Apollo giving the wreath to the best-deferving poet is worn quite out, and there is fcarcely a flip of the green bays remaining. The fubject of the fatire is a dream, in which a fylvan scene is exhibited, and a green wreath hung out, which Apollo, we fuppofe, proposes as the reward of poetical merit. He faid and fat: ftrait on the left appear'd,

A fhouting, fneering, low feditious herd;
In foreign fringes, dowlafs, lace and rags,

In caffocks, bar gowns, night-caps, bobs and bags;
To reach his throne they kick, they fcream, they ftrain,
Thick as fmall Templars prefs to Drury Lane;
Thick as the pellets wing'd their rapid flight,

That swept the ftage on Macklin's fun'ral night**

The first claimant who appears is the late Mr. Churchill; but we avoid tranfcribing his appearance and speech, because we are afraid both are not only poetically but literally juft. We fhall, however, as a fpecimen of this writer's powers, produce his description of the next candidate for the bays; tho' for a very different reafon from that we gave for not exhibiting Mr. Churchill; which is, because no fuch character exists, except in the fenforium of the poet's fancy.

He ceas'd: and now a glutton stept before,
In furbish'd caffock- -no fly mask he wore;
For e'en Hypocrify difdain'd to grace
With her smooth varnish that enormous face;
But his blunt features, never form'd to think,
Seem'd all intent on feasts, and luft, and drink;
While ignorance and impudence combin❜d,
In equal portions parcell'd out his mind;
At home, a vaunting, proud, important knave;
Abroad, a pandar, parafite, and flave;
Sway'd by no principle but love of peif,
And all his wishes center'd in himself:
Ready for hire to prove it orthodox,
That Pitt's a traitor, and a patriot Fox;
But foil'd in's hopes of mitre and lawn fleeves,
Proclaims that Fox the very worst of thieves,
Alike difgraceful to the church and stage,
The fhame and scandal of a vicious age;

A tool to rafcals and to wits a jest,

Such (mighty truth!) our parson stood confeft.'

Remember, gentle reader (if thou canft), the exit of a

ftage-play entitled, The Married Libertine.”

We

We do not approve of the appearance the prefent laureat makes. The portrait that fucceeds carries in it too much spite and perfonality to be pleafing. These are bad poetical ingredients, and, like poifons, they may be falutary when admini-, ftered by a great phyfician of the mind; but, in many hands, they are deadly. We fhall very readily allow the author to make as free as he pleafes with the two perfonages he next introduces, Dr. Bn and Mr. M-k-n, to whom Apolle throws half-a-crown.

Fir'd by the fplendid fight the rear ranks preft,
Urging in heaps on heaps to get abreaft,

A thousand knaves who know not where to dine,
The fpur-gall'd hacks of each dull magazine;
A thousand wits, who fear'd to cross the Mews,
The printers' curfe, and food of fharp Reviews
A thousand bards, who inspiration take
From Bird-cage Walks and Rofamonda's lake.
Afk you their names? As well recount the fleas
In fummer-camps, or maggots in ftale cheese :
They fcream, they cuff: till Phoebus on his ftand
Arofe; and wav'd the fceptre of command.':

The scene now changes: Gray appears led by the plaintive mufe, who recommends him to Apollo; as Sophocles does Mafon; Juvenal introduces Johnson; and Milton, Akenfide. Apollo next gives his decifion.

Full well, you fons of fame!"
Thefe glorious advocates have ùrg'd your claim;
You're all excell'd the world in different ways,
And each in his, deferves eternal praise.
I fear to wound-But, if I múft decree,
That envied crown in juftice falls to thee
To thee my beft-

When hark Eugenio's call;

• Abed for fliame! what, a'n't you for the hall ?
This morning Wilkes and Blafphemy come on;
Get on your cloaths-be quick-we'll have fome fun.
Amazd, Irubb'd my eyes, got up and drest;

And found that Poetry's a dream at belt.'

50. The Library: An Epifle from a Bookfeller, to a Gentleman, bis Cuftomer; defiring him to difcharge his Bill. 4to. Pr. 15. Marth.

What motive could induce this bookfeller to fend a poetical epiftle with his bill, we cannot imagine. It was, furely, a most

impolitic

Impolitic scheme, as nothing can be more difagreeable than a long bill to a bad pay-mafter, and an infipid pœem to a man of tafte.

51. The Celebrated Speech of a Celebrated Commoner. 8vo. Pr. 6d.

Austin.

As the publication of this fpeech bears no marks of authenticity, it is in the breaft of the reader, as well as the Reviewer, to give it what degree of credibility he pleases. We are strongly inclined to believe a great part, if not the whole of it, to be genuine. The following quotation carries with it fo much of the ftyle and manner of the gentleman to whom it is attributed, that we can almoft pronounce it to be his.

There is a claufe in the act of fettlement, to oblige every minister to fign his name to the advice which he gives his fovereign. Would it were obferved!-I have had the honour to ferve the crown, and if I could have fubmitted to influence, I might have still continued to ferve; but I would not be refponfible for others. I have no local attachments: it is indifferent to me, whether a man was rock'd in his cradle on this fide or that fide of the Tweed.I fought for merit wherever it. was to be found.-It is my boaft, that I was the firft minister who looked for it, and I found it in the mountains of the North. I called it forth, and drew it into your fervice, an hardy' and' intrepid race of men! men, who, when left by your jealousy, became a prey to the artifices of your enemies, and had gone nigh to have overturned the ftate, in the war before the laft. These men, in the last war, were brought to combat on your fide they served with fidelity, as they fought with valour, and conquered for you in every part of the world: detefted be the national reflections against them!-they are unjuft, groundless, illiberal, unmanly. When I ceafed to ferve his majesty as a minifter, it was not the country of the man by which I was moved -but the man of that country wanted Wisdom, and held prin. ciples incompatible with Freedom.'

The honourable gentleman then enters fully into the merits of the ftamp-aft, and declares it to be his opinion, that this kingdom has no right to lay a tax upon the colonies. He is of opinion, that taxation is no part of the governing or legislative power, and that the taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the commons alone. He next tells us, that in antient days the barons and the clergy gave and granted to the crown. They gave and granted what was their own. At prefent, fince the dif covery of America, and other circumftançes permitting, the commons are become the proprietors of the land,The pro

perty

perty of the lords, compared with that of the commons, is as a drop of water in the ocean. The diftinction, continues

he, between legiflation and taxation is effentially neceffary to liberty. The crown, the peers, are equally legislative powers with the commons. If taxation be a part of fimple legiflation, the crown, the peers have rights in taxation as well as yourfelves rights which they will claim, which they will exercise, whenever the principle can be fupported by power,'

We

Here our faith of the genuineness of this fpeech is a little fhocked, especially as we were told before, that the concurrence of the peers and the crown to a tax is only neceffary to clofe with the form of a law. If thefe were the real words of the honourable gentleman, we would willingly fend him back to the antient days he speaks of, antiquam exquirere matrem. will venture to pronounce him mistaken in his capital pofition,, and to inform him, with all due deference to his great name, that the peers have as much right to tax as the commons, and that the reafon why taxations are left to the commons is no other than the refult of a tacit compromife, by which the exercife of the juridical powers are left to the peers, as those of taxation are left to the commons. The house of peers never has formally given up the power of taxing, nor the commons that of judging in matters of private property, fo far as we can learn. We cannot fee with what juftice the honourable gentleman could pronounce the vaft property which is now vefted in the members of the house of peers to be as a drop of water, compared with that of the commons. Other curious particulars relating to the debate are interfperfed with the fpeech; however, we shall forbear any farther animadverfions on it, left unwit. tingly we should commit a breach of privilege.

52. Free and Candid Remarks on a late Celebrated Oration; with Some few occafional Thoughts on the late Commotions in America., 8vo. Pr. is. Law.

In this pamphlet the reader will find fome very fshrewd remarks upon the principles of the fpeech mentioned in the last article, particularly with regard to the virtual reprefentation of the Americans in the British parliament, and upon their claimi of being exempted from taxation h re, upon the principles of the Magna Charta. However, we think it neceffary to obferve, that when the Magna Charta was obtained, there was no fuch thing as any reprefentation in parliament, either of pérs or people; and we hope that the melancholy tore oings of this writer, upon the repeal of the flamp- act, never will be verified.