and the most minute particularities and artful turns of debate and argument are noticed with admirable acuteness, subtilty, and precision. The work, therefore, is filled with practical axioms, and parliamentary and forensick wisdom; and cannot but be of perpetual use to all those persons who may have occasion to exercise their discursive talents within or without the doors of the House of Commons;-in conversation, at the Bar, or in Parliament.

This tract was fairly written out by the author; and therefore may be presumed to have been intended by him for the press. He had shewn it to his friend, Dr. Johnson, who considered it a very curious and masterly performance. He objected, however, to the too great conciseness and refinement of some parts of it; and wished that some of the precepts had been more opened and expanded. Undoubtedly they might have been expanded and enlarged with great advantage; and if EXAMPLES had been occasionally introduced, to shew the truth and

propriety of some of the rules and observations, they would have been a very useful and ornamental addition to the work. It is observable, that in the various additions which Bacon in the course of twenty-four years made to his invaluable ESSAYS, (for he not only at different times wrote several new Essays, but augmented the old,) EXAMPLES, illustrative of his precepts, make a considerable part.

To this tract have been subjoined two Speeches made by Mr. Hamilton in Parliament, and some Poems written by him at an early age, of which a more particular account will be given hereafter.

That no production of so great a writer as Dr. Johnson might be lost, the little treatise entitled CONSIDERATIONS ON CORN, has been added as an Appendix to these pieces of his friend. This tract, in which Johnson for the first time appears as a teacher in an important branch of political economy, is printed from a copy in his hand-writing, and shews how readily his

great mind could apply itself to subjects, to which the general course of his studies had little relation. A passage in his Prayers AND MEDITATIONS will best explain how it came to be found among our author's papers. In the 61st page of that work, we find a prayer, dated November, 1765, on " ENGAGING IN POLITICKS with Hn," unquestionably meaning Mr. Hamilton. From the generality of these words Johnson's ingenious biographer was led to suppose, that he was then seized with a temporary fit of ambition; and that hence he was induced to apply his thoughts to the study of law and politicks. But Mr. Boswell was certainly mistaken in this res pect; and these words merely allude to Johnson's having at that time entered into some engagement with Mr. Hamilton, occasionally to furnish him with his sentiments on the great political topicks that should be considered in Parliament. Mr. Hamilton was extremely fond of this kind of discussion; and long intending, or at

least meditating, to take a part in the debates that arose on several important questions during his time, he endeavoured to obtain from every quarter all possible information on the various subjects that occurred; and hence among his manuscripts are several books filled with ADVERSARIA, written by himself, on many political topicks. In one of these volumes was found Johnson's "Considerations on the Corn Laws," which certainly were written in November, 1766, when the policy of the parliamentary bounty on the exportation of Corn became naturally a subject of discussion. The harvest in that year had been so deficient, and corn had risen to so high a price, that in the months of September and October there had been many insurrections in the midland counties, to which Johnson alludes; and which were of so alarming a kind, that it was necessary to repress them by military force. In these tumults several persons were killed. The Ministry therefore thought it expedient to

accelerate the meeting of Parliament, which was assembled in November; and the King's Speech particularly mentions the scarcity that had taken place (which had induced his Majesty to prevent the further exportation of corn by an embargo), and the tumultuous and illegal conduct of the lower orders of people in consequence of the dearth.

To this brief account of the principal pieces contained in this volume, it may not be improper to add a few words concerning their author.

William Gerard Hamilton was the only son of William Hamilton, Esq. a younger son of Mr. Hamilton of Wishaw *, in the shire of Lanerk in Scotland, by a daughter of Sir Charles Erskine, of Alva, who was a younger brother of the Earls of Marr and Buchan. His mother was Hellen Hay, one

*The title of Belhaven was entailed on the family of Wishaw; and the present Lord Belhaven is great nephew to Mr. William Gerard Hamilton's father, being the lineal descendant and heir of his elder brother.