V. Observations on Injuries of the Spine and of the Thigh Bone in two Lectures, delivered in the School of Great Windmill-street. The first in Vindication of the Author's Opinions against the Remarks of Sir Astley Cooper, Bart. The second on the late Mr. John Bell's title to certain Doctrines now advanced by the same Gentleman. Illustrated with nine Plates. By Charles Bell, Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital 290 VI. Journal of a Residence in the Burmhan Empire, and more particularly at the Court of Amarapoorah. By XI. Sermons on the principal Events and Truths of Re- demption. To which are annexed, an Address and Dissertation on the State of the Departed, and the Descent of Christ into Hell. By John Henry Ho- bart, D.D. Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the State of New York, Professor of Pastoral Theology and Pulpit Eloquence in the General Theological Seminary, and Rector of Trinity Church, and St. XII. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mrs. Frances She- ridan. By her Grand-daughter, Alicia Lefanu .... 354 XIII. Helon's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem: a Picture of Judaism in the Century which preceded the Advent of our Sa- viour. Translated from the German of Frederick Strauss, with Notes and Illustrations by the Trans- XIV. The Modern Traveller, or Popular Description-Geo- graphical, Historical, and Topographical, of the vari- XV. The Life and Remains of the Rev. Edward Daniel ART. PAGE XVII. Letters from North America, written during a Tour in the United States, and Canada. By Adam Hodgson 392 XVIII. The Inheritance. By the Author of Marriage........ 401 XIX. Jerusalem Delivered, an Epic Poem, translated into Eng- XX. Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Pie- mont, and Researches among the Vaudois or Wal- denses, with Maps, Plates, an Appendix, &c. By the Rev. W. S. Gilly, M.A. Rector of North Fambridge 423 XXI. Elements of Physiology. By A. Richerand, Professor of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, Member of the Academy of Vienna, &c. Translated from the French by G. J. M. De Lys, M.D. Fourth Edition, with Notes, and a copious Appendix, by James Copland, M.D. Lecturer of Physiology, Pathology, and The- rapeutics, Consulting Physician to Queen Charlotte's Lying-in-Hospital, Physician to the Universal Infir- • PAGE Discours sur l'utilité de la Langue Arabe prononcé le 16me Juin, Précis de l'Histoire Generale de la Compagnie de Jesus, suivi de 462 463 464 .ibid. Beginselen der Differential-Integral .... Der Handel als quella des National Einkommens betrachtet ..... Résumé de l'Histoire de Pologne. Par Leon Thrisse 465 ..ibid. Summa Observationum Anatomicarum ac Physico-chemicarum. Par Etienne Gallini ....... ...ibid. .... ...ibid. Traite de Mecanique Celest. Par M. le Marquis de Laplace .....` 466 Séance publique de la Société Royale de Médecine, Chirurgie et Philosophiske og Historiske Afhandlinger.... 467 ..ibid. 468 ...ibid. Archiv for Historie og Geographie, &c. Par M. J. Chr. Rise THE UNIVERSAL REVIEW. SEPTEMBER, 1824. Journal of a Residence in Ashantee. By JOSEPH DUPUIS, Esq. late his Britannic Majesty's Envoy and Consul for that Kingdom. Comprising Notes and Researches relative to the Gold Coast, and the Interior of Western Africa; chiefly collected from Arabic MSS., and Information communicated by the Moslems of Guinea: to which is prefixed an Account of the Origin and Causes of the present War. Illustrated with a Map and Plates. Pp. 400. London. Colburn. 1824. THERE seems to be something ill-omened in all our transactions with Africa. North and south, east and west, some strange barrier, moral and physical, appears to repel the intercourse of England. We attempt to civilise the northern coast by treaty, and the backs of our negociators are no sooner turned, than the Algerine sails out again for blood and plunder. We plant a colony at its remotest south, it is burned up with drought for years, and then all but drowned in a sudden deluge. We attempt to introduce the comforts and habits of civilization on its eastern coast by united commerce and settlement; the trade, and the colony both wither away, or are crushed by hostilities with the natives. All attempts at discovery by individuals, have closed only in the disappointment or death of the traveller, until the public have learned to look with utter hopelessness upon the ambition or the zeal that would expend itself upon the amelioration of Africa. The disastrous results of Sir Charles Macarthy's expedition have naturally deepened this disgust and hopelessness. The detail is still almost unknown, and perhaps will be for ever buried among the rude and bloody records of savage victory, but the rash advance, the total defeat, and the capture, worse than death, of the unfortunate governor, are unhappily, beyond all doubt, and well deserve to become features of a legislative investigation into the whole of our African system. The enquiry will be much aided by the present volume, which comes VOL. II. NO. IV. B from the intelligent pen of a gentleman, already well known for his acquaintance with the African states. This volume, too, appears in good time to counteract the authority of a work in general repute, and published under the auspices of the African Institution; Bowdich's "Narrative of his Mission to Ashantee," in 1817; but calculated as much to mislead the reader, from the heightened descriptions and exaggerated accounts with which it abounds, as to impose upon him by its implied authority and official aspect. So forcibly, indeed, has this consideration impressed itself upon Mr. Dupuis, and of such consequence, in order to a right understanding of the Ashantee quarrel, does he deem it to disabuse the public, that some of his principal efforts are directed to counteract the misstatements of his precursor at Coomassy. Mr. Bowdich, with the aid and patronage of his uncle, the governor of Cape Coast Castle, had been enabled to penetrate to this black metropolis, and he knew that the successful prosecution of such a journey could fall to the lot only of a few. According to all fair calculation, a second instance of success might not occur during his life: he was, therefore, free to give his own colouring to scenes and things, and to represent, without fear of contradiction, the policy and disposition of the chief at whose court he sojourned, as best might harmonise with his, and his relative's views. Removed a hundred and eighty miles from the sea, and approachable only through vast wildernesses and forests, under a native escort, toil, sickness, and danger of every description, effectually guarded all the avenues to Coomassy. Ignorance of the native language, (in which he had the good fortune to be skilled,) presented another formidable barrier, and rendered the obstacles to such a journey almost physically and morally insurmountable to an European. But Mr. Bowdich had surmounted all these obstacles: no matter by what unhoped for co-operations, and facilities, he had traversed the Ashantee wilds in safety, and negociated with the negro potentate in the heart of his dominions. Mr. Bowdich, therefore, felt all the advantages of his position, and did not neglect to improve them. We can feel no hostility to the memory of Mr. Bowdich: but, as a writer, whose personal prejudices have been suffered to distort fact, to such a degree, that it is found dangerous to trust to the authority of his pages as an ambassador, whether accredited or not at Coomassy, who has left an unamiable impression of his king and country, where he should have culti vated amity, Mr. Bowdich appears to have been culpable. Mr. Dupuis, who has resided at Coomassy, in the same |