cious, that men are naturally fond of liberty till those unborn ideas and desires are effaced by literature. The author, if he be not a man mewed up in his solitary study, and entirely unacquainted with the conduct of the present ministry, must know that we have hitherto acted upon different principles. We have always regarded letters as great obstructions to our scheme of subordination, and have therefore, when we have heard of any man remarkably unlettered, carefully noted him down as the most proper person for any em ployments of trust or honour, and considered him as a man in whom we could safely repose our most important secrets. From among the uneducated and unlettered we have chosen not only our ambassadors and other negotiators, but even our journalists and pamphleteers; nor have we had any reason to change our measures, or to repent of the confidence which we have placed in ignorance. Are we now therefore to be told, that this law is Stamp'd upon th' unletter'd mind? Are we to suspect our placemen, our pensioners, our generals, our lawyers, our best friends in both houses, all our adherents among the atheists and infidels, and our very gazetteers, clerks and court-pages, as friends to independency? Doubtless this is the tendency of his assertion, but we have known them too long to be thus imposed upon, the unlettered have been our warmest and most constant defenders, nor have we omitted any thing to deserve their favour, but have always endeavoured to raise their reputation, extend their influence, and increase their number. In his first act he abounds with sentiments very inconsistent with the ends for which the power of licensing was granted; to enumerate them all would be to transcribe a great part of his play, a task which I shall very willingly leave to others, who, though true friends to the government, are not inflamed with zeal so fiery and impatient as mine, and therefore do not feel the same emotions of rage and resentment at the sight of those infamous passages, in which venality and dependence are represented as mean in themselves, and productive of remorse and infelicity. He has debauch'd the genius of our country, Thus is that decent submission to our superiors, to lust. has conceived any thought of an uncommon maIt is observable, that when this hateful writer lignity, a thought which tends in a more particular manner to excite the love of liberty, animate the heat of patriotism, or degrade the majesty of kings, he takes care to put it in the mouth of his hero, that it may be more forcibly impressed upon his reader. Thus Gustavus, speaking of his tatters, cries out, -Yes, my Arvida, Beyond the sweeping of the proudest train Here this abandoned son of liberty makes a full monarch. his heel, is a thing too venerable and sacred to The heel of a monarch, or even the print of be treated with such levity, and placed in contrast with rags and poverty. He that will speak contemptuously of the heel of a monarch, will, whenever he can with security, speak contemptuously of his head. These are the most glaring passages which have occurred, in the perusal of the first pages; One line which ought, in my opinion, to be my indignation will not suffer me to proceed farerased from every copy by a special act of parlia-ther, and I think much better of the licenser, ment, is mentioned by Anderson, as pronounced than to believe he went so far. by the hero in his sleep, In the few remarks which I have set down, the reader will easily observe, that I have strained no expression beyond its natural import, and have divested myself of all heat, partiality, and prejudice. So far therefore is Mr. Brooke from having received any hard or unwarrantable treatment, that the licenser has only acted in pursuance of that law to which he owes his power, a law which every admirer of the administration must own to be very necessary, and to have produced very salutary effects. I am indeed surprised, that this great office is not drawn out into a longer series of deputations, since it might afford a gainful and reputable employment to a great number of the friends of the government; and I should think, instead of having immediate recourse to the deputylicenser himself, it might be sufficient honour for any poet, except the laureat, to stand bare headed in the presence of the deputy of the de- | puty's deputy in the nineteenth subordination. Such a number cannot but be thought necessary, if we take into consideration the great work of drawing up an index expurgatorius to all the old plays; which is, I hope, already undertaken, or if it has been hitherto unhappily neglected, I take this opportunity to recommend. The productions of our old poets are crowded with passages very unfit for the ears of an English audience, and which cannot be pronounced without irritating the minds of the people. This censure I do not confine to those lines in which liberty, natural equality, wicked ministers, deluded kings, mean arts of negotiation, venal senates, mercenary troops, oppressive of ficers, servile and exorbitant taxes, universal corruption, the luxuries of a court, the miseries of the people, the decline of trade, or the happiness of independency are directly mentioned. These are such glaring passages as cannot be suffered to pass without the most supine and criminal negligence. I hope the vigilance of the licensers will extend to all such speeches and soliloquies as tend to recommend the pleasures of virtue, the tranquillity of an uncorrupted head, and the satisfactions of conscious innocence; for though such strokes as these do not appear to a common eye to threaten any danger to the government, yet it is well known to more penetrating observers, that they have such consequences as cannot be too diligently obviated, or too cautiously avoided. A man, who becomes once enamoured of the charms of virtue, is apt to be very little concerned about the acquisition of wealth or titles, and is therefore not easily induced to act in a manner contrary to his real sentiments, or to vote at the word of command; by contracting his desires, and regulating his appetites, he wants much less than other men, and every one versed in the arts of government can tell, that men are more easily influenced in proportion as they are more neces sitous. This is not the only reason why virtue should not receive too much countenance from a licensed stage; her admirers and followers are not only naturally independent, but learn such a uniform and consistent manner of speaking and acting, that they frequently by the mere force of artless honesty surmount all the obstacles which subtlety and politics can throw in their way, and obtain their ends in spite of the most profound and sagacious ministry. Such then are the passages to be expunged by the licensers: in many parts indeed the speeches will be imperfect, and the action appear not regularly conducted, but the Poet Laureat may easily supply these vacuities, by inserting some of his own verses in praise of wealth, luxury, and venality. But, alas! all those pernicious sentiments which shall be banished from the stage, will be vented from the press, and more studiously read because they are prohibited. mighty burden of state affairs! with how much security might our ministers enjoy their honours, their places, their reputations, and their admirers, could they once suppress those malicious invectives which are at present so industriously propagated, and so eagerly read; could they hinder any arguments but their own from coming to the ears of the people, and stop effectually the voice of cavil and inquiry! I cannot but indulge myself a little while by dwelling on this pleasing scene, and imagining those halcyon-days, in which no politics shall be read but those of the Gazetteer, nor any poetry but that of the Laureat; when we shall hear of nothing but the successful negotiations of our ministers, and the great actions of How much happier would this state be than those perpetual jealousies and contentions which are inseparable from knowledge and liberty, and which have for many years kept this nation in perpetual commotions. But these are times rather to be wished for than expected, for such is the nature of our unquiet countrymen, that if they are not admitted to the knowledge of affairs, they are always suspecting their governors of designs prejudicial to their interest; they have not the least notion of the pleasing tranquillity of ignorance, nor can be brought to imagine that they are kept in the dark, lest too much light should hurt their eyes. They have long claimed a right of directing their superiors, and are exasperated at the least mention of secrets of state. This temper makes them very readily encou rage any writer or printer, who, at the hazard of his life or fortune, will give them any information: and while this humour prevails, there never will be wanting some daring adventurer who will write in defence of liberty, and some zealous or avaricious printer who will disperse his papers. It has never yet been found that any power, however vigilant or despotic, has been able to prevent the publication of seditious journals, ballads, essays, and dissertations; "Considerations on the present state of affairs," and "Inquiries into the conduct of the administration." Yet I must confess, that considering the success with which the present ministry has hitherto proceeded in their attempts to drive out of the world the old prejudices of patriotism and public spirit, I cannot but entertain some hopes, that what has been so often attempted by their predecessors, is reserved to be accomplished by their superior abilities. If I might presume to advise them upon this great affair, I should dissuade them from any direct attempt upon the liberty of the press, which is the darling of the common people, and therefore cannot be attacked without immediate danger. They may proceed by a more sure and silent way, and attain the desired end without noise, detraction, or oppression. There are scattered over this kingdom several little seminaries, in which the lower ranks of I cannot but earnestly implore the friends of people, and the youngest sons of our nobility the government to leave no art untried by which and gentry are taught, from their earliest inwe may hope to succeed in our design of ex-fancy, the pernicious arts of spelling and readtending the power of the licenser to the press,ing, which they afterwards continue to practise, and of making it criminal to publish any thing very much to the disturbance of their own quiet, without an imprimatur. and the interruption of ministerial measures. How much would this single law lighten the These seminaries may, by an act of parlia ment, be at once suppressed, and that our pos- | power of the court not only above the insults of terity be deprived of all means of reviving this the poets, but in a short time above the necessity corrupt method of education, it may be made of providing against them. The licenser having felony to teach to read without a license from his authority thus extended, will in time enjoy the Lord Chamberlain. the title and the salary without the trouble of This expedient, which I hope will be care-exercising his power, and the nation will rest at fully concealed from the vulgar, must infallibly length in ignorance and peace. answer the great end proposed by it, and set the PREFACE TO THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, 1738. THE usual design of Addresses of this sort is to implore the candour of the public! we have always had the more pleasing province of returning thanks, and making acknowledgments for the kind acceptance which our Monthly Collections have met with. This, it seems, did not sufficiently appear from the numerous sale and repeated impressions of our books, which have at once exceeded our merit and our expectation; but have been still more plainly attested by the clamours, rage, and calumnies of our competitors, of whom we have seldom taken any notice, not only because it is cruelty to insult the depressed, and folly to engage with desperation, but because we consider all their outcries, menaces, and boasts, as nothing more than advertisements in our favour, being evidently drawn up with the bitterness of baffled malice and disappointed hope; and almost discovering in plain terms, that the unhappy authors have seventy thousand London Magazines mouldering in their warehouses, returned from all parts of the kingdom, unsold, unread, and disregarded. Our obligations for the encouragement we have so long continued to receive, are so much the greater, as no artifices have been omitted to supplant us. Our adversaries cannot be denied the praise of industry; how far they can be celebrated for an honest industry we leave to the decision of the public, and even of their brethren the booksellers, not including those whose advertisements they obliterated to paste their in vectives in our book. The success of the Gentleman's Magazine has given rise to almost twenty imitations of it, which are either all dead, or very little regarded by the world. Before we had published sixteen months, we met with such a general approbation, that a knot of enterprising geniuses, and sagacious inventors, assembled from all parts of the town, agreed with a unanimity natural to understandings of the same size to seize upon our whole plan, without changing even the title. Some weak objections were indeed made by one of them against the design, as having an air of servility, dishonesty, and piracy; but it was concluded that all these imputations might be avoided by giving the picture of St. Paul's instead of St. John's gate; it was however thought indispensably necessary to add, printed in St. John's Street, though there was then no printing-house in that place. That these plagiaries should, after having thus stolen their whole design from us, charge us with robbery, on any occasion, is a degree of impudence scarcely to be matched, and certainly entitles them to the first rank among false heroes We have therefore inserted their names* at length in our February Magazine, p. 61; being desirous that every man should enjoy the reputation he deserves. Another attack has been made upon us by the author of Common Sense, an adversary equally malicious as the former, and equally despicable. What were his views, or what his provocations, we know not, nor have thought him considerable enough to inquire. To make him any further answer would be to descend too low: but as he is one of those happy writers, who are best exposed by quoting their own words, we have given his elegant remarks in our Magazine for December, where the reader may entertain himself at his leisure with an agreeable mixture of scurrility and false grammar. For the future we shall rarely offend him by adopting any of his performances, being unwilling to prolong the life of such pieces as deserve no other fate than to be hissed, torn, and forgotten. However, that the curiosity of our readers may not be disappointed, we shall, whenever we find him a little excelling himself, perhaps print his dissertations upon our blue covers, that they may be looked over, and stripped off, without disgracing our collection, or swelling our volumes. We are sorry that by inserting some of his essays, we have filled the head of this petty writer with idle chimeras of applause, laurels, The gay and learned C. Ackers, of Swan Alley, Printer; the polite and generous T. Cox, under the Royal Exchange; the eloquent and courtly J. Clark, of Duck Lane; and the modest, civil and judicious T. Astley, of St. Paul's Church yard, booksellers. All theso names appeared in the title of the London Magazine, begun in 1732. AN APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC, and immortality, nor suspected the bad effect of our regard for him, till we saw in the Postscript to one of his papers a wild prediction of the honours to be paid him by future ages. Should any mention of him be made, or his writings, by posterity, it will probably be in words like these: "In the Gentleman's Magazine are still preserved some essays under the specious and in * Common Sense Journal, printed by Purser of Whitefriars, March 11, 1731. "I make no doubt but after some grave historian, three or four hundred years hence, has described the corruption, the baseness, and the flattery, which men run into in these times, he will make the following observation:-In the year 1737, a certain unknown author published a writing under the title of Common Sense :his writing came out weekly in little detached essays, some of which are political, some moral, and others humorous. By the best judgment that can be formed of a work, the style and language of which is become so ob solete that it is scarcely intelligible, it answers the title well." &c. viting title of Common Sense. How papers of Ir is plain, from the conduct of writers of the first class, that they have esteemed it no derogation from their characters to defend themselves against the censures of ignorance, or the calumnies of envy. It is not reasonable to suppose that they always judged their adversaries worthy of a formal confutation, but they concluded it not prudent to neglect the feeblest attacks; they knew that such men have often done hurt who had not abilities to do good; that the weakest hand, if not timely disarmed, may stab a hero in his sleep; that a worm, however small, may destroy a fleet in the acorn; and that citadels, which have defied armies, have been blown up by rats. In imitation of these great examples, we think it not absolutely needless to vindicate ourselves from the virulent aspersions of the Craftsman and Common Sense, because their accusations, though entirely groundless, and without the least proof, are urged with an air of confidence, which the unwary may mistake for consciousness of truth. In order to set the proceedings of these calumniators in a proper light, it is necessary to inform such of our readers as are unacquainted with the artifices of trade, that we originally incurred the displeasure of the greatest part of the booksellers by keeping this Magazine wholly in our own hands, without admitting any of that fraternity into a share of the property. For nothing is more criminal in the opinion of many of them, than for an author to enjoy more advantage from his own works than they are dis 69 posed to allow him. This is a principle so well Hinc iræ, hinc odia. This was the first ground of their animosity, which for some time proceeded no farther than private murmurs and petty discouragements. At length, determining to be no longer debarred from a share in so beneficial a project, a knot of them combined to seize our whole plan; and without with the utmost vigour to print and circulate the the least attempt to vary or improve it, began London Magazine, with such success, that in a few years, while we were printing the fifth edition of some of our earliest numbers, they had seventy thousand of their books returned un sold upon their hands. It was then time to exert their utmost efforts unattempted that interest could suggest. It will to stop our progress, and nothing was to be left be easily imagined that their influence among those of their own trade was greater than ours, and that their Collections were therefore more industriously propagated by their brethren; but this being the natural consequence of such a relation, and therefore excusable, is only mentioned to show the disadvantages against which we are obliged to struggle, and to convince the reader, that we who depend so entirely upon his They then had recourse to advertisements, in approbation, shall omit nothing to deserve it. Man. which they sometimes made faint attempts to be | did not attempt to extenuate his crime, but enwitty, and sometimes were content with being treated the judge to beware of hanging a Good merely scurrilous; but finding that their attacks, while we had an opportunity of returning hostilities, generally procured them such treatment as very little contributed to their reputation, they came at last to a resolution of excluding us from the Newspapers in which they have any influence; by this means they can at present insult us with impunity, and without the least danger of confutation. Their last, and indeed their most artful expedient, has been to hire and incite the weekly journalists against us. The first weak attempt was made by the Universal Spectator, but this we took not the least notice of, as we did not imagine it would ever come to the knowledge of the public. This writer we thought, however injudiciously, worthy, not indeed of a reply, but of some correction, and in our Magazine for December, 1738, and the preface to the Supplement, treated him in such a manner as he does not seem inclined to forget. From that time, losing all patience, he has exhausted his stores of scurrility upon us; but our readers will find upon consulting the pas sages above mentioned, that he has received too much provocation to be admitted as an impartial critic. In our magazine for January, p. 24, we made a remark upon the Craftsman; and in p. 3, dropped some general observations upon the weekly writers, by which we did not expect to make them more our friends. Nor, indeed, did we imagine that this would have inflamed Caleb to so high a degree. His resentment has arisen so much above the provocation, that we cannot but impute it more to what he fears than wha. he has felt. He has seen the solecisms of his brother Common Sense exposed, and remembers Whether there was then a confederacy between this journal and Common Sense, as at present between Common Sense and the Craftsman, or whether understandings of the same form receive at certain times the same impressions from the planets, I know not, but about that time war was likewise declared against us by the redoubted author of Common Sense: an adversary not so much to be dreaded for his abi-thatlities as for the title of his paper, behind which he has the art of sheltering himself in perfect security. He defeats all his enemies by calling them "enemies to Common Sense," and silences the strongest objections and the clearest reasonings by assuring his readers that "they are contrary to Common Sense." I must confess to the immortal honour of this great writer, that I can remember but two instances of a genius able to use a few syllables to such great and so various purposes. One is, the old man in Shadwell, who seems, by long time and experience, to have attained to equal perfection with our author; for "when a young fellow began to prate and be pert," says he, "I silenced him with my old word, Tace is Latin for candle." The other, who seems yet more to resemble this writer, was one Goodman, a horse-stealer, who being asked, after having been found guilty by the jury, what he had to offer to prevent sentence of death from being passed upon him, -Tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet. He imagines that he shall soon fall under the same censure, and is willing that our criticisms shall appear rather the effects of our resentment than our judgment. For this reason, I suppose, (for I can find no other,) he has joined with Common Sense to charge us with partiality, and to recommend the London Magazine as drawn up with less regard to interest or party. A favour which the authors of that collection have endeavoured to deserve from them by the most servile adulation. But as we have a higher opinion of the candour of our readers, than to believe that they will condemn us without examination, or give up their right of judging for themselves, we are not unconcerned at this charge, though the most atrocious and malignant that can be brought against us. We entreat only to be compared with our rivals, in full confidence, that not only our innocence, but our superiority, will appear |