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The ftill and peaceful eve let others hail,
When not a leaf ftirs with the gentle breeze;
When Cynthia's gleam refts on the lengthening vale,
Or glitters broken through wide branching trees.

Sweet is the mild nefs of the moon-light scene,
The pleasures sweet, ftill, peaceful eves infpire;
Yet fweeter far, O Clarke! to thee, I ween,
This folemn night, in tune to Offian's lyre!
For now thy fancy, fpurning earth and time,

Soars with each shadowy form, and converse holds fublime.' An Efay upon the Peace of 1783. Dedicated to the Archbishop of Paris. Tranflated from the French of the Rev. J. Fletcher. By the Rev. J. Gilpin. 4to. 25. 6d. Longman.

In our last Number, we reviewed M. de la Fletcher's poem, entitled La Grace & la Nature,' in which the Peace of Paris' was inferted as an episode. That refpectable man is, wę find, lately dead; and his pupil, Mr. Gilpin, has tranflated the episode, formerly a separate publication, with accuracy and neatnefs. We shall felect, as a specimen of the translation, the following lines, of which the original will be found in the Re. view for November.

'Let us the horrors of that day review,

When Rodney and De Graffe their thousands flew.--
Dreadful from far the bellowing thunders found,
And fcatter fudden devastation round:

Now, from the bleeding carcafe rudely torn,
The fhatter'd limbs are to the furges borne,
And fwift-wing'd bolts, along the darken'd sky,
Against an hundred moving ramparts fly.
But fee! the hofts like adverfe tempefts meet,
And death hangs brooding o'er the mingled fleet;
Now here, now there, the vivid lightning flies,
Pale from their caves the unchain'd furies rife ;
The brazen engines launch their deadly stores,
And underneath the troubled ocean roars.

Sulphureous clouds, in fmouldering eddies fweep
From the bright furface of the flaming deep,
And roaring burfts, by fudden flashes led,
Thro' all the trembling world wild terror fpread;
Hot purple ftreams thro' the ting'd waters flow,
Drenching the finny tribes that wait below;
While every deck, with mangled members ftrew'd,
And mutilated bodies, bath'd in blood,
One univerfal flaughter-houfe are made,
Where human victims glut the vengeful blade.
What horrid maffacre! what odious fare,
Do Chriftians for the eager fhark prepare!
The cannibal, who feafts on human spoil,
With horror from fuch carnage would recoil."

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DRAMATIC.

The Etymologift, a Comedy of Three Acts. 8vo. 13. Jarvise This author fpeaks of reviewers, commentators, and dic tionary-makers; but he is by no means acquainted with his fubject: we wish that he were. He talks, for instance, of a reviewer's dinner; roafted pig, punch, and port: he might with equal justice have mentioned ortolans and champaign. No-he knows nothing of the matter; for it is not always that jefters prove prophets. His play, as a dramatic performance, is beneath criticism.

N O VEL S.

The Woman of Quality; or, the Hiftory of Lady Adelinda Bellamont. In a Series of Letters. Two Vols. 12mo. 55, ferved.

We fufpect this to be a translation; if it be fo, the translator need not have been eager to appropriate a novel like this to his own nation. The ftory is contradictory and confufed; perplexed without intereft, and terrible without pathos. The language too but we need not enlarge it will buz through its fhort life unheeded, and be forgotten without a parting figh.

--

The Lady's Tale; or, the Hiftory of Drufilla Northington. In Two Volumes. 12mo. 55. Jewed. Noble.

This is an infipid ftory, with little merit in any respect; but we fufpect that it has been a part of a larger work. A late detection of plagiarism may have made us cautious; and the abrupt beginning and conclufion of the hiftory feems to fupport our fufpicions. This may appear too unreasonable; but hall we hint to the author, that ladies do not now wear masks, or gentlemen night-gowns.

MISCELLANEOUS,

Charader of the late Lord Viscount Sackville. 8vo. 6d. Dilly. Though there is no fpecies of writing more adapted to the gratification of curiofity than that which delineates the characters of eminent men, few productions of fuch a nature, impartially executed, have ever made their appearance in the world. An undertaking of this kind requires not only keen difcernment, but opportunities of obfervation which can only be enjoyed by thofe who have lived in the greatest intimacy with the perfons defcribed. And from the connection of fuch parties, it is a natural confequence, that the character fhould be viewed through the favourable medium of friendship. We think, however, that the moral portrait now before us bears a ftrong resemblance of its original; and in this opinion we are no less confirmed by a general comparison of the features, than

by

by the author's ingenuous declaration, that in paying this small tribute to the memory of lord Sackville, he is confcious that he is strictly fulfilling the duties of an honest man.

Lord Sackville was brought up at Westminster school, and took his degrees in the univerfity of Dublin; but the early avocations of a military life, and perhaps a want of tafte and difpofition for claffical ftudies, prevented his advances in literature, fo that in fact he was not fo well read as people of his rank and condition ought to be, and indeed generally are; but he knew his weakness in this particular, and, though a willing hearer when these topics were in conversation, never ventured beyond his knowledge. In the modern history of nations, and particularly of his own, he was uncommonly correct; of the memoirs of illuftrious perfons, interefting anecdotes and events, he had a fertile stock in memory, and with fingular precision of facts and dates; of many confiderable affairs within his own time he had perfonal knowlege, many others (and feveral of a curious and secret nature) he had collected from the best authorities he had a happy talent for relating, and having always been given to enquiry and research, poffeffing withal a very retentive memory, he may fairly be accounted one of the very best companions of the age, though he had neither the advantages of literature, the brilliancy of wit, nor any fuperior pretenfions to a fine taste in the elegant arts: it is, therefore, much to be lamented, that thefe pleasant and engaging quali fications for fociety were fo fparingly difplayed; and that habit had fo contracted his circle, that he could not afterwards, without violence to his nature, extend and enlarge it.

This was conftant matter of regret to me through the whole courfe of my intimacy with him; and I lamented that any man, poffefling fuch a fund of information, with a benevolence of foul that comprehended all mankind, a temper mot placid, and a heart most focial, fhould fuffer in the world's opinion by that obfcurity, to which his ill-fortune, not his natural difpo fition, had reduced him; for I am verily perfuaded that his bittereft defamers, even the anonymous flanderers that raked into the very dregs of infamy and pollufion to afperfe his character, would have repented had they known him.'

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Mr. Cumberland feems to admit that his lordship was not guarded against flattery; and he accounts for this foible in a manner both natural and ingenious. He was fo little ufed to receive juftice from mankind, fays our author, that perhaps he was over grateful for common approbation; and praise, if by chance he ever met it, feemed to take his fenfes by furprise.' The fubfequent extract prefents us with a pleafing account of his lordship's good-nature and politeness.

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In argumentation no man went fooner to the truth, or fubmitted to conviction with a better grace: though he had the gift of feeing through a question almost at a glance, yet he never uffered his difcernment to anticipate another's explanation, or

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Interrupted his argument, how tedious foever. If any one spoke with heat in difpute, or raised his voice above its natural pitch, or if more than one fpeaker talked at a time, it gave him great pain; these are defects in temper and manners too commonly met with in the world, but to which he never gave occafion, by pushing an advantage too hard upon any one: a single word, or even an offer at interruption, ftopt him in a moment, though in the middle of a fentence; and this I have feen him bear repeatedly, and in very many different inftances, without a fymptom of peevifhnefs, taking up his thoughts in the very place where he had left them, and refuming his difcourfe with perfect complacency. To fift out the truth by difcuffion, feemed his only object for contefting any opinion; and whether that was attained by the refult of his own or another's reasoning, was a difcovery he had fo little defire to arrogate to his own fagacity, that he was very ingenious in fhifting it from himself to any other he converfed with; for he was an adept in that art, which tends to put others in humour with themselves, and which I take to be of the true fpecies of politeness, not laying out for admiration by difplay.'

According to the reprefentation given by our author, lord Sackville was not lefs happily qualified by nature for a high department in the ftate than for difcharging the duties of private life.

He had all the requifites of a great minifter, unless popularity and good luck are to be numbered amongst them: in punctuality, precision, difpatch, and integrity, he was not to be furpaffed; he was fitted both by habit and temper for business; no man could have fewer avocations, whether natural or artificial, for he was flave to no paffion or excefs, indulged no humour unless that of regularity may be called a humour, which he obferved to a fcrupulous minutenefs; and as for his domestic affairs, they were in fuch a train of order and œconomy, that they demanded little of his attention: he had fludied the finances of the nation, and her refources both in war and peace; had taken uncommon pains to obtain authentic and early intelligence of the councils and operations of foreign ftates, and readily difcerned how the interefts of this country were affected thereby. He was of an active indefatigable mind: intemperance never difturbed his faculties; neither avarice nor ambition corrupted them; eafy in his private circumftances, and totally void of every wish to accumulate, his zeal for his country, and his application to business, were not subject to be diverted from their proper exertions: a scene of activity was what he delighted in, for he was full of operation and project, and of a spirit fo incapable of defpondency, that difficulties and dangers, which would have depreffed fome men, ferved to animate him.

In the interchange of confidence with him it was neceffary to have no reserve or holding back of circumstances, for he had fuch

fuch power of feeing into the heart of hypocrify, and his own was fo free from duplicity, that on fuch occafions you must im part the whole or nothing; when this was fairly done, he was your own to all honeft intents, and (humanly fpeaking) to all time; for he was a steady faithful friend: his mind was fo ftrong, that it could not eafily be overburthened by the weight of affairs, fo clear that the variety of them was not apt to perplex it he could fhift his attention from one thing to its oppofite with fingular facility; he wished to do bufinefs, not to dwell upon it; and as his punctuality, as I before observed, went with the hand of the clock to the very point of the minute, he was pleasant to all who ferved with him, or were dependant on his motions, and their hours of relaxation were hours of fecurity.'

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His lordship appears likewife to great advantage when viewed in the different relations of a mafter, a father, and a friend. The establishment of his houfhold is faid to have been the model of a liberal economy; the health, the exercises, and even the amusements of his fervants, were the objects of his attentention; and in regard to the poor, his charity was directed with fo much judgment, that their induftry and morals paffed under his infpection, and were influenced by it.

Among the few incidents recorded in his life, the author mentions his having been shot in the breast, at the head of Barrel's regiment, when this brave corps was almoft cut to pieces in the battle of Fontenoy. From his lordship's behaviour on this occafion, and his natural ferenity of mind, which forfook him not even at the approach of death, Mr. Cumberland invalidates, with great probability, the popular imputation refpecting the tranfaction at Minden.

The following paffage in the conclufion of the character, does honour both to the morals of his lordship and the fenfibility of the author.

It is not in my remembrance, through the course of my acquaintance with him, ever to have heard a word from his lips that could give offence to decency or religion; but in this latter period, of which I am fpeaking, and throughout which I conftantly attended him, his fentiments were of that exalted and fuperior kind, as to render the fpectacle of his death one of the most edifying contemplations of my life.'

We have already acknowledged that Mr. Cumberland's obfervations appear to be founded in truth; and we shall now only add, that they place lord Sackville's character in fuch a light as fhews him to have been adorned with thofe virtues which merit both affection and esteem.

Remarks on the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, in a Letter to James Bofwell, Esq. 8vo. IS. Debrett.

This author attacks Mr. Bofwell for the vanity which he dif plays in the Journal, and the trifling nature of many of the obfervations, which he has either recorded, or drawn from his

own

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