a ae 
SUPPLEMENT ARY NUMBER 
TO THE TWENTY-FIFT ii VOLUME OF THE 
MON THLY 
Vou. 25 , No. 0. 1734] 
A) Shave 30, 1808. 
MAGAZINE, 
RPai ew Is. 6a. 
HALF-YEARLY REY PROSPECT OF DOMES’ TIC Li TERA’ p URE. 
E begin the divisions of our antho- 
logy, as usual, with 
HISTORY, 
in which no work can moré properly 
take the lead than the “ History of the 
early Part of the Reign of James the Se- 
éeond; with un Introductory Chapter : 
by the Right Hon. CHARLES James Fox; 
to which is added un Appendix.” 
In an address to’ the reader a: short 
Statement is given, by Lord Holland, of 
Mr. Fox’s intentions, and of the manner 
in which he prosecuted his researches; 
although the precise period, his lordship 
observes, at which Mr. Fox first formed 
the design of writing a listorv cannot be 
ascertained. During his short retire- 
ment from public lis, in 1797, Mr. Fox 
adopted a notion of engaging in some 
literary undertaking; and when he had 
determined on this, he was no doubt ac- 
tuated, says his noble editor, by a variety 
of considerations in the choice of the 
task he should undertake. His philo- 
‘ssophy had never rendered him inseusible 
to the gratification which the hope of 
posthumous fame so often produces in 
great minds; and, though criticism might 
be more consenial to the habits and 
amusenients of his retreat, an historical 
work seemed more of a prece with the. . 
general tenor of his former life, and 
likely to prove of greater benefit to the 
public and to posterity. “ These motives, 
together with his intimate knowledge 
of the English constitution, naturally led 
him to prefer the history of lis own coun- 
try, and to select a period favourable to 
the illustration of the great general prin- 
ciples of freedom, on whiclr it is found- 
ed; for his attachment to those princi- 
ples, the result of practical observation, 
as well as philosophical reflection, far 
from having abated, had acquired new 
force and fresh vigour in his retirement.” 
With these views, adds Lord Hoiland, it 
was impossible for him not to fix on the 
Revolution of 1688. 
According to Mr. Fox’s first crude con- 
‘ception of the work it was to have begun 
at the! Revolution; “ but he altered his 
mind after a careful perusal of the lat- 
ter part of Hume’s History. An appres 
Montziy Mac. No. 173, 
hension of the false impressions which 
that great historian’s partia lity might 
have left oh the mind of his readers, in= 
duced him to go back sd the accession of 
James the Second, and even to prefix dn 
introductory chantér, on the character 
and events cf the time immediately pre~ 
ceding.” 
In the address to the reader we have 
not only a great deal of Mr. Fox’s cor- 
respondence, onthe subject of his his« 
tory, bata variety of very curious parti- 
culars relating to the man ae se long 
preset ‘ved in the Scotch coileve at Paris. 
“ The manuscript book (we are told) 
from which this work has been printed is, 
for the most palt, my the band-wrinhg éf 
Mrs. Fox. It wag written! out under the 
inspection of Mr. Fox, and is<occasion- 
aliy corrected by bim. tis habit was 
seldom or ‘éver to be : alone, whe em-~ 
ployed in coupasition. He was accus- 
tomed to wife on covers of letters or 
graus of sentences which he, in 
all pro babi? y, had tavied: in his mind, 
and in some degree formed in’ the course 
of his walks, or dunay his hours of lei- 
sure. Tiesé he read over to Mrs. Fax = 
she wrote them out ina fair hand in the 
book; and héttire he destroyed tise Orlgi- 
nal paper, he examined and approved 
the copy. In ‘the ourse of thus dic- 
tating from his own writing, he often al- 
tered the language, aud even the-coi-. 
struction of the sentence. Though he 
generally tore the scraps of paper as sooh 
as the passages were etitered in the book, 
several have been presetved; and it is 
plain from the erasures and: alterations 
in them, that they had undergone much 
revision and correction before they were 
read tovhis amanuensis.” 
The Historyitself consists but of three 
chapters, witha few fragments fora fourth. 
The first of these’ is the Introductor ‘'¥ 
Chapter; opening with some preliminary 
observations on tiie reign of Henry the 
Seventh,\to the provisions of which Mr. 
Rox refers’ the origin, both of the unli- 
mited power of the aecE and of the li- 
berties wrested by gur ancestors from the 
Stuarts, The second paid of prelimi- 
nary remark extends from 1588 to 1640;_ 
4 Ff! saat pé- 
ar 
ADET, 
