THE LONDON MAGAZINE. MAY, As we have here given a beautiful print of his late royal highness Frederick prince of Wales, the following letter and character will not be deemed unsuitable, after what has been already faid of him, p. 138, 139, 174, 175. To the AUTHOR of the LONDON SIR, MAGAZINE. A 1751. his vivacity, and great knowledge in hiftory. Here then Mr. Hammond was no flatterer, but a true prophet. His opening the prince's character with reflections on envy and malice, were (as I imagine) owing to the many injurious and falfe reprefentations made of his late royal highness, by certain wicked fpirits, whom duty fhould have taught better. But his inchanting behaviour, whilft heaven lent him to us, gave the lie to the groundless afperfions caft upon him: And his royal highnefs came forth, like gold, purer from the fiery trial. May the Almighty prolong the days of our moft benign fovereign! May a new Frederick rife (phoenix-like) in his darling image, prince George! These C are the ardent wishes of, SIR, FTER the numberlefs panegyricks be- B flowed on the late prince of Wales fince his demife, our countrymen, who fo juftly idolize his memory, cannot but be pleafed to furvey a character drawn of him, in his very juvenile years, by the late celebrated Anthony Hammond, Efq; when in Hanover. This defcription was put into my hands by the author himself, who was my friend. It has borne a great many impreffions, in a variety of fhapes, and was printed in more languages D than one. It is now republished, not fo much for the fake of the panegyrick itself (which might have been more delicate in fome places) as on account of the many truths it contains. Every one who had the glory and happiness of approaching E his late royal highnefs, knows that goodness of heart, that fweetnefs of temper, were his chief characteriflicks; and that he was no less re. markable for his very pong memory, May, 175 The Your most humble servant, Hanover, Oct. 5, N. S. 1716. others, molt properly called diabolical paffions of the mind; fo there is, undoubtedly, no conqueft a well regulated foul takes more joy in obtaining, than in the effectual fubduing of malice; and in reducing, even envy itfelf, to remain tonguetied in fuch a manner, as that if it offers to fpeak, it pains itself. S malice and envy are, of all Such is the fatisfaction which prince Frederick gives to all good Bb 2 196 Character of the late Prince when at Hanover. men who approach him. They glory in the juft fenfe they have of his wonderful natural talents, and acquired accomplishments; and feem to fhare in the triumphs which his virtues and endowments will most certainly gain over the malicious and envious. A As for us, who are here, the fenfe we have (as Englishmen) of our prefent happiness, in attending every day on prince Frederick (who is conftantly pleased to show fome diftinguishing mark of his goodness B and inclination to us) is not to be expressed. May ceptors, who have equal reafon to be fatisfied with his royal highness ; their great care being fully compenfated, by the encouraging progrefs they find him make every day, in all things that could be expected he should learn, or improve in, at his As the utmost care is taken to make him master of things as well as of words, by inftilling into his mind fuch notions, as are not only fuitable to his age and capacity, but alfo to the high rank he will hold, and the figure he will one day make in Europe; fo by the particular orNothing can be more agreeable ders of his majefty (George I:) the than the perfon of this young prince: very leaft appearance of flattery is His eyes are full of life and vigour ; banished from him: And thofe or his hair extremely fine; his com- ders having been obferved in a ftricter plexion clear and fair, and his C manner, than it is easy to imagine fhape exact: His conftitution is very they should be in a court, his royal healthy; and the chearful innocence highnefs is taught, and has learnt, to and sweetness of youth fhine in his have a contempt for that mean and looks, and add fuch an amiable an amiable incroaching vice. grace to his whole deportment, as renders him the delight of all who have the honour and happiness of D approaching him. He applies himfelf to his exercifes, viz. riding, dancing, and fencing, with great affiduity; in all which, he will attain to fuch a degree of perfection, as becomes the fon of a monarch: Of thefe, riding is the exercife his E royal highness feems moft to delight in; and he will, as far as I am able to judge, excel in it. He speaks the French language with great facility and propriety, and makes a daily progrefs in the English. He advances confiderably in the ftudies proper for his age; in the Latin tongue, geography, and fome parts of natural hiftory; and knows fo much of the prefent ftate of Chriftendom, as to be able to difCourse very pertinently on the kings now reigning, and on the principal affairs at prefent in agitation. The prince feems to be in an excellent method of education; is pleafed with his governors and pre This is a different turn from that which feems to be taken in the education of a neighbouring prince (the king of France:) In that a fhew of fomething great appears to be aimed at; in this the foundations of folid virtue are well laid: There the king! the king! is every moment founded in his ear, whilft the rational creature, the man, is not often thought of: But here his royal highnefs is told, he is to be a man, (as others are ;) and that if he would have his character eminently illuftri. ous, he must stand first in virtue, as well as in degree. Thus is he early formed to be a monarch truly great; tho', undoubtedly, that innate goodnefs, that extreme modefty, and filial piety, which appear fo lively in his royal highnefs, will make him always continue to wish, that the day may come late, when he shall G be called to the throne of thofe nations he is born to govern. F The vivacity of his parts is truly wonderful; and as he has a great deal of fpirit, he, at the fame time, 1751. Mr. Trenchard's Thoughts on GoVERNMENT. 197 is blessed with a most amiable na ture, and sweetness of temper, to direct that fpirit, which never fails to render it exceedingly engaging. A His memory, both of perfons and things, is beyond what is ordinarily to be met with. He fays fomething to almost every one who comes to wait upon him, but never says an improper thing. He very rarely afks a fecond time, who fuch or fuch a perfón is. He fhews a conftant attention to whatever is said to him, or in his prefence; and fuch an ap- B In a word, whenever prince Fre derick fhall come to be a fovereign of nations, he will be the delight of them; for then royal power will enable him to relieve, protect, and reward in the moft extenfive manner. This excellent difpofition, this good nature, fhews he has it always in intention; and from hence, I will venture to pronounce, That happy will the people be whom he fall govern. From the Remembrancer, May 18. parent defire to pleafe and oblige Of GOVERNMENT, and upon what every body, as never fails of its end. He never discovers the leaft mark of anger or refentment, upon any occafion, that I could ever obferve; but always keeps up to the most exact good breeding, gentlenefs, and a C conftant endeavour to be entertaining, in fuch a manner, as fhews it to be natural in him to please. His royal highnefs fays many things, and very frequently, much above what might be expected from his tender years: But what is moft D remarkable, moft diftinguishing in his character, is, That good nature which always appears in every thing he fays. From this fource of good nature flow many excellent qualities, which time will not fail to ripen into noble E and princely virtues; from hence now arifes that regard which his royal highness fhews to the inftructions of his governors and preceptors; this will grow up to that virtue, which makes princes liften to the wife counsel of their faithful fervants, and never inflexible to them. F This good nature that now leads him to treat every one in the most obliging manner, will, of courfe, improve into a tender and generous concern for his inferiors; and terminate in a diffufive and royal bene-G ficence, which will fix this ftanding maxim in his mind, That there is nothing good in power, but the power of doing good. our FREEDOM depends. HERE is nothing in which the generality of mankind are fo much mistaken, as when they talk of government: The different effects of it are obvious to every one; but few can trace its caufes : Moft men, having indigefted ideas of the nature of it, attribute all publiek mifcarriages to the corruption of mankind: They think the whole mass is infected; that it is impoffible to make any reformation; and fo fubmit patiently to their country's calamities, or elfe fhare in the fpoil Whereas complaints of this kind are as old as the world, and every age has thought their own the worft; we have not only our own experience, but the example of all times, to prove, that men in the fame circumftances will do the fame things, call them by what names of diftinction you please. A Government is a mere piece of clock-work; and having fuch (prings and wheels, muft act in fuch a manner: And therefore, the art is, to constitute it fo, that it muft move to the publick advantage. It is certain, that every man will act for his own intereft, and all wife governments are founded on that principle: So that this whole mystery is only to make the intereft of the governors and governed the fame. In an abfolute monarchy, where the whole 198 LIBERTY deftroy'd by CORRUPTION. whole power is in one man, his in- May all vices. Monfieur Bayle tells us of a great traveller, who being rallied upon his rambling difpofition, anfwered, That he would ceafe travelling, as foon as ever he could find a country where power and credit were in the hands of honest men, and preferments went by merit. UpThe freedom of this kingdom de- on which one of the company repends upon the people's chufing the plied, Nay then, you will infallihoufe of commons, who are a part bly die travelling. Where bribery of the legislature, and have the fole is practifed, it is a thousand to one but mifchief is intended; and the power of giving money. Were this a true representative, and free from B more bribery, the more mischief: external force or private bribery, Therefore, this ought to be pernothing could pafs there but what petually in the mind of every hothey thought was for the publick neft Englishman; becaufe, where advantage. For their own intereft corruption and publick crimes are is fo interwoven with the people's, not carefully opposed, and feverely that if they act for themselves (which punished, neither liberty nor fecurity every one of them will do as near C can poffibly fubfift. The idea of this as he can) they must act for the com- liberty is what beflows a confcious mon intereft of England: And if a pride in the breaft of every Briton; few among them fhould find it their but this is the very height of fallacy : intereft to abuse their power, it will Indeed, that constitution which has be the intereft of all the reft to pu exifted among us for more than fenish them for it: And then our go- ven centuries, was the refult of those vernment would act mechanically, free and honeft difpofitions, which and a rogue would as neceffarily be infpired our Saxon ancestors with vahanged, as a clock ftrike twelve lour in the field, and probity in council; it was founded on the noThese are the very fenfible thoughts bleft motives, the happiness of the and lively expreffions of Mr. Tren- whole community: Tho' it has rechard, in his preface to his Hiftory_ceived many violent shocks, its bafis of Standing Armies: And elsewhere E was too firm to be destroyed; it ftill he fays, The people muft not expect fhews its primitive ftrength; but to fee men of ability, or integrity, what open force could not shake, in any places, while they hold them private artifice has almost effected. by no other tenure than the differ- For our liberty is little more than vice they do their country in the nominal, we are the flaves of corhoufe of commons. ruption, are bought and fold at pleasure, and are chiefly conducive to our own deftruction, when the hour is come. TH From the Westminster Journal, May 18. LIBERTY destroyed by Corruption. HE Roman virtue and the Roman liberty expired together; tyranny and corruption came upon them almost hand in hand and Pliny acquainted Trajan, that all his predeceffors, except Nerva, and one or two more, ftudied how to debauch their people, and how to banish all virtue, by introducing ; D F G Cicero, talking of the Roman fenate, then awed by power, or governed by avarice, fays, Aut affentiendum eft nulla cum gravitate paucis, aut fruftra diffentiendum; meaning, that they muft either bafely vote with Craffus and Cæfar, or vote against them to no purpose: Thefe great men did not feek power, or ufe it, to do good to their country, A Defcription of NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 1751 On the Death of Mr. Thomas Hunfdon,' WH HAT pity! thou, fcarce pafs'd of life the bloom, [tomb: Untimely should'st be fnatch'd to a cold And all thy virtues, hid from human fight, Surrounded by death's pow'r with gloomy night. In thee thone forth humanity refin'd, An eafy converfe, free from party rage, With no mean view thou cross'dft old oce an's flood; 'Twas to enlarge the pow'r of doing good: To give it early its full recompence. Joshua Dinfdale. B 199 Sherwood-Forest, more famous formerly than at present. Here is wont to be the juftice feat of the chief juftice in Eyre of all his majefty's forefts, &c. north of Trent, where his deputies or lieutenants act. CamA den tells us, that this foreft was formerly a close shade, with the boughs of trees fo entangled in one another, that a fingle perfon could hardly walk in the paths; but it was much thinner in his time, yet ftill fed an infinite number of deer. The pleafant and glorious ftate of this foreft has fince wonderfully declined, and so many claims have been allowed, that Thornton faid many years ago, there would not shortly be wood left enough in it to cover the bilberries, which every fummer were wont to C be an extraordinary profit and pleafure to poor people, who gathered and carried them all about the country to fell. The chief river is the Trent, which after having travers'd a long course, enters and runs cross the fouthern part of this county, and then running all along the eastern borders, feparates it from Lincolnfhire. This river is the boundary by which England is divided in twe refpects; first, of the juftices in Eyre of all the king's forefts, chaces, warrens, &c. on the north and fouth of it; and fecondly, of the two provincial kings at arms, clarencieux and norroy; the first of which has his jurifdiction on the fouth, and the other on the north part of it, as the name North-roy imports. This county has been noted for fine ale, it F abounds with liquorice, and here is a fort of ftone fofter than alabaster, but being burnt makes a plaister exIceeding hard, which is often used to floor their rooms with, and when spread and dry, is as hard as any common ftone, and looks as if the whole floor was one contiuued ftone. The boroughs are, A DESCRIPTION of NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. With a new and improved Map. N° D E YOTTINGHAMSHIRE (in our ancient Saxon records called Snotingahamfcyre) is of an oval form, being about 40 miles long from north to fouth, 20 where broad eft from east to west, and 110 miles in circumference. It is bounded on the east with Lincolnshire, on the weft with Derbyshire, and part of Yorkshire, on the north again with Yorkshire, and on the fouth with Leicestershire. It is divided into 8 wapentakes, or hundreds, has 3 boroughs, 6 other market towns, 168 parishes, and fends 8 members to parliament, thofe for the county the prefent parliament being lord Robert Sutton, and John Thornhagh, G Efq; The air is healthful, and the foil fruitful both in corn and grafs, being moftly either fandy or clayey, and the weft part abounds with excellent pit-coal. In this county is in |