is to behold fuch a catastrophe of human power and glory, as is scarcely to be equall'd again upon earth; except Nor is it a little furprizing, that, by perpetuating the principal circumftances of this aftonishing revolution, the poffeffors of those countries I have mentioned have been enabled to take their turns in appropriating her imperial dignity, and thereby to maintain a fucceffion of Roman emperors amongst themselves for fo many ages after; this being apparently effected by her continuing to be, both the dupe of the greatest princes in Europe, and alfo an inmate with a foreign people, whofe fubjection to those princes was all along neceffary to make their most accumulated glory redound unto them. Neither was this formidable renovation of the Roman empire deftitute of fuch a people, after the deadly wound was given to the Goths by the fword of Narfes; he introducing in their ftead his mercenaries the Lombards, who alfo gave name to the best part of Italy, as having been acknowledged the puiffant inhabitants of that country ever fince. Theodorick king of the Goths therefore being the prince, who, as he projected the fcheme of this wonderful conftitution, did himself alfo make way for its acceptance and establishment in the world, it is something strange, Mr Urban! that none of your correspon dents has attempted to embellish his story, if it were only on account of the city's declaring for him; because if this fhould prove to have been in the eye of the great author of revealed religion, when he fixed upon the epocha of the period I have hinted at, it is fcarcely poffible to tell what miraculous changes may be expected amongst men in the ten years next enfuing. Tho' I am no Methodist, I am fully perfuaded of the wisdom and truth of almighty god; and for this reafon apprehend, that in lefs than ten years thofe extraordinary predictions in Ijaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zachariah and the Revelations, which have only been accomplished in a figurative fenfe, fhall be moft of them accomplished in a literal fenfe allo: and I am fo fanguine and pofitive in this my declaration, that, if it might be done, I would chearfully make over all my eftate, which is not very inconfiderable, to be difpofed of by the Jews as their own in the latter end of the year 1749, or to be devoted by a curfe, if that would be rather chofen, provided only their nation would promise to receive me and mine at that time to dwell in Ifrael, as Rahab did, if then the dangerous and painful part of their long expected glorious restoration shall be visibly over. N.B. If we take the 2300 in Daniel 8, 14. for a period of years, comprehending the whole time in which the Jewish church fhould be in any degree of defolation, as we are directed to do by many obvious and very material intimations in the prophecy itself, * and beginning at the 1. The queftion in Dan. 8. 13. feems general. q. d. If the worship of God tha!! be interrupted again after the return from the captivity of Babylon, how long shall it be before there be an end of fuch things? 2. Neither the answer nor interpretation feem to fix it to the prince who was before fpaken of, but the interpretation at l-aft rather cirectly otherwife. 3. Daniel might easily know, from what had been revealed to him before, that unti the antient of days fhould come, and the sain:s begin their everlasting kingdom, difturbances and interruptions in their publick worship muft needs be very common; and therefore it is not 1 kely that fuch a question as this should now be answered before him in any other manner than as i understand it. 4. The peculiar manner of mentioning these days in the original, as fo many mornings aud the eleventh of Zedekiab,when the daily facrifice was firft taken away by foreign enemies (Jer. 29. 2. 10.) fhall add to the remaining 59 years of the captivity of Babylon 460 out of Daniel's 70 weeks, which will bring us to the beginning of the christian Æra (Dan. 9. 24) commonly called the year of our lord, and then make up the 2300 out of that Era, we shall find that in the year 1781 the grandeur of the Jewish worship will be restored on a glorious and lasting foundation (Eze. 43. 4. 7); and if we take out of this 1781 the 30 which are added in Daniel 12. 11. to the time, times and an half, or 1260, he mentions in the seventh verse of that chapter; which 30 years may well be spent in dividing the land, and other neceffary preparations; we shall then understand, that in 1751 they fhall be fo far delivered from their enemies as to begin the free exercife of their religion: and therefore, according to the accounts we have in other prophets of the manner of their deliverance, these predictions of Daniel thus compared together affure us, that the dangerous and painful part of their restoration will be manifeftly over in the latter end of the year 1749; which may well remind the world borh of the words of Jofeph in Gen. 41. 32. that the prophecy is doubled because the thing is eltablished by God; and also of the words of the Angel in Rev. 14. 7. Fear God, &c. SIR, To the Rev. Mr WARBURTON. IN running over your laft piece, I faw with great furprize your opprobrious treatment of Dr Richard Grey, whom without any ceremony you call an impotent writer, and rank him with a Zany to a Mountebank. May a private man, who is not the author of 4 or 5 volumes, presume to oppofe his judgment to the decrees of Mr W.? If that liberty be indulg'd; then I declare, I think Dr Grey is a very judicious and elegant writer, and one of the beft-bred scholars of this age; and I flatter my felf this notion is not fingular. And I am the more amaz'd at this inhuman fcur and evenings, feems plainly to intimate that they were not common but prophetical days; and if fo, no other period than this could poffibly be intended. 5. Tho' they offered their facrifices many years whilft the fecond temple was ftanding, yet this part of their publick worship was all that while under two very material difadvantages caufed by the former defolation; namely, they wanted the vifible prefence of the object of their worship upon the mercy feat, and the facred fire which came down from heaven to confume their facrifices. 6. The event in the days of Antiocbut, fuppofed by many to be here foretold, did not answer this prediction; or however, not fo plainly, as much to edify the church of god, either then or fince that time by its accomplishment. 7. The direction to fhut up this prophecy in Dan. 8. 27, as comprehending time at a very great diftance; (a caution not given along with the 70 weeks, which extended far beyond the reign of Antiocbus, but is much the fame with what we have in Dan. 12.9.) is both a proof, that this, and the three years and an half mentioned in the feventh verfe of that 12th chapter, relate to the laft end of the church's troubles, when God's people fhall, as it were, be raised from the dead (Dan. 12. 2. Exe. 37. 6. Rev. 20. 6.) and allo fhews us that fain's would rather be prejudiced than otherwife by this prediction, if they offered to apply it to any of thofe early times; unless perhaps they would regard it as directing them to types of longer and deeper diflreffes which were to follow. fcurrility on a gentleman who no ways interfer'd with your grand argu ment, but only differ'd with you in his opinion of the book of Job, when he was publishing a fine edition of that poem, particularly as he was fo candid, before he publifh'd his preface, to fhew you the paragraph relating to your bypothefts, and enter'd into a free converfation with you on this fubject. By way of gratitude for this genteel behaviour, in your book of Remarks you drefs'd this gentleman in one of your fool's coats, with which your wardrobe is well stock'd, and abused him with the most contemptuous raillery. This extorted from him an Answer to you (printed for 7. Stagg, 1744) in which there is as much Attic wit and fpirit, in the opinion of many good judges, as in any piece Mr W. has writ; and to make his answer really ufeful, there was added an admirable explicacation of the design of the book which occafioned the controversy. And I appeal to any fcholar (Mr W. excepted) whether that performance favours of an impotent writer; an expreffion too fcurrilous to be apply'd to the lowest Grubftreet feribler. But indeed 'tis a very Laconic way of confuting arguments. For what ftranger to this controversy would not think from your book, that Dr Grey was one of the meanest pretenders to learning, that ever appear'd, in print? Your contumely on that amiable man could not be calculated for any other purpose than to deceive thofe, who have no opportunity to enquire into that gentleman's real character; with the learned and difcerning his reputation will not depend on Mr W's bold affertion. My esteem for that good-natur'd man has excited me to make this appeal to you, whether in your confcience you have not highly injur'd a gentleman, whofe learning is only exceeded by his humanity, and who deferv'd far other ufage from Mr W. When therefore you are calm, I beg you would make a public recantation of this groffeft affront, that was ever offer'd to a gentleman, fcholar, and clergyman. You must be fenfible, that no one layman of education could use fuch language to nother in public, I think not even at the bar, where great freedoms are taken; and furely the Rev. Mr W. will not in so polite an age plead an exemption from all the rules of good breeding, meerly because he dos'nt wear a fword or cane. I am, Sir, &c. 4 Mr URBAN, I received the inclofed from Ireland, but will not affirm that it concerns that ifland more than this. I entirely agree with your ingenious correfpondent in the Gent. Mag. Vol. XIV. p. 442. that furgeons and physicians should pass a ftritt examination, before they practife. The following obfervations may contribute to prevent the evil, or the increase of it. I T has been a remark of an antient date, that no nation in the world has fo many good laws as the English, but that by a negligent execution of of them, our lives and properties are made as precarious as in any other kingdom. Highway robbers, burglarers, and even sheep-ftealers, are punished with death amongst us, whilft those more inhuman robbers, the stockJobbers, pawn-brokers, and the private trading companies are fuffered to go on in their deftructive practices with impunity: The stock-jobber has indeed been lately taken notice of by the legiflature; but to what effect, any man may, by viewing Change-alley, be foon convinced. Murder, in all the civilized nations of the world, has ever been ranged in the firft class of capital crimes; but there is one fpecies of it commited daily amongst us, without any fear of punishment at all, the murder of thofe multitudes, who are robbed of their lives by the ignorance and boldness of the many pretenders to the knowledge of phyfick and furgery. That we have laws against male practice, the unhappy Groenvelt affords a proof, which will not eafily be forgotten. Had the college put the laws in force against that fwarm of quacks with which this city has always been infefted, it would have contributed much more to their honour, than the imprisonment and ruin of a learned gentleman, who will always be efteemed for that practice which was fo feverely punished." That not only male practice, but even neglect of bufinefs is punishable by our laws, appears from a late trial in Westminster-ball, in which an eminent furgeon was caft in 500/. damages for neglecting his patient in the midst of a falivation, by which he loft both his eyes: furely then there must be as great reafon to enforce the laws against those wretches, that, without either learning or education to recommend them, are fo dangerously bold with the lives and conftitutions of those miserable people, who unfortunately fall under their care. Happy would it be for thousands, was this metropolis only overrun by them; but there is scarcely a town or village throughout the kingdom where they are not to be found, and where they generally affume the name of regular physicians and furgeons; yet all or most of the latter were apothecaries prentices, who, after having drudged at the mortar four or five years, flock up to our hospitals for one year, or perhaps take a trip to Paris for a few months, at the expiration of which they arrogantly affume the title of furgeons, or man-midwives, and foolishly imagine themfelves to be upon the fame footing with thofe, by whom neither time nor education has been spared to perfect them in thofe noble arts: Thefe are the fellows, who, by the affiftance of a few technical terms, impose upon the vulgar to their deftruction; who gain themselves a name, by expofing that which a wife and honest man would rather hide, the multitude of limbs which they have amputated, without ever reflecting, that more real honour is gained by faving of one limb, than by cutting off twenty and who by fuffering the common people to be prefent at their operations, however unneceffary in itself, or however unartfully performed, are certain to gain applause, and admiration, and, by confequence, an increase of business. One of these rural Efculapians, perhaps one of the greatest which the country ever produced, deferves to be defcribed. He was brought up an apothecary, and at the expiration of his apprenticeship, by fome charit able affiftance, went to Paris, where he ftaid ALMOST SIX MONTHS; in which time he made himself (as he boasts) a compleat master of the art of midwifry, went through a courfe of anatomy and bandages, learned the language, and in fhort gained every qualification neceffary to make a compleat furgeon: Thus equipp'd, he returned to England, fet up in partnership with a worthy man, who in a little time, afhamed of appearing the confederate of his blunders, refign'd the business wholly to him. To give the publick a particular account of his mifcarriages, I should be obliged to mention almoft every operation which he has performed. In midwifry, twelve out of fifteen perished under his hands: In lithotomy only one recover'd out of all whom he cut, and he entirely loft the power of retaining his urine by the ignorance of the operator, whofe management was fuch as produced a fistula. But of all operations, caftration feem'd to be his favourite, which he frequently perform'd, without ever reflecting upon the fable of the boys pelting the frogs-That although it might be mirth on one fide, it was certain death on the other-for not one of these patients ever recovered-nor was his common practice in furgery, or in phyfick, attended with better fuccefs. A gentlewoman a few years fince complain'd to him of a violent pain which the felt in her right hypocondrium-Upon mature confideration, and having examined the part affected, he told her that her disorder procceded from a large collection of matter there; and that unless it was foon difcharg'd, it would infallibly kill her, and immediately appointed the next day for the operation, which, if I remember right, was intended to be performed by cauftic:The poor gentlewoman, frighten'd at the fentence, in the mean while applyed herself to a furgeon of a different character, who foon rid her of her fears, by telling her that her diforder was nothing but wind, and fo it proved; for by taking a little Daffey's Elixir, and Tinctura Sacra, the flatus was expell'd, and fhe was well in a few hours. Another gentlewoman was more dexterously difpatched, by only taking one of his compofing pills a month after her delivery. Thus Some fell by laudanum, and some by feel, (Garth) It appears incredible at firft view, that it was poffible for him after fuch a continued feries of blunders to preferve a reputation fufficient to gain bread; but by the help of fome female encomiaft, which he kept in conftant pay, he fucceeded fo far as to force this expreffion from the mouth of an eminent physician in the place, that if our hero kill'd one half of the town, the other would employ him-Amongst the country people he kept up his character by frequently advertising in the news-papers, in the fol lowing, or fuch like terms. Such a day A. B. was cut for the stone by C. D. of and is in a fair way of recovery altho' it fometimes unfortunately happen'd the operator was too quick for the printer, and the patient was dead before the journal came out. Such are the methods by which these bold fpirits gain themselves reputation among the yulgar, which enable them to laugh at any oppofition made against them, by merit and by truth, and by which they are ftill entitled to blunder on with impunity. I fhould not have been fo explicit in this character, which is (I fear) to be met with in every county, were it not to fhew how eafily the common |