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and to account, if required, for the means by which it was acquired. The sheriff, Mr. Young, at the defire of the grand jury, convened a meeting of the British inhabitants of Calcutta. This meeting, Mr. Purling, who was unanimofly called to the chair, addreffed in a concife and nervous speech, fetting forth the grievances of Mr. Pitt's bill. Having explained, in a few words, the occafion of the meeting, he lays,

The introduction of a tribunal of justice, folely for the trial of Indians, the deprivation of that invaluable, that blefied birth-right, the judgment of our peers, and the feveral provifions which form a system of judicature totally different from that by which the whole empire is governed, are a novelty in our constitution, an evil to the nation at large, and a grievance, difgrace, and indignity to Indians in particular, whofe reputations have received a death-ftroke, which no human exertion can remedy, recall, or obliterate; however, the repeal of this offenfive, this criminating act, may avert the injuries which impend on our fortunes and our families.

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By the paffing of this Act, we stand prejudged, in as much as it fets forth, that the detection and punishment of crimes committed in India require different laws, and feverer than those which already ope rate over the whole body of British fubjects. This prefumption criminates, because it diftinguishes. We all know, that the law fuppofes crimes; but we alfo know, that it does not attach crimes to particular men, or particular bodies of men.

This law provides penalties and pains hitherto unknown, and (I fcarce think any one will fay nay, when I add) unproportioned to the offences they are intended to check and punish.

It eftablishes an extraordinary and an alarming innovation in the conftitution of our country, which the supporter of the bill was bold enough to avow, and the reprefentatives of a free people were fupine enough to admit.

It deprives the British-born fubject, who has refided a few years in India, of the rights and privileges enjoyed by the rest of his countrymen.

It expofes him to the malevolence of any man, whom he may accidentally offend, during the three years of probation, or may have offended before he left India.

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It renders him a marked and branded being, among those with whom he is obliged to affociate, on his return to his native country. It erests a partial, unjust, and odious diftin&tion between the King's and the Company's fervants, though both are employed in India, and equally liable to the fame frailties and temptations.

It involves the innocent with the guilty in one common deftruction: nay,

It spreads, in its contagious blaft, ruin to the infant and the unborn.

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Prejudice and crimination are ftamped on its forehead. The very approach of the monster, its ghaftly and horrible appearance, without waiting for its deftructive effects, urges our refort to the first principle

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of nature, felf-prefervation; and every manly, refolute, deliberate, and legal oppofition, which it is in our power, at this distance, to exert for its extirpation, is loudly called forth.'

Mr. Purling having thus addreffed the understandings of his audience, endeavours to move their paffions, by bringing home the confequences of the obnoxious bill to their hearts. Other gentlemen, befides Mr. Purling, delivered their fentiments on the bufinefs of the day; and, among the reft, Mr. Dallas, who expatiated, at greater length, particularly on the oppofition of the bill to the laws and cuftoms of England, on the fame topics that had been touched on by Mr. Purling. Mr. Dallas is an able and animated fpeaker; but there is in his ftile not a little of the juvenile and Afiatic hyperbole,. which time, experience in business, and a jufter taste, we hope, will one day correct.

Various refolutions were moved, and agreed to by this meeting, for obtaining a repeal, by all poffible constitutional exertions, of the act complained of; a committee was appointed for conducting the business; and a fubfcription opened for defraying the expence of it.

The officers of the third brigade, ftationed at Cawnpore, voted Mr. Pitt's bill unconstitutional; chofe a committee by ballot, for correfponding with the other committees at the several stations, and for aiding and affifting their good endeavours; and refolved, when called upon, chearfully to fubscribe what fums of money might be requifite in fupport of their just cause.

ART. XI. The Recefs; or, a Tale of other Times. By the Author of the Chapter of Accidents. Vols. 2 and 3, 12mo. 75. Cadell. London, 1785.

VARIOUS circumftances have contributed to the eclat

with which the publication of this work has been attended, Mifs Lee is the daughter of an actor, who obtained confiderable and merited applaufe; and, as fuch, is entitled to the general indulgence and patronage. She has been the author of a comedy, which we are accuftomed to hear fpoken of with commendation, though, as ftrangers to the piece, we are unable to speak decifively of its merits. In fine, the period in which he has appeared has been as aufpicious as felf-love itfelf could defire. It has happened, through we know not what coincidence of circumftances, that fcarcely any production of a female pen, and avowed by its author, from the effufions of a More and a Seward, to the aftonishing efforts

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of a Burney, has been unfavourably received by the public. We mean not, by thefe obfervations, to prejudge the volumes before us in the ftile whether of cenfure or applaufe. It is our business, divested alike of public prejudice and private confiderations, to draw our judgment from the performance itself.

The first volume of this work has long fince been in every body's hands; and it will not, therefore, be neceffary for us to fay much of its incidents and defign. It is an observation, the truth of which has forced it upon the pen of every later hiftorian, that no family, in the annals of mankind, has been attended, through fucceffive generations, with fo complicated misfortunes, as the royal houfe of Stuart. The conclufion was drawn from revolutions that paffed in the face of the universe. But Mifs Lee has been willing to add to these other calamities, related with the air of mystery and anecdote. She has feized, with fome kind of ingenuity and happiness, upon the popular perfuafion refpecting this unfortunate line. We should have mentioned this, had it not been somewhat premature, among the causes that contributed to the success of her publication.

Her principal perfonages are defcendants from the celebrated Mary, Queen of Scots, in confequence of an imaginary marriage between her and the Duke of Norfolk. Mifs Lee feems

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to have a fingular predilection for royal favourites. events of her novel are drawn from a supposed connection between her three principal characters, two of them the daughters, and one the grand-daughter, of Mary, and Lord Leicefter and Lord Effex, the favourites of Elizabeth, and Carr, Earl of Somerset.

We have given the reader a fufficient idea of the outlines of the ftory to introduce thofe extracts, by which we are defirous of enabling him to judge for himself of its execution. Elizabeth is reprefented, by Mifs Lee, as offering marriage to the Earl of Leicester, already united to the eldest daughter of her rival, upon his fudden return from the Netherlands. Unable to difcover any other means of evading this unexpected propofal, he fes, with his beloved confort, to the continent. One of the confequences of this flight is the difcovery of the fecret of her birth; and its fatal refult is thus defcribed. Immediately after her arrival at Havre de Grace, the Countess of Leicester, who is made the narrator of her own story, fays,

'I continued a long time too weak to quit my chamber; yet, at intervals, a new fear difturbed me. I perceived my lord absent and anxious; frequently an extreme palenefs overcame the floridness of

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nature; and, traverfing the room for hours, he would give way to a chagrin, the cause of which not all my tendereft entreaties could wring from him. I often recalled the words of my fifter; I fancied he vainly regretted the diftinction of royalty, the pride of fplendor, and the pleasure of popularity. Accuftomed to be the object of every eye, to have every wish foreftalled, to be obeyed ere he spoke, 1, fighing, owned the change in his fate might well appear dreary. Not daring to hint my ideas, I impatiently expected the return of the express fent to Rouen, hoping it would open new prospects, and disperse the heavy cloud between him and felicity. But O! how delufive is human perfpicacity!-infolently vain of our bounded knowledge, we boast of tracing every thought and action of individuals feas divide from us, even at the very moment we misjudge all with whom we are immediately furrounded. My fond attention, fixed partially on Lord Leicester, looked not out of himself for causes of grief. Receiving, at this interval, a kind invitation from Lady Mortimer, my aunt, to her refidence at Rouen, I raised my eyes, breathlefs with joy, to Lord Leicester, who had been perufing it over my fhoulder; they met his full of a fadness fo meaning. it numbed my very heart.

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Long used now to dread every day would teem with fome horrible event, I fnatched his hand, and, in broken accents, only begged to know it. He funk at my feet, and, hiding his tears with my robe, fwelled with fobs that almoft cracked my heartstrings. have told me you loved me, Matilda," faid he, in a broken and doubtful voice. Told you!" re-echoed I; "heavens and earth! can that, my lord, remain a question? have I not for you forgot the rights of fex, of rank, of every thing but love?" "Have I not done all man could to deserve thefe facrifices?" again demanded he. "Debate no more admitted merits," cried I, with wild impatience; "O give me the truth, and all the truth, at once; nor doubly torture me with this pomp of preparation. Whatever it is, I will remember there might be a worfe, fince my eyes ftill behold you every evil but your danger my foul can cope with. You speak not yet we are, then, discovered, betrayed, delivered condemned up, fatal power of Elizabeth has reached us even here; for nothing ele can furely thus affect you." "It has, indeed," fighed he. "O! why then," exclaimed I, forgetful of all my affurances," am I unprovided with poifon for death muft now be the only mercy hoped. May the ocean, from which we with fo much difficulty efcaped, "entomb us on our return, rather than refign us up to her licenfed vengeance." "The power of Elizabeth has reached us," added he, more mournfully, though not in our own perfons. Safe ftill in my arms, in my heart, you may, my love, long arraign and bewait a misfortune all Europe will bewail with you." His fympathizing eyes explained the truth -the agonizing truth my foul understood him -aghaft with horror, my eyes feemed to fet, and every limb to ftiffen to marble; a fenfation, to which fainting is eafe, condensed every faculty; and Nature, powerful Nature, ftruck on my heart, at the thought of my mother, with a pang, perhaps equal to that with which the bore me. The radiant fun of love feemed to dip into a fea of blood, and fink there for ever. Unable to reduce the torrent

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of my idea into language, I buried my head in my robe, and pointed to the door, that all might leave me. Happily, my Lord faw a prudence in indulging me, and, laying down feveral letters, inftantly retired. A horrible tranfport, for fome moments, benumbed me; how multiplied, how complicate, how various, how new, were then my feelings! feelings which ever return with the remembrance! feelings which opened a vein in my character, as well as my heart all fenfe of gentlenefs vanished. The first paper I perused confirmed my fears-I faw, in the first lines, the decided fate of the martyred Mary.I feemed to behold the favage hand of Elizabeth, dipt in the blood of an anointed fifter fovereign.-I felt she was my mother, my fond, my helpless mother; and my heart floated in tears, which were hours working their way up to my burning eyes. The furies of Oreftes feemed to furround me, and thunder parricide, nothing but parricide, in my ear. What! groaned I, after fo long an endurance, fuch complicated evils, fupported with a patience that left not her enemies a pretence for facrificing her, that mifery was referved for her daughter! Perhaps, even at the moment fhe laid that beauteous head, fo many hearts were born to worship, on the block, every agony of death was doubled, by the knowledge her daughter brought her there.-Why did I not perish in the Recefs by lightning? Why did not the ocean entomb me? Why, why, O God! was I permitted to furvive my innocence? In the wildness of my affliction, I curfed the hour, the fatal hour, when I ventured beyond the bounds prefcribed me. Yes; love, love itfelf was annihiÍated; and (could I once have believed it) deeply did I wish I had never feen Lord Leicefter. Paffing from paper to paper, I faw friends and enemies unite in the eulogium of the royal martyr. What magnanimity, what sweetness, what fanctitude did they affign to her-a bright example in the most awful of trials!-Subliming the idea of revenge infeparable from human nature, fhe centered it all in comparifon. And what a comparison!-cafting off the veil of her mortality, to darken over the future days of Elizabeth, the radiant track of her afcenfion concentered, while it dimmed the eyes of those furrounding nations, who, too late, bewailed their fhameful inactivity. Spirit of the royal Mary! O thou most injured! fighed out, at lait, my exhausted foul, from that bleffedness, to which the wretch, now levelled with the duft, perhaps too early tranflated thee, beam peace and pardon Affuage the horrors of the involuntary fin, and O! receive my life as its expiation; or a little, but a little, foothe its fad remainder!'

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As Matilda, the elder of the princeffes, is the wife of Lord Leicester, the younger, who is named Ellinor, is engaged to the amiable and unfortunate Earl of Effex. Upon the difcovery of her birth, fhe is made a prifoner at the villa of Lord Burleigh, where a thousand infamous arts are practifed upon her to induce her to a conduct contrary to her interest and her inclinations. By fucceffive threats against the life of her mother and of Effex, fhe is first brought to fign a paper declaring the ftory of her birth to be an impofture, and then to give er hand to a man the detefts. The natural confequence of

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