After this general analyfis, we shall lay before our readers a fort extract from the work, where the author makes fome obfervations relative to futurity, which we are perfuaded, from his patriotifm, he earnestly wishes may never be verified. • The governments of Europe, are by no means illuftrious in virtue, They do not glow with patriotifm: on the contrary, they are vicious and corrupt. They regard not the good and happiness of the fociety, of the people, and the neighbouring nations, and they have nearly fupprefied all patriotifin whatver, or rendered it little better than a name. The governments of Europe, are not acquainted with the ufeful knowledge ferviceable to fociety and the people; on the contrary, they are very ignorant in general of the means of ferving mankind. The governments of Europe are not active in the fervice of fociety; on the contrary, they are remifs and indolent in promoting its welfare and happiness. They advance forward no benificial undertakings of adequate moment; though they have oppreffed the people with a load of public debt, which is hardly tolerable. Such, literally fpeaking, is the prefent civilization, and the prefent fituation of Europe. From fuch a ftate muft proceed various calamities, both public and private. By it must un avoidably be caufed, a very great deprivation of human felicity, and national welfare, which otherwife would be enjoyed by mankind. Under it the natural attainable perfection of man and of nations, can never poffibly advance. The principles which to perverfely direct the conduct of the different governments of Europe, can never be friendly to man, but must in the end obftruct his feveral views, and blast all the fruits of his industry. Their principles muft in fhort be the enemies of the whole world, as experience has too well confirmed in its durable and in mortal colours. Such a ftate of civilization, who will fuppofe can be permanent and durable? By itself it must end and perish by its own deftructive powers. By God himself it cannot long be permitted to exift in the world, and in his wifdom he will' accomplish its demolition. In confequence of it, North America has already emancipated herself from Great Britain, as if the corruption of the valuable conftitution of the latter first demanded divine vengeance. France has fince shook off the defpotic yoke; and regenerated herfelf with a plumage at once complete, hardly preceded by a little foftering down. The Auftrian Netherlands have recovered their liberties, and are eftablishing a new confiitution. Other nations will in their examples, obferve their own particular miferics and defects, and vindicate their natural and genuine rights. The above are among the greatest and most furprizing changes, which have ever befallen the world. The facility with which they have been accomplished, is fill more furprizing. The hand of God must have affifted thofe events, and have afforded afforded them fuccefs; and must at this time be bufy in preparing and regenerating for mankind, a new and better flate of civilization than any of the kind at prefent exifting in, or known to Europe. Such regeneration will unquestionably take place in Great Britain within a certain, and not a long distant time. Her inhabitants are at the prefent time intent and bufy on realizing wealth; and are fatisfied with the various fruits and gratifications of their labours which they enjoy in fuch great abundance. They however will in their turn catch this univerfal and general contagion; and imitate the examples of their neighbours. The many free nations which have lately been produced, as America, France, the Netherlands, and in a fhort time Holland will be numbered with them; must in no long period equal the manufactures of Great Britain; and encroach upon its trade and commerce. They will in time take from us a portion of our prefent wealth; and excite the national fpirit from its prefent trance and repofe. Profecuting future wars against Great Britain, which will not long be deJayed; they will in the end affect our foreign poffeffions: for if their fingle efforts are infufficient, their combined ones must avail. Lopping off the extremities of the empire, they will greatly injure or wholly deftroy at home the public credit of the nation. This catastrophe would make the empire to the center, and produce a complete revolution. But if the latter confequence does not take place in this manner, there is an event which is fure to produce it. Future additions to the public burthens of the kingdom will not for the full period of the first war, which may enfue, be patiently fupported by the people; and probably will, and can not be born more than a few years after their firft impofition. Their weight and feverity will alone be fufficient to produce a violent indignation of the people, and in confequence the regeneration of the kingdom. Thus the caufe, which has produced the prefent regeneration in France, will effect the fame in Great Britain." This work bears fo great a fimilarity, both in the fubject and execution, to the author's Aggrandifement and National Perfection of Great Britain,' that it is difficult to point out any real diverfity in their respective characters. Dr. Edwards, in the prefent, as in the former production, difplays a moft laudable zeal for the political and moral interefts of his country. An enthufiafm of public fpirit seems fometimes to impel him to the verge of Utopian fpeculation; but in all his numerous and important propofals for the improvement of the nation, there appears, when minutely examined, fuch a fund of good fenfe, and of juft obfervation, as, joined to the virtuous purposes which animate his efforts, muft, notwithstanding the occafional ver bofenefs bofenefs of style, and repetitions of fentiment, procure to his work, from every candid reader, a merited degree of refpectability. His feveral propofals, when feparately confidered, though fome of them are arduous, cannot be faid to be impracticable, and far lefs ufelefs; but when viewed collectively, they form fo huge a mafs of political projects, that there is little probability of their being ever adopted, to any great extent, by the legislature. Poffcript to the Royal and Noble Authors. Printed at Strawberry Hill, 1786. 12mo. Not to be purchased. OF F this curious little tract only fifty copies, as we under ftand, have been printed; and one having fallen into our hands, we are induced to give fome account of it. The ingenious author begins thus: As I fhould be unwilling to defraud my country of any fparkle of genius, that glimmered in our ages of darkness, especially when a claim has been made by foreigners for one of our ancient peers, it is necessary to examine the pretenfions, and allow them, if I can with a good confcience. The perfon, in whofe favour a title to the laurel has been fet up, is John Montacute, earl of Salisbury, who flourished in the reign of Richard the Second.' Mr. Walpole then proceeds to ftate that the advocate for this claim is the editor of the Bibliotheque des Romans, who says that this earl wrote diciez, or little pieces of poetry. He next examines the character of Christina de Pifan, the lady with whom the earl was in love, and who afferts that he wrote ditties to her; and that of the earl himself. Christina de Pifan was the daughter of Thomas de Pisan, an Italian of confiderable learning for that period, and who, upon the invitation of Charles V. of France, fettled in that kingdom, and was made aftrologer to the king. Taking occafion from the mention of the rewards and honours beftowed on Thomas de Pifan, Mr. Walpole gives the following remarks, with his usual brilliance and fpirit. It is not in fact extraordinary that the first rays of learning fhould have made strong impreffions on a rude and illiterate age. A fun-beam, admitted through the fmallest aperture of a dark chamber, appears more vivid, by the contrast, than the diffufed fplendor of the whole luminary; which, though every thing is made vifible by its emanations, imparts fuch general light, that nothing feems to be particularly illuftrated. Legiflators, poets, philofophers, inftitutors of new religions, have owed a large portion of their fuccefs to the darkness of the periods in which they have appeared; and with all the merit of their feveral inflitutions, productions, leffons, doctrines, they might have raifed the eclat, that has confecrated their names, had they fallen on lefs favourable, that is better doctrinated æras. With what difficulty does a genius emerge in times like the prefent, when poets and fages are to be found in every coun try, and in every magazine!" Christina married a young gentleman of Picardy, called Stephen Caftel, after whofe death fhe, at twenty-five years of age, gave herfelf up to ftudy, and then to compofition: and ere her tears were dried for Caftel, the earl of Salisbury arrived at Paris, as ambaffador from his mafter, to demand the young princess Isabel in marriage. The beauty of Christina attracted his attention; but Chriftina Seems to have rejected his vows. And foon after, upon the depofition of Richard II. Salisbury Soft his life in afferting his loyalty. Mr. Walpole concludes with fome deductions from the old English hiftorians, concerning this earl of Salifbury; and fhews his real character to be different from what it appeared to Chrifaina de Pifan. This lady alfo boafts that the earl offered her marriage; and upon her refufal engaged never to marry: whereas he was actually married at the time of his embassy. Thefe circumftances, in Mr. Walpole's opinion, invalidate the teftimony of Chriftina, and render the earl's authorship very dubious. But from the large accounts of Christina, and her writings, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Infcriptions, and other French works, the feems to have been a demirep, and was accufed, as the fays herself, d'aimer par amour. Her fictions concerning the earl may have been fruits of her own ingenuity, to conceal the nature of their loves, and increase, the value of her favours. But we fee no end which the could ferve, by faying that the earl wrote ditties to her, if he did not; and we believe, upon her teftimony, that the earl of Salisbury was a poet. Perhaps his poems to Chriftina may yet be discovered, among the numerous manufcripts of her poetry, in the French king's library. Prefixed to this tract is a pretty plate, reprefenting Reason, Reftitude, and Justice, appearing to Chriftina de Pisan, and promising to affift her in writing La Cité des Dames, from an illumination in the library of the king of France. Criticisms on the Rolliad. Part I. Eighth Edition. 8vo. 35. 6d. ferved. Ridgway. A$ Part 11. 8vo. 35. 6d. fewed. Ridgway. S in every claffical work, the learned only attend to genuine editions, with the laft corrections and additions of the author, we must not omit the collection of these fugitive fheets beets, these "Paywas of another Homer, of the chief epic of the eighteenth century. In future ages, Mr. Ridgway with rank with Pififtratus; and, when all living tongues are no longer ufed, and one univerfal language only fhall remain, we have little doubt but this edition will be quoted with all due honours. Locupletior, caftigatior, longe aliis accuratior, editio princeps, ab ipfo auctore adhuc vivo, fumma cura caftigatus, emendatus, expolitus, with all the captivating addisions which a fucceffion of at least an hundred centuries fhall have invented, will doubtlefs be applied to this only genuine and claffical edition of the Rolliad. Aldus, Corinæus, either Stephens, and even Bell, will fink before the rifing fame of our editor: the utmost that we can hope is, that, while the Rolliad is commended, our Journal, which hailed its first appearance, will not wholly be forgotten in the luftre of its meridian fplendour. Having thus paid our tribute to its future fame in the moft humble, guarded, and plain language, in language far inferior to its merits, we must fpeak of what is before us, without too eagerly anticipating the future. The firft part of the Rolliad shen, we examined in our LXth volume, p. 458; and the fecond, for the different parts were collected by a meaner hand, 'vixere fortes ante Agamemnona, in our LXLft volume, p. 71. It would not be interesting, at this time, to compare the various alterations in this new edition, fo that we shall confine ourfelves to the additions. The fixth Number of the prefent edition appears to be the first of thefe, and we may fix its date foon after an event on Wimbleton Common, which will never be forgotten. The following lines, part of the apostrophe to the Lord Chamberlain, contain much of the author's fly, farcaftic humour: we fhall add the commentary about the end of the next century. Oh! had the gods but kindly will'd it fo That thou hadit lived two hundred years ago: No Oftricks fool'd in Shakspeare's faucy fcene. To plays should Richmond then undaunted come, Nor fhouldst thou Camelford the fool reprove, Nor thou, oh Pitt, behold the angry boy.' The feventh Number appears to be alfo new, and its internal evidence fixes its date to a period fubfequent to the king's |