having exceeded his regal prerogative, he can no longer take shelter under the political maxim, "That a king can do no wrong," as he has forfeited the title, by violating the compact which confirmed it to him, and cannot thereafter be considered as a public character.' Lecture 8. expressly treats of the Prerogatives and Obligations of the King. Lecture 9. considers the Rights and Pri vileges of British Subjects, with the Duty which they owe to their King and Country; and Lecture 10. sketches the accomplishments which are requisite to form a Constitutional Member of the British Imperial Parliament. Six Lectures occur in the course on Finance. The 1st is an historical account of the nature of Antient Revenues, and of the origin of Taxes. The 2d treats of the nature and extent of the Public Credit and Funding System of Great Britain. The 3d exhibits the progress of the National Debt. 5 6 of the Sinking Fund. of Taxation in general, and states the amount of the National Debt to the year 1801. The course of lectures on Finance ought to have been more minutely explanatory; and perhaps, if the author should be encouraged to print a new edition, he would in various places improve his work, and render it still more deserving of public patronage, ART. V. An Inquiry into the Structure and animal Occonomy of the Horse. Comprehending the Diseases to which his Limbs and Feet are subject; with proper Directions for Shoeing; and pointing out a Method for ascertaining his Age until his twelfth Year. To which is added, An Attempt to explain the Laws of his progressive Motion, on Mechanical and Anatomical Principles. The whole illustrated by eighteen Copper-plates. By Richard Lawrence, Veterinary Surgeon, Birmingham. 4to. PP. 212. il. 11s. 6d. Boards. Wallis, &c. 1801. WE have been much gratified by the perusal of this volume, since it displays an enlarged and accurate view of the subject on which the author professes to treat, without any affectation of technical terms, or of that obscurity which is always the result of half-knowlege, We shall extract, as specimens of the author's style, and of his manner of thinking, the observations on the bad effects of cutting the hair from the horse's heels; an operation, on the exactness of which grooms often pride themselves: So arbitrary is custom, that it frequently occurs that practices are persisted in, which, by a proper investigation, would be found to be most directly contrary to truth. Under this head we may class the foregoing. The common opinion upon this subject is, that the hair harbours dirt, and prevents the legs from being properly cleaned. Under this position, its removal certainly would appear necessary. But when it can be proved that this hair does not harbour dirt, but, on the contrary, prevents its access to the limb, it will be no difficuit task to shew its utility. Nature has cloathed the animal with hair for the obvious purpose of defending the skin. from the contact of the atmosphere. Other membraneous parts, such as the nostrils and the eyes are shielded, with the same intention, by peculiar secreted fluids, which in a state of health constantly cover their surfaces. The inward sur face of the nostrils is kept moist, in order to preserve the sense of smelling; and the outward furface of the eye is kept moist, in order to preserve its transparency... Both of these faculties would be destroyed by the contact of atmospheric air, which, by drying the surface of the nostril, would render it incapable of smelling; and which also, by drying the surface of the eye, would corrugate it, and render it opaque by the multiplicity of refractions which would arise from its irregu larity. As the body is thus defended with hair, it accordingly follows that those parts which would, if they were.naked, be most exposed to water and dirt, are furnished with a greater portion of this covering. Hence the hair on the lower part of the leg is considerably longer than elsewhere. This is sufficiently manifested in horses which are bred in cold marshy soils, such as Holland, Flanders, and many parts of England. If a leg of this description, with the hair on it in its natural state, is examined after passing through the dirtiest roads for several hours, when the hair is divided by the hand to inspect the skin, it will be found that the external part only is wet, whilst the internal part, together with the skin, will have remained perfectly dry and free from dirt. 1 In this state it will be only necessary to wash the dirt off the hair on the outside, and leave it to dry by its own evaporation. On the other hand, if the hair has been cut off close to the heels, both water and dirt will have access to them, and when the pastern bends during progression, a very considerable friction is produced, which must consequently irritate the surface of the skin. When the animal returns from his daily labour, the legs are washed with cold water, and except they are well rubbed with straw or the hand, (a benefit which seldom falls to the lot of ordinary horses,) they are suffered to become dry in a natural way; but whilst this evaporation is going on, the legs are extremely cold for two or three hours, and the skin, being deprived of its own fluid, which it secretes in order to preserve its pliancy, becomes corrugated and inflamed, and swelling of the cellular membrane ensues, with all its bad conse quences.' The The practice of forming the pavement of the stable on an inclined-plane is also supposed by Mr. Lawrence to contribute to this disease, by straining the hind legs.-The observations on Wounds are highly judicious, and ought to be read with attention by every person who is interested in the management of horses. We shall next state the author's account of a common mistake among grooms, which we have seen to be productive of great mischief: Ir is a prevailing opinion amongst grooms, that a horse's wind may be affected by giving him too much water, and under this impression they would (if possible) deprive him of it entirely. In certainly is not prudent to permit the animal to drink very copiously immediately before he is put into motion, as the increased dimensions of the stomach would confine his powers of respiration. But this furnishes no reason why he should not be allowed a sufficient quantity at proper periods. The food which he takes in the stable is perfectly dry, and very different from what he would eat in a state of nature, consequently he will require more fluids for the purposes of digestion. The great consumption of perspirable Buid which the horse experiences during exercise, also renders a proper supply of water absolutely necessary. The imperfect digestion in houses that are thibk-winded produces fermentation and an unnatural heat in the stomach, on: which account borses of this description are more cager for water, and that in proportion.to the privation of it. • IT is customary to water them twice daily, viz. in the morning and in the evening;, the quantity, a pailful, at each time. But it would be much more beneficial to give them half a pailful at four times, instead of double that quantity at twice.' Many judicious rules, are given respecting the Economy of the Stable, which it would afford us pleasure to transcribe: but we have already made sufficient extracts-For the same reason, we must decline, any selections from a chapter with which we were much gratified; that on the Education of the Horse. This book is better written than any treatise of the kind which has come under our notice and the plates, which are engraven from designs made by the author, possess considerable merit. We must observe that the present writer is a different person from our old acquaintance, Mr.John Lawrence; of whose publications on a similar subject we have formerly given ac counts. See M. R. vol, xxiii. N. S. p. 321. and xxx. p. 113. ART. ART. VI. M. Soulavie's Memoirs of the Reign of Louis XVI., [Article concluded from p. 304.] HE latter part of the second, and nearly the whole of the third volume of this work, are intitled to particular attention. In the period of which they treat, the seeds of the revolution were sown; and the administrations of Turgot, Malesherbes, and St. Germain, metamorphosed the government, and placed it on a new foundation, on which it was impossible that it should long stand. It is to the facts here stated, however, that we refer our readers, and not to the author's irrelevant comments, which we could have wished to have been less frequently interposed. We find M. de Malesherbes, so early as 1775, proposing to assemble the Etits Généraux, and insisting on the necessity of the preponderance of the tiers. Volume III. carries on the history of Turgot's ministry, exhibits the state of France at that period, and sketches the cha racters of various prelates, who again address the throne, urging it to persecute the philosophers and the protestants. Here we meet with the singular and extraordinary private history of St. Germain, his advancement to the ministry, his innovating measures, and the effects of those which were adopted by him, Turgot, and Malesherbes; with the downfall of these several ministers. Then follows an interesting account of the different courts of Europe, their policy, their views, schemes, and relations with regard to France and each other, The author ascribes to the leading characters of England au inveterate hatred of France; and he considers Mr. Pitt, in his late measures, as practising the lessons which his father had inculcated on him. The enmity, however, which is thus supposed to have existed in this country against France, certainly respected the House of Bourbon, by whose restless ambition it was provoked; and had the writer been better acquainted with our exminister, and his celebrated father, he would probably not have represented the former as treading in the footsteps of the latter. He next descants on the contest between Great Britain and her colonies, the part taken by France in that unfortunate business, and the motives by which she was actuated. It appears that Louis XVI. was fully sensible of the danger of the measure, but was intimidated into an adoption of it by the representations of M. de Vergennes. We are here presented with the following interesting ac count of the famous secret correspondence, which distinguished the reign of Louis XV. • Cardinal Fleury having brought up Lewis XV. in sentiments of a general mistrust, that he might the more completely engross the ear of the sovereign, induced this prince to have recourse, in the sequel, to the employment of agents in foreign courts, unknown to his ministers of foreign affairs. Such was the origin of a correspondence, which was kept so secret, that many ministers and many mistresses rose to power and sunk again to a private station, without being able to annihilate a system which they incessantly suspected, which, for more than thirty years, tormented them with anxiety, and which was kept up by the king at a great expence in all the European courts, the disbursements being drawn from the treasury of the livre rouge. Lewis XV. spent many millions annually in conducting this enterprise, which was peculiarly his own; delighting himself from time to time to distress and astonish his ministers, in full cocil, by disclosing to them intelligence, which often did not reach them till eight or ten days after; and sometimes directing his embassadors at Vienna, at London, or Berlin, and sometimes the first clerks in his office for foreign affairs, to communicate duplicates of the official dispatches to his secret agency. Lewis XIV. had annually disbursed great sums, to gain to his party, clerks, secretaries and ministers, in foreign courts; sometimes, even the sovereigns themselves. Lewis XV. thought it necessary, during his whole life, to continue this plan; and, while he was directing on the one hand the secret disbursements called for by his minister of foreign affairs, he sometimes directed an expenditure for directly opposite purposes, according to the wants of his private correspondence. From the death of cardinal Fleury, first minister of France, the prince of Conty was appointed to the general direction of this administration, the whole court being in ignorance of his functions.'— He The prince of Conty applied his attention to the adapting this plan to the ancient maxims of France in her forcign concerns. took it therefore for the first basis of his system, to enter into a confidential connexion with Turkey, Sweden, Prussia, and Denmark; and entirely to break the alliance between Austria and Russia. The king was so well satisfied with this plan, and with the correspondences that grew out of it, that the prince of Conty, for a long time, possessed the complete nomination of the embassadors of France, whom he often employed in a triple correspondence; the first, direct and ostensible for the ministers and public officers; the second, a duplicate of the preceding, for the information of the secret agency; and the third, in a much bolder and a less ordinary style, for the king alone.' The perpetual disquietude expressed by the dukes of Choiseul and Aiguillon produced a reciprocal disquietude in the minds of the agents of the secret correspondence. The prince of Conty, therefore, and count Broglio, endeavoured many times to prevail on Lewis XV. fairly to impart this correspondence to his ministers. The king, however, was immoveable and the better to tranquillise his agents, he gave them notice of the intrigues of his ministers against them, every time that he suspected their existence. • Prince |