in order to make room for the habitation of their increafing numbers within its walls, began to crowd their houfes together, in narrow lanes, and to raise them to an immoderate, and very incommodious height. The events of the Reformation were highly favourable to the peafantry and burgeffes. Edinburgh, and the other towns and cities of Scotland, in general, appear to have gained by it, an acceffion of wealth, and of inhabitants. Through the boisterous days of Mary's reign, and during the feeble and fickle government of her fon and fucceffor, who was born in its Caftle, Edinburgh continued to extend its limits, to multiply its inhabitants, and to increase its opulence. After the acceffion of James to the English throne; and through the unhappy period which enfued; divided as it was between the groaning miferies of oppreffion, the bluftering tumults of fedition, and the furies of rebellion; till the expulfion of the laft of the Jameses, in the year 1688; the profperity of Scotland appears to have languished and declined; its fields were laid waste or forfaken; mourning went about the streets of its towns; its Capital city was not remarkably enlarged or beautified; except by the conftruction of a palace at Holyrood, which had its origin in the tafte of Charles the Firft; and of a fumptuous Hofpital, founded by the munificence of George Heriot: both edifices, defigned by Inigo Jones; that illuftrious architect, whofe works prefent a venerable intermixture of the Gothic with the Grecian ftyle of building. Between the Revolution and the Union, the genius, the industry, the patriotifm of the Scottish nation, were actively awake. New manufactures were tried; new channels of trade were opened; the wounds made by civil diffenfion, began to be healed thofe energies were now vigorously unfolded, which had been lately up: conftrained under the yoke and fetters of oppreffion. Edinburgh was confiderably beautified and enlarged, during this period. Many new houfes were built in the Canon-gate, on the Caffle-hill, and on both fides of the town. The arrangement of the buildings, began to be more carefully regulated. The rooms were made more fpacious than before. More durable materials were employed. Upon the Union, Edisburgh ceafed to be the feat of the fupreme government of Scotland. The nobility and gentry were naturally allured away to London. For a while, the profperity of the Scottish Capital was thus feverely checked. It was not, till towards the middle of the prefent century, that the improvement of induftry, and the increase of wealth and population, throughout North Britain, concurred, to enlarge, enrich, and adorn its capital city. The bufinefs before the Courts of Law in Edinburgh, was by that time greatly increased: The fame of the University began to attract many more ftudents, than had formerly attended it; The establishment of Banking-Houfes, and various other events, contributed to excite a brifker and more enter. prizing spirit of trade; and ferved, at the fame time, as fure indications, that the trade of this city, and the circumjacent country, had already made no inconfiderable advancement. About the time of the acceffion of his prefent Majefty to the British throne, the plan of enlarging the Scottish capital, with fuburbs, on its fouth, and on its north fide, more extenfive and magnificent, than the original town itself, was happily formed. Brown's fquare, Argyle's fquare, Nicolfon's ftreet, Bristol ftreet, George's fquare, were built on fields, or areas, on the fouth fide of the city. On the north fide, the famous North Loch was drained; a magnificent bridge was built across its bafon, to afford access to the fields ly ing beyond: On these fields a New Town was begun upon an elegant and well-arranged plan. In the period which has fucceeded, the plan of the New Town has been nearly compleated; the buildings, on that fide, have been irregularly extended towards Leith; another bridge has been conftru&ted-over the Cowgate; the suburbs on the fouth fide, have also been greatly enlarged; feveral fplendid public edifices have been erected; the lanes and streets of the Old Town, have been widened, and made more elegant, and commodious; the buildings have been rebuilt or repaired; a happier economy of the police has been eftablifhed. At laft, the magiftrates of Edinburgh, fenfible to the glory of being the patrons of the most distinguished univerfity in Europe; and afhamed of the meannefs of the edifices of this illuftrious feat of learning, determined to rebuild the houfes of the univerfity, on a plan not unworthy of its fame as a fchool of fcience. To aid the city funds in fupplying the expences of this noble undertaking, there was a fubfcription opened. The teachers in the university, men emi. nent in public and private life, who refpected it as their Alma Mater, the inhabitants of the city, and the friends of taste and fcience in all quarters of the British dominions, have contributed munificently towards the erection of this new palace of the mufes. But the contributions and the other funds deftined to this ufe, are still far from being fully adequate to the completion of the plan. It may be hoped, that, when the wounds of our trade, industry, and civil union, fhall have been healed, by the restoration of peace to the British Empire, and to Europe, the enthusiasm of our countrymen for whatever is related by any pleafing ties of affociation, to the interefts of tafte and science, or to the glory of their country, will not fuffer them long to leave the new buildings of this univerfity in their present halffinifhed ftate. The city of Edinburgh, in its prefent condition, for the fpaciousness of its ftreets, the elegance of its houfes, the decency, cleanlinefs, and vigilance of its police, the abundance of its markets, the wealth, induftry, knowledge, tafte, virtues, and elegant manners of its inhabitants,-is one of the first of the great towns of Europe. Its population is eftimated at between eighty and an hundred thousand fouls. Its circum. ference may be about feven miles. It spreads over three low-lying hills, and is furrounded on almoft all fides by infulated and precipitous mounts. Villas, gardens, and rich fields, beautifully laid out, and well cultivated, lie around it for fome miles on all hands. The Frith of Forth opens nobly in view before it to the eaft. On the other quarters it enjoys a variety of beautiful and extenfive prospects; although, being fo near to the fea, it be neceffarily lower than the adjacent interior country. Its lofty houses, fpires, and cliffs, and the inequalities of the ground which it covers, render it, from all fides, a most interefting, and strikingly picturesque object of view. ANECDOTE OF RICHARD III. KING OF ENGLAND. From Rymer's Fadera. THIS prince, after the death of of King of France; a title that could Charles le Bel, wrote to the pope to enforce his claims to the crown of France. The pope very wifely advifed him to renounce, as foon as poffible, the title not fail to make him pafs with posterity for a prince of great injuftice, and to entail upon himself and his heirs the implacable hatred of all Frenchmen. IT STRICTURES ON THE PURSUITS OF LITERATURE; A Satirical Poem in four Dialogues, with Notes. T is a noble obfervation of England's greatest dramatic poet, that - Virtue, as it never will be mov'd, Though lewdnets court it in a fhape of heav'n; So LUST, tho' to a radiant ANGEL link'd, ceal his filthinefs even in his metaphors and rhetorical figures. We hate the mifery of being forced to quote them. Averfi facem praebeamus. Speaking of Frenchmen, "In thefe latter days they have been neighing after the conftitution of their neighbours, in their lawless luftihood. (p. 6) They firft deflower the purity of the ftruggling or halfconfenting victims, and then with their ruffian daggers they stifle at once the voice and the remembrance of the pollution." Next p. 131. While founding the praifes of Edmund Burke, "that glorious lamp, regent of day;" that "heavenly luminary, who faw the apocalypfe," and raved ARMS and the man till anarchy expire." And prey on garbage. Sakefp. Ham. This admirer of ancient Greek and Roman models, who might himself have been the goatish coryphæus of a troop of wanton fatyri, can fully, in his impure imagination, the innocence of flowers, and the trains of their fweeteft poet. It is not for nothing we make this charge. We will both prove that he is a man (he himself would fay a gentleman) of the moft tainted luft, but even one who has done more for the propagation of it than any perfon we know, He does well truly to refer to Dryden and Pope. Shall we read the debauching plays and tranflations of the one; or the half-fmothered obfcenity of the modern Gallic Julia has done noother. We know that we are writ. thing but conceive one mishapen ing of two great and refpectable lump after another in the faeculency of her political womb; conception names; but we fhall ever glory to fpeak of the past, as they truly were; upon conception; abortion pon of the prefent as they truly are; of abortion, and what can we fay, the future as far as we know they Cum tot abortivis faecundam, Juliz, vulwill be. If we are accufed of flan der, we refer to the works of Dryden, in numberlefs places; and to the trash of Pope (would it had never exifted) which may be found in different publications, and even of late among his other writings. Pope and Dryden fatyrised the age; yet Pope and Dryden wrote fuch stuff. We told our readers before, that fatiric poets are seldom models of virtue, and leaft of all anonymous ones. No genius will ever atone for proven calumny, blafphemy, and immorality. To proceed: this man cannot conEd. Mag. May 1799. Behold this delicious note about ex terminating, (we wish only to fay fettering) the Freneh nation. vam "That Solveret et patruo fimiles offunderet offas. Are we writing of a man or of a beaft! Nay, of a monfter, whom these two orders of creation will execrate and abhor; while the first is conscious of all the charities of father, brother, hufband, daughter, or wife; and the laft while it remains in the rank affigned it by God. Such are the "humour and playfulnefs," p. 8. of this fcandalous writer. Next for an entirely grofs and unneceffary conftruction of an article of Tt bufinefs bufinefs in parliament, we mean the dog.tax. However worthy of fatire the subject, we never suspected that it could have become a vehicle of profanity. But let even the barren deferts of ftatute law reft in hope; this mancan strew them with flowers*. (Page 208.) Read a note, marked in the following manner. Speaking of that bill, he fays, "I fhail not look to Mr Pitt or Mr Wilberforce for an explanation of the following claufe in it, namely, "That NO PERSON who shall keep any BITCH, whelp, &c. fhall be charged with the payment of the faid fum until SUCH BITCH, &c. shall be of the age of &c." Cer. tainly the bill is allegorical, and THE KEEPERS OF BITCHES, &c. complain that they had taxes enough to pay for them before. Mr Fox objected to it in the H. of C.; fo did Lord William Gordon, and many other refpectful and playful members. But in the Houfe of L. the Duke of Queensberry faid it did not much fignify." Such are thy allegories, "thy dark fayings (as thou impioufly calleft them) on the harp." So much for this execrable attempt on Dr Darwin. Although we are not difpofed to favour all that ingenious gentleman's philofophical fpeculations, yet we feel a fatisfaction in freeing the character of the fineft poet in England from the dark designs of an affaffin. The iniquities of this defamer are but yet half difplayed. Novel writers next have their fate. The works of Smith, Inchbald, Robinfon, Burney, &c. and in short all that kind of writing, are difcuffed in the notes, p. 58, 59, 60 Two or three, the firft of which is, we believe, the Odyffey of Homer, are appointed to be read. P. 61. Notice is taken of fentimental novels, the French tafte is justly blamed; as the proper antidote to fuch depravity, up farts Edmund Burke, "HE who," (fays our author in the fanctity of his foul) "tood between the dead and the living, and ftayed the plague ; greater and brighter in the decline, then in the noon-day of his life and vigour.” Of this frantic man, who no doubt wifhed well to our conftitution, but who lived unheard and neglected while he was in the road of defending it, and who could only obtain notice by finking every principle of humanity and common fenfe in a furious and mistaken zeal to protect it, we fay this for all. We applaud the exertions of government to fecure our fafety from French fubjugation. What was needlefely begun has reduced us (we are afraid) to the neceffity of finishing, in a very active and unanimous manner. But to extirpate the French nation, (for their pretended anarchy is nothing lefs,) to restare the ancient defpotifm of their kings, or bigotry of their pricfts, merely to gratify the Emperors of Turkey, Germany, Ruffia, the Stateholder of Holland, or the titular Louis XVIII. are what we neither with nor defire. Let us defend ourselves; abhorring defpotifm either monarchical or republican, confcious that Britain is fubject to neither. This man had an imagination bordering on infanity; no great ftock of learning; a tafle vitiated by a love of bombait, and tu. mid metaphor; and was at all times either the fcorn or the tool of men in power. The author of the P. of L. is exactly his counterpart ; with more villany and Greek, and with even wilder intentions. We fhall take no further notice of the raving, delirious, and unfounded praises of Burke in the rest of the book. The Sans Souci fchool; and the ridiculous attacks of Volney on the Chriftian religion are next happily expofed (p. 64, 65, 66.). In p. 69, the author firft ftrikes a favourite note, which, from the frequent repetition, we fuppofe to be the keynote of the piece. "Obfcenity has now her code and prieft," p. 350.1. 369. * In "In verfe half veil'd raise titillating_luft, "Like girls that deck with flowers Pria pus' buft." (p. 69.) We here learn the existence of a publication, (of which our author is the notice-man to all who understand English) viz. of a quarto volume as old as 1786, on the "worship of Priapus." Befides, know all by these prefents, that there is a toged Society which calls itself Dilletanti, to print fuch works. He hopes the treatife may be forgotten, (a hope which the P. of L. fhall willingly disappoint) and therefore he does not name the author. Why did not the old proverb move this doting propagator of vice," Stir a dunghill, and it will raise the more ftench." He deals out a reprehenfion of this ob. fcure book, telling us, that it con. tains "" pictures" in their most degrading protrufion, raked together, and copulated; "records of Grecian and Roman ftews, and the obfcure revellings of Greek fcholars (can thefe be himfelf and the Dilletanti compeers) in their private ftudies?" Nor does fuch abominable publication of unknown obfcene books, we fay, publication; for who knew of their exiftence before, ftop here. Knight, Madan, and Thicknefse are arraigned in the prurient language of an abfent member of the Dilletanti fociety, every where. It is not the reproof of indignant virtue, but the tickling of a Horace, himself obscene." Before the vote for printing Mr 's Pri. apus had paffed, I fhould have faid with Roman fternnefs, had I been present, I lictor colliga manus." See more of this delectable fubject p. 119. 182. where B. Horfley is wantonly and infamoufly in a note conftrued into profanity. We think our charge now pretty well proven; our reader will think too much fo, perhaps. If he defire more, let him read in p. 121. about the "prudifhnefs" of admitting bawdery in Sir James Burgefs Bland; in p. 143 a Inter Socraticos notiffima faffa cinædos. pejores, qui talia verbis Herculis invadunt et de virtute loculi Clunem agitant. Juv. S. II. ver. 20. The dialogue goes on: p. 72. Coxe is accufed of writing infipid travels; Daines Barrington of prefenting illauthenticated facts in natural history to the Royal S.; Chatterton for his poetry of Rowley; p. 75. Hardwicke of publishing ufelefs trafh among his "ftate papers;" Lord Orford (H. Walpole) of Gothic tafte in architecture, and idle fondness for anecdotes; (a heavy coil all the while below, about "wire-wove, hot-preff'd paper, and cuts," and many another ufelefs article of abute and reform.) Page 78, appears a fictitious character of a hunter after old books, under the title of Dr Dewlap, where Bryant and Cracherode, and fome more of our author's objects of miferable praise, pafs in order. Next the ftage and modern comedy and tragedy get a dull hit, (p. 80, 81.) From p. 81 to 92 there is a fober cenfure of all English antiquarians, in general, in dull verfe, full of the names of Capell and old books. Nor are the notes idle. They have all the bawdy trafh (ftill they prey on garbage) at full length; about Gibcats; potatoe tarts, with wife obfervations of his own; all that he could pillage from the annotators of Shakfpere, while he left their excellencies behind. Next, from p. 92.-to the end p. 102. is a well-executed adaptation of the ftory of Acteon to the commentators of Shakfpere; whom he pretends to have been run down by Johnfon, Steevens, Farmer, Tyrwhitt, Porfon, Malone, Ritfon, Whiter, Hawkins, Warton, Percy, &c. Tt2 The |