good of our country; persons of high rank, even of the highest, men of all parties and professions, periodically assemble to contrive the best means to instruct the ignorant, and to reclaim the vicious; to relieve every want which man can feel, or man can mitigate; to heal the disturbed in mind, or the diseased in body; nay, to resuscitate the apparently dead: prisons have been converted into places of moral improvement, and the number of Churches have been rapidly multiplying. But the peculiar glory which distinguishes the period we are commemorating, is that of our having wiped out the foulest blot that ever stained not only the character of Christian Britain, but of human nature itself, by the abolition of the opprobrious traffic in the human species.

"If we advert to other remarkable circumstances which distinguish this reign,while new worlds have been discovered in

the heavens, one of which bears the honoured name of the Sovereign under - whose dominion it was discovered,-on the earth Christianity has been successfully carried to its utmost boundaries. In this reign, also, it has been our pre-eminent glory to have fought single-handed against the combined world; yet, not by our own strength, but by the arm of the Lord of Hosts, England has been victorious.

"England, it is true, labours at present under great and multiplified, but we trust not insuperable, difficulties. We have the misfortunes of a depressed commerce, but we have the consolation of an untarnished honour; we have still an high national character; and in a nation, character is power and wealth. To the distresses inflicted by Divine Providence, our own countrymen had made a large and most criminal addition. In looking out for the causes of this appalling visitation, may not one of those causes be found in our not having used the sudden flow of our prosperity with gratitude, humility, and moderation? Great are our exigencies, but great are our resources. We possess a powerful stock of talent and of virtue; and in spite of the blasphemies of the atheist, and the treasons of the abandoned, we possess, it is presumed, an increasing fund of vital Religion.

"Were these and all our other num

berless resources thrown into one scale, and applied to the same grand ends and objects; would party at this critical juncture, renounce the operation of its narrowing spirit; would every professed pa

triot show himself zealous-not for the magnifying of his own set, but for the substantial interests of his country; what a mighty aggregate of blessings would be the result, and how reasonably might we

then expect the Divine favour in an union so moral, so patriotic, so Christian !

"It has pleased God in his mercy, to restore to health the Son of our late Monarch, and to place him on the Throne of his illustrious ancestors. We have the sanction of his own Royal word, that he will walk in the steps of his beloved pa

rent.

"We have an earnest of his gracious intentions. Every Church has resounded with the Royal Proclamation for the encouragement of piety and virtue, and for punishing profaneness, vice, and immorality. He has pledged his honour,-honour is the law of Kings,-and his bonour is impeachable. In spite of the machinations of the wicked, he wears by acclamation his hereditary Crown, and May He who wears the crown immortally, Long guard it his!

He has commenced his reign auspiciously with a public act of wise and well-timed beneficence. By his Majesty's dedication of a large portion of land with a noble pecuniary bounty to a most important purpose, DARTMOOR will hold out to posterity a lasting monument of Royal libe. rality. By this permanent establishment for the protection and support of a large class of helpless houseless beings, not only will the desert be literally converted into a fruitful field, but the neglected plant will be reared and cultivated, the body rescued from the miseries of want, the mind from the desolation of ignorance, and the heart from the corruptions of idleness, and the ravages of sin; "These are imperial arts, and worthy Kings !"

"O may he so live in the hearts of his people, and so reign in the fear of God, that it may become a matter of controversy among unborn historians, whether the Third or Fourth GEORGE will have the fairest claim to the now proverbial appellation of the Best of Kings !"

TH

Mr. URBAN, Queen Sq. Bloomsbury. He following is a Copy of an original Letter from King George the Second to his Son Frederick, Prince of Wales:

"The professions you have lately made in your letter of your particular regard to me, are so contradictory to your actions, that I cannot them. You know very well you did suffer myself to be imposed upon by not give the least intimation to me or to the Queen, that the Princess was with child, until within a month of the birth of the young Princess.

σε You

"You removed the Princess twice in the week immediately preceding the day of her delivery from the place of my residence, in expectation (as you voluntarily declared) of her labour; and both times, upon your return, you industriously concealed from me and the Queen every circumstance relating to this important affair, and you, at last, without giving notice to me or the Queen, precipitately hurried the Princess from Hampton Court in a condition not to be named. After having thus, in execution of your own determined measures, exposed both the Princess and the child to the greatest perils, you now plead surprise and tenderness for the Princess as the only motives that occasioned these repeated indignities offered to me and to the Queen your mother.

"This extravagant and undutiful behaviour in so essential a point, as the birth of an heir to my Crown, is such an evidence of your premeditated defiance of me, and such a contempt of my authority and of the natural right belonging to your parents, as cannot be excused by the pretended innocence of ye intentions, unpalliated or disguised by specious words only; but the whole tenor of your conduct for a considerable time has been so entirely void of all real duty to me, that I have long had reason to be highly offended with you. And until you withdraw your regard and confidence from those by whose instigation and advice you are directed and encouraged in your unwarrautable behaviour to me and to the Queen; and until you return to your duty, you shall not reside in my palace, which I will not suffer to be made the resort of them who, under an appearance of an attachment to you, foment the division which you have made in my family, and thereby weaken'd the common interest of the whole.

"In this situation I will receive no reply, but when your actions manifest a just sense of yr duty and submission, that may induce me to pardon what at present I must justly

resent.

"In the mean time it is my pleasure that you leave St. James's with

I

Mr. URBAN, Aug. 3. REMEMBER to have read, above half a century ago, in Mr. Locke's famous Treatise on Government, a sort of hypothetical position, that “a man to enjoy real liberty should be governed either by himself, or his representative." This, on slightly reading it, struck me, as I dare say it did the Author while writing it, as something plausible, and worthy of consideration, and the great philosopher does not appear, as far as I recollect, any more than myself, to have thought any thing further about it. This, however, though probably only a transient idea rising in his mind, and carelessly suffered to remain in his work for want of afterthought, yet may have been the true cause and origin of all those ravings about universal suffrage, and liberty and equality, &c. which have almost annihilated all sosocial order.

En passant, Mr. Urban, I wish to inquire whether any documents can be supplied or referred to, respecting those noble fetes or galas that were formerly given, about 60 or 70 years ago, at Exton in Rutland, by the then Earl of Gainsborough, who might be entitled the Mecænas of his age? One or two ladies of that noble family are said still to survive in that neighbourhood; and if, by their means, or any other, any materials on so entertaining a subject could be pointed out, they might be somewhat augmented by the present inquirer.

I should be glad also to see the words of an old song, called " Happy Dick," written upon a Richard Lord Mansel, who married an old lady for her fortune, and thereby put a period to the succession of his family, and any further particulars relating to the circumstance. The song was to the tune of "Gossip Joan," once a popular ditty, now forgotten, and perhaps not worth reviving. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

EREUNETES.

spondent, "D. A. Y." (in his letter

for

for February last, p. 83.) as to the correctness of the Clare pedigree (in the preceding Number for November, p. 410.) some explanation and reference to historical authority will be sufficient.

The record in Domesday-book, that "Claram tenuit Aluricus, " is #not conclusive evidence of the first = appellation; for that great work was not commenced until some time after the Conquest, and was several years compiling, subsequent to the grant of these lands and honours in Suffolk to Richard Fitz Gilbert, seigneur de Clare in Normandy, by William the Conqueror; for in like manner Claremont in Surrey might be said to have been the property of Sir Johu Vanburgh, although it received its name from his successor, Thomas Holles Pelham, Marquis of Clare and Duke of Newcastle. The Chronicles of Hollinshed, where he quotes the | words of Hoveden, vol. I. p. 177, and Polydore Vergil, pp. 386, evidently =prove that the names of Clare and Clarence were not the first appellations used.

Whether Tunbridge was an Earl = dom in this family, or a Lordship only, may be difficult to decide, as at that early period Heraldic records did not exist, nor was mere titular nobility known; and the same diffi. =culty occurs with regard to the Earldom of Clare, although supported by history.-(See Camden's Britannia, vol. II. pp. 43. 73. 74. Collins's Peerage, vol. 11. p. 286.)

F

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That Strongbow was the surname of Gilbert de Clare, can be proved satisfactorily. "Chepstow Castle in the reign of Henry the First was in possession of Gilbert Clare, surnamed Strongbow; he executed the office of Marshall of England, was created Earl of Pembroke, and styled Earl of Striguil; he died 1148, and was succeeded by his son Richard Clare, also surnamed Strongbow, Earl of Striguil, who first conquered part of Ireland. (See Coxe's Historical Tour in Monmouthshire. Lloyd's Historie of Cambria, by D. Powell, 1584, reprinted 1811, page 126. Guliel. Neubrigenses, lib. 11. p. 383-4. Lyttleton's History of Henry the Second, vol. V. p. 67.)

Your Correspondent has asserted that the inheritance and honours of the bouse of Clare were

not

eventually lost to this family by the marriage of Gilbert Earl of Gloucester to Joan d'Acre, daughter of King Edward the First; and moreover, that the last male heir of this family died in 1295; both these assertions are erroneous, for "Joan of Acres was the second wife of Gilbert Clare, surnamed the Red Earl of Gloucester, who had lost the favour of the King her father, in refusing to go beyond seas with him to the aid of Guy Earl of Flanders, for which cause King Edward seized all his lands; but the breach was made up in this marriage, consummated at Westminster on the 2d of May 1290, in the 18th year of her age, without any dower on the King's part; which done, King Edward regranted all the lands so seized, confirming them to the said Gilbert, and to Joan his wife, and the issue begotten of their two bodies in fee farm; this Gilbert died the 7th December 1295, leaving issue one son and three daughters by this wife, who afterwards married Ralph de Monthermer; their only son Gilbert Clare had the Earldoms of Gloucester and Hertford surrendered to him from his father-in-law Ralph de Monthermer (who had enjoyed them during his minority) in the first year of King Edward the Second, 1307, when he was admitted to his lands and honours, and sate in Parliament always after as Earl of Gloucester and Hertford; he married Matilda, daughter of John de Burgh, son and heir of Richard Earl of Ulster, and had issue a son named John.". -(See Sandford's Genealogical History. Leland's Collections, vol. I. p. 180. 663.)-Gilbert accompanied King Edward the Second in his wars in Scotland, and commanded a division of the army at Bannockburn on the 24th June 1314, where having his horse stabbed with many spears, whilst gallantly fighting and rallying his men, he fell in the midst of the enemy, unknown, not having on his surcoat of arms."-(See Trivet's Annals, by Hall, vol. II. p. 14.) He was much regretted by both sides, and Bruce, admiring his valour, and being also his kinsman by the maternal line, Robert Earl of Annandale having married Isabella de Clare, daughter of Gilbert the second Earl of Gloucester, (see Collins's Peerage, vol. V. p.466. Betham's Genealogical Tables, p. 619,)

Mr. URBAN,

Aug. 7. BSERVING in your last Obi

that learned and amiable Prelate Dr. Bennet, I beg leave to remind you of his valuable correspondence with Mr. Polwhele on the subject of Roman Antiquities, in the year 1793.

The good Bishop (then of Cork) thus concludes his remarks" on the Roman Architecture and Castrametation as discoverable in this country:" "I fear, Sir, I have tired your patience by this long and perhaps uninteresting memoir; and I can only say, you are at liberty to vent your indiguation upon it, by throwing it into the fire, for disturbing you in the midst of your important pursuits. If, on the other hand, there is any thing in it worth your notice, you are at liberty to insert it in your History in any shape your please. You are acquainted with a gentleman who is the

best judge now living upon these matters. and whom I sincerely respect, though!

the

known to him-I mean Mr. Whitaker; to whose History of Manchester I owe my first love for Antiquarian pursuits, and in consequence, some of the most pleasant hours of my life. To his judgment and to yours I cheerfully submit."

Amidst the wavering of politicks and religious opinions, amidst the shameful indifference, the fearful disaffection of the present hour, the Loyalist and the Christian feel a sort of support in the noble decisiveness of Dr. Whitaker's character; and they rejoice on any occasion that may bring such a man to their remeinbrance*. ANTIQUARIOLUS.

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