"A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Sevenoaks, in the County of Kent, on Wednesday, March 7, 1798, being the Day appointed for a Chesterfield, to propagate, from that one attendance, for the amusement of their common friends and of the easiness with which such things sat upon him you may judge from the following circumstance, which I have heard him more than once relate. Sir Charles was one day telling a large company a similar story to that of his attending upon executions, with many strokes of rich humour, received with great glee, before his face, when a gentleman, who sat next to the object of their mirth, said to him in a low voice, It is strange, George, so intimate as we are, that I should never have heard of this story before.' • Not at all strange,' he replied in the same voice; for Sir Charles has just invented it, and knows that I will not by contradiction spoil the pleasure of the company he is so highly entertaining.' And such was his good-nature in every thing. The Dartford story, and some other mistakes on his subject, in your Magazine for January, are not worth noticing, as they affect not the character of my friend. But there is, Sir, in your last-mentioned publication, a mistake relating to another person, at which I must own I am greatly surprized, in the contemptuous Review of Miss Williams's little book. Could any mortal, from such a Review of it, suppose the book worth reading? It happened to fall in my way yesterday; and I was delighted with it, independently of its principles, however consentaneous to them I have the happiness to feel my own; for I think I scarcely ever saw, in equal compass, more happy expression of just and elegant sentiments, enhanced by the sweetest of feminine grace. And I was delighted with the wit and eloquence of Mr. Burke's book, whose principles I dislike. It has pleased Heaven to furnish us mortals with spectacles of such different hues, that it isimpossible but that we must see objects in such different lights. But is that any reason why we should lose sight of truth and candour; those guides, which, were I your Political Reviewer, I am sure you would tell me, as far as I was capable to feel their influence, should direct my pen? Thus, in reviewing Mr. Burke's book, I should have candidly given every praise to, and many examples of, the qualities I have mentioned, with which it abounds but then I should have added, because it seems to me to be the truth, that a great part, which should have had their examples too, of what your present Reviewer calls his sober reasonings,' would to many people appear a mass of as gross absurdity and illiberality as ever insulted the common sense and common feelings of mankind, tricked out with a meretricious aid, which, like an Ignis Fatuus, might lead those who were not aware of its illusion into very dirty conclusions; and have foretold, from a reliance upon the good sense of my countrymen, that, as such a writer cannot be insensible to esteem or its opposite, Turno general Fast. By the Rev. Thomas-Sackville Curteis*, LL. B. Vicar of Sevenoaks." Religious and Philanthropic Tracts; consisting of, 1. A Discourse on the Principles, the Temper, Turno tempus erit, magno cum optaverit emptum Intactum Pallanta ;' and that, if such a book could find lasting praise from the English, who have been called, from the noble ardour for Liberty by which they have been distinguished, the Romans of modern time, it would be enough to make the enlightened inhabitant of every country cry out with a Poet of this, 'Je rends graces aux Dieux de n'être pas Romain, Pour conserver encore quelque chose d'humain.' But, because the political sentiments of Miss Williams's book do not appear to your Reviewer to be just, he not only says nothing of the sweet grace with which it is written, but throws contempt upon the whole; and forgets himself so far as to touch, I cannot help thinking most incomprehensibly, upon a point which has nothing to do with Authorship, by informing your Readers that what a person of unimpeached veracity gives to her country, with her name, as serious facts, in the most interesting and charmingly related history of Mr. and Mrs. Du F, in part of which she is concerned herself too, he knows from undoubted authority' to be true. I am sure that Miss Williams could never have given him cause for so injurious an insinuation though his undoubted does not stand in Italics. "You, Mr. Urban, who always wear spectacles of candour clear as thin crystals, will, I know, print my Letter (though you may receive many upon subjects you like better) because you see that I mean nothing that is uncandid by it. How much soever I may be mistaken in any of my ideas, God knows! for, notwithstanding our promptitude to dogmatize from our feelings, we are told that nothing, save number and measure, has yet been determined upon earth; and, if I am quite wrong, you will not think it extraordinary, when I tell you, in the famous line of Voltaire, 'Hélas, je ne suis rien; je ne suis qu'un docteur.' 'If, this gay Favourite lost, they yet can live, A tear to Selwyn let the Graces give! With rapid kindness teach Oblivion's pall The prime distinction of the Friend they lose. J. WARNER." * Of Jesus College, Cambridge; LL. B. 1778; and instituted in that year both to the Rectory and Vicarage of Sevenoke. and and Duties, of Christians; the second Edition, enlarged. 2. An Essay on the State of the Poor, and on the Means of improving it by Friendly Societies, &c. 3. Rules for forming and managing Friendly Societies, with a View to facilitate their general Establishment*. By James Cowet, M. A. Vicar of Sunbury, Middlesex." Svo. "The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire. Compiled from the Manuscripts of Huntbach, Loxdale, Bishop Lyttelton, and other Collections of Dr. Wilkes, the Rev. T. Fielde, &c. &c. Including Erdeswick's Survey of the County; and the approved Parts of Dr. Plot's Natural History. The Whole brought down to the present Time; interspersed with Pedigrees and Anecdotes of Families; Observations on Agriculture, Commerce, Mines, and Manufactories; and illustrated with a very full and correct new Map of the County, Agri Staffordiensis Icon, and numerous other Plates. By the Rev. Stebbing Shaw, B. D. F. A. S. and Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge." Vol. I. "Mr. Cowe, pursuing those liberal and philanthropic ideas which he discovers in his excellent Discourse on the Principles, the Temper, and Duties, of Christians, preached before two Friendly Societies (see p. 192), has enlarged the second Edition by adding some important Tracts." Gent. Mag. LXVIII. 51. This worthy Divine was presented in 1790 to the Vicarage of Sunbury in Middlesex; where, during a long and constant residence, his exemplary conduct, both in the discharge of his religious duties, and by his peculiar attention to the comforts of the poor, he has justly endeared himself to his parishioners. + Of Queen's College, Cambridge, B. A. 1784; M. A. 1787; B. D. 1796; F. S. A. 17..; Rector of Hartshorn, co. Derby; in which he succeeded his father. He was Author of "A Tour in the West of England, 1788," 8vo; and joint Editor, with Sir Egerton Brydges, of "The Topographer," 4 vols, 8vo. 1789 -1791; but better known by his last valuable publication, "The History and Antiquities of the County of Stafford ;" vol. I. 1798, vol. II. Part I. 1801; and the "History of Staffordshire" is unfortunately incomplete: but Mr. Shaw's MSS have recently been purchased by a gentleman who has ample talents and a strong inclination to complete them. Together with great skill in Topography, Mr. Shaw possessed the advantage of a ready and accurate pencil. To those accomplishments he added a very great "Monody on the Death of a Friend*, [by John Holliday, Esq."] great proficiency in Musick; and they were heightened by that perfect goodness of heart and singleness of manners which render his loss a severe affliction to all who had the happiness of his acquaintance. His warmth of friendship is indeed demonstrable in whatever he wrote; of which the Prefaces to his Staffordshire, and many of his Letters to Mr. Urban, reporting progress in that laborious undertaking, are striking examples. He had a very ready pencil, and his Views are in general accurate. He was also fond of musick, and was himself a good amateur performer. But his bodily frame was delicate; and, overcome by the toils of a studious life, he fell into a mental imbecility, from which he was released by death, at an early age, Oct. 28, 1802. * This Friend was Thomas Gilbert, of Cotton, in Staffordshire, Esq. M. P. in six successive Parliaments; and several years Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. The Monody shall be here transcribed: And thus the Genius of the Wood: COTTON! What fears, what anxious woe, The sylvan honours of thy reign? Sooner shall CHURNET backward roll, Or these wild woods matur'd by time. While Care sate brooding on the night, Long the lov'd partner of his joys, Each anxious moment, pleas'd, employs, His cup, with balmy comfort, pleas'd to fill. But, "A Sermon, preached at Brunswick Chapel, Portman Square, on Sunday, April 15, 1798, and at Ebury Chapel, Sloane Street, on Sunday, May 20, 1798, for the Benefit of the Royal Humane Society. By Archer Thompson*, M. A. Chaplain But, hark! the death-bell wounds my ear; GILBERT is numbered with the dead. COTTON, prophetic was thy fear, Nor vain thy dread of ruthless spoil; Best by its fruit the tree is known,—' Who rais'd deep vales, sunk mountain's cone?" Vale, yield thy lilies, hasten here, Your GILBERT's shrine, the Guardian, Friend, And Father of the neighbouring Poor; For when was GILBERT known to send, The wretched, friendless, from his door? Tho' last, not least, to be rever'd, O, Piety! in hallow'd fane; See Faith and Hope to thee endear'd, Entwine, immortal crown, the Founder's gain! "The last acts of philanthropy and piety alluded to in the 12th stanza, employed Mr. Gilbert's active mind at a very advanced period of his life. Conscious that a convenient place of public worship was very much wanted in his own neighbourhood, where the distance from the parish church was so great as to amount, very generally in the winter months, to a preclusion from divine service. The new chapel was planned without ostentation, was erected without a subscription, and was endowed by the benevolent Founder. Since the consecration, the very decent and regular attendance of a full congregation is the surest presage of the improvement of the morals of the people; and the judicious selection from the FoundFing and Asylum hymns, accompanied by an organ, and the general harmony which pervades the whole, are well adapted to inspire devotion. J. H. Dec. 18, 1798." *This excellent young man, son of the Rev. Seth Thompson of Kensington, was the light of that good man's eyes. Bred under his tuition from infancy to boyhood, he quitted the paternal roof |