difloyalty or difaffection. If they give, it is with cold referve and curious enquiry; and when any pointed fuccefs or action of eclat calls for congratulation and praife, they beftow them in fparing and meafured terms, cr perhaps contraft them with fome coexiftent fubject of complaint. Hence the whigs have acquired the name of a four difcontented race, hating excellence and envious of good fortune. Certainly, to fet bounds to kindness, to damp the effufions of gratitude and affection, though it may be a necessary must always be an ungracious employment, and unfortunately this part of their duty is far the moft frequently called for. It is the nature of power to encrease by its own ftrength. Dangerous prerogatives may be eftablished by the progrefs of almost imperceptible conceflions, and perpetually to oppofe, as it muft fometimes feem for the very love of oppofition, appears neither liberal nor good-humoured. The feverer rela tive duties, whether in public or in private life, may force efteem, but they do not conciliate affection. Thus the real friends of the people are feldom their favourites; a whig gentleman is not a popular character. An Account of GLOUCESTERSHIRE: With a neat and accurate MAP of that County. GLOUCESTERSHIRE is bounded on the north by the counties of Hereford, Worcefter, and Warwick; on the east, by the latter county, Oxfordshire, and a small part of Berks; on the south, by Wilts and Somersetfhire; and, on the weft, by the counties of Hereford and Monmouth. From north-east to fouth-weft it is fixty-five miles in length, and twentyfix in breadth from east to west. It contains one city, (befide part of Bristol) twenty-feven market-towns, and 280 parishes. It is divided into hundreds, and fends eight members to parliament; namely, two for the county, and two each for Gloucester, Cirencester, and Tewkesbury. 13 Gloucestershire is divided into two unequal parts by the river Severn, which rifes in Montgomeryshire, and entering this county a little above Tewkesbury, and being joined by the current of the Avon, diffufes fertility over the spacious vale through which it flows. The lower part of its western boundary (remarkable for the picturefque fcenery of its borders) is formed by the Wye, which, reaching this county a little below Rofs in Herefordshire, feparates it, for the rest of its progrefs to the Severn, from the county of Monmouth. ་་ from Its fouth-western extremity is divid ed from Somerfetfhire by the Lower Avon, which, though unequal to the Warwickshire Avon in the beauty of its ftream, runs between more romantic banks, and forces its parage to the fea, through St. Vincent's rocks, below the city of Briftol. The tides from St. George's Channel, meeting with the powerful tides from the Atlantic, enter the mouths of the Severn and his tributary itreams with a rapid influx; and, rolling on with a lofty head, received from our earliest hif torians the name of the Hygra. Of these rivers, the Severn and the Wye abound with excellent falmon, which, by means of the flying coaches, find a ready passport to the markets of the metropolis.-The tide flows up the Severn as far as Tewkesbury, which, following the course of the river, is near feventy miles from the fea. Indeed, a little below Newnham this river resembles a sea. Gloucestershire is naturally divided into three longitudinal ftripes, or diftricts, which differ materially from each other. The eastern fripe, which is much the wideft, is called the Coteswold. This is a long tract of high ground, for the most part bleak and bare, yet affording in many places a fhort fine 3 K grafa The fides of this long range are extremely beautiful as they fink into the vale, from the hills of Stinchcomb and Nibley in the fouth, to that of Bredon in the north, which has been celebrated in ancient rhyme. The middle ftripe is the fpacious and extenfive vale bordering on the Severn, whofe fertile paftures furnish the kingdom with that cheese for which the county is juftly famous. This vale, communicating with that of Evesham of more contracted dimenfons, has received, for no affignable reason, the fame general title. The western, which is by much the fhorteft diftrict, is wholly varied with hill and dale and is chiefly occupied by the forest of Deane, once reckoned the chief fupport of the English navy, and which, it is faid, the Armada was exprefsly commiffioned to deftroy. It is now thinned by frequency of felling, and narrowed by increase of cultivation, though a few folitary deer ftill continue to run wild in its receffes. The ftaple commodities of this county are its woollen cloth and its cheese. At Durfley, Wotton, Painfwick, Minchin-Hampton, and the neighbourhood, white cloths are chiefly made for the army, and the Turkey and India trades, many of which are 1 dyed in London, but all in the piece. The Gloucestershire cheese has been reckoned the best which the kingdom thire, of which the comparative cheapproduces, unless we except the Che nefs may perhaps be confidered as a proof of the inferiority. In both these articles of trade the county is now fomewhat on the decline. Its cloth has been fuccefsfully rivalled in Yorkfhire, and its cheese in North Wiltfhire. Befide the ftaple commodities, the forefts of Deane and Kingfwood abound in mines of iron and coal; of which the coal is principally expended in the internal confumption of this and the neighbouring counties, and the iron is hammered out in numerous forges, and manufactured for many different purposes in some capital iron works. The vale and the foreft of Deane abound in orchards, which are fuppofed to occupy the place of ancient vineyards, and which annually produce great plenty of excellent cyder. The Styre, a kind in great esteem, is almoft peculiar to the western banks of the Severn. The bacon of this county is alfo in high reputation, and forms a confiderable article of its domeftic commerce. In this county are the rocks of St. Vincent, and the Hot Wells, both near Brifol. In the former are found thofe native cryftals fo well known under the name of Briftol ftones. The latter are warm fprings, of great purity, which have obtained a high reputation in the treatment of confumptive cases. Obfervations on the Style of the late Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON, with a Comparison between him and ADDISON. [From an Effay on his Life and Genius, by Arthur Murphy, Efq.] Tas Johnfon's great work. It the Spectators, the art of charming HE Rambler may be confidered to their merit. They had not, like was the bafis of that high reputation which went on increafing to the end of his days. The circulation of thofe periodical effays was not, at firft, equal by variety; and how could it be expected? The wits of queen Anne's reign fent their contributions to the Spectator; and Johnson stood alone. A kage. A ftage-coach, fays fir Richard Steele, must go forward on stated days, whether there are passengers or not. So it was with the Rambler, every Tuefday and Saturday, for two years. In this collection Johnson is the great moral teacher of his countrymen; his effays form a body of ethics; the obfervations on life and manners are acute and inftructive; and the papers, profeffedly critical, ferve to promote the cause of literature. It must however, be acknowledged, that a settled gloom hangs over the author's mind; and all the effays, except eight or ten, coming from the fame fountain head, no wonder that they have the racinefs of the foil from which they fprung. Of this uniformity Johnson was fenfible. He used to fay, that if he had joined a friend or two, who would have been able to intermix papers of a fprightly turn, the collection would have been more miscellaneous, and, by confequence, more agreeable to the generality of readers. It is remarkable, that the pomp of diction, which has been objected to Johnson, was first affumed in the Rambler. His Dictionary was going on at the fame time, and, in the course of that work, as he grew familiar with technical and fcholaftic words, he thought that the bulk of his readers were equally learned; or at least would admire the fplendour and dignity of the ftyle. And yet it is well known, that he praised in Cowley the ease and unaffected structure of the fentences. Cowley may be placed at the head of thofe who cultivated a clear and natural style. Dryden, Tillotson, and fir William Temple, followed. Addifon, Swift, and Pope, with more correctnefs, carried our language well nigh to perfection. Of Åddifon, Johnson was ufed to fay, He is the Raphael of Eflay Writers.' How he differed fo widely from fuch elegant models is a problem not to be folved, unless it be true that he took an early tincture from the writers of the last century, particularly fir Thomas Browne. Hence the peculiarities of his ftyle, new combinations, fentences of an unufual structure, and words derived from the learned languages. His own account of the matter is, 'When common words were lefs pleafing to the ear, or lefs diftinct in their fignification, I familiarized the terms of philofophy, by applying them to popular ideas.' But he forgot the obfervation of Dryden: If too many foreign words are poured in upon us, it looks as if they were defigned, not to affift the natives, but to conquer them.' There is, it must be admitted, a swell of language, often out of all proportion to the fentiment; but there is, in general, a fullness of mind, and the thought feems to expand with the found of the words. Determined to difcard colloquial barbarifms and licentious idioms, he forgot the elegant fimplicity that distinguishes the writings of Addison. He had what Locke calls a round-about view of his fubject ; and, though he was never tainted, like many modern wits, with the ambition of fhining in paradox, he may be fairly called an Original Thinker. His reading was extensive. He treafured in his mind whatever was worthy of notice, but he added to it from his own meditation. He collected, que reconderet, auctaque promeret. Addifon was not fo profound a thinker. He was born to write, converse, and live with eafe; and he found an early patron in lord Somers. He depended, however, more upon a fine taste, than the vigour of his mind. His Latin poetry fhews, that he relifhed, with a juft felection, all the refined and delicate beauties of the Roman claffics; and when he cultivated his native language, no wonder that he formed that graceful ftyle, which has been fo juftly admired: fimple, yet elegant; adorned, yet never overwrought; rich in allufion, yet pure and perfpicuous; correct, without labour, and, though sometimes deficient in strength, yet always musical. His effays, in general, are on the furface of life; if ever original, it was in 3 K 2 pieces |