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return of his daughter from a neighbouring viit, the Doctor threw himself into a poft-chafe and travelled all night to reach the manfion of his departed brother, in the courfe of the following day. After furveying with aridity and admiration the innumerable cariofties of which he panted to become the pof fellor, he eagerly enquired if any price had been fettled for the whole collection? and on being informed that he might become the mafter of the whole, on the immediate payment of 3,500l. the Doctor after a struggle between parental affection and his pallion for virta, as all his ready money was devoted to the approaching marriage of his daughter, almost resolved to relinquish all ideas of the purchafe: unluckily he took a fecond furvey, and met with an article which he had overlooked in his first view. This additional rarity entirely overfet his prudential refolution, when haftily feizing a pen he wrote a draft upon his banker for the 3,500l. On his return, the Doctor, who, like most people of a bufy turn, had a particular pleasure in talking of whatever he did, began to entertan his company, confifting of his daughter, a female relation, and the affiduous Mr. Blandford, with an account of his adventures: he enlarged with rapture on his purchase, intimating that it had coft him a large fum, This narration produced a gloomy change in the countenance of Mr. Blandford; which being perceived by the Doctor, he took him into his study, and candidly told him, that tais tranfaction fhould make no material. difference in the fortune of his daughter, as he would more than compenfate for the deficiency, by a bond for 4000l. with full intereft, and ftrict punctuality of payment.

Mr. Blandford, who in fact was trembling on the verge of bankruptcy, and who had raifed many fplendid vifions on the ex. pected fortune of Mifs Coral, immediately refolved to have no connexion with the lady, because he forefaw the evils included in her dower; and after upbraiding the Doctor for bis conduct, rushed out of the houfe, and decamped the next day from the town which contained the object of his tranfient adora

Happily for Theodora, she had such gentle nefs and purity of heart, that this disappointment ferved only to increase her filial affection; and perceiving that her father was deeply vexed by the late occurrences and the comments of his neighbours, the exerted all her powers, in the most endearing manner, ta dipate his vexation; the took a kind and fympathetic pleasure in affifting his fanfal parfaits; the perfuaded him to retain every article of his new purchase; she gave

at of uncommon elegance to the arrange.

ment of his curiofities; and by an inceffant attention to the peace and pleasure of her father's life, moftheffectually established the felicity of her own.

Theodora, by many ingenious works and devices, has contrived to amute herself and delight her father: alw ys engaged in occupations of benevolent ingenuity, the is never uneasy, and has grown imperceptibly into an old maid, without entertaining a with for the more honourable title of a wife. Her mild and gentle parent has fecured himself from the infirmities of age by long habits of temperance, exercife, and, what is perhaps ftill more falutary, univerfal benevolence.— At the age of 87, he is in full pofletion of his faculties, and beholds with infinite delight one virtuous and happy daughter, most tenderly attached to him, and withing for no higher enjoyment than what arifes from their reciprocal affection.

In antwer to fome fprightly remarks of a facetious friend, who had been with him to fee thefe two amiable and fingular characters, and which he concluded with the obfervation of Monfieur de la Bruyere, that "the daughter of a virtuofo is a rarity that no one is very eager to poffefs; the grows old by the fide of the cabinet, and is at last entitled to a place within it, in the clafs of antiques;"- -our author replies, "I grant you that the daughter of my old friend is the moft capital rarity in his collection,, and one that I always furvey with pleafure and efteem. She is, indeed, a rarity, whofe very existence, like that of the Phoenix, I have heard called in question:-the is a contented old maid. Extreme filial tenderness and an active and elegant ingenuity have enabled her to maintain an ealy and chearful state of mind, under circumstances which may fe males would confider as particularly galling: they have, in fhort, enabled her to give an example to her fex, that it is poilible to país a very useful and a very happy life, without a fhare in thofe connubial honours and enjoyments which are erroneoufly fuppofed effential to the happiness of woman,"

As a farther confolation to autumnal virgins, he reminds them that the goddefs of ingenuity among the ancients was berfelf an old maid-recommends the three enchanting filter-aits of mufic, painting, and poetry, as capable of diffipating that reftlefs languor which a folitary condition is fo apt to produce; each of them being able to check and eradicate thofe maladies to which the female frame is particularly tubject, when the heart is vacant, and the mind unemployed; and concludes this chapter with a compliment to Mifs Carter, whom he quotes as a fignal proof that the divinities of Parnaffus are highly propitious

to

to the chafte and mature votaries of Minerva. How far the two other eminent female poets of this nation may think themselves obliged to the author for bis prophecy, that they will probably become very honourable members of that Sifterhood in whofe fervice he writes, we prefume not to determine; we will, however, venture to affert, that in fpite of all he can fay in favour of the fervice of Apollo and the Nine, not one in an hundred, even of the Sitterhood, but will agree with Shakespeare, that

"Earthlier happy far the rose that's pluck'd, Than that which withering on the virginthorn,

Lives, blooms, and dies in fingle bleffednefs."

Chap. 11. treats of the patience of Old Maids. Our author begins by remarking,

that the accurate obfervers of human-nature

readily allow that patience is moft eminently the characteristic of woman. In fupport of this opinion, he mentions the fublime and aftonishing heights to which this virtue has been carried by Beings of the most delicate texture, exemplified in the hiftory of the many virgin martyrs who were expofed in the first ages of chriftianity to the moit barbarous and lingering tortures. Though, in confequence of thofe happy changes which have taken place in the world, from the progrefs of purified religion, beauty and innocence are no longer in danger of being dragged, to perifh at the stake; yet the auther thinks there are fituations in temale life, that require as much patience and magnanimity as were exerted in the fiery torments of the virgin martyr. It has been juttly remarked, that it is more difficult to fupport an ac ummlation of minute infelicities, than any fingle calamity of the most terrific magnitude. Admitting this to be true, our author thinks himfelf juftified in afferting, that the indigent unfortunate old maid of the prefent time is → Being as fully entitied to pity, as thofe female victims formerly were.

If the reader," he fays, is tartled, or tempted to fmile, at a companion of two faterers whofe defting may be thought fo diffimilar, I intreat him to confider attentiveby the frame of mind which we may reafunably attribute to these different objects of compation. During the torments of the virgin martyr, the fervour of enthufi..fm and a Faton for religious glory are fufficient to give new vigour to the foul, in proportion as the most excruciating outrages are inflicted on the body; but what animating ideas can anfe to futain the refolution of the more unhappy old maid, reduced from fluence and pleasure to poverty and contempt ? -reduced to a condition oppofite to Der

withes, unfriendly to her talents, and deftructive to the health both of her body and her mind? To fupport fuch a condition with a placid and chearful magnanimity, appears to me one of the highest exertions of human fortitude: and I have, therefore, always regarded my poor friend Conftantia as a character of as much genuine heroifm and piety as the celebrated St. Agnes, or any other the most heroic female faint in the ample calendar of Rome."

Here follows the hiftory of Conftantia, in which the author has difplayed more than ufual skill and abilities. Of this affecting tale, we can only mention the fubitance. After facrificing her fortune to the happiness of ber fifter, her father's circumftances being embarrailed, he was obliged to quit the kingdom, leaving this pattern of patience under the protection of an aunt, one of those good women, who, by paying punctual vifits to a cathedral, imagine they acquire an unqueftionable right not only to peak aloud their own exemplary virtues, but to make as free as they pleate with the conduct and character of every perfon, both within and without the circle of their acquaintance, --Under the roof of this unfeeling Being was Conttantia receiv ed, for the fake of the pleature that would anfe to her from repeating to every creature who vifited at her houfe-what a good friend fhe was to that poor girl!

Thefe repetitions, painful to a mind of quick fenfibility, Conftantia fupported with a modett refignation, and palled a confiderable time in a state of unmerited mortification, wretched in her own fituation, and anxious to the most painful degree concerning the fate of her father. Perceiving there were no hopes of his return, the wrote to him a must pathetic letter, enumerating her fufferings, of her aunt, and endeavouring to acquire a and imploring his confent to her taking leave more peaceable maintenance by teaching young ladies the rudiments of mufic, an employment to which her talents were perfectly equal. To this filial petition the received a very extraordinary and a very painful anfwer; the purport of which was, that if ever the quitted her prefent refidence, while the herfeif was unmarried, and her aunt alive, he would expofe herfelf to the curies of an offended father. This had fuch an effect upon her, that fome time after, when a friend offered to take her out of her

difagree. ble fituation, and place her with a lady of great fortune and excellent character, the, though her father was dead, declined the friendly offer, and giving him her father's letter thus addreffed him: "Nothing remans for me but to blets you for your kind

intention

intention of befriending fuch as unfortunate wretch. My father is now at reft in his grave, and you, perhaps, may think me fuperfitus in paying fo mu li regard to his letter; but he never in his life laid any command upon me, which was not fuggefted by his affection, and, wretched as I am, I cannot be dobedient even to his afhes." Thus refolved, the continued to linger on in her dread. ful fituation, till at the age of forty-two death put an end to her calamities, which, inttead of giving an afperity to her temper, had fol

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our affecting writer, "thou gentle fpirit! If in thy prefent fcene of happier existence, thou art confcious of fublunary occurrences, difdain not this imperfect memorial of thy fufferings and thy virtues! and if the pages I am now writing, fhould fall into the hand of any indigent and dejected Maiden, whole ill-fortune may be fimilar to thine, may they footh and diminish the difquietude of her life, and prepare her to meet the clofe of it with piety and compofure." [To be concluded in our next.]

Observations on a late Publication, intituled, "Thoughts on Executive Juftice." To which is added, a Letter containing Remarks on the fame Work. - London. Cadell, 1786.

THE publication which gave rife to thefe

Obfervations we took notice of in our Review for March laft; and though we did not condemn it with that degree of afperity that tome of our brethren did, we readily acknowledged its principles were rather repugnant to thofe humane and rational ones which the been very properly adopted, instead of Hele abiurd and barbarous notions of justice which prevailed too long. It is a truth univertally acknowledged, that the main object of the legislature thould be to prevent crines, not to chaltife criminals; and that unlets a jut proportion be obferved between the Lifterent degrees of crimes and the punish meets annexed to them, the law must tend rather to excite than to reprefs guilt. Our author laments that the truth of this doctrine has not produced any melioration of the lyftem of our peual laws, which inflit the tame puanh-nent on a pick-pocket as on a parricide, and render them an object of horror and averfa, mitead of veneration and love.

The author of Thoughts on Executive Juftice having afferted, that "the penal laws of this country are excellent, and that they have no feverity but of the most wholefome kn;" our Obferver, in reply, after quotEg Julge Blackitone's remark, that * it is a melancholy truth, that among the vanaty of actions which men are daily liable to commit, no lefs than 160 have been declared, by Act of Parliament, to be fer ques without benein of clergy; or, in other words, to be worthy of inftant death;" 19," when we come to enquire into the ature of the crimes of which this dreadful Cague is compofed, we find it contains tranfgreffions fcarcely deferving corporal pumhment, while it omits enormities of the mot atrocious kind. To steal a sheep or a borte; to fnatch a man's property out of his bad and run away with it; to fteal to the anut of 40%. in a dwelling-houfe, or to the amount of 55. privately in a fhop; to pick ann's pocket of the value of only twelve

pence farthing, are all crimes punishable with death. On the other hand, for a man to attempt the life of his own father is only a mifdemea nor; to take away another's life, and to brand his name with ignominy by a premeditated perjury, is not confidered as murder, nor thought deferving a capital punishment: to stab another under circumftances of the blackest malice, it the unfortunate object should after a long and painful illness recover of his wound only to breathe out the rest of his days in torment and difeafe, is punithable only by fine and imprifonment: to burn a house of which the incendiary happens to have a leafe, through fituated in de centre of a town, and confequently the lives of hundreds are endangered, is liable to no feverer punufhment. If we look into the legal definition of crimes, we dilcover full greater inconfiftences; we find, that under certain circumit nces a m140 may teal without being a thief, that a pickpocket may be a highway robber, and a man who has no atention to do injury to the perfon of any one a murderer: that to fteal fruit ready gathered is a felony; but to gather it and tte 1 it is only a trefpats; that to force one's hand through a pane of glass, at five o'clock in the afternoon in winter, even if nothing be actually taken, is a burglary; though to break open a houfe, with every circsmitance of violenc, at four o'clock in the morning in lummer, for the purpofe of robbing, is only a mi demeanor. Such," continues he," are the laws which the judges are exhorted to enforce with the utmolt rigour, and which are reprefented as requiring no revital, though they thus proclaim their own abfurdity, and call aloud for reformation.

In a manner equally forcible,theObferver controverts the opinions of the author of Thoughts on Executive Justice, throughout his work; pleads the caule of humanity with unremitting zeal; and maintains that a total revifion and reformation of all our penal laws would moch more effentially contribute to the prevention of crimes, than enforcing them in the pre

fest

fent ftate, and unrelentingly perfifting in hanging up ten or twenty criminals every fix weeks in the metropolis. In juftice, how. ever, to the author of Thoughts on Executive Juftice, whom we believe to have been a fincere well wifher to the public, though his

regard for it may feem to have gotten the better of his philanthropy, we are bound to remark, that his antagonist has, from equally good motives, erred, we think, in an oppofite extreme.Medio tutiffimus.

Boethius's Confolation of Philofophy. Tranflated from the Latin; with Notes and Illuftrations. By the Rev. Philip Ridpath. Dilly. 1785.

T

HIS effay is well known, having been tranflated into English by Chaucer, Colville, Queen Elizabeth, and Lord Prefton, Secretary to James II. Its tendency to confole the afflicted, and pour balm into the wounds occafioned by the inftability of earthly happiness, added to the foothing faduefs which pervades the whole, has rendered it extremely acceptable to thofe whofe minds are fufceptible of that pleafing pain which refults from melancholy reflections not indulged too far.

The prefent tranflation is perfpicuous and accurate, and upon the whole not inelegant. The notes are in general drawn from refpectable fources, and tend to explain and illuftrate the work: thofe which are immediately the tranflator's do not, however, abound in critical acumen; nor is the poetical part of the work the moft meritorious. The following may ferve as a specimen :

"Go thou, who fondly dream'ft that fame

Is tovereign good-deluded man! Ga view Heav'n's wide-extended frame, "Compar'd with Earth's contracted ipan "Beholding Fame thus to a point confin'd, “It's fancied worth will ceafe to charm thy mind.

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The Principle of the Commutation-A&t established by Facts. By Francis Baring, Efq.

Sewell.

R. BARING, who is a warm advocate IVA for the Commutation-act, affirms, that its confequences have been far more impor. tant, extenfive, and beneficial, than its most fanguine friends and admirers could have expected; and that the principle of that act may he extended with equal fuccefs to many other branches of the revenue, promoting at the fame time the general welfare and profper ty of the kingdom.

The advantages which have refulted from the Commutation.net, according to our au. thor's account, are thefe :

First, That within the first twelve months after the act took place, the quantity of tea fold by the East-India Company exceeded 16,coc,coelb. whereas the average quarti y fold for ten years prior to paffing the act, was

1786.

very little more than 6,000,000lb. per ann.

Secondly, That the amount of the duty ftill continued upon tea has, in the first year only, exceeded the estimate by no less than 60,434!

Thirdly, That the total fum paid by the purchafers for teas fold fince the paffing of the act, amounts only to 2,770,7991; but, had an equal quantity been fold at the former prices, the purchafers muft have paid not lefs than 4,826,2611. confequently the public have been benefited to the amount of 2,055.4621. by this regulation.

Fourthly, That the increase in the annual amount of the Company's fales will oblige them to extend their importations from China, in order to fulfil the requifitions of the act, and for which purpofe not left than

forty

forty-five large additional ships, and 3,450 feamen, must be constantly employed by the Company.

Filthly, That their exports of the woollens and lead of this country must be augmented from the value of 111,000l. to which the amount has hitherto been limited, to at Jet 300,000l. per ann. which will be necelary hereafter.

And finally, That a balance, amounting annually to no less than 1,032,400l. will be retained within this kingdom, which, prior to the act, was regularly paid to foreigners in fpecie, thro' the medium of the fmugglers; and that this balance will, in all probability,

be greatly increased, when the purposes of the act shall have been carried completely into execution.

In endeavouring to prove these feveral affertions, Mr. Baring has fhewn himself thoroughly master of the fubject, and has difplayed confiderable abilities. Thofe, however, who are not fo partial to the act as Mr. Baring, will probably be of opinion, that he has taken fome things for granted which require proof, and will be apt to remind him of a logical truth, "That it is poffible to draw a wrong conclufion from right premifes."

The Breeches; or, the Country Curate and Cobler's Wife, a comic, fatiric, poetic, de fcriptive Tale. London. S. Bladon, 1786.

A Hafty Sketch of this curious adventure
having found its way into a morning
paper, it gave rife to this wretched piece of
baldry, equally devoid of poetry and hu-
mour. That the cobler found the breeches
is allowed on all hands, but that they belong-
ed to Grape is not fo evident. Men of all
profeffions now-a-days wear black fattin

breeches; a qui pro quo may therefore have
easily happened, and a limb of the law been
mistaken for a fprig of divinity: at all events,
as nobody chufes to own the small-clothes,
"Sim, who nor cares for taunting fleers or
fcorns,

"May with the Quidam's guineas tip his
horns."

Strictures on Ecclefiaftical Abuses, addreffed to the Bishops, Clergy, and People of Great Britain. Dilly, 1785.

THE author obferves, that, owing to the relaxed and degenerate state of the ecclefuftical establishments of this kingdom, the influence of religion on the minds of the low

er clafs of people is greatly deficient. He points out eight abufes deferving the attention of thofe to whofe confideration they are recommended.

The Poet, a Poem; infcribed to Mr. Jerningham. By Jofeph Colls.

THE author of this poem poffeffes no inconfiderable share of merit, though he appears to have moved in the humbler fphere of life,and to want the fostering hand of public approbation to call forth those abilities which feem to want only to be known, to be encouraged. The following lines, which are harmonious and expreffive, may ferve to Jatify our opinion:

"True worth, once known, shall never be
forgot,

Tho' bred in want, and nurtur'd in a cot:
That worth may live, and strike the mufe's

lyre
With Virgil's fweetness and a Homer's fire ;
To thrilling raptures wake the feeling breast,
And, blefling others, be completely bleft.
Had fortune bail'd me from a parent's womb,
I ne'er had ficken'd at my native home;
But plac'd in eafe enjoy'd a happier state,
Exempt from all the rigid laws of fate;
Perhaps have taught fome other bard to fing,
And rofe to glory on ambition's wing.
EUROP. MAG.

Robson, 1785.

Yet mark how different was my lot decreed,
Condemn'd the paths of active life to tread;
Those bufy paths, where credit lives at stake,
And nought but interest keeps the mind
awake;

Where pride and vice poffefs an equal sway,
Where midnight revels close the fleeting day;
Where modeft worth by ev'ry dunce is
fpurn'd,

And Attic wit to venal cunning turn'd
Such fcenes as thefe ill fuit the Poet's mind,
As free as light, as æther unconfin'd ;
From fuch he turns his ever-wakeful eye,
And, wing'd by rapture, views the world on
high!

Thus was I doom'd to tread life's humble
sphere,

'Till time releas'd me from the weighty care,
But now, fuperior to each galling load,
I boldly venture from the beaten road;
And cheer'd at once by Hope's enlivening
ray,
[away:
Thro' gath'ring clouds like lightning burst
G

Yet

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