preferve inviolate the best fyftem of liberty that was ever yet reduced to practice. Although the valour of Great Britain in every inftance, and her military fkill in fome, were as confpicuous in her late ftruggle with her confederated foes as they ever had been in any former period, yet through diffentions in her councils, timidity on the part of her minifters, and weaknets or treachery on that of her commanders, fhe fuffered on the whole in the eyes of the nations, defeat and humiliation. The flaves to defpots on the continent of Europe, confounding the interefts of a free people with victory, and the glory of arms, vifiting on individuals the iniquities and follies of the rulers of their nation, began to regard an Englishman with diminished refpect: as if millions of free men had fuffered real lofs and disgrace by failure in attempts where fuccefs would have fhed glory only on the few who made them. But the real glory, as well as intereft of a nation, is the enjoyment of liberty, and of the greatest portion of happiness that is poffible to be extended to every individual in the state. The people of England, on the mifcarriage of their naval and military plans, felt not any degradation of character, nor funk into that languid dejection which is vifit le after unsuccessful wars in arbitrary governments. Part of the nation was routed by the public misfortunes, to watch that minifterial influence to which, in the judgment of many, they were to be afcribed, demanded, and continue to de 'mand, a Reformation of Parliament; and part oppose all fuch innovations as dangerous: but in both we difcern a noble zeal for the prefervation of that balance in the conflitution on which liberty depends. This fpirit of freedom, this jealoufy of encroachment on the diftinct provinces of the different branches of government, which had equally appeared, though in a different manner, in oppofite parties in the flate, blazed forth on the difcuffion of Mr. Fox's Eaft India Bill in parliament, with a light and energy which not only gave a check to the progress of his scheme, but which, by illuftrating the principles of the conftitution, and exhibiting a pleafing proof of the vigilance of the nation, and of public virtue, will tend to difcourage fimilar attempts in future.

The great enemy to dark intrigue is that quick communication of fentiments and defigns which fprings from the prefs, from public roads, and from commercial intercourfe. In barbarous and uncultivated countries, political revolutions are neither unfrequent nor difficult. Ignorance and the face of the country give efficacy and advantage to the monarchical principle of governing mankind by dividing them. In the city of Mofcow, at the ends of all the great ftreets, are gates, which being fuddenly shut in cafes of tumult and infurrection, by cutting off the communication of the people, ferve as engines both of good order and of tyranny. There is not in the world a livelier reprefentation, at once of the nature and the means of liberty and of oppreffion. Deftroy the gates interfperfed in the ancient capital of Ruffia, and a numerous, and quick people, headed by chieftains among the old nobility, who make that the place of their refidence, would find occafion of difpuiting the mandates from the court of Peterburgh. Neither in the English capital, nor in any of its great cities, nor on the roads, are any obftructions to be found to a free intercourfe among the people. The prefs is free, pregnant, and productive; pofts are established between London and

every

overy village of any note in Britain; improvements have been made, and are still making, in travelling; and the number of readers is greater in the prefent, than in any former period of the English history. Accordingly, on no occafion of political conteft, do we find fo great a number of addreffes to the throne, prefented within fo fhort a time, as flowed from all quarters of the kingdom on occafion of that contest which arose on the parliamentary difcution of Mr. Fox's India Bill. That bill was rejected by the Houfe of Peers; and the ministers who had framed and fupported it were difiniffed from their offices. Their difmiffion they affected, at first, to treat with ridicule, as a vain and impotent expreffion of refentment. They boasted that they remained an unbroken body-That they themselves, with their adherents, had all refigned as one man-And that an administration formed in oppofition to their power, could not last for three days. Mr. Fox faid that the new miniftry had placed themselves on the treafury-bench, like fo many children, without once reflecting on the means by which they might be fupported in their new ftations, He affirmed that they had not any ra tional, nor indeed any plan whatever, but trusted entirely for their sta❤ bility, to time and accidents. With fuch ideas of the omnipotence of the House of Commons, the leaders of the coalition, on the defeat of their Eaft-India Bill, immediately propofed to revive it, with fome minute alterations, after the example of the Long Parliament in 1641, in the bill refpecting the bishops, for the exprefs purpose of compelling the Houfe of Lords and the King to pass it; that is, after the example of thofe times, to invest the House of Commons, exclufively of the Home of Lords, and of the King, with the real, effective, legiflative authority. In the mean time one threatening vote was palled by the Commons after another. They feemed defirous of having it understood that they intended to proceed to an open refiftance to Executive Government. And this, perhaps, they would have done, if their verbal refolutions, had been rendered effective by the approbation and support of their conftituents.

In the midst of these alarms, the minifter of the Crown, though repeatedly foiled in the Heufe of Commons, fteadily held the helm, in filent expectation that the breath of popular favour would fwell the fails, and give motion to the grand machine of Government. That animating breeze was heard and felt throughout the whole kingdom. The fupplies were voted, the mutiny-bill was prolonged, and all the threats of coalition, and pageantry of menacing refolutions, evaporated, at last, in an angry remonstrance addreffed to their infulted fovereign.

Thus the Crown was able to maintain its conftitutional preroga→ tive; and the faction that afpired to the government of a democracy, fuffered defeat and difgrace. This event, which was matter of general exultation throughout Great Britain, became a fubject of alarm to many whofe public virtue could not be called in queftion. "The errors of one parliament, faid thofe men, may be corrected in another: but the throne is never vacant: every precedent in favour of the Crown acquires the authority of a law; and when an example is once set of governing in contempt of the House of Commons,

Commons, it will foon be followed by other examples of the fame kind. For a breach is made in the barrier that protected the privileges. of the people, which will be widened by a conftant ftream of royal, influence, till at laft, an irrefiftible torrent of defpotic power fhall level in Great Baitain, as in other European kingdoms, all the bulwarks of liberty, and bury all ranks and orders of men in a general deluge of abfolute monarchy."

Had the Crown, in reality, by its own native vigour, and without any adventitious power, triumphed over a majority in the House of Commons contending in a good caufe, and the real interefts and rights of the people, the apprehenfions of those men would have been too well founded, and the year 1784 would have doubtlefs given birth to the most gloomy era in the annals of England and of Freedom. But neither did the Crown defeat the views of a combined majority in the Houfe of Commons by its own vigour, and without any adventitious power; nor did that majority contend for the interefts and rights of the people. A powerful faction invaded at once the rights of the Crown and the privileges of their fellow-citizens. They grafped at the executive as well as legiflative government of India; they feized the property of the Eaft-India Company; they difputed with the Crown the power of appointing the great officers of state. These encroachments would have led to others-The fertile genius of a bold and neceffitous leader, of neceffitous and defperate men, would have difcovered new fubjects of rapacity, and new objects of ambition-The fceptre fhook in the hands of the fovereign, and it would have fallen to the ground had it not been fupported by the affection, the good fenfe, and the confidence of his people. Thus the people are, in reality, a fourth eftate of the kingdom, different from King, Lords, and their own reprefentatives in parliament: for thefe laft, as well as the other two branches of the legiflature, have on many occafions, an intereft, in this age of fyftematized corruption, different from that of their conftituents. There is in the British, as there was in the Roman government, a power of appealing to the people, and it is, it feems, equally decifive. There is not therefore any danger that can arife from the check that has been lately given to the exceeding power of the Houfe of Commons, fince that check was neceffary to the preservation of the political balance; and fince it was given, not by the royal prerogative alone, but by the royal prrrogative approved aud fupported by the general voice of the nation.

[To be continued in our next.]

Our correspondent who wishes for a continuation of our. Review of Black< ftone's Commentaries, shall be indulged in a future number.

Knox's Effays on Education was published long before the commencement: of our fournal.

It having been fuggefted that THE NAMES on our cover had fubjected the gentlemen to many reflections for articles which they never wrote, they are for thefe, and other obvious reafons, withdrawn.

With the prefent number is given the Title, Contents and Index for vol. iv.

*

*Communications for THE ENGLISH REVIEW are requefied to be fent to Mr. MURRAY, No. 32, Fleet-ftreet, London, where fub. fcribers for this monthly performance are defired to give in their names.

THE

ENGLISH REVIEW.

For FEBRUARY, 1785.

An Apology for the Life of George Ann Bellamy, late of Covent Gar den Theatre. Written by Herself. To which is annexed her original Letter to John Calcraft, Efq; advertised to be publifhed in October 1767, but which was then violently fuppreffed. I 2mo. 5 vols. 155. fewed. Bell. London.

THE

HIS performance is interefting and curious upon many accounts. It contains without difguife the life of a woman who was beautiful and well educated; who has diftinguished herself as a capital actrefs; and whofe adventures have been various and fingular. This hiftory, too, is the more alluring and valuable, as it is written by Mrs. Bellamy herself. Hence thofe frequent burfts of tenderness, anxiety, and paffion which captivate the reader fo much; and which, throughout these volumes, prolong an agitation that is at once melancholy and pleafing. Mrs. Bellamy knows how to communicate the exquifite tone of her feelings: We enter into and go along with her forrows; and the tender fympathy the excites has the power to detract from the disapprobation that ought to accompany the detail of her

errors.

The vanity of beauty, the eclat of general admiration; the flattery and blandifhments of men of high rank and fortune, the love of pleasure, and the pride of luxury and voluptuoufnefs, are the topics which moft naturally apologize for female frailty and in the prefent cafe there were fuperadded a fenfibility of foul, and a fineness of paffion that were the moft feelingly alive. But while the weakness of nature pleads forcibly for Mrs. Bellamy, the extreme candour with which the describes her faults ferves Eng. Rev. Feb. 1785.

F

alfo

alfo to alleviate the impreffion of them; and in a moral view the pictures the draws may be highly beneficial. They may inftruct the young and thoughtless of her own fex to fly from the flattering fhore of vanity, diffipation, and illicit love, by exhibiting the mifery and wretchednefs they are otherwife fo certainly to encounter.

To give an abridgment of the adventures of Mrs. Bellamy would not fuit the boundaries of our journal; but it becomes us to illuftrate to our readers by fome fhort extracts the nature of the entertainment and inftruction that are to be found in the volumes before us.

Mrs. Bellamy was invited by Mr. Rich to play the character of Monimia when he was just fourteen.

The curtain,' fays fhe, drew up to a fplendid audience, which feldom happened at Covent-Garden Theatre, except when a new or revived pantomime was reprefented.

It is impoffible to defcribe my fenfations on my firft entrance. I was fo much dazzled by the lights, and ftunned by the repeated plaudits, that I was for fome time deprived both of memory and voice. I flood like a ftatue. Till compaffion for my youth, and probably fome prepoffeffion for my figure and dress, which was fimply elegant, a circumftance, not very cuftomary, induced a gentleman, who was dictator to the pit, and therefore ludicroufly denominated Mr. Town, to call out, and order the curtain to be dropped, till I could recover my confusion.

This caufed Mr. Quin to exult fo much, that Mr. Rich intreated me in the most earnest manner to exert my powers. But his intreaties were ineffectual. For when I made the next attempt, my apprehenfions fo totally overpowered me, that I could fearcely be heard in the fide-boxes. The applaufe, indeed, was fo univerfal, during the frit act, for what did not reach the ears of the audience, that had I poffeffed my full powers of exertion, they could not have profited by them.

The manager having pledged himself for my fuccefs, he had planted all his friends in different parts of the houfe, to infure it. But when he found that I was unable to raise my fpirits, he was as diftracted as if his own fate, and that of his theatre, had depended upon it. He once more had recourfe to perfuafion and encouragement; Furnothing could roufe me from my ftupidity, till the fourth act. This was the critical period which was to determine my fate. By this criterion was I, as an actress, to ftand or fall. When, to the aftonishment: of the audience, the furprize of the performers, and the exultation of the manager, I felt myfelf fuddenly infpired. I Blazed out at once with meridian fplendour; and I acquitted myfelf throughout the whole of this most arduous part of the character, in which even many veterans have failed, with the greatest eclat.

Mr. Quin was fo fafcinated (as he expreffed himself) at this unexpected exertion, that he waited behind the fcenes till the conclufion of the act, when lifting me up from the ground, he exclaimed aloud, "Thou art a divine creature, and the true spirit is in thee."

The