The present pamphlet was published in February 1754, after six volumes of _Sir Charles Grandison_ had appeared and about a month before the appearance of the seventh and last volume. Though _Grandison_ was technically anonymous, its authorship was generally known, and the pamphlet refers to Richardson by name. Sale’s bibliography gives further details (_Samuel Richardson: A Bibliographical Record_, New Haven, 1936, pp. 131-32), including the suggestion of the _Monthly Review_ (X, 159-60) that the author was Alexander Campbell, who also wrote _A Free and Candid Examination of Lord Bolingbroke’s Letters on History_ (1753). The pro-Bolingbroke and deistic sentiments of the _Critical Remarks_ lend color to this attribution. Nichols’ _Literary Anecdotes_ (II, 277) says under the year 1755 that William Bowyer printed a few copies of two pamphlets on _Grandison_, one by Francis Plumer and one by Dr. John Free. To Plumer is attributed _A Candid Examination of the History of Sir Charles Grandison_ (April 1754; 3rd ed., 1755), and the inference might then be that Free was the author of the _Critical Remarks_, even though the date 1755 given by Nichols is not right, since these two are the only known early _Grandison_ pamphlets. But Free’s orthodox religious views seem to eliminate him as a possibility. Whoever the author was, his references to Henry and Sarah Fielding are decidedly friendly, and he speaks well of Mason, Gray, Dodsley, and Pope. The _Remarks_ represents a type of pamphlet occasionally called forth by works which engaged the general attention of the town, such as the great novels of the period; thus before the _Grandison_ pamphlets we have _Pamela Censured_, _Lettre sur Pamela_, _An Examen of the History of Tom Jones_, _An Essay on the New Species of Writing Founded by Mr. Fielding_, and _Remarks on Clarissa_. Usually these fugitive essays are hostile to the work they discuss, and represent the attempt of some obscure writer to turn a shilling by exposing for sale a title page which might catch the eye with a well known name. The J. Dowse who sold the _Critical Remarks_ was an obscure pamphlet-shop proprietor, not a prominent bookseller. Richardson and his correspondents were of course irritated at both the _Grandison_ pieces: Mrs. Sarah Chapone was indignant at the _Critical Remarks_, venturing the absurd suggestion that Fielding might be the author (Victoria and Albert Museum, Forster Collection, Richardson MSS., XIII, 1, ff. 102-03, letter of 6 April 1754); and Lady Bradshaigh and Richardson considered the more favorable _Candid Examination_ an unfriendly work (Forster Collection, Richardson MSS., XI, ff. 98, 100-02). Yet these obscure publications give an interesting view of some current approaches and reactions before opinion has taken a set form, and help us to get access to the contemporary reading public.