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1816.]

A Trip to Paris in August and September 1815.

the quay, with an impression of the form of the king's foot, which he there set on French ground for the first time since his exile.

While taking a solitary evening walk round the ramparts of this place, with the sea and coast of England in view, the mind is naturally led to a recollec tion of the history of former times; and the fact of some patriotic inhabitants of this place voluntarily offering, after the memorable siege, their lives as a sacrifice for the salvation of their fellow citizens, made me look upon the descendants of such men with respect. In the church of this place I found nothing remarkable, except a whole length figure of our Saviour carved and painted white with the wounds marked with red, lying under an arch, as in a tomb. There were many candles burning before this tomb, which served to make the gloom and dirtiness of it the more visible. The persons who were kneeling before this tomb, and praying from their books, appeared to me only females of an advanced age. I met some of them coming out, after a walk I took about the church: I was struck with the respectable appearance of some of these matrons, their heads in plain cambric caps, the pallid colour of their fine skin setting off the darkness of their eyes, where still might be seen a gleam of their former fires; they now apparently sought a refuge at this shrine from the illusions of this world. Quand on a passé le tems des illusions (says Voltaire) l'on ne goute plus de cette vie, on la traine.

There is no military garrison in this town; but in the market place I saw the national or city guards on duty. They were romping, and making a most indecorous noise. They wore no uniform; such a set, I am sure, Falstaff would not have marched with through Coventry.

Not meeting with any travellers at Calais, whom I might have joined in taking a carriage to Paris for ourselves, I preferred to the common diligence a seat offered me in the carriage of the commissary of the Post-office, who was going with the London mail to Paris at an hour which suited me exactly. This commissary can take only one passenger; you are sure of horses on the road, and that the gates of fortified towns will be opened to you in the night. I was standing at the gate of the inn at the appointed hour, when behold the carriage, with Mr. Commissary in it, approached.

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It was like a tilted cart, completely covered with plain leather, old and dirty, having only two seats in front, all the back part being allotted for baggage and goods. The shafts of this two-wheeled carriage were almost as heavy as those of an English waggon, and were supported by ropes across an old clumsy saddle, laid over a heap of straw upon the back of a very strong horse of the Flanders breed. Two other horses of a slighter make were harnessed to the cart on each side of the shafts. Mr. Commissary, who was to be my sole companion for two days and nights, sat on his seat in front-an old squat short-necked, rosy-faced, and hawknosed gentleman, with his head in an old dirty travelling cap. By the side of this being I took my seat in the cart, which was abundantly furnished with old straw emitting a disagreeable smell, I was going to heave a sigh, but succeeded in substituting a smile for it, recollecting the advice of Horace:

"Amara læto temperare risu!" Our postilion soon stopped the carriage at the door of a house, where Mr. Commissary had business; he opened the front of this miserable vehicle, descended, and hobbled into the house, for he was quite lame with the gout. After we had proceeded on the road for some time, I was desirous of commencing a conversation with my companion, who, I was pretty sure, was not likely to annoy me with his loquacity, I seized the opportunity afforded me by our meeting with many soldiers with bundles on sticks upon their shoulders. I asked my companion where all these soldiers might be going to. Monsieur le Commissaire gave me not the least answer; I ascribed this silence to his great knowledge of the world, which would not allow him, in these times, to enter into conversation with a stranger on any subject which bore in the least upon politics. But I soon discovered a more substantial reason of the Commissary's silence-he was deaf.

Our road led through Boulogne ;the country, forming hills and dales of green fields, intersected with hedges, seems still to belong to England, whose shores are here plainly seen with the naked eye. We passed the monument, begun to be erected by the French army in honour of Buonaparte; it seemed as yet only a scaffolding of wood, with out any masonry; it may be seen on the beach at Dover. Our clumsy. carriage went on tolerably fast, and easily,

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A Trip to Paris in August and September 1815.

over the roads, as they were paved in the middle; but, from the uncommon strength of these and other carriages here, one would suppose that in worse seasons they are subject to destructive, concussions, which I also understood from my companion to be the case. This it is difficult to conceive upon this and other great paved roads; and I am inclined to suppose that it is from excess of economy that they make their carriages so very strong, to prevent as long as possible the expense of repairs, or of building new ones.

My anxious desire to reach Paris prevented me from regretting that I had not time enough allowed me to take a proper view of the places we travelled through. Mr. Commissary had been well known on this road for the last thirty years; he had been with Buonaparte in Spain: he had a defect in his mouth, yet I think I could understand his politics from an observation of his, somewhat distinct, about Napoleon"L'Envie détruit souvent l'Ambition."

On approaching certain cabarets on the road, the cracking of the postilion's whip made some matron or damsel appear at the door of the public-house with a glass of brandy for Monsieur le Commissaire, who joked with them familiarly. After the commissary had taken a certam number of these doses of brandy, and some claret from his own store, he began to sing; but on account of the defect in his mouth, I could not make out a word of it, except now and then l'amour! He had told me before that he was 74 years old. So we trot ted on, whilst now and then little beggar girls threw bouquets of flowers into our carriage to obtain a few sous. The commissary, to whom 1 had paid four Napoleons for my passage, had the trouble of paying the postilions, and of quarrelling with them about drink-money, or even balances due from a former journey; one of them threatened Mr. Commissary that he would overturn him the next time he should happen to drive him. We had passed through Montreuil and Abbeville without Mr. Commissary saying any thing about dinner. At

when he was gone into the place about his business, a young interesting female, with a silk handkerchief tied about her head in the form of a small oyster-barrel, came to the carriage, and asked whether I would not alight and take some refreshment, I inquired what she could give me: she requested me to walk into the house and she would ask mama.

[May 1,

Mama, a very respectable-looking old lady, offered a cold leg of mutton roasted, &c. As Mr. Commissary had not communicated to me his plan of foraging, I would not lose this opportunity, and sat down to this cold collation; Mademoiselle standing by me, whom all my persuasions could not induce to be seated. “Is your mother a widow, may I take the liberty to ask?" "Yes, Sir, she has been so for several years."-" Have you any brothers?" "No, Sir; I am sorry I never had one. I live very happily with my mother; I love my mother more than I love myself, and she loves me on ne peut plus (as much as possible); I every morning in my prayers thank God that he has given me so good a mother, and beg that he will spare her life, and not allow me to do any thing to displease her."-" It is to be hoped that you will soon be married to some worthy young man, who may be deserving of you; for it must be awkward for you and your good mother to carry on such a concern as yours." "Ah, Monsieur!" she exclaimed, turned her head aside, and it appeared to me as if her eyes became suffused by a tear." I am afraid," I said, "that my observation has been intrusive." "Oh no, Sir," she replied; "but-recollections"-she stopped: I durst not inquire; but she soon resumed: "I expected to have been married before this time to a very good young man, the eldest son of a friend of my late father's, in ———————, (one of the newlyacquired French provinces in Germany.) My father came from the same place. The young man had lived with us here before for two years; every body loved him. The conscription fell upon his younger brother: their mother being a poor widow, was not able to raise the money for the necessaries with which the conscript must absolutely be fur nished; the elder brother enlisted voluntarily, to obtain a sum of money which is paid to volunteers before they march; out of this money he furnished his younger brother with the requisites for his equipment: they were both marched to the army in Spain, and were there killed."- Oh the melancholy conse quences of these wars!" I exclaimed.

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Very true, Monsieur," she replied; "when a young man has not distinguished himself in the army, he is not looked upon here."-Whilst this good creature was talking, I observed her looking twice or thrice through the window, as if something out of doors attracted her notice. This induced me to look through the

1816.]

A Trip to Paris in August and September 1815.

window myself, and I saw Mr. Commissary putting his red face out of his dirty cart, like a fiery meteor emerging from a dark cloud. He seemed to be swearing like a musquetaire at my long stay. I was obliged to take my leave of this amiable dutiful daughter. This little episode consoled me for many hours of the commissary's dull monotonous society.

Picardy, through which this road passes, is exceedingly uninteresting with regard to rural scenery; but the soil is cultivated with the greatest industry. Boundless oceans of corn (if I might use the expression) offered themselves to view, unbroken by hedges or trees. The corn was ripe, and partly cut; but there certainly seemed to be a scarcity of hands for so much work; though among the reapers there did not appear to me a greater, if so great a proportion, of women as in England.

The villages had rather a better appearance than I expected; the cottages were in good repair, and had a clean outside; bat the country in general, compared with England, seemed to me to bear evidence, that a good soil and diligent cultivation may give subsistence to a numerous population, but cannot furnish them with many conveniences and comforts, much less with luxuries. No well-built private houses with gardens, no country gentleman's elegant seat and park, no extensive buildings for manufactories, here interrupt the eternal monotony of white stone cottages. The roads are everywhere destitute of what the roads in England abound with-the neat public-house with a metree and sign before it, a jolly landlord and a comely landlady, a clean fire-side, furniture, and utensils,-aye! and stout politicians too, daring to canvas the measures of the prime minister; not to mention the grand inns which adorn the English roads and villages. The taste of the gentry in France seems to be in this respect the reverse of that which prevails in England; the former establishing their residence in the capital, or in the country towns; which circumstance gives to the French country towns a superiority in appearance to those of England. I met with but one nobleman's seat during the day; it was the chateau of Mons. Clermont-Tonnerre. Instead of the lively bustle upon the roads in England, day and night of handsome stage-coaches with decently-dressed passengers, drawn by fine horses with good harness post-chaises, and elegant pri

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vate carriages dashing along,-you are here disgusted with their lumbering, waggon-like diligences, the poor appear ance of the generality of their horses, their beggarly harness, and ridiculous postilions; and with the meagre scenery and the little life that is stirring on these roads:-no neatly-raised foot path for the well-dressed villager to walk along, no village-green, no rosy-faced children, no fair blue-eyed village maids; no green turf, nor shady lanes among beautiful hedges and trees, cheer the drowsy same ness of the wearying straight line of these roads.

At Beauvais I met with the first foreign troops I saw in France; they were English cavalry. I inquired of the mistress of the inn how the Prussians, who had been in this town before, had be haved; she shook her head, and expressed a hope that the English too might soon depart. This was a most intelligent agreeable Frenchwoman; she joked me about my entertaining travelling compa nion, who, as she knew, was deaf and dumb. I told her I should be very happy to exchange his society for hers. "When one cannot possibly lose by a change,” she answered," one may venture upon any." Understanding that I had never been in Paris, she expatiated on the grandeur and beauty of that place; and on my observing that it was once called (by Voltaire) the capital of Europe, she quickly replied, "Elle l'est toujours" (Itis so still). Poor woman! she might have said so, but in another sense of the word, if she had seen it filled with the soldiers of all the sovereigns of Europe.-At this place Mr. Commissary always halted and dined. -The houses here were a great part of Saxon architecture, with gable ends, and the posts among the brick-work painted. The place has a manufacture of common cloth. Near this town I saw the first vineyard: it was small and unproductive, owing to a frost in the spring. (To be continued.)

MR. EDITOR,

IN travelling lately through Stafford shire, about a mile from Walsall I was shewn a remarkable tree, which grows, on the road-side near Bentley Hall. At the time I saw it, it was leafies, and from that circumstance might have been passed without observation; but in the summer it must excite the attention of the curious, from its partaking of the nature of the oak and the ash. It is a wellgrown tree, and may be considered rather elegant; the two principal branches

294 Mr. Pye on a Remarkable Tree and the Escape of Charles II. [May 1,

diverging a short distance from the ground in an angle of about ten degrees. The trunk for some distance appears to be one entire stem, and to throw out branches that are decidedly of different species,-one being oak and the other ash. What makes it more remarkable is, that the branches appear to vie with each other in length, there being little difference between them; and on that account it would not be so obvious at first sight that they were two distinct species. This tree is as remarkable for the situation in which it grows as for the peculiar properties of its nature, being on the estate of the distinguished family of the LANES, so honourably mentioned in history for the hazardous assistance they afforded King Charles the Second, when most closely pursued by his enemies. As the circumstance is so intimately connected with the history of this country, and as the King's own narrative of his escape after the battle of Worcester is not frequently to be found, I shall take the liberty of transcribing that portion of it which relates to the Lanes, who resided at Bentley Hall, and to whom Charles the Second in all probability owed his life.

"That night the King, accompanied by Richard Penderell, went to Mr. Whitgreaves, about six or seven miles off. Here he spoke with Lord Wilmot, and sent him away to Colonel Lane's, who lived at Bentley, about five or six miles from thence, to find what means could be found for his escaping towards London; who told my lord that he had a sister who had a very fair pretence for going near Bristol to a cousin of hers married to a Mr. Norton, who lived two or three miles towards Bristol, on Somersetshire side, and she might carry the King thither as her man; and from Bristol he might find shipping to get out of England.

"The next night the King went to Colonel Lane's, where he changed his clothes into a little better habit, like a serving-man, being a kind of grey cloth suit; and the next day the King and Mrs. Lane took their journey towards Bristol.

"They had not gone two hours on their way, but the mare the King rode cast a shoe; so they were forced to ride to get another shoe at a scattering village; and as his Majesty was holding his horse's foot, he asked the smith what news; who told him, there was no news that he knew of since the good news of the beating of the rogues the Scots. The

King asked him whether there were none of the English taken that had joined with the Scots; he answered, he did not hear that that rogue Charles Stuart was taken; some of the others, he said, were taken, but not Charles Stuart. The King told him, that if that rogue were taken, he deserved to be banged more than all the rest for bringing in the Scots; upon which the man told the King, that he spoke like an honest man, and they parted." I remain, &c.

CHARLES PYE.

London, March 10, 1816.

MR. EDITOR, THOUGH the excellency of our church liturgy hath been treated upon at large by many and learned divines, yet, these treatises from their length, have deterredmany from reading them, while the learning and quotations with which they have been fraught have rendered them incomprehensible to others whose understandings have not been improved by the advantages of education and science; thus however clear and perspicuous its utility hath been proved, however argumentative the necessity of conforming to it, yet, on account of the reasons above stated, many are led to think upon it with indifference, and to read it with unconcern.-At a time when this our venerable establishment is not only secretly, but openly, attacked by those who dissent from her forms, and use every exertion in their power to prove her piety cold, and her liturgy formal; it may not be improper through the medium of the New Monthly Magazine, a publication whose pages are ever open to the cause of truth, briefly to state a few of those excellencies which are to be found in the common prayer of our established church, and prove as far as we are able, that he who shares the advantages of living under a British Constitution, ought to conform to the established religion as much as to the established laws of his countrythough I doubt not, that a host will rise up and say that it is the glory of this nation, as well as the peculiar privilege of every individual in it, to worship, his Creator in such a manner as couscience dictates, or his will inclines. Hence arise so many sects, each professing their own tenets, and each using distinct forms. Unhappy for mankind that this should be the case; for it causes the infidel and scorner, to reject religion altogether. It gives an opportunity for the lower orders of society to doubt respecting its necessity, and causes them to be indifferent

1816.]

On the Liturgy of the Established Church.

295

pastor preaches redemption through
Christ, and is faithful in impressing the
doctrines of christianity on the minds of
his hearers, then indeed religion cannot
be the cause of his removal, for these
important doctrines are the same now
as they always were, nor will it cease to
be the case until the world itself shall pass
away,

And like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a wreck behind.

We must attribute it then to the desire of novelty, the pleasure of gratification, and the short satisfaction of hearing some new preacher. From these remarks we may not be surprised at seeing our churches deserted, especially when the hoary locks of a parish priest indicate that he long hath served, and perhaps in the same place where Providence first placed him there he remained; nor shall he have been indifferent with respect to the discharge of the important duties of his office, being found ever active in the cause of religion, and zealous in the vineyard of his Lord and Master-yet with him it is, as it was with Christ himself: many leave him and forsake him; they run to hear some new thing, to listen to some fresh teacher, though wholly ignorant with respect to his sentiments, his life, or conversation. Thus

with respect to the observance or choice of any. It was maintained by a writer of philosophy, and one greatly skilled in the study of divinity," that differences of opinion promote inquiry, discussion and knowledge; that they help to keep up the attention of religious subjects, and a concern about them, which might be apt to die away in the calm silence of universal agreement."-This, though it may appear specious in theory, I am afraid is generally contrary in practice. For the inquiry made is not that uniformity of sentiment should be gained, but to establish and confirm some favorite opinion, or some new doctrine, to dispute about some unfathomable counsels of the Deity, or the intricate mysteries of the Divine Godhead. Thus "ever learning, they never come to the knowledge of the truth." Others discuss, but like unto the Athenians of old," spend their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing," and to this passage we might add Person, for gratification is now a days, as much sought after in the religious world, as edification. A preacher of a certain class of people must be first tried, or as it is termed, " come upon trial:" thus not only his "matter," but his " manner," undergoes the strictest scrutiny, and it romains for his criticising hearers to as children may they be tossed to and determine whether he shall continue fro, and carried about with every wind their teacher, but should he fail, ano- of doctrine, by the sleight of men and ther perhaps, not in any measure better cunning craftiness." But a small porqualified than the one rejected, taking tion from the inspired volume of truth the hint of his fellow candidate's fail- is read; this is not what the people wish ings, corrects that which hath been the to hear it is extempore preaching-excause of his rejection, and meeting with tempore praying; these are the grand the applause and approbation of his objects. The prayers of the Church come judges, gains the object of his wishes, not from the heart; they are read with and preaches to them as they like. But coldness-answered with indifference; short is his continuance among them. they partake not of that devotion which A year or two may be the limit of his is experienced and felt in extempore stay. Having just been long enough to worship; they are known before-hand: know his congregation, he is removed to in a word, the Book of Common Prayer some distant part, for according to the is become so old and common, that we opinion of one, who, by some was desire to hear some NEW thing; and bereckoned very zealous in the good cause. cause the parson of the parish hath acted "a preacher, if he preaches above with zeal, though tempered with prua year to the same congregation, will dence, and maintained a character irrepreach them all away," and after that proachable,-yet, however excellent the period, though it is a very short one, prayers may be which he uses in the "he will preach to empty benches and church, because the former hath lived a naked wall."--How far the doctrines many years in the same situation, and of such preachers, or the sentiments of constantly uses the latter, they leave the such thinkers, are consistent with true church, and, as an excuse for such conreligion, or genuine piety, I leave the duct, find fault with the prayers of our judicious reader to determine for him- establishment. self, and also to decide whether it is gratification or edification that congregations of such a nature seek for,--If the

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But to answer these objections, and point out their inconsistency, shall, Mr. Editor, be the subjects of future papers

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