people, but, on payment of a moderate tribute, ftipulated not to deprive them either of their lives or property, and gave them alfo their churches, and a toleration for their religion. See this curious treaty, which was made about the year 712 of the Chriftian æra, in the fecond vol. of this catalogue, p. 106. "When the posterity of thefe conquerors came in their turn to be conquered, (an event, which happened many centuries afterward) they did not experience that indulgence, which had been granted by their forefathers. "The conquered Moors (as they were then called) were expelled by thousands; or, if they ventured to ftay, were expofed to the carnage of a mercilefs inquifition -pueri, innuptaque puella, Impofitique rogis juvenes ante ora pa rentum. "It appears that many of these Arabic-Spanish princes were men of amiable manners, and great encou ragers both of arts and letters, while others, on the contrary, were ty rannic, cruel, and fanguinary. "There were ufually many king doms exifting at the fame time, and thefe on every occafion embroiled one with another; not to mention much internal fedition in each par ticular state. "Like their Eastern ancestors, they appear not to have shared the fmalleft fentiment of civil liberty; the difference as to good and bad government feeming to have been wholly derived, according to them, from the worth or pravity of the prince, who governed." OBSERVATIONS concerning the ANCIENNT STATE of the ISLE of WIGHT, and whether the TIN TRADE was formerly carried on from that Ifland. [From Sir RICHARD WORSLEY's Hiftory of the ISLE of WIGHT.] particulars from it. Thefe men, HE Ifle of Wight is, by many "THE tee bye for- fays he, meaning the tinners, manu merly been a portion of the main land, gradually disjoined by the encroachments of the fea; a notion probably taken from Diodorus Siculus, who mentions a peninfula which he calls Vectis, as the mart to which the Cornish merchants ufed to bring their tin in carts. But the distance, with many other circumftances, have caufed it to be doubted by fome, whether he really meant this ifland. The ingenious Mr. Borlafe is of this number, and makes ufe of the following argument: "The fhort defcription which we have of the tin trade in Diodorus Siculus must not be omitted, though it is too general for us to learn many facture their tin, by working the nent nent and Britian, have this fingu been in fome of the ports of Hamplarity, that when the tide is full fhire, and Cornwall would scarcely they are real iflands, but when the have felt the influence of their manfea retires they are all but fo many ners, much lefs have been improved peninfulas. From this ifland the and civilized by them at that diftmerchants buy the tin of the natives, ance. Again, the Cornish, after and export it into Gaul, and finally, the tin was melted, carried it at low through Gaul, by a journey of water over the Ictis in carts; this about thirty days, they bring it will by no means fuit the fituation down on horfes to the mouth of the of the Ifle of Wight, which is at Erydanus, meaning the Rhone. In least two miles diftant from the main this defcription it will naturally oc- land; and never, fo far as we can cur to the inquifitive reader to afk learn, has been alternately an ifland where this lctis was, to which the and a peninfula, as the tide is in Cornish carried their melted tin in and out. The Ictis, therefore, here carts, and there fold it to the mer- mentioned, muft lie fomewhere near chants. I really cannot inform him; the coast of Cornwall; and must but by the Ictis here, it is plain that either have been a general name the hiftorian could not mean the for any peninfula or creek (Ik being Ictis or Vectis of the ancients, at a common Cornish word, denoting prefent called the Ifle of Wight: for a cove, creek, or port of traffick), he is fpeaking of the Britons of or the name of fome particular peCornwall, and, by the words, it ninfula and common emporium on fhould feem thofe of the most wef- the fame coaft, which has now lost its tern parts; Tns vap Вpelavinns xala тo isthmus, name, and perhaps wholly ακρώτερου το καλέμενον Βαλέριον οι μαλοι- difappeared, by means of fome great κονίες, &c. Ουλοι τον κοσσίτερον κατα- alterations on the fea fore of this σxεvaσ11λÓÏεxvas, &c. that is, thofe country." Borlafe's Nat. Hift. of who live at the extreme end of Cornwall, § 16, p. 16. Britain, called Belerium, find, drefs, melt, carry, and fell their tin, &c. Now it would be abfurd to think thefe inhabitants fhould carry in carts their tin nearly two hundred miles, for fo diftant is the Ifle of Wight from them, when they had at least as good ports and harbours on their own fhores as they could meet with there; befides, the inhabitants are faid in the fame paragraph, to have been more than ordinarily civilized by converfing with strangers and merchants. Those merchants then must have been very converfant in Cornwall; there trafficked for tin, that is, there bought and thence exported the tin, or they could have no bufinefs there: their refidence would have 5 "With great deference to fo high authority as Mr. Borlafe, what another very ingenious author has faid uponthefubject may be given without undertaking to decide upon a queftion of fo great uncertainty. Mr. Whitaker, in his Hiftory of Manchester, after mentioning that the Phoenicians had continued the tin trade to the coafts of Scilly for near "The three hundred years, fays, Greeks of Marfeilles first followed the track of the Phoenician voyagers, and before the days of Polybius, and about two hundred years before the age of Chrift, began to share with them in the trade of tin. The Carthaginian commerce declined. The Maffylian commerce increased. And in the reign of Auguftus the whole whole current of the British traffic had been gradually diverted into this channel. Two roads were laid across the country, and reached form Sandwich to Carnarvon on one fide, and extended from Dorfetshire into Suffolk on the other. The great staple of the tin was no longer fettled in a distant corner of the island. It was removed from Scilly, and was fixed in the Isle of Wight, a central part of the coaft, lying equally betwixt the two roads, and better adapted to the new arrangement of the trade. Thither the tin was carried by the Belga, and thither the foreign merchants reforted with their wares." He adds farther, "That the Ifle of Wight, which, as late as the eighth century, was feparated from the remainder of Hampshire by a channel no less than three miles in breadth, was now actually a part of the greater ifland, disjoined from it only by the tide, and united to it always at the ebb. And during the recefs of the waters, the Britons conftantly paffed over the low ifthmus of land, and carried their loaded carts of tin across it." "As Mr. Whitaker produces authorities for what he has advanced, the curious reader is referred to his work for a more nice investigation of this fubject. But in fupport of the fame opinion, I cannot omit the following remarks offered by a gentle man of the island: he obferves, that at each extremity of the channel between the ifland and Hampshire, the tide rushes in and out with fuch impetuofity as to render thefe parts the deepest and most dangerous; whereas, near the midway, where the tides meet, though the conflict makes a rough water, according as the wind may afflift the one or the other, there is no rapidity of cur. rent to carry away the foil and deepen the bottom: accordingly we dif cover a hard gravelly beach there, extending a great way across the channel, a circumftance not to be found in any other part of it. Correfponding with this, on the Hampfhire fide, is a place called Leap, poffibly from the narrowness of the pafs; and on the Ifle of Wight, oppofite this, is a ftrait open road, of at least two miles in length, called Rew-street, probably from the French word Rue, to which the tranflation of it might afterwards be added: this road, after having croffed the foreft, may be traced by an obferv. ant eye from St. Auftin's Gate to the weft of Carrifbrook caftle, over a field called North Field, by Sheat, and fo on to the fouth fide of the ifland. Many parts of this road are of little or no ufe at this time, and unless it was heretofore used for the purpose of conveying tin, it is not eafy to conjecture what purpose it was to answer. "One more refpectable authority that the staple of tin was brought into Hampshire must be produced. "That learned antiquarian, Sir Robert Cotton, in a little treatife, entitled, "The manner and Means how the Kings of England have from Time to Time fupported and repaired their Eftates," printed in the year 1609, has the following anecdote. "Henry VI. anno 20, by advice of his council, took up, by way of purveyance, great store of grain and tranfported it into Gafcoigne, where, by reafon of the dearth, the price was extreme. In anno 31, he ar refted all the tin in Southampton, and fold it to his own prefent ufe.” RE. RECAPITULATION of Mr. BRYANT's ARGUMENTS in Favour of the AUTHENTICITY of the Poems afcribed to ROWLEY. We do not mean, by inferting this Recapitulation, to exprefs our agreement in opinion with the learned writer; but only to pay a proper tribute of respect to his ingenious and elaborate performance. The decifive publications, on the other fide of the question, will fall under our notice in the NEW ANNUAL REGISTER for the Year 1782. "I in a room F we confider all, that has to her own house. been faid, we fhall find, that there has been full evidence afforded to the following facts. First, that Mr. William Canynge, by the affiftance of his friend and confeffor Thomas Rowley, did make a valuable collection of writings. That they were depofited in a large cheft over the north porch in St. Mary Redcliffe at Bristol. That he took the utmost care for the prefervation of this valuable depofit, by having fix keys to the chest, and as many trustees, who were to perform an annual vifitation. Of Rowley, whofe existence was doubted, there has been afforded fufficient teftimony from the register of Wells: and it has been farther fhewn from the ledger of St. Ewin's, that in his time, there were at Briftol feveral refpectable perfons of that name; and, as we may reafonably infer, of his family. It has been fhewn, that the writings thus laid up, were preserved very fafely, till the year 1727 at which time the cheft was broke open: and part of the parchments were carried to another room. That the remainder lay expofed, and was carried away by different perfons. That Chatterton's father had a large fhare; of which a great deal was by him mifapplied and ruined. What was left at his death his widow put into a box, and upon her removal carried That this box was fome by her fon, when he was about fifafterwards discovered years teen years old; and that he at times carried off the writings, which he ftudied and copied at his master's office. Mention has been made of his joy, when he found out their value: of his extafy in fpeaking of them, and when he read them to his friends of his indignation at their being difregarded; which he fometimes expreffed in very opprobious terms. It has been proved, that he never took the merit of them to himself; but always uniformly fpoke of them as Rowley's. For this we have the evidence of his mother and fifter, and every one of his moft intimate friends. Perfons have been applied to, who faw the originals: who faw him with the parchments in his hand; who heard him read from them; and were prefent at the time he was copying. Several of the originals are still in the hands of Mr. Barrett. I have fhewn his fmall pretenfions to learning, from his first companions; from thofe, who knew him afterwards; from taught him; and laftly, from his the master, who own teftimony; from the writings under his ftrongest evidence of all. That he own fignature, the had originals before him, is plain from the helps, to which he applied, to get information. These were were Skinner, Kerfey, the fmall Saxon dictionary, and Chaucer with the gloffary. Thefe he obtained, when he had been in poffeffion of the manufcripts above a year and an half: fo that at that season, though he had copied many of them, he was not perfectly mafter of the language. Indeed, he never attained to it. And to this were owing the falfe gloffes and deviations, of which a real author could not have been guilty. Indeed, nothing can be more inconfiftent, than to fuppofe him the author: for it is plain, if he compofed the poems, that he did not know his own meaning: if he penned the originals, he could not read his own writing; but was obliged to others to find out his purpofe. This induces me to dwell a little longer upon the books, which he borrowed; as the inference, which naturally refults from that circumstance, feems to be of confequence. They were obtained partly from Mr. Barrett; and partly from Mr. Green's circulating library; after he had given to Mr. Catcott and Mr. Barrett many copies of the poems, and fpoken of others, as being in his poffeffion. This fhews, that they were not of his own compofition. For who ever constructed a poem, and then a year or two afterwards turned to a dictionary to understand it? It may be faid, that he had recourfe to thefe helps, in order to form a gloffary. But if he had compofed the verfes, furely he could have made a gloffary, without the help of either Kerfey, or Skinner: otherwife, as I have urged before, he must have written, what he did not understand: and that fuch fine poetry was the refult of ignorance, is not to be believed. That the world arofe from chaos, I can eafily imagine: because it was by means of a divine hand. But that a jargon of words fhould produce an Iliad, I cannot conceive. It is therefore plain, that he was not the author. "I have mentioned many of his mistakes and mifconceptions; and the mistakes of others, which he through ignorance adopted. It is with regret, that I am obliged to recur to thofe instances of his want of knowledge in his Saxon and African poems: in the latter of which Cabo Lopez Gonfalvo is changed to the rock of Lupa and the cave of Lobar: the defert of Zaira to the palaces of Zeira; and the river Tiber is made to run through Arabia. How is it poffible for a perfon of fo little experience to have attained to that store of knowledge, to that abftrufe and recondite history, with which these poems are fraught? Turgott and Rowley knew the perfons, of whom they treated; and the circumftances, which they defcribed. But Chatterton had not this knowledge. He lived at a great distance of time; and had neither experience, nor hiftory, of thefe events, which he is fuppofed to commemorate. How could he poffibly know the names of the Saxon Earls, which occur in the Battle of Haftings; and which are not to be found in any historian? They are indeed authenticated by Doomsday-book. But did he ever hear of that book? or if he did, had he ever access to it? We may be affured that he never had. The names of Bertram, Normanne, and many others, were too far out of his reach to have been ever attained by him. The nature of this evidence is fuch, as must fet afide all fcruples and furmifes: nor can it be affected by any of the popular ftorics of Chatterton, and his inventive |