izmo.

OUR duty now enjoins us to fcrutinize the two remaining volumes of this inftructive compilation: and it is with fatisfaction we notice the well-written life of the unfortunate Mary Queen of the Scots. If accuracy, candour, and a difpofition to place in the most favour able light, in confideration of the frailty of our nature, thofe tranfactions over which a veil of obfcurity and uncertainty has been thrown by time and adventitious circumftances, are recommendations of an hiftorian, Mrs. Hays cannot fail of acquiring the esteem of fenfible readers for this portion of her ufeful labours.

The fifth volume extends to 527 pages, 286 of which are dedicated to the curious memoirs of this celebrated victim to ftate policy, or what our modern Minifters, and their fcribbling agents, would call political neceffity. As our limits will by no means admit of entering into the body of this ample life of Mary, we fubititute, as ftrong inducements to the perufal of it, the following extracts from the judicious notes of the Author:

"In the course of this narrative, it has been studiously avoided to pronounce any actual decifion respecting the real guilt or criminality of Mary, in those two important tranfactions of her reign, the murder of Darnly, and the fubfequent marriage of his widow with the murderer. Still farther to oppofe to the circumftances which may feem to tend to the crimination of Mary, juftice and candour demand, that a brief abstract hould be given of the arguments alledged in her vindication. The reader will then be left to form his own conclufions on the evidence prefented to him.

"If by the (Roman) Catholics Mary was held up as a model of perfection, and by the Calvinifts reprefented as a monster of wickedness, this, by every mind that has attended to the history of party-bigotry, even in ages of boafted civilization and refinement, was neceffarily to be expected. But why, it may be asked, do we fee the fame divifion, and the fame prejudices, for nearly two centuries after thefe te vours have fubfided, and a general indifference has taken place of the enthufiafm and vio lence which they produced? To this quetion it has been answered, that it is

a well known fact, that the only hitories of the reign of Mary which were fuffered to be published in the lan guage of the country, and allowed to circulate among the people. were penned by her avowed and open enemies. The frantic zeal of Knox in the caule of the reformation rendered him at once the easy dupe and the powerful tool of an artful and politic faction, which made fuccessful ufe of his popular talents In times of fanaticiim and faction, religious zeal and political opinions are almost always infeparably connected; and super-human indeed mult be the ftrength that thould fucceed in diffevering them. While the lower claffes of the Scots were the implicit difciples of Knox, the Detection of Mary by Buchanan had its effect among the learned. This, work, patronifed by Queen Elizabeth and the regency of Scotland, ipread through the realm, and was diftributed among foreign Princes. His Latin biftory was taught in the Ichools, and made a Budy at Univerfities. While these writings were thus favoured, thofe composed by the oppofite party, whofe credit and popularity were ruined and funk, either remained unpublished, were fupprefled by the arm of power, or were written in languages not underftood by the people." Mrs. Hays then brings, in proof of this affection, the arbitrary fuppreffion of Bishop Lefly's Vindication of Mary-the cancelling a leaf in the continuation of Hollinfbed's Hiltory (or Chronicles of England, Ireland, and Scotland) "for a fingle infinuation in favour of Mary.” The Annals of Camden, written in Latin, were not printed for nearly a century after. Neither were the Memoirs of Crawford publifhed till their anonymous author had lain in the g a hundred and fifty years. These were the principal works written in favour of Mary, whofe caufe circumstances had combined to render unpopular. long and general acquiefcence in the truth of the affeverations of the adverse party gradually filenced every doubt; while one hiftorian copied another, and every one thote which had preceded him.

e grave near

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lightened and fceptical, the hiftoric doubt arose. Mr. Goodall, late Keeper of the Advocate's Library at Edin burgh, whole office gave him accefs to original records, was the first modern champion in the caufe of Mary; his work, which was ingenious and acute, laid the foundation for those who came after him. Tytler followed the fame path, but took a wider circuit. Stuart fucceeded, but without a perfect developement of his plan"-the chief aim of this writer was to controvert the opinion of the respectable Dr. Robertfon; and we were furprised to find that Mrs. Hays has paffed over in filence his Hiftory of Scotland, which is a production as modern, and as deferving of credit on the other fide of the queftion, as the compilations of the champions before mentioned for the Queen of Scots in this enlightened age. Whitaker next, by connecting incidents, and contrafting different accounts of the fame tranfaction, illuftrated many events, and threw a light on what had before appeared obfcure." Here let a private opinion be introduced with refpect to the laft-mentioned author bis principal defign is to accufe the illuftrious Elizabeth of the fouleft crimes, to fully her immortal reputation by the following groundless allertion: Refpecting the real history of the murder of Darnly; the whole plan appears, after a long and minute examination of circumftances and facts, with trong prefumption, to have originated between Elizabeth, Cecil, Morton, and Murray, while the former (viz. Elizabeth) was to defend the confpirators in charging the crime on Mary, for the purpofe of giving credit to which he was to be betrayed into a marriage with Bothwell, the perpetrator." Is there an intelligent Englishman who can read this abominable libel on the memory of an illuftrious Sovereign, who faved his country from the bloody fcourge of papal jurifdiction by the wildoin of her councils, and her own perfonal fortitude, without reprobating the writer, and withing to confign his work to eternal oblivion.

The life of Mrs. Catharine Macauly Graham follows next, in the alphabetical order of this volume, a life of little confequence to the public, to whom the exhibited inconfiftency of character, both as an hiftorian and a woman; and in this inftance, Mrs. Hays, in our opinion, has facrificed her own judgment to the partial communications of

a warm female friend of the late Mrs. C. M. Graham.

Short memoirs of Julia Moefa and her daughter Mammea, celebrated Roman Ladies, collated from Gibbon's Hiftory of the Decline of the Roman Empire, intervene between the interefting life of the Queen of the Scots and the very entertaining and expanded narrative of the life and character of the celebrated Madame de Maintenon. Born in the dungeons of a 'prifon, in which her father was confined for a ftate crime; reduced by poverty to the alternative of taking the veil in a convent of nuns, or of becoming the wife of Scarron, the celebrated French comic Poet and Satirift, at the age of fixteen, the preferred the latter, though he was deformed in his figure, deprived of the ufe of his limbs, tortured with the gout, and laden with infirmities; left a widow at the age of twenty-seven, with fcanty means of fupport, but enriched by the inftructions of her huf band with every mental accomplishment, and by nature with perfonal beauty; the rofe, by degrees, to the elevated station of confort (being privately married) to Louis the Fourteenth, at that time the most renowned Monarch in Europe. In this, and in all other fituations, from the lowest to the higheft, the purity of her manners, the rectitude of her conduct, her fcrupulous difcharge of what the conceived to be the duties of religion, and her charitable inftitutions in the zenith of her profperity, altogether furnish a bright example to her fex of perfe vering virtue amidst the viciffitudes of a life extended to an extraordinary period. The following was an aphorim of this Lady-" Begin early, as I have done, to live like an old woman, and you may live as long." A fteady adherence to this principle prolonged her life to the age of eighty-three years, with fome infirmity, but without any ferious disease.

Of the remaining lives in this volume, thofe of Margaret de Valois, fitter to Francis the First, King of France, and Queen of Naples by marrying Henry d'Albert, King of that country, and of Margaret Cavendi@h, Duchefs of Newcattle, are the most confpicuous. We have no exceptions to take against any of the lives contained in this volume, but were furprized to find the letter M closed without any notice taken of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, fo celebrated for her letters on Turkey, whofe

other literary compofitions, together with thofe letters, if we are not mifinformed, will foon make their appear. ance from the prefs, under the direc tion and care of the indefatigable Phillips, the publither of the work now before us. The omiflion, therefore, he will have a fair opportunity of rectifying in a future edition of the "Female Biography."

The fixth volume opens with memoirs of Octavia, the fecond wife of Mark Antony, and the filter of Auguftus Cæfar, not very interefting, but offering a leffon of patience and fortitude to inarried women, under the fevere trial of infidelity and unkindness on the part of their hulbands. Another Oda, via alfo, the wife of the tyrant Nero, by whofe order the was cruelly put to death, fills a few pages; "her life was a feries of calamities; a dark and deep cloud obfcured her fate, through which a beam of joy scarcely ever penetrated -yet, to perfonal charms, the added modefty, fweetnefs, beneficence, purity of manners, talents, and an irreproach able conduct." Learn, ye fair ones, to avoid repining at fmall misfortunes, and to be content with the station in which it has pleafed God to place you! To the life of Mrs. Oldfield, the next in order, we strongly object; though a celebrated actress, the ought not to have been found in a work compofed for the use and entertainment of modest women; and to avoid further trouble on this head, we here enter the same protest against the memoirs of Mademoiselle de la Valliere, one of the mistreffes of Louis the Fourteenth, in the courfe of which anecdotes of two more are introduced. The fimple question between us and the enterpriting publisher is this-Having a race of lovely girls, advancing annually to years of understanding, would he with to have them find this work, in its prefent ftate, in his private book-cafe? If not -let him feel the force of our admonition, for the fake of the parents of grown-up daughters; and as fpeedily as poffible produce a chate edition. There are loofe readers enough in our corrupt metropolis to take off the prefent edition, through the medium of multiplying circulating libraries.

The life of Lady Pakington, the reputed author of The Whole Duty of Man, and of feveral other religious and moral tracts, cannot fail of being beneficially interefting to all pious and welldifpofed readers. She was the daugh

ter of Thomas Lord Coventry, Keeper of the Great Seal of England in the reign of James the Firit, and the wife of Sir John Pakington, Bait. "By the author of The English Baronetage, the is fpoken of as a bright example to her age, and one of the most learned and accomplithed of her sex."

Paffing over a few lives of lefs confequence, we come to that of the unfortunate Madame Roland, the wife of Monfieur Roland, a short time Minifter of the Finances to Louis the Sixteenth, and the victim of the French Revolu tion. It is written in a matterly style of elegance, in molt parts acknowledged by Mrs. Hays to be the language of Madame Roland, whenever it was practicable in an English drefs. The variety of incidents, their importance, and the ftrong intereft which the reader is excited to take in them by the pleafing and affecting manner of relating them, render thefe memoirs by far the moft entertaining of any in the whole performance. The viciffitudes of fortune this unfortunate couple un derwent, the delineation of the characters of Mirabeau, Briffot, Dumouriez, Marat, Robefpierre, and other princi pal leaders of the republican party, prior to and after the French revolution, throws a curious and clear light on that grand era in the political hiftory of France; and the following obfervation refpecting the laft King of France contains a striking illuftration of the delicacy of his fituation: “ I never," fays fhe, "could bring myfelf to believe in the conftitutional vocation of a King, born and brought up in defpotifm, and accustomed to arbitrary fway. Had Louis the Sixteenth been fincerely the friend of a conftitution that would have reftrained his power, he must have been a man above the common race of mortals; and had he been fuch a man, he would never have fuffered thofe events to occur that produced the Revolution."

Roland difmiffed from the Ministry, firft by the King, and after his execution recalled, and difmiffed again by Robespierre's faction, was in continual apprehenfion of being arrested by the Convention, totally under the controul of that bloody demagogue.

"To-day on a throne, to-morrow in a prifon"-" Such," obferves Madame Roland, "is the fate of virtue in revolutionary times. Enlightened men who have pointed out its rights are, by a nation weary of oppreffion,

first called into authority. But it is not poffible that they thould long keep their places: the ambitious, eager to take advantage of circumstances, mislead the people by flattery, and, to acquire confidence and power, prejudice them against their real friends. Men of principle, who defpife adulation and contemn intrigue, meet not their oppofers on equal terms; their fall is therefore certain: the till voice of fober reafon, amidit the tumults of the paffons, is easily overpowered."-Can there be a more inftructive leffon held forth to fenfible men, to true patriots lamenting the abufes which time and degeneracy of manners may have introduced into monarchical governments; but, for which, they will feek for milder remedies than revolutions, if they are not milled by fuch men as Madame Roland fo accurately pourtrays! The narrative of the fufferings, and fatal catastrophe, of the honeft Ex-Minister and his virtuous wife, is uncommonly affecting, and cannot be read without a

tear.

The following character is given of Madame Roland, by M. Champagneux, the intimate friend of her husband :-During the first twenty-five years of her life, he had read and studied with attention every work of celebrity, both ancient and modern; from the greater number of which the had made extracts. She wrote with ease and grace, both in English and Italian, her thoughts always outfiripping her pen and her words. She was miftrefs of feveral fciences, and particularly killed in botany. By her travels the had acquired experience and improvement. She was remarkable for her penetration, her fagacity, and her judgment. In private and domestic life the practifed every virtue; her filial piety was exemplary; and united to a min twenty years older than herself, the made his comitant happinefs. As a mother fhe was exquisitely tender. Order, economy, and forelight, prefided over her domeftic management; her fervants feemed to partake of her excellencies, and ferved her from attachment rather than from intereft: this was manifefted by their affection and courage at the time of her apprehenfion. The worthy Lecoq, (her valet,) the faithful Fleury, were ambitious of following her to the fcaffold Lecoq fucceeded; but Fleury failing, grief for the lofs of her mistress threw her into a state of mental derangement: he was difmiffed from the bar of the

:

bloody revolutionary tribunal as an infane woman. She was afterwards protected and sheltered by the daugh ter of Madame Roland, with whom the mingled her tears and her regrets."

The life of our celebrated English poetess and moral profe writer, Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, is the next in fucceffion. The diftinguithing characteristic of this lady, befides her literary fame, was, "her poflefling a command over her paffions, and a contant ferenity and fweetnels of temper, which neither age nor misfortune could ruffle. It is queftioned whether the had ever been angry in her life: a proof that the tender and gentle fenfibilities may exilt independent of the irafcible paffions. Her fervant, who lived with her near twenty years, gave a teftimony to the kind and even tenor of her mitreis's temper." May this bright example have its due effect on fuch of the female readers of thofe memoirs as are mistreffes of families, and induce them to treat their fervants with lefs hauteur and indignity than is generally to be met with in the higher claffes of society. The life of Lady Rachel Ruffel, daughter of Thomas Wriothefley, Earl of Southampton, in the reign of Charles the Firit, and the wife of that illuftrious patriot Lord Ruffel, who was unjustly condemned and executed for high treafon against Charles the Second, is peculiarly interefting, and furnishes another intance of female conjugal affection, and of pious retignation to the will of God, under the feverelt trials-the legal murder of her husband-the death of their only fon, the first Duke of Bedford, in the thirty-first year of his age, and of the Duchefs of Rutland, one of her daughters, in child-bed.

The other remarkable lives in this volume are thote of Laura Sade, including memoirs of Petrarch; of Anna Mario Schurman, a learned German Lady; of Madeliene de Scudery, a celebrated French Poetefs and writer of Romances, who, it is allerted, composed eighty volumes, and died at the great age of ninety-four; of the Marchioness de Sevigné, whofe letters are to generally known and esteemed, that they alone are fufficient recommendations to the perufal of her life...

Curious and highly entertaining memoirs of Zenobia, the celebrated Queen of Palmyra, clofe the work, and will be read with great pleafure by the overs of ancient literature, and the admirers of heroic fortitude in the female breast.

M

CICERO admirably obferves, " that if, in the contentions of Gladiators, feveral preludial flourishes are given" (which was alfo the practice when prizefighting was the fashion in this country), how much properer would this be in the contentions of orators ?" Whether this kind of prælufio would be of use to orators, we thall not waste our time in inquiring: with refpect to warriors, perhaps, it may to authors, we know, a long introductory historical flourish gives a confiderable effect before the trumpets and drums announce a declaration of war. This the Author before us knows far better than ourselves; and accordingly he has, with great propriety and prudence, availed himself of his knowledge.

The introduction to this work, which we were, in our laft, at fome pains to diffect, has terminated as the principal perfons who compofed the various groupes of Jacobins, Feuillans, and other fubordinate clubs, intended it fhould terminate, first in a with for, and fecondly in a declaration of war; with which the fcene of the first book opens, in thefe words:

"Negociations having proved unavailing, and remonftrances being treated with contempt, France was at length reduced to the terrible alternative of arms!" We, in confequence of this literary flourish, foon after find the unfortunate Louis before the National Affembly, furrounded by his Minifters, documented by the Prefident Dumouriez, and made to say, "I come, therefore, in the terms of the Conftitution, to propofe to you formally to declare war against the King of Bohemia and Hungary." That we find this Monarch in fuch a degraded fituation we do not wonder. The fact was fo, and we believe it to be correctly recorded. But that this circumftance paffes without any obfervation from the hiftorian would have excited our wonder, had we not already observed, in fome of the fubfequent pages, omiffions of this nature, at which we wonder ftill more.

VOL. XLIV. Auc, 1803.

The Low Countries, at once rich, difunited, and confequently defencelefs, presented the first object of attrac tion to the rapacity of France: thefe people, from the operation of political circumftances, no longer mercantile, feemed, in the purfuits of agriculture, to have found that happinefs which, if small things may be compared with great, a commercial man does when retired to an eftate which the fruit of his industry had purchased. This happinefs they were destined no longer to enjoy. Biron obtained the command; their country was invaded. But this first attempt ended in a disgraceful retreat on the part of the French, which,, in their peculiar ftile, they emblazoned and dignified by the magnificent obfequies which they decreed to the hero who conducted it.

We do not mean to follow the Author in his narrative of the difputes of the Cabinet, or the proceedings of the National Affembly; they are given in the journal ftile; and the latter, with other proceedings, declarations, &c. in the notes, appear to be faithfully extracted from the newspapers of the time. Thefe, the reader will obferve, though good materials for a history, are not a hiftory. Some of the biographical anecdotes, though not new, may in future be useful.

However great our defire to avoid what we, confidering this work historically, think a fault, namely, prolixity, may be, we cannot refrain from paufing a little, while we contemplate the degraded state of France after the fecond retreat of the army. Turning our eyes to the Capital, we fee Santerre, the brewer, at the head of the inhabitants of the fuburbs of St. Antoine, holding out to the King a petition to difmifs his Minifters; the Red Cap placed upon the head of the Monarch by a drunkard; and Vergenaux, elevated upon the fhoulders of one of thefe ruffians, haranguing the rest!

The ufe of history is to prefent to us events that have happened either as objects of imitation or abhorrence. There are scenes in every story, efpeci

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