cation of the original work as amended by the author, and for the interesting continuation of it with which they have presented us. We cannot but think that this publication will be productive of many important effects. It will read lessons of candour to political and religious zealots; it will place, we will not say in a favourable, but a just point of view (for justice is all that needs to be claimed for the memory of Mr. Wakefield) it will place, we say, in a just point of view, the character of a man, who has laboured under calumny, or, we will hope, and indeed believe, under misco ception, rather than intentional mi presentation of his character; it v afford rules to direct, and motives quicken, the exertions of the student wa treads in the same honourable trac and may animate the faith and cor the practice of the christian, by the ample of a life regulated in its minute circumstances, by the precepts of gion, and habitually deriving its h its consolations, and its motives, from prospects of immortality. ART. XVI. The Confessions of J. Lackington, late Bookseller at the Temple of the Ma in a Series of Letters to a Friend; to which are added two Letters on the bad Consequa of having Daughters educated at Boarding Schools. THIS well-known bookseller published some time ago memoirs of the first fortyfive years of his own life. He became a methodist when a journeyman shoemaker at Taunton, and one anecdote which he relates of himself will sufficiently exemplify the strength of his zeal. His mistress one day, to prevent him from going to meeting, locked him in, "on which, he says, I opened the bible for direction what to do, (ignorant methodists often practise the same presumptuous method), and the first words I read were these, He has given his Angels charge concerning thee, lest at any time thou shouldest dash thy foot against a stone.' This was enough for me; so without a moment's hesitation, I ran up two pair of stairs to my room, and out of the window I leaped, to the great terror of my poor mistress. I got up immediately, and ran about two or three hundred yards, towards the meeting house; but alas! I could run no farther my feet and ancles were most intolerably bruised, so that I was obliged to be carried back and put to bed, and it was more than a month before I recovered the use of my limbs. I was ignorant enough to think (I mention it with horror and remorse!) that the Lord had not used me very well, and resolved to put so much trust in him for the ture.” Wesley had once said in Lackin hearing, that he could never keep 2 seller six months in his flock, and pa out the danger of reading contro.c and reasoning in matters of relig His assertion was verified in this insta Lackington was taught to think a upon the subject, by John Buncle he did not rest contented with a n rian creed, like John Buncle and the veral eminent ladies with whom Amory had the happiness of beco acquainted, by so many extraordia accidents. He began metaphysics. being a vain man and a foolish n soon ceased to have any religion w ever. He is now once more a and has published these confessions the world may know it; chusing very appropriate motto. meth ART. XVII. The Life of C. G. Lamoignon Malesherbes, formerly first Presiden Court of Aids, &c. Translated from the French, by EDWARD MAUGIN. pp. 250. THIS little volume was written be fore the Correspondence of Louis XVI. was published. We hope the author may enlarge it, and preserve for posterity every fragment of the writings, andevery anecdote of the life of this excellent man. The deplorable crimes which disgraced the progress of the French revolution, and the despicable termination of that tremendous drama, induce us to quently to regard the whole nation one mingled feeling of contempt and horrence, forgetful that the good and wise are necessarily the minority en where, and that if we fairly estimate proportion between the good and wicked, the wise and the foolish, w has in all ages been found to exist, more reason to be surprised at the vire which the revolution called forth, an at the vices which it fostered. Nor Ell we believe the catastrophe is yet comeated-there must yet be a second part the tragedy. France never produced a better man an Malesherbes. To follow the events his life through this volume, would to transcribe a mere arrangement of es; in fact, a history of his various empts to remedy the evils of the old ench government, would form an induction to the history of the revolu, and the present biographer seems y to have aimed at a sketch for some rology or biographical dictionary; must be content to extract a few ached anecdotes. He often mentioned that he was born on day Cartouche (a famous robber and murr) was put to death, and entertained elf by recalling that strange coincidence; in his early years he had been deeply ted by a circumstance which made a lively impression on his young heart; ad seen in the country, at a friend's =e, the father of Cartouche, who, under a Owed name, acted as a servant. MALEBES used to describe, with all his eloce, the miserable parent overwhelmed shame and sorrow, and preserving for al years silence the most profound, and nterrupted even when alone, except by ous hymus and heavy sighs. Malesherhen ignorant of the cause of his afflicin vain employed every method suggested m by his address, his vivacity, and the of inquiry which belongs to youth, to the discovery; they who were entrustith the unfortunate man's secret remain ithful to their words: at last he perthe anxiety of Malesherbes, to whom ad never. spoken, and drawing near said, “ I am the father of Cartouche." covering his eyes with his hands, re-the tears streaming down his face." Then Malesherbes was president of Court of Aids, a man named Vae published a libel against them, in ce of the system of rapacity praćby the government, which that body Endeavouring to oppose. The work suspected to have the countenance overnment. The parliament coned it to be burnt at the foot of the ws by the common executioner, and the author; he answered by a te from the king, commanding o remain at Versailles on urgent s near the royal person, and not to t himself on any pretext whatever. A this the Court of Aids acted in the manner prescribed in cases of sick. ness or legal confinement, they dispatched a commissary to Versailles to the hotel where Varenne lodged; he kept himself out of the way. They then resolved to convict him of contumacy; witnesses were suborned in his favour, and he was complimented with the ribbon of the order of St. Michael. The court persisted, and overcame all the difficulties which obstructed the course of justice; but when they were on the point of convicting him, the king granted letters of indemnity. Varenne, in consequence, presented himself before the court, on his knees and bareheaded, to hear the letters read, and Malesherbes addressed him in these words from the bench"The king grants you letters of pardon; the court confirms them. Begone: your punishment is remitted, but your guilt remains." Malesherbes was at one time superintendant of the press he exerted a righteous severity against those authors who attempt to poison the public morals; and, with equal wisdom, he sheltered from proscription the Encyclopedia and the works of Rousseau. "M. de Malesherbes," says Voltaire, "has rendered infinite service to human genius, in giving greater liberty to the press than it ever had before; we are already more than half Englishmen." When the Court of Aids was dissolved by the wicked minister of Louis XV. he retired to his estate. "His mansion was furnished in the most sure in giving bread to an hundred poor perunostentatious style; for he found more pleasons, than in squandering immense suns on costly decorations. His place was laid out upon the principles of the old gothic manner; accordingly, people of taste advised him to throw all down, and rebuild upon a modern plan-but he had inherited the edifice; all his ancestors had lived in it, and he preserved it as a family piece; a sacred monument of his attachment and respect to his forefathers. "His table was economically supplied, and his domestics few, although his annual expence was considerable; but his wealth was employed for the gratification and advantage of his dependants: canals carefully formed, meadows reclaimed, marshes drained, the roads in his neighbourhood skilfully made, umbrageous walks, and picturesque plantadykes opposed to the violence of the torrent, tions, were the objects on which Malesherbes expended his income. "To facilitate the communication with different parts of the country, he constructed several bridges of solid masonry: the traveller too, shared his benevolence; a shady walk near the high road protected him from the fervor of the sun; and for the repose of the bumble foot-passenger, commodious benches were at hand, while a fountain of pure water Bowed to appease his thirst. He also contrived means to lighten the fatigues of the weaker and more amiable sex ; and built convenient sheds on the borders of the river, where the cares of domestic industry obliged the women of the village to remair exposed during the most rigorous seasons. 66 Owing to this the inhabitants loved him as a parent; and under his influence every one enjoyed a degree of respectable ease: the children received instruction, the aged were held in honour; and the peasant who had cultivated his fields with most care, and managed his flocks or herds to the greatest advantage, obtained a premium, which gave birth to a virtuous emulation, and tended highly to the improvement of agriculture." The following anecdote is related of him after his dismissal from the ministry. admirable man ?"-" No, indeed, I am not the enemy of Malesherbes; but I cannot endure to hear him praised above his merits." "The reverend cordelier, who had been for half an hour fast asleep, was roused by the din of argument: "Are you not speaking," cried he, "of Malesherbes, that heretic, that profane one, who desired to overturn our holy religion, and substitute that of the Protestants? he is sent adrift-and so much the better!" The military gentleman, who had hitherto refrained with difficulty, here apostrophized the holy man in very energetic terms: the justice in vain endea voured to restore peace; already was a bottle levelled at the friar's rosy face, when Malesherbes, willing to terminate the dispute, interposed: "Stop, gentlemen, there is one sure method of bringing you to an agreement; you are both equally mistaken: I am Malesherbes."-At this name tranquillity was re-established; and they all respectfully stood uncovered before him. He addressed them: “You, chevalier, are in some degree wrong to pronounce so heedlessly on subjects of mo ment; and to praise a man at the expence of "On his way to Switzerland, he stopped in those who are entitled to your esteem and a little town of Alsace, and sat down at a "table d' hote" with a friar of the order of St. Francis, a village justice, and a knight of St. Lewis. The justice who was a prodigious reader of newspapers, talked politics unmercifully. The affair of the parliaments, and the dismission of M. Turgot, were, at first, the subjects of conversation: at last, the military man, heated with the wine he had swallowed, opened loudly against the government; criticised with virulence all their operations, and accused the new ministers of imbecility, ignorance, and even of corrup tion. • Malesherbes, who till then had allowed them to vapour without molestation, now took part in the debate: he explained, with great gentleness, to the chevalier in what points his complaints were exaggerated; laid before him the difficulties and vexations experienced by persons bearing the burden of administration; and hinted to him, that before he condenied their conduct, it would be right to put himself for one moment in their place, and see if it were possible for them to act better than they did. "The knight, unmoved by these sagacious observations, reprobated violently the dismissing of the late ministers-particularly M. De Malesherbes, the most virtuous-the wisest man in France. "Malesherbes, embarrassed, did not immediately know how to reply: "Sir," said he, "No.are you acquainted with him?" But, in what I say, I am only the echo of the whole nation-and I maintain it-that great minister has been dismissed, only because he saw too clearly." Undeceive yourself, my dear Sir; if he withdrew, it was from a sense of his own insufficiency." Good in avens! and are you an enemy of that veneration: I thank you, however, for the good opinion you have expressed of me: but reflect, that it is prudent to wait, before you applaud a man in public station, until time shall have allowed you to form a judgment of his conduct. As for you, reverend father, you have been misinformed: fanaticism, that poison of the mind, has perverted my inten tions; and I consider it a duty to vindicate myself to you. When I proposed restoring to the Protestants their civil rights, I fulfilled a sacred obligation, and but anticipated a measure, which sooner or later must be adopted. "Yet, far from designing the smallest injury to our holy religion, I have, on the con trary, done homage to its purity, by cherish ing two of its chiefest precepts-toleranda, and the love of our neighbour.-Gentlemen, I wish you a pleasant journey."-With these words, Malesherbes retired, and left his auditory confounded at what had passed." Malesherbes rejoiced in the commencement of the revolution, though too old to bear a part. It is well known how nobly he came forward to defend the king. 66 Obliged to go four times every day to the prison of the Temple, his extreme age du not allow him to waik, and he was compelled to take a carriage. "One day, particularly, when the weather was very severe, he perceived, on coming out of the vehicle, that the driver was benumbed with cold. My friend," said Malesherbes to him, in his naturally tender mannet "you must be penetrated by the cold, and am really sorry to take you abroad in this bitter season.""That's nothing, M. De Malesherbes; in such a case as this. I' avel to the world's end, without complaing."-"Yes-but your poor horses could Sir," replied the honest coachman, horses think as I do." ot." my The sequel of his history is too dreadI to be particularised-he and his chilen were cut off by the revolutionary bunal. Bitterly as we detest the miary usurper who has reaped the profit all these crimes, we must confess that = Parisians have shewn themselves worthy of his yoke. They suffered a handful of ruffians to perpetrate the massacres of September; they suffered the best and wisest of the nation to be dragged to execution; and with the same infatuation and cowardice, they have suffered the only man who could be found to turn the cannon upon the citizens when they rose against the tyranny of the directory,they have suffered that man to make himself their emperor ! T. XVIII. The Correspondence of the late John Wilkes with his Friends, printed from he original Manuscripts; in which are introduced Memoirs of his Life. By JOHN ALMON. 12mo. 5 vols. T. XIX. Letters, from the Year 1771 to the Year 1796, of John Wilkes, Esq. ddressed to his Daughter, the late Miss Wilkes, with a Collection of his miscellaneous Poems; to which is prefixed a Memoir of the Life of Mr. Wilkes. 12mo. 4 vols. O compare minutely and scrupuly the respective merits of these pubtions would occupy an extent of and space which most readers will e with us in thinking may be more eably and more profitable employed. hall simply state in few words, that Almon's is much the fullest and interesting biography, and that the espondence in his edition (as, indeed, tle announces), comprehends letters d from Mr. Wilkes and his numefriends, literary and political; t in the latter the correspondence is sively between his daughter and elf. On the other hand, it is to be ved that the correspondence in Mr. on's edition reaches no farther than = year 1780, whilst in the other it is ed down to 1796. In both editions chit-chat trifling letters are insertich might as well have come from Tabitha Bramble as Mr. John Es. In justice to Mr. Almon, how we must observe that he has much answer for on this head than his editor: he has inserted few letters do not in some degree throw light e character which he delineates. wo last volumes, indeed, drag hat heavily. bertine in private life can never he credit of acting upon principle lic matters: a man of honour could dure this suspicion, but men of - are not libertines-the punish herefore falls lightly. Mr. Wilkes libertine, gross and abandoned; mon says that Potter poisoned his , lord Sandwich, lord Le Deand many others equally infabut, that Mr. Wilkes" was not -. KET. VOL. III. a bad man early or naturally" Doubtless his depravity was not complete at first; nemo repente fuit turpissimus; but he was base in very early life; at two-andtwenty he married a lady, without any affection for her, as he acknowledges,who was half as old again as himself, but who had a large fortune; he introduced to her society his dissolute associates, whose licentious conversation was an outrage on decency and common decorum, and thus drove his unhappy wife from her own table! She was anxious to obtain a separation, but only succeeded by giving up to him some of her property: in his Aylesbury election (1757) he incumbered himself with debt, and, in order to lighten his incumbrances, had the unparalleled meanness and cruelty to make every possible attempt to rob his wife of the annuity of 2001. which was secured to her by the articles of separation! Wilkes at this time was only thirty years old. Notwithstanding this moral depravity in private life, no charge of inconsistency was ever substantiated against his public conduct: for this we are probably indebted to his early disappointment in some applications for places. Had he obtained the office of ambassador at Constantinople, or governor of Canada, or even had lord Bute smiled on him, when, in vain, he attempted to procure an audience, general warrants perhaps might have yet; been in fashion, and the printers of parliamentary debates have yet been in danger of imprisonment. Is this a harsh and unfair insinuation?— Statesmen assimilate themselves with cameleon sagacity to the colour of the ground on which they stand. To use M m the words of a florid writer, (Mr. Hall), their course commences in the character of friends to the people, whose grievances they display in all the colours of variegated declamation; but the moment they step over the threshold of St. James's, they behold every thing in a new light; the taxes seem lessened, the people rise from their depression, the nation flourishes in peace and plenty; and every attempt at improvement is like heightening the beauties of Paradise or mending the air of Elysium." Mr. Wilkes, however, never did step over the threshold of St. James's; he had not the opportunity of doing so at the outset of his career, and he wisely determined never to be bribed to do so afterwards. He had no moral character to support and none to lose; but as soon as he had formed for himself a political one, his determination was taken, and inviolably adhered to-no bribe could seduce him, no danger intimidase, no threat deter him. Mr. Wilkes's political consequence was in a great measure artificial; he had abilities, but they were not of the first rank he was more turbulent than strong. Junius estimated his character justly in his letter to the king:“Pardon this man the remainder of his punishment; and if resentment still prevails, make it what it should have been long since, an act not of mercy but of contempt. He will soon fall back into his natural station-a silent senator, and hardly supporting the weekly eloquence of a newspaper. The gentle breath of peace would leave him on the surface. It is only the tempest that lifts him from his place." : We must be indulged in the transcription of another passage from the same celebrated letter; the reflections are as wise as the language which conveys them is eloquent : There is hardly a period at which the most irregular character may not be redeemed. The mistakes of one sex find a retreat in patriotism; those of the other in devotion. Mr. Wilkes brought with him into politics the same liberal sentiments by which his private conduct had been directed; and seemed to think, that as there are few excesses in which an English gentleman may not be permitted to indulge; the same latitude was allowed him in the choice of his political principles, and in the spirit of maintaining them.—I mean to state, not entirely to defend his conduct. In the earnestness of his zeal he suffered some unwarrantable insinuations to escape him. He said more than moderate men would justify; but not enough to entitle him to the honour of your majesty's personal resentment. The rays of royal indignation collected upon aim, served only to illuminate, and could not consume. Animated by the favour of the people on one side, and heated by prosecution on the other, his views and sentiments changed with his situation.Hardly serious at first, he is now an enthusiast. The coldest bodies warm with opposition, the hardest sparkle in collision. There is a holy mistaken zeal in politics as well as religion. By per suading others we convince ourselves. The passions are engaged, and create a maternal affection in the mind which forces us to love the cause for which we suffer!" Mr. Wilkes's first political essay was in 1762, when he published a pamphlet, assisted by lord Temple, entitled "Observations on the papers relative to the rupture with Spain" in this he vindicated with ability and success the con duct of Mr. Pitt and lord Temple, and exposed the folly, cowardice, and imbe cility of the ministry in losing the best opportunity that had ever occurred of crippling the Spaniard. His second po litical essay was a Dedication to the Earl of Bute of Ben Jonson's Historical Play "The Fall of Mortimer"—a specimen of severe and bitter irony. The history of the North Briton is well known: it was written in opposition to The Briton, a scurrilous paper by Smol let, who was a mercenary of lord Bute's The history of the forty-fifth number, however, is not very generally known. Mr. Almon has let us into the secret. The North Briton commenced with lord Bute's administration, and when that n bleman resigned, (April 8, 1763), as he had avowedly been the principal object of attack, it was accordingly disconti nued. April, 1763; and the celebrated number "45 "No. 44 was published on the 2nd of was not published till the 23d of that month. During this interval Mr. Wilkes carried las daughter to Paris, to finish her education; and upon this occasion it is not improbable that the publication of the North Briton would have been still further suspended, had not a singular accident (which is but little known) caused its early revival. place on the 8th of April, 1768, Mr. Gren "On lord Bute's resignation, which took ville was appointed his successor; and lord Sandwich took the vacancy thus occasioned at the admiralty. Other alterations were made, |