fentiments of the perfon fo attacked, and to fhew that his judgment, however erroneous, or fingular, has always been uniform and steady. • Erroneous, fays the letter-writer, it may poffibly be, and very probably it was fo, fince he could not intirely agree with either the miniftry or the oppofition, in their conduct with respect to Mr. Wilkes. He concurred with the latter in difapproving the vote of the 2d of February; because he thought it beneath the dignity of parliament to cenfure any libel (however atrocious) that was merely directed against a minifter. In the reft of the queftions he heartily concurred with the majority, whenever he happened to be prefent : And in all of them he followed, without regard to any party-connexions, the fentiments which he had formed for himself, and which he always had publicly avowed.' To elucidate this matter, our Author enters on a comparison of the thoughts of the profeffor, as delineated by himself in his Commentaries, with the words of the politician, fuppofed to have been delivered in parliament. The doctrine which the profeffor is faid to have fupported in his fpeech, in the H. of C. is faid to have been- ." That the house of commons had a right to adjudge Mr. Wilkes incapable of being elected to ferve in this prefent parliament." In oppofition to this doctrine, the author of the Queftion Stated quotes the learned profeffor's enumeration of legal difabilities; but the writer of this letter complains that thefe quotations are unwarily and inaccurately made, and that his fentiments are thereby mifreprefented. We muft refer to the pamphlet for particulars, and fhall only add, that we think this apology for the celebrated commentator will be very fatisfactory to every candid and competent reader. He has induftriously avoided faying any thing on the political merits of the principal question in difpute. My only intention,' fays he, in this Addrefs, was to vindicate to you and the public, from the charge of inconfiftence and duplicity, the character of one, who, though warmly attached to his Sovereign and the free conftitution of his country, detefts all the violence of party, from which inconfiftence is infeparable; and who had much rather be, and be esteemed, an honest man, than the ableft politician in Europe.' Art. 33. Confiderations on the Times. 8vo. 1 S. Almon. The author has conceived a bad opinion of the Times; and recommends the restoration of annual parliaments, as the most promifing remedy for the diforders of our body politic. Art. 34. The Fate of Tyrants, or the Road from the Palace to the Scaffold. 8vo. 1 s. 6 d. Fell. Charles I. is here held up, a royal fcarecrow, to fucceeding princes, of arbitrary inclination. The pamphlet confifts merely of ftale fcraps of hiftory, obviously thrown together because it was convenient for fomebody that a pamphlet should be made. Art. 35. The Battle of the Quills; or Wilkes attack'd and defended. A Selection of the most interesting Pieces relative to John Wilkes, Efq. Written by Him, his Adveríaries, and Partizans, from the time of his declaring himself a Candidate for Middlefex.- 6 With With his Addreffes, Speeches, Middlefex Inftru&ions, &c. 8vo. 2 S. Williams. Useful to those who neither read the Magazines or News-papers. Art. 36. The Rights of the People to petition, and the Reasonableness of complying with fuch Petitions. In a Letter to a leading great Man. 8vo. I s. Williams. A new edition of an old tract first published in Sir Robert Walpole's time, aad addreffed to that celebrated statesman,-if we are not miftaken in the import of the initial letters at the head of the prefatory epiftle.The Writer ftrenuously contends for what nobody will contest with him: the right of the people to petition for redrefs, where they find themselves aggrieved. Art. 37. Two Letters to the Court of Directors for Affairs of the United Company of Merchants of England, trading to the Eaft-Indies. Concerning the proposed Supervisorship. 4to. 1 s. 6d. Richardfon and Urquhart. Thefe letters are figned "Alexander Dalrymple;" and the design of the writer was to diffuade the company from the measure mentioned in the title. Art 38. The Political Conteft; containing a Series of Letters between Junius and Sir Will. Draper: alfo the whole of Junius's Letters to his Grace the D*** of G******. 8vo. 15. Newbery. This collection, from the news-papers, of the celebrated Letters figned Junius, will probably gratify many gentlemen, who might wish to preferve thefe fpecimens of elegant invective. The Editor, however, has unluckily praised the writer for his candor, as well as his elegance. He might, with equal propriety have complimented Lady ********* on her chastity. Art. 39. The Defcription of a Parliament in no inftance fimilar to the prefent. 8vo. 1 s. Almon. 1769. Parliaments in no inftance fimilar to the prefent, were thofe in the corrupt reigns of Charles and James, when the national affemblies were filled with placemen and penfioners. The Author's fineffe, in his title-page, is somewhat like that of Swift in his description of the place of the damned :-after fhewing that Hell must be where the damn'd are, i. e. damn'd lawyers, damn'd priests, damn'd statesmen, damn'd rogues, damn'd lyars, &c. he concludes, And Hell, to be fure, is at Paris, or Rome; Art. 40. A Speech without Doors, upon the Subject of a Vote given on the 9th of May, 1769. 4to. 6 d. T. Payne, The vote here alluded to, is that by which Mr. Lutterell was declared duly elected for Middlefex. The fenfible author of this speech without doors declares for the fuccefsful fide of the queftion, and argues upon the common received principle, that in all cafes of election by a majority of votes, wherever the candidate for whom the moft votes are given, appears to have been, at the time of election, under a known legal incapacity, the perfon who had the next greatest number number of votes (if under no legal incapacity) ought to be confidered as the perfon duly elected: and he concludes, after a thorough inveftigation of this maxim, that Mr. Lutterell had, upon every principle of reafon and every rule of law, as well as according to the uniform ufage of parliament, conferred upon him, a clear title to fit as one of the reprefentatives for the county of Middlesex. DRAMATIC. Art. 41. Dr. Laft in his Chariot; A Comedy: as performed in the Drawn from that inexhaustible fountain of true comedy, Moliere. The comic part of Dryden's Don Sebaftion, which is a difgrace to that celebrated play, thrown into the form of a finging farce, as the prefent alterer himself juftly terms it in the advertisement, though in the title-page this trifle (another of his frank and honeft appellatives) is dignified with the name of an OPERA. SERMON S. I. Ecclefiaftical Merchandize fhewn to be unlawful-with a brief Remark on the prevailing Sin of Bribery: preached at the Archdeacon's Vifitation in Sudbury, Suffolk; May 25, 1760. By Henry Croffman, M. A. Rector of Little Cornard, Suffolk. Oliver. II. National Sin, the Caufe of national Trouble,-before the Amicable Society of Burgeffes of Shrewsbury,-in the Parish Church of St. Julian, Salop, May 3. By T. Warter, M. A. Baldwin. By III. The Pretences of Enthufiafts confidered and confuted ;-before the University of Oxford, at St. Mary's, June 26, 1768. William Hawkins, M. A. Prebendary of Wells, late Poetry-profeffor, and Fellow of Pembroke-college in Oxford. Publifhed by Defire. Rivington. ERRAT A. May, page 395. line 20, for afcent of the vapors which from the tail, 39%. line 7. 495. line 5, from the bottom, for Cardinal de Laynes, read, Cardinal de Laynes. 499. line 10, from the bottom, for the greatest publick effect, read, the greateft pofible effect. THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For AUGUST, 1769. The Hiftory of the Reign of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, &c., Concluded. UR laft account of this work concluded with the interviews which Charles and Erancis had with Henry the Eighth of England. This affiduity, with which the two greatest monarchs in Europe paid court to Henry, appeared to him a plain acknowledgment that he held the balance in his hands. It is obferved by our Hiftorian, that almoft at the fame time that Charles was crowned, Solyman the Magnificent, one of the most accomplished, enterprifing, and victorious of the Tur kish princes, a conftant and formidable rival to the Emperor, afcended the Ottoman throne. It was the peculiar glory of that period to produce monarchs the moft illuftrious that have at any one time appeared in Europe. Leo, Charles, Francis, Henry, and Solyman, were each of them poffeffed of talents which would have rendered any age in which they happened to flou: ifh, confpicuous. The first act of the Emperor's adminiftration was to appoint a diet of the empire to be held at Worms on the 6th of January, 1521; and, in his circular letters to the different princes, he informed them that he had called this affembly, in order to con cert with them the most proper measures for checking the progrefs of those new and dangerous opinions, which threatened to disturb the peace of Germany, and to overturn the religion of their ancestors. This leads our Hiftorian to a very important digreffion of near forty pages, wherein he traces the rife of the Reformation, and explains the causes which contributed to its progress. VOL. XLI. • See Review for last month. G In In this difquifition, it must be acknowledged, the Writer does not discover that bigotted, acrimonious, and intolerant fpirit, which has, perhaps, not always without reafon, been imputed to ecclefiaftics. Nevertheless, had the Hiftorian been wholly divefted of his clerical character, he would probably have treated this part of the work in a more free and enlarged manner. The following paffage feems to be among those wherein the Author's facred function, may be fuppofed to have had fome effect on his hiftorical judgment: To overturn a fyftem of religious belief founded on ancient and deep-rooted prejudices, fupported by power, and defended with art and industry; to establish in its room doctrines of the moft contrary genius and tendency; and to accomplish all this, not by external violence or the force of arms, are operations which hiftorians the leaft prone to credulity and fuperftition, muft afcribe to that Divine Providence which can, with infinite eafe, bring about events that to human fagacity appear impoffible. The interpofition of heaven in favour of the Chriftian religion at its firft publication, was manifefted by miracles and prophecies wrought and uttered in confirmation of it: and tho' none of the reformers poffeffed, or pretended to poffefs, these supernatural gifts, yet that wonderful preparation of circumstances which difpofed the minds of men for receiving their doctrines, that fingular combination of caufes which fecured their fuccefs, and enabled men deftitute of power and of policy to triumph over those who employed both against them, may be confidered as no flight proof that the fame hand which planted the Chriftian religion, protected the reformed faith, and reared it, from beginnings extremely feeble, to an amazing degree of strength and maturity.' Our Hiftorian gives an account of the proceedings of the diet at Worms, which produced a fevere edict against Luther, depriving him, as an obftinate and excommunicated criminal, of all the privileges he enjoyed as a subject of the empire, forbidding any prince to harbour or protect him, and requiring all to concur in feizing his perfon as foon as the term fpecified in his fafe conduct was expired. We pafs over the account of the fate of affairs between Charles and Francis, with their various battles and negociations, of which the Hiftorian gives a very fuccinct and perfpicuous detail; and proceed to what feems more interefting, namely, the civil war in Spain, where a junta had got poffeffion of Joanna, the king's mother, and had carried on the government in her name. The junta, relying on the unanimity with which the na tion submitted to their authority, elated with the fuccefs which hitherto |