Ill-fated Monarch! blind to the important truth that the caufe of a good Prince is really the caufe of his People-that in maintaining his just rights he defends their beft interefts-tha he cannot injure them more deeply than in parting with the lawful prerogatives of his crown-that ill-timed lenity towards thofe who would fubvert the royal authority, is the greatest potlible cruelty towards his dutiful fubjects, and the real friends to order;-and that his power is a facred truft, which he fhould neither exceed or abufe on the one hand, nar, on the other, confent to abandon but with his life! (To be continued.) ART. VI. Graphic Illuftrations of Hogarth, from Pictures, Drawings, and fearce Prints, in the Poffeffion of Samuel Ireland, Author of this Work, of a Picturefque Tour through Holland, Brabant, &c. and of the Picturefque Beauties of the Rivers Thames and Medway. 8vo. 21.5s. Faulder and Egerton. 1794. MR. Walpole, now Lord Orford, in his Anecdotes of Painting, very properly confiders" Hogarth as rather a writer of Comedy with a pencil, than a Painter. If catching the manners and follies of an age living as they rife; if general fatire on vices and ridicule, familiarized by ftrokes of nature and wit, and the whole heightened by proper and juft expreffions of the paffions, be Comedy, Hogarth compofed Comedies as much as Moliere." In this light he was regarded during his life, and fince his death, his reputation has gradually increased in fuch a manner as to give a fort of ideal value to productions, that, confidered as the work of any other artist, would have excited little attention. Mr. Walpole's Catalogue gave a clue to the collectors, and fince that was published, the prices for which, as we learn from Mr. Ireland's book, fome very trifling productions have been fold, is fcarcely credible. The preceding publications, by Rouquet and Doctor Trufler, gave no lift of the early prints. By Mr. Nichols the Catalogue was augmented, and his book, fince 1781, when it was published, has gone through three editions. Of the Hogarth Illufirated, by Mr. John Ireland, there have been two; the fecond we noticed in our laft Review. The publication now before us is profetiedly A Graphic Illuftration, and is principally, though not wholly, made up of articles articles that derive their value from their fcarcity rather than their excellence-that were not confidered by the artist himfelf as worthy of attention, not regarded by his contemporaries as entitled to prefervation, but are now fought by fome of the collectors of his works, and purchased at enormous prices, because they were defigned or engraved by Hogarth. To thefe collectors this work will unquestionably be of great ufe, as the copies, however flight, will enable them to difcover originals of immenfe value, which they might otherwife turn out of their port-folios, and difcard as unworthy of notice. It is, however, proper to give the author's own reafons for laying this work before the public. He tells us in his preface, that "When very young, he caught a liking, indeed a strong partiality, for the productions of this unrivalled genius, this pupil of nature, born with talents to render him equally eminent both as a Painter and Engraver; and he ventures to hope, that he does not too far flatter his own tafte, when he is willing to perfuade himfelf that he is also gratifying that of the public, if he thall be able to refcue from oblivion any genuine and authenticated traces of fuch a man. "Some of the earlieft fpecimens of them, it must be admitted, though of a curious nature, cannot be thought fo interesting as his larger works, yet, as they are original, and in many inftances itrongly fhew a promife of Hogarth's future fame, they may with propriety be allowed a place in this publication. "The volume confifts of fixty engravings" (fome of them, we think, artists would clafs as etchings); "thofe which are from original prints are either unique, or fo very rare, as to leave a prefumption, from the great prices they have drawn from the pockets of individuals, that they have fome claim to the attention of the public." In this we do not entirely agree; and when the writer tells us in the next page of his preface, that the avidity with which thefe early labours, though not of the highest interest, or much public expectation, have been fought for, and the great prices that have been paid for them by the learned and the great, fanction them to the public, we naturally recur to the lift printed in Mr. Ireland's volume; where, finding what were the fums thefe learned and great men have given, we really think them far from fanctioned by fo inconfiderate an enthusiasm. First of the first; for a small oval impreffion of the Rape of the Lock, the learned and great purchafer, whoever he was, paid thirty-three pounds. This is a very high price, but as it is the delineation of a fcene from fuch a poem, and faid to contain portraits of many of the characters, and is indifputably Hogarth's, it must be acknowledged to be a great great curiofity. Mr. Ireland's copy being made from a tracing, is merely an outline. The Search-Night, which fold at Mr. Gulfton's fale for ten guineas, is much more extraordinary, as it is, in every point of view, contemptible, and we firmly believe, what Lord Orford afferts in his Catalogue—an impofition. The ticket for James Figg, the Prize-fighter, we put in the fame class, and that, it feems, has fold for eight guineas. Of the complicated Richardfon, and Joe Miller's, ticket, we have the fame opinion, yet one, we are informed in the lift, was fold for fourteen pounds, and the other for eight guineas: who were the purchasers we are not told. The volume opens with a page or two relative to the artist, in which we are informed, that his father was a school-mafter, "To and occafionally fuperintended a literary publication. this purfuit he appears to have brought a confiderable share of learning, and with it its ufual concomitant-a flender share of fortune. What portion of this learning devolved on his fon we know not; but from his father's literary avocations, there is reason to believe that his education was not neglected." To this we do not affent ;-from the artift's deficiency in orthography, and fome other circumftances, we think, there is reafon to believe that (either by himself or his father) his education was neglected; but we perfectly agree, that what may have been wanting in fcholaftic knowledge, was compenfated by fome of the richer gifts of nature, to whom he was Confidermuch more indebted than to any of his teachers. ing the perfect acquaintance with life and manners which he difplayed in fome of his early productions, such as the Harlot's and Rake's Progrefs, &c. we naturally with to know more of his modes of life than can be acquired from cafual information, or wandering anecdotes. It is therefore to be regretted, that none of his biographers, or illuftrators have had, before they iffued their publications, accefs to what it is now certain Hogarth left behind him,-His own Account of his own life: a Supplement to his Analyfis of Beauty; and his own Explanation of many of his Prints. The first print in the volume is a portrait of Hogarth, which, by thofe who knew him, is faid to be a refemblance. The fecond is a little fhop bili in the ftyle of Callot; to Mr. Ireland's distinction between these two artists we perfectly affent. The funeral ticket, and a fhop bill reprefenting the arms of FloThe copy of the carving of a rence, &c. are well conceived. lion's head, through the mouth of which, in the time of Addifon, letters and effays for the Guardian were conveyed, is unqueftionably a curious morfel for an antiquary,—but on fight of the I wooden wooden print, we could not help exclaiming,—what has this to do with Hogarth! "The thing no doubt is old and rare, But how the Devil came it there" The frontifpiece to Horneck's happy Afcetic gives a good idea of the original, but though we have not the book at hand, we think Mr. Ireland wrong in applying it to the fixth edition. The copy from the drawing of the buft of Hefiod is hard, and not in the ftyle of any of Hogarth's drawings which we have seen. The arms of George Lambert are ambiguous; we do not mean to say they are not Hogarth's, but Mr. Ireland inscribes under the name the fpelling which, we take for granted, is in the original, i. e. Lambart, now Lambart is a foreign name, and the creft, blazonry, and fupporters have a foreign air. The English arms of Lambert are three lambs, etc. Of the tranffubitantiation fatirized we know not what to fay; but certainly cannot agree with Mr. Ireland that fuch a print is cal culated to ferve the intereft of the Proteftant religion. The copy of Garrick in the Farmer's return, gives the idea of a man seven feet high. In Bafire's etching it is not fo. The portrait of John Wilkes Efq. is by no means fuch a resemblance as in Hogarth's own etching, and, as well as fome others in the volume, we think might have been difpenfed with. The last engraving of Satan, Sin, and Death, is among the number of those which Mr. Ireland, fome years fince, published without letter-prefs. This, as well as the print reprefenting fome of the principal inhabitants of the Moon, has been curtailed to make it fit the volume. The Satan, Sin, etc. muft furely have been intended as a mock heroic; if ferious it is beneath criticism. The ticket for the benefit of Spiller the comedian is full of wit, but we believe Mr. Ireland does not mean exactly what he fays in defcribing it in p. 62," the annexed copy of an unique print in my poffeffion was engraved for the benefit of poor Spiller, the Shuter of his day." The frontispiece has fome whims; but, from the groffnefs of the fubject, this, and the complicated Richardfon, might as well have been left out of the volume. The etching of Figg, the prize-fighter, and two or three other prints, we cannot confider as either works of Hogarth, or even in his manner, either of conception or execution. There were impoftors in that day as well as this, and Hogarth's name, from the time he was at all known, would have great effect in the fale of a print. On the whole, this publication is amufing, and will probably find purchafers of varions defcriptions. fome attracted by the prints, others by the anecdotes, but all zealous to do honour to Hogarth. ART ART. VII. De Legione Manliana, Quæftio è Livio defumpta, et Rei militaris Romanæ ftudiofis propofita. Auctore Gulielmo Vincent. 4to. 2s. Cadell, 1793. WHEN ancient author, the learned have but three ways by which they can extricate themselves. They must give a new conftruction to fome of the leading words; or they must prove the reading to be corrupt, and propofe a better; or, finally, by an original hypothefis concerning the general intention of the author, they muft throw the whole paffage into a new light. If the fignification of particular words happen to be fo limited, by the concurrent ufage of different authors, as to render it perfectly clear, little can be attempted in the way of new conftruction. Before we accede to new readings it is reasonable to demand, either that the changes fhould be very simple and probable, or that they fhould be fupported at leaft by fome variations of the manufcripts, if not by direct authority from them. The credit of a new hypothefis will of courfe depend upon the degree of fkill or fagacity by which it is connected with the circumstances of the author, and the nature of his fubject. In the 8th book of Livy's hiftory, and in the 8th chapter, is found a paffage which has been tried without fuccefs in the two former ways, in order to make it accord with other ancient au¬ thorities on the fame fubject, and to render it explicable in itself. It is a defcription of the Roman legion, given on the occafion of that great battle against the Latins in which Manlius commanded, and Decius his colleague devoted himfelt for his country. In this defcription Livy fo entirely difagrees with Polybius and other writers on the Roman army, that if they are fuppofed to write exactly on the fame fubject, the words of one or the other party mult be much reformed before they. can be made to agree. Lipfius has tried his fkill upon Livy, and has taken the double method of giving new fenfes to fome of his words and altering others: according to his interpretation, this author, in the courfe of only a few lines, ufes ordo, in two, according to Fabricius, in no less than four very different fenfes. This is fo unlike the practice of any fenfible writer that it is in itself very improbable. Lipfius alfo changes quindecim twice into decem, triginta into viginti, and makes other alterations, all unfupported by any manufcripts. this way it is eafy to compel any paffage to fay whatever we would have it fay. Other critics have tried other methods, but In none |