impelled less perhaps by verfatility of difpofition than a grateful adoption of the opinion of his great patron, acted both for and against the Court. The times were turbulent; the principles of the higher order of men unsteady; the health of John of Gaunt declining; the throne tottering under the Moarch; and he, himself, who had fortunately steered through and cleared the fhoals and quick fands of adverfe fortune, placed, at this critical period, in a fituation of eafe and opulence, from which it did not require much penetration to conjecture, that, unless he could procure an anchor, another form might fet him adrift, when he had neither strength nor talents to enable him to regain the harbour. The patent of protection, therefore, we believe, was a measure of caution, as a man engaged in public affairs of peculiar danger and delicacy would, in modern times, avail himself of ar act of grace, or, contracting to a very limited fenfe a modern phrafe, which has had a pretty general application, would individually endeavour to obtain indemnity for the past and fecurity for the future.' If any doubt remained upon the mind of Mr. G., (for his dear delight is to doubt, fuppofe, and guess,) the construction of the words of the deed ought to fatisfy him. We find Chaucer, after feven years' retirement, and at feventy years of age, once more engaged in public life. We agree that it must be no trivial concern that, at a period when literary redundance had not yet formed a part of legal fcience, could authorife a defcription of "a great variety of arduous and urgent political tranfactions to be performed and expedited by Chaucer, as well in the prefence as the abfence of the King, in various parts of the realm." The patent, therefore, as we obferved, was an effort of caution left he fhould (as has fometimes been the cafe in times when men have, from motives of "envy, hatred, and malice," either to government or individuals, oppofed to action counteraction,) be difquieted, molefted, or impleaded, by certain perfons, his competitors, and vexed with fuits, complaints, and hoftility.

"It was. perhaps, to reward Chaucer for the affiduity with which he difcharged the bufinefs here referred to, that he received, in the fame year, a grant of a tun of wine, yearly, to

be delivered to him by the King's Butler, in the Port of London."

About the time of the third marriage of John of Gaunt, Richard the IId, the character of whole government is well known, formed a fecond matrimonial contract with Ifabella, the daughter of the King of France, then feven years of age; which produced a truce for thirty years, and, it has been conjectured, gave birth to the confpiracy of which Thomas of Woodstock was the principal, which ended in the punishment of fome of the confpirators, and the affallination of their leader.

The quarrel betwixt Henry of Bo lingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and the fatal confequences of their banishment to Richard the IId, are next defcanted on. Soon after which the laft fupport of his tottering throne was taken away, by the death of John of Gaunt, in the beginning of the year $399. Particulars of this event; of bis life and character; with the character and difpofition of his fon Henry of Bolingbroke; his landing in Eng land; his apparent moderation and fuccefs; the capture of Richard the Ild; and his depofition; occupy a large space in this Chapter. "It is necellary," fays Mr. G., "that we fhould recollect thefe particulars, that we may eftimate properly the conduct of the father of English poetry in the last period of his life." Gower, who was an older man than Chaucer, was one of the first to congratulate the new King upon his unexpected and ill-acquired dignity; but Chaucer preferved the molt inviolable filence.

"Not one

line has he dedicated to this revolu tion, not in one paffage of his works is there any mention of Henry of Bolingbroke," a forbearance which, if not dictated by prudence, was certainly very honourable to the Bard.

Derous as we are to finish this dif quifition, we mult quote a curious document cited by Mr. G., for two reafons; one to thew the refidence of Chancer when he came to town, and the other the industry of our Author.

"There is preferved among the records in the office of the Dean and Chapter of Wettminster, a leate made to Chaucer, by Robert Hermodsworth, Keeper of the Chapel of St. Margaret, Weltminster, in the name of the Abbot, Prior, and Convent of Weltminiter, of a tenement fituated in the garden of this Chapel, for the termi PP 2

of

of fifty-three years, at the yearly rent of fifty-three fhillings and fourpence." Why Chaucer, except we allow this to be another trait of his care to provide against all contingencies, thould, at feventy years of age, hire a houfe for fifty-three years, it feems rather difficult to difcover. The reafon of his removal to London lies nearer the furface; and was, probably, that in the then perilous ftate of the revolution he deemed a country refidence fcarcely fafe, and judged, that a proper retieat for one refolved to take no part in political affairs, was the metropolis.

On the plot for the affaflination of Henry the IVth, the executions that followed, and the melancholy catal trophe of Richard the IId, it would be as ufelefs as unpleafant to dwell. These events are the precurfors of the termination of the existence of the Bard. Chaucer died on the 25th of October 1400, in Londen, and, no doubt, in the house he had hired of the Abbot of Westminster; the fituation of which is faid to have been on nearly the fame fpot" (where afterwards ftood the White-rofe Tavern, and) "where Henry the VIIth's Chapel now ftands." He appears to have been a widower at the time of his death.

"His re

mains were interred in Westminster Abbey. This venerable edifice had already, for centuries, been the burialplace for our Kings; and it is prebable, that, at leaft, the moft ufual motive for admitting the bones of any perfon deceased into this repository of Monarchs, was the honour with which he was contemplated by furvivors." That "the tomb of Chaucer reflects the highest honour upon the roof under which it is placed," may, under correction, be a proper obfervation; but how our Author could tell, omnifcious as we allow him to be, who were likely to have food by at the time his remains were depofited, we are at a loss to dif

cover.

"Having," fays Mr. G., "accompanied Chaucer through his public and poetical life, as far as pur documents will enable us, from the cradle to the grave, it may be gratifying to take one connected and concluding view of his manners and habits, to furvey the features of his mind and the principal traits of his character."

However Mr. G. may think it neceffary to fum up evidence fo widely diffuted, we certainly do not, for this

reafon, because we have, in the courfe of this work, most painfully and anx• ioufly endeavoured, with our best abili ties, to comprefs the fame matter, dif perfed through more than a thousand pages. Taking a retrospective view, we are aftonished at their number, con fidering their fubjects; and criticifm feems to fhrink at the fize of these two pondrous volumes; which very natu rally introduces a queftion, Was fo much writing abfolutely requisite, allowing the Author, to the fullest extent, the broad display which the title exhibits? We think not: for thofe reafons that we have more than once, in the courfe of this examination, ftated.

The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer, properly fo termed, (of which, limited as we were, we have touched upon and brought forward every material incident,) the reader will obferve, might have been comprifed in a pocket volume; nay, without adverting to the many others that have detailed it, which actually has, in a great degree, been woven by Dryden into a part of the preface to his fables, which alfo contains fome obfervations upon the works of this his poetic father, the emanations of taste and genius, contequently fo proper and fatisfactory, that we fhould have thought little could have been added, had we not feen the quartos that are the fubject of our prefent confideration; but till we wi Mr. G. had paid more attention to them,

Caught by the whittling of a name, or rather of two names, for we will not deny that our Author as obtained fome rank in literature, we fat down to the review of this work with pleature and avidity; but we must confefs, as we proceeded our pleasure abated, and our avidity ended in difappointment, The reafon for this disappointment, which must operate upon a number of readers, in our apprehenfion, is, that Mr. G. does not feem to have very well undertood the difference betwixt Brography and General Hiftory, and has crowded his canvafs with infinitely too great a number of objects, many of which do not feem to have the leat connexion with his original defign. Had Le Brun, when he depicted the raflage of the Granicus, the tent of Darius, or the entry into Babylon, introduced the Macedonian and Perfian armies, and all their auxiliaries, and developed different scenes in the countries of the conquered, the conquerors,

and

and their dependants, we should, in the confufion this effort would have created, look in vain for Alexander. We shall not cite the authorities, ancient and modern, which might be adduced to shew, that in a biographical work, the principal figure ought to be drawn at full length, placed in the broadeft glare of light, and brought as forward as poffible, because the propofition is fo felf-evident; collateral events and characters, as the life of man is dependant, in fome measure, on the events of the age, and is brightened or fhaded by the reflections from his contemporaries, may, if they naturally arife, occafionally admit of fhort epifodical introduction; but the great aim of the Author fhould be, to make the perfon whofe life he profeffes to detail, the mark in which all his arrows (however they may be "loofened different ways,") (hould concentrate. This has not been done in the present instance. On the contrary, we here and there catch an erratic glance at Geoffrey Chaucer: he then vanishes, and is, fometimes for chapters, lolt in the great mals of events that are recorded. The fame obfervation may apply to the other hero, John of Gaunt, who now and then gilds the fcene, and then withdraws his rays. Mr. G. ought to have confidered, that he was not writing a history of the reigns of Edward the III and Richard the IId: indeed he must have known that this had already been done by many Authors quite as

celebrated; therefore, if he had kept clofer to his fubject, if he had not grafped at too much, and had endeavoured to furnith more perfonal traits, he would, we are certain, from his ingenuity and habits of industry, have produced, though a more concife, a much more pleating, and, we may add, a more valuable performance.

Thefe obfervations apply to the work in general; thofe of a more particular tendency will be found as the objects of the preceding pages came under our confideration. The tile of Mr. G., without aiming at elevation, without attempting to dazzle with eccentric metaphorical flights, is generally cor rest, and fometimes elegant. The Author, in our opinion, notwithstanding the affiftance of which he has availed himfelf, had, from the extension of his plan fo far beyond the biographical limits, a difficult talk to perform. It was a talk which he impofed upon himfelf, and therefore he can have no reafon to complain. We have reviewed his work with patience, candour, and impartiality, but cannot dimifs it without one concluding obfervation, namely, that when he confiders how little the immenfe labour he has beftowed has added to our stock of knowledge, how little thofe efforts, from which he unquestionably expected to much, have produced, he will be forry that he has not employed his time and talents to purpoles of more general utility.

IT

must have truck every one whofe mind is in the leaft turned toward moral oblervations, and who is in the imallest degree acquainted with the populous manufacturing and military neighbourhoods, which fo much abound in this great metropolis, that there is no fubject or circumítance in our whole domestic arrangement that is fo capable of, or fo much demands improvement, as the education of the children of the Lower and induftrious claffes of the community; as while their future welfare, the fafety of the ftate, and the very existence of civil fociety, depend upon the establishment of this kind of juvenile police, every meature that tends

to open their minds, and to enlarge the fphere of their understandings, tends allo to the promotion of their terref trial and eternal happiness.

Strongly impreffed with this idea, we have, with pleafure, read this treatife, the work of a young man, who has actually carried into effect a plan of education herein detailed, and which is entirely his own invention. It feems, from the fuccefs with which it has hitherto been attended, to be a moft ex raordinary improvement in the instruction of the poorer clatles of the rifing generation, and consequently promites to embrace and include all those advantages to which we have alluded.

In a well-written introduction, Mr. Lancafter has confidered education as a general fyftem; in which he has faid, and we agree with him, "that it ought not to be made fubfervient to the propagation of the tenets of any fect, beyond its own number, for it then becomes undue influence, like the strong taking advantage of the weak :" and we muft obferve, that through the whole of this plan, which is not perhaps the least valuable part of it, the fame liberality of principle prevails.

Mr. L. has divided his work into three parts; the firit of which contains a melancholy, but unexaggerated, account of thofe fchools in which the children of mechanics, &c. are generally educated; the fecond refpects the formation of a fociety for improving the ftate and facilitating the means of education among the industrious claffes of the community; and the third treats of the rife and progress of an inftitution ander the fuperintendance of Mr. L., which is now established in the Borough Road, Southwark, wherein, we are informed, three hundred and feventy children are now in a courfe of edu cation, according to this improved fyf tem, which, as we have obferved, has been attended with fuch fuccefs, that it is intended to double the number.

Mr. L. is, perhaps, the firit modern that has ever attempted to inftru&t and improve the infantile race by a mode which has for its bafis that knowledge of the human mind, from the first dawn of reafon to its more adolefcent expanfion, which has fo frequently been the object of physical researches, or making the paflions operate in the acquifition

The Life of Tobias Smollett, M.D.; with eritical Obfervations on his Works. By Robert Anderfon, M.D. 8vo.

THIS is a very juft and accurate account of one who, as an Author, has fapplied the Public with a fund of amusement, and who, as a man, was entitled to the refpect of the World at large for many estimable qualities. It is drawn up with attention, and penned with impartiality, and does justice to the memory of Dr. Smollett, without fuppreffing the foibles attached to his character. The fate of this Author

cannot but be lamented. With the liberality of a Gentleman, he feems to have pased his life barely free from

of knowledge. The grand principle, that the love of fame, the hope of reward, and the defire to be diftinguished, are ftronger ftimulants, even to the ideas of the younger claffes of fociety, than the dread of punishment, is the bafis upon which his scientific fuperftructure is erected; and we think it fo philofophically jutt, fo congenial to the general feelings of society, that, while we with, we augur, that it must be attended with fuccefs, and confe quent advantage.

That the plan of Mr. L. has spread beyond the limits of his own school, we have an inftance now before us, in an addrefs to the inhabitants of Weltmintter; by which it appears, that, under the auspices of P. Colquhoun, Efq., an establishment of the fame kind has arifen in a houfe that was formerly the foup-house in Orchard-ftreet, which has already flourished beyond, perhaps, the most fanguine expectation: and when we consider the itate of the City of Weltminiter; the number of children whole fathers are fighting the bat tles of their country, that will receive that education, fuperintendance, &c., which, by any other means, it would have been impoffible they fhould have obtained, we conceive nothing more need be faid to recommend this bene. volent inftitution.

A fimilar eftablishment is, we are informed, in contemplation in that populous manufacturing district of which Spital-fields comprifes a part, under the fuperintendance of, and upon the plan fo ably detailed in this pamphlet by Mr. Lancaster.

embarrassments, and died juft as inde pendance was approaching him, leaving his wife totally unprovided for. (See European Magazine, Vol. XLIV. p.335) It is neceflary here to notice a mittake Dr. Anderson has fallen into, owing to a fimilarity of name and other circumtances. He fuppofes, p. 43, the Lady Vane of Dr. Smollett's novel to be the perfon alluded to by Dr. Johnson, in 1749, in his Vanity of Human Withes : "Yet VANE could tell what ills from And Sedley curs'd the form that pleas'd beauty fpring, a King:"

whereas the Lady there referred to was

one