I know my Life's a Pain, and but a Span;
I know my Senfe is mock'd in ev'ry thing:
And, to conclude, I know myself a Man,
Which is a proud, and yet a wretched thing.

Bellicus, or a Treatife upon the Art of War, under the following Heads, viz. the Choice and Enlifting of Soldiers, Military Difcipline, the Obedience of Soldiers, Marches, Encampments, Battles, Fortreffes, Defence against Surprizes, Attacks by Surprize, Defence of Sieges, Artillery, Baggage and Pioneers, Spies and Guides, Provifions, the Attack of Territories, their Defence, the Means of fecuring Conquefts, the Method of Succouring Allies and Confederates, whether a Prince should head his Army in Perfon, Reputation, the Conduct and Abilities of an Officer, the different Vocations of Officers, from a Commander in Chief down to a Corporal, &c. &c. To which are fubjoined, the prefent Exercife and Evolutions of the British Cavalry and Infantry. By a Veteran Officer. 12mo. 35.

Cooke.

W

HEN the Reader compares the title-page with the price and fize of this volume, he must neceffarily conclude, that these feveral fubjects are treated in a very concife manner. If, indeed, they were all fully and properly handled, there would be no need of any other military book in our language. But to give our Readers an idea of this performance, we will transcribe one entire chapter, which we fhall not felect either for its peculiar merit, or otherwise, but take it random, as an impartial fpecimen of the Author's ftile and manner.

Chap. XV. Of the Attack of States, according to their
Strength and Situation.

After having formed an army, it must be employed either in the conqueft of new poffeffions, or in the defence of old ones. We will begin with the first. A Prince who puts himfelf upon the offenfive, fhould be ftronger than the other <he attacks. The State fhould be in confufion, or he should be called over by a party, otherwife this must be a very rafh and inconfiderate enterprize.

If it is a wide open country he attacks, he should from the beginning endeavour to force the enemy to battle, in ⚫ order to terrify his opponents by the fuccefs of his arms. • If

If it is a close country, furrounded with mountains, or interfected with rivers and ditches, covered with forefts, or • containing many fortreffes, it will be difficult to force them to action. In this cafe, he must go on regularly by fiege, • endeavour at mastering it by degrees.

In order to fucceed upon this plan, he fhould have at leaft two armies, to keep the enemy in awe with one, whilst he acts unconstrainedly with the other; it being very difficult to attempt a fiege, whilft a good army is encamped near him, which may intercept his convoys.

If it be a country the frontiers thereof are difficultly paffed, and there are but few places of entrance, one should be forced before any thing elfe is attempted; and it should afterwards be fortified, in order to fecure a road for provifions, to prevent being in want, when the enemy fhall have carried off all the provifions in their country.

• When a Prince is called in by a faction, it is of great • advantage to him. He is inftructed in the fituation of the country, and gains intelligence of the faults and defects of the fortified places, fo that he has no occafion for Spies, or of being minutely informed of every thing that paffes with the enemy. This faction, however, fhould be treated with great delicacy, to engage it the more to himself, and render it irreconcilable with its own Prince. But when it is perceived this party makes war, refpectfully, that they take measures by halves against thofe they have revolted, they fhould be fufpected, and great precaution taken, before too much confidence in them. Whether they are curbed by the dread of being without refource, in cafe the invader fails, or the fear of not being able to procure reconciliation, each of them is equally dangerous to the affailant, who fhould mistrust that an accommodation will enfue to his prejudice. If, therefore, from the beginning they will not engage to perform fome extraordinary and irremiffible C actions, he fhould not join with them, but upon condition of having undeniable fecurity.

< Those who furrender voluntarily, fhould be treated with great humanity, clemency, and even liberality; and thofe who oppofe, with the utmost feverity. Beneficence to the C one, and refentment to the other, are the only means of enforcing obedience. A city taken by force, and ill treated, or one furrendered upon eafy terms, and favoured, paves the way to a dozen others; on the contrary, a city taken by force, and fpared, or one furrendered voluntarily

and

and illufed, fhuts the gates of all the reft. Hence may be deduced, that a Conqueror fhould keep his word according < to his promife, be it either clement or fevere.'

We dare fay, that fuch of our Readers as are converfant with military books, will have found nothing new in this chapter, except the Author's advice, to treat those cities which make a brave defence, with the utmost feverity. If our notions of the prefent maxims of war are right, thofe towns which make a gallant defence, have a juft claim to our admiration, our praife, and our clemency. The Author mistakes the point, if he fuppofes this to be bad policy; for nothing will more powerfully influence the behaviour of our own people, when it fhall be their turn to defend the places they have conquered, than the recollection of the praifes beftowed, and indulgence fhewn, to fuch of the enemy who defended themselves with intrepidity and refolution.

But, upon the whole, there are very few exceptionable paffages in this book; at the fame time, this great diversity of fubjects are treated in fo general and fuperficial a manner, that we apprehend there is very little inftructtion to be ga thered from them.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. 12mo. 2 vols. 5s. Cooper.

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A con

F Lives and Adventures the public have had enough, and, perhaps, more than enough, long ago. fideration that probably induced the droll Mr. Tristram Shandy to entitle the performance before us, his Life and Opinions. Perhaps alfo, he had, in this, a view to the design he profeffes, of giving the world two fuch volumes every year, during the remainder of his life. Now, adventures worth relating, are not every day to be met with, fo that, in time, his budget might be exhaufted; but his opinions will, in all probability, afford him matter enough to write about, tho' he should live to, the age of Methufalem. Not but that our Author husbands his adventures with great oeconomy, and fows them fo extremely thin, that, in the manner he has begun, his narrative may very well laft as long as he lives; nor, if that be long, and he as good as his word, will his history make an inconfiderable figure among the numerous diminutive tomes of a modern library.

But, indeed, Mr. Shandy feems fo extremely fond of di greffions, and of giving his hiftorical Readers the flip on all occafions*, that we are not a little apprehenfive he may, fome time or other, give them the flip in good earneft, and leave the work before his ftory be finished. And, to say the truth, we fhould, for our own parts, be forry to lose him in that manner; as we have no reafon to think that we shall not be very willing to accompany him to the end of his tale, notwithstanding all his denunciations of prolixity. For, if we were fure he would not ferve us this trick, we have no objection to his telling his ftory his own way, tho' he went as far about to come to the point, as Sancho Pancha himself. Every Author, as the prefent juftly obferves, has a way of his own, in bringing his points to bear; and every man to his own tafte. Did not Dr. Kunaftrokius, that great man, at his leifure hours, take the greateft delight imaginable in combing of affes tails, and plucking the dead hairs out with his teeth, though he had tweezers always in his pocket? Nay, if you come to that, Sir, have not the wifeft of men in all ages, not excepting Solomon himself,-have they not had their hobby-horfes; their running horses, their coins and their cockle-fhells, their drums and their trumpets, their fiddles, their pallets,-their maggots and their butter-flies; and fo long as a man rides his Hobby-horse peaceably and quietly along the King's highway, and neither compels you or me to get up behind him,-pray, Sir, what have either you or I to do with it?' This argument is not to be controverted; for, as he further remarks, De gulibus non eft Difputandum; that is, there is no difputing againft Hobby-horses.

But to the purpofe of our Author's digreffions:-he is not, indeed, the firft who has written a Digreffion in praife of Digreffions; nor are his obfervations on that head, fo learned

We must do Mr. Triftram the Juftice, however, to confefs, that he generally carries his excufe for rambling along with him; and tho he be not always hammering at his tale, yet he is bufy enough: having, in his own words, many Accounts to reconcile; Anecdotes to pick up; Infcriptions to make out; Stories to weave in; ⚫ Traditions to fift; Perfonages to call upon; Panegyrics to paste up at one door; Pafquinades at another;' and fo forth; in fo much that we are apt to believe him, when he protefts he makes all the fpeed he poffibly can. It would not be amifs, however, if, for the future, he paid a little more regard to going ftrait forward, left the generality of his Readers, defpairing of ever feeing the end of their Tourney, fhould tire, and leave him to jog on by himself.

8

and

and profound as thofe of a Swift; they are yet apt enough, and to the purpose.

Digreffions,' fays he,

inconteftably, are the fun-fhine; -they are the life, the foul of reading;-take them out of this book, for inftance, you might as well take the book along with them ;-one cold eternal winter would reign in every page of it; reftore them to the Writer;-he steps forth like a bridegroom,-bids All hail; brings in variety, and forbids the appetite to fail.

All the dexterity is in the good cookery and management of them, fo as to be not only for the advantage of the Reader, but alfo of the Author, whofe diftrefs, in this matter, is truly pitiable: for, if he begins a Digreffion-from that moment, I obferve, his whole work ftands stock-still; -and if he goes on with his main work, then there is an • end of his Digreffion.

This is vile work.-For which reafon, from the beginning of this, you fee, I have conftructed the main work, and the adventitious parts of it, with fuch interfections, and have fo complicated and involved the digreffive and progreffive movements, one wheel within another, that the whole machine, in general, has been kept a-going ;and, what's more, it fhall be kept a-going thefe forty years, if it pleases the fountain of health to blefs me fo long with life and good fpirits.'

Our Readers will probably think the defign of this Author not a little extravagant: but fetting afide the above apprehenfion, we have no reason to fufpect, from his manner, his ever giving it up for want of materials: and, perhaps, they will be of our opinion, when we inform them, that altho' there be fome talk in the two volumes now publifhed, about the misfortune of his being chriftened Triftram, and matters of equal importance fubfequent to his birth, yet the History is not advanced, at the conclufion of the last, so far as to the time in which our Hero firft made his appearance in swaddling cloaths: nor, indeed, can we take upon us to fay, on any good authority, that it will advance fo far as that period in the two next. In fact, the Hero of this Romance is none of those ordinary fort of Knight Errants, whofe adventures are only those of their own feeking; his difafters beginning literally in his non-age; as is proved by the teftimony of his own father; who, we are told, ufed to confefs, with tears in his eyes, that his Triftram's misfortunes began nine months before he came into the world.