but Bishop Warburton, in pursu expected in this memoir; Grace," it was asserted, that some of the writers of the New Testament, "had the Greek tongue miraculously infused into them." ance of his design, published in 1762, "The Doctrine of Grace: or, the Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit, vindicated from the insults of Infidelity, and the abuses of Fanaticism." To this work, however neglected at pre. sent, immortality is promised by In 1764, Mr. Hurd found the bishop's fond biographer. another occasion of shewing his For "the singular merit of the attachment to his great friend, composition, it will be read," we now advanced to the see of Glou are informed, "when the sect cester. Mr. John Wesley, with that gave occasion to it is forgot Mr. Whitfield, had for several ten; or rather, the sect will find years been famous in the religious a sort of immortality in this disworld. They published journals course+!!" In "The Doctrine of of their progresses, containing too many extravagant passages, just ly censurable, and which could not be overlooked by the more regular clergy. The attack on This opinion so conthese extravagances was ably com- sistent with the doctrine of a ple menced in 1754, by "The En- nary inspiration of the scriptures, thusiasm of Methodists and Pa. has not, we believe, been genepists compared," a work attribut- rally received among the orthoed to bishop Lavington. "The dox. It was controverted by Dr. bishop of Gloucester," also, as Thomas Leland, the learned we are told by his biographer, translator of Demosthenes, and had watched Mr. John Wesley's biographer of Philip of Macedon," motions with care for some years, in his "Dissertation on the prinand now thought himself able to ciples of human eloquence." give a fair and full account of There presently appeared an them to the public, from the ma- anonymous letter to Dr. Leland, terials in that adventurer's own in defence of the bishop of journals*." Such is the term Gloucester's idea of the nature by which bishop Hurd, when no and character of an inspired lanlonger a young man, could allow guage." This pamphlet exhibits. himself to describe a Christian mi- the same contemptuous spirit § nister, who had just closed a long, which the seventh dissertation laborious life, and who, what had displayed nine years before, ~ ever were his errors or eccentri- and is also justly attributed to cities, had probably been as suc. Mr. Hurd. It was received with cessful as any modern prelate, in equal indifference by the learned "turning many tu righteousness." person to whom it was addressed, * Discourses by way of general preface, &c. p. 92. † Ibid. 5 The following may serve as a specimen in a letter from one scholar to another "I shall endeavour, with all care, to pick up the loose ends of your argument as I find them any where come up in the several chapters of your dissertation." Letters, &c. in "Tracts," &c. p. 239. 5 being republished by Dr. Leland, suppress it; but the learned edi when it had become scarce, and tor of "Tracts by Warburton,” with great fairness and magnani. &c. determined to bestow upon mity, placed between his own both these ill-starred productions dissertation and the defence. all the immortality which his This literary offspring became at classical prefaces may be expected length, like the 7th dissertation, to attain, till, disgusting to its reputed parent, who is said to have taken pains to see, Our sons their fathers' failing language And such as Chaucer is shall Dryden be. [To be concluded in our next.] [We regret that we are not able to conclude this article of biography in the present number, the whole of the copy not having yet come into our hands ] ORIGINAL LETTER ON THE INSURRECTION AT MADRID IN 1766. Monthly Repository. To the Editor of the SIR, Clapton, Aug. 5, 1808. The following lefter, which may be peculiarly interesting at the present time, came into my hands with the original letters of Franklin, printed in your first volume, P. 137, 192, 255. This, from the post mark, appears to have been received in the ordinary course, though, evidently for the writer's security, it has no signature. It is plain, however from Mr. George Whatley's indorsement of the letter, that his correspondent was a friend with whose hand writing he was well' acquainted. Yours, J. T. RUTT. Madrid, April 7, 1766. I wrote to you, dear Sir, a short let ter on the 31st March, in a very great hurry, and as I kept no copy of it, I may, perhaps, repeat some things over again, but I am willing to acquaint you with all that passed from the beginning to the end of the late insurrection here. I mentioned to you the 17th of March, the edict published against wearing any more at Madrid flapped hats or long cloaks, so that every body appeared here on the 15th March with hats cocked up, and cloaks shorter than before. This gave very great discontent, but as every one conformed thereto, it was generally thought that all people would continue to submit to this new custom. But the Spaniards, so strongly averse to Dovelties, and so fond of their old favorite dress, could not bear being de ⚫ Letters, &c. in prived of it, and some people for their own private ends, worked upon the minds of the common people, and imagined this would be a good pretext for the ruin of the late minister who was so odious to the public. the town, and on palnr Sunday in the afternoon, several appeared with flapped hats, and towards the evening one passed by a guard of some few soldiers, who, according to the orders given to Emissaries were spread in all parts of them, secured in their guard-room the ma man with the flapped hat, but he was soon rescued by the mob, and soon afterwards the insurrection was general. The Marquis de Squiliace dined that day and 'tis thought, that the design was to in the country, about two leagues off, sacrifice him on his return, but he had notice of what passed before he entered the town, and by a large circuit round the walls, he got safe in his coach to the new palace. His lady and children on their return from airing were met by the Dutch envoy, who cauried them to his own house, and by great good fortune it was kept a secret. Part of the mob went to Squillace's house and broke the windows, but never offered to break open the gate. About eight o'clock, they returned again to his house, then broke the windows of the Marquis de Grimal di and two of the principal magistrates, and destroyed every new lamp in the streets, expres ing the greatest rage and fury against these very useful ornaments. The Walloon guards fired on the mob, of which some few were killed, as were some of the soldiers: the whole night passed in noise and clamours. Long live the king, and, Die Squillace, were. repeated in every street. "Tracts," &c. p. 145 On the monday morning thousands of people assembled in the great square, high street, and about the palace, without arms, and committing no manner of violence to any one, and only insisting that all should flap their hats, in which manner all the ambassadors, with their servants, went to court without the least interruption. Thus every thing continued till about four o clock in the afternoon, (the piety of the catholic king inclining him to employ all acts of clemency rather than rigour,) when the mob sent a paper to his majesty, who was graciously pleased to promise that his subjects should continue with their old Spanish dress, that bread and provisions should be lowered, and a Spaniard should succeed the Marquis de Squillace; and, that same evening before dark these acts of clemency were proclaimed to the people, and Signor Don Miguel de Muzquiz appointed for the department of the Hazienda, whereupon all the people dispersed and every thing was quiet during that night, as if nothing had happened. But as soon as it was known the next morning, Tuesday, that the catholic king, with all the royal family and principal attendants on the court, had gone to Aranjuez before day, a kind of madness seized the common people, who assembled in large parties, seized the arms and drums of the many small guards of soldiers dispersed about the town, and taking by force every offensive weapon or club they could find, and joined by numbers of the lowest sort of women, took possession of every gate of the town, permitting none to go out on foot or in carriages, but giving leave to every one to come in, and bring ali kinds of things free of duty or customs. others in large bodies with shouts and noise marched with drunis beating, and firing their muskets without balls in the air, terrifying every body, but injuring no one, and thus continued all that day and the following night, with the additional sircumstance of their appearing with Sambeaus and torches. They permitted, however, messengers to be dispatched to Aranjuez with letters from the governor of the council. On Wednesday morning 26th March, the same tumults continued, till the arrival of a messenger from Aranjuez, who was conducted by thousands of people, to the governor of the council to whom was delivered a royal dispatch, the contents of which were immediately made known to the public, by proclamations in diffe rent parts of the town, whereby his ca tholic majesty's gracious declarations wete published, viz entire pardon for all past offences, entire liberty for flapped hats and long cloaks, the price of bread to be reduced to eight quarts the loaf, from 12 quarts that it was before the riot, vil and soap quarts 14 for what was worth 17, and bacon or jard to 16. That the Junta de Abastos should be abolished, that the Walloon guards should retire from Madrid, as also the Marquis de Squillace, and that the aforesaid Signor Muzquiz, a Spaniard, should be minister of the Hazienda; all this to be granted upon condition that the people should retire home and to their respective occupations, deliver up their arms, and be no more seen in parties and crowds. These royal acts of grace and clemency had the desired effect; for before noon, of the 26, all the people retired and dispersed, after delivering to every guard the arms and drums they had seized, and shook hands with the soldiers. I own to you that I was very much alarmed at first. On the Monday morn ing I went to Lord Rochford's in my coach, my servants with their flapped hats, and I held my own flapped at the window, by which I passed very quietly and returned home that evening with the same tranquillity. On the Tuesday morning I went again to my lord's, and his lordship was desirous I should remain with him all that night, t, and permitted my small family to remain there, as the situation of his house promised more quiet. I tell you all these facts for your own private information, and I can say no more by common post, nor indeed is it yet easy to see clear into ali the secrets of this proceeding. I have in my own particular lost a kind friend in the late minister. I was at his office on the Saturday, the day before the insurrection. "I know," saith he, "you have a great deal to say to me, but I wish you would come after to-morrow, for I must go directly to the King." He added, " we will be often together this year at Aranjuez. How uncertain is our destiny in " this world, and what accidents happen from one moment to another. He is gone to some sea-port to embark for Italy, and I believe to Carthagena. The new minister has been 30 years in the finances. I am well known to him, and he knows well how much his predeces sor was always partial to me. What will Ough say when he hears this? I am, my dear Sir, most sincerely and truly, Yours, &c. &c. George Whatley, Esq. MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. MR. STURCH, ON A PASSAGE IN THE BISHOP OF LONDON'S SERMONS, AGAINST NATURAL REASON. To the Editor of the Monthly Repository. SIR, London, May 4, 1808. The objections of the sceptic to the authority and excellency of the Christian religion, have been often represented, and in many instances, no doubt, justly, as the effect of prejudice. But are there not prejudices in favour of Chris tianity, or rather against the religion of nature, equally ground. less and unreasonable? And do we not sometimes find men of no sinall note, labouring to defend the cause of supernatural revelation, with arguments as weak and contemptible as any that have ever been advanced against it by the unbeliever? what is it that produces this difference It is this: that the former had no other uner I am led to this reflection by a very curious passage in the Lectures on the gospel of St. Matthew, by Dr. Porteus, the present bishop of London; in which he hesitates not to assert roundly, that natural reason or philosophy can never keep men honest, when they have any temptation to the contrary; or in other words, that there can be no virtue at all, ex. cept among Christians! After describing the atrocious conduct of Pilate, in the condemnation of Je sus, vol. 2. p. 281–2, he adds"Could any thing like this have happened in this country? We all know, that it is impossible. We all know, that no dangers, no threats, no fears, either of Cesar, or of the people, could ever in duce a British judge, to condemn to death, a man whom he, in his consci- us what these things meant, if ence, believed to be innocent. And they were not intended to protect VOL. III. Is the good bishop then prepared to maintain that the heathens had no religion-that though they had some ideas of right and wrong in theory, yet they paid no re. gard to them in practice-that the Greeks and Romans, when they devised the legal forms of civil and criminal process, had not the public safety in view, or if they had, that this principle was insufficient to teach them that un in. nocent man ought not to be hanged? He knows that they had solemn judicial proceedings, judges, advocates, pleadings, and appeals to heaven by oath; will he then tell 30 the innocent and to punish the tians? To look no farther than guilty? It is probably many years our own country; have the names since his lordship read Horace; of Jefferies as a judge, of Bonner but he can scarcely have forgot- as a bishop, and of Henry the ten that beautiful character of the eighth as a sovereigi, never reachupright man, which is in the mouth of every school-boy, and which so pointedly contradicts Lis false and injurious statement. Justum et tenacem propositi virum The upright man steadily adheres to his principle; nor suffers bis virtuous resoLution to be shaken, either by the clamour of a corrupt people, or the frown of a tyrant. cd his cars? Or does he really believe that these worthies would have been less chaste and tempe. rate, less just and upright, less mild and merciful than they actually were, if they had been so unfortunate as to have had only the light of nature to direct them? Was not the last mentioned great personage, in whose horrible reign no fewer than seventy-two thousand persons perished by the hand The bishop cannot be ignorant, of the executioner, so good a that Justice and Fortitude are Christian as to have acquired the placed among the cardinal virtues, tittle of Defender of the Faith for and honoured and celebrated with himself and his successors? Were the most enthusiastic praises by the not those judges, among whom pocts and moralists of antiquity; was a lord chancellor and a chief and can he possibly believe, that justice, who were his accomplices these noble qualities were held in in the execrable murder of the such high esteem and universal ad- virtuous Sir Thomas More, all miration, and yet, that there were Christians? And those who, to no instances of their existence in obtain court favour, countenancreal life? Has he in fact, never ed Charles the first in his illegal heard of the name of Socrates, exactions, as well as those who, of Aristides, of Pittacus, of Pho- to please the mob, condemned him cion, of Epaminondas, among to death, were they not all ChrisGreeks; or of Junius Brutus, of tians, as much as those who sit in Cato, of Scipio Africanus, of the court of king's bench at this Marcus Aurelius, among the Ro- day? Was not Jefferies himself a mans? That justice was some. Christian, of whom the accurate times perverted by Heathen ma- Rapin declares that, gistrates is beyond dispute, but, had better deserved a public pucan his lordip be serious when nishment, as an atonement, for he would have us believe that this all the mischiefs done to his coun is never the case in what are called try, and for all the blood spilt by Christian countries? What! has his means?" Surely the bishop he never hard of bribery and cannot have forgotten, that since corruption, of unjust judges, civil the reformation from popery, at and ecclesia cal, of time-serving which period, it is pretended that bishops, of servile parliaments, of Christianity was established in profligate masters of state, of England, in its purest and most debauched, cruel, and tyramicar perfect form, there have been two monarchs among professing Chris- instances, of the highest law officer "Never man |