X. The Demagogue. By Theophilus Thorn, Efq; 4to. Pr. s. 6d. Robinfon and Roberts.

TH

HIS author feems to aim his fatire at a certain popular leader, though with what justice we shall not prefume to determine. We cannot, however, refufe him the merit of being a keen and fpirited poet. He brandishes the fcourge with the air of a juftice of peace rather than of a beadle, and feems to have borrowed it from the monument of Juvenal. The following quotation, though long, we are perfuaded, will not appear tedious to our readers, who from thence may form fome idea of the author's impartiality, fince he thus paints the more early part of the life of him whom he has chofen for the fubject of his fatire.

8

Yet ere from patient flumber satire wakes,
And brandishes th' avenging fcourge of fnakes;
Yet ere her eyes, with lightning's vivid ray,
The dark receffes of his heart display;
Let candour own th' undaunted pilot's power,
Felt in fevereft danger's trying hour!

Let truth, confenting with the trump of fame,
His glory, in aufpicious strains, proclaim!
He bade the tempeft of the battle roar,
That thunder'd o'er the deep from fhore to fhore.
How oft, amid the horrors of the war,
Chain'd to the bloody wheels of danger's car,
How oft my bofom at thy name has glow'd,
And from my beating heart applause bestow'd!
Applause, that, genuine as the blush of youth,
Unknown to guile, was fanctify'd by truth!
How oft I bleft the Patriot's honest rage,
That greatly dar'd to lafh the guilty age;
That, rapt with zeal, pathetic, bold, and ftrong,
Roll'd the full tide of eloquence along ;

That power's big torrent brav'd with manly pride,
And all corruption's venal arts defy'd!
When from afar those penetrating eyes`
Beheld each secret hoftile scheme arise;
Watch'd every motion of the faithless foe,
Each plot o'erturn'd, and baffled every blow:
A fond enthusiast, kindling at thy name,

I glow'd in fecret with congenial flame;
While my young bofom, to deceit unknown,
Believ'd all real virtue thine alone.

There was a time, ere yet his confcious heart
Durft from the hardy path of truth depart,

herself neglected. Both of them refolve to enjoy the objects of their wishes at any rate; and almoft in the fame manner. Mafon kidnaps and carries off mifs Minors from Colchetter to Hendon; and we need entertain no doubt of the noble refiftance fhe made to the addreffes and violence of her ravisher. He entrufts her to the care of fome infernal beings of her own fex, who had been trained in mad-houses; and becaufe mifs would not comply, they beat, thump, and pinch her fo, that the falls into a fever, and her life is defpaired of. She is fome-how or other removed to another lodging, where the discovers who The is, recovers from her illness, and regains her liberty.

Mifs Stanhope not only contrives to kidnap Beaufort in the fame manner, but by a train of circumftances and forged letters, infpires Mr. Minors, and his family, with a very unfavourable opinion of his perfon and morals. Beaufort's fate is hard indeed! After being confined in the most cruel, barbarous manner, he is carried pinioned and hand-cuffed in a post-chaise from place to place, till he is put on board a fhip, and brought to fome part of the continent (but neither he nor the reader knows where) and fhut up a prifoner in an old castle. We ought, however, to have previously mentioned that he was feveral times attended by mifs Stanhope, who pretended she had been carried off in the fame manner; but her behaviour in the old castle makes him fufpect that she is the author of his captivity. Her paffion throws her into a terrible state both of body and mind, and by her arts the prevails on Beaufort to lofe in her arms the memory of mifs Minors. In a converfation they have together, he refufes to hate mifs Minors; upon which mifs Stanhope again claps him up in a post-chaise muffled and bound, hurries him to Rome, where the delivers him up to be roasted in the fires of the Inquifition, from which he is with great difficulty delivered by a cardinal he had been formerly acquainted with in Italy. Mifs Stanhope then becomes his prifoner, but artfully efcapes from him, and by her diabolical, management, which, by the bye, is full of abfurdities, excites fresh diftreffes and perfecutions against the two lovers, till mifs Minors is driven mad, and dies, while Beaufort goes abroad in defpair, and is killed.

Such are the outlines of this novel, which will, we doubt not, fully justify our character of it. The dialogue is, in general, forced and affected. The author appears in almost all his men and women, by an impertinent difplay of learning, and false applications of criticifm. The only character in the whole which is tolerably fupported is that of Beaufort's fifter, a lady who deals in natural and experimental philofophy, but even that is not original.

MONTHLY

MONTHLY CATALOGUE.

12. The Life and Opinions of Triftram Shandy, Gent. Vol. IX. 8vo. Pr. 2s. 6d. Durham.

W

E learn from the news-papers, that this is not the produc tion of the Rev. Mr. S however, we may venture to affert, that the author has deprived that gentleman of the epithet of inimitable. It is peculiar to him to write in a manner that we can as little criticize as we can describe the clouds of last year*. When we are reading his work, his meaning is so slippery that' we cannot even analyfe its contents: here we have him, there we have him, and we have him no where. We must, however, do justice to the volume before us, and own that we perceive fome meaning in it, however unable we are to express it. Dr. Querpo and Mr. Bump, the apothecary, are very humorously described; but the ftory of the phyfician who might take his place wherever he pleased; because he was of no established church, is fo very trite that we think it unworthy even of Triftram; and the reason the porter gives for it is to the last degree indecent; Then walk in, and you may go wherever you please, for in my father's house are many manfions.'

The advances made by uncle Toby to the widow Wadman, and their courtship, with the defcription of Dr. Macnamara, and the humours of Mr. Jeacock the pigeon-fancier, are admirable, especially the latter; yet we doubt whether those paf fages, however entertaining, can atone for the ribaldry and indelicacies which occur in other parts of the volume.

13. The Rights of Parliament vindicated, on Occafion of the late Stamp-Act. In which is expofed the Conduct of the American Colonists. Addreffed to all the People of Great Britain. 8vo. Pr. Is.

Almon.

This writer is an advocate for the authority of the British parliament in impofing ftamp duties. He feems to be tolerably well verfed in the conftituent parts of the legislature; but the public, probably, before this Review can be read, will receive a more auguft determination of the question than any that can come from a private hand,

* See vol. XIX. p. 65.

14. A plain and seasonable Address to the Freeholders of Great Britain, on the prefent Pofture of Affairs in America. 8vo. Pr. 6d. Richardfon and Urquhart.

This a stupid, abufive, common-place declamation against Mr. P. on account of his fingular behaviour in the cafe of the American ftamp a&t. In fome places it is perfonal, and even infults the infirmities of the great commoner.

15. The Answer to a Colonel's Letter. By a wooden-legged Soldier in Gloucestershire. Wherein fome American matters are flightly 8vo. Pr. 1s.

touched upon.

Main.

A good deal of private invective mingles in this compofition, the author of which figns himself Hildebrand Oaktree. He feems to hint at some abuses that have been practised in North-America, on which he is very farcaftic, and, we are afraid, with too much reafon.

16. The Adventure of a Bale of Goods from America, in confequence of the Stamp-A. 8vo. Pr. 6d. Almon.

This flimfy performance, which feems calculated to favour the repeal of the ftamp-act, is not without humour.

17. The Elements of Heraldry. By Mark Anthony Porny. 8vo. Pr. 6s. Newbery.

Without entering into any difcuffion as to the impropriety of tco general a purfuit of the Audy of heraldry in a commercial country, it is certain that the British and Irish nobility and gentry have as good a right as any in Europe to value themselves upon the atchievements of their forefathers. Heraldry revives the idea of thofe atchievements to pofterity, and undoubtedly has its ufe, by exciting, in a generous mind, an emulation to equal the virtues of its ancestors. With regard to the performance before us, it is chiefly commendable for its perfpicuity, method, and correctness. But though the author has quoted a number of heraldical writers, both foreign and domeftic, he seems to have omitted the chief, we mean, Nisbit.

Mr Porny, in his first chapter, begins his work by treating of the definition, origin, and antiquity, of heraldry and arms. He gives us their different, their effential, and integral parts, their borders, their modern differences, with a great variety of examples, neatly engraved. He arranges all the different kinds of arms under their proper heads, and takes notice of the noble families whose names occur under thofe heads; and at the clofe of his work he gives a dictionary of the technical terms of

the

the art. As the nature of the work does not admit of any extract, we must refer our reader to the original; and to a student of heraldry, who cultivates it for amusement or curiosity, it will be found an agreeable and useful vade mecum.

18. A folemn and public Appeal to Magna Charta, and the Common Law of England, upon the subject of Inheritance to the Lands of Inteftates by Defcent; and also relative to a genuine Cafe annexed. Humbly infcribed to the Right Honourable and Honourable the Judges of England. By a Gentleman of the Middle Temple. 4to. Pr. 35. Brotherton.

The author of this extraordinary performance addreffes himfelf to the house of Commons, and tells them, That he is fecond fon of Edward Pakenham, late of Pakenham Hall, in the county of Westmeath, and kingdom of Ireland, dec. who, while attending on his duty in parliament, (as knight of the shire) died fuddenly of an apoplexy, inteftate, on or about the year 1723, leaving this complainant's elder brother, Thomas, (the prefent lord Longford) and himself, the only furviving fons, minors, under the age of ten years.' He complains, that his father was, at the time of his decease, poffeffed of a real estate, which his elder brother now inherits in right of primogeniture, notwithstanding a ftatute made in the 12th of Charles II. c. 24, whereby all Norman tenures, together with the fruits and confequences thereof, paft, prefent, and to come, are totally abolished and taken away.' He next complains, that, to his great lofs and damage, he finds himself (notwithstanding the faid act) difinherited of all and every part of fuch lands, as were left free from fettlement, or devife, at the decease of his father, as aforefaid; the moiety of which he claims as his true, lawful, and undoubted birthright; but can obtain no relief in the ufual course of law proceedings, occafioned (as he is inftructed) by a certain mode of inheritance, implicitly adopted from Norman tenures, whereby the lands of inteftates are fuffered to pafs by defcent to primogeniture folely; a measure which (he fubmits) cannot appear authorized by the fundamental laws or conftitution of England.'

As we have no legislative authority out of the boundaries of Parnaffus, we fhall not pretend to give judgment in the dif pute between the two brothers, in a point which, we believe, never was before controverted in England or Ireland. All we fhall fay of the performance before us is, that although the author may fail of convincing his reader, he cannot fail of instructing him in several very curious and conftitutional points of

the