Various gems with mingled rays Yet, O hear my strong beheft; Nor, Balder, linger long, lur'd by the genial feaft. Speed thee down the per'lous steep; Thro' the regions of the deep, Slack not thy nocturnal march; Death, grinning fierce and fell, the youth of Albion clasp." The third act opens with the scene of a magnificent chapel in the palace of Starno, which the Priests of Odin enter in folemn proceffion. This act contains the religious preparations and folemnities previous to the expected nuptials of Fingal and Agandecca; but, owing to the conduct of the heroine who, fufpecting treachery, dafhes to the earth a poifoned cup which fhe had been commanded to present to her intended lord, the machinations of Starno are foiled. Ullin, the infpired bard attendant on Fingal, delivers the following beautiful and energetic ode, addreffed to the High Prieft of Odin, which, we can almost venture to affert, will not fuffer by a comparifon with Gray, to whofe manner our author feems particularly partial: "Panting on, with meafur'd hafte, The raven wings the wide aërial waste. Behold the minifter of hell! Pontiff, to daunt thy fhrinking heart with fear, That blew at even across the wizzard heath, The bird of yengeance refts, and now To tear thy mangled heart, and cling to the repast." If the above be at all inferior to Gray, it is merely in point of polifh ;-not in energy or fublimity. Ullin, in the fourth act, when warning Fingal of the dangers which furround him, and urging him to depart from the land of Lochlin, utters the following beautifully picturefque lines: "As now I mus'd along the filent shore, Then Then from that dell, a piteous wail arose In the fifth act, Starno, in the fury of difappointed vengeance, ftabs his daughter; and, afterwards meeting with Fingal, urges him to fight; but the latter, having given his promife to Agandecca to fpare her father, declines the combat till Starno compels him to defend himself. At that inftant enters Agandecca, fupported by the Queen and Ullin. Struck with remorfe and horror, Starno flies from the face of man to the defart; and, after the death of Agandecca, the piece concludes. As our laft extract from the Maid of Lochlin, we fhall present our readers with her final speech : Fingal! adieu! Be happy! Thou wilt long For her departure. On thy breaft, my parent, And let my failing vifion dwell on thee, And let me clafp thee; and behold thee-Oh!"-[Dies. After the extracts which we have given, to say that we approve the piece before us would be wholly fuperfluous. The character of Agandecca is pre-eminently beautiful: it is admirably drawn, and ably fupported; the delineation of her conduct, impelled by the varied feelings under which the acts, evinces, in the poet, the nicest difcrimination, tafte, and knowledge of human nature. There are certain parts of this performance, however, to which we feel ourfelves conftrained to object. In the fecond act, Starno takes a farfetched bombaftic flight, which we could wish to fee repreffed or modified in a future edition. Obfolete words, harsh and strained elifions, and inftances of affected orthography alfo occafionally prefent themselves. The Legendary Odes, &c. poffefs very confiderable merit; and, at the end of the volume, the future biographers of Smollett will find fome interesting notices relative to the poetical works of that cele brated author. Memoirs of the Reign of George III. to the Seffions of Parliament ending A. D. 1793. By W. Belfham. Vol. I. 8vo. THE HE purpose of hiftory is to record facts for the inftruction of mankind. A fubject more eventful and momentous than the C 3 reign reign of the present King of these realms is not to be found in the annals of human transactions. Whoever undertakes such a task if he fail in intereft and utility, cannot blame his materials. It is a common and indeed a trite observation, that valuable hiftories are not to be expected while the actions and events are fresh, the actors or their friends and enemies are alive. Like many trite opinions, this doctrine may eafily be refuted both from reafon and experience. A writer who understands that the end of history is inftruction, the means felection, and arrangement of facts in their juft connection and dependance both as examples and warnings; who fees that it is his duty fairly and impartially to deliver fuch truths, and who poffeffes firm and steady virtue to write the truth, and nothing but the truth, may be a faithful and authentic hiftorian of his own times. According to his talents, moral and political fcience, general learning, and particular knowledge, his powers and habits of literary compofition, he may be an able, impreffive, and beneficial hiftorian of his own times as well as of any other. He will, probably, be a more animated narrator, by receiving more lively impreffions on the fubject, and by being more interested in the characters and events than in those which have been conveyed to him after the lapfe of ages. The chief difficulty is adherence to ftrict impartiality, without which the primary quality of hiftory, authenticity, can never be fecure. In this refpect an hiftorian of his own age and country is in a fituation analogous to a witnefs giving evidence in a cause in which his own parents and family are parties, there certainly are men who delivering teftimony affecting even fuch friends, would fpeak the truth. Some of our best and most unquestionable hiftories, both ancient and modern, have been written by authors coeval with the fubjects. Thucydides, and his continuator, Xenophon, writing the hiftory of their own countries and times, admirable as their works are in most of the other qualities of hiftory, have been uniformly allowed its primary excellence, authenticity. Herodotus, conjectural and even fabulous in some of the earlier portions of his delightful and valuable production, becomes authentic when he approaches and reaches his own times. Polybius, recording the military, political, and civil hiftory of the times in which he lived, of the nations which he was contemplating, and of the heroes and flatesmen with whom he converfed, has ever been allowed to be the best hiftorian of Greece, Rome, Carthage, and their respective dependencies, during the fixth century of the city of Rome. Polybius exhibits actual facts in the relation of cause and effect, while his equal in genius treating that portion of hiftory, but living at a different period, not unfrequently mingles the fancy of the poet with the narration of the hiftorian. Modern hiftorians have more rarely chofen for their fubject contemporary tranfactions; but thofe who, competent to the talk of an hiftorian, have undertaken fuch a work have been eminently fuccefsful; witnefs among others the masterly production of Clarendon. There is indeed no obstacle to the history of present times which may not be furmounted by by talents, literature, wisdom, and virtue fitted for writing any history. Though impartiality be indifpenfably requifite to authentic history, it is an impartiality of DUTY and CONSCIENCE not of indifference. Affection and admiration for one of the parties are perfectly confiftent with the rigid delivery of truth. If I am witnefs in a caufe in which my father and his adverfary are the parties, while I fpeak the truth I may, and indeed muft, if the evidence be long and I poffefs the affection of a fon, fhew that like my father better than his adverfary. A judge and jury will not the lefs regard my veracity as a witnefs, from perceiving that I have the moral feelings of a man: (the reader will see that here are meant a judge and jury not Godwinian in their notions concerning natural affections.) Suppofe, on the other hand, I were, in delivering evidence, to manifest a difpofition to hold up my own parents to reproach; to create opportunities for reviling. them and praifing their adverfary at their expence; would the judge, jury, or by ftanders the more highly value my evidence. Farther, if it were unquestionably and ftrikingly manifeft that my parents were highly meritorious in their general character, upright in their intentions and conduct, while I represented them as acting unworthily, would my credibility as a witness be increased because I flandered my parents? Were an ancient hiftorian to rife from the dead, he might very naturally afk, what is the purpose of pursuing this analogy? Can any hiftorian be fo deficient in patriotifm as to speak falfehood against his own country? we might answer, your furprize is natural, but nevertheless its object is true. If an author mean to be partial, either for or against his country, unless he be a bungler indeed, he will not confine himself exclufively to direct falfehood, but will have recourse to implication, garbled evidence, hints, and other artifices fo well known and univerfally practifed by those who wish to disguise or pervert the truth. When a witness means to convey false impreffions, it is of confiderable ufe to truth and juftice if he have only a faint and glimmering view of the fubject himself. Thus he will be the lefs able to impofe, unless upon the weak and fuperficial. It muft, however, be candidly acknowledged, that if a man disposed to lye, profeffes to write the truth concerning his own times and country, motives and inducements abound which do not exift concerning more diftant fubjects. This may be found in the character, fituation, fect, or caft of the writer thus delivering fuch falfhoods. A bigoted tory might, perhaps, be trufted with writing the hiftory of Hannibal, though he would not be fit for exhibiting Marlborough. A furious prefbyterian might write a juft criticifm upon Horace or Cicero, that would not allow the due merit to Pope or Johnfon. Indeed, though a writer fhould intend to deliver the truth, the prejudices of his peculiar fet of affociates, or, as Lord Bacon calls them, the idola theatri, may warp his judgment without any intention of perverfion. Many both speak and write falfhood, as many both speak and write C 4 nonfenfe, * nonfenfe, not knowing it to be fuch. Instead of cenfuring fuch a writer's intentions we can only regret that his party spirit is much greater than his judgment. Unity of defign, however, cannot entirely proceed from a mistake of the understanding;-the will must have its fhare. Thefe prefatory obfervations, refpecting the qualifications and difqualifications of an hiftorian will, we truft, be found, in the courfe of our criticifm, by no means irrelevant to a review of the work intitled, by Mr. Beltham, Memoirs of the reign of King George III. Our author in a few pages gives the heads of the political maxims, by which the Houfe of Hanover had been governed during the two fir reigns, and not without juftice cenfures the exclufive employment of whigs; thence, proceeding to the education of the King, he repeats as truth the common-place mifrepresentation of a fignal and momentous fact. "The late Prince of Wales, as every literary and political reader knows, had imbibed the principle from Lord Bolingbroke, certainly very falutary and wife whencefoever it was derived-that a patriot king would choose his fervants according to their wifdom and virtue; and not according to their party connections. Patterns of domestic virtue, both he and his Princess had devoted the stricteft attention to the tuition of their children, and especially their heir. The political maxim juft mentioned had been strongly impressed on Prince George's mind, fo as to become a great rule of his attachment and conduct, when, by the death of his father, he became the fecond perfonage in the kingdom, and of his intended choice and delegation, when Providence fhould call him to be the firft. So thinking and feeling, he had not exclufively patronized whigs. This determination not to be king of one party, the abettors of that confederary imputed to a refolution to be the king of the opposite party.” This affertion of political engroffers, enraged that their monopoly was to continue no longer, fo completely refuted by the uniform conduct of his Majefty, worthy indeed only of a factious newspaper or party pamphlet, our author admits as a fact, and even as a fundamental fact. On this, as a corner ftone, he commences the foundation of his hiftory. His leading propofition is, that his Majefty had imbibed fentiments and principles inimical to the conftitutional liberties of Britain. To eftablish the theorem thus enunciated, the profeffed narrative is bent. A very strong objection, however, occurs in the firft ftep of his demonftration. This was the firft royal fpeech of our king to his parliament, declaring that the civil and religious rights of his loving fubjects were equally dear to him with the prerogatives of his crown; and expreffing all the energy and animation * Such of our readers as are curious either to hear or perufe unintentional nonfenfe, we advife to frequent coffee-houses, efpecially thofe where literature and philofophy are handled, as well as politics, on week days; and on Sundays to listen to fectarian and methodistical fermons. of |