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to a difeafe, only under the head of one of its symptoms, without any general account of its origin, progrefs, diagnostics, or method of cure, cannot be reckoned fuch a mention of it as can answer any practical purpofe, we prefume every candid Reader will acknowledge; if, therefore, our expreffion was too vague, our cenfure, how ever, was not unjust.

The charge of a tendency towards empiricifm, which we inferred from the recommendation of certain trivial or injudicious remedies (as they appeared to us) feems peculiarly offenfive to Dr. A. and he thinks it unmerited, because he has not attempted to make a fes cret of any of his medicines. Bet furely the Doctor must know that this term has properly no particular reference to fecrecy or conceals ment in the method of treatment; but to practising by rote, or from blind imitation, in contradiflinction to a rational investigation of the nature of difeafes, and the operation of remedies. We meant not to infinuate that Dr. A.'s mode of prefcribing was in general liable to this imputation to a faulty degree; we exprefsly gave our opinion of the contrary: but we thought, and fill think, that in the in ftances adduced by us, there was fufficient foundation for the charge.

Our cenfure of the Doctor's plan of treatment in the cure of the chincough, as confufed and perplexed, is regarded by him only as a proof of our own inattention or dullness; and he adduces the approbation of many of his medical friends by way of refutation. That a fhew of precifion and regularity in the plan, as it appears upon paper, may be made out, we do not deny, but that it must very generally be attended with confufion in the attempt to execute it, we are convinced from our own experience.

On the whole, we are not confcious of the leaft unfriendly or uncandid difpofition towards Dr. A. for whose work we, in fact, have teftified more than ufual esteem. Where we have taken the liberty to cenfure, we ourfelves are under the cenfure of the Public; to which, in the dernier refert, both Author and Reviewer must appeal.

A.

G. Y. (Dublin) in his obliging letter of January the 20th, pays us too great a compliment-As to his with that Dr. Kennicott would publish his verfion of the Bible, in the detached manner hinted at by our Correfpondent, we apprehend that no periodical mode of publication would, at preíent, appear expedient to the learned Tranflator.

ERRATA in the Review for January.

P. 72, 1. 8, for its forms and conflitutions, read the forms and conftitutions of our Church.

-83. In the title of Art. 36, for Theorie, r. Theorie, without the accent over the last letter; and, in the fame title, supply the wanting in manceuvre.

84, Art. 38, 1, 5 from the bottom of that Article, for abborrent, 1. abhorrent.

ERRATA in our laft APPENDIX. P 525, 1. 3, del. which.

-

531, par. 2, 1. 4, for they contain, r. though they contain. ·541, 1. 3, for concerning the phlogiston, r. concerning phlogiston.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For MARCH, 1778.

ART. I. The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland. By Jofeph Nicolfon, Efq; and Richard Burn, LL. D. 4to. 2 Vols. 21. 2 s. Boards. Cadell. 1777.

T is always with pleasure that we obferve the cultivation of provincial hiftory; which is productive of many advantages. The circumftantial evidences it naturally affords, are fo many illuftrations of national hiftory. The defcent of families, and of property, not only becomes better and more generally known, but obtains a permanency which muft otherwife have been loft. The manners, and even the language, of different ages, in diftinct provinces, are difcovered in ancient writings and records. We fee the various effects of climate, commerce, fituation, and tenure, the influence that learning has on the progrefs of civility, and the contrary confequences of the want of it. Few perfons are to be found in Weftmorland, who cannot both read and write. Hence the people, in general, are civilifed, and of an humane and hofpitable difpofition. This is owing to the number of free schools eftablished by various benefactions from families of the nobility and gentry, and many from thofe of the yeomanry, who had property in thefe counties. Few villages are to be found in thofe parts, that have not fome inftitution of this kind, and the children of the ordinary hufbandmen are often acquainted with fop and Corderius before they go to the plough. Very different is the effect, where thefe establishments are unknown. Even in Oxfordshire, the metropolitical county of fcience, are fome parishes, where not three of the inhabitants are able to write their names: hence the manners of the people are not more respectable than their knowledge.

Prefixed to this Hiftory is an introductory account of the ancient ftate of the borders; and, indeed, the two counties which are the fubject of it were fo connected with the border-laws VOL. LVIII.

N

and

and fervices that fuch an account seemed neceffary. It is much more accurate and explicit than the Border-History, noticed in our Review, vol. Iv. p. 417.

Among the border-laws is the following remarkable lenient one against perjury:

And confidering how that perjury ufed upon the Borders moft commonly is the root and ground of the hindrance and perverting of all justice, and the occafion and caufe of great diforders; it is agreed and ordered, that if any of the fubjects of either realm acquit himself by his oath taken in form of law before the wardens or their deputies, and after be tried and found foul and guilty of the fame bill whereof he fo acquitted himself by his oath, and thereupon fhall appear plainly perjured to both the faid wardens: then, over and above the juft reward and recompence of the party grieved, the faid perjured perfon fhall be attached and taken by the warden of the Marche where he inhabiteth, and delivered to the warden of the oppofite realm, to be punished as a grievous offender by ftrait imprisonment during the fpace of three months; and at the next day of trewes, and after the faid three months ended, the faid offender fhall be brought before the wardens or their deputies, and there openly be denounced and proclaimed a perjured man; after which time, he fhall not be reputed to be a man able to give further faith or teftimony in any cafe or matter.'

When it is confidered that both life and property lie frequently at the mercy of an oath, it will be thought, perhaps, that neither three months imprisonment, nor even the present mode of punishment affigned to perjury are fufficiently penal.

The following anecdote is remarkable, and the more curious, as we find but flight mention of it in history:

In the reign of Henry the Eighth, Sir Thomas Wharton (afterwards Lord Wharton) became eminent and in high trust with the king as a most active and vigilant warden of the Marches. He first fignalized himself when deputy warden of the Weft Marches under the Lord Scroop, in the memorable rencounter at Sollom [Query Solway?] Mofs, of which there is fcarce a parallel in history. Being then governor of Carlifle, he (together with Sir William Musgrave) with 300 horfemen [according to the common account, but from the fragments of a letter hereafter following they feem to have been 1400 horfe and foot] attacked an army of 15,000 Scots, and with very little refiftance took prifoners almost every perfon of distinction in the Scotch army, with Ɛoo common foldiers, and all their baggage and artillery. The reafon was, the Scots being difgufted that Oliver Sinclair the king's favourite and an upftart was made commander in chief, would not fight under him. Hiftorians fay, that the Scots fled, because they fuppofed Wharton's men to be the van of the duke of Norfolk's army coming against them. But molt probably, Wharton had some private intimation from the Scots of what they intended; otherwife his enterprife would not have been courage but madness. It broke the Scotch king's heart, and he died within a month, leaving his infant daughter Mary.'

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There is a remarkable fimilarity, not in the event but in the circumftances of this and the late affair of General Burgoyne's in America. We have been informed that the Provincial General had the greatest difficulty to keep his men together, and that if Mr. Burgoyne had carried his menace, of giving no quarter, only to the threshold of execution, few of the enemy would have ftood.

Nothing can give us a more interefting idea of the happiness confequent on the union of the two crowns than the miferics of the times preceding it:

In the next year, in a forray made by the earl of Hertford, between 8th and 23d of September 1545, the fum total of mischief is thus fet down:

• Monafteries and friar houfes, burnt or deftroyed

Caftles, towers, and piles

• Market towns

• Villages

• Milns

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• Hospitals

7

16

5

243

13

3

The meffengers between the English government and the lords wardens of the Marches, muft, if one may conjecture from the ufual fuperfcription on their dispatches, have had no very comfortable appointments: The Lord Protector, to the Lord Dacre.'

To our very good Lord, the Lord Dacre, Warden of the Weft Marches, for anempft Scotland, in hafte, hafte, poft hafte, for thy Life, for thy Life, for thy Life.' The following obfervations, which conclude the account of the ftate of the Borders, are worthy of attention:

From this period, hoftilities in the Borders have by degrees fubfided; and as the then generation, which had been brought up in rapine and mifrule, died away, their pofterity on both fides have become humanized; the arts of peace and civil policy have been cultivated; and every man lives fafe in his own poffeflions; felonies and other criminal offences are as feldom committed in thefe parts, as in most other places of the united kingdom; and their country, from having been the outskirt and litigated boundary of both kingdoms, is now become the center of his majesty's British dominions

Nevertheless, the old wounds have left fome fears behind. Much common and wafle ground remains, which will require a length of time to cultivate and improve. The churches near the Borders are many of them in a ruinous condition, and very meanly endowed.

There is now remaining only one fpecies of theft peculiar to the borders and that is, where a man and woman fleal each other. They haften to the Borders. The kindred of one fide or the other fometimes rife, and follow the fray. But the parties fugitive moft commonly outstrip them; pafs over into the oppofite Marche, without any hoftile attempt; get lovingly married together, and return home in peace,'

In many of the parishes there is not fo much as an houfe for the incumbent to live in, and in fome parishes no church. And fome defects there are in the civil ftate, which nothing but the legislature can fupply. Whilst the laws of marche fubfifted, criminal offences were fpeedily redreffed by the power of the lords wardens or their deputies; and after the abolition of the laws of marche, the said offences were redressed by fpecial commiffioners appointed for the Borders: And matters of property of any confiderable confequence were most commonly determined in the court at York for the Northern parts. The judges in their circuit came only once in the year, and fometimes much feldomer. They ftill come only once in the year into the bordering counties; which caufes determinations of civil rights to be dilatory, and confines criminals (or perhaps innocent persons) in prifon fometimes near a twelvemonth before they can come to their trial.'

In the hiftory of Westmorland, we meet with the following very pertinent and juft obfervations on population and the land

tax :

It is a vulgar mistake, that this county paid no fubfidies during the existence of the border fervice, as fuppofing it to be exempted from fuch payment merely upon that account. For we find all along fuch and fuch perfons collectors of the fubfidies in this county, granted both by clergy and laity. The LAND TAX fucceeded into the place of fubfidies; being not fo properly a new tax, as an old tax by a new name. From the reign of Edward the Third downward, certain fums and proportions were fixed upon the feveral townships within the refpective counties, according whereunto the taxation hath conftantly been made t. In procefs of time this valuation may be fuppofed to have become unequal, especially fince by the increase of trade and manufacture in fome large towns much wealth is accumu. lated within a small compafs, the tax upon fuch division continuing

+ In Cumberland, the manner of laying public taxes and affeffments is fomewhat peculiar, by a rate called the Purvy; which originally was a compofition in money for the king's purveyance, or providing for his houthold, when he went on a progrefs into different parts of the kingdom. In fome places it was paid in cattle, or other provifions in kind: Hence in Lancashire they have a manner of laying affeffments ftill called ox-lay. Against king James's return out of Scotland through the county of Cumberland in September 1617, the juflices of the peace were ordered to compound for the king's purveyance at the rate of 108 1. or thereabouts; which fum being laid through the whole county, became afterwards a rule for laying most of the other affeffments, calling it one purvey when_108 1. was raifed, two purveys when 216 1. was raifed, and fo on. In the year 1665, for the morc eafe and convenience, the purvey was fixed at the precife fum of 1001.; fo that where the fum of 100l. is wanted, it is called one purvey; where zool. two purveys; and fo on; and the fame was proportioned amongst the feveral wards, as it fill continues. Thirty-feven purveys and an half nearly make up one land tax, when the land tax is at 4 s. in the pound. "Flem.'

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