• With tenfold ufury the pious care,

And pouring o'er my wounds the heav'nly balm

• Of confcious innocence.'

We thank the Author for the entertainment we have re ceived in the perufal of this fmall production, and make no doubt but the judicious part of the world, will rank him above the degree of a tolerable poet.

The Pruffiad: an Heroic Poem. Written by Major Alexander Gordon, a Volunteer in the Pruffian Service; and prefented to the King of Pruffia at the Camp of Madlitz, near Fruftet walde, Sept. 7, 1759. To which is prefixed, the original Letter, wrote with his Majefty's own Hand to the Author, in the German Language, with a Tranflation. Humbly dedicated to his Moft Sacred Majesty King George. London, 4to. Is. 6d. Burd.

THE

HE title of this Heroic Poem, Addrefs to two cotemporary Princes, muft certainly have raised the Reader's curiofity to a very extraordinary pitch; but how will he glow with expectation, when he has read the letter mentioned in the title page! The following is the Author's tranflation of it.

I

• SIR,

To Major ALEXANDER GORDON.

Have read your poem with fatisfaction, and thank you for the many genteel compliments you have paid me in it. • Towards the expence of having it printed, I have ordered my Secretary to pay you two hundred crowns; which I defire you will accept of, not as a reward of your merit, but as a mark of my benevolence..

FREDERICK.'

This is not a very accurate tranflation of the king's letter: his majefty does not fay (in the original) genteel, but pleasing, or agreeable complements. Towards the expence of having it printed, should have been, That it may be speedily printed, and in ftead of benevolence, he fhould have faid favour. But thefe are trifles, we fuppofe, with Major Alexander Gordon.

After his invocation to his mufe, whom, in the language of poetry, he calls hiftoric maid, the poet begins his story with this beautiful line:

There was a country, thro' whose fair domains.'

Speaking

Speaking of Hungaria, he says,

• The hoftile queen revives a bleeding war,

⚫ And arms her claim with covert dark intrigue.'

He then informs us, that the Almighty fent Sagacity,

Clad like a Genius

Certainly, the Author writes like a Genius. However, the genius Sagacity informs the king of his danger; and his Majefty affembling his generals, afks their opinion of dreams; for he is not certain, whether it is a dream, or a vifion. The generals, like wife men, fuppofe him to be wrong in his head: they

ey'd each other, as inclined to doubt 'Of the king's reason.?

The generals make notable speeches upon the occafion, and the king preperes for war. Schwerin, fortunately intercepts a Poft, and brings him to his majefty, who reads his dispatches:

Then thus bespoke sage Schwerin :-" Fast in hold "Detain the bearer, till he back tranfmit

"In his own hand a refcript, but await

"Our farther will, and leave us now alone."

The king says his prayers, and then delivers to the general,

a refcript, aptly fram`d,

• And fuited to deceive Vienna's court;

Which being copy'd by the Poft, and fent, &c.

The hero now marches his troops,

• Since treaties deem'd like nugatory air,

• Were puff'd away by ftern Teresa's rage.'

His first exploit is to invest Saxony; so that Saxony must be a town, and not an electorate, as our ignorant geographers have made it. What it is to be upon the fpot! Thus then having invefted Saxony, he blocks up Pirna:

The trumpet founds citation.

• Hears not the dread remontrance

Pirna deaf,

thrice fhe bears

Now, does Pirna hear, or does the not hear? The triple affertion, fhould influence us to believe that the really did. hear; and yet, if poor Pirna was deaf, how could the poffibly hear the citation? But to proceed :

Large contribution pays for lives indulg'd,

The high affeffment, and the fword is fheath'd:

So it appears, that the king pays the affeffment, and not the inhabitants. Probably, he paid it to the parish officers of the place. Next we are prefented with the battle fought near Prague, May 6, 1759, in which M. Schwerin was killed, But hark! the charge

• Sounds dreadful, never to be heard again

By numbers formidable, tho' they shine

With polished muskets, in the fierce attack.'

What in the name of wonder did the poet, the heroic poet, mean? We make no doubt but he had a meaning, though we are fo unhappy as not to perceive it. Our readers, we hope, will excufe us if we pursue this fublime writer no farther, as it is impoffible to give a juft idea of his poem, without tranfcribing the greatest part of it. We cannot, however, suffer the fine picture of his hero, at the last battle, to pass unnoticed: Upon the precipice of danger, fee

The king in perfon, while his blazing fword

Hangs o'er the verge of death, and rules the fight;
Beneath him, in the dark abyfs, appear

Carnage, befmear'd with gore, and red-fac'd rout:
Purfuit upon the back of panting flight

Hacks terrible, and gafhes him with wounds.'

Unfortunately for the poet, in this battle, which ends the poem, the hero happens to have been beaten.

Upon the whole, we have no reafon to doubt, that the Letter prefixed to the poem is genuine; and, we believe no body will question the king of Pruffia's judgment, as to heroic poetry: it must neceffarily follow then, that his majesty is but little acquainted with the English language.

Confiderations on the Statutes, 21 and 28 Hen. VIII. concerning the Refidence of the Clergy. In Anfwer to the Interpretation given of thofe Statutes in the Bishop of London's late Charge*. 4to. is. Dodfley.

THE queftion in debate appears to be this, What advantage, in point of refidence, the ftatutes abovementioned, were defigned to convey? The Bishop ftrenuoufly pleads: That certain perfons excepted in the acts,

⚫ Vide Review for May, 1759. P. 480..

• which

which were made to enforce the general refidence of the clergy under certain penalties, are thereby, exempted only from the penalties of the acts; but, that they are in no manner released from the obligation to refide, unless they obtain alfo, a difpenfation from the ordinary for that purpofe.' In oppofition to this, it is afferted in the confiderations, now before us, that the perfons excepted in thefe ftatutes are, by fuch exception, most clearly and effectually discharged from the obligation to refide; without any intervention of the ordinary, or any kind of exemption whatsoever, except that only, which is conveyed to them by the acts themselves. In the times preceding the reformation, the clergy and people of the popifa church of England, were in a ftate of abject flavery and bondage, through the ufurpations and tyranny of the Pope; rigid impofitions were injoined by the decrees of councils, and the Pope's decretal letters. But thefe, even in the gloomieft seasons of anti-christian darkness, were never received in England, upon their own authority; fuch parts of them only, as were fubmitted to by general confent, and afterwards confirmed by usuage, acquired the force of laws, merely in confequence of fuch ufage and confent: it is also observed, that whatever jurifdiction the bishops exercised, in respect of difpenfing with refidence, the main queftion to be confidered by us at prefent, is, whether it remained the fame after thefe ftatutes were made, or whether, on the contrary it was fuperfeded by them.

Our Author proceeds diftinctly to explain the provifions made by, these ftatutes, and then takes notice, that in a difpute of this kind, the words of the ftatutes themselves, ought to be the fole rule of judgment. But thefe are intirely filent, with refpect to the ordinary. They neither confirm, nor abrogate, his power; and therefore, the whole which can be collected from them upon this head, must be deduced in. the way of inference. He goes on to recite, and fet afide, the feveral pleas which the bifhop hath alleged in fupport of his hypothefis (which indeed appear rather to be specious and artful, then pertinent and folid) and remarks, that in one cafe, his Lordship, perhaps through inattention, hath changed the language of the ftatute; he then attempts to fhew, from a view of the thing itself, as it ftands independent of objections that a real and effectual privilege and liberty of non-refidence is conveyed to all the perfons excepted in the statutes, and fuch a liberty as the ordinary has not any power to controul.

Gg 2

He

He repeats the obfervation, that the decrees of councils and of popes, which formed the chief part of that which was called the canon law, were never binding in England by their own intrinfic authority. The church admitted fome, and rejected others; as they were confiftent with, or repugnant to the laws of the realm; or, as they were found to be either reasonable, or unjust in themselves; or as the temper of the clergy, and circumstances of the times, rendered them convenient, or improper. Nor was this method practifed in the cafe only of different councils: but even among the different conftitutions of the fame council, while fome were acknowledged and fubmitted to, others were thrown afide, and difregarded; and these were never afterwards thought to bind. And with refpect to those that were received, it was the general acquiefcence and fubmiffion, confirmed by ufe and cuftom, which in a courfe of time, gave to them the force of laws. This opinion, fays he, is confirmed by the words of parliament itself. For the ftatute 25 Hen. VIII. chap. 21. by no means imports, as fome have affected to interpret it *, that the ecclefiaftical laws were no longer binding by their own authority; but, on the contrary, declares in the cleareft terms, that they never otherwise were binding, "than as they had been "ufed among the people by their own confent, and origi"nally established as laws of the realm by the faid confent, "fufferance and custom."

But, whatever degree of authority may be fuppofed originally to have belonged to this body of laws, it is well known, that for fome ages before the reformation, the greater part of the clergy conftantly found means to elude their force; fometimes by the help of fraud, intereft, or faction, and fometimes, by the affiftance of indulgencies from Rome; which, in cafes more especially of non-refidence and plurality of benefices, were fcandaloufly proftituted to all who were able to pay their price. For though the poffeffion of only a fingle benefice muft be allowed, as well as refidence, to be a matter of duty, arifing both • from the nature of the thing and the divine law, yet fo little regard was in thofe days paid to thefe facred obligations, that many instances may be found of men who at one time occupied fix or ten, or even a greater number of ⚫ prebends and other dignities.'

See the preface to bishop Gibson's Codex.

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