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Mr. URBAN,

THE

E.

Nov. 8. HE exrenfive circulation of your Magazine renders it a convenient vehicle for any hints which may tend to promote general information, or correct prevailing error.

Sir John Hawkins, in his Life of Dr. Johnfon, relates, that the Doctor affumed a right of correcting Garrick's enunciation, and, by an inftance, convinced him that it was fometimes erroneous. Garrick being requested to repeat the feventh commandment, thus laid the emphafis : "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Dr. Johufon faid, as it was a negative precept it ought to be thus pronounced: "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

Mr. Bofwell, on the information of Dr. Taylor, relates, that Garrick and Giffard, at Dr. Johnfon's request, attempted to repeat the ninth commandment, and both miftook the emphafis, which should be upon not, and falfe witnels.

Influenced, perhaps, by the authority of Johnton, and the acquiefcence of Garrick, I obferve many clergymen, who are attentive to their reading, place the emphalis on the adverb not in all the negative precepts of the Decalogue, which interrupts the flow of the period, and afcertains not the meaning of the commandment.

Dr. Gregory very juftly difagrees with Mr. Garrick and Dr. Johnfon on this point. He obferves, that "Mr. Garrick, in placing the emphasis on the auxiliary verb Jhalt, was evidently wrong, as Dr. Johnfon objected that the commandment was negative, and he accordingly placed the emphafis on not. It is plain, however, that this emphafis neither ferves to explain the nature of the commandment, nor to point the attention to its principal object. The congregation are fufficiently aware, that the Decalogue confifts of authoritative precepts, and therefore there cannot be the leaft necefity for dwelling upon the verb jbalt. Moft of the commandments

[Nov.

are of a negative kind, and of course there can be no occafion to make not the principal word of the fentence; and that too with a manifeft risk that the principal object of the commandment fhall not be heard, or, at least, attended to. Befides this, we are fo accustomed to relative emphafis, that, by accenting either of those words, the ear is naturally led to expect fomething correfpondent to them: thus, by faying

Thou shalt not fteal,' the auditor is induced to expect the antithetical but, with fome correfpondent appendage. The truth is, both thefe words fhould be pronounced with a full tone of voice, but the real force of the emphafis ought to rest upon the word feal, or whatever word diftinguishes the commandment from the reft."

As to the ninth commandment, the adjective falfe claims the principal emphafis, as that conftitutes the criminality of the action, and renders it the. object of prohibition. Confequently, the paffage fhould be thus accented: "Thou shalt not bear FALSE witness against thy neighbour."

In thefe details of Mr. Garrick's miftake, conviction, or acquiefcence, by Sir John Hawkins and Dr. Taylor, I fufpect mifconception as well as palpable inaccuracy. Mr. Garrick might have ceased to contend with Dr. Johnson, and permitted him to enjoy his imaginary triumph, not from conviction of his own error, but from reluctance to offend his antagonift. This line of conduct appears to have been frequently purfued by the most refpectable of Dr. Johnson's affociates.

I have been informed by a moft cloquent and venerable Divine, who is himself a model for imitation in reading the Liturgy, as well as in difcharging every other branch of clerical and Chrif tian duty, that no one could read the Liturgy with more correct emphafis, or reverent devotion, than Mr. Garrick ; that he had heard him read it; that he had frequently converfed with him upon it; and had derived from him much ufeful information. This gentleman's fentiments would have confiderable weight with the publick; and I hope neither his age nor infirmities will induce him to withhold that intelligence which he is peculiarly qualified to communicate.

Dr. Johnfon, in his Dictionary, explaining the word Hare, thus remarks: "Hare and Here, differing in pronun

ciation

[OTHING fhort of the words "is

:

NOTHING of the nices mis to trouble you with any remarks on the long letter relative to Oxford degrees in your last month's Magazine. I always fully understood that Mr. Price's fole fame arofe from his fuppofed difcovery of the philofopher's ftone; his writings never fell in my way, nor did I ever feek them but, as my adversary had two editions of his pamphlet at once lying before him, it refted with him to have thewn what other "chymical labours" diftinguished Mr. Price beyond the hundreds of induftrious artifans in this city, who brandish their pestles, and heat their crucibles, without dreaming of being created doctors in phyfick, any more than I should of being dubbed Archbishop of Canterbury. Your correfpondent, who (when the choler which a tuated him when he first took up the pen is a little evaporated) appears to be a communicative, good-humoured man, afligns three other reafons for Mr. Price's obtaining the academical dif tinction of M.D. all equally curious: his having been a gentleman commoner, and behaved with fobriety; his having changed his name from Higginbottom, and being confidered as very rich; and, lafly, his not intending to practile phyfick in England, but to carry his degree into foreign parts. At ether of thefe "fi foret in terris rideret Democritus:" but I only remark on the third, that it fhews exactly fimilar principles in the University with thofe faid to actuate fome confcientious gun-founders, who lay apart ail barrels fo faulty as to be likely to burft when once heated, that they may not be ufed in home confumption, but all exported together to furnish the African Negroes with mufquetry.

Oxford being a far greater mart for theology than medicine, if fimilar ideas prevail there in regard to that faculty, we may foon expect to hear of choice young divinity doctors iffuing in thoals from its convocation, fome of whole labours are reftricted folely to propagating GENT. MAG. November, 1791.

church by deftroying the dwellings of their quiet Prefbyterian neighbours, no paftor will look for any tiches of the money or ftrong liquors they carry off from thence; but that it will behove them to tranfmit every private letter found in the clofer of a Diffenting teacher to their own pious rector, who may glean out of the heap fuch as he efteems a grateful offering to the Minifter, our British Daniel: ftatelmen having penetration enough to difcern the bonourable means by which they are obtained, and gratitude to reward thole who bumbly lay them at their feet.

Of Abbé Raynai I am not particularly enthusiastic in my admiration; but if a man of his eminence and abilities thinks an Oxford degree worth paying the fees for (which I folemnly declare, ofcure as I am, I should not), the con defcenfion is all on bis fide, and the bonour on that of the University. The rector of Whittington is a very refpe&table parish prieft, a character highly to be valued at all times, efpecially now the breed of them is to nearly extinct; but the train in which your correfpondent fpeaks of the Abbé and him, is almoft as farcical as if Lord Bacon and Thomas Hearne were to be introduced together on the ftage, in order to draw a parallel between them, and give a fuperionty to the latter.

Men's fentiments are better collected from their actions than their words. If the patent of Lord Chief Juftice Jeffe ries's creation be referred to, it will no doubt contradict his being advanced by James the Second to the peerage on account of his celebrated bloody Weftern campaign. Samuel Johnlon had publithed his Dictionary and Ramblers about twenty years before the Oxonians vouchfafed to make him a Doctor; but they did vouchlafe it juft after his " Гахаtion no Tyranny" made its appearance, It was not likely that their Chancellor, the very Minister in whole caule he had been writing that pamphlet, or the Uni.

versity,

"All the antient, honest, juridical opini ons and inftitutions of England, are so many clogs to check and retard the headlong courfe of violence and oppreflion. They were invented for this one good purpofe; that what was not just should not be convenient. Convinced of this, I would leave things as I found them. The old cool-headed general law is as good as any deviation dictated by prefent heat.".

"I do affure you (and they who know me publicly and privately will bear witness to me), that if ever one man lived more zealous than another to the fupremacy of Parliament, and the rights of this Imperial Crown, it was myself. Many others, indeed, might be more knowing in the extent or in the foundation of thefe rights. I do not pretend to be an antiquary, or a lawyer, or qualified for the chair of metaphyficks. I never ventured to put your folid interests upon fpeculative grounds. My having conftantly declined to do this has been attributed to my incapacity for fuch difquifitions; and I am inclined to believe it is partly the caufe -I fhall never be afhamed to confefs, that where I am ignorant I am diffident. I am, indeed, not very folicitous to clear my felf of this imputed incapacity, because men, even lefs converfant than I am in this kind of fubtleties, and placed in ftations to which I ought not to afpire, have, by the mere force of civil difcretion, often conducted the affairs of great nations with diftinguished felicity and glory.".

"The King's negative to bills is one of the

moft indifputed of the royal prerogatives;

and it extends to all cafes whatfoever. I am far from certain, that if feveral laws which I know had fallen under the ftroke of that fceptre, that the publick would have had a very heavy lofs. But it is not the propriety of the exercife which is in question. The exercife itself is wifely forborne-its repose may be the prefervation of its exiftence; and its existence may be the means of faving the Conttitution itself on an occafion worthy of bringing it forth."

"To act on the principles of the Conftitution, with the beft men the time affords, has been from the beginning the rule of my conduct and I mean to continue it as long as fuch a body can, by any poflibility, be kept together. For I should think it the most dreadful of all offences, not only towards the prefent generation, but to all the future, if 1 were to do any thing which could make the minuteft breach in this great confervatory of free principles."

At the election of reprefentatives in parlament for the city of Bristol, in 1780, Mr. Burke, in his fpeech on that occafion, faid, fpeaking of the unhappy event of the American war,

"I am a Royalist, I blushed for this degradation of the Crown-I am a Whig, I blush

ed for the dishonour of Parliament-I am a true Englishman, I felt to the quick for the difgrace of England-I am a man, I felt for the melancholy reverse of human affairs in the fall of the first power in the world."

In another part, on another subject, he fays,

me.

"I did not obey your instructions; No. I conformed to the inftructions of Truth and Nature, and maintained your interest against your opinions with a conftancy that became A representative worthy of you ought to be a perfon of ftability. I am to look indeed to your opinions; but to fuch opinions as you and I must have five years hence. I was not to look to the flash of the day. I knew that you put me in my place, with others, to be a pillar of the State, and not a weathercock on the top of the edifice, exalted for my levity and verfatility, and of no ufe but to indicate the shiftings of every fafhionable gale."

"Such is my idea of the Conftitution of the British empire, as diftinguished from the Conftitution of Britain; and on these grounds I think fubordination and liberty may be fufficiently reconciled through the whole; whether to ferve a refining speculatift, or a factious demagogue, I know not, but enough for the eafe and happiness of man."

It is the fear only of occupying too great a portion of your valuable Repofitory that prevents my bringing for ward larger and more abundant proofs this juft confideration reftrains me, yet of Mr. Burke's confiftency. Though I fhall take leave to remark, that whoever diligently perufes Mr. Burke's writings, and examines his conduct, in a fpirit devoid of party, and with an unjaundiced eye, will have occafion to admire the extreme and jealous attention which he always pays to the fpirit of the British Conftitution.

Men placed in an eminent fituation in the State, and who by their talents and their high character are looked up to on every great occafion, are frequently obliged, in their confidering the fame and different questions, in different points of view, to treat them on principles very oppofite to the original ftandard of their fentiments. But in Mr. Burke we fee none of thofe obliquities, either to the right or to the left, whenever the Conflitution of Eugland was, either directly or collaterally, the object of his confideration. To preferve that pure and untainted from the undue exercife of power, or perhaps the more fatal method of refining or factious experiment, feems to have been the Polar ftar, as it were, of his public conduct;