Charater of Mr. Etough placed in a true Point of View. MR. URBAN, SOME of your correfpondents having favoured you and the public with certain letters, importing to be anecdates of Mr. Etough, to which you gave a place in your Magazine for January, p. 25; permit me to hope for the like indulgence, in a future one, for a few remarks upon them, and for fuch additions to thofe which you have given the public reafon to expect hereafter, as juftice and humanity feem to call for. The first of thefe writers, plainly, knew little of him or his connections, as appears from his account of the contents of his papers, and of the hands they are in. The utmoft of his knowledge of him (but in which he feems to have great fatisfaction) is, that he had a remarkable heat in his head, and ufed precautions against inconveniences and fufferings from it. I fhall therefore leave the public to receive as much benefit or entertainment as it may, from this important information, and from the conception that may be formed of his figure on his draw-bridge, and proceed to the fecond retailer of anecdotes. If I mistake not, most of bis have efcaped out of the prifon, to which their collector and recorder had fentenced them for 20 years; and if their appearance abroad, now, may not be called another depredation from the British Mufcum, I fufpect it is, at leaft, an anticipation. Be the origi nal writer, however, who he may, he feems to have known no diftinction between a Scotch Prefbyterian, and a Scotch pedlar; and, therefore, affixes a pack to Mr. Etough's back, in confequence of his being (as he afferts) a Scotch Prefbyterian. Where he was born I know not; but it is true that he was educated a Diffenter at the fame feminary with the late archbishop Secker and Dr. Birch, with whom he kept up a friendship and correfpondence to his death. His converfion and ordination must remain uncontradicted by me, as I am unacquainted with the circum ftances of them. The queftion put to Sir Robert Walpole, was not in confequence of Mr. Etough's firft afking Sir Robert to grant him a favour which Sir Robert engaged for, but in confequence of an offer from Sir Robert, to gratify him in whatever he fhould afk; expect ing, probably, that preferment would be the object of Mr. Etough's request. In addition to the information of the GENT. MAG, April, 1786. 281 former writer, of the heat of Mr. Etough's head, this latter adds that of a like temperature in his feet. The world may therefore avail itself of a very reasonable conclufion and valuable piece of knowledge, that he was of a fanguine and warm habit from head to foot.-The notion of his having written and left a history of his own times, is a mistaken one, adopted by most who had any knowledge of him, as well as by your correfpondents. It has taken its rife from a few short accounts of fome particular occurrences in his time, and of fome particular characters fhewn to friends in his life. The above peculiarities of his body and mind, which form the principal matter of your correfpondents communications, were fuch as, without injury or lofs to any one, might and ought to have been buried with him. Not having been fo, or, in the prevailing rage of collecting anecdotes, having been dug up, and brought into publick view; the following traits of his character and conduct fhould in juftice accompany them. That he counteracted his bodily infirmities by a strict attention to clean linefs, going into a cold bath, or using other means of a very general washing twice in a day, and obferving a strict temperance in his diet. That this confifting principally in milk and vegetables, his own mode of living was, of necefSity, penurious; but his friends were received at his houfe with the degree of hofpitality fuited to his fituation and circumstances. That, at his coming to his living of Therfield, he borrowed Sool. and laid it out in putting his house and appurtenances into good repair, and a decorous ftate; and, afterwards, was very attentive to keep them fo; was diligent in the difcharge of his parochial duties, watchful over the conduct of his parishioners, and humane in his conduct to them.-That he gave away confiderable fums to hopeful young men of moderate circumftances, in the Univerfity of Cambridge, to enable them the better to profecute their studies; and, in affiftance to other meritorious objects of benevolence. That, what ever the fortune left by him to Archdeacon Plumptre amounted to, be reaped no other perfonal benefit from it, than the fatisfaction of caufing Mr. Etough's bounty to flow in its ufual channels during his life, and of plan. ning menfures fince carried into execu tion 282 Prince De Ligne vindicated.—Bowing at the Name of Jesus. tron by his elder brother, the executor of his will, for its continuance and perpetuity. Yours, &c. D. M. Mr. URBAN, IN are looking over the letters from the Prince de Ligne, p. 109, I do not difcover the leading features by which I have had the honour to know him long before Mr T. could poffibly be intro duced. There are fome fmall traits indeed, which candour and liberality ought not to have expofed. If refpectable characters, here in England, too often ungeneroufly attacked; we should, in deference, let thofe reft which belong not to us. There wants a better key than that of the Park-gate, which was refufed. Why is the other letter fuppreffed? better the laft had been fo. I should reproach myself much, If I had occafioned the cenfure it contains. The Prince of Aremberg feems to have been difrefpe&tfully treated. I am forry it should proceed from an English pen, when I consider what he has fuffered through an unfortunate accident, and from whom! There appears no laudable motive for the publication of thefe private letters, which cannot intereft the publick; and the Fittle anecdotes of the piftols, if identified, are certainly not of the firft magnitude. I have met with the greatest politenefs from both the above noblemen, and, could I give credit to these letters, they must be ftrangely altered. You, Mr. Urban, do not delight in illiberal reflections, and would rather, with myself, throw a veil over the little foibles of mankind, and bring to light whatever is inftructive or praise-worthy. It is to preferve the fame of your Magazine, that I wish to prefent this counterbalance: it very probably reaches the place alluded to, where the perufal of thefe letters might create a prejudice in the opinions of many. The English, to my certain knowledge, have always received peculiar diftinction at Bruxelles, when acting with a propriety of behaviour: a feven years refidence in that capital must be allowed as fome authority for my affertion. The little Tour des Païs bas has long excited my curiofity; I meant to purchase it by way of amufement, the expectations "whereof are now fufpended. DES SABLONS. Thefe are facts which, for the honour of human nature, ought not to be concealed. Edit. Mr. URBAN, March 1. IN your Magazine for January laff, P. 14, a correfpondent, who figns himfelf J. L. fays, "I fhould be glad to know for what reafon our Reformed Church retains the custom of bowing at the name of Jefus," &c. The plain anfwer to this question is, that our Reformed Church does not retain the cuftom of bowing at the name of Jefus. The practice of fome individuals cannot, with either propriety or justice, be denominated a cuftom retained by the church. The fame may, with equal truth, be faid of what your correfpondent terms, turning about at the creed; which Mr. Palmer, in his Proteftant Diffenter's Catechifm, fomewhat improperly, calls bowing towards the Eaft. I have heard Diffenters vehemently urge this latter practice as a ftrong objection against the church of England: I have heard clergymen of warm tempers and weak underftandings, with much acrimony, cenfure their wifer brethren for a total neglect of this practice. To both these descriptions of men, I would recommend a careful perufal of the rubrics of the Common Prayer, which contain all the directions prescribed by our Reformed Church, for regulating the behaviour of its members during their attendance upon public worship."Whofoever," fays Bishop Fleewood, "observes the rules prescribed in the rubric, in reading the public offices, does as much as he is required to do, either by the church or by the law: whofoever does lefs is an offender; whofoever does more is an innovator, and does it without authority, and is fitter to be punished than followed, and breaks the unity of the church, in point of ceremony, preferring his own opi nion to the judgement of the Church. If the laity conform to the rites and ceremonies prefcribed in the rubrics, they alfo do as much as is required of them. All the ceremonies required of the laity are, kneeling at their prayers, and landing up at the Creed, or confeffion of their faith they who do this do all that the Church requires." It is with equal injuftice, that Diffenters object to our Reformed Church the ufe of the term altar. The words ufed in the rubrics of the Common Prayer are always the Communion Table, the Lord's Table, or fimply the Table, never the Altar. More attempts than one have been made in your Magazine to perfuade the public, Archbishop Secker no Methodift.-The Tamarix Gallica. public, that Archbishop Secker was inclined to think favourably of the Mèthodists (fee page 516, in the year 1785). Fortunately the archbishop has, in feveral parts of his works, expreffed his fentiments very fully upon that fubject. Take as a specimen the following extract from his fecond charge to the clergy of the diocefe of Canterbury "It is peculiarly unhappy, that, while we are employed, on one fide, in defending the gospel, we are accufed, on another, of corrupting it. I have not now in my view, either the church of Rome, or the protestants who broke off from us a century ago. The methods of dealing with both have been long fince prefcribed, and I repeat them not; but intreat your attention to the movements of each, efpecially the former, if you have any of them in your parishes. But I mean to fpeak of perfons rifen up in our own times, and profeffing the fricteft piety; who vehemently charge us with departing from the doctrines, and flighting the precepts of our religion; but have, indeed, themselves advanced unjuftifiable notions, as necessary truths, giving good people groundless fears, and bad ones groundless hopes; difturbed the underStandings of fome, impaired the circumstances of others; prejudiced multitudes against their proper minifters, and prevented their edification by them; produced first forders in our churches, then partial or total feparations from them; and fet up unauthorized teachers in their affemblies. Where thefe irregularities will end, God only knows: but it behoves us to be very careful that they make no progrefs through our fault." Yours, &c. X--, MR. UREAN, WH HEN my health called me to Lymington, feveral years ago, I obferved two trees of the Tamarix Gallica, growing at Hurst-Castle, which ftands on a point of land that extends from the coast of Hampshire to within a finall diftance of the Ile of Wight, and was furprized to find them on this very narrow ifthmus, which is washed by the waves of every storm, in a more flourishing ftate than I have ever feen them elsewhere; if my memory does not deceive me, there were no other plants on the fpot, except thofe that belong to the fea fhore. The linear leaves of the Tamarifk, like thofe of the Fir or Pipe, are excellently adapted evade the force of winds, as they 283 prefent no furface; but that this tree fhould bear to be washed with falt-, water, frequently, appeared extraordinary, as we have, excepting perhaps the Sea-Buckthorn (Hippophäe Rhamnoides), no other which will endure it. The Tamarisk is described as growing naturally on the South-Eaft coafts of France to a confiderable fize. Whether it hath been tried for the purpose of withstanding the incroachment of the tide, I am ignorant. But it is çertain, that, if a tree or fhrub capable of thriving within the reach of the faltwater, like the Mangroves (Rhizophora) of tropical climates, could be procured, it would be of the greatest benefit to many of the maritime parts of this kingdom. The fandy fhores of Norfolk and Suffolk are, I think, the most likely places for the Tamarifk to be planted with advantage, for, from fome imperfect attempts which I have made, I doubt whether it would fucceed fo well on a ftiff foil. I fhould be much obliged to any perfon of obfervation, who would give a fuller account of thefe, or any other trees of this kind, in the fame fituation, as it feems to me, that it is the tree beft qualified for forming a fcreen against the fea, of any we have, though the roots fhould be fouud, on trial, not able to bear the actual contact of the falt-water. T. H. W. Mr. URBAN, ALLOW me, through the medium of your far-fpread Mifcellany, to addrefs the following lines to Mr. Douglas (fee p. 245.) Honour's a vain imaginary notion, That draws on raw and unexperienced men To real mifchiefs while they court a fhadow. Were you, Sir, to plead your own caufe in Weftminfter-hall against Mr. Urban and his reviewers, they could not be half fo ftung as your furdy bull when peftered by the little infect Cui nomen Afilo Romanum eft, Ætron Graii vertere vocantes. Afper, acerba fonans ; quo tota exterrita fylyis Diffugiunt armenta, furit mugitibus æther Concuffus, fylvæque et ficci ripa Tanagri. But, for a parting word. As Mr. Urban has coupled the review of your Difcourfes with that of Mrs. Piozzi's "Anecdotes of Dr. Johnfon," I will cite a paffage from thein. "Dr. Goldfmith came to his friend, fretting, and vowing vengeance againit the printer, &c. till Mr. Johnson, tired of the buftle, and defirous to think of fomethin 284 Specimen of Mr. Heron's profound Tafle in Criticism. Ι THE CRITIC AND REVIEWER. MR. URBAN, HAVE only read what you have cited from Mr. Heron's Works, and it may be my misfortune to fee no more of them. But this fpecimen is a fufficient evidence of his admirable tafte and difcernment: a bright inftance of which is his criticism on the encomiums, of the younger Cato by Virgil, Horace, and Lucan. * Horace fays, in fpeaking of the civil war between Pompey and Julius Cæfar," that the whole earth bowed before the conqueror, all but the fierce foul of Cato." He defigned, no doubt, to exalt the character of this chief: but, not to offend Auguftus, he has tempered the poet's fire with a little of the courtier's addrefs. It was peculiar to the invincible fpirit of Cato to prefer death to fubmiffion. He mentions the fact fimply, and leaves Pompcians and Cæfareans to defcant upon it as they pleated. But it is this that I would principally obferve of Horace. Difciple as he was of Epicurus, he treated thofe whom he would most extol as fubordinate to their fupreme divinities. A fine fenfe of what was natural and becoming ftill governed the language of his admiration, or flattery. Let us now hear Lucan +. On the fubject of the fame civil war, he first declares it an impiety to decide, whether Pompey or Cæfar drew the fword with more right; and he then gives his reafon; "Each," he fays, (1 juftifies himielf by a great authority; the victorious caufe was approved by the Gods, BUT the vanquished by Cato." Here Cato is oppofed fingly to all their deities; his juftice is weighed againit theirs; and the fcale is turned in his favour for BUT intimates a preference; and what the poet in one line difclaims as an impiety, in the next he ventures pretty plainly to do; to determine which caufe was the better. - Odes, Book 11. Qde I. ver. 23. + Pharfalia. Book 1. ver. 128. The men of fenfe whom I have had' opportunity of converfing with, look on this paffage as an indecent piece of rant, hazarded by Lucan at the expence of fome inconfiftency with himself, and, at beft, as a flower fitter for a school-boy's exercife than the gravity of an heroic poem. But how egregious their miftake! For Mr. Heron fees it to be fublimity itself; and, seeing so sharply where others are blind, he claps and encores it with infinite pleasantness and felf-fatisfaction; Some In vacuo lætus feffor plauforque theatro. Eneid, VIII. ver. 670. Mr. · Letters from Mr. Bofwell, on his own Book, and Mrs. Piozzi's. 285 her "Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson," has Mr. URBAN, March 9. IT having been afferted in a late feur " rilous publication, that fome paffages relative to a noble lord, which appeared in the first edition of my Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," were omitted in the fecond edition of that work, in confequence of a letter from his lordship,-I think myself called upon to declare, that that affertion is falfe. In a note, p. 527, of my fecond edition, I mentioned that, "having found, on a revifion of this work, that, notwithstanding my best care, a few obfervations had escaped me, which arofe from the inftant impreffion, the publication of which might perhaps be confidered as paffing the bounds of a ftrict decorum, I immediately ordered that they fhould be omitted in the prefent edition." I did not then think it neceffary to be more explicit. But, as I now find that I have been misunderstood by fome, and grofsly mifreprefented by others, I think it proper to add, that foon after the publication of the first edition of my work, from the motive abovementioned alone, without any application from any perfon whatever, I ordered twentyfix lines, relative to the noble lord, to be omitted in the fecond edition (for the lofs of which, I truft, twenty-two additional pages are a fufficient compenfation); and this was the fole alteration that was made in my book relative to that nobleman: nor was any application made to me by the nobleman alluded to, at any time, to make any alteration in my Journal. To any ferious criticism, or ludicrous banter, to which my Journal may be liable, I fhall never object, but receive both the one and the other with perfect good humour; but I cannot fuffer a malignant and injurious falfhood to pass uncontradicted. Yours, &c. JAMES BOSWELL. MR. URBAN, No April 17. O man has lefs inclination to controverfy than I have, particularly with a lady. But as in my "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, I have claimed, and am confcious of being en. titled to, credit, for the ftri&teft fidelity, my respect for the public obliges me to take notice of an infinuation which tends to impeach it. Mrs. Piozzi (late Mrs. Thrale), to added the following poftfcript: "Naples, Feb. 10, 1786. "Since the foregoing went to the prefs, having feen a paffage from Mr. Bofwell's Tour to the Hebrides,' in which it is faid, that I could not get through Mrs. Montague's Elay on Shakspeare,' I do not delay a moment to declare, that, on the contrary, I have always commended it myself, and heard it commended by every one else; and few things would give me more concern than to be thought incapable of tafting, or unwilling to teftify my opi nion of its excellence." I might, perhaps, with propriety have waited till I should have had an opportunity of anfwering this poftfcript in a fu ture publication; but, being sensible that impreffions once made are not easily cffaced, I think it better thus early to afcertain a fact which feems to be denied. The fact reported in my Journal, to which Mrs. Piozzi alludes, is stated in thefe words, p. 299: “I spoke of Mrs. Montagu's very high praises of Garrick. Johnson. Sir, it is fit fhe should say fo much, and I fhould fay nothing. Rey nolds is fond of her book, and I wonder at it; for neither I, nor Beauclerk, nor Mrs. Thrale, could get through it." It is remarkable that this poftfcript is fo expreffed, as not to point out the perfon who faid that Mrs. Thrale could not get through Mrs. Montagu's book; and therefore I think it neceflary to remind Mrs. Piozzi, that the affertion concerning her was Dr. Johnson's, and not mine. The fecond obfervation that I shall make on this pofticript is, that it does not deny the fact afferted, though I must acknowledge, from the praife it beftows on Mrs. Montagu's book, it may have been defigned to convey that meaning. What Mrs. Thrale's opinion is or was, or what he may or may not have faid to Dr. Johnfon concerning Mrs. Montagu's book, it is not neceflary for me to enquire. It is only incumbent on me to afcertain what Dr. Johnton faid to me. 1 fhall therefore contine myfelf to a very fhort fate of the fact. The unfavourable opinion of Mrs. Montagu's book, which Dr. Johnson is here reported to have given, is known to have been that which he uniformly expreffed, as many of his friends well remember. So much for the authenticity of the paragraph, as far as it re lates' |