fervice to the art which he profeffed, to gular writer, which confpire to plunge investigate the peculiarities in this finhim in the crowd of thofe evanefcent critics (if I may ufe fuch an expreffion) whom his friend Pope beheld in fo clear a vifion, that he seems to have given us a prophetical portrait of his own commentator. Critics I faw, that others' names efface, Character of WARBURTON. [From the Notes to Hayley's Effay on Epic Poetry.] [vol. 44. p. 645.] IF I have alluded to this famous commentator with a contemptuous afperity, it arifes from the perfuafion that he has fullied the page of every poet whom he pretended to illuftrate; and that he frequently degraded the ufeful and generous profeffion of criticism into a mean inftrument of perfonal malignity: or (to use the more forcible language of his greateft antagonist) that he "invefted himself in the high office of Inquifitor. General and Supreme Judge of the opinions of the learned; which he affumed and exercised with a ferocity and defpotism without example in the republic of letters, and hardly to be parallelled among the difciples of Dominic." It is the juft lot of tyrants to be detefted; and of all ufurpers, the literary defpot is the least excufable, as he has not the common tyrannical plea of neceffity or intereft to alledge in his behalf; for the prevalence of his edicts will be found to fink in proportion to the arbitrary tone with which they are pronounced. The fate of Warburton is a striking inftance of this important truth. What havock has the courfe of a very few years produced in that pile of imperious criticifm which he had heaped together! Many of his notes on Shakespeare have already refigned their place to the fuperior comments of more accomplished critics; and perhaps the day is not far diftant, when the volumes of Pope himself will ceafe to be a repository for the lumber of his friend. The fevereft enemies of Warburton muft indeed fallow, that feveral of his remarks on his Poetical Patron are intitled to preservation, by their use or beauty; but the greater part, I appre hend, are equally deftitute of both and how far the critic was capable of disgracing the poet, must be evident to every reader who recollects, that the nonfenfe in the Essay on Criticism, where Pegasus is made to snatch a grace, which is juftly cenfured by Dr Warton, was Birt introduced into the poem by an arbitrary tranfpofition of the editor. Or disappeared, and left the first behind. I fhall therefore hazard a few farther obfervations, not only on this famous critic of our age and country, but on the two greater names of antiquity, to each of whom he has been declared fitperior by the partial voice of enthufiaftic friendship. I wish not to offend his most zealous adherents; and, though I cannot but confider him as a literary ufurper, I fpeak of him, as a great historian faid of more exalted tyrants, fine ira ev ftudio, quorum caufas procul habeo. There feem to be three natural endowments requifite in the formation of an accomplished critic;-ftrong understanding, lively imagination, and refined fenfibility. The firft was the characteristic of Ariftotle, and by the confent of all ages he is allowed to have poffeffed it in a fuperlative degree. May I be pardoned for the opinion, that he enjoyed but a very moderate portion of the other two? I would not abfolutely say that he had neither fancy nor feeling; but that his imagination was not brilliant, and that his fenfibility was not exquifite, may, I think, be fairly prefumed from the general tenor of his profe; nor does the little relique of his poetry contradict the idea. The two qualities in which Ariftotle may be supposed defective, were the very two which peculiarly diftinguish Longinus; who certainly wanted not understanding, though he might not poffefs the philofophical fagacity of the Stagyrite. When confidered in every point of view, he appears the most confummate character among the critics of antiquity. If Warburton bore any refemblance to either of these mighty names, I apprehend it must be to the former, and perhaps in imagination he was fuperior to Ariftotle; but, of the three qualities which I have ventured to confider as requifite in the perfect critic, I conceive him to have been miferably deficient Though arrogance is perhaps the most ftriking and characteristical defect in the compofition of this affuming commenta tor, he had certainly other critical failings of confiderable importance; and it may poffibly be rendering fome little in 86 in the laft, and certainly the most effen- Vindication of the moral and poetical Cha- voted his life as ferviceable as he could to the great interests of mankind, he foon quitted the higher regions of poetry, for the more level, and more frequented field of Ethics and of Satire. He declares, with a noble pride arifing from the probity of his intention, That not in Fancy's maze he wander'd long, But stoop'd to Truth, and moraliz'd his fong. The severity of Criticism has from hence inferred, that his imagination was inferior to the other faculties of his mind, and that he poffeffed not that vigour of genius which might enable him to rank with our more fublime and pathetic bards. This inference appears to me extremely defective both in candour and in reason; it would surely be more generous, and, I will venture to add, more juft, to affign very different causes for his having latterly applied himself to moral and fatyric compofition. If his preceding poems difplayed only a moderate portion of fancy and of tenderness, we might indeed very fairly conjecture, that he quitted the kind of poetry where thefe qualities are particularly required, becaufe Nature directed him to thine only as the poet of Reason.-But his earlier productions will authorise an oppofite conclufion. At an age when few authors have produced any capital work, Pope gave the world two poems, one the offspring of imagination, and the other of fenfibility, which will ever stand at the head of the two poetical claffes to which they belong: his Rape of the Lock, and his Eloifa, have nothing to fear from any rivals, either of paft or future time. When a writer has difplayed fuch early proofs of exquifite fancy, and of tender enthufiafm, thofe great conftituents of the real Poet, ought we not to regret that he did not give a greater scope and freer exercise to thefe qualities, rather than to affert that he did not poffefs them in a fuperlative degree? Why then, it may be asked, did he confine himself to compofitions in which thefe have little fhare? The life and character of Pope will perfectly explain the reasons, why he did not always follow the higher fuggeftions of his own natural genius. He had entertained an opinion, that by stooping to truth, and employing his talents on the vices and follies of the paffing time, he should be molt able to benefit mankind. The idea was perhaps illfounded, but his conduct, in confequence however, of it, was certainly noble. Its effects, however, were moft unhappy; for it took from him all his enjoyment of life, and may injure, in fome degree, his immortal reputation: by fuffering his thoughts to dwell too much on knaves and fools, he fell into the fplenetic delufion, that the world is nothing but a compound of vice and folly; and from hence he has been reproached for fuppofing that all human merit was confined to himself, and to a few of his most intimate correfpondents. counsellors had given a different bias to the mind of the Poet, and the malignity of his enemies had exasperated his temper; yet he afterwards turned his thoughts towards the compofition of a national epic poem, and poffibly in confequence of the hint which this epistle of Lyttelton contains. The intention was formed too late, for it arofe in his decline of life. Had he poffeffed health and leifure to execute fuch a work, I am perfuaded it would have proved a glorious acquifition to the literature of our country. The fubject indeed which he had chofen must be allowed to have an unpromifing appearance; but the opinion of Addifon concerning his Sylphs, which was furely honeft, and not invidious, may teach us hardly ever to decide againft the intended works of a fuperior genius. Yet in all the Arts, we are perpetually tempted to pronounce fuch decifions. I have frequently condemned fubjects which my friend Romney had felected for the pencil; but in the sequel, my opinion only proved that I was nearfighted in those regions of imagination, where his keener eyes commanded all the profpect. There was an amiable peculiarity in the character of Pope, which had great influence both on his conduct and compofition-he embraced the fentiments of thofe he loved with a kind of fuperftitious regard; his imagination and his judge ment were perpetually the dupes of an affectionate heart it was this which led him, at the requeft of his idol Bolingbroke, to write a fublime poem on metaphyfical ideas which he did not perfectly comprehend: it was this which urged him almoft to quarrel with Mr Allen, in compliance with the caprices of a female friend; it was this which induced him, in the warmth of gratitude, to follow the abfurd hints of Warburton with all the blindness of infatuated affection. Whoever examines the life and Account of a remarkable hard Froft during Rain. writings of Pope with a minute and un-ard at St Pons, a district in France, duthe night of Nov. 11. 1782, it froze fo prejudiced attention, will find that his excellencies, both as a poet and a man, were peculiarly his own; and that his failings were chiefly owing to the ill judgement, or the artifice of his real and pretended friends. The lavish applaufe, and the advice of his favourite, Atterbury, was perhaps the caufe of his preferving the famous character of Addison, which, finely written as it is, all the lovers of Pope must wish him to have fuppreffed. Few of his friends had integrity or franknefs fufficient to perfuade him, that his fatires would deftroy the tranquillity of his life, and cloud the lustre of his fame: yet, to the honour of Lyttelton, be it it remembered, that he fuggefted fuch ideas to the Poet, in the verfes which he wrote to him from Rome, with all the ring a heavy fhower of rain, as to form a Y the annual return of the bill of morta becoming zeal of enlightened friendship: Blity at Paris, it appears, that there have No more let meaner Satire dim the rays This generous admonition did not indeed produce its intended effect, for other been, in that capital and its fuburbs, during the year 1782, Christenings 19,387.; Marriages 4878; Deaths 18,953; Foundlings $444 3 Nuns profeffed 117. Increase in the latter compared to 1781, 30; decreased in Chriftenings 845; in Marriages 92; in Deaths 1227; Foundlings 164. [See the London Mortalitybill, vol. 44. p. 714.) Trial 88 Trial of the Hon. Lt-Gen. James Murray, [Befide the twenty-five public charges, inferted vol. 44. p. 571. Sir W. Draper exhibited four articles of perfonal complaint against Gen. Murray, making in all twenty-nine charges.] The court began to fit on Tuesday, Nov. 12. 1782, and finally clofed on Sa turday, Feb. 8. 1783. Lt-Gen. Murray opened his defence as follows. I Sir George Howard, and the other General It is not my wifh to conceal or perplex bited against me, to fit down quiet with I am far from being vain of the talents In a scene so trying, with a feeble gar rifon, a defective fortification, and little hope of relief when attacked by the combined forces of fuch powerful enemies, I muft confider it as a very unfortunate circumftance, notwithstanding the little regard I can now poffefs for Gen. Sir William Draper, that a man of his rank, station, and reputation for abilities, faw all my actions through the medium which appears from the charges he has exhibited; for certainly if ever difunion could prove of deftructive confequences to the public intereft, it was as far as it could operate in the fituation in which we ftood; and whether the caufes of this difunion proceeded from me or Gen. Draper, one or the other of us has much to answer for to this country. When I confider that the charges exhibited But the charges preferred against me do not admit of that manner of confidering them. They neceffarily fuppofe fome corruption or treachery as the motives bibited by Sir William Draper compre. hend a period of two years, in which even the moft minute article of my conduct, civil and military, has been examined with the moft inquifitive circumfpection, for my conduct, and particularly in not in order to furnish matter of complaint, it is furprifing to myself, in revolving upon the inaccuracies and accidents incident to human life, upon a ftrict review of what is paft, when many circumftances are brought to light which were at the moment unknown, that I have not given more occafion to appeal to the experience of this court for forgiveness in those omiffions, which fall to the lot of the ableft officer in fuch tranf. actions as those in which I have been engaged. I believe the fiege of Sweidnitz is efteemed the beft defence which has appeared in modern times; and yet, if Mr Grebeval were asked at this day, when all the movements of all the befiegers are known, whether, in any one point, he would have acted otherwife than he did? it is poffible he would acknowledge fome error which he had committed. Fortified with this opinion, if there was really any matter which I could be lieve might have been better effected in the fiege of Fort St Philip, I would now confefs it; but I folemnly declare, with the experience of eight fieges to aid my judgement, I do not conceive, upon reflection, how I could have acted other. wife than I did with any advantage to the public. It is certain, though of no confequence in the ultimate decifion, that the naval arsenal had better been deftroyed: but this was an object fo much in the department of Capt. Lawfon of his Majefty's navy, that I could not order it, and I trusted to him in the execution of what had been concerted be tween us. That Sir William Draper should differ with me in opinion, upon various points of fervice, under the choice of fuch diffi. culties as occurred, is most natural; nor could I with any claim to a just underftanding, be offended at this difference in opinion, if the points in iflue turned merely upon the queftion, Whether the judgement of Sir William Draper or my own weak opinion was the beft? The military actions of the greatest officers, both ancient and modern, have undergone the fevereft criticisms; and it would be the extreme of folly for any man to expect an exemption from that fcrutiny. VOL. XLV. oppofing the approaches of the enemy. This is the moft captivating charge to vulgar minds who are ignorant of the bad confequences to be apprehended, and the little effect which is to be expected from firing inceffantly on the first parallel, before the spots where the enemy intended to conftruct their batteries are difcovered. But fo far from acting by caprice or refentment, or what is ftill more ignoble, from mean jealousy in this refpect, I will thew, from a previous report I made to the King, that I acted in all things from deliberate refolves, drawn from my conception of the ftate of the fortification and the probable attack, and the beft mode of defence which could be adopted under the circumstances in which we stood. That the Duc de Crillon did attempt acquiring poffeffion of the fortress I commanded, by corrupt means, is known to all the world, as well as the answer I made to him at the moment while I proclaimed the difgraceful propofal [See vol. 44. p. 50.] I claim no merit from this behaviour; I hope the meaneft foldier in my garrifon would have equally rejected fuch an ignominious offer; but I beg, while I claim no merit from fuch conduct, that it may not subject me to any malicious infinuations. It is beneath me to enter into any examination on that head. The zealous defence I made at Fort St Philip, although I would not waste my ammunition on every paffing diftant object, will fufficiently refute the imputation; at the fame time it becomes proper for me to fay, that Capt. Don, my fecretary, who will be examined on many articles of the charges, knows the whole of that tranfaction, if the Court thall incline to put any queftion to him on that fubject. I might, indeed, juftly complain of Sir William Draper, for endeavouring to prejudice the public opinion against me, by a number of charges, which he has not even profefied or attempted to establish in proof. But I derive too much advantage from fuch a conduct, before difcerning and upright judges, to speak of it as an injury. The fureft way of judging of the truth or probability of any doubtful accufation, more especially M of |