peace, were it in their power, or fhould it at any time come into their power. It will be becoming your wisdom to confider of the fecuring of our peace against thofe, who, we all know, are, and ever will be, our implacable enemies; what the means of doing this are, I fhall refer unto you. This I can affure you, that the armies of England, Scotland, and Ireland, are true and faithful to the peace and good interest of these nations; and it will be found fo: and that they are a confiftent body, and ufeful for any good ends; and if they are not the very best army in in the world, you would have heard of many inconveniences, by reafon of the great arrear of pay, which is now due unto them, whereby fome of them are reduced to great neceffities: but you shall have a particular account of their arrears; and I doubt not but confideration will be had thereupon, in fome fpeedy and effectual way. And this being matter of money, I recommend it particularly to the house of commons. You have, you know, a war with Spain, carried on by the advice of parliament; he is an old enemy, and a potent one, and therefore it will be neceffary, both for the honour and fafety of thefe nations, that war be vigorously profecuted. Fnrthermore, the conftitution of affairs in all our neighbour countries, and round about us (as well friends as enemies) is very confiderable; and calls upon us to be upon our guard, both at land and fea; and to be in a pofture able to maintain and conferve our own ftate and intereft. Great and powerful fleets are preparing to be fet forth into those feas, and confiderable armies of feveral nations and kings are now dif puting for the maftery of the Sound, with the adjacent islands and countries; among which is the emperor of Germany. and other popish ftates. I need not tell you of what confequence these things are to this ftate. We have already interpofed in these affairs, in fuch a manner as we found it necessary for the intereft of England; and matters are yet in fuch a condition in those parts, that the ftate may, with the affiftance of God, provide that their differences may not prejudice us. The other things that are to be faid, I fhall refer to the lord keeper Fiennes; and close up what I have to fay, with only adding two or three particulars to what I have already faid. And, firft, I recommend to your care, the people of God in these nations, with their concernments: the more they are divided among themfelves, the greater prudence. fhould be used to cement them. Secondly, The good and neceffary work of reformation, both in manners, and in the administration of juftice, that profaneness may be difcountenanced and fuppreffed and that righteousness and justice may be execated in the land. Thirdly, I recommend to you the Protestant caufe abroad, which feems, at this time, to be in fome danger, having great and powerful enemies, and very few friends; and I hope, and believe, that the Old English zeal to that cause is fill amongst us. Laftly, Laftly, My lords, and you gentlemen of the house of commons, That you will, in all your debates, maintain and conferve love and unity among yourselves; that there. in you may be the pattern of the nation, who have fent you up in peace, and with their prayers, that the spirit of wisdom and peace may be among you: and this fhall alfo be my prayer for you. And to this let us add all our utmost endeavours for the making this an happy parliament." [Whoever penned this Speech, it was allowed to be a very handsome and fenfible one by all, and far exceeded that which followed of the lord keeper Fiennes.] A short view of the character and writings of M. de Voltaire; taken from a French pamphlet published at Utrecht, under the title of Critical Reflections upon the Article GENEVA, in the Encyclopedie, in fome letters from an English gentleman on his travels to a noble lord. T may HE article in question, which was compofed by Monf. D' Alembert. tho' it be in many refpects extremely honourable to the city of Geneva, is yet highly injurious to the whole body of its clergy, a clergy whofe fentiments, morals, and tafte, do honour to their profeffion. In this article their moderation is reprefented as indifference, and their rational manner of treating the fublime myfteries and doctrines of chriftianity as focinianifm, nay, as a kind of deifm, and that by whom? by M. de Alembert, whose attachment to christianity is more than doubtful, notwithstanding fome mean profeffions he has lately made to appease a bigoted and perfecuting church in the last edition of his Philofophical and Literary Mifcellany. The truth of the matter is, there is at present a club of pretended fages, who by way of eminence call themselves philofophers, seem to have formed a fort of confederacy against the cause of Christianity, and are not a little anxious about making profelytes, that they may acquire weight by the number of their adherents. For this purpose they pretend to have fecret as well as open friends, and are willing to dye with the colour of their sect, as many as they can conveniently. Voltaire, who in genius, and in abuse of genius, in exuberance of talent and want of principle, is this day one of the first men in Europe, is juftly fufpected to be one of these pretended philofophers, and he is thus reprefented in the letters above mentioned. "Caft your eye, my lord, upon monfieur de Voltaire, who is looked upon as the Corypheus of thefe philofophers; or rather permit me to give you a juft, though general idea of his character and writings. He has undoubtedly been enriched by nature with a very confiderable degree of genius and understanding; but has received with them fuch an ungovernable imagination, fuch impetuous paffions, and fuch a reftlefs temper, as have, in many cafes, deftroyed their natural effects, and perverted their application to the worst purpofes. His principal talent is poetry. His profe, however, is highly and justly esteemed, and is, not without reafon, fup pefed pofed to equal his poetic ftyle in elegance and facility; though he has been reproached by fome with running after antithefes and epigrammatical points. His converfation is full of lively ftrokes of wit, and rendered interesting by a great number of agreeable anecdotes, which he has collected from a long intercourse with perfons of the first distinction. All this is proper to form a wit ; but in what light will he appear, if we confider him as a philofopher? The period, in which he firft came forth to public view, was certainly dangerous to unguarded innocence and virtue. It was under the regency of Philip, duke of Orleans, a period of luxury, licentioufnefs, and irreligion, in which an Epicureanifm, much worfe than that of Epicurus, reigned, and gave a tone to the principles and manners of the times, that Monf. de Voltaire made his appearance in the world. It was pretty much fuch a period as the reign of Charles 11. in our island, when courtiers and poets, tired of the bigotry, hypocrify, and fanaticism, that had extended their gloomy reign during the republic, ran headlong into the oppofite extreme of atheism and fenfuality, when they had got a libertine monarch at their head. And it is remarkable enough, that the religious difputes of Janfenifts and Jefuits in France, about the Conftitution, were followed with the fame effects in France under the regency of Philip, that fucceeded the debates about Epifcopacy and Prefbyterianifm, under the reign of Charles. Monfieur Arrouet (for fo Voltaire was originally named) was born, in the midst of the difputes VOL. V. above-mentioned, of parents who were Janfenifts; and perceiving, among the difputants on both fides, much animofity, artifice, and mifguided zeal, he, as many abfurdly do, conceived a difguft at religion in general, and contracted an early habit of pointing his fatirical wit and pleafantry against that respectable object. His connections with the late lord Bolingbroke confirmed him in this unreasonable and perverfe habit, and wholly corrupted his tafte and judgment, with refpect to religious matters. He seems to have adopted all the ideas of that incoherent noble author, though he has difguifed them much more than Bolingbroke did, and has expreffed them with much less energy, eloquence, and ingenuity. Nothing lefs would fatisfy Voltaire's ambition than the glory of adding to his fame, as a poet, the reputation of a profound philofopher, and an eminent hiftorian; though in these two latter characters he is no more than fuperficial. The Henriade, The Life of Charles the Twelfth, fome tragedies, and feveral pieces of poetry and literature, are, in my opinion, the only pretenfions he can plead to the character of an eminent author; and it must be confeffed, that these productions are fufficient to eftablish a fhining reputation. His Essay on Univerfal Hiftory, though it contains feveral agreeable anecdotes, and fome curious relations, is yet a very indifferent performance, prég nant with glaring falfhoods and wilful mifreprefentations of facts; of which an attentive reader will find examples in every page. It refembles a gallery of hiftorical pictures, in which the painter has followed more the excurfions of his fancy, private fentiments, and particular views, than the dictates of nature or the truth of things. It is more particularly obfervable, that this pretended hiftorian never indulges his romantic vein with greater complacence, than when the hiftory of religion, or the affairs of the church, come in his way; nay, he often goes out of his way, in order to disfigure them, and to fet chriftianity and its minifters in a ridiculous or odious point of light. His philofophical performances are generally acknowledged to be fuperficial and inaccurate. He tried his talent in that way upon the philofophy of Sir Ifaac Newton, with a view to obtain a place in the Academy of Sciences. But this project failed; for his book was defpifed, and he was denied admiffion into that learned body. The vivacity of his fancy renders him inconfiderate and imprudent beyond all expreffion. Were he really the author of that impious, obscene, and cynical poem, intitled the Maid of Orleans, this must be fufficient to render him infamous in the opinion of all fuch as have any fenfe of decency left; but he has denied that the impieties that difhonour this work flowed from his pen. He is always talking of reafon, humanity, forbearance, and mildness he is always lamenting the indecent quarrels and animofities that prevail too much among men of learning; and perhaps no man living acts more in oppofition to thefe pompous profeflions. He has compofed an agreeable and witty chapter concerning printed Lies, and no author certainly has printed more than he himfelf." : Such are the principal ftrokes in the character, which the fenfible au thor of the Letters abovementioned gives of Monf. de Voltaire. These, however, are but fcattered and imperfect hints, which relate but to a very fmall part of the writings and character of that poet. I therefore hope to give you, fome time hence, a more full, extenfive, and circumftantial account of the life, character, transactions, and writings of that mixed man. An original Letter from the Duke of A S neceffity inforces me, instead of repairing to you, according to your command, and my promise, to go many miles from you another way, and confequently from myfelf, all my perfect joys and pleafures chiefly, nay folely, confifting in attending your perfon; fo, methinks, duty and good manners command me, on the other part, to give you an account under my own Land, though it be yet fomething unfteady and weak. But before I give the reasons of the change of my former refolutions, there is a thing not much in. exercife now in the world, called thankfulness, that calls fo faft and earneftly upon me, that I must first, though I have already done it by the affiftance of a young gentleman, called Babie Charles, whom you likewife, by your good offices, made my friend, who, without doubt, hath already perfe&tlier made my thanks, than I fhall myfelf; yet, having the pen in my hand, I muft needs tell you what I obferve in your late absent and public favour, but ancient manner of obliging your poor unworthy fervant, whereby I 4 find find you fill one and the fame dear and indulgent mafter you were ever to me, never being contented to overvalue and love me yourself, but to labour, all manner of ways, to make the whole world do fo too. Befides, this affures me, you truft me as abfolutely as ever, lately expreft in this, that you have no conceit of my popularity, otherwise why. fhould you thus ftudy to endear me with the upper and lower houfe of parliament, and fo confequently with your whole kingdom; all and the least I can fay, is this, that I naturally fo love your perfon, and upon fo good experience and knowledge, adore all your other parts, which are more than ever one man had, that were not only all your people, but all the world befides, fet together on one fide, and you alone on the other, I fhould, to obey and please you, difpleafe, nay despise all of them; and this fhall ever be my popularity. Give me leave here to ufe your own proverb;" for this the devil con me thanks." The reafons of my going to Newhall are these: firft, I find bufinefs, and the fight of bufy folks does me much harm; and though your extraordinary care and watchful eye over me, would keep them from speaking with me, yet, in a court, I muft needs look many of them in the face; then Theobald's houfe is now very hot, and hath but few change of rooms, both inconvenient for a fick body: then my lord of Warwick tells me, that, by experience, he hath found Newhall air as good a one to ride away an ague, as any in England, and that lately he loft one by the benefit of that air. I mean near hand, which I think will be all one, By this time, I fear I have troubled you; and were it not that I write to you, I am fure I fhould have wearied myself. I have now only one request to you, as you first placed me in your Babie Charles's good opinion, if you think fit, for your fervice, in my absence continue me in it; and fo give me your bleffing. Your Majesty's Moft humble flave and dog, STINIE. Some Account of a very extraordinary Clergyman. From Mr. Morrice's Memoirs of the first Earl of Or rery. PON the ruin of the royal fa mily and the death of the king, his lordship retired to Marston, his feat in England, which his father had bought of Sir John Hippifley, and which was formerly part of Edmund earl of Cornwall's estate. I have heard him repeat a remarkable incident that happened during his refidence there; which, as it will fhew the diftrefs of the royal party in thofe days, may perhaps be acceptable to the curious. The parish church of Marston is very near to the manfion - house : lord Orrery never failed to go thither on a Sunday; but one Sunday, having fat there fome time, and being disappointed of the then qualified minifter, his lordship was preparing to return home, when his fervants told him a perfon in the church offered to preach. His lordfhip, though he looked upon the propófal only as a piece of enthufiafm, gave permiffion; and was never more furprised or delighted than with the fermon, which was filled with learning, fenfe, and pie E 2 ty, |