wonder and sorrow, and I reflect with a sigh on this new proof, how little man is rational! Here, no progress has been made in enlarging our house of reception for fevers, and the institution remains in the same state as before.

The scheme is asleep at present; but I foresee in the course of a few months a favourable opportunity of reviving it, and I hope to correspond with you in the course of the summer with that view.

I have not seen the Duke de Liancourt's pamphlet, but I mean to procure it and to study it. If the world should ever subside into peace and repose, the subject on which he writes, and indeed the whole regulation of our legal code, not as it respects crimes only, but as it respects those fruitful sources of crimes, ignorance and poverty, will call for the united attention, the hands and heads and hearts of the friends of their country and their species.

I sincerely condole with you that the prospect of peace is so dark and distant: -the war seems beginning anew. The death of the Empress Catherine and the conduct of her successor afford, however, a ray of hope. If, as it is reported, the Emperor Paul takes off the pressure

on Prussia, which under Catherine reduced it to inactivity, Prussia will probably take measures to influence the Emperor to peace. The expectation of something of this kind probably influenced the French Directory in their abrupt and ungracious dismissal of Lord Malmesbury.

You will have heard of the great success of Mr. Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo; it far exceeds the hopes of his most sanguine friends. A third English edition is preparing; and two translations into German are advertised in the Literary Gazette of Jena, the one by Forster, who went round the world with Cooke, the other by R. Sprengel, author of the Authentic History of Medicine, both professors at Halle. The account given of it in this Literary Gazette (the first German review) is extremely flattering. I hope Mr. Roscoe will undertake the life of Leo X. (the son of Lorenzo, as you will recollect,) on a more general plan, that may admit a free discussion of the extraordinary events of his age, which afford very fine materials for the historian. In collecting authorities, &c. for the life of Lorenzo, he has already collected a great part of what are required for the life of his son. The German physician who informs me of the success of Lorenzo on the Continent, communi

cates several other articles of literary intelligence. Amidst all the devastations of war, the progress of mind seems rapid in Germany; and even in France, science of every kind is ardently cultivated.

The project of Bishop Wilkins (I think) for a universal language is revived, and, as it is said, executed; a new system of Pasigraphie, on a very simplified plan, is advertised in Paris, and is now publishing by subscription under the auspices of the famous Abbé Sicard. If this should succeed, its influence on the progress of science, and even of opinions, will be very great it will be of the same kind with that produced by the art of printing, though not, perhaps, to the same degree.

A German professor has discovered, or thinks he has discovered, the tubular structure of the ultimate fibres of the nerves; and a publication on the subject, with drawings, may soon be expected.

I beg to offer my very kind respects to Mrs. Percival, Mr. Percival, and all the branches of your family. May you have many happy returns of the present season!

I am always, my dear Sir,

Your much obliged and faithful friend,

JAMES CURRIE.

то

LIEUT. AFTERWARDS

CAPT. GRAHAM MOORE, R. N.

FROM 1787 To 1795.

Nos. 24 TO 38.

The present Vice-Admiral Sir Graham Moore, K.C. B., was in early life stationed at Liverpool, as Lieutenant of His Majesty's ship Perseus, 20 guns.

Dr. Currie became acquainted with him, and was attracted and attached by the professional and personal good qualities that he thought he observed. Being a few years older, the acquaintance ripened into that sort of friendship, that interchange of instruction and gratitude, affection and respect, which forms perhaps the most delightful connection that can exist among men.

However unwilling on other accounts, the Vice-Admiral will allow the Editor to exhibit, for the probable advantage of others, what was once, perhaps, not a little agreeable and useful to himself.

Literary Observations.

- Mr. Pitt. Slave Trade.

Opening of the French Revolution.

-

- Its

Mr. Fox. State of England. Ossian. - Anecdote of Jefferson. Effects on Europe. Its Progress. - Naval Etiquette. — Literary Society in Liverpool, Subjects discussed at.- Zeluco.-Growing Excitement produced by the Revolution.Mr. Burke. Military and Naval Character. - Difficulty of forming an unbiassed Opinion as to Politics at the Period in Question. Increased Bitterness of Party Spirit. — Its Effects on the Writer.

VOL. II.

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