that he was no longer recognised by the court, and we came off triumphant.

"This dexterity in avoiding the common courfe of law, however, eventually coft me dear; I was fo well known for out-witting bailiffs, that there was hardly one who would undertake to arreft me; and this it was, as I am well convinced, that induced Mr. Lycett to proceed against me criminally. In confequence of this ambiguity thrust into the law, nobody knows how, men are intrapped; and, if carried to its extent, there may foon be no impoffibility in taking an insolvent merchant from the Royal Exchange, and fending him to New South Wales.

"I now return to the subject of my more serious business; and here I must beg my readers' patience till I lay before them a concise view of my viciffitudes. Born of an antient and noble race, but not poffeffed of riches equal to their rank, I naturally imbibed ideas of a too lofty kind; flattered in my youth by my rich and powerful friends, I formed to myself plans of future grandeur; plans, which my impetuofity of difpofition prevented me from realifing. With abundance of fire, and not a single atom of prudence, I launched into the world; my friends fupplied me with money even to profufion; and as I got it without trouble, I spent it without reluctance. Liberal as they were, my extravagance outstripped their bounty, and I was repeatedly involved in debt; ftill their purfes were not fhut; they fatisfied my creditors, and, with fhame I relate, their generofity only impelled me to new expences!

"Accustomed, from my earliest infancy, to the moft elevated fociety, my ideas imperceptibly affimilated themfelves to theirs. I entertained views of grandeur while yet a child, I felt myself born a foldier, and implicitly trufted to my sword for opening to me the way to the temple of glory. When little beyond the age of a school-boy, I was diftinguished by the most renowned generals; I had feen the immense armies of Ruffia cloathed in an uniform of my own contriving, and the celebrated Prince Potemkin had, as is well known, honoured me with particular marks of his approbation. Flattering as are the diftinctions I received, I will not relate them all; but my reception by the Prince de Ligne was in a style of compliment too fingular to be omitted. S

VOL. IX,

"Coming

"Coming to Brabant, on my return from the Black Sea, I had the honour of becoming acquainted with that great and most amiable Prince. To the utmoft politenefs, he fuperadded an invitation, in consequence of which I went to Antwerp, where his Highnefs then lay with a corps of the army, as the Emperor Jofeph II. then threatened to attack Holland. Such was the opinion of my military talents, which this veteran foldier entertained, that in compliment, he ordered his regiment, which was certainly one of the finest in the world, to parade before the hotel where I lodged: not satisfied with this, though he was an old Imperial General, and I was a very young Major, he placed me at his right-hand, and went with me along the front. The very inftant too that I was receiving this moft houourable and pleafing compliment, as if every thing meant to confpire to inflate my vanity, Earl Cholmondeley, with another gentleman and a lady, arrived at the Grand Laboureur, the hotel where I was.

"A conffant repetition of those praises might have intoxicated a much cooler head than mine; my pride had now its full fcope; I was already in idea a general in chief; my brain teemed with improvements in tactics and evolutions, till my expences fo far out-grew my income, that I was involved in debt and difficulties.

"Even when I was difgraced at home, I was admitted to the favour and familiarity of the first generals upon the Continent: what their opinion of me was, the following anecdote will fhew. Juft after I had joined the allied army in the Low Countries, a British General who knew me and my whole his tory, one day asked the Duke F. of Brunfwick, how he, knowing my difgrace, and that I had just come from France, could put fuch confidence in me?" Were I a taylor, or a bootmaker," replied the Duke, "I certainly fhould be somewhat cautious in giving him credit, but as a foldier I know that I might fafely truft him with the whole Pruffian army."

"Of my fufferings, fince I left the allies, I need not fay another word; my readers are fully acquainted with them, and I cannot fubmit to the whining tone of complaint. I have, I trust, amidst them all, acted in fuch a manner as to give my friends no reafon to blush for me; my actions were fuch as I thought my duty required, though I cannot help thinking myself fomewhat hardly treated, at being left for

near

near fix months in a prifon, without even the smallest allowance for fubfiftence.

"I have now performed what I promifed, by giving my own history, fuch as it has really been; and the reader has, I hope, feen, amidst all my errors, fomething that may be commended, much that may be pardoned, and still more that must be pitied. That I meant to vindicate every part of my conduct could not be supposed; but, alas! man is the creature of circumstances, and let him not prefume. to expect, that no preffure is heavy enough to drive him to a wrong action. Violent paffions, the almoft infeparable companions of a vigorous conftitution, call upon youth, with an importunity nearly unceafing; experience, the fureft guide, is inevitably wanting; example invites, fplendour displays its allurements, fashion leads the way, and ruin too often follows. Gay, honeft, unfufpecting, and generous, the young man rushes on to pleafure, and confidering intereft as trafh, is apt to weigh the property of others as lightly as he does his own; amusements incur expence, and expence degenerates into prodigality. To fupply thofe pleasures now become almoft neceffary to his exiftence, he contracts debts, which he cannot pay; he shifts from his creditors; his gay companions forfake him, as an incumbrance on their joyous moments; poverty ftares him in t the face, and actions, at which his foul recoils, become the only poffible means of fubfifting. If an accidental supply falls in his way, his relifh for pleasure returns; he embraces it with an appetite sharpened by abftinence; he is again involved, and difgrace fucceeds to ruin.

"Once difgraced, those prudent friends, whom the law alone reftrains from open plunder, abandon him; they do worfe, they fhut the door of fociety against him by their calumnies; his faults are the theme of their conversation, and they fhelter their own want of honesty behind his lofs of fame; they hunt him down with unceafing clamour, till it needs more than common difcernment and common firmness even to dare to befriend him; his timid well-wishers will not venture to give their countenance to him; and he is left to perith!

"Did it always happen that men of warm paffions, hurried away by pleasures, were villains; or did it always happen that the cold, the folemn, the phlegmatic, were honeft; fome

S 2

excufe

excufe might be found for such profecutions. But as it hap pens on the contrary, that the man who is without vices is alfo, for the most part, without virtues; and that prudence is very often nothing better than low felfishness in difguife, little can be faid for fuch gratuitous severity; besides, if one good action is not sufficient to conftitute the man of worth, why should one bad one be allowed to conftitute the villain? A ferious turn, the effect of experience, may reclaim the libertine, his unruly paffions may fubfide, and he may, if the gate of fociety be left open to him, fome time or other, re-enter; but, if hunted into villainy, by the clamours of hypocrisy, the die is caft, and his perdition is inevitable.

"Too often do talents and accomplishments prove the ruin of the owner; he is befet by the envy of little minds, they endeavour to reduce him to their own level, by drawing him into debauches; they flatter him while in his prefence, but no fooner is he gone than they revile him: if his intimacy with them can give probability to their tales, they fabricate calumnies which pafs for truths; if he makes one falfe ftep, he falls unpitied, and they are the first to trample upon him.

"It is a trite observation, that men of talents are generally poor, and feldom rife to any high preferment; it is true! for if they depend folely on their merit, no fooner does that begin to display itself, than it is invested on all fides by an army of blockheads, who, having no merit of their own, cannot bear it in others. But where a youth fets out with high spirits, confpicuous talents, indulgent friends, and a small fortune, his ruin is next to inevitable; life is to him a perpetual ambufcade, with a thousand masked batteries ready to play upon him at every turn; his vanity is flattered, his fenfes amused, his companions prefs him to become the partaker of their pleasures, his enemies endeavour to entice him to destruction; he yields himself up to gaiety and expence, till at length he falls, and dunces rife on his ruin."

Tradefmen, we doubt not, muft with that Major Semple, and gentlemen of his defcription, might never come abroad into fociety! For our own part, we mean him no ill, but we are forry to perceive that repentance has not vifited him during the feveral ftages of his confinement. Even when called upon by the officers of

justice,

juftice, in order to convey him to Botany Bay, he ftabbed himself, though it did not prove mortal. What a ftate of mental degradation must fuch a fcene have exhibited! What may be the prefent determination of government refpecting him, it is impoffible to fay; but perhaps the remainder of his fentence will not be put in execution. He feems to be poffeffed of fome kind of talents, and should he be liberated, we fincerely hope that he may reform his paft conduct and become an ufeful member of fociety.

Modern Infidelity confidered with respect to its Influence on Society. By Robert Hall. A. M. 2s. Conder.

THE progrefs of Infidelity has, for fome time, been

a matter of serious concern to the best friends of the community. No ftone has been left unturned for the purpofe of fhaking the faith and corrupting the morals of the rifing generation. On the continent fcepticism is notorious; and even in this country attempts are daily making to throw the advocates of religion into diforder and confufion. Under fuch cir cumstances it becomes minifters of talents to come forward and repel with ability efforts defigned to involve our beft hopes and expectations in one common deftruction. It is time that the fallacy of the unbeliever's arguments fhould be pointed out, and, above all, that the practical tendency of infidelity fhould be depicted in its true colours. Unbelief is equally hof

tile to God and man!

After thefe obfervations, it only remains that we fay that the work before us forms an admirable prefervative from infidelity. The ingenious author indeed, has principally directed his fhafts against atheism, which was once nearly declared to be the creed of a neighbouring kingdom. Nor are there wanting perfons, even