<dreads in the capacity of accufer, may, 'perhaps, be thought obfcure. Did ever man ftruggle more earnestly in a cause where both his honour and life were concerned, than he ' and his friends, to have my service fet afide in the prefent trial? There are many things, Verres imagines in me, of which he knows you, Cæcilius, to be deflitute. But of these, and the manner in which they exift in us both, I fhall foon have occafion to speak. At prefent I fhall only. fay, what you yourself must tacitly allow; that there is "nothing in me which he can contemn, nothing in you which ' he ought to dread. Hence his great friend and champion Hortenfius folicits for you, and oppofes me. and opposes me. He openly demands of the judges, to give you the preference; and pertends, that in this he acts fairly, without jealoufy or refent'ment. I ask not, fays he, what I am wont to obtain, when I plead with earneftness: I ask not that the criminal fhould be acquitted; but only that he should be impeached by this man, rather than the other. Grant me but this; grant what is easy, honourable, and fafe; and, in fo doing, you will, without danger or infamy to yourselves, fecure the • absolution * of him whose cause I espouse. And that fear as well as favour may determine you to a compliance, he fays there are certain judges in court, to whom he is refolved the fuffrages fhall be fhewn. That this is an eafy matter, as they give not in their votes fingly, but jointly ' and together. That every judge is to have a tablet legitimately waxed over, where artifice and treachery can have no place. Nor is all this anxiety fo much for the fake of Verres, as from his dislike to the whole proceeding. For he fees, that if the bufinefs of accufation is taken out of the hands of young men of quality, whom he has hitherto baffled,

F 4

The abfolution of him, &c.] The latin is, ut is abfolvatur. The word abfolution is feldom, we apprehend, made ufe of in our language to fignify the acquittal or discharge of a perfon accufed, which is the meaning in this place. Abfolution is, indeed, strictly confin'd to a religious fenfe, and never, as we remember, taken în any other.'

Legitimately waxed over, &c.] Cerâ legitima. This expreffion must appear itiff and affected to an English reader. The tranflator might, perhaps, better have made üle of fome periphrafis.

baffled, and of pettifoggers ‡ whom he has always justly despised and set at nought, and committed to men of courage and reputation, he can no longer domineer in the courts "of justice as formerly.'

We have taken the liberty, in our notes, to criticise (ex officio) a few particular paffages which appeared to us not fo perfect, as we cou'd have wifh'd; notwithstanding which, we are ready to acknowledge great merit in this translation, which, tho' our author modeftly ftiles it a literal one, is not without a confiderable share of that freedom and spirit, fo much admir'd in the original, nor can we see any reason why he fhou'd conceal his name from the public, whofe favour he is intitled to for a very juft, and, in moft parts, not inelegant tranflation of one of the noblest authors of antiquity.

The notes fubjoin'd explaining the allufions to antient hiftory and the Roman customs, are not the least useful part of this work: those which we meet with under the text of the original, in moft editions of this and almoft every other author, are fo obfcur'd by the bad latin of commentators, as to render them of very little fervice to youth, who are obliged to recur to Potter, Kennett, or fome fuch writer, for an explanation of every law or custom mention'd; which takes up a great deal of time that is faved by the method here followed, of adding English notes; for which reason we should be glad to fee every antient author illustrated in the fame manner.

Pettyforgers, &c] The latin word is quadruplatores, officers, whofe bufinefs it was (as our tranflator obferves in his note on this word) to take cognisance of ftate crimes, and prepare articles of impeachment against the offenders; who, if caft, forfeited a fourth part of their goods to the accufers. But furely this defcription of the quadru platores can by no means, authorile the tranflator to give them the name of pettyfoggers, which conveys to us another, and a much more extenfive idea. We have, perhaps, no word in our language exactly analogous to the quaarup atores, though that of informers may be thought to come pretty near it.

ART. VIII. BOWER vindicated from the falfe Infinuations and Accufations of the Papifts. With a fhort Account of bis Character. In answer to the Pamphlet, intitled, Six Letters from Ad Br to Father Sheldon, Provincial of the Jefuits

in England, &c. By a Country Neighbour. 8vo. Pr. 6d. Doughty.

MR

R. B being either unwilling or unable (perhaps both) to defend himself against the forcible attacks lately made on his reputation, hath thought fit to employ council in his caufe, and has accordingly delivered what poor weapons he had into the hands of a Country Neighbour, who, tho' (as the gentleman himself informs us) but a new acquaintance of Mr. B's, engages out of mere charity and good nature to justify the character of his friend: he affures us therefore (for which we are to take his word) that Mr. Bower is a very

6

good churchman, a good husband, a good neighbour, an ene'my to no man, and well-respected by all his neighbourhood:" he believes however that Mr. B. was a man of better principles in 1745, than he was 20 years before-which, to be fure, is a compleat vindication of him. He then defires to know, • Why the author of the pamphlet againft Bower did not at❝tack him at the time of his publishing The Lives of the Popes, in 1747, rather than fo long after?' To which the author of the pamphlet will probably reply, That if he had known Mr. B. as well then as he does now, it would most certainly have been done. He then refumes Mr. B's own excellent argument, Is it confiftent (fays he) with reafon, that if Mr. • Bower be a jefuit-priest, or Roman catholic, he would write <a history to the prejudice of that body?' The * absurdity of this defence we have already taken notice of, and shall proceed to one no less abfurd which his friend has here made for him, in regard to the delay of his work.

'Mr. Bower's time, it seems, fince the publication of the ⚫ third volume of The Lives of the Popes, until five months last • past, had been almost wholly taken up with the fourth volume of that work, that his fubfcribers might not be un• easy at its not being published; which work has been delayed fince February laft, by the behaviour of Sir Hy B-d, and others, he having been engaged in the vindica

<tion

* See the account of Br's affidavit in our last number for Jaly,

P. 558.

tion of his character from the calumny and falfe infinuations of priests, &c.'

To this it can only be faid, that if Mr. Bower has really been engaged fo long in the vindication of his character, he has employed a great deal of time to very little purpofe.

Mr. Bower's conftant connection with the jefuits was (according to this gentleman) nothing but civility and prudence, and he is rather to be pitied than blamed for it. The affair of lending the money indeed is what this Country Neighbour I could never approve. He thinks Mr. Bower fomewhat to blame in it, but he was disappointed by the truftees for Aldgate church, (a pious ufe which he intended to put it to) and accidentally mecting with father Hill who offer'd him the 7 per Cent. annuity, through hafte, inadvertently accepted it.

This hafty matter the reader will find, on recurring to the pamphlet, was no less than three years in concluding. Our neighbour, however, allows this tranfaction to have been an indiferetion, and is very forry to find that many others have been guilty of the fame: though he acknowledges the jesuits to be (which is more than every body will acknowledge) a very good honeft kind of people, and men who have always kept up their credit. In anfwer to the account (fee the pamphlet, p. 30) of Mr. Bower's being met coming out of a houfe of civil reception in Covent-Garden, &c. our author fays, In answer to this ftory,' (pray obferve, readers, for it is an excellent answer) I may safely own it to be true, but not <in the fcandalous light in which it is fet forth! For, as I have heard it from Mr. Bower himself, he went to that house upon a laudable occafion; to fetch a young gentleman from thence as from a house of ill fame; and all the relations of that young gentleman are at this time in great friendship with Mr. Bower. But I hope this author will not deny, that Romif priefts often vifit the famous regions of Covent-garden. Ano<ther accufation of enormous incontinency brought against Mr. Bower by this author, you may read p. 84, where he fays that "Mrs. Hays at last complained to Mr. Gay of B---'s "taking indecent liberties, by putting his hand into her "neck." I ask the author, whether this fault is of fo criminal a nature as to deserve ftoning, in the pure and chaste

judg

judgments of himself and the Roman priefts; and if he is qualified to throw the first stone? Therefore I recommend him not to judge, left he be judged.'

This concludes the pamphlet before us: we heartily wish, for Mr. Bower's fake, it had contain'd something more to the purpose. As the defence is fo poor and contemptible, we cannot but be of opinion that Mr, Bower has little reafon to thank the author for it. Whatever our country neighbour may think, it was, by no means, a neighbourly action in him; as we apprehend it will be more to the prejudice than advantage of Mr. Bower, who will have reafon to reproach him in the words of the pfalmift, with, if it had been an enemy, Į cou'd have borne it; hut it was even thou, mine own familiar friend.

* In Our article of Mr. Bower's affidavit, in the last number, p. 561, for thefe words, he has a child by her, read that he had a child by another busband.

FOREIGN ARTICLE S.

ART. IX. The history of Nicholas the 1ft, king of Paraguay, &c. in three fmall volumes duodecimo, without the printer's name being mentioned, or the place where it was printed.

The analysis of this anonymous performance is as follows. NICHOLAS Rubioni was born in the year 1690, in a

fmall town of Andalusia; he was the son of an old foldier; and his education tending but little to controul his natural preverseness, he foon launched into all manner of excess. When he was only 18, he was obliged to fly from his father's house, for an attempt to affaffinate. He took refuge in Sevil, where, during four years, he frequented all kinds of public diverfions, and was also a conftant churchman; impudent in one, and hypocritical in the other, he found happy resources in each.

At length he hired himself as a lacquey in the house of a devout lady; here he foon became master, but was in a fhort time driven out by her brother. He then became a mule-driver; the country produced none so infolent; he affaffinated a clerk, robbed his master, and fled to Malaga, where he lived several years as a knight of industry: but now growing old, and fearing to fall into indigence, he began to think of embracing a life, in which he might be fure, at leaft, of food and raiment. In

I

this