on one another, is infinitely gratifying to the conceit of the human mind. We have a hint alfo of the number and ability of unbelievers." I will not clafs the Reviewer with thofe Free-thinkers, as they call themselves, who are mere flaves to the opinions of others; though I fufpect him to have very little knowledge of the facts or anfwers in defence of Christianity. With thofe, however, who difbelieve, not from any reafon they themselves can give, but because fome acquaintance of theirs, of whom they have a good opinion, or fome celebrated writer, as Voltaire, Hume, dif believed, we may argue in their own way, and confront them with names and authority, I truft, fuperior to any they can produce. It is a tyle of reafoning indeed, on which I would lay little firefs, except with the lazy and the ignorant; and with them it furely is fair, and will prove to be unanfwerable. To fay therefore nothing of the bulk of the community, high and low, rich and poor, learned and illiterate, which for fo many ages have believed in the Gofpel, let us only urge the names of Mede, Cudworth, Barrow, Clarke, Jortin; of Leland, Taylor, Lardner; of Le Clerc, Limborch, Mofheim; men who spent whole lives in the ftudy of Chriftianity, and manifefted as much freedom and acuteness in their refearches, as are to be found in any fcience whatever, Let us add the authority of Bacon, Grotius, Locke, Newton, Hartley, men who were under no profeffional bias, and did not take their religion upon truit, but each of them fpent many years in inquiries into it, and rofe up from the inquiry fully and firmly perfuaded of its truth. N. N. P. S. Let the manly adventurer after truth" exchange Dr. Beattie's little book for the short treatife of Dr. Hartley. He will find it in the fecond volume of the Obfervations on Man; and in the fifth volume of Bifhop Watfon's Collection. Let him read Paley's Moral Philofophy, founded on the credibility of the Chriftian Religion. The fe two works alone may have a perfect influence on the mind of a candid inquirer: they will at least teach him, that "a queftion which involves in its determination the hopes, the virtue, and repofe of millions." ought never to be made a topic of raillery, nor a fubject of contention for literary fame and victory; that the cause of Revelation fhould be tried upon its merits, and its credit be affailed by no other weapons than thofe of fober difcuffion and lcgitimate reafoning. March 7th, 1787. CHARACTER of the late THOMAS TYERS, Ely. WRITTEN by HIMSELF§. IT being very natural, fays the Spectator, for the reader to with to know whether his author is tall or fhort, a married man or a batchelor, or otherwife, we are obiged to comply with this expectation, however undefirous the gentleman may be to be exhibited a prominent figure on our biographical canvas. We have a right to him as a public man, which we hope we fhall not abufe, nor give him any material offence. The author, or editor, as he calls himfelf, of the Political Conferences (his greatest performances are richly bound in Morocco, and prefented to the King's library), was fent fo very early to the univerfity, that he was animadverted upon as the boy batchelor, and not in the ftrain of compliment as was paffed upon Cardinal Wolfey, on taking his firft degree in arts. In the year 1753 he became a student of the Inner Temple, and became, after he had kept his terms, a barrifter of that houfe. His father hoped he would appply to the law; attend, take notes, and make a figure in Westminsterhall. But he never undertook any caufes, nor went a fingle circuit. He loved his ease too much to acquire a character in that or any other profeflion. It should have been mentioned in the former part of this paragraph, that he wrote and publifhed 'two paftorals before he went to the Temple, that were printed for Dodfley. One was called "Lucy," infcribed to Lord Chefterfield; the other "Rofalind," to the Earl of Granville; never much enquired after by the world, and only in the hands of a few of his acquaintance; and perhaps now forgotten by him.lf. We just remember, they were Theocritus, Spenfer, Philips, Pope, and Drayton, over again, and at fecond-hand. If we are not misinformed, very light ftudies became the choice digeftion of his mind. Perhaps we might infinuate, a line of Pope, "He penn'd a ftanza, when he should engrofs." We are affured he was the author of a great deal of vocal poetry, or, in other words, of fing-fong; part of which might be owing to the infpiration of love. Perhaps he was not in his heart For anecdotes of whom the reader is referred to a former volume of this Magazine. § And annexed to a printed Review of feveral of his own publications. -A "A foe to the fyrens of his father's grove ;" for he gave a great many of his hours, in his younger days, to Vauxhall Gardens, where his father was fole proprietor and manager. When he had, without drinking deeply, tafted enough of the Pierian fpring, and given up the invocation of the Mufes, he addicted himself to the reading of history, and made enquiries into public affairs. For this gratification he went, for feveral feffions, to hear the debates in both Houses of Parliament. His leifure enabled him to run over a great number of English books. He has never been out of the kingdom (though he has travelled all over it); yet he has been all bis life talking of doing it. He has been heard to declare, that he has not been, for thefe forty years, a fingle day, when in health, without a book or a pen in his hand-" nulla dies fine lineâ," He has outlived a great deal of fhynefs, that by no means became a liberal man. He always was a frequent vifitor of Dr. Johnion. That great man has acknowledged behind his back, that Tyers always tells him fomething he did not know before. He attended, for twenty years, the literary levee of the communicative and geod-tempered Dr. Campbell, in Queen-fquare, and values himself on having had his curiofity gratified in being acquainted with authors, as well as with their works. Having an affluent income, he affects to be ashamed of the imputation of being an author, and, the old cafe of Voltaire and Congreve over again, chufes to be confidered only as a writer. If he is above ranking with authors by profeffion, they may place him among "the mob of gentlemen who write with eafe." He is now obliged to pay a good deal of attention to his health. He purchased a fnug box at Epfom, many years ago, for this purpofe. He has been met with fo often on the turnpike road, that he is fuppofed to pafs a great part of his life upon it. He is inquifitive, talkative, full of notions and quotations, and, which is the praife of a purling ftream, of no great depth. His principal care feems to be to prolong his life, of which he appears to know the uie, at least the enjoyment, by exercife and chearfulness. He feems to choose to pafs for a valetudinarian. He never was capable of fevere application. What he performs with his pen, he does without much labour.-"Who know him, know."Johnson has told him, he would do better if he was not content with his first thoughts. He is by no means original in his compofitions. His two last pamphlets he has only printed, and not published, to give to his friends, in imitation, perhaps, of his great acquaintance Lord Hardwicke. He has been at the expence of a fignature of Memory, which he has had drawn and engraved, to adorn the title-page of all his pieces. He prefents to his friends a head of himself, engraved by Hall, who executed the portrait of Mr. Gibbon. He aims only at amufement to his readers, and not without fuccefs. In his perfon, he is two inches under fix feet fee him we have"—of a brown complexion, that threatens to receive a yellowish tint; wears what is not quite either a wig or his own hair; is neither heavy nor large, has a remarkable good appetite, was never married, and is fiftyeight years of age. We are well informed he has a good moral character, which we with him to preferve as long as he lives. All this we believe to be truth, and nothing but truth. ANECDOTES from Sir JOHN HAWKINS's LIFE of Dr. JOHNSON. OF DOCTOR MEAD. IHERE add an Anecdote of no lefs a perfon than Dr. Mead hinfelf, who very early in his life attained to his ftation of eminence, and met with all the fubfequent encouragement due to his great merit, and who nevertheless died in a ftate of indigence. The income arifing from his practice I have heard eftimated at 7000l. a year, and he had one, if not two fortunes left him, not by relations, but by friends no way allied to him; but his rounificence was fo great, and his paffion for collecting books, paintings, and curiofities, fo ftrong, that he made no favings. His manufcripts he parted with in his life-time to fupply his wants, which towards his end were become fo preffing, that he once requested of the late Lord Orrery the loan of five guineas on fome toys, viz. pieces of kennel coal wrought into vales and other elegant forms, which he produced from his pocket. This ftory, incredible as it may feem, Lord Orrery told Johnfon, and from him I had it. OF DR. BIRCH, the Antiquarian and Hiftorian. "I HEARD him once relate, says Sir John, that he had the curiofity to meature the circuit of London, by a perambulation thereof; the account he gave was was to this effect he fet out from his houfe in the Strand, towards Chelsea, and having reached the bridge beyond the water-works, he directed his courfe to Marybone, from whence purfuing an eaftern direction, he skirted the town, and croffed the Iflington road at the Angel. There was at that time no City Road, but paffing through Hoxton, he got to Shoreditch, thence to Bethnal-green, and from thence to Stepney, where he recruited his fpirits with a glass of brandy. From Stepney he pafled on to Limehoufe, and took into his route the adjacent hamlet of Poplar, when he became fenfible that to complete his defign he must take in Southwark; this put him to a ftand; but he foon determined on his course, for taking a boat, he landed at the Red-houfe at Deptford, and made his way to Say'scourt, where the great wet dock is, and keeping the houfes along Rotherhithe to the right, he got to Bermondsey, thence by the fouth-end of Kent-treet to Newington, and over St. George's Fields to Lambeth, and croffing over to Millbank, continued his way to Charing-cross, and along the Strand to Norfolk-ftreet, from whence he had fet out. The whole of this excurfion took him up from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon, and according to his rate of walking, he computed the circuit of London at above twenty miles with the buildings erected fince, it may be fuppofed to have encreafed five miles, and if fo, the prefent circumference of this great metropolis is about half that of ancient Rome." On TAVERNS. [With a View of the WHITE-HART TAVERN, in Bishopfgate Street.] TT is worthy of remark (fays Sir John Hawkins, in his Life of Dr. Johnfon) by those who are curious in obferving customs and modes of living, how little thefe houfes of entertainment are now frequented, and what a diminution in their number has been experienced in London and Westminster, in a period of about forty years backward. The hiftory of taverns in this country, may be traced back to the time of Henry IV. for fo ancient is that of the Boar's Head in EaftCheap, the rendezvous of Prince Henry and his lewd companions, * as we learn from Shakespeare. Of little lefs antiquity is the White Hart without Bifhopigate, which now bears in the front of it the date of its erection, 1480. Anciently there stood in Old Palace Yard, Weft infter, a tavern known by the fign of the White Rote, the fymbol of the York faction. It was near the chapel of our Lady, behind the high, altar of the Abbey Church. Together with that chapel, it was in 1503 pulled down; and on the fcite of both was erected the chapel of Henry VII. At the Refloration, the cavaliers and other adherents to the royal party, for joy of that event, were for a time inceffantly drunk; and from a picture of their manners in Cowley's comedy, "Cutter of Coleman-street,” must be fuppofed to have greatly contributed to the increase of taverns. Whe the frenzy of the times was abated, ta verns, efpecially thofe about the Exchange became places for the tranfaction of almoft all manner of business: there accounts were fettled, conveyances executed; and there attornies fat, as at inns in the coun. try on market days, to receive their clients. In that space near the Royal Exchange which is encompaffed by Lombard, Gracechurch, part of Bifhopfgate, and Threadneedle streets, the number of taverns was not fo few as twenty, and on the fcite of the Bank there ftood four. At the Crown, which was one of them, it was not unufual in a morning to draw a butt of mountain †, (one hundred and twenty gallons) in gills." *This is the first time perhaps that Shakespeare, whofe anachronisms are without number or excufe, and who has given the manners of his own day to all ages and nations, was ever quoted as an authority to eftablish a fact. By the fame fpecies of evidence it might be proved that gun-powder was in ufe by the immediate fucceffors of Alexander; and it would not be furprizing if a writer of equal accuracy with Sir John Hawkins fhould fagaciously obferve, We learn from Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant, that piftols were in ufe long before it is generally fuppofed, as thofe authors introduce Demetrius in the 4th act, armed with one of these weapons. The exiftence of Taverns at the times abovementioned (and probably of that in question) might however be proved to a demonftration; but furely not by the authority of a dramatic writer, who, as Dr. Johnfon obferves, had never any care to preferve the manners of the time. Whoever will take the trouble to convert thefe 120 gallons into gills, and confider the time they were vended in, will immediately fubfcribe to the extreme probabiMty of the itory. |