adulation which has so often disgraced alike those
by whom it has been given and received.

"I remain, &c. &c."

This elegant epistle justly describes that delicacy in style which has
been so rarely practised by an indiscriminate dedicator; and it not
less feelingly touches on that "far greater misfortune than any
other," which finally overwhelmed the fortitude and intellect of this
unhappy author!

FOOTNOTES:

[130] Cowel's book, "The Interpreter," though professedly a mere
explanation of law terms, was believed to contain allusions or
interpretations of law entirely adapted to party feeling.
Cowel was blamed by both parties, and his book declared to
infringe the royal prerogative or the liberties of the
subject. It was made one of the articles against Laud at his
trial, that he had sanctioned a new edition of this work to
countenance King Charles in his measures. Cowel had died long
before this (October, 1611); he had retired again to
collegiate life as soon as he got free of his political
persecutions.--ED.

[131] "The Discoverie of Witchcraft, necessary to be known for the
undeceiving of Judges, Justices, and Juries, and for the
Preservation of Poor People." Third edition, 1665. This was
about the time that, according to Arnot's Scots Trials, the
expenses of burning a witch amounted to ninety-two pounds,
fourteen shillings, Scots. The unfortunate old woman cost two
trees, and employed two men to watch her closely for thirty
days! One ought to recollect the past follies of humanity, to
detect, perhaps, some existing ones.

A NATIONAL WORK WHICH COULD FIND NO PATRONAGE.

The author who is now before us is DE LOLME!

I shall consider as an English author that foreigner, who flew to our
country as the asylum of Europe, who composed a noble work on our
Constitution, and, having imbibed its spirit, acquired even the
language of a free country.

I do not know an example in our literary history that so loudly
accuses our tardy and phlegmatic feeling respecting authors, as the
treatment De Lolme experienced in this country. His book on our
Constitution still enters into the studies of an English patriot, and
is not the worse for flattering and elevating the imagination,
painting everything beautiful, to encourage our love as well as our
reverence for