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still see this gentleman's principles in the accounts which he gives of his own country: speaking of the Gl, the quondam Tr, and the J-to,' which every one knows comprehends the Whigs, in their utmost extent; he adds, in opposition to them, For the queen and the whole body of the British nation, LLUNY thechu oviosaco Nos numerus sumus!)?(9) maɗoll ador

Cos eld In English, vol zeleni, ni si

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Zaldumest mistit te out and ne onlenges and gridt We are cyphers, os - 2d and How properly the Tories may be called the whole bo dy of the British nation, I leave to any one's judging: and wonder how an author can be so disrespectful to her majesty, as to separate her in so saucy a manner from that part of her people, who, according to the Examiner himself, if have engrossed the riches of the nations and all this to join her, with so much impug dence, under the common denomination of We; that is, We queen and Tories are cyphers. Nos nume BUS AUNUS is a scrap of Latin, more impudent› than Cardinal Wolsey's Ego et Rex meus. We find the samle particle, WE, used with great emphasis and signifeaney in the eighth page of this letters of Butinos thing decisive, nothing which had the appearance of carnesti has been so much as attempted, except that wise expedition to Toulon, which We suffered to be defeated before it began. Whoever did, God forgive them: there were indeed several stories of discoveries made, by letters and messengers that were sent to France.

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Having done with the author's party and principles, we shall now consider his performance, under the three heads of wit, language, and argument. The first lash of his satire falls upon the censor of Great Britain, who, says he, resembles the famous censor of Rome, in nothing but espousing the cause of the vanquished. Our letter writer here alludes to that known verse in Lucan, hus ad

Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed picta Catoni.
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VOL. IV.

"The Gods espoused the cause of the conquerors, but Cato espoused the cause of the vanquished. The misfortune is, that this verse was not written of Eato the Censor, but of Cato of Utica How Mr. Bickerstaffe, who has written in favour of a party that is not vanquished, resembles the younger Cato, who was not a Roman censor, I do not well conceive, unless it be in struggling for the liberty of his country. To say therefore that the censor of Great Britain resembles that famous censor of Rome in nothing but espousing the cause of the vanquished, is just the same as if one should say, in regard to the many obscure truths and secret histories that are brought to light in this letter, that the author of these new revelations resembles the ancient author of the Revelations in nothing but venturing his head. Besides that there would bes no ground for such a resemblance, would not a man be laughed at by every common reader, should he thus mistake one St. John for another, and apply that to St. John the Evangelist which relates to St. John the Baptist, who died many years before him, nil)

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Another smart touch of the author we meet with in the fifth page, where, without any preparation, he breaks out all on a sudden into a vein of poetry; and, instead of writing a letter to the Examiner, gives advice to a painter in these strong lines: Paint, Sir, with that force which you are master of, the present state of the war abroad; and expose to the public view those principles upon which, of late, it has been carried on, so different from those upon which it was originally entered into. Collect. some few of the indignities which have been this year offered to her majesty, and of those unnatural struggles which have betrayed the weakness of a shattered constitution. By the way, a man may be said to paint a battle, or, if you please, a war; but I do not see how it is possible to paint the present state of a war. So a man may be said to describe or to collect accounts of indignities and unnatural struggles; but to collect the things themselves is 4 11

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a figure which this gentleman has introduced into our English prose. Well, but what will be the use of this picture of a state of the war? and this collection of indignities and struggles? It seems the chief design of them is to make a dead man blush, as we may see in those inimitable lines which immediately follow: "And when this is done, D-n shall blush in his grave among the dead, Wle among the living, and éven Vole shall feel some remorse.' Was there. ever any thing, I will not say so stiff and so unnatural, but so brutal and so silly! this is downright hacking and hewing in satire. But we see a master-piece of this kind of writing in the twelfth page; where, without any respect to a duchess of Great Britain, a princess of the empire, and one who was a bosom friend of her royal mistress, he calls a great lady 'an insolent woman, the worst of her sex, a fury, an executioner of divine vengeance, a plague;' and applies to her a line which Virgil writ originally upon Alecto. One would think this foul-mouthed writer must have received some particular injuries, either from this great lady or from her husband; and these the world shall be soon acquainted with, by a book which is now in the press, entitled, An Essay towards proving that Gratitude is no Virtue." This author is so full of satire, and is so angry with every one that is pleased with the Duke of Marlborough's victories, that he goes out of his way to abuse one of the queen's singing men, who, it seems, did his best to celebrate a thanksgiving day in an anthem; as you may see in that passage: Towns have been taken, and battles have been won; the mob has huzzaed round bonfires, the stentor of the chapel has - strained his throat in the gallery, and the stentor of Sm has deafened his audience from the pulpit.' Thus you see how like a true son of the high-church he falls upon a learned and reverend prelate, and for no other crime, but for preaching with an audible voice. If a man lifts up his voice like a trumpet to preach sedition, he is received by some men as a

confessor; but if he cries aloud, and spares, not to animate people with devotion and gratitude, for the greatest public blessings that ever were bestowed on a sinful nation, he is reviled as a Stentor.

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I promised in the next place to consider the language of this excellent author, who, I find, takes himself for an orator. In the first page he censures several for the poison which they profusely scatter' through the nation; that is, in plain English, for squandering away their poison. In the second, he talks of carry ing probability through the thread of a fable; and, in the third, of laying an odium at a man's door.' In the fourth he rises in his expressions; where he speaks of those who would persuade the people, that the G-1, the quondam Tr, and the Jto, are the only objects of the confidence of the allies, and of the fears of the enemies. I would advise this author to try the beauty of this expression. Suppose a foreign minister should address her majesty in the following manner, (for certainly it is her majesty only to whom the sense of the compliment ought to be paid,) Madam, you are the object of the confidence of the allies; or, Madam, your majesty is the only object of the fears of the enemies. Would a man think that he had learned English? I would have the author try, by the same rule, some of the other phrases, as page 7, where he tells us, that the balance of power in Europe would be still precarious. What would a tradesman think, if one should tell him," in a passion, that his scales were precarious; and mean by it, that they were not fixed? In the thirteenth page he speaks of certain profligate wretches, who, having usurped the royal seat, resolved to venture overturning the chariot of government, rather than to lose their place in it.' A plain-spoken man would have left the chariot out of the sentence, and so have made it good English. As it is there, it is not only an impropriety of speech, but of metaphor; it being impossible for a man to have a place in the chariot which he drives. I would therefore advise this

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gentleman, in the next edition of his letter, to change the chariot of government into the chaise of government, which will sound as well, and serve his turn much better. I could be longer on the errata of this very small work, but will conclude this head with taking notice of a certain figure, which was unknown to the ancients, and in which this letter-writer very much excels. This is called by some an anti-climax, an instance of which we have in the tenth page; where he tells us, that Britain may expect to have this only glory left her, that she has proved a farm to the Bank, a province to Holland, and a jest to the whole world. I never met with so sudden a downfal in so promising a sentence; a jést to the whole world, gives such an unexpected turn to this happy period, that I was heartily troubled and surprised to meet with it. I do not remember, in all my reading, to have observed more than two couplets of verses that have been writ ten in this figure; the first are thus quoted by Mr. Dryden.

Not only London echoes with thy fame,
But also Islington has heard the same.

The other are in French..

Allez vous, lui dit il, sans bruit chez vos parens,
Où vous avez laissé votre honneur et vos gans.

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But we need not go further than the letter before its for examples of this nature, as we may find in page the eleventh, Mankind remains convinced, that a queen possessed of all the virtues requisite to bless a nation, or make a private family happy, sits on the throne.' Is this panegyric or burlesque? To see so glorious a queen celebrated in such a manner, gives every good subject a secret indignation; and looks like Scarron's character of the great Queen Semiramis, who, says that author, was the founder of Babylon, conqueror of the East, and an excellent housewife.'

The third subject being the argumentative part of this letter, I shall leave till another occasion.

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