elaborate work before us, as contain ing facts and reasonings, without a previous knowledge and examination of which no man can be qualified to give an opinion on the subject.

53. The Rival Princes; or, a faithful Narrative of Facts relating to Mrs. M. A. Clarke's Political Acquaintance with Col. Wardle, Major Dodd, &c. &c. &c. who were concerned in the Charges against the Duke of York: together with a Variety of authentic and important Letters, and curious and interesting Anecdotes of several Persons of Political Notoriety. By Mary Anne Clarke. Second Edition; 2 Vols.

pp. 578; Chapple; 1810.

WE have hesitated for some time in admitting this work among our literary articles; and we yet doubt whether it be a legitimate object of criticism. As a political document, however, we are disposed to attach a very considerable importance to it. Although we did not rank ourselves among the number of believers in every word uttered by Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke, when she appeared as an evidence against the Duke of York, we think her amply entitled to credit in these volumes, where she has made very few assertions that are not substantially confirmed by original letters, and other authentic documents. We are even disposed to go a little farther, and to allow that the Country is indebted to her for coming forward to develope the plan and expose the actors in one of the most foul, pitiful, and unmanly plots that was ever contrived. But, although this may be a subject of congratulation to an injured family (for the injury was not meant for one branch only) without any consideration of the writer's motives, we are not so Indifferent to the latter, as to admit Mrs. Clarke into that respectable class of society to whom implicit credit is to be given. It was a disappointment in one money - contract which induced her to appear at the Bar of the House of Commons; and it was a disappointment in another money-contract to which we are indebted for the present work. The lady, indeed, has so fully displayed her character in the following passage, that, after quoting it, we shall very briefly conclude our notice of her work:

"I am of opinion that there is not a person in England, at all acquainted with

the proceedings of the House of Commons with respect to the Duke of York and my connexion with Wardle and his party, who is so credulous as to believe what Col. Wardle has lately endeavoured to make the people of England credit as a divine revelation; namely, that I incurred the exposure of myself, children, and family, together with abuse, anxiety of mind, and fatigue of person, during my examination in Parliament from a pure PATRIOTIC ZEAL TO SERVE THE PUBLIC.-If there should be a person in the Country that indulges such an opinion of my patriotism, he must be that ever lived. If I were to tell the the most insane, or the most weak man same gross falsehood which has issued from the immaculate Col. Wardle, and compliment myself on having appeared against the Duke of York, without any motives of interest beyond the gratification of serving the publick, I am sure the intelligent reader would consider me a most impudent hypocrite, and with great justice; for if I had not been well satisfied of receiving the remuneration agreed upon, not all the Jacobinical parties in Europe should have introduced my letters and

person to the notice of Parliament."

For all this, we deem it impossible to refuse Mrs. Clarke implicit credit. Such an avowal requires not the support of vouchers, letters, or affidavits; and if it were, mutatis mutandis, to be made with as much candour by her infamous accomplices in the late, plot, they would be entitled to an equal degree of credit, and make the only atonement in their power to a deluded party whom they taught to insult the name of Patriot, and the virtue of Patriotism, by bestowing them on the persons and actions of some of the most hollow, worthless, and unprincipled of mankind.

54. HAVERHILL, a Descriptive Poem; and other Poems. By John Webb; 12mo pp. 119; Nunn; 1810.

MR. WEBB adds another name to the respectable list of Poets who have not been indebted to education, and are usually, although very improperly, called "self-taught Poets." Poetry can never be an object of education, although an acquaintance with classi cal literature may add something of judgment to correct the exuberances of genius. "Born in the vale of obscurity," Mr. Webb never expe rienced any of the benefits that result from education; his days have been spent in scenes of honest industry, and his leisure hours devoted to amu

sive and instructive studies." "Most of these poems were written while the Author moved in the humble sphere of a journeyman weaver;" and he has been encouraged to publish them by a long list of subscribers, many of whom are persons of taste and judgment.

The longest performance in this little volume is "Haverhill," the beauties of which the Author appears to have viewed with a picturesque eye, and has described with a poetical spirit. In painting natural objects, however, we do not think him quite so successful as in scenes of artificial life. Indeed all the grand and pleasing spots on which a descriptive Poet would rest, have been so often occupied, that he finds it extremely difficult to strike out a sketch that is at once poetical and original. How well, however, Mr. Webb has succeeded in those episodes which life and manners furnish may appear by the following specimen:

"Near yonder bridge, that strides the rippling brook,

A hut once stood, in small sequester'd nook, Where Chambers* lodg'd. Though not

of Gipsy race,

roam

[place.

Yet, like that tribe, he often chang'd his A lonely wand'rer he, whose squalid form Bore the rude peltings of the wintry storm: An hapless outcast, on whose natal day No star propitious beam'd a kindly ray; By some malignant influence doom'd to [no home. The world's wide, dreary waste, and know Yet Heaven, to cheer him as he pass'd along, [song. Infus'd in life's sour cup the sweets of Upon his couch of straw, or bed of hay, This Poetaster tun'd th' acrostic lay; On him an humble Muse her favours shed, And nightly musings earn'd his daily bread. [give Meek, unassuming, modest shade! forThis frail attempt to make thy mem'ry live;

To me more grateful thus thy deeds to tell, Than the proud task to sing how heroes fell.

Minstrel, adieu! to me thy fate's unknown; [flown: Since last I saw thee many a year has

Full oft has Summer pour'd her fervid beams, [streams. And Winter's icy breath congeal'd the Perhaps, lorn wretch! unfriended and In hovel vile thou gav'st thy final groan; alone,

Clos'd the blear eye, ordain'd no more to And sunk, unheeded sunk, in Death's long weep, [sleep! O how unlike the Bard of higher sphere, Whose happier numbers charm the polish'd ear;

Whose Muse in academic bowers reclines, And, cheer'd by affluence, pours her classic lines;

Whose sapient brow, though angry critics frown, [crown!" Boasts the green chaplet, and the laurel

Our Author's poetry is generally of the pensive cast, of which his account of a village funeral" is a specimen calculated to give a very favourable idea of his taste and reflection :

"Led by the bell of death, repair, my feet,

To mark a fellow-mortal's last retreat : To view the mourners wrung with anguish deep, [that weep!" Join the mute crowd, and 'weep with those Behold the village priest, in vestments white, [rite! Reads o'er the dead the sacred, solemn In humbler guise the clerk appears behind, [of mind;"

Whose countenance betrays few 'marks Adown whose hard, unmeaning face,

one tear

Was never seen to urge its moist career; Within the confines of whose callous breast The dove of Pity never built her nest; Whose heart, by custom harden'd into stone, [ful moan:

Heeds not the woe-fraught sigh, or plaintHe views the gazing throng with vacant ken,

And gives, as office bids, the loud Amen! In sables clad, see yon lorn Widow moves, To take a final leave of him she loves; On either side appears a cherub-boy, Two blooming pledges of departed joy. Decrepid Age, with weak and faultering breath, [on Death, Whispers the well-known prayer, and thinks Gay Youth, with joy-bright eye, grows serious here, [tear:

And drops, at Nature's call, the ready

which are much in the strain of Cowper :

"Frown not, proud bigot! on my liberal song, [wrong. Nor deem my mild, my generous system Nor think that Pow'r the Great! the

all

Just! the Wise! [denies. Expects the end, while he the means At thy dread bar, Omnipotence! where [fall!Must stand the test of Justice-rise or Ne'er will this poor, forlorn one be arraign'd,

For genius prostituted, faith profan'd! For conscience unregarded, wealth misus'd;

For duty slighted, or for time abus'd!
He had no talent giv'n him to improve :-
I leave him to his Judge-a God of love!
And ye, vain sophists of the present day!
Ye sceptics vile! who lead the weak
astray:

Ye Stars of Science! foes to Holy Writ, Who on the sacred page exhaust your wit

rity, of the sacred Scriptures, and who desire the assistance of writers of eminence in piety and learning. The demand for such publications has con siderably increased within the last ten learned have been gratified by vari years; and, while the critical and ous elaborate performances, intended to elucidate the sacred writings, by explaining the manners and customs of Eastern nations, readers of a de votional frame of mind have been be nefited by the publication of those Expositions and Commentaries, which enter more deeply into the hidden treasures of spiritual knowledge con tained in the sacred volume."

Thus far the Editor; who likewise remarks that," on a slight inspection of this work, it may not appear so evangelical in its spirit and tendency, as many of Bishop Reynolds's other writings; but it must be remembered, that the Book of Ecclesiastes is chiefly practical." This Commentary was originally part of those Annotations on the Bible usually called "The Assembly's Annotations," and was not included in the folio collection of Reynolds's works published in 1658, nor has ever, until now, appeared in a separate volume,

The whole of the Commentary,” adds the Editor, "has been carefully transcribed; and the ideas of the Author are strictly and fully retained : but the Editor has deemed it necessary to alter the construction of most of the sentences; frequently tỏ exchange obsolete words for those now in use; and, in a few instances, to Of omit redundant paragraphs,' these liberties, as far as we have examined the work, we cordially ap prove. Reynolds, in his other works, is far superior in style to many of bis contemporaries, but yet as far from the purity which modern taste, even in books of devotion, requires. The Commentary on Ecclesiastes, in its present form, will, we doubt not, be highly acceptable to the numerous class of readers for whom it was intended, and not less so on account of a fine portrait prefixed and elegantly engraven,

to add, that, in consequence of this donation, the work was immediately begun, and Michaelmas 1811 is assigned as the expected period for its completion. The amount of contributions in Sweden, considering the pressure of the times, has indeed exceeded all expectation, but it has by no means proved sufficient to render the assistance of the British and Foreign Bible Society superfluous. Your Committee have also availed themselves of the assistance of the Evangelical Society at Stockholm, to print, at the expence of the British and Foreign Bible Society, a New Testament in the dialect of Lapland, for the benefit of the inhabitants of that coun

try. The necessity of this work (as the former edition of 1755 was entirely exhausted) and the despair of accomplishing it, were forcibly pointed out to two Correspondents of your Committee, by Bishop Norden, at Tornea. It appeared also that, in his diocese, which comprises the North of Sweden and Swedish Lapland, there were about 10,000 Laplanders, unacquainted with any language but that of their own country. The Bishop himself has undertaken to superintend the publication; and the sum of

£250. has been voted for an edition of 3000 copies of the New Testament. A specimen of this work has been received by your Committee, who have reason to believe that it is by this time considerably advanced.-The safe arrival and due distribution of the Bibles sent by your Committee for the use of the German Colonists on the banks of the Volga have been acknowledged by the Rev. Mr. Hiemer, another pastor of a German congregation in that quarter, who distributed part of them, and adds his testimony to that of the Rev. Mr. Huber in Catharinenstadt, that the present was received with the most lively emotions of gratitude. The second supply voted to them by your Committee has probably reached them by this time."

of

For the more effectual support the Society, auxiliary Societies have been established at Newcastle, Penryn and Falmouth, Leeds, Manchester, Exeter, Leicester, Kendal, Sheffield, Hull, Bristol, and many places in Scotland and Ireland, America, &c. * and, in consequence of such accumulated support, editions of the Bible and Testament have been printed, or are printing, in every foreign language that is likely to render them