thefe feveral heads, the question was called for at a late hour, and carried,

102 to 28.

of fome informality, as on the confideration that fome of the grievances complained of in the people's petitions The papers relative to penfions were ought first to be redrefied, before any laid before the House, but answered new and heavy burdens fhould be imno end; nor the account given of pofed upon them; but thefe objections monies paidat the exchequer in confor- A were foon got over, and the report mity to Mr. Bré's motion (fee p. was agreed to without a divifion. 354-). March 8.

March 7.

Mr. S-dam-e prefented a petition Mr. B-ll-r moved, that an ac- from his conftituents, the corporation count be laid before the House of the of Hereford; which, he said, had alnumber of seamen and marines muf- B moft unanimoufly been agreed to. tered on board the feveral ships of war on the ift of January to the ift of December 1779, on a medium each month, diftinguishing the feamen from the marines.

Sir R. S-m§ (the other member) faid, he did not rife to oppose the prefentation, but to acquaint the Houfe that fome of the most refpectable of his constituents had pro efted against Cit, and in his opinion with great propriety. This occafioned much altercation, and fome fevere animadverfions on the conduct of the dignified clergy.

Mr. T. L-tt- objected to this motion, as not calculated to give the Houfe that fort of information which was fo particularly necellary at this time. He pointed out the distinction between the number of feamen and Mr. B-rr-w observed, that the marines borne and victualled on board Dprotest just read by the hon. baronet any king's fhip, and the number borne was mostly figned, and he prefumed and mustered as part of the fhip's fet on foot, by the gentry at and about complement; the first included fol- the cathedral, with the bishop at their diers, paffengers, fervants, or any ac- head. Whatever they might think, cidental perfons; the latter, thofe only he faid, it would have been prudent who were part of the fhip's comple- E in them to have been filent on the ocment. Mr. L-t- then declared, cafion. While they are permitted to that he held in his hand a motion nod in their stalls, and fatten on the which he had framed for the purpose labour of their fellow fubjects, acof producing a real and not a fictitious quiefcence and moderation beft beaccount, and concluded with moving came them. He was of opinion that it as an amendment; but, after much F the enormous profits, finecure livings, converfation, and fome altercation be- and other exorbitant emoluments of tween Mr, L-tt-ll and Mr. P-nt-n, the dignified clergy, came properly one of the lords of admiralty, the ori- within the fpirit of the petitions, and ginal motion was carried without the it was matter of furprize that they amendment. were not included within the letter of The imprefs fervice came next upon them. He was, he faid, for making the tapis, but that was foon pafledampe provifion for the parochial over without much opposition. clergy; but to pamper and uphold an idle, luxurious, proud, over-bearing fet of men, at the expence of the toil and painful induftry of the moit ufetui clafs of his Majefty's fubjects, as it was repugnant to natural justice, fo it was injurious to fourd religion.

The contractors bill was read a fecond time, and committed for Monday. Mr. Powis's bill for regulating county elections was read the third time, and paffed.

The order of the day for bringing up the report of the committee of tupply was read, and agreed to; but fome objections were made (when brought up) to its palling, as well on account

G

H

Mr. T-r-r was ftill more fevere upon the clergy: they were, he faid, friends to arbitrary power under whatever form of government they lived;

dangerous

B

The order of the day was now called for, which was, to refolve itfelf into committee on Mr. Burke's bill.

dangerous engines of state in the hands of an ambitious prince or wicked administration. During the reigns of the first James, and of the tyrant Ld G. G-rd-n rofe, not to oppofe Charles who fucceeded him, they the bill, he faid, but to fecond the pepreached up the most abject and flavish titions of the people, which strongly doctrines, and were, by their over- A recommended the abolition of finecure zeal for paffive obedience, the chief places; he therefore begged leave to caufe of bringing that infatuated propofe a motion, before the Houfe prince to the block; at prefent they went into committee on the civil lift were every where propagating the bill, which he judged correfpondent fame doctrines, and endeavouring to to the general ideas of economy held filence the just complaints of the peo- forth in thofe petitions. He then ple. A curfe, he faid, attended themoved, "That it be an inftruction to place where the clergy were predomi- the committee on the prefent bill, to nant; they harraffed the laity where- confider how far the places of auditor ver they had power; he fpoke from or tellers of the exchequer are necefproof. His eitates on one fide the fary for the public fervice; and to river in the bishoprick of Durhamabolish, if puffible, thofe places, or were not more than two thirds of the Cleffen their exorbitant perquifites, that value of thofe on the York fide, though the produce may be applied to the equal in native goodness. The pre- exigencies of the flate." fent proteft was clearly of clerical manufacture. It was the child of church influence; and convinced him, that there was no ground on which arbi-D trary power could be established that would not be fupported by a ftanding army and a dependent priesthood.

Mr. fe feconded his lordfhip's motion, on the ground of confiftency. To thofe offices, he said, there was little or no duty annexed; which duty was generally done by a deputy; and yet, as Ld G. G. had obferved, the perquifires belonging to Ld G. G-rd-n obferved on the thofe offices amounted to fifty times felfishness of the clergy of the national more than the falary. If therefore church. He faid, the religious fra- Ethe friends of the bill had a wish to ternit es of the Gallican church and clear themfelves of all imputation of the dignified clergy of Spain, on the partiality, it behoved them, before first notification of the prefent rupture, they directed their attention to the had made a voluntary offer of a part King's bedchamber, his wardrobe, his of their revenues, to enable their re- very kitchen, and cellar, fo to restrain fpective fovereigns to carry on the war F him that he might neither eat, drink, with effect against their enemies. nor clothe himself, unless by the way But what had the established clergy of of contract, to begin with thofe finethis country offered their fovereign? cure places of their friends, before Whe, Nothing as yet but protefts. they entered upon an efficient office, There, he faid, "coft them nothing, and that of secretary of state for the colowhat cof them nothing they were al Gnies, which flood the firft in their ways very generous in giving away. bill, or that of an efficient board, He truled they would now take the which was the fecond claufe that was hint; and make a free will offering of to come under confideration. two or three years tithes towards that war which they had fo warmly efpouled from its earliest commence-H irent through every stage of increasing

ruia.

After giving a favourable hearing to the won it, the petition was brought p and ordered to be upon the table.

Mr. Sub-ge was forry the noble lord, and the hon. gentleman who feconded his motion, had fo little attended to the bill as not to know that there was a claufe in it for abolishing thofe very places alluded to; and if that claufe did not come to his lordhip's ideas, he might, when it came to

be

On Dacier.-Theobald and Pope.-Church Service in Universities. 507

MR. URBAN,

10 the anecdote of Madame Dacier, co

Tpied in p. 473 of your laft Magazine,

from the "Journal des Sçavans," may be added from the "Menagiana," tom. IV. p. 66, the following Greek epigram; which, we are there told, was handed about at Paris on that lady's "Tranflation of the Iliad." Take the account of it, with the propofed emendation of the first line, in the words of M. Menage, the original compiler of that moft entertaining performance: "Il n'eft bruit ici préfentement que de l'admirable verfion de l'Iliade en profe Françoife par Madame Dacier, ci-devant Mademoiselle le Févre, fur quoi ce diftique a été fait :

Ἰλιάδ ̓ ἡ Φαβερὴ Κελτοῖσιν ἔδωκεν ἄληθες

Νέα Πηλημάδια μήνιν άεισε Θεά Le fecond vers a été généralement applaudi, mais ὁ ἄριστος ̓Αχαιών M. Boivin a jugé que le premier feroit plus élégant de cette forte:

de Littérature par M. Abbé & Avtigny, tom. 11. p. 259.

Your correfpondent E. G who dates Sheffield, p. 467 of your laft Magazine, has been egregioutly impofed upon by the informant who affured him, "that divine fervice in the college chapels of our Univerfities is hurried through with the moft flovenly precipitation;" and ftill more fo by the injurious addition, "that this is fo generally the cafe, that every reader there, who aims at propriety, becomes frequently the fubject of ri dicule." He who now addreffes you, Mr. Urban, is enabled, from his own obfervation during a ten years refidence in one of the Univerfities, to give thefe confident affertions the only answer they deferve, namely,

A FLAT CONTRADICTION.

It were well if gentlemen, before they ftep forth to arraign the conduct of respectable communities at the bar of the public, would at least have the precaution thoroughly to examine into the truth of the charges they are bringing against them; not founding them upon mere bearfay, or the partial, perhaps prejudiced, becaufe frequently fafe, reprefentations of others, but upon fuch facts alone as have fallen under their own obfervation and experience. This, furely, is a duty which they owe to the parties accufed, and to the public, but more especially to themselves.

Theobald, the profeffed rival of Pope in the editorship of Shakspeare, and, probably, for this reafon the original hero of the Duuciad, by the efcape of one unlucky line,

"None but himself can be his parallel," gave that wicked wit a real advantage over him, and juftly exposed himself to the keenest feverity of his fatire. And yet, indefenfible as palpable abfurdity moft affuredly is, that just now quoted, might have pleaded the authority of Seneca; in whofe "Hercules furens, we have the following very extraordinary paffage:

Ιλιάς ἥδ ̓ Αννης Δακηρίδης· η μάλα δήτοι.” The curious reader may find, however, in the "Memoires d'Artigny," a truly laughable portrait of this fame learned lady, who did fo much honour to the age and nation in which the lived. It is fketched by the hand of the Abbé Cartaud de la Vilate, and occafioned by Madame Dacier's extreme tendernefs for Homer; her taking up arms in his defence, and wielding them, as the Abbé contends, in a manner fo totally repugnant to the delicacy and decorum of her fex, with, a fiercenefs fo utterly uncharacteristic and unfeminine, against all who attempted to point out the defects, or even dared to difpute the infallibility of her favourite author. The whole paffage, Mr. Urban, might perhaps be too long for your valuable Mifcellany, I fhall therefore give you only the following trait: "Rien n'est plus étonnant que les effets que le Grec produifit dans la tête de cette Femme. Elle étoit furieufe fur les intérêts de l'antiquité. Toutes les fois qu'elle parloit des beaux fiécles d' Alexandre et d' Augufte, elle fe pâmoit d'admiration. J'ai ouï dire à une perfonne qui a long-tems vécu avec elle, que cette-fçavante, une quenouille à fon côté, lui récita l'adieu tendre d'Audromaque à Hector avec tant de paffion, qu' elle en perdit l'ufage des fens. Heureufe fi elie eût fçu régler fes occupations fur celles d'Andromaque!" "Heureufement pour l' Abbé Cartaud," fays M. d'Artigny in his remarks on this critique, "Elle étoit morte depuis long-tems, lorfque il publia fon Effai Hiftorique et Philofophique fur le goût.' Si fon ouvrage avoit paru quinze ou vinstphabet is among the defiderata of fcians plutôt, que n'auroit-il pas eu à craindre du reffentiment de Madame Dacier, fuppofé qu'elle eût daigné écrire contre lui? Il n'eft pas douteux qu'elle ne l' eût couvert d' un ridicule bien plus humiliant que celui qu'il a tiché de répandre fur cette illuftre fçavante." Memoires d' Hiftoire, de Critique, et

In his "Effais critiques fur le goût."

quæris Alcide parem? Nemo eft nifi ipfe: bella jam fecum gerat.

It hence appears, (what has not, I think, been remarked before), that this celebrated line of Theobald, the Ludus jocufque Criticorumt, had, after all, only the fecondary merit of being a literal tranflation

Hot Wells, Briflol, Nov. 18.

NEANASENSIS.

ON AN UNIVERSAL CHARACTER.

HE eftablishment of an univerfal al

ence, as it would greatly facilitate the acquirement of the learned languages, and enable those who are unacquainted with them, by the affillance of a Dictionary, to underftand quotations and fentences that are frequently made ufe of an elaborate works.

See the "Art of finking in Poetry."

Το