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latitude to the arts of mifreprefentation. The Memoirs now before us appear in a very questionable shape.' The author profeffes to record the merit of the fate of individuals in our fleets and armies; to particularife their fervices and their hardships, for the promotion of their intereft, if they have furvived their fufferings; for perpetuating their names, if they have not: and, in both cafes, for the fatisfaction and confolation of their anxious relations and friends. Thefe, though very fubordinate purposes of historical narrative, might be admitted upon principles of humanity; but we do not, in fact, find that the merits of private officers are any otherwise difplayed than as they contribute to the illuftration of what is apparently the author's principal object. With regard, indeed, to the fufferings of the officers and foldiers in the prifon of Seringapatam, he is fo tediously explicit, that we are prefented with almost one entire volume on the fubject; but which unfortunately is fo ill calculated to excite compaffion, by the extreme frivolity of the narrative, that it must provoke, even in the most fympathizing mind, fome degree of ridicule on their diftreffes.

We would be understood to speak without either partiality or prejudice, when we obferve that this work is evidently written with the view of celebrating the merits of Mr. Haftings; and we are the more free to declare this opinion, as we not only have the highest confidence in the juftice and honour of that great tribunal by which he is tried, but as we think that the feemingly interested adulation of this author implies a very indifferent compliment on the weight and energy of the late governor-general's defence. Such being the nature of the prefent work, we presume that we cannot extract any part of it more fuitable to gratify the curiofity of our readers than the account of Mr. Haftings before he was governor-general of Bengal, which is as follows:

Mr. Haftings is the fon of a clergyman of the church of England, and was born at Darlesford, in Worcestershire, the feat of his ancellors for many generations, in the year 1732. His family is one of the oldeft and the most refpectable in that county but having taken part with Charles I. during the civil wars, many of its poffeffions were fold, and the produce expended in the fervice of that unfortunate monarch. Four manfions, near Barford, in Oxfordshire, are now in the poffeffion of the lineal defcendant of Mr. Lenthal, the fpeaker, which were made over to that gentleman in order to preferve Darlesford, which had been in the family of Haftings fince the year 1250, as appears by Dr. Nafh's Antiquities of Worcestershire, The laft portion of their patrimonial eftates was fold by the grandfather of Mr. Haflings, to fir John Knight; and his fa

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ther dying when he was young, Mr. Haftings was left under the care of an uncle, Mr. Howard Haflings, who fent him to Westminster school, where he was diftinguished as an excellent fcholar, and went into College, the head of his election, in the year 1746. He there gave the first proofs of those "uncommon abilities," as Mr. Francis calls them, which have diftinguished him through life-nor was he more remarkable as a scholar, than for perfonal intrepidity. His uncle dying in the year 1749, Mr. Haltings was left under the guardianship of Mr. Crifwicke, an East India director, who appointed him a writer to Bengal, much against the inclination of Dr. Nichol, the head mafter of Westminster, who entertained fo high an opinion of little Warren Haflings, as he called him, that he offered himfelf to educate him at Oxford.-Mr. Haftings arrived in Bengal in the year 1750, when the English poffefied neither territory nor power in Hindoltan.-He was in the interior parts of Bengal when Calcutta was taken by Surajah Dowlah, in the year 1756, and was allowed his liberty at Manhedabad, a fingular mark of the esteem in which his character was at that time held. At the capture of Calcutta by colonel Clive and admiral Watfon, he ferved as a volunteer in the army, and being the first Englishman in Bengal who spoke the Perfian language, he fucceeded Mr. Scrafton, in the year 1758, as refident at the court of Meer Jaffer, one of the molt confiderable offices in Bengal. Here Mr. Haftings remained until he obtained a feat in the council of Calcutta. He quitted India in the year 1765, with an unblemished reputation, and a fortune fo moderate as only to entitle him to lodgings in Effex-ftreet in the Strand.-Dif appointed in his hopes of returning to India, he had formed a plan, in concert with the late Dr. Samuel Johnson, of founding a profefforship for the ftudy of the Perfian language at Oxford; but a change foon after taking place in the East India direction, he was appointed fecond in the council at Madras, in the year 1769, and ordered to fucceed to that government. In the year 1771, the Directors removed him to a country with which he was better acquainted, and he became governor-general of Bengal in the year 1772.'

What confirms cur opinion of the defign of this publication, is, that though entitled Memoirs of the late War in Afia, a very confiderable part of it is occupied with the domestic occurrences relative to the profecution of Mr. Haftings. In the narrative on this fubject, we can discover the author to be not a little embarraffed between his zeal for the caufe of Mr. Haftings, on one fide; and, on the other, a strong latent attachment to that gentleman's principal accufers. The foremost of thefe is Mr. Burke; the account of whom we shall fubjoin, as a counter-part to that of Mr. Haftings.

This celebrated perfon is a native of Ireland. He quitted his own country nearly at the commencement of the prefent

reign. Amongst the various peculiarities which diftinguish this reign from all others, there is none more ftriking than the very extraordinary increase of that body of men who are generally termed political adventurers. Mr. Burke, amongst this order of men, has been eminently fuccefsful. He made his first entrance into public life in the character of private fecretary to the marquis of Rockingham, in the year 1765. He continued fteady in his attachment to the noble marquis, from the year 1765, to the time of his decease, and it has been generally thought, that he governed the party, the heads of which, though men of good understanding, were more remarkable for the affluence of their fortunes, and their private worth, than for talents as orators and statesmen. By a prudent, though not fordid economy, he avoided the inconveniencies and the dangers of embarraffed circumftances, and amidst all the viciffitudes of his public life, preserved an independent and erect mind, with a narrow private fortune.-From the earliest years of Mr. Burke, there was fomething in his fentiments, purfuits, and manners, that indicated to the difcerning eye fublimity of genius and delicacy of tafte. As he advanced in years the prefages formed concerning him were more and more confirmed: and he grew up in favour with all around him. An interefting fweetnefs and fenfibility of countenance prepared the stranger for thinking justly of the humanity of his difpofition, and, from the richness of his converfation on every fubject, he was pleased, though not furprised, to find intellectual excellence in conjunction with moral goodnefs. There is nothing in nature that is folitary, or independent of that univerfality of things which compofes one harmonious whole: nothing fo infignificant that it may not be affociated by a vaft variety of connections, with fomething most interefting and fublime: and all the arts and fciences are linked together in one chain, affected by mutual influence, and fuftained by mutual fupport. Hence the copious and difciplined fancy of Mr. Burke, whether in private conver fation or public difcourfe, both in fpeaking and writing, diffused a captivating charm on every fubject, and gave relief and animation to topics the moft dry and barren.-The sciences have a natural tendency to produce candour and forbearance, by inducing in the minds of their votaries an habit of tracing every action and every effect to its proper caufe. And polite literature and the fine arts, by exhibiting human nature in an infinite variety of interesting fituations, excite a thousand focial and humane emotions, which cannot fpring from all the occurrences and viciffitudes of the most varied life. Thus the man of letters becomes a citizen of the world. His enlarged mind acquires an habit of fympathetic indulgence. The antipathies and prejudices which fet men at variance with one another, are gradually worn off. Nothing that belongs to human nature; no pecu liarity in national character; no common failing or imperfection of the individual member of fociety, moves either the ridicule

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or the rage of the man who is accustomed to contemplate nature and humanity under manifold forms, and in whose breast difguft and even indignation at the effect, is partly loft in the contemplation of the caufe. The character of Mr. Burke, was marked by nothing more than fuperiority to vulgar prejudices, and unbounded philanthropy to all claffes and nations of men. It was this expanded fentiment that, on different occafions, infpired him with courage to refift the popular fury, when it had broken loofe with a favage ferocity against unfortunate criminals, and a profcribed religion. It was perfectly natural for fuch a spirit to enter by a lively fympathy, into the fufferings of the Indian nations under European tyranny, and to indulge an honeft indignation against their oppreffors. He fuffered his imagination to dwell with pleasure on the vifionary project, of uniting the freedom of the natives of India, with their dependence on Great Britain, and of bringing to exemplary punishment, an individual who had uniformly acted in the character of the first minifter in India, on thofe very principles by which our poffeffions in that country had been acquired, by which they had been maintained, and by which alone, beyond all manner of doubt, in times of civil convulfion, they could be recovered or preferved.-The fineft genius, the most generous difpofition, is not unufually found in conjunction with an irritability of temper, which magnifies its object. Although it may be too much to affirm, that belief is nothing more than vivid perception, attention has undoubtedly a microscopical power, and this power we can command at pleasure. Hence that wonderful variety of opinions that prevail, on fo many fubjects, among men of equal understand ings for while reafon and truth are uniform and invariable, the paffions and interefts of individuals are various; and when once the will begins to influence the judgment; fertility of invention, instead of being a lamp of light, becomes a fource of error. Mr. Burke, in his eagerness to impeach the governorgeneral of Bengal, loft fight of conftant precedent, and political neceffity: and, for what had become the predominant paffion of his foul, his imagination, fertile even to excefs, eafily found a cover in partial views, and plaufible theories and conjectures.'

However the talents and benignity of the political adventurer' may seem to be flattered by this delineation, we find, in less than the space of two pages, that, with respect to a tranfaction, in defiance of law and common fenfe,' the fame Mr. Burke was the grand mover of this business.'

The other of Mr. Haftings's accufers, celebrated in this work, is Mr. Sheridan; whofe character, as there drawn, we fhall next prefent to our readers.

Richard Brindley Sheridan, a defcendant of that Sheridan whofe name is immortalized in the writings of dean Swift, was, like Edmund Burke, a political adventurer, and a native

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of Ireland, though he was educated in England, and, for fome years, under the tuition of the learned and claffical Dr. Samuel Parr. He poffeffed, like his illuftrious countryman, excellent qualities both of body and mind, improved by a learned and liberal education: an expreffive countenance, a manly yet pleafing deportment, great infinuation and addrefs, verfatility and accommodation of manners in the common intercourfes of life, but, in matters of importance, inviolable attachment to his profeffed principles. He was introduced to public life by Mr. Fox; and he has paid the finest compliment that was ever yet made to that wonderful man's penetration and difcernment of character. He was distinguished, as well as Mr. Burke, by learning, eloquence, wit, and humour; and, like Mr. Burke, he maintained unfhaken fidelity to his friends, with a narrow private fortune. In fhort, the country, the fituation, and the friends of thefe men were the fame; and their talents and vir tues nearly equal in degree, but different in kind. Though Mr. Burke knew how to excufe the follies and frailties of his fellow-men, he was, from the fenfibility of his temper, indifpofed to remark them. Mr. Sheridan had a quick apprehenfion of whatever was either odious or ludicrous in human life and conduct, but, except on the theatre, he feemed too good natured to obferve it. Mr. Bu ke inclined fomewhat to the fternness of republican virtue: Mr. Sheridan, to the indulgence of a court. They both of them feafoned their orations with the pleafing excurfions of fancy: but, while Mr. Burke often rose from earth to heaven, and it was not every one who accompanied him in his flight that could diftinguish the fummits of mountains from clouds, clear argument and business were always the predominant features in the fpeeches of Mr. Sheridan, The former preferved his dignity by hufbanding fortune the latter by defpifing it. Mr. Burke, like Cicero, facrificed at his Tufculum, both to the mufes, and the houshold gods, Mr. Sheridan, like Cæfar, fought to reign in the hearts of men, refufed nothing when he had aught to beflow, and, in every fituation, with his eye fixed on the objects of a lofty ambition, waited in perfect tranquility for that relief which the common viciflitudes of human affairs, rightly improved by commanding genius, are wont to bring to all difficulties.'

From fome of the parts above extracted, we fufpect that the author has been dipping his pencil in the well-known Preface to Bellendenus. In a work intended to gratify both Mr. Haftings and his accufers, little confiftency can be expected; but we cannot behold, without a degree of aftonishment, the incoherent and complicated prejudices manifested in that now before us. The author affirms, that the first lord of the treafury, jealous of the great mind of Mr. Hastings, embraced with avidity a pretext for humbling the man whom he confidered as his rival, and veiled his own hoftile fears under the facred name of regard to justice,' This