THE LONDON MAGAZINE. JANUARY, 1754. To the AUTHOR of the LONDON MAGAZINE. SIR, A S every thing that may tend to clear up any material A point in history is of the utmoft importance, I hope you will infert in your next Magazine the few following remarks pon a piece lately published, intitled, The Secret History of the Rye-Houfe B Plot, &c. When I first looked into that piece, and faw that it was a letter wrote to the late king James, by Ford lord Grey, with a narrative annexed, wrote by his majefty's command, of all the confpiracies against him or his brother king Charles II. in which that unfortunate nobleman had been concerned, I concluded, that it could deferve no credit; for as his lordship was then a prifoner in the Tower, and his life at the king's mercy, I fuppofed the narrative to have been dictated by his majefty's minifters, and that the unfortunate author was obliged to relate whatever they pleafed to direct. But upon perusal I was, to their honour, fully convinced, that he was left at full liberty to fay what he pleafed, and in what manner he pleafed; and what adds very much to the creJanuary, 1754 dit of those facts he does mention, is, that his narrative was, in my opinion, more likely to precipitate his execution, than to facilitate his pardon. How the editor came to call it a fecret hiftory of the Rye-Houfe plot, I cannot conceive; for neither that plot, nor the Rye-houfe, is fo much as once mentioned in the whole narrative, which is to me an incontestable proof, that the author was left at entire freedom when he wrote it; because it was fo much the intereft of king James to have had the truth of that defigned affaffination established, in order to have justified the feverities against that worthy nobleman the lord Ruffel, and fome others, who were put to death upon that occafion, and which were chiefly laid to his door, that I am fure, if lord Grey had been under any minifterial direction, he would in this narrative have cooked up a particular account of that plot, and would have declared, that the duke of Monmouth, the lord Ruffel, the earl of Effex, &c. had been privy to it, and had approved of it, especially as the duke of Monmouth's execution had been unw.fely as well as harshly refolved on by king James, probably at the very time he laid his commands on lord Grey to write him this narrative. But fo far from confirming what has been faid about the defigned affaffination On the Dof the two brothers at the Rye-houfe, A 2 4 Remarks on and Extracts from Ld. Grey's Narrative. Jan. Ruffel always declared against any affaffination, or indeed any alteration in our government, except that of excluding James from fucceeding to the crown upon the death of his brother Charles, and even, that they thought this might be done by an infurrection without any great bloodfed. For example, A C In his account of a confultation between lord Shaftsbury, Hord Rutiel, and him'elf, about what the duke of Monmouth thould do, upon his being taken into cuftody, in his return from Chehire, in Sept. 1682, after having told us, that Shaftsbury was for Monmouth's making his escape from the meifenger, returning into Cheshire, and immediately appearing in arms againft B the government, he fays, p. 22, My lord Ruffel oppofed it, and faid, he had alfo fpoken with his friends, that fome were of one opinion, ethers of a contrary; but that which weighed moft with him was, that he had not yet received a full account from the weft, and he thought it madness to run headlong into fuch an affair, without taking our whole strength with us, and perhaps all little enough too; that we had made no provision of arms, ammunition, or money; and tho' London did not want thofe neceffaries, yet he believed Chethire was bare enough, and was fure the duke of Monmouth could not be supplied there from London, after he was in arms; That the most neceffary thing of all in our undertaking, had not yet been thought on; and that was, a declaration, which ought seriously to be confidered and confented to by thofe noblemen and gentlemen who were to be concerned with us; and perhaps when we came to debate the heads of one, we might not agree; for he had heard his lordship fay, that his men were for a common-wealth, and if that were intended, he would not meddle; for he thought the English government the best in the world, and meant not the leaft hurt to the king's perfon; and therefore to enter into a war before thefe things were fettled, and without being able to acquaint the world with our reasons, and in what it thould end, was to rife by ourícives, to be beaten and laughed at for hot-headed fools; for thefe reafons, his lordship faid, he could not advife the duke of Monmouth to go back into Cheshire. Again, in p. 42, after having mentioned the lord Shaftsbury's flying beyond fea, he fays, In February, (1682-3) at Chichefter, the duke of Monmouth acquainted me, that my lord of Effex, lord Howard, lord Ruffel, colonel Sidney, Mr. Tambden, and himself, had been contriving infurrections in feveral parts of this D kingdom, and defigned to engage some in Scotland to do the like; that he was to have a meeting, at his return to London, with the perfons above named, but believed it would not be long before they dif agreed, for he feared my lord of Effex, colonel Sidney, and M. Hambden intended a common-wealth, which could not be without the deftruction of the king; and if that was their intention, my lord Ruffel, and himfelf, were refolved to quit them entirely, and to think of faving themfelves; for they would both rather he at the king's mercy for what was paired, than that his life thould be indangered, or his liberty taken away, which was next to death. He concluded to defire me to come to town, for my lord Ruffed an himself were refolved to be no longer of their cabal, unless I came into it, and then we should be as strong as they ; for my lord Howard, he thought, was zealous for no government but that under which he could get most. In p. 45, after giving an account of the feveral infursections refolved on, he fays, After this refolution I remember my lord Ruffel faid, that though things went on fo smoothly with them now, yet he foretaw there would be danger of a difagreement, when we came to debate the heads of a declaration, and what power should be intrufted to our general, and therefore he had waved difputes of that nature till I came in to his affiitance, whom he had always found concurring in opinion with the duke of Monmouth and himself, as to the continuance of the government, and fafety of the king's perfon; but he feared my lord of Lifex, and colonel Sidney, had fet their hearts upon a commonwealth, and once apprehended they had E engaged Mr. Hambden, but now that fear was over, and we fhould be ftrong enough for them at the next meeting. Many difcourfes of this kind have passed between the duke of Monmouth, my lord Ruffel, and myfelf: We were often together, and did firmly refolve, that if my lord of Effex, and colonel Sidney, could not agree to fuch a declaration as that read at Mr Sheppard's, we would have nothing to do with them: We thought a war begun upon fuch quarrel as the declaration fhould fet forth, would foon end in a happy accommodation between the king and his people in parliament; and that imagination was the greateft inducement to us to think of an infurrection : Perhaps the duke of Monmouth might flatter himfelf with the hopes, that a parliament fo called might fecure the crown to him after the king's life; but that was never mentioned among us that I know of. F G And 1754. Antient and Modern ARCHITECTURE. And in p. 61, after mentioning several of their projects for raifing money, he says, The night before I went out of town, (in May, 1683) I walked with the duke of Monmouth in Soho fquare till break of day; he told me, he found my lord of Efex, colonel Sidney, and all of them, should agree in every thing; and he was A confident that when we were in arms, and the king faw how ftrong we were in feveral places, there would be little blood thed, for all would end in an accommodation between the king and a par iament: But my lord Macclesfield, he faid, had made a barbarous propofal, which was the murthering your majefty, for that, my lord faid, would frighten the king into a compliance. The duke of Monmouth expreffed himself with the greatest abhorrence of fuch an action that can be imagined, and faid he would not confent to the murthering the meanest creature (tho' the worst enemy he had in the world) for all the advantages under heaven; and should never have any efteem for my lord Macclesfield while he lived. From these and several other fuch paffages, it is, I think, evident, that neither the duke of Monmouth, the lord Ruffel, nor the lord Grey, had any knowledge of the Rye-house plot, or were ever confulted about it; and indeed, I believe, the remark made upon it by the author of The Introductory Review of the Reigns of the Royal Brothers, is pretty just, when he says, p 723, "That the guilt and reproach of the propofal refts principally, if not folely, on thofe who put in for the merit of being difcoverers." B D F And from the whole of this narrative it appears, that the lord Russel was really a true patriot, without any selfish view E of his own, but misled by the lord Shaftfbury and others, and induced to infift peremptorily upon the exclufion bill, which was the great error of the patriots in that reign; for had they accepted of the expedients offered by the courtiers in the Oxford parliament, which the reader may fee in the above-mentioned Review, p. 577, they would have effectually prevented that danger which the nation was involved in, by the duke of York's fucceeding to the crown without any new limitations, and of courfe all the fatal confequences of that unfortunate event. It is indeed furprifing, that the behaviour of the duke's freinds, with refpect to thefe expedients, did not open the eyes of the G ford Ruffel, and every true patriot in the kingdom; for bishop Burnet has told us, that his royal highness's creatures declared themfeives more against limitations than against the exclufion bill itself; and s to this fact his lordship's veracity is lefs 3 to be doubted than with refpect to moft of the other facts he relates. But fuch is lick works, it is certain that antiquity, even in the earliest times, immediately attempted the great, without embarrasting themselves in that labyrinth of reflections, on which are founded the elegancy and correctnefs of the modern tafte. Egypt fet a model of the fublime to the whole earth. Poffibly thro' the temper of its inhabitants, who are confummately ingenious, but no lefs voluptuous, it would never of itself have rifen to fuch a pitch of grandeur; but being governed by philofophers, animated by an unparalleled genius of religion, interested by the moft tender fentiments of hearts devoted to the worthip of the dead, its first essay was nothing less than a stupendous pyra❤ mid. Perfia was not inferior to Egypt. Never did architect form a defign like Perfepolis; there are ftones 52 foot in length; the most common between 30 and 50, and 4 or 6 foot in thickness, without any visible joining: The ftair-cafe is of one fingle ftone, and the vaults for interments ftrike the traveller with amazement. Perfepolis ftands on a mountainous rock, 7 or 8 miles in length, and impene trable by any chizzel. There are pieces of fculpture 150 feet in height. It was nothing extraordinary for an eaftern monarch to have his ftatue cut out of a mountain. The Egyptian works of all kinds were of this immortal character. In remote antiquity every thing bore the ftamp of their manners, great in their fimplicity; the human genius, in its first effort, always aiming at the marvellous. In phyficks, metaphyficks and history, this tafte leads to the fabulous or chimerical in the arts it produces the fublime. Chil dren, the commonalty, and women, who partake of the human genius as in its infancy, are all for incredible romances. It is among the antient people especially, that we meet with the most striking inftances of that ftrange mixture of dignity and weakness, of which human nature is compounded. A 2 The EASTERN and EUROPEAN TASTE. Jan? palaces for the dead, or for defpotick princes. But its politick and martial genius has, on the other hand, raised an infinite number of civil edifices, and, like Tyre, Carthage, &c. nany naval ones alfo; and as for military architecture, it is certainly brought to the ne plus ultra of A fkill and boldnefs. This is the external part. The edifices of Rome were becoming hte majesty of its empire; if the antients were unacquainted with fome fecrets in the degradation or colours and figures, in the claro obfcuro and perspective, it was no very confiderable lofs; and befides, this charge has been often brought by incompetent judges; for after all the bold cenfures on the theory of the relievo's on Trajan's column, the fymmetry of the front of the Pantheon,the attitude of the Farnefean Hercules, and other antiquities, what have the connoiffeurs determined ? It has been irrefragably proved, that the executors of these admirable pieces had a right, from the fuperiority of genius, and the very nature of defign, to fuperfede B minute rules for the grandeur of the whole, and the force of expreffion. As for the modern architecture of the eaft, no name fuits it better than that of their defpotick government. The finest palaces of their emperors confist only of fquares, balustrades, domes upon domes, and fome towered porticoes. The ornaments are only joiners work, and foulpture or varnished wood. The tiles are gilt; towards the streets are canals and plantanes. Even the palace of China is void of contrivance, the defign aukward, and the whole faulty and offenfive: All this outward magnificence is only a confufed groupe of infular pieces, without the connection, regularity and ftatelinefs of an imperial refidence. In the infide of its buildings all the decorations of antiquity are grave and ftately, fuch as are still feen in Italy, trophies, paintings, gildings, ftatues, relievo's, columns, obeaks and bronzes. France first taught Europe the new tafte of ftuffs and toys for inûde decorations, in a formed difpofition for ufe, at leaft for conveniency, being without any of the enrichments of antiquity with which Italy plumes itself. In the grand gufto of palaces, churches and convents, it is inferior; but in military and naval architecture, infinitely fuperior; and equal in that which may be termed civil, and compreChends town houfes, hofpitals, colleges, academies, libraries, market-houses, obfervatories, warehoufes, magazines, bridges, caufeways, roads, and all the apurtenances of cities, except fountains and play-houses. It must be owned that the streets in Italy are more direct, broad and regular, the houfes much higher and more fightly; the genius of the nation every where fhews itself; even villages, the names of which are fearce known, are not without fome difplays of the grand air. But, at the fame time, they want thofe embellishments, which infinitely add to the delight of a place; the fuperb keys, the ftately walks of France. Naples excepted, all its constructions relating to the fea or rivers are poor works in comparison of thofe in France. D From the prince's palace one comes into large cities with vast empty spaces within them. The traveller is naturally furprized at fuch an immense extent of buildings; but the admiration foon abates : The apparent vastness of the ground built upon, is owing to the rainous condition E of the houses, private perfons being, out of ftate jealoufy, forbid to carry their buildings higher; and domeftick jealousy confines every family, and fometimes every couple, in one houfe. In Perfia, India, Turkey, and even in China, nobody finishes his house, but new ones are made, and all the outward fhow lies in natural riches and the gloss of the varnish. An F The fame tafte of architecture, toge. ther with a neglect of repairing buildings, obtains in the grand feignor's dominions. No man is permitted to appoint the heir to his poffeffions or designs. unconcernedness arifing from the revolutions of the government and private fortunes, is grown into a custom which G hardly allows them to keep the very molques in decent repair. Europe affords but very few of thofe monuments of immortality erected by the antient East, those temples, thofe immense If to thefe advantages be added our fuperiority over Italy, in country-feats, gar dens and water-works, in which we vifitly out do our masters, we may vie with them for this third order of architecture. The diftribution of apartments, which never entered into the thoughts of any other nation, is alfo the invention of French genius. Whatever littleness there be in thefe things, fill is there an elegancy and conveniency much better adapted to the European climates, than the Italian diftribution. To the French is Europe alfo beholden for the entertainments and delicacies of life, which the Italian himself, for fome years paft, is daily importing in 1754. An ingenious LETTER from a LADY. Befs auftere than its government, interdicts The following Letter from a LADY, to ano- Madam, THE 7 awakening things in 'em, that make my blood run cold when I read 'em. And thus you have the hiftory of my present ftate of literature. Now give me leave to affure you, I rejoice with you in the good effects of the Bath. I love to hear you're well, I mean as to your bodily plight; your mind's health I never enquire after, knowing That nothing here can cloud, or can destroy That part's calm sunshine→→ My friend begins to fit very eafy apon my thoughts. I believe I might interpret fome actions in my favour; but I ftudy to be uniform, and confiftent. Am I a phiBlofopher now, think you; or a poor wretch, unfteady, various, and multiform? Pray, give it on the fide of my philofophy; for I affure you, I can't hold out above a week longer. However, I reckon myfelf obliged for any thing that looks like an overture; because it is a tacit acknowledgment that I have not Coffended too much to be forgiven. — But why should I complain of having loft one friend? It is the only one I ever loft ; and every body, I comfort myself, has met with fome fuch accident in their lives. While there's a Mrs.--in the world that fuffers me to converfe with her fometimes, or a lady H. B. that endures my nonfenfe, I fhall mifs my D other friend the lefs. And fo, trusting you'll let me walk amicably on with you for a few years, till you get the ftone, I the cholick, and lady H. is laid up with the gout; in short, till we've run this motley race of love, friendship, ambition, avarice, difgust, -and at length, indiffe rence, till we are all out of breath; I fay, trusting in this, HE pleafure you have given me by your letter is fo great, that I will not even upbraid you with your filence, enly with the occafion of it, the want of a frank. Alas! that I fhould be fo exalted in your opinion, that you should think Idoat upon a bit of paultry metal, and prefer a crooked fix-pence to a letter of yours. Is this the philofophy you mean? These the affections I am not proof against! I must own they are tender and moving : The contemplation of a crooked fix pence is a fine contemplation; and them the beautiful gradation from a fix-pence to a fhilling, and fo on till you arrive at the bleffedness of a crown! How muft the mind rejoice in its power of numbers, the order and fymmetry of the various pieces, and the relation they feverally ftand in to the beauteous fyllem of a guinea! Are not thefe contemplations infinitely preferable to the beauty and fymmetry of Hutchinfon, or the ideas E and harmony of Plato? Not that you muft imagine I read these authors, because I quote them; I only know their names and their faces, like many others of my acquaintance, whom I never spoke to in acquaintance, never have time read; my manner is to skip thro' a book, or catch a general view from the preface, or the index, (as I do of the contents of my acquaintance, from their faces) which is the utmost of my philofophick learning. Nevertheless, would give all the fix pences I am worth, for time to read about half a dozen books that have stood at my elbow thefe 7 years, and yet at this inftant am fo very idle as to be reading M-'s book, the most abfurd I ever met with! G Don't you laugh at my inconfiftency? Or is it just what you do yourself? A pamphlet I can make fhift to travel thro"; have feen two of the Night Thoughts, and like 'em fo well as to be impatient for a third. There are fome noble (ou) F I remain, &c. A DESCRIPTION of the ISLE of MAN: lies England and the north between, Englis about 10 leagues diftant from the county of Cumberland, its fouth end lying over against that county, and the north end against Scotland. Its length from north to fouth is above 30 miles, and its breadth between 8 and 10. Its moft general divifion is into north and fouth, and it contains 17 parishes, called Kirks. Its divifion, with regard to its civil government, is into fix fheedings, every one having its proper coroner, who is in the nature of a sheriff. is entrusted with the peace of his district, fecures criminals, brings them to juftice, &c. The lord chief juftice Coke fays, Their laws are fuch as are fcarce to be found any where else. They |