498 Account of the late Rt. Rev. John Douglas, D.D. [June 1, 
dwells upon the supposed plagiarisms of Mil- 
ton, in a strain of triumph and impudence 
which. it would be difficult to parallel in the 
history of literary imposture. One passage 
from this scarce and curious per‘ormance may 
be amusing to the reader as displaying the 
spirit of Lander and his unblushing effrontery. 
*¢ And here,” says he, ‘I could produce a 
who'e cloud of witnesses, as fresh vouchers of 
the truth of my assertion, with whose fine 
sentiments, as so many gay feathers Milton 
has plumed himself; like one who would 
adorn a garland with flowers, secretly taken 
out of various gardens; or a crown with 
jewels, stolen from the different diadems or 
repositories of princes, by which means he. 
shines indeed, but with the borrowed lustre of a 
Surreptitious majesty.” The admirers of Mil- 
ton were astonished at the boldness of his as- 
sailant, and we may venture to add, that most 
of them were appalled at the sight of the nu- 
Incrous passages in which the parallelisms 
were too striking to have been casual or com- 
ton to different writers. In short, though 
every one wished to clear our immortal bard 
from the weighty charge brought against him, 
it seemed to be a consummation rather to be 
cesired than hoped for. Such was the anxious 
state of the literary world when Mr. Douglas 
published a detection of Lander’s forgeries in 
A Letter to the Earl of Bath, entitled ** Mil- 
ton vindicated from the Charge of Plagiarism, 
brought against him by Mr. Lander.” In this 
masterly pamphlet the learned critic proves, 
that the passages which had heen cited by 
Lander from Masenius, Staphorstiusy Taub- 
mannus, and other obscure writers, had been 
interpolated by the forger himself, who had 
also foisted into his quotations entire lines 
from Hog’s Latin translation of Paradise Lost, 
into which no examiner but Mr. Douglas 
had been inquisitive enough to look. ‘the 
detection of this infamous fraud was so com- 
plete that Lander’s booksellers insisted upon 
his disproving the charge by producing his’ 
vouchers in correct editions of the works 
which he had mentioned, or of confessing his 
guilt. Lander chose the latter, and ina let- 
ter which was published he assigned the rea- 
sons for his conduct, and his pretended con- 
trition for the offence ‘hat this expression 
of contrition was pretended, soon afterwards 
appeared, for the impostor published another 
attack en the character of Milton, charging 
him with having made additions to the Icon 
Lasil:ké of King Charles the First for the pur- 
pose of injuring that unfortunate monarch’s 
reputation. This foul calumny which was 
secon made manifest, rendered Lander so infa- 
mous that he quitted the kingdom and died 
some years after in the island of Barbadoes. 
To return to Mr. Douglas: His next literary 
rc 
engagement was in detecting the pretensions 
of Archibald Bower, the author of the Lives 
of the Popes, whose whole story is too long 
for this place. Bower was a native of Scot- 
land, and had filleda situation in the court of 
Inquisition, at Macerata in Italy, from whence 
he removed in 1726, and after many extraor- 
dinary adventures arrived in England. Here 
he publicly abjured the Romish religion, and ~ 
obtained some powerful friends., Having ac- 
cumulated some money, he paid it to Mr. 
Hill, a Jesuit, and in consequence was re- 
admitted into the society in 1744. But heaf- 
terwards quarrelled with his associates and re- 
covered his money bya suit at law. When 
his history of the Popes came out, his nezocia~ 
tions with the fesuits were made public, and 
several pamphlets were published by him and 
his adversaries. The patrons of Bower were, 
however, unwilling to believe hima hypo- 
crite till Mr. Douglas entered into the contro-+ 
versy and completely developed the imposture. 
From that time Bower sunk into disrepute; 
and he died in obscurity in 1766. In 1754 Mr, 
Douglas published his principal work entitled, 
<¢ Criterion ; or, a Discourse on Miracles,” in 
which he settles the distinction between true 
and false miracles ina masterly manner. And 
of all the answers to the sophistry of David 
Hume, this may be safely pronounced the 
clearest and most convincing. This excellent 
volume having become very scarce and dear, 
was reprinted a few months since. In 1757 
the author was presented toa prebendal stall 
in the cathedral of Durham, in which he took 
his degree of doctor in divinity. In 1762 he 
was made canon of Windsor, on the promotion 
of Dr. Keppel to the bishoprick of Exeter, 
His next elevation was to the episcopal bench 
on the death of Dr. Ecmund Law, bishop of 
Carlisle, in 1783. From that see, bishop Douge 
las was translated to Salisbury, on the removal 
of Dr. Barrington to Darham, in 1791. Bishop 
Douglas was one of the first members of the ce- 
lebrated Beef-steak Club, rendered so famous 
by Goldsmith’s humourous poem, entitled, Re- 
taliation. By the appointment of the Lords of 
the Admiralty, he arranged the journals and 
papers of Captain Cook for publication, and he 
prefixed to the work a most admirable and per- 
spicueus introduction. In his episcopal cha- 
racter he was dignified and exemplary. He 
was a liberal patron of deserving men; and 
he disposed of the preferments in his gift with 
a discriminating attention to mérit and long 
service. In his conversation ~he was affable 
and lively; he abounded with, anecdotes, 
chiefly of the literary kind; and his opinions 
of men and things were always expressed with 
a most scrupulous regard to truth and bene- 
volence. 
: | PROVINCIAL 
