"・ What new device is this?' said Sir Frederick, fiercely, eyeing Ellieslaw and Mareschal with a glance of malignant suspicion.

"It can be but the frolic of some intemperate guest,' said Ellieslaw, though greatly confounded; we must make large allowances for the excess of this evening's festivity. Proceed with the service.' "Before the clergyman could obey, the same prohibition which they had before heard, was repeated from the same spot. The female attendants screamed, and fled from the chapel; the gentlemen laid their hands on their swords. Ere the first moment of surprise had passed by, the Dwarf stepped from behind the monument, and placed himself full in front of Mr. Vere. The effect of so strange and hideous an apparition, in such place and circumstances, appalled all present, but seemed to annihilate the Laird of Ellieslaw, who, dropping his daughter's arm, staggered against the nearest pillar, and, clasping it with his hands as if for support, laid his brow against the column.

"Who is this fellow?" said Sir Frederick; and what does he mean by this intrusion ?'

"It is one who comes to tell you, said the Dwarf, with the peculiar acrimony which usually marked his manner, that in marrying that young lady, you wed neither the heiress of Ellieslaw, nor of Mauley-hall, nor of Polverton, nor of one furrow of land, unless she marries with MY consent; and to thee that consent shall never be given. Down-down on thy knees, and thank Heaven that thou art prevented from wedding qualities with which thou hast no concern-portionless, truth, virtue, and innocence.-And thou, base ingrate, he continued, addressing himself to Ellieslaw, what is thy wretched subterfuge now? Thou, who would'st sell thy daughter to relieve thee from danger, as in famine thou would'st have slain and devoured her to preserve thy own vile life! Ay, hide thy face with thy hands; well may'st thou blush to look on him whose body thou didst consign to chains, his hand to guilt, and ris soul to misery. Saved once more by the virtue of her who calls thee father, go hence, and may the pardon and benefits I confer on thee prove literal coals of fire, till thy brain is seared and scorched like mine.'

"Ellieslaw left the chapel with a gesture of mute despair." (p.334-337. vol. i.)

We do not think the state in which these volumes are written, by any means so good as that of Guy Mannering, or even the Antiquary: the author becomes a little careless as he gains confidence by approbation; and, for merely English readers, too much of the Scotch dialect is introduced into the speeches. It is sometimes employed, however, with admirable effect; according to the character of the individual who speaks, it seems to add characterestic ferocity to the ruffian, or simplicity to the innocence of

youth, and tenderness to the effusions of love. On other occasions it not a little heightens the comic effect of rustic humour.

While exhibiting the manners, the author has endeavoured also to employ something of the language of the times he describes, but he has now and then gone too far back into antiquity, and has brought forward words that had even then been long obsolete. The error was, however, on the right side, and it would be advantageous, if, instead of the prevailing fashion of importing French terms, we resorted more to the wells of undefiled English, afforded by our elder writers.

ART. VII.-DUCATUS LEODIENSIS, or, the Topography of the ancient and populous town and parish of Leedes, and parts adjacent, in the West Riding of the County of York. By RALPH THORESBY, F. R. S. The second edition, with notes and additions. By THOMAS DUNHAM WHITAKER, L.L.D. F. R. S. Vicar of Whalley, and Rector of Heysham. Leeds, Robinson and Son, 1816. LOIDIS and ELMETE, or, an attempt to illustrate the districts described in those words by BEDE, and supposed to embrace the lower portion of Aredale and Wharfdale, together with the entire Vale of Calder, in the County of York, By THOMAS DUNHAM WHITAKER, L.L.D. F'. R. S. Vicar of Whalley, and Rector of Heysham. Leeds, Robinson and Son, 1816.-folio, pp. 464.

RICHARD the First, having taken a bishop during an engagement, the pope immediately applied to him for the restoration of his son. The king, in answer, sent the armour of his right reverend captive to his holiness, with this brief recommendation, "See now, if this be thy son's coat, or not." The bishop here spoken of, most assuredly belonged to the church militant, so, from the general spirit manifested in the works of the learned and reverend editor of the Ducatus Leodiensis, we must refer him to the same order; and, had it been permitted in modern times, for ecclesiastics to enter into the profession of arms, we should not be at all surprised to find him in the situation of his mitred precursor. His hostility is more undistinguishing than is at all usual in secular contests; he shews it towards the leader he affects to follow, he employs it against the subject he undertakes to discuss, and, like the knights-errant of the dark ages, this sable champion seems to be anxious CRIT. REV. VOL. IV. Dec. 1816. 4 L

to meet with an antagonist in every direction, and to irri tate those by intrusion and defiance, who would be disposed to pass him both unmolested and unheeded.

By a periodical writer of great repute in the last cen tury, a sort of military organization was given to the clergy, similar to that which Peter the Great assigned to his civil administrators, and they were divided into generals, fieldofficers, and subalterns. Among the first, were reckoned bishops, deans, and arch deacons ; with the second, were the doctors, prebendaries, and all enrobed with scarfs; the rest were comprehended in the humbler class of subalterns. It was said then, and it may, on much stronger grounds, be asserted now, that there has been "a great exceeding of late years, in the second division;" such numerous brevets having been granted for the conversion of subalterns unto scarf-officers. But be this as it may, to the rank of field officers our priestly editor belongs; and, with conscious security, he flourishes about his offensive weapons, the defensive even disdaining to assume. It will be our duty to examine, if he possess that invulnerability which his indiscriminate challenges would indicate, or if he be subject to the common infirmities of ordinary beings, and liable to misguidance and error like other men, whether subalterns, field-officers, or generals, in every walk and profession of life. >

The first of the volumes of this splendid work, is called the Ducatus Leodiensis; the worthy antiquary to whose labours we are indebted for it, being extremely fond of princely distinctions. The second is entitled Loidis and Elniete; in order to permit the extension of the ground, or to illustrate the district supposed to be comprehended under these terms by the venerable Bede. The whole is introduced by a slight sketch of the life of the author, Mr. Ralph Thoresby, who was born at Leeds in the year 1658; and who was, after the usual school education, placed with a merchant for instruction in commerce; but, even at this early period, his love of antiquities, interfered with his trading pursuits. He was, in 1678, introduced into the counting-house of a person at Amsterdam, to be further informed on subjects of foreign traffic, and, at the same time, to acquire the French and Dutch languages. This situation he seems also to have turned to account only for the object of his favourite study; and thus, having obtained one dialect of the Teutonic language, he became a skilful etymologist in the Saxon local names at home, by which he was greatly assisted in his topographical enquiries."

Notwithstanding his disinclination to commerce, on the decease of his father, he undertook the mercantile concerns of the house; and the staple trade of the town of Leeds being in a state of temporary depression, he purchased his freedom in the company of Hamburgh merchants. In 1684, he married; and sustaining some losses about this period, he withdrew himself entirely from trade, and devoted himself, almost exclusively, to the study for which he had con tracted so early an ardent and unconquerable passion...

About this time, a religious change occurred in the mind of Mr. Thoresby, to which his learned editor attaches very great importance, and the public have reason to rejoice in it, since it is probable, that had not this alteration taken place, we should not have been favoured with Dr. White aker's luminous exposition of the present work, such would have been his disinclination to follow the steps of a sectary.

"After the accession of King James, and when his conduct, however plausible towards the Dissenters, threatened the ruin of Protestantism in all its denominations; he became more frequent in his attendance upon the worship of the established church. For this he had two reasons: first the learned and excellent discourses of his parish minister, Mr. Milner; and secondly, a generous reso lution to support by his countenance and example that church, to the existsnce of which it was evident that the Dissenters would finally be indebted for their own.

"But the minister of his own congregation, a bigotted and angry man, bore this partial abandonment of his conventicle with extreme impatience. All the topics of persuasion usual on such occasions, were tried with that inefficacy which is always produced by want of temper and its consequence, want of judgment. Meantime the revolution took place, and while the church of Leeds was supplied by a minister, even more attractive than Mr. Milner, the see of York was filled by a prelate who condescended to number the antiquary among his friends. In the catalogue of Thoresby's acquaintance at the same time, was Mr. Thornton, recorder of Leeds, a man, as appears, of real piety, and a true friend of the established church. To these persons he communicated his remaining scruples on the subject of an entire conformity. From the archbishop in particular, he received the most affectionate attention, and by his arguments the church finally acquired a proselyte, who did her honour by his virtues, as well as attainments." (p. viii. vol. 1.)

We have quoted this passage, not to go out of our way to make any comment upon it, for it would not be worth the deviation, but to shew the spirit and temper with which the reverend editor treats persons of a different persuasion

from the establishment, of which we admit him to be a learned and honourable member.

In the year 1724 was published by Mr. Thoresby the Vicaria Leodiensis, from his regard to the church of his own parish, and the many eminent divines who, according to the expression of the editor, had presided over it: In 1725, on the 16th of October, when he was in his sixty-eighth year, a paralytic stroke terminated his life, which had be fore been threatened by a similar attack.

The editor admits that the knowledge of the author in the Greek and Latin languages was not inconsiderable, yet he objects that it "partook of the nature of his original breeding, and was scarcely that of a man who had been regularly educated as a scholar."-Dr. Whitaker so reluctantly applies the language of approbation, that he ever seems anxious to throw in a kind of set-off to counterbalance it. "Mr. Thoresby," says he, "was attentive to the religious instruction of his children, and to the moral character of his servants-a class of the community, who at that time had some regard to character, and some endurance of restraint." We see no occasion for this obtrusive exercise of asperity towards that portion of society which has enough to suffer from the difficulties of situation, without having a further exercise of patience from the arrogance, contempt, and injustice, of those who assume to be their superiors; but the disposition is never more severely tried, than when this humiliation is attempted by those from whom the consolations of religion are expected, and who are taught to moderate the pride of rank and wealth by the instructions of that sacred volume, in which we read, "The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all.”

In the conclusion of the life the editor says,

"To confirm what has already been observed of the mildness and piety of our author's disposition, two original letters are subjoined, the first from Toland, and the second, in answer to it, from Thoresby, highly honourable to his temper as a man, and his consistency as a Christian. The calm but firm reproof which it contains is produced not only out of respect to the author's memory, but to put to shame some of the correspondents of a later unbeliever (Gibbon). Thoresby, though too much addicted to panegyric, disdained to flatter an infidel, because an infidel had flattered him." (p. xv-xvi. vol. i.)