66 JOURNAL OF THE BELLES LETTRES. 6 hundred wrecks and perils as a follower of and, getting out to sea in their new prize, had not yet arrived at Calempluy. The PorFaria, a man of consequence in these parts, shortly after joined company with a Chinese tuguese reproached Similau with steering only who had been ruined by Coja Acem's destroy-pirate, who promised to serve them faithfully by guess, and Faria at one time grew so violent on condition of receiving one third of the spoil. that he threatened to stab him. Similan, in ing his shipping, we are told :Many were the adventures which our This reinforcement arrived at a lucky season. consequence, made his escape, and his example heroes met with at the commencement of their Faria received intelligence of his deadly enemy was followed by thirty-six of the Chinese seacruise; and in all they came off with success. Coja Acem, whom he proceeded immediately to men. Faria, thus left without a guide, perThe battle was desperately con- sisted in seeking the royal sepulchres, and at They pillaged towns, captured native pirates, encounter. 'The island,' and seemed to have thought that in right of tended; but the victory remained with the length arrived at Calempluy, in the description their nation they were not bound by any re- Portuguese. The body of Coja Acem was cut of which our author may be suspected of drawstraints of morality or justice. On one occa- in pieces and thrown overboard; five of his ing largely on his imagination. sion they observed several small vessels ap-followers, who remained alive, were cast into he says, about a league in circuit, is all enproaching, with music playing, banners flying, the hold, in order to be tortured till they closed with a platform of jasper six and twenty and other demonstrations of rejoicing. On might disclose the valuable secrets of his hid-spans high; the stones being so neatly joined The victors sailed to Liampoo that the whole wall seemed one piece. Pillars board of one of these was the daughter of the den treasures. governor of Colem, betrothed to a neighbour-(Ning-Po), where they were received with the of copper, at intervals of about forty feet, were ing chieftain, who was to have met her in this greatest honours by the Portuguese merchants. ranged on the wall, and on each of these was place, The bride, mistaking the ships of the Faria was met on his arrival by a splendid the figure of a woman holding a bowl in her Portuguese for those of her destined spouse, procession, and conducted to the town, where hand. Within this gallery were rows of arches, sent a letter, couched in the hyperbolical lan-preparations had been made for his reception. gilt towers, and monstrous figures, cast in meguage of the East, to reproach him for his When the Chinese inquired who was the person tal, with three hundred and threescore hermitcoldness. She assured him, that if the feeble treated with so much distinction, it was an-ages, dedicated to the gods of the year. Faria sex of a woman would permit her, she would swered, that his father shod the horses whereon immediately landed, and breaking into one of fly to kiss his tardy feet as the hungry falcon the king of Portugal rode;' and the Chinese, the hermitages, began to collect the silver flies after the fearful heron.' The Portuguese believing all this to be true, cried out, in ad- which was mixed with the bones of the dead, in the mean time lay concealed, their Chinese miration, Truly there are great kings in the and which was derived, as he was informed by The with them by the deceased to support them in seamen alone remaining on deck. The bride's world whereof our ancient historians, through the astonished hermit, from the alms carried Faria, while ransacking this place, vessel, and those which attended her, were ignorance, hath made no mention.' The lady and public rejoicings at the arrival of Faria con- the world of the moon, where they live etercaptured without resistance. her brothers,being young, white, and well cluded with a mass and sermon, which our nally.' favoured,' with about twenty of the seamen, pious author ventures to criticise in a vein of confessed himself conscious that it was a very were retained; the rest, who were good for jocularity. Mass being ended, the sermon great sin, and declared that it was his intennothing, were sent ashore. The bridegroom followed, that was made by Estevano Noguera, tion, at some future period, to atone by penance soon after made his appearance with five ves- an ancient man, and curate of the place, who, for so enormous a crime. To this the Chinese sels, and saluted the Portuguese as he passed, to speak the truth, through discontinuance of sage replied, that he who knows these things, 'with great store of music and show of glad- preaching, was but little versed in pulpit mat- and doth them not, runs far greater danger ness,' ignorant that they were carrying off his ters. Howbeit, desiring to shew himself that than he who sins through ignorance.' The bride. After Faria and his associates had day a learned man in so remarkable a solem-Portuguese robbers then withdrew to their cruised up and down seven months and a half nity, he laboured to make demonstration of ships, intending to return to the work of pilwithout hearing of Coja Acem, they agreed to his best rhetoric; to which effect he grounded lage with the daylight. But their sins, as our winter in Siam, and divide the spoil. This all his sermon on the praises of Antonio de author observes, would not allow them to see agreement being sworn to and signed by all, Faria, and that in words so ill placed, and so the happy issue of the business. They were they went and anchored under the island De far from his text, that our captain was much hardly on board when they saw fires lighted los Ladrones, or Pirates' Island. Here a vio- ashamed of it; wherefore some of his friends on the island, and heard bells ringing, from lent hurricane overtook them; and about two plucked him three or four times by the sur-which they concluded that the alarm was given. hours after midnight the four vessels ran foul plice to make him give over; but he being net-Faria hastened again on shore, in the dead of of one another, dashed on shore, and went to tled, cried- I will not stop, but will rather night, and ran up and down with a frantic pieces. Four hundred and eighty persons were say more for I speak nothing but what is as desire to carry off some valuable prize; but it drowned: of fifty-three who were saved, only true as gospel. In regard whereof let me alone was now too late, and the danger was so immitwenty-three were Portuguese. Faria, a se- I pray you; for I have made a vow to God nent that his companions forced him to fly. cond time reduced to utter poverty, found never to desist from praising this noble cap- They spread all sail, and stood out to sea, so strength in despair. He even endeavoured to tain, as he deserves it at my hands, for saving sad from their disappointment that they hardly draw consolation from religion, while he aban-me 7000 ducats' venture that Merim Taborda spoke to one another during the voyage. When doned every principle of morality, and assured had of mine in his junk, and was taken from they had been about a month at sea, a furious his followers, that as God never did ill but for him by that dog Coja Acem; for which let the gale came on in the gulf of Nankin, which a greater good, there was no doubt that for the soul of so cursed a rogue and wicked devil be reduced them to such distress, that they were 500,000 ducats they had lost, he would permit tormented in hell for ever and ever: whereunto obliged to lighten the ships by every means in One day, when say all with me, Amen.' At Liampoo, Faria their power, to cut down their masts, and them to rob 600,000 more. our adventurers were scattered in the woods, became acquainted with a Chinese pirate named throw overboard their chests full of silver. gathering fruits for their subsistence, a small Similau, who gave him an extravagant ac- About midnight, the people in Antonio de Favessel was seen to approach the shore: the count of an island called Calempluy, in ria's ship were heard to cry out Lord have Chinese, to whom she belonged, about thirty which were the tombs of seventeen kings of mercy upon us!' and when day broke, it was in number, jumped on land and commenced China, all of gold, besides immense treasures found that she had disappeared. The other lighting fires, drying their clothes, and amus- of different descriptions. The Portuguese ad- ship was in a sinking state, and the crew, as ing themselves, as men weary of a long voyage venturer, being naturally curious,' as our au- their only chance, ran her upon the coast, and suspecting no harm. Faria in the mean thor observes, resolved to seek and carry off these where she instantly went to pieces. Fourteen time drawing his companions together, assured riches. It is obvious that Similau, when he Portuguese were saved; the number of the them that the boat was sent by a special pro-spoke of golden tombs, related a popular story; drowned, including Chinese mariners, was six vidence to their relief; and as superstition is and it shews in what estimation the courage and thirty. This miserable disaster,' says naturally selfish, they readily gave credit to a and the prowess of the Portuguese were held, our author, 'happened on a Monday, the 5th of miracle wrought in their own favour. Their when a prize too fomantically rich to be sought August, in the year 1540; for which the Lord measures were soon concerted; and a signal by a Chinese alone was thought a fit object for be praised everlastingly.' The shipwrecked being given, they rushed suddenly to the shore, their ambition. It is not easy to understand pirates met with but an indifferent reception They arrived at a port lar dislike to the appearance of a lawless vagamade themselves masters of the boat, and stood the course which our author says was followed from the Chinese, who seem to have a particuout to sea. The Chinese, who were taken by in this enterprise. surprise, stood stupified with horror and amaze- called Buxipalem in 49° north, where the cli- bond. Pinto and his companions were thrust ment when they found themselves left thus mate was cold, and the sea crowded with mon- into a pond, where they were almost devoured helpless and forlorn. Proceeding in this small sters which our author is fearful to describe. by leeches. Whenever they arrived at a town, vessel to the port of Xingran, our heroes They were now two months and a half at sea, they were sure to be expelled from it with a boarded a large junk in the dead of night, generally following a north-easterly course, and sound beating. They represented themselves they were almost as resolute as those of Ja- as 'poor natives of Siam,' and the falsehood of courage triumphed, and the Portuguese were our extracts to the last lecture of the series; in their story was probably recognised at once. thenceforward held in the highest honour in which Mr. Fuseli treats of the present state of At length they were sent to Nankin with other the camp. The Tatar general declared, that the art, and of the causes which check its procriminals, where they were condemned to lose gress. The exception to which we allude is their thumbs and to be whipped. The latter the following passage, which concludes the part of the sentence was immediately put in Pinto finally turned Jesuit, which gave him, tenth lecture. We were so fortunate as to be execution with such severity that two of the of course, the privilege of lying under divine present when that lecture was delivered; and party died of it. Here they met a Russian, authority; and as we have only cited him for we shall never forget the sarcastic energy with who,' says Pinto, understood Chinese as well the amusement of his statements, we shall now which Mr. Fuseli poured forth the passage in as we.' From Nankin, of which our author leave him without farther commentary. question. gives a copious description, the Portuguese The epitomes of the early English voyages "The province delegated by the Academy were sent to Pekin, travelling the greater part to the North are replete with interest, from to its teachers must be where hope promises of the way by canals. On the route they met Willoughby, Chancelor, Borough, Frobisher, success, and sparks of genius appear—to foster, with Christians, the descendants of those who Gilbert, and Davis, to Hudson, Dobbs, and to encourage; but where necessity commands, had been converted more than a century before Middleton. The next division, "Settlements rather to deter than to delude, and thus to by Matthew Escaudel, a Hungarian mission- in the East," is equally valuable; but, indeed, check the progress of that compendiary method, ary. They also met with a daughter of Thome the whole volume is so filled with variety and which, according to your late president, has Perez, the unfortunate ambassador who had excellence, that any ten of its pages which we ruined the arts of every country, by reducing been detained in China some years before. might quote would prove to readers that they execution to a recipe, substituting manner for Pinto's observations with respect to the Chinese ought not to be satisfied with less than all. style, ornament for substance, and giving adare lively and accurate. He remarks the mulmission to mediocrity. If the students of this titude of those who dwell upon the rivers. Lectures on Painting, delivered at the Royal the rudiments, and to be arrived at that point Academy must be supposed to have overcome Their mode of rearing water-fowl; the good order observed by the common people; the Academy, by Henry Fuseli, P.P. Now first printed from the original Manuscripts. from which it may be discovered whether nastrictness with which industrious habits are enforced; the regulations of their markets; Second Series. 4to. pp. 140. London, 1830. ture intended them for mere craftsmen or real their mode of hatching eggs by artificial heat; « THE following six Lectures of Fuseli," says behoves us not to mistake the mere children of Colburn and Bentley. artists, near that point where, in the phrase of Reynolds,genius begins, and rules end,' it their eating with chop-sticks; with many other Mr. Knowles, under whose direction they have particulars, are reported with the exactness of been published," are printed verbatim from necessity, or the pledges of vanity, for the real an eye-witness. În fine, he observes, I dare his manuscripts. I considered that (as execu- nurselings of public hope, or the future supboldly say, if my testimony be worthy of cre- tor to his will), in doing this, I should best porters of the beneficent establishment that dit, that in one and twenty years' space, during which time, with a world of misfortunes, of the public, rather than in acting upon any the art in a decent degree; they may learn to meet the views of the deceased, and the wishes rears them. Instruction, it is true, may put them in possession of every attainable part of labour, and pain, I traversed the greatest part opinions of my own, by using the pruning- draw with tolerable correctness, to colour with of Asia, as may appear by this my discourse, knife; for I am well aware that a few of the tolerable effect, to put their figures together I had seen in some countries a wonderful notions, and some of the expressions, may be abundance of several sorts of victuals and pro-found, from his pen, in other places. But to tolerably well, and to furnish their faces with visions which we have not in Europe; yet, have omitted these, would have injured the a in particular, I do not think that in all Europe reasoning. With such feelings, the Lectures without speaking what each of them may have general argument, and severed the chain of his And the same may be said of all the rest tion on my part." now appear without any omission or emendawherewith heaven hath favoured this climate; there is so much as there is in China alone. It is well known that Mr. Fuseli's manner, tolerable expression-it may not be easy for this and almost all may do all this, for all any one to pick any thing intolerably bad out of their works; but when they have done all this may be taught they will find themselves exactly at the point where all that gives value -at the threshold of the art, in a state of me. 6 as well for the temperature of the air as that as a lecturer, was very animated, and that his to art begins-genius, which cannot be taught which concerns the policy, riches, and great- voice was sonorous and powerful, but that, ness of their estate: but that which gives the especially as he warmed with his theme, the diocrity. Gods, men, and fame,' says Ho greatest lustre unto it is the exact observation foreign accent so predominated over the En- race, reject mediocrity in poets.' Why? of justice; for this country is so well ruled, glish, that it occasionally became difficult to necessities of society, or furnish necessaries to Neither poetry nor painting spring from the that it may justly be envied by all others in follow him through his learned and highly-life; offsprings of fancy, leisure, and lofty conthe world.' This tribute of praise to Chinese wrought sentences.* justice is singularly candid in one who had so It is very gratifying, often felt its severe application. The crimi- therefore, to be enabled to read at leisure that templation, organs of religion and government, nals reached Pekin, chained three and three sometimes prevented his hearers from tho- derive their excellence from novelty, degree, which the torrent of his impassioned delivery of the senses and instruments of luxury, they ornaments of society, and too often mere charms together, where for their welcome they had at their first dash thirty lashes a-piece given published are six in number; viz. "On De-all may wish for, but few only are able to proroughly comprehending. The lectures now and polish. What none indispensably want, them.' The nine surviving Portuguese, all sign;"" Colour, in Fresco Painting;" "Cochained together, were at length conducted to lour-Oil Painting;" "the Method of fixing/cure, acquires its value from some exclusive the hall of audience, to which they had ap-a Standard, and defining the Proportions of the quality, founded on intrinsic or some convenpealed, to hear their final sentence, and were Human Frame: with Directions to the Stutional merit, and that, or an equal substitute, only a year's hard work at the reparations of dent in copying the Life;" " On the prevail-it to invade the province of genius and talent, Quansy. Pinto gives us a minute account of ing, with Observations on the Picture of we rob the plough, the shop, the loom, the Pekin, where he resided two months and a half, Lionardo da Vinci of the Last Supper;" and school, perhaps the desk and pulpit, of a and a description of which, in Chinese, he tells us he brought home with him to Portugal. "On the present state of the Art, and the thousand useful hands. A good mechanic, & He also impudently affirms that he read it. fessional artist, and the enlightened and expe- and better supporters of the state, than an causes which check its progress." The pro-ings more important, of greater use to society, trusty labourer, an honest tradesman, are beThe Portuguese had served about eight months rienced amateur, will derive much gratification artist or a poet of mediocrity. When I, there of their captivity, when news arrived that the and instruction from the perusal of the whole fore, say that it is the duty of the Academy to king of Tatary, with a host of 1,800,000 men, of these lectures; for the various subjects com- deter rather than to delude, I am not afraid of had attacked Pekin, and that a part of the invading army was advancing against Quansy. prehended in them are handled with great This place was soon reduced, and the Portu- knowledge, vigour, and discrimination: but it will, perhaps, be more satisfactory to the geneguese slaves were led off by the conquerors.ral reader if, with one exception, we confine overjoyed to find that they were condemned to An accident soon brought them into notice. The castle of Nixiamcoo resisted all the efforts of the Tatars; when Jorge Mendez, the most resolute of the captives, boasted that he could take it. The Tatar general embraced his offer; and Mendez, with two other Portuguese, led a great army of Tatars to the assault. Their ing Method of treating the History of Paint The amusing peculiarities of Mr. Fuseli's intonation mediocrity cannot reach: hence, by suffering having advanced a paradox hostile to the progress of real art. The capacities that time will disclose, genius and talents, cannot be deterred by the exposition of difficulties; and it is the interest of society that all else should." Subjoined are the extracts from the twelfth lecture to which we have already adverted: "Such is the influence of the plastic arts on society, on manners, sentiments, the commodi. ties and the ornaments of life, that we think JOURNAL OF THE BELLES LETTRES. ourselves generally entitled to form our esti- | fourteenth and fifteenth centuries granted to professional instruction has never ceased to mate of times and nations by its standard. As the artists little more than the attention due to direct the student; premiums are distributed our homage attends those whose patronage ingenious craftsmen; they were, from the ob- to rear talent and stimulate emulation, and stireared them to a state of efflorescence or matu-ject of their occupations and the taste of their pends are granted to relieve the wants of genius rity, so we pass with neglect, or pursue with employers, the legitimate precursors of M. Ag-and finish education. And what is the result? contempt, the age or race which want of cul- nolo and Raffaello, who did no more than raise If we apply to our Exhibition, what does it ture or of opportunity averted from developing their style to the sublimity and pathos of the present in the aggregate, but a gorgeous dissubject. These trod with loftier gait and bolder play of varied powers, condemned, if not to the symptoms of a similar attachment. "The artist and the public are ever in the strides a path on which the former had some-beasts, at least to the dictates of fashion and strictest reciprocity: if the arts flourished no times stumbled, often crept, but always ad-vanity? What, therefore, can be urged against where as in Greece, no other nation ever inte-vanced: the public and the artist went hand the conclusion, that, as far as the public is conFlorence, Bologna, rested itself with motives so pure in their esta-in hand-but on what spot of Europe can the cerned, the art is sinking, and threatens to sink blishment and progress, or allowed them so young artist of our day be placed to meet with still deeper, from the want of demand for great ample a compass. As long as their march was circumstances equally favourable? Arm him, and significant works? marked with such dignity, whilst their union if you please, with the epic and dramatic pow- Venice, each singly taken, produced in the excited admiration, commanded attachment, ers of M. Agnolo and Raffaello, where are course of the sixteenth century alone, more and led the public, they grew, they rose; but the religious and civic establishments, where the great historic pictures than all Britain taken when individually to please, the artist at- temples and halls, open to receive, where the together, from its earliest attempts at painting Idle complaints!' Iclude from this ?-that the soil from which tempted to monopolise the interest due to art, public prepared to call them forth, to stimu- to its present efforts. What are we to conto abstract by novelty and to flatter the multi-late, to reward them? tude, ruin followed. To prosper, the art not hear a thousand voices reply. You accuse the Shakspeare and Milton sprang, is unfit to rear only must feel itself free, it ought to reign; if public of apathy for the arts, while public and the genius of poetic art? or find the cause of it be domineered over, if it follow the dictate private exhibitions tread on each other's heels, this seeming impotence in that general change of fashion or a patron's whims, then is its dis- panorama opens on panorama, and the splen- of habits, customs, pursuits, and amusements, solution at hand. To attain the height of the dour of galleries dazzles the wearied eye, and which for near a century has stamped the ancient was impossible for modern art, circum- the ear is stunned with the incessant stroke of national character of Europe with apathy or scribed by narrower limits, forced to form the sculptor's hammer, and our temples nar-discountenance of the genuine principles of "Permit me to part, with one final observaitself rapidly, and on borrowed principles; still rowed by crowds of monuments shouldering art. it owes its origin and support to nearly similar each other to perpetuate the memory of statescauses. During the fourteenth, and still more men who deluded, or of heroes who bled at a tion. Reynolds has told us, and from him in the course of the fifteenth century, so much nation's call! Look round all Europe-revolve whose genius was crowned with the most brilactivity, so general a predilection for art spread the page of history from Osymandias to Peri-liant success during his life, from him it came themselves over the greater part of Italy, that cles, from Pericles to Constantine-and say with unexampled magnanimity, that those we are astonished at the farrago of various what age, what race, stretched forth a stronger who court the applause of their own time, imagery produced at those periods. The artist arm to raise the drooping genius of art? Is it must reckon on the neglect of posterity.' On and the art were indeed considered as little the public's fault if encouragement is turned this I shall not insist as a general maxim; all more than craftsmen and a craft; but they into a job, and despatch and quantity have sup-depends on the character of the time in which M. Agnolo, Raffaello, Tiziano, and And do you think that tions. were indemnified for the want of honours by planted excellence and quality, as objects of the an artist lives, and on the motive of his exerthe dignity of their employment, by commis-artist's emulation?' sions to decorate churches, convents, and pub-accidental and temporary encouragement can Vasari, Giuseppe d'Arpino, and Luca Gior invalidate charges founded on permanent causes? dano, enjoyed equal celebrity during their own lic buildings. Art is not ephemeral : last are forgotten or censured. What are we "The efficient cause why higher art at pre- What blew up the art will in its own surcease times. The three first enjoy it now, the three sent is sunk to such a state of inactivity and terminate its success. languor, that it may be doubted whether it will religion and liberty had for ages prepared what to infer from this unequal verdict of posterity? exist much longer, is not a particular one, religion and liberty were to establish among What, but what Cicero says, that time oblitewhich private patronage, or the will of an indi- the ancients-the germ of the Olympian Jupi- rates the conceits of opinion or fashion, and vidual, however great, can remove; but a ter, and the Minerva of Phidias, lay in the establishes the verdicts of nature? The age general cause, founded on the bent, the man-gods of Egina; and that of Theseus, Hercules, of Julio and Leone demanded genius for its Ferdinand, and Urban, demanded talents and ners, habits, modes of a nation, and not of and Alcibiades, in the blocks of Harmodios and own sake, and found it-the age of Cosmo, one nation alone, but of all who at present Aristogiton. "The effect of honours and rewards has despatch to flatter their own vanity, and found pretend to culture. Our age, when compared with former ages, has but little occasion for been insisted on as a necessary incentive to them too; but Cosmo, Ferdinand, and Urban, great works, and that is the reason why so few artists: they ought indeed to be, they some-are sunk in the same oblivion, or involved in are produced: the ambition, activity, and spi- times are, the result of superior powers; but the same censure with their tools-Julio and rit of public life is shrunk to the minute detail accidental or partial honours cannot create ge- Leone continue to live with the permanent We are happy to observe that Mr. Knowles of domestic arrangements-every thing that nius, nor private profusion supply public neg-powers which they had called forth." It will, no doubt, surrounds us tends to shew us in private, is lect. No genuine work of art ever was or ever become snug, less, narrow, pretty, insignifi- can be produced, but for its own sake; if the is preparing for publication, "the Life and cant. We are not, perhaps, the less happy on artist do not conceive to please himself, he Works" of Mr. Fuseli. * * "Devereux," &c. 3 vols. 12mo. Second edition. London, 1830. Colburn and Bentley. Paul Clifford. By the Author of " Pelham,” account of all this; but from such selfish tri-never will finish to please the world. Can we be a very curious and interesting volume; for, fling, to expect a system of art built on grand-persuade ourselves that all the treasures of the whatever may be said, and said justly, of Mr. eur, without a total revolution, would only be globe could suddenly produce an Iliad or Para- Fuseli's occasional extravagance and mannerCircumstances may assist or man of powerful genius, and of singularly exless presumptuous than insane. What right dise Lost, or the Jupiter of Phidias, or theism, no candid person can deny that he was a have we to expect such a revolution in our Capella Sistina ? favour? Let us advert for a moment to the retard parts, but cannot make them they are tensive attainments. enormous difference of difficulty between form- the winds that now blow out a light, now aniing and amending the taste of a public-be-mate a spark to conflagration. Nature herself tween legislation and reform: either task is has set her barriers between age and age, bethat of genius; both have adherents, disciples, tween genius and genius, which no mortal champions; but persecution, derision, checks, overleaps; all attempts to raise to perfection will generally oppose the efforts of the latter, at once, what can only be reared by a succes- Or all vanities, perhaps that of accurate prowhilst submission, gratitude, encouragement, sion of epochs, must prove abortive and nuga-phecy is the most inherent in our nature: a attend the smooth march of the former. No tory: the very proposals of premiums, honours, critic even may be pardoned for partaking in madness is so incurable as wilful perverseness; and rewards to excite talent or rouse genius, so general a feeling; and we do confess that and when men can once, with Medea, declare prove of themselves that the age is unfavour- we feel something of almost personal pleasure We have on Paul Clifford so strongly and universally that they know what is best, and approve of it, able to art; for, had it the patronage of the in having the unqualified praise we bestowed but must, or choose to follow the worst, per-public, how could it want them? haps a revolution worse to be dreaded than the now been in possession of an Academy more confirmed. The author well applies to this disease itself, must precede the possibility of a than half a century; all the intrinsic means of novel the appellation of " a Treatise on Social cure. Though, as it has been observed, the forming a style alternate at our commands! Frauds "one of the great merits of this fiction is its truth: what he himself says about wit is especially applicable to his own; we quote the passage, which is among the additions." holds; thou plantest, and thine heir sits be- Neque harum, quas colis, arborum, "People may talk about fiction being the source of fancy, and wit being at variance with truth; now, some of the wittiest things in the At this moment thy life-for thou wert a world are witty solely from their truth. great man to thine order, and they have added Truth is the soul of a good saying. You thy biography to that of Abershaw and Shepassert,' observes the Socrates of modern times, herd thy life is before us! What a homily 'that we have a virtual representation; very well, let us have a virtual taxation too!' Here the wit is in the fidelity of the sequitur. When Columbus broke the egg, where was the wit? In the completeness of conviction in the broken egg." There are some shrewd and original remarks put forth in the character of Mr. Tomlinson; from these we extract one or two, and recommend all, not only for perusal, but reflection. "When you talk to the half wise, twaddle; when you talk to the ignorant, brag; when you talk to the sagacious, look very humble, and ask their opinion. 6 they departed, and they would have worshipped thy brother as they worshipped thee-but he would not! And thy sign-post is gone, and mouldered already; and to the Jolly Angler' has succeeded the Jolly Tar!' And thy picture is disappearing fast from the printshops, and thy name from the mouths of men! And thy brother, whom no one praised while thou livedst, is on a steeple of panegyric, built in its events! Gaily didst thou laugh into thy above the churchyard that contains thy grave. youth, and run through the courses of thy Oh! shifting and volatile hearts of men! manhood. Wit sat at thy table, and Genius Who would be keeper of a public? Who was thy comrade; Beauty was thy handmaid, dispense the wine and the juices that gladden, and Frivolity played around thee;-a buffoon when, the moment the pulse of the hand ceases, that thou didst ridicule, and ridiculing enjoy! the wine and the juices are forgotten? To Who among us can look back to thy brilliant history-for thy name will be preserved in that era, and not sigh to think that the wonderful record, which, whether it be the Calendar of men who surrounded thee, and amidst whom Newgate or of nations, telleth us alike how thou wert a centre and a nucleus, are for him men suffer, and sin, and perish-to history we but the things of history, and the phantoms of leave the sum and balance of thy merits and a bodiless tradition? Those brilliant suppers, thy faults. The sins that were thine, were glittering with beauty, the memory of which those of the man to whom pleasure is all in makes one spot (yet herited by Bachelor Bill) all: thou wert, from root to branch, sap and "There is one way of cheating people pecu- a haunted and a fairy ground; all who gain heart, what moralists term the libertine; liar to the British Isles, and which, my pupils, thered to that Armida's circle, the Grammonts, hence, the light wooing, the quick desertion, I earnestly recommend you to import hither and the Beauvilliers, and the Rochefoucaults of the broken faith, the organised perfidy, that cheating by subscription. People like to be England and the road who does not feel that manifested thy bearing to those gentler plundered in company; dupery then grows to have seen these, though but as Gil Blas saw creatures who called thee-Gentleman George. into the spirit of party. Thus, one quack very the festivities of his actors, from the sideboard Never, to one solitary woman, until the last gravely requested persons to fit up a ship for and behind the chair, would have been a dull flame of thy dotage, didst thou so behave him and send him round the world as its cap- triumph for the earthlier feelings of his old as to give no foundation to complaint, and no tain to make discoveries; and another pa- age to recall? What, then, must it have been voice to wrong. But who shall say, Be honest triotically suggested that 10,000Z. should be to have seen them as thou didst see- (thou, to one, but laugh at perfidy to another? Who subscribed for what?-to place him in par- the deceased, and the forgotten!)-seen them shall wholly confine treachery to one sex, if to liament. Neither of these fellows could have from the height of thy youth, and power, and that sex he hold treachery no offence? So in screwed an individual out of a shilling had he rank (for early wert thou keeper to a public), thee, as in all thy tribe, there was a laxness of asked him for it in a corner; but a printed and reckless spirits, and lusty capacities of principle, an insincerity of faith, even unto list, with his royal highness' at the top, plays joy! What pleasures, where sense lavished men :thy friends, when occasion suited, thou the devil with English guineas. A subscrip- its uncounted varieties! What revellings, couldst forsake; and thy luxuries were dearer tion for individuals may be considered a society where wine was the least excitement ! to thee than justice to those who supplied for the ostentatious encouragement of idleness, them. Men who love and live for pleasure as impudence, beggary, imposture, and other pubthou, are usually good-natured, for their delic virtues! votion to pleasure arises from the strength of their constitution, and the strength of their constitution preserves them from the irritations of weaker nerves; so wert thou good-natured, and often generous, and often with thy generosity didst thou unite a delicacy that shewed thou hadst an original and a tender sympathy with men. But as those who pursue pleasure are above all others impatient of interruption, so to such as interfered with thy main pursuit, thou didst testify a deep, a lasting, and a revengeful anger. Hence the early gallants To share the triumph and partake the gale?' who rivalled thee in thy loves, know that to Let the scene shift-manhood is touched by thy last day thou didst never forgive—hence age; but lust is heeled' by luxury, and pomp thy bitter and unrelenting hatred of thy unis the heir of pleasure; gewgaws and gaud, fortunate, though not unoffending wife hence instead of glory, surround, rejoice, and flatter thy rash and arbitrary indignation when the thee to the last. There rise thy buildings-mob took the part of that forsaken landlady, and there lie, secret, but gorgeous, the tabernacles insulted thee!-hence the six unjust bills then "For thee, Gentleman George, for thee, of thine ease; and the earnings of thy friends, didst order to be made out, when thy tax-cart what conclusive valediction remains? Alas! and the riches of the people whom they plun- was hit by a stone. But let not these vices of since we began the strange and mumming der, are waters to thine imperial whirlpool. temperament be too severely judged! thou scene wherein first thou wert introduced, the Thou art lapped in ease as is a silkworm; and wert in such respects, no worse, perhaps, than grim foe hath knocked thrice at thy gates; profusion flows from thy high and unseen the members of what may be termed the rob and now, as we write, thou art departed asylum, as the rain poureth from a cloud. bers' aristocracy! Thy tastes, thy qualities, thence thou art no more! a new lord pre- Much didst thou do to beautify chimney-tops- thy principles, thy errors, were rather those of sides in thine easy chair, a new voice rings much to adorn the snuggeries where thou a man frequenting a public, than ruling it. from thy merry board-thou art forgotten! didst dwell;-thieving with thee took a sub- Thou wert the Hd of ale-houses! thy thou art already, like these pages, a tale that is stantial shape, and the robberies of the public talents, such as they were-and they were the told to a memory that retaineth not! Where passed into a metempsychosis of mortar, and talents of a man of the world-misled thee, are thy quips and cranks? where thy stately became public-houses. So there and thus, rather than guided; for they gave thy mind coxcombries and thy regal gauds? Thine building and planning, didst thou spin out thy that demi-philosophy, that indifference to exhouse, and thy pagoda, thy Gothic chimney, latter yarn, till death came upon thee; and alted motives, which is generally found in and thy Chinese sign-post ;-these yet ask the when we looked around, lo! thy brother was a clever rake, and which we grieve to say concluding hand: thy hand is cold, their com- on thy hearth. And thy parasites, and thy characterised the whig-rufflers of thy period. pletion, and the enjoyment the completion comrades, and thine ancient pals, and thy portly Thy education was wretched; thou hadst a yields, are for another! Thou sowest, and thy blowens, they made a murmur, and they smattering of Horace, but thou couldst not follower reaps; thou buildest, thy successor packed up their goods--but they turned ere write English, and thy letters betray that thon 'Inde alitur nudus placidâ sub matre Cupido, Inde voluptates, inde alimenta Dei.' Let the scene shift-how stirring is the change! "You must know, my dear young friends, Triumph, and glitter, and conquest! For thy that while the appearance of magnanimity is public was a public of renown-thither came very becoming to you, and so forth, it will get the warriors of the ring-the heroes of the you a great deal of ill-will if you attempt to cross-and thou, their patron, wert elevate on practise it to your own detriment. Your their fame-principes pro victoria pugnant, neighbours are so invariably, though perhaps comites pro principe. What visions sweep insensibly, actuated by self-interest-self-inte- across us! What glories didst thou witness! rest is so entirely, though every twaddler denies it, the axis of the moral world, that they fly into a rage with him who seems to disregard it. When a man ruins himself, just hear the abuse he receives; his neighbours take it as a personal affront!" With truth, merely softened by that gentler feeling which belongs to the sanctity of the dead, we leave the admirable spirit of the following eloquent summing up of character to speak for itself. Over what conquests didst thou preside! The 6 6 wert wofully ignorant of logic. The fineness Crags (or cliffs), and the adjacent hill of consideration that he is simply a bankrupt. of thy taste has been exaggerated; thou wert Arthur's Seat, with a fringe of pasture land to The local authorities look upon the refugee as unacquainted with the nobleness of simplicity; the south, reaching to the margin of Dudding- if he were in a foreign country, where they thy idea of a whole was grotesque and over-stone Loch. Altogether, the verge of the sanc- could have no recourse upon him. No civil loaded; and thy fancy in details was gaudy and tuary may describe a circle of four miles, the warrant can break in upon his retirement; meretricious. But thou hadst thy hand con- greater part of which is walled, with convenient and, in a certain sense, he is dead to the world. stantly in the public purse, and thou hadst stiles for the thoroughfare of foot passengers. Great as exemptions of this description may be plans and advisers for ever before thee: more The principal residences of the householders deemed by persons unacquainted with the prac than all, thou didst find the houses in that and refugees are huddled into a cluster within tical effects of the privilege, in reality the imneighbourhood wherein thou didst build, so a hundred yards of the front of the palace, and munity is scarcely worthy of acceptance. Repreternaturally hideous, that thou didst require only separated from the burgh of Canongate, fugees labour under innumerable disadvantages. but little science to be less frightful in thy on the west, by a strand or paved gutter, which, There is no organised society within the precreations. If thou didst not improve thy since the removal of the girth cross, which cincts to which an individual of the middle or native village and thy various homes with a stood near this spot, has been constituted the upper classes can resort for solace in his retiresolid, a lofty, and a noble taste, thou didst line of demarcation to debtors in this direction. ment. If the sanctuary man,' or the abbey nevertheless very singularly improve. And The dwellings, which at one period were the laird,' as he is familiarly termed in Edinburgh, thy posterity, in avoiding the faults of thy residences of courtiers and retainers of the be an accustomed reveller, he may possibly masonry, will be grateful for the effects of thy household, are mean and inconvenient in their find a few persons equally willing to assist ambition. The same demi-philosophy which internal structure. It is only a few years in drowning care in the bowl, of an evening, influenced thee in private life, exercised a far since a nauseous dunghill and cowhouse were or to discuss libations of raw whisky and benigner and happier power over thee in pub- stationed not three steps from one of the side small beer in the forenoon, and entertain him lic. Thou wert not idly vexatious in vestries, door-ways of the palace. Such gross nuisances with interminable and edifying disquisitions nor ordinarily tyrannic in thy parish; if thou are now removed to a greater distance; but on the properties of the cessio, the hardwert ever arbitrary, it was only when thy the building is still hemmed in with objects of heartedness of creditors, and every minute pleasure was checked, or thy vanity wounded. disgust, and the whole precincts wear an air of particular of their own flight. But if he At other times thou didst leave events to their desolation, neglect, and impoverished gran- be a sober-minded man, his case is very pitilegitimate course, so that in thy latter years deur, characteristic of the altered state of the able. There are no club, billiard, nor reading thou wert justly popular in thy parish; and in country in its political relations. This little rooms; no out-of-doors amusements; and dethy grave, thy great good fortune will outshine palatinate, comprising possibly five hundred licate-minded debtors will even be disinclined thy few bad qualities, and men will say of thee souls, is under the jurisdiction of a bailie ap- to stir out of their miserable lodging-rooms, in with a kindly, nor an erring judgment In pri- pointed by the heritable keeper of the palace, dread of being stared at by any known acvate life he was not worse than the Rufflers who who holds a court every Monday, at which all quaintance or townsman who may chance to be came to his bar; in public life he was better internal feuds and civil claims are discussed. passing through the parks. The ordinary rethan those who kept a public before him.' He, or the legal deputy whom he commissions, source of reading becomes tiresome, and, beHark! those huzzas! what is the burthen of can award punishment by incarceration in the sides, proper books are difficult to be procured. that chorus?-Oh, grateful and never time- abbey jail-a place consisting of a dungeon and The ennuyé may stroll by the way of St. serving Britons, have ye modified already for single light apartment-or make seizure of ef- Anton's well' to the top of the neighbouring another the song ye made so solely in honour fects. This judicature applies indiscriminately hill, where he is greeted with a very extensive of Gentleman George; and must we, lest we to refugees who may have contracted debts in prospect, and, like Robinson Crusoe, when lose the custom of the public, and the good the sanctuary, and to the general inhabitants. anxiously looking for the coming or departure things of the tap-room, must we roar with Those who flee to this privileged spot, as soon of the savages, he may lay himself down and throats yet hoarse with our fervour for the old as they gain the inner side of the girth, are count the vessels on the Forth, and remark words, our ardour for the new? free from pursuit; but before twenty-four them as they come into sight, or gradually hours elapse, they must enter their names in sink beneath the visible horizon; but all the books of the bailie, lying at a small caverned this will not minister to a mind diseased,' office near the barrier. On this a printed form and, in all likelihood, it will only add torment of protection is given for a consideration of to the already disconsolate debtor. The worst twenty shillings, whereby the applicant is peculiarity of the place consists in the very screened from all civil diligence on debts con-heavy expense which attends a residence. The tracted prior to the date of his registration. apartments let out by the householders, and As long as the person resides within the every other requisite for the existence of debtbounds, the certificate requires no renewal; ors, are dear, and generally of a bad quality. but should he leave the sanctuary for fifteen Instead of being supported upon aliment, as in clear days, he cannot be again protected on the jail, the outlay is enormous, and it is only Chambers' Book of Scotland. same score. He can only be sheltered a second those who possess any considerable means who THE following is another description of a time from the diligence raised on those debts can endure a residence for more than a short remnant of antiquity, the sanctuary afforded he may have contracted since the date of his period. As this circumstance is well known, by the precincts of the royal palace of Holyrood first protection. This may be supposed to the absconding of a debtor to the sanctuary, Abbey and House; and we cannot do better neutralise the bad effects of the sanctuary; but and his wilful residence there, in most cases than place it here, in continuation of the sub- we are doubtful if it do so, as it must be next exasperates creditors; it being shrewdly conject with which we broke off in No. 712. to impossible for creditors or officers of justice jectured that he must have kept up money to "The termini sanctorum of this ancient to procure authentic intelligence of the out- enable him to do so. Thus, few Scottish royal residence, which are so well described in goings and incomings of refugees. No protec- traders or others take the benefit of sanctuary, every topographical work as to require a very tion can be given to crown debtors, or those unless it be for the space of one or two days, superficial notice here, remained possessed of convicted of, or charged with, fraud. If it can for the purpose of securing their persons until their privileges on the departure of James to be sworn that refugees meditate flight from the a sequestration be sued out, or a compromise England; and since that period they have con- country, they can be secured and put in con- be made with all the creditors. In times of tinued to be kept up in full force, without any finement the same as other debtors, until they the severest mercantile calamities, the number attempt on the part of the legislature or the find caution that they will remain. The Court of refugees has been known to amount to fifty; courts of law to call them in question. The of Session can order the presence of refugees as but this was only for a few days, and it is seldom precincts are extensive, and of a varied cha-witnesses in any trial, under a guarantee of there are more than eight or ten. Occasionally racter; being partly within and partly without safe conduct for a specified number of days. the sanctuary is resorted to by debtors from the outworks of the metropolis, and abounding Debtors have liberty to leave the sanctuary England, as it gives protection to persons from in some of the most sequestrated rural haunts in from twelve o'clock on Saturday night for the all nations. In a few cases such have been hill and dale in the county of Mid Lothian. space of twenty-four hours. No species of known to live for years, and at last die, in the The girth of the sanctuary includes the flat property can be protected by the privilege. precincts. Recently it happened that there piece of meadow land around and to the east of Neither the Court of Session, nor other Scot-were three baronets resident in the sanctuary the royal mansion, the domain of St. Anne's tish judicatures, lay any stress on the act of a at one time; and it is sometimes the case that Yard, some pleasant gardens and shrubberies, debtor taking the benefit of sanctuary, nor the sons of noblemen are to be found enjoying the romantic precipitous cliffs of Salisbury visit him with any mark of infamy beyond the the privilege. These personages, in most in 66 Here's to Mariner Bill, God bless him! God bless him! Here's to Mariner Bill, God bless him!" My works," says our author, " are written on the principle of being read twice:" we think they deserve it; and, what is not always the consequence, we also think they will meet with more than their numerical deserts. |