that infidelity has to throw out against our facred books. We read, that at this time the Lord was angry with the people of Bethfhemesh for looking into the ark,' and fmote of them fifty thousand, and threefcore and ten men. Now, fays the infidel, befides the cruelty of fuch a prodigious flaughter, fo unlike a merciful and benevolent Being, it is not probable that there could be fo many men in Bethfhemesh, which is no where mentioned to be a place of much note, or that fuch a vast multitude either could or would have looked into the ark at one time. The confequence is plain; but the whole of this formidable ob. jection is drawn from the tranflations, as indeed moft, if not all, of the cavils of the infidels are; for they do not, perhaps dare not, meddle with the original. The Hebrew order of enume ration, which the LXX. and Jerom have retained, but our tranflators have reverfed, will, with only changing the pofition of one fingle letter, give a better and more natural account. is well known, that for a long time the Hebrew text was neither broken into chapters and verfes, nor into fuch marked diftinctions of fentences, and even words, as our prefent copies bear. It in שבעים איש חמשים אלף איש,This enumeration in Heb. is our letters, foin aih hmbim alp aish, literally as thus dif tinguished, Seventy perfons, fifty thoufand perfons or men:", All I propofe therefore is, to take them from the word mim (which, with it, is fifty,' and without it, five,') and prefix it to the next word alp, thus, hmshi malp aißh, which will make the whole numeration to be, Septuaginta viros, quinque ex mille viris-feventy men, five out of a thoufand men; ftating this laft number as explanatory of the firft; and thereby giving the whole number of the inhabitants of Bethfhemesh to be four. teen thousand, which is both more probable, and more confonant to the history, as it may be thought thefe feventy, the fives of every thoufand, who were thus fmitten, had been the principal men of the place, fo might think themfelves privileged to look into the ark, as Uzziah afterwards thought he was to touch it, (2 Sam. vi. 7), and was in like manner punished for his forwardnefs, I am warranted in this ufe of the prepofition, by other texts where we meet with it in the fame fenfe, as Numb. xxxi. 5. Out of the thousands of Ifrael;' Job. ix. 3. and xxxiii. 23. One of, among, a thoufand;' Ecclef. vii. 28. One man among a thousand.' What I thus offer, is not altering or correcting the text, which I fhall never attempt; it is only correcting, if even that, rabbins and tranflators, which, in fuch an eafy way, and with such a laudable view, will I hope be thought, if not altogether admiflible, at leaft in a great measure excufable." P. 496. The last article in this volume is the version of three Pfalms, the 8th, 25d, and 45th, in Latin elegiac verfe. A. very favourite exercife of his talents, and one which Mr. S. exerted with much felicity, was the compofition of Latin. verfes." verfes. Thefe are even interfperfed among his more ferious works: and the first part of his third volume is entirely given to them. His verfions of the Pfalms have more clearness and facility than thofe of his countryman, Johnfon, with whom alone, from the meafure employed, he can properly be compared. Two of these received the decided approbation of Dr. Doig, of Stirling, whofe encomium we shall here infert. "Verfionem tuam Pfalmi viii, maxima cum voluptate perlegi. Verfuum fuavitate, fententiarum fublimitate, metri concinnitate, latinitatis elegantia, impetu illo poetico, qui totum Pfalmum pervadit, magnopere fum delectatus. Impetu, inquam, illa poetico, quo omnes æquales meos, quorum carmina ad me pervenerint, longe longeque mihi videris fuperare. Pfalmi tui 45, quantò excelfius argumentum tanto majus apparet vis illa poetica qua tantum non omnes fuperas. Epigramma tuum Látinitate ingeniique acumine laudibus meis fuperius judico, ficut et alia tua complura, quæ a fratre tuo, amicoque meo doctiffimo, Domino Gleig*, aliifque aut perlegi aut recitari audivi. Can. ticum tuum Tullochgorianum mihi adeo arridet, ut opufcula mea univerfa unico illo carmine libenter velim permutare." P. cxvi. 66 The most confiderable of the Latin poems, the very ingenious verfion of Chryffe-Kirk on the Green," we praised long ago, while the author of it was unknown to us; in giving an account of a publication entitled "Carminum Rariorum Macaronicorum delectus." (vol. xxiv. p. 196.) The reft are of various, but all of confiderable merit. Mr. Skinner was alfo a poet in English, and in the Scottish dialect; and fome of the latter kind have obtained particular celebrity; as for inftance, "Tullochgorum," "Ewie wi' the crookit horn," "John of Badenyon," &c. Thefe have even received the warm commendation of his friend and brother-poet, Burns. Of the firft of these he has faid: "This first of fongs is the masterpiece of my old friend Skinner. He was paffing the day at the town of Cullen, I think it was, [Ellon he should have faid,] in a friend's house, whose name was Montgomery. Mrs. M. obferving, en passant, that the beautiful Reel of Tullochgorum, wanted words, the begged them of Mr. Skinner, who gratified her wishes, and the wishes of every lover of Scottish song, in this moft excellent ballad." A good deal of interefting correfpondence with Dr. (now Bishop) Gleig, appears in the memoirs of Mr. S. + Except indeed the Latin verfion of the Batrachomyomachia, which has been greatly admired. With an inexhaustible verfatility of talent, he afterwards wrote a mock Latin ode, in the fame metre as his Scotch Tullochgorum. It is entitled "Ode Horatiana metro Tul. lochgormiano," and begins thus: "O Scriptor admirabilis, Quos tangit eloquentiæ vis, Quos alma Mater jactitat, Doctiffime Doctorum." Vol. 111. p. 19. We here take leave of this worthy, venerable, and very pleafing character. To his merits we bear a willing teftimony; and recommend to our readers, according to their taftes or ftudies, to make themselves acquainted with them. ART. III. A Narrative of a Three Years' Refidence in France, principally in the Southern Departments, from the Year 1802 to 1805: including foms authentic Particulars reSpecting the early Life of the French Emperor, and a general Inquiry into his Character. By Anne Plumptre. In Three Vols. 8vo. 8vo. 11. 11s. 6d. Mawman, &c. &c. 1810. WE have long wifhed for leifure and opportunity to pay our refpects to this our Frenchified countrywoman. We were well aware that the fchool in which we know the was formerly a difciple, namely, that of the notorious Mifs Helen Maria Williams, was of that kind, in which the best principles muft incur the danger of contamination, if not of total corruption. But we could hardly fuppofe, that the moft violent prejudices could fo far predominate, or perverfenefs of intellect fo far prevail, that an English woman fhould be found gravely and deliberately fitting down, to fee nothing good and amiable, found or wife, in the manners and inflitutions of her country, whenever brought into competition with that of revolutionized France. Will any reader reader believe, that a female native of England, an individual of refpectable connections, good education, and by no means contemptible abilities fhould be found, who can not only palliate, but justify the most atrocious proceedings of the French and their tyrant; but who can with a certain degree of fubtlety explain away the most reprehenfible acts of the French Government, and who volunteers the defence of thofe acts of Bonaparte, which have excited the aftonishment and provoked the indignation of mankind. Mrs. or Mifs Plumptre for having been domiciliated in France, fhe has probably the opportunity of accepting either appellation, can fee nothing wrong in the murder of the Duke D'Enghien, whilst the ill-ftarred expedition to Copenhagen merits every difgufling mark of reprehenfion. It is hardly worth while to be minutely, circumftantial, but after a careful perufal of these volumes we are compelled to obferve, with a mixture of indignation and regret, that whereever a comparison is made between the manners, circumftances, and individuals of France and England, the latter is of no confideration in the balance. Even Robespierre is mild; Bonaparte magnanimous, clement, far from irritable, indeed all that is good, wife, great, and amiable. A few atrocious facts and incidents are, indeed, allowed to have taken place in the tumult and confufion unavoidable from a revolution; but how could it be otherwife? For with a few real patriots, "there were many who were actuated only by a defire of feeing every thing thrown into anarchy and confufion." It is fomewhat extraordinary, that this flippant lady could allow even fo much as this. It is really, in our opinion, much to be lamented, that Mrs. or Mifs Plumptre did not ftay in France to enjoy all these transcendent bleflings which fo elevate that country in the scale of happiness and profperity beyond her own. Her delights commence immediately on her arrival at Calais. Mengaud forfooth, the Commiffary of the Police, notorious for his infolence and ill-treatment of Englishmen and their familjes, behaved to Mrs. or Mifs P. with civility and respect. But he was the companion of a Frenchman. and his wife, and was in all probability fo effectually Frenchified, that he never imagined that the could be an Englishwoman. One of her firft impreffions with refpect to Bonaparte was, that he was a religious man!!!! which she believed, and of courfe ftill believes. The lively lady is impatient to begin her comparifons between delightful France and odious England, and, as before obferved, the latter finks perpetually perpetually in the comparison. Shakespeare is ftupid and dull; Westminster Abbey is nothing compared with the Museum of French monuments; the views from the dome of St. Paul's contemptible with those from a certain part of Paris, &c. &c. Then again, the poor King of France and his Queen were, of course, the one contemptible, the other profligate; every anecdote, without queftion of its authenticity, told to the difrepute of either, circumftantially detailed and religioufly believed; whilft doubt, and distrust, and scorn attach to every thing related in their vindication. To fum up the whole, Bonaparte is the god of this Mrs. or Miss Plumptre's idolatry; he it is who has rendered the French happy; France, and every thing French, is the standard by which this lively lady measures all excellence, virtue, wifdom, found policy, and good manners. We are truly forry to fee this; but having expreffed our diflike and difapprobation, we are not reluctant to acknow ledge, that thefe volumes will fill be found very entertaining; a multitude of interefting anecdotes occur, which were certainly communicated from the most undoubted authority; the lady is obfervant, well-informed, properly inquifitive, and by no means without fagacity. We therefore, as a inatter of juftice, fubjoin one or two fpecimens for the reader's amusement. "An English lady and her fon, with whom I had become acquainted at Paris, had one day made a party with Monf. and Madame B and myfelf, to go and fee the Jardin des Plantes, and the manufactory of the Gobelins' tapestry, which is at a very short distance. As they lie in a quarter of the town remote from that which we inhabited, we agreed to dine at the garden, and walk home in the cool of the evening. All that we had planned for the day was done, and we were about fetting out on our return home, when looking cross the river at the fpot where the Baftille once ftood, and which was directly oppofite to us, our Anglaife faid that, though she had been fome months at Paris, fhe had not yet been there, but that it was her intention fome day or other to make a pilgrimage thither. And why delay this to another time? we faid: it was but croffing the water, and we could then return home by the North Boulevards; our walk, it was true, would by thefe means be fomewhat lengthened, but the route would be much pleaíanter, and as the evening was very fine, fuch an extenfion of our walk would be far from difagreeable. "This was no fooner propofed than unanimously agreed to, and we accordingly embarked without delay to crofs the river. A a BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXIX. APRIL, 1812. As |