ter confers on the fociety. Whatever laudable motive introduced the ceremony, no man of fenfibility could be prefent in Lincoln's Inn hall, when the honorable Mr. Yorke, on whom devolved the honor of making the complimentary speech to the new lord chief juftice, and of prefen ing [prefented] him with a votive offering of a purfe of gold, in the name of the fociety, without being forcibly ftruck with the favorable impreffion, that he was the worthy son of the great lord Hardwicke. A fair occafion this for Mr. Murray to retaliate, who elegantly admitted and avowed, that laudatus à laudato viro made unmerited praise itself pleafing. The substance of this elegant reply, delivered with the greatest grace, ease, and per- . fpicuity, was:

"I am too fenfible, fir, of my being undeferving of the praises which you have fo elegantly bestowed upon me, to suffer commendations fo delicate as yours, to infinuate themfelves into my mind; but I have pleasure in that kind partiality which is the occafion of them to deserve such praises is a worthy object of ambition; and from fuch a tongue flattery itself is pleafing.

"If I have had in any measure fuccefs in my profeffion, it is owing to the great man, who has prefided in our highest courts of judicature the whole time I attended the bar. It was impoffible to attend him, to fit under him every day, without catching fome beams from his light. [In this place he enumerated lord Hardwicke's particular excellences, and then went on.] The difciples of Socrates, whom I will take the liberty to call the great lawyer of antiquity, fince the first principles of all law are derived from his philofophy, owe their reputation to your having been the reporter of the fayings of their master. If we can arrogate nothing to ourselves, we may boast the school we were brought up in; the scholar may glory in his master, and we may challenge paft ages to fhew us his equal.

"My lord Bacon had the fame extent of thought, and the fame ftrength of language and expreffion; but his life had a ftain.

"My lord Clarendon had the fame abilities, and the fame zeal for the constitution of his country; but the civil war prevented his laying deep the foundations of law; and the avocations of politics interrupted the bufinefs of the chancellor.

"My lord Somers came the nearest to his character; but 'his time was fhort, and envy and faction fullied the luftre of his glory. "It is the peculiar felicity of the great man I am fpeaking of, to have prefided very near twenty years, and to have thone with a fplendor that has rifen fuperior to faction, and that has fubdued envy.

"I did not intend to have faid, I should not have faid fo much upon this occafion, but that, in this fituation, with all that hear me, what I fay muft carry the weight of teftimony rather than appear the voice of panegyric.

For you, fir, you have given great pledges to your country;

and, large as the expectations of the public are concerning you, I dare fay you will answer them.

"For the fociety, I fhall always think myself honored by every mark of their esteem, affection, and friendfhip; and fhall defire the continuance of it no longer than while I remain zealous for the conftitution of this country, and a friend to the interests of virtue." P. 104.

This reply must be admired as an elegant, grateful, and difcriminating panegyric on a character of the highest luftre in the annals of British jurifprudence.

The factious virulence that afperfed lord Mansfield as a politician, did not fuffer him to efcape without cenfure as a magiftrate; but the wisdom, integrity, and dignity of his judicial conduct, eafily repelled the venomous fhafts of party invective; and a lefs agitated public now feels the admiration due to a character which the keen and elegant fcandal of a Junius would have confecrated to infamy.

We shall now present our readers with our author's account of lord Mansfield's retirement from the high and arduous duties of the bench.

He retired in 1788 from the diftinguished office of lord chief juftice of the King's Bench, which he had held more than thirty years with a reputation and fplendor unrivalled.

The very affectionate and pathetic address from the bar, figned by the counfel who had practifed in the court of King's Bench during fome part of the period of his prefiding there, which was tranfmitted to him at Kenwood by Mr. Erskine, on his lordship's refignation of the high office of chief juftice, was to the following effect:

"My lord,

"It was our wish to have waited perfonally upon your lordship in a body, to have taken our public leave of you, on your retiring from the office of chief justice of England; but, judging of your lordship's feelings upon fuch an occafion by our own, and confidering befides, that our numbers might be inconvenient, we defire in this manner affectionately to affure your lordship, that we regret, with a juft fenfibility, the lofs of a magiftrate, whofe confpicuous and exalted talents conferred dignity upon the profeffion; whofe enlightened and regular administration of juftice made its duties lefs difficult and laborious, and whofe manners rendered them pleasant and refpectable,

"But, while we lament our lofs, we remember, with peculiar fatisfaction, that your lordship is not cut off from us by the fudden ftroke of painful diftemper, or the more diftreffing ebb of thofe ex-traordinary faculties which have fo long distinguished you amongst men; but, that it has pleafed God to allow to the evening of an feful and illuftrious life, the pureft en oyments which nature has

ever allotted to it. The unclouded reflections of a fuperior and unfading mind over its varied events, and the happy confcioufnefs, that it hath been faithfully and eminently devoted to the highest duties of human fociety, in the most distinguished nation upon earth. May the feafon of this high fatisfaction bear its proportion to the lengthened days of your activity and strength!"

'To which address lord Mansfield, without detaining the fervant five minutes, returned the following answer:

"Dear Sir,

"I cannot but be extremely flattered by the letter which I this moment have the honor to receive. If I have given satisfaction, it is owing to the learning and candor of the bar. The liberality and integrity of their practice freed the judicial investigation of truth and justice from many difficulties. The memory of the affistance I have received from them, and the deep impreffion which the extraordinary mark they have now given me of their approbation and affection, has made upon my mind, will be a fource of perpetual confolation in my decline of life, under the preffure of bodily infirmities, which made it my duty to retire.

"I am, fir, with gratitude to you, and the other gentlemen, "Your most affectionate and obliged humble fervant, "Kenwood, June 15, 1788. MANSFIELD." P. 461.

In a few years after his refignation, this illuftrious man paid the debt of nature. Mr. Holliday thus relates the circumstances of his diffolution.

Early in March 1793, lord Stormont, having occafion to confult his uncle on a law-cafe then depending in the house of lords, faid his ideas and recollection were perfectly clear.

'On Sunday, March the 10th, his lordship did not talk at breakfaft as ufual, but feemed heavy, and complained of being very fleepy, and his pulfe was low; volatiles and cordials were ordered for him, and cantharides were applied to his iffues. On the Monday he seemed rather better. On Tuesday morning he defired to be got up and taken to his chair; but foon wished to be put to bed again, and said, "Let me fleep-let me fleep." After this he never spoke. On his return to bed he seemed perfectly eafy, breathed freely and uninterruptedly like a child, with as calm and ferene a countenance as in his best health, and had a good pulse, but was clearly void both of fenfe and fenfibility. A blifter was applied to the arm, which it affected no more than it would any inanimate fubftance. Scotch fnuff was inferted into the noftrils by means of a feather, without the least effect. Some attempts were also made to get nourishment down by means of a spoon, but to no purpofe; and as the laft attempt had nearly choaked him, it was defifted from, and his mouth was afterwards merely moistened by a feather dipt in wine and water. In this ftate his lordship continued

without any apparent alteration, fome fymptoms of the spark vital remaining, yet glimmering faintly, till the morning of Monday the 18th, when there was an appearance of mortification on the part most preffed by lying, and his pulfe began to beat feebly. Fears were now entertained that he should awake to misery, which he fortunately did not; but continued to fleep quietly till the night of Wednesday the 20th, when the lingering dying taper was quite extinguifhed. He expired, without a groan, in the 89th year of his age; clofing a long life of honor to himself, and great ufe to fociety, in a way the most to be defired and it may be faid of his lordship, as it was of king David, that he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour.' P. 478.

The greater part of this volume is occupied with details of various caufes decided by lord Mansfield in his judicial capacity. Many of them are unquestionably important; but they are principally extracted from printed law reports, and receive no novelty of illuftration from the pen of Mr. Holliday. It may, perhaps, be thought that we treat that gentleman with too much feverity: but the biography of lord Mansfield was a ferious undertaking; and Mr. Holliday has made it a mere thing of fhreds and patches. It is no excufe for this very feeble. attempt, that no other had been made: - better is it that the graceful and intelligent features of the deceafed earl should be preferved in the memory of thofe only who faw and knew him, than that a daubing pretender to art fhould alone have attempted to pourtray them; better that the profeffional character of the juridical fage fhould be fought by pofterity in law books and newspapers, than that his life had been thus written.

The Works of Alexander Pope, Efq. With Notes and Illuftrations by Jofeph Warton, D. D. and others. 9 Fols. 8vo. 31. 125. Boards. Robinfons. 1797.

THE notes of bifhop Warburton on the works of Pope not having met with general approbation, new comments and annotations were long defired by the public. That with is now gratified by a critic of ability and reputation.

Dr. Warton accufes his critical predeceffor of having difgraced his edition of the works of his friend with many 'forced and far-fought interpretations, totally unfupported by the paffages which they were brought to elucidate.' The bishop, indeed, was fo eager to difplay his fagacity, that he frequently overfhot the mark, and pretended to difcover meanings and allufions of which Pope did not dream.

A new account of the poet's life is introduced. It is loofcly and digreffively written; but the critical obfervations which it contains are, for the most part, juft.

The literary character of Pope is thus delineated:

The vigour, force, and activity of his mind were almoft unparalleled. His whole life, and every hour of it, in sickness and in health, was devoted folely, and with unremitting diligence, to cultivate that one art in which he had determined to excel. Many other poets have been unavoidably immersed in business, in wars, in politics, and diverted from their favourite bias and pursuits. Of Pope it might truly and folely be said, Verfus amat, hoc ftudet unum. His whole thoughts, time, and talents were spent on his works alone which works, if we difpaffionately and carefully review, we fhall find, that the largest portion of them, for he attempted nothing of the epic or dramatic, is of the didactic, moral, and fatiric kind; and, confequently, not of the most poetic species of poetry. There is nothing in fo fublime a ftyle as the bard of Gray. This is a matter of fact, not of reafoning; and means to point out, what Pope has actually done, not what, if he had pat out his full ftrength, he was capable of doing. No man can poffibly think, or can hint, that the author of the Rape of the Lock, and the Eloifa, wanted imagination, or fenfibility, or pathetic; but he certainly did not fo often indulge and exert those talents, nor give fo many proofs of them, as he did of strong fenfe and judgment. This turn of mind led him to admire French models; he studied Boileau attentively; formed himself upon him, as Milton formed himself upon the Grecian and Italian fons of fancy. He ftuck to defcribing modern manners; but thefe manners, because they are familiar, uniform, artificial, and pol.fhed, are, for thefe four reafons, in their very nature unfit for any lofty effort of the Mufe. He gradually became one of the most correct, even, and exact poets that ever wrote; but yet with force and fpirit, finifhing his pieces with a patience, a care, and af duty, that no bufinefs nor avocation ever interrupted; fo that if he does not frequently ravifh and tranfport his reader, like his master Dryden, yet he does not so often difguft him, like Dryden, with unexpected inequalities and abfurd improprieties. He is never above or below his fubject. Whatever poetical enthufiafm he actually poffeffed, he with-held and fuppreffed. The perufal of him, in most of his pieces, affects not our minds with fuch strong emotions as we feel from Homer and Milton; fo that no man, of a true poetical fpirit, is mafter of himfelf while he reads them. Hence he is a writer fit for univerfal perufal, and of general utility; adapted to all ages and all ftations; for the old and for the young; the man of business and the scholar. He who would think, and there are many fuch, the Fairy Queen, Palamon and Arcite, the Tempest, or Comus, childish and romantic, may relish Pope. Surely it is no narrow, nor invidious, nor niggardly encomium to fay, he is the great poet of reafon; the first of ethical authors in verfe; which he was by choice, not neceffity. And this fpecies of writing is, after all, the fureft road to an extenfive and jimmediate reputation. It lies more level to the general.capacities