Our author probably is not the first who has fpoiled a good tradesman, by an unlucky ambition of literary or political glory; but he is the only one we recollect who has left a minute and authentic record of the fteps of his transformation, and of the motives and fentiments by which he was fucceffively actuated. In every page of this extraordinary Memoir, we difcover traces of that impatience of honeft induftry, that prefumptuous vanity, and precarious principle, that have thrown fo many adventurers upon the world, and drawn fo many females from their plain. work and their embroidery, to delight the public by their beauty in the streets, and their novels in the circulating library. They have all ardent temperaments,' like Mr Thelwall, irritable feelings, enthufiaftic virtues, and a noble contempt for mechanical drudgery, dull regularity, and flow-paced erudition.' Their performances need no description. We have little to fay of the poetry of this volume. It has come to a fecond edition, we perceive; and the author fomewhere informs us, that upwards of two thoufand copies have been difpofed of; but it still appears to us, that very little need be faid upon the fubject. It confifts of a dramatic romance, called the Fairy of the Lake,' full of freezing fpirits, and fongs about ale; a collection of effufions; and a fragment of a projected epic upon the establishment of the kingdom of Northumberland. Of the dramatic piece, we give the following fcene as a fpecimen, because it is fhorter than any of the others, without having less meaning. • SCENE III. Enter Fairies. r. Fa. Sifters! Sifters! 2. Fa. Whift ye! Whist! 1. Fa. Tell me tell me what ye lift. 3. Fa. Things of moment hover nigh. 1. Fa. Who can read them? 2. Fa. I. 3. Fa. And I. Cho. Things of moment hover nigh. 1. Fa. Sifters! Sifters! 2. Fa. Lift ye! Lift! 3. Fa. Tell me, fairies, what ye wift? 1. Fa. Tell me what ye read on high? 2. Fa. Fading ftars. 3. Fa. And morning nigh. 1. Fa. Who can fee it? 2. Fa. I. 3. Fa. And I. Cho. To the Grotto-hafte away. 4. Fa. You have seen it? 1. Fa. Aye. 2. Fa. Aye. 3. Fa. Aye. Cho. To the Grotto whisp away. 1. Fa. Frisk it! 2. Fa. Whisk it! 3. Fa. Trip it! 1. Fa. Whip it! 4. Fa. To the Grotto-flit away. Cho. What we've witnefs'd there difplay. [Exeunt.' King Arthur, in the fucceeding fcene, after being surprised by a violent fit of anger, recollects himself fo far as to make the following very natural invocation. Come then, thou fullen Calm forth From the Effufions,' we do not know how to make any felection. In the Epic Fragments, we were particularly ftruck with the eafy dignity of the language, though the narrative is not very perfpicuous. The following fimile fhows what incalculable improvements our modern poetry may expect from the philofophical skill of its votaries. 'As, from group to group, expands The imprifon'd element, whofe fubtile flames Dart through the languid nerves, the fibres brace, And with increas'd pulfation urge the heart.' p. 197. Homer's catalogue of fhips, and Milton's of devils, take away the merit of originality from the following fublime paffage; but the author, it will readily be admitted, has borrowed nothing but the general idea. "Firft bled Gwendellau, fierce Caradoc next, Fam'd in their clans. " P. 193. 194. After felling two thousand copies of his book, and lecturing upon politics to crowded and intelligent audiences, we are afraid there is no great probability of Mr Thelwall fubmitting to cut out cafimere, or ftitch in buckram; though we are perfuaded that he was infinitely more useful and refpectable in his old occupation, occupation, than in those to which he has lately betaken himself. Middling as his poetry is, however, we shall be happy to find that it affords him a fubfiftence; because it is a great deal better than his politics. There are fome paffages in the Lamentation for his Daughter's Death, that are written with tenderness and effect; and, if he will renounce all pretenfions to epic and dramatic fame, and publish his next volume of Effufions without any Prefatory Memoir, we fhall be glad to hear that he has fold four thousand of them, instead of two. THIS ART. XXII. Thoughts on the Refidence of the Clergy. HIS pamphlet is the production of a gentleman, who has acquired a right to teach the duties of the clerical character, by fulfilling them; and who has exercised that right, in the prefent instance, with honour to himself, and benefit to the public. From the particular character of understanding evinced in this work, we fhould conceive Dr Sturges to poffefs a very powerful claim to be heard on all questions referable to the decision of practicable good fenfe. He has availed himself of his experience, to obferve; and of his obfervation, to judge well: He neither loves his profeffion too little, nor too much; is alive to its interefts, without being infenfible to thofe of the community at large; and treats of thofe points where his previous habits might render a little intemperance venial, as well as probable, with the moft perfect good humour, and moderation. As exceptions to the general, and indifputable principle of refidence, Dr Sturges urges the fmallness of some livings; the probability that their incumbents be engaged in the task of education, or in ecclefiaftical duty, in fituations where their talents. may be more appropriately and importantly employed. Dr Sturges is alfo of opinion, that the power of enforcing refidence, under certain limits, should be invested in the bishops; and that the acts prohibiting the clergy to hold or cultivate land, should be in great meafure repealed. We fincerely hope, that the two cafes fuggefted by Dr Sturges, of the clergyman who may keep a school, or be engaged in the duty of fome parith not his own, will be attended to in the conftruction of the approaching Bill, and admitted as pleas for nonrefidence. It certainly is better that a clergyman fhould do the duty of his own benefice, rather than of any other. But the injury done to the community, is not commenfurate with the vexation impofed upon the individual. Such a measure is either too too harsh, not to become obfolete; or, by haraffing the clergy with a very severe restriction, to gain a very difproportionate good to the commuity, would bring the profeffion into disrepute, and have a tendency to introduce a clafs of men into the Church, of lefs liberal manners, education, and connexion; points, of the utmost importance, in our present state of religion and wealth. Nothing has enabled men to do wrong with impunity, so much as the extreme feverity of the penalties with which the law has threatened them. The only method to insure fuccefs to the bill for enforcing ecclefiaftical refidence, is to confult the convenience of the clergy in its conftruction, as far as is poffibly confiftent with the object defired, and even to facrifice fomething that ought to be done, in order that much may be done. Upon this principle, the clergyman fhould not be confined to his parfonage house, but to the precincts of his parish. Some advantage would certainly attend the refidence of the clergy in their official mansions; but, as we have before obferved, the good one party would obtain, bears no fort of proportion to the evil the other would fuffer. Upon the propriety of invefting the Bench of Bishops with a power of enforcing refidence, we confefs ourselves to entertain very ferious doubts. A bifhop has frequently a very temporary interest in his diocefe: he has favours to afk; and he must grant them. Leave of abfence will be granted to powerful interceffion; and refused, upon ftronger pleas, to men without friends. Bishops are frequently men advanced in years, or immerfed in ftudy. A fingle person who compels many others to do their duty, has much odium to bear, and much activity to exert. A bishop is fubject to caprice, and enmity, and paffion, in common with other individuals: there is fome danger alfo that his power over the clergy may be converted to a political purpofe. From innumerable caufes, which might be reafoned upon to great length, we are apprehenfive the object of the Legiflature will be entirely fruftrated in a few years, if it be committed to epifcopal fuperintendance and care; though, upon the first view of the subject, no other scheme can appear so natural and fo wife. Dr Sturges obferves, that after all the conceivable justifications of nonrefidence are enumerated in the Act, many others must from time to time occur, and indicate the propriety of vesting fomewhere a difcretionary power. If this be true of the penalties by which the clergy are governed, it is equally true of all other penal acts; and the law fhould extend to every offence the contingency of difcretionary remillion. The objection to this fyftem is, that it trusts too much to the fagacity and the probity of the the judge, and exposes a county to the partial, lax, and corrupt adminiftration of its laws. It is certainly inconvenient, in many cafes, to have no other guide to refort to but the unaccommodat ing mandates of an act of Parliament: yet, of the two inconveniences, it is the leaft. It is fome palliation, of the evils of difcretionary power, that it fhould be exercifed (as by the Court of Chancery) in the face of day, and that the moderator of law fhould himself be moderated by the force of precedent, and opinion. A bishop will exercife his discretionary power in the dark; he is at full liberty to depart to-morrow from the precedent he has established to-day; and to apply the fame decifions to different, or different decifions to the fame circumftances, as his humour or his intereft may dictate. Such power may be exercifed well under one judge of extraordinary integrity; but it is not very probable he will find a proper fucceffor. To fuppofe a feries of men fo much fuperior to temptation, and to contruct a fyftem of church government upon fuch a fuppofition, is to build upon fand, with materials not more durable than the foundation. Sir William Scott has made it very clear, by his excellent fpeech, that it is not poffible, in the present ttate of the revenues of the English Church, to apply a radical cure to the evil of nonrefidence. It is there ftated, that out of 11,700 livings, there are 6,000 under 80l. per annum; many of thofe, 201. 30l. and fome as low as 21. or 31. per annum. in fuch a state of endow ment, all idea of rigid refidence is out of the question. Emoluments, which a footman would fpurn, can hardly recompenfe a scholar and a gentleman. A mere palliation is all that can be applied and thefe are the ingredients of which we with fuch a palliation fhould be composed— 1. Let the clergyman have full liberty of farming, and be put in this respect exactly upon a footing with laymen. 2. Power to refide in any other house in the parish, as well as the parfonage house, and to be abfent five months in the year. 3. Schoolmasters, and minifters bona fide discharging ministerial functions in another parish, exempt from refidence. 4. Penalties in proportion to the value of livings, and number of times the offence has been committed. 5. Common informers to fue as at present; though probably it might be right to make the name of one parishioner a neceffary addition; and a proof of nonrefidence might be made to operate as a nonfuit in an action for tithes. 6. No action for nonrefidence to lie where the benefice was lefs than 80l. per annum; and the powers of bifhops to remain precifely as they are. Thefe |