XI.

X

shofe

of religion, government, and commerce, are all the parts of one general plan of providence.

The Dean endeavours to demonftrate, in the next place, (from 1 Cor. vii. 31) that the vulgar notion of luxury's being the means of employing a greater number of hands than otherwife would have found employment, and confequently of being thereby beneficial to commerce, is A GRAND MISTAKE;and therefore, that the principles of pure and uncorrupted morals will ever be found to be the beft rules for promoting and extending mutual and univerfal commerce.

The fcope of the ninth difcourfe (from 2 Cor. . 27) is to give a rational account, and to fet forth the moral ufes, of the inftitution of Lent.

In the tenth (from Luke ix. 8) the indifpenfable duty of reftitution, in its feveral branches, is particularly inculcated; and Dr. Tucker labours to make it fully appear, that injuries done to the public revenue, and to the characters of perfons in high ftations, are of a more atrocious nature than injuries done to private property, or to private characters.

The eleventh fermon (from Matthew xv. 9) divides the errors and corruptions of Popery into two claffes, viz. thofe which are merely, or for the most part, only abfurd, and thofe which are really mischievous in their confequences, and deftruc tive of the peace and welfare of fociety, as well as abfurd. The conduct, which true and confiftent Proteftants ought to hold in respect to both these forts, is pointed out and enforced.

In the fubfequent difcourfe, from the fame text, the Author endeavours to prove, that the parallel pretended to be drawn between the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and the doctrine of transubstantion, and of other errors of the church of Rome, is falfe and groundless; and to fhew, in various lights, and from a variety of circumftances, that this confidence of boasting against the church of England is empty and vain. What the Dean hath advanced upon this fubject is fomewhat ingenious, but, in our opinion, by no means fatisfactory.

The evils of auricular confeffion, as practifed in the church of Rome, are next difplayed, from James v. 16; and fome directions are given with regard to that occafional confeffion, one to another, which may be expedient in very particular cafes and circumstances.

In the fourteenth fermon (from John xxi. 22) the line is attempted to be drawn between fuch parts in the deep myfteries of our religion, which appear to be unknowable, and fuch as are knowable: and our proper duty is fhewn to confift in acquiefcing in our ignorance refpe&ting the former, and in difcharging all thofe moral and religious offices, which are required of us in confequence of the latter.

The

The intention of the fifteenth difcourfe (from Heb. i. 1.) is to fet forth the different periods and difpenfations of religion from first to laft; and to explain in what fenfe every difpenfation, whether general or particular, must have fomething in it fixt and invariable, and in what fenfe alfo it may admit of variety and alterations.

The fixteenth fermon (from Proverbs xxii. 6) was preached ⚫ before the Governors of the Charity-Schools in London. Dr. Tucker here ftrongly recommends the neceffity of inculcating the faving truths of the gofpel, and the duties of practical religion In the minds of children, efpecially the children of the poorer fort; and he endeavours to fhew, that charity-schools, in conjunction with infirmaries, are almoft the only means left, confiftently with our prefent ideas of conftitutional liberty, for inftilling into the lower clafs of people the duties of living piously, righteously, and foberly in this present world.

The laft difcourfe was preached on the 30th of January, from Pet. ii. 17. And here the Dean attempts to prove that the foundation of all human governments, like that of the divine government, confifts in power, wisdom, and goodness; but each of thefe in a very finite and imperfect manner, even at the beft, and often fubject to great changes and revolutions for the worfe: fo that our obedience to fuch governments ought not to be abfolute, or unlimited, without any referves or exceptions. Nevertheless, as human governments there must be, notwithstanding all their faults and imperfections, he maintains that the general duty of the fubject is certainly obedience and non-refiftance; and that the exceptive cafes of refiftance must be left to the natural feelings of mankind, which are seldom or never wanting to advertise us in all dangerous cafes of this nature. This fermon contains fomething of the fcheme of Dr. Tucker's threatened attack upon Mr. Locke; at the profpect of which, no true friend of that great. man feels the leaft concern. In the application of the fermon to the prefent times, Dr. Tucker afferts, that the fame principles and maxims are now returning, which fpread fo much mifery over these kingdoms once before ;-that the fame republican schemes are again in agitation;-that the fame plans, are now forming anew;-that the fame engines of deftruction are again at work to pull down and demolifh our goodly fabrics both in church and state: in fhort, that there is a fettled plan, and a premeditated defign of overturning the constitution. This, he thinks, is the true mafter-key, which unlocks and lays open the latent defigns of thofe who oppofe the measures of adminiftration. The Dean of Glocefter hath again and again repeated this bafe and groundless calumny in his political wri

tings;

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tings; and he is now willing to fanctify his theology with it. We dare fay he is not a little proud of his master-key; but, for our parts, we can fcarcely help comparing it to the bungling workmanship of fome country blackfmith, who finds it diffi cult to make a key that shall be able to turn a common lock. Dr. Tucker's style is perfpicuous and eafy, without being mean; and, on that account, very proper for the pulpit.

K.

ART. VI. Poems, supposed to have been written at Bristol by Thomas Rowley and Others in the Fifteenth Century; the greatest Part now first published from the most authentic Copies, with an engraved Specimen of One of the MSS. To which are added, a Preface, an introductory Account of the feveral Pieces, and a Gloffary. Evo. 5s. Boards. Payne. 1777.

Ns first opening 'thefe Poems, the fmooth ftyle of the harmony, the eafy march of the verse, the regular ftation of the cæfura, the ftructure of the phrafe, and the caft and complexion of the thoughts, made us prefently conclude that they were Mack Ruins.-lf fuch they are, their merit is of no high eftimation, it being as eafy for a perfon accustomed to verfification, and acquainted with obfolete terms, to fabricate an old poem as to write a new one: but if, on the contrary, they are really productions of the fifteenth century, they are the most extraordinary literary curiofities that this or any recent period has produced for they would fhew us that the graces of numbers, and the refinements of poetical melody, are of no modern date, but belonged to one of the first adventurers in English poefy. This curious queftion, then, it is our immediate office to investigate, and we enter upon it with the greater fatisfaction, as we are in poffeffion of fome authentic documents, respecting the inquiry, which do not appear in the work before

us.

In the first place it is neceffary to adduce the Preface to this publication:

The poems, which make the principal part of this collection, have for fome time excited much curiofity, as the fuppofed productions of THOMAS ROWLEY, a priest of Bristol, in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV. They are here faithfully printed from. the most authentic MSS. that could be procured; of which a particular defcription is given in the Introductory account of the fevera! pieces contained in this volume, fubjoined to this Preface. Nothing more therefore feems neceffary at prefent, than to inform the Reader hortly of the manner in which thefe poems were first brought to light, and of the authority upon which they are afcribed to the perfons whofe names they bear.

This cannot be done fo fatisfactorily as in the words of Mr. George Catcott of Bristol, to whose very laudable zeal the Public is indebted for the most confiderable part of the following collection.

His

His account of the matter is this: "The firft difcovery of certain MSS. having been depofited in Redclift church, above three centuries ago, was made in the year 1768, at the time of opening the new bridge at Bristol, and was owing to a publication in Farley's Weekly Journal, 1 October 1768, containing an Account of the ceremonies obJerved at the opening of the old bridge, taken, as it was faid, from a very ancient MS. This excited the curiofity of fome perfons to enquire after the original. The printer, Mr. Farley, could give no account of it, or of the perfon who brought the copy; but after much enquiry it was difcovered, that the perfon who brought the copy was a youth, between 15 and 16 years of age, whofe name was Thomas Chatterton, and whofe family had been fextons of Redclift church for near 150 years. His father, who was now dead, had also been mafter of the free-school in Pile-ftreet. The young man was at firft unwilling to discover from whence he had the original; but, after many promifes made to him, he was at last prevailed on to acknowledge, that he had received this, together with many other MSS. from his father, who had found them in a large cheft in an upper room over the chapel on the north fide of Redclift church."

• Soon after this Mr. Catcott commenced his acquaintance with young Chatterton *, and, partly as prefents partly as purchases, procured

The hiftory of this youth is fo intimately connected with that of the poems now published, that the Reader cannot be too early apprized of the principal circumftances of his fhort life. He was born on the 20th of November 1752, and educated at a charity-school on St. Auguftin's Back, where nothing more was taught than reading, writing, and accounts. At the age of fourteen, he was articled clerk to an attorney, with whom he continued till he left Bristol in April 1770.

Though his education was thus confined, he discovered an early turn towards poetry and English antiquities, particularly heraldry. How foon he began to be an author is not known. In the Town and Country Magazine for March 1769, are two letters, probably from him, as they are dated at Bristol, and fubfcribed with his ufual fignature, D. B. The firft contains fhort extracts from two MSS. "written sbree bundred years ago by one Rowley, a Monk," concerning drefs in the age of Henry II.; the other, "ETHELGAR, a Saxon poem," in bombaft profe. In the fame Magazine for May 1769, are three communications from Briftol, with the fame fignature, D. B. viz. CERDICK, tranflated from the Saxon (in the fame style with ETHELGAR), p. 233.-Obfervations upon Saxon Heraldry, with drawings of Saxon atchievements, &c. p. 245.-ELINOURE and JUGA, written three hundred years ago by T. RowLEY, a fecular prieft, p. 273. This laft poem is reprinted in this volume, P. 19. In the fubfequent months of 1769 and 1770 there are feveral other pieces in the fame Magazine, which are undoubtedly of his compofition.

In April 1770, he left Briftol and came to London, in hopes of advancing his fortune by his talents for writing, of which, by this time, he had conceived a very high opinion. In the profecution of this fcheme, he appears to have almost entirely depended upon the patronage of a fet of gentlemen, whom an eminent author long ago pointed out, as not the very torft judges or rewarders of merit, the bookfellers of this great city. At his first arrival indeed he was fo unlucky as to find two of his expected Mæcenafes, the one in the King's Bench, and the other in Newgate. But this little difappointment was alleviated by the encouragement which he received from other quarters; and on the 14th of May he writes to his mother, in high fpirits upon the change in his fituation, with the following farcaftic reflection upon his former patrons at Bristol. "As to Mr. Mr. -, Mr. &c. &c. they rate literary lumber fo loro, that I believe an author, in their eftimation, must be poor indeed! But bere matters are otherwife. Had Rowley been a Londoner inflead of a Briftowyan, I could have lived by copying bis works.” S

Rav. Apr. 1777.

cured from him copies of many of his MSS. in profe and verfe, Other copies were disposed of, in the fame way, to Mr. William Barrett, an eminent furgeon at Bristol, who has long been engaged in writing the hiftory of that city. Mr. Barrett alfo procured from him feveral fragments, fome of a confiderable length, written upon vellum, which he afferted to be part of his original MSS. fhort, in the space of about eighteen months, from October 1768 to April 1770, befides the Poems now published, he produced as many compofitions, in profe and verfe, under the names of Rowley, Canynge, &c. as would nearly fill fuch another volume.

In

In April 1770 Chatterton went to London, and died there in the Auguft following; fo that the whole hiftory of this very extraordinary transaction cannot now probably be known with any certainty. Whatever may have been his part in it; whether he was the author, or only the copier (as he conftantly afferted) of all thefe productions; he appears to have kept the fecret entirely to himself, and not to have put it in the power of any other perfon, to bear certain teftimony either to his fraud or to his veracity.

The queftion therefore concerning the authenticity of thefe Poems muft now be decided by an examination of the fragments upon vellum, which Mr. Barrett received from Chatterton as part of his ori

In a letter to his fifter, dated 30 May, he informs her, that he is to be employed " in writing a voluminous bistory of London, to appear in numbers the beginning of next quinter." In the mean time, he had written fomething in praise of the LordMayor (Beckford), which had procured him the honour of being prefented to his Lordship. In the letter juft mentioned he gives the following account of his reception, with fome curious obfervations upon political writing: "The Lord-Mayor received me as politely as a citizen could. But the devil of the matter is, there is no money to be got of this fide of the question.But he is a poor author who cannot write on both fides.-Effays on the patriotic fide will fetch no more than what the copy is fold for. As the patriots themselves are fearching for a place, they have no gratuity to fpare.-On the other hand, unpopular effays will not even be accepted; and you must pay to have them printed: but then you feldom lose by it, as courtiers are fo fenfible of their deficiency in merit, that they generously reward all who know how to dawb them with the appearance of it."

Notwithstanding his employment on the Hiftory of London, he continued to write inceffantly in various periodical publications. On the 11th of July he tells his fifter that he had pieces last month in the Gospel Magazine; the Town and Country, viz. Maria Friendless; Falfe Step; Hunter of Oddities; To Mifs Bush, &c. Court and City; London; Political Regifter, &c. But all thefe exertions of his genius brought in fo little profit, that he was foon reduced to real indigence; from which he was relieved by death (in what manner is not certainly known), on the 24th of Auguft, or thereabout, when he wanted near three months to complete his eighteenth year. The floor of his chamber was covered with written papers, which he had torn into fmall pieces; but there was no appearance (as the Editor has been credibly informed) of any writings on parchment or vellum.'

One of these fragments, by Mr. Barrett's permiffion, has been copied in the manner of a Fac fimile, by that ingenious artift Mr. Strutt, and an engraving of it is inferted at p. 288. Two other fmall fragments of Poetry are printed in p. 277, 8, 9. See the Introductory Account. The fragments in profe, which are confiderably Jarger, Mr. Barrett intends to publish in his Hiftory of Bristol, which, the Editor has the fatisfaction to inform the Public, is very far advanced. In the fame work will be inferted A Difcorfe on Briftowe, and the other hiftorical pieces in profe, which Chatterton at different times delivered out, as copied from Rowley's MSS.; with fuch remarks by Mr. Barrett, as he of all men living is beft qualified to make, from his accurate refearches into the Antiquities of Bristol.'

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