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All Exchequer Bills, dated prior to the month of January, 1815, have been advertised to be paid off, and the Interest thereon has ceased.
N. B. The ate Table contains he highest and lowest prices, taken from the Course of the Exchange, &c. originally published by John Castaign, in the year 1712, and now
ublished, every Tuesday and Friday, under the authority of the Committee of the Stock Exchange, by

JAMES WETENHALL, Stock-Broker, No. 7, Capel court, Bartholoinew-lane, London,
On application to whom, the original documents for wear a century past may be read.

1816.]

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AGRICULTURAL REPORT.

THE humid unsettled state of the atmosphere, through nearly the whole of last month, has very much impeded the early spring sowing, which may probably verify the old adage, that Beans sown in a flood, will come up like a wood. A wet March is not an appropriate season for the improved agriculture of this country.

The young wheats in the northern counties have suffered so much, either from the late period in which the seed is deposited, or from the unfavourable weather, hat they scarcely have the appearance of wheat, and in many places cannot be distinguished from the fallows unsown. On the free percolating subsoils in the miland and southern counties there is a very promising plant,

The barley lands upon stiff loams work very clung and unkind. If the weather should continue dry, the barley of this summer will in many situations be of two growths.

Turnips, cabbages, and all the brassica tribe, having suffered so much from the changeable severity of the weather, has caused heavy draught from the hay stack, which can only be obviated by the great breadths and promising state of the soiling crops.

The backward state of the bud and blossom promises fair for a fruitful season.

CORN EXCHANGE, MARCH 18.-Wheat, 45s. to 71s.-Rye, 23s. to 31s.-Barley, 20s. to 288.-Malt, 50s. to 61s.-Oats, 14s. to 26s.-Flour, Fine, 50s. to 55s.; Seconds,

45s. to 50s.

SMITHFIELD MARKET, MARCH 22.-Beef, 4s. od. to 5s, od -Mutton, 4s. od. to 5s, od. -Veal, 4s. 4d. to 6s. od.-Pork, 4s. 4d. to 5s, 6d. per stone of 8 lbs.

Hay, 31. to 51. os.-Straw, 11. 5s. od. to 11. 15s.-Clover, 41. to 61. 10s..

Hops, New Pockets.-Kent, 61. 15s. to 111. 4s.-Sussex, 61. os. tu al. os.-Essex, 71. to 101. os.-Farnham, 111. to 161. 16s.

Average Prices of Corn,

By the Quarter of Eight Winchester Bushels, from the Returns received in the Week ended ↑ March 23, 1816.

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[ 288 ]

METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER.
From Feb. 25, to March 26, 1816.

Kept by C. BLUNT, Philosophical Instrument-maker, 38, Tavistock-st. Covent-Garden.

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PREVAILING WINDS-N 2—NE 0-E 1-SE 5-S 1-SW 6-W 8-NW 7

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In answer to the numerous enquiries relative to the best channel for transmitting the New Monthly Magazine to Ireland and Foreign countries, we beg leave to state that it is regu larly delivered by the Postmasters in all parts of Europe at Two Guineas per annum, or One Guinea for six months, if orders are given, and payment made

To Mr. AUSTIN, General Post Office, London, for Ireland.

To Mr. CowIE, General Post Office, for France, Germany, and Holland.

To Mr. WILLIAM SERJEANT, General Post Office, for the Countries bordering on the Baltic and the Mediterranean, and for Portugal and the Brazils.

TO MI. THORNH111, General Post Office, for the West Indies, Bahama, Madeira, Bermuda, and Nova Scotia.

To Mr. Guy, of the East India House, for the Cape of Good Hope, and all parts of India.

Printed by J. Gillet, Crown Court, Fleet Street, London.

THE

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. 28.]

MAY 1, 1816.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

A TRIP TO PARIS IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER 1815.

Paris, August, 1815. WE sailed from Dover about one o'clock in the afternoon; other packets had left the harbour two hours before, whilst we were obliged to wait for the Paris mail coming from London. It was like an afternoon's sailing on a lake, só smooth was the sea. Not having ever been in France before, I looked with eagerness towards the shore of the new land, to make out its form and colouring, and now and then turned my eyes back to the coast of England, as if between these opposite shores some diffe. rence might be discovered analogous to the great difference between the nations, by which they are inhabited. Nature seemed to favour my fancy; over France the sky appeared bright and gay, whilst the cliffs of England were shrouded in a dark mantle, through which the setting sun presented a red, broad, fiery orb, round which the dark clouds alternately closed, and broke into fantastic forms, a grand, interesting spectacle, which attracted the notice of all the passengers.

The packets that had sailed before us, had arrived in Calais harbour about five o'clock, whilst both wind and tide failed ours at eight, four miles from Calais. Several muskets were fired, and other signals made by our captain, for the boatmen of Calais to come to our vessel. At last, when it was almost dark, a large boat came alongside of us. Several ladies and their friends preferred remaining in the packet all night; the boat put off with the other passengers, including myself. An old man sat at the helm of this boat, calling out frequently to the rowers, Tirez fort! (pull hard,) at which they often seemed affronted. The rowers, when putting their oars into the water, rose from their seats and fell back upon them, as they made the pull. I imagined from the beginning that I saw the lights in the houses of Calais, but soon discovered my mistake. The water, as it was turned up by the oars, emitted a silvery light, which increased in brilliancy, as the night grew NEW MONTHLY MAG,-No. 28.

[VOL. V.

darker. I now perceived many such lights in different directions, and was told that they proceeded from the waves along the shore. This phenomenon soon presented itself in all its splendour, as we neared the land. The waves, as they reached the shore, and were turned, emitted from their edges a brilliant light, just as if a train of gas-lights were instantaneously lighted along a line of several miles, and as suddenly extin guished, to be renewed again as rapidly. The sea continued smooth, and the lights of the South Foreland were distinctly seen twinkling like a cluster of stars. Our boatmen now seemed to consult, with great seriousness, about the safest place to put our boat upon the sands, which they always contrive to do in sufficient depth of water, to require the assistance of their townsmen to carry the passengers on shore. Now you might behold through the darkness of the night the forms of men in long procession, advancing with a strange noise towards our boat, whilst streams of light trailed from their naked legs, as they furrowed the water. I was directed by two of them near me, to place my thighs on their shoulders, but in our passage through the water, I found that one of the men was much shorter than the other, which placed ine in such a situation, that I could not have endured it a moment longer, when they put me down on the sand. I fortunately found myself in company with two passengers, who resided at Calais; these led me over the sands to a place where we had to clamber up a broken ladder, to get upon the pier, and after stumbling in the dark over the ropes with which the ships were fastened, we arrived at the Custom-house. This, by the light of only a lanthorn, appeared like a den of banditti, where several men were lying on sacks on the ground. From among these, one grotesque figure rose yawning, and being informed that we had left our baggage on board the packet, allowed us to proceed to the town, and I arrived at Dessin's (now Quillac's). hotel between eleven and twelve at night,

Voi. V.

2 P

290

A Trip to Paris in August and September 1815.

Not having been in a bed since I left my own in London, when I awoke in the morning at Calais, I had no recollection of the journey I had undertaken, and was astonished, when I looked up to the top of the lofty curtains hanging from the very high ceiling in form of a throne; but soon coming to my recollection, I said to myself: I am in France.

Who, but those who have had the evidence of their own senses, could believe, that so great a difference should exist between two shores in sight of each other, as is exhibited here between England and France? The English traveller is surprised at almost every thing, that surrounds him-the lofty ceilings of the bed rooms; bed-curtains fixed to the wainscot almost at the height of the ceilings, terminating in a covering like the canopy of a throne; stone floors even on the upper stories; immense chimnies yawning at him in an almost circular form, adorned, or rather deformed, by heavy marble scrolls of a sombre colour, having still in them the einders of last winter, between two iron bars to support the wood, which are faced with brass ornaments, that appear not to have been scoured since they were made; ponderous frames, with bad wavy glass in the lofty windows; antique chests of drawers, or Chinese cabinets out of repair; shallow washhand basons without soap, except in some English hotels; stone stairs with iron balustrades. These, however, together with the stone floors, provide an excellent security against the spreading of a fire, whilst the construction of the generality of the houses in England, promotes the conflagration to the annual destruction of so many valuable lives. The modern ornaments in these large rooms consist principally of fine gilt clocks, large pier glasses, paper hangings with landscapes, buildings and figures, and pictures, of which nymphs and cupids generally form the subject.

Dessin's hotel is known to be built upon a considerable scale, forming a large square yard. This yard presents a good epitome of the carriages and postilions of most parts of France, and the contrast between them and the English carriages. Here you may see a tall fellow in immense boots (his black hair tied in a dirty queue, with a little powder about it, whilst the whole of the back and collar of his coat is incrusted with it), hanging across one of his small jaded horses, rousing the animals, by

[May 1,

the cracking of his whip, to their last effort, to drag, in some degree of style into the yard, a heavy, old, crazy, and jolting vehicle, which has not been cleaned, because, as Swift's groom observed, it would soon grow dirty again. Anon in comes, galloping and cracking his whip, some dapper foreign courier, full of the consequence of the dispatches he has in his wallet. Yonder you see a group of strange figures about an elegant English carriage, to which a set of poor looking French horses are harnessed with dirty ropes; whilst some tall meagre dark figures in great coats, black stocks, and immense cocked hats are stalking about the yard, like ghosts of departed heroes of former times.

Among the idle spectators in the yard, there was a figure, nothing like to which is to be met with on English ground; between two hollow caverned eyes a large aquiline nose projected from under a cocked hat, so old, so greasy, rusty, and cracked, that no beggar would pick it up in London streets. There was a martial air about this little man, and there might be the soul of another Buonaparte in him, undeveloped by favourable circumstances.

Taking a walk into the market place, I observed in the middle of it, where generally a fountain or column is found, a short, lusty man, standing leaning on his hands and stick placed behind him. The contour and lineaments of his face, and outlines of his shape proved better than the best affidavit could have done, that the man was an Englishman, No sooner did I approach him, than he greeted me with an "how d'ye do Sir? here is a fine place for an Englishman to come to!" He proved to be a tradesman of mine in London. The observation of this short fat lover of good beef and por ter, certainly went to the reprobation of the whole place; yet he accompanied it with such looks of good humour, that the words lost half the severity of their satirical meaning. Not so the great man from London, whom I met stepping across the yard at Dessin's, and whom as an acquaintance, I bade welcome in France. With the taciturnity belonging to such a great man, he replied with a pantomimical gesture, which drew his eyes, shoulders, and hands in unison upwards, proclaiming, that he was disappointed and disgusted.

In the harbour of Calais a column has been erected in commemoration of the landing of Louis XVIII. and a brass plate has been fixed in the stones of

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