paratus, you dip into spirit of wine of 33 degrees, a little spunge, which is placed in a saucer upon the eatables, and the spunge is set fire to by means of a match. A considerable dilatation immediately takes place, which expels the warm air. After this vertical expansion, the column of atmospheric air exercises its action to re-enter the apparatus; but is prevented by stopping the hole with common wax. The vacuum thus produced is more than sufficient to preserve the eatables; and the more so, as the small quantity of atmospheric air which may have got again into the bell, is decomposed by the combustion of the spirit of wine, which is not quite finished when the little hole in the bell is stopped up with the wax, and is converted into carbonic acid Gaz, the preservative property of which is generally known.

POLITE LITERATURE.

MODERN POETS.
DEFENCE OF COLERIDGE.

To the Editor of the Literary Gazette. Allow me, Sir, to offer a word or two of remonstrance, in favor of some of our modern poets, who have fallen under the

I am, Sir, &c.

H. T.

powers of expression, suffer me, Mr. Edi- to pay a nobler homage to this honored
tor, to quote a few lines from his "Ode favorite of the muse,
on the Departed Year," published as far
back as 1796. Speaking of the Empress
Catherine, of Russia, who had then re-
cently "passed that bourne o'er which
no traveller returns," he bursts forth :

"Stunn'd by Death's twice mortal mace,
No more Murder's lurid face

Th' insatiate hag shall glote with drunken eye!

"Manes of th' unnumber'd slain!

Ye that gasp'd on Warsaw's plain!
Ye that erst at Ismail's tower,
When human ruin choak'd the streams,
Fell, in Conquest's glutted bour,
'Mid women's shrieks, and infants' screams;
Whose shrieks, whose screams, were fain to stir
Lond-laughing, red-eyed Massacre!
"Spirits of th' uncoffin'd slain,

Sudden blasts of triumph swelling,
Oft at night, in misty train,

Rush around her narrow dwelling!
Th' exterminating fiend is fled-

(Foul her life, and dark her doom!)
Mighty army of the dead,

Dance, like death-fires, round her tomb!
Then, with prophetic song, relate
Each some sceptred murderer's fate!"

DEFENCE OF SOUTHEY. To the Editor of the Literary Gazette. Sir, I sincerely hope, that your admonition -Amicus Plato, &c.-will not be lost upon the critical gentleman, who, for some weeks, has been amusing your readers with strictures on the modern poets. He tells us that, "after reading Thalaba, or the Curse of Kehama, one lays down the volume with an inevitable feeling of, Very sublimated, no doubt, but what does it all mean? where is its object? One retains an impression of nothing but blank verse of all sizes, from three syllables to twelve; " of so-and-so, and so-and-so; "of Braman, and Indra and Yamen, and Glendoveers, about whose powers and attributes we care not one farthing;' and that, "as to sympathy, it is totally out of the question." That all this may be the case, with respect to "ONE," I can believe to be possible; but I am at a loss to comprehend how it can have any reference to the genuine poetical reader-the child of sensibility and taste.-Unfortunately, I have not, With the political feeling here exhibit-at the present moment, any of Southey's lash of your critical correspondent. Ied, I have, at present, nothing to do; productions in my possession; but I shall cannot help thinking, that the remarks but, if Coleridge, in common with his never forget the interest which I felt in the of the gentleman alluded to, in his allot-friend Southey, and many other young perusal of his Thalaba, the exquisite charms ment of parts to the respective artists men, were too warm an admirer of the of the "green and graceful bird," the picturesque beauty of some of the descriptions, and who, he suggests, might be employed, French revolution, he abundantly atoned the almost inimitable harmony of the versifi"to compound amongst them a poetical for his error, in the production of one of cation. Of the Curse of Kehama, I think not monument," to the memory of Waterloo, the finest odes in the English language. altogether so favorably: it always reminds are more fanciful than correct-more In the spirit of recantation, he exclaims me of what is related of O'Keefe, the dramasevere than just. "Forgive me, Freedom! O forgive these dreams! tist, who, whenever he wrote a comedy, found that he had materials enough left for Avowing myself an admirer of Cole-From bleak Helvetia's icy caverns sent I hear thy voice, I hear thy loud lament, one or two farces. The Curse of Kehania ridge, I must take leave to protest against I hear thy groans upon her blood stain'd streams! seems to have been constructed from the being regarded as a partizan of" the Lake Heroes, that for your peaceful country perish'd; refuse of the reading through which Southey had waded, in his course of preparation for school." My taste is not yet so subli- And ye, that fleeing spot the mountain snows With bleeding wounds; forgive me, that I che-Thalaba. With the hero of the latter very mated-to use a word of your corresbeautiful poem, I most cordially sympathise; pondent's, as to prefer the sickly softness One thought, that ever bless'd your cruel foes!" notwithstanding your critical correspondent of babyism-the inane prosing of WordsThat Coleridge is equally successful assures us, that "sympathy is totally out of worth, to the firmness of manhood-the in the delicate, the pathetic, and the the question." Did your Correspondent, Mr. sound old English verse of Pope and descriptive, it would be an easy task, Editor, ever read Homer or Virgil? Does Dryden. That the names of Coleridge were it not trespassing too much on your butes" of Jupiter, and Mars, and Venus, and he care more about the "powers and attriand Wordsworth have been frequently room, to prove. In some lines, Juno, cum multis aliis, than about the "pow"joined," though "not matched," by posed at Clevedon, Somersetshire," after ers and attributes" of the Glendoveers, &c.? others, as well as by your correspondent, noticing the exquisite scents "snatch'd Will he say that, in his perusal of Homer I am compelled to admit; though, with from yon bean-field," and the "murmur and Virgil, sympathy" was "totally out of what propriety the junction has been of the distant sea," he thus mentions the the question? made, I am at a loss to discover. The Eolian harp: one is all energy and fire; the other, all imbecility and ice. Coleridge is the genuine child of inspiration, pouring forth "thoughts that breathe, and words that burn;" Wordsworth is the sophisticated offspring of simplicity, "mewling and puking in his nurse's arms." Coleridge For delicacy, for tenderness, and for furnishes "strong meat, for strong men;" beauty, Coleridge's "Kiss," commencWordsworth, cautiously catering for the ing, weakly infant, presents it with a bason of gruel, unblessed with even the savoury

stimulus of salt.

In proof of the vigorous imagination of Coleridge, and of his no less vigorous

rish'd

"Com

And that simplest Inte

Plac'd lengthways in the clasping casement,hark!
How by the desultory breeze caress'd,
Like some coy maid half yielding to her lover,
It pours
such sweet upbraidings, as must needs
Tempt to repeat the wrong! And now its strings
Boldlier swept, &c."

"One kiss, dear maid! I said and sigh'd!"

cannot easily be surpassed. Of such
morceau, the first amatory poet of
day might be proud.

a

the

Regretting that I have not been able

The reason why Southey's Thalaba is less popular than, from its superior merit, it deserves, is, that a highly cultivated ear is requisite to appreciate its excellence. With poetry, as with music, the higher beauties of the art can only be enjoyed in their full extent, by the scientific ear. The untutored peasant may be captivated by the simple melody of a Scotch air; but it requires a certain degree of musical education, exquisitely to enjoy the finished, but complicated graces of such a composer as Mozart. Is it possible to imagine a greater contrast than that which may be formed by the juxta position of two such writers as Southey and Crabbe? Yet, who will venture to assert, that either the one, or the other, is not a

poet?-Crabbe, though harsh, and rugged, and frequently prosaic, has an entire command of our passions; by mere native force, he finds his way directly to the heart; and, on that account, he has been justly distinguished as the poet of the people."

It was my intention to put a word in, for Campbell; but that I must defer till another opportunity.I am, &c.

A. B.

REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.

To the Editor.

circles of society. We are not offended by if you are rich, you are feared and hated. If the innocent foibles of our nature; and would you do any one a favour, the whole neighcherish self-love in individuals, as a means of bourhood is up in arms; the clamour is like self-respect, and an excitement "to do unto that of a rookery; and the person himself, it is others as they would that others should do unto ten to one, laughs at you for your pains, and them." But an inordinate self-love seeking takes the first opportunity of shewing you that As a matter of opinion, permit me further aggrandisement by scorning and traducing he labours under no uneasy sense of obligation. to remark, that I do not exactly coincide others, is a social evil. The moral and reli- There is a perpetual round of mischief-making with your correspondent, in the preference gious papers in defence of revealed religion, and backbiting for want of any better amusewhich he has shown to Milton, over constitute so important a portion of the ment. There are no shops, no taverns, no Burke and Southey, in the passages quoted, Spectator, that they have been selected and theatres, no opera, no concerts, no pictures, on the drawing of swords. In the extract published together, in two octavo volumes. no public buildings, no crowded streets, no from Burke, there is a beautiful simplicity, The avowed intention to publish a set of noise of coaches, or courts of law,-neither and a grandeur of prosopopæia, which, I papers similar to the Spectator, was, in itself, courtiers NOR COURTESANS, no literary parties, think, leaves it without a parallel.' The a public pledge of the Round-Table precep- no fashionable routs, no society, no books, brilliancy of Southey's comparison- the tors, to manifest a similar reverence for re- or knowledge of books. Vanity and luxury scymetars flashing, and sparkling like waters vealed religion; and to oppose its enemies are the civilizers of the world, and sweeteners to the sun-is less effective than the close with a mild sincerity like that of their "illus- of human life. Without objects either of PLLA"Their light was gone, their splendor quenched in gore!" trious predecessors," Addison and Steele. SURE or action, it grows harsh and crabbed : A multitude extinguished in an instant!--I The crime of attempting to degrade the cha- the mind becomes stagnant, the affections have no wish to eulogize the dead, at the racter of their fellow-subjects, of both sexes, callous, and the eye dull.''—(Page 116. v. 2.) expense of the living; but I fear that, if we and disseminate a spirit of irreligion and I beg to observe that in the above notable are to distinguish the three authors, agree- scepticism, becomes still more heinous, when instance of Round-Table good taste, decency, ably to the rule of grammatical comparison, attempted under the mask of philanthropy, truth and morality, "all," that is, the whole we must say, Southey, bonus; Milton, melior; piety and religion. I shall shew by extracts multitude! the entire country-people of and Burke, optimus. from their work, how far those Round Table England are included, without a solitary exTeachers, have, or have not, fulfilled their ception! They are all stupid and envious public pledges and professions; and shall haters of each other! The Knights had set up try them, by the Spectator and Tatler; the as Instructors to point out the vices and evils literary, moral and religious standard, which in Society, for which their readers were to they themselves, voluntarily, selected and provide a remedy. They charge the counpublicly proposed to follow in these essays. try-people with "manufacturing and propaThe following is a specimen of their" old gating" daily lies, and are at the same moSIR,-The following observations have zeal for the many instead of the few"-(p. 19. ment, themselves carrying on a wholesale been suggested to me by a perusal of "The infirmities of our species," (p. 5. v. 1.)-and hood. Their writings, instead of making v. 1.) of their proper sympathy with the manufactory of misrepresentation and falseRound Table, a collection of Essays on Litera- their endeavour to make their readers-vice odious, load an humble class of men ture, Men and Manners," in 2 vols. 8vo. The author, in his preface, states that it was pro-to themselves."-(Ibid.)' WORDSWORTH had ject of morals, they promised "the nicest deve"think better of others, at a little expence with the odium of being vicious. On the subposed by his friend, the EDITOR," to publish introduced, in his poem, "The Excursion," lopement."-" Here, as well as in manners, we a series of papers, in the EXAMINER, in the manner of the early periodical Essayists, the land, where his scene lies; and the Round-things, but only to fetch out what we conceive some plain country folks in that part of Eng-shall endeavour to pierce below the surface of Spectator and Tatler." In " the Introduction" Table Philanthropists, in their abhorrence of to be a more valuable substance, and fitter for the also, the public were taught to expect in these essays, "the appearance of a similar set of the many instead of the few, drew this odious The philosopher Square, himself, with his "low company," forgetting their old zeal for kindlier purposes of intercourse." (p. 18. vol. 1) papers." The overweening conceit and eternal egotism of these self-elected preceptors of picture of the great body of the People of rule of right, and moral fitness of things, could the public, might have been harmless and England, that is of ALL, without exception, not have promised more fairly. Yet, with a amusing, if their essays had been free from who live in the country." ALL COUNTRY- puerile malevolence, they convert the inconcruel personalities, defamation, gross inde- PEOPLE hate each other. They have so little veniences, wants and privations of a countrycency, libertine principles and a spirit of irre- comfort, that they envy their neighbours the life into an accusation against the sufferers! ligion and scepticism. Their affectation of smallest pleasure or advantage, and nearly After having pierced so deep beneath the superior kindness, humanity, wit, taste and grudge themselves the necessaries of life. surface, to bring up something of the best powers of abstraction, might, then, perhaps, From not being accustomed to enjoyment, quality and most fit" for the kindlier purhave passed unnoticed. A literary fopling they become hardened and averse to it-stu- poses of intercourse," these miners in morals may, in his social relations, be an amiable pid, for want of thought-seifish for want of brought up, not a recommendation "to love and good man. He may buzz and flutter in society. There is nothing good to be had in our neighbours as ourselves," but " a want of the sun-shine of his own fancied pre-emithe country, or, if there is, they will not let COURTESANS," as one of the evils of the counnence, and yet be restrained, by principle, you have it. They had rather injure them-try; where," without objects of PLEASURE OF from employing the selves than oblige any one else. Their com-action, life grows harsh and crabbed!" When and pen press, wantonly to wound private feelings and degrade pro-and self-denial, like what we read of among to circulate at our SUNDAY Breakfast tables, mon mode of life is a system of wretchedness we recollect that these essays were written fessional character; vilify the genius of his barbarous tribes. You live out of the world. and to be recommended by unsuspecting country; and injure the cause of public you cannot get your tea and sugar without parents and guardians, to their Children and large bodies of his countrymen and fellow-sending to the next town for it: you pay Wards, as imitations of the Spectators and subjects, to irreconcileable contempt and ha-double, and have it of the worst quality. Tatlers; the gross indecency and profligate tred of each other; and insinuating the poi-skimmed, the meat bad, or spoiled in the more glaring. The Round Table pupils The small beer is sure to be sour, the milk effrontery of this particular passage becomes son of infidelity through the unsuspecting cooking. You cannot do a single thing you have their lesson set. If they can agree with Surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly like; you cannot walk out or sit at home, or their teachers, in considering the want comseemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her write or read, or think or look, as if you did, plained of, in the light of a nuisance, then they just above the horison, decorating and cheering the without being subject to impertinent curio- must deem it meritorious to abate that nuielevated sphere she just began to move in,-glittering sity. The apothecary annoys you with his sance. Each must judge it his duty to meThis can scarcely be surpassed, unless by Shakespeare's, complaisance; the PARSON with his superciliorate life, by creating objects of pleasure, in liousness. If you are poor, you are despised; his own vicinity; to improve the morals and

like the morning star, full of life, and splendor, and joy."

See what a grace was seated on this brow," &c.

manners of our rustic females, by fitting are too easily led, by such black misrepre- John Bull, whom he has drawn as an illthem for the kindlier purposes of Round-sentations, to consider that virtue and human bred, stupid, brutal Dolt, Dupe, Blockhead Table intercourse; and supply the deficiency, nature are incompatible; and that lying, fraud, and Bully! The latter every man underso publicly pointed out, by all the means of avarice, cruelty and every other vice, are as stands to mean a bragging Coward, without seduction and iniquity in his power!— much a necessary practice and part of man, as consulting Dr. JOHNSON's explanation, "it The Round Table Instructor thus further his physical powers. Wherever this opinion is generally taken for a man that has only the teaches the few to think better of the many, by prevails, there can be no better argument in appearance of courage."-Our moral adviser a continued misrepresentation of all our behalf of sanguinary, oppressive laws and an gravely adds; he, John Bull, requires country-people, and particularly the people arbitrary government. A Prince, who be- (what he has been long labouring for) a in those parts of England, described by lieves his subjects to be inclined to fraud, hundred years of slavery to bring him to his Wordsworth. "Not having the fictitious violence and destruction, can never want a senses."" He boasts of the excellence of the distresses and gigantic crimes of poetry to ready justification for war, bloodshed and laws and the goodness of his own disposition; stimulate their imagination and their pas devastation.-LOCKE, and Montesquieu, who and yet there are more people hanged in sions, they vent their whole stock of spleen, were monarchical writers, were of opinion, England than in all Europe besides; he bousts malice, and invention on their friends and that, as a corrupt and depraved people are of the MODESTY OF HIS COUNTRY-WOMEN, and next-door neighbours. They get up a little unfitted for public liberty, every attempt to yet there are more PROSTITUTES in the streets pastoral Drama at home, with fancied events, vilify the character of the people, is a crime of LONDON than in ALL THE CAPITALS OF but real characters. All their spare time is against public liberty, and an encouragement EUROPE PUT TOGETHER." (p. 70, 71. V. 2.) spent in manufacturing and propagating the to oppressive Princes or Ministers to enslave Here the Logician, who, by the word hanged, lie for the day, which does its office and ex- them. The Honourable James Munroe, Pre-means executed, and instead of endeavouring pires. The next day is spent in the same sident of the United States, maintains gene- to make the few think better of the many, risks manner. It is thus that they embellish the rally the same opinion, in a Republican Go- every thing, to make the world think the simplicity of rural life. The cOMMON PEOPLE vernment. The following passage, in his worst of his own country. He brings forward in civilised countries are a kind of domesticated inaugural speech, is very explicit." It is John Bull's boastings, solely to show their savages." (V. 2. p. 119-120)-"The weight only when the people become ignorant and want of foundation: and contradicts him, of matter, which surrounds them, crushes corrupt, when they degenerate into a Popu-in effect, though not in the same words, the finer sympathies. Their minds become lace that they are incapable of exercising the thus; either your laws are bad, or Englishhard and cold, like the rocks which they cul- Sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy at- men are the most dishonest and bloodtivate. The immensity of their mountains tainment, and an Usurper soon found."-thirsty men in all Europe; for there are. makes the human form appear little and John de Witt, the greatest Statesman and more people, that is, more coiners, forgers, insignificant. Men are seen crawling between friend to liberty of his age, styled "the tra- house-breakers, highwaymen and murderHeaven and earth like insects to their graves. ducers of the People, Public enemies." Our ers, hanged, or executed in England than Nor do they regard one another more than flies Round Table Preceptors may therefore, with in all Europe besides. To his countryon a wall. Their physiognomy expresses the perfect consistency, add that John Bull re- women, he is still more outrageously maMATERIALISM of their character, which has quires a hundred years of slavery, for those lignant. He does not admit the goodness only one principle-rigid self-will."-(V. 2. who credit their publications must believe or badness of the laws into the question of P. 121.) There is something so horrid in that Englishmen are no longer worthy of their character; but puts the broad stamp this picture of hardened and brutal selfish-liberty. They have represented the whole of infamy upon their nature, without any ness, that Foreigners, who can believe it to of our country people as the very vilest and reservation; and reasons the case in subbe a just representation of the English coun- most odious of human beings, sunk by stu- stance, with unblushing hardihood, thus; try people, must be inclined to think of them pidity, envy and malice, below the level of you boast of the modesty of your countrywith as much disgust and abhorrence as of animal nature, and as devoid of principle or women; but there are more prostitutes in Swift's Yahoos. The broad expression "THEIR feeling for their fellow-creatures as the Kite, the streets of London than in all the capitals MATERIALISM," whether considered in con- the Vulture, or the Wolf. The evidence of his- of Europe put together; therefore, the Engnection with the evident scepticism of those tory and the ablest writers prove that public lish women are not the modest women you Essays, or as a malignant attempt to degrade prejudices and misrepresentations produce boast them to be; but the most immod the character of their countryinen, cannot public divisions and weakness; and that pub-est and depraved women in all Europe.fail to produce a strong sensation. Although lic liberty is best secured from foreign and Yet this chivalrous Knight of the Round Swift, by his gloomy view of mankind, so domestic invasion by a union of the people. Table, probably, did not drop like a centaur, justly incurred the charge of deliberate male- It inay be considered a political axiom, that a from a cloud; but had an English woman volence, he did not hold up his countrymen people divided by prejudices can neither ob- for his mother; was suckled at the breast to the world as a people sunk in envious and tain nor preserve freedom. These hideous of an English woman; has other English brutish malignity. The disgusting pictures misrepresentations of whole classes and kinswomen, and was still admitted into the of depravity in Gulliver's Travels were not large bodies of Englishmen, are, therefore, company of modest English women, at the time imposed upon his own time, as correct ac- anti-social and injurious to the spirit of that he thus became their public and delibecounts of the state of men and manners in freedom; because they excite divisions rate traducer. As to his knowledge of the any particular country; they were published among men and make every other portion unhappy females, who ply in the streets of as a work of invention, altogether, and only of their fellow-subjects hold the classes so London, we neither doubt nor dispute it; but: supposed to be aimed at human nature in grossly misrepresented, in dread, contempt it is quite clear that he could not have ascergeneral. Clarendon, in his observations on and aversion. Having resided in those parts tained the number of this wretched class in Hobbes's Leviathan, condemns upon solid of England, I am enabled from my own all the capitals of Europe. In this latter ingrounds those degrading representations of knowledge, to state, that those general stance, and in that of the number of men man as injurious to public morals. Hobbes's ill charges of stupid and malignant envy, of hanged or executed upon the continent, he opinion of human nature, was founded in his base and cruel selfishness, are wholly fulse. has advanced a bold assertion without means. disbelief of revealed religion. Swift's shock- And when the Round-Table Teacher adds of knowing the fact; and has hazarded his. ing pictures were dictated by a mind of great that his theory" is taken from pretty close claim to belief, for the very exquisite gratifipowers and sanguine ambition, soured by observation," he furnishes some proof that he cation of holding up his countrymen to the disappointment. The practice of charging has written in a spirit of wilful misrepresent-world, as the greatest robbers and cut-throats a brutish and cruel disposition upon the ation; for, if we are to credit him, he must have in all Europe, and his countrywomen as the mass of men, or all mankind, has been ever had a full opportunity of knowing the truth. most profligate of their sex in Christendom! attended with evil consequences. It is dan- Besides this false and degrading character of This coarse and shocking aspersion upon gerous because, like all views, drawn only our English country people, the Round- the fair sex, which a married beggar night from the dark side of things, it must be par- Table Philosopher vilifies the character of hesitate to utter in an ale-house corner, over tial and false; and because the unthinking Englishmen, in general, under the name of his cups, was gravely written, printed, pub

lished, and re-published, as a Sunday piece of
breakfast-table instruction, by a club of mo-
ralists, who professed to imitate the Specta-
tors and Tatlers, and modestly attempted to
pass their base counterfeits as equal in value
to the sterling coin of Addison and Steele, by
familiarly designating the latter their "illus-
trious predecessors." Their slander is aggra- The author says nothing new concerning
vated, by its deliberate re-publication, and is Drury Lane and Covent Garden: without
rendered still more offensive by the vulgar stopping therefore to notice the description
indecency, with which, in the vilest terms, which he gives of them, we will proceed im-
the street prostitutes of London and the mediately to Sadler's Wells which is a Theatre
writer's country-women are not only asso-of the second order. This place is styled the
ciated as relative terms in the same sentence, Aquatic- Theatre, and is almost exclusively
but as beings alike in mind and inclinations, devoted to Harlequinades; it is however fre-
and only different in circumstances.
quently attended by the good society of
London, who laugh heartily at the pretty
things brought forward for their amusement.
If we may judge of their taste from the
analysis given by the author of a piece at
present in favour, we are entitled to say that
they are not very fastidious with regard to
jokes.

A NEW EXAMINER. SIX MOIS A LONDRES: Par l'auteur de Quinze Jours à Londres.

In the XIth number of the Literary Gazette, a short account was given of this work; but the following article from a Paris paper will make our readers better acquainted with the contents of this book, which appears remarkable for its misconceptions, and misrcpresentations, if not wilful falsehoods. The article may also afford some amusement as a specimen of the Review of a foolish author by an ignorant Critic.

Paris. In our Theatres, gold and diamonds ed, there is a French theatre established in
glitter in the lower boxes, grace and elegance London for the fashionable classes of society
are to be seen in the second tier, and bloom- who pique themselves on thoroughly under-
ing complexions and gentility in the upper standing our language. To this place the
circles; but in London the audience is all public are not admitted. It was established
alike in appearance. The reason is obvious: by subscription and the theatre belongs en-
the boxes are all rated at one price.
tirely to the subscribers. Our critical tra-
veller spares neither the performers nor the
repertory of this company. One actress only
corresponded with his ideas of grace. The
following trait will induce the reader to sub→
scribe to the praises which he bestows on this
young adept's presence of mind. Being on
the stage with one of her companions who
suddenly forgot her part, she immediately
observed her deficiency, and exclaimed in a
loud tone of voice with great volubility;
"Ah! my dear, are you out in your part?
don't flurry yourself. I will go on with mine.
If such a misfortune should occur again, talk
to me of the rain or fine weather; impart a
little vehemence to your delivery, and our
audience will be none the wiser: these
This piece, which is entitled London and people come here only to make it be supposed
Paris, has not furnished its author with a they understand us." The actress followed
single good epigram. Instead of opposing her advice and the piece proceeded amidst
the manners of France to those of England, loud applause. This was indeed an excellent
he has contrived nothing better than to piece of mystification.
convey his Harlequin and the spectators al- London is the paradise of artists who wish
ternately to Paris and London: on one occa- to get rich. They must indeed idolize a city
sion only the scene represents a French Res-in which they acquire such large fortunes,
taurateur and an English Tavern; but neither that an actress (Miss O'Neill) has paid
interest nor gaiety arises from this junction. 144,000 francs as her portion of the contribu
In the eyes of the English public, the de- tion known by the name of the income tax.
nouement may possibly compensate for all Before we take leave of the theatres we must
defects; it is as follows:
not forget to mention a very ludicrous cus-
tom: the English do not suffer play-bills to
be placarded about the streets; in order to
have them read, it is therefore necessary to
distribute them in different shops. Our au-
thor declares that as he was once passing a
butcher's shop, he observed an opera-bill, one
end of which was fastened to a leg of mutton
and the other to a loin of veal. We leave
this fact to the responsibility of the traveller.
(This we fear cannot be disputed.)

"The success of one work does not always
guarantee the success of another; and the
author of a Fortnight in London, who wrote a
very amusing pamphlet on his rapid glance
over the Capital of England, returns less
happily to the same subject. Our laudable
curiosity can be satisfied only by a profound
study of society; but for this purpose six It will be recollected that the late General
months are as insufficient as a fortnight; this Pillet published a work upon England of
study is much more difficult in England than rather a satirical cast: the author of the
in France. In Paris, for example, an ordin- piece in question has taken upon himself
ary share of merit and agreeable manners the task of punishing him. An actor in
serve as an introduction to every house, 1 the dress of a French General is brought
had almost said to every heart: such un- upon the stage, and it is insisted that he
limited confidence is exercised that a single shall ask pardon of the English ladies, who,
day will suffice to see and become acquainted it is said, were calumniated by the General.
with all. As to general observations, they The actor who performs this character obeys,
are quite as easily collected: every thing though his submission does not exempt him We next proceed to notice fashionable
proceeds openly in society: those who do not from a very rigorous chastisement: this, it routs. This species of entertainment con-
see must absolutely close their eyes. In must be confessed, is noble vengeance. But sists in assembling together five or six hun-
England, on the contrary, a foreigner solicits what crime did General Pillet commi? dred persons, who crowd through a suite of
long and almost always unavailingly, to gain What did he say? What did he do? He elegantly furnished apartments. This cus-
a footing of intimacy with those to whom he observed that the English women were de- tom is beginning to gain ground in Paris. It
is recommended: none of those small agree- ficient in grace and more particularly in will be needless to follow the author to one
able parties are formed in which wit and gaiety what the French term tournure: well, the of these parties at Lady A-s, as the review
are displayed without restraint. No one author of six months in London is no less cul- of the company present presents nothing
comprehends that succession of visits made pable; he even denies the power of charm-reniarkable. We must not however omit to
and received which fill up our evenings so ing to the pretty nymph whose head is mention one little anecdote: the lady of the
agreeably; visitors are never admitted, or at thrust forward, whose shoulders are forced house being convinced of the impracticability
least only in crowds.
towards her bosom, who walks-like a gre- of paying personal attention to seven hun-
Our author introduces none of his travel-nadier who has never been taught to march, dred guests, ordered her carriage and drove
ling-companions to the acquaintance of his and who has not learned to regulate the off to spend the evening with an intimate
readers, excepting a Gascon who is journey-motion of his arms. With regard to taste, friend, without ever being missed by the
ing to London for the purpose of teaching it is still worse. If in Paris a flower is placed party she had left behind her.
French pronunciation. He commences his in a cap, all the caps in London are im-
course of observation with the Italian Opera. mediately loaded with tulips and roses, and
It is scarcely necessary to repeat that no a lady's head assumes the appearance of a
person is admitted to this Theatre except in flower-woman's basket. If feathers happen
full-dress; that the representation is pro- to be fashionable in France, every hat in
longed until after midnight, excepting on England is covered with them, and the
Saturdays, when the necessity of not en- women look like Andalusian mules. Thus,
croaching on Sunday morning usually oc- to the great mortification of Frenchmen
casions an abridgment of the performance. who cross the channel, our fashions are
The assemblage of spectators presents a very scarcely recognizable.
different aspect from what may be seen in

In addition to the theatre above-mention

The chapter entitled, It is a mistake, is calculated to excite some suspicion of the honesty of English shopkeepers. The chapter on the courts of law gives rise to an equally unfavourable opinion of debtors. If we may credit our author, a false oath is a matter about which they concern themselves but little if it will enable them to get rid of a trifling debt. Among the ludicrous causes with which these courts are sometimes occupied, we may notice an action brought by a

young lady with a view to break off an in- Baron Von Stackelberg, one of the down to the latest publication on the subject tended marriage; she alleged that after the well-known Society of Travellers in of civil architecture, as the purest model of signature of the contract, her future husband Greece, intends to publish a work on hands of man; and as such it is, perhaps, of a public building which ever came from the was continually disputing with her concern- the Athenian earthen vases, which will all other buildings of antiquity, that which ing the size of the stick with which the English laws authorize a husband to correct his contain 72 plates.-Mr. Cockerell, who has the least suffered from the ravages of wife. This subject of conversation at length will soon leave Rome, and return through barbarian invaders, or of sacrilege under the disgusted the young lady and she took the Germany to England, is now employed mask of religion; and within the few last road to Gretna-Green with a lover less versed in forming a group of the Statues on the years I am happy to learn, that what the Those who have read M. Levis's excellent the same manner as he has arranged the frontispiece of the Temple at Ægina, in inevitable hand of time and wanton mischief would have destroyed, has been preserved for work on England will scarcely expect to find i after ages we may hope to say, for everany new details on benevolent institutions in family of Niobe at Florence.-The Prus-by the transfer of some of its choicest porthe pamphlet now before us. Certainly no sian architects, Messrs. Gan and Limann, tions of sculpture to your happy and sea-girt city in the world contains so many asylums are publishing an etching of the plan isle.

in the lex matrimonii.

open to distress as London; but the extreme and elevation of the Museum Clemen- What, then, can be more worthy of a nainequality of fortunes renders even these nu-tino-Chiaramonte.-Prince Poniatowsky, tion; how can she more nobly celebrate the merous charities insufficient. One cannot at Rome, is going to print a Catalogue but approve of the benevolent views of the raisonnée of his rich collection of founders of these establishments; but what must we think of that multiplicity of lotte-The French architect, Mr. Paris, who ries, the proprietors of which are all under has spent several years at Rome, and the protection of government?dedicated his leisure almost exclusively

against a six months' residence."

FINE ARTS.

SCULPTURE, &c.

gems.

heroic deeds of her warriors, than by raising to their honour, in equal if not enlarged proportions, another glory of the civilized world, sanctuary of a purer religion; and by these another triumph of cultivated art, another means perpetuate to the latest posterity the It would perhaps have been better had our to the Coliseum, and parts adjacent, has knowledge of a building which was the boast author written nothing more than his Fort- now returned to his own country, where of a country, the nurse of all that was great night in London. That light and spirited he will probably publish a work upon in arms and in arts; and from which we sketch which announced no pretension, was those finest ruins in the world. The glory to derive all our philosophy, all our favourably received, but the wit and gaiety of the author seems not to have been proof little chapel and hermitage in the Co-morals, all our taste, all our love of liberty, all our eloquence, all our poetry; in short, liseum are pulled down, and the former all that is good, except what came immeis removed under a hinder arch of it.-diately from Heaven-our religion? And Excavations have now been commenced who shall say that in so doing you are mereat Palestrina, about the Temple of Se-ly imitatores, servum pecus? Which of the ROME, 27th MARCH.-The digging statues, which an inhabitant of the place tator of Demosthenes? Can you boast any rapis.--The discoveries of well-preserved best orators in either of your Houses of Parliament would not glory to be called an imiup of the very ancient Urns and Sarco- said he had made last year, are still in-poet whom you could style an imitator of phagi about Albano, is diligently con- volved in obscurity. The spot which he Homer? Which of your great historians, tinued. Their form is rude, representing mentions, gives indeed reason to enter though the best confessedly which modern sometimes little towers, sometimes strange tain hopes it lies near Mezza Silva, a Europe has produced, can be compared with little houses, in the shape of an oven. domain of the house Barberini, 12 miles Thucydides, or Herodotus? Who of your These are found, of the most various from Palestrina, where the Villa of Seja- could he lecture like Socrates; or imitate moral philosophers would not be proud sizes, filled with ashes and bones; and uus is supposed to have stood. The the opening is closed by a lid, which is neighbourhood is unfortunately very un-lectures of his master? Even in mathemaXenophon in transmitting to posterity the fastened with brass pins. Round about, safe, which impedes the making of re-tics, wherein we have advanced beyond our and also within some of them, are pieces searches. masters, on the road they pointed out to us, of amber, little shields, swords, lances, who does not wish to imitate Euclid in the and clasps of metal, pots, lamps, and clearness of his expositions; Archimedes in tripods. The material of which these the sublimity of his genius? And if I am in sarcophagi or urns are composed, is not Paris, April 17. one instance obliged to travel out of Greece, burnt earth, but, according to appear- SIR, I have just seen and read with great because no single country can offer me a ance, a mixture of earth and mineral pleasure, the letter which appeared in your suitable prototype, I bow with pleasure to -pitch, or coals. What is most remark- paper of the 12th instant, recommending the the greatness of unrivalled genius when I model of the Parthenon of Athens, on the say, that even your immortal Wellington has able is, that in order to find them, one occasion of erecting a monument in the envi-imitated Alexander in his daring marches, must dig first through a layer of Pepe- rons of London to commemorate the triumphs Hannibal in his intrepidity, Cesar in his rino, and then a thick stratum of earth; of the British arms during the late eventful perseverance and the never-failing resources so that it is evident that they have been of his mind, and Scipio, as well in the deciburied under a stratum of lava, like sive victories he has gained, as in the unHerculaneum and Pompeii. Now since, spotted purity of his heart. according to the tradition, Ascanius founded his new city on the Lake of Castel Goudolto, (the extinguished Vol- The Parthenon of Athens, with whose cano of the place,) the antiquity of these proportions and general effect we are here things must be placed farther back than more familiar, I believe, than you are in the Trojan war, however averse one may London, from the models of it which have be to allow this. The Archæological been long exhibited in this city, as well perhaps as from a certain veneration for all that Society at Rome, has already begun to was Greek or Roman, which the early friends examine all these remains; and we may of the revolution attempted to instil into us expect very divided opinions, and violent as a nation, has ever been considered, from disputes on the subject. the earliest periods since its construction

THE INTENDED NATIONAL

struggles.

MONUMENTS.
To the Editor.

I cannot figure to myself a more just and appropriate idea, and I trust sincercly, as an admirer of your nation, and an enthusiastic admirer of the fine arts, that it will be carried into effect.

But though all this, and more, may he granted to the superiority of Greece, it may still be objected that a Temple is not suited to commemorate triumphs of arms. Here, too, I must have recourse to precedents from the ancient world: and the Parthenon itself is a ready and direct evidence to the contrary; for what else is represented on the metopes of the Temple than the triumphs of Theseus and Hercules over the barbarous nations in the vicinity of their country, directly or allegorically represented? or the triumphs of the Lapithæ over their uncivilize