The Sun.
London, England, 1816-01-10 00:00:00

THE SUN RE VIE W.

t . . ' (o. cswil.) : •
... .
The Edinburgh Review for October, :\'o. SD. priciree'to v.
-ifint..E ' and,' Co. Edinburgh ; - and .I..OrkinisiN ' and Co.
London. ,
, -
We lately extracted many admirable Oagcs from

the last- No. of the Quarterly Revieth, a work
• which; every point of 'view, is honourable to
tlie_Country. To-day we select a specimen from
a publication of opposite political principles, from

which, however much we differ, we are not so

uncanclid as not to acknowledge, that it is a
• "performance highly creditable to our national li-
terature. its polities indeed were wont to irri-
tate; now the struggle is over, they serye to
amuse us. We love to look back a few years,

. and read in this damming substantial Record of
Party opinions.,. hundreds of predictions, in which
Scottish tecondsightedness had no share ; essays
%limn passing politics, which events invariably, as if
in spite and malice, devoted to ridicule ; learned
)uctibrationt unfortunate in every result ; and the
rettiest. theories in the world, only that facts
„always arrivedi to expose their folly.

• So much have we been gratified with this sort
of reading,- that were we to be asked, what pe-
xiodical work we would recomnienil_ to draw • a
convert, to PrrTPrinciples from the Opposition,
',ire should reply—read by all means the Edin-
burgh Review. 'The_ satire it contains against the
'Party it has pretended .to stypurt, is so biting, and
ridicule is in such cases so much more convincing
than argument, that we are sure no man can pe-.
ruse -these .pages without abjuring the opmiont
they were written (ironically, we suppose)_to in.
culcare. •

•' The lair.' Number of this Miseellaoy, in the
midst of Several indifferent, contains one or two
vent. clever Essays. Lord ELGIN'S Iteply to , one
•
of these has already appeared in THE SUN.—
With the political articles we shall have 'nothing
terdo ; leaving it to time to render them as absurd
as all their predecessors of the same geniis. . But
• 'we -think a 'short extract from the.notice of Sir
N •Witaxst.i.'s izossiping and miseideious psthli-.
cation may be agreeable to our keaders,• Irmo
the strength of its ' general comments 'on -the
crime of Slioler;--that crime which dues not more
,to dissociate Alan . than the heaviest ottLuce la-
the iletalogae, . . . ..,., ,
.Ttie Northern Critics set nut by replying to Sir
NATHANIEL:AI " Auswer ". to 'their ,former Cri-'
tique. They then take up the topic in a nroso
1141141•;;;Ci;SvIISe, apd thus Colll4ltllt. 11p01) it 1'......
1.7i,011 a resie.w,of the charges which we made
against
.hint, we find that to a considerable moo-
Isee to :them, d
,these not. the least-important,
' lie - makes no' answer. Ile stands mute on his
arraignment, antlinindi therefoi e receive judgment
tii a -calitorrtkror.' His imputation of --cowardice
• against 'Lewin XVI. he ernes oat attempt to iiis..
Pity.. liistbarges• agsiitsc Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, Hod
Air. Biir`se, of being ready to bring !Lord Mirth
4 to the block,'-7againsr Lord-,North' .of having
eollesced \kith Mr. Fox, tram desire of income,
ft, ;1 of..peisooal &stoker (whiCh the virtneend
sold: ot this writer. cal!s ' prudence,' Aniwei• p.
.45),—:32Ainsi ',Lord Thurlow for having_ answer. '
,
ed.; he King in a.manner insolent if his Majesty's,
proposal was reasonable,
,und barbarous' if it
Was irrationaf,:i4aiiainst the King !himself tor
duplicity to his ministers, and our- charge against
Cit. writer for excusing, if'uot npproving•thnt-do-
plicity,, which ;is Coo gross to be more titan jams,
ginit:y---are all passed over in profound and pros
titre silence by this pretended Answer. He oh-
serves.the
,like silenc.. where he was most of all
•ealled upon to deOait from it, respecting his accu-
sation . against the Vrincess Dowager of Wales,
the Duke of Bedford, and the Earl of 'Bute, of
having received money from, the Court of Frame
. for the conclusion of the treaty of Fontainebleau.
.. .
sr his tale rested originally upon the testimony ofo
r
lotilsgrave, a physician at Paris ; and we too,„
some pains to deaionstrate iti alistirdity, ny.itk
exatnioation of the nature and reception:of Mos,.4'
grave's accusation. We were induced to tin .ti,..
partly by our knowledge that (principally, Fli Wc'
comeive, from rumours originating In that.absurd
narrative) reports most thiliononrable to the Bri-
tish -name had been circulated on. this siibiect in
foreign countries '!'hat the King's-mother,' the
Prime Minister, and the most opulent Nobleman
in the kingdom had sold their tountry,--tliat they
bad been guilty of the meatiest and most sordid
treachery,—is a fact which,if true, ought iliitibt7
less to he made known, that their newels might be
;'»r'etier branded according to the enormity ot their
guift,—bat of which the truth must be most deeply
fir' zlored by every lover of. his coontry as a national
Altgisace, and which the man who paisliShes without-
'rro.of thirsskimsell be stigmatized as a falee I:Censer,
the guilt of' ttliose vonntileis charge. is exactly-.
kropnrtioned to the atrocity. of the- clime which'
lie littputesi t"Otithers. ' .We have animadverted iu
terms .of Jun severity on this writer's impudence::,
iu reviving this long exploded scandal ; and tae';
did io with' the more sternness, because this hdoi,„.
ivliich no man can vtote in London wlthoirt'btlitig
41104 at, may hereafter be dragged out,ofitbe
Totgetten corner of an old library at • Paris: or,
'Washington, to furttish a:pretended proof of Eng
lish baseness and venality.. Sir Nathaniel,-how-
ever, neither lei raets the ehorgt-nor supports it.
He is therefor!.• not only a slanderer, but ~,, „b.,
stniate litter *corrigible . blauderer;.• s' I leave,' '
says lie, , , 'Dr, Musgrave's information td its ill..
ti'li.tie • tl'e4;ilt.' , Ifl,-other words, he 'neither as-
Wourits ,tit or argumeots our refutes them ; but
having dont all the mischief in. his
,p ower to hp,
itheie4,ri'ii? individin.ls, alit! .to the elturnetit tie:
she .lo,tioo, .by 1 he tcvivill of the story, lieu,kss,`
i
from iesponsdiii;ty for its triith,---ineitheotro:wis, '
'tor. abitiolims • it, but, very cavalierly tellsyssAtfiat
4!:, icaycs it to its owo ititiiisic wei4lit ;:r.,-Lle has ,
.._

ttneonscionedy copird zile picture a scandal g:ren
by the hatirist—

Now comes the generd scandal charge,
What some invent the rest enlarge;
And, Madam; if it he a lie,
You have the tile as cheap as I P
But such subterfuges must not avail the man,
Timis gossip either in print or at the.teit,table.
The reviver and circulator of slander are them-
selves slanderers---,and, much more, if they insi,
nuate their belief of it, and directly lend their
authority to the tale---sif they labour with (how-
ever stopid)• industry to collect-all the circum-
stances which cats render it plausible, and exhaust
the beggarly resources of their ingenuity, to- give
it a colour of probability. That they dare not
openly profess their faith in the. story which they
help to circulate, is a proof that they are guilty of
cowardice, not that they ate innocent of calumny.
Nearly five wretched pages of the first edition of
these ,Memoirs are employed in these cowardly
and fraudulent artifices, for persuadieg the readers
to believe what the writer dares not say that he
himself believes. His enemies asserted,' are saving
words of no real importance, when-all that ftil-
lotvs is manifestly contrived to
.gain credit for the
representation. It is called the only satisfactory
solution of the tlifliculty'-- of Lord Bale's 14v-
ing built an expensive house. it is urged that the
Duke of Bedford never answered Joßius ; anditie.
egregious folly of this pretended argument ought
not-to screen its malice. De. Musgrave's ridicu-
lous accusation is propped by a mysterious allu-
sion to commanicatioes made before by him to•
per Sons of rank at Paris. Junius and Wilkes are
produced as witnes,ei against Lord Bute and at
last it is asserted that Lord itutemt the distance of
half a century, is believed to ltia. e rendered the treat!
of Fontainebleau subservient to his private emolu-
ment.'
.Believed-Lby Wham ? if he means that it
ia,belie.vetl by men of sense aid honour, let him
produce his ptoofs. If he means by foolish and
vulgattnintled men, his own. book is a iiifficient
proof of his assertion, and will be quoted (if it
ever is quoted) its a proof of the event of that
crrdnlity Which springs tram imbeeility,—and
which is' blended with the tincture of malice that
never fails to colour the curiosity and vanityof the
gossip. We are disposed' tiv charity to leave him
undisputed possession-of Wilkes's address to the.
electors of Aylesbury. It is absolutely his best
historical authority. •
" To all these, serious charges he' makes node,
fence, On another matter, rather personally in-.
teresting to his own character, he is equally si,
lent. :On the Ist tat Dccenteier, 1783, he tells us
that be voted against Mr. Fox's India Bill, ' con-
ceiving it improper longer to adhere to Lord
North, who seemed to have forsaken himself,'—
NOW some of our readers may know, that a se..
tOtld bill foe time internal regulation of India was
then introduced by Mr. Fox, of which many of
the provisions were afterwards adopted by Mr.
Pitt ; and that in this. second Bill there was a
clause, directing a rigtirons.iitquiry into those real
or pretended debts of Indian Princes to British
subjects, wbich have since been immortalized by
the eloquence of Mr. Burke. The world believed
that the fair or fraudulent creditOtS of the Nabob
of the Carnatic, had employed the' money of that
degraded .Chief its sending six Membets to the
.11ottse of Commons ; and we had.heartl, that Sir
Nathaniel Wraxall,, in a judicial examination, had
pretty intelligibly assigned the interest of these
creditors as the motive of his vote against-the
India Bill. We ititimated,our curiosity on this
point to Sir Nathaniel An the last Review. But.
he is silent as the grave. Indeed, he is very deli-
cate about his own private concerns, thOugh
no-
.apnringly coarse about those of others ; and must
honourably keeps his own secrets'—being the only
'Ones which be can certainly know, and has an
Undoubted right to tell We lament his silence
time more on this subject,'. because he might have
given us not only a sheet' out of Benfielti's Ledger,
hot a chapter from the Memaiirs orOsSiito: If he
Inid given us this information, we might have.
perused with less, wonder, though not with less
indignation,. the audacions passage in which he
ventures to say, that Mr. FOX'S Commissioners
for Indian Affairs, among whom were [surd. Fitz-
william, the late Lord Dartmouth, the late Lord
Guildford, anti the late Lord Minto, is ere to
throw India into the r rapacious hands! of pet--
sons whose character exci:ed general alarm.,
"1 We burry' over small matters, He said that
bud ebYereil himself. with glorY,',
we thought the height of ridicide, till Sir's
employed, two pages of what.he calls' his Answer
to prove n.,..-which, we think more ridieidous still.
"tile repeats that he only said that the King'of Por-
tu,gal had a skin, as clock as a Moor,, and a face
carbuncled by haul drinking ; it seems,
we had no right to call H description of a drunken
01st Moor,' Ile modestly-admits, that Thichault
knew the Court of Berlin hettet
thinks it of no consequence which of the t tivra ac,-„
counts of the dismissal of- Prince It WH3
correct ; though the troth be, that, according to'
the authentic information of Thiebault, there was
no dismissal. Let it not be said that the numer-
butt, or rather numberless examples ,of small hind-
yertehcies anti inaecitracies,separately 'comiidered • .
perhaps minute, are not very fir .subjects of: criti.
eiturin &itch a performance
,as. the present., There'
is' no without minuteness.',. Such multi-
Plied. instances amount to a proof of that habituaal
laxity anti disregard tO exactness which is scarcely
compatible-with scrupulous veracity, and.which is'
qutterly fatal to the credit of (L'collecttir of anec-'
,dotes from tradition and recollection,"
Are shall not add to this quotation further than
to recommend it to the most serious perusal of
of alt Calumniators, original. and tectind-haud,
and to all Believers in Scandal.

The celebrated. Ca"'juror, David Phillips, of
Plymouth Dock, tins been'edminitted to the equnty
iititiewal for a mouth, for 4uetentlitig to tell for-
tunes. The distress which ibis man's villainous aos
has diffused among the credulous, we are told, is
very great-. In one instance alone, a respectable,
jOtlng female was persuaded hy him to break oil:
%At, honourable attachment, tysith a gentlemail
who courted her. Lie went abroad, in cruise:
ridence
.; was ship-wrecked ; the young wouiao'it.
intellects yielded to the utock • and stiff is now in
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