fhew that our objection is valid, and with them take our leave of the Writer; who, notwithstanding thefe his errors, and our difapprobation of his political principles, is yet to be thanked by us for his narrative, which is clofe, concife, and, generally fpeaking, interefting and agreeable.

IN

ART. VII. A Defence of the Stadtholdership; wherein the Neceffity of that Office in the United Provinces is demonftrated; and the Defigns and Conduct of the Party that oppofes it are examined. With a Review of the pernicious Confequences that have attended the Alliances and Connections of the United Provinces with France, and the Dangers to which they are expofed from their prefent Situation. By John Andrews, L. L. D. 8vo. 2 s. Richardfon. 1787. N this fenfible publication, we have a short hiftory of the Seven United Provinces, and a description of the Office of the Stadtholder. The Writer clearly fhews, that the Dutch cannot exist as a republic, without a Stadtholder, who, though not viewed as a Sovereign, is nevertheless the guardian of the ftate; and he proves alfo, that it is the intereft of France to excite the Republic to abolish the office, in order the more effectually to overthrow the government, and conquer the Country *.

The general voice in Holland, notwithstanding the clamour of faction, has ever been for continuing the office of Stadtholder, with all its rights and privileges, in the illuftrious house of Orange; and, indeed, the obligations of the Dutch to the ancestors of the reigning prince are fuch, that GRATITUDE, one would think, fhould lead them to it, independent of any political confideration whatever.

It is contended by fome, that the office of Stadtholder is nugatory and ufelefs. Mr. Andrews, as we have already intimated,

The emperor was defirous to fave his credit as a politician, and not to let off the Dutch upon too easy terms.'

In this fituation the different provinces appeared to recollect their minds, and to take with more decifion,' &c.

The princes of the house of Orange, who were no lefs of politicians than they were of warriors.' &c. &c.

When Hannibal, on being made prætor in Carthage, endeavoured to hinder the magiftrates from plundering the republic, they complained of him to the Romans. "Wretches-fays a celebrated writer-who wanted to be citizens without a city, and to be beholden for their riches to their very deftroyers!" Rome foon infifted on having three hundred of their principal citizens as hoftages: fhe next obliged them to furrender their arms and fhips; and then the declared war against them. Such were the miferies to which the Carthaginian ftate was fubjected through the weakness and avarice of its rulers. We leave it to the difpaffionate Hollander to draw the parallel.

has

has brought forward a great variety of arguments, to demonstrate that the very reverfe is actually the cafe: and the article of the Treaty of Utrecht, which declares, that the Prince of Orange, as Stadtholder, fhall be arbiter in all difpute or controverfy which may arife in the affemblies of the Confederate States, is, in our opinion, a fufficient proof of the utility of the office in queftion: for fuch is the nature of the government in Holland, and fuch the dilatorinefs in the councils of the States, that, without a regulating power, fimilar to that with which the Prince of Orange is invefted, they would frequently be wafting time in unneceffary debate-they would deliberate when they ought to act. This defect, in the original conftitution of the country, the Stadtholder has been called in to remove.

ART. VIII. The Lounger. A Periodical Paper, published at Edinburgh in the Years 1785 and 1786. 12mo. 3 vols. 9s. fewed. Cadell. 1787.

FTER the numerous, and, many of them, very fuccessful attempts which have been made to entertain the Public with periodical papers, every new work of this kind must be executed under accumulated difadvantage. The firft adventurers in this kind of writing (fays Dr. Johnfon, in the Idler, No. 3)" had their choice of vices and follies, and selected fuch as were moft likely to raise merriment or attract attention; they had the whole field of life before them, untrodden and unfurveyed; characters of every kind fhot up in their way; and thofe of the most luxuriant growth, or moft confpicuous colours, were naturally cropt by the first fickle. They that follow are forced to peep into neglected corners, to note the cafual varieties of the fame fpecies, and to recommend themfelves by minute industry, and diftinctions too fubtle for common eyes.'

A any them,
Α

The writers of the Lounger have not only had to contend with thefe difficulties, but alfo with the particular disadvantage of a fecond appearance. For the authors of the Mirror, to give a fufficient variety to their fubjects and manner of writing, to render a fequel equally interefting with their first performance, was not an easy talk. They have, however, had the courage to make the attempt, and the good fortune to execute it, on the whole, with a confiderable degree of fuccefs. If a few of the papers in this work fhould be deemed, in fome measure, dull or trite, many of them will be found replete with good fenfe and elegant writing; and feveral of them enriched with pathetic touches of nature, or genuine ftrokes of humour. We have perufed with particular pleasure thofe papers which have the fignature of Z; for which, if we are not mistaken, the Public is indebted to the ingenious Author of The Man of Feeling*.

Mr. Mackenzie.

REV. Nov. 1787.

C c

We

We could with great pleasure enrich our Journal with extracts from this entertaining mifcellany: but as few readers of tafte will probably deny themselves the pleasure of perusing these volumes, we hall only tranfcribe the juft and interefting account which is here given of a man, for whofe memory we entertain a high respect, and (as we truft that a partiality of this kind will be pardoned even in Reviewers) we will not fcruple to add,—a perfonal attachment; we mean the late Mr. Strahan, Printer to his Majefty.

Mr. Strahan was born at Edinburgh in the year 1715. His father, who had a small appointment in the customs, gave his fon the education which every lad of decent rank then received in a country where the avenues to learning were eafy, and open to men of the moft moderate circumftances. After having paffed through the tuition of a grammar-school, he was put apprentice to a printer; and, when a very young man, removed to a wider fphere in that line of bufinefs, and went to follow his trade in London. Sober, diligent, and attentive, while his emoluments were for fome time very fcanty, he contrived to live rather within than beyond his income; and though he married early, and without fuch a provifion as prudence might have looked for in the establishment of a family, he continued to thrive, and to better his circumftances. This he would often mention as an encouragement to early matrimony, and used to fay, that he never had a child born that Providence did not fend fome increase of income to provide for the increase of his household. With fufficient vigour of mind, he had that happy flow of animal fpirits that is not eafily difcouraged by unpromising appearances. By him who can look with firmnefs upon difficulties, their conqueft is already half atchieved; but the man on whofe heart and fpirits they lie heavy, will scarcely be able to bear up against their preffure. The forecaft of timid, or the difguft of too delicate minds, are very unfortunate attendants for men of bufinefs, who, to be fuccessful, must often push improbabilities, and bear with mortifications.

His abilities in his profeffion, accompanied with perfect integrity and unabating diligence, enabled him, after the first difficulties were overcome, to get on with rapid fuccefs. And he was one of the moft flourishing men in the trade, when, in the year 1770, he purchafed a fhare of the patent for King's Printer of Mr. Eyre, with whom he maintained the moft cordial intimacy during all the reft of his life. Besides the emoluments arifing from this appointment, as well as from a very extenfive private bufinefs, he now drew largely from a field which required fome degree of fpeculative fagacity to cultivate; I mean that great literary property which he acquired by purchasing the copy-rights of fome of the most celebrated authors of the time. In this his liberality kept equal pace with his prudence, and in fome cafes went perhaps rather beyond it. Never had fuch rewards been given to the labours of literary men, as now were received from him and his affociates in thofe purchafes of copy-rights from authors.

Having now attained the first great object of bufinefs, wealth, Mr. Strahan looked with a very allowable ambition on the stations of poli tical rank and eminence. Politics had long occupied his active

mind, which he had for many years purfued as his favourite amufement, by correfponding on that fubject with fome of the first characters of the age, Mr. Strahan's queries to Dr. Franklin in the year 1769, refpecting the difcontents of the Americans, published in the London Chronicle of 28th July 1778*, fhew the just conception he entertained of the important confequences of that difpute, and his anxiety, as a good fubject, to investigate, at that early period, the proper means by which their grievances might be removed, and a permanent harmony restored between the two countries. In the year 1775, he was elected a member of parliament for the borough of Malmbury, in Wiltshire, with a very illuftrious colleague, the Hon. C. J. Fox; and in the fucceeding parliament, for Wotton Baffet, in the fame county. In this ftation applying himself with that induftry which was natural to him, he attended the houfe with a fcrupulous punctuality, and was a ufeful member. His talents for business acquired the confideration to which they were entitled, and were not unnoticed by the minifter.

In his political connections he was conftant to the friends to whom he had first been attached. He was a fteady fupporter of that party who were turned out of adminiftration in Spring 1784, and loft his feat in the House of Commons by the diffolution of parliament, with which that change was followed; a fituation which he did not show any defire to refume on the return of the new parliament.

One motive for his not wishing a feat in the prefent parliament, was a feeling of fome decline in his health, which had rather fuffered from the long fittings and late hours with which the political warfare in the laft had been attended. Though without any fixed disease, his ftrength was vifibly declining; and though his fpirits furvived his ftrength, yet the vigour and activity of his mind was alfo confiderably impaired. Both continued gradually to decline, till his death, which happened on Saturday the 9th July 1785, in the 71ft year of his age.

Of riches acquired by industry, the difpofal is often ruled by caprice, as if the owners wished to thew their uncontrouled power over that wealth which their own exertions had attained, by a whimsical allotment of it after their death. In this, as in other particulars, Mr. Strahan's discretion and good fenfe were apparent: he bequeathed his fortune in the most rational manner; and of that portion which was not left to his wife and children, the diftribution was equally prudent and benevolent. Like his predeceffor in trade, the celebrated Mr. Bowyer, he left 1000l. to the Stationers Company, of which he was a member, to be ftocked, for the benefit of decayed bookfellers and printers.

Endued with much natural fagacity, and an attentive obfervation of life, Mr. Strahan owed his rife to that ftation of opulence and respect which he attained, rather to his own talents and exertion, than to any accidental occurrence of favourable or fortunate circumstances. His mind, though not deeply tinctured with learning, was not uninformed by letters. From a habit of attention to ftyle, he had ac

*And afterward repeatedly published, in a variety of papers and pamphlets.

quired

quired a confiderable portion of critical acutenefs in the difcernmens of its beauties and defects. In one branch of writing himself excelled, I mean the epiftolary, in which he not only fhewed the precision and clearness of bufinefs, but poffeffed a neatnefs as well as fluency of expreffion which I have known few letter-writers to furpafs. Letterwriting was one of his favourite amusements; and among his corre fpondents were men of fuch eminence and talents as well repaid his endeavours to entertain them. One of thefe, as we have before mentioned, was the juftly-celebrated Dr. Franklin, originally a Printer like Mr. Strahan, and his fellow-workman in early life in a printinghoufe in London, whofe friendship and correfpondence he continued to enjoy, notwithstanding the difference of their fentiments in political matters, which often afforded pleafantry, but never mixed any thing acrimonious in their letters. One of the lateft he received from his illuftrious and venerable friend, contained a humorous allegory of the state of politics in Britain, drawn from the profeffion of Printing, of which, though the Doctor had quitted the exercife, he had not forgotten the terms.

There are ftations of acquired greatness which make men proud to recal the lowness of that from which they rofe. The native eminence of Franklin's mind was above concealing the humbleness of his origin. Those only who poffefs no intrinfic elevation are afraid to fully the honours to which accident has raised them, by the recollection of that obfcurity whence they sprung.

Of this recollection Mr. Strahan was rather proud than ashamed; and I have heard those who were disposed to cenfure him, blame it as a kind of oftentation in which he was weak enough to indulge. But methinks" 'tis to confider too curiously, to confider it fo." There is a kind of reputation which we may laudably defire, and juftly enjoy; and he who is fincere enough to forego the pride of ancestry and of birth, may, without much imputation of vanity, affume the merit of his own elevation.

In that elevation he neither triumphed over the inferiority of those he had left below him, nor forgot the equality in which they had formerly ftood. Of their inferiority he did not even remind them, by the oftentation of grandeur, or the parade of wealth. In his house there was none of that faucy train, none of that state or finery, with which the illiberal delight to confound and to dazzle those who may have formerly feen them in less enviable circumstances. No man was more mindful of, or more folicitous to oblige the acquaintance or companions of his early days. The advice which his experience, or the affiftance which his purfe could afford, he was ready to communicate; and at his table in London every Scotfman found an easy introduction, and every old acquaintance a cordial welcome. This was not merely a virtue of hofpitality, or a duty of benevolence with him; he felt it warmly as a fentiment: and that paper in the Mirror (the Letter from London in the 94th number) was, I am perfuaded, a ge nuine picture of his feelings, on the recollection of thofe fcenes in which his youth had been spent, and of thofe companions with which it had been affociated.

'Such of them as ftill furvive him will read the above fhort account of his life with intereft and with pleasure. For others it may not be

altogether