The Story of Wilhelmina Sufannah Dormer. The Story of Wilhelmina Sufannah Dormer, a Novel. IN N the fummer of the year 1752, appeared in London, a lady, who, without beauty, was acknowledged the moft amiable of her fex. Fortune had denied all her favours but there are gifis the mind confers upon it. A felf; thefe were of a higher nature, and they were her's. Her charms were those of, virtue and good fenfe; and they were always cloathed with mildness and humility. The reception of the world favoured the natural referve in this lady's difpofition; her charms were for the wife alone, the great and the good. There appeared nothing in her to excite the admiration of our sex; and she flattered herself she should escape, therefore, the envy of her own. C D 77 ment was provided upon the grafs in the most elegant manner; fervants waited at a respectful diftance, and the green hillocks, about the stems of the adjoining trees, ferved as fo many fideboards: nothing could exceed the pleafure of the repaft, to which the murmurs of the cafcade, and the wild notes of birds, ferved as a concert. The dusk of night approached, such dusk as the short nights fhew at the fummer feafon. The French horns were ordered to precede at fome diftance; and the company walked to view a new scene, the faint ftars twinkling thro' the branches, B and the fair weftern fky feemed to promife fuch another day. The reft of the company went on, but Mifs Wilhelmina's coat happening to be caught by a bramble, she was obliged to ftop. The major, who pretended to come to her affiftance, perceiving her alone, and the company out of fight, brutally attempted her virtue by force, which the refufed to grant him upon lefs compulfive terms. They had been for fome time ftruggling, when lord Sage appeared in view, a man advanced in years, who had chosen that retreat for ftudy, and the improvement of fcience, of which he was one of the most fhining ornaments. The ravisher retired upon his approach; upon which he placed the lady in his chariot, in order to conduct her fafely to London. As they travelled along, when the young lady's fpirits were compofed, he turned the difcourfe upon ordinary topics; and he found new reasons every moment to be charmed with her. The dignity of her fentiments was adorned with fuch humility and gentlenefs in her expreffion; fo much good fenfe appeared in every thing she said, and fo little consciousness of it, that, with the unexampled sweetness of her manners, all made together a composition, more than had before been seen in woman. She found equal pleasure in his converfation; but all her expectations of farther happiness in his friendship were banished, when he informed her that his lady was ftill living. The confequences of the major's attempt were, that Wilhelmina was difmiffed from the family of lady Lure, and turned out into the ftreets, loaded with poverty and reproach. It would be tedious to recount the adventures of her retirement in the country, to which the flew for fhelter. Let it be fufficient to fay, that the major was again made acquainted with the place of her abode, and offered, in H the most humble and preffing manner, to repair his former infult by matrimony. The day was fixed, the morning came, and all was ready for the folemnization; when the company were alarmed by the report of a piftol in the chamber, to which the major E With fuch qualifications fhe was placed in the ftation of companion to old lady Lure, who, from an obfcure origin, ftill retained ber primæval meannefs, and though incapatle of infpiring love, ftill ftrove after new conquests; but finding all the wifhed to capfivate insensible to her allurements, in mere defpair the was refolved to confult a conjurer. The conjurer to whom the applied on this occafion, was privily no better than an agent for major Scheme, a man deteftable for the abufe of excellent qualifications. Nature had given him a graceful perfon, with an underItanding equal to the most shining of the age; and he had given all the graces of politeness to the first, and improved the latter by travel and by reading. This gentleman was quickly apprized by the conjurer, of the vifit of lady Lure, and the modefty and fense of her young companion. A perfon like him devoted to pleasure, was immediately determined upon the attack: beauty never infpired a natural paffion half fo furious, as that which filled this gentleman's breaft, on the report of the young lady's virtue, fo much he doated upon its deftruction. He inform'd himself of her fituation, and found it highly favourable to his purposes. Indigence and dependence he thought could not be proof against liberality and freedom. With thefe defigns he availed himself of a former, tho' G long difcontinued, acquaintance with lady Lure, to introduce himself again into her company; and pretended love to the old Lady, in order to cover his approaches to the young one. He accordingly galanted them at Vauxhall, was affiduous in his morning vifits, and propofed an excurfion to Richmond, which the old lady readily accepted. Instead of Richmond they were driven, by the major's private directions, to Bufhy-Park, where our man of galantry fhewed an exquifite tafte in refined expence. An entertain. F had had retired, as if to prepare himself for the ceremony. The piftol was found in his hand, which yet grasped it in the laft convulfion; and though it was impoffible to guefs a reafon, there could be no doubt but that he was his own executioner. As this incident made much noife in the country, A Wilhelmina was obliged to return to town, and worked at her needle for fubfiitence. In B the fame houfe with her lived two young Loid ap Life of TIBULLUS prefix'd to a tranflation of the Elegies of that elegant author. By J. Grainger, M.D. A LBIUS TIBULLUS, a Roman knight, not more eminent for his genius, than illuftrious by his birth, fortune, and perfon, was born at Rome. A.U. C. 690. fix years after the birth of Virgil, and one after that of Horace. His father, who was defcended from the Albian family, having taken part with Pompey against Cæfar, either fell in action, or was butchered by profcription. The young Tibullus adopted the political maxims of his father; and having been prefent, with his great friend and patron the illuftrious Meffala Corvinus, at the decifive Battle of Philippi, he loft a confiderable part of his paternal eftate, which was divided among the foldiers of the fuccefsful Octavius. However, by the intereft of Meffala, who foon after joined the conqueror, a competence was left for the plundered knight; who being difgufted with the ill fuccefs of his first appearance in arms, rerised to Pedum, the feat of his ancestors, where he devoted his time to love and the mufes. His first favourite was Glycera, but the proving inconftant, he again accepted of a military command under Meffala, who was one of the generals appointed by Auguftus to quell a rebellion in Panonia, A.U. C. 718. In this expedition, Tibullus behaved with uncommon bravery. At his return to Rome, he fell in love with Delia, whofe real name, as Apuleius informs us, was Plania; and with her he paffed fome time in uninterrupted pleafure. During this happy interval, Meffala again invited our poct to accompany him in the field; but Delia, who conjured him with tears not to hazard his life, had fo entirely banished every fentiment of military glory from his mind, that he long withitood all his noble friend's folicitations. However, when Meffala was invested with an extraordinary command over Syria, and was about to make the tour of Greece, Cilicia and Egypt, Tibullus then broke the bands of love, and went on board with that General; who, upon this occafion, was also attended by many young noblemen, the friends of Tibullus. Our poet had not been long at fea, ere he was taken fo ill, that Meffala was obliged to put him afhore in Phæacia: in this ifland, fo famous for the gardens of Alcinous, and for the falubrity of its air, he foon recovered; and, reimbarking, overtook Meffala in Greece. On his return, he found his Delia E married; yet he still continued his addreffes to her; and, in a fit of jealous refentment, let her husband into the knowledge of his intrigue; which, no doubt, put an end to it. F G H Soon after, viz. A. U. C. 726, Aquitaine having revolted, and Meffala being fent to reduce that country, Tibullus went with him, and behaved fo well, that he was rewarded with military honours. Whether Tibullus made any more campaigns, is uncertain; probably he did not; but rather devoted his hours to the more pleafing pursuits of love and poetry. He was fucceffively enamoured of Neæra, and Nemefis; and was jilted by both, His ill-luck in his amours, at length, fo far difgufted him, that renouncing his attachment to Venus, he bent all his thoughts to the care of his eltate, the study of philofophy, and the extenfion of his acquaintance and friendships with wife and learned men. His focial and literary connexions now became numerous; for this was an age when good writing of all kinds, efpecially poetry, had rifen to an extraordinary degree of perfection, and was in the highest efteem. Many caufes, both phyfical and moral, con tributed Life of Tibullus. So many circumstances thus uniting for the cultivation of genius, it is the lefs furprizing that a Virgil and a Horace (prung up, and that poetry, warmed by the genial C beams of court-funthine, should produce fuch excellent fruits. 79 pofed fuch confidence, that to his correction he fubmitted his poems: as he himself informs us in a beautiful epistle to our poet. tributed to its advancement. Rome was then the flourishing capital of the greatest empire that ever exifted in the world; and its citizens enjoyed a tranquility, the more desirable, as, Some commentators, and others, notwithfrom their bloody civil wars, it had long ftanding the exprefs teftimony of Horace in been unknown to them. But though they this very epittle, and notwithstanding many rejoiced at the fhutting the temple of Janus, A paffages in Tibullus's own poems to the conthey were ftill Romans, and retained a deep trary, infiit, that having exhausted a large rooted antipathy to the dominion of ONE. It patrimonial eftate by his youthful extravatherefore behoved Auguftus to endeavour, by gancies, he was forced to retire to the counevery art, to reconcile his new fubjects to his try, where he fupported himself by writing new authority; and, by the infinuating verfes. This opinion, fo difadvantageous charms of peace, to foften the ruggedness of to the memory of his favourite poet, our their natures. This the emperor knew and B Tranflator has fully refuted; for the Doctor practifed; nor, perhaps, was his conduct juftly imputes the great dimunition of his formerely political: he really loved the mufes, tune, as hath already been observed, to the and was beloved by them. ill fuccefs of the party to which, in his early youth, he had attached himself. Rich, indeed, he was not, if we compare his circumftances with thofe of his forefathers; yet neither his impaired fortune, nor his friendfhip for Meffala, could ever induce Tibullus to part with his independency. Nay, while Virgil wrote his Æneid, purposely to reconcile the Romans to monarchical government; while Horace, and other bards, addreffed Auguftus as a deity, in their poems, Tibullus, never deviating from his political principles, does not once mention either that emperor or Mæcenas. On the contrary, if Dr. Grainger's conjectures are well founded, and they seem to carry as much certainty as matters of this kind commonly admit, Tibullus obliquely oppofed a favourite plan which Auguftus formed for transferving the feat of empire from Rome to Troy: and perhaps it is not paying the fifth elegy, of the fecond book too great a compliment, to say, that it had a confiderable fhare in deterring the Emperor from his projected innovation. As a patriot then, his Tranflator deems Tibullus unrivalled; and he is perfectly enthufiaftic in his eulogies on him, in this respect. But though Greece had brought forth nothing equal to the Georgics of Virgil, nothing 'of the fame nature with the fatires, nor any thing fuperior to the odes, of Horace; though Ovid in his Medea, and Varius in his Thyeftes, had improved the Roman drama, till it became a powerful rival to the Greek-yet the age of Auguftus could not, in all refpects, be compared to that of Alexander, as the Roman genius had not yet frequented the myrtle folitudes of elegy. Tibullus faw this, and moved alfo by the native tendernefs of his difpofition, he devoted himself almost entirely to the plaintive mufe. He foon furpassed his matters in this fpecies of poetry; and, in the opinion of the beft judges, has not fince been equalled by any elegiac poet, either for the genuine tenderness of his thoughts, or the eafy correctness of his verfification. But if, in thefe refpects, our elegant Roman is without a competitor, we must grant, that both Propertius and Ovid exceed him in copioufnefs of invention; for if we take from Tibullus his praifes of the country, his aversion to war, his complaints of female falfhood and venality, and his deferiptions of rural devotions, we leave him few thoughts behind; and as his elegies are all of the plaintive kind, there is a more frequent recurrence of the fame thought in them than in either of the other two elegiac poets. How little does Tibullus then deserve the character of an original, as most critics have affected to ftile him? Yet if truth obliges us to deny him that honour, juftice will make him full amends by her teftimony in favour of his judgment:-in which even the critical Horace himself re D E F G H Thus, beloved by the beft, and admired by all, Tibullus enjoyed every advantage that birth, merit, competence, and philofophy could afford. His death is fuppofed to have happened about the time of Virgil's decease, viz. in the year of Rome 735. At least it appears from the following lines of a cotemporary Epigrammatift, that Tibullus was the firft Poet of eminence who died after the great Author of the Æneid. Te quoque Virgilio comitem, non æqua Tibulle! Nor was Marfus the only Poet who lamented the death of Tibullus; Ovid has immortalized both himself and his friend, by by a beautiful elegy which he compofed to his memory. Of this poem Dr. Grainger has inferted a good tranflation, by a friend. TH The Cafe of the Dutch ships confidered. H E able Writer of this performance A has juftified the conduct of GreatBritain, by fome new arguments; and, as truth admits of various illuftrations, he has placed those which have been urged before, in different points of view. do lead and controul all the other articles; that therefore, whatever may be determined to be the meaning of the eighth article, which fpeaks of carrying the enemy's property, it must be conftrued according to the fpirit, view, and intention of the articles going before, as well as according to the letter of them. He justly obferves, that the opening a trade to the colonies of France, flagrante bello, is a tranfaction between France and the fubjects of Holland, to the prejudice of England.---and he infifts, that this trade therefore, ex poft fatto, cannot be opened in time of war to the subjects of Holland; so as for them to carry it on by virtue of the engagements fubfifting between England and Holland prior not only to the existence, but even probable exiftence of this object: for, fays he, the abfurdity + of an object, no lefs C than the defect of an object, proves a defect He begins, though perhaps fomewhat abruptly and irregularly, with a pofitive B affertion, that the fubjects of Holland have no right to cover the enemy's property, either by the common principles of neutrality, or by virtue of fubfifting treaties. He examines the principles of neutrality by the authority of the heft writers, and the common ufage of all nations. He confiders what privilege the fubjects of Holland have acquired, by fub. fifting treaties; and he says, that the whole argument in their favour is rested entirely on the words of the treaty of December 7, 1674. He then very methodically states the treaty in queftion; dividing the page into two columns; in the one, he inferts the words of the treaty, and, in the oppofite column, he gives his expofition of each article. He argues, upon the footing of the firft and fecond articles of this treaty, which extends the freedom of navigation to all commodities that might be carried in time of peace, that the product coming from French colonies to Europe, are commodities which could never yet be lawfully carried by Dutch ips in time of peace, directly nor indirectly, nor can it be fhewn, that they will be here. after fo carried.-That therefore they cannot be carried now by all the words of this treaty. The contents of these two articles, he fays, D of intention. He very fhrewdly argues further, that if the enemy, for his own immediate and temporal intereft, pleases to give to certain particular perfons, fubjects of any neutral power, a licence to trade to his colonies; yet nevertheless, if an enemy does not give this liberty, as a general and conftant privilege, to the neutral ftate itself, but confifcates all fuch fhips of theirs as are found trading thither without that licence, then that licence is Special and perfonal.---Therefore that special and perfonal licence does adopt all those who E have it, and their property, in the view of fubjects of that government which grants the licence. He affirms, that a Dutch fhip, trading to the colonies of France, without a licence from the French government, is confiscated as good prize to French captors: and conF cludes, that therefore all Dutch fhips fo licensed are adopted French ships.‡ In To this argument the Dutch writers reply, that the French have no doubt a right to deny or admit foreigners into their trade of the Colonies; that by the exprefs word of the treaty in question, when that trade is permitted to the Dutch, they have an unquestionable right to purfue it; not only places now in amity with either of the contracting parties, but that bereafter fhall be, are the very words of the treaty. Whilft the French would not admit the Dutch, fay they, into their Weft-India trade; whilft the English would not suffer their carrying any goods but those of Dutch growth or manufacture into England, they attempted neither the one nor the other, but the moment they are admitted to the French Colonies, thither they fail; the moment an occafional want of corn forces the English, from a motive of felf-prefervation, to open their ports to Dutch corn fhips, eagerly in they fly, and numbers supply the wants of their allies, not from the generous motive of assisting either the one or the other, but from the fole principle of felf-interest, an honeft profit. To take off this abfurdity, the Dutch writers affert, that at the very time of making the treaty of 1674, their nation being then at war with France, fubmitted to all the inconveniences of trade now complained of by the English, in hopes that one day it would be their turn to enjoy the fame privileges. To this they argue, that the French may licenfe whom they pleafe, because they never gave up the right of fo doing by any treaty ; and they may seize ships wading without fuch licenfe; but it is quits |