1789.

granted with chearfulness, though confiderable fums were openly appropriated to the fupport of foreign alliances, and the national debt amounted to the enormous fum of one hundred millions. Commerce, through the whole courfe of his reign, had increafed with exceffive rapidity, though the neceffi ties of government had loaded the merchant with an increase of impofitions; but induftry had become general, and a spirit of adventure had fprung up in every fea-port. At this æra eight thousand merchant-men were employed in trade, and the produce of the finking fund exceeded annually three milLions fterling.

In this reign philofophy contributed its influence, and enlightened the minds of men. Confiderable progrefs was alfo made in mathematics, aftronomy, and chemistry. Natural philofophy became a polite ftudy, and electricity grew into fashion. Among churchmen, learning and piety were confpicuous; yet fanaticifm fpread their baneful influence with alarming rapidity, while popery decreased in proportion, and every idea of renewing the pretenfions of the male line of the Stuarts were given up by their moft zealous fupporters.

Many ingenious treatifes, in meaphyfics and morality, alfo appeared in this reign. Improvements in agriculture were every where extended; mechanics obtained perfection; and indeed, art, fcience, and every branch of literature, flourished, and were encouraged by the nobility, and the people at large, though not by the prince.

In this enviable fituation of glory, honour and refpect, was Great Britain, when George the Third ascended to the throne; and who, being a Briton born, was immediately furnamed by the people, the Patriot King; a circumftance, of which his majelly ingeniously availed himself, in the firft fpeech he made to the privy council; after confoling with them, on the lofs of his grandfather, he added, that "animated by the tendereft affection for his native country, and depending on the advice, experience, and abilities of their lordships, and the fupport and affiftance of every honeft man; he entered with cheerfulness into the arduous fituation, and should make it the bulinefs of his life to promote in every thing, the glory and happiness of these kingdoms; to preferve and ftrengthen the conftitution, beth in church and flate; and as he mountthe throne in the midft of an expenfive, but juft and necessary war, he should endeaFour to profecute it, in the manner the moft likely to bring about an honourble and lafting peace, in concert with his allies."

The people, who dreaded a change in the niftry, were delighted at the publication

63

of this fpeech; it was read with enthusiastic joy. The Duke of York, and the Earl of Bute, were fworn of the privy council. A proclamation was iffued, ordering all perfons in office to execute the fame; and another for the encouragement of piety, and fuppreffion of vice. Addreffes were prefented from all parts of the country, from the clergy, the two univerfities, and from every county, city, and body politic in the thre kingdoms, breathing love, loyalty, and affection, in terms of the warmneft zeal and patriotism.

But in the midft of this tumultuous joy, this intoxication of loyalty and affection, there were many wife men, who confidered the happiness of the people as the mere tranfitory emotion of the crifis. They reflected. with concern, on the mode of education which the king had experienced. He had been brought up immediately under the eye of his mother, the Princefs Dowager of Wales, in rather a folitary manner for a prince, who was to rule a free and active people. The princefs was a foreigner, and ftrongly poffeffed pride of birth, and obftinacy of difpofition; qualities which, it was much to be apprehended, fhe had ftrongly inftilled into her fon. The Earl of Bute, her favourite, and her creature, had been the prince's tutor: a man who, though ami able and benign in his private conduct, was the moft improper perfon, perhaps, that could have been chofen, to inftruct in politics, an heir apparent to the English crown. The Earl was a Scotchman, and poffeffed a strong predilection for his country and his countrymen; and Dr. Thomas, now bishop of Winchester, who affifted in this arduous talk, was not one of thofe churchmen who have fignalized themtelves in either the caufe of literature or liberty. From the precept of his tutors, then, it was not to be expected that his majesty had been taught the real duties of the kingly office; but rather to be dreaded, that claims founded on the obfolete doctrines of prerogative, would be oppofed to the indubitable rights of the people, as if subjects were made for kings, not kings for fubjects,

The apprehenfions of the cautious, arifing from thefe grounds, were confiderably increased by the admiffion of the Earl of Bute into the privy-council. This nobleman, who had been fo long tutor to the prince, now appeared the confidant and bofom counfellor to the king; and it was evident, that change of fituation in the pupil, had not in the leaft decreased the influence of the preceptor.

In tracing the minority of this prince, we fcarcely meet with an anecdote worth relating. If, in his juvenile days, he fhewed no tendency or difpofition to the indulgence

ing's Tom Jones.

T cannot be doubted that the understand

65

whofe powers of engaging, the pathetic gra

ces have not been wanting.

But while they acknowledge all these agreeable properties, they will feel it amongst

nefs of thefe branches of Society which are raised above the neceffity of mechanic toil, depend much upon the early impreffions they receive from books which captivate the imagination, and intereft the heart. Confequently a writer is much their foe, who feeks to throw contempt upon any work which is eminently calculated to infpire delicacy, and diferetion of conduct, purity of morals, tenderness, generofity, and piety of heart,while he recommends another compofition, poffeffing allurement, too well calculated to make it recommend itself; but which has a demonftrable tendency to encourage libertinism in our young men ; and, in our young women, an infatuated propensity to beflow their affections, and even efteem upon men of profligate habits.

That an author capable of writing agree ably upon many fubjects, who must have obferved with what difficulty vicious habits, contracted in early life, are laid afide as it advances; and that continued, how fatal they prove to domeftic comfort, that a man who is himself a father, should avow fuch a preference, and employ his oratory, and aim at wit in its defence, may well awaken the wonder and difdain of thinking minds.

A paper in Mr. Cumberland's Obferver, on the fubject of Novels, fuggefted thefe reflections. It points out, in that large range of fashionable reading, which are the paths to be interdicted, and which chofen for young people by their Parents and Guardians. From the praife which its author lavishes upon Fielding's Tom Jones, and from his affected attempt of the Clarilla of Richardfon, he feems to recommend the former to our youth as forcibly, by implication, as he reprobates the latter, in direct and pofitive terms. Men eminent for piety, wildom, and virtue, have recommended Richardfon's Clariffa from the pulpit; a work which Dr. Johnfon, (fo gene rally unwilling to praife) has been often heard to pronounce," not only the firft ovel, but perhaps the firft work in our language, fplendid in point of genius, and calculated to promote the deareft interefts of religion and virtue.”

Those who have ability to perceive the riches of that work in every varied excellence of beautiful compofition, will not be infenfible to the merit of Tom Jones, as a fafcinating performance, whofe fituations are interefting, whofe characters difplay the hand of a mafter, whofe humour is pointed and natural, whole ftyle is eafy, and to Hib. Mag. Feb. 1989.

dity, that a ferious writer fhould recommend it to the libraries of the rifing generation by unqualified praise, while he condemns the Clariffa as a ridiculous romance, inimical to good sense, discretion, and morality.

A lady of wit and spirit has been heard to declare, that he was once compleatly filenced by a very ftupid perfonage, in the midft of a declamation, and encircled by a large party of ladies and gentlemen. She was haranguing upon the preference the fhould feel of Tom Jones to Sir Charles Grandifon, as a brother, a friend, a lover, or an hufband. The filly gentlewoman, in the mere defire of prating, and perfectly unconfcious of the power of what the was going to utter, interrupted the Lady Orator with, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am reading Tom Jones, but I have not finished it. I have juft left him in bed with another man's wife."

Perhaps it is not impoffible, though very uncommon, that bravery, ingenuoufnefs, compaffion, and generofity, fhould exift in the mind of a young man, who is indifcriminately licentious refpecting women; but it is ill for morals, when fuch a character is thus indirectly held up to imitation by an author profeffing morality.

Beneath this fplendid veil of engaging qualities, a vicious character lofes all its deformity in the eafily-dazzled eyes of youth.

-In Sophia's character, her fex find their fanction for attaching themselves to a libertine; that rock, on which female happinefs is fo often wrecked.

Having thus enforced the obvious bad tendency of the work, over which Mr. Cumberland pours fo much applaufe, let us turn to the volumes he interdis, to the Clariffa of Richardfon. It is no where that Morality is more powerfully enforced; it is no where that Piety is more exquifitely lovely. Every individual in that large Dramatis Perfonæ, is drawn with fuch diftinctnefs, fuch characteristic ftrength, that not a letter, a fingle speech in the whole work, but fo peculiarly belongs to the nature of that fpirit, which is fuppofed to have dictated it, that it is needlefs to caft the eye back to the name of the speaker, or to look at the fignature.

Amongst the ftately family at Harlow Place, we do indeed perceive more precise and folemn ceremony than we find in the houfes of country gentlemen at this period, when Gallic cafe has ftolen upon the selfI

importance

But recurring to these volumes, (to which the fenfible reader will recur, as to Shakefpeare, to Milton, or the Rambler) when fatisfied curiofity leaves the mind calm enough to re-mark, and enjoy at leifure their innumerable beauties; fomething will be found in every letter, which is highly curious and entertaining. In the mafter ftrokes of truth, and nature, do they delineate the rnind and the manners of the fuppofed writer; befides throwing ftrong collateral light, and colouring, upon other characters in the work. This excellence of appropriation pervades all the epiftles, even thofe in which elegance of ftile is judiciously abated, as in the letters of the proud, un yielding Harlowes; or wholly thrown afide, as in thofe of the proverbial Lord M-, the pedant Brand, and the menial perfonages; while, on this recurrent perufal, the characteristic races of the more eloquent epiftles fhine out in variety inexhaustible.

The letters of Lovelace exhibit every gay attraction of peerless wit, picturefque defcription, claffic allufion, and universal knowledge, without any affectation in its difplay; a ftyle unrivalled in its cafy flow, and fafcinating harmony; and, what ftrikingly evinces the addit fs, and virtuous defign of the author, the epiftles of this feducing libertine, even more forcibly than any of the others, warn the youthful female againft the defigns of the oppofite fex, by the ftartling axioms they contain, refpecting the conduct of women. It is from the letters of Love lace, that they learn how inevitably defpicable they become in the eyes of thofe very men to whofe folicitations they are begin ning to make facrifices, (apparently trivial) of that delicacy and purity fo lovely in the lex; facrifices that generally end in the utter loss of honour from libertine encroach

ment.

In Colonel Marden's letters, and in those of Lovelace and Belford, which defcribe the colonel's perfon, his air, his manners, and his conduct, we fee a perfect fine gentleman, trepid and accomplished as the former, benevolent as the latter, and more virtuous; while beneath the dignity which that virtue confere, the dazzling Lovelace finks into vifible and confcious inferiority.

We find, in the touching epiftles of the matchless Heroine of this work, the mott complete powers of imagery and defcription, faded over by that foft veil of diftrefs, thro' which they appear with heightened grace, ad dearer intereft; the importance of every auty that bleffes fociety; the danger and ndery of every deviation from the path of ctitude, enforced with the eloquence of angels,her character rifing amidit her fevere trials, her deep diftrees, and remorfeLefs injuries, into unrivalled magnanimity;

while in its nobleft elevation, the charm of female foftnefs is never for a fingle moment loft.

Mr. Jephfon (perhaps our beft Tragedy writer fince Shakespeare) has availed himfelf, in his poetic and fpirited tragedy Julia, of the penknife scene in Clarifa. Deprived of the preparatory circumftances that conftitute a large part of its transcendent sublimity in the original fituation, it could not but lofe extremely by the tranfpofition; but to thofe who do not perfectly recollect the pages from whence it is taken, the effect in the Tragedy is very fine.

Mr. Cumberland tells the public, that he knew a young female, whofe head was turned by reading Clarissa; and who, in the rage of imitation, infifted upon having her coffin in her bed-chamber!

Infane people have always fome reigning idea. That the coffin of Clariffa fhould once have proved that reigning idea, is furely a very contemptible reafon for interdicting this noble compofition, as inimical to the morals and difcretion of youth.

Many religious enthufiafts have fancied they had prophetic and apoftolic infpiration. At the Cathedral of one of our celebrated provincial towns, fome twenty years ago, I often used to see a man, whom many of the prefent inhabitants remember. It was his cuftom to ftand, during fervice, before the rails of the altar. He had read about our Saviour, till he fancied himself that facred character, and a native refemblance of face, and figure to the prints of Jefus, aided the phrenzy. He had trained the growth of his dark beard in the Jewish fashion, and his hair, parted upon his forehead, hung in equal ringlets down each fide the front part of his neck. Ile was thin, and pale, with a remarkable air of placid dignity. The mildness this maniac conftantly preserved, rendered him inoffenfive.

With the fame reafon might the Scriptures be cenfured as a dangerous ftudy upon that inftance, as this admirable work, becaufe one romantic delirious fool bespoke without the reafons which impelled Clariffa to take that fingular step.

It is curious to hear the author of our moft fentimental comedies, fpeak with contempt over the unerring fentiments which enrich thefe volumes. It would be happy for the rifing, and for the future generation, if our young women would imitate the principles, and the conduct of Clarissa, tho' not perhaps in befpeaking their coffin; a circumftance for which the apologises, confeffing it a fally of mournful enthusiasm, and too fcrupulous delicacy; excufable only from the peculiarity of her fituation, and from being obliged to chute a male executor. Recommending Clariffa's conduct as an exI 2

ampie