lege, is mixed a strong infufion of vanity. From his uncle, he imbibes a high veneration for church authority, and a great refpect for the clerical character, to which he is determined to devote himself. He fets out for Oxford with entire confidence in his own talents. An adventure on his journey affords the raw traveller his first lesson of diftruft, and teaches him that knavery may poffibly affume the mafk of generofity, and wantonnefs that of modeft fimplicity. At the univerfity, he foon finds that even within college walls there are other kinds of thirft befides that of knowlege, and other objects of ambition befides learning and truth. The frefh-man, initiated in the myfteries of Bacchus, finds that his expectations from college life have been romantic, and is awakened from delightful dreams to difgufting realities. He refolves, however, at the hazard of being scouted as a glum or a raff, to apply with affiduity to his ftudies; and he looks forward to his future reward in the discernment and juftice of the world. After a fhort excurfion into the regions of fanaticifm, (which, by the way, we muft think, in the circumftances and with the mind of Hugh Trevor, is inconfiftent and unnatural,) he vifits London with high and fanguine expectations. The patronage of an Earl, to whom he becomes political fecretary, and the countenance of a Bishop, who encourages and promises to reward his theological. labours, fill his imagination with dazzling profpects :-but he foon finds that the favour of the peer is only to be preferved at the expence of his political integrity; and that the prelate is his friend only that he may purchase a reputation, which he cannot merit, by adopting the young man's literary productions. Difdaining fuch infamous traffic, he wrings the neck of the goofe with the golden eggs, and has recourfe to Turl, a judicious and faithful college friend, from whom his vanity had already received wholesome difcipline. From him he learns to correct his prejudices, and to reftrain his paffions. He foon becomes convinced that the reasoning, which, while it was connected with. self-intereft, had appeared irrefiftibly perfuafive, was in reality weak and inconclufive; and that invincible objections lie against his affuming the clerical character. Equally strong appear the difficulties ftarted by his friend Turl against the profeffion of law. In this ftate of perplexity he vifits Bath, the prefent refidence of a lady to whom he had been early attached,' and there meets with fresh mortification and difappointment.

The story of Hugh Trevor is here interrupted, and leaves the reader in full expectation of much entertainment in the subfequent volumes. It would not, perhaps, be eafy to find within the fame compass a greater variety of character, nor a more amusing defcription of incidents; fuch as may be easily con

ceived to occur in real life. The fcenes of the Rector prefented with the tithe of rats;. Hugh's initiation at Oxford; his first ramble in London; the Bifhop's dinner; and the mufical party at the house of his clerical friend, Enoch Ellis; are reprefented with much comic humour. The ftory of Mr. Wilmot is interefting and pathetic, and contains an admirable picture of the mortification to which authors by profeffion, and particularly writers for the stage, are liable. With a few of Mr. Wilmot's reflections on this fubject, we shall present our readers:

"Oh what a tormenting trade is that of author! He that makes a chair, a table, or any common utenfil, brings his work home, is paid for his labour, and there his trouble ends. It was quickly begun, and quickly over; it excited little hope, but it met with no difappointment. The author, on the contrary, has the labour of days, months, and years to encounter. When he begins, his difficulties are immeasurable; and while as he proceeds they feem to disappear, nay at the very moment when he fometimes thinks them all conquered, he difcovers that they are but accumulated! Every part, every page, every period, have been confidered, and re-confidered, with unremitting anxiety. He has revifed, re-written, corrected, expunged, again produced, and again erased, with endless iteration. Points and commas themselves have been fettled with repeated and jealous folicitude.

"At length, as he thinks, his labour is over! He knows indeed that no work of man was ever perfect; but, circumstanced as he is, the eager prying of his own fleepless eye cannot discover what more to amend. He produces the tedious fruits of inceffant fatigue to the world, and hopes the harvest will be in proportion to the unwearied and extreme care he has bestowed. Poor man! Miftaken mortal! How could he imagine that the sensations of multitudes fhould all correfpond with his own? Educated in fchools fo various, under circumstances fo contradictory and prejudices fo different and distinct, how could he fuppofe his mind was the common measure of man? Faultlefs? Perfect? Vain fuppofition! Extravagant hope! The driver of a mill-horfe, he who never had the wit to make, much lefs to invent, a mouse-trap, will detect and point out his blunders. All fatisfied? No; not one! Not a man that reads but will detail, reprove, and ridicule his dull witted errors.

"Well! he finds he is mistaken, he pants after improvement, and liftens to advice. He follows it, alters, and again appears. What is his fuccefs! Are cavilers lefs numerous? Abfurd expectation! Do critics unite in its praife? Ridiculous hope! If he would efcape cenfure, he must betake himself to a very different trade.”

In philofophical fentiment, Mr. Holcroft frequently reminds us of Mr. Godwin. With his zeal for truth, both theoretical and practical, Mr. H. has imbibed his averfion to fuperftition, and affixes a very extensive fignification to that term. In fome places, we find infinuations which we are at a loss to underftand. One of thefe we fhall quote, leaving our readers to de

cypher

cypher its meaning. Speaking of fome foolif proceedings of his mother, the hero fays: The idiot conduct of my mother tempted me to curfe, not her indeed, but, according to the narrow limits of prejudice, God and her excepted, all things elfe! Yet who but he was the chief cause of this scene of lunatic folly?'

On the subject of law, too, Mr.Godwin's peculiar opinions are adopted by Mr. H. in their full extent; and it is maintained that law itself, in its origin and effence, is unjuft. To ftate the reafonings, however, on which this paradox is founded, and to endeavour to detect its fallacy, would carry us too far: we must therefore, for the prefent, take our leave of a performance which difplays great abilities and very peculiar tenets.

ART. VI. Domestic Anecdotes of the French Nation, during the last Thirty Years indicative of the French Revolution. 8vo. PP. 444. 75, Boards. Kearsley. 1794

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HE object of this entertaining work, originally written in French, is to fhew that the revolution,-which has involved France in war with the greateft part of Europe, and has effected such a wonderful change in the government and manners of 25 millions of people, as well as in the habits of thinking of many of the subjects of the confederated princes,-was not the refult of any fudden commotion, but of a fyftem long fince formed by fome of the ableft men in France; who, by their writings, have been for more than thirty years preparing the minds of the people for its reception. This unquestionably was the cafe; though it might appear otherwife to a fuperficial obferver. Every effect must have an adequate caufe: the infolence of an officer might provoke the populace of Paris to acts of violence, but could not operate fo ftrongly in remote parts of the country, nor be fuppofed capable of producing a general and fyftematic oppofition to government. The explosion of a mine is fudden: but, before it can be sprung, it must have been charged; and, though the miners work out of fight, they are not the lefs bufily employed; their progrefs may be flow, and their labour unattended with noife, but, in due time, the confequences of thofe filent operations are felt and feen in the fhaking and rending of the earth, in the blowing up of battlements, and in the destruction of cities. The royal power stretched to the verge of tyranny, the prodigality and ruinous expence of the court during the reign of Louis XV. the luxury and infatiable rapacity of the courtiers, and the general corruption of manners through all the higher orders of the community, afforded the body of men called " Philofophers" abundant means for alienating the affections of the people from their rulers. The lives of REY, OCT. 1794.

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the clergy, either really immoral, or reprefented as fuch, fur nifhed the learned atheifts or deifts of the day with weapons which they artfully turned against religion itself; and, having fucceeded in deftroying all refpect for its minifters, they had the fatisfaction to find that their defigns were more than half completed. The writings of thofe apoftles of incredulity had infenfibly produced a change in the national character of the French, which fhewed the astonishing power of the prefs; for the people were fo wound up by them to a fenfe of their wrongs, that they brought themfelves, without remorfe, to butcher the clergy whofe bleffing they formerly used to folicit on their knees; to pull down the throne which they had once confidered as the pride of France; and ignominioufly to fhed on a scaffold the blood of a king, whofe name they had been in the habit of pronouncing with rapture, and even of venerating almost to idolatry.

The anecdotes before us ferve to point out the origin and progrefs of the fyftem planned and purfued by thefe "philofophers ;" and the manner in which it derived ftrength from the conduct of the court, the nobility, and the clergy. For the authenticity of these anecdotes, we can fay nothing; they appear to be, for the greatest part, taken from anonymous publications, newfpapers, and fcandalous chronicles; and many of them afford only that kind of evidence which, though poffibly true, could not warrant the conviction even of the moft worthless of the humani race. Others of them, indeed, but the number is not great, are given on unquestionable authority; and among thefe we And fad proofs of the weakness of human nature: for we fee perfons who, while they are exclaiming against perfecution and intolerance, are giving moft convincing proofs that they are capable of doing the very thing which they fo much condemn in others; and that the spirit of fanaticifm is not confined to zealots in the caufe of religion, but may be found among thofe who laugh at the idea of revelation, of the immortality of the foul, and even of the existence of a God. For the truth and juftice of this obfervation, we can plead the authority of the lateking of Pruffia; who thus expreffed himself on the subject of religious toleration :

"I never will contrain opinions on matters of religion. I dread reJigicus wars above all others. I have been so fortunate that none of the fects, who refide in my flates, have ever disturbed civil order. We muft leave to the people the objects of their belief, the form of their devotion, their opinions, and even their prejudices. It is for this reafon I have tolerated priests and monks, in ipite of Voltaire and d'Alembert, who have quarrelled with me on this head. I have the greatest veneration for all our modern philofophers: but indeed I am

compelled

compelled to acknowlege that a general toleration is not the predominant virtue of these gentlemen.'

This paffage places in a ftrong point of view the deplorable weakness of human nature. That ignorant men should think they were pleafing the Deity by employing tortures and penal. ftatutes to compel others of their fellow-creatures to abjure opinions, which to those in power appeared to be erroneous and ungodly, is a matter of lamentation but not of furprise: but that enlightened men fhould act thus,-who, from their knowlege of the human mind, are fully aware that it is not in the power of man to lay down an opinion at pleasure; that habit has an almoft infuperable influence over his thoughts and actions; that it is the height of folly to undertake to make him believe contrary to his conviction, and of injuftice to punish him for not doing what he cannot do without a violation of his fincerity and his confcience;-is a difgrace to reafon and philofophy. Abfurdity may be excufed in the ignorant: but what are we to think of thofe who, having rifen to the highest rank in learning of every kind, at once condemn and recommend perfecution, maintain the right of individuals to toleration in religious matters, and are themselves intolerant from principle, fhewing no mercy to thofe who prefume to believe what they think proper to reject:-thus establishing a mental tyranny founded in ufurpation and the perverfion of every idea of juftice and confiftency, and difplaying as much bigotry in their fyftem of disbelief, as was ever fhewn by the moft fanatical advocates for any particular faith;-without confidering that the confequence of fuccefs in their injurious undertakings must be to make the objects of their perfecution renounce fincerity, and put on the mark of hypocrify. When fuch men tell us that their object is to carry into practice all the perfection of theory, we know not which we ought principally to feel-disgust or indignation.

To return to the work under confideration: the compiler of the anecdotes arranges them under ten different heads; 1. Philofophers; 2. Clergy; 3. The Court; 4. Ministers and their Subalterns; 5. National Levity; 6. Theatres, Actors, &c. 7. Books; 8. Louis XV.; 9. The Queen; 10. Louis XVI. To which he adds an article under the title of Conclufion, to wind up the fubject. In this he fhews that the minds of the people had been prepared for the revolution by the writings of the philofophers; and that the conduct of the court, the clergy, and the nobility, had been fatally fuch as to forward the great event which has fince taken place. The compiler, without feeming to intend it, pays to the Jefuits the highest poffible compliment;

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