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rity. Renoncer à fa liberté c'eft renoncer à fa qualité d'homme, aux droits de l'humanité, même à ses devoirs." ROUSSEAU Contrað social.

Art. 24. An Addrefs to the Cocoa-Tree, from a Whig. 4to. 1s. Kearfly.

In this well-written performance, in which fpirit and decency are happily united, the Author fmartly rallies the Tories, on account of the Epiftle from their friend at the Cocoa-Tree, their supposed afcendancy at court, and their attachment to the prefent miniltry. As to the grand occafion of this controverfy, (the complaint, that an oppofition is forming against the measures of government, which is conftrued into a defien againft his Majefty's independency and prerogative, thofe darling obje&s of a party which has been lately thought extinct, in this kingdom at leaft) our Author does not deny the reality of fuch an oppofition, but he differs from the Cocoa-tree Letter-writer, in attributing the whole of it to "three very great names," that is his expreffion. According to him, the fact is, That the prefent oppofition is known to fpread through the whole kingdom,-and existed in the minds of the people before the first of the three great perfons retired from bufinefs, before the fecond was banished from C---rt, and before it was fuggefted that the third would openly patronize the caufe, which has been the fupport of his illuftrious house on the throne."

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This general, and, according to our Author, national oppofition, he endeavours to establish on the people's diflike of the FAVOURITE [Tory] Minifter, on whofe unpopularity he largely and feverely expatiates through the greatest part of his Epiftle; endeavouring, from that circumftance and fome others, to fhew the favourite's total difqualification for the enjoyment of that influence he is faid to have acquired at the helm. The Tory maxim, "That the King having a right to appoint his minifters, the people have no right to oppofe them," he very fenfibly controverts, and extracts a different doctrine from Whig principles, viz. "That if a Minilter's pretenfions to power be not natural, corflitutional, gently afferted, and generally admitted, the prerogative of the crown can be no fhelter from the warmest oppofition which a free people may conftitutionally form againft fuch a minifter." This, he adds, "has been invariably the doctrine of WHIGGISM; and an oppofition is forming against the prefent M -r, upon no other motive, than that he is fuppofed to be defective in each of thofe qualifications;" which he undertakes to evince; and has, in our opinion, faid more to the purpose than will be easily answered, to the equal fatisfaction of the impartial reader, whether South-Briton or North-Briton.He concludes with feme ftrong and manly affertions of the noble and genuine principles of Whiggifm, [Oh! that we had a nobler denomination for thein!] and takes his leave of his readers with a declaration, by which we hope every true Briton will for ever abide,-" Under this royal family alone, we are fully convinced, we can live free; and under this

royal

While

royal family, we are fully refolved, we WILL live FREE we continue in this perfuafion, and teadily adhere to this refolution, there can be little reafon to fear the accomplishment of bishop Fleetwood's melancholy prefage, which our Author has prefixed, by way of motto, to his pamphlet, viz. "From the natural tendency of feveral principles and practices, that have of late been ftudiously revived, and from what has followed thereupon, I could not help both fearing and prefaging, that these nations would fome time or other fall into the way of all other nations, and lose their liberty,"

* These words are faid to have been the conclufion of a proteft formerly made in a certain great affembly.

Art. 25. A Letter from Arthur's to the Cocoa-Tree, in Anfwer to the Letter from thence to the Country-Gentleman. 4to. Is. Morgan.

The puny effort of fome boy-politician, who not being himself very deep in the fubject, has filled up his infignificant pamphlet with extracts from Rapia's hiftory.

Art. 26. A Derbyshire Gentleman's Answer to the Letter from the Cocoa-Tree. 8vo. 6d. Moore.

The Derbyshire gentleman knows no more of the matter than the little pamphlet-fpinner at Arthur's. Both, however, talks in a tone of vaft importance about their patriotic fpirit, their whig-principles. their loyalty to the house of Hanover, and their unconquerable averfion to favourites; an averfion which, in all probability, would be radically cured, by creating the Derbyfhire gentleman a tide-waiter, and making the industrious politician at Arthur s an exciseman.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 27. The Reverie: Or a Flight to the Paradife of Fools. By the Editor of the Adventures of a Guinea. 2 vols. 6s. Becket.

12mo.

A number of public characters and tranfa&tions are here described and narrated, in that animated, but inelegant, ftyle and manner, which is peculiar to the Author of the Adventures of a Guinea. We do not charge it on a malignancy of difpofition, that fome men are fond of placing every thing in the worst light; perhaps fuch a method of taking a view of human nature, may fometimes have its ufe. We would advife the Reader, however, to beware of forming injurious notions of perfons and facts, on the authority of fuch Writers; fince he might as well take the characters and actions of ancient Heroes and Heroines from the novels of Caffandra and Cleopatra, as thofe of our modern ones from the reprefentations of this Author. Like thofe ungraceful Painters who have an admirable hand at an ugly likeness, this Writer hits off the wart on the cheek, the fquint

quint of the eye, and the pimple of the nofe, to perfection. He appears, indeed, to have no taste or idea of the beautiful, either in flyle, character, or defign: both the scenes and perfonages exhibited in this performance being, in general, the groffeft dawbings we remember to have seen. Macheath, in the Beggars Opera, is a Gentleman in comparison to our Author's King of Pruffia; and the Emprefs Queen is but a copy of Flanders Moll or the German Princefs. Madam Pompadour may, indeed, for ought we know, be a fecond Jenny Diver; the Emperor little better than a Squire Sullen, a certain Prince a Captain Bobadil, and another a Master Stephen; but we doubt of our Author's authority for exhibiting them in such a light; nor do we conceive, from the tenor of his work, that he hath been let far into the fecrets of the great and polite world: the news-papers, and his own imagination, appearing to be his greatest authorities.

Art. 28. Letters from Sophia to Mira: Containing the Adven tures of a Lady. 12mo. 3s. DodЛley.

Tho' Sophia pretends to be, a Lady of family and fortune, she appears, by the manner of writing, to have been little used to good company, or polite converfation; and her fentiments are well fuited to the flatternly ftyle in which they are cloathed.

We are usually tender of the productions of a female pen; but, in truth, the number of Authorefes hath of late fo confiderably increased, that we are fomewhat apprehenfive left our very Cookwenches should be infected with the Cacoethes Scribendi, and think themfelves above the vulgar employment of mixing a pudding, or rolling a pye crust. — It feems high time, therefore, to deal plainly with the fex, in order, as far as the influence of the Review may extend, to prevent them from growing equally ridiculous with thofe pitiful male-Scriblers, who have fo plentifully flocked the Circulating Libraries with Adventures, Familiar Letters, and Novels:-and, if poffible, to convince them, that every woman who has learnt to spell, is not a Cockburn, a Jones, a Carter, or a Lennox.

To fhew how far this good Lady, Sophia, is qualified to figure in the republic of letters, we need only cite the following short paffage, which, for liberality of fentiment, and propriety of expreffion, is not cafily to be matched.

"I am forry to fay, there are fome giddy, and inconfiderate youths, who make it their conftant practice to fcoff at old age, and make a jett of all human imperfections. This they think gives them an air of gaiety, and becomes their youth." [So far is well-enough; but mark what follows]" But, poor mistaken fouls! they not only excite the contempt of all humane well-difpofed people, but defervedly draw down the wrath of Almighty God; who being all goodeefs, clemency, and mercy himfelf, will most affuredly punish with everlasting darkness, thofe of a different way of thinking

Sophia gives us this blundering denunciation of the dreadful wrath of a Being all goodness and mercy, as a fpecimen of her "tendernefs of heart"-tenderness with a vengeance!- We are really

forry

forry to fee the refpectable buft of the elegant Tully difgraced by this very unclaffical production. But, perhaps, fome graceless Books feller, of inferior note, hath made free with Mr. Dodsley's name, in order to prepoffefs the public in favour of a performance which might otherwife have paffed entirely unnoticed in the motley throng of new publications.

Art. 29. Chronological Tables of Univerfal Hiftory, facred and prophane, ecclefiaftical and civil, from the Creation of the World to the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty-three. With a preliminary Difcourfe on the fort Method of Studying Hiftory: And a Catalogue of Books necessary for that Purpose; with fome Remarks on them. By Abbé Lenglet Dufresnoy. In two Parts. Tranflated from the last French Edition; and continued down to the Death of King George the Second. 8vo. 2 Vols. 12s. Millar, &c.

The nature and character of this work are so well known and established, that it would be fuperfluous here to expatiate on either: fo large a portion of it, however, being employed in matters relative to the ecclefiaftical hiftory of the Romish Church, we little expected to fee it tranflated into our own language. The preliminary Difcourse, indeed, is well worthy the perufal of the English Reader, and will afford him both entertainment and inftruction.

With regard to the tranflation, the Operator complains, that the difficulty of it was uncommonly great; the many hundreds of names of perfons and places, which French Writers are fo notoriously remarkable for corrupting, having coft him almost as much time and trouble to rectify, as it would have done to compile the whole work.

That the French Writers are too often faulty in the above respect, is undeniable; our Tranflator, however, hath given us feveral flagrant inftances of his neglect, or incapacity, to correct them. Such are thofe of his inferting fometimes the French, and at others the vernacular, names of the fame perfons and places; English names with Latin terminations, and frequently the French names of places much better known by English appellations. Nay, we will not prefume to think every mere English Geographer knows where to look in the map for Anvers and Malines; much lefs can we imagine a Tranflator capable of rectifying the defect he complains of, who calls the famous Spinoza, Benedict of Spinoza.

Art. 30. Arden of Feverfham. An hiftorical Tragedy, taken from Hallinfhed's Chronicle, in the Reign of Edward VI. Acted at the Theatre-royal in Drury-lane. By the late Mr. Lillo. 12mo. 6d. Davies.

Scarce an apprentice in the city, fcarce a play-reading girl in the kingdom, is unacquainted with the genius and manner of honeft

Lillo, author of the natural and affe&ting tragedy of George Barnwell. Of the fame rank and moral turn is this melancholy tale of Arden, now first published, tho' written many years ago. The manufcript was long in the poffeffion of his acquaintance, late THE. CIBBER, who first brought his Barnwell on the flage: but whether this edition is printed from Cibber's, or fome other copy, we are not informed.

The fimplicity and instructive tendency of this writer's plain and artlefs compofition, is characteristically intimated in the prologue to this tragedy: fpoken by Mr. Havard:

His mufe refembles him, and knows no art;
She speaks not to the head, but to the heart.
The artlefs maid, by no falfe feal impreft,
Bears but an honeft copy of his breast:
And ev'ry eye has own'd his nat'ral lay,
Sprung from the heart, wings to the heart its way.
The tragic bard apes not the epic fire,
On fancy's wing ftill aiming to afpire:
In nature's palace, fimple, neat and plain,
Enrich'd and crowded ornament were vain :
Embellishment does but diftract the mind,
Which art could never to minutenefs bind.
Tho' honey'd language the from Hybla fleal,
Your ears applaud, your hearts no ardours feel.
With labour'd art tho' the fad tale be told,

The melting tear, meanwhile congeal'd, grows cold.
When Pafion fpeaks, immediate to the foul,
Parts fhe o'erlooks, to grafp at once the whole.

To-night your Bard, from your own annals fhews.
A dreadful ftory of domeftic woes:

From facts he draws, (his picture's from the life)
The injur'd husband, and the faithlefs wife,
Doom'd all the train of bofom-pangs to prove,
Pangs which must always wait on lawlets love.-

After all, is not this making a virtue of neceffity? If Lillo had -poffeffed greater powers of writing, we fhould never have feen this encomium on the want of them. He doubtless wrote bis beft, as the phrafe goes; and could he have foared to a fuperior pitch, might he not have been equally fuccefsful in touching the heart? The Confcious Lovers is an elegant production; and yet the fcenes of tenderness in that moral comedy are as moving as the most distressfal parts in many of our deepest tragedies.

Mr. Lillo was a tradesman of London; born in the city, and lived near Moorgate: his business that of a jeweller. He died in the year 1739. For other circumftances of his life, and an account of his other writings, befides Barnwell and Arden, we refer to Cibber's Lives of the Poets..

Art. 31. A Review of Mr. Pitt's Adminiflration. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

Kearfly.

Rather

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