troops, a proportionably augmented fubfidy was to be paid; and if arrears were incurred by him on thofe payments, a fatisfactory fecurity, that is, fatisfactory to the company, fhould be exigible.

After the treaty, two feparate and imperative neceffities arofe, to augment the troops ftationary in Oude, for its defence; the one external, the other internal. The danger of a foreign attack was imminent: on the borders of Õude, Monf. Perron commanded a great force of effectively well difciplined Seapoys, under French officers. The fervice of the country called for frequent detachments from our ftationary force there; and none could be made without leaving Lucknow, the rich capital of Oude; almoft the certain reward of an attack. The perfon of the Mogul was in the cuftody of Perron: his own army he called the imperial army. In his name alfo (ftill reverenced by the Mahometans) he would have made war on his revolted vaffal; to whom his own army was hoftile, and with whom, by his own account, his fubjects were disgufted, and he with them. This attack indeed never took place: but while Perron maintained fuch a military pofition, it must have been his object, whatever reasons reftrained him. An increase of the forces ftationed for the defence of Oude, was therefore, on this account, become neceffary.

For this increase there exifted also at the fame time an internal and prefent neceffity, at least equal in degree. The country, although there exifted therein certain nominal courts of juftice, was in an abfolute ftate of anarchy: pillage and maffacre reigned in every part of it. The troops of the feveral diftricts received their pay from the Aumils, or provincial collectors of taxes, who were the great nobles of the country. By the authority they poffeffed over them, they dictated to, or controuled the judgments of, every nominal court of the Nabob, or oppofed its acts by open force. The taxes they demanded were not fixed by any fettled rule: their amount in general was, all that their military followers could by force extort.

To this anarchy and extortion the Marquis Wellesley determined that an end fhould be put. To effect this, it became neceffary, that the army of Oude, undisciplined, hoftile to the Nabob, far worse than ufelefs in an invasion, fhould be disbanded. It was, however, to be apprehended, that they might join the banditti, fcattered over the whole country, and already fo numerous as not to be reduced to order without the appearance of force: and that they would be aided, openly or privately, by the Aumils and Zemindars;

whose

whofe oppreffive power and extorted profits, a reform in the ftate would annihilate. Previous to an attempt at fuch an arduous measure, it would have become neceffary to augment the Britih force in Oude. The augmentation of the fubfidy followed from that of the troops, by the exprefs provifion of the treaty. It had run into great arrears, for which, fecurity fatisfactory to the company was exigible: but there were only three fecurities poffible: that of the na.. tive fhroffs, or bankers, the mortgage of the revenue of a district, or an abfolute ceffion: but the two former were abfolutely invalid, and therefore not fatisfactory: the latter was confequently demanded and obtained, although with reluctance.

The writer proceeds now to give his account of the fruftration of the laft and ftrongeft effort of the afpiring defpot of France to eftablish an empire in India, the annihilation of the army of Perron. The treaty of Baflien guaranteed to the Peifhwa, and at the fame time to the coeftates of the Mahrattas, conftitutionally under his authority, all their refpective rights. Immediately after the fignature of this treaty, Holkar evacuated Poonah, and the Peifhwa was reftored. Scindia openly and explicitly declared his approbation of it, but inftantly after difcovered by his meafures, which could admit no other conftruction, his determination again to reduce his feudal fuperior into the degrading perfonal controul under which he had long before held him: to ufurp all his power, and again to leave him only an empty title. This refolution, thus demonftrated, compelled us into a war with him, after the ftrongest endeavours to avoid it, which is here proved to have been defenfive in the fricteft fense. A feries of fplendid victories followed, gained by Lord Lake and Sir A. Welleflcy; the confequences of which were, that the French force under Perron was intirely diffipated, the old Mogul liberated, and Scindia received a peace, the terms of which were dictated by moderation.

Holkar, expelled from Poonah, remained at the head of his ferocious hordes, whom he had no other means to fupport, than by making feudatory incurfions on the dominions of our allies, and by his ambaffadors menacing our own. Invited to a peace, he refufed to fubmit to any equal conditions; and his demands, peremptory, extravagant, and novel, were coupled with infolent terms of defiance. Our engagements by treaty in the defence of our allies, obliged us ultimately to have recourfe to arms. By repeated defeats, his total

reduction feemed infallible: nor could the aid given him by. the Rajah of Bhurtpore, contrary to the faith of treaties, have long protracted it. That Prince having been, after a defence which would have done honour to a better cause, compelled to purchase peace by fubmiffion; Holkar was now chafed to the banks of the Hyphafis, and on the point of falling into our hands. At that very inftant the fyftem of Marquis Wellefley ceafed to be followed by the cabinet, of Calcutta: and the dominions of which he had poffeffed himself, without any right, or fhadow of right, were reftored to hiin. On this, however, it is not the object of the publication before us, or of our own, to make any kind of reflection; nor fhall we add any further remarks on a tract certainly of, great merit.

ART. VII. The Code of Health and Longevity; or a concife View of the Principles calculated for the Prefervation of Health, and the Attainment of long Life. Being an Attempt to prove the Practicability of Condenfing, within a narrow Compass, the most material Information hitherto accumulated, regarding the most useful Arts and Sciences, or any particular Branch thereof. By Sir John Sinclair, Bart. 2d Edit. 4 Vols. 8vo. Pp. 2234. 3 Plates. 21. 8s. Conftable, Edinburgh. 1807.

THE patriotic and benevolent intentions of the respectable author of this work, must be allowed to entitle it to a more indulgent reception than could have been granted to the performance of a profeffed book-maker, inftigated only by the defire of furnishing his employer with four ponderous volumes for fale. He informs us, that about the year 1797, having fallen into a weak and enervated ftate, and finding that the health of many of his cotemporaries was equally, or ftill more, deranged, he wifhed to afcertain the cause of thefe events, and to feek for a method of preventing a decay fo premature. He was alfo aftonifhed to find, in the courfe of his ftatifical refearches, how few of the human fpecies attain any confiderable extent of years, and how much their exiflence is embittered, even during its fhort continuance, by difeales of various kinds. Thefe circumflances united, naturally directed his attention to the subjects of health and longevity. He began by endeavouring to procure the reeftablishment of his own health; and in this object, with the

affiftance

affiftance of fome eminent phyficians, he has fortunately fucceeded; and finds himself in all refpects as well as a perfon born in the year 1754 has any right to expect. He next ventured to give hints to others, whether advanced in life, or in a fickly ftate, how they might fecure the fame advantages; and having had the fatisfaction of receiving, from various perfons, in all ranks of life, the moft grateful acknowledgments for the benefits which they had derived from his advice, he was at laft induced to think of a greater and bolder attempt," that of inftructing his fellow-creatures in general, how they could beft preferve their health, and attain a comfortable old age."

Having printed, both in English and in French, a fhort treatise on health and longevity, containing feveral questions relating to the fubject, he has obtained a variety of communications in answer to his enquiries: he has alfo made a collection of about two hundred volumes, more or lefs immediately connected with the object of his refearches. From thefe materials he has endeavoured to confolidate into one volume all the knowledge which he confiders as effentially neceffary for the attainment of health and longevity; and he has filled the remaining volumes of this work with an account of foreign and domeftic authors who have written on thefe fubjects, a re-publication of fuch of their works as he judges the moft interefting, and a collection of original communications and documents.

"It has often occurred to me," fays Sir J. S. (p. 1.) "that a plan might be formed, by which human knowledge, regarding at leaft fome particular arts or fciences, might be fo diftinctly arranged, and condensed within fo narrow a compass, as to diminish the neceffity of perufing the innumerable volumes now extant on the fame fubject; and by which men in general might be better informed, and confequently would be better enabled to enjoy the pleasures of their existence, than they are at prefent." Indeed, in its prefent ftate, (p. 3.) knowledge may be compared to a fmall portion of gold, difperfed throughout a great quantity of ore. In its rude condition, the strongest man cannot bear its weight, or convey it to a diftance; but when the pure metal is feparated from the drofs, even a child may carry it without difficulty."

"As the prefervation of health is one of the most important fubjects to which the attention of mankind can poffibly be di rected, why not begin with that branch of inquiry?" If fuch a view of the fubject, as is given in this work, be approved of, let it be tranflated, either at the expence of the government, or of a fociety established for that purpose, into all the principal lan

M 2

guages

guages of Europe; and let premiums be given to thofe who will tranfmit the most valuable communications upon, or will point out the most effential improvements in the volume to be thus circulated." (P. 2,)

After having laid before our readers this account of Sir John Sinclair's plan and intention, it is our duty either to prefent them with a brief abftract of the contents of these volumes, or to affign fome reafon for declining the talk. We are therefore obliged to confels candidly, that we think both our own time and that of our readers would be wafted in making any attempt of the kind, unless we undertook to remodel the whole, and make it into a new work; for in its prefent form, although we have perufed it with as much attention as poffible, we have not been able to discover in it any original merit whatever.

That an author fhould imagine himself qualified for a work of this kind, without being a medical man, merely be caufe its principal object is to prevent and not to cure difeafes, is as abfurd as it would be for a landsman to take the command of a fleet employed in blockading an enemy's port, because it is not his object to give chace to his adverfaries, but only to prevent their coming out, No one of the arts or fciences, as far as we have any acquaintance with them, is comparable for the difficulties which attend it, to the profeffion of phyfic: and it is remarkable, that thefe difficulties are of fo refined a nature, that their very existence is unperceived by vulgar eyes. And, as Lord Bacon observes,

in all times, in the opinion of the multitude, witches, and old women, and impoftors, have had a competition with phyficians. And what followeth? Even this, that phyficians fay to themfelves, as Solomon expreffeth it upon a higher occafion; If it befal to me, as befalleth to the fools, why fhould I labour to be more wife ?" Hence it happens, that not one medieal book in a hundred is worth reading by any body; and not one in a thousand by any but a medical man. Obfervations contradict obfervations, and opinions are at variance with opinions, fo that the more matter we collect, the greater is the obfcurity in which the fubje&t becomes involved, unless the moft minute investigation, and the most delicate powers of difcrimination, be employed in the comparifon, Thefe powers it was morally impoffible that the prefent author fhould poffefs, and his work could therefore confift of nothing but a ufelefs mafs of contradictory and ill-digefted facts, a continued feries of iteration without addition," and a collection of groundlefs opinions, fuggested by caprice, and admitted only by an immeasurable cre dulity.

Notwith