But Richard Cromwell, his son, is the man for me.

the destiny of the father and that of the son, which would you prefer?

CUISSAGE.

DION CASSIUS, that flatterer of Augustus and detractor from Cicero, because Cicero was the friend of liberty-that dry and diffuse writer, and gazetteer of popular rumours, Dion Cassius, reports that certain senators were of opinion that, in order to recompense Cæsar for all the evil which he had brought upon the com

The first was a fanatic, who in the present day would be hissed down in the House of Commons, on uttering any one of the unintelligible absurdities which he delivered with such confidence before other fanatics, who listened to him with open mouth and staring eyes, in the name of the Lord. If he were to say that they must seek the Lord, and fight the battles of the Lord-if he were to introduce the Jewish jargon into the parliament of Eng-monwealth, it would be right, at the age land, to the eternal disgrace of the human of fifty-seven, to allow him to honour understanding, he would be much more with his favours all the ladies who took likely to be conducted to Bedlam than to his fancy. Men are still found who crebe appointed the commander of armies. dit this absurdity. Even the author of Brave he unquestionably was-and so the "Spirit of Laws" takes it for a truth, are wolves: there are even some monkies and speaks of it as of a decree which as fierce as tigers. From a fanatic he be- would have passed the Roman senate but came an able politician; in other words, for the modesty of the dictator, who susfrom a wolf he became a fox; and the pected that he was not altogether preknave, craftily mounting from the first pared for the accession of so much good steps where the mad enthusiasm of the fortune. But if the Roman emperors attimes had placed him, to the summit of tained not this right by a senatus-consulgreatness, walked over the heads of the tum, duly founded upon a plebiscitum, prostrated fanatics. He reigned, but he it is very likely that they fully enjoyed it lived in the horrors of alarm, and had by the courtesy of the ladies. The Marneither cheerful days nor tranquil nights. {cus Aureliuses and the Julians, to be The consolations of friendship and society sure, exercised not this right, but all the never approached him. He died pre-rest extended it as widely as they were maturely; more deserving, beyond a doubt, of public execution than the monarch whom, from a window of his own palace, he caused to be led out to the scaffold.

able.

It is astonishing, that in Christian Europe a kind of feudal law for a long time existed, or at least it was deemed a customary usage, to regard the virginity of a female vassal as the property of the lord. The first night of the nuptials of the daughter of his vilain belonged to him without dispute.

Richard Cromwell, on the contrary, was gentle and prudent, and refused to keep his father's power at the expense of the lives of three or four factious persons, whom he might have sacrificed to his am- This right was established in the same bition. He preferred becoming a private manner as that of walking with a falcon individual to being an assassin with su- on the fist, and of being saluted with inpreme power. He relinquished the pro-cense at mass. The lords, indeed, did tectorship without regret, to live as a sub-not enact that the wives of their vilains ject; and in the tranquillity of a country belonged to them; they confined themlife, he enjoyed health and possessed his selves to the daughters; the reason of soul in peace for ninety years, beloved by which is obvious. Girls are bashful, and his neighbours, to whom he was a peace-sometimes might exhibit reluctance. This, maker and a father. however, yielded at once to the majesty

Say, reader, had you to chuse between of the laws, when the condescending ba

ron deemed them worthy the honour of { I call a public law which deprives me personally enforcing their practice. of my property, which takes away my It is asserted that this curious juris-wife and gives her to another, a law prudence commenced in Scotland; and against morals; and I am certain that I willingly believe, that the Scotch lords such a law is impossible. had a still more absolute power over their clans than even the German and French barons over their vassals.

It is, undoubted, that some abbots and bishops enjoyed this privilege in their quality of temporal lords; and it is not very long since that these prelates compounded their prerogative for acknowledgments in money, to which they have just as much right as to the virginity of the girls.

But let it be well remarked, that this excess of tyranny was never sanctioned by any public law. If a lord or a prelate had cited before a regular tribunal a girl affianced to one of his vassals, in claim of her quit-rent, he would doubtless have lost his cause and costs.

Let us seize this occasion to rest assured, that no partially-civilised people ever established formal laws against morals; I do not believe that a single instance of it can be furnished. Abuses creep in and are borne: they pass as customs, and travellers mistake them for fundamental laws. It is said, that in Asia greasy Mahometan saints march in procession entirely naked, and that devout females crowd round them to kiss what is not worthy to be named; but I defy any one to discover a passage in the Koran which justifies this brutality.

The phallum, which the Egyptians carry in procession, may be quoted, in order to confound me, as well as the idol Jaggernaut, of the Indians. I reply, that these ceremonies war no more against morals than circumcision at the age of eight days. In some of our towns the holy foreskin has been borne in procession; and it is preserved yet in certain sacristies, without this piece of drollery causing the least disturbance in families. Still, I am convinced that no council or act of parliament ever ordained this homage to the holy foreskin.

Some travellers maintain that, in Lapland, husbands, out of politeness, make an offer of their wives. Out of still greater politeness, I believe them; but I nevertheless assert, that they never found this rule of good manners in the legal code of Lapland, any more than in the constitutions of Germany, in the ordinances of the King of France, or in the "Statues at Large" of England, any positive law, adjudging the right of cuissage to the barons.

Absurd and barbarous laws may be found every where; formal laws against {morals nowhere.

CURATE (OF THE COUNTRY). A CURATE—but why do I say a curate?-even an iman, a talapoin, or bramin, ought to have the means of living decently. The priest, in every country, ought to be supported by the altar, since he serves the public. Some fanatic rogue may assert, that I place the curate and the bramin on the same level, and associate truth with imposture; but I compare only the services rendered to society, the labour and the recompense.

I maintain, that whoever exercises a laborious function ought to be well paid by his fellow citizens. I do not assert that he ought to amass riches, sup with Lucullus, or be as insolent as Clodius. I pity the case of a country curate, who is obliged to dispute a sheaf of corn with his parishioner; to plead against him; to exact from him the tenth of his peas and beans; to be hated and to hate; and to consume his miserable life in miserable quarrels, which engross the mind as much as they embitter it.

I still more pity the inconsistent lot of a curate, whom monks, claiming the great tithes, audaciously reward with a salary of forty ducats per annum, for undertaking, throughout the year, the la

bour of visiting for three miles round his abode, by day and by night, in hail, rain, or snow, the most disagreeable and often the most useless functions, while the abbot or great tithe-holder drinks his rich wine of Volney, Baune, or Chambertin, eats his patridges and pheasants; sleeps upon his down bed with a fair neighbour, and builds a palace. The disproportion is too great.

It has been taken for granted, since the days of Charlemagne, that the clergy, besides their own lands, ought to possess a tenth of the lands of other people; which tenth is at least a quarter, computing the expense of culture. To establish this payment, it is claimed on a principle of divine right. Did God descend on earth to give a quarter of his property to the abbey of Mount Cassin, to the abbey of St. Denis, to the abbey of Fulda? Not that I know: but it has been discovered that, formerly, in the desert of Ethan, Horeb, and Kadesh Barnea, the Levites were favoured with forty-eight cities, and a tenth of all which the earth produced besides.

council of the Lateran, of which the said flocks defendant have never heard a svlable.

The King of Naples, this year (1772), has just abolished tithes in one of his provinces: the clergy are better paid, and the province blesses him.

The Egyptian priests, it is said, claimed not this tenth; but then, it is observed, that they possessed a third part of the land of Egypt as their own. Oh, stupendous miracle! oh, thing most difficult to be conceived, that, possessing one third of the country, they did not quickly acquire the other two!

Believe not, dear reader, that the Jews, who were a stiff-necked people, never complained of the extortion of the tenths, or tithe.

Give yourself the trouble to consult the Talmud of Babylon; and if you understand not the Chaldean, read the translation, with notes of Gilbert Gaumin, the whole of which was printed by the care of Fabricius. You will there peruse the adventure of a poor widow with the high priest Aaron, and learn how the quarrel Very well, great tithe-holders, go to of this widow became the cause of the Kadesh Barnea, and inhabit the forty-quarrel of Koran, Dathan, and Abiram, eight cities in that uninhabitable desert. Take the tenth of the flints which the land produces there, and great good may they do you.

But Abraham having combatted for Sodom, gave a tenth of the spoil to Melchisedec, priest and King of Salem. Very good; combat you also for Sodom; but, like Melchisedec, take not from me the produce of the corn which I have sowed.

on the one side, and Aaron on the other.

"A widow possessed only a single sheep, which she wished to shear. Aaron came and took the wool for himself :It belongs to me,' said he, according to the law, Thou shalt give the first of the wool to God.' The widow, in tears, implored the protection of Koran. Koran applied to Aaron, but his intreaties were fruitless. Aaron replies, that the wool belongs to him.' Koran gives some money to the widow, and retires filled with indignation.

"Some time after, the sheep produces a lamb; Aaron returns, and carries away the lamb. The widow runs weeping

In a Christian country, containing twelve hundred thousand square leagues, throughout the whole of the north, in part of Germany, in Holland, and in Switzerland, the clergy are paid with money from the public treasury. The tri-again to Koran, who in vain implores bunals resound not there with law-suits between landlords and priests, between the great and the little tithe-holders, betwee a the pastor, plaintiff, and the flock defendants, in consequence of the third

Aaron. The high priest answers, It is written in the law, Every first-born male in thy flock belongs to God.' He eats the lamb, and Koran again retires in a rage.

"The widow, in despair, kills her

CURIOSITY.

sheep; Aaron returns once more, and
takes away the shoulder and the breast.
Koran again complains. Aaron replies :-
"It is written, Thou shalt give unto the
priests the shoulder, the two cheeks, and
the maw.'

"The widow could no longer contain her affliction, and said, 'Anathema,' to the sheep: upon which Aaron observed, "It is written, All that is anathema (cursed) in Israel, belongs to thee;' and took away the sheep altogether."

What is not so pleasant, yet very remarkable, is, that in a suit between the clergy of Rheims and the citizens, this instance from the Talmud was cited by the advocate of the citizens. Gaumin asserts, that he witnessed it. In the meantime, it may be answered, that the titheholders do not take all from the people the tax-gatherers will not suffer To every one his share is just.

it.

CURIOSITY.

Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis,
E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem ;
Non quia vexari quemquam est jucunda voluptas,
Sed quibus ipse malis careas, quia cernere suave est.
Suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri
Per campos instructa toà sine parte pericli:
Sed nil dulcius est, bene quam munita tenere
Edita doctrina sapientum templa sereni
Despicere unde queas alios, passimque videre
Errare, atque viam palantes quaerere vitae,
Certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate,
Noctes atque dies niti praestante labore
Ad summas emergere opas, rerumque potiri.
O miseras hominum mentes! o pectora cueca !
Tis pleasant, when the seas are rough, to stand
And view another's danger, safe at land:
Not 'cause he's troubled, but 'tis sweet to see
Those cares and fears, from which ourselves are free;
Tis also pleasant to behold from far

How troops engage, secure ourselves from war.
But, above all, 'tis pleasantest to get

The top of high philosophy, and set

On the calm peaceful flourishing head of it; Whence we may view, deep, wond'rous deep below, How pool mistaken mortals wand'ring go, Seeking the path to happiness: some aim At learning, not nobility, or fame; Others, with cares and dangers vie each hour To reach the top of wealth and sovereign power. Blind, wretched man, in what dark paths of strife We walk this little journey of our life.-Creech. I ask your pardon, Lucretius! I suspect that you are here as mistaken in morals, as you are always mistaken in physics. In my opinion, it is curiosity alone that induces people to hasten to the shore to see a vessel in danger of being overwhelmed in a tempest. The case has

happened to myself; and I solemnly assure you, that my pleasure, mingled as it was with uneasiness and distress, did not at all arise from reflection, nor originate in any secret comparison between my own security and the danger of the unfortunate crew. I was moved by curiosity and pity.

At the battle of Fontenoy, little boys and girls climbed up the surrounding trees, to have a view of the slaughter. Ladies ordered seats to be placed for them on a bastion of the city of Liege, that they might enjoy the spectacle at the battle of Rocoux.

When I said, “ Happy they who view in peace the gathering storm," the happiness I had in view consists in tranquillity and the search of truth, and not in seeing the sufferings of thinking beings, oppressed by fanatics or hypocrites, under persecution for having sought it.

Could we suppose an angel flying on six beautiful wings from the height of the Empyreum, setting out to take a view, through some loophole of hell, of the torments and contortions of the damned, and congratulating himself on feeling nothing of their inconceivable agonies, such an angel would much resemble the character of Belzebub.

I know nothing of the nature of angels, because I am only a man; divines alone are acquainted with them: but, as a man, I think, from my own experience and from all that of all my brother drivellers, that people do not flock to any spectacle, of whatever kind, but from pure curiosity.

This seems to me so true, that if the exhibition be ever so admirable, men at last get tired of it. The Parisian public scarcely go any longer to see Tartuffe, the most masterly of Moliere's masterpieces. Why is it? Because they have gone often; because they have it by heart. It is the same with Andromache.

Perrin Dandin is very unfortunately right when he proposes to the young Isabella to take her to see the method of putting to the torture;" it serves, he says, to pass away an hour or two. If

more correctly than Lucretius; for, when one of the academicians of Paris tried to get within the enclosure to examine what was passing more closely, and was forced back by one of the guards; "Let the gentleman go in," said he, "he is an ama

this anticipation of the execution, frequently more cruel than the execution itself, were a public spectacle, the whole city of Toulouse would have rushed in crowds to behold the venerable Calas twice suffering those execrable torments, { at the instance of the attorney-general.teur." That is to say, he is inquisitive; Penitents, black, white, and grey: married women, girls, stewards of the floral games, students, lacqueys, female servants, girls of the town, doctors of the canon law, would have been all squeezed together. At Paris, we must have been almost suffocated, in order to see the unfortunate general Lally pass along in a dung cart, with a six-inch gag in his mouth.

it is not through malice that he comes here; it is not from any reflex consideration of self, to revel in the pleasure of not being himself quartered; it is only from curiosity, as men go to see experiments in natural philosophy.

Curiosity is natural to man, to monkeys, and to little dogs. Take a little dog with you in your carriage, he will continually be putting up his paws against the door to see what is passing. A monkey searches everywhere, and has the air of examining everything. As to men, you know how they are constituted: Rome, London, Paris, all pass their time in inquiring

But if these tragedies of cannibals, which are sometimes performed before the most frivolous of nations, and the one most ignorant in general of the principles of jurisprudence and equity;-if the spectacles, like those of St. Bartholo-what's the news? mew, exhibited by tigers to monkeys, and the copies of it on a smaller scale, were renewed every day, men would soon desert such a country; they would fly from it with horror; they would abandon { for ever the infernal land where such barbarities were common.

When little boys and girls pluck the feathers from their sparrows, it is merely from the impulse of curiosity, as when they dissect the dress of their dolls. It is this passion alone which produces the immense attendance at public executions. "Strange eagerness, as some tragic author remarks, "to behold the wretched." I remember being at Paris when Damiens suffered a death the most elaborate and frightful that can be conceived. All the windows in the city which bore upon the spot were engaged at a high price by ladies; not one of whom, assuredly, made the consoling reflection, that her own breasts were not torn by pincers; that melted lead and boiling pitch were not poured upon wounds of her own; and that her own limbs, dislocated and bleeding, were not drawn asunder by four horses. One of the executioners judged

CUSTOMS-USAGES.

THERE are, it is said, one hundred and forty-four customs in France, which possess the force of law. These laws are almost all different, in different places. A man that travels in this country changes his law almost as often as he changes his horses. The majority of these customs were not reduced to writing until the time of Charles VII., the reason of which probably was, that few people knew how to write. They then copied a part of the customs of a part of Ponthieu; but this great work was not aided by the Picards, {until Charles VIII. There were but sixteen digests in the time of Louis XII., but our jurisprudence is so improved, there are now but few customs which have not a variety of commentators, all of whom are of a different opinion. There are already twenty-six upon the customs of Paris. The judges know not which to prefer; but, to put them at their ease, the custom of Paris has been just turned into verse. It was in this manner that the Delphian Pythoness of old declared her oracles.