just going to drink tea!-Supper will be ready at eight precifely!a great many ftrangers in town!-anfwer the bell there your fervant, gentlemen! All in a breath-thank you, Mr. Vandenbergh !-a mighty civil hoft, and as fluent as a London vintner. Why then, my worthy companion, I propofe that we join with our party in a general welcome to this capital, that we take a refreshing difh of tea ftanding, that we may ramble as long as it may be convenient, and afterwards betake ourfelves to the book feller's fhop over the way, cand there wait the call to fupper. VI of suit The fhops of bookfellers should always be vifited by the curious traveller; fince they may be confidered as the abftracts of the genius and learning of the country.-A well-read, and at the fame time a well bred man, might in half an hour learn to drefs his converfation by them; chufing fuch fubjects as were moft for his own information, and best suited to the humour of the people, and avoiding fuch as he apprehended might give offence —I am fo clear in this conceit, tho' fome may be dif posed to laugh at it (and they have free leave fo to do) that I don't know whether in fome fituations I would not pay the bookfeller a vifit, even before I had fent for the dreffer. To ftrengthen this opinion, and to guard against the fleers of fome of my merry difpofed readers, give me leave to obferve, that if I had been hoodwinked, and privately conveyed from London, not knowing whither I was going, and had been fet down in Myn Heer Van Praet's fhop at Bruges, as foon as mine eyes had been uncovered and that I could look about me, I fhould not have hefitated a moment to pronounce that the religion of the n of the country was popifh, and the bulk of the inhabitants bigots. Upon a flight furvey I fhould have discovered hat the country was Flanders, and a little more reflection would have opened to me that the fecular clergy were profound" canonifts, and not a little enveloped in the rubbish of the fchools; but that the regulars delighted moftly in monaftical hiftory and the lives of faints and founders; that the learned laity were able civilians but vague philofophers, the principles of Defcartes being till the reigning ones, maugre all experithat from the number of obfolete books of medicine, I thould judge their phyficians depended more upon reading than practice that the politer fort amufed themselves with the antiquities of their own country," and the genealogies of their own houfes (a voluminous body!) and that their belles lettres were the laft new books imported from France. • Have Have I made it out?-if not, I must poftpone it till ano ther opportunity for fee, the waiter is come to tell us that fupper is ready. A mighty genteel company indeed!-among whom it was my particular good fortune to be feated next to a very agreeable English lady-we did not know one another at first I don't know how we fhould, for we had never feen each other before however, I was not unknown to her husband, who was at table, and very near me, though I did not see him-so after fupper we became a little better acquainted. • I find that good eating is no new thing upon the continent, though fome have mifreprefented that matter-for my old namefake extolled it highly in feveral places above a century and a half ago—like a true son of Britain and good cheer, he exulted in the number of dishes, and admired that any one might ftuff away for two hours together at fo moderate a charge as fifteen, or twenty-pence a head. • Inded ours was, to ufe one of Tom's favourite adjectives, a moft delectable repaft! confifting of at leaft fifty covers, including the defert-thanks to the confiderate Mr. Vandenburgh, who ftudies as much as any man to hit all palates, without lay ing too heavy a tax upon their pockets. Upon hearing Mr. D's name mentioned, I began to look about and who fhould it be but Mr. D himself ?Sir, I am very glad to see you-your lady, I prefume !—Madam, your moft obedient This gentleman's ftory is fomewhat remarkable--but I have no time to tell ftories-let it fuffice, that he had merit enough to deferve diftinction long before he found any; but, unhappily, it was of that bashful kind which is ever the secret enemy of those who poffefs it, and fometimes ends in their ruin. A fine bold-faced fellow with the twentieth part-thetythe of his pretenfions, would have made a fortune, while the other was making out the means to live. But modeft merit will fooner, or later emerge from its ob fcurity; or, if it fails, like virtue, it proves its own reward. Happily at last he found a patron who thought his modesty no blemish-nay, he even cherished him the more upon that account, and gave him the full fruition of his reafonable wishes.- fay he found a patron, or a patron found him→ and fuch a one, as virtuous times will wonder at, though corrupt feasons may traduce- -one, whofe genuine worth and true nobility will be the admiration of after ages, when flander is ftruck dumb and envy is no more. • The The Flemings, as you know, fir, don't understand toasting, otherwife I would propofe your Mecenas but if you please your lady and you and I will drink his health. We are next to attend our author in his paffage by water from Bruges to Ghent, which a real traveller cannot read without real edification. Indeed, the utile dulci is very well fupported to the end of the first part. In the beginning of the fecond part, Mr. Coriat fets out for Bruffels, and proves an entertaining companion during the whole journey. The interview between an English projector and a foreign minifter of state is not at all overcharged, to thofe who know the trim of a right coffee-houfe politician, efpecially if he hungers and thirfts for the fake of his country. We could have wished Mr. Coriat, while at Bruffels, had collected fome anecdotes concerning the famous Monf. Maubert, inftead of giving us the converfation between himself and the prefent Bruffels Gazetteer, who we think is an infipid fort of perfonage, notwithstanding all our author's vivacity.Mr. Maubert was a genius of a certain caft; and we do not believe it. poffible for Satire itself to caricature his person and writings. Mr. Coriat's caution to young collectors of the vertù, with the tranfaction between Van Vernis, a picture-dealer, and an English lord, though it may seem a little outrè to fome, is, we are afraid, very seasonable at this juncture, and can give offence, only because it contains too much truth. Our author's representation of quacks cannot appear more ridiculous than it is juft, in the eyes of every fenfible man who reads our newspapers, or walks the streets of London. Quackery is fo much the mode in this enquiring, this improving age-fo refpectable in its quality and fo profitable in its confequences-that, to tell you a fecret, I was not myself without fome hopes, upon my return, of adding one to the number of fine gradibus doctors. A fingle noftrum is enough to make a gentleman and a fortune-to acquire rank and equipage; and often better than a plurality for provided the party, for reafons best known to himself, profeffes only one branch; there is abundant room to think that he will fhine more confpicuously, than if he should undertake the whole catalogue of caufes and cures; of diseases, with their remedies-as a carpenter will be always the better workman, if he leaves the practice of phyfic entirely out of the question. Pray who is that gentleman you parted from juft now ?— there is a wonderful deal of gaiety in his manner; of vivacity in his look-of confummate affability-he really has a vaft deal to fay, and laughs immoderately! VOL. XXVI. Nov. 1768. A a "It "It well becomes him to keep it up, and to make his på tients laugh as faft as he can. That is the facetious HIPDOCTOR." I admire that equipage beyond moft that rattle over the new pavement!-Do you know who's it is?" “I don't recollect the learned gentleman's name-but he is a famous GOUT-DOCTOR."" Henceforward I fhall pay more regard to common fayings -for I have often heard that an infallible remedy for the gout, would bring a man to a fine coach. That gentleman's fword-knot is one of the genteeleft things I ever faw; and I affure you there is infinite fancy in the manner of tying it on. Don't you know him?'tis the celebrated TOOTH-DOCTOR-one of the prettieft gentlemen that lives-he takes out your old teeth without any pain, and furnishes you with new ones which you may take out and put in at pleasure-which answer the vulgar ends of maftication, full as well as the natural; with the additional beauty of whiteness, and grace of evennefs." • I confefs that wigs are to me among the indifferent things of life; infomuch that I feldom regard how a man's head is dreft, fo that it turns out to be but tolerably well furnifhed withinyet one must be totally blind, not to be ftruck with that gentleman's buckle. "That is a very fingular character indeed-the noted CORN DOCTOR-Who has disappointed more furgeons than any man of his profeffion-who defies them all-calls them a parcel of jacks in return for their compliment of quacks to his brethren-and declares that he has fet many people upon their legs, who would have had no legs at all, if it had not been for him." All doctors as I live!a certain proof of the great learn ing, and uncommon industry of the age-but most of the latter.' We next follow our traveller from Bruffels to Louvain; and, far from being tired, we grow fonder of his company. After breakfasting with the capuchins of Mechlin, our author proceeds to Antwerp. We shall here take our leave of this entertaining traveller But though he promises to continue his work, we are far from engaging to continue our approbation of it, unlefs we find it poffeffes the fame merit with the volumes before us. Before we conclude this article, it is only doing juftice to Mr. Coriat Junior, when we declare, that we do not find thro' his whole performance any of thofe reprehenfible paffages which so justly gave offence to virtue and modefty, in the works of Tristram Shandy. VI. The VI. The New Clariffa: A true Hiftory. By Madame de Beaumont. 2 Vols. 12mo. Pr. 63. Nourfe. GREAT allowances must be made to the authorefs of this work, on account of her birth and religion; the ficft feeming to be French, and the latter Roman Catholic. We are afraid that prepoffeffions and predilections operate even among the various fects of Proteftants; and we think it is easy to judge from the caft of a novel where any religious incident is introduced, whether the writer is a Church-of England man, or a Diffenter. All confiderations of this kind, therefore, should be laid afide by the reader; though we wish the authorefs of the publication before us had left us more room to applaud her moderation. Having faid thus much, the reader can fcarcely doubt that all the virtuous agents in this romance are ftrict Roman Catholics; and fuch is the power of that religion, that an adulterous whore, one Mrs. Colby, becomes a fignal penitent, and dies in the odour of fanctity; while her fon, an abandoned impoftor, becomes a convert to holiness, and retires to a cloister. The plan of the New Clariffa's ftory, which is carried on in the épiítolary manner, is as follows:- Her father, who was born a Papist, but abjured that religion, is a monster in every degree of vice, both natural and habitual, and ruins his affairs. Her aunt, Mrs. Harvey, and her mother, Mrs. Darby, both of them ftrict Papifts, as is our heroine, are the most amiable women in the world. Mrs. Harvey knew the worthleffness of her brother-in-law, and had often relieved his neceffities; but she dies, and leaves her niece an immenfe fortune of several thousand pounds a year; while a Popish dean and a farmer are to be her executors. The dean, however, is soon after poisoned by her father's means; but Clariffa, having no fufpicion of his guilt, takes her father home to live with her, and fettles upon him an annuity of fifteen hundred pounds. A marquis of Montalvo, an Italian nobleman, whofe family is well known to Clariffa's friends, is introduced by her father as a fuitor for her hand in marriage. Young Montalvo, tho' he has fomewhat unaccountably aukward about him, is adorned with every perfection of mind and perfon, which can touch a lady's heart; and that of Clariffa is fo far from being infenfible of his merit, that the confents to marry him. The marriageact renders the celebration of nuptials by a Roman catholic prieft, a matter equally difficult as dangerous. The fervants, however, are difpatched out of the way on various pretences; and Clariffa's mother dreffes her with her own hands in jewels to the amount of eight thousand pounds. Her maid Fanny, who was in the secret, is fick in bed, but had exacted a promite A a z from |