wisely guarded us against the interruptions of a function necessary to existence, by making the personal feelings of the individual interested in its continuance.

Part II. of this essay treats of the direct effects of respira tion; which the author divides into the mechanical effects caused by the dilatation and contraction of the thorax, the change produced on the inspired air, and the alteration effected in the blood itself in its passage through the lungs. With regard to the first point, he is of opinion that, in the usual act of respiration, the blood is transmitted through the lungs with nearly equal facility; and that it is only in extreme cases that the retardation, imagined by many authors to exist, can be supposed to take place. He also thinks that the other effects of respiration on the vascular and lymphatic system have been much over-rated.--The two remaining subjects of discussion relate to the changes which are effected on air that has been inspired, and on the blood which has passed through the lungs. Dr. B.'s summary of the state of our knowlege on the first particular we shall give in his own words:

1. A quantity of oxygene is consumed in respiration; in ordinary circumstances atmospheric air, which has been once respired, loses nearly 04 of its bulk of oxygene; in 24 hours a man consumes a quantity which will weigh about 2lbs. 8oz.; somewhat more than 26 cubic feet.

2. A quantity of carbonic acid is generated by respiration; its volume is less than that of the oxygene, absorbed, nearly in the proportion of 37 to 45; the weight of carbonic acid formed in 24 hours is about 3lb.; a volume of about 22 cubic feet.

3. The whole volume of the air is diminished by respiration; the degree of diminution is not very accurately ascertained, but it may be estimated at about of its bulk.

4. A quantity of aqueous vapour, the amount of which is still undetermined, is emitted from the lungs.

hours

5. It is probable that a small portion of azote is absorbed, upon an average about Te part of the air respired, making in about 4 oz. or 4 cubic feet.

TA

24

6. From the ascertained proportion in which the oxygene and pure charcoal exist in carbonic acid, it appears that a greater quan tity of oxygene is consumed, than is necessary for the formation of the carbonic acid which is produced.'

It is necessarily very difficult to discover the changes which the blood undergoes in its passage through the lungs.-Dr. B. has, however, given a comprehensive view of what has been ascertained or rendered probable on this subject; and of the general inferences we shall make an abstract.

The blood, in its passage through the lungs, emits carbonic acid gas and absorbs oxygen, and is thus converted from a dull REV. JAN. 1807.

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purple

purple to a bright scarlet colour. Dr. B. also thinks that probably a small quantity of azote is absorbed by it. The oxygen is at first loosely combined with the mass of blood, but, during the circulation, it enters into combination with its carbon, and forms with it an oxyd; which, when it is brought back to the lungs, unites with an additional quantity of oxygen, so as to form carbonic acid gas, which is removed by the act of expiration. The capacity of arterial blood for heat is also increased..

The concluding chapter comprehends a general account of the experiments which have been made on the respiration of gases by various philosophers; and a large appendix contains several interesting illustrations and discussions, which could not so properly enter into the body of the essay.

We are sorry that our account of this work has been delayed by accidental circumstances, of a private nature: but the terms in which we now mention it, and the general opinion entertained of its merits, forbid any suspicion that we could willingly treat it with disrespectful neglect.

ART. XIII. A brief Examination into the Increase of the Revenue, Commerce, and Navigation of Great Britain, during the Admini stration of the Right Honourable William Pitt; with Allusions to some of the Principal Events which occurred in that Period, and a Sketch of Mr. Pitt's Character. By the Right Honourable George Rose, M. P. The Second Edition. 8vo. pp. 109. 59. Hatchard. 18c6.

TH THE merits of Mr. Pitt, as an able minister of finance, we are very ready to allow; and if any person be ignorant of them, or inclined to question them, let him read the present tract, and his doubts will be effectually removed :-or, if he be not disposed to give implicit credit to the statements of the Right Hon. Author, they may be compared with public do cuments. The real question respecting Mr. Pitt, however, refers not to his immediate department, but to his extra-official conduct; it is not to the member but to the head of the cabinet, to its life and soul, that inquiry directs itself: it is the system of foreign policy, to which his financial measures were subservient, that forms the ordeal to which his reputation is to be submitted. To this did he look as the foundation of his fame, and by this must it be determined. That he was most unsuccessful will be denied by none: but was fate unjust to him, or was he wanting in the knowlege and the penetration necessary to discern the symptoms of the times, and in the wisdom requisite to frame measures adapted to them? The consequences of his foreign system were foretold to him

with a distinctness and a precision that are unparalleled yet he disdained the counsels that were thus offered to him, and occasioned the author of them to be regarded as the enemy of his country. This is a grievous aggravation of his errors: but his errors were grand like himself, and under their fatal consequences his elevated soul fell a victim, in lamentable expiation of them. On his traduced opponent, his desponding country was then glad to throw herself; and to him she looked for her deliverance, when brought to her lowest state. Let, then, the panegyrists of the late Premier confine their praises to his oratory, to his financial abilities, to his unsullied integrity, and to his high honor: on the topic of the external relations of the country, if they are wise they will be silent.

In the new part of this pamphlet, (the largest portion of which was published in two tracts, in the years 1792 and 1799*) Mr. Rose observes:

To an upright minister in Great Britain, zealous for the interest and honor of his country, there is no reward of profit, emolument, or patronage, which can be esteemed a compensation for the labours, the privations, the anxieties, or the dangers of his situation it is in the approbation of his sovereign, and in the suffrage of his countrymen, added to his own conviction of having done every thing to deserve it, that he must look for that reward which is to console him for all the cares and troubles of his station; the opposition of rivals; the misrepresentation of enemies; the desertion or peevishness of friends; and sometimes the mistaken censures of the people. 'Tis the honourable ambition that looks beyond the present time that must create, encourage, and support a virtuous and enlightened statesman;-that must confer on his mind the uprightness and purity that rise above all self-advantage; the courage that guards the state from foreign hostility or internal faction; the firmness that must often resist the wishes, to ensure the safety, of the people.

This is the legitimate ambition of a statesman; and that Mr. Pitt possessed it, his friends are convinced; but he has been sometimes accused (by those who, although their opposition was active and systematic, yet knew how to honour the man) of a less laudable and less patriotic ambition, that wished "to reign alone," to exclude from the participation of office and of power other men, whose counsels might have assisted him to guide the country amidst its difficulties and embarrassments, or might have contributed to its safety in the hour of its danger. It is however perfectly well known to some of the highest characters in the kingdom, that Mr. Pitt, after the resignation of Mr. Addington, in the summer of 1804, was most anxiously desirous that Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox should form a part of the new administration, and pressed their admission into office in that quarter where only such earnestness could be effectual; conceiving the forming a strong government as important

See Rev. Vol. xxviii. N. S. p. 471.

to the public welfare, and as calculated to call forth the united talents, as well as the utmost resources of the empire: in which endeavour he persisted till within a few months of his death. I am aware of the delicacy of such a statement, but I am bold in the certainty of its truth. My profound respect for those by whom such averment, if false, might be contradicted, would not suffer me to make it, were it not called for to do justice to that great and virtuous statesman whose unrivalled qualities, both in private and in pub. lic life, will ever be in my recollection

"Dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regit artus."

This statement, we fufpect, is much more than the Right Hon. apologist can prove. High as are the channels of informa tion which are accessible to Mr. Rose, the only competent and satisfactory one relating to the present delicate topic is beyond even his reach. The carriage of Lord Eldon was not likely to bear to the Queen's house the advocate for Mr. Fox's admission into office. Is not the counter report, which whispers that the Ex-minister listened to the flattering insinuations of a Northern Viscount that his own mighty arms were perfectly equal to the management of the reins of empire, fully as probable as that which is here retailed? Mr. Rose asserts that Mr. Pitt was most anxiously desirous,' that he pressed Mr. Fox's admission into office with the greatest earnestness:'-but what was the fact? One short audience disposed of the illustrious Fox; and during this memorable interview, how many minutes of it were employed in representing his claims? How many words did Mr. Pitt employ on a point about which he was so anxiously desirous, and which he pressed with such earnestness? That Mr. Pitt proposed the admission of Mr. Fox into the new cabinet we do not deny, but that he anxiously desired it, that he earnestly pressed it, we cannot admit, positively as it is asserted by the Right Hon. George Rose. We shall next expect to be told that he was seconded in the recommendation by his friends Lords Melville and Eldon.-That the door of the cabinet was thrown wide open to Lord Grenville, we allow: but he declined the invitation; and the choice which he made between Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, at a momentous crisis, ought never to be forgotten by his country, particularly by those who regarded the latter as better qualified than any other man to preside over the foreign interests of the British empire.

The main body of this tract, however, is not less creditable to the author, than to the official co-adjutor and the grateful friend. It is composed in the best style of narrative, and is distinguished by simplicity, perspicuity, and method. Though the name is scarcely mentioned, the object is never out of sight, and is completely attained: the impression made on the mind is

strong; we are conscious of the præsens Divus; we feel his power, and we are constrained to do him homage. It is an offer ing due to the late minister, and is a tribute from friendship which honors the giver and the receiver. We had heard much of the eminence of Mr. Rose as a man of business, and as a judicious director of influence: but, till the first appearance of this publication, we were ignorant of his familiarities with the Muse of Latium; and it was unknown to us that the late indefatigable Secretary of the Treasury was master of the graces of style, and could boast of the accomplishments of the scholar.

ART. XIV. A Short View of the Political State of Great Britain and Ireland, at the Opening of the New Parliament; with some Remarks on the recent fatal Mortality among Men of splendid Talents, and especially on the irreparable Loss which the Country has sustained in the Death of her ablest Champion, the late la-mented Member for Westminster: in an Address to the People of England. By an Independent Freeholder. 8vo. pp. 54. 25. Ridgway. 1807.

ALTHOUGH the literary claims of this pamphlet are not im

posing, and a few prejudices and false notions appear to be afloat in the mind of the writer, which prevent him from seeing some objects in a proper light, we cannot withhold our esteem from the upright intentions, the dispassionate spirit, and the many just sentiments, which his pages display. We shall extend our notice of it, however, in order to animadvert on the popular error, that the stock held by foreigners in our funds ought not to be exempted from taxation, which is mixed with the sensible and liberal views of this writer. We cannot, indeed, enter fully into the subject, since our limits allow not room for the demonstration which would produce irresistible conviction but we shall submit to the candid reader those presumptions which lie on the superficies of things, and that belong to a genus in the class of proofs which, being readily seized by minds of discernment and penetration, enable men to judge rightly of subjects of which they have very slight knowlege, and often more rightly than those who are deeply conver sant with them, but who want the same tact.

It certainly was not the interest of ministers to allow of this exemption without good cause; and yet three successive financiers, who have each improved on the other in rendering the tax productive, have severally admitted it. We do not recollect that it has been ever urged by the present opposition: but if it has, the topic has not been and probably never will be again

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introduced