as they rife. Mr. Quid, one of thefe literary freebooters, has feized the receipt-tax as lawful game; and he makes game of it. He fhoots with Swift's gun; but it is not Swift's hand that draws the trigger. POETICAL.

Art. 10. The Cumbrian Festival. A Poem. By a Cumbrian. 4to. Is. 6d. Robfon. 1783.

A political paftoral, written in a ftyle, if not uniformly elegant, yet, in general, chafte, pleafing, and harmonious. It is too lavish of its incenfe to the " powers that be;" and time perhaps may convince the Author, that a man may be a poet without being a prophet.

The following defcription of the GENIUS of Cumbria,' and 'the Mountain Goddefs LIBERTY,' are truly poetical:

Hard by, beneath an oak's wide-arching fhade,
I fpied a manly form, at eafe reclin'd;
A ruffet garb his nervous limbs array'd,
And careless dignity befpoke his mind.

Save that whene'er the feftive band drew nigh,
Led by their Queen thro' all the meafur'd maze,
On her, methought, he caft an earnest eye,
On her he fix'd a fond impaffion'd gaze.

And O fuch beauty well might charm a God!
Tempt him to quit his heav'n for Cumbria's plain!
No nymph fo fweet the vale of Tempe trod,
When Love made Phoebus' felf a cottage fwain.
Like Phoebus' fifter fhe, as tall, as fair,

As chafte her looks, yet kindling warm defire:
While Dian's eyes of too fevere an air,

Reprefs and chill the paffion they inspire.
Yet fuch her form, and fuch the veft fhe wore,
Zon'd, but ftill waving in the playful wind;
And half her iv'ry neck and bofom o'er

Floated her auburn treffes unconfin'd.

And fuch the virgin train her steps attend,

As bloom'd with Dian in the glowing chace;
Their charms in each thro' various beauties blend,
Yet ftill a fifter-likenefs marks each face.'

It is as difficult to preferve a juft medium between fatire and de- ́ traction, as between praife and flattery. Perhaps the Poet is better juftified in calling the Duke of Portland the Friend of Freedom and Mankind,' than in configning the inglorious olive' to the Earl of Shelburne.

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Art. 11. The Peafant of Auburn; or, the Emigrant. A Poem. Infcribed to the Earl of Cariifle. By T. Coombe, D. D. 410. Is. Elmfly.

The Poet fuppofes that Edwin, a peafant of Auburn (a village whofe poetical existence and hiftory* every body is acquainted with) driven from home by the enclosure of the commons, migrates with

*Goldsmith's Deferted Village.

his family to America. In the couffe of their voyage, his wife and her two fons are carried off by fickness and fatigue; and no fooner do he and his furviving daughter land in America, than fhe is ravished from him by the Indians. The ftory does not feem to have been written with a view of fuggefting any particular moral. Pof fibly the Author wished to check the fpirit of emigration to América. Confidered merely as a pathetic tale, it is not without merit. This decifion will be juftified by the following extract:

Twelve tedious weeks we plough'd the wintry main,
And hop'd the port, but hop'd, alas! in vain,
Till left of heaven, and prefs'd for daily bread,
Each gaz'd at each, and hung the fickly head.
Two little fons, my hope, my humble pride,
Too weak to combat, languifh'd, wail'd, and died.
Stretch'd on the deck the breathless cherubs lay,
As buds put forth in April's ftormy day.
Not Emma's felf remain'd my woes to cheer,
Borne with her babes upon a watery bier.
Five days the ftruggled with the fever's fire,
The fixth fad morn beheld my faint expire.
Thefe trembling lips her lips convulfive preft,.
Thefe trembling hands fuftain'd her finking breaft ;
These trembling hands difcharg'd each mournful rite,
Sooth'd her last pang, and feal'd her dying fight.
To the fame deep their dear remains were given,
Their mingled fpirits wing'd their flight to heaven.
One only daughter in life's vernal pride,
Surviv'd the wreck that whelm'd my all befide.
Snatch'd from the peace of death, and loathing day,
On bleak Henlopen's coaft the mourner lay.
Thefe aged arms her languid body bore
Thro' the rude breakers, to that ruder fhore.
Mercy, fweet heaven! and did the pitying storm
Spare but for deeper ills that angel form!
Bleft had we funk unheeded in the wave,
And mine and Lucy's been one common grave.
But I am loft, a worn out, ruin'd man,

And fiends complete what tyranny began.'

Art. 12. A Criticifm on the Elegy written in a Country Churchyard; being a Continuation of Dr. Jn's Criticifm on the Poems of Gray. 8vo. 2 S. Wilkie. 1783.

;

In this ironical imitation of Dr. Johnfon, his atrabilious mode of criticising is more fuccefsfully imitated than his ftyle of expreffion. Irony is a delicate weapon, which requires great skill to manage with dexterity. It is in this pamphlet fometimes ufed in fo equivocal a manner, that it is difficult to guess whether the writer intends to be in jest or earnest.

Art. 13. The Chriftian: a Poem, in Four Books. By Charles Crawford, Efq. 8vo. 2 s. Dodfley. 1781.

The preface to this poem, the fubject of which is taken from the life; the miracles, and prophecies of Chrift, contains fome fenfible remarks on the proofs of the truth of Chriftianity, and is much better

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worth reading than the poem itself, which is but a very moderate performance. Mr. Crawford certainly mistakes his talents when he applies them to poetry.

Art. 14. Diftrefs: a Poem. By ROBERT NOYES, Cranbrook, Kent. 4to. 2s. 6d. Law. 1783.

The fubject of this poem fuggefted itself in confequence of the Author's particular fituation. He had been Minifter of a Diffenting congregation twenty-fix years, and was difmiffed, without any other reafon given, as he informs us, than that the congregation was no longer able to fupport the expence of a minifter; though at the fame time, he adds, they intended to engage another at an advanced falary. This poem, though an unpolished performance, contains evident marks of strong fenfe, and lively imagination. The principal, and indeed the bef, part of the poem is occupied in delineating the Author's feelings arising from his own fituation. We here meet with many lines that are forcible and pathetic.

Art. 15. Poetical Effufions of the Heart.
Publisher's Name, nor Price.

8vo. 1783. No

Thefe effufions confift of Elegies, Epiftles, Odes, Mifcellaneous Pieces, and Levities. They were written, as we are informed in "the Prelude," under fome peculiar difadvantages-a confideration that difarms the feverity of criticifm. The author's name, as appears from the infcription [To Gardner Bullftrode, Efq;] is John Dell. He dates from Dover.

Art. 16. The Vis-a-Vis of Berkley-fquare: or a Wheel off Mrs. W-tn's Carriage. Infcribed to Florizel. 4:0. I s. 6d.

Murray.

Pert and indecent.

Art. 17. The Disjointed Watch: or, Truth rent asunder and divided. A Similitude attempted in Metre. By Francis Okely, formerly of St. John's College, Cambridge. 12mo. 2 d. Lackington. 1783.

A father goes abroad, and leaving his watch at home, it fell into the hands of his children, who, not knowing its ufe, though fondly admiring its beauty, firft play with it, then open it, and at laft fpoil it. One injures the dial-plate, another the wheels, a third breaks the the chain, and a fourth weakens the main-fpring. When the Father returns, he finds the watch all in pieces! Here lies the cafe; there are fcattered in confufion the different movements. It was now his bufinefs to collect them together, and if poffible to restore them to their original order, that they might not lie in ufelefs parts and divifions; but, giving mutual affittance to each other, might again complete one beautiful and harmonious machine.

This is the Tale of the Watch. The moral, or the mystery' of it, we shall give the Reader in the words of the pious and benevolent Author.

Reader, without a long refearch,

Thou'lt find this watch to be the church,

Pillar and ground of truth entire,
Which doth right faith and love infpire.
And can't you in these children see
Beguiling Satan's fubtilty ?

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Wherein,

Wherein, alas! e'en now abide
All fets, which Christendom divide.
We'll then, as in the church's youth,
Refign vain whim for folid truth:
Repent of stolen, righteous pride,
Believe in Jefus crucified,

And then in God's beloved Son,

Will ALL be found again in ONE.

We lament, with good Mr. Okely, the divifions that have made the church fo unfortunately deferving of the appellation of Militant ; but so obftinate is the evil, that we are afraid that the best poetry in the world will have little influence towards its reformation !

DRAMATIC.

Art. 18. The Receipt Tax. A Farce, in Two Acts, as performed at the Iheatre-Royal in the Haymarket, with univerfal Applaufe. Written by the Author of Too Civil by Half. 8vo. I s. Stockdale. 1783.

This farce fhould rather have been entitled, A receipt for a benefit ; its primary-object being to ferve the comedian (Mr. Willon) to whom it is infcribed. Having once anfwered that purpofe, it should have been configned to oblivion. It has no fort of reference to the Tax from which it is named; but confits of a ftring of miferable æquivoques, hacknied on the ftage, and unenlivened by novelty of character, or pleafantry of dialogue.

NOVEL S.

Art. 19. Memoirs of the Manftein Family: pathetic, fentimental, humourous, and latirical. 12mo. 2 Vols. 6s. bound. Lowndes. 1783.

This Novel poffeffes a confiderable degree of merit; and is, in almoft every view, fuperior to the general run of productions of this fort. It interests us (and this is the capital merit of a novel, the Conditio fine qua non) in the fortunes of the principal perfonages who figure in it: we realize the fcene, and take a flare in the event. To the merit of keeping us awake, it adds the merit of keeping us pure, As its graver inftructions do not fatigue the mind, fo its lighter fallies do not taint the fancy. The feelings it communicates are chaßte, and the affections it would infpire are benevolent,

The Writer's character of the good school-master will afford the Reader a very proper fpecimen of his ftyle and manner;

Our matters being happily adjusted, my mother foon quitted' Brookhead; and we were fent to school at Hatherleigh, near which place my uncle lived with a small establishment in a comfortable abode, much refpected, and his chief employment and pride the distribution of juice to the neighbourhood, as one of his Majesty's reprefentatives.... To my MASTER's honour I must mention it, that though a fchool-mafter, he had not a grain of tyranny in his compofition: he was of the facred Order, had been Fellow of a college, and fucceeded to a living; but having a large family, and a fmall fortune, he fubmitted to the irksome talk of tuition, to increase his income, and make some proviñon for his children. He was a complete fchojar; and though expedience, not choice, led him to this profeffion, he

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had a real zeal to communicate to his pupils a portion of the knowledge which he poffeffed.

His manners were fingularly mild and engaging, and the afpe&t of feverity never clouded his brow: his remonttrances were the chidings of a father, and the warnings of a friend. As he refolved to influence by reafon, not rule by fear, he never ufed the rod of correction, except for fome very atrocious offence--and but once; because expulfion from the fchool infallibly followed wilful and obftinate negligence, or repeated immoralities.

Nor was it his practice to urge us on to excel by the excitement of proud emulation, or give us rank according to the exact scale of our attainments. He wifely obferved, that boys of flower parts, but equal or fuperior diligence, would by this means be difcouraged. He commended, therefore, always according to the attention which he faw employed, rather than according to the measure of excellence; by which means, while all due praise was given to the forward, none were disheartened or difpirited. as every boy felt it was in his own power to please him, and was fure of approbation when he did his best.

• We loved him like a father, and were more afraid of his difpleafure, than of the lighting down of his arm in punishment: and I remember being greatly furprifed, when I heard a grown man at my uncle's table afk me, how often I had been flogged at fchool? and declare, that he trembled to that hour, whenever he met his old school-mafter.

We had fpent two years in France. We were very young, and foon learned the language as natives, the fervants being all French, and no other spoken in the family. At fchool this was also taught and spoken, under the penalty of a small forfeit, three afternoons in every week; a year being allowed to thofe who were admitted to learn it. The other days were employed in the learned languages, and a little geography and history by way of relaxation.

My mailer spoke Latin fluently, and encouraged us to speak to him and to each in this language, obferving, that it would be more readily attained in this way than by mere reading and tranflating : and if we fhould in future life travel, or appear in any public capacity abroad, a facility of expreffing ourfelves in Latin, which even many good scholars wanted, would be peculiarly ufeful to us, as this was the univerfal language among the Literati, as French is of the courts of Europe.

As we had every indulgence of reasonable amusement and boyish fports, and lived under no fenfible dread of punishment, I am bound to reckon the days I paft with Mr. Fleetwood among the happiest, as well as by far the molt innocent of my life.'

On the whole, this Novel will afford the Reader a very rational amufement, in thofe hours when he relaxes from bufinefs, or when more ferious ftudies are fufpended.

Art. 20. The Orphan. 12mo. 2 Vols. 6s. bound. Hook

ham. 1783...

There is a prettinels in this Novel; but it wants feafoning. It confifts too much of infipid relations of uninterefting adventures, and tedious repetitions of raptures and terrors, and doubts and fears, and

fo