in the country, certainly have little claim to any profit from the patrimony of the Church. Instances are not unfrequent of gentlemen poffeffing very confiderable estates, clearing 8001. or 10001. per annum by long leafes of tithes; while the meritorious but unfortunate Vicar with the utmost difficulty supports his family, and maintains hofpitality, on an income perhaps not exceeding 1001. or 2001. a year. My opinion, Mr. Urban, is, that in all cafes, the Resident Incumbents hould have an offer of a lease of the great tithes, either for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years, as may be most agreeable to the patrons. Thus both parties would be benefited: the Proprietors of the great tithes would increase their revenue, and the flender falary of the Vicar would receive a confiderable augmentation. I am aware that one objection would be raised; the Clergy are generally in narrow circumftances. But, to obviate this difficulty, the Vicar to whom the tithes are to be let on lease, should be obliged to find two securities of 500l. each, or to pay a year in advance; by this plan the patrons could not fuftain any injury, and the condition of the inferior Clergy would be much ameliorated. I suggest these hints, which perfons better acquainted with the fubject may improve at their leisure. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, THE remarks of A LAYMAN. Νου. 10, 1807. your Correspondent S. (vol. LXXVII. p.831) would have been just, had Hector returned his boy to the Nurse; but he returned him to his Wife, and not a word is faid by Homer about fondly gazing on her charms. "Thus Hector fpoke, and then return'd the boy; [five joy His Wife with smiles and tears and penReceiv'd the child upon her fragrant breaft, At once delighted, melted, and distress'dGreat Hector's foul was mov'd, her hand he took, And thus in sympathetic words he spoke, My best belov'd, endeavour to controul The undue feelings of thy troubled foul." A. B. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, Nov. 11, 1807. CORRESPONDENT defires to A know, whether it was Homer or Pope that was napping in the quotation which he has adduced. I have a fac fimile of Pope's handwriting traced from the original manufcript trantlation at the British Mu IT is merely from a regard to that IT decorum which is effential to the very existence of civilization in fociety, that I flep out of my way to make a few observations on a paper which stands sentry, as it were, at the head of your Magazine for last month, and, like the Dragon of the Hesperian gardens, seems determined to arrest our course towards the instructive seast which you every month prepare for us. It is doubtless no small comfort to your Correspondent to know, that it would be utterly impossible to detail the very extraordinary, and to him confounding, history of the Claim in that Publication into which he has fcrewed his invective. The utmost that can be done there is, to answer, where we can discover diftinctness, his diftinct obfervations. Let us attempt it. He tells us, in the first place, that the late Claimant was "tainted by the fillieft fort of pride, which rendered him an eafy prey to the artifices of others, * The words in hooks are punged, and fondly and on her inferted. and 1 and fuffered him at last to be seduced into the adoption of a measure," &c. (meaning the inftitution of the Claim); and "that the Claimaint's indignation ought to have been applied against thote who had made him their stalking-horse, &c." Now on this I will observe, that what he here advances is scarcely possible. For the Claim was inftituted, as I have always understood, under the immediate auspices, and for fix years carried on with the co-operation of a Herald (whose well-known modetty I will not offend by naming him), who, though (as appears by the peculiar line of practice which he prefers in his profeffion) a pretty constant encourager of what your Correfpondent calls the filliest fort of pride, undoubtedly would have instantly and honourably disclosed to the Claimant that folly, or fallacy, which his experience and ingenuity, aided by the Claimant's implicit confidence, could not have failed to detect. Sudeley must mean then, I suppose, to charge that perfon with undue artifices, and with making the late Claimant his stalking-horse; and thus he himself furnishes us with the first proof of his ignorance of a most important circumstance in the history of the cafe. He has contrived to couple, in very few lines of the next paragraph, a grofs mifrepresentation with a very mischievous equivocation; for he there tells us (and afterwards repeats it again and again) that the article in p. 989, relating to the death of the late Claimant, imputes the most " infamous and diabolical motives to the perfons who have been indecently called Opponents, whether appearing at the Bar of the House of Lords as the great Law Officers of the Crown, or in the more humble, but not less respectable, character of Heralds." Not to dwell for a moment on the abfurdity of imputing indecency to him who may give the very natural name of Opponents to those who oppose, or on the concluding member of the sentence, which, strictly construed, makes the same identical persons alternately great Law Officers of the Crown and humble Heralds, I will appeal to every man who has read that article in your Obituary, whether a single word is to be found, from which the utmost ingenuity of misconstruction could infer even a hint of reflection on any of the great Law Officers of the Crown. Here is the misrepresentation; now for the equivocation.. It is convenient to his purpose to speak plurally of Heralds. Does he mean to say that the Heralds were unanimous in oppofing the Claim in question? or that a majority of them opposed it? Does he mean to say even that more than one of them opposed it? If he means to say either, he means to deceive your readers. The fact is, that the very Herald who, as I have faid before, originally undertook the conduct of the Claim, and did conduct it for fix years, afterwards became its most zealous, bufy, and indefatigable Opponent; and that no other Herald ever did oppose it: among the rest, some warmly espoused it, and others were indifferent. I mention these circumstances, not only to expose in this instance that want of candour which disgraces equally every part of your correspondent's letter, but in order to obtain juftice to these faid Heralds, who have been thus, I dare say unwillingly, dragged into fuch confpicuity. If the opposition of the one individual anong them who did oppose the Claim were laudable, to him be allotted the whole praise; if it were blaineable, his brethren in office ought not to share the obloquy. In the conclusion of his letter he quits his profound ambiguity, and deviates into fomewhat like meaning. Here, therefore, he may be shortly and easily answered. It confists in two points: Firft, In charging the present Representative of the late Claimant's family with abusing somebody. Secondly, In charging somebody with illicit practices as to various evidence touching the claim. As to the first, I have already, faid that I believe not even the flightest breath of complaint on the fubject has ever been uttered by any one againft the Law Officers of the Crown, or against any of the Heralds, one only excepted. On this point I positively deny your Correspondent. Let him tell us then who the perfon or perfons are on whose behalf he has thus boldly, and permit me to fay rashly, thrown down his gauntlet? As to the second, it refutes itself. That high Court of Judicature which by its vote of June 13, 1803 *, fufpended the claim to the Barony, has too much reverence for its own ex * See Gent. Mag. vol. LXXVII. p. 958. alted alted and important functions, and too It is a fubject of national importance; keen a jealousy of its own Privileges, and the discovery is certainly a most to fuffer fuch practices as he prefumes valuable one, as it has been the means to fpeak of, to pass with impunity. of faving the lives of many thousands That House would have stamped the of our fellow-creatures. From this cafe with the feverest and most public extract then, I think it will clearly apcensure. It would have difinified the pear, that Admiral Graves is the origiClaimant and his Family not only from nal Inventor of the Life-boat; as the its prefence, but from society. How Boat described here, and the prefent widely different was the cafe! In a Life-boat, agree in every respect, exdivifion of the Committee, confifiing of cept the gunwales being of cork in the twenty-two Peers, seven voted that the latter, whilst in the former ox-hides Claimant had established his cafe; and were used. The reason they were, may he quitted the House perhaps more be, that they were easier procured than overwhelmed by the kindness of their cork, as Admiral Graves, perhaps, condolence, than by his temporary dif- might have the idea of cork alfo. appointment. In what meafure the two Princes of the Blood, and the other Peers who composed that minority of seven, are obliged to your Correfpondent for his opinions, I leave him to judge. I have scarcely another word to fay. The Author has tagged his paper with strange and mighty threats, of marvellous matters, which he tells you he can disclose, "without travelling much out of that direct path which the printed evidence has marked out for him." But tell him, if you have any regard for him, that he will find fuch travels dangerous. Tell him too, that it is ufual for honeft and honourable men, either openly to produce facts which may throw any light on cases fub judice, or to remain filent. Tell him, that however Englishmen may be licensed by custom to write freely, under feigned appellations, of public men and public meafures, that there are few Englishmen so base and mean-spirited as to attack private characters under a mask. Tell him, above all, that the partial history of this memorable case which happens to be fiored up in the scanty library of his mind, or rather of his fancy, is not the only one extant; and that, if he should think fit to offer his to the publick, another may make its appearance, which will clear away falfebood, and substitute truth. In order however to obtain that diftinction, he must, in the first place, condescend to adorn his page with his real name. Yours, &c. DETECTOR. tary Memoirs," a most interesting and valuable work, will, I think, tend to convince the world who the first and original Inventor of the Life-bout was. Yours, &c. N. R. "Vice-Admiral Graves had observed, that the sharp construction and great quantity of water of the men-of-war boats, rendered them very unfit for the neceffary and frequent fervice of going up the narrow creeks which abound in the vicinity of Borton [in America]. As these creeks were in many places so narrow as not to admit of their turning, and so shallow as to endanger their taking the ground, it was often hardly practicable for them to retreat; and both the boats and their crews were in danger of falling into the enemy's hands. To obviate these disadvantages, he invented a Boat of a particular construction, which was 36 feet in length, 12 in breadth, and fo formed as to row with either end foremoft. Having the greatest draught of water in the middle, and from thence gradually shallowing towards the extremities by means of her curved keel, she was admirably formed for moving quickly forward or backward, without the neceffity of winding round. Thus the could in all cafes approach the shore, or make off from it, with equal ease and speed, as occafion should require. Her peculiar conftruction facilitated even her turning when there was room. She mounted a four-pounder at each end, had eight swivels upon the fides, rowed with 20 oars, carried 75 men, and when armed and accoutered with a week's provifions of all kinds complete, drew only nine or ten inches of water at moft. She was fteered with an oar in a grumet, and would out-row the fleetest of the Navy barges. If she should happen to run aground, in the eagerness of purfuit, or in the night, the rowers had only to face about, on their present seats, or upon the next thwarts, to pull in the contrary direction, and the went off in a moment. Each bow was secured by a mantlet of ox-hides, and proof againft mufquetry, and the piece of ordnance, by moving in a groove, could be placed in any direction." Beatfon's Memoirs, 1775, vol. IV. p. 84. By |