ders of it. The prefatory epistle, which is intended as a general vindication of the Purfuits of Literature, is folely employed in repelling the attacks, which are made by the author of the Progrefs of Satire: two or three times, indeed, are noticed the " Impartial Strictures on the poem called the Purfuits of Literature," &c. We have already given our opinion on each of thefe replies, and on the work which provoked them; we feel no difpofition, and perceive no neceffity, to be diffufe on the prefent occafion. The perufal of this prefatory epistle, for which we think it not improbable, that we are indebted to the author himself of the Purfuits of Literature, has afforded us much entertainment; it is written with a great deal of vivacity; a vein of farcaftic humour pervades it; and it is enriched with quite as much poetical imagery as the fatire, which he attempts to vindicate.

ART. XV. A Day at Rome: a Mnfical Entertainment, in two Acts, as it was damned at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, on Thursday, Oct. 11, 1798. 8vo. 32 pages. Price 1s. Symonds. 1798.

MR. Charles Smith is a little angry at the damnation of his farce : and, confidering the terms of contempt, in which it has been fpoken of by fome of the public prints, he is inclined to hope, that by publishing it, no farther lofs of reputation can be fuftained.' We are fomewhat furprized, that this dramatic trifle" fhould have been. vifited fo rudely, for it feems to us fraught with every requifite for fecuring a tumultuous approbation; a highlander talks broad fcotch, an irishman makes a plenty of bulls, and a city-brewer's wife favours the audience with a fpecimen of the London dialect, all executed in the happiest style of extravagance and buffoonery. What a capricious animal is that many-headed monfter, the Public! How are we to account for the rough treatment of Mr. C. S.'s farce? It has neither a harlequin, nor a ghost.

L. L.

ART. XVI.

NOVELS.

Arthur Fitz-Albini, A Novel. In Two Volumes. 12mo. 567 pages. Price 7s. fewed. White. 1798. UNDER the form of a novel, we are here prefented with the effufions of a gloomy and mifanthropic imagination, a caricature of he human fpecies and of fociety. The author, difdaining eftablished customs, though in matters indifferent, in a prefatory addrefs to the eader, prefixed to the fecond volume, defcribes himself as poffeffing no talents for popularity, no manners of general conciliation, no liancy to the affectations of failion, no fubmiflion in fentiment to he cant of the day.'

P. 11. As too proud to folicit a feat as the dependent of miifters, or great men; too poor to carry on expenfive and uncertain ontefts, against indian extortion, or the ufurious plenty of loanontracting bankers, he fees the moft ftupid, the most ignorant, nd the most profligate of mankind, while they can bribe thoufands f drunken voters, and pay, without ruin, the prodigality and fraudulent

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fraudulent charges of tavern-keepers, and interefted agents, fep over his head with brutal infolence, while he is left in the shades of a filent retreat to foothe his indignation by the flashes of imagery and fentiment that now and then break in upon its darknefs.

• Dark indeed is the scenery around him; or worse than dark:a wide waste of mental fterility, in which no literature, no refined intelligence, no intellectual flores even feebly flourish.—But a fet of beings,

"nati confumere fruges,"

conceited in proportion to their ignorance, and felf-important in proportion to their infignificance, meet to difgrace wealth, and be a fatire upon education; while, if there be one, whom his unhappy lot has placed among them, addicted to more worthy pursuits, him they mark out for the object of their unceasing perfecution; attempt, by the clamour of numbers, what they cannot effect by reafon; watch his foibles; exaggerate his faults; and with the low buffoonery of chimney-fweeps, cover with dirt him whom they cannot overcome.'

We should be forry to aggravate the forrows of difappointed expectation, but we are inclined to fufpect, generally fpeaking, that he, against whom every man's hand is raised, muft, by raifing his hand against every man, have previously provoked this univerfal animofity. By him who practifes no manners of conciliation,' who bends neither to custom nor fafhion, little fympathy or affection can be expected. Singularity, whether real or affected, in things unimportant, the faftidious affumption of rigid fuperiority to the modes and manners of those, with whom we are deftined to act a part on the fame ftage, betrays an overweening felf-eftimation, a want of judgment, and a fuperficial acquaintance with the human mind. A Ready courfe of principle is perfectly confiftent, except on extraordinary occafions, with fuavity of manner, and a graceful conformity to the claims and cuftoms of fociety, in the common occurrences and intercourfes of polished life. By cultivating the sympathetic rather than the felfish fenfibilities, by turning our eyes outward, and ceafing to brood over our own imaginary importance, we shall ac quire jufter views and form lefs partial conclufions. He who habitually contemplates the dark fide of every object, who values himself upon being poetically miferable, who confiders difcontent as a mark of peculiar refinement, will never want occafions of diftrefs. The truly fuperiour mind modifies circumftances, ftudies the art of bappiefs, and learns to extract good even from "the foul of evil." The general complexion of the production before us, which is a highly distorted reprefentation of human character and fociety, has betrayed us into the preceding reflections. The reader, who is led by the title-page, to expect the combinations and intricacies of a novel, will experience fome difappointment on finding himfelf plunged into tedious difquifitions on the dignity and advantages of aristocracy, on the merits of our political conftitution, on finance and taxation, on the vulgarity and degradation acquired by com mercial purfuits and occupations. To which is added a panegyric on the virtues and talents of adminiftration, with animadverfions on the character and conduct of one of the moft illuftrious and diftinguished

3.

tinguished leaders of oppofition, concluding with the following pathetic apostrophe.

P. 48. Wherever I turn my eyes, the profpect is involved in impenetrable gloom and horror, Profcription, defolation, murder, famine! O that my fate could be like that of the incomparable lord Falkland!"

Our author, upon the whole, evinces in his performance fome powers of thinking, though he appears to have confidered objects through a partial or imperfect medium, and reflects them with little intereft or imagination: his work is rather a collection of defultory effays and reflections, than a novel; the ftory by which they are connected has but few incidents, and thefe few are tinctured with the same dark and gloomy hue. We perceive no marks of thofe extraor dinary powers, either in the writer or his hero, to which they feem to lay claim, and they might with equal propriety be admonished in the words of one of the characters introduced. As all brilliant parts (i. e. their poffeffors, or thofe who fancy themfelves poffeffed of brilliant parts) are too apt to be led aftray by romantic views, you must excufe me for telling you, that you feem fometimes to indulge in a few impracticable notions, which experience will not justify.'

ART. XVII.

Octavia. By Anna Maria Porter. 3 vols. 12mo. 750 pages. Price 10s. 6d. in boards. Longman. 1798.

Miss Porter's novel, if it do not rank with the highest class of fimilar productions, poffeffes much intereft and vivacity. In portraying the manners of fashionable life, fhe feems to have had Mrs. D'Arblay in view: her mifs Arabin appears to us a defign from the animated portrait of Mrs. Arberry, in Camilla. If, in the execution, confiderable inferiority to a novelift, unrivalled in the difplay of dramatic and fashionable character, appear, it does not greatly detract from the merit of a younger and lefs experienced writer. We would hint to our fair and fprightly author, that she has been injudiciously lavish, particularly in the first volume, of the cant phrafes, the ephemera of a day, of the modifh vulgar, and which, when no longer current, will appear equally difgufting and unintelligible. A writer, while he "catches the living manners as they rife," fhould know how to difcriminate and aim at extending his reputation beyond the prefent moment. What fenfations, a few years hence, will be excited in the refined reader, when expreflions like the following are defcribed as proceeding from the lips of beauty and elegance? "Othey're cut, fir," fays the lovely Antonia, alluding to a quarrel and feparation between a beloved brother and uncle. A piece of fun, from beginning to end," exclaims the more delicate and fentimental Octavia. Again, Antonia, expreffing her approbation of military men, bang their ⚫ bravery, if it was not clothed in fcarlet, I would not pick it off the Atreets." On the fame occafion, "the town will look a little lively again; there will be fine picking for us girls." "Lord, where's the fun of liftening to a man one hears every day?" "Your copper-plate writing is voted a bore now a-days." Giving the waistband of his breeches a bawl up.' "Like him! echoed Octavia, his very ditto!" "Men have no right to take affronts; its vaftly impertinent in Arlingham,

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lingham, and I'll row him for it." "The elegant fprawl of her figure."

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Octavia, the amiable heroine, quits the room, leaving her friend Adelaide to quiz the old people," i. e. a refpectable uncle and aunt. It is, perhaps, difficult, in aiming at a familiar and colloquial style, always to avoid meannefs: yet familiarity is very diftinct from vulgarity. We recommend to the good fenfe aud tafte of Mifs P. 2 future confideration of this fubject. A little too much ftrefs is laid, throughout her production, upon beauty, fashion, and high defcent, a common fault with novelifts, but productive of pernicious effects on the minds of youth. Merit fometimes may appear, undignified by titles, and beneath a homely garb.

ART. XVIII. The Mountain Cottager, or Worder upon Wander. From the German of C. H. Spiefs, 12mo, 296 pages. fewed. Lane. 1798. Price 3s. 6d.

A PLEASANT and ingenious tale, lively, fanciful, and well written. Mifs Anne Plumptre is, we understand, the tranflator of this interefting little novel."

LAW.

A. G.

ART. XIX. General Obfervations on the Power of Individuals to preferibe, by teftamentary Difpofitions, the particular future Ufes to be made of their Property; occafioned by the last Will of the late Mr. Peter Thelluffon, of London. By John Lewis de Lolme, LL.D. the Book on the "Conftitution of England." 4to. 37 pages. Author of Price 15. Richardfon. 1798.

THE late Mr. Thelluffon, third fon of Mr. Ifaac Thelluffon, and citizen of Geneva, after refiding fome time in the capacity of a banker in Paris, repaired to London, acquired an immense fortune, (upwards of 700,oool. fterling), and laid it out in truft for certain "ufes, by will,

Mr. De Lolme, his countryman, who has repeatedly diftinguished himfelf as a man of letters, here contends, that the investing of money in this manner is contrary to the ufual policy of states, and the limitations of law.

The following quotation exhibits a fummary of his reasoning on this point:

P. 24. By way of refigning the fubject of the above digreffion, and returning to the fubject of thofe trufts defcribed in former pages, I fhall repeat what has been obferved in thofe former pages; which is, That the bufinefs of fuch trufts is a courfe of prepared difobedience, defiance, call for fubmiffion, and threat, put upon the legislature (fee page 19). It is, moreover, a courfe of refolution never to fhew any return for fervices performed by other individuals, and of declaration of such refolution, abetted by threats.-And the intent of the previously engaged or bonded courfe of proceeding, is, in the cafe of the truft left by the Mr. Peter Thelluffon, confeiledly to collect, exact, raife and enlarge the trufted property, and ever defend it against being diminished from its prefent increased

increafed ftate, and alfo againft being confined from being farther increased: this plainly-appearing intent of the fcheme and bufine's makes it fcarcely poffible that the cafe of fuch a fcheme might be lighted or defpifed.

It may be obferved that that trust just mentioned is conjoined with other additional circumftances of fuch a nature as make it ftill lefs poffible that the cafe of fuch a scheme and business might be flighted or defpised.

In the first place, the bufinefs of the truft is entered upon, in the very firft inftance and outfet, with a beginning flock of property which, in lands and money together, has been afcertained to amount to more than feven hundred thousand pounds. The fcheme being entered upon with fuch fubftantial means, the effect muft be, that the bad example of the defiance, and the threatening authoritative call for fubmiffion, which are to continue to be put upon the legiflature throughout the continued bufinefs of the trust, muft become a very confpicuous bad example, and a fubject of general obfervation; which muft needs prove highly injurious to the credit of the legislature.

Nor is this all: the whole of this great property is to be realized into landed property by purchases. To which add, that thofe lands fo purchased, are to have afterwards other lands continually added and united to them, by means of fucceeding progreffive purchases, continued to be fucceffively made with the whole of the progreffively increasing maffes of the rents and profits of all the lands progretively purchased and united before. And, as the fcheme of thefe progreffive purchases is to be carried on during a fpace of eighty, or perhaps a hundred years, or more, it must follow, that the extent of the progreffively united lands will, at length, prove equal to several english Counties. Out of this extent the authority of the british legiflature will be excluded by the fuperior efficiency and authority of the unmodifiable truft. A diftinct adminiftration will, of courfe, be formed within the compafs of that extent; which adminiftration will be on a different establishment from those of the counties palatine of Chefter, Lancafter, and Durham, and the itannaries of Cornwall, inasmuch as the authority of the legislature will have no access to the department; being excluded, as juft faid, by the fuperior efficiency and authority of the truft. That administration will be in the nature of an american congrefs (as it ftands at prefent), in the middle of Great Britain; with this difference too, that as the managers of the truft will have engroffed the rights of voting for the counties and for the boroughs purchafed by them, they will be able to influence the measure of the british legislature:--which they will continue to do till fuch time as it will fuit them entirely to give up that part of the fcheme, and to become wholly unconnected as well as independent.

Other ambitious fchemers will alfo be induced, by the brilliancy of the undertaking, to fet up fimilar powerful trufts and landuniting managements; by means of which the british legiflature will be turned out of other english counties, in the fame manner and upon the fame plan as juft defcribed.'

As