select some examples, though the latter of one of the most ancient families in Eng-giving him this opportunity of shewing his are often mixed up with the former. land, this is too much for our age, and I love. No Englishwoman at Venice would Naples, 22d Feb. How much do I regret have learnt with pleasure, that Lord Byron receive this lady, but as she is very pleasing that I cannot say more of a charming ball, is a wretch. When he came into the draw-inher manners, she was received in all comgiven by Mr. Lewis, author of the Monk, ing-room of Madame de Staël, at Copet, all panies by the Italian ladies. The most at the house of his sister, Mrs. Lushington. the English ladies left it. Our unfortunate frozen imagination could not conceive any Amidst the gross manners of the Neapoli- man of genius had the misfortune to marry thing so freezing as the manner in which tans, English purity is a refreshment to the his wife is very clever, and has renewed these two passionate lovers live together. blood. I danced in a Scotch reel with Lord at his expense, the old story of Tom Jones There is not the least shade of any thing Chichester, a youth of fourteen, who is a and Blifil. Men of genius, are generally like disagreement, but a coldness and appasimple midshipman (Qu. simply a midship. mad, or at least very imprudent, (ergo M. de rent indifference which a Frenchwoman man!) on board a frigate just arrived. The Stendhal is according to his own dicta a could not endure for a day, though from a English know the value of education, par-man of genius;) his Lordship was so atro-King. I am so satisfied of the truth of what ticularly in their marine service, and they cious as to take an actress into keeping for I say, that I cannot doubt it; yet neither will soon have occasion to uphold that ser- two months. If he had been a blockhead, can I sufficiently express my astonishment. vice in every possible way. I read in the nobody would have concerned themselves I ascribe it to the national pride. An Encountenance of some Americans who were there, with his following the example of almost all glishman would consider his dignity as dethat in thirty years from this time, England young men of fashion; but it is well known graded if he should suffer any woman whatwill be reduced to being only happy. To this that Mr. Murray, the bookseller, gives him ever to consider herself as essential to his Lord P, one of the most enlightened two guineas a line for all the verses he sends happiness. men in England assented with a sigh. The him. He is absolutely the counterpart of We trust this melancholy picture will English are abhorred every where, particu- M. de Mirabeau; the feodalists, before the make a deeper impression on our fair larly by the lower classes of society.2 revolution, not knowing how to answer the and married countrywomen. We trust Eagle of Marseilles, discovered that he was a that with a keener insight into human what befel his countryman; the Englishmonster. The Provençal could laugh at nature than this writer possesses, they will duce us to the misfortune of being only matter in a high tragic tone. The injustice whatever the cause, the effect with reman it appears thought proper to take up the not ascribe to national pride (though happy; and as our Lords of the Admir-which this young Lord has met with in his gard to the unhappy woman is the same,) alty may not be able to read so much in the own country, has rendered him, it is said, but to satiety, and to that contempt of the American countenances which they may gloomy and misanthropic, Much good may weakness, and suspicion of the crimibehold, we mark it down as a warning for it do him! If at the age of 28, when he cau them: "The AMERICANS IN TWENTY six volumes of the finest poetry, it had been ties, that must ever close the scene of already reproach himself with having written nality, to which we ourselves were parYEARS WILL BE READY TO FALL possible thoroughly to know the world, he conjugal infidelity and guilty indulgence. UPON THEM (the English) WITH FIVE would have been aware that in the 19th cen- Never yet did aught but wretchedness HUNDRED PRIVATEERS!!" Was ever tury there is but one alternative, to be a await the outcast female whom lawless a nation made happy by such means be-blockhead or a monster. Be this as it may, he is love deluded from her wedded and mafore? The following whimsical charac-the most delightful monster I ever knew; ternal duties, to embrace the shame of a ters are given of several of our country-sion he is as simple as a child; the reverse fidence cannot exist, short must be the in talking of poetry in any literary discus-vicious passion. Where esteem and conis the case with an Academician. He can A few passages lower down in his page our sagacious Frenchman is kind enough to tell us how the Americans are to re men. March 26th. I would go fifty leagues with pleasure to see a man who could argue as powerfully in the cause of feodality, as Mr. Brougham in favour of liberal sentiments. The conversation of this great statesman has been one of the greatest pleasures I ever experienced, but it is not often that he will talk! June 27th (Venice.) I was introduced at the theatre to Lord Byron. What a grand countenance !—it is impossible to have finer eyes! the divine man of genius!-He is yet scarcely twenty-eight years of age, and he is the first poet in England, probably in the world; when he is listening to music it is a countenance worthy of the beau-ideal of the Greeks. For the rest, let a man be ever so great a poet, let him besides be the head I Not the Post-Master General. speak the ancient Greek, the modern Greek, reign of hot and self-consuming plea- Having alluded in strong terms to the What a noble tribute to the moral libertine principles of the author, we shall character of Britain is here unconsci-justify our censure.--Speaking of Italian ously paid by this profligate Frenchman! husbands, he saysHe acknowledges elsewhere indeed that Shall I venture to dive to the bottom of the young Roman prelates who have tra- morals here? According to all that I have velled, agree that " England is the only been able to learn, I believe there are as many country in the world in which any reli-husbands unfortunate at Paris as at Bologna 2 The French, on the contrary, are adored gion is really to be found," but this is --as inany at Berlin as at Rome. The differin Italy, though a curions proof of this occurs only a sort of sneer from a man of no re- Paris; at Bologna it is caused by the sun. ence is, that the sin arises from vanity at at page 276, where it is discovered, "at our ligious principle, and we were not pre-I believe the husbands in the middling last retreat from Italy, Count Grenier having occasion to send a Colonel, a friend of mine, to pared even for an involuntary confession classes in England, and in all the classes at the Austrian General-who would believe it?of our moral excellence also. The subthis French Colonel was obliged to invoke the joined notice is of the same complexion: protection of the enemy's hussars, to pass the parties may be readily guessed. through the villages on his route, the inhabitants of which would have laid violent hands There was at Venice an Englishman who had run away with his Sister-in-law, and afterwards married her. This little sally cost May we never see the day when Britain him 30,000l. sterling; he thanked the unfor-would exchange for the dissoluteness of tunate husband in the public papers for any country, that purest blessing of so upon him. I saw his carriage stuck through in a hundred places with pitchforks. This scene took place on the banks of the Po, to wards Placentia!!" ED. Geneva, to be more exempt than any others ments with ennui and weariness! We shall quote one more tribute from vice to virtue-from the rankness of foreign manners, to the purity of those of our native land. cial life, of which profligacy has so false and Milanese.-All the Florentines are very and foreign news not worth gleaning, a notion as to class its exquisite enjoy-meagre. At the coffee-houses one sees them that works of this class should start in the take for their breakfast nothing but a single provinces, and prove that it was from no cup of coffee with milk, and a roll the most diminutive possible; this meal costs about want of talent that country magazines four sous, and they dine for about eleven or did not enter into honourable competitwelve sous. Their dress is in the same tion with town magazines, as country style, a coat well brushed, but never a new newspapers had long held an equal pace one; every thing among them breathes the with those of the metropolis. We are most rigid economy. In all respects they glad to observe from the Number before are the very opposite of the Milanese, never us, which completes the first Volume, latter to be seen among them. At Milan, are the expanded and happy features of the that the Yorkshire Magazine does justhe great business is to dine well; at Florence, to make people believe they have dined. May 8, (Florence.) Would you have a portrait of one of the charming Milady's that we have here, take it. Lady R..... is 26 years of age; she is not ugly, very mild, and passably polite; it is not her fault that she is not more amusing, it is the result of having seen so little; for she has good sense, is very natural, and not at all assuming; her tone of voice is mild, even approaching to something like silliness: if she had been educated in France, she would have been delightful. I drew her into giving me an account of her mode of life; she is wholly occupied with her husband and children, without austerity or ostentation. She might be pleasing, she is ennuyeux. The horrid monster! what? love her husband and children, and not act the harlot as in France! Oh, intolerably dull and stupid brute! But would to heaven that all our travelling Fair merited the like abuse. tice to our prognostications, and is not a Yorkshire bite. Seriously, we have been much gratified in the perusal of this Though we have not half exhausted work, and with that candour which we the selection which we had marked to trust will ever distinguish the Literary illustrate this strange, but exceedingly Gazette in speaking of its contemporaamusing volume, the extent to which it ries, we take pleasure in stating our senhas already carried us, warns us to leave timents, in the hope that they may tend the rest to the perusal of the work itself, to diffuse a knowledge of this agreeable which, from its vivacity, ease, and even Miscellany, which is yet so new as not calculated to render it very popular. We ness of this sort from our hands. (as we set out by saying) absurdity, are (we trust) to be above accepting a kindhave, however, been strongly tempted to Though there is a great deal of local transfer to our pages some further anec-information in the Northern Star, it yet dotes of considerable interest, some curi-embraces so large a circle of an interestous information respecting the lives of ing part of the country, as to afford much the principal composers and performers amusement to general readers, as well as Our readers will, we are sure, pardon of modern Italy, and some cursory no- a peculiar treat to readers more intimately us for being a little grave on these topics: tices relative to the arts. The latter, in-connected with the site of its luenbraby way of amends we shall select a few deed, we shall copy into that department tions. Its topographical papers, and views miscellaneous specimens, which may be of some future Number; and now con- of picturesque scenery, antiquities, &c. more entertaining. The following de- clude with M. de Stendhal's version of and its accounts of the manufactures in finition of a synonyme would have the retreat from Moscow, which has at the most important of onr manufacturing brought an endless laugh upon an Irish- least the merit, if not of truth, of entire districts, are curious and intelligent. The novelty. selections, biography, literature, poetry, "Every one of the conquered languages Count Neri engaged me one day, confiden- &c. being more in common with other has brought synonymes into the victorious tially, to give him the whole account of the publications, we shall pass them by, and one; and what synonymes? gracious Heaven! campaign of Moscow, with the maps before lay before the public a specimen of the they have often a sense directly opposite. us. I had two officers with me, who were Reasons for remembering a picturesque there; I told him that nothing was more more original matter. country. I have been travelling in a Sediola plain and simple than the transaction, and STAFFORDSHIRE POTTERIES.-Tis not in by moon-light; I love the aspect of the Ap-that, till I got to Paris, I never thought that the power of language to convey any adepennines illumined by the star of night. A se- I had escaped great perils! While we were quate idea of the appearance of the Stafforddiola, as the name implies, is a little chair fixed dying with hunger, I said, as far as the Bere-shire potteries; they form a scene of a nobetween two very high wheels; we drive the sina, the cold was not severe, and when we vel kind, totally different from the general horse ourselves, which goes on a full trot, at were assailed with such dreadful snow and character of an English town; and if the the rate of three leagues an hour.-I was frost, we found plenty of provisions in the term amorphous can ever be with propriety yesterday overturned three times, but it was Polish villages. For the rest, if Prince Ber- applied to an aggregate of buildings, no my own fault, not that of the roads; the thier had had the least spirit of order, and place on earth can more forcibly claim the horse went at the rate of nearly four leagues if Buonaparte had had resolution enough epithet. an hour. The attention being strongly fixed to have two soldiers shot every day, he would on the landscape, we cannot easily forget a not have lost 6000 men in the whole recountry which we have gone over in a sediola. man: We shall next hear of astronomy being advantageously studied by a tumbler in performing summer-saults. treat. The translation (though neither free from Gallicisms nor very elegant) is evidently too faithful to permit us to think Whimsical Anecdote.-A priest at Milan that the Count has been misrepresented took it into his head to have miracles per- for the rest, to use an odious phrase formed by means of a young man whom he which occurs too often in this book, the instructed; the governor seeing the object at which he aimed, sent them both to young officer deserves himself the merit prison:-" I have no doubt," said he to them of this most extraordinary story. publicly," that to-morrow you will be at liberty; this little additional miracle cannot be difficult to you, and will be very import-Magazine. No. VI, for December. ant in silencing the incredulous; for myself, We noticed in its origin this periodical I engage not to arrest you again." publication, and hailed it as a good sign Spirited contrast between the Florentines of literature superseding party bickerings, THE NORTHERN STAR, or Yorkshire : Conceive twelve or fourteen populous villages, covering an area of ten miles by two, so closely connected as to leave between them no perceptible separation, and you will have a tolerable idea of the extent of this manufactory! Conceive again a large house, built of the finest materials, furnished in the most superb manner, and apparently better adapted for the palace of a grandee than the modest mansion of a tradesman; surrounded with furnaces, kilns, and sheds, and perpetually involved in smoke; and you have a faint sketch of the habitation of a gentleman potter! The smelting of lead, and the converting of it into any oxide, is universally allowed to produce the excruciating disease the bel There appears to me so great a similarity between this story and that of " Alonzo the Brave and the fair Imogine," as to make it probable that one tradition has served as the foundation for both: or, which is equally as probable, that the poetical Alonzo was the land; the vapours of sulphur lay the foun-one large street, and numbered every dwell-, the ground was the site on which the cross, dation of spasms and contractions; the in-ing. His manufactory he placed at the end since called "Sir Leonard's," has been haling of sublimed arsenic causes almost in-contiguous to the canal, and fixed his resi. erected. stant suffocation, nor is any preparation of dence in the park adjoining. Thus, like the tin, copper, or antimony, perfectly salutary Baron of feudal times, he lived among his to the functions of vitality. Imagine then vassals, revered as a parent, respected as a all these ingredients mixing with the steam chief. of the drying clay, and you will have some This village, though perhaps containing conception of the purity of air breathed upward of six-score families, furnishes but in a pottery. Paint to yourself some thou-a small proportion of the workmen of Messrs. traditional Sir Leonard. sands of human beings subjected to the joint Wedgewood and Byerly. The number of influence of such an atmosphere, labouring hands employed at the " Queen's Pottery," under a complication of disorders which ge- may be perhaps best estimated by considernerally terminate in asthma or consump-ing that the proprietors, at their own ex-GRESS of the late DISTURBANCES, and tion. See these emaciated wretches every pense, maintain a corps of volunteers, (I on the Conduct of His Majesty's Governday renewing an occupation which shortens think of three companies,) entirely comment. the enjoyment of life, for the sole purpose of posed of their own men. Mr. Byerly is We are not fond of political discussions, procuring a scanty aliment to prolong, if pos- Capt. Commandant, and every man receives sible, a miserable existence. Survey then from him the same wages for his attendance for no man who meddled with them ever the ornaments of your tea-table, and learn in the field, as he would have had, had he yet avoided offence to one side or other. by reflection, how numerous are the suffer- continued at work. The Etruria volunteers Politics are the enemy of literature. They ings and privations of one part of mankind, have never a bad muster. are besides dry, and their importance is in order to supply the other with imaginary comforts, and useless luxuries. of the most curious connoisseur. follows. THOUGHTS on the RISE and PRO Who the author is we know not; but though his name should be for ever concealed, we trust that his example, in this respect, will be nevertheless followed. One thing only is wanting in Etruria to the only quality which renders them inrender the offspring of this private colony, In a commercial view, however, the pot fully sensible of the advantages of its situa-teresting. But this pamphlet is so able, teries rank high. Foreign markets are hence tion: that thing is a good school; for though temperate, and judicious, that we think supplied with a ware peculiar to this coun- Mr. Wedgewood, when he built the village, we can offend no good man, and we are try, and superior in its kind to any conti-erected a school-house, the endowment has sure we may benefit the general communental manufacture. India is rivalled in her always been too little to encourage any man nity by recommending it strongly to peporcelain, and even the antique vases of of abilities to abide here. A school on the rusal. Arguments so moderately urged, Italy have yielded up their composition to Lancasterian plan would be attended with views so calmly taken, and subjects of the chemical research of the philosophizing incalculable benefit. vital consequence so impartially conpotter, who can reproduce them in such per- Public spirit and independency of princifection, as to elude the scrutinizing criticism ple are the constant attendants on trade and sidered, lose to the author the character manufacture. The potters in an eminent of partizan, aud entitle him to the praise After quoting from Mr. Accum's Che-degree possess both. Their canals, their of an independent British citizen, who, mistry a description of "the method of subscription churches, and their dispensary, in pressing his opinion on certain points, making pottery," the Editor proceeds as tion into companies congenial to their indi- country, and fulfilling a duty which his are monuments of the one; and their forma- is discharging a debt which he owes his vidual sentiments evince the other. They conscience prescribes. Were all controAn old tradesman on his journey from have their Odd Fellows, their Clubs, and Staffordshire to London, fell into company their Thespians; their religionists and their versies so conducted, we should have with an intelligent ostler at one of the inns visionaries; their debating and their politi- nothing to lament of that bitterness which where he slept, to whom he lamented, in pa-cal societies. Their women too, from their in politics is so unworthy of brethren of thetic terms, that he feared he should lose employment in the manufactories and their the same nation, and in religion so unbehis horse before his return, from a disorder frequent converse with men, learn every coming of Christians. that had invaded his eyes, and rendered him thing but what should make them modest almost blind; the ostler proposed to cure virgins, managing housewives, tender wives, him, and taking a flint out of his tinder-box, and good mothers. made it red hot in the kitchen fire, when by suddenly quenching it in water, it became friable, and he soon beat it to a fine powder. This powder he blew into the horse's eyes, and probably thus saved his life. The old gentleman (who, however interested he cation. might be for his animal, was much more so A tradition is current in Thrybergh to for his trade,) eved the powder with surprise, this effect. Sir Leonard, a knight of that and from its whiteness conjectured that a si-neighbourhood, left his lady to go abroad, milar preparation might be used with advan- probably into Palestine in the time of the tage, in making a whiter kind of ware than Crusades, where remaining many years, he had hitherto been manufactured. On his rewas believed to be killed, and his widow, as turn home he had the satisfaction of finding she thought herself, was prevailed upon to that he had reasoned rightly, and the use of accompany another knight to the altar. In calcined flint soon became general through- the midst of the ceremony, when all eyes out the pottery. We are no For a long time it was were fixed upon the bridegroom and the pounded by manual labour, which gave bride, a voice tremendous as thunder was friends to any encroachment upon the place to horse mills, and they in their turn heard to exclaim, " Forbear! the lady is my liberties of the subject, and it is only as have been superseded by water and steam wife." Sir Leonard was soon recognized, the a lesser evil that we should at any time mills. The river Churnet works many of lady gladly returned to her husband, and assent to the temporary removal of this sathem, and their construction is well worth they both instantly disappeared from among cred protection of individual rights. Not the inspection of the curious observer. the company. As his sudden appearance that we fear the abuse of power-thanks could not be accounted for by any natural means, it was believed that the knight had to a free press that is impossible-but been brought thither by the help of magic, our very admiration of the constitution, and that the spot on which he first touched and our loyal attachment to the Govern Etruria (1803,) is the only place in the Potteries that has any pretension to beauty, or even regularity. The sole property of Mr. Wedgewood-be built this village as From the modern we turn to the ancient, and the annexed notice of St. Leonard's Cross, near Thrybergh, appears worthy of a place in any literary publi In his discussion of our recent politics the Spencean system is well defined; and it is shewn that no principles so agreeable to the dregs of society ought to be conemned as innocuous and void of danger. The suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act is defended as a measure of prevention ; and this is upheld as infinitely more constitutional and more humane than suffering the mischief, grafted on the national distress, to grow to a head, and putting it down by military force. ment by which it is administered, would are neither overcharged nor affected. In tatters, than to impose on the indigent, render us always unwilling, on any case England, nature presents so beautiful, so succour for which they must pay so dear a short of absolute necessity, to encroach rich, and so varied a form, that it would price. have been difficult to forbear delineating Who will believe it? The manufactures of upon the former, or clothe the latter with objects at once so novel and captivating. England, though envied by the rest of Euan invidious authority. But we enter not There mankind seem to have no other occu- rope, and admired by every foreigner who into the question; the public has made pation than to cultivate the earth, and ga- has enjoyed an opportunity of observing up its mind upon it, and we are not vain ther its fruits, like our first parents, before them, are, or will one day, become the enough to imagine that any thing we their sin; ornaments, either natural or con- greatest scourge of the nation. M. Simond, could advance would alter a single trived by art, conceal from the eye every who cannot be accused of viewing the worst opinion. Those who still doubt we refer trace of labour.-" England," says M. Si-side of things, acknowledges that the ma to this pamphlet. mond, "seems to constitute the pleasure-nufacturing population is in general corrupt, grounds of London, which are cultivated degenerated, both in morals and constitumerely for the sake of amusement, and in tion, and equally seditious, whether in proswhich every thing is subordinate to pic. perity or misery. At Birmingham, Manturesque luxury and ostentation. We are here chester, and Glasgow, the machines are in a retired corner, 278 miles from the capi- admired, and the workmen pitied, but partital, a place without trade or manufactures, cularly the children:-to live in the neighof London. The soil, though half rock, is for childhood. To work for more than 12 and yet it is precisely like the neighbourhood bourhood of a manufactory is a sad destiny sold for its weight in gold, merely on account hours, with a short intermission, and after of the beauty of the situation. The difficulty that to attend school for one hour, a of procuring servants and workmen is a ge-duty by no means calculated to amuse the neral complaint; finally, there are not enow mind-such is the daily life of these unforof poor for the rich." tunate little beings. The author enters at some length into the abstract question of the propriety of employing spies in turbulent times; but as we do not design to do more than briefly notice his work, we shall decline doing injustice to any of his arguments, and conclude by quoting two or three paragraphis as a specimen of his manner. On the Habeas Corpus Suspension, he says: It is much better that a few bad men should be detained in prison, than that the All this would be too delightful, were there But we must distinguish from these mainnocent victims of their seduction should be no reverse to the medal. M. Simond, like nufactures a number of establishments which given up to military execution. How much all men of lively imagination, yields to the do honour to human genius, and in which better was it to resign, for a short time, some pleasure of describing what strikes him at the steam-engine executes all the labours of part of our liberties that the whole might be the moment, without taking the trouble to an immense manipulation. The almost ge preserved! The Suspension Act has now ascertain whether or not he is perfectly con-neral application of the steam-engine, as a been passed for nearly twelve months. Has sequent. Thus he closes the picture above principle of motion, occasions a vast saving any honest man felt himself injured by it? quoted, by the following comparison:- both of money and workmen, and in some Might not the government defy even male-Frederick the Great condemned every dra- measure accounts for the extraordinary volence itself to produce a single instance of goon to be bastonadoed, who should happen efforts which England has made, without detention in prison, except upon strong to fall from his horse :- I know not how it impeding either the increase of her riches or grounds of suspicion? Have not the pri- happens, said he, but none of them fall now.' her population. There luxury employs more soners been brought to trial with as much men than in any other nation: this is apdispatch as circumstances could possibly parent from the vast number of male-servants admit? And have not numbers been disout of place, to be met with in the streets charged whose safe custody was no longer of London; they are calculated to amount necessary? With this challenge I close the to 50,000. This is certainly not the greatest subject. advantage which has resulted from the use of the steam-engine. A warm eulogy on the moderation and firmness of Lord Sidmouth closes this publication, against which we do not believe there can be one dissentient voice in the kingdom. VOYAGE EN ANGLETERRE, EN 1810 et 1811, par L. SIMOND, à Paris. Perhaps the dread inspired by the overseers He In sketching the picture of a country which has created for herself an existence territory and population, in comparison with out of all proportion to the extent of her other European states, the highest and most abstract questions of political economy must frequently present themselves. These questions the author has in general treated in a A French traveller's observations on rests on the authority of the best English summary but very substantial way. England, as reviewed by a French critic, and Foreign writers on the subject, particu will, we hope, be found to possess conlarly on that of Mr. Malthus. These dissiderable entertainment for our readers. cussions are enlivened by an animated style, This work, though recently published, has and by striking observations, though perhaps The author enters into minute details con- with here and there a few paradoxes; and are already reached a second edition. The author has adopted the modest form of a Jour-niences to which they give rise; he observes, which augment the interest of the work to cerning the poor-laws, and the inconve-intermingled with facts and descriptions nal; he describes things in the order in that the overseers who are entrusted with the reader who wishes for information, and which they presented themselves to his no- the management of the treasury of the poor, by no means diminish its attractions to him tice; we follow him without effort and without fatigue, and pause with pleasure in the are more devoted to the maintenance of who looks only for amusement. laces where he sojourned. No observation of humanity. Eager to domineer, they pry England is superior to all the rest of the their own paltry authority, than to the cares Though, for her industry and agriculture, scapes him, though he does not pretend to into all that passes in the families of the world; though in the cultivation of the ba scholar, a statesman, or a philosopher. le is an instructive and lively prattler, sciences, she yields to no other nation; ose conversational style abounds in brilthough it cannot be denied that she posAnt strokes, equally in unison with reason by no means happy in the cultivation of sesses great beauties in literature, yet she is art good taste, and without the slightest those arts which are termed the ornaments of life; we do not allude to those frivolities of which it would be childish to boast; but tre of research or affectation. poor, whom they subject to the most odious here is, perhaps, too frequent a recur- These learned Thebans never heard of our rene of picturesque descriptions; but they eight millions a year of poor's rates. country in which the ancestors of the good and brave Bas-Bretons defended their liberty against the Danes? Who would not wish to live and die there-oblitus cunctorum obliviscendus et illis ? to architecture, painting, and music. Except) ly more absurd than our Amphigouris, which | whiten the stones of the roads fronting their St. Paul's Cathedral, our author mentions had their day of favor. These songs amuse abodes; every cottage has its rose-trees, its no edifice, either public or private, through-the English prodigiously. M. Simond con- honey-suckles, its vines, and its pretty little out England, which can be truly styled re- cludes his analysis of several pieces, by ob- gravel walk leading to the door. A fine race markable, not even among the castles, which servations which are rather remarkable, as of inhabitants, and, in particular, pretty present all the magnificence of the feudal proceeding from him. women; a patriarchal civilization, no manuages, and in which the most captivating "These stupid crudities, clumsily linked facturing establishments, no academies, neiluxury of art assists and embellishes nature. together by a style destitute of merit, are ther arts, sciences, nor politics, but a happy M. Simond bestows but little eulogium astonishingly successful: they sometimes and tranquil population. Who would not on the English painters; but we must like-made me laugh; but, indeed, if I can re-sigh at the contemplation of such a picture? wise add, that he speaks irreverently of the proach myself for having laughed at any who would not wish to end his days in the Gods of Painting, Raphael, Guido, Titian, thing, it would be the wretched insipidities &c. It is only within these few years, that of the English stage." there has existed in London a public exhibition of pictures, similar to our Salon, under the auspices of a society, who employ the money received for admissions, and certain sums provided by their members, in the purchase of pictures, but these pictures are too few in number to afford real encouragement to artists; thus they almost exclusively devote themselves to portrait painting. The Government should devote funds to this object; but then what would the opposition say! We must not, however, be too hasty in condemning the English; perhaps neither their climate nor their habits permit them to cultivate the arts, and to go against nature would only be adding a fresh instance of insanity to those which they already manifest!!!2 ous, are in as high a state of perfection as in England. Every traveller who has visited England, is naturally asked, whether he was ever present at a parliamentary debate, or at least whether he has seen the interior of the Par- Scotland is at once more barbarous and liament Houses. M. Simond amply satisfies more civilized; the city of Edinburgh is the curious on these two particulars; what famed for science and literature; at present, appeared to him most remarkable in the however, there is less controversy than forHouse of Commons, were two narrow gal-merly, the country is no longer agitated by leries, running along both sides of the in- the gloomy doctrines of the Presbyterians; terior, destined for those members who feel the people of Scotland still preserve an disposed to take a nap during the debate. affecting recollection of Mary, Edward, and There, in the face of the public and his col- the Count d'Artois, who there experienced leagues, the honourable Member arranges the warmest hospitality, and the most markthe cushions, stretches himself out at full ed demonstrations of affection and respect. length, and snores at his ease, without The humidity of the climate, and mildness troubling his head about the progress of the of the seasons, render the country extremely discussion. Another establishment, no less fertile. In Scotland, lands let higher than comfortable, and very much frequented by in England; the farmers are more laborious Our author speaks of the English tragedy the honourable members, is a kitchen, the and more sober than their southern neighlike a Frenchman, and of the French tra- excellent beef-steaks of which are highly ex-bours; the manufactures, though less numergedy like an Englishman; he does not, how-tolled by M. Simond. ever, go so far as to blaspheme our great There is something humourous in the poets, and it cannot be denied that our author's description of the difliculties which The Highlanders have undergone a total tragic system is defective with regard to na- must be encountered by those who wish to revolution both in their manners and their ture and effect; this, however, we would gain access to the Houses of Parliament, character; they are better fed, better shelrather tolerate than see our stage dishonour- when an interesting debate is expected. For tered, and better clothed than they formerly ed by monstrous compositions. We know the information of the curious, we shall were, but they have less vigour, less courage, that the English tragedy admits of farce and merely observe, that payment is received and less generosity; in a word, they are, buffoonery, and the English actors even for admission as at the doors of a theatre, with few exceptions, such men as civilizaoverstep the boundaries of this licence; the though many persons previously provide tion creates. The following anecdote will following is a description of the dumb show themselves with an order. enable the reader to form a notion of the of one of the grave-diggers in Hamlet:- M. Simond very ingeniously compares the virtues and vices of the Highlanders of having set to work, and entered into con- trials to which English ministers are sub-former times:-When a reward of 30,0001. versation with his companion, he takes off ject, to those to which the savages of America was offered for the head of the Pretender, his jacket, folds it up carefully, and lays it condemn their chiefs, in order to ascertain two brothers, named Kennedy, succeeded in on one side; he then gives two or three whether they possess the qualities requisite concealing him for a considerable time; they blows with his pick-axe, chats, and taking for commanders. They bury them up to the off his waistcoat, folds it up, and lays it throat in an ant-hill, pinch, and torment above his coat; he then pulls off seven them, and make them endure both hunger or eight under-waistcoats, examines them and thirst. Authority must, indeed, possess leisurely, and with natural gesticulation folds very powerful charms, since man will endure up each in a different way. Every change is rapturously applauded by the audience. M. Simond thought this excellent; in his opinion, a comic episode is very judiciously introduced to restore the spring exhausted by an emotion too long protracted. frequently committed theft to obtain the food necessary for his existence, and at length exposed their safety so far as to carry off the baggage of a General-Officer, in order to provide the Prince with shirts. Some years afterwards one of these very men, who had resisted the temptation of 30,000l., was sentenced to be hanged for having stolen a cow worth about SO shillings. On ascending the scaffold for his execution, he took off his bonnet, and thanked heaven that he had never betrayed a fellow-creature, never inJured the poor, nor refused to share his bread with the needy; he then with apparent indifference submitted to his fate.-Cows are which has been administered by the hand of perfectly safe in Scotland now-a-days; but a the journalist, an Englishman resumes his fugitive Prince, on whose head a price might rank in society, as though nothing had hap-be set, would be in a hazardous situation." pened." so many sufferings for the sake of obtaining or preserving it. The liberty of the press is another ant-hill; it is impossible to form a notion of all that is published in England, and the perfect indifference with which this licentiousness is tolerated: "One might As to comedy, it consists of Lazzis,3 and naturally suppose, that such disclosures as nobody will now go to see Dryden or Sheri- are made would overwhelm with shame dan's plays: every piece is interspersed with those who are the objects of them; by no what are termed " nonsense-songs," infinite-means: immediately after the flagellation, The British Gallery in Pall-Mall is evidently alluded to. 2 What say our friends of the arts to this? We think we could answer for them. 3 By Lazzis, is meant dumb shew or farcical gesticulation, pantomime. 4 Nonsense-songs not being translatable in the original, is printed "non sense songs,' Amphigouris is a familiar appellation for the burlesque. We gladly follow M. Simond in his excur- to be more populous than any other part of A recapitulation full of matter, and a brie this work, which is, we think, the most com sketch of Ireland, form the conclusion o plete, instructive, and agreeable in its king Our Author was not aware of the Hig lander's notions of black-mail or freebootir. Ed, |