exploits, when returned home, crowned with laurels and in the arms of peace, in the center of his own capital, furrounded by his fubjects, friends, and courtiers, preparing, with a generous contempt of repeated warnings, to relax in thofe pleasures which he had well earned by his toil, he was deftined to experience the hard fortune of falling by the vile hands of a traiterous affaffin. The French writers fometimes called him the Agamemnon of the royal confederacy, and his fate bore fome refemblance to that of the Grecian monarch, though the motive of his murder was not the fame.' Part i. Þ. 392.

A part of the sketch of his character we shall subjoin, as it is apparently juft.

• Gustavus poffeffed very eminent abilities, and talents not only fplendid, but equal to the performance of the greatest things. Among thefe, together with a most fascinating address, which rendered every stranger at firft fight interested in his favour, was a very powerful and perfuafive eloquence, admirably fuited to popular affemblies, and from which he derived the most signal benefits in many of the most trying exigencies of his life. Indeed he vafued himself on his management of the diet, and obferved, that he was the only fovereign who had fucceeded in convoking a public body of that defcription. His prefence of mind, immediate recollection, and inftant decifion, in all fudden cafes of difficulty or danger, were perhaps only equalled by his uncle the great Frede rick; while the firmness and fortitude which he manifefted in the many fevere conflicts on governmental and public affairs which he was obliged to sustain, were in no degrée înferior to that exalted courage which he difplayed in the field of battle.

In that fcene of action, indeed, his intrepidity and contempt of danger were carried to such an excess, as to constitute the great blemish of his military character; the duties of the commander feeming not unfrequently to be too much funk in thofe of the private foldier or volunteer. He evidently had the actions of his two great predeceffors, Guftavus Adolphus, and Charles the XIIth conftantly in his view, and endeavoured alternately, not only to emulate but to exceed them both. If he failed in fome of thofe comprehensive first rate qualities of a great commander, particularly in a cool command of temper, which fo highly diftinguished the former, he equalled the latter in the only fhining parts of his character, those of valour and enterprize, and was infinitely his fuperior in all other refpects; indeed, the urbanity of his manners, his humanity, and his forgiving clemency, could not be fhewn to greater advantage, than by oppofing them to the unrelenting obfinacy, and the cruel ferocity of Charles.' Part i. P. 394.

The chronicle given in the fecond part of the volume is fhort; but the appendix to it is long. The ftate papers are

numerous; and the extracts from the publications of the year are either amufing or interesting.

It cannot be denied that this volume exhibits the marks of diligence and attention; but traces of partiality are visible, and many inaccuracies of diction appear.

The Annual Regifter, or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature, for the Year 1793. 8vo. 85. Boards. Otridge and Son. 1798.

A Contest has arifen with regard to the Annual Register, fince the death of the perfon who was for a long courfe of years the proprietor and publisher of it. The bookfellers who' purchafed of Mr. Dodley's executors the old volumes and the copy-right, claim the privilege of continuing the work; while thofe who, with the permiffion of Mr. Dodfley, and in concert with the author employed by him, continued it in his lifetime, conceive themfelves to be folely entitled to the right of publication. Though the copy-right to a work of this kind could not extend to the fucceeding volumes, the former feem to have the fronger claim in point of equity.

The volume which now offers itself to our notice, has been published by the purchafers to whom we have above referred; and they are preparing to bring down the hiftory to the prefent time, after reverting to the years 1791 and 1792.

The manner in which the hiftory of the year 1793 commences, is not very aufpicious to the hopes of thofe who may have wifhed for a mafterly continuation of the Regifter.

We now approach the period when Great-Britain relinquifhed its neutral character, and became a party in the war that had traverfed the Auftrian Netherlands, and threatened the dominions of the United Provinces.

The zeal with which the French convention propagated revolutionary principles; the emiffaries which it encouraged in this country; the connection it had formed with certain political focieties eftablished in London; and the manner in which deputies from them had been received at their bar, had already, it was alleged, excited the vigilance of the British government, and compelled it to employ fuch meafures as the important and extraordinary circumftances of the country appeared to demand: that, at length, however, France, difdaining to continue its bafe and artful defigns against the conftitution and government of Great-Britain, or defpairing of any final advantage being reaped from them, had rifen at once into an avowed intention of provoking it to war, and that in this view, among others, it was determined, by the executive power of France, to fet afide the law of nations and to trample on

treaties, by declaring not only its defign, but its right, to open the navigation of the Scheldt. It was added, that the French had already obtained poffeffion of the Belgic provinces by force of arms, and were impelled by their mad ambition to encroach on Holland, with a view to a fimilar fubjugation of that country; that the convention, therefore, as a preparatory step to this continuation of their aggrandizing project, had made known, in November 1792, their defign of opening the Scheldt, in direct oppofition to treaties of which England was a guarantee, and to the manifeft difadvan tage of the commerce of the United Provinces, who were the allies of England, to whom they naturally looked for that protection, which they had a right to demand.'

P. I.

The debates of the British parliament, which occupy nearly two-thirds of the hiftorical part of the volume, are exhibited in an aukward, confused, and fpiritless state of compreffion. If the limits to which the compiler was restricted had even been confiderably more narrow, he might, by the exercife of a fmall fhare of ability and attention, have given the substance of the debates with better effect.

The affairs of France are not recounted in a more luminous. or impreffive manner. The trial of Louis XVI. is given in a form more proper for an appendix than for a regular hiftory; and the remarks which are introduced, though occafionally juft, are not only trite, but are weakened by the uncouth dress in which they appear. Let the reader judge from the following fpecimen :

Thofe who tried Louis XVI. for treason were themselves traitors; for they had betrayed the nation. They accufed him of tyranny and defpotifm, when they and their coadjutors alone were the tyrants and defpots of the people: they accufed him of fhedding innocent blood; when, in a few hours, they immolated to their own ambition and revenge more victims than there had fallen criminals under the feverity of the law, during the whole reign of the king. Refpecting the cruel treatment of Louis, during his confinement, as well as the mock trial by which he was brought to the fcaffold, there is but one opinion among all ranks of people in every part of Europe: but it is not in general fo well known, by what methods his enemies contrived to lull all France; and particularly the inhabitants of Paris, into a kind of ftupor, till it was too late to prevent the execution of this fanguinary project. The ruling party in the affembly, in the clubs, and at the Hotel de Ville, were not without their apprehenfions. The majority of France, it was well known, not only deprecated any violence being committed against the king, but difapproved of the 10th of Auguft, and all the machinations which followed. The murder of the king therefore might have ferved as a fignal for the majority to break forth, who, by uniting in one fingle point, might have

crushed their adverfaries. To prevent, therefore, fo dangerous a point of re-union, the affembly difcuffed the question in a way which made the generality of people believe, that imprisonment or exile would be the utmost extent of their vengeance. The king had long been a prifoner, and the formality, by a pretended procefs of law, of confirming his imprisonment did not appear to be a fubject for alarm, as it refpected his life; and as for exile, as the ftate of things then was, even royalifts themselves might confider it as an advantage. The trial of Louis, therefore, was fo conducted, as by presenting these two kinds of punishment to the public attention, the sentence of death did not appear to be an object of apprehenfion, till the trial drew near to its conclusion, and then the precipitate execution of the fentence prevented the possibility of an effort on the part of the departments of France.' P. 225

The account of the campaign is not calculated to atone for the imperfections of the other parts of the volume. We therefore difmifs the whole without that praise which we would gladly have given to real merit.

Hiftory of Great Britain, from the Revolution to the Seffion of Parliament ending A. D. 1793. By W. Belham. (Concluded from Vol. XXIII. p. 369.)

OUR author's hiftory of the reign of William III. was fufficiently copious; but he feems, if we may judge from the comparative brevity of his account of the reign of Anne, to have been eager to bring it to a close, notwithstanding the great importance of many of the occurrences of that period.

Having noticed the confternation which the death of William produced among the members of the grand alliance, he gives a hafty sketch of the first measures of the new fovereign. No novelty of statement appears; and the remarks are not ftriking. The tranfactions of the war, however, are related with fome animation; and the merits of the duke of Marlborough are properly appreciated. Civil affairs, and the deliberations of the parliaments of the two British kingdoms, are impartially difcuffed; and the proceedings preparatory to the union are fairly reprefented. Of the treaty which the commiffioners adjufted for that defirable purpofe, Mr. Belfham fpeaks in the following terms:

It was generally believed that lord Somers had the chief fhare in framing this famous treaty, which was in many refpects highly advantageous to Scotland, though in fome points it feemed to derogate from her national dignity and independence. When four fhillings in the pound land-tax, amounting to the

*

fum of two millions, were levied in England, Scotland was to be affeffed at the rate of 48,000l. only. On the other hand, the peerage of Scotland were divested of their privilege of fitting, as lords of parliament, and the whole body was in future to be represented by fixteen peers elected by themselves; and the commons by 45 members chofen by the country, Scotland was rendered liable to the fame duties of cuftom and excife with England; and a part of thefe being mortgaged for the payment of the principal or intereft of the public debt of England, the fum of 398,000l. was paid to Scotland as an equivalent for her share of the fame, to be applied to a re-coinage of the public monies, to the payment of the Scottish national debt, to indemnifying the Darien company for their loffes, in confideration of the diffolution of the fame, and the encouragement of the infant manufactures of the kingdom. Trade was to be free all over the island, and to the plantations; private rights were to be preferved; and the ju dicatories and laws of Scotland were to be continued. Finally, the two nations were to the end of time to constitute one kingdom, under the fame fucceffion to the crown, and united under one legiflature. There was no provifion in the treaty respecting religion-agreeably to an exprefs limitation in the powers granted to the commiffioners by the parliaments of both kingdoms. Thefe were the chief and leading articles of this memorable treaty-the first of the kind recorded in history; "for there never was at any time or in any place an example of two fovereign kingdoms incorporating themselves in fuch a manner." Thefe are the words of lord Halifax, in a letter addreffed to the court of Hanover on this welcome and interefting occafion.' Vol. i. P. 445.

The queen teftified great joy at the fuccefs of the fcheme of union; but her fatisfaction would have been more complete, if the could conveniently have difcarded the ministers by whom it was effected. But he could not yet affume fufficient spirit to shake off the yoke to which they fubjected her. The rifing influence of Mrs. Masham, however, menaced them with a diminution of their power.

a new favorite had

• About this period' (fays Mr. Belfham) arifen in the court-Mrs. Mafham, a relation of the duchess of Marlborough, and introduced by her to the queen; over whom fhe had, by her foft and infinuating manners, fo oppofite to the imperious deportment of the duchefs, acquired fuch an afcendency, that her grace was abfolutely fupplanted before he was apprised of the danger. Mrs. Mafham had formed a strict connection with the secretary of state, Harley, who had in conjunction with her formed a project of raising himself to the fummit of power on the ruins of the prefent miniftry, whofe whole fyftem of politics he found fecretly diftafteful to the queen. The fecretary had been frequently introduced by the favorite to private audiences of the queen, in which he reprefented to her, who was extremely jealous of her authority, the political thraldom in which she was held by the Marlborough family; and he practised