were upon a level with the Work-houfe mortality, which laft the Hofpital is intended to supply the place of, then few or no infants would be alive in London and Westminster. There fore, he adds, either the Work-houses must be totally reformed, or fomething must be conftituted in their place.

In the tenth chapter he endeavours to fhew, that the method of proceeding by parochial Officers, within the Bills of Mortality, is, in general, deftructive to the infant Poor, and renders it morally impoffible for them to preferve fuch infants fo effectually as by means of the Governors of the Foundling Hofpital. He obferves, that the Governors have a spacious building, in a fine air; the Officers, for the moft part, very mean, small, and confined places for their Poor. The Governors, he adds, have credit and reputation to procure Inspectors of their Nurferies; but few of the Officers can be fuppofed to have the fame affiftance.

Certainly thefe circumftances determine the preference on the fide of the Governors: but after all, it is to be feared, that their influence is not fully or properly exerted: many, after the parade of fubfcribing five guineas, never trouble themselves about the concerns of their truft; and thus many evils prevail, which probably might have been remedied by their interpofition and influence.

In the last chapter Mr. Hanway offers a propofal to receive no infants or children, but fuch as are born within the Bills of Mortality, or infants found deferted within the Bills of Mortality, with condition, that a certificate of their baptifm be figned by the Minifter or Curate of the parish, attested by one of the Overfeers, and the Mafter of the parifh Workhoufe; the fame to be brought with the child to the Hofpital. Alfo a propofal for nourishing the children during their infant ftate; and if reclaimed, to return them to their parents with-, out any expence.

Mr. Hanway not only proposes a change in the manner of receiving infants, but a change alfo in the name of the Charity and in the first article recommends, that the Hospital be called THE ORPHAN'S HOSPITAL; and that the children received into it be denominated ORPHANS. In this propofal we entirely concur with the worthy Author: fuch an alteration we agree with him, will contribute greatly to foften the rigour of the child's fate, as it will remove the mortifying diftinction between legitimate and illegitimate, and at the fame time keep it a fecret, both from the child and the world, whether he was deferted by his parents, or they were really

dead,

dead. The word Orphan likewife naturally moves compaffion, and the child, instead of being the object of opprobrium under the denomination of a Foundling, will be countenanced by the world, and his peace of mind and happiness by fuch means better promoted.

Mr. Hanway's propofal confifts of many other articles too numerous to be abridged. We can only obferve in general, that he confines the objects of the charity to,

1. Legitimate infants of very poor people, born within the Bills of Mortality, who, by ficknefs, or by having a numerous family, cannot maintain all their children.

2. Illegitimate infants, born as above, of parents whose poverty, or other circumstances, difqualify them from taking care of their infants.

3. Real Orphans, born as above, or fuch whofe parents are run away, whether legitimate or illegitimate.

4. Infants found deferted, being left in the ftreets or other places, within the Bills of Mortality.

Our Author propofes feveral regulations for the reception and education of these various objects: and the method he recommends, by which parents may at any time reclaim their children, is as politic as it is humane.

Upon the whole, though Mr. Hanway's propofitions may be, in fome points, controvertible, yet we think, that his treatise is a very good foundation on which to erect a plan of improvement.

To this treatife is annexed a Letter to a Governor of the Hospital, in relation to the danger of bringing children to London, or establishing more receiving Hofpitals in the country; with the difadvantages in point of Liberty, Increase, Poor's Laws, Marriages, Education, Apprenticeships, &c. Alfo on the great national benefit arifing from the prefervation of the infant Poor born in London.

This Letter contains many fenfible and judicious reflections, and confiders, in particular, how far the practice of removing children from the country, which, we think really inexpedient, may, in the end, affect the landed intereft of the kingdom. But we cannot extend our animadverfions, as we have already lengthened this article farther than we propofed. The fubject, however, being of very great concern and importance to the welfare of Society, feemed to claim more than a general notice. As it is now happily under con

fideration

fideration of Parliament, we hope that the wifdom of the Legislature will devife fome expedient, by which this truly pious and benevolent charity, may be made to answer the good purposes of its inftitution.

R-d

Prolufions; or, felect Pieces of ancient Poetry,-compiled with great Care from their feveral Originals, and offered to the Public as Specimens of the Integrity that should be found in the Editions of worthy Authors,-in three Parts; containing, I. The notbrowne Mayde; Mafter Sackvile's Induction; and, Overbury's Wife: II. Edward the third, a Play, thought to be writ by Shakespear: III. Thofe excellent didactic Poems, intitled--Nofce teipfum, written by Sir John Davis: With a Preface. 8vo. 4s. Tonfon.

OWEVER pleafed we fhould be with an occafion to recommend a beautiful and correct edition of any of our beft Writers, or only of their most esteemed performances, we cannot help thinking fome of the pieces here felect, hardly worth the coft and care bestowed on them in the impreffion before us; the beauty and elegance of which is juftly to be admired.

The didactic performance of Sir John Davis is, indeed, a valuable one, as we have before obferved, on account of another edition of that work lately published *. The Fragment alfo, entitled Master Sackvile's Induction, is well worth preferving, and affords feveral beautiful inftances of defcriptive poetry, in the ftile and manner of Spenfer; of which the following picture of Old Age may ferve our Readers as a fpecimen.

And next, in order fad, Old-age we found:

. His beard all hoar, his eyes hollow and blind:
With drooping cheer fill poring on the ground,
As on the place where Nature him affign'd
To reft, when that the Sifters had untwin'd
His vital thread, and ended with their knife
The fleeting courfe of fat-declining life:
There heard we him with broken and hollow plaint
Rue with himfelf his end approaching fait,
And all for nought his wretched mind torment
With fweet remembrance of his pleasures paft,
And fresh delights of lufty youth forewaste;

* See the Appendix to vol. XXI. of our Review, page 556.

Recounting

Recounting which, how would he fob and fhriek,
And to be young again of Jove befeek?

But, an' the cruel fates fo fixed be

That time forepast cannot return again,
This one requeft of Jove yet prayed he,-

That, in fuch wither'd plight, and wretched pain,
As eld, accompany'd with her loth fome train,
Had brought on him, all were it woe and grief,
He might a while yet linger forth his lief,

And not fo foon defcend into the pit;

Where Death, when he the mortal corpfe hath flain,
With rechlefs hand in grave doth cover it;
Thereafter never to enjoy again

The gladfome light, but, in the ground ylain,
In depth of darkness waite and wear to nought,
As he had ne'er into the world been brought:

But who had feen him fobbing how he flood

Unto himself, and how he would bemoan
His youth forepaft,-as though it wrought him good
To talk of youth, all were his youth foregone,-
He would have mus'd, and marvel'd much, whereon
This wretched Age fhould life defire so fain,
And knows full well life doth but length his pain:
Crook-back'd he was, tooth-fhaken, and blear-ey'd;
Went on three feet, and, fometime, crept on four;
With old lame bones, that rattl'd by his fide;

His fcalp all pil'd, and he with eld forlore,
His wither'd fift ftill knocking at Death's door;
Fumbling, and driveling, as he draws his breath;
For brief, the fhape and meflenger of Death.

As to the Notbrowne Mayde, by whatever beauties she might have been formerly distinguished, the appears at present in too homely and antiquated guife to lay any claim to admiration. The Wife feems alfo too formal a houfhold drudge to have ever had any beauties to boast of.

The play of Edward the third refembles, in ftile, the hiftorical pieces of Shakespear; but it is too deftitute of the mafterly ftrokes of that exquifite Genius to make it worth preferving, either for the fake of his reputation, or the Reader's entertainment. We pafs over thefe three laft-mentioned pieces, therefore, as rather curious than valuable. They may be old and scarce enough to engage the attention of an Antiquarian, but they are too barren of poetry or amusement to detain the critical Reader.

Prior, however, has built an excellent poem on this foundation, viz. his Henry and Emma.

3.

K-n-kThe

The Siege of Aquileia. A Tragedy. As it is acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-lane. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Millar.!

A

S the former performances of the Writer of this tragedy, have had their admirers*, and he is now become a dramatic Author of some standing, it might be conftrued into an injurious neglect of his abilities, if we fhould pass over the prefent work fo flightly as we are really tempted to do. Indeed, the neceffity we otherwife lie under of contributing to the mortification of a Writer, whofe talents for dramatic poefy, have been compared to thofe of an Otway and a Shakeipear, is too difagreeable not to make us wifh we could on this occafion be filent. But the task we have imposed on ourfelves, the impartiality we profefs to the public, and the partiality which our Author's countrymen and friends may have to him and his writings, require us to be particularly explicit in any cenfure we may be induced to pafs on the tragedy before us.

The ftory is founded on the fiege of Aquileia, a Roman city in Italy; which (towards the middle of the third century) held out for Rome, against the ufurper Maximinus: but the Author has taken poetical licence for departing very much from, and engrafting a great deal upon, the real hiftory of that event. See the article in our enfuing Catalogue, relating to the hiftory of the ficges of Aquileia and Berwick.

We shall not enter very minutely into the particular defects of a work whofe merit, as a dramatic poem, confifts almost entirely in the mere preservation of the unities of time and place.

In the first act, indeed, there is an attempt to diftinguish characters, and to give the dialogue a theatric file; at the fame time preparing the Reader for fome variety of action, by the contraft between the tempers and difpofitions of the two brothers, Paulus and Titus, fons to Æmilius, the Governor of Aquileia. In the conduct of the play, however, we find the young Gentlemen turn out fo much alike, that had we not been given to underftand Titus was inconfiderate and brave even to rafhnefs,' while no Roman breaft was lefs prone to rafh attempts' than Paulus, we fhould have

The tragedies of Douglas and Agis, particularly the former; the ingenious Mr. DH's extravagant encomiums on which, remind us of a fimilar mistake of the celebrated Mr. Locke, who, in one of his letters, gives it as his opinion, that Sir Richard Blackmore foared as much above all other English Poets, as the Eagle above the Wren.

been