Art. 19. The Advantages of Inland Navigation; or, Some Obfervations offered to the Public, to fhew that an Inland Navigation may be eafily effected between the Ports of Bristol, Liverpool and Hull; together with a Plan for executing the fame. By R. Whitworth, Efq; Humbly fubmitted to the great Affembly of the Nation. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Baldwin. That the great affembly of the nation hath been fufficiently convinced of the utility of inland navigations, is fully apparent from the late act for accomplishing a connection of this kind between the ports of Liverpool and Hull, &c. The advantages that may, naturally be expected to flow from improvements of this kind, are amply fet forth in these obfervations; but as we have not room to enter into particulars, we must refer to the book, which is properly illustrated by copper-plates. Art. 20. The English and French Letter-writer, or General Correlpondent. By John Rule, M. A. Mafter of an Academy at Iflington. 12mo. 35. Johnfon and Co. 1 As this is the work of a schoolmaster, and is intended to promote the 'fuccefs of his academy, which, indeed, makes no fmall figure in his -book, we shall not interfere with his interest fo much as to pass any cenfure upon it; efpecially as he has fo obligingly taken the trouble off our bands, and reviewed it himself, in the following modeft terms: In order to promote the attainment of knowlege in the various forms and modes of writing, I would recommend it to young gentlemen to study the following letters with care and attention, as they are written on fuch a plan, and have fo much novelty in them, that they cannot fail to enable them to acquire that necessary and most ornamental accomplishment, the art of epiftolary compofition ! Art. 21. The Hiftory of Tunbridge-Wells. By Thomas Benge Burr. 8vo. 5s. Hingefton, &c. Written by a Journeyman Bookfeller; and very well written. It is an entertaining performance; and will not fail, we are perfuaded, to reflect on the Author himself, a competent fhare of that honour and credit which he has endeavoured to bestow on our feconi BATH. Art. 22. The fecret Correfpondence of Sir Robert Cecil with James VI. King of Scotland. Now first published. 12mo. 35. Millar. This fecret correspondence reveals nothing more material than a proof that Cecil was as forward as the reft of Elizabeth's courtiers, in the decline of her days, to worship the rifing fun. The preliminary advertisement, figned DAV. DALRYMPLE, ferves to authenticate the collection. Art. 23. A brief History of the Kings of England, particularly thofe of the Royal Houfe of Stuart, of Bleffed Memory. By Sir A. Welding, Bart. 8vo. IS. Williams. Some virulent republican, as we fuppofe, under the affumed name of Welding, has here given a moft severe character of all our English monarchs, from Will the Conqueror to James II. inclufive: except Edw. V. and VI. Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth. His reafons for exempting thefe we fhall give in his own words: the two Edwards, he fays, were children, and died, affording no matter for this préfent hiftory. If I forry, and may exprefs their forrow, as I have done, to fee religion perverted to purposes fo contrary to her true intention, and firft defign. Can a good Chriftian behold the ministers of the meek and humble Jefus exercifing an infolent and cruel ufurpation over their brethren? Or the meffengers of peace and good news fetting all mankind together by the ears? Or that religion, which breathes charity and univerfal benevolence, fpilling more blood, upon reflection and by fyftem, than the most barbarous heathen ever did in the heat of action, and fury of conqueft? Can he behold all this without an holy indignation, and not be criminal? Nay, when he turns his eyes from those tragical scenes, and confiders the ordinary tenour of things, do you not think he will be fhocked to obferve metaphyfics fubftituted to the theory, and ceremony to the practice of morality? • I make no doubt but you are by this time abundantly convinced of my orthodoxy, and that you will name me no more in the fame breath with Spinofa, whose system of one infinite fubftance I despife and abhor, as I have a right to do, because I am able to fhew why I defpife and abhor it.' Our ingenious Editor, in the warmth of his zeal for establishments, and to fhew his deteftation of infidel publications, has thrown out a ftricture on the conceffion made by Lord B. in the foregoing extract; which he has printed in a note referred to from that paffage where his lordfhip fays they will certainly think it their duty not to disturb the peace of the world by oppofing, &c. A declaration fo inconfiftent with his lordfhip's future conduct, was certainly not to be overlooked by an orthodox annotator; and accordingly our learned Editor has the following animadverfions upon it. • Notwithstanding the declarations made by Lord Bolingbroke in this letter, he left his writings against religion to Mr. Mallet, with a view to their being publifhed, as appears by his will, and with a pofitive and direct injunction to publifh them, as appears by a letter from Mr. Mallet to Lord Hyde, viscount Cornbury, now in the British Museum. We have therefore his lordship's own authority to fay, that he was one of the pefts of fociety, even if the opinions, which he has advanced against religion, are true; for his endeavour is certainly directed to loofen the band of it, and to take at least one curb out of the mouth of that wild beaft man. Exprefly to direct the publication of writings, which, he believed, would fubvert the morals and the happinefs of fociety, at a time when he could derive no private advantage from the mifchief, was perhaps an act of wickedness more purely diabolical, than any hitherto upon record in the hiftory of any age or nation. Mallet had a pecuniary temptation to affaffinate the morals and happiness of his country at Bolingbroke's inftigation: his crime therefore is not equally a proof of natural depravity, though it is impoffible to suppose suppose he had lefs conviction of the mifchief he was doing; and it is also impoffible to fuppofe, that he could seriously think any obligation to print Bolingbroke's infidelity, in confequence of his injunction, equivalent to the obligation he was under to fupprefs it, arifing from the duty, which, as a man, he owed to human nature.' This obfervation of the Editor's is undoubtedly right, on the fuppofition of his lordship's writings, here alluded to, being intended to fubvert all religion, as the Editor's mode of expreffion feems to imply but if, on a candid examination, and with an unlimited veneration for truth, and truth only, it fhould appear that Lord B. was only a mistaken writer, and did not publish his fentiments merely on that principle of diabolifm here charged upon him, but only to controvert a fyftem which he was fo unhappy as not to believe,-will not this cenfure, then, appear to have been fomewhat uncharitably, and too harthly, expreffed? and will it not seem to be a cruel infult on the noble writer's memory? With all his faults, furely Lord Bolingbroke was a man, though, perhaps, an erring and inconfiftent one; but our humane and generous Editor chufes to rake up his afhes, and hold them up to the abhorrence of mankind, as though every particle of them were a devil!-How differently, how handsomely, and with what delicacy does Lord Cornbury exprefs his fentiments on the fame fubject, in his letter to Mr. Mallet, on hearing that he was appointed to publish Lord B's pofthumous works! We are obliged to our Editor for inferting, in this collection, a copy of that letter, together with Mr. Mallet's anfwer, from the originals depofited in the British Museum, by the widow Mallet; and our Readers will, no doubt be glad to see them. Lord Hyde to David Mallet, Efq; Paris, March 7, N. S. 1752. I learn from England, Sir, that Lord Bolingbroke has left his manufcripts to you. His friends muft fee with fatisfaction those title-deeds of his reputation in the hands of the Author of the life of the great Lord Bacon; and you will have had the diftinguished honour of having been guardian to the fame of two of the greatest geniufes which our country, and perhaps humanity, has produced; but with greater honour to you in this last inftance, because you are fuch by the defignation and choice of the Author himself. 'What works of his you may have for the public I know not. That, for which I was folicitous, because I believe it would be most inftructive to the world, and might be moft for his honour, he told me himself he had laid afide; I mean the hiftory of the great tranfactions of Europe from the time when he began to confider and know them. There remains of that, I believe, no no more than a fummary review; which I had the good for tune fome time ago to draw from him, upon an application which I made to him to direct me in the study of history. You will probably have feen that fummary review, which is in a collection of letters upon hiftory, which he did me the honour to write me. It is but a sketch of the work he had proposed to himself; but it is the sketch of Lord Bolingbroke. He will probably have told you, that thofe letters were by his direction delivered up by me to Mr. Pope, who burnt, as he told me, the manuscripts, and printed off by a private prefs some very few copies, which were to be confidered ftill as manufcripts, one of which Mr. Pope kept, and fent another to Lord Bolingbroke. Sir William Wyndham, Lord Bathurst, Lord Marchmont, Mr. Murray, and Mr. Lyttelton, I think, had each one. I do not remember to have been told of any copies given, except to myfelf, who have always preferved mine, as I would a MS. which was not my own, obferving not only the reftrictions which Lord Bolingbroke himfelf had recommended to me, but fecuring likewife, as far as I could, even in cafe of my death, that this work fhould never become public from that copy, which is in my poffeffion. I enlarge upon this, because I think myfelf particularly obliged, out of regard to Lord Bolingbroke, to give this account of that work to the person whom he has entrusted with all his writings, in cafe you might not have known this particularity. And at the fame time I think it my duty, to the memory of Lord Bolingbroke, to myfelf, and to the world too, to fay something more to you in relation to this work. It is a work, Sir, which will inftruct mankind, and do honour to its Author; and yet I will take upon me to say, that for the fake of both, you muft publish it with caution. The greatest men have their faults, and fometimes the greateft faults; but the faults of fuperior minds are the leaft indifferent, both to themfelves and to fociety. Humanity is interefted in the fame of those who excelled in it; but it is interested before all in the good of fociety, and in the peace of the minds of the individuals that compofe it. Lord Bolingbroke's mind embraced all objects, and looked far into all; but not without a ftrong mixture of paffions, which will always neceffarily beget fome prejudices, and follow more. And on the fubject of Religion particularly (whatever was the motive that inflamed his paffions upon that fubject chiefly) his paffions were the moft ftrong; and I will venture to fay (when called upon, as I think, to fay what I have faid more than once to himself, with the deference due to his age and extraordinary talents), his paffions upon that fubject did prevent his otherwife fuperior reafon from feeing, that, even in a political light only, he hurt himself, himself, and wounded fociety, by ftriking at establishments, upon which the conduct at least of society depends, and by ftriving to overturn in men's minds the fystems which experience at leaft has juftified, and which authority at least has rendered refpectable, as neceffary to public order and to private peace, without fuggefting to their minds a better, or indeed any system. You will find, Sir, what I fay to be true in a part of the work I mentioned, where he digreffes upon the criticism of church history. "While this work remained in the hands only of thofe I have mentioned (except, as I have been telling you, to himself and to them in private converfation) I have otherwife been filent upon that fubject; but I must now fay to you, Sir, that for the world's fake and for his, that part of the work ought by no means to be communicated further. And you fee, that it is a digreffion not neceffary to that work. If this digreffion should be made public, it will be cenfured, it must be cenfured, it ought to be cenfured. It will be criticifed too by able pens, whofe erudition, as well as their reafonings, will not be eafily answered. In fuch a cafe, I fhall owe to myself and to the world to disclaim publicly that part of a work, which he did me the honour to addrefs to me; but I owe to the regard which he has fometimes expreffed for me, to difclaim it rather privately to you, Sir, who are intrufted with his writings, and to recommend to you to fupprefs that part of the work, as a good citizen of the world, for the world's peace, as one intrufted and obliged by Lord Bolingbroke, not to raise new ftorms to his memory. I am, Sir, your very humble fervant, Hyde.' This polite and delicate letter (we fpeak not, altogether, of the language in which it is written) is, as our Editor very juftly obferves, 6 a monument that will do more honour to Lord Cornbury's memory *, than all that mere wit or valour has atchieved fince the world began.'-The following is Mr. Mallet's answer: • My Lord, "I received a very real pleasure, and at the fame time a fenfible concern, from the letter your lordship has honoured me with. Nothing could be more agreeable to me than the favourable opinion of one, whom I have long admired for every quality that enters into an eftimable and an amiable character; but then nothing can occafion me more uneafinefs than not to be - able to fupprefs that part of a work which you would have kept from public view. The book was printed off before your lordship's letter reached my hands; but this confideration alone would have appeared This worthy nobleman die in the year following the date of the foregoing letter, in France, by a fall from his horse. REV. July, 1766. F trifling |