8); who writes the history of England with a partiality and malevolence almost as great as Smollet's, and pretends to describe the Britannic constitution, though it is plain from what he says, that he has not one true idea of the primary institutions of it, but taking this nation to be just such another kingdom of slaves as his own

country, rails at the Revolution, and like all the Jacobite dunces, prates against the placing the Prince of Orange on the throne, and the establishment of the succession in the present protestant heirs; though most certain it be, that these things were the natural fruit and effect of our incomparable constitution, and are de jure:—In short, that Zoilus and plagiary,—that carping superficial critic, (as a good judge calls him); who abuses the English nation in his letters, and denies Shakespear almost every dramatic excellence; though in his Mahomet, he pilfers from Macbeth almost every capital scene: (Shakespear, who furnishes out more elegant, pleasing, and interesting entertainment, in his plays, than all the other dramatic writers, antient and modern, have been able to do; and, without observing any one unity but that of character, for ever diverts and instructs, by the variety of his incidents, the propriety of his sentiments, the luxuriancy of his fancy, and the purity and strength of his dialogue): Voltaire, I say, speaking of this Abbé le Blanc, wishes he had travelled through all the world, and wrote on all nations, for it becomes only a wise man to travel and write. Had I always such cordials, I would not complain any more of my ills. I support life, when I suffer. I enjoy it, when I read you. This

is Voltaire's account of the Abbé. How true and just it is, we shall see in a few observations on what this reverend man says of our religion and clergy.
*The substance of what this French monk reports, vol. II. from p. 64 to p. 75, in his letter to the President Bouhier,(9)

is this:
1. That Cranmer, and the other doctors, who introduced the reformation into England, were downright enthusiasts, and compassed their designs by being seconded by those, who were animated by a spirit of irreligion, and by a greedy desire of seizing the possessions of the monks. It was the desire of a change established the reformation. The new doctors

seduced the people, and the people having mistaken darkness for light, quitted the road of truth, to walk in