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would have been circulated through- | out Europe, and perhaps have produced a retaliation in case of any future rupture with foreign powers.

To rescue his name from oblivion, and his bones from the land in which he fell, every thing has been done that prudence, compassion, and honour, could suggest, without a forfeiture of national dignity. The procedure that has been adopted respecting his interment, is included in the following paragraph:

The remains of the lamented Major Andre have been lately removed from the spot where they were originally interred in the year 1780, at Tappan, New-York, and brought to England in the Phaeton frigate, by order of his Royal Highness the Duke of York. Yesterday the sarcophagus was deposited in front of the cenotaph in Westminster Abbey, which was erected by his late Majesty to the memory of this gallant officer. The re-interment took place in the most private manner, the Dean of Westminster superintending in person. Major-General Sir Herbert Taylor attending on the part of his Royal Highness the Commanderin-Chief; and Mr. Locker, Secretary to Greenwich Hospital, on behalf of the three surviving sisters of the deceased.

GIBBON AND WHITAKER.

(Disingenuousness of Mr. Gibbon, the celebrated Historian; with an Extract from Whitaker's Review of his " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," the latter communicated by Mr. W. Bishop.)

THE Editor of the Imperial Magazine had the honour of being personally acquainted with the late Rev. John Whitaker, rector of Ruan Lany horne, in Cornwall, the celebrated historian of Manchester, and of various other valuable works.

On one occasion, being in his company, the conversation turned on the writings of Macpherson and Gibbon, with both of whom Mr. Whitaker had been personally acquainted; and he thinks, that both had been his fellow collegians, but of this latter point he is not certain. In this conversation he mentioned the following singular incident:

"It was my lot to be personally

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acquainted both with Macpherson and with Gibbon, and it has fallen to my lot to write against both. Against the former I asserted "the Genuine History of the Britons ;" and the latter I attacked in my Review of his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” Gibbon, Sir, was a disingenuous man: and it was owing to a circumstance which I am about to relate, that I entered the field against him. The literary pride of Gibbon knew no bounds. It was the ambition of that man to rival Tacitus; and justice compels me to confess, that he has succeeded.

"When his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was prepared for the press, as we had always been in habits of intimacy, he politely requested me to examine his manuscripts, marking such places as I thought erroneous in point of historical accuracy, as deficient in interest, or redundant in expression, or as otherwise susceptible of any emendation. This task I most gladly undertook, as an act of friendship, and especially as it referred to a department of history to which I had paid some degree of attention. On perusing this work, I was quite enamoured with his style, with the dignity of his expressions, and with that expansion of mind which he had every where displayed, so that I became at once one of his enthusiastic admirers.

"Pleased with the work, and happy in having an opportunity of congratulating my friend on his successful labour, I wrote him a letter without any reserve, expressing in warm language, the result of my feelings and judgment on the occasion. Of this letter he availed himself, and introduced its contents to the notice of his numerous friends, by whom we were both complimented on the sanction which I had given to his work.

"In this state, things continued with me until his "Decline and Fall" was announced to the public, and actually made its appearance in the world. But it was not long after it had been thrown into circulation, before an intimate friend of mine called on me, and asked whether I had really given my sanction to the work? I replied without hesitation in the affirmative, and added verbally to the encomiums I had previously given in writing. My friend listened to me with some degree of astonishment,

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and at length asked in plain terms, how, as a clergyman of the Church of England, I could recommend a work which directly tended to sap the foundations of Christianity? I repelled the charge, by denying that it had any such tendency. But, rejoined my friend, I think I can speedily convince you of the contrary. Then turning to the obnoxious chapters, and reading a few paragraphs, I plainly saw through the whole affair.

"The truth, Sir, was, that Gibbon, willing to avail himself of my approbation, but well knowing that I should never sanction his attacks on Christianity, kept back those more reprehensible parts, when he submitted the MS. to my inspection; and having obtained my favourable opinion, sent forth the whole into the world as having received my approbation.

Exasperated at this dishonourable conduct, I resolved immediately to commence a review of his work. My critique had scarcely appeared, before I received from him a letter begging for quarter, and apologizing for what had taken place. He well knew from what source the criticism came, from my style and manner of writing. In this letter he begged me to forbear; stating, that I should ruin the sale of his work, and blast his literary reputation. But I owed more to Christianity than to Mr. Gibbon; and therefore told him in reply, that I would pursue him through every part, and give him no more quarter than he had given to Christianity.

"Such were the circumstances which led me to review Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. These papers were afterwards collected from the Review, and published in one octavo volume, as they now appear."

Such was the history which the Editor received from the lips of Mr. Whitaker, respecting that work whence the following extract is taken.

"The friends of literature may equally triumph and lament, at a work like this. They may triumph, when,

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with the usual perfunctoriness of criticism, they consider the wide range of reading in it, the splendour of the sen timents, the depth of the reflections, and the vivacity of the language. Bat they must lament, when they come to scrutinize it with a stricter eye, to mark the harsh and false language, the distraction occasioned by the parade of reading, the obscurity in the meaning, the contradictoriness of the parts, the endless labyrinth of digressions, and the careless or wilful unfaithfulness in the narrative. The friends of religion also, must grieve with a juster sorrow, over the desperate profligacy of all. But let not one friend to religion be weak enough to fear. There is not a particle of formidableness in the thousand strokes that this blasted arm of infidelity has been laying upon the shield of Christianity. That shield is the immortal ægis of wisdom. Against such a cover, if we are not scared with the glitter, we need not dread the edge, of Mr. G.'s sword. Mr. Gibbon is angry at Christianity, only because Christianity frowns upon him. He has been long endeavouring to shake off the terrors which his Christian education has impressed upon him; but he cannot do so.

"He scorns them, yet they awe him." "He is therefore acting toward Christianity like a bull caught in a net; making every desperate effort to break the cords that encompass him; and straining every nerve in an agony of exertion to burst away into the undisand I think I cannot better conclude quieted wilds of animal enjoyment: my review of his history, than by applying to him this character in Milton; as, equally in the praise and in the censure, truly descriptive of him.