which tends to fubvert the principles of our Government, which may wantonly wound the feelings of individuals, or which is in any degree offenfive to the purity of good morals. In all other refpects, our Publication will continue to exhibit a field for manly and impartial criticifm, for the exercise of literary industry, and for the cultivation of ingenuous and youthful talents. We cannot take leave of our Readers without returning them our warmest acknowledgements for the full share which we continue to enjoy of public favour and reward. The duration of this fuccefs will doubtless depend, and we defire that it should, upon our diligent and progreffive endeavours to deferve it. S. U. Dec. 31. Y THOUGHTS ON THE LATE PROCEEDINGS IN FRANCE. E garlands, wove with Fancy's flowers, When their loud champions fpurn'd their Wonder alone no more is found, And Danton + ivy-crown'd. To undiftinguifh'd duft they turn; Their friends, their kindred, mourn. All the troubled grove muft share. Has their wide (phere its rage withstood? * See Moore's Journal. This-Hift'ry tells of former days; This now the anxious moments mourn; And, oh! the forfeits life repays Till Peace with her fair train return. O, God of armies, hear our prayer ! Let confcience feal the murderer's doom. Hope beams through interpofing hours, queen. From dungeons deep, thro' murder'd fame, Thro' favage Joy's infulting breath Fair Lamballe hails to Heav'n her queen. Till there thy matchless child be seen ? Uncall'd, fo ftain', by Cordé fent! Beyond the grave were fuch means lent. And fighing end thy forrowing fong. Lancaster, Dec. 1793. ELIZA. + The ivy, from weakening its fupport, is an emblem of ingratitude. See various accounts of Danton with regard to the Princess Lamballe. The Guillotine. § See the affecting account of this venerable old man and his affectionate daughter in Moore's Journal. THE YORK 3 43 Meteorolog. Diaries for Dec. 1792, & Jan. 1793 2 Antiquities at Clare-Curians Letters Patent 30 95 90 By SYLVANUS URBAN, Gent. Printed by JOHN NICHOLS, at Cicero's Head, Red Lion Fata,, rics -it.ee.; 1793. METEOROLOGICAL TABLE for January, 1793 Height of Fahrenheit's Thermometer. Height of Fahrenheit's Thermometer, 39 35 29,33 cloud 28 34 41 29 36 48 30 43 45 36 54 fair 39 44 48 ,80 rain 14 35 42 34 79 rain 15 34 38 26 30,18 cloudy 33 35 36 29,76 rain ,68 cloudy 34 ,88 foggy 37 fair 54 cloudy 943 73 rain ,43 ,89 fair 41 cloudy 31 42 45 30,13 rain 23 33 38 37 34 29,63 rain 939 31 40 40 30,03 fair '4 rain 3529,92 rain 10 41 50 43 29,75 30 30,14 fair II 43 48 42 ,48 rain W. CARY, Mathematical Inftrumént-Maker, oppofite Arundel-Street, Strand. Day wind. ISE brifk E calm State of Weather in December, 1792. overcast, rain, gusty day, no fun overcaft, ferene, but no fun 3 43 29,88 49 obfcure, fun appears a very little P.M. mift at clouds, ftormy, with rain fmall rain continued most of the day [night 79 48 overcaft, a ftorm with rain NW brifk 68 42 clear, fhowers of fnow and hail 4. The horizon red and fiery at funrife. A ftorm in the evening. The moisture in the air precipitated on drinking-veffels, hand, nail, &c.-6. Great quantities of fea-gulls on the wing in-land. Three different rainbows in the space of an hour, betwixt twelve and one o'clock. A hurricane from the NW. began foon after one, accompanied with rain, and con tinued about twelwe hours. During the ftorm, the barometer funk to 28,70 from 29,79, when minuted at nine o'clock A.M.-8. A fiery horizon, unusually striped with ftrata of black. The fea roars in the evening.-12. The wind has blown a hurricane this and feveral evenings fince the 8th, with fome little intermiffion during day-light.-17. A golden-tinged ky at funfet.-18. A hurricane with showers in the evening.-21. A large circle, or, as is yulgarly THE Gentleman's Magazine: For JANUARY, 1793. BEING THE FIRST NUMBER OF VOL. LXIII. PART I. Mr. URBAN, Jan 9. ****HE following facts, as they have not come into general history, deferve, XT Xi conceive, to be preferved in fome public XXX and permanent repofitory of intelligence, and therefore afk a place in your Mifcellany. In the year 1701, when the times were very critical and dangerous; when the exorbitant power of France threatened Europe with a general calamity when, by the death of the duke of Gloucester, the fucceffion to the English throne, in the Protestant line, was left unfettled; when the French monarch had caufed the Pretender to be proclaimed king of Great Britain; and when king William was beyond the feas; the Proteftant region and the nation were, in this featon of danger, greatly indebted to the zeal and exertions of a fingle ProteAant Diffenter. Sir Thomas Abney, the friend of Dr. Watts, was that year mayor of London. This gentleman, though oppofed by the majority of his brethren on the bench, had the courage to propole an addrefs from the commencouncil to the king to fignify their refolution and readiness to ftand by his majefty, in oppofition to France and the Pretender. His adverfaries threw ma ny difficulties in his way; but, by his great pains and prudence, he furmounted them, and carried his point with remarkable fuccefs. The addrefs was tranfmitted to king William, in Holland; and, when the refolution of the city of London was publicly known, it animated the affairs of the king, and gave new life to his intereft, both at home and abroad. A confiderable perfon complimented Sir Thomas Abney on this occafion, affuring him, tha he had done more fervice to the king than if he had given him 10,000l. and railed him a million of money. The importance of this measure foon appeared in the extent of its influence, and in the confequences of which it was most productive. The example of London, under the condu& of their chief maguirate, greatly fpirited the whole nation, and was followed with like addreffes from most of the corporations in it. The king availed himself of the favourable breeze of popular affection to diffolve the parliament, and to take the fenfe of the people at that critical jun&ure of public affairs, expreffed in their choice of a new one, which met on the 31st of December, 1701. In this. parliament was formed the act, which had the royal affent but the day before the king died, for the abjuration of the Pretender, and for eftablishment of the Proteftant fucceffion to the throne. Thu the crown was fecured to the illuftrious family that now wears it *. The other fact I would mention, as difplaying the attachment of Protefiant Difenters to the houfe of Hanover, is, that the feed-plots of the rebellion, which, in the year 1715, was aimed at the government, were difcovered by one of them, the learned Dr. Charles Owen, of Warrington, who gave early nouce of the fcheines formed against it. This difcovery excited the refentment of his enemies, who did not enter into his loyal * Jer. Smith's funeral fermon for Sir Thomas Abney. vulgarly termed, wheel round the moon: rain generally fucceeds.-22. A violent ftorm of wind, accompanied with rain, began about 3 P.M. and continued almost the whole night. 29. Horizon red at funfet Fall of rain this month, 6 inches 6-icths, Evaporation, 2 inches 1-10th. Fall of rain in the courfe of this year, 43 inches 8-10 Evaporation, 29 inches 8-roths Walton, near Liverpool. J. HULT. loyal views; which afterwards vented ifelf, by their commencing against hom an expenfive profecution, on his publishing a tract, intitled, " Plain-Dealings, or Separation without Schifm, and Schifm without Separation," This profecution was stopped by a noli profequi*. Though thefe tracts relate to the conduct of two individuals only, yet they go to refled honour on the zeal and Toyalty of the Diffenters at large; for it is well known that they were confon int to the principles, met the wifles, and, breathed the fpirit of the whole body. Yours, &c. JOSHUA TOULMIN. I MR. URBAN, Jan. 19. T was with no fmall forprize that a party of gentlemen, many of whom are of the first class for genius and literary talents, faw the other evening, in your last month's Magazine (vol. LXIL P. 1072.), a letter figned Eboracents, in which the poetical abilities of a late long-established and much admired author, whofe Pocms have always been acknowledged to be written with true claffic purity, elegance, and fimplicity, are uncandidly criticifed. I fay uncandidly, because it cannot be fair to judge decifively of the poetical abilities or me rit of an author, by the small part of his works (the smallest I mean ia fumber), whilft not a fiegle fyllable is faid of his various other poetry, which has fo long been known, and defervedly admired. From what the writer of the above letter fays, one would imagine the refpened author thus criticized had never written any thing but the odes on his majefty's birth-days, and new-years odes; for thofe are the only parts of his poetry that are mentioned by Eboracenfis; and which, from the hort time he had the honour of writing them (I think not quite four years), could be but few. But, did the excellent author in quetion never write any thing bu the above Odes? His Triumph of Ifis; the Pleasures of Melancholy; the muchadmired Poem on Sir Joshua Reynolds's painted Window at New College; his beautiful Ode on the approach of Summer; the Ham et; the admirsb.e Ode, intitied, Suicide; with a variety of other Poems, Odes, and elegant Sonnets, too many here to be enumerated, after being fo long known and admired, need not now any exaggerated eulogium. I am fpeaking wholly to his poetry, not to to celebrate fo joyful an occafion? It It is a convincing proof that Eboracenfis knew but little of the excellent author of the Odes, by his affecting, they were written to display juperior learning; whereas, whoever bad the leaft acquaintance with him must know, that one of the chief traits in his worthy character was his modeft merit, which fhunning applaufe (inftead of making an arrogant difplay of his abilities) ever difclaimed that juft praife, which genius, talents, and industry (for of industry, furely, his laborious and ingenious Hifto ry of English Poetry is a tufficient No man of proof), to juftly merited his learning and genius ever ufed them with more propriety or eff-&t. That vulgar celebrity, which men call fame, he totally defpited. It is certainly very fingular, that the writer of the letter fhould unfortunately fix on the most contrary trait in the cha racter of the truly refpectable perfon he cenfures; and not have known (what every acquaintance he had in the world knew) the most diftinguishing part was, that his converfation and behaviour were particularly unafuming and modeft, joined with the not perfect fimplicity of manners. It was that modely, gentlenefs, and fimplicity of character, which endeared him to all his numerous friends. The lines in an eulogy on his particular friend, Sir Joshua Reynolds, might with great propriety be applied to him alfo: "Yet were his manners fo benigaly mild, Simplicity might own him for her child." Eboracenfis, towards the conclusion of-- his letter, by way, perhaps, of making fome amends for calling in queftion the long-acknowledged abilities of a moft * J. Owen's funeral fermon for Dr. worthy man, whofe learning and genius Charles Owen. will be ever revered by ali men of true |