of favages, like the Guaranies and Chiquitos, who wander on the wafte borders of the river Amazons, or the Plate; but a people for ages civilized and cultivated; cultivated by all the arts of polifhed life, whilst we are yet in the woods. There, have been, (and. ftill the skeletons remain) princes once of great dignity, authority, and opulence. There, are to be found the chiefs of tribes and nations. There, is to be found an antient and venerable priesthood, the depofitory of their laws, learning, and history, the guides of the people whilst living, and their confolation in death; a nobility of great antiquity and renown; a multitude of cities, not exceeded in population and trade by thofe of the first clafs in Europe; merchants, and bankers, individual houfes of whom have once vied in capital with the Bank of England; whofe credit had often fupported a tottering state, and preferved their governments in the midst of war and defolation; millions of ingenious manufacturers and mechanicks; millions of the moft diligent, and not the leaft intelligent, tillers of the earth. Here are to be found almost all the religions profeffed by men, the Bramincal, the Muffulmen, the Eaftern and the Western Chriftians. The apology which is offered for the minute detail of Indian tyranny contained in this Speech.is very affecting. We are in general, fays Mr. Burke, fo little acquainted with Indian details, the inftruments of oppreffion under which the people fuffer are fo hard to be understood, and even the very names of the fufferers are fo uncouth and strange to our ears, that it is very difficult for our fympathy to fix upon these objects.' The following parallel "between the vices of the Company's government, and those of the conquerors who preceded us in India," will probably be an acceptable prefent to our readers. 66 The Tartar invafion was mifchievous; but it is our protection that deftroys India. It was their enmity, but it is our friendship. Our conqueft there, after twenty years, is as crude as it was the first day. The natives fcarcely know what it is to fee the grey head of an Euglifhman. Young men (boys almoft) govern there, without fociety, and without fympathy with the natives. They have no more focial habits with the people, than if they still refided in England; nor indeed any fpecies of intercourfe but that which is neceflary to make a fudden fortune, with a view to a remote settlement. Animated with all the avarice of age, and all the impetuolity of youth, they roll in one after another; wave after wave; and there is nothing before the eyes of the natives but an endless, hopeless profpect of new flights of birds of prey and paffage, with appetites continually renewing for a food that is continually watting. Every rupce of profit made by an Englifhman is loft for ever to India. With us are no retributory fuperftitions, by which a foundation for charity compenfates, through ages, to the poor, for the rapine and injuftice of a day. With us no pride erects ftately monuments which repair the mifchiefs which pride had produced, and which adorn a country out of its own fpoils. England has erected no churches, no hospitals*, no * The paltry foundation at Calcutta is fcarcely worth naming as an exception. palaces palaces, no fchools; England has built no bridges, made no high roads, cut no navigations, dug out no refervoirs. Every other conqueror of every other defcription, has left fome monument, either of state or beneficence behind him. Were we to be driven out of India this day, nothing would remain, to tell that it had been poffeffed, during the inglorious period of our dominion, by any thing better than the ouran-outang or the tiger.' There is perhaps no part of his argument into which Mr. Burke has thrown more ftrength, than his fourth head, where he endeavours to fhow. "That in its pre"fent ftate, the government of the East India Company is "abfolutely incorrigible." Upon the fubject of influence he is briefer, but by no means fuperficial. An Honourable Gentleman has demanded of me whether I was in earnest when I propofed to this houfe a plan for the reduction of influence. Indeed, Sir, I was much, very much in carnet. My heart was deeply concerned in it; and I hope the public has not loft the effect of it. How far my judgment was right, for what concerned perfonal favour and confequence to myfelf, fhall not prefume ro determine; nor is its effect upon e of any moment. But as to this bill, whether it encreases the influence of the Crown, or not, is a queftion I fhould be afhamed to afk. If I am not able to correct a fyftem of oppreffion and tyranny, that goes to the utter ruin of thirty millions of my fel, low-creatures and fellow-fubjects, but by fome increate to the influence of the Crown, I am ready here to declare, that I, who have been active to reduce it, fhall be at least as active and ftrenuous to restore it again. I am no lover of names; I contend for the fubftance of good and protecting government, let it come from what quarter it will.' We have already been fufficiently copious in our extracts, but, as the guardians of literature we fhould be inexcufable, did we not remark that there are in this speech a beautiful character of Mr. Francis, and a fill more fplendid one of the inover of the bill, which we think will not yield to the moft celebrated fpecimens of this kind, that Mr. Burke has already produced. The au So much for the applaufe, which the author always has it in his power to extort from us. We are not ambitious to difplay our penetration and ingenuity by detecting a few blemishes in fo masterly a production. One thing however must not efcape us. If Mr. Burke had not our fincereft veneration, it should pafs unnoticed. thor muft excufe us; but to a character fo illuftrious as his, we know not how to forgive the common imperfections of humanity. We grant he has reafon to be irritated, for he has been treated with unprecedented feverity. But we are forry to difcover in this valuable compofition the ephe ephemeron of refentment, and, we muft fay it, now and then a want of that candour and liberality of judgment which is effentially neceffary to the GENIUS and the HERO. ART. III. A Bold Stroke for a Husband, a Comedy. By Mrs. N this piece we are prefented with a fresh addition to the compofitions already exifting in the English language, of a fpecies, which, for our parts we honeftly profefs, we had hoped had been for fome time paft exploded and aholifhed among us we mean, the Comedy upon a Spanish plot. The defign of Comedy we apprehend to be, the exhibition of living manners, the detection of reigning follies, and the prefenting to the age" its own form and preffure." This, the bare idea of a foreign plot utterly excludes. On the contrary the Spanish Comedy promifes to fubftitute in their room a complicated fcheme and improbable incidents ladies in veils fetting out in fearch of adventures, grey beards miftaken for boys, and fervants paffing themfelves upon us for their mafters and miftreffes. The fair author of this performance, is too good a writer to disappoint expectations, which the moft abftract idea of her fyftem is calculated to raife. She has therefore in the firft inftance, prefented us with a double plot, according to the beft and moft authentic precedents eftablished upon fuch occafions. The two parts fucceed each other regularly in each act, as it is called, by the obvious method of changing the scene; fo that a difciple of Ariftotle would be apt to imagine, that the managers were entertaining him with the exhibition of two comedies at once, playing an act of the one, and an act of the other alternately. Is there any body unreasonable enough to object to fo valuable an improvement; or will any body say, that two loaves are not better than no bread? The under plot is borrowed from Wycherley's admirable comedy of the Plain Dealer. The principal alteration confifts in making the Fidelia of Wycherley, the wife of the perfon fhe exerts herself to ferve. This, we are afraid however, tends only to give an improbability to the imitation, which cannot be imputed to the illuftrious original. For the lady to "throw off," as the expreffes it," the delicacy "of her fex, and wear the mafk of love to the destroyer of "her peace," was a conduct, that could fcarcely be hazarded in any other mode of compofition, than a Spanish Comedy. But the genius of Mrs. Cowley was not to be appalled with trifles. And he has rather increased her diffi culty, 66 culty, by reprefenting the lady's original motive for❝ affuming the cavalier" to have been, that the might " ftudy" the feducer of her husband, and, if poffible, be to her Carlos, all that he found in her rival." Indeed, in her fubfequent interviews with the miftrefs, fhe unexpectedly difcovers, that Carlos had "given to this woman an eftate, "almost all that his diffipation had left him." Upon this The forms a fubtle plan to get from her the fatal deed which had done all this mifchief. It feems that an uncle of hers, Don Sancho by name, had lately profeffed an ex"ceffive paffion" for this artful courtefan, though she had "never granted him an interview nearer than her balcony," and had fled from one province of Spain to another to avoid him. Upon this incident the wife builds the scheme of palming upon the miftrefs a fervant for Don Sancho, And, though the plot, it must be confeffed, does not appear very promifing, it however fucceeds beyond expectation. The fictitious Don Sancho perfuades the courtefan that the eftate is his; and the, whofe only paffion was avarice, and whofe only principle of conduct was fufpicion, tears the bond in pieces before his face. To the principal plot we fhall allow the merit of originality. The heroine, two years before the play begins, fees a gay young nobleman at a ball, who takes not the leaft notice of her, and the next day fets out upon his travels. In confequence, the falls fo deeply in love with him, that, though of the most gentle and enchanting natural temper, he puts on the character of a virago, and that fo completely as to deceive her own father, in order to get rid of the fhoals of lovers, that pour upon her from every fide. The following fcene will let the reader into this mot important part of the plot. "To Don Cafar, her father, and Don Garcia, a fuitor, enter Olivia, following her Maid. Oliv. Oh, you vile creature -am I made to be answered? Gef. Daughter! daughter! to speak to me !—to answer me ! Oliv. Because I threw my work-bag at her, he had the infolence to complain; and, on my repeating it, faid the would not bear it.-Servants chufe what they fhall bear! Minette. When you are married, ma'am, I hope your husband will bear your humour lefs patiently than I have done. Oliv. My husband!-dost think my husband fhall contradict my will? Oh, I long to fet a pattern to thofe milky wives, whofe mean compliances degrade the sex. Garc. Opportune! [afide. Oliv. The only hufband upon record who knew how to treat a wife was Socrates; and though his lady was a Grecian, I have fome rea reafon to believe her defcendants matched into our family; and never fhall my tame fubmiffion difgrace my ancestry, Gare. Heavens! why have you never curbed this intemperate fpirit, Don Cæfar? Oliv. [Aarting] Curb'd, Sir! talk thus to your groom-curbs and bridles for a woman's tongue! Garc. Not for your's, lady, truly! 'tis too late. But had the torrent, now fo overbearing, been taken at its spring, it might have been stemm'd, and turn'd into gentle ftreamlets at the master's pleafure. Oliv. A mistake, friend!—my fpirit, at its fpring, was too powerful for any mafter. Gare. Indeed-perhaps you may meet a Petruchio, gentle Catharine, yet. Oliv. But no gentle Catharine will he find me, believe it.-Catharine! why he had not the spirit of a roasted chefnut-a few big words, an empty oath, and a fcanty dinner, made her as fubmiffive as a fpaniel. My fire will not be fo foon extinguifhed-it shall resist big words, oaths, and starving. Min. I believe fo indeed; help the poor gentleman, I fay, to. whofe fate you fall. Garc. Don Cæfar, adieu! My commiferation for your fate fubdues the refentment I fhould otherwife feel at your endeavouring deceive me into fuch a marriage. Oliv. Marriage! oh mercy Caf. Yes, termagant! Is this Don Garcia ? [apart to Cafar. Oliv. O, what a misfortune! why did you not tell me it was the gentleman you defigned to marry me to? Oh, Sir! all that is paft was in fport; a contrivance between my maid and me: I have no fpirit at all-I am as patient as poverty. Gar. This mafk fits too ill on your features, fair lady: I have feen you without difguife, and rejoice in your ignorance of my name, fince, but for that, my peaceful home might have become the feat of perpetual difcord. Min. Aye, Sir, you would never have known what a quiet hour Oliv. [Arikes ber] Impertinence! Indeed, Sir, I can be as gentle and forbearing as a pet lamb. Garc. I cannot doubt it, Madam, the proofs of your placidity are very ftriking-But adieu! though I fhall pray for your converfion, rather than have the honour of it-I'd turn Dominican, and condemn myself to perpetual celibacy." Exit. With refpect to the execution of the piece, we acknowledge fome happy turns, and fome fprightly fallies. But they never follow one another thick enough to constitute a ftriking scene, and there is a vein of feebleness that runs through the whole performance. Mrs. Cowley too has fallen into the frequent fault of making all her characters as wife as herself, and reprefenting her footmen and chambermaids as moralifts and philofophers. ART. |