affront which her sex has received from a paffage in his fermon, wherein he feems to infinuate a charge againit the ladies, of a want of public fpirit, and of due attention to subjects which involve the most important and the dearest interests of their country. For the paffage, as quoted in the 4th page of this Epiftle, we refer to the pamphlet. After vindicating the honour and credit of her fex from the cen fure which the apprehends to be implied in Mr. C.'s very questionable compliments, and infifting that the ladies do not confider themfelves as having no intereft in the state, and that it is not indifferent to them whether their descendants inherit what Britannia's fons braved every danger to win,-Fidelia proceeds to animadvert on the general defign, the narrow fpirit, and the obnoxious tendency, of his whole difcourfe; treating the preacher as the studied betrayer of the diffenting caufe, as a false brother, or, rather, no brother at all,no Diffenter, but a wolf in sheep's clothing, a mere emiffary of the eftablishment, or, poffibly, the fly ambitious projector of fome new fect, yet in embryo.-In all this, however, the offended lady indulges in no illiberality of language, nor coarfenefs of expreffion, except where the charges Mr. C. with acting as a spy on the Dif fenters: py is an ugly word, indeed! For the reft, fhe writes, chiefly in a vein of pleafantry; and at the fame time fhews that the is not unskilled in the ufe of all the controverfial weapons.-Mr. C. has, perhaps, acted wifely in fheltering himfelf under his declaration, that he will vouchfafe no answer to those who may chufe to attack him on the fubject of his late fermon. POLITICS and POLICE. Art. 48. Two Letters from Major Scott to George Hardinge, Efq. M. P. In the Second are included Mr. Hardinge's Obfervations upon Major Scott's first Letter*. With a Preface. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Stockdale. 1791. PP. 52. Mr. Hardinge was once the warm admirer and eloquent pane. gyrift of Mr. Haftings. Major Scott afferts that all the allegations, on which the impeachment was voted, were as well known at that time as they are at prefent; and he therefore calls on Mr. Hardinge to point out what circumftances have caufed fo fudden a change in his opinion. Thefe letters have already been before the public, in Mr. Woodfall's valuable daily paper called The Diary. The preface contains fome farther animadverfions on the lavish, and, as Major Scott thinks, unmerited, praifes beftowed by Mr. Hardinge on the conduct of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Burke in the profecution of Mr. Haftings: the following obfervations on Mr. Burke are extremely pointed and fevere; In the fame proportion (fays Major Scott) that he was bold in affertion, he has been deficient in proof. In his indictment he criminated Mr. Hallings for every act of a government of thirteen years after a trial of three years, he propofed to abandon nine parts in ten of this indictment; and it will be tranfmitted to poterity in the fame volume with his condemnation of Mr. Pitt. See Rev. vol. v. New Series, p. 345. But the the fyftems which are fo ftrongly condemned in the articles that are abandoned, as well as in those which ftill remain, are precisely followed at this moment by the King's Minifters, who have made fpeeches, who have moved and carried refolutions year after year, which cut the articles up by the roots. For nine years Mr. Burke has uttered predictions relative to India; yet, ftrange to tell, be has been utterly mistaken in every one of them! thofe relating to the Carnatic excepted; in which he and Mr. Haftings have not very widely differed. In his opening fpeech in Westminster Hall, he affirmed that when Mr. Hastings quitted Bengal, the country felt relieved from a weight under which it had long groaned; but for the truth of this affertion, he cannot get one fingle native, out of the millions that inhabit it, to vouch; and he has never attempted to verify it by evidence.' The length of time and the intolerable expence attending this trial, we cannot but feel to be highly reproachful to the jurisprudence of this country; and we fincerely hope it is now drawing to a conclufion. Art. 49. A Letter from a Magiftrate to Mr. William Rose, of Whitehall, on Mr. Paine's Rights of Man. 8vo. pp. 144. 2s. 6d. Debrett. 1791. This gentleman attacks Mr. Paine with more zeal than effect. We think, however, that he has the advantage, when he argues against the affertion that the English have no conftitution. He calls the "Rights of Man" a libel on our government: but we do not recollect any thing in that performance more fevere than what we find in page 90 of the prefent letter. No man,' says this writer, who has ftudied mankind, or attended to the nature of government, can honestly say, that he thinks our conflitution a practicable fyftem, without any mixture of influence.' It feems, then, that all our theorists, who have fo highly extolled the British conftitution, on account of its being compofed of three independent parts, mutually balancing each other; have lavished their praife on an impracticable machine, which it would be impoffible to work, if it were not for a main fpring which they have never noticed. A reprefentative government, inflead of being fuch an admirable contrivance as it has been faid to be, is fuch a bungling expedient, that nothing but the influence of places and penfions could make it of any fervice to the constituent body. The author hopes, however, that nobody will be fo ftupid as to confound influence with corruption, clandeftine bribery with the public acceptance of beneficial employments. He is no advocate for a mercenary Houfe of Commons. He would not have our representatives bribed. Bribery! O fye! that were a fin-No. He is only for having them a little, 66 Rounded in the ear With that fame purpofe-changer, that fly devil; That fmooth-fac'd gentleman, tickling commodity." Art. Art. 50. A fhort but ferious Addrefs to the Manufacturers, Yeomanry, and Tradesmen of Great Britain and Ireland. 8vo. PP. 35. 15. Stockdale. 179. This is an attempt, we truft a vain one, to check the progress of improvement and reformation in this country; by holding out a frightful and exaggerated picture of the miferies of Revolution, as exhibited in France. The piece is chiefly copied from a French original, (we believe the celebrated aristocratical "Addresse aux Provinces," in which the painter has let loose the wildeft powers of an ungoverned fancy; daubing every object with fuch a profufion of tawdry red and yellow, as is only fuited to catch the vulgar eye, unacquainted with the mild and fober tintings of truth. The copyift now and then throws in a few touches of his own; very much in the ftyle of the original. He tells us that the expence of maintaining the French National Affembly may be fairly rated at four hundred thousand pounds fterling per annum; and then exclaims "to be ruined, and pay fo dearly for it, may well make men fore and angry!the French nation fo very angry?" Plefs my foal! how full of cholers I am!" does not appear to us to be the true rendering of, “ça ira¬vive la liberté." We do not find that the people wince much. We rather fuppofe, therefore, that their withers are unwrung. As a companion to the French picture, the manufacturers, yeomanry, and tradefmen, of Great Britain and Ireland, are prefented with an English caricature. A complete fancy piece, like the former! It is intended to reprefent a modern reformer, a member of the Revolution fociety; and a moft horrid, favage figure it is, to be fure. No Saracen was ever painted half so terrible. There are few manufacturers, or yeomen, whom the fight would not appal, make their two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Their knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end. Even we, who wear periapts to preferve us from the magic of a goofe quill, were, at firft, a little ftartled by this major imago bumanâ. When we recollected ourselves, however, it brought to our minds thofe travelling philofophers, who go about the country with a folar microfcope; (they too addrefs the manufacturers, yeomanry, and tradefmen,)-by the help of which, and by excluding the forrounding light, they fometimes pourtray on the wall fuch dreadful, ugly, fprawling monfter, fo fitted and armed at all points for dettraction, that the gaping fpectators, who know little of the magnifying power of the inftrument, can hardly believe that the creature itself, as Sir Hugh Evans has it, " is a familiar beaft to man, and fignifies love." Art 51. Letters to Thomas Paine; in Anfwer to his late Publication on the Rights of Man; fhewing his Errors on that Subj &; and proving the fallacy of his Principles as applied to the Government of this Country. 8vo. pp. 91. 25. Miller. 1791. Mr. Paine's pamphlet, though neither elegantly nor accurately written, was, in many parts, well calculated, by its language, to make a flrong impreflion on the generality of readers: but thefe Ray, Nov. 1791. letters, B b Letters, equally inelegant and inaccurate, are very ill adapted to intereft or affect any clafs of readers. To fift the author's meaning from his uncouth language, is a work of labour; and of labour too, which, at the conclufion, the reader finds to have been ill bestowed. The fhell is very rough, thick, and hard; and the kernel, when acquired, is dry and infipid, affording neither flavour nor nutri ment. Art. 52. The Poor Man's Bleffing, on the old Tiara and Conftitution of Great Britain; or a Glimple at Sir Brooke Boothby's Letter to Mr. Burke. By a Blackguard. 8vo. pp. 40. Is. Shepperfon and Co. 1791. Some books, both in matter and manner, carry fuch internal evidence of their authors, that it is quite needless to tell us, in the title-page, by whom they are written. This antagonist of Sir Brooke Boothby is one of thofe; and for once our established maxim-Fronti nulla fides—has failed us. Art. 53. The Great and Important Discovery of the Eighteenth Century, and the Means of fetting right the National Affairs, by a great Addition of numerous and inestimable useful Designs and public Improvements, by which the Nation is ftill capable of being infinitely benefited: To which are added, Addresses to the feveral different Claffes of Society, pointing out the Measures, which they ought to pursue as their refpective Duties, in redreffing public Affairs. By George Edwards, Efq. M. D. Author of the Aggrandifement of Great Britain; of the National Perfection of Finance; and of the Royal Regeneration of Great Britain. 8vo. pp. 233. 5s. Boards. Ridgeway. 1791. After the notice which we have already taken of Dr. Edwards's plans, our readers will be fatisfied with a general account of the prefent work, which is little more than a repetition of the Author's former projects. The welfare of fociety, according to Dr. E. confilts in a plain and easy, but most important and extenfive, fyftem of twelve different practical sciences: of government; of jurifprudence and the administration of law; of district-improvement; of public agencies; of finance; of mental civilization; of religion; of medicine; of national improvement; of commerce; of foreign politics, &c. On each of these topics, the writer treats in his ufual manner, and concludes with an importunate call on the friends of public virtue, to unite in effecting the regular eftablishment of departments for the cultivation of thefe fciences. In particular, Dr. E. calls on the ladies to fupport his plans by their influence. Adopting a pretty figure, he exclaims: Oh push your affociate fex from the narrow bough, to which, with the fear of neftling birds, it clofely clings, in order to try and explore the wide ambient atmosphere of public welfare and national perfection.'The King is entreated to form a new administration, and OURSELVES (the author) modeftly mentioned as fecretary of the Alfredian department, for promoting the different national improvements. If we do not approve all the plans of this indefatigable * See Rev. New Series, vol. iv. p. 67 and 73. writer, writer, we cannot but applaud his public spirit, and his unceasing attention to the welfare of his country. Art. 54. An Inquiry into the Justice and Expediency of prescribing Bounds to the Ruffian Empire. 8vo. pp. 63. Is. Faulder. 1791. The complexion of this pamphlet will inftantly appear from the writer emphatically characterizing the Ruffians, as a nation that cannot produce one folitary inftance of ftri&t fidelity to its engagements; and in whom credulity itself would refuse to confide. Accordingly, if the Ruffians had been suffered to drive the Turks out of Europe, we are once more told that the fun of England would have fet for ever. Every politician has a bundle of maxims, according to which he decides on the profperity or total ruin of this country. Thus we are the greatest power in Europe, or on the brink of deftruction, every year of our lives, in the lucubrations of fome fage Mentor or other! All the while, we jog on without perceiving either the firft or the last event; the pamphlets containing the momentous intelligence fink into oblivion; and fo end the predictions. : The writer is a ftrenuous advocate for the miniftry but the matter which he agitates is now over. The mediating powers have had the honour of obtaining that peace for the Turks, which the Emprefs offered, before they interfered in the business! MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 55. Characters and Anecdotes collected in the Reigns of William Rufus, Charles the Second, and King George the Third, by the celebrated Wandering Jew of Jerufalem. 8vo. pp. 96. 2s. 6d. Ridgeway. 1791. This writer, though not a Theophraftus, difcovers fome knowlege of the world. His sketches of characters are not perfonal, but general. They are drawn in a hafty, and what may not improperly be called a dashing, manner; and they pafs too rapidly before the reader's fancy to leave any very vivid impreffion. The Christian philofopher, the modeft man, the man of found learning; the proud man, the mifer, the drunkard; the infignificant, the coxcomb, the cockney, the player, the furgeon, the attorney, the sprig of divinity-are among the portraits here delineated. From thefe we shall fele&t THE MAN OF SOUND LEARNING. "And in my closet I could reft, till to the Heav'ns I rise.” WATTS. An excellent fcholar is one that has much learning in the ore; but as yet unwrought and untried in the big world, which time and experience only fashions and refines. He is formed of excellent materials within, though he appears rough and unpolished without; and therefore often scouted at by the light caperers of catgut, dance, and fong, who are fo very much his inferiors in found wisdom and knowledge. It is, in short, the fantastic wantonnefs of the times, that can render fuch a character in the leaft degree ridiculous. We are fometimes told, indeed, if any thing is abfurd, that it was done like a scholar. His mind, it is true, is wholly taken up with Bb z his |