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The Affidavit is followed by a circumstantial Narrative, as Mr. Bower calls it, of what has since passed between him and Sir Henry Bedingfield. This narrative contains only a few short Epiftles concerning the Letters, copies of which were delivered to Mr. Bower, and are here printed.

We have next a second Affidavit, sworn June 30, 1756, before Mr. Fielding, wherein Mr. Bower maketh oath, That the Letters were not written by him, or with his privity. Then follow some short observations on the Letters, and the conduct of the Persons who have published them. These observations are contained in four pages; no mention is made of the money-transaction; and nothing, indeed, is advanced that can give any fatisfaction to an unbiassed Reader.

Mr. Bower has annexed a Postscript to his piece, which it may not be improper to lay before our Readers; it is as follows. • Since the foregoing sheets were sent to the press, and their in⚫ tended publication advertised in the News-papers of Saturday ' the 26th of June, a pamphlet hath been advertised, and this day published, to prove the authenticity of the Six Letters in ⚫ question; which is pretended to have been written by a Protestant, but with all the virulence and scurrslity to be expected • from exasperated and bigotted Papists, by whom the principal • materials therein published, appear to have been furnished, and • for the defence of whose cause alone they are plainly calcu'lated. The public may be assured, that Mr. Bower will, at a proper time, give an answer to the false facts, and false reasoning of this anonymous Proteftant-Papist. As to his scurrility ' and invectives, Mr. Bower, agreeable to what he declared in • his Preface, will neither answer nor resent them: at the fame time, he takes this opportunity to declare, that neither this, or any other attempt of his enemies shall so far fucceed, as to prevent him from endeavouring to complete The History of the Popes with all possible expedition.'

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It may be observed here, that Mr. Bower, on a former occafion, broke his word to the public, in relation to the account he promised to give of the motives which induced him to change his religion, and of his escape from the Inquifition of Macerata: Upon Mr. Baron's publishing an account of this matter, in November, 1750, Mr. Bower, in a public advertisement, declared, that Mr. Baron's account was, almost, in every particular, absolutely falfe; and, in another advertisement, soon after, that it was very imperfett, (twoassertions not very consistent) and false in many circumstances; promising, at the same time, that as foon as he had acquitted himself of his engagement to his subscribers, by finishing the second volume of his History, he would himself publish a true account of the matter. Now this second volume has been compleated about five years; the third has long ago been laid before the public, and the fourth, we are assured, is in great forwardness, in the press; but Mr. Bower's promifed account has not as yet made its appearance.

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Whether he will keep his word any better, in regard to what he has promised in his Postscript, we know not. But this we believe, that if ever he intends publishing his Anfwer, the present is the only proper time for this purpose; and that his not answering his opponents without loss of time, affords a strong prefumption that he has no fatisfactory answer to make.

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ΙΙ. ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΑΣΤΗΣ. In Answer to a Book entitled, ἘΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ. The Portraiture of his Sacred Majefty in his Solitudes and Sufferings. By John Milton. Now first published from the Author's second Edition, printed in 1650. With many Enlargements: By Richard Baron. With a Preface, shewing the transcendent Excellency of Milton's Prose Works. To which is added, an original Letter to Milton, never before published. 4to. 2s. 6d. Millar!

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All who are fond of MILTON's writings, and, we hope, the number of fuch is not small, are certainly under obligations to Mr. Baron for this edition of the EIKONOKLASTES, which contains several large and curious additions, that will give great pleasure to every admirer of Milton, and every friend of Liberty.

Mr. Baron, in his Preface, writes like a warm friend to Liberty, and an irreconcilable enemy to all civil and ecclefiaftical usurpations. He takes occasion to recommend to all young gentlemen the study of our old writers, efpecially MILTON, and SIDNEY, as one remedy for those evils which threaten the utter ruin of our country. High-church priests' seem to be his abhorrence. Many of these, he says, 'have laid out confiderable fums to destroy the profe-works of Milton, and have purchased copies of his particular writings, for the infernal pleasure of confuming them."

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* This has been practifed, says Mr. Baron, 'with such zeal by many of that cursed tribe, that it is a wonder there are

any copies left. John Swale, a bookfeller of Leeds in York'shire, an honest man though of High-church, told me, that he • could have more money for burning Milton's Defence of Li

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berty and the People of England, than I would give for the pur⚫ chase of it. Some priests in that neighbourhood used to meet once a year, and after they were well warmed with strong beer, they facrificed to the flames the Author's Defenfio pro populo Anglicano, as also this treatise against the ΕΙΚΩΝ. I have it * in my power to produce more inttances of the like facerdotal spirit, with which, in some future publication, I may entertain the world.'

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We shall conclude this article with acquainting our readers, that we have, in the Editor's preface, an original Letter from Mr. Wall to Milton, written in the year 1659, and never before publifhed. This Letter is sensible and spirited, and thews very plain ly, that Mr. Wall's sentiments in regard to Ecclefiaftics, were pretty much the fame with Mr. Baron's, which, if we may be *allowed

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allowed to offer a conjecture, was one, perhaps not the least, reason of its being inserted.

III. A Compendium of authentic Voyages, digefted in a chronological Series. Illustrated with a variety of Charts, Maps, Plans, Heads, &c. 12m0. 7 Volumes. Il. is. Dosley, &c.

That our Readers may be enabled to judge of the merits of this Collection, by comparing its contents with those of other Compilations of the fame kind, we shall give a brief summary of the articles in the several volumes, viz.

The four voyages of Columbus; the voyage of Vasco de Gama;-of Piero Alvarez de Cabral; the conquest of Mexico, by Cortez; Pizzarro's Conquest of Peru; voyages by Soto, ard others, to Florida, 1539;-of Fernandes Magalianes; -of Sir Francis Drake ;-of Sir Walter Raliegh, and others under his direction;-of Sir Thomas Rowe to India, sent by King James!. as Ambassador to the Mogul;-of Capt. Monk, with memoirs relating to Old and New Greenland; narrative of the wonderful preservation of eight men left on the coast of Greenland, 1630; journal of seven sailors who wintered and died in Greenland, 1634;-of seven failors who were left at Spitzbergen, in 1634, and died there in 1635; account of a shipwreck near Spitzbergen, 1646; description of Iceland; dangerous voyage of Capt. James, to the north-west; Nieuhoff's voyage; Baldæus's account of the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel ;-of the ifland of Ceylon; voyages to the north of Europe; memoirs relating to Russia; Wafer's voyage to the isthmus of Ame rica; account of the expedition against Carthagena, 17415 Dampier's voyage; Gamelli's in 1693; Woodes Rogers's, 1708; Anson's, 1740: the four last round the world.

We perceive nothing new in this collection, except a short narrative of the expedition to Carthagena, 1741; which seems to be a fatirical account, chiefly designed to roast the Commanders; the paper is written with spirit, but abounds too much in acrimony and abuse.

As to the collection, on the whole, it appears to be rather calculated for our novel-readers, than for those who confult books of this kind for useful information, as well as mere entertain+ment. The charts, maps, and plans, are too small, and the heads and views meanly executed.. The scheme of the work too, is not a good one; for the chronological order, which the editor looks upon as a capital improvement, creates great confusion in the reading, to those who may chuse to peruse the volumes through, in the order in which the several articles are arranged. For instance, he jumps you from Sir Walter Raliegh's expedition to Guiana, to Sir Thomas Rowe's voyage to the East-Indies, and from thence to Monk's voyage to Greenland: whereas, in the order observed in the late edition of Harris's Collection, this confufion is avoided, by going through all the voyages to one division, or part of the globe, before those to another quarter are

begun.

REV. Aug. 1756.

IV.

IV. Memoirs of the Life and Actions of General W. Blakeney: To serve as an Introduction to a fuller History of certain Transactions, wherein he had a Share. To be published in due Time. Dublin printed, and fold by the Bookfelers in England. 8vo. 6d. Scott.

We have in this pamphlet very few memoirs of Mr. Blakeney, but much virulence against the public administration. It seems to be one of those modern fquibs invented by the author of the Marriage-Act, a Novel; who has so ingeniously contrived to abuse the government, or any eminent characters, in romances, and fictitious epiftolatory correfpondences. Vide Shebbeare's works, throughout.

V. A real Defence of A-1 B-g's Conduct. By a Lover of Truth, and a Friend to Society. 8vo. 6d. Robinfon.

An ironical fatire upon the Admiral, in the form of a comment, and vindication of his famous Letter to Secretary Cl-d. VI. The Chronicle of B-g, the Son of the Great B-g. By Ifrael Ben Ader, of the Tribe of Levi. 8vo. 6d. Hogarth's-head, Fleetstreet.

A mere narrative of B-g's late unhappy Mediterranean expedition; written in imitation of the ftile of the Old Testament.

VII. Memoirs of the Life and Distresses of Simon Mason, Apothecary; containing a Series of Transactions and Events, both interesting and diverting. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Printed for the Author, and fold by Noble, &c.

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Mr. Mason, the unfortunate Author of these Memoirs, having several times failed in his business, and being reduced to great distress, has printed his life, in order to prolong it, with some abatement of the miseries he has already undergone. We have observed nothing extraordinary in the circumstances of his Histo. ry, further than that he seems to have been fingularly unfortunate in all his attempts to maintain himself, wife, and children, by his industry and skill in his profession: in neither of which does he think himself at all deficient. His book, however, affords very little that can be supposed to interest the reader, and nothing to divert him; so that the recommendatory professions in his title-page, might as well have been omitted. But as the poor man may be a real object of compassion, the benevolent reader may lay out half a crown with him to very good purpose.

VIII. The true State of the Case of Sarah Rippon, Widow. Written by herself. 8vo. 6d. Scott.

Mrs. Rippon, according to this narratior, appears to have been a confiderable fufferer by a law-fuit, with perfons whole purses were too mighty for her. As this is a case not very fingular, we shall refer, for particulars, to the pamphlet;-:: which is annexed,

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nexed, Proposals for printing by subscription, Poems on various Subjects and Occafions; in which we with her Good Luck.

IX. Cibber's Two Dissertations on the Theatres. With an Appendix, in three Parts. The whole containing a general View of the Stage, from the earliest Times to the present: With many curious Anecdotes relative to the English Theatres, never before published; and Remarks on the Laws concerning the Theatres. 8vo. 3s. Printed for the Author.

Mr. Theophilus Cibber, here presents the public with copies of two Differtations wherewith he entertained the town several evenings, during the last winter, at the little theatre in the Hay-market, and elfewhere. In the first Differtation, he shews what high estimation poets and players were held in among the antients, particularly the Greeks and Romans; that Socrates, Epaminondas, Cæfar, Scipio, Brutus, Cicero, and others, the greatest men, in all ages, were promoters of dramatic compofitions, and encouragers of actors; that even the Apostles were no enemies to plays; and that fome eminent modern Divines, particularly Archbishop Tillotson, approved of theatrical representations. He then enters on a concise History of the English Stage, Patents, Patentees, and Licences, from Queen Elizabeth to the present time; and this he does, in order to introduce an enquiry into the conduct of the present Patentees, and to make it appear, that by their tyranny over the actors, ill-usage of authors, and mismanagement in general, they have greatly contributed to introduce a bad taste, and deprive the public of those advantages, that rational and moral entertainment, they might receive from the stage. He takes a review of, and censures, fome late revived pieces; together with all the tribe of drolls, farces, mock-operas, mimickry, &c. lately introduced; and is particularly fevere on Mr. Garrick. He concludes with an address to the town; in which he apologises for his undertaking, and pleads the necessity of his circumstances, from his being excluded both the theatres.

In his second Dissertation, (after a prefatory address to the Antigallicans, whom he supposes to have been affronted by an anonymous scribbler, under the influence of the Drury lane manager) Mr. Cibber carries on his animadversions on Mr. Garrick, whom he censures both as a manager and player; but many of his criticisms on that Gentleman, tho' some of them feem to be both smart and just, will have the less weight with the impartial reader, as Mr. Cibber appears to have conceived a strong pique and prejudice against this celebrated actor, on a supposition that Mr. Garrick has been instrumental in some of his late miffortunes and disappointments; particularly in his being refused fermission to entertain the town with the performances of a new company, at the Hay-market theatre.

In this second Differtation Mr. Cibber enters upon an examen cf Mr. Garrick's performance in the character of Lear; which

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