His hand is cold and trembling.My child? He makes no answer !Ishmael open your eyes. Once more embrace your unhappy mother-(She puts ber band upon his heart.) It still beats. (She kneels.) O Almighty and moft gracious God, to whom all things are poffible! O thou the support and protector of the unfortunate, deign to caft an eye of pity upon me.-If it be thy will, O God, I fubmit, but my confidence in thy goodness is equal to my obedience! Preferve to me the gift thou haft beftowed, or at least, O Lord, do not condemn me to survive him. I await thy decree-but it is a father who is to restore him (She finks down near her fon with ber face bid. After a long filence.) (The ANGEL, behind the Scene.) Hagar My fon is then to be restored to me! But, O Heavens! he is still motionlefs.-Ishmael! - Ishmael ! -He is gone, he is no more!-(She rifes quickly, and runs to throw herself at the feet of the Angel) Muft I then lofe all hope?The ANGEL. Is your faith and confidence equal to your fubmiffion, Hagar? HAGAR, fill at the feet of the Angel. Yes, I am refigned.—Alas! îf God requires it, fhall even ceafe to complain. But my courage forfakes mea dreadful doubt freezes me to the heart. Is it the will of God to try me, or to weigh me down with forrow. -You The ANGEL. Hagar! Wherefore do you give yourfelf up to vain defpairbewail your fon. He appears dead in your eyes, but do you doubt of the power of the immortal God? HAGAR, raifing berself. His power !-Ah! undoubtedly he can do what he pleafeth; he can dry up the fource of my tears; he can reftore my fon.Fool, that I am, I weep, yet God fees and hears me. Perhaps he is offended with the excess of my forrow. That thought oppreffis B 2 and and rends my heart. O God pardon my guilty tranfports, deign to caft a look of paternal tenderness on this child, that his innocence may plead with thee. O may he not fall the victim of the faults and frailties of his unhappy mother, O Heaven, let thy wrath fall only upon my head, and reftore my fon, that he may live, that I may speak to him and hear him! O my God, and with my dying breath I will adore and bless thy justice and thy goodness. The ANGEL. Hagar, every thing with which you are now furrounded points out, or portends his infinite goodness; he hath transformed the dreadful defart in which you was forrowing into a delightful abode. His power and glory fhine around you HAGAR. Alas! one object only ftrikes my fight. I can fee nothing but Ithmael deprived of life. The ANGEL. TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON MAGAZINE. Na choice collection of fugitive I pieces, which lately came into my hand by the death of a literary friend, I found the following jeux d'efprit, which being not a jot theworfe for wear, and equally applicable to the prefent as it was to the remote era when it made its firft appearance, you are requefted to give them in your valuable repofitory. I affure you they are much better than many new originals, and and if you oblige me, you fhall have more old ftores from the collection of Your humble fervant THE RENOVATOR. To the Right Honourable The Lord Chancellor, and my Lords the Judges, The Petition of a much abufed yet very innocent Perfon, humbly fheweth, THAT your lordships unhappy petitioner, though heretofore careffed, and acknowledged the most useful and valuable fervant of Mankind, is of late, through fome unnatural prejudices of education, or corruption of manners, become either shamefully neglected, or notoriously ill-ufed. And though on all hands his abilities in teaching, and bringing to perfection the greatest and moft ufeful defigns, are acknowledged; yet it is aftonishing to fee in what ufelefs and trifling concerns he is engaged by fome, and what vile and infamous drudgery he goes through for others. Some have employed him many years together in teaching them the art of managing a pack of cards to the bett advantage; the confequence of which is ruin if they do not fucceed, and infamy if they do whereas, if they had fo pleafed, he would with lefs trouble have taught them to conduct an army or a fleet, by which they might have gained advantages to their country, and glory to themselves. Others drag him as their heels from one place of idle amufement to another, never confidering how he exhaufts his fpirits, and confumes himself in following them; nor fuffering him to do them any fubftantial fervice, though they know him to be fo well qualified for it. Nay, it can be proved that daily attempts are made upon the life of your faid petitioner ; fome being fo abandoned as to confefs their barbarous and unnatural defign 13 to murder him, and openly and without fhame, follicit their vile companions to join with them in the wicked defign: infomuch that your petitioner is obliged to go conftanly armed with a very formidable weapon; the terror of which though it ferves to keep fome in awe, is yet not fufficient to deter thefe defperate wretches from their determined and conftant attempts to kill him. The many cruel wounds your petitioner has received from the hands of these ruffians have brought upon him numberless evils and calamities; which, together with the weight of years he now labours under, render his prefent flate a scene of misfortunes and mifery. In the midst of his diftreffes, however, it is matter of great confolation to your faid petitioner, that the wife and virtuous, fome few of whom remain to comfort his old age, take every opportunity of cherishing and making much of him, and agree in commifferating his mif fortunes, and lamenting the ill-ufage he receives from the aforefaid foolif and abandoned profligates. But notwithstanding thefe noble examples, fuck is the force of custom, and the prevalence of fashion, that every poffible outrage ftill continues to be committed with impunity against the person of your abufed petitioner, the most ancient and most useful fervant of mankind. It is therefore most humbly prayed, that your lorships will take the premifes into your ferious confideration, and in your great wifdoms contrive fome effectual means or laws to prevent or punish thefe grofs infults, and unpardonable outrages, committed against an old man, paft the best of his years, hourly declining, and daily expecting to refign his being to one who will never forget the injuries done to his predeceffor. And your petitioner, as in duty bound, Shall pray for the increase of your happiness to the end of 5.2 ΤΙΜΕ. A COUNTER PETITION. WHEREAS a pettion was lately dlivered in to your lohips, by one Time wherein 14 wherein the petitioner complaints of feveral hardships and abufes, which he has fuffered, and appeals to your lordfhips for fpeedy redrefs; I humbly beg leave to put in an exception; wherein I fhall make it appear to your lordships, that the petitioner or plaintiff, in this cafe, is a fellow of too infamous and notorious a character to be any ways deferving of your lordships protection. The petitioner, my lords, alledges, that he has been cruelly abufed by feveral of his majefty's good fubjects, who have treated him in a moft cruel and inhuman manner, and have even attempted to murder him; when at the fame time he is thoroughly fatisfied, it is not in their power to take away his life; and he only laughs at, and torments them, and makes every moment of their days uneafy. He himself indeed is committing perpetual diforders, and, like another drawcanfir, kills every one he comes nigh, whether friend or foe, without the leaft diftinction; though like other ruffians, he is as arrant a coward as ever cut a throat for hire, and is perpetually running away, as all who know any thing of him, are ready to affert; neither will he hearken to the most preffing importu nities, or top a moment to ferve thebest friend he has in the world; infomuch that the tricks of this kind he and another flippery friend of his have * proplayed, have even paffed into a verb. That he is a parafite and a hanger on, is a truth which needs no arguments to prove it, and wherever he appears in this character, he his certainly the most troublesome guest a man can poffibly be tormented with; as the more you endeavour to fhake him off, the clofer he will stick! and the more intolerable and irksome will be his company. To the character of a parafite, he joins (which indeed generally accompanies it) that of a glutton, of fo voracious and infatiable an appetite, that though he is perpetually fwallowing down every thing that comes within his reach, he is ftill as hungry as ever; as the poet fweetly fingeth, Houfes and churches. To him are geese and turkies." Nay, I can bring witneffes, my lords, to prove that he has devoured whole towns and cities; that he eat up Troy, Babylon, and Sparta; and left fcarce any thing of Egypt but a few large pieces of ftone, which he could not fo eafily digeft: not to mention Athens, Rome, and a hundred others, the nobleft works of nature, which his ravenous maw has most inhumanly fwallowed. And though he would, as I have been informed, be willingly thought a friend to the fciences and polite arts, and has pretended to a skill in heightening and improving them, it is an indifputable fact, that he is a private enemy to them, and has thrown down and reduced to ruin the finest pieces of architecture, painting, and sculpture of the ancients : and how he has treated modern artifts, he who has ever been at the noble palace at Hampton, will be eafily convinced, when he fees what cruel havock he has made there with the works of the immortal Raphael. How little regard he pays to the eighth commandment, is universally known; for there is hardly a man in the univerfe, who cannot prove him a moft notorious thief; and that he still commits daily robberies unpunished. Singula de nobis, fays Horace, anni prædantur euntes, which is a fevere fatire on him, though there applied to his friends and followers, whom he employs in his thefts and pilferings, to rob us of every thing in life that is dear or valuable. Again, which I hope your lordships as champions and defenders of the fair fex, will charitably take into your confideration; I dare aver, that he has a particular spite against the noblest and most beautiful part of the creation, and is a more fatal enemy to beauty than the fmall-pox. I own, my lords, I fpeak this from melancholy experience, having myfelf had two wives fpoiled by him in a few years, who were, at leaft in my opinion, the most charming works which nature had to boast of. It is a common trick of this bafe murderer, to steal the roses from the mother's cheek, and give them to her daughter and at the fame time perhaps inftead of making the old lady fome amends for her lofs, will prefent her with nothing in return but a fet of wrinkles, and a few grey hairs. Such ufage as this, my lords, is what woman kind cannot, and therefore mankind ought not to bear. A proper refentment ought to be thewn against * Time and Tide fay for no man, fuch fuch indignities, offered to thofe who put themselves under our protection, and can fo amply reward those who defend them. I doubt not but this infolent deftroyer has thought it his intereft to keep well with your lordships; and the world muft confefs you are perhaps of all men the most obliged to him, as Tully fays, de illo qui judicium exercet certe fcio, and he has improved your talents, and reputation, and added every day to your lordships fame; but you may de pend upon it, he will in the end difcover his treachery, and all the favour you can expect, will be what Ulyffes gained of Polypheme, to be devoured the laft. I hope my lords, what has been arged may be fufficient to confute all the idle fuggeftions of the faid petitioner, and to fecure your lordships from giving a verdict in his favour. I am, Your lordships devoted servant, MISOCHRONUS. LECTURES ON MODERN HISTORY. LECTURE XI. (Continued from Vol. XLIX. for 1780, page 511.) N our former it was was invested with fovereign authority; I pofed to make the civil hiftory of but it is certain, that neither Cracus all nations correfpond with our own in chronological order, by clofing the tranfactions of each about the time of the acceffion of William I. In order to complete this plan, we are now to give a narrative of the principal events which happened in the northern kingdoms of Europe, fcarce known, or diftinguished in the annals of the world before the ninth century, except by their emigrations and hoftile invafions of the civilized and fertile nations inhabiting the milder regions of the fame quarter of the globe. POLAND is the earliest diftinguished by its political connexions with the German empire. The prefent natives of Poland are defcended from the Sclavonians, who inhabited the borders of Tartary, and feized on this country, while the ancient poffeffors, the Sarmarians over-run the Roman empire. It was divided into fmall ftates or principalities, each almost independent of any other, but at the fame time fubject, efpecially in time of war, to one fupreme Duke or Leader, elected by the people. Lectrus I. who began his reign A. D. 550, is by fome hiftorians called their firft fovereign, and it is faid, that his family poffeffed the throne near two centuries, when a revolution took place, and the people chofe Wayvodes or Palatines to govern in different diftricts, who became odious by their oppreffions, and paved the way for the restoration of monarchy in the perfon of Cracus, who in the year 700 nor any of his fucceffors enjoyed any higher title than that of Duke, till the year 1001, when the Emperor Otho III. conferred the title of King upon Bo leflaus I. the reigning Duke, and with great pomp and ceremony proclaimed it an independent kingdom under the protection of the German empire. Thus fupported Boleflaus firmly eltablifhed his new kingdom, by fubduing the Bohemians and the Moravians, whofe incurfions had kept his country in perpetual alarms in the reigns of his predeceffors. Chriftianity, which had been introduced by his father and predeceffor, Michelaw I. now prevailed throughout the kingdom, and greatly contributed to its civilization. The dukedom of Ruffia was at this æra dependent upon Poland. Boleflaus I. died in 1025, and was fucceeded by his fon Micciflaw II. upon whose ac ceffion the Ruffians, the Bohemians, and the Moravians revolted; the governors of fome of the Saxon provinces belonging to Poland, likewife took the advantage of the indolent difpofition of Micceflaw, and erected them into independent dukedoms; this was the origin of the dutchies of Mecklenburgh, Altenburgh, and Rugen, and others in Pomerania. Three Hungarian princes at length offered their fervices to the King of Poland, and rouzed v him to a fenfe of the miferable condition of his country; and he accompanied them in an expedition against Pomerania. Bela, one of the Hungarian |