.

cord fays, he did not enter upon his office till May 1724, till less than two years before B-r escaped from Italy, where B. fays he exercis'd the office of counsellor for three years.

• I will defy our jefuit, (fays Mr. D.) tho' he call in all the chicane of every jefuitical cafuift, to be able to convince the im• partial public that a letter figned J. Montecuccoli, could be writ by a person whofe name is Pius Æneas Montecuculi.I have heard of a forged fubfcription fo aukwardly executed, as to betray ⚫ itself by the mistake of a letter in a furname. But, I believe, • never was there an inftance, before B-r gave the example, of a forgery attempted with so much effrontery, that care was • not even taken to know, beforehand, what was really the name ⚫ of the perfon, fo bafely made ufe of. No wonder that B

fhould lay an inquifition fcene at a place where there is no inquifitor, when he could be fo ignorantly infolent, as to forge a • letter without knowing the name of the perfon, who was to be • fuppofed, the writer of it.'

B. fays,

3. Vincenzo de la Torre was married to the daughter of Signior Conftantini of Fermo, and that Vicenzo was cruelly put to death by the inquifition.

D. fays,

No fuch perfon as Vincenzo de la Torre ever lived. No fuch marriage ever was.

It appears from the evidence of Signior Conftantini the head of the family now living, that no fuch marriage was ever made with any fuch perfon. It is likewife proved by the private * letters of Afcenziarii and Cofta, two gentlemen of Macerata, by the evi dence of Cæfar Parifetti a native of that place, and by the exprefs certificate of Cotoloni fecretary to that city, that Vicenzo della Torre never did exift.

B. fays,

D. fays,

4. He was professor of rheto- He never was profeffor of rhe

tic at Rome.

toric at Rome.

This is proved from a certificate of Ridolfi, provincial of the Roman province, under his feal of office, who exprefsly declares, ‹ That Br never was appointed to teach rhetoric in the Roman college, unless perhaps for the short space of a few days, which frequently happens, in the absence of the mafter. Much • less

⚫ of was delivered to me, by one of the waiters of Pons's coffeehoufe in Cecil Court, St. Martin's-Lane, while I was dining there, and I no fooner opened it than, seeing it fubfcribed J. Montecuccoli, I haftened down ftairs, but the perfon who brought it, had already disappeared."

* Conftantini's letter is ftrengthen'd by the atteftation of a notary public, and corroborated by the evidence of the archbishop of Fermo, figned by his vicar-general and chancellor, and fealed with the archiepifcopal feal.

befs was be chofen fucceffor to Father Francis Flaminii on account of his journey to Saxony, which journey is altogether a fiction; as it never was, to the best of my knowledge, ever thought of.'

B. fays,

5. He made his escape from

Macerata.

D. fays,

He made his efcape not from Macerata but from Perugia.

This is proved by feveral witneffes, and confirmed by regi

fters.

B. fays,

6. He not only never correfponded with Sheldon, but never received any letter from Car

teret.

D. fays,

Br not only correfpon

ded with Sheldon, but with Carteret alfo.

This appears from a letter writ by Carteret to Mr. Hoyles (Mr. Brs profelyte); and which any one who has the curiofity may fee, it being put by Mrs. Hoyles into the hands of Sir Henry Bedingfeld. This letter is dated July 27, 1741, and figned Ph. Carteret; and the following paffage ftands in it, to the confufion of Mr. B-r; When you fee Bowers, with my fervice to him, tell him I wonder he never anfwered my letter.

That Carteret therefore did write to B-r is certain, and that the latter did not treat fuch a correspondent with so much contempt as never to write to him, is extremely improbable. If he had treated him fo contemptuoufly, this must neceffarily have produced a coolness on the fide of Carteret; the contrary of which is evident from another letter in the hands of the fame person, writ to Mrs. Hoyles, from Flanders, by Carteret, at least four years after the former letter. In this letter we read,

I defire my kind fervice to Mr. Bowers, Hill, &c. as if named. Had B-r treated his brother Carteret fo impolitely as never to answer his letters, we should not have seen him placed in this honourable ftation, the first mentioned of the intimates, and affociated in kind fervices with father Hill, and the reft of the venerable miffion in England.

Notwithstanding all which we may remember that Mr. B. in his fecond affidavit before Juftice Fielding, folemnly deny'd, that be ever wrote to, or received from Mr. Carteret - any letter or letters whatsoever.

D. fays,

Br was near fixteen years age before he left Scotland.

This is proved by the evidence of William Menzies, Efq; of Pitfoddels in Aberdeenshire, a gentleman of rank and fortune now living, who declares he faw B. at Douai in September 1702, when B. appeared to him to be about fourteen. But as B. is now known to have been born in 1686, he must have been fixteen. Moreover, Sir Austin Goddard now at Dublin, declared to Sir H. B. that he was at Rome

When

when B. came there; that B. feemed to him to be then at least eighteen years of age, and could not speak a word of Italian. And yet this is the perfon who fays he was carried abroad when an infant, and who did not know the very found of his native tongue before his arrival in England in 1726, tho' his native tongue muft have been spoke by him till he was near twenty years of bout which time he removed from his countrymen at Douai.

age, a

Thus almost every single circumstance which this man hath related concerning himself, as the means of being countenanced by the inhabitants of Great Britain, is demonftrated to be fiction, by every proof that the nature of the cafe will admit of; and by a chain of evidence which is impenetrable.

The reflections which this fenfible and ingenious writer makes on the evidence abovementioned, and on the unparallel'd affurarice of his antagonist, are fuch as naturally refult from the circumftances. He very judiciously obferves, that B's pretence that no 'popish evidence is to be admitted against him, has its whole foundation in his own boafts of his importance. Befides, that were he really an object worthy the refentment of the papifts, the nature of the evidence produced against him is inconfiftent with the fufpicion of there being any forgery in the cafe. That men of rank and fortune, ecclefiaftics and laymen, private gentlemen and public officers, magiftrates, perfons in eminent ftations, notariespublic, &c. fhould be prevailed upon to hazard their worldly credit, (admitting that their confcience might be fatisfied) by giving their names, their feals, their oaths to fupport falfhood. To fuppofe that the jefuits, or any other fet of priests, could have fuch an influence over such persons to make them confent to be fo publickly marked out as lying witneffes, even in matters of the highest confequence to their church, is to fuppofe these jefuits vefted with a miraculous power of new framing the human heart, and of rooting out that principle of honour, and defire of reputation which men of every religious perfuafion muft covet, and which not even popery itself can ftifle.

The certainty of B-r's fictions is demonftrated from the permanent monuments of authentic records, lodged in public offices, and which, as they have been already fearched and inspected, every traveller who goes into Italy may defire to look into, and need fear no refufal. The records of the Roman inquifition, those of the tribunal at Ancona, the public books of the city of Macerata, and the many regifters preferved in the archives of the Roman college, are witneffes which will hang like a millstone about B-r's neck till he finks never to rife again.

Mr. D. has therefore great reason to say, that if the attestations which have been appealed to in this pamphlet be not fufficient to draw afide the veil which hath hitherto been thrown over Mr. B-r's character, it will be impoffible ever to detect fraud and

t

falf

falfhood. For if every deferter from Rome is to be received with open arms, and without examining his pretenfions to credibility; if the affuming the venerable, but more abused name of convert, is to entitle him to be protected, and his own unfupported ac→ · count of himself, however improbable, is to be believed, in oppofition to the fulleft evidence that can poffibly be produced-if, I fay, this should ever be the cafe, I would defire every serious and fincere proteftant to reflect how mischievous would be the confequence:

At the conclufion of this pamphlet, At all events (Jays Mr. D.)" I fhall remain perfectly fatisfied with the pleafing reflection of having done my duty, as a fincere proteftant, and with having "found the most learned and refpectable of the established clergy, ⚫ and indeed the public in general agreeing with me in my fenti⚫ments in this affair, and looking upon the detection of an infolent deceiver, as a debt due to that public which he had impofed upon, to that church of which he had pretended to be a champion, and of which he hath pretended to be a convert.'

One thing more is neceffary to inform the public, before I take my final leave of a controverfy, which I have fo entirely exhaufted; that the feven letters to father Sheldon, the receipts ⚫ for the annuity from the jefuits, and the authentic papers and ⚫ certificates from Italy, are foon to be depofited in the Bodleian library at Oxford, by which means every one may have access * to inspect and to examine them: Mr. B-r himself may have full • liberty to find out the marks of fraud or forgery, hitherto unproved; and pofterity, if this detection fhall reach posterity, may be able to form a judgment of the real character of A-d

* Thus ends Mr. D's pamphlet, and with it we believe and hope, the whole controverfy, which, like most other controverfies, has been fpun out to a length very tedious and difagreeable. Mr. D. however, may have the fatisfaction to reflect that he is left. mafter of the field, and has acquitted himself throughout like a man of honour, a gentleman, and a proteftant. He has fought the cause of truth and religion against malice and impofture. Not only unfupported and unaffifted by those who ought to have af fifted and fupported him; but also mifreprefented, calumniated, and abused. B-r calls D. the tool of the jefuits, and the jefuit's complain that they have been made the tools of D. The fact, in regard to the share which these worthy gentlemen have had in the tranfaction, feems to us plainly and indisputably this; their refentment against B. induced them at the beginning of the con

tro

*For the Poftfcript, containing an answer to a pamphlet lately publifhed, called Some very remarkable facts, &c. we refer our readers to the Monthly Catalogue, where they will find the fubftance of the pamphlet, and D's answer to it.

VOL. V. Feb. 1758.

K.

troverfy, to open the door a little way to D. in order to let in fome light upon B. but finding D's eyes rather too sharp and piercing, they immediately endeavoured to fhut it again. They perceived that they could not conveniently let D. know what B. had been, without at the fame time fhewing him what they themfelves were. They immediately therefore, as far as in them lay, ftopp'd up the channels of intelligence. D. notwithstanding, who was indefatigable, procured a mafter-key, by means of which he got access to fome private apartments, which they would gladly have concealed from him. This eafily accounts for all their backwardness in the communication of facts, letters, Sca as well as for § Mr. Arnold's affertion, that the jefuits complained of D. having over-acted his part. Be this as it may, we may venture to affert, that whatever reason the world may have to look upon the author of the Lives of the Popes as a friend to the jefuits, few, we believe in this nation, will fufpect the writer of the Criterion, of any fuch attachments. His connections, principles, and character, are too well known to give the least founda tion for fo infamous a charge against him.

Upon the whole, we heartily and fincerely congratulate this friend of truth on his fecond complete victory over fraud and impofture. The Scotch Jefuit fucceeds with greater propriety to the Scotch Nonjuror, and as they feem both to have merited an equal degree of public favour, it was very fit that they fhould be handed down by the fame pen, with an equal degree of praise and honor, to pofterity.

We shall only add, that if there be still amongst us any more Lauders, or any more Brs, we would advise them, as they value their reputation, to be upon their guard, and keep as far as poffible out of the reach of Douglafs the Detector.

ART. VII. HENRIETTA. By the author of the Female Quixote. In a Vols. 12mo. Pr. 6s. Millar.

M

R. Courteney, the younger fon of earl, hating married a woman endowed with every perfection, except birth and wealth, being therefore difclaimed by his friends, led a

Sir H. B

d.

pri

See the pamphlet intitled Some very remarkable facts, &c. in the Monthly Catalogue.

the Criterion, or Miracles examined, with a view to expose the pretenfions of Pagans and Papists, to compare the miraculous powers recorded in the New Teftament, with those said to fubfift in later times, by the Rev. John Douglafs, A. M. Vicar of High-Ercal, Sa lop, and Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Earl of Bath.

See a pamphlet called, Lauder detected, or Milton no Plagiary; by the Rev. Mr. Douglafs.