reins of government which he had once thrown afide. His authority was now plainly expired; and if he had excrcised his power, while poffeffed of it, with very precipitant and haughty councils, he relinquished it by a despair equally precipitant and pufillanimous." With respect to the fteadiness of his councils, in page 424, we find the following paragraph, • While the king was dismayed with these symptoms of ge⚫neral difaffection, he received a letter from the marquis of Albeville, his minister at the Hague; which informed him ' with certainty that he was foon to look for a powerful invafion from Holland, and that penfionary Fagel had at laft ⚫ acknowledged, that the scope of all the Dutch preparations was to transport forces into England. Though James could reasonably expect no other intelligence, he was aftonished at the news: He grew pale, and the letter dropped from his hand: His eyes were now opened, and he found himself on the brink of a frightful precipice, which his delufions had hitherto concealed from him. His minifters and counfellors, equally astonished with himself, faw no reffource but in a fudden and precipitant retractation of all those fatal measures, by which he had created himself fo many enemies, foreign ' and domeftic. He paid court to the Dutch, and offered to C enter into any alliance with them for common fecurity: He replaced in all the counties the deputy-lieutenants and juftices, who had been deprived of their commiffions for their adherence to the test and the penal laws: He reftored the charters of • London and of all the corporations: He annulled the court of ecclefiaftical commiffion: He took off the bifhop of London's fufpenfion: He re-inftated the expelled prefident and fellows of Magdalen college: And he was even reduced to carefs thofe bifhops, whom he had fo lately profecuted and infulted. All these measures were regarded as fymptoms of fear, not of repentance. The bishops, inftead of promifing fuccour, or fuggefting comfort, recapitulated to him all the inftances of his mal-adminiftration, and advised him thenceforwards to • follow more falutary council. And as intelligence arrived of a great disaster, which had befallen the Dutch fleet, it is ⚫ commonly believed, that the king recalled, for fome time, the conceffions, which he had ordered to be made to Mag• dulen C c 4 dalen college: A very bad fign of his fincerity in his other 'conceffions. Nay fo prevalent were his unfortunate pre'poffeffions, that, amidst all his present diftreffes, he could not forbear, at the baptism of the young prince, from ap"pointing the pope to be one of the godfathers.' On the whole, when we confider this king's breach of faith to his parliament; his arbitrary exactions; his cruelty and revenge upon those who were supposed to favour Monmouth; his efforts to establish the difpenfing power; his reviving the court of high commiffion; his fufpending the penal laws; his patronizing the furious Tyrconnel, in practising the most outrageous violence and injuftice against the Protestants of Ireland; his embaffy to Rome; his attempt upon Magdalen college in Oxford, his imprisoning the bishops for having prefented an hu nble and dutiful petition; and his tampering with corporations to pack a parliament; we are apt to think he took fome pains to render himself odious to his people, by a continued fucceffion of the most provoking measures, without the intervention of one popular act; and as we do not find one fingle inftance of his generofity, clemency, or any active virtue, on record, we cannot think he deferves the leaft hiftorical praise either as a monarch or a man. Mr. Hume, indeed, when he delineates his character, fays, Such it was 'when as duke of York he mounted the throne of England.' But, if he thought his character changed with his condition, he ought to have mentioned the alteration. We come now to make a few animadverfions upon the ftile of this hiftory, which we think in fome few places inflated or affected; and in others incorrect; perhaps it is, in the main, deficient in weight and fimplicity. He feems to be fuperftitiously fond of the word fanaticism, and indeed singular in the interpretation thereof. Oliver Cromwell never appears unincumbered of the epithet embarassed; and Foster seems to be a pampered favourite that ftruts forth in every page. We complain of affectation and periphrafis in the following fentences. Page 119, fpeaking of the quakers, he fays, Inftead of that affected adulation introduced into modern tongues, ⚫ of speaking to individuals as if they were a multitude; they * returned to the fimplicity of ancient languages; and thou 4 • and and thee were the only expreffions, which, on any confideration, they could be brought to employ.'-Inftead of this long diffufe period, he might have expreffed his meaning in a few words. They used the fimple appellatives thou and thee. even to perfons of the most diftinguished rank. His fentence is not only diffuse, but perplexed and incorrect. • Inftead of 'fpeaking to individuals as if they were a multitude.' A multitude is certainly compofed of individuals.Whoever spoke to individuals, must have spoke to more than one perfon, and if he spoke to more than one perfon, he might have fpoke to the whole multitude. His meaning is, instead of fpeaking to an individual as if he was a multitude. He affirms that thou and thee were the only expreffions, which, on any 'confideration, they could be brought to employ.'--What! had they reduced the whole language to thefe two words? At that rate, had any man asked a quaker, Who shall lie " with your wife to night?' he would have answered, thou.' If an attorney had been called to write his will, and demanded, Whom do you conftitute fole heir of your estate?' the reply would have been, thee.' We thought the quakers had been as tenacious of meum as of tuum. We meet with another affected mode of expreffion in page 144. To maintain that the long parliament is not diffolved, or that either, or both houses, without the king, are pof• felfed of legislative authority, or that the covenant is binding; 'whoever defended thefe dangerous pofitions, was made liable to the penalty of a premunire.' Our language does not require fuch Latin idioms. Nor is it neceffary to ufe the Roman orthography in fpelling words derived from the Latin, fuch as favor, labor, honor, ardor, &c. which appear like aliens in an English production. If we adopt foreign words, it is but reasonable that we fhould alter them according to the genius and fashion of our own language. Had we occafion to inlift a number of Perfian recruits, we fhould not allow them to wear their long cloaths and turbans. Befides, we did not derive those words immediately from the Latin; but borrowed them at fecond-hand from the French.- -In fuch cafes, we think, cuftom ought to determine: and therefore we do not approve of emergence and inconfiftence, which Mr. Hume Hume ules for emergency and inconfiftency. Verba valent ufu. Some few, and but few Scoticisms have escaped our author, In page 137. we meet with the following expreffion: And any attempt of the parliament, by new acts, to give the fuperiority to prefbyterianifm, had been (inftead of would have been) fufficient to involve again the nation in blood and confufion.' This we mention because it may mislead the reader, and make him imagine that fome fuch attempts had been made. We find the words refcind, fuccumb; the phrafes of deliberating what ufe; prevent like confufions WITH thofe. We perceive likewise fome ill sustained metaphors, fuch as a torrent irritated, territories in motion, immeasurable ardor; with a few inaccuracies, as a library of medals, every order were, came (inftead of went) over to Spaw; the convention paffed a bill, where, &c. lord Dumblaine, fon to the earl of Danby, being mafter of an independant frigate.We cannot fuppofe this nobleman was reduced to the condition of a fhipmafter; nor can we conceive what he means by an independant frigate. Did the veffel belong to the fect of independents? Or does the author mean that lord Dumblaine failed in a ship of his own. Mr. Hume has not (in our opinion) been very happy in his manner of relating fome private incidents; fuch as the adventure of king Charles II. and the prefbyterian minister in Scotland; the gallantry of captain Douglas in the river Medway, when he was attacked by the Dutch; and some other anecdotes which he has endeavoured to throw in by way of fudden apoftrophe, in imitation of Voltaire. We likewise wish he had omitted mentioning the ballad of Lillibullero, a circumstance, as we apprehend, unworthy of a place in the text of fuch a dignified performance. That and several other particulars would have appeared with more propriety in notes *. The battles of Dunbar, Worcester, and thofe fought at fea during the Dutch wars, are but tamely reprefented. Nothing is more agreeable to an English reader, than a battle well told. Such pictures must please, warm, and animate every reader of fenfibility. They leave agreeable impreffions on the me mory, We cannot help mentioning the tranflation of the third ode of the third book of Horace, which we find in the notes, p. 224. as the most elegant verfion we have seen. mory, and these ferve as land-marks to thofe who embark in the voyage of hiftory, Mr. Hume's genius fhines more in fpeculation than in description. Having thus finished the disagreeable part of criticism, we fhall entertain the reader with fome quotations which will give a much more advantageous idea of this author's abilities. The state of England, immediately after the death of Charles I. he has thus explained in a concife, diftinct, masterly manner, The confufion, which overspread England after the murder of the king, proceeded, as well from the spirit of refinement and innovation, which agitated the ruling party, as from the diffolution of all that authority, both civil and ecclefiaftical, by which the nation had ever been accustomed to be governed. Every man had framed the model of a re* public; and, however new or fantastical, he was eager of recommending it to his fellow-citizens, or even of impofing it by force upon them. Every man had adjusted a system of religion, which, being derived from no traditional authority, was peculiar to himself; and being founded on fupposed infpiration, not on any principles of human reafoning, had no means, besides cant and low rhetoric, by which it could recommend itself to others. The levellers infifted on an • equal distribution of property and power, and disclaimed all dependance and fubordination. The Millenarians or fifthmonarchy-men required, that government itself should be abolished, and all human powers be laid in the dust, in order to pave the way for the dominion of Christ, whofe fecond coming on earth they fuddenly expected. The Antinomians even infifted, that the obligations of morality and ⚫ natural law were fufpended, and that the elect, guided by an internal principle, more perfect and divine, were fuperior to the beggarly elements of justice and humanity. A confiderable 6 party declaimed against tithes and a hireling priesthood, and were refolved, that the magiftrate should not fupport by power ' or revenue any ecclefiaftical establishment. Another party 'inveighed against the law and its profeffors; and under pretext ⚫ of rendering more fimple the diftribution of justice, were defirous of abolishing the whole fyftem of English jurifprudence, which feemed interwoven with monarchical government. • Even |