them as vain and superstitious terrors: and it appears to be true in fact, that the generality of the people, especially in the politer nations of Greece and Rome, had, in a great measure, sailer; from ail belief of this kind, before the time of our Savirour's^ppearing. * In these circumstances it pleased God in his great wisdom and goodness, to grant a new revelation of his will to mankind, by our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath brought life and immortality to the most clear and open light in his gospel ; which contains the fullest assurance of that everlasting happiness, which is prepared for good men in a future state ; and most express declarations concerning the punishment which will be inflicted upon the wicked; the importance and expediency of which, to the interests of virtue and religion in the world, must be acknowleged by every sensible and thinking man.' This is as fair and just a representation of the wo;k now before us, as it was possible for us to, give in the limits to which we are obliged to confine ourselves: the whole is brought to a conclusion with the following observations. 1. « We may hence fee, that Reason, if left merely to itself, in the present state of mankind, is not a safe and certain guide in matters of religion. 2. * We should set a high value on the Gospel of Jesus, which is the perfection of all the divine revelations that have been given to mankind, and to which the several prior revelations were designed to be preparatory. 3. * Christianity, truely believed and practised, tends to the advantage of society, to promote the welfare of kingdoms and states, and to preserve good order in the world. * It is astonishing, says our worthy Author, to think, that there should be persons found among us, who seem desirous to extinguish this glorious light, and to return to the ancient darkness of Paganism again : who seem weary of the Gospel, and with a preposterous zeal, endeavour to subvert its proofs and evidences, and to expose it, as far as in them lies, to the derision and contempt of mankind. But the attempts of such men against our holy religion, should only quicken our zeal and heighten our esteem for it, and make us more earnestly desirous to build up ourselves in our most holy faith, and to adorn it with an exemplary conversation, becoming the Gospel of Christ. Christianity is not a bare system of speculative opinions, but. a practical institution, a spiritual heavenly discipline, all whose doctrines, precepts, promises, and ordinances, are designed to form men to a holy and virtuous temper and practice. The - most most effectual way therefore we can take to promote its sacred interests is, to shew the happy influence it hath upon our hearts and lives, by abounding in the fruits of piety, righteousness, and charity, and thus making an amiable representation of it to the world.* * Lettres, Memoiret, et Negociathms particulieres du Chevalier D'Eon. Or, Letters, Memoirs, and Negociations of the Chevalier D'Eon, late Minister Plenipotentiary from the Court of France to that of Great Britain; 4:0. 11. is. Dixweir. OF all the ministerial Negociations that have made their public appearance in the world, the Chevalier D'Eon's are certainly the most remarkable : were they but as interesting and important as they are minute and singular, they might prove a valuable acquisition to the public in general, arid an instructive lesson to all foreign Ministers in particular. Luckily, however, for the French Ministry, M. D'Eon seems not to have been employed in affairs of very great moment: he was made the Messenger, indeed, to carry over the ratification of the peace to Versailles ; but as this might have been made a post-, boy's business, so he complains he was paid little better than a. post-boy for his lftbour. If to this job we add his sending over the Reviews, for the use of the Journal Litteraire, Mrs. Stephens's pills for Madame Victoire ; a dog, and two bitches, with a set of pretty pictures, for the Duke dePraflin, and his establishing the houstiold of Count de Guerchy, the present Ambassador j these seem to be all the commissions he was charged with : at least these are all he hath thought proper as yet to communicate to the public, and he appears by the voluminous size of his work, to have been in an excellent humour for publishing all he knew. It is well also for the communicative Chevalier himself, that he was never concerned in robbing churches, or plotting against the Government, for he would certainly have had so little prudence in his anger, as to have divulged the whole, at the hazard of his neck. It is really strange, that men of fense and abilities, should have so little government over their temper, as to run such unaccountable lengths, to the ruin of themselves, and the mortification of their friends and acquaintance. The vivacity, or rather violence of temperament and disposition in the French*, seems to lead them into these er * This impetuosity of the French is so notorious to all men of fense, even of their own nation, that the Duke de Nivernci; himself rallies them upon it, in one of his letters; « I have got here, fays he, CoSadamiiie and Du Clos, who can no more agree about morality than physics. I wifli they do not go to loggerheads together.' . . "• - - 4x>rs, rors, more frequently than the Saturnine genius of other nations. It is not long ago that a respectable Academician of that nation, corning over here on a visit, absurdly took offence at the manners of a common lodging-house, and in the heat of his jalousit d'honneur, publicly impeached the justice and humanity of the whole English nation, on account of his ridiculous squabble with a house-maid. Soon after this, our news-papers in* formed us of another as idle a quarrel, between the two Representatives of his most Christian Majesty, on account of one of them, a Minister Plenipotentiary\ threatening, in the presence of an English Secretary of State, to break the laws of our country, by fighting a duel with an obscure individual, who had affronted him. And now, behold ! we have a book published by the same hand, containing near five hundred pages in quarto, to expose the characters, abilities, and employments of the several personages he was concerned with in his ministerial capacity. Such being the intent of this publication, it may be supposed to afford little or no information or entertainment, except' to such Readers as are acquainted with those elevated personages. It presents, however, no incurious amusement to those who entertain no high opinion of the Great; and may possibly prove an instructive lesson to others, who form mistaken notions of the vast importance and capacity of ministerial Agenrs snd Agencies. .Be it in these respects as it will, the very extraordinary step the Author hath taken in the publication of this work, added to other singularities, hath made so much noise, both in France and England, that we cannot avoid taking a more particular notice of it, than might otherwise be expedient jn a literary Journal. M. D'Eon introduces his Letters and Memoirs with a preliminary discourse, containing an explicit account of himself, and an enumeration of his services to the Crown of France. The two first paragraphs of this discourse, may serve as a specimen at once of his style, and, indeed, give the judicious Reader ibme light into his character and manner of thinking: ' Surge, Deus—Judica terram—'Justum et impium—et vincas cunt Judicaris. Pfal. lxxxii. 8. Eccles. iii. 17. '■ Deliberer longtems et chercher la verite avec application, e'est, felon les Princes et les Grands, 1'emploi du vulgaire. On voudroit avoir la gloire 4'aimer ia verite, et la satisfaction de ne J'entendic jamais. * Eleve parmi les rochers et les montagnes, une education male m*a deinne le courage de dire cette verite et la force de.l'ecouter ; elle m'adonne une trempe d'ame, qui ne peut. fe plier ni au manege ni aux basseffes des Courxisans : ausii ai-je fait Ia Rev. May, 1764. Ff triste triste experience que l'innocence et la droiture nous brouillent souvent, presquc autant, avec la cour, que pouroit le faire le coHtraire. It is very certain, that in the particular instance that originally gave rife to the present publication, M. D'Eon's tretqpe d'umc was by no means so supple and pliant as his interest required. It is pity, that as his natural disposition and education had rendered him so unfit for a Courtier, he had not stuck entirely to his profession of arms. There are a thousand things that are excusable, and would be even becoming, in a Captain of Dragoons, that are by no means tolerable in a Secretary of , an Embassy ; who certainly ought.to be as trimming and pliant an animal as any in the creation, if he means, in due time, to arrive at being a Minister himself. But our Author had already arrived at that honour, and therefore, thinking his day of probation over, it is no wonder a man of his turn should take fire at the proposal for divesting him of the latter character, and subjecting him again to the former. Hlnc ilhe lacbrynue ! M. D'iion, who had been Secretary to the Embassy under the Duke de Nivernois, and, thro' the interest of that Nobleman, was afterwards appointed Resident and Minister Plenipotentiary, thought it the highest indignity offered him, that the French Ministry proposed his acting as Secretary to the Embassy under the Count de Guerchy. No, fays M. D'Eon, Aut Cttsar aut nihil. Once a Minister and always a Minister: Lambert i, and Wicquefoit, for that. It was to no purpose that our Author's friends in Paris laboured to persuade him, that his honour would not be hurt, by such concession, while his interests would be much advanced. No, he had been made aPolitician and a Minister in spite of his teeth, and, therefore, in spite of theirs he would remain so, or have nothing at all to do with the Embassy. In this resolution he was so fixed, that he tells the Duke de Nivernois, in one of his letters, ' Nothing upon earth, not even death, shall make me change my mind ; nay, if I thought I- should be mean enough to do it to-morrow, I would throw* myself into the Thames to-night.' And again, in a postscript, to the same Nobleman, ' If God, in his anger, had made a Bifliop of me against n:y will, I would defie the devil himself to eject me from my see.' Would not one imagine, that the emoluments annexed to M. D'Eon's residcntfhip were very great, that he seems so extravagantly tenacious of it. It appears, however, by his own account, to the contrary, and that he neither could obtain from his Court a decent establishment for himself here, nor a farthing of remittances, for an old debt, due to hirst Or account of his former services in Russia. The honour was all j ::~ . which, which, to true Frenchmen, who are so used to diet upon vanity, he affected to think enough. M. de Gucrchy, however, seems to insinuate, that he was prodigal and expensive in the support of the Embassy, after the departure of the Duke de Nivernois ; while, on the other hand, M. D'Eon accuses the former of meanness and avarice. Hence the various articles of recrimination, and the reason for publishing the several Accounts contained in these extraordinary Memoirs. Among these accounts are those of the minutest expences attending the housliold of the Embassy ; to which are added, the sums given away, lent, and expended, on various services ; some of them singular enough, witness the following : Paid for a little black bitch, for the Duke de . Praflin, ;£• 3 Q O To Mr. O'Gorman, for his journey to Paris, to Pa'd to the Poet des Cazeau, Chevalier of the For a Port Folio, containing a collection of mi- For a cane broken over the shoulders of a French footman, who came to desire a character of me, aftar being civilly dismissed, for taking the impreslion of a key of a cabinet of state-papers, 300 To. these we shall add a very serious one to this nation, and with ■that dismiss the article of Accounts : Advanced to several English artificers, of both sexes, belonging to ihe manufacturies of printed linens, inveigled away from London, and parts adjacent, by M. Lcscallier, in order to enable them to go abroad, 10,5, 0 O We forbear making any reflections on this article, as the consequences of such a seduction . f our Manufacturers is obvious : how far it may be deemed consistent with propriety, in the Secretary of a French Ambassador, at such a juncture, to be guilty Of such a seduction, or his Court to countenance it? we pretend not to fay. That it must have Ween done, however, by order, or permission, of the French Court, seems pretty evident j as M. D'Eon appears to be otherwise too much a man of F f 2 honour, |