for the first veneration is due to the Conftitution. It is likewife to be fuppofid, that the King will do no wrong; and as to prevent this, a Privy Council is appointed by the Conftitution to affift the King in the execution of the government, fo if any wrong be done," thefe men," as Montefquieu expreffes it," may be examined and punished *."

• But if any future King fhall think to fcreen thefe evil counsellors, from the jutt vengeance of the people, by becoming his own Minifter; and, in fo doing, fhall take for his fanction," the attribute of perfection," shall trust to the deception of his being " a superior being," and cloak himfelf under the maxim, that the King can do no wrong;" I fay, in fuch a cafe, let the appeal already made to the Constitution, to nature, to reafon, to common fenfe, to experience, to fact, to precedent, and to Sir William Blackstone himself suffice; and preclude the neceffity of any further Remarks from me .'

After enumerating the various diforders under which the Conftitution is fuppofed to labour, this ftate phyfician, whofe abilities, independent of other confiderations, fuficiently fave him from the imputation of being a quack, recommends as a restorative that an A&t fhould be immediately paffed declaratory of the conftitution, for fettling the conftitution, and for obtaining uniformity in the State.' Thofe who wish to know what is advanced on this fubject must be referred to the book itfelf, in which its noble Author has difplayed great extent of political knowledge. His Lordship, though not an elegant, is a

• Except the parliament, which is the great council of the nation, the judges, and the peers, who, being the hereditary counsellors of the crown, have not only a right, but are bound in Foro Confcientiæ to advise the King for the public good; the Conftitution knows of no other council than the Privy Council. Any other council, like Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, Lauderdale, and as the initial letters of the names exprefs, is a CABAL, and as fuch should be fuppreffed. Nat. Bacon, Speaking of the lofs of power in the grand council of Lords, fays, The fenfe of State once contracted Into a Privy Councit, is foon recontracted into a Cabinet Council, and Jaft of all into a favourite or two; which many times brings damage to the Public, and both themselves and Kings into extreme precipices; partly for want of maturity, but principally through the Providence of God over-ruling irregular courfes to the hurt of fuch as walk in them.' Pol. Difc. part z. pag. 201.

For experience, fact, and precedent, fee the reigns of King John, Henry III. Edward II. Richard II. Charles I. and James II. See alfo Mirror of Juftices, where it is faid, that this grand affembly (meaning the now Parliament or then Wittena-gemotte) is to confer the government of God's people, how they may be kept from fin, live in quiet, and have right done them, according to the cuf toms and laws; and more efpecially of aorong done by the King, Queen, or their children:" to which Nat. Bacon adds this note, A this time the King might do wrong, &c. and fo fay Bracton and Fleta of Kings in their time.' Difc. part 1. pag. 37. Lond. 1739.

nervous

mervous and manly writer; one who feems more defirous of exploring truth, than ambitious of embellishing it with unneceffary ornament. Of the facts on which his arguments are founded he appears to be fully informed, and his mode of ar guing is close and convincing.

We have only to regret that Lord A. in treating a fubject in which every Englifhman is fo deeply interefted, has fallen into the error of thofe politicians who have imagined that property (not the people) is the object of parliamentary representation; a doctrine fo abfurd, that we want words to exprefs our astonishment at its existence in a country where the invaluable rights of the lowest citizen, whofe only property is his FREEDOM, CIVIL and RELIGIOUS, are furely as much the objects of conftitutional protection, which implies reprefentation, as the dirty acres and money-bags of the opulent, but lefs numerous and lefs ufeful, part of the community!

ART. XIV. A Poetical Epifle to his Excellency GEORGE WASHINGTON, Efq; Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States of America, from an Inhabitant of the State of Maryland. To which is added, a Sketch of the Life and Character of General Washington. 4to. 2 s. 6d. Annapolis printed, 1779; London reprinted for Dilly, &c. 1780,

A'

LTHOUGH America is, or lately was, like all rifing countries, in a general ftate of improvement, yet poetry, in particular, does not yet feem to have been highly cultivated in that foil. But great events will produce great poets. Homer, perhaps, had never immortalized himself in fong, had the fiege of Troy never taken place.-The fpecimens of American poetry which we have hitherto met with, are, probably, the dawnings of that brighter day which may, ere long, fhine forth in full fplendor,

The little poem here republifhed, from the original American edition, is chiefly intended by its Author (a native of America *) as a compliment to his celebrated countryman, the Commander in chief of the Congrefs' troops.

Having paid due respect to the merits of the hero to whom this Epiftle is immediately addreffed, and reprobated the hoftile

Say, where along yon venerable wood,
My native fream fwells thy Potomack's flood,
Shall my untutor'd Mufe begin the fong,
Which future bards in rapture fhall prolong:
Or there my little bark prefume to fail,
Fann'd by fair Liberty's infpiring gale?'

By his native ftream, the Author means the river Wiccemico, which empties itself into the great river Potomack.

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conduct

conduct of Great Britain towards his native country, with a warmth of resentment which was to be expected in a poem of this kind, the Western Mufe thus contrafts the bloody picture with a prophetic delineation of the ftate of America, happily fettled in the enjoyment of that freedom for which she is now Struggling:

Great without pomp, without ambition brave,
Proud, not to conquer fellow men, but fave:
Friend to the weak, a foe to none, but those
Who plan their greatness on their brethren's woes;
Aw'd by no titles, undefil'd by luft;
Free without faction, obftinately juft;
Too wife to learn from Machiavel's falfe fchool,
That truth and perfidy by turns should rule;
Too rough for flattery, dreading ev'n as death
The baneful influence of corruption's breath ;
Warm'd by Religion's facred genuine ray,
That points to future blifs th'unerring way;
Yet ne'er controul'd by Superflition's laws,
That worst of tyrants in the nobleft caufe;
The world's great mart, yet not by gold defiled,
To mercy prone, in justice ever mild,

Save to the man who firikes at FREEDOM's roots,
And never curs'd with M-sf-ds, N-ths, or B-tesu
Such be my country; what her fons should be,
O! may fhe learn, great WASHINGTON, from thee!
Thy private virtues be their public rule,
Thy public conduct be the patriot school!
That living law, from whence her rifing youth
May gather wisdom, conftancy, and truth,
Of independence catch the generous flame,
And learn to fhudder at oppreffion's name!

It is the custom of fome painters to draw flattering refemblances; and we fear that this artift is of their number. We apprehend that the world never yet faw, and never will fee, human fociety in the high ftate of perfection which he has so fondly imagined.

The memoirs of the life, and the sketch of the character of Mr. WASHINGTON, feem to contain the most authentic, as well as most circumftantial, account of this modern FABIUS, that hath yet appeared. The half-length portrait, given by way of frontifpiece, is engraved from an original painting; and it is faid to bear a juft refemblance of the General's perfon.

This pamphlet is published for the benefit of the American prifoners in England.-It is true, as the benevolent Editor obferves, in his prefatory advertisement, the pains of captivity cannot be much lightened by this fmall mite of an obfcure individual; but, as he justly adds, fuch munificent donations as have been made by Englishmen toward the relief of the Ame rican

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rican prifoners, confined in this country, muft ftamp a leffon on the minds of those unfortunate captives, and our American brethren in general, that they should not withdraw all national affection from a country, the bulk of whose inhabitants have not withdrawn all national affection from them."

ART. XV. Poems and Mifcellaneous Pieces, with a free Tranflation o' the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles. By the Rev. Thomas Maurice' A. B. of Univerfity College, Oxford. 4to. 10 s. 6d. Dodsley' 1779.

M

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OST of the poems contained in this volume have already appeared in print, and have been noticed in our Review. We obferved in them a genuine poetical fpirit, and melodious verfification, with a mixture of inequality and incorrectness. We remember to have remarked, on one occafion, that as the Author was of inexperienced age, we might hope for better things; and, accordingly, feveral of the original pieces in this collection demonftrate that our hopes were not without foundation. The Great have been too frequently addreffed, even by good poets, in ftrains of fervile adulation. Mr. Maurice's verfes to the Marquis of Blandford, after having feen Blenheim-house, afford a manly, decent compliment,

After a natural introduction of the great Marlborough's triumphs, the poet thus proceeds:

Here BLANDFORD, oft, as to thy wond'ring eyes

His deathlefs feats in bright fucceffion rife,
Congenial tranfports in thy bofom roll,

And half his fpirit fires thy infant foul,
But far from thee be war's tumultuous rage,
Nor let ambition taint thy tender age;
Let Spenfer's bright example teach thy mind
Sublimer joys, and tranfports more refin'd:
Like him, thy hand to pining want extend,
Protect the orphan, and the wretch befriend.'

The fituation of Blenheim affording occafion, he mentions the story of Henry II. and Rofamond; which not inelegantly finishes the piece :

But fhort the blifs unholy joys afford,
His raging confort feeks her abient lord;
And Rofamond, from love and Henry torn,
Retires to weep in yonder glooms forlorn.
Oh never more may guilty tranfports stain
Thefe hallow'd haunts, nor jealous fires profane;
But ev'ry future lord, like Spenfer, prove
The fweets of focial life, and spotless love!'

Hinda, an Eaftern elegy, is not, as the Author informs us, a particular imitation of any Afiatic poet, but was written when

• See Hagley, a defcriptive poem, Monthly Review, vol. Ivi. p.

156.

his imagination had been animated with the perufal of those
beautiful fpecimens of Eastern poetry given to the world by Mr.
Jones and Mr. Richardfon. This elegy is the complaint of an
Arabian lover, for the lofs of his deceafed bride. The Oriental
character is, in general, well fuftained, most of the images are
local, and the language is marked by dignity and ease:
Led by the ftar of evening's guiding fires,
That shone ferene on Aden's lofty fpires,
Young Agib trod the folitary plain,

Where groves of spikenard greet his fenfe in vain :
In wealth o'er all the neighbouring fwains fupreme,
For manly beauty every virgin's theme;
But no repofe his anxious bofom found,
Where forrow cherish'd an eternal wound.
The frequent figh, wan look, and frantic start,
Spoke the defpair that prey'd upon his heart.
The haunts of men no more his steps invite,
Nor India's treasures give his foul delight.
In fields and deep'ning fhades he fought relief,
And thus difcharg'd the torrent of his grief.'

After an apoftrophe to happier Nymphs and Swains,' the Soliloquift thus difclofes the cause of his grief;

"HINDA, once faireft of the virgin train,
"Who haunt the foreft, or who range the plain,
"Sleeps were the boughs of yon black cyprefs wave,
"And I am left to languifh at her grave!

"To that dear fpot, when day's declining beam
"Darts from yon fhining towers a farewell gleam,
"Conftant as eve, my forrows I renew,

"And mix my tears with the defcending dew,

"The laft fad debt to buried beauty pay,

"Kifs the cold fhrine, and clasp the mould'ring clay." Reflecting on paft pleasures, he then epifodically introduces a kind of epithalamium;

"Prepare, I cried, prepare the nuptial feaft,
"Bring all the treasures of the rifled Eaft:

"The choiceft gifts of ev'ry clime explore,
"Let Aden + yield her tributary flore;
"Let Saba all her beds of fpice unfold,

"And Samarcand fend gems, and india gold,

"To deck a banquet worthy of the bride,

"Where mirth fhall be the gueft, and love prefide."

Then expatiating on his own poffeffions, and defcribing the perfon of his beloved, his digreffion concludes with the following paffage, in which the luxuriant pictures of Eaftern poetry are happily imitated:

Aden and Saba are both cities of Arabia Felix, celebrated for the gardens and fpicy woods with which they are furrounded.'

4A bower