ish; while the whole paper, (which is execrable for the hostility and personality of its allusions,) is ut terly void of that point and power which, in the former years of the Edinburgh Review, gave currency even to that which we could not approve. Look at this article, I beseech you with attention, aud expose, as it merits, the prodigious malice which it displays. That the writer is some disappointed Oxo. nian, I caunot doubt; and that the article was written under the impulse of the most vindictive passion, is obvious. "It is in these half open institutions," says this scurrilous libeller," that enquiry would detect the true spirit of the monkish system in full and flagrant operation. Place power in the hands of a conceited, ignorant, illiberal recluse, and it asks no gift of prophecy to foresee the inevitable consequence. With feline attachment to localities, such a being soon contracts the prudish air and treacherous propensities of the retromingent animal from which that narrow sentiment is imitated. No antiquated virgin more resembles her own tabby in duplicity, malice, and demureness. The sleek disguise of imbecility, the abuse of his miserable rights, the instinctive preservation of his apprehensive egotism from the contact of superior brilliancy, which he knows to be as little catching as gallantry itself, become the first objects in existence with this hater of a joke. The creature muşt be followed, sought and sued! taste must listen to its paradoxes, and talent tremble at its frown. Let a young man only abdicate the privilege of thinking, (to some no painful sacrifice,) and devote his whole body and soul to the sordid ambition of success, and the way to win,' with such electors, is no formidable problem. Our tyro may then approach the scene of action, secure that the judges will take good care that the race shall not be to the swift, nor the battle to the

strong? Hardy professions of impartiality are indeed held forth, to attract unwary merit, and selfish mediocrity, finds the most exquisite of all its gratifications in the momentary chance of harassing the talent it would tremble to confront. Who can be surprised if, under a system like this, genius and knowledge should so seldom strike a lasting root: or that the maturity which succeeds to a youth so pros tituted, should produce by its most vigorous efforts, nothing better than obscene verses in a newspaper, or discourses upon predestination?". P. 311, 312.

If this modest man or boy ever was, or ever shall become a candidate for any place of power or profit, "it asks no gift of prophecy to foresee the inevitable consequence.' Let his opponent's merit literally and moral, be as superior as possible, it is clear that nothing but success would satisfy such a candidate. In effect, it is this vile spirit of selfishness and egotism, by which, while he declaims against it, this writer is so completely dominated, which breeds so much mischief in publie and in private life, and which renders so many candidates for fame and fortune, when they do not catch at once the object at which they aim, the eager zealots of faction, and the foul libellers of those institutions which have been the glory of our country. In reference to the exclusion of the Irish from fellowships, the libeller says, p. 311"To the wisdom and humanity of this exception, it is clearly impossible to oppose a single argument. The brogue is such a black premeditated crime, that the misjudging infant who lisps those wilful accents, is fairly doomed to a youth of beggary; no ill-imagined training for a life of proscriptions." A viler and more impudent piece of radical jacobinism, we should scarcely expect to find among the common scraps of Hunt, Waddington and Co. The Irish, if they are excluded

in Oxford, have a college of their own at home amply endowed, and a church too, of which the endowments, and the dignities, bear more than their relative proportion to those in England. But to reason with a writer who could indulge in such sarcasms, and bedaub his paper with such malignity, were worse than vain. I hope, indeed, when the passion of the moment subsides that he will feel more than in any circumstances I would willingly write; and if, after all, he should possess any portion of the talents and the character for which he takes credit, and which the matter of his paper compels me to doubt, he will blush deeply as long as he lives, when he recollects, even in secret, the odious and contemptible composition to which I have presumed to direct your attention. It is the malignity which pervades this paper which is peculiarly disgusting. This is its distinguishing feature. It even summons up our stalls, mitres, and fat benefices in contract with the lauded equality of the Scottish Church; while the author assures us, in reference to the "illustrious names which grace our (Scottish) academic annals that scholarships and fellowships, bursaries and exhibitions, if once founded in the northern universities, would be bestowed with similar good taste, and might produce an abundant harvest of emulative excellence." P.310. Now from all which I know, or have heard, influence-private influence (frequently including that of the greatest men in the state,) has often at least; I will not say, because I do not know, always much more to do, and is oftener, unblushingly employed in Scottish appointments, than even this writer dare say or insinuate of our English universities.

Who

In reference to the Greek professor-
ship of Glasgow, he is pleased to
say, in a note, p. 308, "whoever
may be elected to succeed him
(Young,) we have no doubt that the
choice will do honour to the judg-
ment of the electors." Is there a
comparative trial of talents and ac-
quirements on such occasions in
Stotland? I am quite ignorant on
this head. However the reviewer
promises fairly." We shall, look,”
says he," upon the proceedings of
the new professor with great in-
terest and attention, &c."
can doubt with such a gratuitous,
cool and dispassionate superinten-
tendant, that the Greek scholars of
Glasgow will beat the mean monkish
creatures of Oxford all to nothing?
It is a good joke, indeed, and he seems
fond of a joke, for such an Edinburgh
Reviewer, even with the aid of
the whole corps, to assume such an
office: I hope the University of
Glasgow will be very grateful; and
that the new professor will be very
submissive to his self-constituted
inspector; though from the spe-
cimen before me, I am inclined to
doubt his talents, as much as his
temper. I merely mean, Mr. Editor,
to draw your attention to the article
in question; which, after all, is pro-
bably unworthy of further notice.
The malignity and the passion are so
apparent, and withal so senseless,
as to attach disgrace only to the
writer, and to the journal which gives
currency to his malice. It never can
be injurious to the fair fame of Ox-
ford, nor even to the reputation of
those individuals who, though not
named, are so evidently and so foully
libelled.

I am, Sir,
Your constant reader,

A HUMBLE KENTISH CURate,