MARY, RY, the beautiful, but unfortunate Queen of Scotland, feduced by ftrong paffions, and the influence of unworthy attachments, to acts of indecorum and imprudence, which clouded her life with misfortune, and concluded in untimely death. I have perufed, with pleasure and improvement, many elaborate attempts to rescue the character of this frail fair one, from obloquy and reproach, I have seen the arti fices of her infidious, but inexorable rival, her unnatural fifter, clearly laid open, by the matterly pen of an acute critic, and a candid hiftorian; I am convinced that Elizabeth was the enemy of her fame, her fortune, and her life. Yet, after a cool and impartial review of the conduct of the Queen of England, I cannot help confidering it, as in a great measure juftified, by the alarming combination of Mary and her abettors; by the general circumftances of the times, and of the two countries; and by the rebellious difpofition of a confiderable portion of her fubjects, exafperated by the fuppreffed, but malignant bigotry of the old fuperftition, and ready to seize every opportunity of disturbing the reign of their triumphant enemy. The unbecoming hafte, with which the fubject of this article transferred her affections, or her perfon from the impulfes of fear, revenge, or a fofter caufe, placed new arms in the hands of her invidious rival, and too often induced the unhappy Queen to follow the violent advice of felfifh or ill defigning favourites, who diffused over her character, in many ref pects amiable and endearing, the dark fhades of their own vices and fanguinary ambition. Thefe circumftances were gradually productive of mutual injury and hatred, embittered by perfonal jealousy, religious rancour, and antient national prejudice, which after a revolution of many centuries, is not yet extinguished. A thousand intermingled reafons of policy and juftice, at last seem to have rendered it abfolutely neceffary, that one of them must be destroyed; a state of things, in which I believe few of us placed in the circumstances of Elizabeth, would long hesitate, on whom the lot fhould fall; and I am perfuaded, as well by original documents, as by the concurring teftimony of the human heart, on fimilar occa. fions, in all ages, that Mary was practifing against her fifter the fame arts, which failed of success only from a want of policy or power. Had the Queen of Scotland been born in other times, and trod the ftage of life in other circumftances, fhe might have proved the glory of her fex, and an honour to her country. Had Elizabeth been graced with beauty, or Mary been lefs fair; had the English heroine been a Catholic, or the lovely Caledonian not a Papift, her life might have paffed unembittered, her death, in all probability, would not have been premature. In a picture of the death of David Rizzio, originally exhibited in the Shakespeare Gallery, in which the terror of the favourite, and the diftrefs of his mistress are admirably reprefented by Mr. Opie, it may not perhaps be known by my readers, that one of the asE 2 faffins, Not true his life. faffins, who is in the act of fon had been faid or fung during It has been faid, and not unaptly, of the three hiftorians of this unhappy Queen, that the narrative of Camden, whofe annals were revised and corrected by James the Firft, is almoft wholly without truth; that Buchanan has told the whole truth, and more than the truth; that Melvil has spoken the truth, but not the whole truth. Mr. Mafon has been mentioned as writer of the Heroic Epiftle to Sir William Chambers, a compo. fition now generally attributed to the late Mr. Tickle, and which I had rather be the author of, than of any other poem in the English language. Befides a fine vein of folemn irony, it abounds with frequent flashes of the vivida vis animi; the metre is terfe, and the language glowing, in a manner not often occurring in Mr. Mafon's performances, that, till he avows it (and fo refpectable a teftimony would instantly filence doubt) I cannot confider it as the production of his pen. I acknowledge, with pleasure I acknowledge, that many fublime and many beautiful paffages occur in Caractacus and Elfrida, which may vie with the nobleft productions of the Grecian drama. But MARLBOROUGH, JOHN, if we look for, or wish to find, in the great Duke of, his fingular declaration, that neither avarice or ambition could be laid to his charge, when they were his only predominant vices. See Jennings, Sarah. MASS ASSIANELLO, the fisherman and infurgent of Naples; fee Aniello, Tomafo, of which the title of this article was the abbreviation, by which he was generally called by his affociates. Mr. Mafon's writings, a rapid fucceffion of affecting incidents, if we expect to be melted with pity, fired with rapture, or hurried by the magic wand of poetry, Ultra flammantia monia mundi, we shall be disappointed by tedious declamation, or the cold correctnefs of claffical erudition. In his poem, the English Garden, adhering to the fimplicity of nature, he has fhaken off that tendency to elaborate ornament, which fo peculiarly marked his early compofitions; it contains much useful technical knowledge; the narrative is naturally introduced, and well managed. In the agonizing smile of defpair, fuch a fmile as quite out-forrows tears, he has fkilfully introduced introduced an expreflive new-coined word; yet this performance, inheriting the fault of all long didactic poems, is fometimes dull, and occafionally uninterefting; its moral tendency, and public-fpirited language, in the cause of freedom and virtue, cannot be too highly praised. It is to be lamented, that the life of a man so deservedly eminent in the paths of literature, a friend to liberty so strenuous, and a clergyman fo exemplary, should be confumed in adjusting the petty etiquette of vergers, vicars-choral, or fqueaking chanters; and that his days fhould be embittered by frivolous altercations with bookfellers, and the vexatious quarrels of a county hofpital. Petty contention and provincial ftrife, Beftrew'd with thorns his private path of life, fays a late fatirical rhymer, who has introduced him as an unsuccefful candidate for the laureat, and nence of his clerical claims, but of his ignorance in the arts of borough-jobbing, canvaffing, and levee-hunting. I have mentioned his difputes concerning literary property, and agree with him in his cenfures of certain arts practised by the trade. With a few exceptions, how rarely are authors enabled to reap any benefit from the labours of their pens; they frequently are fhivering in want, or pining in neglect, while the happy bookfeller is feasting on the fourteenth edition. I cannot take leave of Mr. Ma fon, without giving him a caution not to cenfure fo illiberally the biographic labours of others, till he is able himself to excel them. Were I to felect the beft fpecimen of biography, at this day extant, it fhould be chofen (with fome exceptions) from the works of the perfon he cenfures-if the worst, I would inftantly hold forth Mr. Mafon's; it is the only literary effort in which he has grofly failed. dismisses him, by saying, that lawn MEAD, EDWARD, a phyfi fleeves, mitres, and crofiers, not laurel, are his, and every churchman's dream; and I believe it generally to be understood, that this intelligent member of our eftablished church has been disappointed in certain profpects of honor and preferment, towards which his merits, and indeed his hopes, had taught him to look. This obfervation cannot be confidered as any reflection upon Mr. Mafon, when we fee around us fuch numbers of clergymen, of high acquirement and pure character, neglected and unprovided for; I rather confider it as an actual proof of the fuperiority and emi cian of eminence, and a zealous patron of literature and fcience, to whom merit in distress, of any country, might always apply for encouragement and relief, with certainty of fuccefs. His work on poifons is a complete hiftory of what had been said on the fubject, and contains a confiderable fhare of botanic and chemical knowledge, for the days in which he wrote; on the fubject of the plague, he evinces extensive reading, and much precautionary utility, in guarding against that fcourge of mankind, which prudence may fhut out, but the moment it appears, nature and unavailing vailing art fink into torpidity and death. Ratcliffe's advice to him, that if he did not ufe mankind ill they would ufe him fo, is mentioned in another part of this collection. The ftubborn afperity, dignified independence, and ftern integrity of that medical veteran, will not allow us to fufpect that he meant to advise an actual breach of moral rectitude. We can only infer, that he thought, and indeed from experience knew, that a phyfician, in his intercourse with mankind, would meet with many worthless, impofing people; that fagacity, and a neceffary attention to his own interefts, would fometimes render it neceffary to turn the arts of defigning selfishness against itfelf. During the most flourishing period of Mead's practice, from 1737 to 1752, his annual receipt was eight thousand guineas, equivalent to more than double the fum in the prefent times, and greater than Ratcliffe's medical income at any part of his life. Ratcliffe was scientific in an art, with which the fubject of my prefent article was wholly unacquainted, accumulation, by which he was enabled to die rich. But Dr. Mead procured medals, antiquities, and other curiofities, at a very great expence; but there was one branch of profufion in his establishment fo peculiar, and. I may almost fay, fo fuperfluous, that I cannot speak of it without a fmile. He is faid to have kept a miftrefs, at the expence of four hundred pounds a year, when, by a confeffion of the girl, which does little credit to her gratitude, there was no other intercourse be tween them, than his innocent paftime of toying with her hair, which was remarkably fine, and hanging in luxuriant curls, at once fhaded and contrafted the beauties of her neck. Since my former edition, I have been informed, on good authority, that in this female attachment, advantage was taken of Mead's goodnefs of heart, to impofe on and deceive him; that in a moment of weakness or of paffion (and where is the man without them) he became the dupe of female art and fineffe. The pecuniary allowance, I am alfo told, is exaggerated, and that an intercourfe, commencing from the noblest and most charitable motives, was converted, by malignancy, selfishness, and mifconception, into an illicit and prepofterous connection. The circumftance did not efcape the ferutinizing eye of irritated refentment, and Greenfield, his exafperated antagonist, with whom he carried on a paper war, eagerly seized the opportunity. "Puella," (for this curious difpute was in Latin) "fabri vincula tibi finxit, amoris tardi, et languefcentis in via vinculofa;" for fhe was the maid or daughter (I hope and believe not the wife) of a blacksmith in Fetter-lane. Greenfield had, by writing and by practice, endeavoured to introduce the internal ufe of cantharides, which, as he obferves, was not a new thought, but had been exploded as dangerous, from a want of neceffary prudence and caution in those who had given them. Some difagreeable confequences which took place in one of his patients, came to Dr. Mead's knowledge, knowledge, and he cenfured it. In the heat of controversy some harsh expreffions dropping from Greenfield, inflamed the bufinefs, Mead lott his temper, carried the matter into a court of law, and profecuted his opponent with unbecoming virulence and acrimony, for a mode of treatment which, it was proved, he had adopted himself. Yet Dr. Mead was a defirable character, with much to praise and little to blame; a good phyfician, and a pleasant man, charitable, humane, liberal, and beneficent; praife which, notwithstanding the struggles of unobtruding humility, is certainly the juft due of the elder Dr. Lettfom; not that I mean to include, in the moft diftant manner, the charge of "Amoris tardi et languefcentis," against that gentleman. Woodward and Mead had violent and frequent altercations, which at last ended in an accidental perfonal rencounter; they both drew, but, according to Woodward's account, Mead did not love cold iron, and was retreating, when Woodward making a falfe ftep, fell down; his antagonist then ran in, and demanded, as he ftood over him, if he would fubmit, and afk his life. 66 If you offered me your phyfic," (faid Woodward, remarkable on all occafions for the keenness of his irony) "I would certainly beg for my life, but I have no fear of your fword, and certainly shall not ask it." Further confequences were prevented by amicable interference. after equally defpifing the fmiles or the frowns of apothecaries, nurses, children, and old women, on furveying the life and most of the actions of Dr. Mead, may safely say, "I will go and do likewise." Who would believe, if it was not confirmed by refpectable authority, that this learned and eminent physician made a journey to Paris at the age of feventy, to receive leffons from Dupré, the famous French Dancing Master ?—Being accidentally furprized by an acquaintance in the very act, he difcovered no confufion, begged leave to finish his leffon, and then obferved, "I am not afhamed to own, that what the majority of mankind perform for pleasure, I undertake for health; and having found myself every day lefs able to go through the fedentary drudgery of my profeffion, I thought the amufement of a journey to Paris, and a little gymnastic exercise under Doctor Duprè, might, by varying the fcene, be useful to my conftitution, and I already find the advantage." When Dr. Friend was committed to the Tower, more as was generally fuppofed from the rage of party malice than any actual guilt, it ought to be recorded to the honour of the fubject of this article, that he was indefatigable in making application for his liberty, but for a long time without fuccefs, until fome great man at Court, having occafion for Dr. Mead's profeffional affiftance, he pofitively refufed his attendance, unlefs Friend was dif charged from confinement. ETHODISTS, a Chriftian fociety, whom in an MET A modern physician, after steering clear of the factions of a court, the perfecutions of a college, and the intrigues of a city hofpital, ticle, affigned to Mr. Wefley, ar I have |