one advantage from my communicating them-you understand me—I am so free from envy, that I can forgive him for thinking the comparison to your advantage-To fay truth, my tafte is now so much refined, that I fhould perhaps blush at the a probation of one who has fo very little of the beau or modern fine gentleman in hin.

ap_

But to be ferious-as for the rest of my epiftle you may fuppofe it jeft or earneft, just as you think proper-but what I am going to add is, in fober fadnefs, warm from the heart vo viz. that I love you fincerely-that I esteem your good man, and embrace you both with the tendereft affection.

Write, write, my fweet fifter; but no moral reflections--nor would I have you too liberal of fage advice, which I allow you capable to give, and all that; but which I am horribly a fraid, will be thrown away on your giddy fifter and friend.”

P. S. I had almost forgot to mention my brother; and, now he is the fubject, my poftfcript may chance to be longer than my letter, for I affure you, he is very much in my good graces-I fhould not be in the fafhion if he were not-and to be out of the fashion-ah! I would not for the world! half the fine women in town are dying for him-in almost every body's opinion but his own, he is an immenfe pretty fellow; he indeed does not seem to think fo, and is perhaps ftupid enough not to be ambitious of that enviable character-he appears more folicitous to advance on the fteep ladder of preferment than the eafy afcent to the hearts of our fine ladies. I hope he will fucceed as well in the firft, as, without giving himself much trouble, honeft foul! he has done in the laft.-Sir George-I am as grateful for that as you can defire-is ufing his intereft in favour of this dear brother. I don't know what he does with himself, but he does not attend me half fo much as I could wish; and under whofe management does he ftand so good a chance of acquiring a proper polish, as under the tuition of his wonderfully improved fifter I don't know when I fhould have quitted this agreeable fubject, had not company given me an unfeafenable interruption-Adieu!ust wheele

It happens unluckily that a lady G, married to an old diseased man of quality, had formerly been courted by Sir George; and tho' fhe had preferred grandeur to love, the has ftill a ftrong affection for Sir George's perfon, and does not even conceal it; but finding his heart irretrievable, as long as he continues attached to his wife, fhe forms a diabolical feheme of rendering him jealous, in which fhe is too much affifted by lady Warwick's unguarded conduct. Sir George fees it with concern, and finds her the dupe of players and fharpers, to whom the lofes money, even to the affecting his eftate. They quarrel:

Some

Sometimes tenderness, fometimes refentment gets the better, and feveral very infipid fcenes of that kind follow. Their brother, the captain, turns out to be a very clever fellow; and we think it will be best to dispatch him at once. Sufficient, therefore, is it to fay, that being obliged by one of those dripping days which novel-writers have always at command, he falls in love with a very pretty girl who had been turned out of doors by her uncle. He lofes her, but recovers her at London, where the acts in the character of a lady's toad-eater. She turns out to be a molt moft immenfe fortune, and he marries her.

-Now to return to our capital dearies. Lady Warwick continues in her courfe of diffipation, and by the inftrumentality of lady G- gets into company with an intriguing colonel, to whom the lofes a confiderable fum at play, and who forms defigns upon her virtue. Some commonplace ftratagems fucceed, with which we fhall not trouble our readers, because they have been a hundred times repeated in the courfe of our publication.---Lady Townley's scene in the Provoked Hufband is acted again and again, without any effect, till by the management of lady G Sir George finds his wife in a common brothel, feemingly upon an affignation with the colonel, A harum-fcarum bufinefs fucceeds. Captain Weftbury, lady Warwick's brother, attacks, and is run through the body by the colonel, who flies to Frence; while lady Warwick, fenfible of her folly (as indeed the ought to have been long before) makes an elopement, God knows where. Sir George follows the colonel to France; but the latter (tho' in the preceding part of the novel he is represented as a fribble a ble and a raical) proves to have more fenfe than all the other characters put together. When Sir George gets an opportunity to fight him, the colonel, tho' a man of unqueftionable courage with great difficulty obtains a parley, during which he entirely clears lady Warwick from all criminality of intercourfe with him; and it appears, that lady G alone was to blame. Galone It is almoft needless to inform the reader of what follows, already fees in the eye of imagination the penitence of Sir George, the return of his affection for his lady, and his arrival in England; where, after great fearch, he finds her fequeftrated from the world along with a lady, who afterwards became Mrs. Weftbury,Pray reader, pardon us, if we have anticipated her marriage. Mrs. Weftbury's uncle, who gives her, an eftate, is a rough blunt, clown, but immenfely rich, and is the beft fupported character in the piece. In fhort, the man has his mare again; and the author, rot to be out of the fashion, makes all parties happy,

1

He

XI. The

XI. The Patriot King difplayed: in the Life and Reign of Henry VIII. King of England: from the Time of his Quarrel with the Pope, to his Death. By Edward Lewis, M. A. Rector of Waterftock and Emington, in Oxfordshire. 12m0. Pr. zs. 6d. E. and C. Dilly.

THI

HIS author, zealous and intemperate as he is, deferves great applause for the seasonable appearance of his publication. Many numbers of our Review have animadverted upon the indecent and ungrateful use in which the lenity of our government has indulged the Roman Catholics. Thefe, as we have formerly hinted, feem determined by their abuse of the prefs to oblige adminiftration to the neceffity of laying it under a restraint.

Mr. Lewis begins his work at the period in which Henry wrote against Luther. We think that the nature of his fubject, which was to give his countrymen an idea of a patriot king, has not suffered him to improve, to the full, the arguments for Henry's divorce, which may be brought home to the present times. So far as we can recollect, no Roman Catholic (fuppofing the marriage between Henry and his brother's widow to have been or not to have been confummated) has been yet hardy enough to deny that it was in every Chriftian fenfe illegal, excepting as it was authorised by the pope's difpenfation. Our author has fully proved this. It is, however, a moft certain fact, that the popish clergy, who are at present (more perhaps than ever) intent upon making profelytes, find no argument fo well. fitted ad captum vulgi, to popular understandings, as that of our reformation growing out of Henry's and Anne Bullen's hotbed. We fhall allow to this allegation its full force; neither fhall we deny the partiality which Henry's affections might have towards that lady. But ftill how can those confiderations affect the juftice of the divorce?

But, fays a pragmatical prieft, the marriage was good by the pope's difpenfation.--- Can the pope difpenfe with a crime held to be contrary to all laws human and divine? Yes, fays our prieft, (otherwife he fays nothing to the purpose,) he can.

Right, Sir. Then if he difpenfes with your taking the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, with the purpose of betraying the government under which you live, which is a practice. repugnant to all laws divine and human, do you not think yourfelf as well juftified in endeavouring to destroy a Protestant government as Henry could have been in continuing his incestuous cohabitation with his brother's wife ?-----If the reader should be of opinion, that this argument proves too much, and that it. may operate againft all religious tefts adminiftered to Papifts,

we

we really-shall not much differ from him. We are even free enough to own, that the man who does not believe in the pope's abfolute and univerfal dispensing power has lost the envenomed fting of Popery. But we think, that the Papift who urges the pope's difpenfing power as a warrant for inceft, is not to be trufted in a Proteftant fociety.

To give our readers fome idea of this writer's manner, we fhall refer him to the following cafes and characters.

But the throne, though filled by a woman, is declared the fole fountain of jurifdiction, in whatever concerns religion."

And why not? Is not an English woman, of fenfe and fpirit, as likely to rule with discretion, as an old woman at Rome, past her fenfes, and twice a child? A matter of mighty triumph this to fenfelefs bigots, who make not truth their fearch. The cafe is this: whether disputes about tithes, offerings, marriages, wills, &c. may not as well be determined in England, by English judges, and established laws, in courts held by the king's authority, as at Rome, by Italians, in courts held by authority of the Pope. Is an Englishman lefs juft, knowing, equitable, than an Italian? Is not juftice as likely to be had upon the spot, as at nine hundred miles diftance? To carry witneffes, attend courts, and fee council at Rome, is this a privilege worth dying for? A legate, even in Popish times, was thought ftill more oppreffive. Cardinal Wolfey, the laft pope's legate but Pole, this nation was plagued with, took five per cent. for probate of wills; had he taken fifty, no poffible. redress was there, but by an appeal to Rome, from whence the remaining fifty would not have brought them back again.

Should we not juftly laugh at Italians, were they, for confcience fake, to put themselves under the jurifdiction of Canterbury? Have they lefs reafon to laugh at the English, who cannot die in peace, if not fubject to their affuming vfurper ?--- Against fuperior force there is no remedy, but to be voluntary flaves to a foreign power, indicates a foul unnaturally debased, by an artful, but most flagitious education. But God had given Henry a wife, intrepid, and understanding heart: he faw the cheat, hurled the pope from his ufurped fupremacy, and resumed it to himself, whofe right it was, and where the duty of his station, his people's welfare, and his own honour obliged him to fix it.

The fupremacy thus fettled by parliament, all the members fwore to obferve it: the fubjects were required to take the fame oath; Fisher and More refused it, and were therefore fent to the Tower, and in the following feffion, were condemned, by parlia ment, to perpetual imprisonment. Faction running high, the king was advised to put the laws in execution. To reprefs the fpirit of re

bellion

bellion by fuch an example, it was judged expedient to bring them both to the block: and as they were really men of fome figure, and the block and halter seldom fail to raise compassion, they are looked upon as a fort of Catholic faints, and afford ample matter for declamation.

In

By the laws of his country was Fisher condemned. He lived fome time afterward by the king's grace and favour. I thefe circumftances did the pope create him a cardinal - ti thus impudently afferting that fupremacy to himself, which the laws had juftly transferred to the king. So that to let Fisher liye, thus circumftanced, would have been an evidence of weaknefs, or fear, or conscious guilt, in the English government; would have been, in effect, to repeal its own law; to deprive the king. of his title and authority; and the kingdom of its independance in a word, to own the pope fupreme. In fuch a case, a prince lefs refolute than Henry would have fuffered the law to take its course. It did fo. And cardinal Fifher loft his head. He died for the pope, and at the pope's door lies the blood of that martyr; a martyr for the very quinteffence of flavery, ftupidity, and folly.

Fisher was Henry's preceptor. He had learning, was devout, a perfecutor, fuperftitious alfo, or knave enough to fa-"? vour, if not be an accomplice with the holy maid of Kent, a pretended prophetefs, in her impious and treafonable machinations; and was too obftinate to acknowledge his error, even after the maid herself, and her other accomplices, had confeffed their guilt, and were hanged for it. The views of this holy maid's vifions and prophefies were to have Henry affaffinated. Now if this preceptor would gladly, have murdered his royal pupil, by other hands; and this royal pupil fuffered his ill defigning preceptor to die, as the law required: fay, thou candid world, on which fide lies ingratitude and guilt. Fisher's not confeffing his fault, after the villany was detected, though he knew the king justly expected fuch a confeffion, exhibits no small appearance of malice prepenfe, and that he continued filent and fullen, in hopes his reputation might keep up the credit of that lewd nun, till fome inflamed enthufiaft could perpetrate the horrid deed. I judge of a tree by its fruit; of men by their deeds. God only knows the heart. I therefore propose this, not as a certainty, but as a probable fufpicion. Which fufpicion lies equally heavy upon Sir Thomas More, who, after the clearest conviction, would not blaft the credit of their prophetic proftitute any further, than to believe her under the influence of an evil fpirit. Now, an evil fpirit was likely to know as a good one, if there was really a project in hand to take off the king. But let the impartial judge, whether any

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