make themfelves amends by pillaging the Treafury, in which there were about 40 or 50,000 florins, after which, they followed the example of the foldiers, and were foon difperfed, leaving only behind them what they were unable either to carry away or to destroy. The mob too were preparing to plunder whatever the foldiers had fpared, particularly the congrefs Hall, the WarOffice, and the Hotels of their former Sovereigns; but they were prevented by the arrival of the vanguard of the Huffars of Haddick. At the approach of thefe troops, the multitude thought that they were apparitions; they would fcarcely believe their own fet.fes. The bufinefs, in fhort, is over. The mask is fallen off, and, to the comfort of humanity, the whole has been effected without the effufion of one fingle drop of blood. The arrival of the Auftrians was announced by drums beating and colours. fying. Vandernoot, Vaneupen, and their affo ciates are fled. Several others, who had diftinguished themfelves by their fanatic zcal, have followed their example. It is faid that the amount of the whole plunder, damage and waffe, is equal to between three and four millions of florins. The taking of Namur was the prelude to the furrender of feveral other frontier towns, fuch as Charleroy, Goffelines Sombreff, Genuppe, &c. From Namur to Bruffels, the reignty of KingLeopold was ackn ed without the fmalleft refiftar was inftalled in feveral places of triumph. Several detachments hav to the frontiers of Brabant, Hainault, and Flanders, to receive the fubmiffion of the inhabitants. ENGLAND. PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. HOUSE OF LORDS. His Majefty went in ftate to the mediate attendance of the Gentlemen of the House of Commons. Soon after Mir Hatfell, the Principal Clerk, with a confiderable number of the Members appeared at the bar, and were addreffed by the Lord Chancellor nearly in the fol lowing words: His Majefty bas commanded me to acquaint you, that he will defer declaring the cause of calling this Parliament, till there fhall be a Speaker of the Hanie of Commons. It is therefore his Majefty's pleasure, that you do immediately repair to the place where the Commons do ufually fit, and there clufe a fit perfon to be your Speaker, and that you prefent the perfon, fo chofen, to his Majefly here, for his Royal approbation toThrow at two o'clock." bel His Majefty having retired, the Clerks proceeded to adminifter the ufual oaths cellor was fworn firft, and after him his to the Lords prefent. The Lord ChanRoyal Highness the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Gloucefter. of the Crown, ftating, that thirteen A certificate was read from the Clerk Peers had been duly elected to reprefent Lords had been returned with an equal the Peerage of Scotland, and that fix number of votes. The Earl of Guildford took the oaths and his feat by fucceffion; after which HOUSE OF COMMONS The House of Commons affembled to the number of three hundred at leaft. About three o'clock Sir Francis Molineux came in the ufual form, and delivered the following meffage: "His Majefty commands the attendance of this Honourable Houfe in the Houfe of Peers." Mr Hatfell, attended by a confiderable number of members went to the bar of the House of Lords, and in a very fhort time returned to eled their Speaker. Gentlemen having taken their places. The Mafter of the Rolls rofe, and ftated, that they were now affembled for the purpose of exercising their ancient and indifputable right of electing their own Speaker. It had been, he faid, the ufual custom upon fuch occafions to point out the various and important duties of that high station, and” to enume rate the many qualities, great abilities, and accomplishments, which that perfon ought to poffefs whom they were to honour with their choice; were he to follow this example, he was happy to think that a more ample field for commendation never fell to the lot of any gentleman, in propofing a Speaker, than he had the good fortune to have this day; but well knowing the honourable character and gentleman-like feelings of his Right Hon. friend, as well as confidering that a majority of the gentlemen prefent had the honour of fitting with him in the laft Parliament, and bearing teftimony, upon many and great occafrons, to the propriety of conduct, the fuperior abilities, and the very mild and conciliating manners of his Right Hon. friend, he would wave going into that panegyric in his prefence, which, how ever juflified he might otherwife be in doing it, would, he knew, only ferve to dftreis the feeling of his Right Hou. friend. that the general opinion would be that his Right Hon. friend united all thofe qualities that had rendered him formerly, and would render him in future, a proper object of their choice. To thofe members who were not in the laft Parliament, he would take the liberty to to ftate, that all the dignity of the proceedings in that Houfe, the prefervation of its privileges inviolate, and the me thod of managing the great and impertant bufinefs to be tranfaced there, dé pended very much upon the conduct of their Speaker, without whom they could not do any one at whatever. He would not detain them much longer from com mencing the bufinefs they were aff mbled upon, but would ask thofe new members to confider the nature of the official fituation they were going to appoint fome person to, and then appeal to them if they would not certainly prefer his Right Hon. friend, who had been tried for fome time in that arduous fituation, where he had given the most univerfal fatisfaction, and who, he could venture to affirm, poffeffed (as the laft House of Commons had experienced) all the found judgment and knowledge of our excellent conftitution, adherence to the privileges of the Houfe, and invariable conduct in ftrictly attending to its orders and regulations. He then moved that the Right Hon. Henry Addington be called to the chair. Mr Philips rofe to fecond the motion; he faid, perhaps, after what had fallen from the Right Hon. Gentleman before him, there remained little for him to add, nor would he long detain the House from the important concerns for which they met he, however felt himself, from his perfonal knowledge of his Right Hon. Friend, as well as from his nub'ic cha racter, called upon to rife. The honour of his Right Hon. Friend left him no room to fuppofe that uninerited panegy ric and complimentary praifes were any ways frited to his feelings, far lefs to his withes; but, he mufi fay, that, great as thete requifites were, which the perfon ought to have acquired who was nomimated for that dignified fituation and high truft, ftill he knew, that his Honourable Friend united them all in his qualities for the chaira frong judgment, a thorough knowledge of the conftitution and laws of the country, a particular atteation to the forms and orders of the Houfe, were all neceffary to the perfon whom they fhould put in the chair; but, he was the more zealous in fupporting K& To thofe gentlemen who were in the laft Parliament, and who had witneffed the proceedings of the Houfe under the direction of his Right Honourable friend, he had little to lay, being convinced that the motion he was about to make would pafs unanimoully; and likewife, be caufe that conduct, and thofe amiable manners which he was applauding (though no applaufe of his could enhance their value), had already met with the approbation of every individual member of the laft Parliament, who is in this, and many other very refpectable names which he was forry to think they had loft. He was therefor well affured the a bold fcepticism, and a complete defiance of lorg eftablished public opinion, they have brought forth accounts of the conduct and pictures of the characters of the moft illuftrious of our ancestors, extremely different from thofe of the most impartial and best informed cotemporary writers, and have endeavoured to unfix the hiftorical belief of mankind with regard to points on which it had long been fet tled. This, except to a few perfons of a particular turn of mind, is always unpleafant. But it is particularly difagreeable when fuch authors deny or dérogate from the merit of perfonages whom we have, from our earliest days, been taught to efteem or admire. That wife and benevolent structure of our minds which difpofes them to feel pleasure in the encomium of virtoe in the abstract, gives them the fentiment of reverence and gratitude to those perfons whofe actions have been held to merit that encomium. Our hearts rife within us at the bare mention of their names, and we regard them as we do our patrons and our friends. To be deprived of this fentiment, to be told that we have been deceived, to be informed that fuch perfonages, inftead of being the objects of cur best affections, of our love and reverence, ought to excite in us only the feelings of hatred and contempt, muft neceffarily communicate a very difagreeable fenfation. 'Tis to exchange feelings the moft pleafant for others the most painful; 'tis like lof ing our best friends, and having them converted into our bittereft enemies. Nor is this all. Such a change of fentiment is apt to make us doubt of the truth and certainty of all human virtue. Nothing can have a stronger tendency to lead the mind, for the moment at lcaft, to adopt the difagrecable and ill founded opinions of certain philofophers, who have taken pains to convince the world, that all the pretenfions to virtue are founded on de, ceit, and that there never was, nor ever can be, pure and difinterefted conduct. Such opinions tend to lower the dignity of our nature, and, by depreciating our esteem of ourselves as well as of others, to weaken every generous effort, to damp every noble exertion. If we examine the nature of the evidence on which the authors to whom we allude have built their opinions, we shall, I think, be inclined to doubt their folidity, as much as we deprecate their effects. This evidence confifls of three kinds : 1ft, Anecdotes or memoirs fuppofed to have been written about the time the perfons treated of lived; 2d, Letters of thofe perfons; 3d, Oral tradition. We may be allowed fome general obfervations on each of those species of evidence. With regard to the firft, that of memoirs or anecdotes fupposed to have been written at the time, it may be obferved, that if they are the productions of perfons who are themselves engaged in public transactions, or connected with any of the parties or factions then fubfifting, there is a fufpicion against their teftimony, which it requires a conviction not only of the candour but of the ftrength of their minds to remove. Let us judge the cafe from the analogy of our own times; let us anticipate the refearches of future hiftorians, and fuppofe their judgment of the character of the prefent time, to be drawn from the party-writings of this day, and, I think, it will be easy to pronounce on the injuftice of their representations. The next fpecies of evidence, that of letters or paffages of letters alledged to have been written by those perfons whofe characters are attacked, or attempted to be depreciated, though often brought forth with an air of triumphant difcovery, appears to be of a kind extremely uncertain and inconclufive. Let any one, who in the private walks of life has had an extenfive and vari ons ous correlpondence, confider what it To this hiftory of the latter part of would be to have his character judged Queen Anne's reign, the preceeding of, not by his actions or conduct, not remarks are applicable in the strongest by the train of his correfpondence degree: Not only is the evidence, by compared with his conduct, not even which its narrative is fupported, of by the whole feries of his letters com- thofe uncertain fpecies we have enupared with one another, but by differ- merated, but their authority is lefs fubent detached paffages of thefe letters, ftantiated than is common in works written at different periods and to dif- that reft on the fame fort of proof.ferent perfons, without any knowledge Manufcript anecdotes are quoted of the circumftances in which they without its being mentioned by whom were written or of the perfons to they were written, and they are very whom they were addreffed, and he will feldom, if at all, given at full length, at once fee the hardship of fuch a mode or, in the words of the anonymous of procedure. If this holds in private author from whom they are taken. life, how much more must be the in- Neither are the letters, but with few juftice of fuch a mode of forming our exceptions, copied at large; and fomejudgment of men concerned in the times when they are mentioned to various great and difficult tranfactions have been in the poffeffion of the auof states and kingdoms; in thofe tranf- thor's father, no account is given of actions, where, from their very nature, the manner in which he became pofthe weak muft fo often be flattered, feffed of them. Most of the anecdotes the violent conciliated, the interefted derived from oral tradition, confeffedallured, the fubtle counterplotted, and ly flowed through the channel of the where State fecrecy makes conceal- court of St Germains, to whose zeal ment and disguise but parts of the vir- for its unfortunate mafter we can eatue of fidelity. fily pardon that pliant belief, thofe violent prejudices which are to decorate the characters of his friends,' and to depreciate thofe of his enemies. The third fort of evidence we mentioned, that of stories or anecdotes handed down by oral tradition, it is fcarce neceffary to comment further on, than to fuggeft that it is clearly liable, and indeed, in a much stronger degree, to every objection that has been made against the firft. Its original imperfections are as great as thofe of written memoirs or anecdotes, and it is liable, befides, to that increafed uncertainty, which fucceeding ignorance or prejudice may occafion. We have been induced to make thofe general remarks, not only as they apply to the work before us, but, as we think they may not improperly be kept in view in perufing fome other modern narratives of former tranfactions and other modern portraits of former statesmen, which contradict the general opinion, and ftrike at the veneration which the public have long been accustomed to pay to fome of its illuftrious ancestors. Exclufive of the errors, to which, from the above mentioned circumftances, this narrative is liable, it may be further obferved, that, from the very fingular account which the author gives of himself in his preface, he can hardly be fuppofed to be altoge ther difpaflionate or unprejudiced on the fubject of his hiftory. We mean not by this to infinuate, in the most diftant degree, that the author (who we have heard is a moft upright and benevolent man) would intentionally mifreprefent or falfify any particulars; but it is requifite only to read a few paffages of his book, to be fatisfied that he is too much heated, and under too much irritation, to be a cool and impartial hiftorian of the period he has chofen. What but this heat, this intemperate zeal, could have led him gravely to retail the ridiculous ftory, that that the fet of diffipated and thoughtlefs young men, recorded by the Spectator under the title of Mohacks, were men hired by Prince Eugene to commit riots in the streets,. and dip their hands in blood, that they might be hardened to the atrocity of political maffacres? The vehemence and zeal of this author have not only prejudiced his belief, but also degraded his language below the dignity of hiftorical, or the decorum of improved expreffion. To call the Duke of Marlborough, whofe fhining talents and military exploits have ranked him with the ableft ftatefmen and moft confummare generals, a fiend, a daftardly veteran, is to use a freedom with hiftory and with his readers, which we are perfuaded the author, upon clm review, will thank us for having pointed out to his correction. [Edinburgh Herald.] The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare, collated verbatim with the most authentic Copies, and revifed; with the corrections and Illuftrations of various Commentators; to which are added Notes by Edmond Malone. 11 vols cr. 8vo. IT appears the principal aim of Mr Malone, in this edition, to afcertain the genuine text of Shakespeare, from the earliest editions. This, as he very justly obferves, ought ever to be the first duty of an editor; his next aim is to explain and illuftrate; and in this latter he has fhown great diligence, attention, and extent of reading of contemporary writers. The editor of the fecond folio, and Mr Pope (obferves Mr Malone in his preface,) were the two great cor rupters, of our poet's text; and great corrupters indeed, be proves them both, in the courfe of the work, to have been. 66 Mr Malone appears to have been at great pains in collating the feveral copies, and by means of an index, or table formed for the purpofe, to have detected every variation in every copy; by which means many innovations, tranfpofitions, &c. have been detected, many hundred emendations made; and I trust (fays he, with that modely which is displayed through the whole) a genuine text has been formed.". Among the introductory matters contained in the first part of the first volume, the prefaces of Theobald, Hanmer, and Warburton (on the latter of whom Mr M. is pretty fevére,) are not admitted-not appearing to the editor to throw any light on the author or his works. Dr Johnfon's preface, Mr Steeven's Advertisement, Catalogue of ancient Tranflations from Claffic Authors, Mr Pope's Preface, the Players dedication and preface to the third folio, Rowe's life of Shakespeare (with many notes by Mr Malone, and, what is better, a promife, at a future period, of a compleat life,) his will and a mortgage,Poems on Shakefpeare, Lift of the ancient and modern editions of the plays and poems, and Mr Malone's effay on the chronological order of the plays confiderably enlarged, form a volume which is called the first part of the first volume. The fecond part of the first volume begins with Mr Malone's hiftory of the English Stage, now of itself nearly fuficient to form a moderate book (and to fuch a book we wish much to fee it extended;) and then proceeds to the plays, of which the tempeft ranks the first. The |