1818. Bank Long Irish 3 per Ct Imp. Days. Jan. 26 Stock. Anns. 5 per Ct Imp. Anns. Stock. 20% 1052 2401 27 20 339 240 DAILY PRICES OF STOCKS, FROM JANUARY 25, TO FEBRUARY 26, 1818, BOTH INCLUSIVE. 5 per Ct. Ind. Bon. 13 per Ct, 3 per Ct 4 perCt | 5 per Ct Redu. Cons. Cons. Navy! 79801 80479 97 98 1031043 80 79 78 998 104 India So. Sea New S.] O.S.S. Stock. Sea An. Anns. 107 105pm. 18 106 107pm.17 106 107pm. 18 20 pm. 23 27 pm. 20 pm. 23 27 pm. 79106 107pm. 18 20 pm. 24 27 pm. 30 80 79 79 982 105 1043 203 240 107 108pm. 18 20 pm. 23 26 pm. 80 79 79 783 79 783 3285284 79 79 78 98 105 I 203 78 239 101 99pm. 19 21 pm. 25 29 pm, 79 20年 783 98 pm. 20 21 pm. 26 29 pm. 79 5 80 7980 98 105 20 873 79 99 08 pm. 19 21 pm. 26 30 pm. 79480 6289 8081 80 99 105106 20 79급 241 88894 80 98 96 pm. 19 21 pm. 29 26. pm. 802 7 80 80 8099 106 105 201 2402 96 95 pm. 18 20 pm. 29 24 pm. 9 80 81 80 99 105 106 201 241 2403 105,106호 20 15 99 106 20 21 79 89 80 96 97 pm.18 20 pm. 21 25 pm. 80 99 106 20 21 241 96 97 pm. 19 20 pm. 21 25 pm. 80% 79 8099 106; 20 801 18 21 pm. 23 27 pm. 7980499 106 20 79 79 97 99 pm. 18 102 103pm. 18 101 pm. 18 100 pm. 18 99 95 pm. 18 21 pm. 22 27 pm. 8079 794801 794801 23 803 79 299 106203 17 20 pm. 24 21 pm. 79 24 289 808 79 99 106 201 25288 289 80% 791 992106 217 21 All Exchequer Bills dated prior to the 24th of February, 1817, have been advertised to be paid off, and the Interest thereon has ceased. N. B. The above Table contains the highest and lowest prices, taken from the Course of the Exchange, &c. originally published by John Castaign, in the year 1712, and now published, every Tuesday and Friday, under the authority of the Committee of the Stock Exchange, by JAMES WETENHALL, Stock-Broker, No. 7, Capel court, Bartholonew-lane, London, On application to whom the original documents for near a century past may be read. Prices of Canal Shares, &c. in the Month of February, 1818, at the Office of Mr. Clarke, 39, Throgmorton Street. CANALS. Div. per Ann. Per share. o 42l. a 451. The open weather through nearly the whole of the last month has enabled the farmers to commence Bean setting, which has proceeded with much facility, except upon very tenacious and wet soils, where the late rains have greatly encreased their adhesion which was already very close from the want of frosty weather. The young Wheats have a very promising appearance, except their being too thick upon the ground, the flag forming a close interwoven verdant matt, indicating that too much seed was sown. This will tend to keep the soil to the roots when exposed to the March winds, but will somewhat impede their tillowing. Much of the Field Business remains undone in the manuring department, owing to the tenderness of the soil. The Barley tilths are in a very indifferent state, particularly the Turnip lands, and will require much labour to get them into a kind bed to receive the seed. Turnips have run much to top, and although a large crop have not yielded that quantum of nutriment that they would have done in a drier season, in consequence of which the Mutton will not come so early ripe to market. All the soiling species have the most promising appearance, and offer an early and abundant crop; this, with a large stock of Fodder on hand, indicates a plentiful spring. SMITHFIELD MARKET, FER. 27.-Beef, 3s. 5d. to 5s. 4d.-Mutton, 4s. od. to 6s. 4d. Veal, 4s. 4d. to 6s. 4d.-Pork, 3s. 8d. to 6s. od. per stone of slbs. Hay, 31. os. to 51. 5s.-Straw, 11. 12s. to 21. 10s.-Clover, 41. to 61. 11s. Hops-New Pockets-Kent, 251. os. to 281. us.-Sussex, 241. 15s. to 271. 10s.-Essex, 251. to 271.-Farnham, 281. to 331. Average Prices of Corn, By the Quarter of Eight Winchester Bushels, from Returns in the Week ending February 14. MARITIME COUNTIES. INLAND COUNTIES. Wheat. Rye. Barley. Oats. s. d. 8. d. s. d. s. d. 192 2/50 0141 430 T 452 0,43 10 31 10 028 11 824 4 40 623 8 39 626 6 041 427 0 4 629 11 7 29 10 AVERAGE OF ENGLAND AND 185 1151 1145 31 28 6 J. Gillet, Printer Crown-Court Fleet Street London. THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. 51.] APRIL 1, 1818. To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine. THERE is a good old proverb which says "It is an ill bird that bewrays its own nest;" and never was the adage more completely exemplified than in the publication of the late Bishop Watson's posthumous memoir by his son. It is true, the work was designedly drawn up by the author for the press, and we are told by himself that he employed the latter years of his life in arranging the materials which he had, from time to time, prepared for the purpose. But filial duty would have been better discharged in withholding the manuscript from the press, than in gratifying idle curiosity, or even obeying the positive injunction of a parent. The work is now before the world, and exhibits altogether such a picture of vanity, irritability, and inconsistency, as can scarcely be paralleled in literary history. When Cicero requested his friend Atticus to spare no pains in embellishing the narrative of his public life, the orator acted with a degree of modesty compared to the deceased prelate, who employed his latter days in writing his own eulogium, mingled with the bitterest reproaches upon his contemporaries for neglecting to reward his merit. The illustrious Roman was naturally anxious to have his administration in Sicily set forth in the most advantageous light; but how ever strong the love of fame might be in his bosom, he knew very well that the object of his ambition could not be easily obtained by writing an account of his own actions. The vanity of Cicero was egregious, but it affected only himself, as the knowledge of it was confined to his friend in a private correspondence. The bishop of Landaff, on the contrary, took special care to celebrate his own praises by preparing a monument inscribed throughout with lofty boastings of his extraordinary qualifications, his transcendant virtues, and public services. Cicero, like a statesman and philosopher, wished to be honoured in the estimation of his countrymen and of posterity by the pen of a man whose talents were generally admired, and whose integrity was NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 51. [VOL. IX. -was universally acknowledged; but our prelate alike unmindful of the heathen rule, "Laudari à viro laudato;" and of the sacred precept, "Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips;"resolved not even to trust the commemoration of his worth to the partiality of friendship. Still there would have been no room for censure, had the bishop contented himself with leaving behind him. a simple narrative of his private and public life, free from ostentation, and untainted with calumny. If, like the exemplary Bishop Hall, in the seventeenth century, this extraordinary man had employed his hours of retirement in recording the " specialties of divine providence," observed by him in the course of his long acquaintance with the world; or if with the amiable Bishop Newton of his own age and college, he had indulged a vein of garrulous good humour in relating stories of his contemporaries, he would have bequeathed an instructive and entertaining legacy to his survivors. As it is, we have only to lament the perversion of an intellect of superior endowments to the crooked politics of party, and its continuance, to the very end of this mortal coil under the maddening influence of ambition. Of the piece of self-biography left for publication by Bishop Watson it is difficult to say whether it abounds most in sins of omission or those of commission. Under the former head are to be enumer ated facts studiously suppressed, information cautiously withheld, and eluci datory explanations silently passed over, which honestly stated would have given a very different colour to the matters in complaint, and have furnished sufficient reasons for the neglect which the bishop experienced. The parts of the book more directly offensive consist of scurrilous reflections upon persons in the highest stations, contumelious epithets, accusations void of all credit, and advanced upon no other authority than the evil surmises of a morbid imagination. Throughout this laborious performance it has been the evident aim of 190 Dr. Watkins on Bishop Watson's Anecdotes of his Life. [April 1, the author to make the world believe that he has been kept down in the church by those who envied his talents or disliked his virtues: on which account, and impressed by this persuasion, he strains his utmost efforts to panegyrize himself, and to depreciate those who either differed from him in opinion, or were more successful in obtaining preferment. Thus, notwithstanding his vaunted liberality of disposition, the bishop bas in the former case manifested a deficiency of candour, and in the latter a total want of charity. Were it not for the injury done to respected individuals, and the danger likely to arise from such misrepresentations, the mingled mass of conceit and calumny might well be suffered to pass down the stream of time unnoticed. But considering the temper of the age, and with what avidity scandalous chronicles are received by the discontented part of the community, and those refractory spirits whose delight is to fish in troubled waters, I propose to substantiate the charge which I have brought against the right reverend biographer by the adduction of some leading articles in his narrative, and illustrating them by circumstances which he has forborne to mention. On his early years and academical pursuits little need be said, but when we find the bishop adverting to two of his college themes for the purpose of throwing out a base insinuation against the tutors of his majesty, we at once discern the narrowness of his mind, and his readiness to seize the slightest occasion that offered of venting his resentment at the expence of common decorum. Having mentioned the subjects of his two declamations, which he acknowledges to have been suggested by the perusal of the Abbé Vertot's Roman Revolutions, he makes this reflection; " Were such kind of books put into the hands of kings during their boyhood, and Tory trash at no age recommended to them, kings in their manhood would scorn to aim at arbitrary power through corrupted parliaments." The obvious string of this virulent paragraph cannot possibly be mistaken; it is intended to sink our venerable sovereign in the estimation of the present race and of posterity by representing him as having in consequence of a bad education endeavoured to become an arbitrary monarch through the most abominable of all means, that of parliaments corrupted by his influence and with his knowledge. If the reader can put any other construction upon the words, he must do so at the expense of the bishop's understanding, or that of the common bulk of mankind. But that the bishop in fact was pretty sensible of what he was about when he penned the sneering reflection, and that he intended it for a stigma upon the king, will appear from the following simple story. When bis Majesty was in his fifteenth year he happened to pass through a room where one of the pages had casually left the History of the English Revolution written in French by Father Orleans, and translated by Archdeacon Echard. The book attracted the notice of the prince, who took it to his closet and entered upon the perusal of it with that intense curiosity which has ever marked his character. While he was thus engaged, a nobleman, then in opposition, chanced to enter the apartment, and having taken particular notice of the book, but without making any observation at the time as to the manner in which the prince obtained it, he immediately reported the circumstance to his party, by whom it was eagerly seized and converted into a grave matter of charge against the persons who had the care of his royal highness's education. These meddlers even proceeded so far as to draw up a long memorial on the occasion, which was presented in due form to George the Second, who knew very little about books, but was sensibly alarmed at the idea of what was called Toryism, which he, like many others, confounded with Popery and Jacobitism. As the good old king, however, was not master of the subject, he very prudently caused an inquiry to be instituted by those who were competent judges; the consequence of which was, a complete explanation on the part of the prince, the expulsion of the poor page, and the disgrace of the informers. Yet this ridiculous and mischief-making incident has the late Bishop of Landaff artfully contrived at the distance of sixty years, to work up, by a suppression of the real facts, into a venomous insinuation against the moral and political character of his sovereign. After taking this liberty with the king, it ought not to excite much wonder to see an inuendo equally liberal thrown out upon an archbishop. Having related a story about Paley, who was intimidated from disputing for his degree on the question of eternal punishments, the bishop very sagaciously and generously supposes that Dr. Green, then master of St. John's College, was afraid to suffer such a tópic 1818.] Dr. Watkins on Bishop Watson's Anecdotes of his Life. to be agitated by one of his society, lest he should be considered at Lambeth as a heretic for so doing. The story itself, as far as concerns Paley, may be true, but the motive for his withdrawing it is a mere evil conjecture of the bishop. Secker was at that time in the archiepiscopal chair, and both the education and principles of that prelate were at complete variance with the idea of his enter taining any displeasure at the terms of an academical question. But while the right reverend biographer was thus free in treating others with contempt, on no other ground than that of suspicion, after the lapse of half a century, it is singular that he should not have considered how his own conduct would appear in the eyes of impartial posterity. If Paley and his superior evinced a ridiculous timidity on a very simple occasion, surely Watson displayed a culpable degree of presumption in standing candidate for the chair of chemistry, when he was so ignorant of the elements of the science as hardly to know a retort from a blow-pipe. Yet he did venture to solicit that professorship, and more wonderful still, he succeeded in gaining the appointment, though, at the same time, he had to learn the very nomenclature of the art in which he was called to prelect before a learned body. This temerity on his part, and condescension on that of Alma Mater, will perhaps remind some of your readers of a similar circumstance that occurred in the last century at Gresham College. But as the story may not be generally known, and is very apposite, I shall here relate it; leaving the application to the admirers of Bishop Watson's casuistry and the defenders, if such there be, of his consistency. On a vacancy for the professorship of music, Dr. Shippen, master of Brasennose College, Oxford, made interest with the Mercers' company for the situation, and obtained it in opposition to a very learned theorist and composer. A little while afterwards the chair of Astronomy, on the same foundation, became vacant, on which the electors, who were ashamed of what they had done in the former instance, voluntarily offered the professorship to the musician, who replied, with a becoming sense of propriety: "No, gentlemen; my conscience will not permit me to accept the place; for I know no more of astronomy than Dr. Shippen does of music." It is no excuse for the chemical professor at Cambridge, to say that he subsequently made himself master 191 of his subject, any more than it would have been an apology for the Gresham reader on music to say that he elucidated very ably the theory of harmonics. The inconsistency of the thing in the first instance is the matter which calls for censure; but it must be confessed that the conduct of the University was much worse than that of the city company in the exact proportion to their respective degrees of information. Little better can be said in favour of the election of Dr. Watson to the divinity chair, when we find, by his own account, that he had at that time "no predilection for the Church of England." Now, by the law of the land, as well as by the statutes of the University, this dignity cannot be held by one who is not a member of the established church; and for this very obvious reason, that the office was expressly erected for the purpose of watching over the interests of that church, in a place set apart for the instruction of those who are to exercise the ministry in her communion. The Regius professor of divinity, therefore, must in conscience be devotedly attached to the articles of the Church of England, otherwise he is an unfaithful steward, and a teacher upon whose sincerity no reliance can be placed. Indifference in such an important concern as this, is enmity of the very worst description; for it is playing fast and loose with sacred things, making a mockery of religious obligations, and moulding moral truth into a nose of wax. According to this accommodating principle, Protestants may with propriety occupy theological lectureships where the doctrine of transubstantiation is required as the test of faith; while Socinians, with equal justice, may subscribe Trinitarian confessions in order to enjoy the temporal good things of an ecclesiastical establishment. The reformers who offered up their lives in the flames, rather than communicate with a church for which they had no predilection," must have been, according to this principle of expediency, very silly wights indeed, when, by holding their tongues, they might so easily have contrived to retain professorships, sinecures, and even bishoprics, without running any risk for the sake of conscience. But enough of this for the present; in my next letter I shall enter more closely into the examination of these Memoirs. I am, &c. March 3, 1818. J. WATKINS. |