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The UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE for AUGUST, 1796. 73

Some Account of the City of ORLEANS, and its Environs: With a beautiful Perfpective View of the Chapel of ST. MESME, on the Banks of the River LOIRE.

HE celebrated city of Orleans, nued to be an epifcopal fee, fuffragan one of the most ancient, opu- to the archbishopric of Paris; and it has a fociety of natural philofophy, natural history, &c. and a public library. The environs of this city are very pleafant; particularly the fauxbourg or fuburb of Olivet, which is on the left fide of the Loire, and has a communication with the city by a bridge, the boldness and lightnefs of which are equally admired. It was built by Lewis the fiftee th, and confifts of nine arches, of which the centre one is one hundred feet wide. On this bridge was placed the ftatue of the unfortunate Joan of Arc (with boots and fpurs like a knight) on her knees before the Virgin Mary, who has Jefus Chrift in her arms, as if going to lay him in his tomb; and, oppolite to Joan, in the fame pofture, is king Charles the feventh. These figures (the fuperftition and execution of which are equally contemptible) were taken from the old demolished bridge. At a distance, the mall, and other trees planted in various places along the rampart, give to Orleans the appearance of a city half inclosed by verdant walls.

lent, and confiderable in France, is the capital of the department of the Loiret, which, during the existence of the monarchy, was ftyled the province of Orleanois. It is feated on the right bank of the river Loire, thirty miles northeast of Blois, and fixty fouth-fouthwest of Paris. It is built in the form of an oval, and is supposed to contain forty thousand fouls. Under the fons of king Clovis, it was the capital of a kingdom. It has flood two memorable fieges; the first, in the year 451, against the formidable Attila; the fecond, in 1428, agaicft the English; which laft was raifed by the celebrated Joan of Arc, called the Maid of Orleans, whofe history and tragical end difplay, in fuch horrid colours, the ignorance, fuperftition, and cruelty of that age. The principal church of Orleans, in that part of it which is finished, exhibits a noble specimen of the Gothic architecture. During the reign of fuperftition, Jefus Chrift was confidered as the first canon of its late chapter, and, as fuch, had a double fhare in all the diftributions, which was given to the Hotel Dieu. The ftreets of Orleans are fpacious, neat, and pleasant that of the fauxbourg of Paris is of a prodigious length. The commerce of Orleans confifts in wine, brandy, corn, grocery, and particularly fugar, which is brought coarfe from Nantes and Rochelle. One year with another, one hundred thousand cwts. of loaf fugar are fent from the fugar-bakers in Orleans; a great part of which is purchafed by the merchants of Paris. Sheep-fkins, and ftockings (both knit and woven) form alfo a confiderable article of trade. After the new geographical divifion of France into departments, inftead of provinces, Orleans contiVOL. XCIX.

About nine miles fouthweft of Orleans, is the village of Clery, once famous for the pilgrimage to our Lady of Clery. Here is the tomb of that monfter, Lewis the eleventh of France, who appears on his knees, in white marble, with figures emblematic both of the faint and of the patriot king.

In the environs of Orleans, there are likewife many places remarkable for picturefque and beautiful scenery. One of thefe, on the banks of the Loire, is the ancient chapel of St. Meimé, a perfpective view of which is annexed. When and where this faint exifted, and what entitled him to canonization, we cannot afcertain ; and, perhaps, the queftion is not very material. The reign of fuperftition

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is now destroyed in France; and although the contrary extreme, the fanaticism and bigotry of infidelity, may triumph for a time, we truft that candid and impartial, as well as free and unfettered inquiry, will at length produce the happieft effects. Chrif tianity, ftripped of all the falfe and adventitious ornaments with which Superstition had decked it, will rife again, we hope, from the ruins of indifcriminating deftruction, and appear to admiring nations in all its native purity and excellence-the hope and confolation of the afflicted, the joy and animating spirit of the happy!

The environs of Orleans are famous

alfo for its noble canal and extenfive foreft. The canal commences at the river Loire, about two leagues above the city, croffes the foreft of Orleans, joins the river Loing near Montargis, and, paffing by Nemours, enters the river Seine. It was finished in 1682, and has thirty locks in its course, which is about eighteen leagues in extent. The foreft, which is near the city, contains one hundred thoufand acres planted with oak and other valuable trees. It is one of the most confiderable forests in France; and the fales of its timber and underwood produce annually one hundred thoufand livres.

OBSERVATIONS on the ORIGIN and USE of NAVAL SIGNALS. WHEN we read at our fire-fide

the account of an engagement, or other interefting operation of an army, our attention is generally fo much engaged by the refults, that we give but little attention to the movements which led to them, and produced them, and we feldom form to ourselves any diftinct notion of the conduct of the day. But a profeffional man, or one accuftomed to reflection, and who is not fatisfied with the mere indulgence of eager curiofity, follows every regiment in its movements, endeavours to fee their connexion, and the influence which they have had on the fate of the day, and even to form to himfelf a general notion of the whole fcene of action at its different interefting periods. He looks with the eye of the general, and fees his orders fucceed or fail.

'But few trouble themselves farther about the narration. The movement is ordered; it is performed; and the fortune of the day is determined. Few think how all this is brought about; and when they are told that during the whole of the battle of Cuftrin, Frederic the Great was in the upper room of a country inn, from whence he could view the whole field, while his aides-de-camp, on horfeback, waited his orders in the yard below, they

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are struck with wonder, and can hardly

conceive how it can be done: but, on reflection, they fee the poffibility of the thing. Their imagination accompanies the messenger from the innyard to the scene of action; they hear the general's orders delivered, and they expect its execution.

But when we think for a moment on the fituation of the commander of a fleet, confined on board one fhip, and this fhip as much, or more clofely, engaged, than any other of the fleet; and when we reflect that here are no meffengers ready to carry his or ders to fhips of the fquadron at the diftance of miles from him, and to deliver them with precifion and diftinctnefs; and that even if this were poffible by fending small ships or boats, the viciffitudes of wind and weather may render the communication fo tedious that the favourable moment may be irretrievably loft before the order can be conveyed-when we think, I fay, of all these circumftances, our thoughts are bewildered, and we are ready to imagine that a fea-battle is nothing but the unconnected struggle of individual flips; and that when the admiral has once cried havoc, and let flip the dogs of war,' he has done all that his fituation empowers him to do, and must leave the fate of the

day to the bravery and skill of his had fignals by which they directed the captains and failors.

movements of their fleets. We read, Yet it is in this fituation, apparently that when Ægeus fent his fon Thefeus the most unfavourable, that the orders to Crete, it was agreed on, that if of the commander can be conveyed, the fhip fhould bring the young prince with a dispatch that is not attainable back in fafety, a white flag fhould be in the operations of a land army. difplayed. But thofe on board, in The scene of action is unincumbered, their joy on revifiting their country fo that the eye of the admiral can be- after their perilous voyage, forgot hold the whole without interruption. to hoist the concerted fignal. The The movements which it is poffible to anxious father was every day expectexecute are few, and they are precife. ing the fhip which fhould bring back A few words are fufficient to order his darling fon, and had gone to the them, and then the mere fighting the fhore to look out for her. He faw fhips must always be left to their re- her, but without the fignal agreed on. fpective commanders. This fimpli- On which the old man threw himself city in the duty to be performed has into the fea. We find, too, in the enabled us to frame a language fully hiftory of the Punic wars by Polybius, adequate to the bufinefs in hand, by frequent allufions to fuch a mode of which a correfpondence can be kept communication; and Ammianus Marup as far as the eye can fee. This is cellinus fpeaks of the speculatores and the language of fignals, a language by vexillarii, who were on board the writing, addreffed to the eye, and ships in the Adriatic. The coins both which he that runneth may read. As of Greece and Rome exhibit both flags in common writing certain arbitrary and ftreamers. In fhort, we cannot marks are agreed on to exprefs cer- doubt of the ancients having practised tain founds used in speech, or rather, this Kieroglyphical language. It is as in hieroglyphics certain arbitrary fomewhat furprising that lord Dudley, marks are agreed on to exprefs certain in his Arcano del Mare,' in which thoughts, or the fubjects of these he makes an oftentatious difplay of thoughts; fo here certain exhibitions his knowledge of every thing connectare made, which are agreed on to ex- ed with the fea fervice, makes no express certain movements to be executed prefs mention of this very effential by the commander to whom they are piece of knowledge, although he must, addressed, and all are enjoined to keep by his long refidence in Italy, have their eyes fixed on the ship of the con- known the marine discipline of the ductor of the fleet, that they may learn Venetians and Genoefe, the greatest his will. maritime powers then in Europe.

It is fcarcely poffible for any number of fhips to act in concert, without fome fuch mode of communication between the admiral an the commanders of private ships. We have no direct information of this circumftance in the naval tactics of the ancient nations, the Greeks and Romans; yet the neceffity of the thing is fo apparent, that we cannot fuppofe it to have been omitted by the most ingenious and the moft cultivated people who have appeared on the great theatre of the world; and we are perfuaded that Themistocles, Conon, and other renowned fea commanders of Athens,

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In the naval occurrences of modern Europe, mention is frequently made of fignals. Indeed, as we have already obferved, it seems impoffible for a number of fhips to act in any kind of concert, without fome method of communication. Numberless fituations must occur, when it would be impoffible to convey orders or information by meffengers from one fhip to another, and coaft and alarm fignals had long been practised by every nation. The idea was, therefore, familiar. We find, in particulat, that queen Elizabeth, on occafion of the expedition to Cadiz, or

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