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Mrs. Serres and her abettors. You "We feel it our duty, before we enter

surely, Sir, must be possessed of an enviable degree of patience, to bear with them so long. But she has fairly acknowledged her aim at last, in her Letter to you on the 20th of June; and as it is now apparent that her object is to be fed, aud not to be famous, let her but beg henceforth with humility, and the publick may be disposed to forgive her.

I agree with you in dissenting from the opinions of those who advocate the claims of Horne Tooke, Dr. Francis, General Lee, Dr. Wilmot, and Mr. Glover. I have read all their pawph lets, excepting that of the Niece of Junius, with pleasure; but certainly without a single atom of conviction. -The first pamphlet respecting Mr. Glover ("Memoirs of a celebrated Literary and Political Character,") was puffed about as glaringly as the Life of Dr. Wilmot was; and yet, after all, it did not contain a single tittle of evidence to prove that Giover was Junius. But, not content with one abortion, before the labour of the first was over, out limps another to get a Sale for its elder Brother.

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into any particulars respecting this work, to declare, that it has fully convinced us of the truth, which it is intended to establish-that the Letters of Junius were written by the Right Hon. Ednlund. Burke. Mr. Roche has, indeed, brought together such a body of evidence, internal, direct, and circumstantial, as must eventually settle this interesting and long-disputed question.”

Before I quit this topick, allow me Rocke's work, your Reviewer (vol. to suggest, that in reviewing Mr. LXXXIII. Part 11. p. 357.) has fallen into mistake* when he says, that "the Writings of Mr. Burke, on which Mr. Roche more especially founds ́his hypothesis, appeared many years after the Letters of Junius had been in he then instances the Tract calledevery body's hands." Among these "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents," which most certainly was published, "not mùny years after the Letters of Junius were in every body's hands," but in 1770; exactly at the time that Junius was writing.

Your Correspondent Honestus (vol. LXXXIII. Part II. p. 414.) who writes from Chelsea, puts the following quotation, as if from the writings of Mr. Burke, at the head of his Letter:"The Style of Junius was imbued with the corrosive sublimate of Mercury.' (Burke.) Pemit me to request Honestus, or Mr. Roche, who seems quite intimate with Mr. Burke's writings, to inform us in what part of his works this sentence is to be found?

The last work, which I have read respecting this long-agitated question, and which it is probable I should not have seen so early but for your account of it in your LXXXIIIa Volume (Part II. p. 357.) is Mr. Roche's Inquiry concerning the Author of the Letters of Junius, &c. proving them to be written by Mr. Burke. Your having declared, that " this intelligent Another of your numerous CorreInvestigator had made out a stronger spondents (I mean the gentleman who case than any preceding writer on the signs G. L. S. in vol. LXXXIII. Part subject," made me send for his work; 11. p. 415.) gives us an extract, on the and I will own to you, after having subject of Junius, from a Pamphlet, read it attentively, that I am which he says was published by Mr. fully persuaded, that he has made out Burke in 1796; and of which the title a stronger case than any body else is as follows: "A General Reply to hitherto. I will go even farther, and the several Answerers, &c. of a Letter own, although I was previously hos- written to a Noble Lord, by the Right tile the supposition of Mr. Burke Hon. Edmund Burke," Mr. G. L. S. being Junius, that Mr. Roche has, is of opinion, though this Reply is writin my mind, put this question beyond ten in the third person, that there is the reach of controversy. Nor am I singular in this opinion; for I find the following words in a respectable contemporary journal, which has devoted several pages to its Review of Mr. Roche's work. The journal to which I allude is the Anti-Jacobin Re view for September 1813, in which, at p. 209, the Authors begin their Article as follows:

*We are perfectly ready to acknowthe necessity of inserting a long Letter ledge this mistake; which supersedes technical circumstance we again repeat; on the subject from Mr. Roche.-The

and whether at the distance of twenty years or of twenty weeks, the argument will equally apply. Mr. R. mistakes in supposing that the articles in pp. 357 and 416, are by the same Writer. EDIT.

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no question but Mr. Burke was the author. Now, Mr. Urban, I am very, much disposed to question this fact, which he so readily takes for granted: and it is certain, that Rochester has not, or the Bishop of he intend to include this Tract in the authentic I collection of Mr. Burke's Works.The extract which he gives from this General Reply is the following: "It is no less remarkable than true, (says the Author) that, with very few exceptions, these sagacious, heart-reading observers have not attributed to Mr. Burke a single mode of abuse, with which they have not loaded their own pages; and in their endeavours to soar a little beyond the visible diurnal sphere of their vapid declamation, one may well say of them, as the incomparable Dunning, in his Letters of Junius, said of Sir William Draper, that they possess the melancholy madness of Poetry without the inspiration."

In requesting G. L. S. to furnish us with some better proof than his mere assertion, I may also request him to mention the name of the Bookseller by whom this pamphlet was published.

As the Gentleman's Magazine goes, no doubt, to the town of Hungerford, may I hope that some of its Readers there will gratify us, by informing you, Mr. Urban, whether there is any truth in the fact of a Mr. Greatrakes being buried in the Church-yard of Hungerford. If the fact be as stated in your LXXXIIId Vol. Part II. p. 547, it will be an additional obligation, if they send you a correct copy of the inscription on his grave, together with any other particulars they may happen to learn about Mr. Greatrakes. I have heard, that theBishop of Rochester, in his forthcoming Life of Mr. Burke, intends not to take any notice of the Junius controversy. I can hardly think this to be the case. -After the proofs that have been brought forward, it will not satisfy the publick to have the question slurred over in this manner.

Dr. King's Biographical Memoir was expected before this time:-Can any of your Readers inform me, why it has been delayed, and when it will be published? M. A. JONES.

Mr. URBAN, IN your Magazine for Nov. 1768, p. 499. H. criticises a paper of

Mr.

Joha Caverhill in the Transac tions of the Royal Society, intituled, "Some attempts to ascertain the utmost extent of the knowledge of the After Antients in the East Indies, falling foul on the Society for the declaration they make, that they will not answer for the certainty of facts, or propriety of reasoning, in the pa pers they publish, he comes to Mr. Caverhill; whom he accuses of grossly mistaking and mistranslating almost all his quotations from the Greek Geographers. I shall not examine the three first of his objections; but in his 4th, he says, We are told [by Mr. C.] the Country beyond Ponteamass exactly agrees with Ptolemy's description of that beyond Cattigara, reeds of such a size, that when THEY a marshy country, which produces were joined and tied together, THEY were enabled to pass from one side to the other. Ptolemy's words are, μεγάλοι φυονται και συνεχείς αυτως ως τε η λίμνας έχουσα ελώδεις εν εν αις καλαμοι εχόμενος αυτών ποιείσθαι τας διαπεραιώσεις. A country having swampy lakes, in which grow large reeds, and so close together, that on them the neighbour ing inhabitants cross [the lakes]."

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In p. 547, Mr. Caverhill replies to the anonymous Critick, and in his turn objects to the translation given by H., as totally omitting the word. ouvexes, and then gives a translation word by word, as follows; country having fenny lakes, in which great reeds grow, and ouvexis* by shortening them, and so joining as to fabricate ferries or transports of them." He goes on: "these reeds or bamboes grow in England 20 feet high in five weeks, and are as thick as the wristt; but in hot countries, they grow more than double that height [40 feet], and commonly equal the diameter of the leg and thigh, and even to a greater size; so that of these the inhabitants in some parts of India, at this day, make of them masts to ships. The inhabitants of Sine, according to Ptolemy, shortened, or cut down, these bamboes, and fastened them together, to form floats to cross the lakes in that country. It is a prevailing custom in many parts of India, to this day, to join three rough pieces of timber to

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gether, which they call Cattamarans*, nearly resembling in their outlines the letter V, about 6 feet long; on them they sit on their knees, and with the assistance of paddles proceed to sea in very tempestuous weather. An intelligent gentleman, who had seen many of them, and gave me this description, was of opinion that the great bamboes were very fit for forming these Cattamarans, or Floats. Now from the simple description which Ptolemy has given of the formation of the ferries of the antient Sinæ, they would appear to be the same with the modern Cattamarans, on which the antient inhabitants might have ferried themselves over these lakes. But whether the floats mentioned by Ptolemy were Cattamarans or not, it sufficiently appears from the spirit of the text, that they were some simple mechanical contrivance that answered a similar purpose, and that were joined, and must have been tied to one another, before they [the inhabitants] ventured upon them. The Critick, however, (says Mr. C.) has reduced the inbabitants to the necessity of marching over the lakes upon the tops of these great and lofty bamboes [40 feet high], as they stood in their perpendicular state."

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Now, Mr. Urban, I will produce a very intelligent Friend of mine, who resided some years in India, to prove that Ptolemy was correct in what he wrote, but that neither of these Gentle men understood him, not having been themselves in the country. My Friend says, that he has frequently crossed these marshes (for so they should be called rather than lakes) on the very reeds or bamboes described by Ptolemy, but not by walking on the tops of them, or in Cattamarans formed out of them. In the province of Sylhet, in the Eastern part of Bengal,

towards Thibet,are marshes,swamps,or morasses, in which grow what they call Ground Canes, lying horizontally, of great length; the leaves shooting out at the joints, stand upright, and give the appearance of a green field. So close do these bamboes or canes lie, and so matted and interwoven, that

* A few years ago we heard much of Cattamarans sent to Boulogne to discharge loads of stones in the Harbour, so as to block it up; few know from whence the name was derived,

men and wild beasts pass by this means over marshes otherwise impracticable. E.

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Mr. URBAN,

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July 27. may, perhaps, divert some of your Readers, if you will have the goodness to insert in your columns the following lines, dedicated (without permission) to one of my respectable" Subscribers resident at Shaks peare's native town; all of whom have long ago received a Copy of my little Book-but all have forgotten o pay for it! One, however, has (it is loudly reported) done me the honour of praising my work; aud sold it to a Non-subscriber for 5s. pocketing the Author's, Printer's, and Bookseller's profits; which monopoly bas extorted my (hasty) Dedication. "On Avon's Banks Subscription loiters long[her song. Commends my Muse-but pays not for Her price reduc'd-usurp'd Bookseller's trade; [grade. Unlicens'd sold-and prais'd but to deOh! would great Shakspeare aid my injur'd Muse-One ray of his bright genius now infuse; Subscription' call A tale she'd paint

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its name, And crown some weathy Wits deathless fame!"

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In justice, however, to my honest feelings, and sense of real kindness, I must request you, Sir, to permit me, through your pages, to present my best and warmest acknowledgments, &c. to about two-thirds of my (truly respectable) Subscribers, many of whom spared me the mortifications; and some, with all that sweet tion of asking for their subscriprosity-which deficacy, characteristic of true gene. rosity which giveth liberally and upbraideth not-presented me with price of my book. To those kind considerably more than the nominal patrons, in particular, and to all in general, from whom I have received payment for their respective Copies I once more repeat my respectful acknowledgments, assuring them, "My Muse with gratitude records their aid, [tions paid."And writes on Memory's page-SubscripYours, &c. ANNE CLARKE.

* He had no licence to sell my Book till after payment of his Subscriptionwhich has not yet taken place.

Mr.

Gent. Mag. July 1814. p. 9.

THE DUKE'S THEATRE, DORSET - GARDENS.

This Theatre was built by Sir Christopher Wren, and first opened by the Duke of York's Company, on their removal from the Play-house in Little Lincolns-Inn ffields, the g th Nov 1671.. Betterton, stage manager with Kynaston, Hart, Tony-Leigh, Lady Slingsby, MS Betterton, and other principal actors, performed here until the union of the Duke and the King's Companies in 1682, and performances were continued occasionally until 1697. The whole bulding was demolished about April 1709 and the present offices of the New River Company have been erected on the site of the Theatre.

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