character; but they confidered him as zealous in their caufe, and an ufeful inftrument in promoting their purposes. In periods of faction nothing can injure a man greatly who has merit with his own party. The bishop's Hiftory of his own Times, though tinctured with whig prejudices, is ftill read with pleasure, partly from the facts which it contains, and partly on account of the naivetê, felf-importance, and vanity of the author. It is worthy of remark, that the au thor of the hiftory before us is liable to the fame objections. The importance which is afcribed to the counfels of Alexander Cunningham is fometimes no lefs ridiculous than that which is arrogated in his writings by Gilbert Burnet: fo natural are the illufions of felf-conceit, and the tendency of men to remark thofe follies or vices in their neighbours which are the most confpicuous and prominent parts of their own character.

Although Mr. Cunningham does not ftudy to collect and tranfmit all the anecdotes of the day, like fome modern writers of memoirs, yet is his work more full of them than any English history of high reputation. The circumftances and anecdotes which he records are all of them connected with that general train of events or character by which the particulars he describes are difcriminated from the ordinary courfe of affairs. He does not go out of his way to hunt for them; he does not dwell upon them as his principal object; and never introduces them but when they are natural and proper. Introduced in fuch a manner, they render hiftorical compofition more picturesque and animated, withbut detracting from its dignity. The following anecdotes paint the manners of the times towards the end of Queen Anne's reign in a lively and striking manner :

After the Duke of Marlborough had loft the Queen's favour, he was not a little hurt by the common clamour that had been raised of the prolongation of the war, the danger of the church, and the difficulty of getting French wine; of which, the laft was as trivial as the fecond was impertinent, and the firft neceffary. And yet it was ftrange to fee how much the defire of French wine, and the dearnefs of it, alienated many men from the Duke of Marlborough's friendship.

And now I fhall take this opportunity to speak of the French winedrinkers as truly and as briefly as I can. On the first breaking out of the confederate war, the merchants in England were prohibited from all commerce with France, and a heavy duty was laid upon French wine. This caufed a grievous complaint among the topers, who have great interest in the parliament, as if they had been poisoned by Port wines. Mr. Portman Seymour, who was a jovial companion, and in

dulged

dulged his appetites, but otherwife a good man; General Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough's brother, a man of courage, but a lover of wine; Mr. Periera, a jew and smell feaft; and other hard-drinkers, declared that the want of French wine was not to be endured, and that they could hardly bear up under fo great a calamity. These were joined by Dr. Aldridge, who, though nick-named the priest of Bacchus, was otherwise an excellent man, and adorned with all kinds of learning. Dr. Ratcliffe, a phyfician of great reputation, who afcribed the cause of all difeafes to the want of French wines, though he was very rich, and much addicted to wine, yet, being extremely covetous, bought the cheaper wines; but at the fame time he imputed the badnels of his wine to the war, and the difficulty of getting better: therefore, the Duke of Beaufort, and the Earl of Scarfdale, two young noblemen of great intereft among their acquaintance, who had it in their power to live at their eafe in magnificence or luxury, merrily attributed all the doctor's complaints to his avarice. All thofe were alfo for peace rather than war; and all the bottle-companions, many phyficians, and great numbers of the lawyers and inferior clergy; and, in fine, the loose women too, were united together in the faction against the Duke of Marlborough. But matters not being yet ripe for an attack, their hatred against the duke did not yet break out openly. The heads of the faction gained daily more and more of the queen's favour by de. tracting from the praifes of the Duke of Marlborough. Their emiffaries leffened the victories obtained in the wars in Flanders; and either afperfed the Duke of Marlborough's glory with petty falfehoods, or unjustly transferred it to others; nay, they laid even the ill fucceffes in Spain to his charge. His wife's faults too were aggravated to the common people. The Earl of Godolphin was falfely charged, in ordinary converfation, with embezzling the public treafure. The Earl of Wharton was reputed an enemy to the lordly power and tyranny of the clergy, a profane perfon, and out of God's favour. The Earl of Sunderland and the Lord Halifax were bitterly railed at. And, in a word, all the whigs, especially thofe who were ftyled the junto, were cenfured as irreligious people, by thofe who had no religion at all of their own for, in that degenerate ftate of the kingdom, uncertainties paffed current for certainties, and probabilities for truths; and truths themselves were greatly magnified among the vulgar by those of the French faction. All things, in fhort, were fo carried on, both in the city and country, as if the interest and name of the French had again become most acceptable and popular in England.'

Our author is by no means partial either to the church or to the fair fex; and, indeed, takes every opportunity of inveighing, fometimes in a ftrain of ridicule, fometimes in a Ipirit of animofity, against priefts and women. But it is to be observed that, in thefe times, the clergy, both in the Church of England and among the Diffenters, were deeply involved in the politics of the state; and that, in a female reign, female ambition was the fecret fource of many public events which agitated or difordered the world.

Upon

Upon the whole, this valuable work will yield inftruction and entertainment to the reader: but, notwithstanding our favourable fentiments of it; the public have expectations from the abilities of Dr. Thomfon which cannot be gratified by tranflating from any author.

ART. X. The Memoirs of Mrs. Sophia Baddeley, late of DruryLane Theatre. By Mrs. Elizabeth Steele. 12mo. 6 vols. 18s. fewed. All the Bookfellers. London, 1787.

HE Memoirs of Mrs, Baddeley prefent us with another exemplary inftance of the almoft certain confequences of extravagance, diffipation, and a departure from the paths of virtue. She feems to have far exceeded her theatrical fifter, whofe Apology was read, not long ago, with such avidity by the public; and like whom the experienced the flow, but fure approaches of poverty and distress.

Few perfons experienced the fmiles of fortune more than Mrs. Baddeley did for a time. All ranks bowed before her; and it refted with herfelf whether the would be mistress of a handfome independence or not. But frugality appears to have been no part of her difpofition. Had he been poffeffed of difcretion, and fufficient fteadiness to husband what the received, fhe might have had a comfortable refource in old age; but given up, as fhe was, to profufion and extravagance, the thoughtlessly fquandered what would have. made her happy when her friends deferted her. Mrs. Steele, the nominal writer of thefe Memoirs, thinks it neceffary, in order to give her readers an opinion of their authenticity, to inform them that he was acquainted with Mrs. Baddeley from her earlier days; that as children they were brought up together, and educated at the fame fchool; that their intimacy continued throughout the whole of her life, for feveral years of which Mrs. Baddeley lived in her house; and that, as her friend and confidant fhe unbofomed herself to her; of course there was no material occurrence of her life but what fhe made her acquainted with.

Thus qualified, Mrs. Steele has taken upon her the publication of thefe occurrences; and as the heroine of the work was raifed to fuch an eminent degree of public notice by her profeffional merit, by the attractions of her perfon, and by the imprudence of her conduct, the public will undoubtedly find themselves interested in the relation of them.

Mrs.

Mrs. Steele informs us that her friend

'Mrs. Sophia Baddeley was the daughter of Mr. Valentine Snow, late ferjeant-trumpeter to his majefty, and born in the parish of St. Margaret, Weftminster, in the year 1745. Her father bestowed on her a very genteel education; and having an uncommon degree of foftnefs and delicacy in her features and perfon, with every neceffary external accomplishment of her fex, fhe attracted the attention and efteem of all who knew her; and the tenor of her conduct being regulated by the ftricteft decorum infured her general respect.

She lived with her father till the reached the age of eighteen, who inftructed her in mufic, and was very anxious that the fhould be thorough miftrefs of the harpfichord. Mufic, however, did not fuit her tafte fo much as a contemplative turn to reading; and the leffon's her father gave her were a task of labour. She made her complaints to a neighbouring fhopkeeper, with whom Mr. Baddeley lodged; reprefented her father's anxiety for her improvement as overbearing and tyrannical; and found in this woman that officious interference, that, under the name of friendship, is too often the fource of unseen calamities. She introduced her to her lodger; gave her to underftand that she had it then in her power to free herself from a continuance of the fame treatment, by accepting the protection of Mr. Robert Baddeley, who belonged to Drury-Lane theatre, and who would bring her upon the ftage. Mifs Snow had always a penchant for a theatrical life; and this propofal giving her an opportunity of gratifying her inclination, fhe liftened to what Mr. Baddeley had to fay, and in a very few days eloped from home, and filed to this neighbour's house, who received her and secreted her till she became the wife of Mr. Baddeley. This was in the year 1764. He foon procured her an engagement at Drury-Lane. Cordelia, in Lear, was the first character the appeared in; and, young and untutored as the was, fhe gave moft ample proofs of rifing merit, teftified by the loudest plaudits of the audience."

• Before she had been twelve months on the stage her merit entitled her to eftimation as a player, and her accomplishments had gained her general admiration; her vocal powers were, in her day, on a level with the first public finger. She gave proofs of her abilities at Vauxhall, and was engaged foon after at Ranelagh, at twelve guineas a week. At the theatre fhe acquitted herself beft in genteel comedy; and further than this fhe never attempted, except the part of Mrs. Beverley, in the Gamefter, which the performed once or twice, during the illness of Mrs. Barry, and was exceedingly well received by the public.

With all the advantages which youth, accomplishments, and the united talents of her and her husband could give her, Mrs. Baddeley was not without her misfortunes. For the pace of three years the lived with her husband without any public impeachment on her character; but meeting at Ranelagh with Mr. Mendez, a Jew, he threw himself in her way, became acquainted with her and her hufband, alienated her mind from her conjugal duty, and fhe, unfortunately

tunately liftening where the should have turned a deaf ear, agreed to go with him alone on a party of pleasure to Staines-bridge, where The committed an act that deterred her from going back to her own houfe; but, on her return, fhe flew to Mr. Charles Holland of Drury-Lane theatre; and he thought proper to receive her. She lived with Mr, Holland till the smallpox took him from her.'

Mrs. Baddeley having now ftepped over the threshold of difcretion and continence, and being left, by the death of Mr. Holland, unprotected, the liftened to the folicitations of Dr. Hayes, of Marlborough-Street, who had been Mr. Holland's phyfician during his laft illness, and attached herfelf to him for eight or nine months.

About the year 1767 a feparation took place between Mr. and Mrs. Baddeley, when it was agreed, and a bond given for fulfilling the agreement, that all his debts contracted before the feparation fhould be paid by Mrs. Baddeley; and that her husband should be indemnified from any debts contracted by her hereafter. The parties, however, continued to perform at the fame theatre, but exchanged not a word with each other, fave in their respective characters on the ftage.

From this period we find the heroine of the work immerged in a conftant fucceffion of intrigue, diffipation, and the most unbounded profufion, notwithstanding her friend Mrs. Steele (as the tells us) used her utmost endeavours to reftrain her in both.

One of her moft lafting attachments, at this time, was with the Hon. Mr. Hanger, now Lord Colerain; for whom the appears (according to Mrs. Steele's account) to have entertained fo much partiality, as not only to fquander on him her whole falary, which amounted to a very confiderable weekly fum, but to put up with the most barbarous treatment at length, in illness fhe found herfelf inhumanly deferted by him.

So violent were her emotions when this event took place, that she fell fenfelefs on the floor, and it was not without great difficulty that she could be restored to life. He had no fooner left the house than fhe went to an apothecary's fhop, where the procured three hundred drops of laudanum, the whole of which, upon her return home, fhe immediately fwallowed. But, though the was refcued from her danger by the timely exertions of feveral gentlemen of the faculty, who were immediately called in to her affiftance, and who at laft procured an intermiffion of the ftupor, yet her health fuffered fo much from this rath ftep, and the distraction of

her