aware that Diffenters of the mof! difcordant principles are linked together in one compact band, for the express purpose of pulling it down.

To guard against the dreaded encroachments of popery, the facramental teft was certainly the most effectual: perhaps the only effectual teft that could have been devised at the period when it was firft exacted. Indeed the power claimed by the Roman Pontiff of releafing men, for important purpofes, from the obligation of oaths; and the notions enter. tained by the church over which he prefides, of the nature of that allegiance which popifh fubjects owe to a protestant fovereign, feem to point out the facramental teft as the only means by which, at any time, our conftitution in church and ftate can be effectually fecuted against the machinations of that party; but the prefent writer freely confeffes, that it has never appeared to him a good fecurity against the machinations of proteftant diffenters; of whom very few indeed confider occafional conformity as finful. With respect to them, a much better test would be, to require every man, before he be admitted to an office of truft and authority, folemnly to fwear, that in the discharge of it, he will be careful to maintain all the rights and privileges of the church as established by law, and to defend the fame unto his life's end. An oath to this purpofe is required as a teft in Scotland, of all who are admitted to the office of a magiftrate in the Royal boroughs; and it is an oath, which no man can have the smallest scruple to take, who is not an enemy to all religious cftablishments. It does not oblige him to communicate with the established church; to adopt all the articles of her faith; or to approve of her conftitution; but merely to fupport her in thofe privileges, which the derives wholly from the law of the land. Whether Mr. Walker and the diffenters, whofe caufe he fo zealously pleaded, would have fworn fuch an oath we have no means of knowing; but when the present writer, more than twenty years ago, propofed to two diffenting teachers the fubftitution of fuch an oath for the facramental teft, against which they had been declaiming as a profanation of a religious ordinance, the elder, and by much the more fagacious of the two, replied with great vehemence, that the impofition of fuch an oath would be more tyrannical than the prefent teft, and that the great body, the diffenters, he was fure, would refuse it.

We have now gone over the Effays collected in these two volumes with as much attention as we could bestow upon them, and regret that we cannot fpeak of them more favourably.

2

favourably. They certainly indicate refpectable talents in their author, who is likewife entitled to praife for fairly avowing his principles; though thofe principles appear to us hoftile, not to our conftitution only, but to every conftitution that may be devifed by man. Óf Mr. Walker's ftyle, we have cafually given our opinion already: an opinion of which our readers may judge for themselves from the extracts which we have laid before them: it is a ftyle often vigorous, though never elegant; fometimes obfcure, and occafionally affected. The obfcurity we are inclined to attribute in part to the editor, and in part to the prefs: for the diffenter's plea, which was first publilhed under the eye of the author, is fufficiently perfpicuous. The fingularity of the punctuation in many paffages, which we were under the neceffity of reading more than once, before, we could difcover their meaning, is undoubtedly to be attributed to him who fuperîntended the prefs, as are likewife fuch errata, as pupía για Αχατοις for μυρί' ἄλγε' 'Αχαιοίς; but the affectation of conftantly using moral in the fingular number for morals ot virtue, and the frequent introduction of the auxiliary do where it enfeebles the fentence,-as "hiftory does conduce," -feem to be chargeable on Mr. Walker himself.

In an appendix there are imitations of fome odes of Anacreon, which indicate, we think, that the author might have excelled in that kind of poetry; a petition to the Houfe of Commons in the year 1780, to watch more vigilantly over the expenditure of the public money; and an addrefs delivered by Dr. Rees at the interment of Mr. Walker, which, though neatly compofed, could not make on those who were prefent, fo deep an impreffion as our folemn fervice at the burial of the dead.

ART. IV. Effays Biographical, Critical, and Hiftorical, illuftrative of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler, and of the various Perodical Papers, which, in Imitation of the Writings of Steele and Addifon, have been published between the Clofe of the Eighth Volume of the Spectator, and the Commencement of the Year 1809. By Nathan Drake, M. D. Author of Literary Hours, and of Effays on the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian. 12mo. 2 vols. 1. 1s. Suttaby.

1809 and 1810.

THERE can be no doubt that every perfon of elegant and correct tafle, in English Literature, will be happy

Pp

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVI. DEC. 1810.

to receive intelligence of the continuation of Dr. Drake's Effays on the Periodical Papers. So very pleafing, judici ous, and inftructive were his remarks on the Original Effayifts of this Country*, that the completion of his defign be. comes a national object. We feel great fatisfaction, there. fore, in reporting that no degree of failure appears in the plan or execution of the prefent volumes, but they are altogether calculated to juflify the warmeft expectations of his readers. If we give the fubjects of the Effays, as they ftand in this continuation, the perfons who know the ftyle and manner of Dr. D. will eafily conceive how much of pleafing and useful matter they must of neceflity contain.

"PART I. Efay 1. Obfervations on the Tafte which had been generated by Steele and Addifon for Periodical Compofitions. Enumeration of the Periodical Papers which were written dur. ing the publication of the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, Effay 2. Obfervations on the Periodical Papers which were writ. ten between the clofe of the eighth volume of the Spectator, and the commencement of the Rambler; with fome general remarks on their tendency and complexion.

"PART II. Effay 1. The Literary Life of Dr. Johnson, with two Appendixes.

"In the SECOND VOLUME.

"Efay 2. The Literary Life of Dr. Hawkefworth.

"PART III. Efay 1. Sketches Biographical and Critical, of the occafional Contributors to the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler.

Effay 2. The fame continued.

Efay 3. The fame concluded.

"PART IV. Efay 1. Obfervations on the Periodical Papers which were written during and between the Publication of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler.

"Efay 2. Obfervations on the Periodical Papers which have been published between the clofe of the Idler, and the present period.

"Effay 3. The fame concluded.

"PART V. Conclufion of the whole work.

" Table of Periodical Papers, from the Year 1709 to the Year 1809; being the completion of a Century from the commencement of the Tatler."

When it is mentioned that, in the latter of these two volumes, the biographical sketches amount to no less than fifty, and that many of the fe relate to perfons of whom only very fcanty, if any, accounts were extant before, it will eafily be conceived how

See Brit. rit. Vol, xxviii. p. 147

much.

much intereft must be attached to fuch a detail. It is true that many of these accounts are of neceffity very concise, but fill they are fufficient to gratify a reafonable curiofity, and to complete the picture of our periodical authors. The periodical papers mentioned and characterized, within the period here viewed, are no less than 81 in number; which, added to thofe enumerated in the former volumes, make the extraordinary amount of 214, and even thefe, in a supplemental paper, are extended to 221. The diligence of the author, in taking fo wide a view of this branch of Literary Hiftory, will be no lefs commended, than his tafte and judgment in characterizing both the authors and their productions. We fhall give a fhort fpecimen of his biographical accounts, in his notices of Mr. Richard Berenger, and Sir James Marriot; authors of whom little probably is known to the majority of English readers.

"RICHARD BERENGER. Of Mr. Berenger little more has been hitherto tranfmitted, than that he was for feveral years Gentleman of the Horfe to his Majefty; that he published, in 1771, "The History and Art of Horfemanfhip," in two volumes, quarto; that he was the author of fome poetical pieces in Dodfley's collection, and of fome papers in the World; and that, in his manners and education, he was elegant and accomplished. His Hiftory of Horfemanfhip exhibits much refearch, and a mind tinctured with no fmall portion of ancient literature; and of his poems and effays it may be fafely afferted, that they merit the. encomium due to ingenuity. Mr. Berenger died about the year 1783.

"No. 79, his firft paper in the World, paints, in juft colours, the too often fatal confequences, in female minds, of a strong ad. diction to romance-reading; No. 156 is occupied in the ridicule of a fpecies of coxcomb, which has, more than once, fince the date of this paper, infefted the walks of public life, and whofe object is to affume the appearance of apathy and infenfibility; and No. 202 is a pleafant fatire on the ufelefs and gorgeous finery of the military drefs of this country. The canto, likewife, on, the Birth-day of Shakspeare, in No. 179, has been afcribed to Mr. Berenger.

"SIR JAMES MARRIOT, KNT. LL.D. the fon of an attorney in Hatton Garden, was born about the year 1731. He completed his education at Cambridge; and having been fortunate enough to obtain the patronage of the Duke of Newcastle, then Chancellor of the University, in confequence of the affiftance which he gave him in the arrangement of his library, he fpeedily acquired the honours which his college had to bestow. In 1764 he was elected, on the death of Dr. Dickins, matter of Trinity-hall; and in the fame year he was appointed advocate-general to his Majefty, and

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had

had the honour of knighthood conferred upon him. Soon afterwards he received the further promotion of judge of the High Court of Admiralty, vacated by Sir George Hay.

He was

twice the reprefentative for the borough of Sudbury, and occafionally fpoke in defence of administration. He died at his feat. at Twinfted-hall in Effex, on March the 21ft, 1803, and in the feventy-third year of his age.

The publications of Sir James may be divided into legal, poe. tical, and mifcellaneops productions. In the firft of thefe departments he has given to the public two works, namely, "The Cafe of the Dutch Prizes taken in the War before laft," 1759; "The Rights and Privileges of both the Universities, and of the University of Cambridge in particular, defended, in a Charge to the Grand Jury at the Quarter Seffions of the Peace at Cambridge, Oct. 10, 1768; alfo an argument in the Cafe of the Colleges of Chrift and Emanuel," printed in 1769. His poetry, confifting principally of lyric effufions, was originally circulated for private amufement, but was afterward introduced into Dodsley's Collection, and into Bell's Fugitive Poetry; it difplays fome pleafing and well-conceived imagery, in metre correct and polished.

Of

"His effays in the World are, No. 117, on the fashionable admiration of Chinefe and Gothic architecture; No. 121, the Vifion of Parnaffus, and No. 199, on the Genteel Mania. thefe, the fecond poffeffes a confiderable fhare of imagination, and is conducted with much critical propriety; it is, indeed, by far the best of the groupe, though the third has a claim to approbation for its fatiric humour." P. 298.

Of the modern periodical papers, as no one better deserves notice than the Obferver, we fhall infert the whole of Dr. Drake's account; not even omitting that which he has quoted from Mr. Cumberland; as it may be new to fome readers.

"THE OBSERVER. Of this very valuable paper, the com, pofition of Mr. Cumberland, it will be neceffary, in the first place, to relate what the author has himself thought proper to fay of its origin, progrefs, and character. In the Memoirs of his own Life he has favoured us with the following account: "I first printed two octavos (of the Obferver) experimentally at our prefs in Tunbridge Wells; the execution was fo incorrect, that I ftopped the impreffion as foon as I had engaged my friend, Mr. Charles Dilly, to undertake the reprinting of it. He gave it a form and fhape fit to meet the public eye, and the fale was encouraging. I added to the collection very largely, and it appeared in a new edition of five volumes: when these were out of print, I made a fresh arrangement of the effays, and, incorporating my entire tranflation of The Clouds, we edited the work thus modelled in fix volumes; and thefe being now attached to the great edition of the British Effayifts, I confider the Obferver as fairly enrolled amongst the standard claffics of our native lan

guage.