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which you, of all men, will be the last to object to, I mean a motive of Charity towards yourself.

I am much a stranger to your perfon, and, what it may perhaps be fcarce decent for me to profefs to you, even to your writings. All I know of yourself is, what your book tells me, that you are diftinguifhed by an honourable place and office in the university of Dublin: and what I have heard of your writings, makes me think favourably of a private Scholar, who, they fay, employs himself in fuch works of learning and tafte, as are proper to inftill a reverence into young minds for the best models of ancient eloquence. While you are thus creditably ftationed, and thus ufefully employed, I could not but feel fome concern for the hurt you were likely to do yourself, by engaging in fo warm and fo unneceflary an oppofition to a Writer, as you characterize him, of diftinguished eminence. Time was, when even with us on this fide the water, the novelty of this Writer's pofitions, and the envy, which ever attends fuperior merit, difposed fome warm perfons to open, and profecute with many hard words, the unpopular cry against him, of his being a bold and "paradoxical Writer. But reflection and experience have quieted this alarm. Men of fenfe and judgment now confider his paradoxes as very harmless, nay as very fober and certain truths; and even vie with each other in their zeal of building upon them, as the fureft bafis on which a juft and rational vindication of our common religion can be railed. This is the present state of things with us, and especially, they fay, in the univerfities of this kingdom.

It was, therefore, not without fome furprize, and, as I faid, with much real concern, that I found a Gentleman of Tearning and education revive, at fuch a juncture, that stale and worn-out topic, and difgrace himself by propagating this clamour, of I know not what paradoxical boldness, now long out of date, in the much-approved writings of this great Prelate. Nor was the difhonour to yourfelf the only circumftance to be lamented. You were ftriving, with all your might, to infuse prejudices into the minds of many ingenious and virtuous young men; whom you would furely be forry to miflead; and who would owe you little thanks for prepoffeffing them with unfavourable fentiments of fuch a man and Writer as the Bishop of Gloucefter, they will find, is generally efteemed to be,

Thefe, then were the confiderations which induced me to employ an hour two of leisure in giving your book a free exanination. I have done it in as few words as poffible, and in a manner which no reasonable and candid man, I persuade myself, will disapprove. I know what apologies may be requifite to the learned

learned Bishop for a Stranger's engaging in this officious task• But to you, Sir, I make none: it is enough if any benefits to yourself or others may be derived from it.'

Such is the regard which this Writer thinks is due from one Scholar to another. In what fchool he has learned his good breeding, few of our Readers need be told that he is an apt Scholar, and zealous for the honour of his Master, is abundantly evident.We can by no means, however, fee the juftice of treating poor Dr. Leland in this unmerciful manner. It is very poffible, or rather, highly probable, he never heard that all men of fenfe and judgment on this fide the water had acknowleged the Bishop of Gloucefter as their only rightful literary Sovereign, and vied with each other in their zeal of building upon his paradoxes, as the fureft bafis, on which a just and rational vindication of our common religion can be raised.' Nay, fuppofing the Doctor to have heard this, and even fuppofing it to be true, we cannot fee any obligation the university of Dublin, or the Gentlemen of Ireland, are under to acknowlege the learned Prelate's authority; they deserve rather, it should feem, to be highly commended for their noble independent fpirit, in refusing to call any man on earth, MASTER.

But we shall conclude this article with a fair challenge to this Letter-Writer, as the only way of anfwering his arrogant and prefumptuous affertions: if he will condefcend to produce a lift of thofe men of fenfe and judgment, who vye with each other in building upon the Bishop's paradoxes, we will engage to produce a lift of men of fenfe and judgment, who are in very different fentiments; and appeal to the impartial public, which of the two lifts is the moft refpectable.

R.

The Modern Part of an Univerfal History, from the earliest Account of Time. Compiled from original Writers. By the Authors of the ancient Part. Vol. XLII. 8vo. 5s. Ofborne, &c.

HA

AVING at length quitted the American quarter of the globe, our indefatigable and perfevering Compilers are now returned to Europe, and have given us, in their ufual fugitive manner, the Hiftory of Hungary, and of the modern (or as it is ftill called, the Roman, tho' in fact the German) Empire; the latter being branched out into the History of the Imperial Cities, of the kingdom of Bohemia, the Electorates of Saxony, Bavaria, Palatine, Hanover, Brandenburgh, the Arch-dutchy of Auftria, and the Dutchies of Mecklenburgh.

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To these are added, the Sequel to the Hiftories of Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Sweden, and Turkey; continued down to the prefent times.

We have fo frequently given our fentiments of this work, with ample specimens from various parts of it, that we might readily be excufed from troubling ourselves, or the public, with any farther extracts; but having, in turning over the present volume, met with the following particulars relating to the fucceffion, and various claims, to the Ruffian empire, we imagine they may afford fome information to many of our Readers.

Charles-Leopold, Duke of Mecklenburgh-Schwerin, being defirous of ftrengthening himself by an alliance with Peter the Great, Czar of Mufcovy, obtained in marriage Catherine, the niece of that Prince; the being daughter to the Czar John, Peter's elder brother. The Duke hoped, by the aid of his new ally, to gain the afcendancy over his fubjects, with whom he was unhappily involved in the most fatal difcord: but his views were entirely fruftrated, and the match proved by no means anfwerable to his wifhes. The Czar had lent him 3000 Ruffian troops, which he quartered upon his Nobility; and this, together with the league into which the Duke entered with Ruffia and Sweden, (but which was entirely overturned by the death of his Swedish Majefty) had rendered him exceffively unpopular in the eyes of all the German Princes, who could never forgive his calling foreign troops into the Empire.

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The King of Great Britain was his profeffed enemy, as being a Member of the Lower Saxony, and the Regent of France was connected with George.. The new government of Sweden adopted a plan entirely different from that of the late King; and the Czar, notwithstanding his recent family connection with the Duke, became very cold in his caufe. To compleat his misfortunes, the Emperor took upon him finally to decide the long-depending caufe between the Duke and his Nobility, in favour of the latter, and committed the execution of his fentence to the King of Great Britain, as Elector of Hanover. At the fame time, Chriftian-Lewis, the younger brother of Duke Charles-Leopold, was made Adminiftrator of the dutchy, a fcanty part of its revenues being allotted for the maintenance of Duke Charles-Leopold. This Prince had a fpirit too great to fubmit to his fortune, which was thus, perhaps, unjuftly depreffed. Unhappily for him, his refentment was now chiefly directed against his wife's uncle, Peter the Great of Muscovy, who he thought had betrayed him, by not fufficiently fup

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porting him againft his Nobility. His complaints were far from being ill founded; for it is certain, that Peter had led him into those measures that rendered all the empire his enemies, and then withdrew from his affiftance. The Duke could not bring his spirit to fubmit fo far as even to crave his protection, or aid, to recover his dominions; but he loudly accufed Peter, for having most scandalously with-held from him the portion which had been ftipulated for his wife when he married her; and which Peter ungenerously alleged he had already paid, by the affiftance he had afforded him against his fubjects. Thefe altercations with a Prince of Peter's power, ferved but the more to depress Leopold, who being now, in a manner, an exile from his own dominions, lived with a fplendor little fuitable to his income, fometimes at Dantzic, and fometimes at Wifmar. In the mean while, his brother, the Adminiftrator, was fupported by the Hanoverian troops, who acted as an army of execution; and the Duke, foured by his repeated misfortunes, comprehended even his wife in the averfion he had conceived for the Ruffians, by openly mal-treating and abufing her. Upon the death of Peter II. of Ruffia, great doubts arofe concerning the fucceffion to that empire.

The eldest daughter of the Emprefs Catharine, by Czar Peter the Great, was Dutchefs of Holftein; and had the fucceffion been limited, for the fatisfaction of the Ruffians, to the pofterity of Peter, fhe had, undoubtedly, the prior right of fucceffion; but he was then dead, and her fon no more than ten years of age: a circumftance which rendered his government incompatible with the good of Ruffia, and therefore he was, for that time, fet afide, and the Ruffian Nobility threw their eyes back towards the pofterity of Czar John, Peter's elder brother. It is evident, that, upon this occafion, the Ruffians had not the smallest regard to hereditary right, provided they were governed by any one of the Imperial blood. Some of them were for forming their empire into a republic, but all of them agreed in fetting afide the fucceffion of the Dutchefs of Mecklenburgh, though he was the eldest daughter of Czar John, and raising to their throne her younger fifter Anne Iwanowna, Dutchefs of Courland. Their true reafon for this was, the averfion they had to all foreign connections, and their dread of being involved: in the Duke of Mecklenburgh's affairs in Germany. To colour the injustice done to the Dutchefs of Mecklenburgh, it was given. out, that the late Emperor, Peter II. who was invested with the power of nominating his own fucceffor, had paffed by the Dutchefs of Mecklenburgh, in favour of her younger fifter.

The Dutchefs of Mecklenburgh, though he was fenfib'e of, and protested againft, the wrong that was done her, was destitute

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ftitute of all the means to affert her right; and fhe was forced quietly to fubmit to fee her younger fifter mount the throne of Ruffia. The Ruffian Nobility and Senate, upon this occafion, discovered the ftrongeft difpofitions to limit the Imperial authority; and before the Emprefs took poffeffion of her new dignity, they obliged her to fign a kind of a capitulation, which, in fact, threw the government into their own hands. The Emprefs herfelf, being a woman of fenfe and fpirit, knew the invalidity of her own title, as well as of the Senate's proceedings; but the wifely diffembled both. With regard to the latter, it soon appeared that the new-modelled government was no better than an aristocracy, which was likely to prove more oppreffive to the people than the power of the Crown itself had ever been. Such of the Nobility as had been excluded by the new capitulation from the government, readily joined with the Emprefs in annulling the capitulation; and all the meafures fhe took for that purpole, were so prudent and fo vigorous, that in a few days after her fucceffion, the became as abfolute as any of her predeceffors had been.

She next applied herfelf towards fupplying the defects of her own title; but this fhe found to be a difficult and hazardous attempt. The Ruffians hated the Germans beyond any other peo-ple, and of all the Germans, none was fo disagreeable to them as Duke Leopold of Mecklenburgh. Though he lived upon very bad terms with his wife, yet he began now to confider himfelf as a very powerful Prince in her right. The Czarina was no ftranger to his bad treatment of her fifter, and the averfion the Ruffians had to his perfon; notwithstanding which, the refolved to declare the Duke's daughter, the only child he had by his Dutchefs, her fucceffor in the empire. Many reasons of ftate, however, concurred for excluding the Duke from all benefit that could arife from this high deftination of his daughter. It was easy to forefee, that if the Duke fhould once obtain a footing in Ruffia, he could foon raise a party that might give great trouble to the Government. To prevent fo undefirable an event, the Emprefs privately communicated to her fifter the Dutchefs, her intentions; which were, that her niece, the Princess of Mecklenburgh, fhould be educated at her court, that the Ruffians might be accustomed to look upon her as her fucceffor in the empire; and that, if the Dutchefs poffibly could efcape from her husband, fhe fhould accompany her daughter to Peterburgh. The Dutchefs, who was thoroughly dilatisfied with the treatment fhe met with from her husband, agreed to this propofal; and fhe and her daughter effected their efcape from the Duke into Ruffia, where they were received with all

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