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30. A Charge to the Grand Jury of the County of Middlesex: de livered at the Quarter-Seffion at Hicks's Hall, Jan. 8, 1770. By John Hawkins, Efq. one of his Majesty's Juftices of Peace for the faid County, and Chairman of the Court of Quarter-Seffion. 8vo. Pr. 6d.

Worral.

This is a learned and sensible discourse, in which the author lays down the law with a good grace; though we are of opinion, that Mr. Hawkins charges with rather too much impetuofity, when he comes to the doctrine of libels; a subject thas requires to be touched with uncommon delicacy.

31. The Conduct of the right rev. the Lord Bishop of Winchester, as Vifiter of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, fully flated. With brief Obfervations on Vifitatorial Power. 8vo. Pr. 11. 6d. Durham.

This addrefs was occafioned by the following incident: Dr. Walker was amoved from his fellowship by the prefident and fellows of Magdalen College, because he had held, for more than the space of a year, two ecclefiaftical preferments : which, according to his own account, were taxed together in the ancient Valors at thirty-feven marks. He appealed to the vifitor, and was reftored upon this plea; viz. that, beneficium ecclefiafticum, in the ftatute, being in the fingular number, and he having no preferment feparately taken, above the value of twenty marks, his fellowship ought not to be confidered as void.

The dispute turns chiefly upon the construction of the ftatute, and the merits of the decree in favor of Dr. Walker.

In the latter part of this pamphlet is an account of what has fince paffed between the vifitor, the college, and Dr. Kent, who, in a letter to the bishop of Winchefter, dated May 18, 1769, expreffed his dissatisfaction at the decree in question. 32. Providence. By the rev. Jofeph Wife. 8vo. Pr. 1s. 6d. White.

The firft book of Mr. Wife's poem on Providence was printed about the year 1766, and the second not long afterwards *. The first only is included in this edition. In the preface the author has made fome remarks on Pope's Effay on Man; at the conclufion of which he pronounces that celebrated compofition a very weak and fuperficial production, contradictory to itself and to nature.'

After this bold decifion, the reader doubtless will be defirous of knowing in what manner this writer has acquitted himself in his Effay on Providence. We therefore present him with the following lines:

See Vol. xxiii. p. 143.

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"I wonder God would build on fuch a plan,
Or make this odd prepofterous creature, man!
Moft holy, pow'rful, good, and wife, I do
Believe God is; yet is (with rev'rence) how?
Were his perfections infinite, fo vain
As to create an universe in pain?

Create this man, by nature bound to know,
And to his ruin violate a law?

It must be so-some wifer heads maintain,
Fer public good fubfifts on guilt and pain.
Can vice and mifery be understood
As neceffary to the public good?
How grows obfcurer the enigma still!
Muft man be damn'd for doing needful ill?

What monftrous contradictions!".

This is the proœmium, and may poffibly fatisfy the reader's curiofity: if not, we can only refer him to the work itself for his farther fatisfaction,

33. The Chriflian's Heart's Eafe; or Balm for Hurt Minds, a Sermon, in Verfe. 4to. Pr. 6d. Bladon.

We have somewhere feen this poetical fermon, many years fince, either in print or in manufcript. Our readers may probably recollect the following lines:

Why droops the head, why languishes the eye,
What means the flowing tear and frequent figh?
Where are the lenient medicines to impart,
Their balmly virtues to a bleeding heart?
Fruitless are all attempts of kind relief,
To mix her cordial and allay my grief;
So ftrong my anguifh, fo fecure my pain,
Weak is philofophy, and reason vain;
Their rules like fuel make my paffion glow,
Quicken each pang, and point the fting of woe:
Imagination labours but in vain,

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While darkening clouds intoxicate the brain;
Fancy no fweet ideas can fuggeft,

Tolull the raging tumult in my breast.
In vain or mirth invites, or friendship calls;
Wit dies a jeft, and converfation palls.'

The poetry of this piece is fuperior to any thing we expected to find under the fanatical title of The Chriftian's Heart's Eafe. 34. A Sermon Preached at the Parish-church of Greenwich in Kent, on Christmas-day, 1769, by Edward Birkett, Clerk, Curate of Greenwich. 410. Pr. 15. Robinson and Roberts. The first paragraph:

The redemption of mankind, by the facrifice of God him

felf,

felf, is fo very extraordinary, fuch an unparalleled inftance of the divine. condefcenfion and goodness, that had not our Saviour given us undoubted affurance that he was the true and very God, we never could have been brought to believe the aftonishing truth. An angel fent from the glorious heavenly hoft above, or a mortal from the region of darkness below, might probably have convinced us, that God would be reconciled to us on fuch or fuch conditions; but neither the one or the other would ever have been able to perfuade us, that God himself, feated in the height of Heaven, cloathed with majesty and honour, and surrounded with all the glorious company of angels and archangels, would leave thofe bleft abodes, cloath himself with a vail of flesh, and suffer the extremity of anguifh, pain, and torment, for the redemption of finful and rebellious mortals!'

The reader, who has no obje&ions to this introduction, will doubtlefs be pleafed with the orthodoxy of Mr. Birkett's difcourfe.

35. God All in All. Being a Letter to the Baptift-Church meeting at Goodman's-Fields, London, under the paftoral Care of the rev. Mr. Abraham Booth. By S. W. Who was ejected by the faid Church, 21 Feb. 1770, for not believing that the Man Chrift was God. To which is added, a few Thoughts on the dif tinct Properties of the Intelligent and Material Creation, and the Re lation they are kept in by God to each other in the Human Body and Soul. 820. Pr. 15. Bladon,

We have cited the title page, we have mentioned the bookfeller, the fize, and the price of this pamphlet; and when we have done this, we have done as much as the article deferves. 36. An Account of a most terrible Fire that happened on Sept. 8, 1727, at a Barn at Burwell, in Cambridgeshire, &c. To which are fubjoined some fericus and important Inquiries relating to the melancholy Event, and fome Obfervations, defigned as a prac tical Improvement of the awful Catastrophe. By Thomas Gibbons, D. D. 8vo. 15. Buckland.

This is a very extraordinary production from the hand of a learned divine, more especially at this period, fo long after the accident happened. It is now revived with no other intention, that we can difcover, than to inculcate the following curious doctrine, how orthodox we shall leave our readers to determine : that this calamity is to be afcribed to fin, as its procuring caufe; that puppet-shews are unlawful entertainments; and that this melancholy catastrophe is to be confidered as a divine rebuke upon them.'

THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For the Month of April, 1770.

ARTICLE I.

Letters from Snowdon: deferiptive of a Tour through the Northern Counties of Wales. Containing the Antiquities, History, and State of the Country: with the Manners and Customs of the Inbabitants. 8vo. Pr. 31. Ridley.

TH

THE writer of these letters is more folicitous to please than to inftru&t his readers. In a pure and polished ftile, he offers fuch remarks as muft occur to the most fuperficial obferver. Without entering into laboured difquifitions on the antiquities, hiftory, polity, or manners of the country through which he travelled, he engages the attention by pretty descriptions of nature, and remarks on the genius and difpofition of the people. The flight fketches exhibited of historical knowledge, diftinguifh the hand of genius; but they are discoverable by no marks to be the production of that noble and learned writer to whom we have heard them afcribed.

Our writer deals but little in etymology, and, indeed, he feems to defpife that kind of knowledge as too conjectural. The fpecimens he has given convey no favourable impreffion of his talents in this way. Chefter, fays he, was antiently the refidence of the kings of Wales. Its fituation on the frontiers of England and Wales was moft convenient to repel the incurfions of the Saxons. In the ancient British language it is called Carr, which fignifies a walled, or fortified place.' We believe this to be a mistake, and that Caer ought to be tranflated a Chair, feat of juftice, or metropolitan refidence.

VOL. XXIX. April, 1770.

R

'The

The marches of Wales, fays our writer, comprehended the greatest part of the counties of Chefter, Salop, Hereford, and Worcester. They were claimed both by the Saxons and the Britons; and poffeffed by either, as the fortune of war prevailed. They were the feenes of continual wars and devaftation. It was the wife policy of the times to give large eftates to men of diftinguished valour, to preserve the frontier counties from rapine and violence, who were called lordsmarchers. They had great numbers of men under their command, who swore fealty to them, and were under their direction upon all occafions. Their power was fo great, that they might rather be confidered as petty princes than subjects.

Egbert, who reduced the Saxon heptarchy, took Chester from the princes of Wales. Since which time it has always been accounted as part of England. In the time of king Offa, the Welch loft the greatest part of the marches. With a view either to prevent their incurfions, into their frontier counties, or to mark the boundaries, he made a great dyke, called Offa's dyke (in the British language,CLAUDH Offa) which is remaining in many places at this time. This was built probably with the fame intent as the great wall between England and Scotland, and that between China and Tartary. Offa's dyke extends from the river Dee at Chester to the Wye at Chepstow. Its direction gives us reason to think it was intended to confine the Welsh to the mountains, as its general courfe runs on the fides of the hills.

The character of the inhabitants of North Wales, the Ordovices of the Romans, was even by the teftimony of their enemies, that of a brave and warlike people. They preferved their independence for centuries, against the continued attempts of a great and powerful people to fubdue them. Whether this may with greater propriety be attributed to their natural bravery, to the fituation of their country, or to their want of fuch things as tempt the ambition of conquerors, I fhall leave undecided. Certain however it is, that the Saxons continually made the greatest efforts to conquer them. Inftigated, perhaps, more by a principle of revenge, for the ravages they committed on the borders of England, than by any advantages they could derive from the conqueft of fuch a country.

Be this as it may, they were in an almost uninterrupted ftate of war. Such an innate principle of enmity and antipathy fubfifted between the two nations, that the cruelties perpetrated by either fide (as the chance of war decided) equalled thofe of the most favage nations. This enmity is traditional, and the common people in a great degree retain it inveterate

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