In latter times we have had no want of hiftorians, at least of compilers of history. The misfortune is that too many of them have been mifled by fome favourite hypothefis, which they seem to have written to fupport. To pafs by, therefore, fuch writers as Sir Winfton Churchill, Sandford, Brady, Tyrrel, Echard, Carte, and Guthrie, which are either faid to fall under the former cenfure, or are too voluminous, or ill digested; to be read with much pleasure or improvement, 1 fhall give a short view of the more confiderable that remain.

Clarendon, who accompanied Charles II. in his exile, who was afterwards his chancellor, and laft of all difcarded by him, wrote a full and pretty faithful hiftory of the civil wars in the reign of Charles I. But as he is thought to adhere too much to the royal party, it will be neceffary for the reader to compare his account of things with thofe of Whitlocke and Ludlow, who were of the oppofite party; of whom the one was a zealous prefbyterian and the other an independent; and who, on account of the rank and employments they bore under the commonwealth, had no less advantage than Clarendon of being well informed of what they wrote. Clarendon is the firit Englishman who feems to have attempted to write hiftory with any degree of dignity; and confidering how bad a tafte for compofition prevailed at this time, his fuccefs was confiderable. But the length of his periods, and his long and frequent parentheses, are very tirefome.

Few writers have ever had a better opportunity of procuring in. formation than Bishop Burnet; and the history he has left us of his own times is certainly a valuable work. But being a zealous advocate for the houses of Orange and Hanover, he is charged with great partiality, and perhaps not wholly without reafon, by the party whofe principles he oppofed.

Of all the general hiftories of our nation till the revolution none are fo full, and fo impartial, as that written by Rapin, a Frenchman, who came over with King William from Holland, and after having ferved under him in Ireland, and travelled as tutor to fome of our English nobility, retired again to Holland, where he spent twenty years in the compofition of this excellent hiftory. If this writer be thought tedious in fome parts of his work, it is owing to his extreme care to omit no circumftance of any important tranfaction, and to his fidelity in keeping close to his authorities. The notes of Tindal, who tranflated this work, are an ufeful fupplement to it, and a correction of it in feveral places. The fame author has written a continuation of Rapin to the reign of George II.

A more entertaining hiftory of the fame period, and much fuperior in point of compofition, is that of Mr. Hume. For a judicious choice of materials, and a happy difpofition of them, together with perfpicuity of ftyle in recording them, this writer was hardly ever exceeded; especially in the latter part of his work, which is by far the most elaborate. The earlier part of his hiftory is too fuperficial. He has endeavoured to trace the progrefs of our conftitution, and has defcended more into the internal flate of the nation, in exhibiting a view of the manners and fentiments of each age, the ftate

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ftate of property and perfonal fecurity, with the improvements in the conveniences of life, than most other writers; but he has reprefented the ancient government as much more arbitrary than it really. was, as will appear by the much more accurate accounts of Dr. Sullivan, and especially Mr. Millar, whofe work on the English conftitution I cannot too ftrongly recommend. Some great faults in Mr. Hume's hiftory were well pointed out by Dr. Towers. Mr. Hume is also thought by many to have given too favourable an idea of the characters of our princes of the Stewart family, by omitting to mention those particulars in their conduct which have been molt objected to; and it was probably with a view to exculpate them that he has taken fo much pains to give the colour that he has done to the preceding periods of our hiftory. A good antidote to what is unfavourable to liberty in Mr. Hume will be found in the very mafterly hiftory of Mrs. Macaulay. Though the ftyle of Mr. Hume is, upon the whole, excellent, yet he has departed more than any other writer of the prefent age from the true English idiom, and leaned more to that of the French.

• Dr. Robertson's Hiftory of Scotland throws great light upon the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and, in point of compofition, is not inferior to Hume.

A valuable treasure of materials for the conftitutional history of England is contained in the Parliamentary History lately published, and in the journals and debates in the House of Commons by various hands, among which those taken by Mr. Grey are the most valuable; relating to the times before and after the important period of the revolution.

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It is in fuch large works as thefe, and the letters and journals of eminent men, who had a confiderable fhare in the tranfactions of their times, as thofe of Melville, Henry Lord Clarendon, and others, that we are tranfported as it were into thofe paft times. These give us an infight into the manners and turn of thinking which prevailed in them, and bring us intimately acquainted with the perfons who made the greatest figure in them. Hereby we are enabled to enter into their fentiments and views, and have a clear idea of their culiar character, temper, and manner. In fuch works as these the men themselves are feen acting and fpeaking; whereas in general history we are, at beft, only told how they fpoke and acted, which is a thing very different from the former. Of fuch books as these there has been no want fince the introduction of printing into England, particularly from the reign of Henry VIII. fo that a very fatisfactory idea of our hiftory from that time may be had by any person who will take the requifite pains for it.'

From what the Doctor has here faid of Clarendon, Bishop Burnet, and Mr. Hume, it will be obferved that he has, in a great measure, preferved that impartiality which we expected from him as a philofopher, but which, as a party man, we doubted whether he would have been able to preferve. He has spoken with moderation, without dogmatifm, on both fides. We

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fincerely

fincerely join with him in his high approbation of Mr. Millar's work on the English conftitution, and in his ftrong recommendation of it to every British fubject; but we cannot subscribe to his character of the compilation published by Mrs. Macaulay, which is in no refpect what he terms it, a very masterly history.' Neither are we entirely of his opinion as to Dr. Robertfon's hiftory of Scotland; for, in point of compofition, we think it inferior to that of Hume. The ftyle of the latter is clear, unaffected, elegant, and nervous; the diction is always fuited to the fubject; they every where rife and fall together; and therefore give that fatisfaction to the reader which nature and truth always produce. While, in the latter, things great and small, events the moft common as well as the most interefting are, contrary to every principle of good tafte, expreffed in the fame unvaried pomp of words. We have our doubts too whether, in this latter hiftory, fo much light be thrown upon the reign of Queen Elizabeth' as the Doctor imagines; for if Mr. Whitaker, and the other defenders of Queen Mary, have vindicated the character of that unfortunate queen, which feems now to be the moft general opinion, then the complexion of that period must affume an opposite hue, and many of the characters and tranfactions appear in a very different light from that in which they are exhibited by Dr. Robertson. Prefixed to the lectures is An Effay on a Courfe of liberal Education for civil and active Life,' firft published in 17643 in which Dr. Prieftley, with much good fenfe and becoming modefty, finds fault with the prefent mode of education, which was at first established to fuit a ftate of fociety very different from the present, and is now, from habit and prejudice, blindly adhered to, when it is in every respect unfuitable. Were a thinking stranger to be told, in a commercial country, which has colonies or establishments in every quarter of the globe, which is obliged to have a numerous army, and a formidable navy; where, by the conftitution, almost every man of education may afpire to the dignity of a legiflator, and confequently, where an education for civil and active life fhould be chiefly attended to; that in the great established feminaries of that country no fuch thing was ever thought of; what must be his aftonishment, could the information obtain belief? Were he further told that, in these feminaries, the youth were obliged, till they left them at the age of feventeen, eighteen, or twenty, to confine themselves to the ftudy of two dead languages, in which few of them ever made great proficiency, and that all of them indifcriminately were compelled to write verfes in thefe languages; could he abstain from pity or ridicule? But fhould this intelligent stranger venture to say, with Dr. Prieftley, that it is certainly our wifdom

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to contrive that the ftudies of youth fhould tend to fit them for the business of manhood; and that the objects of their attention, and turn of thinking in younger life, fhould not be too remote from the destined employment of their riper years, he would, from many, meet with afperity, as a bufy meddler, or contempt, as an ignorant innovator.

The following authentic anecdote will not be here inappli cable, as it places an attention to words alone in a proper point of view. A young man of a liberal education, and who had spent some years abroad at a foreign univerfity, was presented to a small vicarage in the north of England. Soon after taking poffeffion, it was recommended to him by his patron to pay his refpects to Dean, who, as it was now the fhooting season, was in refidence for a couple of months at his living. He went, and was received with that kind of proud civility which is fo difgufting to a man of an independent mind. Dr. C afterwards Archdeacon of was there on a vifit to the Dean; there was no other company but the wives of the two doctors, and three young ladies. At dinner, after fome fignificant nods between the two dignitaries, the subject of the Greek language was introduced. Dr. C, who had an excellent memory, repeated long paffages from Sophocles and Euripides, to evince the beauty of that language; which were commented upon at great length by the learned gentlemen. The vicar, who had been accustomed to manners of a different kind, thinking that this converfation could not be entertaining to the ladies, moftly addreffed himself to them, and was very fparing of his learned remarks, The pair of doctors, miftaking politeness for ignorance, gave evident figns of an intended furious attack, as foon as the ladies had retired. When accordingly the latter withdrew, the ftorm burft upon him; paffages from Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Demofthenes, &c. &c. were quoted, the various readings minutely examined, and the proper one fe:tled with much dogmatical decifion. They now found, however, that the vicar was not fo filent as before, that he mixed in the converfation, and even ventured often to differ in opinion from the learned dignitaries. But all his remarks were rejected; he was told, We are intimately acquainted with thefe matters, the ftudy of them. has been the great business of our lives; but that we fuppofe is 'not your cafe, as you was not bred at either of our univerfities. Things went on for fome time in this way, when the Hymns of Callimachus were mentioned. Dr. C addreffed the dean with much felf.confequence, informing him he had difcovered that “δύναται γὰρ, ἐπεὶ Δ δεξιὸς ἦσαι, He can do it, fince he is placed at the right-hand of Jove,' in the Hymn to Apollo, was ftolen from the 55th verfe of the 7th chapter of the

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Alts of the Apofties, “ εἶδε Ἰησοῦν ἐς ῶτα εκ δεξιῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ, He faw Jefus ftanding at the right-hand of God.' The dean agreed that this was a happy discovery, and that there could be no doubt of the fact. Struck with the abfurdity and ignorance of this precious piece of criticifm, the vicar, however, preserved his gravity, and only modeftly obferved that fimilar ideas naturally produced fimilar expreffions, without inducing the suspicion of theft, Sir, you'll permit us to know these things' was the only reply they condefcended to make. Though provoked by their fupercilious treatment, the vicar ftill kept his ten:per, referving his home-thruft till next day, when he knew that the doctors were to dine with a large company at the house of his patron, Having previously acquainted him with the reception he had met with from the dean, and his intention of being revenged on him and his brother doctor, he that day contrived to introduce the fubject after dinner. The doctors, as keen as ever to display their fuperior fkill in Grecian lore, asked him whether he could to day produce any better arguments against the folidity of their remark on Callimachus than he had yesterday, I think I can,' replied he. 'Do, let us hear them; we dare fay, from the specimens you have already given, that they are convincing ones indeed.' I have but one,' faid the vicar; how far it may be convincing the company fhall judge. I < maintain then that Callimachus could not have ftolen an expreffion from the writer of the Acts of the Apoftles for the best of reasons, as the former lived above 200 years before the latter was born.-Judgment, gentlemen; is my argument conclufive? A loud burft of laughter clearly decided in favour of the vicar; and the two doctors, during the remainder of the vifit, did not feel themselves in the most comfortable fituation. Such will always be the confequence when an acquaintance with. words is opposed to real knowledge.

With refpect to education in this country, a ftupid Afiatic permanency feems to be preferred by the greater number to the moft defirable revolution; and, to please them, the mind must be fed with mufty acorns, which have been gathered two or three hundred years ago, inftead of wholefome food. The despotism of habit is wonderful; what we have been accustomed to becomes affimilated with our nature, and, however detrimental, all the powers of reafon often combat it in vain. A ftronger inftance cannot be produced of this defpotifm than an exhibition which takes place every year in one of the first feminaries of this kingdom. Numbers of the chief perfonages, both in church and state, affemble to hear the youth give marks of their diligence and proficiency; after which they are encouraged to go round the company, like common beggars, and every man drops