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continued to be the agent and municipal magistrate of the Levant Company, for the regulation of the factories, and in the exercise of con. sular powers, as to trade, navigation, &c. This station he held till January, 1801, when Lord Elgin was recommended by the Crown. But Mr. Tweddell's effects, sent from Athens, arrived at Constantinople in 1799 it belonged therefore to Mr. Smythe immediately and officially to superintend their management, and Lord Elgin had no right to interfere. This assumption of power was irre. gular and unauthorized. It is further obvious, that he had no right to touch the property left with Mr. Thornton: Mr. Thornton seems to have given it up under an apprehension of his lordship's power, at least equal to his conviction, that the ambassador had a right to take it.

"At the time we are speaking of," he observes," I was only a merchant at Constantinople; and as such was dependent in a great degree on the ambassador's good pleasure for the protection, and consequently for the success of my business." See pp.

379 and 462.

Let us now examine what means were adopted to recover these effects. Application was in the first instance made to the noble lord by the venerable father of the deceased: to that gentleman* no answer was returned; but some intimations, of a satisfactory nature, were transmitted in December, 1799, by his lordship to a particular friend.

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*In a letter to Mr. Smythe, dated Galata, May 29,1809, Mr. Thornton observes"Although I delivered Mr. Tweddell's letters some time since into Lord Elgin's hands, he never mentioned the subject but once, and then so slightly, that I could not continue it. The fin mot' of the business is this the whole hive (I shall not determine whether wasps or bees) are extracting from poor Tweddell's papers whatever is worthy of his lordship's patronage; and the petition of Mr. Tweddell, the father, will lie on the table sine die."-p. 466.

The hopes which this intelligence excited were greatly damped by a letter from Mr. Spencer Smythe, dated Constantinople, 15th April, 1801, and addressed to Francis Tweddell, Esq. He assures Mr. Tweddell, that such a change of circumstances had taken place, as not only rendered his good offices touching the affairs in question useless, but doomed him to become an impotent spectator of so much mismanagement as made the topic very ungrateful.. He complains in strong terms of Lord Elgin's encroachments, and laments that "an inter ference, which he must reprobate as highly officious and indelicate (to apply no other epithet), should have made all his regard for the memory of the deceased, as well as his own zeal for the same literary pursuits, of no avail towards a proper and advantageous management of his affairs.

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"To a person of your undoubted experience and sagacity, I must have expressed enough for my meaning to be comprehended; or if not, the deficiency can be made good when I may be enabled vivá voce to assure you of my being with perfect truth and regard," &c. &c.-p. 413.

Letters were sent from England to Dr. Clarke, then on his travels in the East, soliciting his good offices in this mysterious business: and all other likely methods of access were resorted to; but in vain. With. respect to Dr. Clarke, the Editor says:

"Let the accomplished traveller, to whom I confidently refer, correct me, if am wrong in asserting, that his representa. tions at the English palace in Constantinople, though addressed in the most respectful and earnest manner, were met with rudeness and rebuke; with a pointed refusal to enter into the particulars which formed the subject of inquiry; and with a general, but positive, declaration, that the property had been sent home in compli ance with the instructions of Mr. Tweddell's father; and that the interference of

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The hope was, however, still in

dulged, that on account of Lord Elgin's attachment to the antiquities of Greece, and the high value which he would, therefore, probably affix to Mr. Tweddell's manuscripts, &c. he might have taken some of the most important into his own peculiar care, with a view to transmit them to the family on his return. Unhappily his lordship was detained for some years a prisoner in France; and when he ar

rived in England, appeared incompetent to tell any thing about the property, except that it had been sent home. Now, when and by whom was it sent to England?

In reply to a letter of the editor, urging the importance of clearing up this mysterious affair, an answer was received from Lord Elgin; the purport of which was, that his memory did not supply him with recollections sufficiently precise for that purpose: that his impression was, that the property had been sent home, either by the late Professor Carlyle, or in a merchantman called the Duncan; but that he is unable to discover, either in his mind, or among his papers, any memorandum alluding to the transaction; and in conclusion,

"he insists on the length of the interval which has elapsed since the date of the transactions; and, having intimated how very

transiently the matters in debate originally came before him, and how anxiously he has availed himself of his fading 'impressions to give all possible information on a subject so extremely interesting, the noble earl takes his leave, by expressing a general persuasion, that every thing relating to Mr. Tweddell's concerns 'must' have been sufficiently explained at the time in one way or other"

-pp. 364, 365.

1. The ship Duncans

Constantinople, on the 5 ber,* 1800: and it has bee ed by the most patient a inquiry of Custom-house &c. that there is not t trace of any part of the pr ing been put on board the

2. Mr. Thornton's sta when Professor Carlyle though in Constantinople ing to England, and in he never heard that he ha communicating with that to do with the shipping erty in question: on the co fessor Carlyle expressed ness to Mr. Thornton t

Mr. Tweddell's family

them respecting his pap gence he might wish t

y, &c. &c.

3. Professor Carlyle, h conversations with Mr.

his return, from which it pear that no part of Mr. property had been entry care. He is stated, howey ship would not take the expressed an opinion, tha question, because he did he could convert it into 460.

4. The alleged fact, th the drawings in question w ly in the possession of I long after the specified tim editor be correct in his a his account is decisive. ing that his lordship had t Mr. Tweddell's property residence, he proceeds the

"It is an undeniable fact, tha dell's Athenian effects were no

The account of the noble lord corresponds in some degree with that of ferred at that time in the mod

his chaplain, Dr. Hunt. The doctor believes that the papers, &c. were shipped by Professor Carlyle on board

*Ten months after Lord Elgin ed possession of Mr. Tweddel

3

but that very shortly afterwards they underwent a second removal, and the whole of the property was then taken by his lordship to his private villa in the village of Belgrad, at the distance of about twelve miles from Constantinople; and if I am to credit information, which rests on authority the most respectable, derived on the spot and in circulation at the time, my brother's journals and various collections were accessible to the eyes of all visiters at the villa, and to the hands of certain individuals," &c. pp. 367, 368.

"It is ascertained from positive testimo ny, that so late as the end of 1801, which was nearly two years from the arrival of the effects from Athens, his lordship being then at Bouyukdéré, and walking there on the quay, entered into familiar conversation with the late Mr. Thornton; with feelings of evident vexation, he expressed the severe disappointment he had just experienced, in the refusal of one of his retinue to proceed to Athens, for the superintendence of his pursuits in Greece'-' particularly after I had prepared him for the purpose, by allow. ing him the use of Tweddell's papers and

collections.

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The case is now before our readers, and we have little inclination to add any observations of our own upon this extraordinary subject. If the statements of this work be correct, and we see no reason to doubt their correctness, the inference is inevitable. What the opinion of Mr. Thornton was, so late as the year 1813, may be seen by his letters, p. 376: and till some very powerful evidence shall be adduced on the opposite side of the question, the same also is likely to be the impression of the public.

We abstain from any reflections upon the explicitness or consistency of the letters from Dr. Hunt; for

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We conclude by observing, that if the impression which will be felt by all the readers of this work be unjust and unfounded, seldom has it fallen to the lot of a human being to be placed in a more cruel situation than the noble lord. It appears upon the most respectable evidence, that his lordship possessed himself of all the packages, belonging to Mr. Tweddell, that came from Greece, although consigned to another person: that he took them, not to the official place-the British Chancery-but to his own dwelling house: that he ordered likewise to his own house all the property, which had been left at Constantinople under the care of Mr. Thornton: that he suffered the

packages which had been under

his cellar before they were exposed to the light, although urged to open them without delay: that he opened, without authority, the trunks left at Mr. Thornton's: that all the several articles were laid on chairs and tables in a room of his own house, of which his lordship took the key that in a few weeks the trunks, lef originally with Mr. Thornton, were sent back to the warehouse, without the manuscripts, drawings, &c. which they had contained: that the manuscripts and drawings of Mr. Tweddell were taken to his lordship's countryhouse, and were in the hands of the gentlemen of the embassy that the application of Mr. Tweddell's venerable father for the recovery of

water to remain several weeks in

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his son's property was neglected, and deemed unworthy of an answer: that the interference of Mr. Smythe and Dr. Clarke was treated by his lordship in a way not calculated to invite a repetition of it: that there is no document of any sort, either at Constantinople (where it would certainly have existed) or elsewhere, to prove that the property was ever shipped by Professor Carlyle or Mr. Thornton on board the Duncan, or any other vessel: that Professor Carlyle, in fact, had no knowledge of any such transaction: that Mr. Thornton believed not one word of it: that a part of the property was seen in the possession of Lord Elgin long after the Duncan had sailed and finally, that the whole of it, prehaps the most valuable literary property which any traveller has collected in modern times, has totally disappeared.

Such is, in few words, the sum of the chief items in the appendix: if these treasures should ever come to light, we confess that to us it will be an event beyond all our expectations. It cannot, however, be doubted that his lordship, and perhaps Dr. Hunt, will, for their own sakes, set about a most diligent inquiry; and that we shall soon hear something farther upon the subject.

The whole of this detail may, in the eyes of some of our readers, seem foreign to the objects of the Christian Observer; but surely it is impossible for any one who feels for the general interests of literature, or who is actuated by a love of justice, to be indifferent to the progress and issue of such a discussion; and we regard it even as a duty to do what in us lies to bring it fairly before the public.

The Lives of the Puritans; contain ing a Biographical Account of those Divines who distinguished them selves in the Cause of Religious Liberty, from the Reformation

under Queen Elizabeth, to the Passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662 by the Rev. BENJAMIN BROOK, 3 vols. 8vo. 14. 16s. 1813.

THE work we here present to the acquaintance of our readers, is one deserving of no ordinary consideration. To say the truth, we have watched it for some length of time lying upon our table, under a degree of painful suspense, as to what manner we might adopt, so as, with the greatest propriety and the least offence, to bring it into notice. On the one hand, we perceive in it marks of very uncommon labour and indefatigable research, to which the short limits of a review can do but very unequal justice: and on the other, we no less easily discover qualities which will demand the severer exercise of our critical powers. As a memorial of times and persons to which we are under the greatest obligation, we owe it the most serious attention; as not an impartial memorial, we cannot withhold much, in our opinion, merited censure. It will be impossible for us, as sincere churchmen, not to animadvert strongly on the principles on which the whole work is constructed; though, we trust, as equally sincere Christians, we shall feel every disposition to afford them the most candid examination. Assuming our right, as impartial critics, to speak fully to these several points (and without such a right we should not speak at all,) we shall proceed to our critical undertaking, not courting the favour nor fearing the frown, we trust, of any class of religious profession, whether within the pale of the church or beyond it.

We cannot but consider this work as by far the fullest and most complete memorial of Puritanical worthies, of any that has ever yet appeared. It seems to be written with the express view of perpetuat ing the memory of every Puritan divine of note, from the earliest

dawn of the Reformation, to the Act of Uniformity in 1662: and as such, we presume, will be esteemed a valuable possession by every person, who, either by descent, by reading, or any other means, should feel himself interested in any single divine of that large school. The industrious reader will form some idea, perhaps feel some jealousy, of the labours of a compilation which professes to have been drawn from authorities contained in 55 works in folio, 26 works in quarto, 36 works in octavo, besides various MSS. yielding "a great variety of most interesting and curious informa tion never before printed." It is impossible to doubt that "the author of these volumes has spared no labour nor expense in the collection of materials ;" and when we find in his pages an authentic biographical memoir, of nearly 500 persons, in many cases very full, and, subjoined to all, a correct list of their respective works (an undertaking itself of considerable labour), we cannot but consider this persevering biographer, as having carried away the prize of intense application from all histo rians of the same times.

It would be superfluous to add, that a zeal well proportioned to the industry with which these volumes have been compiled, appears through-out them-a most ardent zeal in the cause of what the author strongly feels to have been injured innocence and a most unquestioned and unbounded attachment to the cause of religious liberty. It may be deemed still higher praise to say of such a writer, that he withholds himself from any strong reflections on those of his own contemporaries, who might be supposed to inherit something of the zeal of their forefathers, against the innovations of the Puritans; and that he even prompts us "to contrast our own circumstances with theirs, and to be excited to the warmest thankfulness, that we live not in the puritanic age,

but in days of greater Christian freedom"-adding, "Shall we not be constrained to exclaim, the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places; yea, Lord, thou hast given us a goodly heritage?" Pref. p. xxiii.

We must own this very exclama. tion of our memorialist leads us to one very plain and obvious question, which may equally apply to all works of a similar tendency in the present age, viz.: What is the necessity now existing for their publication? And is not the emission of such statements as those of Mr. Brook at a time when confessedly the ends of Christian freedom are mainly obtained, likely to operate rather unfavourably than favourably on the minds both of those who have granted, and those who have received, the boon? May not the giver complain, that past ills are somewhat peevishly thrown in his teeth, when all grounds for present complaint have been long studiously removed? And may not the receiver be apt to imagine by these reiterated calls to religious patriotism, that all is not yet obtained which he has a right to expect? We look in vain for an answer to these questions, in the spirited dedication of this work, "to the rising generation among the various denominations of Protestants." We observe nothing that is to operate favourably upon the members of the Establishment, on the one hand, by being told that "the rulers of these times persecuted the Puritans with wanton cruelty, in total contempt of every sacred law, of every just principle, and of every humane feeling :" nor on the other, upon the rising generation of the various denominations of Protestants, by being asked, "With what feelings will you receive the precious inheritance? Will you lightly esteem what they so highly valued? Will you stand aloof from the cause which they watched with jealous vigilance, and defended with invincible courage? If the blood of these men run in your veins, if the

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