reigning ecclefiaftical polity in the realm. Judging from what we have lately feen in a neighbouring country, we have reafon to believe, that the afcendency of one eftablished form of religion is the beft fecurity for preferving any religion at all; and that the beft fecurity for preferving fuch eftablished form, is to exclude, as we have hitherto done, from all influence in the ftate, thofe claffes of perfons, which are known to be unfriendly to the CHURCH."

We have been thus copious in our extracts, becaufe we feel, moft fenfibly, the extreme importance of the fubject, and the abfolute neceffity that it fhould be deeply confidered and rightly understood, by the public at large. Mr. Reeves has difcuffed it, with that perspicuity and ftrength of argument, that clofenefs of reasoning, and that weight of proofs which fo eminently characterize all his publications on legal and political topics.

Since the preceding remarks were compofed, this valuable tract has entered into a fecond Edition, to which the author has fubjoined fone judicious obfervations on three Pamphlets which have appeared in fupport of the Catholic claim; or, to speak more accurately, in fupport of the claim for the Catholics. Thefe we shall notice hereafter, and fhall only now exprefs our extreme fatisfaction at the rapid and extenfive circulation of fuch found principles, at a time when the infufion of them into the public mind is effential to the fafety of our venerable Eftablishments.

The Poems of Allan Ramfay.

(Continued from P. 150.)

F this performance juftice obliges us to declare, that we can fcarcely recollect to have peruted a specimen of biography more meagre as to matter, or more incorrect and vicious as to diction; with juft refemblance enough to Johnson, to remind us of the peculiarities of that powerful writer; but without one fymptom of his comprehenfion of thought, his difcrimination of character, or his vigour and elegance of ftyle. So much for our department as Literary Cenfors. As guardians of the morals of the age, and anxious, in particular, for thofe of the rising generation, we do not hesitate to fay, that our Biographer has laid himself open to ftill feverer reprehenfion, by bringing forward in fo attractive a form as the prefent publication, many pieces which we fincerely hoped had at length funk into oblivion, both on account of the dulnefs and licentioufnefs of their character. In juftification of thefe ftrictures we may be permitted to obferve; Firft, as to barrennefs 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 afpires to follow Johnfon as the model of his compofitions fhould never forget

what

what the great critic has faid of pretenders to excellence in a style of writing, which he himself had so fuccessfully cultivated.

"Biography," he obferves, "has often been allotted to writers, who feem very little acquainted with the nature of their tafk, or very negligent about the performance. They rarely afford any other account, than might be collected from public papers, but imagiae themfelves writing a life, when they exhibit a chronological feries of actions or preferments; and fo little do they regard the manners or behaviour of their heroes, that more knowledge may be gained of man's real character, by a fhort converfation with one of his fervants, than from a formal and ftudied 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 perfon, 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 poffibly have been dead two thousand years ago. Concerning the antients it too frequently happens, that obfcure notices only are to be gleaned from hiftorians or poets, from commentators or grammarians; while the recent hero, whether of war or literature, ftill continues to live in the recóllection of his friends, and may therefore be pourtrayed, by a fkilful artift, with that ftriking peculiarity, and warmth of colouring, which alone can give value to the biographical picture. In the prefent, cafe, when we confider, that Allan Ramfay the younger did not die till 1784; that his fon, the Lieut. Colonel, as well as lady Campbell his daughter, and Janet Ramfay, the aunt of both the last, are alive, we believe at this mo-ment; 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 reafon 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 compofitions, or illuftrative of the habits, of an eminent writer; and we ourselves have heard several, from the mouths of Ramfay's acquaintance, which, although eminently characteristic of the peculiarities of the poet, we yet look for in vain in the prefent account. As inftances in point, we fhall mention only two; but the authority, on which they are given, may be relied on as authentic.

By thofe beft acquainted with Ramfay it was generally believed, that, in his most popular pieces, he was indebted for affiftance to his literary friends, and, in particular, to Prefton, and the two Hamiltons, more than he was willing to allow. Prefton 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 Ramfay. Being more devoted to the celeftial fifters, than to the irksome habits of application and industry, he of courfe con

tinued poor, while his friend Allan gradually rofe 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 purfe-proud bookfeller; an occafion, on which the fame bookfeller delighted to play off all the airs and felf-fufficiency of the dignified patron of inferior merit. On one of thefe occafions it was, when Ramfay was boafting how much money he had got by his mufe, and was recommending to Prefton, in order to better his circumftances, to publifh, 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 fpot, the following verfes; which, though of no great merit in themfelves, 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 firft, though humble care;
Then foreign locks to curl, and dress the head,
To that fublime employment did fucceed.
At last, when ven'trous grown, the barber tame
Ufurp'd the wit's and poet's prouder name,
Verfes in fhoals, from hands as various flow'd,
As hairs from beards by his keen razor mow'd.
Yet, had he thefe compos'd, and not compil'd;
Had the true father own'd each righteous child;
Like other bards, he would have gain'd the bays,
But grafp'd, for folid pudding, empty praise.

It is neceffary to inform the mere English reader, that " righteous ;" in the Scottish dialect, fometimes is put for " rightful;" and that " to drefs the head," fignifies, not an operation of furgery, (although furgeons and barbers were antiently an affociated profeffion) but merely "to dress, or comb the hair."

To teaze his friends, and particularly his patrons, with copies of verfes, was also among the foibles of the poet. Burchet, who had exhausted his powers to extol Ramfay in verfe 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 compofed one of the well-known epigrams preferved in his works, and fent it to his friend, he was anfwered in a ftyle of no fmall afperity and coarfenefs by the fecretary 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 prefent of an Orange, from the Countess of Aboyne.
Now Priam's fon thou may'st be mute,

1

For I can bauldly brag* with thee:
Thou to the fairest gav'ft the fruit,
The faireft gave the fruit to me.

To this Burchet most uncourteously fent for anfwer:

As Juno chafte, as Venus kind,

She may have been who gave the fruit:

But had fhe 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 ftyle. Of all the imitators of the Johnfonian period the prefent writer feems to us to be one of the most unhappy. What Quintilians fay of the herd of Seneca's imitators may, with the fame juftice, be applied to him: "Placebat (Seneca) propter fola vitia; et ad ea fe quifque dirigebat effingenda quæ poterat.' Stiff and affected without elevation, and harsh and diffonant without ftrength or energy, he fuccefsfully aggravates the vices, without attaining the virtues of his mafter. What will a reader of claffical tafte fay to such examples as the following? The fame difpofition for (to) fociability prompted him (Ramfay) to count the fociety 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 epiftles." P. 16. "The gentle fhepherd 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, feems to have paffed to her grave without an elegy, becaufe 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 tafte" P. 15 This we fincerely hope will, in due time, be done alfo by our biographer; when he has feduloufly corrected the vile and difgufting affectation of which we complain; and when he has clearly feen, as we likewife truft he will fee, the folly of an attempt to bend the bow, without poffeffing the vigour, of Achilles.

In order to fhew him, that we do not find fault with his ftyle, in matters of tafte merely, which, in fome degree, must always be arbitrary, we will fubjoin a few inftances of actual incorrectness, and want of grammar and thefe, furely, muft appear the more remarkable in a perfon, who profefles fo 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 ftands in this edition; an expreffion much more tame and unappropriate.

of

of, perhaps, the corre left writer in our language. When the nobleft correcteft verfion of the Iliad appeared, Ramfay read it thrice over." P. 12. Among what verfions is this the nobleft? Poffibly we might gues at the meaning of fuch a sentence: but either there is an aukward affectation of a Latinifm, which has never yet been naturalized; or elfe an ellipfis is implied, far more violent than can be tolerated in English. "This perfon must be diftinguifhed from Hamilton of Bangour, a poet of a higher quality, who was alfo 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 fpeaks of King James's Schort Treatife, as at once curious, though ftupid." P. 25. It fhould have been written, at once curious and ftupid.

"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 minifier (we fuppofe 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 Ramfay, in that mountainous diftrict." P. 6.—that is, learned clergyman;--Minifter is now feldom ufed in England in this unqualified sense, although it is found fo applied in the prayer-book. In Scotland, we understand, that the practice is otherwife: but any Englishman who read the fentence, and faw no collateral circumftance tending to point out what defcription of minifter the author intended, might naturally mistake it for a minifter of ftate. gent perfons of the fame fire." P. 9. that is, county. Shire, in the fame manner, is feldom, or never ufed in England, except in conjunction with the name of fome diftrict: thus we fay, Leicesterfhire, Yorkshire, &c. " After a while, the eafy club, affecting great independence, refolved to adopt Scottish patrons, in place of English names." P. 10. P. 10. It fhould have been instead of English names. This Scotticifm 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." P32. That is, in the church of Dumfermline. In Scotch proclamations we have had frequent occafion to obferve this idiom. e. g. To all and fundry the magiftrates within the fhire of Edinburgh, &c. To thefe examples we were about to add a few more of this writer's mifapplication of the prepofitions, a fault very common with his countrymen; but we fear our readers will be ready to cry out ohe! jam fatis eft! We requeft, however, they would bear in mind, that correctness of expreffion, and precision of thinking are far more intimately connected, than moft perfons, even writers by profeffion, are difpofed to believe. It is on that account that we hold