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236 List of Books,--with Remarks. 

and the Sardinian Minister at Paris, before the Duke of Bedford set out for France. While the farce of a negociation was carrying on, an event happened which had well nigh disconcerted the whole project. Contrary to all expectation and design, an account arrived in England, that the Havannah was taken. In the first transport of disappointment the Earl of Bute was for restoring it without an equivalent; because the peace was concluded on, and nothing should impede it. The two Secretaries of State, Lord Egremont and Mr. Grenville, opposed him. It is true, the latter contended for Guadaloupe ; but upon the proposal to cede the Havannah also, without equivalent, he resigned his office to avoid the disgrace of that infamous concession. Lord Egremont took up his idea, and prevailed, after much pressing, to send an instruction to the Duke of Bedford for the demand of Florida. Mr. Grenville wanted St. Lucia and Porto Rico, and the entire property of Jucatan. Florida was granted without hesitation. Porto Rico was insisted on by the D. of Bedford without inftructions from his Court. Upon this farther demand the French Minister resorted to his usual chicane. Fourteen days were agreed upon to give an answer to it. On the twelfth day the Duke received express and positive orders to sign the Treaty immediately. Two days after, he was informed, that the island of Porto Rico was ceded; but it was too late."

From Sir John's promise to the public two years ago to visit the Depôt at Versailles, the writer suspects Mr. David Hume to have been in the secret. If access to a French Ambassador's dispatches were so easy as that a man need only make a public promise of his intention, in order to obtain it, persons of veracity might make such a promise, and re-examine the Depôt : but this public promise of Sir John's seems to have been made to conceal the truth. Hume was caressed by the French, and, no doubt, had access to the Depôt; but he might apprehend, that the authenticity of papers published under his name would be suspected by the English nation. Sir John's was a maiden name, and a journey to Paris might cover the deception.
 
Two questions are started on this occasion: 1. Whether the papers in the Depôt have been fairly transcribed?

And, 2. Whether entire credit may be given to the assertions of Barillon?

To the first, the writer says of Hume and Sir John, that errors are frequent in both their histories, and partialities flagrant in almost every page. He gives an instance or two in that of the latter, and proceeds to answer the second question, in which he is more copious. He considers, first, the poverty of Barillon and his character for cunning; next, his ignorance of the most material transactions preceding the revolution; and, lastly, his precipitate retreat from this country, and the disgrace he met with in his own for having imposed upon his master by false intelligence. Being rich when he quitted his embassy, the writer asks, If he could acquire a fortune by bribing English gentlemen, if he had not charged sums which he never paid? And that he was poor when he came, and rich when he fled away, is proved authentically.

The writer proceeds to consider the negative proofs arising from the character of the amiable person and real patriot who is charged with receiving a pension from the French King; which, he thinks, are so strong, that it is shameful, after almost a century of established fame, to search for circumstances then and now to vindicate his character.

A thousand proofs of Algernoon Sydney's innocence might be adduced from histories of the times in which he lived; but extracts are unnecessary to an English reader, and references would be tedious. His life and writings abound with instances that prove his high notions of liberty, and his detestation of mercenary dependance. When he was in France, being one day hunting with the King, and mounted on a fine English horse, the form and spirit of which caught the King's eye, he received a message, that he would be pleased to oblige the King with his horse at his own price. He answered, he did not chuse to part with him. The King, determined to have no denial, gave orders to tender him a sum of money, and to seize the horse; which being made known to Sydney, he instantly took a pistol, and shot him dead, saying, that his horfe was born a free creature, had served a free man, and could not be mastered by a King of Slaves. Would a Pensioner to France have dared to act thus?

In fact, Sydney, upon principle,
was

List of Books -with Remarks.
was an enemy to tyranny and corruption, and he died in that sentiment. At the Revolution, when both Whigs and Tories were alive with whom he had acted, and who knew his faults, if he had any, justice was done to his memory, by cancelling all the infamous proceedings against him. From that period he has been considered a sacrifice to virtue and liberty. But a most impotent attempt has now been made to destroy this reverence; to circulate a calumny on all public characters; a suspicion that all men are impostors; that none are deserving of the people's confidence; that those who were honoured with the most, were 'arrant knaves, self interest having been their only guide and principle. The abominable tendency of these doctrines shews a depravity and malignity which exceed almost the possibility of belief. They are disgraceful to human nature, by supposing there never was an honest man; and subversive of our Constitution, as tending to set up a distrust in the principal men of this kingdom, and an opinion, that the King alone is the person in whom all confidence is to be placed.

To the observations of this writer are added the letters that have been published on the subject in the newspapers; in some of which the invective is not confined to the person of Sir John Dalrymple, but very injudiciously extended to his whole nation.

16. The JESUIT: An Allegorical Poem, with Airs and Chorusses, as rehearsed after the Example of Ancient Bards and Minstrels, by the Author, Mr. MARRIOTT. 4to. Leacroft.

THIS Poem is divided into seven parts : In Part the first, entitled The Birth-Night, the Poet prepares for the great event that is to happen, by describing the foreboding appearances at the close of day :

"The rustic, as he led his thirsty team O'er dreary meads to taste the lucid stream, Listen'd to hear the constant village-chime, And mark'd what tuneless bell struck out of time.

"The swarthy fisherman, with busy hand 
Wash'd out his net, and haul'd his bark to land; 
The Eastern waves a grizly mantle wore, 
And porpusses came rolling to the shore.

"Deep in the Weft the rapid sun-beams fled,
And Night at once her fable mantle spread;

 GENT. MAG. May, 1773.
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237
Silence presided; when aloft in air 
Tempest arose, her terrors to prepare."

His description of the Tempest is truly grand and poetical: "Loud, hollow gales blew, whistling, mix'd with rain,
O'er the wild heath, and brush'd the grasssy plain;
In streams of forked flame the lightning pour'd,
And from the nitrous clouds the thunder roar'd;
One moment light, one moment darkness reign'd,
With sudden change, and furious war maintain'd; 
Longer and louder roll'd the thunder dire, 
And all the air seemed waves of liquid fire. 
"The whirlwind shook the turret's lofty wall,
The smoaking stack receiv'd the fiery ball;
With sulfur stifled, brutes expir'd by droves,
And conflagration wasted half the groves."

The effects, which such a dreadful tempest would naturally produce, are finely contrasted :
"The harmless swain, who slept in cottage low,
Affrighted 'woke, and rose to house his cow;
Eas'd of that care, again he fought his bed,
Forgot the tempest, and reclin'd his head.
"The statesman, plotting, with a guilty soul,
To rule his country with unjust control, 
Taught by the storm that greatness cannot save,
Stood chain'd with fear, and felt himself a slave."

The place of action is next described, where all the Vices met that were to attend the Birth of the Jesuit:
"Deep in the center of a desart-way, 
Where human footsteps ne'er were led astray,
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Two kindred rocks together, side by side, 
Uprear'd their shaggy tops with savage pride,
By earthquake split, stone of each other's stone,
In ancient times majestic stood in one, 
Their perpendicular sides a passage made 
Betwixt, of rock a solid pavement laid, 
Untrod before, and ever since untrod, 
But once permitted, by decree from God.
"Between the rocks the moon her brightest ray," &c.

Here a chorus is introduced; and, afterwards, to heighten the horror of the scene, serpents are seen crawling between the rocks, and ghosts of martyrs hovering about the borders. The first part closes with the interment of Truth, and an air and chorus suitable to the occasion.
PART

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