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THE

EUROPEAN MAGAZINE,

AND

LONDON REVIEW,
For JANUARY 1794.

ARCHIBALD BO WE R.
[WITH A PORTRAIT.]

THIS author, whofe works are now but little known, though at one period of his life they were held in much eftimation, was a native of Scotland, being born on the 17th of January 1636 at or near Dundee †, of an ancient family, by his own account, which had been for feveral hundred years poffeffed of an eftate in the county of Angus in Scotland . In September 1702, at the age of fixteen, he was fent to the Scots College of Douai, where he ftudied until the year 1706, to the end of his first year of Philofophy §. From thence he was removed to Rome, and on the 9th day of December 1706, was admitted into the Order of Jefus . After a noviciate of two years, one fpent in the study of Rhetoric and two in Philofophy, he went, in the year 1712, to Fano, where he taught Humanity during the space of two years, He then removed to Fermo, and refided there three years, until the year 1717, when he was recalled to Rome to ftudy

Divinity in the Roman College. There he remained until the year 1721, when he was fent to the College of Arezzo, where he ftaid until the year 1723 T, Reader of Philofophy, and Confultor to the Rector of the College. He then was fent to Florence, where he remained but a fhort time, being in the fame year removed to Macerata, at which place he continued until the year 1726**. Between the two laft periods it feems probable that he made his last vows, his own account fixing that event in the month of March 1722 ††, at Florence; though, as he certainly was that year at Arezzo, it is most likely to have been a year later.

Having thus been confirmed in the Order of Jefus, and arrived at the age of almoft forty years, it was reasonable to fuppofe that Mr. Bower would have paffed through life with no other changes than fuch as are ufual with perfons of the fame order; but this uniformity of life was not deftined to be his lot.

Complete and Final Detcation of Archibald Bower, n. 155.
Six Letters from Archibald Bower to Father Sheldon, p. 83.
Mr. Bower's Anfwer to Bower and Tillemont Compared, p. 14.
Complete and Final Dete&ion, &c. p. 109.

Ibid. p. 155: Mr. Bower, by his own account, was admitted into the Order in Nosember 1705, Anfwer to Six Letters from Archibald Bower, &c. p. 65.; but this is evidently not true, being contradicted not only by the teftimony of a Gentleman who remembered his leaving Douai, but by the register of the College from whence the above date is extracted.

Thefe dates are taken from the extracts of the College books. Mr. Bower's own account (Answer to Six Letters, &c. p. 72.) differs in some respects; particularly, he says that he was no longer than fix months at Arezzo, having been fent there to fupply the place of the deceafed Profeffor of Philofophy,

• Complete and Final Detection, p. 155. * Fall Confutation, p. 54.

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To whatever cause it is to be afcribedwhether, according to his own account, to his difguft at the enormities committed by the Inquifition, in which he performed the office of Counsellor t; or, as his enemies affert, to his indulgence of the amorous paflions, particularly with a Nun to whom he was ghoftly father; certain it is, that in the year 1726 he was removed from Macerata to Perugia, and from thence made his efcape into England, where he arrived at the latter end of June or July, after various adventures, which it now becomes our duty to communicate to the reader, and which we shall do in his own words; premifing, how ever, that the truth of the narrative has been impeached in feveral very material circumftances,

Having determined to put into exe, cution his defign of quitting the Inquifition and bidding for ever adieu to Italy, he proceeds §, "To execute that defign with fome fafety, I proposed to beg leave of the Inquifitor to visit the Virgin of Loretto, but thirteen miles diftant, and to pafs a week there; but in the mean time to make the beft of my way to the country of the Grifons, the nearest country to Macerata out of the reach of the Inquifition. Having therefore, after many conflicts with myfelf, asked leave to visit the neighbouring fanctuary, and obtained it, I fet out on horfeback the very next morning, leaving, as I propofed to keep the horse, his full value with the owner. I took the road to Loretto, but turned out of it at a mall distance from Reca. nati, after a most violent fruggie with myfelf, the attempt appearing to me, at that juncture, quite defperate and impraticable; and the dreadful doom referved for me fhould I mifcarry, prefenting itfelf to my mind in the ftrongest light. But the reflection that I had it in my power to avoid being taken alive, and a perfuafion that a man in my ficuntion might lawfully avoid it, when every other means failed him, at the expence of his life, revived my ftaggered refoJution; and all my fears coaling at once, I fteered my courfe, leaving Loretto behind me, to Rocca Çantrada, to Fof

fombrone, to Calvi in the Dukedom of Urbino, and from thence through the Romagna into the Bolonefe, keeping the bye-roads, and at a good diftance from the cities of Fano, P.faro, Rimini, Forli, Faenza, and Imola, through which the high road paffed. Thus I advanced very flowly, travelling, generally fpeaking, in very bad roads, and often in places where there was no road at all, to avoid not only the cities and towns, but even the villages. In the mean time I feldom had any other fupport but fome coarfe provifions, and a very fmal quantity even of them, that the poor fhepherds, the countrymen or woodcleavers, I met in thofe unfrequented bye-places, could fpare me. My horfe fared not much better than myfeif; but in chufing my fleeping place I confulted his convenience as much as my own, pafling the night where I found moft fhelter for myself and moft grafs for him. In Italy there are very few folitary farm-houfes or cottages, the country-people there all living together in villages; and I though: it far fafer to lie where I could be any way fheltered, than to venture into any of them. Thus I spent feventeen days before I got out of the Ecclefiaftical State; and I very narrowly escaped being taken or murdered on the very borders of that State. It happened thus:

"I had paffed two whole days without any kind of fubfiftence whatever, meeting nobody in the bye-roads that would fupply me with any, and fearing to come near any houfe, as I was not far from the borders of the dominions of the Pope, I thought I fould be able to held till 1 got into the Moderefe, where I

believed I fhould be in lefs danger than while I remained in the Papal deminions; but finding myself about noon of the third day extremely weak, and ready to faint away, I came into the high road that leads from Bologna to Florence, at a few miles diftance from the former city, and lighted at a post-house that food quite by itself. Having asked the woman of the house whether the had any viduals ready, and being told that he had, I went to open the door of the only room in the house (that

Bower's Anfwer to a Scurrilous Pamphle', P. 4.

tThis, however, has been de¤.. d. See Complete and Final Detection, p. 57. Six Letters from Archibald Bower, p. 85.

Bower's Anfwer to a Scurrilous Pamphlet, p. 19. Another account had been published in 1750 by Mr. Barron, and a third is printed at the end of "Bower and Tillemont Compared," p. 89.

being a place where gentlemen only ftop to change horfes), and faw to my great furprize a placard pafted on it with a moft minute description of my whole perfon, and the promife of a reward of Boo crowns, about two hundred pounds English money, for delivering me up alive to the Inquifition, being a fugitive from the Holy Tribunal, and of 600 crowns for my head. By the fame placard all perfons were forbidden, on pain of the greater excommunication, to receive, harbour, or entertain me, to conceal or to screen me, or to be any way aiding and affifting to me in making my efcape. This greatly alarmed me, as the reader may well imagine; but Í was still more affrighted when entering the room I faw two fellows drinking there who, fixing their eyes upon me as foon as I came, continued looking at me very ftedfastly. I ftrove by wiping my face, by blowing my nofe, by looking out at the window, to prevent their having a full view of me. But one of them faying, The Gentleman fecms afraid to be feen, I pur up my handkerchief, and turning to the fellow, faid boldly, 'What do you mean, you rafcal? Look at me; I am not afraid to be feen.' He faid nothing, but looking again fted faftly at me, and nodding his head, went out, and his companion immediately followed him, I watched them, and fecing them with two or three more in clofe conference, and, no doubt, confulting whether they fhould apprehend me or not, I walked that moment into the ftable, mounted my horfe unobferved by them, and while they were deliberating in an orchard behind the houfe, rode off fuli fpeed, and in a few hours got into the Modenefe, where I refreshed both with food and with reft, as I was there in no immediate danger, my horfe and myfelf. I was indeed furprized to find that thofe fellows did not purfue me, nor can I any other way account for it but by fuppofing, what is not improbable, that as they were ftrangers as well as myfelf, and had all the appearance of banditti or ruffians flying out of the dominions of the Pope, the woman of the houfe did not care to truft them with her horfes. From the Modencie I continued my journey more leifurely through the Parmefan, the Milancfe, and part of the Venetian territory, to Chiavenna, fubject, with its diftrict, to the Grifons, who abhor the very name of the Inquifition, and are ever ready to receive and protect all

who, flying from it, take refuge, as many Italians do, in their dominions. However, as I propofed getting as foon as I could to the city of Bern, the metropolis of that great Proteftant Canton, and was informed that my best way was through the Cantons of Ury and Underwald, and part of the Canton of Lucern, all three Popish Cantons, I car.fully concealed who I was, and from whence I came. For though no Inquifition prevails among the Swifs,

tthe Pope's Nuncio, who refides at Lucern, might have perfuaded the Magiftrates of thofe Popish Cantons to ftop me as an apoftate and deferter from the Order.

"Having refted a few days at Chiavenna, I refumed my journey quite refrethed, continuing it through the country of the Grifons, and the two fmall Cantons of Ury and Underwald to the Canton of Lucern, There I miffed my way, as I was quite unacquainted with the country, and discovering a city at a distance, was advancing toit, but very flowly, as I knew not where I was; when a countryman whom I met informed me that the city before me was Lucern. Upon that intelligence I turned out of the road as foon as the countryman was out of fight; and that right I paffed with a good natured thepherd in his cottage, who fupplied nie with theep's milk, and my horie with plenty of grafs. I ft out very early next morning, making the beft of my way weftward, as I knew that Bern lay Weft of Lucern. But after a few miles the country proved very mountainous, and having travelled the whole day over mountains, I was overtaken amongst them by night. As I was looking out for a place where I might shelter myfelf during the night against the fnow and rain, for it both fnowed and rained, I perceived a light at a distance, and making towards it, got into a kind of footpath, but fo narrow and rugged that I was obliged to lead my horie and feel my way with one foot, having no light to direct me, before I durft move the other. Thus with much difficulty reached the place where the light was, a poor little cottage, and knocking at the door, was afked by a man within who I was, and what I wanted. I an fwered that I was a ftranger, and had loft my way. Loft your way!' replied the man; there is no way here to lofe.' I then afked him in what Canton I was, and upon his answering

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that I was in the Canton of Bern, thank God, I cried out, tranfported with joy, that I am.' The good man anfwered, And fo do I.' I then told him who I was, and that I was going to Bern, but had quite loft myself by keep. ing out of all the high roads to avoid falling into the hands of thofe who fought my deftruction. He thereupon opened the door, received and entertained me with all the hofpitality his poverty would admit cf, regaled me with four-krout and fome new-laid egg, the only provisions he had, and clean ftraw with a kind of rug for my bed, he having no other for himself and his wife. The good woman expreffed as much fatisfaction and good-nature in her countenance as her husband, and faid many kind things in the Swifs language which her husband interpreted for me in the Italian; for that language he well understood, and fpoke fo as to be understood, having learnt it as he told me in his youth while fervant in a pub. lic-houfe on the borders of Italy, where both languages are spoken. I never paffed a more comfortable night; and no fooner did I begin to ftir in the morning, than the good man and his wife came both to know how I refted, and withing they had been able to accommodate me better, obliged me to break faft

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on two eggs, which Providence, they said, had fupplied them with for that purpose. I then took leave of the wife, who with her eyes lifted up to Heaven feemed moft fincerely to with me a good jour. ney. As for the husband, he would by all means attend me to the high-road leading to Bern; which road he faid was but two miles diftant from that place. But he infitted on my first going back with him to fee the way I had come the night before, the only way, he faid, I could have pothbly come from the neighbouring Canton of Lucern. Ifaw it, and fhuddered at the danger I had efcaped; for I found that I had walked and led my horfe a good way along a very narrow path on the brink of a dreadful precipice. The man made fo many pious and pertinent remarks on the occafion, as both charmed and furprized me. I no lefs admires his difintereftedness than his piety. For upon our parting, after he had attended me till I was out of all danger of losing my way, I could by no means prevail upon him to accept of any reward for his trouble. He had the fatisfaction, he faid, of having relieved me in the greateft diftrefs, which was in itself a fufficient reward, and he cared for n■ other.

[To be continued,]

ORIGINAL LETTER OF DAVID MALLETT, Eiq,
(Continued from Vol. XXIV. Page 343-)

LETTER XVI.

DEAR SIR,

WAS favoured with a letter from you about the beginning of April, which I had anfwered immediately, had I not waited for your paraphrafe on the Song of Solomon, which you defired me to read, and thew to fuch of my friends as I thought judges of the performance. You likewife mentioned a former letter which I never received,but fuppofe it was mifcarried or neglected; becaufe fhortly after the meeting of the Parliament, the Duke went a-hunting into the country, whither all letters directed to him were fent.

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your book; but he was at Henly Park, and I could get no notice whether your packets had come to his hands. I have been a fortnight in the country, and did not receive your poem till last week, which Mr. Wood fent hither. How. ever, a day or two before I came cut of town, I got a lend of Mr. Frazer's copy, which he had I know not how, I read over the preface then, as I have done the whole performance fince, with a great deal of pleafure; and think your file is accurate and elegant, Your profe I prefer even before Burman's, notwithstanding your encomium on hin, because it is more perfpicuous, and not encumbered with thofe parentheses, and

* Intitled "Cantici Solomonis Paraphr.fis Gemina; Prior vario carminum genere, altera Sapphicis verfibus perfcripta. --Nous Criticis et Phulologis illuftrata. Audore Jound) Kerro Dunblanenổi Græcarum Literarum in Collegio Regis Uverlitatis Anerdo»enfi. Profeffore. Edinburgi. In bus Tho, Ruddimaun Tomprafic Autis 1200 1727"

EDITARY laboured

laboured inverfions of construction, which obfcure and ftiffen his. Your poetical paragraph is true to the meaning of the original, if I may judge of it by our literal tranflation in profe; and preferves every where thofe beauties that diftinguish this divine fong. As I have not the leaft acquaintance with any book feller myfelf, I begged of Mr. Frazer to use all his intereft with fuch of them as he knew, in difpofi g of your copies. I doubt not but he has, ere this time, fent you an account of what he has done; but I could with the poem were recommended to them by a better hand; for the honeft Doctor has no more tafte in works of genius, than I have in certain books of his collecting, which are no where elfe, he fays, to be met with I fuppofe becaufe no other body thinks them worth the feeking after but this I tell you in confidence. I have neither Beza's nor Johnston's ver. fions of this poem, but I prefer yours before that of Borlem's, which is loofe and rambling, in which he has very often explained away Solomon's meaning, and given us his own fancies in ftead of it.

This day I have fent your poems by a gentleman to a bookfeller of his acquaintance in London, and given him a note of the conditions on which you are willing to let him have any number

SIR,

of them he defires. As foon as I receive his answer, I will write to you again.

I have now finished, and am prepar. ing for the prefs, against winter, a poem in two books, which I began last year in the country *.

The first book has been perused by Mr. Molineux the Prince's Secretary †, by Mr. Hill, Dr. Young, and Sir John Clerk, whofe acquaintance I had the good fortune to obtain while he was in London. It is now in the hands of Mr. Dennis, and as foon as that dread critic has condemned or approved of it, I fhall wait on you by the way of Edinburgh. I forbear to trouble you with the subject of it just now; my next letter will give you an account of it at large. I will try the Town with this before I venture out a tragedy that I have been long meditating. I have not room in this paper to mention a project about fending my brother abroad, which, if brought to bear, will make his fortune; but I must be at the expence of having him taught writing and accounts in London, for fome time. I am, with unalterable truth,

Your most faithful humble fervant,
SHAWFORD,
DA. MALLOCH.

25th May, 1737. Š

[To be continued.]

To the EDITOR of the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.

As mary of your Readers may imagine the prefent Mode of Execution in Paris is of a New Invention, I beg leave to refer you to a Plate in Mr. Camden's Brittanicus; a Book written about the Year 1590. "The Law of Halli-. fax in York thire."

BUT nothing is more remarkable than their method of proceeding against felons, which in fhort was this, that if the felon was taken within the liberty with the goods ftolen out of the Iberties or precincts of the foreft of Hardwicke, he thouid after three markor meeting days within the town of Hallifax next after his apprehenfion, be taken to the gibbet there, and have his head cut off from his body. But then the fact must be certain, for he muft either be taken hand-heband, i. e. having his hand in, or being in the very

act of ftealing; or back-barond, i, e. having the thing ftolen either upon his back, or fomewhere about him, without giving any probable account how he came by it; or laftly confeffon'd, owning that he stole the thing for which he was accufed.

"The caufe therefore must be only theft, and that manner of theft only which is called Furtum Manifeftum, grounded upon fome of the fore'aid evidences. The value of the thing ft lea muft likewife amount to upwards of 13d. ob. for if the value was found

• This was published the next year under the title of "The Excurfion," 8vo.

+ Son of Mr. Locke's correspondent. Sce his life in Biographia Britannica.

EDITOR.

EDITOR.

20d. in Edward the Third's time was one cz. of filver, and in Henry the Eighth's time 40d, one oz. of filver; fo according to the prefent price of filver it was 3s. 6d. in Edward's time, and is. 7d. in Heary the Eighth's time.

only

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