SIR FRANCIS BULLER, BART. • Our city's inftitutions, and the terms SIR HENRY GOULD, KT. Shakspeare. • I am no orator, but a plain blunt man, Action nor utterance, nor the power of speech To fir men's blood-I only fpeak right, on- Ibid. At eft bonus, ut melior vir, Non alius quifquam; at tibi amicus, at ingenium ingens, SIR JAMES EYRE, KNT. Horace. The gentleman is learned; a molt rare speaker, Shakspeare. On a more particular examination in fome of the minuter traits of the lives, where the biographer has defcended so low, we found him to be mistaken; and on political characters we often think differently; but we mean/not to say, on such uncertain ground, that our author is wrong: we trust that we are right. It is enough, therefore, to tranfcribe a fpecimen or two of his peculiar opinions and of his general manner: we fhall begin with lord Thurlow: His manner has an affumed dignity, and an affected impreffion of awe, which, however decorous upon fome occafions, is certainly improper upon all. Perhaps the natural fable of his face, that dull, difmal, dark, difafirous countenance, throws an involuntary horror round him. Menace and terror fit enthroned upon his brow➡his abole afpect is repellant, and conveys an idea of outrage. He affects to diidain the aid of the Graces, and to command alone by the energy of exprellion and force, both in manner and expreffion, is undoubtedly his lordfhip's forte, but every qualification fhould be judged by comparifon.-As a fpeaker in the house of commons, many were far above him. That force on which fo much has been faid by his panegyrifts, compared with the fire and energy of Fox, is like Satan's conteft with Omnipotence, and like the allufion, leaves comparison behind it. Where, in the best of his fpeeches, is the information, the defign, the genius, the fplendid conflagration of Burke ? Where the wit, the claffic taite and correctnefs of Sheridan ? The records of parliament will place him, as an orator, far below any of these.* • His • His unrivalled excellence, is an iron countenance, an inDexible hardihood of feature, an invulnerable impenetrable afpect that nothing can abali, no crimson tinge, that stares humanity from the justice-feat, and defies the tear of pity. Charity, it is laid, covers a multitude of fins, and inhumanity in plies a depravity of heart, that gives the owner credit for the poffeffion of untold crimes." Lord Mansfield has the fingular happinefs of fetting with a mild, pleafing lustre, while in his courfe he has been obfcured by ftorms, eclipfed by faction, and difcoloured by party zeal. Our author is a little inconsistently his defender in the most disputed parts of his life, and at the fame time the herald of lord Camden's. conftitutional decifions. Lord Mansfield has been accused of adhering to equity rather than law, of limiting the decifions of a jury to the fact only, of being the abettor of defpotism, and the fecret friend of the house of Stuart. On each fubject, our author defends him with zeal, though, on all, he is not equally defenfible. One of the excellencies of the English jurifprudence is, that it is known, which is obviated by the equitable interpretation, for the opinions of equity muft differ in different perfons. It is not, however, one of the least of lord Mansfield's merits, that the accuracy of his diftinctions and the foundness of his judgment preven ed the nation from, feeling any inconvenience in confequence of this arbitrary interpretation in other hands, it might not be conducted fo unexceptionably, and we object rather to the principle than to the noble lord's use of it. Of lord Camden's life, the conclufion is fullied with one blot: it is a fatal one, which our author cannot excufe.-He is prefident of the council in the adminiftration of Mr. Pitt. The human mind is pained in contrafting the meridian fplendor of this once luminous character with its prefent dusky decienfion. He, who was the champion of liberty, the friend of Chatham, and the competitor of Mansfield; he, who once shunned no public question, and who was confequently followed by the admiration and gratitude of the kingdom, feems now exerting only the languid remains of eloquence, and exhaufting the dregs of wisdom, impregnated with the weakness of dotage, as if careless of the glory that should have concluded the career of his earlier fame.' Lord Bathurst was undoubtedly indebted to circumstances, and the temper of the times, for his political diftinétions; yet with talents, if not brilliant, refpectable; with legal knowledge, if not extenfive, correct, he deferved not the indignity with which he is treated. Sir Richard Arden, lord Kenyon, and fome others, feel the severity of our author's farcasms, VOL. LXX. Sept. 1790. U and and his fatire from the fame caufe: they are of the oppofite party. Lord Loughborough's merits, for a fimilar reason, are perhaps too highly exalted, and his failings artfully gloffed over, or properly omitted. We shall conclude our extracts with fome paffages of a political nature: they form the conclufion of the life of the attorney-general. It had formerly been accepted as a maxim, that these great crown officers fhould ftand forth as strong minifterial holds in the house of commons; but moral and political data, as we have more than in this place obferved, have occafionally given way to progrellive improvement. Our prefent happy minifter has learned to conduct the nation, if not honourably with refpect to himself, at least fafely, without any fuch foreign aid, or indeed any aid at all: he is the refponfible firft lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer; and befides thefe, generally conceived first commiffioner of the admiralty, the fecretary at war, and the fecretary of state-cum multis aliis. He is the Atlas of the ftate, and his conduct feems to difcover an ambition of standing alone, unfupported by any abilities but his own; we should not be furprifed (having been called to the bar), if he was also to do the bufinefs of the court of chancery. Lord North monopolized the abilities of the kingdom in defence of his meafures, having enlifted under his banners the formidable names of Thurlow, Wedderburne, Norton, and De GreyWho are the champions of Pitt ?-rifum teneatis!-Sir Richard Pepper Arden, Mr. Bearcroft, and fir Archibald Macdonald !!!' The fecond volume, containing the lives of Meff. Erfkine, Pigot, Mingay, Garrow, &c. is faid to be ready for the preís, awaiting the public judgment upon the prefent. We have paid due tribute to the learning and abilities displayed in this work, but are not perfectly satisfied refpecting the propriety of fimilar publications. Our author certainly avoids private fcandal; but when political herefy is allowed to distort the judgment of the biographer, the injury done to individuals is probably not lefs than by the profeffed fatirift, who fhamelefly blazons every fecret fault to render his work the object of more general attention. We would advise the author to proceed no farther. A Sketch of the Lives and Writings of Dante and Petrarch, with fome Account of Italian and Latin Literature in the Fourteenth Century. Small 8vo. 2s. 6d. Boards. Stockdale. WE E have read this elegant Sketch with great pleasure; and, if it had been styled of the Lives' and literary Characters of Dante and Petrarch,' the title would have been more suitable to the contents. The author, with an apparent fondness for the the claffical productions of the Italian poets, un'tes a correct taste to an intimate acquaintance with the best modern philologifts, taking the term modern in its most extensive fenfe, to mean the writers fince the revival of literature under the aufpices of Leo X. But we cannot, with propiery, enlarge our account of this little volume, fince the ground is fo beaten, that it is difficult to find a new path; and much of what our author has faid has already occurred in other works. Yet he ought not to be considered as a copyift: he has employed his own words; and very generally given a pleafing and advantageous view of the fubject. Some of the facts, relating to the revival of learning in the fourteenth century, are, if not new, very interesting, and not commonly known That rhyme was ufed by the Troubadours, he thinks an established fact; but he adds, that it was first used in the Leonine verses, which exifted long before thofe of Provence, is; we are led to conjecture, indifputable.'-What is conjectured can be at beft only probable, and the rhyme of the Leonine verfes is not generally allowed. We fhall felect a short specimen from that part of the work, which will most probably be new to many of our readers: As I have spoken of him ( Albertino Muffato, the historian. of Padua) only as an historian, it is but proper to mention him as chief reftorer of Latin poetry. His three books of the Siege of Padua his eclogues, elegies, epitaphs, hymns-and his two tragedies, Ecerinis and Achilleis, the first of which is the fate of Ecerinis, tyrant of Padua - are evident marks of poetical talents. To fuppofe that these tragedies are conducted with the proper rules of unity and time, although on the plan of the Greek drama, would be abfurd; fince they are but bad copies of their bad original, Seneca. To fpeak the truth then, however, they have been faid to be the first regular tragedies fince the barbarous ages, they are uninteresting, poor, and inconfiderable.-But to Muffato the greatest praife is due for attempting to revive and reanimate the flumbering fpirit of tragedy, buried under the gloom of ignorance for fo many ages. To a man therefore whose merits are fo little acknowledged, I feel a pleafure in communicating my tribute of praife, trifling as it is, and in mentioning a name fo confpicuous in the annals of modern learning, The study of the Italian language in the universitiesproceeded from difpofition and tafte; that of the Latin, from a fenfe of its fuperiority, and a defire of reputation. It was not his fonnets that procured Petrarch the diftinguished honour of being crowned in the Capitol-it was to his Latin poem "Africa," his eclogues, and his epiftles, that he owed all his glory.' We cannot leave this little work without our reccommendation: it may be read by many with advantage; and by every one with pleáfure. U 2 The The Grave of Howard. A Poem, by W. L. Bowles. 410. 25. Dodfley. VIRTUE and merit of every kind, however confpicuous at the time of its action, becomes doubly interefting and important at that hour when the laft fcene of its existence is clofed as the great luminary of heaven charms us lefs by its brightness, while its orb is visible, than by the glowing colours that are diffufed over the fky at the period which fucceeds its fetting. Such probably are the general feelings refpecting the extraordinary person whofe death is here lamented. A plan fo novel in its defign, and fo widely beneficent in its effects, as that which was firft conceived and carried into execution by Mr. Howard, every one beheld with a kind of enthufiafm, and what few would have ventured to undertake, all confpired to admire and applaud. This admiration is now increased by the regret which we feel at his lofs: and we are at this time peculiarly difpofed to dwell with pleasure on the eulogies that are paid to his worth. When efteem and reverence are heightened by compaffion, the excellencies of a favourite character have their fulleft impreflion on our minds and panegyric is never fo fuccessful in exciting our emotions, as when it celebrates that virtue which is irrecoverably fnatched from our view. Mr. Bowles was one, among many others, who employed his pen in the praise of Mr. Howard, while he was living. In this fecond effufion, on the fubject of his death, he has brought together the most striking and poetical circumftances that are fuggefted by the event itself, the manner of it, and the country where the laft fcene of his life was exhibited. The Poem begins with an abrupt addrefs of great fublimity and grandeur, debased by some little errors, and one profaic line. Spirit of death, beneath whofe pinions dread, With fhade more terrible an ampler plume; The |