Lufitanian friends; and it is to be feared that in many particulars, the author, or authors [for we fufpect a plurality of writers -the name given in the title having the appearance of a nompoftiche, to conceal the real origin of these volumes], come very near the truth: though not a few of them feem rather outrés. The characters, or pictures, may have some resemblance, though certain parts may be over-charged, or revengefully caricatured; or, the amiable fide may have been carefully concealed, while the deformities are expofed to our derifion and abhorrence. We all know how easy it is to enlarge any feature that is already of remarkable prominence, or to deepen the colouring, where the complexion is naturally dark. Had the gentlemen been liberal enough to point out the proper remedies to thofe diforders which they are fo induftrious to difplay, and which they, poffibly, in fome inftances may have magnified; it might have helped to cover, or excufe, the appearance of prejudice, which may be deemed rather too predominant throughout this publication. The holding out to public view, private names and characters, together with confidential converfations, is a moft mifchievous kind of writing, and worthy of the fevereft reprehenfion; especially when an author's prudence and caution induce him to conceal his name. Anonymous reporters of facts may think themselves at liberty to difguife, conceal, or exaggerate, as they please; but what credit can the Public afford to their reprefentations? to whom fhall the doubtful apply for an explanation? and, above all, where fhall the injured character refort for redrefs? The cafe is different with refpect to matters of opinion; for those are eternal fubjects of controverfy. In a word, the conduct here reprehended, is fuch as manifeftly tends to ruin the liberty of the prefs, and drive the lettered world back to barbarifm !

The writer of this article has fome actual knowlege of Portugal, and other parts of Europe; concerning which he has often met with the very queftionable reprefentations of thofe difappointed adventurers with which many nations abound. In most countries, indeed, we generally find, among the strangers occafionally refiding, or even thofe that are fettled there, the most difcontented people,-ever ready to give unfavourable accounts of the country, and of thofe governments under which they, after all, enjoy protection. But how much eafier is it to do harm than good, to pull down than to build,-to kill than to cure!

The Letters under confideration muft, however, have justice rendered to them.-Notwithstanding the intermixture of romantic ftories and love-adventures, which give to a book of travels too much of the air of a novel, they contain a very confiderable portion of ufeful and pleafing information: we here refer, particularly, to the hiftorical and travelling anecdotes, which may

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affift us in forming juft ideas of the country and people defcribed; and though thefe details may not be always ftrictly true; though the sketch may not afford a very exact refemblance ; yet they are better than no drawing at all.-In the delineation given, in thefe Letters, of civil and ecclefiaftical tyranny, it was impoffible to exaggerate. Thefe evils, fo deftructive to human happiness, the bane of every society in which they prevail, are truly and justly prefented to our abhorrence; though the remedy here pointed out, by a code of laws, or by the reduction of the kingdom of Portugal to a Spanish province, might prove very inadequate ;-and the latter would be certainly worse than the disease.

The Letters afford us likewife very good pictures of Portuguefe life and manners; though, in many inftances, the portraiture feems confiderably over-charged,-the outline caricatured, and the colouring too much heightened: the amiable fide of a character is, we apprehend, too frequently forgotten in the defcription; and perhaps the merits of many of their gentlemen and officers may have been fometimes overlooked. Among both thefe claffes, we know that there are not wanting individuals as truly eftimable, in respect of principles and conduct, as any in Europe.

But fome fpecimen will be expected, in which the work may fpeak for itself. The following paffages are felected from the account of the prefent ftate of Portugal, with reference to matters both ecclefiaftical and political.

This little country prefents a ftriking inftance of how far the hu man mind and character may be depraved and corrupted, by the baneful influence of a domineering and fictitious mode of worship, which has entirely banished and fuppreffed every fentiment of virtue, or almost any attempt towards the goodness of a moral action, which (to ufe fuch an expreffion) can with difficulty be committed here without being cenfured by the active and dangerous fpies and minifters of a jealous and worthlefs religion. Here the practice and exercife of thofe fentiments of piety, gratitude, generofity, benevolence, and univerfal charity, which I am perfuaded would often arife naturally in the breafts of moft men, if only left to them, felves, are diverted, and another and moft pernicious direction is given to their effects. The ardour of the pious and devout is directed to adore at the fhrine of the Saint in the neighbourhood, moft famous for having performed fome wretched miracle, too ridiculous to detain the attention even of an old woman or an infant, and it is here also where Generofity and Gratitude are taught to leave their prefents and make their offerings. The first and great object of charity all over this country and Spain, is the relieving of the fouls in Purgatory, by lavishing money on Churches and Convents, for Maffes to be faid on that account; and fuch an influence has the belief of that ideal place of torment, that it will fqueeze hard cash from between the fingers of many a mifer, when

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no other confideration could have produced that effect; nay, fo depraved are the understandings of the beft intentioned people, by the perverfe leffons of their fpiritual directors, that their charitable donations to perfons in diftrefs, are unaccompanied with thofe liberal and difinterested motives of relieving the neceffitous and comforting the afflicted, which are, in my opinion, the beft ftimulatives to fuch actions, and are divefted of their principal merit, by being bestowed from selfish and perfonal confiderations: for as the interceffions of others, especially of perfons who have once addrefs enough to be looked on by the multitude as of extraordinary fanctity, are reckoned of the greatest avail, fo wherever fuch a perfon or perfons appear, they are frequented by all the people round, whofe confciences accufe them of any deadly vices or irregularities, who load fuch devotees with alms and charitable gifts, charging them at the fame to intercede earnestly in their favour with the Virgin, or with their particular Saint or Angel; and the prayers of fuch perfons are esteemed by all as of the most falutary effect: even in many forms of private prayers which the grave directing Fryars prefcribe for the use of their penitents, thefe are taught to reprefent to their Saint, or to the Divinity (if they addrefs him, which feldom happens), their own good works, the charities they have done, or the fickness, disorders and afflictions they have fuffered, and to request that, in confideration of thefe, fo much may be discounted from the degree of punishment their fins may be found to deferve, eftablishing, by this means, a fort of account current of debtor and creditor, between themselves and the Almighty or his agents. And fo univerfal is this notion among the people, that when they give charity to a common beggar in the ftreets, they charge that beggar to pray for them, that fuch charity may be admitted in difcount of their tranfgreffions, and which you may believe the beggar faithfully engages to do.

Thus by the illiberal and noxious principles of the religion eftablished in this peninfula, the divine fpirit of godlike charity itfelf is ftripped of its brighteft ornament; I mean, the folacing and delightful confideration of relieving the diftreffed part of our fellowcreatures, and of embracing all our brethren of mankind in the arms of friendship and affection, without the fmallest regard to the mean and degrading notions of felf-interefted motives or intentions.―――――

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The nature of this Government may be fairly pronounced the moft defpotic of any kingdom in Europe; and I believe I have hinted to you in former epiftles, that the established law is generally a dead letter, excepting where its decrees are carried into execution by the fupplementary mandates of the Sovereign, which are generally employed in defeating the purposes of fafety and protection, which law is calculated to extend equally over all the fubjects.

Confidering the incredible degree of ignorance in which the Sovereign Princes of Portugal have been educated, at least ever fince the rash and unfortunate King Sebaftian, confidering the fingular degree of imbecility, and want of talents, which have fo remarkably ditinguished the reigning family of Bragança, from the first King.

Don John the Fourth (who would not have dared to accept the Crown his people held out to him, had not his wife, a high-fpirited Spaniard, urged him on to that act of rebellion against her native country), to the prefent moment, in which any hopes of bettering their fituation, by the favourable profpect of the future, are fadly precluded, by the difpofition of the Heir Apparent, the prefent Prince of the Brafils, not to fay a word of the two Royal Perfonages who actually fill the throne, and with the utmost defpotifm reign over, and have three millions of people fubmit to their weak government:

I will take upon me roundly to affirm, that no caufe purely of this world, could have ever been able to produce fuch a monftrous effect, and that it became neceffary to have recourfe to the terrors of the next, in order to rivet the chains of defpotifm and abfolute power.

In fuch a fituation of Prince and people, how happy were it for this nation, were there to be found in it a certain rank of citizens, privileged by their profeffion, and refpectable to the Defpot himself, who fhould intercede in behalf of their oppreffed fellow-fubjects, who fhould, on the part of Heaven, reprimand his infolence, and ftipulate with him for the injured rights of mankind? Such a noble and godlike employment appears to belong particularly to that profeffion of men, who here fo infolently give them felves out as the depofitaries of the divine Oracles, and the difpenfers of the precepts of a juft and terrible God. How would fuch men be adored by their countrymen, fo much prejudiced in their favour, even as things now ftand, were they but to ferve them as a fhield and safeguard againft the tyranny and oppreffion of the Prince? What real and voluntary refpect would they not have foon acquired, if, instead of feeding their audiences with froth, ufelefs reveries, dreams, and the unavailing [repetition of fenfelefs and impoffible miracles, their numerous preachers were vigorously to infift from the pulpit upon the beauty and neceffity of charity, humanity, equity and justice, and if they were to fecond and fupport the rights of mankind by the mandates of Heaven, from whence they pretend to derive fuch unlimited authority then no man would ever think of reproaching them with the exorbitancy of their power, their prerogatives, or riches, were they to make use of them for the good of fociety, and for the purpofe of reftraining the paffions of thofe mercilefs tyrants, which no power on earth has yet been able to keep within bounds: even the philofopher himfelf might be induced to forgive them their dreams, their fables, and the falfehood of their dogmas, did they but make ufe of them to terrify into a fenfe of their duty thofe Princes, whom ignorance, joined to the uncurbed force of all the noxious paffions, keeps with regard to the knowledge of good government in a state of perpetual infancy.

But the uniform experience of all nations is more than fufficient to convince the greateft fceptic that fuch was never the difpofition of the Priesthood, and that the Church has always found it the shortest and eafieft road to riches, power, and independence, by flattering the vices of the tyrant of the day or place, by joining the fpiritual to the temporal power, and by trampling thus united upon the rights of the people, fo that the interefts of defpifed humanity have been bafely facrificed to the unbounded avarice and ambition of civil and ecclefiaftical tyranny."

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From the free and liberal fentiments interfperfed in the foregoing extracts, our Readers will be enabled to form a judgment of the Writer's general opinions on thefe important fubjectsSubjects fo highly interefting to every reader, and every citizen, of whatever country, whether Chriftian, Mohammedan, of Hindoo. G.

ART. III. A Syftem of Surgery. By Benjamin Bell, Member of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Ireland and Edinburgh, &c. &c. Vol. VI. Illuftrated with Copper-plates. 8yo. 6s. 6d. Boards. Elliot, Edinburgh; Robinfons, London. 1788.

T length we are able to congratulate the Public, but more especially the ftudents in furgery, on the completion of a work, which will afford them almost every neceffary affiftance in obtaining a competent knowlege of the theory and practice of the art. We would not, however, be understood to mean that Mr. Bell's Surgery is the only book that will be neceffary for the ftudent: much previous reading, and above all, a confiderable fhare of anatomical knowlege, will be abfolutely requifite, not only to perufe the work with advantage, but even, in many inftances, to comprehend the meaning of the ingenious Author.

The extent of the art, and the improvements that have lately been made, both at home and abroad, have neceffarily increafed the bulk of this fyftem, perhaps more than the Author at firft imagined; on which account, he hath moft probably omitted minute anatomical defcriptions;-rightly fuppofing his readers to be well grounded in a fcience which is the only foundation of the practice of furgery, and without which little proficiency. can be made in it.

This last volume begins with the 39th chapter of the work; in which the Author treats of Fractures. After fome obfervations on the fymptoms, nature, and treatment of fractures in general, Mr. Bell proceeds to confider the fractures of different bones, and fhews, in addition to what he advanced in common, how each is to be treated with respect to its particular fituation, and the peculiar circumftances with which it is attended.

In the general directions for reducing fractures of the limbs, Mr. Bell thews the great impropriety of violent extenfions, especially when they are applied while the limb is on the ftretch. He rightly obferves, that the chief refiftance met with in reducing a fractured limb, arifes from the action of the neighbouring mufcles; and that if the limb be put in fuch a fituation, that its mufcles may be as much as poffible relaxed, the reduction will then be performed with the greateft cafe. For