would not he be wife to make choice of these words? Give, and it fhall be given unto ye.. Or before the Lords, Giving no offence, that the Miniftry be not blamed, 2 Cor. vi. 3. Or praifing the warm zeal of an Administration, Who maketh his Minifters a flaming fire, Pfalm civ. 4. We omit many other of his texts, as too tedious.

From this period, the flyle of the book rifes extremely. Before the next chapter was pasted the Effigies of Dr. Sacheverel, and I found the oppofite page all on a foam

- with Politicks.

We are now (fays he) arrived at that celebrated year, in which the Church of England was tried in the perfon of Dr. Sacheverel3. I had ever the interest of our High-Church at heart, neither would I at any season mingle myself in the Societies of Fanaticks, whom I from my infancy abhorred, more than the Heathen or Gentile. It was in thefe days Ibethought myself that much profit might accrue unto our Parish, and even unto the Nation, could there be affembled together a number of chofen men of the right spirit, who might argue, refine and define, upon high and great matters. Unto this purpose, I did inftitute a weekly Affembly of divers worthy men at the Rofe and Crown Alehoufe, over whom myself (though

3

Bolingbroke, fpeaking of Sacheverel, in his Dedication to Sir Robert Walpole, fays, "You had a Sermon to condemn, and a Parfon to roaft; for that I think was the decent language of the time; and, to carry on the allegory, you roafted him at fo fierce a fire, that you burnt yourfelves; your arguments being confined to the propofitions this Preacher had advanced, you may feem rather to bave juftified refiftance, or the means employed to bring about the Revolution, than the Revolution itself.”

unworthy) did prefide. Yea, I did read unto them the Poft-boy of Mr. Roper, and the written letter of Mr. Dyer, upon which we communed afterwards among ourselves. Our fociety was compofed of the following perfons: Robert Jenkins, Farrier; Amos Turner, Collar-maker; George Pilcocks, late Excifeman; Thomas White, Wheel-wright; and myfelf. First, of the firft, Robert Jenkins.

He was a man of bright parts and fhrewd conceit, for he never fhoed an horfe of a Whig or a Fanatick, but he lamed him forely.

Amos Turner, a worthy perfon, rightly esteemed among us for his fufferings, in that he had been honoured in the ftocks for wearing an Oaken bough.

George Pilcocks, a fufferer alfo; of zealous and laudable freedom of Speech, infomuch that his occupation had been taken from him.

Thomas White, of good repute likewife, for that his uncle, by the Mother's fide, had, formerly, been fervitor at Maudlin college, where the glorious Sacheverel was educated.

Now were the eyes of all the parish upon these our weekly councils. In a fhort space, the Minister came among us; he fpake concerning us and our councils to a multitude of other Minifters at the Visitation, and they spake thereof unto the Ministers at London, fo that even the Bifhops heard and marvelled thereat. Moreover Sir Thomas, member of Parliament, fpake of the fame to other Members of Parliament; who fpake thereof unto the Peers of the Realm. Lo! thus did our councils enter into the hearts of our Generals and our Law-givers; and from henceforth, even as we devised, thus did they.

After this, the whole book is turned on a fudden, from his own Life, to a Hiftory of all the publick Tranfactions of Europe, compiled from the Newspapers of thofe times. I could not comprehend the meaning of this, till I perceived at laft (to my no fmall aftonifhment) that all the Meafures of the four last years of the Queen, together with the peace at Utrecht, which have been ufually attributed to the E-of 0Dof O, Lords Hand B-, and other great men; do here most plainly appear to have been wholly owing to Robert Jenkins, Amos Turner, George Pil cocks, Thomas White, but above all, to P. P.

The reader may be fure I was very inquifitive after this extraordinary writer, whofe work I have here abAtracted. I took a journey into the Country on purpose ; but could not find the leaft trace of him: till by accident I met an old Clergyman, who faid he could not be pofitive, but thought it might be one Paul Philips, who had been dead about twelve years. And upon enquiry, all he could learn of that perfon from the neighbourhood, was, That he had been taken notice of for fwallowing Loach. es, and remembered by fome people by a black and white Cur with one Ear, that conftantly followed him.

In the Church-yard, I read his Epitaph, faid to be written by himself.

O Reader, if that thou canst read,

Look down upon this Stone;
Do all we can, Death is a man,
That never fpareth none,

OF THE

POET LAUREAT E.

NOVEMBER 19, 1729.

THE time of the election of a Poet Laureate being now at hand, it may be proper to give fome account of the rites and ceremonies anciently used at that Solemnity, and only difcontinued through the neglect and degeneracy of later times. These we have extracted from an hiftorian of undoubted credit, a reverend bishop, the learned Paulus Jovius'; and

'A much more entertaining account may be drawn from a difcourse and research into the biftory of Poets-Laureate, of M. L'Abbé Refnel, the fame who tranflated the Effay on Man, inferted in the 15th vol. of the Memoirs of the French Academy, p. 234. He observes, from a passage in Villani, that Daute feems to have been the firft modern poet that received this honour, who, in 1325, was interred with great ceremony and pomp, and in the habit of a poet, in Habito di Poeta, which Habito he thinks was the laurel-crown. The next he mentions is Albertino Muffato, a native of Padua, who, many years before Petrarch, for he died in exile 1329, wrote Latin Poetry with elegance, and produced an Heroic Poem on the Siege of Padua, many Eclogues and Elegies, and above all two Latin Tragedies, entitled Eccereuis & Achilles, in the ftyle and manner of Seneca; the very firft regular dramas that are to be found fince the barbarous ages. Petrarch was the next Poet that received the laurelcrown. His joy on the occafion, his journey from Vaucluse, and voyage to Naples, to vifit Robert, king of Naples, his reception by that learned Prince, who bimfelf accompanied him to Virgil's tomb, his converfations with him on many fubje&s of literature, his prevailing on the King to permit him to receive this honour at Rome, and not at Naples; all these circumftances are minutely related at the end of the first volume of that moft entertaining work, the Memoirs of Petrarch, by Abbé Sade, and in the beginning of the

are the fame that were practifed under the pontificate of Leo X. the great reftorer of learning.

As we now see an age and a court, that for the encouragement of poetry rivals, if not exceeds, that of this famous Pope, we cannot but with a restoration of all its honours to poefy; the rather, fince there are fo many parallel circumftances in the perfon who

fecond. The ceremony was performed in April 1341, in the capitol of Rome, amidft a vaft concourfe of applauding fpe&ators. See particularly page 2 and 3. After the ceremony Petrarch recited a Sonnet on the Heroes of Rome, which is not to be found in his works. Philelphus came next, who had the laurel conferred on him, though he was more of an Orator and Grammarian than a Poet, by Alphonfus, king of Naples, 1453. Fauftus Andrelini was the next, a favourite of Louis XII. and Francis I. to whofe courts he went from Italy. Neither Triffino nor Ariofto defired nor received this honour; which, after all his misfortunes, the great Torquato Tallo was to obtain from the hands of Cardinal Aldobrandini, but died the evening before the day appointed for his coronation. Querno, the only Italian Poet here spoken of by Pope, and faid falfely to be the firft of the Laureates, was a low and impious Buffoon, and a fcandal to the court of Leo the Xth. Though Pope Urban the VIIIth, himself an elegant Latin Poet, patronized and rewarded Chiabrera, a fine and fpirited Lyric Poet, yet he gave him not the laurel, which Bernardini Perfetti was the laft who received, 1725. Refael proceeds to give a fhort, and indeed imperfe& account of the Poets Laureate of Germany, Spain, and England, though to none of them was the laurel given with thofe ceremonies before mentioned. Gibbon, the Hiftorian, vol. xiv. p. 432, writing in the year 1786, has affigned, in the form of a very elegant and well-turned compliment to his prefent Majefty, and to the then Poet Laureate, a reafon why the Birth-day Odes might be laid afide. "The Laureates of our own country have ever been," as Falftaff fays, the occafion of wit in other men." But never of more wit than was thrown away on the laft mentioned, Mr. Thomas Warton, who, of all men, felt the leaft, and leaft deserved to feel, the force of the Probationary Odes, written on his appoint ment to this office, and who always heartily joined in the laugh, and applauded the exquifite wit and humour that appeared in many of thofe original Satires. But beg to add, that not one of thefe ingenious Laughers could have produced fuch pieces of true poetry as the Crusade, The Grave of King Arthur, The Suicide, and Ode op the Approach of Summer, by this very Laureate.