the Critical Review. He was engaged in one controversy with the notorious Shebbeare, in another with Dr Grainger,' the elegant author of the beautiful Ode to Solitude, and in several wrangles and brawls with persons of less celebrity.

But the most unlucky controversy in which his critical office involved our author, was that with Admiral Knowles, who had published a pamphlet vindicating his own conduct in the secret expedition against Rochfort, which disgracefully miscarried, in 1757. This defence was examined in the Critical Review; and Smollett, himself the author of the article, used the following intemperate expressions concerning Admiral Knowles. "He is an admiral without conduct, an engineer without knowledge, an officer without resolution, and a man without veracity." The admiral commenced a prosecution against the printer of the Review, declaring at the same time that he desired only to discover the author of the paragraph, and, should he prove a gentleman, to demand satisfaction of a different nature. This decoy, for such it proved, was the most effectual mode which could have been devised to draw the high-spirited Smollett within the danger of the law. When the court were about to pronounce judgment in the case, Smollett appeared, and took the consequences upon himself, and Admiral Knowles redeemed the pledge he had given, by enforcing judgment for a fine of one hundred pounds, and obtaining a sentence against the defendant of three months' imprisonment. How

1 [See Appendix, No. II.]

the Admiral reconciled his conduct to the rules usually observed by gentlemen, we are not informed; but the proceeding seems to justify even Smollett's strength of expression, when he terms him an officer without resolution, and a man without veracity. This imprisonment took place in 1759, and was, as we have stated already, the most memorable result of the various quarrels in which his duty as a critic engaged Dr Smollett. We resume the account of his literary labours, which our detail of these disputes has something interrupted.

About 1757, Smollett compiled and published without his name, a useful and entertaining collection, entitled, A Compendium of Authentic and Entertaining Voyages, digested in a chronological series; the whole exhibiting a clear view of the Customs, Manners, Religion, Government, Commerce, and Natural History of most Nations of the Known World; illustrated with a variety of Genuine Charts, Maps, Plans, Heads, &c. in 7 vols. 12mo. This collection introduced to the British publie several voyages which were otherwise little known, and contained, amongst other articles not before published, Smollett's own account of the Expedition to Carthagena, of which he had given a short sketch in the Adventures of Roderick Random.

In

In the same year, 1757, the farce or comedy of The Reprisals, or the Tars of Old England, was written and acted, to animate the people against the French, with whom we were then at war. pursuance of this plan, every species of national prejudice is called up and appealed to, and the Frenchman is represented as the living representa

tive and original of all the caricature prints and ballads against the eaters of soupe maigre, and wearers of wooden shoes. The sailors are drawn to the life, as the sailors of Smollett always are. The Scotchman and Irishman are hit off with the touch of a caricaturist of skill and spirit. But the story of the piece is as trivial as possible, and, on the whole, it forms no marked exception to the observation, that successful novelists have been rarely distinguished by excellence in dramatic composition.

Garrick's generous conduct to Smollett upon this occasion, fully obliterated all recollection of old differences. The manager allowed the author his benefit on the sixth, instead of the ninth night of the piece, abated certain charges or advances usually made on such occasions, and himself performed Lusignan on the same evening, in order to fill the theatre.1 Still, it seems, reports were in circulation

1 ["Mr Garrick was applied to, I suppose with some fears of the author, lest his farce should not meet a favourable reception from a man whom he had so grossly slandered. However, the manager approved the piece; and he acted it in the best manner he could. The Tars of Old England procured the author a pretty large benefit; and here Mr Garrick had the satisfaction to gratify Smollett by not asking the price which might in rigour have been exacted by the managers for the charges of a benefit. Of this Mr Garrick apprized him in the following letter:-Nov. 26, 1757.-SIR,-There was a mistake made by our office-keepers to your prejudice, which has given me much uneasiness. Though the expense of our theatre every night amounts to L.90 and upwards, yet we take no more from gentlemen who write for the theatre, and who produce an original performance, than 60 guineas; they who only alter an old play pay 80 guineas for the expense, as in

that Smollett had spoken unkindly of Garrick, which called forth the following contradiction, in a letter which our author addressed to that celebrated performer.

"In justice to myself, I take the liberty to assure you, that if any person accuses me of having spoken disrespectfully of Mr Garrick, of having hinted that he solicited for my farce, or had interested views in bringing it upon the stage, he does me wrong, upon the word of a gentleman. The imputation is altogether false and malicious. Exclusive of other considerations, I could not be such an idiot to talk in that strain when my own interest so immediately required a different sort of conduct. Perhaps the same insidious methods have been taken to inflame former animosities, which on my part are forgotten and self-condemned. I must own you have acted in this affair of the farce with that candour, openness, and cordiality, which even mortify my pride, while they lay me under the most sensible obligation; and I shall not rest satisfied until I have an opportunity to convince Mr Garrick that my gratitude is at least as warm as any other of my passions. Meanwhile, I profess myself,

«Sir,

"Your most humble servant,

"T. SMOLLETT." 1

In the beginning of the year 1758, Smollett published his Complete History of England, deduced

the case of Amphytrion; this occasioned the mistake, which I did not discover till lately. Though it is very reasonable to take fourscore pounds for the expense of the house, yet, as we have not yet regulated this matter, I cannot possibly agree that Dr Smollett shall be the first precedent. I have enclosed a draft upon Mr Clutterbuck for the sum due to you.-I am, most sincerely, your most obedient humble servant, D. GARRICK."" -DAVIES' Life of Garrick, vol. i., p. 319.]

["A short time after the representation of The Reprisal, the following panegyric on Mr Garrick, mingled with some disparaging reflections on Mr Moore, the author of The Gamester, and Dr Brown, the author of Barbarossa, appeared

from the Descent of Julius Cæsar to the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle, in 1748; in four volumes 4to. It is said that this voluminous work, containing the history of thirteen centuries, and written with uncommon spirit and correctness of language, was composed and finished for the press within four teen months, one of the greatest exertions of facility of composition ever recorded in the history of literature. Within a space so brief it could not be expected that new facts should be produced; and all the novelty which Smollett's history could present must needs consist in the mode of stating facts, or in the reflections deduced from them. In this work, the author fully announced his political principles, which, notwithstanding his Whig education, those of a modern Tory, and a favourer of the monarchial part of our constitution. For such a strain of sentiment, some readers will think no apology necessary; and by others none which we might propose would be listened to. Smollett has

were

in the Critical Review, unquestionably with the approbation of Smollett, and probably intended by him as a public retraction of the very unfair representation he had given in Roderick Random of his treatment of him respecting The Regicide.

"We often see this inimitable actor labouring through five tedious acts to support a lifeless piece, with a mixture of pity and indignation, and cannot help wishing there were in this age good poets to write for one who so well deserves them.

'Quidquid calcaverit hic rosa fiet.'

"He has the art, like the Lydian king, of turning all that he touches into gold, and can ensure applause to every fortunate bard, from inimitable Shakspeare and Old Ben, to gentle Neddy Moore, and the author of Barbarossa."-ANDERSON'S Life of Smollett, p 56.]