great equanimity under all viciffitudes of fortune; being neither immoderately elated with profperity, nor dejected with adverfity. Often fretted by the rudeness of faction, and the jealoufy and difcontents of his fubjects, he ftill regulated his temper by the dictates of prudence, and refigned his private inclinations and interefts for the fake of public peace. Though liable to fudden fallies of anger, yet he never harboured refentment in his breaft; and he even treated fome of thofe perfons, from whom he had received the highest personal injuries, with mildness and generofity. To fum up his talents and his virtues : he poffeffed great natural fagacity, a retentive memory, a quick and accurate difcernment of the characters of men. He was active, brave, perfevering; and, to thefe qualities more than to his fkill as a general, he was indebted for his military fuccefs. His knowledge in politics was extenfive and profound; his application to bufinefs ardent and indefatigable. enthufiaftic lover of liberty, he was ever true to his principles; faithful in the difcharge of every truft committed to him; and, in the characters of the ftatefmen and general, acquired the confidence and praife of his friends, and excited the admiration and dread of his enemies.

An

His talents and virtues belonged to the refpectable, rather than to the amiable clafs; and were formed to command esteem, more than to engage affections.

For literature and the fine arts he discovered no taste. He had acquired none of those graces, which animate converfation, and embellish character. A filence and referve, bordering upon fullennefs, adhered to him, in the more retired scenes of life, and feemed to indicate not only a diftafte for fociety, but a diftruft of mankind. He was greatly deficient in the common forms of attention. His favours loft much of their value, by the coldnefs of the manner with which he con

commodate himself to the open temper of a people, who had fo freely devoted their allegiance to him. His warm and steady attachment to a few friends demonstrated that he was not deftitute of private friendship. He was occafionally furprised into indulgencies of mirth and humour; which fhewed, that he was not infenfible to the relaxation of focial amusement. But the infirmities of his conftitution ; the depreffion of his early fituation; a fatal experience of deceitfulness and treachery, derived from his political intercourfe with mankind, the ferioufnefs and weight of those objects, which continually preffed down his mind, controlled a propenfity, however ftrong, to confidence, affability, and pleafantry, and introduced habits of conftraint and gravity, which draw a veil over the attractions of virtue; and frequently contribute, more than vicious affections, to render character unpopular.

QUEEN MARY.

FEW characters have been more extolled by friends, or more virulently traduced by enemies, than that of Mary. Unconnected with, and uninfluenced by party, we can be at no lofs to perceive, that her friends have founded their encomiums, upon the evidence of a temper and qualifications honourable to the human character; while the detraction and calumny of her enemies referred to facts extremely doubtful, and to circumftances, occafioned by the pecu-. liar difficulties of the part fhe was called upon to act. She poffeffed, in an eminent degree, all thofe accomplishments and graces, which conftitute the merit of her fex in domeftic life. Her affability, mildness, and delicacy, captivated the affections of her companions and dependants. Such dexterity and prudence in the management of parties, fuch difcretion and activity in the most critical state

of affairs, have rarely been found in a perfon fo little addicted to oftentation, and fo averfe to interfere in public bufinefs. So devoid was fhe of ambition, and fo indifferent to perfonal grandeur, that he not only rejected the fervices of those, who were difpofed to prefer her right to the crown before that of her husband, but the would not even participate of the administration while he was in the country, nor did the fo much as alpire at the influence, to which her station and merits entitled her. Her exemplary devotion, her zeal for the proteftant religion, her confcientious difpofal of ecclefiaftical preferments, her patronage of useful defigns, and application to good works, render her memory precious to the friends of religion and virtue. Lf, upon particular occafions, natural affection feemed to be languid, or fufpended; if fhe appeared harfh and undutiful, by confenting to the

dethronement of her father, or by efpoufing, with apparent animofity, the quarrel of her husband with her fifter, her 'condu& in fuch infances may be fairly afcribed, not only to a refpect for her duty as a wife, but to the fingularly critical fituation of him, to whom the food in that relation. Nothing less than the most cordial and unequivocal approbation of the conduct of her hulband, could have ob tained, or preferved to him, that authority, which he derived from his relation to her. Whatever painful emotions fhe might feel, from the difgrace of her father, or from coming to a breach with her fiter, yet prudence required the concealment of them, to fecure the reputation and fafety of that perfon, who was the dearest object of her affection, and the profperity of that cause, which, from the pure influence of principle, the was zealous to promote.

PADDINGTON, a village in Mid

dlefex, at the weflern extremity of the metropolis, is now almoft united to it by the late increase of buildings; while there are till many fine fpots within its boundaries, which exhibit the attractions of the most rural retreat. The church is a new ftru&ture, the first ftone of which was laid on the 12th of August 1788; and it was confecrated by the right reverend Dr. Beilby Porteus, bishop of London, in Eafter week 1790. It is feated on an eminence, finely embofomed in venerable elms. Its figure is compofed of a fquare of about fifty feet. The centres, on each fide of the fquare, are projecting parallelograms, which give recefies for an altar, a veflry, and two flair-cafes. The roof terminates with a cupola and vane on each of the fides isa door. That facing the fouth is decorated with a portico compofed of he Tuscan and Doric orders, having

niches on the fides. The weft has an

arched window, under which is a circular portico of four columns, agreeable to the former compofition. At fome diftance round the church runs an elegant railing. From the principal gates of this, which are ornamented on the fides by obelifks, crowned by lamps, fome handsome gravel walks lead to the different doors of the church. A few trees, carelessly difpofed within the rails, would add not a little to the beauty of this fingularly elegant ftructure, which has fo recently risen as a new ornament to one of the most pleafing fpots in the vicinity of London. The tout-enjemble, however, produces a very pleafing effect from every point of view (particularly from the Oxford, Edgware, and Harrow roads) and does the highett credit to the taste and skill of the architect, Mr. John Plaw, of King ftreet, Westminster.

WE

HOEVER has been converfant in the authors of a neighbouring country, cannot but have had frequent opportunities of obferving their attachment to paradox; and the fentence I have quoted by way of motto will not appear to many among the leaft contradictory. But man is, in fact, himself a paradox; and that which the flower apprehenfion of fpeculative reafon is apt to condemn as inconfiftency in the writer, is frequently nothing more than the fruit of that quick and lively penetration which makes the world, rather than the clafet, the scene of its ftudies, and perufes the living characters of the heart as much as the dead letter of fyftematic volumes.

This remark, I am inclined to think, will particularly apply to this apparently inconfiftent fentence: for however theoretical gravity may revolt at the idea, a very little time devoted to real obfervation, would inform us of the bafis upon which it ftands, and convince us that the obfervation, that Happiness is the object of the defires, but not of the refections of mankind,' is as applicable in England as in France. indeed, the ingenious author of the Effay on the Life and Writings of Helvetius,' is not contented with the affertion; for he proceeds to illuftrate it, by fhewing, that, in all ages, fo inattentive to this important confideration has been even that clafs of fociety, from whom we might moft have expected a contrary conduct, that even thofe who fhould feek happinefs with the most inceffant diligence, would find themfelves but little affted by inftruction in the means by which it is to be obtained; little having hitherto been compofed upon the fubject, but a few vague maxims, fome

trivial fongs, and three or four little eflays.'

The philofophers of antiquity devoted, it is true, a good deal of attention to this important fubject: but they have rather furnished us with plaufible phrafes than definite ideas; and even in Seneca's treatises De Vita Beata and De Tranquillitate Animi, though there is a great degree of genius, there is but little that can be called philofophy. As for modern moralifts, they have been rather employed in fatirizing human nature, than in delineating its hiftory.. They profefs, indeed, to paint it as it is; but they only daub and disfigure it, and then reprobate the odious deformity they have created, Ignorant of the true principles of a benevolent religion, they exile happiness to the regions of heaven, and confider it as no inhabitant of earth. With them the prefent is confidered, with refpect to felicity, as a blank; and every thing like enjoyment is referred to the future. So that, what with the unnatural duties of monaftic folitude, and the cynical ravings of fanaticism, we have been doomed to behold, in the most delightful regions of the earth, the fcience of happiness deftroyed by ideas of falvation, which neither reason nor revelation inculcate; for want of reflecting, that bleffings would not have been fhowered upon the world if not intended to be enjoyed; and that no terreftrial pleafure can be reasonably looked upon as hoftile to eternal happiness, but fuch as are inconfiftent with the precepts of true piety and virtue.

A few modern philofophers, it is true, of a very different caft, have given to the world fome flight trea-" tifes on the fubject of fublunary happinefs; of which, among the most ce

lebrated