12. Sacred to the memory of William Pring, who departed this life July the 7th, 1807, aged 72 years. Also four of his children: Anne died June 24th, 1765. William died June the 9th, 1781. Jabez died May the 31st, 1782. Thomas Udy died June the 15th, 1785. There are four bells, on one of which is,' "T. Pen. 1627, Iohn Smyth, Malachie Aishforde. Wardens. I sound to bed-the sick repent, In hope of life-when breath is spent. C. W." There are 10 windows in the church, one window in the chancel; one glass window, and six other ditto in the tower. There were in former days four windows in the chancel, but three of them are now walled up. There are four doors, and the principal entrance is on the South side. church itself was nearly full. The street immediately. before the doors was strewed with evergreen plants, and guards were on duty, bearing the same shrub in their caps. We, as English, were allowed to proceed through the body of the Church, and had places assigned to us close to the altar. Here we waited a considerable time, when Mass was celebrated at the lower end of the church twice; a trifling interval only between the ceremonies. Soon after this the organ commenced, aud was continued at intervals. Precisely at eleven the signal was given for the approach of the two victims. They were preceded by priests, and conducted by their father. Their appearance, perhaps, excited less interest than we had anticipated. They were neither very young, nor very pretty; while at the Awliscombe is a parish in the hun- same time their dress, though afdred of Hemiock, Devon, and Archfectedly gay, was very far from bedeaconry of Exeter, two miles from Honiton, and 161 from London. It stands near the river Otter, on the Collumpton road, and contains 86 houses, and 429 inhabitants. It is a vicarage, value 127. 10s. 10d. in the patronage of the Duke of Bedford. "This was the birth-place of Thomas Charde, the last Abbot of Ford Abbey, who founded the hospital at Honyton (as fame hath). In the reign of King Henry the Third, Roger Gifford held lands in this parish, and the Abbot of Dunkeswell had a manor here, whom Matthew Gifford, the son of Roger, impleaded, for hindering him to present to that church. By the marriage of Gifford's daughter Isabel to Mandevill, these lands came to Sir John de Stanton." Risdon's Survey of Devon, p. 40. The Rev. Richard-Vyvyan Willesford, chaplain in ordinary to the Prince Regent, is the present vicar. Yours, &c. JOHN PRING. Mr. URBAN, Rome, Dec. 31, 1816. N the morning of Sunday, the 24th of March, two young wowen took the Veil at the Church belonging to the Convent of the Domi nicans. We felt much interest in the cere mony, and arrived at an early hour nine o'clock. Great crowds were assembled about the entrance, and the *The Terrier of this parish may be seen in Gent. Mag. vol. LXXXII. p. 424. coming, habited as they were, much after the fashion of tragedy queens, or of revellers at the carnival. Feathers waved over their heads, silver and other ornaments glittered in their hair, and immense bouquets adorned their bosoms; but dinginess threw a veil over the whole; and the Isabella Brown certainly predominated over the virgin white. I was close to them when they knelt before the altar. They afterwards took seats opposite to us, when a priest commenced an harangue, sufficiently common-place, and, as it might be supposed, in praise of mo nastic institutions, and of seclusion from the world. During the recital these two young persons evidently suffered much agitation, but which they endeavoured to hide in smiles. Such a smile had much of melancholy in it. offered to the elder sister, who instantly, and with much indignation, real or affected, cast the blooming chaplet behind her. A second and similar crown was held out to the younger votary, who put it from her, indeed, but without violence. It fell silently at her knees. The feathers and diamonds now made way for a crown of thorns, placed on the head by the priests, assisted by the lady patroness. The downy plume, the diamonds' glare, and the crown of thorns, forined a singular assemblage. Thus accoutered, did not these females now look like victims of what we the enlightened call dark ages? A crucifix was presented to them, which they clasped with fervour to the breast. Lastly, each one was armed with a taper, lighted, to betoken vigilance. The Robes of the Order were now brought forwards. With these they retired behind the grating, at the back of the altar, where they were to be apparelled, and shorn of their hair by two of the old religious. This invasion of the scissors was, perhaps, the most affecting part of the ceremony, but they bore it smiling, and with much fortitude. The music at this time was very fine. The old women were extremely adroit. All the pomp of dress speedily vanished, and was spurned at, as the flowers had been before. The Black Robes and White Veils of the Order were as speedily adjusted; and certainly the ladies lost nothing of their beauty by this change of costume. A glittering crown was placed on the head. They were saluted by each one of the Religious, beginning with the superior; and thus ended the ceremony. A year of probation is allowed them, at the expiration of which period they may, if they choose, return to the world and all its cares; but such a resolution is an event of rare occurrence. What an entertaining, and possibly instructive history, might be compiled by any antient and well-disposed inhabitant of such a pri son-house! A LAURENTIAN. sideration THE POOR LAWS. But if they call for a hasty and half-considered Report, they will do the great-est injustice, not merely to the Committee, but to themselves. This subject, in which are involved the most momentous consequences, is so complicated and difficult, and made up of such conflicting materials, that it requires a depth of sagacity, an extent of knowledge, and a comprehension of thought, which cannot be combined and ripened without slow and repeated argument, and deliberation. The mischiefs of a false step are too gigantic to permit sound statesmen to proceed on doubtful theories, however ingenious: step after step must be tried, as is done by the cautious Traveller proceeding slowly over an unexplored morass: rather plunge rashly on doubtful ground, from which there may be no return. The shore must not be left at once to launch with full sail on the undiscovered seas of speculation. than It is well enough to write books of Utopian legislation. Opposite theories, however marked by extremes, may all contribute to elicit truth: they may be supported by reasonings, powerful and not easy to be confuted: they may induce a strong preponderance of opinion in their fa vour: but if they do not stand on the authority of experience, he must be a rash politician who would exchange for them at once a tried system, even though that system should have many palpable faults and evils. In the conflicting principles and deductions of Mr. Malthus and Mr. Weyland, there is much that ought constantly to be kept in mind by the Legislator in the provisions which this great branch of Political Economy may demand. But, on the one hand, to suppose that a System of Laws of the most intricate ramification and intermixture, with all the habits and customs of the population, which have existed for more than two centuries, can be effaced from the Statute-Book; and, on the other, to deny the frightful tendency of some of its large excrescences, is surely that, which, in each case, a practical statesman must equally shrink from. larger strides, from the original intention and true and wise object of those laws, cannot rationally be denied! That in that departure it has (putting totally aside its effects on the rich) not only extinguished some of the best moral qualities, but positively verged on the annihilation of the Funds thus proposed for the support of the Poor themselves, is equally certain! It is an utter ignorance of the nature of wealth, to suppose that it can exist without the labours of the Poor; to suppose that food can be found for them but through the work of their own hands! To afford them, therefore, subsistence, without requiring work in return, is to draw upon a Fund, which, from its very essence, must be soon exhausted! A population, which are consumers, and not producers, will soon come to the end of their stores! As to the moral effects-a Poor man, who is lazy, may for a little while prefer a reliance on others, where neither care nor providence are necessary; but he will soon come to know the value to his happiness of a feeling of independence; and to appreciate that zest which is given to his bread by the consciousness that it has been acquired by the sweat of his brow. These topics have heen strongly urged by Sir Egerton Brydges, in a small Pamphlet lately published, entitled, Arguments in Favour of the Practicability of Employing the Poor; which, as the Author is a Member of the Committee on the Poor Laws, may perhaps on that account be calculated to satisfy some part of that attention which is at present alive in the public mind on so very interesting a subject. To some this Pamphlet may seem to deal too much in abstract discussion: but it must be remembered, that we are come to a crisis, when we are bound to probe the evil to the bottom, and to investigate first principles with the most profound and sedulous care. AN ADVOCATE FOR THE POOR. "An application having been made to the Court for a petition to the Lord Chancellor for a Brief, the Chairman (George Chetwynd, esq.) took occasion to remark, that, as an opinion appeared to prevail of some improper disposal of the money obtained by Briefs, he had made enquiries into the fact, and had collected the following information. The Letters Patent which are issued by the Lord Chancellor, upon a Certificate from the Quarter Sessions, had, he said, ever since 1799, been delivered to John Stevenson Salt, esq. (of the firm of Messrs. Stevenson and Salt, Lombardstreet), who is now exclusively employed as undertaker for the purpose of disposing Copies of the Briefs, and of receiving the Collections, but that it is fully competent for any person who obtains a Brief, to appoint his own undertaker, Mr. Salt having no office or permanent appointment. "Upon receipt of the Letters Patent, Mr. Salt, as undertaker, provides printed Copies (10,800 of Church Briefs, or 11,500 of Fire Briefs), which Copies are delivered by his Agents, at the Archdeacon's Visitations, to the Churchwardens of the several parishes, &c. and at the ensuing Visitations they are returned to the persons by whom issued, with the sums collected thereon. "A General Statement of each account is afterwards made up, with as little delay as possible, and information of the Sums collected is given to the Trustees appointed in each Brief, and the whole may be drawn for immediately. £. s. d. "The Charges upon a Church Brief are generally as follows: Fiat.... Patent... Paper and Printing.. 10 5 6 ...22 11 6 .22 10 0 13 10 0 Canvas, Postage, Carriage, &c...15 3 0 £.84 0 0 "Undertaker's Salary 5d. for each Church Brief returned, but charged only 4d.; within the Bills of Mortality double. The Charges upon Fire Briefs amount to 861. and the undertaker's Salary 8d. each. "The undertaker is responsible for every Agent and Colleetor throughout the kingdom; and the sum received as Salary, is by no means adequate to the trouble, risk, and responsibility attending the business. "To the foregoing explicit statement, the Chairman added, that the productiveness of Briefs is less than might be expected, partly by reason of the im perfect provisions of the Act of 4th Queen Anne, c. 14. and the frequent negligence negligence of Churchwardens, but chiefly by the prevailing idea, that Briefs are farmed. In no instance, he was fully convinced, had a Brief ever been farmed, either by Mr. Salt, or to Mr. Salt's knowledge." The Archdeacon of Coventry has adopted this method of making public the substance of a communication which he has officially received, trusting that it may tend to remove mis conceptions which have materially prejudiced the collections authorized to be made upon Briefs. Lichfield, 19 March. Mr. URBAN, May 30. THE that in this case, as in most others, given of them in the Public Prints, where we are shocked and sickened by reading, among the Fashionable Intelligence of the Day, a most minute account of the manner in which two Blackguards beat each other, and of the money lost and won by the issue of the contest; and all this is explained in a language wholly unintelligible to all but the Professors in this New School. In short, the low slang used in the Cellars and Flash-houses of St. Giles's is transplanted into the columns of the Fashionable World. And these papers are put into the hands of our wives and daughters at the breakfast table, instead of being burned by the Hangman as strong libels on the public taste and feeling. The only excuse ever attempted to be made for the encouragement of this beastly practice is, that it fosters that manly spirit and that active cou rage for which the inhabitants of these Isles have been always celebrated. But the fact is, that it has no such tendency: the Bully, who, confident in his strength and skill, with fear from the mouth of a Pistol boldly attacks another, will shrink or the point of a Bayonet. These are not the men to make soldiers of, for it is almost universally found, that the most courageous men are the most modest and the most peaceable. There is then, on the one hand, no one good effect resulting from the prevalence of the practice which we condemn; while, on the other, experience has sufficiently proved its evil consequences. It has a tendency to destroy that subordination in society which is essential to the preservation of social order; for Boxing, like Gaming, levels all distinctions, and in the field of contest the most acute observer would be unable to trace the difference between the Peer and the Blackguard. In dress, manners, language, and pursuits, the uniformity is not merely manifest, but striking. It is necessarily productive of vice and dishonesty, by the encouragement which it affords to idleness, for the men who follow this pursuit are abstracted from all others, taken out of the paths of honest industry, which they had hitherto trodden; and thus deprived of all other means of subsistence, when exhausted and rendered unfit for any other conflict, which with nine out of ten is soon the case, they are reduced to the necessity of gaining a livelihood by dishonest practices. This appears to be a natural consequence of detaching men in the lower classes of life from the pursuits of industry, with their superiors in birth and staand of occasionally associating them tion, though not, alas, in mind and merit. Several of the fraternity have holden up their hands at the Bars of our Criminal Courts, and some Lives have been sacrificed to this brutal and degrading mania. A CONSTANT READER. TH Mr. URBAN, Clerkenwell, June 1. THE attention paid by your Correspondent BIOGRAPHICUS, in p. 113, to the memory of Bp. Burnet, will have led others, I doubt not, besides myself, to pay a visit to his Monument; and may I be allowed to hope that it will induce the Bishop's Descendants to repair it? If none of the family survive, I trust the Parish of St. James's, Clerkenwell, will at tend to it. I herewith send you a sketch of the House in which the worthy Prelate resided (see Plate II.), situated on the North-west side of St. John'ssquare. It is now divided into two houses, one inhabited by Mr. Perry, Parish Clerk of St. James's, Clerkenwell; the other by the Rev. Dr. Rose; each forming a dwelling with very capacious rooms, eight in number to each house; besides large arched vaults or cellars. The form of the front remains in its original state; except that the centre on the basement story, where the principal entrance was, is now an arch leading to a court of small tenements built lately on the site of the garden. At the back of Mr. Perry's, in the yard, is a leaden cistern with the initials of the Burnet family, and the date 1682. There is a very respectable gentleman now living in this parish, upwards of seventy years of age, whose mother used to visit the Bishop's family at this house; and the late Mr. Garth, for forty years the respected and intelligent Clerk of St. James's, and who died upwards of eighty years of age many years since, knew the Bishop lived here. In 1743, the Rev. Gilbert Burnet was Curate of St. James's, Clerkenwell, and is said to have had 20 brothers and sisters living. He was born in Scotland, the native place of the Bishop; but it is believed he was no Relation. In 1788, the Bishop's grandson, Thomas *, lived at Chigwell, Essex. In 1811, a Mrs. Mary Burnett, upwards of 80 years of age, was buried in the Bishop's vault, from Chigwell, where she died. Mr. URBAN, UPON T. P. March 20. PON consulting the original passage and its context in Shake * See vol. LVIII. p. 853. GENT. MAG. June, 1817. spear's Henry V. act iv. sc. 4. referred to by your Correspondent F. D. in your Magazine for November last, p. 388, I cannot persuade myself, that Pistol could have any reason, or ever intended to, refer to the Irish tune there mentioned; because, on considering the sound of the words in question, a much more easy and natural signification is at hand. Pistol, it seems, has gotten a few, and but a few words of French; he has, however, obtained just enough to put the question Qui va la 2 as he does in the beginning of this very scene; but, not understanding the meaning of qualite, which the French soldier uses, he endeavours to find some word or short sentence similar in sound. Callet or callat is used by Shakespear in the Winter's Tale, act ii. sc. 3.-2 Henry VI. act i. sc. 3.3 Henry VI. act ii. sc. 2.-and in Othello, act 4. sc. 2. in the sense of a hull; and, as the French calin, as defined in Cotgrave's Dictionary, is found to mean 66 a beggarly rogue, or lazy vagabond, that counterfeits some disease," it is highly probable, that callet or callat, so very near it, might be applied to either sex, and also imply a beggarly, worthless person. In this view I should read Pistol's speech thus, "Callet es? call me curst cur. O me."-Callet es? 1 conceive Pistol to understand as meaning, "Are you a callet ?" and as intended by him as a repetition of the question, which he erroneously supposes the French soldier to have asked, to which he adds, Call me curst cur, [for such shall be my revenge on you as shall induce you to curse me, and to term me curst, vicious, or mischievous.] The exclamation, O me, is frequent in comedies; and may here be designed to shew how much in a rage he affects to be at what he conceives an affront. As I am now on the subject of Shakespear, I shall take this oppor tunity of correcting also another mistake. In the Merchant of Venice, act iv. sc. 1. are the following words in a speech of Shylock, in two detached passages: And others when the bagpipe sings i'the nose Cannot contain their urine.""As there is no firm reason to be render'd Why he cannot abide a gaping pig, In |