Having pronounced our judgement on these volumes, and Thewn fome of the grounds on which it is founded, we proceed to ftate the reafons which induced us to clafs this article in the second department of our work. The Critical Reviewers, whom we have compelled to affume the mask of moderation, as a comparison of their former with their recent labours will fufficiently demonftrate, like men retaining a marked predilection for habits which intereft alone has led them to abandon, who cannot refrain from occafional indulgence of their favourite propenfity, now and then betray the cloven foot which they are anxious to conceal. In their number for February last (P. 195) they have given fome account of the work before us; and, though precluded, by its eftablished reputation, from all mifreprefentation in refpect of the genius and talents by which it is fo ftrongly marked, their unwillingness to let it pafs without fome stamp of difapprobation has betrayed them into the extreme folly (to fay nothing of the profligacy of the attempt) of attacking its conductors in a part where they are moft invulnerable. After obferving, juftly enough, "how frequently and how mifchievoufly" periodical publications "are rendered the vehicles of calumny and faction;" they add, evidently, with a view to implicate the conductors of the AntiJacobin in their cenfure," we are forry that there is little room for discrimination in applying this cenfure, and that the most impudent and acrimonious defenders of one fet of opinions have been encountered by equal falfehood and malevolence in the effufions of their diurnal antagonists." Thefe gentlemen may, perhaps, plead, that, by limiting their obfervation to diurnal antagonists, they could not be fupposed to apply it to the conductors of a weekly paper. But fuch a plea would be a paltry evafion, as an affertion in the very next paragraph will fuffice to fhew. "It has been perceived, with regret, that the conductors of the Anti-Jacobin have not been ftudious of preferving their work uncontaminated by the faults of virulence and mifreprefentation, of which they have, in many instances, convicted their adverfaries." Now here we are at iffue with these critics; we deny their affertion in toto. Mifreprefentation is certainly a proper object of critical animadverfion, and nothing is more fufceptible of plain proof; yet we defy them to produce a single inftance of it in the 1285 pages before us. Indeed the most prominent, the characteriftic feature (if we may fo fay) of the Anti-Jacobin is a rigid adherence to truth. So that this affirmation of the Critical Reviewers may be added to the lift of falsehoods which that publication has been the means of drawing forth and of expofing. Nn 2 ART. ART. II. A Letter to the Right Honourable William Pitt. 8vo. Pp. 48. Price 1s. 6d. Moore, Dublin; Reprinted for Robinfons, London. 1799. IN N our remarks, prefixed to the first volume of our work, on the effects which it had already produced on the advocates and promoters of Jacobinical principles, we noticed the affumed moderation of certain critics, and the total deftruction of the Analytical Review; obferving, however, at the fame time, that these circumstances would produce no relaxation of our vigilance; and that we knew the fpirit of Jacobinifm fo well as to be convinced that "though vanquished in one fhape, it would rife up in another." The accuracy of our knowledge, in this refpect, has been already proved, in the inftance of the Analytical Review; for the fectaries who patronized it had fcarcely time to lament its diffolution, and to vent their maledictions, with the pious Gilbert Wakefield, on thofe oppreffive laws which had doomed its worthy, honeft, well-difpofed proprietor (whofe virtues were fo fully illuftrated by the parole and written evidence adduced on his trial) to experience, in his old age, the horrors of a gaol; and that "facrilegious By the bye, we believe, that the trial to which we allude af fords the first inftance, in which the age of a culprit has been urged as a plea for the extenuation of crime, or the mitigation of punishment. Age certainly carries with it the proof of experience, and the prefumption of wifdom; and thefe, by the common herd of mankind, have been generally conceived to afford the best prefervatives against a violation of order, morals, or law; and, by a neceffary confequence, an aggravation of an offence committed againft either. In the new fyftem of revolutionary ethics, devifed by the enlightened fages of the prefent day, this opinion of men who prefume not to foar above the regions of common fenfe, may be confidered as antiquated, and worthy of derifion; and fuch confideration probably operated with the counfel for the convicted defendant, as a fufficient reafon for urging the plea in queftion. Our profound refpect for the incorruptible integrity of British Judges, deters us from questioning the propriety of their decifions; but, with the knowledge which we have, with the facts of which we are in poffeffion, we cannot but exprefs our great furprize at the extreme lenity difplayed on this occafion. We fear it will tend to fruftrate the beneficial effects of EXAMPLE. In refpect to the evidence to character, we have no fcruple to give å decided opinion, that the fpurious liberality, which feeks to fcreen a culprit "facrilegious ufurper," who conducted the profecution; before it fprang up again in a new shape, with oily tongue and rancorous heart. We know not whether the inducement to this fpeedy revival was, in any degree, influenced by a contemplation of the flock in hand; or whether it exclufively. originated in motives of pure patriotism, in an earnest desire to ferve the good caufe. Be that as it may, the first numbers (for two have been published together) are now before us; and they open with an advertisement or profpectus explanatory of the plan of the work and the principles of the authors. We are here told, that the general character of the Analytical Review has been fuch as to give the friends of liberal enquiry fufficient reafon to regret its difcontinuance. We have no doubt but that Meffrs. Godwin, Wakefield, Holcroft, et alii ejufdem farinæ, will fubfcribe to the justice of this obfervation. We are next prefented with the character of the Analytical Redivivus, this "new feries," which is defcribed as "a Review untainted by the prejudices of party or the dogmas of fectarism;-unbiaffed by profeffional interefts, and fuperior to the momentary caprices of popular enthufiafm, and wholly and exclufively fubfervient to the abftract interefts of truth and science." Never wer more falfehoods crammed into fewer lines, as it fhall be our bufinefs hereafter to prove. Meanwhile we take leave to record the confeffion that " the duty of exerting the power of fupporting and advancing the interefts of truth, whenever thofe interefts are in queftion, can never be neglected without blame, nor deferted without treachery." Having now introduced this "new feries" of Jacobinifm and Prefbyterianifm to our readers, we fhall proceed to give fome account of the production of its fellow-labourer, Dr. Drennan. The Analytical Reviewers open their Review of it with an effufion of fellow-feeling, highly demonftrative of their regard to truth. "The name of Drennan is a name which has long a culprit at the expence of justice, involves a grofs breach of moral duty. This pernicious quality has, unhappily, become so fashionable of late, that it abfolutely threatens to destroy all the diftinctions of good and bad, true and falfe, virtue and vice, loyalty and treafon. It is time to check it in its destructive career, MERCY has juftly been called "a divine attribute;" Heaven forbid we fhould feck to confine its exertions; no, let it continue to flow in full ftreams from the pure fountain of Royalty. But the liberality which we condemn (from its tendency to interrupt the courfe of justice) bears no more refemblance to mercy than the legitimate Eonours of the Crown bear to the factious acclamations of a mob. Nn3 been been dear to tafte"-i. e. to the taste of United Irifhmen and Jacobin critics.---" And its eftimation will receive additional value from this performance." (Analytical Review for February 1799.) Dr. Drennan has long been known by the decided part which he has taken in favour of those honeft patriots in Ireland, fome of whofe leaders had the misfortune to be tried, and one of them, alas! to be hanged, at Maidstone. He has, of courfe, been a regular and moft clamorous fupporter of reform, the end and object of which he thus honeftly explained, (in a letter which he addreffed to Earl Fitzwilliam, in 1795,) in behalf of his brethren, the United Irifhmen, whofe mouth-piece, he is truly stated to have been by Mr. Knox, in his volume of Effays, reviewed in a former part of this number. "Any kind of reform, fincerely put into execution, would do much to please, but not to fatisfy, the people. Any reform once made, would make EVERY reform afterward more eafy; when adopted it would tend to perfe&t itfelf." The Doctor was certainly right; he had witneffed the bleffed confequences of reform in France, and he well knew that the fame caufes would produce the fame confequences in Ireland. Such principles as the Doctor has invariably profeffed, during the whole progrefs of the momentous ftruggle for liberty in the Sifter Kingdom, could not fail to endear his name to all genuine patriots in both countries. Of the book before us. the Analytical Reviewers fay---but the paffage is so curious that we shall give it at length: "Bold as the affertion may feem, we will venture to affirm, that we have feldom, if ever, feen, in any human compofition, so many beauties in fo fmall extent. They meet the eye in every line, and fetter the admiration in every page. "How fruitful is the foil of Ireland in eloquent men! Grattan, Curran, Burke, Drennan, countrymen and contemporaries, form a conftellation from the luftre of which the aching eye retires for repofe. The laft of thefe illuftrious men, however, we think pre-eminent, in fertility of imagination, richness of colouring, and accuracy and extent of thought. We are aware that the reputation of Burke will be opposed to this obfervation, and we acknowledge that the writings of that extraordinary man, viewed in this afpect, may plaufibly justify the hesitation of many in admitting the fuperior fuccefs of a rival. "Dr. D. is certainly a difciple of the better days of Mr. Burke, What Mr. Burke once was, fuch is Dr. D.; but the scholar, in our opinion, in the characters of compofition which we have noticed, outvies the master's happiest performances in the happiest moments of his career. The torrent of Burke's eloquence is, perhaps, more impetuous than that of Drennan's, but this is the only particular in which we can allow it to excel. The imagination of Burke was indeed fertile, but that of Drennan exceeds it even in fertility; and, we be lieve, no man of tafte can read the pamphlet before us, and compare it with the beft productions of Mr. Burke, without concluding with us, that the firft praife is due to him who yet lives, the glory of his country, and the pride of his country's tongue." Our readers are, no doubt, impatient to view fome of the extraordinary beauties of this wonderful performance; we will, therefore, haften to gratify that impatience. The Dr. having infifted that the happiness and profperity of the Irish form no part of the plan of the projected Union; but, that its fole object is the establishment of a military defpotifm in Ireland, an affertion which, coming from so refpectable an authority, no one can have the prefumption to deny, proceeds thus: "It is become, in your mind, neceffary for the fupport of religion, good government, and focial order, to brace up with an iron collar the diforted fpine of a body politic, become already too weak to fupport itself, and grown decrepit even in infancy. The worfe than Egyptian plague of Irish Union may have crept into places leaft to be thought of, and for fear of lofing any of them at a time of such fear. ful uncertainty, you have thought it expedient to hold faft these kingdoms, like keys, by a metal ring of British manufacture. Take care! One of them at least, has been mislaid, and may have been falfified. "From that fatal, or that fortunate, hour, in which it was your choice to call forth the defperate energies of the French people, rather than their first affections, which you could at that time have commanded; from that hour, in which your grand coalition frightened them out of all fear--but for their wives and children; urging them on to the fame prodigies of natural inftinct that the hen difplays against the kite, and makes the lionefs terrible when robbed of her young-when you deemed it impoffible for two nations to maintain under different forms of government the ufual relations of life, or to continue bound by the fympathy of their common nature, and the interefts of their common liberty; from that ominous or aufpicious period of first deviation, you have been driven along a courfe of conduct rather by neceffity than obftinacy or perfeverance. The strong hand of definy has filently led the minister of peace and procraftination, into the region of hazardous innovation, gloomy antipathy, and interminable war. To this fole object are bent every paffion and power of your mind, and this Union is now thought of merely to make Ireland a more productive war contribution." Pp. 10-12. The Doctor here evidently confiders that hour as fortunate in which the French revolutionists deftroyed the monarchy which they had fworn to defend, and murdered their monarch whom they had sworn to obey. We are willing to allow hi credit for his confiftency, and his Reviewers credit, for felecting this very paffage, as a proof of the foundness of their remarks Nn 4 |