ner you may find the angle CE3 in the laft. And having thus got the angle 1E3, fay, as. that angle in degrees is to 360, or the whole circumference, fo is the time between the firft and third obfervations to the whole time of its revolution. JAMES BRADLEY, MR. URBAN, You OUR correfpondent Antiquarius, in the Nov. Mag. has, by his query concerning Edgar Ætheling, fet me on my hobby-horfe. That poor, injured, but gallant prince, was always my favourite, and my fingers fe demangent (as our neighbours ftrongly exprefs themfelves) to refcue his story from the bands of the Norman hiftorians, and to prefent him to the publick in his real character. Not a heart-lefs, penfioned, fenfelefs tool, but an unfortunate hero, endowed with fpirit enough to attack, and bravery enough to win ten kingdoms, but wanting fteadine's enough to keep one. In short, he was an exa counterpart to his friend and fellow in arms, Robert Duke of Normandy, brother to William Rulus. But to the question. The Saxon Chronicle brings the life of Edgar down to the year 1106, in which he is recorded to have been taken prifoner by Henry Beauclerc, when fighting on the fide of Duke Robert at the battle of Tenchebray. W. of Malmtbury, Edgar's contemporary, writes of him as of one alive (though much oppreffed by age) in the year 1 120. Nothing, I believe, is faid farther as to the death of Edgar Etheling, England's Darling. P. S. As to Fairies-the old and fearce Romance of Huon of Bourdeaux, tranflated into English, is founded entirely on the Fairy Syftem, and Oberon is celebrated as the Fairy King. Z. P. almost every verfe of every pfalm.] P. 40. Buchanan.“ Ad Mariam illuftriffimam Sectorum Reginam. Nympha, Caledoniæ quæ nunc feliciter oræ Mila per innumeros fceptra fueris avos: In this first couplet, as to the language, nunc is introduced perfectly for the fake of the metre, tueris is certainly of the prefent tenfe, and nunc can never be admitted bet when it refers to olim, or fome fuch word in a former place." [I am afraid the remarker here hazards his own judgment, for nunc is often used with an elegant redundance, and needs no reference to olim, unlefs he means by implication, which is here very ftrong: Que nunc tueris fceptra miffa per innumeros, &c. And as for the prefent tenfe, Nunc ego et illum fceleftam effe et me miferum fentio, faith Terence. Nunc cernimus, Cicero. Befides, nurt has often the fente of Nunc demum, as the Lexicon obferves, and this is the very fenfe of it here. Nunc fcio quid fit amor. Virg.] Ibid. Qua fortem antevenis meritis, virtutibus annes, The friendly filence of the filent moon? I mean if the words ftil and filent muft needs be both tranflated alike. But fuch exprelfions are used to fix the idea and detain t upon the imagination, which is the true ufe of fynonymous expreffions, as we may fee in Sexum animis, morum nobilitate genus. "Thefe two lines could not be found fault with, were it not that the Pentameter verfe is too grofs a plagiarifm, even for a schoolboy, it is almost entirely Ovid's Exfuperas morum nobilitate genus. Trift. iv. I. [A fchool-boy might not be allowed it, but every fine writer affects it, and we are pleafed with fuch plagiarifm, wherever the words of the ancients are ufed, as here, in a finer manner.] Ibid. "A.cipe (fed facilis) cultu donata Latino Carmina, fatidici nobile regis opus. "The fenfe and verification of thefe two lines are not to be objected to; but as for the language, nobile is a mere expletive. A noble work of a king is in the burlefque ftyle." [But the burlefque is yours. The nobleft work of the greatest king,' or, 'the nobleft work of him who was both a king and a prophet,' is a beautiful aggravation of the fenfe. A person who can make fuch objections as thefe difcovers how little tafle he has for fine writing.] P. 41. "Illa quidem, Cirrbâ procul et Permefide lymphe, Pene fub Artons filtre nata poli: "The language and verification of this couplet are both very fine, but the feste, I am afraid, will not bear examination: The poet is addreffing a book of vertes 2o a queer, he thinks them Lut very indiferent, and the reafon he gives for it is, that they were made in a county far from Paradis, almed quite under the North Pole. He leems to have forgot that this is the county which 'is panonels queen to happily erioed after fo long a tra n of arceffors. Satel this must pais at leaf for a great blaad, v." [None Lut an hyper-critic, who fat ovn to find faults, would have eyes to difcover this little, though real, impropriety in lines otherwife fo extremely beautiful. Yet in fact they are a fecret compliment to a country fo remote from Parallus, that could produce fuck space and fuch a queen, from whofe gemus, . . from whofe protection and influence, he might hope for that fuccefs in his poetical compofitions which PERHAPS they could not expect from his own.] Non tamen aufus eram malè natum exponere factum, Ne mibi difpliceant que placuere tibi. [More strongly expreffed for Ne mibi videantur difplicere. "Here again, as to the language and verfification, there is no objection to be made; but as to the reft, there is fomething in them to me unintelligible. I understand by the firft verfe he fays he did not dare to destroy bis ill-ton off pring; but what to make of the Pentameter line, I own myself ignorant." [Thus, as Boileau obferves, by a paltry ridiculous tranflation M. Perrault burleiqued the fine paffages of the ancients.] "Nam quod ingenio domini sperare nequibant, Debebunt quis forfitan illa tuo. How these two lines, which begin with nam, are connected to the feimer, I cannot tell, becaufe (as I fald just now) I do not know what they mean: neither can I appreherd clearly in what fenfe genio is to be taken in this couple. All I am certain of is, that rfitan, which is brought in here perfectly or the fake of the varie, deftroys the fenfe, be it what it will; for to tell his patronefs, in the conclufion of the epigram, that his work may perhaps be fome how or other the better for her protection, is a banter inflead of a compliment." [Can the pect help this? But it feems there is fomething you do certainly appre hend, that when neas might have attured his much-offering companions that they thould one day remember with pleature their paft dangers, he ought not to have introduced fo certain a truth with the modesty and grace of a forhian: Forfan a b.ec alim maminiĝe javabit. See above. P. 42. "We come now to Juhnúion. Ad Mariam Erkinam iuftrifimam Comitiffam MS fallan. Nympha pari qur fola cares, et Regilus ona, Luce tua pus quam nobili are mies. "The fenfe and language and verification of this couplet are, in every relpect, perfect: as to the language, there is no fuch tang as nunc nitis; and I must take particular notice of the breast rol verfincation of the fir bne; it is alterata taronghotcup on the #” [He thould have said, upo i then, and Lod Buchanan written us, we would have e.. Cat mid, “ fo for a nymph, and numbers to rough!"] “and for that reatin furpattes Bu "Cui dimus hæredim Qui prænt, et n Non ego to Phoven p Una Let wincus tres br Accite Fapori Soymt qu'i a, tarvis les avos: dino, Sacra Trias, cujus refi Accipe quod noftrum eft, Clarice tutela cohortis, Cui vegales funt Helico is age. Tu pondus lucemque dabis, vitam quæ omnæ Quen levis et fquallens mox p ara fuit. "I am apt to think no epigram ever concluded more happily than this: here is no forfitan, no perchance, &c. [but a Mufe, on the contrary, certainly light and fquallid, and which therefore, without fuch a patronefs, would undoubtedly have perithed. Thus eafy it is, I mean, to make cruel and ill-natured remarks. However, the word fquailers thould never have been introduced in fuch a picture, For foul defcriptions are offenfive ftill, Either for being like or being ill, as Rofcommon has obferved.] P. 44. "I fall now prefent the reader with the elegy which Johnfton has prefixed to his Palms. Ad LeForem. Forts quod bic fupeas (quid enim manifesta negemus?) &c. "The obfervations I fhall make on this elegy are, &c. [To which I might have added another, that it begins with a Forte, a Forfitan, as beautiful in Johnfton as it is abfurd in Buchanan. For it is ufed upon an occafion where there could be no poffibility of any perhaps. The cafe was manifeft, Forte quod bic flupeas, quid enim manifesta ne gamut, &c. This S. S. mentions, not to condemn the author, but to admonith the critic: he would only obferve, nor that by way of cenfure, that, excepting the lab, all the Hexameter lines in this clegy are divided in the fame manner.] P. 45. ceived as fire conceal d fathe. The perfon in whofe fervice Rochanan and I are engaged, was both a king and a poet: Buchanan has drefied him up in all the pomp and plendor of a mosarel, I cloath him as a poet, -ego dɔ qulamna vati. This performance may be con [Rather as a prophet, as the example of Eljah Philofophical Queries.-On Sir Fletcher Norton's Speech. 609 Elijah fhews in the next diftich.] Now what can be more truly faid, and more fatirical than this?" Buchanan's tranflation is a gaudy pompous thing, with its outfide thow of a vast variety of metre, very fit to fet the multitude of hearers a-ftaring, as the ornaments of majefty amufe the common people. As for Johnston's tranflation, it is perfect poetry, &c. [Thus, when he had miftaken his author in the most obvious fenfe of his words, he puts a fenfe upon him which is an apparent contradiction to every word. The poem is undoubtedly an artful addrefs to the benevolence of the reader on the behalf of a modeft poet, who will be fure to pleafe him the more, the lefs he raifes his expectation.] P. 50. Let us but confider the first line of the Lord's Prayer in Johnston's Latin poetry, "Magne Pater! cœli qui cingis et incolis arces: Is there any body in the world, who pretends to a taste of learning, that can help admiring this line? This defeription of the Supreme Being furpaffes not only all that can be found in Ovid, but even in Homer, or in Virgil, or in any Pagan writer." [And yet will venture to fay, that this thought is rather pretty or just than great, and is no more than an allufion to the common and trite definition of God, cujus centrum ef ubique, circumferentia nufquam; and there are a hundred paffages in Homer and Virgil that frike the imagination more strongly, and fill the mind much more with an air of greatnefs. The reader, whofe whole foul is poffeffed with fome noble image or grand idea, is not at leifure for fuch petty remarks, and feeming inconfifiences in real truths. Let the reader try this line after reading thofe of Virgil, Georg. lib. Ipje Pater, media nimborum in nocte, corufca &c. And reverfely, Subridens, &c. Vultu quo cœlum tempeftatefque ferenat. And again, Infil-ea -eo dicente Deum domus alto fil feit Et tremefacta folo tellus, filt arduas æiber, &c. Nor will any fuch fine and philofophical obfervations have the fame effect in poetry as the noble paintings of a truly poetical geWith what emotion do we read in Buchanan, Pf. xviii. nius. Qu. I. If folidity or impenetrability and inertnefs be effential properties of matter, how can there be any motion in nature? or, in other words, how can the frame or fyftem of nature have an existence, without matter's either having immaterial active powers fuperadded to it, or the divine power and effence immediately attending it, as its conftant mover? Qo. II. The difcoveries lately made in philofophy, by Dr. Priestley and others, plainly fhew that there are various kinds of air; and that atmospherical air is not an elementary, but a compound fubftance; and that it is tranfmutable, so as to become a constituent part of the fubftances of Terrene bodies; do not these facts then refute and overthrow those hypothefes which make atmospherical air an element, and unchangeably active? Qu. III. Any hypothefis that divides the elements of matter into active and paffive, does not that hypothefis afcribe, imply, include, and allow, immaterial virtues or powers, essentially concerned or belonging to that part of matter, viz. the active elements? Qu. IV. Is it not impoffible that the frame or fyftem of nature can fubfift a moment of itself? and is not the fuppofition it can, the foundation and establishment of atheism, abfurdity, and ignorance? for if the frame or nature be a felf-moving machine, as fome hypothefes make it to be, what is that but a Self-exiftent machine? MR. URBAN, A T. W. T page 561 of the Gentleman's Magazine for 1777, you gave Sir Fletcher Norton's fpeech to the king, on prefenting the bill for the better fupport of his majesty's houthold, &c. with the debate that arofe in the Houfe of Commons, on an objection made to the truth and propriety of fome of the expreffions in it. You alfo, at pag. 553, fube joined the following note-" This speech is "by no means fo pointed as that delivered on "a fimilar occafion by Speaker Onflow, "which was fo highly applauded, that, t "was faid, it ought to have been printed in "letters of gold.”—Many of your readers. probably, as well as my felf, will be obliged any correfpondent who will be pleated to tranfmit to you bir.Onilow'sfpeech, that they may have an opportunity of comparing it with what in thefe days of high courtly toryifm has been to implacably refested. A CONSISTENT WHIC. Mr Speaker Onflow's fierch, abuse referied to, was infeited in Vol. X. p. 220. Mr. Proceedings of a Board of General Officers, Published at Philadelphia, by Order of the Extracts of Letters from General Washington I SIR, Robirfon's Houfe in the High HAVE the honour to inform Congrefs, SIR, neral Officers in the caufe of Major Andre, Adjutant General to the British Army This Officer was executed, in pursuance of the fentence of the Board, on Monday the ad inft. at twelve o'clock, at our late Camp at Tappan. Befides the proceedings, I tranfmit copies of fundry letters refpecting the matter, which are all that paffed on the fubject, not included in the proceedings. I have now the pleafure to communicate the names of the three perfons who captured Major Andre, and who refufed to release portunities, and affurances of a liberal rehim, notwithstanding the moft earnest im Paulding, David Williams, and Ifaac Van ward on his part. Their names are, John Wert. Proceedings of a Board of General Officers, PRES FNT, Major Gen. Howe, Brig. Gen. Parfons, the British Army, was brought before the GENTLEMEN, MAJOR Andre, Adjutant General to the British Army, will be brought before you for lines in the night, on an interview with your examination. He came within our Major-Gen. Arnold, and in an affumed character, and was taken within our lines, in a difgu.fed habit, with a pafs under a feigned name, and with the inclofed papers concealed upon him. After a careful examination, you will be pleased, as fpeedily as poffible, to report a precife thate of his cafe, together with your opinion of the light in which he ought to be confidered, and the punishment that ought to be inflicted. The Judge Advocate will attend to affift in the examination, who has fundry other papers relative to this matter, which he will lay before the Board. G. WASHINGTON. The Board of General Officers convened at Tappan. The names of the Officers compofing the Baard were read to Major Andre, and on his being asked whether he confeffed the matters contained in the letter from his Ex cellency cellency Gen. Washington to the Board, or denied them, he faid, in addition to his letter to Gen. Washington, dated Salem, the 24th of Sept. 1780, which was read to the Board, and acknowledged by Major Andre to have been written by him, which letter is as follows SIR, Salem, 24th Sept. 1780. WHAT I have as yet faid concerning myfelf, was in the juftifiable attempt to be extricated; I am too little accustomed to duplicity to have fucceeded. I beg your Excellency will be perfuaded, that no alteration in the temper of my mind, or apprehenfion for ray fafety, induces me to take the ftep of addreffing you, but that it is to fecure myself from an imputation of having affumed a mean character for treacherous purposes or felf-interest. A conduct incompatible with the principles that actuated me, as well as with my condition in life. It is to vindicate my fame that I fpeak, and not to folicit fecurity. The perfon in your poffeffion is Major John Andre, Adjutant General to the British Army. The influence of one Commander in the army of his adverfary, is an advantage taken in war. A correfpondence for this purpose I held, as confidential (in the prefent inftance) with his Excellency Sir Henry Clinton. To favour it, I agreed to meet upon ground, not within pofts of either army, a perfon who was to give me intelligence; I ame up in the Voiture man of war for this effect, and was fetched by a beat from the Shore to the beach: being there, I was told that the approach of day would prevent my ́return, and that I must be concealed until the next night. I was in my regimentals, and had fairly rifked my perton. Against my ftipulation, my intention, and without my knowledge beforehand, I was conducted within one of your posts. Your Excellency may conceive my fenfation on this occafion, and will imagine how much more I mult have been affected, by a refufal to reconduct me back the next night as I had been brought. Thus become a prifoner, I had to concert my escape; I quitted my uniform, and was paled another way in the aight without the American posts to neutral ground; and informed I was beyond all armed parties, and left to prefs for NewYork. I was taken at Tarry Town by fome volunteers. Thus, as I have had the honour to relate, was I betrayed (being Adjutant General of the British Army) into the vile condition of an enemy within your pofts. Having avowed myself a British Officer, I have nothing to reveal but what relates to myfelf, which is true on the honour of an Oncer and a Gentleman. The request I have to make to your Excellency, and I am confcious I addreis my felf well, is, that, in any rigour policy may dictate, a decency of conduct towards me may mark, that, though unfortunate, I am branded with nothing difhonourable, as no motive could be mine but the fervice of my King, and as I was unvoluntarily an im postor. Another request is, that I may be permitted to write an open letter to Sir Henry. Clinton, and another to a friend for clothes and linen. I take the liberty to mention the condition of fome Gentlemen at Charles Town, who being either on parole, or under protection, were engaged in a confpiracy against us. Though their fituation is not fimilar, they are objects who may be fet in exchange for me, or are perfons whom the treatment I receive might affect. It is no lefs, Sir, in a confidence in the.. generofity of your mind, than on account of your superior station, that I have chosen to importune you with this letter. I have the honour to be, &c. JOHN ANDRE, Adjutant General. His Excellency General WashingtonThat he came on fhore from the Vulture floop of war, in the night of the 21st of September inftant, fomewhere under the Haverftraw Mountain. That the boat he came on thore in carried no flag, and that he had ou a furtout coat over his regimentals, and that he wore his furtout coat when he was taken. That he met Gen. Arnold on the shore, and had an interview with him there. He alfo faid, that when he left the Vulture floop of war, it was understood he was to return that night; but it was then doubted, and if he could not return, he was promifed to be concealed on shore in a place of safety, until the next night, when he was to return in the fame manner he came on fhore; and when the next day came he was folicitous to get back, and made enquiries in the course of the day how he should return, when he was informed he could not return that way, and he must take the route he did afterwards. He also faid, that the first notice he had of his being within any of our pofts, was being challenged by the centry, which was the first night he was on thore. He also said, that the evening of the 22d of Sept. inftant, he paffed King's Ferry, between our posts of Stoney and Verplauk's Points, in the dress. he is at prefent in, and which he faid was not his regimentals, and which drefs he procured after he landed from the Vulture, and when he was within our pofs, and that he was proceeding to New-York, but was taken on his way at Tarry-Town, as he mentioned in his letter, on Saturday the 23d of Sept. inft. about nine o'clock in the morning. The following papers were laid before the Board, and thewa to Major Andre, who confeffed to the Board, that they were found on him when he was taker, and fard they were concealed in his boot, except the pa's ; A par |