for their prefumption; and afterwards, when a member made a motion to addrefs her Majefty to release them, thofe members who were of her privy council oppofed the motion, declaring that their interpofition would make the case the worse. When William Morris brought in a bill for correcting abuses in the bishops' courts, he was removed from his place as chancellor of the duchy, difabled from practising as a lawyer, and imprifoned for feveral years in Tilbury castle. She abfolutely proceeded fo far, as to reftrain them from all acts of legiflation. The following words are to be found in the Lord Keeper's fpeech in 1593: Her Majesty has willed me to fignify unto you, that this Parliament is not called to make any new laws, for there are a fufficient number; wherefore it is her pleasure that your time be not spent therein.' In the instructions compofed by Burleigh for the Speaker's speech in 1592, he is inftructed to difplay, as a proof of her Majesty's benignity to her people, her unwillingness to call Parliaments. In this paper we are informed that the court directed the Speaker what he fhould fpeak, and that he was the mouth-piece of the minifter as much as of the Houfe. We may form fome idea of the extent of fenatorial eloquence in her days, by the words of the Lord Keeper, Sir Edward Puckering. When Sir Edward Coke, the Speaker, requested that the Houfe might be indulged in freedom of speech," privilege of Speech is granted; but you must know what privilege you have; not to Speak what every one lifteth, or what cometh into his brain to utter, but your privilege is Aye or No." The judges, in 1591, folemnly determined that England was an abfolute empire. It may perhaps be thought, that they annexed to the word abfolute fome meaning different from the common acceptation; but the words which follow them will afcertain it; which words affert, that England is an abfolute empire, and that the Queen, by her own authority, might have erected the high commiffion court, without being impowered by any act of parliament.' From all this our author infers that our conftitution never was fo friendly to liberty as it is at prefent; and that the farther we go back, the lefs we fhall find of the exercife of those rights which the people now enjoy. He is aware that it may be urged against him, that what the Crown loft in prerogative it has gained in influence; and that, if the liberty of the subject be curtailed, it is of little confequence whether it be by the former or the latter. He fairly meets the objection, and not only admits the existence of the influence of the Crown, but contends that, fo far from being injurious to the liberty of the people, it conftitutes the chief excellence of our conftitution. His arguments on this head are certainly ingenious. Our readers will perceive that Sir Richard Mufgrave poffeffes a confiderable fund of hiftorical knowlege, that he applies it with ability to his fubject, and that he reafons powerfully. If Lifmore really had a choice in the election of a member, the choice of fuch an one as the prefent would have done credit to the the judgment of the borough. As it is, the nominal electors have this confolation, that their noble patron has not difgraced them by his nomination of a representative. ART. XIV. The Wheel of Fortune: A Comedy. Performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury-lane. By Richard Cumberland, Efquire. 8vo. pp. 79. 2s. Dilly. 1795. WITH ITH authors, as with other people, it appears that the tide of fuccefs is liable to ebb and flow. The dramatic reputation of Mr. Cumberland, after having attained no mean elevation, had fuffered a marked decline, and has again rifen to a confiderable height. The Wheel of Fortune is a popular piece at the theatre, and in the clofet maintains its ftation. It merits fome particular criticism. Sh.....n. The effect produced refts almost wholly in one character; take that away, and the play would be, in our opinion, a poor and abortive production: but, having that, it contains a foul which, though of a moody and wayward fpecies, gives great delight. Penruddock fo entirely fwallows up the lean kine by which he is surrounded, that we scarcely know that such beings have exiftence: fo that the effect of fomething like a perfect unity is, in their despite, produced. Except fo far as they are concerned in bringing us acquainted with him and his mo tives for acting, they are indeed very impertinent people, who, generally speaking, torment us with infipid prattle, and interrupt a moft interefting history. To fpeak in the painter's language, we cannot confider the Wheel of Fortune as a finished piece: but furely it is a bold and fine ftudy, and gives a most ufeful leffon to dramatic artifts. It teaches them what wonders may be effected by that unity which keeps the attention fixed on one object; and that a fingle character, well conceived, daringly delineated, and to which all other characters and circumftances are made fubfervient, is perhaps the most effectual way of obtaining the laurel after which they all pant. The very defects of this play, which are not a few, exemplify the above remarks. The friend, and the former miftrefs, of Penruddock, we fhould have supposed, must have been Beings of no common power, to have produced the fenfations by which we find him agitated: yet the friend, Woodville, has almost a contemptible poverty of mind; and his wife is little diftinguished. Her fon is a foldier, and the dignity of her character confifts in fending him forth without remorfe to kill men; and, if fo it fhould happen, to be killed. It is not barely that fortitude which teaches us to fupport evils with calm dignity, because they are inevitable: but it is that rhodomontade which delights in creating them; the pernicious morality of which, we hope, is daily on the decline. Her fon himself, and Sydenham their common friend, (both of whom we are taught to regard as examples of high virtue,) have not only this fanguinary propenfity, but are the very knights-errant of duelling, and imagine that mischief already committed may indubitably be repaired by committing more. They are little aware that revenge is vice, for they confider it as virtue: but they imagine that all motive to revenge ceases, when one man offers fairly to fight another. This unintelligible jargon of morality is furely unworthy of Mr. C.; yet it is that to which he is addicted, almoft to infatuation: we trace it through all his works; which, at the fame time, abound with religious zeal.-There is one remarkable trait of the feeblenefs with which the dramatift has drawn Mrs. Woodville. Her husband comes, in the first act, with the very benevolent defign of murdering Penruddock, or himself, for he does not seem to have determined which, according to the laws of fingle combat; and in this he is encouraged and feconded by his friend Sydenham, who in another part of the play informs us that he defpifes him. When the duellifts are ready to prefent, and to fire, Sydenham, with all proper punctilio, having first encouraged them, fuddenly interferes, and tells them that the forms of honour are not complete, that Mr. Woodville has an alternative to propofe; and he breaks off the combat by fnatching the piftol from the hand of each, and prefenting a letter from Mrs. Woodville to Penruddock. Perceiving it to be the band-writing of a woman of whom, twenty years ago, he was fo paffionately enamoured that the anguish of lofing her ftill rankles at his heart, makes him a mifanthrope, excites him to revenge, and of whom he was treacherously defrauded by his antagonist, (which is the motive of their fighting,) he inftantly breaks open the feal, examines the contents, and retires in great perturbation. This letter, every one imagines, must be fome ftrong and irrefiftible appeal to the feelings it is afterwards produced; and the difappointment which we experience at finding it what it is, a poor and almost spiritless claim to pity, after what we had fuppofed it must be, an animated, dignified, and moral appeal to principle, is very great. The only bold and original mark of character which we find, except in Penruddock, is that in which Henry catechises his father; which is indeed of a species of morality that outstrips the age, and of the juftice of which Mr. C. himfelf feems to doubt. The truth is, children at an age of maturity have as much right to inquire into the mistakes of parents, as parents into the miftakes of children; and it is the duty of each to use all the arguments of truth and reafon, and of neither to use force. Mr. Mr. C. has many right fentiments, but we think he has likewife fome that are wrong. Henry invokes curfes on the inheritors of the man who won his father's fortune. Penruddock remonftrates; for he, unknown to Henry, is the inheritor. To this the youth replies that, light [the curfe] where it will, he will not revoke it; for he that is fortune's minion well deferves it.' He then advances arguments to prove the juftice of his imprecations. Surely it is not right thus to mislead the mind! Curfes, in all cafes, are vicious; and to utter them in the fpirit of perfonal revenge does not leffen the vice. To this may be added all the fentiments which relate to the practice of war, and duelling; and, as they are fcattered through the play, thefe are not a few. Neither can we conceive that an action, which it would be wrong in a man born on the Continent to commit, can be right when performed by the natives of this ifland. The action must furely be judged by its moral tendency, and not by the birth-place of the agent. We also perceive feveral paffages which are not so delicate as might have been expected; and especially fome that are from the lips of a female. Thefe, however, we will not specify; those who have perceived them will know to which we allude; and to others we would not introduce them. We frequently find a careleffness of diction, which we should not have expected from Mr. C.; efpecially as it fometimes borders on a kind of vulgarity which, we think, does not fo properly belong to the character (for then it would be right,) as to the inattention of the writer. Mr. Tempest says to his daughter, You baffle and bamboozle and make a bumpkin of me.' Emily tells her foolith lover, Sir David, fpeaking of the London ladies, that he is not up to them.' She alfo fays, Poor Henry made up fuch a face-his eyes fet me a crying:'yet, when Sir David fays, A gentleman who trufts to his fervants in his abfence is fure to be cut up;' fhe echoes Cut up: what's that?' Sir D. Why, 'tis a common phrase!" Emily. With the flaughterers of Clare-market.' Other inftances of questionable diction occur; as, To the length of any fpecies of revenge.'—' If there is ever an old woman amongit them.' Sometimes, it appears to us, the meaning is equivocal, or the diftinctions are falfe: thus: I am content: Ienjoy tranquility: heaven be thanked, I have nothing to do with happiness.'-Truth, that will let no happy felf-deception país, is virtue that difdains the graces of humanity.' Penruddock. What have you now to offer, on your father's part?' Henry. To juftice nothing; fome little plea perhaps upon the fcore of mercy." We We find the metaphors occafionally objectionable. Your periods are the very embryos of poetry: a kind of tadpoles; more than half frogs, and just ready to hop.'- Can he be innocent, who ftains his hands with ore, drenched in the gamefter's blood; dug from the widow's and the orphan's hearts, with tears, and cries, and groans unutterable?'-When the ice thaws, the river flows: fo it is with the human charities, when melted by benevolence.' Is not that the fame as charities melted by charities? There are a few paffing improbabilities, which we could not but notice. Emily, by fome miracle, is fo well acquainted with technical fea phrafeology, that we fufpect fhe could hand, reef, and fteer. I fhall embark with Sir David Daw, and lay up in his fufty old caftle, on the banks of the Wye, in Monmouthfhire, to wit. A precious pilot I fhall have, and a famous voyage we fhall make of it. Helm a-weather, cries he; and bear away for the coaft of Wales. Helm a-lee, fay I, and fet all fails for the port of London. He is for fteering weft, I am for fleering east; fo between us we run wild out of the track, and make a wreck of hip and cargo in the fcuffle for command.'-In another place, the fays you may ftrike upon a motive that may drive me upon wondrous felf-denials. If my beloved Mrs. Woodville falls, if my dear gallant Henry is beaten down and crushed by poverty and diftrefs, at any facrifice I will raife them up.'-She would raise them up by forfaking the man whom she loves, marrying the man whom she hates, who is narrow minded if not miferly, and by difpofing of her husband's property for a man who would then be her paramour!- Penruddock's accufation of himself for his avarice, ambition, &c. &c. is neither reconcuable to his practice, nor to the thoughts with which we find these accufations affociated. We have thus pointed out many blemishes, (most of which indeed are comparatively trifling,) because we hope to see Mr. Cumberland avoid them in future: but we have not specified the many beauties contained in this comedy, nor described the pleasure which we have received from the perufal of it, for that would not be an easy task.. Hols. ART. XV. The Mountaineers, a Play, in three A&ts. Written by BY 25. De Y the word play, Mr. Colman, we fuppofe, understands a fpecies of the drama that does not limit itself by those rules which the critics, who have written on the unities, have fup pofed |