accord in fuch friendly, harmonious unifon as they are now found by the Sheriffs of Briftol. "Mr. Burke fays, "I have not debated against this Bill in its pro"grets through the Houfe; because it would have been vain to oppose, and impoffible to correct it." Page 18. The bill, and the minifter, were both pretty well corrected by Mr. Dunning. "I cannot confci. "entiously fupport what is against my opinion, nor prudently contend "with what I know is irrefiftible. Preferving my principles unfhaken, "I referve my activity for rational endeavours." Page 19. Was the court faction more determined to carry the American high treason, than the civil lift, bill? Was the first known by Mr. Burke to be more irrefiftible than the laft? Yet his efforts against the laft Bill were great and lau dable, although not fuccefsful. He did, according to the words of the Preacher, Ecclefiaftes, ch. vi. v. 10. nobly contend with him that was mightier than be the Lord North. It was a rational endeavour. Why was not the fame rational endeavour exerted against the American high treafon bill? Mr. Dunning'srational endeavour fucceeded, and be need not blush for his political company. p. 70. The prefervation ofproperty in the civil lift bill was furely not a confideration of equal importance with the prefervation of perfonal liberty in the American high treafon bill. There can be but one rule of conduct on these occafions. Watch every op: portunity of being useful, at no moment defert the public caufe, and of thofe evils, which you cannot prevent, ftrive to leffen the magnitude, and correct the malignity; "not that I think it fit for any one "to rely too much on his own understanding, or to be filled with a "prefumption, not becoming a chriftian man, in his own personal stability and rectitude." Page 69. On the court-penfion paid to Paoli, the once famous Corfican chief, are made the following remarks. "The penfion of 1,200l. a year to Paoli can be accounted for only two ways, either by the courtly principle now established among us, of giving applaufe and affittance to all thofe, who have betrayed the public liberty, from the king of Sweden to the late General of the Corficans, or as hufh-money to conceal the fhare of our court in the facrifice of Corfica to France. When Baron Van Swieten, the late Minifter from the Empress Queen to the king of Pruffia, was in London, he faw and converfed with Paoli. The Corfican lamented, that in the late war against France he could not be prefent every where in his island in every action. The Baron replied, that is no reafon for your doing nothing where you were. "Le Comte de Grandmaifon prit le village d'Olmetta, "d'où le Général Paoli s'étoit enfuit dès le premier ébranlement des "troupes." Hiftoire des Révolutions de Corfe. Par M. l'Abbé de Germanes. Paris, vol. 3. p. 65. "Il manquoit totalement de cette bravoure, le foutien des états naiffans, et fi neceffaire "vis-à-vis d'une nation belliqueule, qu'elle ne peut être fupplée 66 par aucune autre qualité. On ne l'a vu dans aucune action à la "têtê de fes compatriotes: 11 fe tenoit toujours en arriére, et ne "manquoit pas d'être le premier à faire retraite dès qu'l voyoit le "fuccès douteux. vol. 2. p. 188. Paoli ignorant fa victoire fuyoit "d'une coté, tandis que nous nous retirions de l'autre." vol. 3. p. 93. There is a remarkable appearance of candourand impartiality in this history. The Abbé received the folemn thanks of the states of Corfica for the two first volumes. "Il fut arrèté, que l'on ecriroit, au nom des Etats à M. l'Abbé Germanes une lettre de remerciement fur les "peines et foins qu'il avoit pris," &c. &c. "Paoli tout éperdu, laiffa, pour fe fauver à travers les rochers, fon cheval et fon port-feuille à "Murato. p. 132. Le Général Paoli-fe hâta de quitter fa patrie"laiffant Abattucci à la téte des Nationaux qui tenoient encore les armes; il fe fauva de Bastilica fur Quinza, et delà fe rendit à Porto"Vecchio avec Clément fon frere, quelques autres chefs, et une cen, "taine de Corfes attachés â fa perfonne, ou à fes richesses, vol. 3. p. 148. "l'envie de perpétuer fon gouvernement fut fa premiere raifon d'état, et il préféra toujours fa grandeur perfonelle à la liberté de fa nation"il étoit beaucoup moins capitaine que politique. Au defaut de bras voure, il fubftituoit l'art d'en montrer. Feignant de chercher le peril an commencement d'une action, il trouvoit toujours des amis dif"crets, qui arretoient fon ardeur-quoique timide dans le combat, il etoit “hardi dans le confeil, et ferme dans fes projets-fi ne pouvant plus mainte"nir fon pays dans liberté dont il pretendoit être le reftaurateur, il fût "mort les armes à la main à la tête des fes compatriotes, il pafferoit, pour un héros." p. 148. Such is the judgment passed by a French Abbé on a republican General! What was the glorious anfwer of the young Naffau, afterwards our great Deliverer, to fome courtiers of Charles II. who in the defperate fituation of Holland from the conquefts of Louis XIV. advised him to accept the fplendid offer of being Sovereign of the Provinces under the protection of England and Francer I will not furvive the liberties of my country. I will die on the laft dyke. Paoli ought to have died, fword in hand, on the laft free mountain of Corfica. But he lives, attends regularly, bows low, and fmiles eternally, at the levee of a King, by whom he is again fimiled upon, careffed, and penfioned. With the fpoils of his enflaved country, and an English penfion, this brave, firm, fierce, independent republican crouches at a court, and confoles himself, far from thofe vile guns, in a drawingroom, in a sweet intercourse of bows and fmiles with the ribbanded and titled flaves of power, under the contempt of all Europe. The penfion was given him, at the interceffion of Lord George Germaine, in the adminiftration of the Duke of Grafton, His treachery recommended him to the Duke: a fimilitude of character and conduct naturally captivated the heart of Germanicus, The perfonal enmity, fuppofed to be fubfifting between Mr. Wilkes and a certain great perfonage, will better apologize for the author, than for his editor, in their indulging themselves in reflections, not altogether the moft decent in fpeaking of Majefty. In mentioning the famous cartoons, removed fome time fince from Hampton Court, Mr. Wilkes faid, "they are at prefent perifhing in a late Baronet's smoky house at the end of a great fmoky town." To this the editor adds, by way of note. "The royal Procruftes, who has founded an Academy of Painting, after an exact admeasurement, obferving very fagaciously, that "the "Cartoons were too long, and ought to be cut shorter," a facrilegious hand was found, which-horrefco referens-mangled the divine works of of the most divine artift, that they might exactly fit their prefent im proper, ignoble fituation." We are forry the editor hath entered fo feelingly into his author's refentiments that he could not pay the following just encomium on our late fovereign, but at the expence of the prefent: "So excellent a King, that was to this Long his lofs fhall England weep, Ne'er again his likenets fee; SHAKESPEARE, GRAY. This humane prince on many occafions ventured his life in the cause of liberty. His diftinguifhed bravery at the battles of Oudenarde and Dettingen was the frequent fubject of the unfufpected praife of our inveterate enemies, the French. He was always a fteady friend to the liberties of mankind, and, like the former princes of his house, and of the Naffau line, kept a watchful eye over the House of Bourbon, well knowing their determined enmity to this free government, and their long meditated fchemes for grafping at univerfal monarchy. He often checked the restlefs ambition of France in its mad career, by the most firm, wife, and fuccefsful measures. At his death he left England in poffeffion of the capitals of the French in Afia and America, and of many other important conquests there, as well as in Europe and Africa, The most valuable of these conquests were loft foon after by a stroke of his grandfon's pen, which proved more fatal to England than all the fwords of all our enemies. "It is juftice to the memory of the late King to declare, that he no lefs endeavoured to make his people free and happy at home, than to carry the glory of the British arms to the highest pitch every where abroad. During his reign the laws were refpected and obeyed. Liberty and juftice fat with him on the throne, The execution of Earl FerTers impreffed all foreign nations with the greatest idea of the facrednefs of our laws, and the protection they afford the meanest fubject, under a firm and mild fovereign. It was likewife believed, that if the court-martial on Lord George Sackville had pronounced the fentence, which was expected by all Europe, the juftice of his late Majefty would have ordered it to have been carried into execution. "The penfioned Doctors, Shebbeare and Johnson, and all the other minifterial writers of the court, have been indefatigable for many years in vilifying the memory of our late fovereign, and tearing the laurels from his tomb. The firft addrefs of the House of Lords to the prefent king, on Nov. 18, 1760, is the beft confutation of all the volumes of a legion of thefe hirelings. 66 "The long experience which we had of his royal virtues, the benignity of his government, and his uniform care of aur laws and li"bertie, not interrupted in any one inftance, during the course of so many years, demand from us the utmost acknowledgements; and "will make his memory as dear to us as the height and fplendor to "which be had railed the greatnefs of thefe kingdoms will render it glorious to all pofterity." * After "After the demife of the crown, will there be found any lord proftitute enough, will there be a Sandwich to move fuch a paragraph in the first addrefs of the House of Lords to his prefent majesty's fucceffor? But we muft here take leave of this fhrewd and farcaftic fcholiaft; who is certainly an editor worthy of his Author. W. A Difcourfe delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy on the Diftribution of the Prizes, Dec. 10, 1776. By the Prefident. 4to. 3s. Davies. The defign of this difcourfe is to demonftrate the reality of a ftandard in tafte, as well as in corporeal beauty; that a falfe or depraved tafte is a thing as well known, as eafily discovered, as any thing that is deformed, mif-fhapen, or wrong, in our form or outward inake; and that this knowledge is derived from the uniformity of what are the general habits of nature, the refult of which is an idea of perfect beauty.- It is with this view the celebrated artift, at the head of the Royal Academy, has entered, in this difcourfe, on a philofophical investigation of the nature of beauty and perfection in general. "All arts," he obferves, " having the fame general end, which is to please, and addreffing themfelves to the fame faculties through the medium of the fenfes, it follows that their rules and principles must have as great affinity as the different materials and the different organs or vehicles by which they pafs to the mind, will permit them to retain. "We may therefore conclude," continues he," that the real fubftance, as it may be called, of what goes under the name of tafte, is fixed and established in the nature of things; that there are certain and regular caufes by which the imagination and paffions of men are af fected; and that the knowledge of thefe caufes is acquired by a labo rious and diligent investigation of nature, and by the fame flow progrefs as wisdom or knowledge of every kind, however instantaneous its operations may appear when thus acquired. "It has been often obferved that the good and virtuous man alone can acquire this true or just relifh even of works of art. This opinion will not appear entirely without foundation, when we confider that the fame habit of mind which is acquired by our search after truth in the more ferious duties of life, is only transferred to the pursuit of lighter amufements. The fame difpofition, the fame defire to find fomething steady, substantial, and durable, on which the mind can lean as it were, and reft with fafety. The fubject only is changed. 66 We purfue the fame method in our fearch after the idea of beauty and perfection in each; of virtue, by looking forwards beyond our felves to fociety, and to the whole; of arts, by extending our views in the fame manner to all ages and all times. "Every art, like our own, has in its compofition fluctuating as well as fixed principles. It is an attentive enquiry into their difference that 5 will 192 Difcourfe delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, &c. will enable us to determine how far we are influenced by custom and habit, and what is fixed in the nature of things. "To diftinguish how much has folid foundation, we may have recourse to the fame proof by which fome hold wit ought to be tried; whether it preferves itself when tranflated. That wit is falfe which can fubfift only in one language; and that picture which pleases only one age or one nation, owes its reception to fome local or accidental affociation of ideas. "We may apply this to every custom and habit of life. Thus the general principles of urbanity, politenefs, or civility, have been ever the fame in all nations; but the mode in which they are dreffed is continually varying. The general idea of fhewing refpect is by making yourself lefs; but the manner, whether by bowing the body, kneel ing, proftration, pulling off the upper part of our drefs, or taking away the lower, is a matter of habit. It would be unjust to conclude that all ornaments, because they were at first arbitrarily contrived, are therefore undeferving of our attention; on the contrary, he who neg lects the cultivation of thofe ornaments, acts contrarily to nature and reafon. As life would be imperfect without its highest ornaments the Arts, so these arts themselves would be imperfect without their orna ments. "Though we by no means ought to rank thefe with pofitive and fubftantial beauties, yet it must be allowed that a knowledge of both is effentially requifite towards forming a complete whole, and perfect tafte. It is in reality from the ornaments that arts receive their pecu. fiar character and complexion; we may add, that in them we find the characteristical mark of a national tafte, as by throwing up a feather in the air, we know which way the wind blows better than by a more heavy matter.' In answer to the general objection, which is made to the introduction of philofophy into the regions of tafte, viz. that it checks and reftrains the flights of the imagination, and gives that timidity which an over carefulness, not to err, or act contrary to reafon, is likely to produce; he answers, "It is not fo. Fear is neither reafon nor philofophy. The true fpirit of philofophy, by giving knowledge, gives a manly confidence, and fubftitutes rational firmnefs in the place of vain prefumption. A man of real tafte is always a man of judgement in other respects; and those inventions, which either difdain or shrink from reason, are genes rally, I fear, more like the dreams of a diftempered brain than the exalted enthusiasm of a found and true genius. In the midst of the highest flights of fancy or imagination, reafon ought to prefide from first to laft, though I admit her more powerful operation is upon re flexion. "Every man," fays he, "whofe bufinefs is defcription, ought to be tolerably converfant with the poets, in fome language or other; that he may imbibe a poetical spirit, and enlarge his ftock of ideas. He ought to acquire an habit of comparing and digesting his notions. He ought not to be wholly unacquainted with that part of philofophy which gives him an infight into human nature, and relates to the man ners, |