



42 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



and the fatal effects of deviations 

 from trutii, however slight, or ap- 

 parently venial, receive a striking 

 demonstration from the narrative 

 of Charlotte and Maria.* 



The injury which society has 

 sufferered from the long prevailing 

 and increasing practice of duelling, 

 has often been a subject of regret ; 

 and many efforts have been made, 

 tliougli hitherto in vain, to dimin- 

 ish or suppress a custom so per- 

 nicious. To contribute his aid 

 to the efforts of those who have 

 reprobated such a violation of the 

 pubhc law, Havvkesworth lias 

 written his story of Eugenia,f 

 which is calculated, by its moral 

 and pathetic appeal, strongly to 

 impress the mind in favour of the 

 abolition of a usage that is un- 

 doubtedly the offspring of a bar- 

 barous age, and wliich has entail- 

 ed upon mankind misery so in- 

 calculable. 



As a preventive of debauchery 

 and its destructive consequences, 

 theLifeof Agamusand his daugh- 

 ter may be confidently recom- 

 mended to every reader.^ It is a 

 detail of which, in the luxury and 

 dissipation of a large metropolis, 

 there are, we have reason to appre- 

 hend, numerous counterparts. 



To expose the folly of wanton 

 rudeness and indiscriminate fami- 

 liarity, to show the danger of as- 

 suming the appearance of evil, 

 though for purposes apparently 

 beneficial, and to display the dread- 

 ful result of fashionable levities, 

 form the purport of the narratives 

 of Abulus,^ of Desdemona,|| and 

 of Flavilla^. They are construct- 

 ed, in point of incident, with mucii 



ingenuity ; curiosity is kept alive, 

 and the denouement is effected 

 with every requisite probability. 



Still further to diversify the 

 pages of the Adventurer, our 

 author has interspersed several 

 papers, the chief characteristic of 

 which is humour; a humour, 

 iiowever, which is rather solemn 

 and ironical than light and sport- 

 ive. Of the essays in this province 

 which are the product of his pen, 

 we shall enumerate eight, as pe- 

 culiarly entertaining ; No. 5, Tlie 

 Transmigrations of a Flea ; Nos. 

 15 and 27, on Quack Advertise- 

 ments; No. 17, Story of Mr. 

 Friendly and his Nephew ; No. 52, 

 Distresses of an Author invited to 

 read his Play ; No. 98, Account 

 of Tim Wildgoose; No. 100, 

 Gradation from a Greenhorn to a 

 Blood ; and No. 121, The Adven- 

 tures of a Louse. 



It is probable, that to a passage 

 in Johnson's Life of Gay, we are in- 

 debted for the ludicrous distresses 

 in No. 52 ; at least one of the cir- 

 cumstances of the talc actually oc- 

 curred to that poet, when requested 

 to read his tragedy entitled The 

 Captives, to the princess of Wales. 

 *' When the hour came," records 

 his biographer, "he saw the prin- 

 cess and her ladies all in expecta- 

 tion; and advancing with reverence 

 too great for any other attention, 

 stumbled at a stool, and falling 

 forwards threw down a weighty 

 japan screen. Theprincessstarted, 

 the ladies screamed, and poor 

 Gay, after all the disturbance, , 

 was still to read his play**," ' 

 Scholastic bashfulness had been 

 the subject of an excellent paper 



• Nos. 54, 55, 56. 

 § No. 112, 



t Nos. 64, 65, 66, 7t». X Nos. 86, 134, 135 136. 



II Nos. 117, 118, H Nos. 123, 124, 125, 



•• Murphy's edition. Vol. X. p. 241, 



