And the bishops' power being now vacated, the common people were made so happy, as every parish might choose their own minister, and tell him when he did, and when he did not, preach true doctrine; and by this and like means, several churches had several teachers, that prayed and preached for and against one another: and engaged their hearers to contend furiously for truths which they understood not; some of which I shall mention in the discourse that follows.

I have heard of two men, that in their discourse undertook to give a character of a third person; and one concluded he was a very honest man, for he was beholden to him; and the other, that he was not, for he was not beholden to him. And something like this was in the designs both of the Covenanters and Independents, the last of which were now grown both as numerous and as powerful as the former: for though they differed much in many principles, and preached against each other, one making it a sign of being in the state of grace, if we were but zealous for the Covenant; and the other, that we ought to buy and sell by a measure, and to allow the same liberty of conscience to others, which we by Scripture claim to ourselves; and therefore not to force any to swear the Covenant contrary to their consciences, and lose both their livings and liberties too. Though these differed thus in their conclusions, yet they both agreed in their tice to preach down Common Prayer, and get into the best sequestered livings; and whatever became of the true owners, their wives and children, yet to continue in them without the least scruple of conscience.

prac

They also made other strange observations of Election, Reprobation, and Free Will, and the other points dependent upon these; such as the wisest of the common people were not fit to judge of: I am sure I am not; though I must mention some of them historically in a more proper place, when I have brought my reader with me to Dr. Sanderson at Boothby Pannell.

And in the way thither I must tell him, that a very Covenanter, and a Scot, too, that came into England with this unhappy Covenant, was got into a good sequestered living by the help of a Presbyterian parish, which had got the true owner out. And this Scotch Presbyterian, being well settled in this good living, began to reform the church-yard, by cutting down a large yew-tree, and some other trees that were an ornament to the place, and very often a shelter to the parishioners; who, excepting against him for so doing, were answered, "That the trees were his, and 'twas lawful for every man to use his own, as he, and not as they thought fit." I have heard, but do not affirm it, that no action lies against him that is so wicked as to steal the winding-sheet of a dead body after it is buried; and have heard the reason to be, because none were supposed to be so void of humanity; and that such a law would vilify that nation that would but suppose so vile a man to be born in it: nor would one suppose any man to do what this Covenanter did. And whether there were any law

against

against him, I know not; but pity the parish the less for turning out their legal minister.

We have now overtaken Dr. Sanderson at Boothby parish, where he hoped to have enjoyed himself, though in a poor, yet in a quiet and desired privacy; but it proved otherwise: for all corners of the nation were filled with Covenanters, confusion, Committee-men, and soldiers, serving each other to their several ends, of revenge, or power, or profit; and these Committee-men and soldiers were most of them so possessed with this Covenant, that they became like those that were infected with that dreadful plague of Athens; the plague of which plague was, that they by it became maliciously restless to get into company, and to joy,so the historian (Thucydides) saith, when they had infected others, even those of their most beloved or nearest friends or relations and though there might be some of these Covenanters that were beguiled and meant well; yet such were the generality of them, and temper of the times, that you may be sure Dr. Sanderson, who though quiet and harmless, yet an eminent dissenter from them, could not live peaceably; nor did he; for the soldiers would appear, and visibly disturb him in the church when he read prayers, pretending to advise him how God was to be served most acceptably which he not approving, but continuing to observe order and decent behaviour in reading the church-service, they forced his book from him, and tore it, expecting extemporary prayers.'

:

Of the execution of this edition, it is impossible to speak in too high terms of praise. It is beautifully printed on handsome paper and with the accompanying edition of the Angler will make a pair of volumes which may vie with the handsomest specimens of the art of book-decoration. The wood-embellishments are executed in the highest style of art, after designs of exquisite taste. They amount to fifty-two, and are drawn chiefly by Brooke, Thomson, and Harvey, and engraved by Bonner, White, and Hughes, an artist lately deceased, who gave promise of great merit. Eleven copperplate engravings accompany them, and they are in general very good. Mitchell has not been happy in engraving Leslie's picture of the Jewel, (p. 128.) nor is the picture very remarkable; but Cooper's good Samaritan, (p. 328.) is capital, and has had full justice done to it by Rolls. The execution of the five heads is excellent. On the whole, we may safely style it a beautiful book, "inside and outside both!"

The work, however, would be much improved, if it were accompanied by a better selection of notes. Zouch might have been made more use of.

ART.

ART. V. Letters from the Honorable Horace Walpole to the Earl of Hertford, during his Lordship's Embassy in Paris; to which are added, Mr. Walpole's Letters to the Rev. Henry Zouch. 4to. C. Knight. London. 1825.

THIS

HIS forms the ninth volume of the collected works of Horace Walpole, and is replete with that species of epistolary gossip for which the writings of the author are famed. The first part, containing the letters to the Earl of Hertford at Paris, is the most interesting, from the political character of the writings: the second part, embracing his correspondence with the Rev. Henry Zouch, is of a literary complexion exclusively, and can only be adequately appreciated by those who are familiar with Mr. Walpole's "Catalogue of Royal

and Noble Authors."

It would scarcely be credited by one who is a stranger to the political tempest of Mr. Walpole's times, in which, notwithstanding his own professions to the contrary, he was a zealous partizan, that a gentleman of cultivated mind, of elegant manners, and of mature years, could unbosom, even to the ear of friendship, such a tissue of private scandal as we find in every page of this volume.

No doubt much of the matter of which we disapprove forms the raciest part of the correspondence. These ingredients alone will make the letters popular. They will be perused with the greatest avidity, especially in the higher circles; for they are lively, bitter, epigrammatic, detractive, and concise. But the author's prejudices are too much blended with them. It is painful to see him all friendship with some one to-day, whom he holds up to ridicule on the morrow. The feelings of the partizan pervade every line. The honor and integrity of his associates are, of course, extolled to the skies, and yet we see confessed, (in the debate on the regency bill, for instance,) the most heartless manoeuvring to serve the purposes of party, and which the author, with consummate coolness, takes credit to himself and his friends for having planned.

Independently of these blemishes, however, the letters addressed to the Earl of Hertford, while ambassador at Paris, from 1763 to 1765, are of considerable value. They are written with unusual care, and contain a great variety of gay, as well as serious matter, intimately connected with the manners and history of his time. Among other things, it appears, that although it still retains many of its former features, the fashionable season has undergone with us a decided revolution.

• Posterity,

- Posterity, who will know nothing of our intervals, will conclude that this age was a succession of events. I could tell them that we know as well when an event, as when Easter, will happen. Do but recollect these last ten years. The beginning of October, one is certain that every body will be at Newmarket, and the Duke of Cumberland will lose, and Shafto* win, two or three thousand pounds. After that, while people are preparing to come to town for the winter, the Ministry is suddenly changed, and all the world comes to learn how it happened, a fortnight sooner than they intended; and fully persuaded that the new arrangement cannot last à month. The Parliament opens; every body is bribed; and the new establishment is perceived to be composed of adamant. November passes, with two or three self-murders, and a new play. Christmas arrives; every body goes out of town; and a riot happens in one of the theatres. The Parliament meets again; taxes are warmly opposed; and some citizen makes his fortune by a subscription. The Opposition languishes; balls and assemblies begin; some master and miss begin to get together, are talked of, and give occasion to forty more matches being invented; an unexpected debate starts up at the end of the session, that makes more noise than any thing that was designed to make a noise, and subsides again in a new peerage or two. Ranelagh opens, and Vauxhall; one produces scandal, and t'other a drunken quarrel. People separate, some to Tunbridge, and some to all the horseraces in England; and so the year comes again to October.'

A sketch of the debate in the House of Commons on the question of general warrants, and which originated in the arrest of Wilkes for a criminal libel, is given. It is of importance, as this discussion had been hitherto very imperfectly reported: the conclusion of the debate is particularly lively and graphic.

It is impossible to give you the detail of so long a debate as Friday's. You will regret it the less when I tell you it was a very dull one. I never knew a day of expectation answer. The impromptus and the unexpected are ever the most shining. We love to hear ourselves talk, and yet we must be formed of adamant to be able to talk day and night on the same question for a week to gether. If you had seen how ill we looked, you would not have wondered we did not speak well. A company of colliers emerging from damps and darkness could not have appeared more ghastly and dirty than we did on Wednesday morning; and we had not recovered much bloom on Friday. We spent two or three hours on corrections of, and additions to, the question of pronouncing the warrant illegal, till the Ministry had contracted it to fit scarce any thing but the individual case of Wilkes, Pitt not opposing the

* Robert Shafto, Esq., of Whitworth, M. P. for Durham, well known on the turf.'

† To a loan.'

REV. SEPT. 1825.

D

amendments

amendments because Charles Yorke gave into them; for it is wonderful what deference is paid by both sides to that House. The debate then began by Norton's moving to adjourn the consideration of the question for four months, and holding out a promise of a bill, which neither they mean, nor, for my part, should I like: I would not give prerogative so much as a definition. You are a peer, and, therefore, perhaps, will hear it with patience - but think how our ears must have tingled, when he told us, that should we pass the resolution, and he were a judge, he would mind it no more than the resolution of a drunken porter!-Had old Onslow been in the chair, I believe he would have knocked him down with the mace. He did hear of it during the debate, though. not severely enough; but the town rings with it. Charles Yorke replied, and was much admired. Me he did not please; I require a little more than palliatives and sophistries. He excused the part he has taken by pleading that he had never seen the warrant, till after Wilkes was taken up - yet he then pronounced the No. 45. a libel, and advised the commitment of Wilkes to the Tower. If you advised me to knock a man down, would you excuse yourself by saying you had never seen the stick with which I gave the blow? Other speeches we had without end, but none good, except from Lord George Sackville, a short one from Elliot, and one from Charles Townshend, so fine that it amazed, even from him. Your brother had spoken with excellent sense against the corrections, and began well again in the debate, but with so much rapidity that he confounded himself first, and then was seized with such a hoarseness that he could not proceed. Pitt and George Grenville ran a match of silence, striving which should reply to the other. At last, Pitt, who had three times in the debate retired with pain, rose about three in the morning, but so languid, so exhausted, that, in his life, he never made less figure. Grenville answered him; and at five in the morning we divided. The Noes were so loud, as it admits a deeper sound than Aye, that the Speaker, who has got a bit of nose since the Opposition got numbers, gave it for us. They went forth; and when I heard our side counted to the amount of 218, I did conclude we were victorious; but they returned 232. It is true we were beaten by fourteen, but we were increased by twenty-one; and no ministry could stand on so slight an advantage, if we could continue above 200.

We may, and probably shall, fall off: this was our strongest question-but our troops will stand fast; their hopes and views depend upon it, and their spirits are raised. But for the other side it will not be the same. The lookers-out will be stayers away, and their very subsidies will undo them.'

You would have almost laughed to see the spectres produced by both sides; one would have thought that they had sent a searchwarrant for members of parliament into every hospital. Votes were brought down in flannels and blankets, till the floor of the House looked like the pool of Bethesda. 'Tis wonderful that half of us are not dead- I should not say us; Herculean I have not suffered the least, except that from being a Hercules of ten grains,

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