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Where ev'ry object met his eyes,
Rather with pleasure than furprize:
For here no fooner was he come,
Than he conceiv'd himself at home,
The fuit of pictures from on high
Caught, as by fympathy, his eye,
For Cacodemon's art, to grace
This antique venerable place,
Had, with his emblematic fcrawls,
Furnish'd the vaft extent of walls;
In never-fading fresco, where
The follies of mankind appear:
Blunders in groups, a focial train,
And whims, the fly-blows of the brain:
Growing to maggots here one fees
Caprices too in fwarms like bees;
Abfurdities all scatter'd thick,

And here and there a hair-brain'd trick:
With sketches from the life of many
An ignoramus and a zany;
Schemes, under evil planets hatch'd,
In theory, as practice match'd,
Yet, in the monthly mercuries,
Extoll'd for merit to the skies.
Amidit this wonderful confufion
Of folly, madnefs, and delufion;
Where, quick fucceeding to the eyes,
Sots, buzzards, and impoftors rife,
A haughty Scotchman, Law by name,
Superior notice feems to claim;
A paper crown adorns his head,
And Syftem on its front is read :!
Amidst large bales of wind he stands,

And deals them out with lib'ral hands;

His bounty no diftinction knows,

On every comer he bestows:

In vifions of enormous gain,

Priefts, judges, bawds, their coffers drain."

It may be proper to notice, that Voltaire has hurt the verifimilitude of his poem by indulging in anachronisms without end to wanton in a field of fatire as extenfive as poffible was his object; and to this he facrificed the probability of his narration. It is perhaps not worth while to remark that his tranflator has indulged ftill more freely in this way; for example, he prefents us with Circaffian bloom, and olympian dew, in the days of the maid of Orleans.

Imperfect lines, words improperly accented, and inaccurate expreffions, are not unfrequently to be met with in thisp ublication.

C 4

Every

Every pulfe be not fuppreft'

• Every outline now broke down."{

Every never confifts of three fyllables in correct poetry. "St. Augústin"-" That with their doom thou can't dif"penfe"-" A door commodious lay a-jar." A door, in the fituation alluded to, does not lie, but ftand a-jar. But these are petty fins of inadvertency which do not take from the general merit of the performance.

ART. IX. Letters of an Englishman; in which the Principles and Conduct of the Rockingham Party, when in Administration, and Oppofition, are freely and impartially displayed. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Stockdale. London, 1786.

ΤΗ

HESE letters were originally printed in the Public Advertiser. The attention which they drew, and the approbation which they met with, in the circle of respectable and impartial men, has induced the author to republish them in the present form, and with confiderable additions. The chief object of the performance is to investigate and difplay the principles and conduct of the Rockingham party, when in adminiftration and oppofition. And it must be confeffed that the acute and penetrating author is well qualified for the tafk he has undertaken. From the parliamentary debates he has brought and verified fuch a charge of inconfiftency, contradiction, and absurdity, against fome of the leading members in oppofition, as to make us blush for patriotifm, and pity human nature.

It may be queftioned whether it be altogether fair and candid to affume the " publifhed debates in the House of "Commons" as authentic and legitimate evidence in political difcuffions? In anfwer to this, it may be observed that the debates in the Houfe of Commons are open to the world; that the nation watches its reprefentatives; and that there is a cloud of witnesses always at hand, prompted by curiofity and intereft, to remember and record the tranfactions and deliberations of the day. Although it might be difficult to verify an individual expreffion by legal evidence before a court of justice, yet, from the number and harmony of concurring witneffes on every remarkable occafion, there are fufficient grounds, and ftronger than the general strain of hiftorical teftimony, to influence the belief, and determine the opinion, of the public.

Independent of the question de jure, this opinion has gained ground de facto. The printed debates of the Houfe

of

of Commons circulate as hiftorical authority not only through the kingdom, but over the continent; and they will form the materials of hiftory in future ages.

The fpeeches of members of parliament published by themselves, however they may convey their cool fentiments on political affairs, and may be useful pamphlets to the party to which they belong, are not fuch accurate copies of the real transactions and fpeeches in St. Stephen's chapel as the common vehicle by which they are transmitted to the public. Hiftorical evidence never amounts to abfolute certainty. The policy of kings, and the military atchievements of generals, are feldom delineated with fo much fidelity as the fpeeches of the members in the House of Commons are reported to the public.

The coalition between Mr. Fox and Lord North, after the former had declared that he had fuch a defpicable "opinion of his Lordship that he would not trust himself ❝alone in a room with him, on a matter of bufinefs; and "that he must hear of his ruinous meafures at the tribunal "of justice, and expiate them on the public fcaffold;" is the object of our author's juft cenfure and crimination. But on this fubject there is no occafion to expatiate. That event ftruck the nation with feelings which they knew not how to defcribe; and when at laft they gave them utterance, it was in the fevereft language of reprobation. "The coali"tion" gave a ftrength to prerogative which it had not enjoyed fince the revolution; and a stab to the wig-interest which it will not recover for half a century.

The Englishman, in his fixth letter, gives an account of the rife of the British empire in Indoftan; which, as it has been the subject of grofs mifrepresentation, we shall lay before the reader.

The Mogul Empire, which had been declining from the death of Aurengzebe in 1707, was almoft entirely destroyed by the invafion of Nadir Shah; and though the forms of it were preferved, the emperor has exercised no authority of any kind in Bengal for the laft forty years. It is not true, as many have erroneously imagined, that the English overturned the authority of the Mogul in Indoftan. Ally Verdy Cawn, who was nabob of Bengal in 1750, was in fact an ufurper, having illegally de. pofed and murdered his predeceffor; and he tranfmitted the government to his grandfon, Surajah Dowlah, in oppofition to the laws of the empire. From 1750 to 1756, as from their first establishment in Bengal, the English were peaceable and inoffenfive merchants, fubject at times to the infults, oppreffion, and injuftice of the Mahomedan government; and in 1756 were wantonly, and without the leaft provocation, attacked by that inhuman tyrant Surajah Dowlah, who, ftrange to tell, has of late years found advocates in a British Houfe of

Commons.

Commons. The confequence of this attack is well known. The English were driven from their forts and fettlements, and many of them were cruelly murdered. At this period Mr. Haftings was fituated in the interior parts of Bengal, and when taken prifoner was treated with a peculiar degree of kindness and attention, juftly attributed to the respect in which his character was even then held by the natives. He spoke their language, and was deemed the best Perfian fcholar at that time in Bengal. The confequence of Surajah Dowlah's conduct is well known. By exertions, which pofterity will not credit, the English recovered not only their former standing in Bengal, but effected a revolution in the government of that country, which led to our prefent envied empire in Indoftan.

Mr. Haftings, who ferved as a volunteer at the capture of Calcutta, was confidently employed by Lord Clive, after that event, until his lordship quitted the country; and Mr. Haftings himself, after having filled the first offices in Bengal for many years, returned to England in 1765, with a fortune exceedingly moderate, and with the reputation of extraordinary abilities. He remained in England until 1769, and was then appointed fecond in council, and to fucceed to the government of Madras. He was removed and appointed governor of Bengal in April 1772, when the affairs of the East-India Company were before parliament. In the following year Lord North propofed his plan for the better government of India. His lordship was then the minifter; of courfe his meafures were highly reprehenfible in the opinion of the Rockingham party.'

In the eighth letter our author mentions the introduction. of Mr. Fox's India bill into parliament, and of the arguments ufed in fupport of it, calculated to fuit the opinions of the various members who compofed the majority. The fpeech which Lord Thurlow delivered on the occafion is fpirited and manly.

Whence (Lord Thurlow obferved) this remarkable degree of delicacy towards Mr. Haftings? The little, low, dirty attempts of malice and faction to deftroy the character of that great man, can have no weight with your lordships. How induftriously, my lords, has every tranfaction of Mr. Haftings's long government, that could tend to criminate him, been circulated! The reports of a committee have been fold as pamphlets. The ingenuity of fome men, and the warm imagination of others, have been long employed to fully the well-earned reputation of Mr. Haftings. To my mind, my lords, Mr. Haftings is one of the most extraordinary characters that this country has ever produced; he has served the EaftIndia Company thirty-three years in the most important fituations twelve years as governor, or governor-general of Bengal: he is a man whofe honour, whofe integrity, whofe firmness of mind, and whofe perfeverance, are not only very generally acknowledged in this kingdom, and in Afia, but throughout the continent of Europe: he is a man, my lords, who poffeffes a moit extenfive knowledge of the languages, the politics, the customs, and the revenues of Indoftan: he

is a man, who infused the spirit which animated his own mind, and rofe fuperior to the aftonishing difficulties he had to encounter, into the breafts of our brave and intrepid countrymen, who have fo nobly diftinguished themselves in Afia. Mr. Haftings is a man, who has reeftablished peace in India, who furnished refources for the war while it lafted, by an increase of revenue in Bengal; and has preferved the provinces under his more immediate control in peace and tranquillity. Mr. Haftings is a man who has held a bold and confiftent language throughout. What have been the means, my lords, to which Mr. Haftings has had recourfe to preferve his power? Has he employed the low and dirty arts of intrigue which have heretofore been practiced? No, my lords; he has been fupported by the voice of the public; by great and meritorious actions. This being my opinion of Mr. Haftings, I shall support him until evidence of his delinquency shall be produced. Whence, my lords, this extreme defire to avoid a full and fair difcuffion of this question? I again repeat it, if Mr. Haftings is guilty, recal him, punish him; but do not let us be deluded by tales fabricated for the purpofe of the hour, and circulated with a degree of induftry which difgraces the dignity and honour of the British nation."

This manly fpeech, from fo confpicuous a nobleman as Lord Thurlow, produced a wonderful effect in the House of Peers, and throughout the nation. Lord Camden took an early opportunity of declaring that Mr. Haftings" was the foul of our fuccefs in India;". and his nephew, Mr. George Hardinge, (the fame gentleman who took the other fide of the question a few months ago) when pleading the cause of the Company at the bar of the Houfe of Lords, declared that the fervices of Lord Chatham and Mr. Haftings would make them the idols of posterity when their little adverfaries would be too obfcure for infamy to record them,"

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The Englishman, in his ninth letter, endeavours to prove this fingular and extraordinary fact," That the Rock, ingham party were not right, even by accident, in one fingle prediction that they hazarded, with regard to India, "from the year 1782 to the present time." In the month of May 1782 the House of Commons voted that it was the duty of the court of directors to recal Mr. Haftings from the government of Bengal. The vote was refifted. When the parliament met in December 1782, the Rockingham party were too bufily employed in turning out Lord Shelburne to bestow a thought upon Mr. Haftings; but no fooner was the grand bufinefs of the coalition effected, than their fears for India were again proclaimed. In November 1783 Mr. Fox produced his bill, the preamble of which recites" that India would fall into utter ruin if a fit and be"coming remedy for the abufes and diforders which pre"vailed there were not inftantly applied." In the fame spirit they persisted till the diffolution of the late parlia

ment.

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