the specific meaning, and applied to Mr. Barrett for the various translations; and, through the whole pedigree, these Latin and French extracts are regularly translated by Mr. Barrett, in his own hand-writing; spaces being left in the MS. for that purpose. Such is the exact adjustment of those extracts to the subjects they illustrate, that no reader, who did not know the fact, would consider it possible for a mere English scholar to wield so dexterously the weapons of the learned.

The pedigree of De Burgham will strikingly illustrate the character of Chatterton. It will exhibit him, to the advocates of Rowley, in a new light it will demonstrate him to have indulged a peculiar taste for subjects connected with antiquities: it will prove him to have been directed by a sound judgment in selecting names and incidents adapted to his purpose; and will evidence a mind capable of forming a great and intricate plan, on the most slender materials, where success could result alone, from the nicest arrangement.

The ingenuity, also, which Chatterton discovered in comprehending, and applying quotations from languages which he notoriously did not understand, will be observable, and show that he possessed, not only no ordinary share of perseverance, but a power of assembling the plausible, and, it may be added, a love, a very passion, for imposing on the credulity of others.

It may fairly be presumed, that there will be but one opinion respecting the spuriousness of the De Burgham Pedigree, but this admission involves other, and serious consequences. If one be abandoned, what becomes of that fine old poem, "The Romaunte of the Cnyghte," by John de Burgham, composed about the year 1320, and written in a style so similar to that of the "Gode Priest, Thomas Rowley," that it is an effort not to

believe that both were manufactured in the same loom. But to come directly to the point. If Chatterton was equal to the De Burgham Pedigree, and the Romaunte of the Cnyghte; forgeries, particularly the first, requiring great complication of plan and mental effort, who shall deny to him the power of producing Rowley?

The subject must not, however, terminate here. What were the stupendous talents of that boy, who could imitate, (in spirit, rather than in language,) our elder writers, and compose a series of poems, exhibiting high and diversified excellencies; as coherent in their plan, as they were correct in their execution? What were the limits of his capacity, who could give to this complicated imposture, an origin so plausible, and support his various fabrications, by an exuberance of "Antique Lore," such as appeared to transcend the possible acquirements of a boy of fifteen or sixteen? It should be remembered, also, that the whole deceived men of clear judgment, and sound erudition; such as Jacob Bryant, and the Dean of Exeter, who were proud, as they professed themselves to be, of "England's Ancient Glories," thus suddenly emerging from oblivion; whilst they bestowed encomiums on their genius; wasted learning in their illustrations, and absolutely divided the suffrages of the nation!

It does not militate against Chatterton's consummate talents, that many disbelieved, and more doubted. Thousands, with literary champions at their head, inflexibly upheld this " Thomas Rowley, Priest of St. John's;" but the present age has effectually torn the mask from specious deception; and it is fitting that Bristol, where the imposture originated, should be the first, also, effectually to dissipate the delusion.

The author may further remark, that, in identifying

the priest of the fifteenth century, with the bard of the eighteenth, Chatterton must be considered as an almost miraculous being! on whom was showered, "The pomp and prodigality of heaven!" Independently of his creative faculty, he is to be recognised as one who seemed intuitively to possess what others imperfectly acquire by labour. All difficulties vanished before him; and every branch of knowledge became familiar, to which he directed his luminous attention.

When we consider the wonderful acquirements of Chatterton in his short life, the mind indulges a melancholy reflection on what another seventeen years might have produced! But, as it is, in his works, he has reared to himself an immortal cenotaph, and it is high time for the public, with a decisive hand, to pluck the borrowed plumes from a fictitious Rowley, and to place them on the brow of a real Chatterton. With a fame no longer divided, the present generation should boast the honourable distinction of having produced, in "Bristol's ornament and glory," one of the greatest geniuses that ever floated on the "Tide of Time!"

ESSAY V.

ON

ROWLEY's ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS.

DEAN Milles, in the midst of his zeal for Rowley, has candidly remarked that the genuineness of Rowley's Poems must necessarily depend on the authenticity, or spuriousness, of those MSS. that Chatterton produced as the originals. This is an equitable test, which the Anti-Rowleians readily admit.

These MSS. were long in the possession of the late Dr. Glynn, of Cambridge, a zealous Rowleian, who affirmed that he could as soon believe the moon was made of green cheese, as admit that the Poems of Rowley were written by a Bristol charity-boy of fifteen : and this objection, in the case of a hundred million of boys, would have been conclusive, but the compass and precocity of Chatterton's mind absolutely confound all human calculations.

Dr. Glynn, at his death, bequeathed his Relics to the British Museum, where they are now deposited, and, consequently, are open to the public. The writer, from having minutely inspected the whole of these MSS. will now detail the deliberate impression which they left on his mind writings, in which Chatterton's character is so deeply implicated; which place him in the very foremost ranks of genius, or reduce him to a comparative insignificance.

The reader will be filled with surprise, upon learning that, of the forty-two pretended Originals of Rowley, (independently of the authentic prose account of the