We shall select two or three more quotations: the first is from the speech of Monforti, in which, before the failure of his conspiracy, he thus characterizes the populace:

Believe I love them. They are indeed the waves,
And while they bear us, we must court their favour,
Until we gain the port; unheeded then,

To the wide ocean they again may flow;

Lost and forgotten midst their kindred waters.”

On being detected, he mourns "the stings of conscious guilt," and exclaims :

-O, Raimond, had I

Been never born, Salerno's realms had known
A milder sway. 1 poison'd Tancred's nature,
Dash'd the fair scale of Justice on the ground,
Scourg❜d Mercy from his throne, and placed about it
The weakest centinels a prince can trust to,-
Hate, Fear, and Pride. I was that envious shade,

Through

"With the characters, either as conceived or preserved, I have no fault to find; but was much inclined to congratulate a writer who, in defiance of prejudice and fashion, made the archbishop a good man, and scorned all thoughtless applause, which a vicious churchman would have brought him.

"The catastrophe is affecting. The father and daughter both culpable, both wretched, and both penitent, divide between them our pity and our sorrow.

"Thus, Madam, I have performed what I did not willingly undertake, and could not decently refuse. The noble writer will be pleased to remember, that sincere criticism ought to raise no resentment, because judgment is not under the controul of will; but involuntary criticism, as it has still less of choice, ought to be more remote from the possibility of offence.

Νου. 28, 1783.

I am, &c.

SAM. JOHNSON." Boswell's Life of Johnson, page 470. vol. II.

Through which the sun-beams never pierc'd-the night,
In whose thick damp all the foul passions gender'd,
That with the adder's venom'd tooth, crept forth,
And stung an injur'd people into madness.

I was that wizard, conjuring up all ill,
Myself invisible, while Tancred drew

On his less guilty head his people's hatred.

But now I fall, in my own wiles ensnared,
The victim of my guilt."

The last passage is taken from an interview between the king and his near relation the prelate :

"Tanc. Know, brother,

These taunts but ill become you. Must I kneel

Fore a monk's consist'ry? Is that the bar
Where I must plead, and justify my actions?

"Archb. No, Tancred, no; yet there's a judgment-seat
Where purple kings, high as their full-blown pride
Or flattery can set them, must be summon'd:
'Tis in their subjects' rigorous inquisition

They may forestall the more tremendous process
That waits beyond the grave. Thinkst thou thy people,
Because they bear, don't feel their injuries?"

The other dramatic performance we are now to mention is "the Step-Mother," a tragedy of five acts. The plot of this is less involved than that of the former; but the catastrophe is equally shocking: in the one we behold a parent presenting the heart fresh torn from the bosom of her lover, to the agonized sight of a distracted daughter; in the other, we find a father and a son, instigated by a cruel and revengeful woman, inflicting mutual death! In both cases the scene, perhaps, is too afflicting even for a representation in this country, although the French have repeatedly

repeatedly accused us of covering the stage with

corpses.

On this occasion too his lordship has had recourse to "these aërial beings, whose powers, as described in the songs of the ancient northern nations, were first employed by our Shakespeare," and by the intervention of servants, and the buffo character of Peres, a physician, converted the piece into a tragi-comedy.

We have thus, in addition to an account of the illustrious author, indulged in a long and descriptive catalogue of his works; but no apology is required upon this occasion, for while the Earl of Carlisle, in imitation of some of the greatest men of the last age, pursues the career of literature, we are anxious to follow at a distance, and pointing to the gaol, hold him up to the example and imitation of our nobility.

GEORGE ISAAC HUNTINGFORD, D. D.

LORD BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER.

ONE advantage, and that of no inconsiderable consequence, attending an ecclesiastical establishmentlike that in England, is the encouragement it holds out to pre-eminent virtue and talents. The levelling system' would in a great measure destroy that powerful incentive to learning which arises from the prospect of preferment. If we examine attentively the catalogue of prelates who have graced the hierarchy in this kingdom, since the Reformation, we shall find that by far the greater part arose to that distinction solely

through

through their personal merits, and, comparatively speaking, from the humbler walks of life.

To the honour of the present administration, we have observed them exercising their patronage, in the disposal of the higher ecclesiastical dignities, with the most marked and liberal regard to distinguished piety and learning. This has been strikingly instanced in the promotion of a Vincent to the deanry of West minster, and of a Burgess and a Huntingford to the sees of St. David's and Gloucester. Of the last men◄ tioned prelate we shall here attempt to give a brief but correct biographical sketch.

George Isaac Huntingford, D. D. who now fills so honourably the chair which was once occupied by the Herculean and haughty Warburton, was born of respectable parents in the city of Winchester, in the year 1748. He received his grammatical education in the school founded by that magnificent patron of learning, William of Wykeham; but though he successively filled the stations of sub-preceptor, usher, and master in that venerable seminary, yet he was never upon the foundation. So great was his proficiency, and correct his deportment, that at the early age of eighteen he was appointed an instructor in the school of Winchester. His academical studies were pursued, as usual, at New College, Oxford, where he proceeded to his degrees in arts, and on being elected fellow became an eminent tutor, having among other cminent persons, the present chancellor of the exchequer for a pupil. As an assistant to the amiable Joseph Warton, with whom he always lived on the happiest

terms,

terms, he conducted Winchester school with distinguished honour to the teachers, and advantage to those who bad the benefit of their instructions.

Upon the death of his brother, Dr. Thomas Huntingford, he was nominated to succeed him in the living and mastership of the school of Warminster, in Wiltshire. At the same time he took his brother's widow and seven fine children to live with him; two of the latter are since married, one to Gorges Lowther Esq. M.P. and the other to Stonhouse Vigur, Esq. of the family of Mr. Vansittart, and grandson of the late reverend Sir James Stonhouse, Bart.

This Dr. Thomas Huntingford was a man of extensive erudition, and of the most refined taste. He showed the latter in the many improvements which he commenced at his residence in Warminster; though, it must be confessed, his prudence may be called in question, as he thereby considerably diminished his property.

Another brother of the bishop's is Mr. James Huntingford, in the profession of the law; a gentleman eminently distinguished by a vigorous understanding and extensive information. Several of the public institutions in the metropolis, principally of a benevolent nature, are indebted to him either for their origin, or for the flourishing state of their circumstances. He has been for several years occupied on an undertaking of great maguitude and importance, a Digest of the Statute Laws," on a new plan. In this vast and seemingly impracticable design he has laboured with astonishing assiduity; and amongst his subscribers

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