and fo few were the diffentient voices, that it is not likely that we fhall ever fee the Parliament of Great Britain, on any question of importance, more unanimous. At the fame time, I am firmly perfuaded that they spoke the general fentiment of the people, bigb and low, rich and poor, one with another. But what fays our Reviewer? The answer to this letter was baughty, reproachful, and incompliant; inaccurate in expreffion, and inconclufive in reafoning. Rounded periods, Mr. Editor, are very pretty; but I am one of those who sometimes prefume to analyze them, and fmile at their fungous excrefcencies. Incompliant, to wit: what occafion for a term which adds no weight to the accufation, and was implied in what had been already faid? The latter part of the fentence feems to be as little neceffary. For though the critic makes a feeble but ineffectual effort, to thew that the reafoning of Lord Grenville's reply was not conclufive; the other part of his charge, inaccuracy of expreffion, he has not attempted to prove. We will, therefore, leave him to produce evidence in fupport of this cynical remark, and only take notice of what remains to be difcuffed, his unwarrantable affertion that the reply was baughty and reproachful. Now, Sir, when I confider that the answer returned has received fo fully the fanction of Parliament; when I confider that it certainly did not proceed from any fingle individual, but conveyed the sentiments of a King furrounded by as able a council as ever affifted in the management of a nation; I cannot but confider this as an unprecedented inftance of audacity and impertinence. Let us only compare the two perfons apparently conferring. Bonaparte, a prodigal in blood, treacherous and cruel; and our amiable Sovereign, to whose fuperior virtue even Bonaparte bears witness. Had no answer whatever been returned to the confular application, had the meffenger been difmiffed, as foon as he reached our fhores, with his packet unopened, I could not have faid, after the infult offered to our own ambaffador, that he had been haughtily treated. The natural abhorrence which a virtuous heart muft feel, at that total dereliction of feeling and even of common honefty, which has marked the steps of the ferocious Corfican, would have juftified our King in refufing any intercourfe with a character fo little to be confided in. If his epiftle was heard, and replied to, it was the utmost conceffion that could be made by any Prince who had a regard for religion and humanity. But if the reply was alfo temperate, manifeftly temperate, when compared with the overture which occafioned it, great must be the moderation and condefcenfion of thofe from whom it sprung. Is vice to be allowed to bolt her arguments? and is virtue to have no tongue to check her pride? If the fpeaks, is the to be bound to flatter only her antagonist? Does it not rather become her to diffemble nothing, to deal in plain truth, and to charge iniquity, even to its teeth and forebead? Away then with that tame fubmiffion to an enemy, and that infolent flander of our own caufe, which can deem it haughty and reproachful to reject conciliatory propofals from Belzebub. If Belzebub be a devil, it is not pride that tells him he is a devil a devil; nor undue reproach, that imputes war and the loss of heaven to him and his mifcreants. "Determined refiftance", the ufual cant of the advocates of the war, fays our fage Reviewer. And pray, Sir, is not this the ufual unmannerly language of Jacobinical petulance never in the wrong though fupported by nobody. As the ing, on the failure of the negociation at Lifle, declared himself ready to make peace at any time on the terms which he then offered, why should he not now fulfill that declaration ?" Such is the question of the Reviewer. Had the government of France remained in ftatu quo, this interrogation might have been allowed fome weight. But circumftances are altered, and by circumstances must every queftion of expediency be directed. Surely a King and his Minifters may be allowed to deem that unadviseable at one period, which was thought adviseable at another. Befides, let it be remembered, that our own overtures were (if the Critic pleases) baughtily rejected; nor has the enemy notified that he is willing to make them now the bafis of treaty. Our ambassador was infulted, and we have in confequence been stirred up to fuch formidable exertions as the exigence required. When the lion is roused, can he any longer be deemed a lion, if he is cajoled again into number? We have brought our arms to bear against the foe; and are we now to liften to his peccavi? God forbid that we should have no feeling for those who fall, and those who are crippled, by war. And yet, found policy, and found religion, will affuredly juftify the facrifice of a few, that the many may be more effectually preferved. Having power to correct an enemy, which has never difplayed moderation during its own exaltation, I can say nothing to arreft the fcourge which is lifted up for its chastisement. I fhall notice only one more obfervation of this fagacious politician, and leave him to his own meditations. "The Ruffian Sovereign," fays he, " in September laft, gave a teftimony of his zeal in the good caufe." This is another Jacobinical fneer, worthy of its author, who can allow no merit to Kings and Emperors. But ftrong as the antipathy of the Critical Reviewers is to every fpecies of monarchy, it seems, that there are dignities of which they speak no evil. Though the virtues of our own excellent King can extort from them no praise, they have much panegyric to fpare for the regicidal ufurpers of France. Out of their own mouth, Mr. Editor, will I judge them, by appealing to their critique on the Traité de Mécanique Célete of Laplace. "We have, in this work," say they," another remarkable inftance of the fuccefs with which the profound fciences are cultivated in France. Amidst all the convulfions of the ftate, the fciences continue to flourish, with a fplendor almost beyond example in any age or country. In all changes of government, the rulers, far from feeling the effects of the illumination of the human mind, have permitted, have encouraged, have even commanded, the cultivation of the fciences and arts, at once glorious to themselves, and useful to the world." Taking this to be, what the author certainly intended it should be, an an indirect compliment to the rulers of France: afcribing to them. the glory, of having not only encouraged but even commanded the cultivation of fcience, I fhall beg leave to oppofe it by the most incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. The Critical Reviewer will allow, that no author of modern France has done more to fupport the dignity of her prefs than Vaillant. His Oifeaux d'Afrique is unquestionably one of the most fuperb productions of this fuperb age. But what fays he of the encouragement he received from the government of his own country? Hear him, hear him. "As a reward for having devoted myself to the improvement of a fcience, which I believed to be yet in its infancy, I have received nothing but outrage, I have experienced nothing but injuftice and the infolence of those who had deceived me, bears marks of baseness and poltronery of which no private hiftory affords an example. I am not the first who has complained of the unreafonableness and perfidy of mankind; but, doubtlefs, I fhall be the laft, who, compelled to keep fecret a truly base impofition and a robbery the most manifeft, finds himself under the cruel neceffity of not daring to complain, without confufion to himself, and without ftigmatizing the man who has endeavoured fo publickly to injure him. They who are in power have invited, have careffed, and have flattered me. I will not diffemble, that I depended upon their favour. The reafons which feemed to ensure it were found and juft. I complained with propriety of having facrificed my fortune, and the prime of my youth, to the improvement of a science till then advanced no farther than theory, and which rested on little experience. I controverted, it is true, the moft brilliant fpeculative writers, and the laboured conclufions of the closet, which no one ever affected to have produced with lofs to himself; but I came with my vouchers in my hand. I opened alfo a cabinet of natural hiftory; I there depofited the many fpecies, which I had procured at the distance of four thousand leagues from Paris. The whole of that city, and all the foreigners it contained, had an opportunity of judging of my labours, and of comparing my obfervations with obfervations long fince eftablithed, in the midst of my numerous collection of birds. More than five hundred fpecies, either new or improperly defcribed, bore teftimony in oppofition to ignorance or mifreprefentation: one or the other of which I conftantly excited. After the lapfe of ten years, they have not left me to myself. I have reaped no other reward for my fatigues, for my endeavours and my expences, than the honour of being conftantly attacked; and I have not failed to find them ever in my way, when it was in their power to injure me, directly or indirectly." "In the mean time, that revolution, which, fay they, reftores every thing and every person to his proper place, was not yet fo far matured, that the government, adopting the only method which could be convenient to us both, was inclined to reimburse me my expences. It was, however, already agreed, that my col lection lection fhould be depofited in the Museum of Natural History, and that it fhould advance to me fixty thousand livres, over and above a penfion which hould be fettled on me, under the express denomination of an indemnity. It was at this moment that the earliest efforts of liberty made their appearance. Giving way with tranfport to the first ftruggles of this child of nature, I forgot inftantly my individual interest, that I might think only of the general welfare and I poftponed to future times the care of my own fate, which was entirely fuperfeded till that period fhould arrive. At the time of the Constituent Affembly, the government appeared for a moment to be defirous of fulfilling, on my account, the above engagements: but having an infurmountable antipathy to folicitations, and having, above all, none of thofe powerful friends, who are neceffary to thofe who with to fucceed, I was presently forgotten. The Legislative Affembly fprung up in its turn, and was upon the point of making good the arrears of equitable indemnity: but the Legislative Affembly was equally inclined to flumber in its juftice. At length, the National Convention, endued with fuperior power and dispatch, feemed to undertake to repair the wrongs which I had hitherto fuftained. The majority of the members of the committee of public inftruction vifited my cabinet; commiffioners were appointed to infpect it: the temporary commiffion of arts was itfelf employed in the management of this. bufinefs: the citizens Richard and Lamark made a report on the fubject: in a word, no means whatever of taking poffeffion of the only riches I had obtained in the world were neglected. But affairs, more important no doubt, made them entirely forget my caufe. Having written a letter to the committee, to bring it again to their recollection, they began to speak of caufing an eftimate to be made of my cabinet. What! efimate one by one the feveral fpecimens of a collection, which had coft me thirty years labour, of which five were spent in traverfing the burning deferts of Africa, and for which I did not afk the twentieth part of their value! for, notwithstanding the lapfe of time and the difference of my need, the fum offered in 1789, was the fame which I afterwards afked of government in 1795. To be brief, this fum, notwithstanding its fmallne's, is ftill detained in the national coffers, and my cabinet continues in my own poffeffion; from whence it will probably pafs into the hands of fome foreigner, or be difperfed abroad, fince my circumftances do not leave it in my power to preferve it any longer." "Hopes of another kind, however, occupy me at prefent altcgether, and, perhaps, will make me forget injuries fo long protracted. Given up entirely to thofe attentions which my ornithology requires, I am happy not to fee in the series of national curiofities, the humble but rare tribute which I came to offer to my country. I will give thefe my birds to all Europe. I have multiplied prints of them painted to the life, and as faithfully defcribed: they will be to amateurs and to connoiffeurs a very valuable prefent: they will be able to confult and to refer to them åt at all times: the originals will depart in vain from France, no poffible occurren e will be able to affect them: every purpose of my ornithology is accomplished." Sech, Mr. Editor, is the encouragement given to one of the most ingenious and indefatigable men of the age, by thofe Gallic rulers, with whom the Critical Reviewer feems to be so much delighted. I make no comment, but leave your readers to draw their own conclufions, and am, truly,. VESTER ET ACADEMICUS. SIR, YOU ART. XXVI. TO THE EDITOR. YOU do but an act of juftice to injured authors, in allowing room for their friends to come forward in their favour, and to vindicate their character before the public. This is peculiarly an act of juftice againft fuch writers as the Critical or the Monthly Reviewers. These are often actuated by the mere spirit of Prefbyterianifm, to affault the churchman, to abuse the divine, and to vilify the orthodox. But they occafionally infult where they a&t from no principle; and write with malevolence, from mere ignorance. To vindicate the former, indeed, is the grand defign of this department in your Review; but a fubordinate one is often neceffary, in humanity, to vindicate the latter too. For fuch an office of humanity, I now claim a corner in your department, that I may do juftice to an author whom I have been very recently reading; and repay him in fome measure for the fatisfaction which he has given me, by doing that for him which he difdains (I fuppofe) to do for himself. The hiftory of the Anglo-Saxons, from their first appearance above the Elbe, to the death of Egbert, with a map of their ancient territories, by Sh. Turner," is written by one, of whom I know nothing, either perfonal or by letter, but whom, from the want of all additions to his name, I fuppofe to be of no profeffion. From a hint, indeed, of his preface, that "his work" is merely the child of leisure hours," and therefore "could receive only an attention occafional and interrupted," I believe him to be engaged in trade. And from the humility with which he writes in his preface, hoping only, "like an humble valet, to ferve up thofe circumftantial minutiæ which the commanding minds" of others "have difdained to accumulate;" when ftill more, from what he says, he feels for the public, "fenfations of the most anxious awe," "while "his ground trembles beneath him;" he appears a writer, in his first publication, very folicitous about his reception in the world, and peculiarly alive, therefore, to fuch cenfures as the Crititical Reviewers have thrown out against him. For these reasons I interpose betwixt thofe Reviewers and him, and shall endeavour to repel the weapons which they have discharged at him. Mr. Turner's remarks on the paffage in Gildas, which he adduces, in r. 104, prefents (fays the Reviewers) "a curious inftance of falfe criticism." In what, then, does the falfity of this criticitm |