in defence of his religion and king; whether by a flow or lingering illnefs, he was miffed in the bloom of life; whether affaffinated by the hands of a murderer, or fuddenly taken off by the ravages of a plague; whether accidentally deftroyed by the hands of misfortune, or unhappily cut away by daftardly fuicide; it is to us of no matter, when confidered as a leffon of morality; we are equally inftructed by the example before us, if difhonourably dead, to avoid the paths in which he trod, but, if in honour, carefully to follow the track which he purfued, in hopes with him to meet with a fufficient recompence, for our beft endeavours. Silent and mature deliberation, frequent and fincere contemplation amongft the dead, must have an influence of great weight, even with the moft hard-hearted; but how much more with thofe, whose feelings are of a more delicate texture! with them it must often operate with too forcible an effect; and inftances have but too often been apparent, where the mind, unable to bear fo ftrong an impulfe, has funk into a religious melancholy, and terminated in fatal madnefs. The effects of folitude, on the mind of man, too often, alas! caufe the fubject of its influence to fink into profound defpair; nothing then, when rendered callous from habit, can have fufficient force to eradicate the evil; all appears gloomy and obfcure. To the pleatures of this world, the most innocent, he is totally difregardful, conftantly reflecting upon his favourite ftudy, till reafon, unfortunately, he cannot claim as his own. It is to thofe, therefore, of fome callous hearts, whofe actions feem rivetted to their inclinations, whofe minds, while young and pliable, have, through neglect of parents, been too much biaffed by fruitlefs indulgences, that this kind of ftudy muit prove moft beneficial. Education which has been neglected, inftruction which they have refufed, religion

which they have never known, render them much lefs liable to be affected by thofe unfortunate maladies, which fo often fall to the lot of the more thinking part of mankind. But the firft and perhaps the greateft advantage, arifing from the erection of monuments, is, that it keeps us always mindful of a fu ture judgement, teaching us, in the moft unequivocal manner, the great and important truth in the leffon of life, memento mori. What man can enter the vaults of death, without cafting a reflection on the undoubted certainty of a future life? He fees daily one friend drop off after another; and even though his mind, in a few hours afterwards, occupied in contemplating fomething of a more agreeable nature, and though through this fudden and pleafing change he may have forgot for a moment the lofs of his departed friend; yet the flighteft reflection muft again call to mind, with double force, the lofs he has fuftained in fo untimely a death. If the cares and afflictions. of this life were conftantly to be preying upon our minds, life would not then be worth pole fag; hence we clearly fee the wife providence of our Creator, who has fixed man in different fituations of life, by which to maintain himfelf and family through his own exertions, his mind confequently being diverted from thofe diftreflingreflections, which otherwife could not havebeenobviated. How often do we fee the temporary fufpenfion of grief, which a man feels for the lofs of a dear relation, even after the lapfe of many years, fuddenly roufed into great affliction on his firft vifit to the monument, which he himself had erected to his memory. By a little thought, he can paint to himself the image of his friend, converfing in his old facetious manner; telling over the tales, which fo often had afforded entertainment to his nu merous friends, and feening even now to enjoy the pleasure of his converfation; but, while thus mu

fing in a manner grateful to himfelf, he ftartles on a fudden, to think that he fhould thus be deceived, not recollecting, that his friend, for many years paft, has been no more, and that all his converfation has been spent in air. Such a ftrong impreflion, again renewed by this fecond vifit to the monument of his departed friend, is often of no fhort duration; he begins to think and reflect on the vifionary pleasures of this world; that man, however ftout, and enjoying all the comforts of life, must again return to duft from which he forang; that life "is but a fhadow, a mere player, that frets and ftruts his hour upon the ftage, and then is heard no more." He now begins to experience, what before perhaps amounted to mere conjecture, and, however much against his will, muft acknowledge, that, fevere as the conflict often is, and muft be, Death will come off triumphant.

If it be granted then, that fuch great and inestimable benefits may arife from the erection of menuments, facred to the memory of our friends and relatives, how neceffary it would feem, that the utmoft care ought to be taken towards their prefervation and fupport; nothing perhaps, excepting the corpfe itself, being more able to delineate to us the picture of Death.

Mr. URBAN,

T. H.

Feb. 6. N your laft, p. 18, is a letter,

of the inftitution of a Cow-pox hofpital under the patronage of his Royal Highness the Duke of York, and the conduct of medical practitioners, among whom are fome of the most eminent of this country, who, it feems, have nevertheless not fufficient fenfe to know their own intereft, by committing their credit in the profecution of a falie and dangerous theory.

All this reprobation is, it feems, grounded upon the prefumption (it

is prefumption only), that it is not yet afcertained that Cow-pox is not a permanent preventative of the variolous contagion *; and that, therefore, those who truft to it are liable to become in future doleful victims of experiment. To this we fhall make no other reply than a plain query, to which we beg a categorical anfwer, Whence is it that perfons, who have had the Cowpox 20, and even 30 years ago, are now infufceptible of fmall-pox? We will produce fuch perfons; will A. S. communicate the variolous difeafe to them?

But A. S. has produced fome formidable paffages from the Review in the British Critic of Dr. Woodville's Reports, and Dr. Beddoes's Medical Communications. I prefume that A. S. will admit inaccuracy in experiment to be fufficient to overthrow the theory erected upon fuch experiment; if he will not admit it, we will compel him to do fo by authorities from the firft philofophers known. Dr. Woodville's experiments were conducted in the Small-pox Hofpital, and fome of his patients were inoculated previoutly to the operation of the Vaccine difeafe. The confequence we infer, therefore, is, that the refults of Dr. Woodville's trials of Cow-pox are equivocal, as they bear all the characteristic marks of the Variolous and Vaccine difeafes blended. As to Dr. Beddoes's cafe, it has been proved, in the London Medical Review, and Mr. Henry Jenner's Addrefs to the

mies of the Proteftant religion, abdicated his throne, and fiuifhed his days in exile. Thefe evils were, perhaps, exceeded by direct vifitations from the judgements of the Almighty. Of the Plague, during that Century, died within the Bills of mortality upwards of 150,000, befides the great numbers it carried off in other parts of the kingdom; and, to complete the diftreffes of the inhabitants of the metropolis, in the year fucceeding this dreadful calamity they faw their city enveloped in flames, and more than 13,000 houfes, with all their public buildings, reduced to afhes.

Though the nation recovered its character under the Protector and Charles II. and retrieved itself in a great measure from the diftreffes it had fuftained, yet the Romancatholic religion was making fure, though imperceptible, progrefs among the higher ranks of fociety during the reign of the latter; and which became to be fo openly avowed under the indirect authority of his fucceffor, that it proved the downfal of himfelf and of the caufe which he in reality heartily elponfed..

Thus fituated was the kingdom when William was called to the throne. And though it may be extending this digresion, (perhaps already too long.) yet I trust my readers will pardon ine, as a brief recapitulation of this reign will be elucidatory of many of the tranfactions which occurred in the fucceeding Century.

The eftates of the kingdom being affembled under the name of the Convention, declared the throne vacant by the king's abdication; and an offer or the crown being made to the Prince and Princess of Orange, it was accepted, and they were proclaimed King and Queen of Great Britain, &c. by the names of William and Mary, on Feb. 13, 1688-9. Though they were called by the voice of the people to the government of thefe kingdoms, yet

I

the Conftitution was founded on the most liberal principles; allegiance on the fide of the people, and. protection on that of the prince, forming the grand bafis thereof.

William being thus happily placed on the throne, gave his affent to a bill for fecuring the rights and liberties of the people, on the clearest and most advantageous foundation; and having (prior to this) abolished the hearth-money, and paffed an act of toleration in behalf of the Diffenters, rendered himself exceedingly popular to the majority of his fubjects. Though the Revolution was thus peaceably eftablished in Great Britain, except in the fingle inftance of the Duke of Gordon retaining Edinburgh caftle, and the effort made by Lord Dundee in the Highlands, yet Ireland, being chiefly poffeffed by Catholicks, ftill remained faithful in its allegiance to James. And it was not till after three active campaigns, in the fecond of which the king commanded in perfon, and even the famous battle of the Boyne, that it was reduced to obedieace. Though this battle determined the fate of James, who immediately retired to Dublin, and from thence to France, yet it was purchafed at a great expence by William, in the lofs of the venerable and brave Duke of Schomberg, fecond, perhaps, to none of the generals of his age, and fuperior to moft in the private duties of a man and a Chriftian; and in the intrepid and persevering Walker, a clergyman, who fo gallantly directed the unparalleled defence of Londonderry against the whole army of the late monarch. In the next campaign, the last effort of King James and the French, being fruftrated by the activity of Gen. Ginckel and others, particularly at the battle of Aghrim, their army defeated, and all their ftrong holds reduced, Ireland quietly fubmitted to the government of King William.

T. Mor, F. S. M.(To be continued.)

Mr.