"Unfavourable as the prefent times are to Unitarians and Diffen ers, they may change in our favour, and even in a fhort space. Events are powerful and fpeedy inftructors, and produce important changes in the fenti ments of whole nations, as we have lately feen both in America and in France. This is an age of Revolutions; and should teach the

High Church party in this country not info

lence but moderation At all events, men fhould do justice, whatever their future fituation may be; and it is only juftice that the Diffenters of Birmingham afk of their countrymen. But they have not yet found it, except with regard to the demolition of the new meeting-houfe; though all damages done to rioters should be moft amply repaid by the fociety which is conftituted for the very purpose of preventing or redressing the wrongs of individuals. It is notorious that the courts of law have by no means given us complete indemnification. We truft, how. ever, there is still fo much juftice in the nation that our reprefentatives will, on cooler reflection, do for us what was done for the fufferers by the riots in 1787, and punish thofe who may be proved to have been chargeable with a neglect of duty" (pp. xxi.)

"As yet this country has but an imperfect idea of the magnitude and extent of this mischief In due time I hope that all the world will have an opportunity of feeing it; and let our enemies indulge themselves in the contemplation of it, if they feel themfelves fo difpofed. I hope it will be the laft gratification that they will have of the kind. Indeed, their wrath is as great as if they knew that their time suas fhort (Rev. xii. 12). Their violence will only precipitate their run. Their beft policy would be moderation, and a hearty concurrence in the repeal of the impolitic Corporation and Test A&s, which I hope no Diffenter will ever trouble the country with petitioning the country for any more. I never propofed any application to the Legislature for that purpefe; and I truft all the Dateners

will now feel as Paul did when he had been unjustly imprisoned. Let the country do away its own difgrace, and provide for its own greater fecurity by doing us juftice" (pp. xiv, xv).

gates of the Diffenters in England to the Sufferers in the Riot at Birmingham, figned E. Jefferies, and the Anfwer by the Sufferers-Account of the Alarm and Lofs of Mr. Carpenter, of Woodlow, in a letter from his brother-and an account of the High Church spirit which has long prevailed at Stourbridge.

25. The Hiftory and Antiquities of Nafeby, in the County of Northampton. By the Rev. John Maftin, Vicar of Naseby.

"NASEBY, on feveral accounts, is very ductions are various and pleafing. It affords confpicuous in hiftory; and its natural proto a contemplative mind recreations fubftantial and inftructives and acts its part in the demonftration of a God. In botany it ́excels, producing a plant not to be found in any other part of this island. Its fofils, fprings, peat-earth, &c. are of no fmall note, having attached the attention of a very eminent writer +.-The searching into the antiquities and hiftorical records of my place of refidence was at first intended only to gratify my own curiofity; but, upon investigating fome circumstances that afforded me more information than was expected, I prefume to fubmit the following fheets, with all their imperfections about them, to the candour of my numerous and most respectable fubfcribers." Preface.

Such is Mr. Maftin's account of his fubject, and his motives for handling it, which he has done in a very fatisfactory

manner.

The parish is one large common field, 20 miles round, and near 6000 acres, on an elevated fituation, fuppofed to be the highest ground in England, from which three rivers iffue, and from which 40 churches may be feen in a clear day, and inftances of longevity are very frequent. Scarcely a recollection of the battle which determined the fate of the royal caufe here, 1645, remains. A particular detail of it is given from Sprigge; and a plan of it is prefixed.

* Qu. deputies? Who thefe deputies and delegates are we know not, but the fignature we know. If fuch an addrefs was fent to us (which we really do not recolle), it was probably laid on the shelf, among the innumerable articles of a like kind (we may fafely add, and many more of cenfure on the

actually have printed; and even to himself, whether any article that he or any of his intimate friends ever fent us, authenticated by a fignature, has been difregarded. EDIT.

*Genifta humifufa. Nova. ang. A. This plant was never found in England before, and was firft difcovered by Mr. Dickfon, 1788." "The Rev. Mr. Morton.” "Avon, Nen, and Ifebrooke,"

26. An Account of the Seals of the Kings, Royal Burgbs, and Magnates of Scotland. By Thomas Aitle, Efq. F.R.S. and F.S.A. one of the Curators of the British Museum, and Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London. With Five Plates. fol.

THIS work, which is nothing more nor lefs than a part of the third volume of the Vetufta Monumenta of the Society of Antiquaries, the plates being number ed XXVI-XXX. of that occafional collection, as well as for feparate publication, would not have fallen under our review had it not been noticed by fome of our

brethren before the Society themfelves had declared it publici juris, and offered it to public fale with a price affixed. However interefling and laudable the plan may be, when we compare it to a fimilar but lefs arranged fet of plates, published in the first volume of the fame collection, and engraved by that able artist Mr. Vertue, we cannot be fo lavish in our commendations of its execution. Far be it from us to depicciate the skill of the Engraver, who has talents equal to the task; we will rather fufpect

that his talents have been checked, or that this is a precipitate exertion of them, unworthy the liberality of a public body, poffeffed of funds equal to any literary undertaking. We penetrate not the fecrets of the Council, or the Committee appointed for conducting this defign; but we moft heartily with that, if it is intended to be purfued, it may be executed in a manner more worthy of the undertakers.

Plate I. contains feals of Kings Ro bert I. and II. David II. Edward Baliol, Mary queen of James IV. and Mary.

Plate II. feals of royal burghs, Edinburgh, Roxburgh, Stirling, Perth, Aberdeen, Crail, Dundee.

Plate III. Twenty-one of illuftrious perfonages in the 13th century, including Patrick fifth Earl of Dunbar, Dervorgilla, wife of John Baliol, foundrefs of Baliol college at Oxford. From 5 to 12 inclufive are the feals of the eight competitors for the crown of Scotland, of whom a particular account is given. Thofe from 13 to 20 are appendant to an inftrument, printed in Rymer's Fœdera, II. 599, of articles between Edward I. and the guardians of Scotland, previous to the marriage of his fun, Prince Edward, with Margaret granddaughter of the late King Alexander III. Plate IV. Thirty-three of eminent and noble perfonages in the 14th, 15th, and Affectedly called, in the title-page, Mag

*

nates.

a

of Somerfet, colle&ed from authentic Records, and an actual Survey made by the late Mr. Edmund Rack; adorned with a Map of the County, and Engravings of Roman and other Reliques, Town feals, Baths, Churches, and Gentlemen's Seats. By the Rev. John Collinfon, F.A.S. Vicar of Long Ashton, Czrate of Filton, alias Whitchurch, in the County of Somerset, and Vicar of Clanfield, in the County of Oxford. In Three Volumes. AFTER feveral endeavours to form topographical hiftory of this extenfive county, the task has fallen to the lot of a reverend gentleman who, notwithftanding his honourable title of F. A. S. has not, in the courfe of ten years fince his propofals first appeared t (and he ought, in juffice to his undertaking, to have allowed himself at leaft as many more previous to the circulation of his propolals), been able to give fuch an account of it as becomes the dignity and duty of a county hiftorian in this improved æra of topographical research, when every thing that can be come at on

* See the wretched engraving of the feal of Odo bishop of Bayeux, în Archeologia, I. 336, and compare it with the reft engraved in the fucceeding volumes.

The propofals for this work, in one volume folio, bore date 1781; but we have good authority for faying it was to be put to prefs in 1784, when altered to three volumes, at three guineas, and actually was put in 1786. Mr. C's coadjutor, Mr. Rack, died Feb. 25, 1787.

the

the fubject is carefully laid before the publick. Far it be from us to intend the leaft prejudice to Mr. C's labours. The refpectable lift of fubfcribers, above 50s, ought to set him above pecuniary lofs. But when we compare him with his brethren in the fame walk, they fhall be las jurv; his imperfe& account of fuch places as Wells, Glaftonbury, and Hinton St. George, the evidence againft hum; and the Society of Antiquaries of London his judges.

Carchefs of authorities, or unknowing how to ule them, ains. It all that he advances reftson printed books, or his own affertions. A general but concife defcription of the parish; an extraft from the Norman record, as he calls Domef day; an unfupported account of fucceed ing proprietors; a fhort defeription of the church, and copies of epitaphs, without an enumeration of vicais (except of his own parish of Long Athton, and rectory of Tient) from the Reformation; a dry list of proprietors, without dates or defcents, forms the fum total of each article. As Mr. C. acknowledges his obligations to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, in whofe diocefe the whole county is, we are the more furprifed at this deficiency, which he has avoided in his own parish, of which he has given a full account. He has not given the lift of members of parliament, except for the county and Bath. The whole account of Glafton. bury is comprifed in 37 pages, of Weils cry in 30, and of Hinton St. George in 4. Mr. C. is a mere compiler fem printed books, borrowing even his defcription of feats and grounds from Arthur Young, that univerfal tourifi; and, we doubt not, had Mr. Pennant journeyed over the fame track, he would have made as large excerpts from him. We mean not to derogate from the merit of thefe travelJers; but from the hiftorian of a county far more is expected. We dwell not on verfes to bellringers, on vulgar traditions, on uncandid charges, founded only on the Biographical Dictionary, againf Polydore Vergil. We pare Mr. C. the pain of entering into farther details, leaving his work to the more clofe and careful examination of other criticks in his department. If the undertakers of the hiftories of the counties of Devon and Hants prefer THIS plan to thofe of Dugdale and Chauncey in the laft, and Bridges and Huiclins and even Hafied's in the prefent, century, we deem ourfelves warranted to foretell that, in the next century, the science of Topography,

of which they were profeffors, will be totally out of fashion: and we tremble for the fate of the hiftory of Wiltshire, which Mr. C. announces as preparing for the prefs.

The plates of this hiftory are principally mantien-houses, a few churches, the fingle at bey of Old Cleve +, and an uninterefling monument or two, and fill more uninterefting modern altarpiece in the church of a market-rownail drawn and engraved by Mr. Bonnor.

Mr. C. infcribes his work to his Sovereign, and in his preface, after defcanting on the utility of county history, and offepulchral tombs and monuments," and natural hiftory, acknowledges his obligations to his deceased friend and coadjutor, Mr. Edmund Rack §, and to Earl Bathu.fi, the Marquis of Bath, the Bhop of Bath and Wells, Coplettone Warre Bamfylde, Hugh and John Acland, Elqrs. Mrs. Malet, Sir John Hugh Smyth, Bart. James Bernard, Robert Bryant, Denis Rotle, J. Berkeley Burland, Paul Methuen, Efqrs.; Mr. Planta and Mr. Ayscough, for affiftance at the British Mufcum; Richard Gough, of Enfield, Craven Ord, William Bray, and Edmund Turnor, Efqrs. for extralis from public offices, to which only the fecond of thefe gentlemen belongs; Doctors Harington and Falconar, and Mr. Sole, apothecary at Bath; Rev. Dr. Wills, warden of Wadham, Rev. George Beaver, Richard Paget, M. D. Rev. Mr. Graves, of Claverton, Rev. Mr. Wylde, and Mr. Abraham Crocker; and to feveral other learned and ingenious contributors. With all thefe aids he is fenfible of many errors and imperfections, from the extent of territory and ambiguity of records; but most, and which he moft laments, from his own inability to do juftice to a task which, in regard of the places and perfons it has to reprefent, is in itfelf fo important and honourable."

The Introduction contains the general

* Why is the fine old one at Brimpton omitted?

+ Why Glastonbury, and other ruins, were not immortalized by Mr. Bonnor, we are at a loss to conceive.

Should he not have faid "tombs and fepulchral monuments?"

§ Of this benevolent and industrious man we have niemoirs by Mr. Polwhele, vol. I. P. 77-82.

To the laft for the ufe of the late Mr. Palmer's collections.

form

form of the county, rivers, mountains, forefts, productions, minerals, vegetables, birds; Roman, Saxon, and Norman, hiftory, all as concife as poffible; lifts of reprefentatives and theriffs; lift of mobility and gentry in the reign of Henry VII. and of justices 1787, earls and dukes, chivaliers & bommes de mark, 17 Edward I.; temporal and ecclefiaftical diviñons; Domefday-book, with an index comparing the antient and modern names of places..

The Hiftory opens with the city of BATH. Brifol was left to Mr. Barrett; and how he has fucceeded in it may be feen in vol. LIX. p. 921. Then follows an account of every parih, ranged alphabetically in the feveral hundreds, compiled entirely from printed authorities, and an actual view of the fpots.

Mr. C. failing in his application for the papers of Mr. Strachey, which, by all accounts, are extremely valuable, and being engaged in extenfive parochial engagements, actually declined his part of the work, the hiftorical and ecclefiaftical, in 1782; but Mr. R. purfued his part, and had nearly completed it, except a few towns and parishes, when Mr. C. refumed it, and continued it till Mr. R's death, 1787 (fee vol. LVII. p. 276). Forty plates were promifed; and they intended as many more at their own expence, if the fubfcription admitted. No lift of the plates is given.

28. The prefent State of Hudson's Bay; containing a full Defcription of that Settlement and the adjacent Country, and likewife of the Fur-trade, with Hints for its Improvement. To which are added, Remarks and Obfervations made in the inland Parts, during a Refi dence of near Four Years; a Specimen of Five Indian Languages, and a fournal of a fourney from Montreal to New York. By Edward Umfreville, Eleven Years in the Service of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Four Years in the Canada Fur-trade.

MR. U. undertakes to prove that, fince the failure of Mr. Dobbs's attempt, 1749, to lay open the trade to Hudion's Bay, the Company have remained in quiet poffeffion of their extenfive territories, to the great injury of this country, its trade and manufactures. He entered into the Company's fervice as a writer, at a falary of 151. per annum, and continued eleven years; but, at the refloration of the fettlement, fome difappoint ment arifing in point of falary, he quit ted them, and, in 1783, made a voyage to Quebec, to acquire a knowledge of the fur-trade in that quarter. He com. plains of the want of extenfion of the

Company's trade; and he appears to be well acquainted with his fubject. It is, however, more than probable that the Hudfon's Bay and North Weft Canada Companies have but one view, and will co-operate in forming a permanent eftablishment on the West coast, and a ready communication with the Eaft. Mr. U. gives a brief account of the climate, foil, &c. of the country on the coasts of Hudson's Bay, the manners and cuftoms of the Indians near the coafts; a concife account of the trade to Hudson's Bay, with the method purfued by the Company in carrying it on; reflections on the Company's trade, fhewing in what manner it may be improved to the general benefit of the nation; fome account of the Company's officers, governors, and inferior fervants. If what he lays on this head be true, the Company's fer. vice is a fyftem of abominable tyranny and oppreffion. Next follows an account of the taking of the fettlement by the French, 1783; remarks on the inland parts of Hudfon's Bay, during four years refidence; the face of the country, foil, climate, natural productions, and ani. mals; the Indians, their customs, and the prefent ftate of the trade carried on among them. He concludes with a journal of a journey from Montreal to New York, in 1788.

29. The Hiftory of Derby, from the remote Ages of Antiquity to the Year 1791; de feribing its Situation and Soil, Water, Streets, Buildings, and Government, with the illuf trious Families which have inherited its Ho nours: alfo, the Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, the Trade, Amufements, Remarkable Occurrences, the eminent Men, with the adjacent Seats of the Gentry. Illuftrated with Plates. By William Hutton, F. A. S. S.

THE Hiftory of Birmingham, which has gone through two editions, with improvements, is a proof of Mr. H's talent at enlivening a dry fubject. Within a narrower compafs than the historians of Taunton (vol. LXII. p. 241) and Tiverton have taken, he gives us a great deal of lively information refpecting the place of his attachment, where he was born in 1723, and bound apprentice to the filk-mills and hofiery. He has de fcribed it, in all its parts and honours, minutely. We are forry to obferve, that he falls into the too frequent error of tranflating villani villains, inftead of villans, they being the inhabitants of villa. The account of this town in Domefday-book gives it a consequence equal to its prefent; and it had great

immunities,

immunities, founded on antient charters or prefcriptions, confirmed by James I. 1611. It was incorporated by Charles I. 1638, and fent members to parliament from 1294, in the reign of Edward I. A court of confcience, or requefts, was eftablished here in 1766. So long as it fhall be deemed prudent to put a period to quarrels among neighbours, fo long will a court of confcience be useful The privilege of going to law is the birth right of an Englishman; lop off this fruitful branch of British freedom, and the tree of liberty will be left naked. As the expences of the court are exceedingly fmall, he enjoys his birthright at an eafy price" (p. 122). The fix -churches that were formerly in this town are now reduced to five, the chief of which is All Saints, whofe tower was elegantly rebuilt in the reign of Henry VIII. Upon a fillet on the North, in old English, eafily read, is Young Men and Maids. Tradition tells us, that the fteeple was erected to that height by the voluntary contributions of the youth of both fexes. On the South fide is another infeription, not easily read; but which, we should fuppofe, was a continuation of this text, from Pfalm cxlviii. 12, 13, Old men and babes praise the Lord. The church was rebuilt in 1722, from a defign of Gibbs, for which he received 251. Dr. Hutchinfon, the curate, fubfcribed 401. and folicited 32491. 118. 6d.; of which, 1371. 165. 6d. not being paid, 5981. 5s. 6d. more was added by a brief, vaults and feats produced 48 11. 195. more; total 41911. 19s. 6d. ; but, difagreeing with the parish, he threw up the management, and left the parishioners involved in perplexities and a confiderable expence, of their own creating. "In the dormitory of the Devonshire family lie the worthies of Liberty, who poffeffed the name of Cavendish. Here, at full length, is feen the monument of the Countefs of Shrewsbury, conftru&ted under her own infpection, in the diefs of her day. She purchased this laft feat of the family from the corporation, into which 29 of the dead have found their way. She faw the end of four busbands, procured a dowry from each, was immenfely rich, performed many works of charity and magnificence, continued a widow feventeen years, and died in 1607, in extreme age" (p. 157). The noted Richard Crofhaw, with his nail-hammer and leathern doublet, has also a monument. He, like fome others of his townfmen, feeing only poverty in the prospect before him, went

to London to fhun it. Talents, and a field to improve them, furnished him with a fortune of 10,0col. Others, he juftly fuppofed, might feel, in his native place, that diftrefs which he had felt himself; therefore he left 4000l. to the corporation for charities and there is not a pauper in the borough who is a ftranger to Crofhaw's dole. The infant mouth, unable to feed itself, which has been fed by his bounty, may live to return a tribute of gratitude to its benefac

tor.

He left 201. per annum for a lecture every Friday. He died in 1631. This amiable character is faid to have ftaid in London during a plague, to adminifter comfort to diftrefs, and escaped the contagion.-The next monument to this belongs to a perfon of the name of Wheeler, who quitted London to fhun that dreadful ca amity in 1665, but died at Derby the following year: though he travelled far, he could not travel out of the reach of Death" (p. 157).— The parochial bequefts to this fingle parish are now worth more than 2000l. per annum (p. 163); others left to the feveral parishes amount to 2321. per an num (p. 165). The lamp close (p. 168) was to maintain one or more lamps or lights in one of the churches, perhaps that of the Nunnery, not, as Mr. H. feems to mifapprehend, the lamps in the town. "The Methodists erected a meeting-houfe in St. Michael's-lane, under that great divine, J. Welley, who, differing in fentiment from the fons of the Church, covets not wealth, though all he poffeffes is not of more. confequence than the fmall duft of the balance; but he covers more religion, though already poffeffed of more than half the bench of bishops" (p. 169); or, as one of his fucceffors declared at the confecration of the Huntingdonian chapel at Chefhunt (fee our vol. LXII. p. 860), than twenty archbishops.-Mr. H, inclines to fix Deby for the birth-place of the celebrated phyfician, Linacer, or, as he pells it, Linager; whom others. with more probability, fix at Chesterfield, in the fame county. John Flamttead, the great mathematician, who, in 1675. was concerned in erecting the obfervatory in Grenwich-park, and, in the reigns of Anne and George I. prefided over it as aftronomer-royal, was born here, 1646, continued here till 1670, and died 1719, aged 73. Of him, Mr. H. tells a remarkable anecdote: that he was, when a young man, tried and sondemned for a highway-robbery, but pardoned by

Charles