and notwithstanding his sixty years' residence in England, still speaksGerman very well. He invented and made the instruments to which we owe so many remarkable discoveries, among which is the knowledge of a new planet. The foggy atmosphere of England is very unfavourable to his observations, as he does not reckon above a hundred hours fit for observation in the whole year. Every thing new that he discovers in bis examination of the heavens, he communicates to the observatory at Greenwich, to make the calculations and more exact researches, For the complete observation of the heavens, it would require, he told us, nine hundred years, after the expiration of which, instruments of greater diameter may be made. He has at times continued his observations for twenty-four hours together, and through the cold winter nights. His sister was his assistant in his observations; we were introduced to her; she too has not forgot the German. Though we would most willingly have stopped longer with this remarkable man, to whom the sciences are so much indebted, and whose conversation, when he communicated his ideas to us,was highly interesting, we were obliged to hurry away, having still a long journey to make before night.* SINGULAR OMISSION. In the last Act of Parliament for regulating the Bath Turnpike Trust, a curious omission occurs. In the clause which enacts a penalty of 40s. or two months' imprisonment" for riding, driving, or leading any mare, gelding, mule, or ass, upon any of the footways, belonging to the said roads," the word 'horse' is omitted; so that under this Act it is impossible to convict any per. son in the above penalty who may either ride, lead, or drive a perfect horse upon any of the footpaths belonging to the said trust. SUNDAY IN PARIS. at the disagreeable Hotel de Normandie, at Rouen, 1 calculated on the repose of a great city on Sunday. In the morning, however, we were aroused at six o'clock by the chipping of stones, the sawing of wood, and the driving of nails. I examined the cause, and found that the opposite house, a music-seller's, was under repair; and I beheld a dozen workmen as intently engaged as though it had been Saturday instead of Sunday morning. As their incessant noise rendered it useless to go to bed again, we determined to reconnoitre the streets till break fast-time: but, before we were dressed, a discord of sounds assailed us, in numerous fruit and provision venders, some stationary, and others itinerant,-who, we afterwards found, began the same cries every morning at about seven o'clock. On proceeding into the street, we found the shops open or opening, and the same activity apparent as would have been seen in the streets of London any morning in the week at eight o'clock,for the French are more early in their hour of rising than the English, by which they gain on the day an hour, which we unwisely lose in bed. We sauntered about till nine o'clock, and found every kind of manual labour and employment in the same activity as on an English day of business; and, even in the vicinity of the Thuileries, we saw the masons and others at work on the public buildings.-Mon.M.Oct.1819. WALTER SCOTT has acknowledged himself the author of Harold the Dauntless,and the Bridal of Triermain; two poems, evincing, in the opinion of many critics, as much true poetical talent as any of his other works. We are sorry that he has been so ill-advised as to commit this indiscretion; for, if the poems did not sell without his name, it was telling the world, in lanuage very well understood, that his merits were of as low an order as bis adversaries affected to consider them. These two poems are founded on circumstances, not certainly so interesting as the nationality of his more popular descriptions, and the verse has quite as productions, but they abound in as good VOL. 6.] Origin of Obscure Sayings, &c.-Tartar Liberality. much harmony, and the sentiments no less beauty. It would therefore seem, that much of the celebrity of the works of "this eminent person," as the Edinburgh Review calls him, has arisen from the national feelings which he addressed, securing by that means the flattered vanity and prejudices of his countrymen; at least if this has not been the case, how has it happened that the two works before us have been treated by the publie with so much indifference? It is however alleged, that no small portion of the fame of this" great poet," is due to the indefatigable exertions of his able publisher; and that those exertions having been carried to their utmost limit in former instances, have failed in these to produce the wonted effect. But this is invidious; for Mr. Scott is certainly a very respectable poet; and we have no doubt, that much of the malicious. satisfaction which many enjoy at the evanescent quality of his renown, is owing to their envy of the success with which he made hay while the sun was shining. We would therefore caution our readers not to give-in too readily to the opinion which begins to prevail, that Mr. Scott has written himself out; for we can assure them, that both the Bridal of Triermain and Harold the Dauntless, are as good things as he has yet written and that the public, for its own sake and consistency of character, should buy them freely, otherwise it may give the mighty minstrel" reason to believe that he is not quite so great a genius as many people have supposed, which would be exceedingly mortifying. lbid. 66 "THE CASE IS ALTERED, QUOTH PLOWDEN.". This is a saying well known in Shropshire Mr. Ray gives the following account of it. Edmund Plowden was an eminent common lawyer, in the time of Elizabeth, born at Plowden in Shropshire, of whom Camden gives this character, Vita integritate inter homines sua professionis nulli secundus. And Sir Edward Coke calls him the oracle of the common law. Some make 227 this the occasion of the proverb, which is usually applied to such lawyers, or others, as, being corrupted with larger fees, shift sides; though it seems extraordinary that a man of Plowden's character should by his conduct at any time have taught others to prevaricate. However, according to the tradition, Plowden, being asked by a neighbour of his, what remedy there was in law against a person whose hogs had trespassed upon a piece of ground, answered he might have very good remedy, but the other replying, that they were his (Plowden's) hogs, nay, then, neighbour, quoth he, the case is altered. Others relate the following story, as giving rise to the saying: Plowden, being a Roman Catholic, some of his neighbours, who bare him no good will, intending to entrap him, and bring him. under the lash of the law, had dressed up an altar in a certain place, and proided a layman in Priest's habits, and given private notice to Plowden that mass would be celebrated there at such a time. Plowden went to mass, and was presently accused. He at first stood upon his defence, and would not acknowledge the fact. Witnesses were produced, and, among the rest, one, who deposed that he himself performed the service, and, saw Mr. Plowden there. Saith Plowden to him: Art thou a Priest then? The fellow replied, no. Why then, gentlemen, quoth he, The case is altered: No Priest,no mass.'-Eu. Mag. TARTARIAN LIBERALITY. A poet, whose name was Delah, attracted by the fame of Ogtai Khan's munificence, undertook a journey on foot from the remotest part of Tartary to the seat of government, in order to implore the royal bounty, he being then incapable of discharging a debt of five hundred bullisches, which embarrassment prevented him from pursuing his studies. After some difficulty he gained access to the Khan, who entered into conversation with, and ordered him double the sum which he solicited. The prime minister remonstrated with his master upon this profuse grant, which he said was extravagant. "Have you ing letters on occasions where extraor not heard," replied the prince, "that the poor man has travelled over mountains, deserts, and rivers, merely on the reliance which he has had on our generosity, and should we send him back with no more than what will barely pay bis debts, by what means wil he support himself on the journey?" The vizier, still unmoved, said, "but your majesty has not been informed that this man has had the audacity to write a satire against me, for having denied him an audience on so impertinent a business ?" “Is it so ?" answered Ogtai, then you shall give him another thousand, that he may have to say when he goes home, there is one monarch in the world who knows how to punish a minister for blocking up access to his throne."-New Mon. M. dinary speed is necessary. They fly from one extremity of his dominions to the other. By this mode of conveyance the Consul of Alexandretta daily sends despatches to Aleppo in five hours, tho' couriers occupy a whole day in proceeding from one town to the other. The caravans travelling through Arabia maintain communications with the Arab sovereigns, by means of pigeons with letters fastened under their wings. These messengers fly with extraordinary rapidity, and return with fresh speed to the place where they have been reared. They are frequently observed lying with their backs on the sand, with their bills open to receive the morning dew, and recover breath. Pliny mentions, that pigeons were employed to introduce letters into Mutina (Modena), when that place was besieged by Mark Antony. They were also employed in 1574, at the siege of Harlem, and in 1775, at that of Leyden. The Prince of Orange, when the latter siege was raised, determined that the pigeons used The custom of training pigeons to on that occasion should be maintaiued convey letters from one place to anoth- at the public expense, and that at their er is prevalent in all parts of the East, death they should be embalmed and but particularly in Syria, Arabia, and preserved in the town-house, as a perEgypt. The Mogul keeps a vast num-petual mark of gratitude.-Spor.Mag. ber of pigeons for the purpose of carry CARRIER PIGEONS IN HOLLAND. The Flemish papers have recent! contained accounts of the late annual competition of the Society of Pigeonfanciers at Antwerp. MADAME DE GENLIS' NEW WORK. From the Literary Gazette. DICTIONNAIRE CRITIQUE ET RAISONNE DES ETIQUETTES DE LA COUR, ET DES USAGES DU MONDE, PAR MADAME LA COMPTESSE DE GENLIS. VARIOUS systems have been es tablished concerning the causes of the French revolution; almost all present a chance of probability. One theorist attributes these causes to the destruction of the Jesuits, another to the abo ition of the Parliament, a third to financial deficiencies, and a fourth to the progress and abuse of philosophic ideas, finally, some regard the neglect of ceremony and etiquette as the source of every evil. This latter opinion is not so puerile as it appears at first sight: it is not departing very far from the truth to say that harmony among the different classes of society is necessary to the maintenance of social order; this har mony can only subsist by observance of rank,and respect for ceremony. France was for a length of time a school of politeness and urbanity to the rest of Europe; but since we have heard so much of the rights of man, it seems as though mankind had forgotten the respect which is due to each other. The very tradition of French politeness no longer exists; we every day lose something of that spirit of decorum, which even state policy may turn to so many advantages; the powers of society are by degrees divested of that happy illusion which inspired respect and civility, and VOL.6] Madame de Genlis' New Work. the Dictionnaire of Court Etiquette is to many persons a Dictionary of Fiction. "French politeness," says Madame de Geulis, in her Preface," was combined with so much wit, taste and refinement, that it has ever been quoted as the model of grace, gallantry and goodbreeding. But the glory of astonishing the universe by a long succession of triumphs, has occasioned a neglect of those customs and social laws which are useless in camps: amidst so many ambitious pretensions, the wish to appear agreeable was of course disdained, and not to attach value to this object, was to renounce it." There is much truth contained in these few lines, and Madame de Genlis' work, in spite of its frivolous title, is well-calculated to excite reflection. Every object, however unimportant in ap. pearance, acquires interest from the historical recollections with which it is combined. Many articles are treated with more depth of research than the subject seems to require, and we recognise in every page that exquisite politeness and delicacy of taste which distinguish a woman of understanding, who has spent her life in the world of fashion; who, from her rank in society and her literary reputation, has enjoyed an intimate acquaintance with all the celebrated men of the eighteenth century; has judged their opinions, learnt the secret of their system, and who is perhaps better qualified than any one to discover its causes and appreciate its results. She makes the following observations on the French revolution : "There are persons in the literary world who smile with contempt when they are told that the revolution was the work of the Philosophists; yet it is certain, (and the fact may be proved by the Journals) that all the most odious motions made by the jacobins, were taken from the works of Voltaire, Rous seau, Helvetius, Diderot, Condorcet, Saint Lambert, Raynal and d'Alembert; the letters of these writers contain the most clearly formed conspiracy against religion, monarchy and manners." 229 In 1770, Mareschal Richelieu wrote to Voltaire: "The new Philosophy will bring about a horrible revolution, if means be not taken to prevent it." Unfortunately the prediction of the Mareschal was verified in its fullest extent. The Abbé de Beauregard, thirteen years before the revolution, exclaimed from the pulpit of Notre Dame, with an eloquence worthy of Bossuet :Yes, it is the King and Religion that the Philosophers aim at destroying! The axe and the hammer are in their hands! They are only waiting for a favourable moment to overthrow the throne and the altar! The temples of the Lord will be stript and destroyed, his festivals abolished, his name blasphemed, and his doctrine proscribed ! .. But what do I behold!... the High Priest of Baal in the pulpit of truth.... immodest Venus, do you assume the place of the living God, and seat yourself on the throne of the Saint of Sants to receive the guilty incense of your new adorers!...." For this awful and true prediction, the christian orator was called by Cordorcet à fanatic and a leaguer, and yet a few years afterwards the comedian Monvel played the part of High Priest in the Church of Notre Dame, and an opera dancer, Mad. Aubry, was carried in triumph to the altar in the costume of the Goddess of Reason. The These revolutionary masquerades naturally lead us to mention the ridiculous honours which were conferred on the distinguished men at Paris with all the pomp of the Greek ceremonies. article scandal in the dictionary presents an amusing example of this: Madame de Genlis describes in a tone of pleasantry of Madame de Sevignè, the ridiculous funeral pomp of Voltaire, when the national assembly ordained that the remains of that patron of philosophers should be removed from the church of Romily to the Pantheon. "In a triumphal car, at once ponderous and mean, was placed a hideous wax figure intended to represent the corpse of Voltaire. At his feet rose a pyramid of volumes comprising a whole one occasion of the many which cause the absurdity of these tricks to be universally acknowledged now, as they will hereafter form the comick portion of the history of revolutionary follies. We shall conclude this article by a few reflections on manners, extracted from the article decorum : "The period when the greatest decorum prevailed in France, at the court and in the city, since the kings of the third race,was during the reign of Louis XIII: the French people were never more religious. What admirable institutions were then founded! The Hotel Dieu, the Enfants Trouvés, the Saurs de la Charité, &c. It was not until after the regency of Anne of Austria that decorum began to be neglected at court. edition of his works. The car was of philosophic quackery, and delineates surrounded by opera figurantes and chorus singers, personating the muses, whose number was quintupled with the view of conferring greater honour on the memory of the deceased. It was a cold and rainy day, and the streets were covered with mud: the muses, who wore In every page of her book, Madame thin draperies of white muslin and de Gealis writes like a woman who has crowns of faded roses, were splashed to been accustomed to the court and high the very knees. They slipped along life: the article on presentations is in the wet and greasy pavement, singing in itself a little treatise on etiquette: she hoarse voices, mournful hymns to the frequently throws an interest over her glory of the deceased; but it was im-work by humorous and satirical approxpossible to distinguish a single syllable imations. they uttered, for every accent was drowned by the noisy acclamations of the crowd, and the cries of vive Voltaire ! which were reiterared by all the Pois-" sardes of Paris. The miserable populace, who were abused in all things, regarded Voltaire as the patriarch of jacobins and democrats. They were not aware that Voltaire, who in reality preached a revolution, at the same time wished that t people, whom he profoundly despised, le sol peuple, (for that was his expression) should be looked upon as nothing, and should never take the least share in the government, because, said he, I do not like the govern ment of the Canaille. But a singular accident for a few moments retarded, th progress of the triumphal retinue, The head of the effigy of Voltaire got unfastened and rolled down to the feet of the philosopher..... The terrified muses suddenly stopped: they soon however contrived to fix the wax head again on the shoulders of the image. The next disaster was a violent shower of rain. The daughters of memory were compelled, in spite of their dignity, either to go in search of umbrellas, or to take shelter in the shops; and by degrees the whole retinue dispersed. Thus ended this marvellous pomp. The muses were covered with dirt and caught severe colds, and the Parisians were by no means satisfied with a spectacle which had been emphatically announced as the most dramatic, the most elegant and most perfectly Grecian ceremony that had ever been wit nessed." This is a grotesque picture of a scene The women then began to wear their throats uncovered : widows, however, rigorously adhered to their old costume, and females in general observ-a ed all the rules of propriety which had been establised under the preceding reign. Every lady of quality had a companion or Brodeuse, who was constantly with her. The origin of this custom was to protect themselves from slander by never holding a tête à tête with a male friend whatever might be his age. Thus we find Madame de Maintenon in her letters to Madame Caylus recommending her never to abandon this prudent custom, although the latter was then in her fifty-sixth year, and the mother of a young man established in the world. It was likewise an idea of decorum which gave rise to the custom of females never riding out in a carriage without being attended by two servants at least, and in the evening provided with a torch. Every one wished to have witnesses and to act in the light; this custom was maintained until the revolution." |
