Anti-Theatres are much inferior to the work of Steele.

21. THE MUSES' GAZETTE. This production, of which one principal object was the ridicule of Steele and Cibber, made its first appearance on March 12th, 1719-20, in Applebee's Original Weekly Journal. N° 8, which has been re-published by Mr. Nichols, is dated April 20th, 1720. It was in every respect a despicable undertaking, and soon ceased to exist.

· 22. CATO'S LETTERS. These Letters, or Essays, on Liberty civil or religious, were published periodically in the "London" and afterwards in the " British Journal," and commenced. in November, 1720. They were continued very successfully for nearly three years, and were then collected into four volumes 12mo. They are the effusions of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon. The former, who was born in 1669, had a liberaleducation, and was intended for the practice of the law; but being appointed, during the reign of King William, a commissioner of the forfeited estates in Ireland, and inheriting a good fortune from his uncle, which he greatly increased by marriage, he relinquished his profession, and turned his attention to the study of politics. In this department he early signalized himself by two pamphlets against standing armies, printed.

in 1697 and 1698; and becoming acquainted with Gordon, who had embarked in the Bangorian controversy, he took him into his house as an amanuensis, and shortly afterwards admitted him as a coadjutor in the conduct and composition of Cato's Letters. Mr. Trenchard was a man of a vigorous mind, and strict integrity; he was a zealous and patriotic Whig, and was, for many years, a member of parliament for Taunton, in Somersetshire. He died in 1723.

His friend, Mr. Gordon, was a native of Kircudbright in Scotland, and, after an academical education in his own country, fixed in London as a teacher of the learned languages. The factious politics of the age, however, diverted his attention, for a time, from classical pursuits, and he enlisted under the banners of the Earl of Oxford. Soon after this event, he gained the esteem and. patronage of Mr. Trenchard, by his two pamphlets in defence of Bishop Hoadley; and having shewn his abilities as a polemic writer in Cato's Letters, and the Independent Whig, Sir Robert Walpole, on the death of Mr. Trenchard, appointed. him first commissioner of the wine-licences, and engaged his pen in support of government. 1739, Mr. Gordon published a translation of Tacitus, and in 1743 a version of Sallust. They are both literally faithful to their respective

In

originals, and are illustrated by discourses relative to each author, which display erudition; but the style, owing to an injudicious attempt to copy the conciseness of the Latin Historians, is peculiarly harsh and inverted. They are now superseded by the more elegant versions of Murphy and Steuart. Our author married, for his second wife, the widow of Mr. Trenchard; and by her he had several children. He died July 28th,

1750, at the age of sixty-six.

The best production of these writers was certainly the Letters of Cato, which, for the period they were published in, are singularly impartial. The language is clear and nervous, though sometimes coarse; and the principles of liberty are supported with a bold and manly spirit, and with no subserviency to faction or cabal. The fourth edition of Cato's Letters was printed in 1737, with a preface by Gordon.

23. TERRÆ FILIUS. To Nicholas Amhurst is to be ascribed this witty but intemperate work. Mr. Amhurst was a native of Marden, in Kent, and was educated at Merchant-Taylor's school in London. From this seminary he was sent to St. John's College, Oxford; where, owing to his irregularity and misconduct, he gave great offence to the head of the College, and was ultimately expelled. His resentment on this occasion was

singularly violent: he published several pieces, in prose and verse, and among these the Terræ Filius, reflecting strongly on the discipline of the University, and on the characters of its members.

Our author's expulsion took place about the year 1720, and, shortly after this event, he fixed in London, where he supported himself by the labours of his pen. He was a zealous Whig, and an inveterate enemy to the clergy of high-church principles; he entered with alacrity, therefore, into a warfare against priestly power and tory politics; his "Convocation," a poem in five cantos, was written in defence of Bishop Hoadley; and he conducted "The Craftsman," with uncommon popularity and success, in opposition to the measures of Sir Robert Walpole. He was, nevertheless, cruelly neglected by his party, when, in the year 1742, they were admitted into power; an instance of ingratitude which so affected his health and spirits, that he survived the shock but a few months, and expired at Twickenham on April 27th, 1742, a martyr to his dependence on the promises of the great. "Poor Amhurst!" exclaims his friend Mr. Ralph, “after having been the drudge of his party for the best part of twenty years together, was as much forgotten in the famous compromise of 1742, as if he had never been born! and when he died of

what is called a broken heart, which happened within a few months afterwards, became indebted to the charity of his very Bookseller for a grave; not to be traced now, because then no otherwise to be distinguished, than by the freshness of the turf, borrowed from the next common to cover it." This worthy bookseller was Mr. Richard Franklin, of Russel-street, Covent Garden, our author's printer and publisher. Mr. Amhurst was a man of powerful talents, but of strong passions; his împrudencies were many, and his morals not correct; but nothing can justify the base desertion of his employers, who ascended to power through the medium of his exertions.

The Terra Filius is a sharp and too frequently a virulent satire on the statutes, the manners, and the politics of the University of Oxford: many faults and glaring inconsistencies are pointed out; but mixed with so much personal invective, and gross scurrility, as to defeat the salutary purposes which the author might have in view. For the title which he has given to his paper he thus accounts in his first number. "It has till of late," says he," been a custom, from time immemorial, for one of our family, who was called Terræ Filius, to mount the Rostrum at Oxford at certain seasons, and divert an innumerable crowd of spectators, who flocked thither to hear him