membered what the reverend Dr. Jofeph Warton thought proper to tell the world of almoft all his brother's writings, and even of his own "Ode to Fancy."

Let me now make you acquainted with the indifputable history of this boy till he left Briftol. As he fays, in his "ftory of Canynge," In all his fheepen gambols, and child's play,

At every merry-making, fair or wake,

I kenn a purpled light of wifdom's ray ;
He ate down learning with the waftle cake.
As wife as any of the aldermen,

"He'd wit enough to make a mayor at ten.

Beattie has hardly been able to invent a more firiking picture of his minstrel, than is exhibited of C. in a letter written by his fifter, laft year, to a gentleman who defired her to recollect every circumftance concerning him, however trifling it might feem to her. The letter is lent to me, with "under the borrowed perfonage of a tranflator."-He should not fo very uncharitally condemn the forgery, whofe refpectable example gave a function to it, and might poffibly fuggeft the originab idea of it--for when C. ridicules Mr. W. in the ftory of "Harry "Wildfire," he calls him Baron Otranto: And, in the Eebruary before C.'s deceit began, Mr. W. published "Hiftoric doubts on "the life and reign' of Richard ́iii." which C. perhaps confidered as a bolder attempt than the creation of Rowley. The Editor. Warton's " Effay on the Writings and Genius of Pope." Cooper. 1756. P; 33, 243, &c.

many charges of care. Pray be careful of it. In tranfcribing it, you will naturally preserve the falfe fpellings and ftops. Let C.'s fifter tell her own ftory in her own way. Sir Horace Warpool, for Mr. H. Walpole, &c. ftamps authenticity on her artless tale. The anxiety shown in this letter to prove "he was a lover of truth from the earliest dawn of reafon," is owing to what these two poor women (the mother and fifter) have heard about deceit, impoftor and forgery. For Chatterton's fake, the English language fhould add another word to its dictionary; and thould not fuffer the fame term to fignify a crime for which a man fuffers the most ignominious punishment, and the deception of afcribing a falfe antiquity of two or three centuries to compofitions for which the author's name deferves to live for ever. Suffer me to afk what the prudery of our critics would have faid had the fong to Ella, or the chorus to Godwin, been produced by Mr. Warton's nephew, or by a relation of Mr. Walpole? Should we then have been ftunned in this manner with repetitions of impoftor and forgery? The fins of the forgery. and the impoftor would then have been boafted: by the child's moft diftant relations, unto the third and fourth generations. Is Lady A. L. ac

cufed

cufed of forgery for her "Auld Robin Gray Is Macpherfon's name mentioned in the fame fentence with this unfeeling word forgery, even by those who believe Macpherson and Offian to be the fame ? "When a rich man fpeaketh," fays the fon of Sirach (you fee I have not taken. orders in vain), "every man holdeth his tongue: and lo! what he fays is extolled to the clouds,: but if a poor man fpeak, they fay, "What fel-low is this?---For the fame reafon the letter is careful to mention the copy-book covers, which C. told Catcott, &c. were, many of them, Rowley's MSS. But you will recollect that the father, by whom thefe MSS. are faid to have been cut up for this purpose, was himself a bit of a poet.

A gentleman, who faw these two women last year, declares he will not be fure they might not eafily have been made to believe that injured justice demanded their lives at Tyburn, for being, the mother and fifter of him who was fufpected to have forged the poems of Rowley. Such terror had the humanity of certain curious enquirers impreffed upon their minds, by worrying them to declare the truth, the whole truth, and nothing. but the truth about the forgery---Strange-fated Chatterton Hadft thou poffeffed fewer and lefs

eminent abilities, the world would now give thee credit for more and for greater abilities.

With regard to the fact, the mother and fifter either believe, or pretend to believe, with the pewterer, that all Rowley's poems came out of the old cheft in the church. The cafe is, none of the three knows any thing of the matter. Moft readily I admit that, if Chatterton be an impoftor (i. e. the wonderful human being I firmly believe him) he impofed upon every foul who knew him. This, with me, is one trait of his greatness.

It has been thought that murders and other crimes are pointed out to discovery by the finger of Providence. But God's revenge against murder" is, in fact, only the fociableness of man's difpofition. That we may have been wife ly made thus for this purpofe, among others, I do not deny. But Tyburn would fee fewer exe-i cutions were man a lefs fociable animal. It is not good for him to be alone. Joy or forrow, villainy or otherwise, we must have society, we must communicate it. Man, in fpite of grammar, is a noun adjective. Does any one admire Junius for faying that his fecret fhould die with him, and for keeping his word? But this was only faying he would not enlarge the circle of those to whom

his

his fecret was already known; for, that he was, as he fays, "the fole depofitary of his own fecret," I cannot think. The original letters are clearly written in a female hand---But, Junius. is now known.

Let any man, at any time of life, make an experiment of not communicating to a fingle indi vidual, during twelve months, a single scheme, a fingle profpect, a fingle circumftance respecting himself. Let him try how it is to lock up every thing, trifling or serious, fad or merry, within. his own folitary breaft. There are easier talks. ---This boy did it during his whole life.

Very few fuch men as John the Painter* have appeared in the world, from whom his fecret was. only ftolen by the traiterous hand of friendship. No fuch human being as this boy, at any period of life, has ever been known, or poffibly ever will be known. The Spartan lad was far infe

rior,

Don't fmile at my lugging in John the Painter, till you con fider how it applies. His fecrecy was wonderful, yet lefs wonderful than C.'s in exact proportion as his fecret was more criminal, and went more to his life. But you will not deny to be odd what I know for a fact, that, among his papers, were fome obfervations on Rowley's poems: if they have not been destroyed, they might furely be published. They could not endanger our dock

yards, though written by John the Painter.-Can't you give a hint of this kind, fome day, at your houfe? Most probably be has them.