reigning ecclefiaftical polity in the realm. Judging from what we have lately seen in a neighbouring country, we have reason to believe, that the afcendency of one established form of religion is the best security for pre. ferving any religion at all; and that the best security for preserving such established form, is to exclude, as we have hitherto done, from all influence in the state, those classes of perfons, which are known to be unfriendly to the CHURCH." We have been thus copious in our extracts, because we feel, most sensibly, the extreme importance of the subject, and the absolute neceffity that it should be deeply confidered and rightly understood, by the public at large. Mr. Reeves has discussed it, with that perfpicuity and strength of argument, that closeness of reasoning, and that weight of proofs which so eminently characterize all his publications on legal and political topics. Since the preceding remarks were composed, this valuable tract has entered into a second Edition, to which the author has fubjoined foine judicious observations on three Pamphlets which have appeared in support of the Catholic claim; or, to speak more accurately, in fupport of the claim for the Catholics. These we shall notice hereafter, and shall only now express our extreme fatisfaction at the rapid and extensive circulation of fuch found principles, at a time when the infufion of them into the public mind is essential to the safety of our venerable Establishments. The Poems of Allan Ramfay. F this performance justice obliges us to declare, that we can scarcely recollect to have perused a'specimen of biography more meagre as to matter, or more incorrect and vicious as to diction; with just resemblance enough to Johnson, to remind us of the peculiarities of that powerful writer; but without one symptom of his comprehenfion of thought, his difcrimination of character, or his vigour and elegance of style. So much for our department as Literary Cenfors. As guardians of the morals of the age, and anxious, in particular, for those of the rising generation, we do not hesitate to say, that our Biographer has laid himself open to still severer reprehenfion, by bringing forward in so attractive a form as the present publication, many pieces which we fincerely hoped had at length funk into oblivion, both on account of the culness and licentiousness of their character. In juftification of these strictures we may be permitted to observe; Firft, as to barrenness of both incident and anecdote, that this biographical effort feems not greatly calculated either prodeffe, or delectare: it can neither make us laugh, nor make us cry; nor render us wifer or better, than before its perufal. He who openly aspires to follow Johnfon as the model of his compositions should never forget what the great critic has faid of pretenders to excellence in a style of writing, which he himself had so successfully cultivated. what "Biography," he observes, "has often been allotted to writers, who seem very little acquainted with the nature of their task, or very negligent about the performance. They rarely afford any other account, than might be collected from public papers, but imagine themselves writing a life, when they exhibit a chronological feries of actions or preferments, and so little do they regard the manners or behaviour of their heroes, that more knowledge may be gained of man's real character, by a short conversation with one of his fervants, than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral." The fact is, that expectations very different are formed by the reader, in opening the life of any celebrated person, who has flourished in the commencement, and even lived down to the middle of the present century; and of a Greek, or a Roman, though of equal reputation, who may possibly have been dead two thousand years ago. Concerning the antients it too frequently happens, that obscure notices only are to be gleaned from hiftorians or poets, from commentators or grammarians; while the recent hero, whether of war or literature, still continues to live in the secollection of his friends, and may therefore be pourtrayed, by a skilful artist, with that striking peculiarity, and warmth of colouring, which alone can give value to the biographical picture. In the present, cafe, when we confider, that Allan Ramsay the younger did not die till 1784; that his fon, the Lieut. Colonel, as well as lady Campbell his daughter, and Janet Ramsay, the aunt of both the last, are alive, we believe at this moment; that in England, as well as Scotland, there is no want of perfons, who lived in habits of intimacy with the poet himself, there is furely fome reason to complain of an extraordinary deficiency, both of anecdote and incident, in the production we are examining. No anecdote, if well authenticated, can, in our judgment, be regarded as unworthy of notice, that is connected with the compositions, or illuftrative of the habits, of an eminent writer; and we ourselves have heard several, from the mouths of Ramsay's acquaintance, which, although eminently characteristic of the peculiarities of the poet, we yet look for in vain in the present account. As instances in point, we shall mention only two; but the authority, on which they are given, may be relied on as authentic. By those best acquainted with Ramsay it was generally believed, that, in his most popular pieces, he was indebted for assistance to his literary friends, and, in particular, to Preston, and the two Hamiltons, more than he was willing to allow. Preston was by profeffion a writer (i. e. an attorney in Scotland); but he was a man of genius and a poet; and, in point of education and accomplishments, greatly fuperior to Ramsay. Being more devoted to the celestial fifters, than to the irksome habits of application and industry, he of course continued 1 tinued poor, while his friend Allan gradually rose to fame and opulence. Instead of the ample pecuniary rewards, to which he conceived his frequent contributions had entitled him, he was indignant at receiving nothing more than a formal invitation, now and then to dinner, from the purse-proud bookseller; an occafion, on which the same bookfeller delighted to play off all the airs and felf-fufficiency of the dignified, patron of inferior merit. On one of these occafions it was, when Ramsay was boafting how much money he had got by his muse, and was recommending to Preston, in order to better his circumstances, to publish, and try a fimilar course, that the latter thought it falutary to remind his friend of the meanness of his former trade, as well as the importance of the obligations, that, in many of his productions, he owed both to himself and to others. This, therefore, he did by repeating, on the spot, the following verses; which, though of no great merit in themselves, yet, as an extemporaneous effufion, are by no means contemptible: and we record them here with the greater willingness, as they furnish an undeniable proof against the fentiment of our biographer, that a wig-maker and a barber were oc cupations most certainly "co-incident in that age." To trim the beard of its excrefcent hair, Was mighty Allan's first, though humble care ; It is neceffary to inform the mere English reader, that "righteous;" in the Scottish dialect, sometimes is put for " rightful;" and that " to dress the head," signifies, not an operation of furgery, (although furgeons and barbers were antiently an associated profeffion) but merely " to dress, or comb the hair." To teaze his friends, and particularly his patrons, with copies of verses, was alfo among the foibles of the poet. Burchet, who had exhaufted his powers to extol Ramsay in verse as "the British Virgil," and who had, in his turn, by the British Virgil been as liberally bepraised, began to grow weary of this reciprocation of flattery. Accordingly, when Allan composed one of the well-known epigrams preserved in his works, and fent it to his friend, he was answered in a style of no small asperity and coarseness by the secretary to the admiralty; infomuch that it had well nigh put a period to their friendship. Ramfay's Epigram, which had merit, was as follows: On On receiving a present of an Orange, from the Countess of Aboyne. Now Priam's fon thou may'st be mute, For I can bauldly brag * with thee : Thou to the fairest gav'st the fruit, The faireft gave the fruit to me. To this Burchet most uncourteously fent for answer: She may have been who gave the fruit : But had she had Minerva's mind, She ne'er had gi'ent to fic a brute! And the retort, we may believe, would be the more feverely felt, that, in the concluding line, the Englishman had affected to imitate the native dialect of the poet. In the fecond place, as to style. Of all the imitators of the Johnfonian period the present writer seems to us to be one of the most unhappy. What Quintilians say of the herd of Seneca's imitators may, with the fame justice, be applied to him : "Placebat (Seneca) propter fola vitia; et ad ea se quisque dirigebat effingenda quæ poterat." Stiff and affected without elevation, and harsh and diffonant without strength or energy, he successfully aggravates the vices, without attaining the virtues of his master. What will a reader of claffical taste say to such examples as the following? The fame difpofition for (to) fociability prompted him (Ramfay) to count the society of clubs, during a clubical period." P. 9. "He found, in William Hamilton of Gilbertfield, a genius analogous to his own; who, having congenial propenfities, readily entered into a reciprocation of metrical epistles." P. 16. "The gentle shepherd could have been only produced by art co-operating with genius, in a moment propitious for (to) Shepherdish poetry." P. 34. "His wife, who died in 1743, seems to have passed to her grave without an elegy, because the lofs was too afflicting for loquacity to deplore." P. 48. But, after a while, he attracted, by his facility and naturalness, the notice of perfons of higher rank, and better taste" P. 15 This we fincerely hope will, in due time, be done also by our biographer; when he has feduloufly corrected the vile and disgusting affectation of which we complain; and when he has clearly seen, as we likewife truft he will fee, the folly of an attempt to bend the bow, without poffeffing the vigour, of Achilles. 66 In order to shew him, that we do not find fault with his style, in matters of taste merely, which, in some degree, must always be arbitrary, we will fubjoin a few instances of actual incorrectness, and want of grammar: and these, surely, must appear the more remarkable in a person, who professes so avowedly to tread in the footsteps * " Bauldly brag," we have good authority to believe was Ramfay's original reading, and not" blythly boaft," as it stands in this edition; an expreffion much more tame and unappropriate. of of, perhaps, the correctest writer in our language. " When the nobleft verfion of the Iliad appeared, Ramsay read it thrice over." P. 12. Among what versions is this the nobleft? Poffibly we might guess at the meaning of such a fentence: but either there is an aukward af fectation of a Latinism, which has never yet been naturalized; or else an ellipfis is implied, far more violent than can be tolerated in English. "This person must be distinguished from Hamilton of Bangour, a poet of a higher quality, who was also connected, by his good offices, with Ramfay." P. 17. A poet of "higher quality" may be faid, if the author means rank or eminence; but the noun " quality," with the indefinite article prefixed to it, is generally applied to fome peculiar property in an inanimate object: thus, we fay cloth, or paper, of a higher or fuperior quality. "The fame writer speaks of King James's Schort Treatise, as at once curious, though stupid." P. 25. It should have been written, at once curious and stupid. "Indi From the following inaccuracies, not of grammar, but of idiom, the biographer betrays his country, which we easily perceive to be North of the Tweed. "The learned minister (we suppose one of the authors of the statistical account of Scotland) who writes the account of Crawford-moor, claims no peculiar honour from the birth of Ramsay, in that mountainous district." P. 6. that is, learned clergyman ;-Minister is now seldom used in England in this unqualified sense, although it is found so applied in the prayer-book. In Scotland, we understand, that the practice is otherwise: but any Englishman who read the sentence, and faw no collateral circumstance tending to point out what description of minifter the author intended, might naturally mistake it for a minister of state. gent persons of the same shire." P. 9. that is, county. Shire, in the fame manner, is feldom, or never used in England, except in conjunction with the name of fome district: thus we say, Leicestershire, Yorkshire, &c. " After a while, the easy club, affecting great independence, resolved to adopt Scottish patrons, in place of English names." P. 10. It should have been instead of English names. This Scotticism is very common. A man came in the place of his father, may, however be faid in good English, when the expreffion is without a figure, and the definite article is prefixed. "Lady Wardlaw was buried in the family vault, within the church of Dumfermline." P-32. That is, in the church of Dumfermline. In Scotch proclamations we have had frequent occafion to observe this idiom. e. g. To all and fundry the magistrates within the shire of Edinburgh, &c. To these examples we were about to add a few more of this writer's misapplication of the prepofitions, a fault very common with his countrymen; but we fear our readers will be ready to cry out ohe! jam fatis est! We request, however, they would bear in mind, that correctness of expression, and precision of thinking are far more intimately connected, than most perfons, even writers by profeffion, are disposed to believe. It is on that account that we hold |