profanes the sepulchre, and sucks the blood of sleeping men-cowardly, cruel, ungenerous monster! You and your brother are critics of another disposition; too superior to be jealous, too good to be severe, you give encouragement to living authors, protection to the memories of those of former times; and instead of destroying monuments, you bestow them. I have often thought, with delighted gratitude, that many centuries after my little Essay on Shakspeare is lost and forgotten, the mention made of it in the History of English Poetry, the Essay on Pope, and Mr. Harris's Philological Enquiries, will not only preserve it from oblivion, but will present it to opinion with much greater advantages than it originally appeared with. These reflections afford some of the happiest mo ments to "Yours, &c. &c. "ELLZ. MONTAGU," To the juvenile poetry of Dr. Warton, which is here republished, scarce any thing new is added. Perhaps I may think that Mr. Wooll has rated his powers in this way, if we judge from these remains, a little too high; though there are some striking and appropriate traits in his delineation of them. Yet I must admit that "The Enthusiast, or Lover of Nature," written at the age of 18, is a rich and beautiful descriptive poem; and I will indulge no hyper-criticisms upon it. The Odes it is impossible to avoid comparing with those of his friend and rival, Collins, which were published in the same year, at the same age; and it is equally impossible to be blind to their striking inferiority. The Ode to Faney has much merit; but it seems to me to want originality; and to be more an effort of memory, than of original and predominant genius. The finest lines, consisting of 28, which begin at verse 59, were inserted subsequent to the first edition, a circumstance not noted by Mr. Wooll. The Ode to Content, (not in the first edition) in the same metre as Collins's Ode to Evening, has great merit: but here again we are unfortunately too strongly reminded of its exquisite rival. Warton has also an Ode to Evening, in which are some good stanzas. "The Dying Indian ;" and more particularly "The Revenge of America," are very fine; but the latter is too short for such a subject, and ends too abruptly. On the whole, I cannot honestly subscribe to Mr. Wooll, where he says: "There breathes through his poetry a genuinely spirited invention, a fervor which can alone be produced by an highly-inspired mind; and which, it is to be presumed, fairly ranks him amidst what he himself properly terms, "the makers and inventors;" that is, the "real poets." There seem to be wanting these original and predominant impressions, that peculiarity of character, which always accompany high genius, and which are exhibited in the poetry both of his brother Thomas, and his cotemporary Beattie, Dr. Warton, in a note to Milton's Translation of the 5th Ode, Lib. i. of Horace, in his brother's edition of that poet, says: "In this measure, my friend and schoolfellow, Mr. William Collins, wrote his admired Ode to Evening; and I know he had a design of writing many more Odes without rhyme." T. Warton goes on to say, that "Dr. I. Warton might have added, that his own Ode to Evening was written before that of his friend Collins; as was a poem of his, entitled "The Assembly of the Passions;" before Collins's favourite Ode on that subject." Mr. Wooll has inserted a prose sketch on this subject; but no poem. This opinion, if just, will not detract from Dr. Warton's critical talents. The power which feels, and the power which originates poetry, are totally distinct. The former no writer seems to have possessed with more exquisite precision, than Dr. Warton; and I do not mean to deny that he possessed the latter in a considerable degree: I only say that his powers of execution do not seem to have been equal to his taste. But Dr. Warton's fame does not rest upon his poetry. As a critic in polite literature he stands in the foremost ranks. And Mr. Wooll, who being edu cated under him had the best opportunity of forming a just opinion, has delineated his character as a teacher with the highest and most discriminate praise. His vivacity, his benevolence, and his amiable temper, and moral excellencics have long been known; and are celebrated by his biographer with a fond admiration. But I must say, that Mr. Wooll, in his dread of "descending to the minutia of daily habits," has not left us a portrait sufficiently distinct. Nor has he given us any sufficiently bold touches, such as we had a right to expect in the life of one of the Wartons; while, unfortunately, here are scarce any original letters to supply the deficiency. I had hoped to have found materials for an interesting and energetic character; but, what Mr. Wool has omitted, it would be rash for a stranger to attempt. Mr. Wooll however promises another volume, and though I cannot hope that my suggestions will have any influence with him, yet perhaps some one of more authority may induce him to favour the public with a supplementary account. July 23, 1805. 04 ART. ART. IX. Concerning the different classes in the kingdom of Denmark, 1016. By Baron Maseres. In the first volume of this work, p. 28, I have given an account of the "Emma Encomium, &c." extracted from Duchesne's Scriptores Normanni, and edited by Baron Maseres. I have been favoured with two additional sheets, to that very learned and interesting volume, which, I hope, will soon be given to the public; and from which I am permitted to copy some important additions to the following words, at P. 13. "Omnes enim erant nobiles, omnes plenæ ætatis robore valentes, omnes cuivis pugnæ satis habiles, omnes tantæ velocitatis, ut despectui eis essent equitantium pernicitates.” Additional note concerning the different classes of men in the kingdom of Denmark in the beginning of the 11th century; or about A. D. 1016. * The foregoing passage of the Encomium Emmæ plainly shews that there were at this time in Denmark several men in a state of slavery, called in this passage servi; and others that were freed-men, or that, after having been slaves, had been made free, ex servis liberti, and a third set of men who had always been free, but were not noble, and who are in this passage called ignobiles, and who probably were the husband, men and handycrafts-men of the country; and, lastly, a fourth set, who were called noblemen, nobiles, and who seem to have been the warriors, or military part of the people, and who must have been very numerous, since all the whole army of Canute the Dane, when he invaded England after the death of king Swein, his father, is said to have been composed of men of this class, omnes enim erant nobiles. And the people of England were, probably, at this period distinguished into different classes of nearly the same kinds. At least it is certain that, before the Norman conquest as well as after it, the great body of the cottagers and handycrafts-men, (such as blacksmiths, millers, and cart-wrights,) in country villages were slaves, or what our old law-books call Villains regardant, or belonging, to the manor, or servi adscriptitii glebæ, and were alienated, as such, by name, together with their families, and all the goods and chattels they were possessed of, by their lords, or owners. Of this we have a notable example in the history of Crowland-Abbey in Lincolnshire, written by Ingulphus, (who was made abbot of that celebrated monastery by king William, the Conqueror, in the year 1076,) in the grant of the manor of Spalding in Lincolnshire to the said abbey of Crowland, by Thorold, a (gentleman of high station and large possessions in that county,) in the year 1051, which was fifteen years before the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. This grant is in these words: "Ego, Thoroldus de Bukenhale, coràm nobilissimo. Domino meo, Leofrico, Comite Leycestriæ, et nobilissimâ Comitissâ suâ Dominâ Godivâ, sorore meâ, cum consensu et bonâ voluntate Domini et cognati mei, Comitis Algari, primogeniti et hæredis corum, Donavi et Tradidi Deo et Sancto Guthlaco Croylandiæ, in manibus Domini Wlgati, Abbatis dicti Croylandensis monasterii, ad fundationem Cellæ Croylanden sium |