whether a baron of the Cinque-ports with our Author, or garreteer of Grubfireet with the monthly critics! "Ye vile pack of vagabonds, what do ye mean ?” Our Author tells us, in his concluding paragraph, that during two fucceffive parliaments, he had the happiness to merit, by a constant attention to his duty, the esteem of his conftituents.' We take it for granted, if he fat in the last parliaments, that he was one of thofe who oppofed, to no purpose, the wretched measures of a profligate majority.' The accounts here given of the characters, views, and principles of the leading members, are but flight sketches, and must prove very unfatisfactory to the inquifitive Reader. Art. 20. A full and clear Proof that the Spaniards can have no Claim to Balambangan. By Alexander Dalrymple. 8vo. Nourfe. 1774. Balambangan is a fmall island in the Eaft Indies, fituated at the north point of Borneo, and lately belonging to the King of Sooloo ; who, in 1762, made a ceffion of it to the English. In 1763, Mr. Dalrymple took poffeffion of it for the Eaft India Company, and hoifted the British flag. Since that event, a proper force was fent over, and a regular fettlement made on the island, under the direction of Mr. Harbord, one of the council of Bencoolen, who was appointed governor. This gave fufficient umbrage to the Spaniards and Dutch, who are, with reafon, extremely jealous of our fixing a trading station fo near to the Philipinas and Moluccas; and ac cordingly our late advices from that part of the world inform us, that the Spanish governor of Manilla hath peremptorily required the English to evacuate the island. With this demand Mr. Harbord did not think proper immediately to comply; and, when the intelligence came away, was preparing to defend himself: though with little profpect of fuccefs, against fo fuperior a force. Whether this event will open a breach between the two crowns, will hereafter be feen. In the mean time, Mr. Dalrymple, who well understands the subject, and is one of the best geographers of the age, infifts that, according to the treaty of Munfter, in 1648 +, the Spaniards have no right to extend their Eaft Indian navigation farther than they had at that time carried it: confequently that they can have no claim to Balambangan.-If this caufe were 'to be determined in Westminster-Hall, there is no doubt but the King of Spain would, after a due course of demur and formality, be caft; but as it will probably be tried on the spot, and in a more summary way, the event is not altogether fo certain. With refpect to the importance of an establishment at Balambangan, to the East India Company, our Readers may confult Mr. Dalrymple's Plan for extending the Commerce of this Kingdom, &c. published Balambangan was, before the English took poffeffion of it, un inhabited. The only treaty fubfifting between the English and Spaniards, which explains and regulates the rights and limits of the latter, in the Eaft Indies. about about two years ago; in which is a particular description of this ifland, its fituation, harbours, natural productions, &c. &c. POETICAL. Art. 21. Ode on the Inflitution of a Society in Liverpool, for the Encouragement of Defigning, Drawing, Painting, &c. Read before the Society, Dec. 13, 1773. 4to. Liverpool printed. No mention of any Bookfeller there, or in London. 1774. The liberal fpirit of commerce, afsociated with religious and philofophic freedom, has ever been propitious to arts and letters. Where thofe principles have flourished, the fciences that adorn humanity have flourished too, and in no part, we will venture to say, of our immenfe commercial dominions have they been more warmly cultivated, than in the large and opulent town of Liverpool, and its precincts. The recent inftitution, in honour of which this little poem was written, is, among many others that thefe polished people have given us, an inftance of the truth of this obfervation. As the poet's object was principally to extol the imitative art, for the promoting of which the Liverpool Society was inftituted, he politely places it upon an equality with his own, though the former is, undoubtedly, in many refpects, inferior to the latter: Hers is the glowing bold defign, In every province claim her mingled part, The wondering fenfe to charm, or moralize the heart. The comparifon of Painting, in its operations, with Mufic is very pretty and ingenious: When juft degrees of fhade and light Contend in fweeteft harmony, Then burfts upon the raptur'd fight The vifual concert breaks upon the eyes With every different charm which Mufic's hand fupplies. The two concluding ftanzas are perfectly well appropriated, in erefting, and elegant. I.. Art. Art. 22. Poems, by Robert Ferguffon. I2mo. Edinburgh printed, fold by Murray in London. 2 s. 6 d. Mr. Ferguffon's mufe appears in the different characters of a Lady of Quality and a Scotch Moggy. In the former the is fometimes tolerably graceful; as in ftanzas against repining at Fortune, for inftance: Can he who on the tide of Fortune fails, More pleafure from the sweets of Nature share ? To me the flow'rs as rich a bloom disclose; But take her upon the whole, and she is more in nature when she is lilting o'er the Lea. L. Art. 23. The Matron; an Elegy. 4to. 6d. Johnfon. Mid chilling wants he heard its little moan; She led me oft through meads with bloffoms gay, The rest of this short poem is much in the fame ftyle; in which there.appears a fimplicity, diftinguished more by truth than by elegance. น. Art. 24. Poems on feveral Occafions. By John Bennet, a Journeyman Shoemaker. 8vo. 2 s. 6d. Evans. 1774. We are pleased to fee fuch a comfortable number of fubfcribers prefixed to honeft John's poems. Particularly, as, unlike the rest of the Crifpinian fraternity, he feems to have a fenfe of virtue and religion; to fpiritualize his profeffion, and to be working at his last, and thinking of his end. Art. 25. The Stage of Ariflophanes. 4to. Is. Setchell. 1774 An infignificant account of the fummer-actors at Foote's theatre, in the Haymarket. Art. 26. Poems written by William Shakespeare. 8vo. 3 s. 6d. Evans. 1774. If there be any thing more in this volume than was contained in the edition formerly published by Theobald, it does not immediately occur to us. For the authenticity of the poems, perhaps, we have little more to depend upon than internal evidence. Tradition, and - even publication under a name are uncertain grounds for appropriations of this kind. For the book fellers in Ben Johnson's time were as little fcrupulous about the veracity of a title-page, as their fucceffors were in the days of Addifon and Pope. However, though every very thing here may not belong to Shakespeare, there is, evidently, much from his hand: In Praise of his Mistress, though black. As those two mourning eyes become thy face, &c. 1). DRAMATIC. L. Art. 27. The Patriot King; or, Irish Chief: A Tragedy. Performed at the Theatre in Smock-Alley, Dublin. By Francis Dobbs, 8vo. I s. 6d. Bew. 1774. From a fhort advertisement prefixed to this Hibernian tragedy, it appears that the Author's production has already been reviewed by Meffrs. Garrick aud Colman, who severally pronounced it unfit for representation on their respective theatres. It has, however, fince been performed at the playhouse in Dublin, as mentioned in the title; but, as it fhould feem, with no great fuccefs, as the Writer flatters himself that he has much improved his play fince that period.' What merit it might have boafted, antecedent to that period, the abovementioned obdurate managers alone can determine; but we, who only fee it in its prefent ftate, cannot but concur with the Author in declaring that his play has, without doubt, a thousand imperfections, and perhaps a much greater number than are fufficient to juftify its rejection from the theatres of Covent Garden and DruryLane.' 2d art.-C. Art. 28. Airs, Duets, Choruffes, &c. in the new Mafque called, The Druids. As performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. The words chiefly taken from Ben Johnfon; the Mufic compofed by Mr. Fisher. 8vo. 6d. Evans. 1774. The title of mafque, and the venerable name of Ben Johnson, are miferably prostituted in this dull farrage of nonfenfe, this motley mixture of Venus and Shepherdefs, Harlequin and Druid, in which the old bard no longer retains the dignity of an English minstrel, but is robbed of his vigour in order to qualify him for the operatical interfperfion of a pantomime. C. Art. 29. A new Interlude called, The Election. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. 8vo. 6 d. Griffin. The following trifle (lays the prefatory advertisement) is the production of an hafty hour. In an ill hour, alas, was this trifle produced! for we cannot proceed in the words of the advertisement to declare that it is evidently calculated to amuse at this juncture. At no juncture could this dull interlude be amusing, the Author hav. ing contrived to unite the oppofite qualities of tediousness and brevity. The conclufion has the chief merit; not only that it is the conclufion, but because there is fome pleasantry in the idea of chair 6 ing ing the member patriotically SINGING (like many patriots FARCI Art. 30. The Cobler; or, a Wife of Ten Thousand: A Ballad If the French piece, from which the prefent is faid to be taken, is in ftyle and construction in any degree a model worthy of imitation, the English Author is doubly criminal, not only for stealing, but for robbing the Spital. RELIGIOUS. Art. 31. Meditations and penitential Prayers, written by the celebrated Dutchefs de la Valliere, Miftrefs of Lewis the Fourteenth of France, after her Recovery from a dangerous Illness, when the firft formed the Refolution of devoting herself to a religious Life. Tranflated from the French. With fome Account of her Life and Character, extracted from Voltaire, Sevigne, &c. By Mrs. Charlotte Lennox. Small 8vo. 2s. 6d. Dodley. 1774. A woman engaged in a criminal connexion so flattering to female vanity as that with a royal perfonage, and turning devotee when foured by disappointment, as well as depreffed by fickness, however her ftory may be varnished over by thofe who undertake to blazon her reformation, exhibits too natural a transfer of the warm paffions to excite much admiration, or to merit extraordinary applaufe. The joy over one finner that repents, cannot extend cordially to repentance dictated by infuperable obftructions to a continuance in fin: there being a clear distinction between genuine virtue, and virtue engrafted upon neceffity. La Valliere was certainly confcious of the state of her own mind, when the penned the following ejaculations: Suffer me not fo fatally to deceive myself, as to think I am thoroughly converted, when indeed I have only changed the fins of fense for those of the mind; a prophane and fenfual life, whose fofteft pleasures were embittered by remorfe; whofe brightest scenes were clouded by my reflections on the crimes that purchased them; for a life in which, unperceived by myself, I am continually gratifying my prefent predominant paffions, while felf-love daily holds up a flattering mirror to my eyes, and reprefents all my actions virtuous, because they are no longer flagrantly wicked.' Thefe Meditations are chiefly conceived in the ftyle of the Pfalms, and may perhaps be read with fatisfaction by thofe who indulge the peculiar fervors with which the mind is animated by monaftic exercises. MISCELLANEOUS. the/ C N. Though we have read thefe Fables with attention, we have met with nothing particularly ftriking, either in the delineation of character or in the deduction of moral. They have, in general, a political tendency, recommending justice and humanity to princes, which, in the regions of the Eaft, can never be too much inculcated. Art. L. |