Mr. Moyle, one of his old friends at Button's Coffec-house, determined to raife a laugh at his expence, tock the pains to tranflate the above beautiful pafage into old menkish Latin, and produced it against him at the Club as the original from which he copied. Dryden was thunderstruck at fuch a feeming proof of plagiarifin, yet, being fo ftrong againft him, could do nothing but deny it, and appeal to his former reputation for evidence. The wits, who were in the fecret, on this fhook their heads, and faid, though they must admit his afleverations, it was one of the most fingular cafes that, perhaps, ever happened, that two authors hould not only think alike, but ufe the very fame words to expres that thought. This affected Dryden fo much that he kept from the Coffee-houte three or four days, till his friends brought him back in triumph, by acknowledging the whole deceit, and alluring him there was no other way of being fevere on fuch an excellent performance, but by fuch a picce of diflimulation. DR. JOHNSON. (Never before published.) Dr. now Dean Maxwell fitting in co m pany with Dr. Johnfon, they were talking of the violence of parties, and what unwarrantable irrational lengths mobs will fometimes run into. "Why yes, Sir," fays Johnfon, "they'll do any thing, no matter how odd, or defperate, to gain their point; they'll catch hold of the red-hot end of a poker fooner than not get poffeffion of it." Some perfons at Sir Joshua Reynolds's table, foon after the death of Dr. Goldfmith, were criticifing rather too freely on his works, which they faid did not difcover much talent or originality. ' Johnfon heard them growlingly for fome dignity, and looking them full in the face, time; at laft, raifing himfelf with great he exclaimed, "If nobody was fuffered to abufe poor Goldy but those who could write as well, he would have few enemies." DEAN MAXWELL. This gentleman, who was the intimate friend and companion of Dr. Johnson in the early parts of his faine, and who, to an excellent understanding, fine talents, and general reading, has added a good deal of Johnfon's aphoriftical manner of converfing, being, a few years ago, at Lord Mount Edgcombe's, which commands fo grand and extenfive a view of the ocean, looked for fome moments with awful admiration at the profpect, and then exclaimed, "The fea is his, and he 1pade it, and his hands prepared the dry land !” Soon afterwards, coming to the bottom of a high hill, which, in the courfe of feeing the improvements, it was necessary to afcend, the Dean, who was then above feventy years of age, began to demur a little-Come, Doctor," fays his guide, "the hills are his alfo, and h. made them." "True," fays the Doctor, but not for me to climb them." (To be continued.) FOUR ORIGINAL LETTERS FROM THAT EXCELLENT PRELATE DR. HOUGH, BISHOP OF WORCESTER, TO JOHN TOWNSHEND, ESQ. SIR, YESTERDAY I had the pleasure of feeing it under your own hand, that you and the Ladies were free from indifpofition; I have nothing more to wifh on your account, but that you may long, very long, be fo; and if Bath promiles, further fecurity, your friends here, how much foever they want your company, will contentedly exercise their patience; what they fuffer will be recompenced in a comfortable meeting; and we shall enjoy ourselves heartily. In the mean time we (I speak of those under this roof) will wear out our converfable hours in kind remembrance, and an agreeable expectation, Mifs Betty is fo well and chearful, chearful, that in good earnest we do not quite mifs Elmly; the affairs of that place are always in her head, and if the does not fay it under complaifance to me, who have ever profeffed enmity to the apple-trees, the thinks they that are down look beit: I own mytelf ungrateful, drinking at this very time of their produce, the beft, without a compliment, I ever tafted; but they stood in my way, and I could not let them be quiet. News comes to Bath from all quarters earlier than a friend can fend it; you expect nothing from me of that fort; nor fhall you be troubled with any thing more at prefent from, Sir, Your very affectionate Friend, and faithful humble Servant, JOE WORCESTER. Jan. the 17th, 1735. SIR, I AM very glad to hear you got fo well to Bath as that Mrs. Townshend thought it a journey of pleasure. I expected you to have faid Miis Betty did fo too; but if I guefs right the ftill feels it in her bones. By this time I prefume you are fettled in your lodgings, and I pray God you may find the utmolt benefit the waters can give you. I did not imagine your firft letter could give me any account of the company in the place; but by this time you begin to grow acquainted with them, at leaft with their ailments and infirmities, and I hope the Duchefs of Kent meets with all the relief fhe looks for, that her dear and valuable mother may have pleasure in fecing it. Mr. Plowden and his Lady have both been dangerously ill, but are now on the mending hand. Every body at Hagley (except Mr. Richard) has been much out of order; but I fent thither yesterday, and hear better of them. I am quite free of my cold, and in every other refpect well, and always, Sir, Your truly affectionate Friend, Nov. the 2d, 1737. SIR, YOU are always obliging, and never can be more fo than when you give me a good account of yourself and our friends. God be thanked you are all well, and may the Waters be to you what Lord Carleton ufed to fay Tokay was to him, after drinking which he was better than well. Since Captain Congreve is under the fame roof with you, and Mrs. Sandys at no great diftance from you, that company will never be to feek which I am iure, of all others, is the most agree able to you. Lords and Ladies may come and go as they pleafe; you will never mifs them; but I wish you had been known to Lady Portland before the went, for I am confident you would have thought her, as I do, another Mrs. Sandys. Lady Oxford does her old fervant a great deal of honour in remembering him, who fincerely prays for her health, and every other bleffing that may make her life eafy and comfortable. Bath waters require time to fhew their good effects; and therefore I will not alk at prefent how far you and Captain Congreve have felt 'em; but when a few week's more have pafled over your heads, I promife myfelf the pleasure either of hearing you recommend them, or feeing you from them. With kindeft love and service to Mrs. Townshend, and beit wishes to Mifs Betty, I am, Sir, Your very affectionate Friend, Nov. the 9th, 1737. SIR, WHILE you, Mrs. Townshend, and Mifs Betty are well at Bath, I know nobody that defires to fee you elsewhere. Thofe Waters are feldom, if ever, feit to advantage without perfecting the cure, if they may have leiture to do it; and as Captain Congreve is of opinion you are all better than when you came thither, in the name of God have patience, and think not too haftily of coming home. Mrs. Hall is very kind in the vifit fhe defigns me, and, upon my word, shall be as heartily welcome as if the brought her brothers and fifters along with her. We shall often remember them with pleafure, and with health to them with a good degree of confidence,' when we corfider that they themfelves are taking care to improve it. Mrs. Offley dyed on Wednesday laft, and is to be buried at Fladbury this evening; the Chancellor is now at Worcester, and well, but about a fortnight fince had a pleuritick diforder that required the Doctor's help to remove it. I am in haste, Your's, Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America, from the Year 1772 to 1777, elucidating the Hiftory of that Country, and defcribing its Productions, viz. Quadrupedes, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Trees, Shrubs, Fruits, and Roots: with an Account of the Indians of Guiana, and Negroes of Guinea. By Captain J. G. Stedman; illustrated with Eighty elegant Engravings, from Drawings made by the Author. 2 Vols. 4to. London. Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's ChurchYard, and J. Edwards, Pall Mall. 1796. THE Reader is prefented in this work with a collection of facts, fuch as he may conceive to be supplied by the various experience and the free converfation of an artist, a foldier, a moralift, and a traveller. We may add to thefe characters that of a lover, for Capt. Stedman has contrived to weave into his Narrative the ftory of his tender affections: nor does the faithful and fair Joanna, if a mulatto complexion will permit us to apply that epithet to a very charming female in other refpects, degrade the dignity, while the confiderably heightens the intereft, of his adventures. As a Moralift, we find our author wandering among the plantations of Surinam; obferving the behaviour of the planters towards their flaves and each other; and deducing useful reflections from the occurrences that prefent themselves. As a Soldier, we follow him with difficulty Along the tracklefs forefts of the interior country, purfuing the revolted negroes with perfevering bravery and ultimate fuccefs, in fpite of the difficulties of cold and hunger, a favage foe, and a peftilential climate. As an Artif, Capt. Stedman employs every leisure hour of his travels, and every vacant page of his book, in a defcription and delineation of fome curious animal or plant; of fome American fcene, .either of perfons or of country, recommended by its beauty or its fingularity. Mr. Stedman, as a Naturalift, is fometimes deficient in verbal accuracy, which may be readily excused in a writer whofe occupations could hardly have afforded him opportunity for fcientific precision; but his reprefentations on paper are, for the most part, exact, and uncommonly animated and characteristic. On the fubject of the condition of the negroes who cultivate the plantations of Surinam, one might fuppofe our author, from fome part of his work, to be a candid and infpartial witness. If fo, the horrible instances of cruelty, which he narrates with dreadful minutenefs, would difpofe every real friend to mankind to reprobate, in the most decided manner, both the Slave-trade and its votaries. Some of the examples of favage feverity which he records, he beheld himself; and of thefe the reipect we are difpofed to entertain for his veracity will not permit us to doubt; but feveral cafes he relates from the report of others; and, perhaps, a fecret prejudice against the character of the planters and their agents might incline him to fufpect their guilt, where the proof of its existence was incomplete. We have formed this judgment from obferving the apparent complacency with which Capt. Stedman dilates on every atrocious circumftance employed to aggravate and enhance the fuiferings of the miferable negroes. If he has fuppofed that, by thele means, he fhould augment the the intereft of his work, we fear he has made, in this inftance, a wrong conclufion. Moft of his readers will probably be at length wearied and difgufted with a picture, too frequently exhibited, of thecking, inconceivable, and gratuitous barbarity. Why this fyftem of accumulated horrors fhould continue to be inflicted on a wretched race, when, by the acknowledgment of the planters them. felves, it is wholly ineffectual as to all the rational purpoks of punishment, being derided by the ftoical contempt of the intrepid fufferer, and exciting little folicitude in the minds of his thoughtlefs affociates, it is uieleis to enquire; and what no reasonable perfon would do, or permit, the mind does not willingly believe can very often take place. The love of the marvellous, too, and the tremendous, is fo prevalent in the human breaft, that we now and then find it encouraging the fentiment, when there is not an adequate object to excite it. For thefe reafons the reader will perufe the narrative of the fufferings and punishments of the negro ilaves at Surinam with fome grains of allowance for pardonable partiality, and a fondnefs for the wonderful and the uncommon. Juitice, however, calls upon us to declare, that Capt. Stedman fpeaks on the great quel tion of the Slave-trade with candour and philofophical moderation; and, thinking it wrong and reprehenfible on the whole, is fully aware of the mifchiefs that would probably enue from its premature and fudden abolition. On this topic our author is very eloquent and argumentative, though his reasonings do not entirely correspond with what he delivers in other parts of his bock on the fame fubject. The first Chapters of this work are employed in defcribing our author's voyage to South America, and in relating the history of the colony at Surinam, from the time of its earlieft difcovery by the Spaniards, till its poffeffion by the English in the reign of Charles the Second; by the Dutch toward the end of the fame reign; by the French in the year 1712, who took the fettlement from the Hollanders with five fhips of war, and fold it to them immediately for 56,6181. fterling. They have continued ever fince its undisturbed proprietors. In the fame part there are particular details of the revolts of the negro faves of the colony at different times. Thefe are a very proper introduction to that portion of Capt. Stedman's work which relates to the expedition undertaken to fubdue and dif perfe them, while he was on the coaft, in which he bore a very confiderable and diftinguished firare. He thus deferibes one of the leaders of the rebels, with circumftances not very honourable to European faith. "Baron, with the greatcft number of the rebels, efcaped into the woods, having first found means, however, to cut the throats of ten or twelve of the rangers, who had left their way in the marsh, and whom he feized as they ftuck faft in the fwamp; and cutting off the ears, note, and lips of one of them, he left him alive, in this condition to return to his friends, with whom, however, the milerable man foon expired. "This Baron had formerly been the negro flave of a Mr. Dahibergh, a Swede, who, on account of his abilities, had advanced him to the rank of a favourite, had taught him to read and write, and bred him a mafon. He had alfo been with his master in Holland, and was promited his manumiffion on his return to the colony. But Mr. Dahlbergh, breaking his word with regard to his liberty, and felling him to a Jew, Baron obitimately refuted to work, in confequence of which he was publickly flogged under the gailows. This ulage the negre to violently relented, that from that moment he vowed revenge againft all Europear s without exception, fled to the woods, where, putting himself at the head of the rebels, his name became dreadful, and particularly fo to his former mafter Dahlbergh, as he folemnly twore that he fhould never die in peace till he had wathed his hands in the tyrant's blood.” In the page immediately succeeding that from which we have extracted the above paffage, another occurs of a very different nature, which is a proper contrait to that which precedes it. As it alfo difplays to great advantage our author's talent for defcription, and makes the reader, in feme fort, acquainted with the heroine of the ftory, we fhall here prefent it to him. "This charming young woman I firik faw at the houfe of a Mr. Demelly, fecretary to the Court of Policy, where I daily breakfafted, and with whofe lady, Joanna, but fifteen years of age, was a very remarkable favourite. Rather taller than the middle fize, he was poffefed of the most elegant fhape that nature can exhibit, moving her well-formed limbs with more than common gracefulness. Her face was full of native modeity, and the moft diftinguithed fweetnefs; her eyes, as black as ebony, were large and full of cx expreffion befpeaking the goodnefs of her heart, with cheeks, through which glowed, in fpite of the darknels of her complexion, a beautiful tinge of vermillion, when gazed upon. Her nofe was perfectly well formed, rather mall; her lips a little prominent, which, when fhe fpoke, difcovered two regular rows of teeth, as white as mountain fnow; her hair was a dark brown, inclining to black, forming a beautiful globe of imali ringlets, ornamented with flowers and gold pangles. Round her neck, her arms, and her ancles, fhe wore gold chains, rings and medals; while a fhawl of India muflin, the end of which was negligently thrown over her polifhed fhoulders, gracefully covered part of her lovely bofom; a petticoat of rich chintz alone completed her apparel. Bareheaded and bare-footed, the fhone with double luftre as the carried in her delicate hand a beaver hat, the crown trimmed round with filver. The figure and appearance of this charming creature could not but attract my particular attention, as they did indeed that of all who beheld her, and induced me to enquire from Mrs. Demelly, with much iurprize, who the was, that appeared to be to much diftinguished above all others of her species in the colony. "She is, Sir," replied this lady, "the daughter of a refpectable gentleman, named Kruythoff, who had, befides this girl, four children by a black woman called Cery, the property of a Mr. D. B. on his eftate called Fauconberg, in the upper part of the river Comewina. "Some few years fince Mr. Kruythoff madethecffer or above one thousand pounds terling to Mr. D. B. to obtain manumiflion for his offspring, which being in humanly refuted, it had such an effect on his fpirits, that he became frantic, and died in that melancholy ftate foon after, leaving in flavery, at the difcretion of a tyrant, two boys, and three fine girls, of which the one now betore us is the eldieft. "The gold medals, &c. which feem to furprize you, are the gifts which her faithful mother, who is a deserving woman towards her children, and of fome confequence amongst her caft, received from her tather (whom the ever attended with exemplary affection) juft before he expired. : Mr. D. B. however met with his juft reward for having fince driven all his bell carpenter negrees to the woods by his injuftice and leverity, he was ruined, and obliged to fly the colony, and leave his eftate and stock to the difpofal of his creditors, while one of the above unhappy deferters, a samboo (the offspring, that is, of a mulatto and a negro), has, by his industry, been the protector of Cery and her children. His name is Jolycoeur, and he is now the firft of Baron's captains, whom you may have a chance of meeting in the rebel camp, breathing revenge against the Chriftians. "Mrs. D. B. is ftill in Surinam, being arrefted for her husband's debts, till Fauconberg fhall be fold by execution to pay them. This lady now lodges at my houfe, where the unfortunate Joanna attends her, whom the treats with peculiar tenderness and diftinction." "Having thanked Mrs. Demelly for her account of Joanna, in whole eye glittered the precious pearl of fympathy, I took my leave, and went to my lodging in a state of fadness and ftupefaction. However trifling, and like the ftile of romance, this relation may appear to fome, it is nevertheless a genuine account, and, on that core, may not be entirely uninterefting to my readers." Capt. Stedman mentions, in a note at the bottom of the page, that, in Surinam, if a mother be in flavery, her offspring are her master's property, fhould their father be a prince, unlets he obtains them by purchate. We apprehend that this regulation is univerfal wherever flavery is eftablished. The narrative above cited is ornamented by a whole-length reprefentation of Joanna, in which both the lover and the artift have laboured with inimitable success. In the Fifth Chapter a circumftance is detailed which fhews that, however harsh the treatment of the flaves may occafionally be at Surinam, yet, on the whole, the planters are not forry to favour them, when it may be done by transferring their hardships to others. This proves, we fhould think, that of wanton cruelty poicy will, for the mcft part, prevent the perpetration. "Five or fix failors now were buried every day, belonging to the merchantfhips, whofe lamentable fate I cannot pais by unnoticed, being actually used worfe than the negrces in this fcorching climate, where, befides rowing large flat-bottomed barges up and down the river, day and night, for coffee, fugar, &c. and being expofed befides to the bur ning fun and heavy rains, and ftowing the above commodities in a hold as hot as an oven, they are obliged to row every upstart |