to the publications of the time, this oratorio appears to have been approved by the critics and by the audiences. About the same time our author altered for the DruryLane Theatre, Southern's Tragedy of Oroonoko, by some omissions and some additions, but the latter, in the opinion of the critics, not enough to supply the place of the former.

In 1761 he appeared to more advantage as the author of a dramatic fairy tale, Edgar and Emmeline, acted at Drury-Lane Theatre with great and deserved It is the work of a delicate fancy, and was rendered yet more pleasing by the addition of musical interludes. It is still sometimes permitted to relieve the audience from the grossness of modern farce.

success.

Dr. HAWKESWORTH had gained much popularity from the Eastern stories introduced in the ADVENTURER, and this year gave to the public, in two volumes, his fine tale of Almoran and Hamet, which, notwithstanding some inconsistencies in principle and improbabilities of fable, is entitled to considerable praise for its moral tendency, and was long a favourite with the public. It must not be compared indeed to Rasselas, which appeared about the same time; yet to young readers it was, perhaps, more acceptable.

In 1765 he published DEAN SWIFT's works, with explanatory notes, and a life written upon a plan long before laid down by Dr. JOHNSON; and here it is worthy of remark, that whatever coolness may have at one time subsisted between them, all traces of ani

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mosity had been effaced from the mind of Dr. JOHNSON, when he characterised HAWKESWORTH as a man capable of dignifying his narration with so much elegance of language and force of sentiment."-To this edition the critics of the day discovered many objections; which have, however, been since removed by more accurate information respecting SWIFT, and by the indefatigable researches of his late editor, a man who cannot be praised too highly for having enlarged the resources of literary history.

In 1766, Dr. HAWKESWORTH was the editor of three additional volumes of SWIFT's Letters, with notes and illustrations. In this publication he discovers an uncommon warmth against infidel publications, and speaks of BOLINGBROKE and his editor MALLET with the utmost detestation. That in this he was sincere, will appear from the following proof.

We have already mentioned, that in 1744 he succeeded Dr. JOHNSON as the writer or compiler of the parliamentary debates in the Gentleman's Magazine. In this office, if it may be so termed, he continued until the year 1760, when the plan of the Magazine was enlarged by a Review of New Publications. Mr. OWEN RUFFHEAD was the first who filled this department, and continued to do so about two years, according to sir JOHN HAWKINS, when he was succeeded by Dr. HAWKESWORTH ; but there must have been an intermediate Reviewer, if sir JOHN be correct in the time when Mr. RUFFHEAD ceased to write, as Dr. HAWKESWORTH's first appearance as a critic is ascertained, upon

undoubted authority, to have been April, 1765. In the month of October of this year, there appeared in the Magazine, an abstract of Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, by a correspondent. Dr. HAWKESWORTH'S friends, to whom it appears his connection with the Magazine was no secret, were alarmed to see an elaborate account of so impious a work; and one of them wrote to him on the subject. An extract from his answer, now before me, will perhaps fill up a chasm in his personal as well as literary history.

"I am always sorry when I hear anonymous performances, not expressly owned, imputed to particular persons; that which a man never owned either privately or in public, I think he should not be accountable for. I speak feelingly on this subject; for though Mr. DUNCOMBE assured you that the Magazine was solely under my direction, I must beg leave to assure you that it is not, nor ever was, there being in almost every number some things that I never see, and some things that I do not approve. There is in the last number an account of Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, a work of which I never would give any account, because I would not draw the attention of the public to it. It is true that the extracts exhibited in this article do not contain any thing contrary to religion or good morals; but it is certain that these extracts will carry the book into many hands that otherwise it would never have reached, and the book abounds with principles which a man ought to be hanged for publishing, though he believed them to be true, upon the same principle that

all states hang rebels and traitors, though the offenders think rebellion and treason their duty to God.

"I beg, sir, that you would do me the justice to say this whenever opportunity offers, especially with respect to the political part of the Magazine; for I never wrote a political pamphlet or paper, or ever directly or indirectly assisted in the writing of either in my life*."

In 1768, he published, by subscription, a translation of Telemachus in 4to, which is still considered as the standard. He was thought to have transfused the spirit and genius of the author with great success.

He continued to review new books in the Magazine, but without any publications from his own pen, that can now be traced, until the year 1772, when he was invited to write an account of the late Voyages to the South Seas-a fatal undertaking, and which, in its consequences, deprived him of peace of mind and life itself. When these navigators returned home, the desire of the public to be acquainted with the new scenes and new objects which were now brought to light, was ardently excited, and different attempts were made to satisfy the general curiosity. The first was a publication, entitled, A Journal of a Voyage round the World. This was the production of some person who had been upon the expedition; and, although his account was dry and imperfect, it served in a certain

* This letter is dated "Bromley, Kent, Nov. 8, 1765," and was addressed to the late Mr. BRIDGDEN, Paternoster-Row, son-in-law te RICHARDSON, the author of Clarissa, &c.

degree to relieve the eagerness of the public. The journal of SYDNEY PARKINSON, draughtsman to sir Joseph Banks, to whom it belonged by ample purchase, was likewise printed, from a copy surreptitiously obtained; but an injunction from the Court of Chancery for some time prevented its appearance. This work, though dishonestly given to the world, was recommended by its plates. But it was Dr. HAWKESWORTH's* account of lieutenant Cook's voyage which completely gratified the public curiosity, as it was written by authority, was drawn up from the journal of the lieutenant and the papers of sir JOSEPH BANKS; and, besides the merit of the composition, derived an extraordinary advantage from the number and excellence of its charts and engravings, which were furnished at the expence of government. The large price given by the bookseller for this work, and the avidity with which it was read, displayed in the strongest light the anxiety of the nation to be fully informed in every thing that belonged to the late navigation and discoveries+.

This character of the work, however, chiefly from the mild pen of captain Cook's biographer, is too favourable: the public was not satisfied with it. The literary journals indeed examined it with candour, and rather with favour; but men of science were disap

* Dr. HAWKESWORTH owed his appointment to write this work to he recommendation of GARRICK, in a conversation with the late Earl SANDWICH, at that time first lord of the Admiralty. HAWKESWORTH was profuse in his acknowledgments to GARRICK, but forgot them aferwards in a manner which deprived him of GARRICK's friendship. + Biog. Brit. art. Cook.

FOL. XXIII.

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