Anachronifms-if he had marked the more prominent parts of the work, as fact or fiction, or as a mixture of both, he would have done an acceptable fervice to thofe readers, to whom these pages will be most agreeable-we mean, to common readers. In fome places, the tranflator hath corrected his original, according to the truth of history, or enlarged it where he thought a description defective. But this we conceive to be a liberty by no means warrantable. In the third volume, for inftance, (at P. 243) the tranflator hath substituted his own account of the Eleufinian myfteries for that of the original. For the metrical part of the work, where he is the versifier himself, he by no means appears to advantage as a poet and where he has had recourfe to others, for tranflations, he hath borrowed from the worst hands. His language is not faultlefs; witnefs, "our hearts trepidated with love." (Vol. II. P. 368.) "I gave a loose to my reflective powers." (Vol. III. P. 2.) "The youngest," for the younger. (Vol. III. P. 110.) "Crifp air." (Vol. III. P. III.) "Two young women with their Ayle in their hand." (Vol. III. p. 114.) And paralyfe and deftroy." (Vol. III. P. 314.) "Chickens for chicken." (Vol. III. P. 369.) "This fide the grave," for "this fide of the grave." (Vol. III. P. 370.) The tranflator is anony mous: and, when he reflects on the immoral tendency of the volumes which he has thus introduced to the acquaintance of the English, we think, if he have any fenfe of fhame, he will continue to hide his head in obfcurity.

ART. II. A Letter to the Earl of Lauderdale, containing Strictures on his Lordship's Letters to the Peers of Scotland. With a Preface, and an original Letter from the Right Hon. Edmund Burke to the author, explaining the much-perverted Expreffion of the Swinifh Multitude." By John Gifford, Eiq. A new Edition, with Additions. 8vo. PP. 171. 4s. Longman and Rees. 1800.

66

FIVE

IVE years have elapfed," fays the author and republisher of this well-known pamphlet, fince the first publication of the following letter; and amidst all the fhocks, convulfions, and viciili. tudes, which different States have experienced in this momentous interval, no one circumftance has occurred to invalidate a fingie inference, which from an attentive confideration of the subject I had been led to draw, refpecting the aggreffive principles and the deftructive practices of the French Republic. On the contrary, in every act of every ty rant, from ROBESPIERRE to BONAPARTE, who has defolated the country and oppreffed its inhabitants for the laft ten years, in peace or in war, in negociation or hoftility, to friends or enemies, in all

treaties

.teaties prefcribed by the influence, in all conftitutions impofed by the arms, of the French rulers on emancipated nations; the fame principles and the fame practices have been marked in thofe ftrong characters, which all who run may read.' But the reader will find in this Letter a voluntary correction of a misrepresentation, into which I had been very innocently betrayed in the first edition; where I quoted a printed Memoire as the production of SAINT-JUST, a member of the Committee of Public Welfare during the tyranny of ROBESPIERRE, which I have fince difcovered to be the fabrication of an emigrant nobleman; a fabrication not lefs reprehenfible, for having been intended to answer a falutary purpofe. It is not for man to use a bad mean for the accomplishment of a good end. Such a jefuitical principle of action has, happily, been long fince exploded; and heaven forbid it should ever be revived. This acknowledgment, be it obferved, is not the confequence of detection, as the mifreprefentation has escaped my affailants, and even the critics themselves; it results exclusively from a sense of duty, and a regard for truth."

The acknowledgment, therefore, does peculiar honour to the dignity and delicacy of Mr. Gifford's fpirit. Nor can we refrain from adding what Mr. Gifford has fubjoined in the fame fpirit, concerning another mistake made by him in another publication; as we are equally happy with him to retrieve the character of a worthy man and an excellent writer, from imputations as unjust as they are flanderous.

"I eagerly embrace this opportunity, the first which has occurred," cries our author, in obtaining a double triumph over himself, "to correct another mifreprefentation into which I had been betrayed, in the preface to my tranflation to [of] LALLY-TOLENDAL'S Defence of the Emigrants; where I infinuated that Dr. RENNELL, the prefent learned and worthy Mafter of the Temple, was the author of The Purfuits of Literature.' The grounds, on which that infinuation was founded, it is now needlefs to repeat. Suffice it to fay, that, after a long converfation which I had with the Doctor on the fub. ject, I became perfectly fenfible of my error; and I now feel it incumbent on me to proclaim my full and decided conviction, that he had not the fmalleft fhare nor co-operation in any part of that poem or of the notes. And I cannot but exprefs the astonishment which I experienced at the renewal of this report (after so long an interval, and after a formal and pofitive denial of it) in a late publication, accompanied too by expreffions highly offenfive and wholly undeferved.* That a Catholic fhould refift the attacks of a Proteftant Divine, on the nature and tendency of his religious creed, is unquestionably natural; but fneers and farcasms are at beft unfeemly weapons [for any man] to employ in fo ferious a conteft; and imputations in direct

* Mr. Gifford means, we believe," Letters to a Prebendary," &c. "By the Rev. John Milner, M. A. F, S. A. 1800." Pr. 10, 11; 64, 65.

contradiction

contradiction to pofitive affeverations, furely require fome better fupport than ftrong fufpicions or prefumptive evidence. CHARACTER, too, in fuch cafes, even when the queftion is doubtful, must ever decide it; and the character of Dr. RENNELL cannot fail to ftand high in the estimation of all, who place a just value on the active and confcientious discharge of the various duties of private life, and on the conftant difplay of an ardent zeal for the defence of our religious and civil eftablishments."

Having done these two acts of high honour to himself and of ingenuous juftice to the public, Mr. Gifford enters upon the profeffed defign of his republication. We fhall follow him pretty closely in his movements, as we feel his fpirit beating in our own bofoms, are glad, therefore, to trace his footsteps in his advances, and are happy to point out his progrefs to the public.

"In a late debate on the fubject of the negociation, propofed by the mock Sovereign of France, Mr. SHERIDAN did not fcruple to affert (if the report of his fpeech be correct), that the decrees paffed by France which were fo offenfive, particularly that of Nov. 19, 1792, were in themselves too tyrannical to remain, they have all long fince been fawept away. So little is this the cafe, that the only time when they were rendered the fubject of public difcuffion, viz. in the legislative affembly of the French Republic, not only the idea of repealing them, but even the propofition to limit their operation to countries at war with France, or occupied by her armies, was fcornfully and unanimoufly rejected.* In fact, thofe decrees have been invariably acted upon by the Republican rulers and generals, nay, by BONAPARTE himself, in the Austrian Netherlands, in Italy, and in Switzerland. And they remain at this moment as much laws of the Republic, as any one article of her new conftitutional code. When, foon after the ufurpation of the Great Conful, a difficulty arose relative to the execution of an old law refpecting the Emigrants, BONAPARTE, to whom it was referred, obferved that unless that [this] law were repealed by the exprefs provifions of the new code, it of courfe remained in full force. Now, I apprehend, it will exceed even the ingenuity of Mr. SHERIDAN, to defery, in that code, any repeal of the offenfive decrees of November and December 1792; they were, therefore, not only not fwept away long fince, but they fill remain to be fwept away, or elfe to fweep away all the establishments of Europe; and no ftronger proof need to be required, of the continuance of the aggreffive and hoftilé difpofition of the French rulers, and of the prefent Ufurper, than the actual existence of thofe decrees, more than seven years after their birth, notwithstanding all the calamities which they have produced, and notwithstanding the reprobation of enemies and the intimation of friends."

We are much pleased to have this point fet in its true light.

*

"See P. 53."

We

We ourselves were inclined to believe, that decrees fo offenfive in themselves, fo much the difgrace of French Republicanifm at the time, and fo juftly the fcourge of French prefumption in the event, had been, in fome interval of fhame or forrow, erafed from their journals. The remembrance of the attempt to erafe or to soften them played upon our minds and half feduced our judgements. And the bold affertion of Mr. SHERIDAN, if it be as reported his, that the decrees had actually been swept away long fince; would have carried the falfehood currently over the kingdom, if it had not been fo early expofed as a falfehood, and fo powerfully arrested in its course, by the vigilant activity of Mr. Gifford.

"It is to me, I confess, a matter of much astonishment, that, in all the difcuffions in [of] Parliament on this subject, no use has been made of the very important document contained in the Memoirs of CHAUSSARD, which I was the firft to recommend to public notice and attention. It is feldom that an hiftorian is fo fortunate, as to obtain poffeffion of fuch a document; for it rarely happens that the private inftructions of a cabinet to their public agents are fuffered to tranfpire. This paper affords a complete proof of the mischievous intention of thofe memorable decrees, and a full confutation of all the affertions which have been made refpecting the fincerity of the profeffions and the pacific difpofition of the French government, previous to the declaration of war. The production of fuch a paper would, I conceive, have fuperfeded the neceffity of argument on that topic at leaft."

The paper is contained in a French publication under this title, "Memoires hiftoriques et politiques fur la Revolution de la Belgique et du pays de Liege, par Publicola Chauffard," one of the Commiffioners actually fent to thofe countries by the Republican Governors of France.

"Bonaparte," as pourtrayed by the ftrong pencil of Mr. Gifford, "is himself the arch-fiend of Jacobinism, the cause of which he has conftantly ferved with all the zeal and energy of which his mind is fufceptible. He commanded the troops under BARRAS, formerly his patron, now his prifoner, in the Autumn of 1795; when the Parifians were maffacred for daring to claim the rights juft conferred on them by the new conftitution of that day. His Jacobinical feats at a subfequent period in Italy, in Switzerland, and in Egypt, are unhappily but too well known to the world; nor are his declaration of the incompatibility of the co-existence of the two governments of England and France, and his threat to Jacobinize the former, lefs notorious. But perhaps it may be faid, that this ufurper has only ufed Jacobinifm as the ladder of his ambition, and that, having now attained the fummit, he will kick it from under him. But even this pretext, flimfy as it is, will not avail. For, fince his ufurpation has been completed, this confular tyrant has recalled the regicide CARNOT, pro

moted

I

moted many other Jacobins to places of importance, and even agai taken into favour moft of thofe, whom for the purpofe of deception, h had been led to profcribe, at the first moment of the Revolution. has frequently been conceded by the moft rational enemies to unlimite monarchy, that fuch a form of government would, in many refpects, b the beft, if there were any means of fecuring the poffeffion of wifdon and virtue to the Monarch. A conceflion which admits, what indeed cannot well be contefted, that on the perfonal difpofition and endow ments of the individual vested with abfolute power, the profperity o the people and the fecurity of furrounding nations effentially depend Let then BONAPARTE be tried by this test. We know his principles and his qualifications; they have been fully difplayed in his declarations and his conduct during the last feven years; they are written or the map of the world, in characters of blood. In him the will and the power of Jacobinifm are combined; if fraught with danger when di vided, how pregnant with deftruction muft they appear to every fober mind in a state of concentration! By Jacobinifm, the Conful fecured his authority; with Jacobins he fhares his profits; and, however prefent intereft may lead him to attempt the amalgamation of this baneful quality with ingredients of an oppofite nature, neither the fraud of SIEYES, nor the force of BONAPARTE, will fuffice to conceal from Europe what they muft acknowledge themfelves, that JACOBINISM IS THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF THE REPUBLIC." This is a portrait, in our opinion, as juft as it is bold, as formidable as it is faithful, and particularly calculated for the eye of the prefent times.

is

"If, however, Mr. TIERNEY and his affociates concur on fome points with BONAPARTE, be it obferved it is only on those points on which the latter differs from the British Minifters; for, on the material queftion of the practicability and fafety of concluding a peace with the Directory, they are at perfect variance. The oppofition have invariably infifted, that it was both fafe and practicable; whereas the First Conful has, through the medium of his inftrument BouLAY DE LA MEURTHE, given a flat contradiction to all their affertions on that subject. The continuance of the war,' faid the orator on the eve of the annihilation of the laft conftitution, chiefly owing to the want of a wife, fixed, and truly Republican fyf tem of diplomacy among ourfelves. If we wifhed to eftablish fuch a fyftem, and to conclude treaties of peace, what fecurity would there be for their obfervance in the prefent ftate of our political organization? Previous to the 18th, Fructidor (Sept. 4th, 1797), the very Government exhibited to foreign powers every fymptom of a preca rious exiftence, and they accordingly refused to treat with it. After that great event, the whole power of the ftate being centered in the Directory, treaties of peace were speedily broken; the Directory,

"I employ the term Republic in compliance with the general practice; though fully aware, that the prefent government of France has not one characteristic of a Republic. It is a mere military def potifm."

after