that he who can so foully slander the Prince of Wales, may give a very good clue to lead to the haunts of his abandoned clan. The fiend has of late let slip these dogs of slander and detraction, and it is indeed a melancholy sight to see them howling in and defiling the chosen sanctuaries of truth and honour. These calumnies have been called by this writer Nuga, but let him beware, perhaps "Hæ nugæ seria ducent-in mala," should the Attorney General consider the base and groundless insinuations of bribery at p. 14 and 17. We are ashamed of having wasted so much time on this contemptible composition, but it is impossible not to feel indignant when the illustrious and unoffending are treated by the malicious with wanton disrespect. These attempts at defamation must, we know, prove unavailing, but there may be something to fear from professions of respect, &c. p. 21, for it is the slaver of the serpent, and not the bite, that kills.—“ O libel me with all things but your praise!" An Antidote to Poison, or a full Reply to Mr. Jefferys' Attack upon the Character and Conduct of his R. H. the Prince of Wales : containing several Particulars derived from Authentic Sources of Information. By Claudio. 8vo. pp. 94. 3s. Matthews and Leigh. 1806. We were really tired of Mr. Jefferys, and would willingly have heard no more of him, or his detestable conduct. Under this impression, we took up Claudio's “ Antidote” in no very good humour, but we had not proceeded far with him, before we felt greatly pleased that he had fallen in our way. Mr. Jefferys is said to have gained 6001. by his libel, and he probably has a mind capable of thinking his "estate the more gracious;" but, we would not deserve and receive such a "kick o' the breech," as he has deserved and received from Claudio, for that sum multiplied without end. Query, for "Claudio" should we not read Claudo? Raro antecedentem Scelestum Hor. Od. II. 1. 3, That is, Pana, nomine Claudo. For this pun, as vile as the subject that occasioned it, we beg pardon. The pamphlet is very cleverly drawn up, the strong points are well put, and the facts agreeably interspersed with pleasant similies and anecdotes. At pages 3 and 5, we find several instances of the magnanimous behaviour of the Prince, with respect to Mr. Jefferys, who has, notwithstanding, had “the unexampled impudence to affix the advertisement of his Review in the windows of one of his own empty houses, immediately opposite to Carlton House." P. 8. "Mr. Jefferys," says Claudio, "enters upon his review with perfect ease and confidence, by declaring that the task which necessity (arising from oppression) has imposed upon him is not difficult,' he then endeavours to interest the feeling of the British public, by asserting that his case is of such peculiar hardship, as perhaps never engaged their attention:' This is precisely the hacknied language of every young barrister, when he opens a criminal prosecution on the crown side, at the assizes; be the offence great or diminutive, felony or larceny, a maim with an intent to murder, or the pilfering of a couple of Welsh wigs, the offence which he is about to detail, is always the most flagitious that ever awakened the inquiry of justice." P. 14–15. Continuing thus smiling and probing, he observes: "Mr. Jefferys supposes himself the equal friend, or rather the protective patron of his Royal Highness, and charges him with an unmanly and dishonourable insensibility to the profuse favours which have been heaped upon him by the unbounded generosity of his jeweller O shame! where is thy blush?" In plain English, this silversmith and money-lender, says to his Royal employer, I lent you a sum of money; it is true that you repaid it with punctua lity, (though I have not been candid enough to say, when the interest is added to the additional orders which I received from you and your friends, how much I gained by the accommodation) I want the same sum for my own speculations, I expect you to furnish it, and if you do not, I will denounce you as an ungrateful and unprincipled man, as one who can only think and feel for himself." “Low and audacious calumniator! thus to attempt to separate the affections of the people from their future sovereign!" P. 35-6. On Mr. J.'s importance as a member of parliament, he remarks: "The late Lord Camelford boasted, that if Mr. Horne Tooke was dispossessed of his seat in parliament by a vote of the house, he would bring in his black groom in his stead; and I remember that his Lordship's menace was not thought by many persons an extravagant one, on account of Mr. Jefferys having found his way into that assembly." P. 53-4. Proving as he proceeds, and gathering strength as he goes, he comes to this conclusion: Mr. Jefferys may have been baffled in receiving profits of lavish and extravagant magnitude, but if the powerful and convincing testimony of three most honourable, impartial, disinterested, and competent men can have any weight, instead of Mr. Jefferys having been ruined by the Prince, he has gained, in hard cash, the sum of 15,9971. from the Prince alone.” P. 64. He then, amongst many shrewd and conclusive animadversions, makes this sensible and well-founded comment: "The rock on which his fortunes were shipwrecked, was ambition-ambition tinctured with phrenzy!-a lordly establishment, a town-house, a princely country-house, carriages, splendid dinners, routes, an awkward association with, and a disastrous imitation of, his superiors, placed in the scale of order high above him, and finally, a contested election, a seat in parliament, and costly attentions, which hungry corporations expect from their representatives; these were the fatal and infallible causes which hurled this devoted tradesman to the abyss of ignominy and perdition. His Royal Highnness is no more responsible for such consequences, having clearly proved that they did not flow from him, than he is for the man of slender income finding ruin by becoming the copyist of his dress and establishment." P. 66-7. This is indeed" a full reply to Mr. Jefferys," and nothing further need be added, to make his confusion complete. The Life, Pedestrian Excursions, and singular Opinions, of J. H. Prince, Bookseller, Old North Street, Red Lion Square, Holborn, London. Member of several Literary Societies; late Public Orator at the Westminster and London Forums; late Minister at Bethesda Chapel; Author of the Annual Visitor, and of the Censor; and Secretary to the Union Society. Also, for near twenty Years, Clerk to several Attornies in London; and recently, Head Manager of the Conveyancing Department, at Skinner's Hall; containing a Circumstantial, and Faithful Narrative of the first thirty six Years of the Existence, and an Account of the Literary Career of that most eccentric Character. Written by himself, and sold by himself. pp. 240. 3s. 6d. 1806. LET Rousseau and Gibbon be forgotten, and here let memoir writing cease- -It has in Mr. Prince reached its acme, and can go no further. We are now presented with the first thirty-six years of the life of this gentleman of multitudinous professions-how many more 36 years he means to add, we are not told, but if he does not intend to go to press again until thirty-six years have elapsed, we congratulate ourselves with the prospect of being completely out of his way. Amongst the inducements which Mr. Prince felt to write his own life, we find this weighty reason-He not only knew more about himself than any other man, but he also knew more about another person than any other man, namely-his wife, P. 27. I have, says he, the knowledge of the truth, and thus he proceeds to relate it. On his ancestors he does not pride himself much, but elegantly 66 remarks, that the consideration is trifling, every tub should stand on its own bottom." P. 29. For private reasons he sinks his paternal grandfather, but his maternal, he tells us, was one Dixon, a cloaths-scowerer, and then adds the valuable information, that one of his three daughters, Ann, was peculiarly fond of "challenging men to intellectial combat." P. 33. We feel delighted at the possession of this fact, for it is of the last importance; but we much lament to find ourselves left sadly in the dark, with respect to two venerable personages of his illustrious house-" Whether my grandfather and grandmother were sensible or ignorant, handsome or ordinary, moral or immoral, are questions which I cannot resolve." P. 38, We go further, however, and fare better. His father was an eccentric Quaker, and, though by trade a weaver, he engaged himself, when he came to London, to a black diamond merchant, and at 12s. a week carried out coals." P. 39. He saw Miss Dixon, and marked her for his own. Her name was Dolly, and she was, says he, "a I don't know what." P. 44. Amongst the fruits of their loves was Mr. Prince-but to be more minute (the spirit of biography) his mother Dolly, when lying-in with him, had a sore leg, p. 47, and being unable to suckle her child, put him out to a nurse, who, it seems, loved him dearly, and consequently gave him what she liked best herself" instead of sucking the breast, I sucked the gin bottle." P. 77. He never after saw this delicious liquor, this mother's milk, as it were, without crying for it--but he affirms, in a melancholy tone, that it stinted his growth-and he is now very little. P 77. Although he has "turned out," according to his own account, a most extraordinary man,” p. 76, nothing preternaturał or portentous announced his birth-his mother had her usual longings when "enseint." P. 76. "I was born without teeth, and my mother drank cordal." P. 77. At a proper period he was named John, more Quakerorum, and not George, after his father, for this sensible reason a former son had been named George, and, as he died, the same might have happened to Mr. Prince-if he had been called George! and behold the consequence-both he and we should have lost his life. How he acquired his second name of Henry, was through his mother, who took him clandestinely to church, and though the Quaker suddenly made his appearance during the ceremony, and exclaimed, "What business hast thou to fling water in my child's face;" p. 83, they baptized him in spite of his remonstrances. Being born and made a Christian, he begins 66 his thirteen avocations, six of which he followed "at one time.""Alternately I have been a tallow chandler, turner, hatter, bookbinder, patten and shoe heel maker, button and trimming seller, shopman at a ready-made and child-bed linen warehouse, clerk to a lottery office keeper, fringe and fancy trimming maker, dyer and scowerer, an attorney's clerk, a chandler's shop keeper, and last, but not least-a bookseller." We can travel with him no further, and shall merely remark, that he has it in contemplation to "kill himself, and give an account of his own last dying words, death, and funeral." P. 26. In the course of this inestimable memoir, we are occasionally referred to another work, the Censor, but only on very particular and dignified points-viz. "I have deprecated this custom of put ting whole candles into the kitchen stuff, in the Censor, Vol. I. No. 2." P. 56. Though he is modestly silent on his studies in the groves of Academus, it is due to him to observe, that he is a man of vast erudition-he quotes Latin, esio perpetua, p. 185-quis seperibit, p. 226, and tells us, after, doubtless consulting some rare manuscript, that "Longinus deems the Apostle Paul as excellent an author as ever wrote." P. 22. As the duels of box lobby loungers and apprentices have brought that custom into some discredit and contempt, we think this memoir of myself, may, perhaps, by its frequent indecency, and constant absurdity, tend to stop that inundation of insipidity and nonsense, in the shape of own life writing, which has lately threatened us. The Works of Pluto; viz. his fifty-five Dialogues and twelve Epistles, translated from the Greek. Nine of the Dialogues by the late Floyer Sydenham; and the Remainder by Thomas Taylor. With occasional Annotations on the nine Dialogues by S. and copious Notes by the latter Translator, in which is given the Substance of nearly all the existing Greek MS. Commentaries on the Philosophy of Plato, and a Portion of such as are already published. 5 Vols. 4to. 10l. 10s. Evans. 1804. * On this subject we feel a little nervous after the late rencontre of Mr Moore the poet, and Mr. Jeffray, the Edinburgh reviewer. The idea of being obliged to fight, even with paper bullets, every author that does not like to hear the truth, is terrible. Mr. Prince, as the son of a Quaker, is, we hope, a peaceable man. It is very hard indeed, if a reviewer's brains are to be blown out, because an author has поле. |