary, might have taken fatal revenge upon the officer, instead of which, immediately recognizing him, he chose the best potatoe out of his bowl, and presenting it to his guest, said, "There your honour, oblige me by tasting a potatoe, and I hope it is a good one, but you should not have struck me, a blow is hard to bear.' pp. 150, 151.

By means of a wide diversity of narrative and anecdote, Mr. Carr furnishes a striking picture of the Irish character, as it appears in the lower ranks throughout the middle and southern parts of the country. His manner of exhibiting the national character, by means of a great assortment of wellchosen facts, and short conversations, gives a much more lively representation than any formal philosophic work, composed chiefly of general observations. At the same time, it will not be unjust to remark, that only a very small portion of toil and reflection is necessary for executing such a work. Writing travelling memoranda was a pleasant employment of many intervals and evenings, which would otherwise have been unoccupied and tedious; and, to form a volume, the author had not much more to do than revise these memoranda, and add certain extracts from old and new books, with a few calculations and general statements. The book is such an enumeration of particulars, and series of short sketches, as a philosopher would wish to obtain in order to deduce, by abstracting the essence. of the whole mixture, a comprehensive character of the people and the country. It is like an irregular heap of materials

which the artist must melt together, in order to cast one complete and well proportioned figure.

It will be obvious to the readers of this volume, that the Irish people have a national character widely different from that of the English. And it will be the utmost want of candour, we think, to deny that they are equal to any nation on the earth, in point of both physical and intellectual capability. A liberal system of government, and a high state of mental cultivation, would make them the Athenians of the British empire. By what mystery of iniquity, or infatuation of policy, has it come to pass, that they have been doomed to unalterable ignorance, poverty, and misery, and reminded one age after another of their dependance on a protestant power, sometimes by disdainful neglect, and sometimes by the infliction of plagues. The temper of our traveller is totally the reverse of any thing like querulousness or faction; but he occasionally avows, both in sorrow and, in anger, the irresistible impression made, by what he witnessed, on an honest, and we believe we may say generous mind. He clearly sees that the lower order of the people, whatever might be their disposition, have in the present state of things absolutely no power to redeem themselves from their deplorable degradation. Without some great, and as yet unattempted, and perhaps unprojected, plan for the relief of their pressing physical wants, they may remain another century in a situation, which a Christian and a philanthro pist cannot contemplate without a grief approaching to horror. Their popery and their vice will be alleged against them; if the punishment is to be that they shall be left in that condition wherein they will inevitably continue popish and vicious still, their fate is indeed mournful; vengeance could hardly prompt a severer retribution. Mr. Carr approves of the Union, and faintly expresses his hope that great benefits may yet result from it; but plainly acknowledges that a very different system of practical administration must be adopted, before Ireland can have any material cause to be grateful for this important

measure.

(To be continued.)

Art. II. The Principles of Surgery, in 2 volumes, royal 4to. Vol. I. Of the Ordinary Duties of the Surgeon, with Reference to Wounds, Ulcers, and Fistulas; Aneurisms and Wounded Arteries, Fractures of the Limbs, and the Duties of the Military and Hospital Surgeon. pp.674. Price 47. 4s. 1801. Vol. II Part I. The Operation of Lithotomy and the Diseases of the Urethra. Part II. The Anatomy and Pathology of the Scull and Brain, &c. &c. pp. 840. By John Bell, Surgeon. 1805. Frice 51. 5s. Longman and Co. Cadell and Co. ANY publication from the pen of this writer, must excite, in a very high degree, our regard and attention.

Accu

rate and unwearied in his investigations, he may safely claim, for the principles which he teaches, that respect which is seldom extended to the instructions of an individual, till they have been sanctioned by long and general experience. His inquiries have not been instituted merely for his own improvement and advantage, but expressly to furnish the student with just and rational ideas of that science, on the true knowledge to which, so frequently depends, the removal of the most distressing afflictions of human life.

In these interesting and excellent volumes the principles of surgery are not only laid down with judgement, but illustrated by appropriate histories and practical observations: hence the most useful precepts are deduced; and are delivered with that impressive energy, which lessons so important demand from talents so eminent.

The exhortations contained in the preliminary discourse, on the education and duties of a surgeon, should be seriously perused by every student of surgery, that he might enter upon his profession deeply and indelibly impressed with a sense of the solemn duties which it incurs.

This useful discourse is followed by a history of the doctrines of adhesion. Here we soon recognised the features of a much valued old acquaintance, and discovered that the ground work of the present volume is laid in a former publication of Mr. Bell,-the Discourses on Wounds, which we have ever considered as one of the most valuable works on the subject. To give a systematic view of this discussion would be inconsistent with our plan; we must content ourselves with placing before our readers, in a summary manner, and detached form, some of the more important and useful obser

vations.

Skin adheres to skin, bone to bone, &c. but cartilage will not adhere. It does not inflame, ulcerate, nor generate new flesh; or at least, but very slowly. A wound heals over cartilage; but no union takes place with it.-Re-union should be attempted if the part hangs by the smallest portion of flesh. In deep muscular wounds, stitches should be used with the utmost caution; regard being had to the proportion between the length and depth of the wound. The more complicate the case, the more eager should be the endeavour for re-union.— The needle not to be used in parts much lacerated or bruised, as in gun-shot wounds, except to support a flap, &c. Poultices not to be too long employed, lest they relax the parts unnecessarily, and protract the formation of matter. In injured limbs, deep seated abscesses to be sought for and opened early, by small but deep openings: the union of the sides of the cavitics being obtained by the proper application of rollers and com.