the part of the crown, and of the public, if domeftic direction is expected to be given up, I must infift upon the nomination to those important offices; and in granting it, there will still remain to the Company a much more extenfive nomination, to places of greater truft and emolument, than is now claimed on behalf of the public, If, therefore, that share of foreign direction which I'demand, is not admitted, the decifion must be left to Parliament, who may probably think that a fhare of domeftic as well as of local direction, is the indifputable right of the nation in this business."

Having thus given what he conceives to be the real fentiments of the two different parties, he now prefumes to deliver his own opinion on the fubject, in the following address to the minifter and the directors.

"My Lord and Gentlemen,

"I have hitherto liftened to the arguments of both fides, with filence and attention; with attention, not only to the outward texture of your reasoning, but to the inward fprings alfo, by which you are actuated. I have endeavoured to pry into the very bottom of your fouls, and this is the refult of my inqueft.

As for you, gentlemen of the direction, you have spoke with fo much fimplicity and plainnefs of fpeech, that it is impoffible to miftake your meaning: your arguments, therefore, as well as your motives, require no comment: they are both fufficiently obvious.

1

"In regard to your lordship, while I admire the dignity and difinterestedness of your profeffions, I am forry that I do not find myself juftified in paying the fame compliment to your abilities on the prefent occafion: I would rather with to fuppofe, and I think it most probable that the formation of this crude, inadequate, and ill-digefted plan, has been the work of others, more than of your lordfhip: I have already pointed out the bad policy, and the rui nous confequences refulting from the very fhort term propofed for the duration of the Company's charter. I have alfo, I conceive, fufficiently brought to light the enormity of your Lordship's demand, in regard to the quantum of participation required for the public: The mode propofed for obtaining that quantum, is equal. ly exceptionable, but I defer the confideration of that matter for the prefent, and proceed to fhew, that the degree of management and direction claimed by you in behalf of the public, falls as much fhort of that extant and efficacy of controul which is their due, ' as their propofed proportion of revenue exceeds that due.—I have already expreffed my conviction that the eight per cent. demanded for the public, before the company can receive any fhare of the revenue, is more than that revenue will ever be brought to produce, in the way which your Lordship has thought proper to confent to the future adminiftration of the Company's fettlements: This being the cafe, why not infift upon the whole of the management, as well as the whole of the revenue? I readily allow that fuch an affumption of power would be too grofs to pafs on the public, but I must

at

at the fame time affirm, that the one naturally refults from the other, and, in point of abstract justice, is just as much their due: But your Lordship, in avoiding Scilla, had fallen upon Charibdis, and your dread of claiming an unpopular, though just right, has induced you on this, as on many other occafions, to facrifice to your cha racteristic timidity, the neceffary authority of the state. I can conceive your lordship to have argued in this manner: We must not revolt the Company, and increafe the popular clamour, by demanding oftenfible direction, to the extent of our claim: We will depend for a fhare of domestic management, on the well known influence of the crown, in the choice of directors: We will confine ourselves to the appointment of the fupreme council, partly because we have already got parliamentary fanction to that claim, and more especially, as it will afford us the ample means of future patronage; Had you confulted only the intereft of the state, it' would have occurred to your Lordship, that, though the election of the fupreme council was vested in the crown, yet in the execution of their trust, and in the difpofition of the revenues, they were to act under the orders of the court of directors, and not of minifters; confequently, though you might gain the nomination of lucrative appointments, yet the nation would gain nothing in point of controul over the Company. It might also have occurred to your Lordship, on a retrofpect of the paft management of the company, refpecting their territories, both in point of internal policy, and in appropriating their immenfe revenues for the benefit of the company, inftead of permitting them to become a prey to the rapacity of their fervants; that when fuch total want of good policy, and of economy, exifted at a time when the exertion of thofe virtues tended folely to enrich themfelves and their constituents, is it not probable they will exift, in a fuperior degree, when they know, that all their labour, and all their pains, will only ferve to benefit the ftate, and not themselves: It is rather to be expected that they will be very indifferent to the intereft of the state, and very attentive to their own, and that of their friends and dependents."

Speculation, a Poom.
a Poom. 4to. 2s. 6d. Dodfley.

Speculation is exhibited in this little poem under all her various forms, and under each, with much poetry and pleafantry; the author's talents, both of which have been as long admired, as they have been known to the public. Amongst the feveral excellent illuftrations of a fubject by no means fruitful of illuftration are the following.

"Could I, ye Gods, in equal ftrain Their various fallacies explain,

And

And all their fiend-like arts rehearse,
In faithful and immortal verfe;
No more the bull and bear should glow,
Refplendent in the folar bow,

But banish'd to th' infernal flore,
Give Pluto's realms two dæmons more:
The duck debarr'd from Lethe's fpring,
Whose waters sweet oblivion bring;
In Phlegethon her feat fhould fix,
And fpeculate the pools of Styx.

"Nor lefs among th' unletter'd fwains
This fashionable word obtains;
(For fashion now alike pervades
The gorgeous roof, and fylvan fhades)
Afk the rich clown, whofe iron fway
The humble villages obey,
While penury and hunger wait,
Befide the lowly cottage gate,

Why the hard wretch witholds his grain,
And hears unmov'd the poor complain;
Afk why he cumbers up his ground,
With ftacks of unthrefh'd corn around,
Till wet and mould have spoil'd one half,
Or vermin ground it into chaff;
He'll try to modify his diction,
And tell 'twas his own election,
He felt a certain infligation

you,

To keep it all on-fpeculation.

Mark where the money-lending crew
Their bafe ufurious trade purfue,

With wily phrafe, and treacherous fmile
The poor unwary youth beguile,
Oft' to his thoughtlefs with fupply
The means of want and infamy!
All that the anxious father's cares
Have gather'd in his brighter years,
All that the younger offspring craves,
And oft the tender mother faves
From comforts, which her age requires,
In mortgages and bonds expires.

"And muft his fair paternal lands
All center in such mifcreant hands?
Juft heav'n forbid !---

Oh! may the pillory or rope

Prevent them in each diftant hope,

And all their golden expectations

Be airy dreams and-peculations."

Although Mr. Anftie (for to that gentleman's pen we

attribute this production, fince his avowed writings appear at the bottom of the advertisement) declares,

4

• Not

Not all the criticifing race

Can move one muscle in his face.'

We would ftill (albeit we do not boaft ourselves amongst the number of thofe to whom

• Letters patent are affign'd,

a

To ftamp th' opinions of mankind,')

recommend a fairer field than this entangled path of the poetical region, where even the author of the Bath Guide can find a flower deferving his cropping. At the fame time we can obferve many veftiges of the most humorous poet of his time in the courfe of this agreeable bouquet, and where any fuch marks are wanting, or but dimly feen,' the fubject, not the author is in fault.

The concluding lines of this performance are extremely worthy the heart from whence they came; whether confidered in a moral, a poctical, or a political light.

But if the truth I must impart,

And fay what paffion rules my heart,
No thirst for honours, wealth, or pow'r
E'er robb'd me of one quiet hour,
No party zeal, no factious aim
Torment me with their raging flame,
But anxious thoughts for England's fake
Will oft the flumb'ring mufe awake,
In hopes to pleafe in faithful ftrain
The wife, the virtuous, and humane,
My foul with ftrong ambition fir'd,
And these incondite rhymes infpir'd,
Taught me to think no toil fevere
Awhile to catch their lift'ning ear,
And make their smiles and approbation
The object of my fpeculation.'

Fatal Falfhood, a Tragedy, as it is acled at the TheatreRoyal, Cuvent-Garden. By the Author of Percy, 8vo. Is. 6d. Cadell.

This tragedy is excellently calculated to fhew the errors, which, the beft hearts are apt to be led into. The ftruggles of Orlando, torn between his contending paffions,his friendship for Rivers,-love for Julia,-and pity for Emmelina,

are

are moft ftrongly, and at the fame time, moft delicately painted. To fee a bad character, guilty of a bad action, is what we expect, and therefore we are not furprized; but when a good man is forced against his inclination to depart from virtue, let the confequences be what they may, he must become as interefting an object, as the former would be difgufting.

Mifs Moore has been charged with plagiarism, we therefore with a moft fcrutinizing eye have fought to ascertain the fact; and we think fhe is indebted, for the title of the tragedy, and fome of its incidents, to an elegant novel, called The fatal Effects of Inconftancy, and to Richardfon's Clemen-tina, for the tender madness of her Emmelina. But fhe has turned them to fuch good advantage, that we dismiss her, with this caution, to take as little from others as the can, as no perfon has less reafon to borrow; for her productions will bear the most critical eye in the closet, which is not often the cafe with pieces which have received every advantage from flage decoration.

L.

The Times, &c. a Comedy, by Mrs. Griffiths, as it is acted at the Theatre-Royal Drury-Lane. 8vo. Is. 6d. Fielding and Walker.

The purport of almoft every advertisement now-a-days, is to acknowledge the favourable reception' which the performance has met with. The author of the comedy now under confideration goes in the fame track, and fpeaks warmly of the indulgence which attended its reprefentation." Properly enough, indeed, hath fhe term'd it an indulgence, fince the fteady impartiality which it is our duty to maintain, obliges us to confefs we fee little merit in the performance but that of meaning well.Of Mrs. Griffiths's talents we are not infenfible, having feen them exerted on many different occafions, with great pleasure; but we cannot, in the prefent production, recognize the pen of the elegant and interefting Frances. We are well acquainted with Goldoni's Bourru Bienfaifant, on which this piece is founded, and think it might have fuggefted much greater advantages of circumftance and fituation to an English dramatift, than is here difcovered by Mrs. G. The character of Woodley, however, is not ill-sustained, and there are fome fcattering gleams of

plea-.