The Dean has fome other obfervations, of this kind; but we mu proceed with the volume. And, next in order, we come now to (No. 10.) Short Remarks on Bishop Burnet's Hiftory." Our Readers will remember how feverely the bishop was treated, in the humourous Memoirs of P. P. Clerk of this parifh,' printed in the Mifcellanies published by our Author and Mr. Pope. In this paper, the great hiftorian of the whigs is attacked in a diferent ftrain+;-with ill-nature, and with outrage:- had he been the hiftorian of the tories, he would have efcaped all this abule. There may, however, amidit so much fcurri ity, be fome truth. Hear what this invective Remarker fays: This Author is, in mot particulars, the worft qualified for an hiftorian, that ever I met with. His ftyle is rough, full of improprieties, in expreffions often Scotch, and often fuch as are used by the meaneft of the people.-His obfervations are mean, and trite, and very often falfe. His fecret history is generally made up of coffee house scandals, or, at beft, from reports at the 3d, 4th, or 5th hand. The account of the pretender's birth,' (aye! there lay the poor bishop's unpardonable fin !) would only become an old woman in a chimney-corner, His vanity runs intolerably through the whole book, affecting to have been of confequence at nineteen years old, and while he was a little Scotch paríon of 40 pounds a-year.-His characters are miferably wrought, in many things miftaken, and all of them detracting, except of thofe who were friends to the prefbyterians. That early love of liberty he boafts of, is abfolutely false; for the first book that I believe he ever publifhed, is an entire treatise in favour of paffive obedience and abfolute power; fo that his reflections on the clergy, for afferting, and then changing those principles, come very improperly from him. His work may be more properly called a Hiftory of Scotland during the Author's Time, with fome Digreffions relating to England, rather than deferve the title he gives it: for I believe two thirds of it relate only to that beggarly nation, and their infignificant brangles and factions.In his laft ten years, he was abfolute party-mad, and fancied he faw popery under every bush.—He never gives a good character without one effential point, that the perfon was tender to diffenters, and thought many things in the church ought to be amended.'—And does not every moderate churchman, now living, think the fame?———We have omitted feveral paffages in these remarks, for want of room to infert the whole; but we must not forget to obferve, that he + See alfo the Dean's Preface to the Bishop of Sarum's Introduction. This anecdote deferves to have been better authenticated; and we are forry the Dean did not exprefly refer to the tract here mentioned. makes makes fome conceffions in favour of the bishop's private charac ter; and one or two in favour even of his book; which, after all, it is pretty apparent, the Dean would have thought a very tolerable fort of a book, if he had not perused it with partyfpectacles. 11. An Abstract of the Hiftory of England, from the Invafion of it by Julius Cæfar, to William the Conqueror.'-Not worth mentioning; and moft certainly, as well as fome other fcraps in this publication, was not worth printing. 12. A Letter to a Member of Parliament, in Ireland, upon chufing a new Speaker there: 1708.'-This letter relates to the great question, about that time much agitated, concerning a repeal of the Sacramental Teft. Few of our Readers need be told what a zealous advocate the Dean was for that act.—At this juncture, it feems, there was great reafon to apprehend that the choice of a speaker of the Irish house of commons would light on a gentleman who was no friend to the teft-act. He therefore wrote this letter, as a diffuafive against chufing fuch a perfon; and among other arguments, he has the following very remarkable one: I will put the cafe: if the perfon to whom you have promifed your vote be one of whom you have the leaft apprehenfion that he will promote or affent to the repealing of that claufe, whether it be decent or proper he should be the mouth of an affembly, whereof a great majority pretend to abhor his opinion? Can a body, whofe mouth and heart muft go fo contrary ways, ever act with fincerity, or with confiflence? Such a man is no proper vehicle to retain or convey the fenfe of the house, which, in fo many points of the greatest moment, will be directly contrary to his. It is full as abfurd, as to prefer a man to a bishopric who denies revealed religion. But it may poffibly be a great deal worse.'-Can any thing be a stronger proof that the pious Dean thought prefbyterianifm worse than downright infidelity? 12. Some few Thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Teft.Few indeed; the whole making but a page: which was, probably, no more than the beginning of a paper on this fubject. What is here offered, is not very material to the point. 13. • Maxims Controlled in Ireland.'-The Dean here examins the truth of fome maxims in ftate and government, with reference to Ireland, which, he fays, generally pass for uncontrolled in the world; and he confiders how far they fuit with the condition of that kingdom. This, which is not a party, but a truly patriotic, paper, contains a fhrewd, fenfible, and affecting reprefentation of the diftrefled ftate of our fifter kingdom, at the time when this tract was written: we hope, and believe, matters are not quite fo bad there at prefent-although it is most certain ceria, mut ve å trek our fellow-ilbieds of Iceland very tes name", a Dart rejects.-We are now a tood at the end of the Final Tracts; and must cloie the book, for the petent. [To be continued.] A Pertaff Oratory. By J. Garner, M. D. 8vo. 2s. Sandby. TOTHING is more common than for the herd of didae N tic writers, in laying down the theory of an art, to be tar their incapacity to reduce their rules to practice, How was the cafe with the great Longinus, acfe own example frengthens all his laws, We he's himself the great fublime he draws! In re manner, the Limner of the prefent Portrait of Dratory, does by no means content himself, with giving us a bere wil Rifbed frame, the mere out nes o don his piece with the high glow and teach yong o nuant • What is here exhibits to te prve me fey, in of a few lettere hours, with it was prefumed, wojn canvaffing the fubject of drinking the rill of this mom, my sa draught of benefit, the hours will not be uncrow Our Readers may a talent, which our Actor sale fubject. We are not to numerous competitors f critics invidious eno heart-inflaming, terre v Dologodelmo's Oratory: etherial, fay they, figures, his moft fo 'Oh Deart, dars in Says the genius of H. critics, been to addre would have called a Oh Death or But, how do they com tion not to be the See the சதி paffages, they pretend, have too great a fimilitude not to justify the fufpicion of imitation. Dr. Garner fuppofes an affectionate father, expreffing his pungent exultation of heart,' to address a reformed fon in the fubfequent terms: O my fon! my fon! What a fea of intense satisfaction overflows this breaft.-Oh! tranfporting! tranfporting !-Oh! ceafe not, cease not, my beloved! to travel the delightful ftreets of virtue, that rapture may warm a fond father's breaft, beginning to bend under the rifing mountain of years; that, at the fetting of life's fun, the confideration of leaving behind me a virtuous child, may shoot a refulgent, golden, ray of comfort through my foul, taking wing into a fhorelefs futurity.' This fpeech is fuppofed to be only an improvement on the following of King Soar-ethereal to his mistress: Oh my Cadamore! that I might die always to live with thee; for when the fetters of flumber have linked thefe limbs and the ground together, when the chains of fleep have bound this body to the earth; when thefe eyes, thefe ears are infenfible, I have other eyes that fee, other ears that hear, and myself rejoices when myself is dead.' Now, not to infift on the wide difference there is, between • a man's breast bending under a rifing mountain,' and his body being bound to the earth,' we do infift, in oppofition to these critics, that the above paffages are totally diffimilar. They yet perfift in carrying on the parallel farther. The rejoicing father above-inftanced wifhes, that in the dread, the joyous, all remunerating, day, he and his fon, may meet, with ravifhed hearts, with faces, clad in fmiles-that, O rapturous reflection! they may fpend, together, an eternity, in laughing, heavenly, groves, plucking golden, ever-ripening, fruit off flourishing trees of blifs, extatic!' The joyous meeting here projected, it is faid, is evidently taken from the following fpeech of Hurlothrombo: Let us go, my Lord, we'll this moment mount her upon the back of the fun; in the mean while, you get a straddle upon the moon, there you'll be mounted aloft and ride after her, fpur and whip, whip and fpur, and you'll be fure to overtake her in the eclipfes; there you'll be clapped together, face to face, one upon another; and all the world will fhout and fay, he has her, he has her! Huzza.' The malevolence of thefe critics, leads them ftill greater lengths, even fo far as to cavil at almoft all our Author's tropes and figures. But, we fhould be glad to know, what is oratory, without tropes and figures? and as to the propriety of them, the beft writers might be quoted to prove it problematical. Whatever tenet is efpoufed, fays our Author, that opens a door to a torrent of licentioufnefs, be the fharp axe of folid argument ap plied to its very root.' How hypercritical is it to object here a rooted tenet's opening a door to a torrent! How captious to oppofe the keen edge of ridicule against the sharp axe of folid ar-· gument! Solidity, fay they, betokens weight and ftrength; its effects bearing a greater fimilitude to the ftroke of a mallet, the crush of a rammer, or, the fillip of a three-man beetle,' than to the keen severity of an edge-tool. Again, when our Author thus calls out to the flouncing rage of religious controverfy, Ruft thou fharp-edged fword! eternal, in thy fcabbard !' thefe critics affect to fneer; pretending that it is impoffible for a fword to keep growing rufty for ever s for that some time or other it must be fairly rufted through as 1 can grow rufty no longer. But, who doth not plainly fee, that fuch remarks are the mere effects of ignorance or envy Aacy with fuch contemptible correctness, the frigid fuggefona di cold-blooded critics, eftranged to the captivating, foul-en ing, heaven-vivifying powers of oratory! Let us throwe therefore fuch invidious criticifms, and with our Author, i the feet of thought into the tract of themes, meriting? reiterated comer plation.' Hear part of our Author's Oratory and Orators. Ha Eai O Oratory! Queen of the beam Format affectionate for employ his pencil, in the amate grace of thy features, &c.— Orator, he beautifully queries, exclaim of religion controverfy? Or fha i ne ise revelation arent funthine, ose not upon Beative com fuel, the re of that has bez, ME vitals; then, TE tooth +. contempie, WI ver derived their bir haft thou Brüder, there is so- the word a fhould tave ter T impropriety? And what wit + The pitiful critics are telling us that a vuliwe ha knows has confounded |