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her, with fo much impudence, under the common denomination of We; that is, WE Queen and Tories are cyphers. Nos numerus fumus is a fcrap of Latin more impudent than Cardinal Woolfey's Ege et Rex meus. We find the fame particle WE, ufed with great emphafis and fignificancy in the eighth page of this Letter; But, nothing decifive, nothing which had the appearance of earnest, has been fo much as attempted, except that wife expedition to Thoulon, which WE fuffered to be defeated before it began. Whoever did, God forgive them: there were indeed feveral ftories of difcoveries made, by letters and meffengers that were fent to France.

Having done with the Author's party and principles, we fhall now confider his performance, under the three heads of Wit, Language, and Argument. The first lafh of his Satyr falls upon the Cenfor of Great Britain, who, fays he, refembles the famous Cenfor of Rome, in nothing but efpoufing the caufe of the vanquished. Our Letter-writer here alludes to that known verfe in Lucan,

Victrix caufa Diis placuit, fed victa Catoni.

The Gods efpoufed the cause of the conquerors, but Cato efpoufed the cause of the vanquished. The misfortune is, that this verfe was not written of Cato the Cenfor, but of Cato of Utica. How Mr. Bickerstaff, who has written in favour of a party that is not vanquished, refembles the younger Cato, who was not a Roman Cenfor, I do not well conceive, unless it be in ftruggling for the liberty of his country. To fay therefore, that the Cenfor of Great-Britain refembles that famous Cenfor of

Rome

Rome in nothing but espousing the cause of the vanquifhed; is juft the fame as if one fhould fay, in regard to the many obfcure truths and fecret histories that are brought to light in this Letter, that the Author of these new revelations, resembles the ancient Author of the Revelations in nothing but venturing his head. Befides that there would be no ground for fuch a refemblance, would not a man be laughed at by every common Reader, fhould he thus miftake one St. John for another,. and apply that to St. John the Evangelift which relates to St. John the Baptift, who died many years before him?

Another fmart touch of the Author we meet with in the fifth page, where, without any preparation, he breaks out all on a fudden into a vein of poetry; and instead of writing a letter to the Examiner, gives advice to a painter in these strong lines: Paint, Sir, with that force which you are mafter of, the prefent ftate of the war abroad; and expofe to the publick view thofe principles upon which, of late, it has been carried on, fo different from those upon which it was originally entered into. Collect fome few of the indignities which have been this year offered to Her Majesty, and of thofe unnatural Aruggles which have betrayed the weakness of a Shattered conftitution. By the way, a man may be faid to paint a battle, or if you please, a war ; but I do not fee how it is poffible to paint the prefent ftate of a war. So a man may be faid to describe or to collect accounts of indignities and unnatural ftruggles; but to collect the things themfelves, is a figure which this Gentleman has introduced into our English profe. Well, but what will be the ufe of this picture of a state

N. 5.

of

of the war and this collection of indignities and ftruggles? It feems the chief defign of them is to make a dead man blush, as we may fee in those inimitable lines which immediately follow: And when this is done, D----n fhall blush in his grave among the dead, W----le among the living, and even Vol-e shall feel fome remorse. Was there ever any thing, I will not fay fo stiff and so unnatural, but 'fo brutal and fo filly! this is downright hacking and hewing in Satyr. But we fee a mafterpiece of this kind of writing in the twelfth page; where, without any refpect to a Dutchefs of Great-Britain, a Princefs of the Empire, and one who was a bofom-friend of her Royal Miftrefs, he calls a great Lady an infolent woman, the worst of her fex, a fury, an executioner of divine vengeance, a plague; and applies to her a line which Virgil writ originally upon Alecto. One would think this foul-mouthed writer must have received fome particular injuries, either from this great Lady or from her husband; and these the world fhall be foon acquainted with, by a book which is now in the prefs, entitled, An Effay towards proving that gratitude is no virtue. This Author is full of Satyr, and is fo angry with every one that is pleafed with the Duke of Marlborough's victories, that he goes out of his way to abufe one of the Queen's finging-men, who it feems did his beft to celebrate a thanksgiving day in an Anthem; as you may see in that paffage: Towns have been taken, and battels have been won; the mob has buzza'd round bonefires, the Stentor of the chapple has trained his throat in the gallery, and the Stentor of S----m has deafned his audience from the pulpit. Thus you fee how like a true fon of

the

the High-Church, he falls upon a learned and reverend Prelate, and for no other crime, but for preaching with an audible voice. If a man lifts up his voice like a trumpet to preach fedition, he is received by fome men as a Confeffor; but if he cries aloud, and fpares not, to animate people with devotion and gratitude, for the greateft publick bleffings that ever were beftowed on a finful nation, he is reviled as a Stentor.

I promised in the next place to confider the Language of this excellent Author, who I find takes himself for an Orator. In the first page he cenfures several for the poifon which they profufely fcatter through the nation; that is, in plain Englife, for fquandering away their poifon. In the fecond he talks of carrying probability through the thread of a fable; and in the third, of laying an odium at a man's door. In the fourth he rifes in his expreffions; where he speaks of those who would perfuade the people, that the G-----l, the quondam Tr, and the J----to, are the only objects of the confidence of the Allies, and of the fears of the enemies. I would advise this Author to try the beauty of this expreffion. Suppofe a foreign Minifter fhould addrefs Her Majefty in the following manner, (for certainly it is Her Majefty only to whom the sense of the compliment ought to be paid) Madam, you are the object of the confidence of the Allies; or, Madam, your Majefty is the only object of the fears of the enemies. Would a man think that he had learned English? I would have the Author try, by the fame rule, fome of his other phrafes, as Page 7. where he tells us, That the ballance of power in Europe would be ftill precarious. What would a tradefman think, if one fhould tell him in

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a paffion, that his fcales were precarious; and mean by it, that they were not fixed? In the thirteenth page he fpeaks of certain profligate wretches who having ufurped the Royal Seat, refolved to venture overturning the chariot of government, rather than to lose their place in it. A plain-spoken man would have left the Chariot out of this fentence, and fo have made it good English. As it is there, it is not only an impropriety of fpeech, but of metaphor; it being impoffible for a man to have a place in the Chariot which he drives. I would therefore advife this Gentleman, in the next edition of his Letter, to change the Chariot of government into the Chaife of government, which will found as well, and serve his turn much better. I could be longer on the errata of this very small work, but will conclude this head with taking notice of a certain figure which was unknown to the ancients, and in which this Letter-writer very much excels. This is called by fome an Anti-climax, an inftance of which we have in the tenth page; where he tells us, that Britain may expect to have this only glory left her, That she has proved a farm to the Bank, a province to Holland, and a jeft to the whole world. I never met with fo fudden a downfal in fo promifing a fentence; a jeft to the whole world gives fuch an unexpected turn to this happy period, that I was heartily troubled and furprized to meet with it. I do not remember in all my reading, to have obferved more than two couplets of verfes that have been written in this figure; the first are thus quoted by Mr. Dryden.

Not only London ecchoes with thy fame,
But alfo Iington has heard the fame.

The

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