mon with the little world around her; and it is managed fo, that her contempt of reftrictions fhall always appear to flow from the extent, variety, and fplendour of her talents. The vulgarity of this heroifm ought in fome degree to diminish its value. Mr Colquhoun, in his police of the metropolis, reckons up above 40,000 heroines of this fpecies, most of whom, we dare to say, have at one time or another reasoned like the sentimental Delphine about the judgments of the world. To conclude-Our general opinion of this book is, that it is calculated to fled a mild luftre over adultery; by gentle and convenient gradation, to destroy the modefty and the caution of women; to facilitate the acquifition of eafy vices, and incumber the difficulty of virtue. What a wretched qualification of this cenfure to add, that the badnefs of the principles is only corrected by the badnefs of the ftyle, and that this celebrated lady would have been very guilty, if the had not been very dull! ART. XVIII. Memoirs of the Reign of George III. By W. Belham. Volumes V. & VI. 8vo. G. G. & J. Robinton. London. 1801. THE HE preceding volumes of this history had created in our minds fo little expectation of merit in those which are now prefented to the world, that we cannot with propriety fay that we have been difappointed. There is a fraud in the very titlepage of this work; for if the reader expects to find in the Memoirs of the Reign of George III. any thing like an history of that period, he will foon find himfelf dolefully miftaken. By the illiberality, party fpirit, and intemperate ardour for the propagation of his political opinions, which Mr Beltham difplays, he has forfeited the title of hiftorian, for the more appropriate, though Icfs refpectable, name of zealot, or pamphleteer. The bitter and licentious fpirit in which he had indulged his pen throughout his former volumes, has now rifen to a height mote intolerable to the reader, and difgraceful to the writer. It appears that Mr Beliham's habits of writing, like all other evil habits, increafe in virulence, in propor tion as they proceed; and unlefs the whole fome difcipline of criticifm be adminiftered, the prefs may, at fome future day, groan under a ftill more highly accumulated mafs of perfonal abufe and intolerant zeal. By ftripping thefe volumes, however, of their title to the rank of hiftory, to which they have affuredly no more claim, than a book made up of political registers and party pamplets M can can pretend to, we have greatly abridged to ourselves the unpleafant task of cenfure; and by thus bringing their merits and defects to the decifions of an inferior ftandard, we have allowed greater latitude to the author's eccentric excurfions, and greater indulgence to his violations of decency and propriety. It may be proper, however, to hint, that the former are always obfervable when a low factious citizen comes under the cognizance of the law; and the latter, whenever a prime minifter, a tory, or an alarmift, is honoured by a mention in his annals. The most curfory and rapid review of the events which these volumes detail, would occupy a pamphlet of fome magnitude. It would therefore be totally inconfiftent with the plan of our work, to offer more than a general view of their defign and execution. Unhappily indeed for all Europe, the memory of thefe events is yet fresh in the mind of every individual; and the fpirit in which they originated has not, even to this day, totally fubfided. The Fifth Volume opens with the declaration of war between France and England. And the author at once difplays his party fpirit, and want of political knowledge, in afcribing folely to the measures of the British court, a war, which had its true origin in principles and paflions common to both countries, at that interefting juncture. Whether England or France first adopted meafures decifive of their warlike intentions, is a point upon which Europe differs, and Mr Belfham dogmatizes. From his Delphic decifion of this question, the author proceeds to give a thort account of the Parliamentary tranfactions of that period. Here, our pamphleteer openly enlifts himself in the party of Mr Fox; and, after paying his homage to this great man, he proceeds to declare his irreconcileable enmity to the first minifter. In a note, which we are induced to mention, merely that the author may observe we are not altogether inattentive to his efforts at wit, he contrafts the characters of these two statesmen, by the fchool-boy anecdote of Phocion and Demofthenes. Mr Belfham afterwards prefents his reader with the Royal meffage to the Houfe of Commons on the declaration of war; and obligingly marks, by italic letters, those paffages which we fuppofe have peculiarly attracted his attention. He next gratifies his ardent zeal against tories and alarmiits, (for this is, in truth, a principal object of his work), by reproaching their great leader Edmund Burke. Mr Burke,' fays he, (fpeaking of the debate occafioned by the Royal mes fage), pronounced a vehement philippic, affording a melancholy contraft to the fpeeches of his better days.' In this fentiment, many of our readers may, perhaps, agree with Mr Bel fham, fham, and reprobate the man who once profeffed and acted upon genuine Whig principles. But when (in p. 21.) the author denominates him this eloquent madman,' and afterwards (p. 285.) the demoniac,' we are at a lofs to decide, whether the malignity or the folly of this indecent language is most deferving of condemnation. As a farther proof of his grofs violation of rule and decorum, we hall quote to the reader his laft view of Mr Burke's character. Mr Burke, who had now no longer a feat in Parliament, published a moft furious, fanguinary, and frantic pamphlet, entitled, Thoughts on a Regicide Peace;' in which he urged, in his characteristic manner, the profecution of the war ad internecionem.' Vol. v. p. 484-5• Yet does not all this come up to the bitterness and sarcasm which he pours upon the devoted head of the unfortunate first minister. Mr Belfham's weapon is never fharp, his aim dexterous, nor his vigour formidable; and we might amufe ourselves with the quiverings and deviations of the telum imbelle et fine idu,' did we not perceive the malignity which directs it. Our readers will judge of the temper and capacity which dictated the following pailages. P. 57, he ftyles Mr Pitt that perfidious minifter, who had oppofed almoft invariably, and with effect, every liberal measure which had, from time to time, been brought forward in Parliament for the extenfion of the general system of conftitutional liberty.' Speaking of the British Parliament of 1795, our author utters the following infolent and low invective. and, what was infinitely the worst of all, a Parliament, not poffeffing a fpark of the old English spirit, loft to every sense of national honour, funk into a state of ftupefaction, obftinately and idiotically confiding in a minifter whofe vifionary plans and projects had been everywhere defeated, and whofe predictions had been uniformly falfifieda minifter evidently deftitute of the talents neceffary for carrying on any war but the WAR OF WORDS-a bullying, boating, Bobodil states man!' Vol. v. p. 258. We hope it will not be deemed too fevere to fay of the following paffage, that it is worthy of a place in the Memoirs of the Reign of George III.' Surely, then, it cannot be too harsh to characterise the financial adminiftration of Mr Pitt as exhibiting a fyftem infamoufly improvident. If a national bankruptcy fhould be the ultimate, as it feems the inevitable, refult of this fyftem, let us thank God that the LAND remains, and that no extravagance of kings or minifters can annihilate it. If M 2 litical topics of the day. Liberticidal,' p. 9.- Governmental,' p. 440- Royalifm' for Monarchy, p. 139. Sufficance' for fuffering, p. 196.—are flight innovations upon the English language, which we cannot give up to the ravages of this thirity reformer, any more than the English conftitution. We should be forry to offend Mr Beltham by the feverity of our remarks, though we will not facrifice truth to any apprehenfions of his enmity; and we cannot help reminding him, that that man has almoft forfeited his right to complain of invective, who has dealt it out fo liberally against birth, talents, dignity, and every other object, to which good and wife men always pay the homage of manner, without therefore facrificing the freedom of inveftigation, or independence of speech. Our obje& has been, to recal Mr Belfham to a more accurate knowledge of himself, and to difabuse him of thofe exaggerated pretenfions, to which every fentence of his book proclaims his want of right. An indulgence in grofs and unmannerly abufe, implies no other victory, than that which any man may quickly obtain over delicacy and fhame. To be diftinguifhed for violence, at a period when nobody is moderate; to inflame the public bigotry, during the omnipotence of political paffions; to be more incandefcently wrong-headed than any body elfe; and, above all, to remain mad when the reit of the world are returned to their fenfes,-are fources of exultation which we should not have been much inclined to deny to Mr Belfham. The noble fupremacy of difcerning truth amidft warm, freth, and numerous emotions, and of telling to mankind, in history, their yet. vifible errors, is a rare gift of God. It must not be claimed by the monks of anarchy, and the boiling bigots of a fect. ART. XIX. * Charles et Marie. Par l'auteur d'Adele de Senange. 120110. IN IN the conduct of a novel, one of two modes is ufually followed. The action is related, as completely pal, in an unbroken narrative; or the heroes and heroines, whole hands are never weary with letter-writing, deicribe it, as progrifive, in all its changes of events. The author of Charies et Marie' has adopted a third mode, or at least a modification or the fecond, by which ་་ We have been due to pay fome attention to this novel, from the reputation of its authors, Madame de Sowza, wife to the Portugueze An.baflator at Paris. which the effect is confiderably altered. The hero is indeed his own hiftorian; but the details he prefents are those of a journal, in which, in obedience to the requeft of a friend, he had recorded every evening, not merely the events, but the paflions and fentiments of the day. The plan, however, will be better underftood, from the prefatory epittle: Charles Lennox to his Friend. I have followed your advice, and at the clofe of every day have brought before me the different emotions by which I have been agitated. I thought that my journal would be read by you, and I faid, My friend fhall be to me a fecond confcience, to whom I will fpeak with the fame fincerity as to myself. Yet, when thus examined, how great a number of my days have been void of intereft? They remind me of the aftonishment of one of our philofophers, at the tight of thofe numerous epitaphs, which comprehend the hiftory of a whole life, in the dates of the moments when it was begun and finished. I have therefore fuppreffed in my journal all thote hours which have been filled with nothing-the days which have floated along, without leaving a remembrance. I confide to you only that part of my life, which can excite either fome confolatory recollection, or thote late but generous refolutions of the future, which arife from regret of the past. This plan feems to bear to the ufual epiftolary mode the fame relation which that mode bears to the unbroken narrative. In fuch a narrative, events are detailed, rather than feelings. The writer addreffes us in his own perfon, and informs us of incidents, the whole feries of which he is fuppofed to know. We therefore do not willingly allow him to harafs us with all the doubts, fears, hopes, loves, refentments, which, though ftrongly felt by his heroes and heroines from the trifiing circumftances of one day, were removed by circumftances as trifling in that which fuccecded. There is a kind of unity of action, necefiary to the dignity of a narrative, which digreilions to frequent would deftroy. The incidents, accordingly, muft all be great in themfelves, or, if in themfelves unimportant, be great at least in the permanence of the emotions which they leave; and to them muit be facrificed all thofe thoufand fleeting circumitances, and flecting feelings, which bett display the varied fufceptibilities of human paflion, and which intercit us n.ore, becauie, being lefs eafily forcieen, we are lets prepared to expect them. A long narrative, though of fictitious adventures, is caucible in a great mealure to the laws of historical compofition, and is hence preferable, only where the attention is clacfly to be fixed by greatnefs of events, and where the pallions, though itrong, are not rapidly varied. It is thus peculiary fuited to the wild romance; the intereft excited by |