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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS to CORRESPONDEN 15.

P. Quarre's MS. has been fent according to his direction,

Our Poetical Correfpondents have encreased so very much, that it is not in our power tá infert all their pieces immediately. We fhall, however, pay attention to them in their turns. and, during the recefs of Parliament, hope to be able to pay off our arrears.

G. H. is informed, that any original Letters from eminent perfons will be acceptable. We shall have no objection to treat with him or any of his friends on that fubject,

C. A.'s pieces, intended for this month, were by accident mislaid. They will be inferted in our next.

Grito's Letter is returned to the Post-office, where it is probable he may find it, if he en quires. We never pay the postage for such nonsense.

AVERAGE PRICES of CORN, from May 15, to May 20, 1786.

Wheat Rye Barl. Oats Beans

COUNTIES upon the COAST.

s. d.s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.

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THE

EUROPEAN MAGAZINE,

AND

LONDON REVIEW;
For MAY, 1786.

For the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE,

An ACCOUNT of the Right Hon. WILLIAM EDEN, Efq. [ With an ENGRAVING of him. ]

ILLIAM EDEN, Efq, is of the antient and respectable family of the Edens, which has long been feated in the northern part of this kingdom. He is the fecond brother of Sir John Eden, and received an excellent education; which, being employed on talents and industry seldom to be met with, has already placed him it. fituations both of honour and profit, and we hefitate not to predict, will elevate him to ftill higher and more dignified employments in the ftate than he has hitherto filled.

great ability; and, in addition to the emoluments of his office, had the post of one of the Directors of Greenwich Hofpital given to him: He was alfo taken under the patronage of the duke of Marlborough, and chofen member for Woodstuck. In March 1776, he was advanced to the dignity of a Lord of Trade and Plantations; and in 1778, when the too late adopted plan of treating with the Colonies was determined upon, he, with lord Carlisle and governor Johnstone, was nominated to the important office of Commiffioner.

He embarked for America with his coadjutors; but their miffion, as our readers will recollect, was not attended with any fuccefs. It feems, however, to have been the means of introducing him to the friendship of lord Carlifle, whom, in December 1780, he ac'companied to Ireland as Secretary. He continued in this station until the change of the miniftry, in April 1782, when he defended his patron with a degree of warmth and spirit, which before had not been difcovered to form part of his character. Leing in England at this juncture, he took a very decided part againit the new adminiftration. The following letter to lord Shelburne, at that time handed about, will fhew how much he refented the treatment his friend had just then experienced,

After the elementary parts of his education were finished at Eton, he was placed at Chrift-Church, Oxford, where he took the degree of M. A. June 2, 1768, and afterwards became a member of one of the Inus of Court. He at first devoted his attention to the law, with a defign of following the practice of it, and actually went the northern circuit, being patronized and recommended by Mr. Wedderburne, in concert with whom he is fuppofed to have planned and effected the Coalition. But having, in the courfe of his ftudies, viewed his profeffion with rather more philofophical eyes than is common with thofe who derive the greatest emoluments from practice, he was foon difcovered to poffefs abilities that might be more profitably employed in affairs of ftate than in Weftminfter-Hall. In 1771 he published "Principles of Penal Law, 8vo.; a work confifting of detached obfervations, but without any regular chain of caufes and effects. It, however, difcovered a confiderable fhare of ingenuity and genius, and recommended its author to the notice of the Minifter, who foon afterwards appointed him under-fecretary of tate for the northern department. In this employment he conducted himfelf with and facts refpecting the prefent circumftances

Downing-fireet, April 5, 1782. "My Lord,

"HAVING reconfidered the conference with which your lordship, yesterday, indulged me, I think that I ought fpecifically to itate my reafons for having often declined your intimations to me to enter into opinions

of

of Ireland, and the measures best to be purfued there. When I arrived in London, I had come prepared, and difpofed, and in. ftructed, to ferve most cordially in the critical measure of clofing the Lord Lieutenant's government, so as to place it with all practicable advantages in the hands of whatever perfon his Majefty's minifters might have deftined to fucceed to it.

"I pre fuppofed, however, that either his Excellency would be recalled very foon, but not without the attentions which are due to him, his station, and his fervices; or that his Majesty's minifters would affift and in struct him in first concluding the business of the feffion, and the various publick measures and arrangements, of fome difficulty and confequence, which are immediately connected with it, and which cannot be completed in lefs than four or five months.

"Finding, however, to my extreme furprife, that the manner of giving the lieutepancy of the East Riding to lord Caermarthen had been fuch as to amount to a marked and perfonal infult, when it is confidered that the thing taken is merely honorary, and that the perfon from whom it is taken is an abfent viceroy; and hearing alfo from your Jordship, that the duke of Portland is not unlikely to be made the immediate and actual meffenger of his own appointment, I from that moment declined any communication refpecting facts and measures, because this line adopted towards the prefent Lord Lieutenant muft, in my opinion, be fatal to the cafe of his fucceffors for a long period of time, and ruinous to all good government, and the confequent peace of Ireland.

Your lordship has informed me, that this is not meant as a perfonal exertion of power against lord Carlifle, but that his Majefty's minifters have adopted this mode of removing the Lord Lieutenant, as a wife measure of government. I differ fo totally in my judgment, that it would be idle in me to trouble them further respecting Ireland.

"I fhall, as the duty of my fituation requires, wait on fuch of his Majefty's minifters as are difpofed to fee me, and with that refpect which is due to them, fhall fubmit what I have here stated.

"My next anxiety is to act as I believe lord Carlife would wifh me to act, for his honour and the publick fervice; two objects which cannot at this moment be ieparated, I am ready this evening, or to-morrow morning, at any hour, to attend the commands of his Majetty's miniiters, either feparately or collectively. To-morrow at two, I fhall go into the country, to make a vifit of perfonal refpect and private friendship; and on Monday, in the House of Commons, 1 shall state,

as fully as a weak voice will permit, what I conceive to be the present circumstances of Ireland Ishall do this without any mixture of complaint, and with the most anxious regard to facilitate any subsequent system for the publick tranquillity. I fhall only with to let it be implied by the world, from Irish facts, in contradiction to English treatment, that the prefent Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (I borrow his own words from his last letter to your lordship)" has had the good fortune to conduct the business of Ireland, at a moft critical period, without difcredit to his Majesty's government, and with many increafing advantages to the interests of his kingdoms. "I have the honour to be, &c.

"WM. EDEN."

In 1779 he published "Four Letters to the Earl of Carlisle On certain perverfions of political reasoning; and on the nature, progrefs, and effect of party-fpirit, and of parties. - On the prefent circumstances of the war between Great Britain and the combined powers of France and Spain. — On the Publick Debts, on the Publick Credit, and on the Means of raising Supplies. — On the Reprefentations of Ireland refpecting a free Trade." 8vo. In the next year he republished them with the addition of a fifth, "On Population; on certain Revenue Laws and Regulations connected with the Intereft of Commerce; and on Publick Otconomy." All thefe Letters are written in a very master. ly ftyle, and fhew confummate knowledge and information on the subject.

In times like the prefent, a neutrality in politicks is impracticable, and the most mo. derate, by the verfatility of the leaders of party, have found themselves affociated with thote whom they have most violently opposed. This was the cafe of Mr. Eden, who, a few months afterwards, was whimfically enough connected with perfons whofe principles and practices he had certainly no respect for. The fhort period of Mr. Fox's administration left him in an oppofition to Government, from which he has just emancipated himself, by accepting the employment of negociating a commercial treaty with France, which both parties acknowledge him peculiarly adapted for by his purfuits and abilities.

Mr. Eden's acceptance of this employ ment, which was negotiated by the Archbifhop of Canterbury, who married his filter, made him the fubject of many fatrical epigrams, and laughable paragraphs in the publick prints; nor did the puniters omit the fair opportunity his name afforded them of displaying their talents; but what was mfi• nitely of more confequence, many respectație perions confidered his conduct, in this in

stance,

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