Cain, but much rather that of the good Abel. Cain would never pay the tenth, nor go to mais. Abel, on the contrary, always paid "it with the fairest and beft, and never once miffed a mafs." Grotius, on the fubject of tenths and donations, fays, "that the fcruple of "Tiberius in accepting fuch gifts, fhould make the monks ashamed "of their rapacity."

For the laft, we fhall quote the laft note of the fection, to which the learned tranflator has prudentially added a wife reflection of his own; well confidering, no doubt that, to a man of his profound fagacity, Helvetius to Hooper, must be a mere novice.

It

"The re-union of the temporal and fpiritual powers in the fame hands, is indifpenfable. Nothing is done against the facerdotal body by merely making it more humble. Who does not entirely annihilate it fufpends, and not defroys its influence. A body is immortal; a favourable circunftance, fuch as the confidence of a prince, or a revolution in the state, is fufficient to reftore its primitive power. will then revive with a vigour the more redoutable, as by being inftructed in the caufes of its abafement, it will be more attentive to overthrow them. The ecclefiattical body in England is at prefent without power, but it is not annihilated. Who then can affirm, faid a certain nobleman, that it will not one day reaffume its original ferocity, and again caufe as much blood to flow as it did formerly? One of the greatest ferviccs that could be rendered to France, would be to employ a part of the extravagant revenues of the clergy to the liquidation of the national debt. What could the clergy object, if, careful of their welfare, they were to preferve their benefices dur ing life, and if after that they were to be alienated? Where would be the evil of bringing fo large a quantity of riches again into the 'circulation *?”

To be Continued.)

Letters from the late Moft Rev. Dr. Thomas Herring, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, to William Duncombe, Efq; deceased, from the Year 1728 to 1757. With Notes and an Appendix. 8vo. 3s. 6d. fewed. Johnson.

There is nothing displays the true difpofition and character of men fo much as their private and familiar letters +. If they are of eminence, therefore, fufficient to render the knowledge

On this note the tranflator makes the following: "Our author will be excufed this wild fuppofition; as, being a foreigner, and not fufficiently acquainted with our excellent conflitution, fuch an alteration in the power of the clergy would totally deftroy that equilibrium in which the effence of our liberty confifts."

The fame may be faid of their opinions and fentiments; which are often better collected from their private correfpondence than from their public writings. Thus it were a matter of much difpute, whether Cicero believed in a future ftate, were we to judge folely from the latter; whereas a fingle pallage, in his letters to Atticus (fuppofing thefe were not intended for the public eye), feems conclufively to corum it. Tempus eft nos de illâ perpetuä jam, non de hac exiguâ vná, cogitare. Rev.

of

of fuch perfonal character a matter of public curiofity, the world is under proportional obligation to the editor of them. Archbishop Herring was not a man of a brilliant or ftriking genius; he was, yet, a man of good fenfe, erudition, and folidity of judgement. The moderation and benevolence, alfo, with which he difcharged the duties of his ftation, were remarkable and worthy of adoption by every other Archbishop in Christendom. The circumftances, of his life, may be couched in a narrow compafs.

"He was born in Norfolk, at Walfoken, of which his father was rector, in 1693; and was educated at Bennet College, in Cambridge. In 1722, he was collated to the rectory of Barley in Hertfordshire, by Dr. Fleetwood, Bishop of Ely, to whom he was chaplain. In 1726, he was appointed preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. In 1731, he was prefented to the living of Blechingly in Surry by Sir William Clayton; and foon afterwards promoted to the deanry of Rochefter, by the King. He was made bishop of Bangor in Jan. 1738, tranflated to York in April 1743, and to Canterbury in October 1747. He died March 13, 1757, aged 64."

The correspondence before us opens, in the year 1728, with a letter from Dr. Herring to Mr. Duncombe, paying acknow ledgements to the latter, for two anonymous letters printed in the newspapers, in juftification of a fermon, preached by the Doctor at the chapel of Lincoln's Inn, againft the Beggar's Opera, then in reprefentation at the theatre. In this fermon, Dr. Herring condemned that celebrated drama, as pernicious to the morals of the people, and therefore improper for public performance. Nor was the good Doctor fingular in his opinion even at that time, refpecting the immoral tendency of that performance. The celebrated Mrs. Rowe was, particu larly, very much hurt by the encouragement given, and the encomiums paffed on, it, by the firft wits and critics of the age. Dean Swift, on the other hand, attacked Dr. Herring with great acrimony, on account of the fermon above-mentioned, declaring, in the third number of his Intelligencer, that “it would probably do more good than a thousand fermons of fo ftupid, fo injudicious, and to proftitute a divine." This declaration was certainly dictated by a party fpirit, not the most ftrongly attached to truth. It were elfe hardly poffible, however ftrangely doctors differ, that two reverend divines could be fo egregiously mistaken in the confequences, which, we are told by the magiftracy, experience hathi even taught their very

thief-takers *.

* In confequence of whofe critical advice and apparent affiftance, the Drama in queftion has been lately altered and acted at Covent-Garden thea♣ tre, in a mode more agreeable to practical (though not poetical) juflice. Rev.

In the courfe of the correspondence we meet with fome characteristic defcriptions, judicious criticifms, and literary anecdotes, that may afford both entertainment and information to the reader.

Of our late Twickenham Poet, Dr. Herring, in one of his Epifles fpeaks thus. "I would fain think as well of Mr. Pope's probity, as I do of his ingenuity; but his compliments to Polingbroke, upon topics of behaviour, in which he is notorioufly infamous, fhock me fo, that it quite difconcerts my good opinion of him; I have bought his works, however, in the pompous edition, and read them with peculiar pleature. The brightness of his wit, his elegant turns, his raised fentiments in many places, and the mutical cadence of his poetry, charm me prodigioutly!"

in one of the Letters, we meet with the following anecdotes, relating to the deccale of that excellent verfifier.

"Frith-Street, June 10, 1744. "Mr. Pope, I hear, has left the bulk of his fortune to Mrs. Blount, a lady to whom, it is thought, he either was, or, at leaft, ought to have been married. The Earl of Marchmont, Lord Bathurst, Mr. Murray, and Mr. Arbuthnot, are his executors. queathed all his manufcripts to Lord Bolingbroke.

He has be

"I am told that he has left many plans and fragments, but few finifhed pieces. A report is fpread about town, that, during his illness, a difpute happened, in his chamber, between his two phyficians, Burton (who is fince dead himself) and Thompfon; the former charging the latter with hastening his death, by the violent purges he had preferibed, and the other retorting the charge. Mr. Pope at length filenced them, by faying, "Gentlemen, 1 only learn by your difcourfe, that I am in a very dangerous way; therefore, all I have now to ask is, that the following epigram may be added, after my death, to the next edition of the Dunciad, by way of posticript:

"Dunces, rejoice, forgive all cenfures pait,
The greatest dunce has kill'd your foe at last."

"However, I have been fince told, that these lines were really written by Burton himfelr; and the following epigram, by a friend of Thompfon, was occafioned by the foregoing one:

"As phyfic and verfe both to Phoebus belong,

So the college oft dabble in potion and fong;

Hence Burton, refolv'd his emetics fhall hit,

When his recipe fails, gives a puke with his wit."

"Dr. Thompson is going to publifh Pope's cafe. I find he is in

high repute with teveral perfons of diftinction.

"I fhall leave the Doctor and Mr. Pope, with a few lines taken from a Poetical Epiftle, addrefled many years ago to the Duke of

Now Earl Mansfield.

Of the Court of Exchequer, only Son of Dr. Arbuth ↑ He furvived Mr. Pope not above ten days. VOL. VI.

Chandos,

Chandos, by my friend, Dr. Cowper*, which might pafs for an enco mium on the latter, if he had made a proper application of his wit and fine genius.

"Good-natur'd wit a talent is from heaven,

For noblest purposes to mortals given:
Studious to pleafe, it feeks not others harm,
Cuts but to heal, and fights but to difarm.
It chears the fpirits, fmooths the anxious brow,
Enlivens industry, and chafes woe;

In beauteous colours drefics home-fpun truth,
And wifdom recommends to heedlets youth;
At vice it points the ftrongeft ridicule,
And fhames to virtue every vicious fool!
Like you, my lord, it all mankind invites,

Like you inftructs them, and like you delights."

Of Lord Bolingbroke and his Writings Dr. Herring writes as follows.

"Lord Bolingbroke, as you justly obferve, is obfcured in a cloud of unintelligible inctaphytics, in many parts of his work is dark and obfcure, and defultory throughout; has no confiftent fyftem; is molt tirelomely long; his mifchievous tenets, fome of them abfurd (as the denial of final caufes, &c.), and the poifon of his book fo diluted, that it cannot, I think, do much hurt. But if injudicious writers fet themfelves to extract the efience of it, and draw all his fire (an ignis fatuns as it lies) to a focus, the remedy should be very strong, and the operator an able chemist, to prevent its doing mifchief. This work fhould not be trufted to bunglers.

"Befides, the people in danger from Lord Bolingbroke's writings, are the loofe and the wits, who will never fit down to read grave and folid antwers. Irony and joke, in the literary way, are the only means to deal with him; and one cannot help withing, that the age which produced Lord Bolingbroke had produced fuch an antagonist wit as Mr. Bayle was, who could render him ridiculous while he confuted him. Dr. Warburton, you fee, attempts this; and, if he had more delicacy, it would be with more fuccefs. However, there are many excellent things in his fecond letter, and I think he has expofed his reafonings well upon the moral nature of the Deity."

His Grace's remarks on the negligence and careleffness of our English tranflators, in the inftance of Tindal's tranflation of Rapin, is a reproof fo juftly to be applied to almost all the preint tribe of tranflators, that we cannot clofe this article, without inferting it by way of public reprehenfion.

- I have read over your criticifims upon Tindal's tranflation, and think the exceedingle juft and neceflary; fuch haily mercenary tranf lators ready put an affront upon the public, and feem to take fot grunted, laten have neither taste nor judgement. The inaccuracies of flyle, and lowneiles of expreffion, and the many omiffions in this

* Son of Julge Cowper, then Rector of Berkhamftead, Hertfordshire, and one of his Majefty's Chaplains.

tranflation,

tranflation, are prodigioufly offenfive. The hiftory of Rapin Thoyras is fo much debated and mangled by them, that one would think, the tranflator had a defign upon his character, and intended to make him appear ridiculous, by putting him into an awkward English drefs; for really, if Mr. Tindal does not take a little more pains, Rapin Thoyras will become of the fame clafs with the rest of our English historians, The Guardian, I remember, has made a few very juft obfervations. upon the style of the great Lord Verulam; which if Mr. Tindal had confidered, he would not have fallen, as he often does, into that very Tulgar and abject manner of expreffion."

To thefe Letters is added an Appendix, containing feveral pieces alluded to in the correfpondence: among which are the letters that paffed between M. de la Motte and Archbishop Fenelon, on the former's tranflation of the Iliad. Remarks on Lord Bolingbroke's idea of a God: together with the arguments of Balbus, on the fame fubject, tranflated from Cicero by Mr. Duncombe.

S.

Remarks on Bishop Hurd's Charge, delivered to the Clergy of the Diocefe of Lichfield and Coventry, at the Bishop's primary Vifi tation in 1775 and 1776, and printed at their Request. In a Letter to his Lordship. By a Country Clergyman. 1s. Johnson. We have here a fenfible, modeft, and moderate remonftrance against church government and ecclefiaftical authority; or, as the remonftrant terms it, "human fyftems of religious faith and doctrines."

"The amount," fays he," and full fcope of the arguments for human fyftems of religious faith and doctrines, whether placed in array to confront the Scriptures, or more artfully pretended to be a neceffary and rightful interpretation of them, are equally derogatory from their abfolute fufficiency. Under this perfuafion, it is painful, to a fincere believer in Chrift, to find repeated occafion to defend, in a Christian and Proteftant country, the paramount and exclufive authority of the written Word of the infallible God, against the claims and ufurpations of fallible man. And yet this is in truth the cafe, however con founded or concealed under the several notions of right, peace, utility, or expedience.

are the

"Univerfal agreement and conformity," continues he, " phantoms of vilionaries. For though we have one common text to which we feverally refer ourselves, the meafure of our understand. ings, the degrees of our acquirements, the prejudices of education, are fo very different in different men, that fuch diverfity of gifts should feem neceffarily, by the wife ordering of Providence, to lead to a di̟verity of judgements, But thefe unhappy delufions have drenched the annals of all church hiftory in torrents of blood, Nor can any one fect er party, alas! claim exemption from the difgraceful relation, of hav.

ing