1:20 Immoral Tendency of the Fairs near London. portions for social instruction; however, when they are not too long, nor too often introduced, and come in seasonably, they are well received, and likely to please and improve better than prose. 3. It improves our style. Prosaic authors, who possess a rich imagination, have not so much need to study the poets as others; but writers not having such an advantage, should court the muses. This is not to be done in order to incorporate fine poetic phrases with their feeble prose, for that would be plagiarism and patchwork. But when a judicious author, whose prose is too weak, studies the poets, it so animates his mind that it imparts general correctness and vigor to his prosaic productions. For as the reading of the Greek and Roman poets enriches the style of those who have a classical education, so where there is not that advantage, and perhaps no original genius, in a prosaic writer, it is highly necessary to be addicted to the frequent perusal of the best poetical pieces in English. 4. It stimulates to devotion and piety. It is to be lamented that poetry has been prostituted to bad and foolish purposes; but we are to recollect that it is also constantly used to excite and cherish in the aman mind the most serious and one ficial enjoyments. Thus, repeatedly, on every sabbath, in places of worship, it is solemnly used in the service of the Almighty, and much more frequently for private devotion and consolation. And when accompanied with proper instrumental or vocal melody, it is the means of producing some of the most religious and pleasing sensations in the human heart. Lastly, It is easily remembered. That rhyme very much assists the memory is so well known that it needs no enlargement, though perhaps all who are fond of poetry have not equal powers of retention. In committing poetry to our memory, it is perhaps not best to begin with irregular metre, but at first to learn by heart a few couplets in either of the common metres. Then to proceed to epigrams, or short poems, and !, degrees we may be able to recite longer pieces in the same metre in which odes or elegies are written. The reader of this essay may see some such short progressive examples in the beginning of the poetical department of Murray's English Reader. I cannot conclude better than with the following remarks in praise of elegant poetry by Sir William Temple, "True poetry is produced by a combination of invention, expression, and harmony, according to the laws of measure and [March 1, verse. It has so strong an impression upon many minds, that it can raise any passions and allay them, cause pleasure or pain, change determined resolutions, and alter long established customs and habits. The force of genius and of rea soning, the height of conceptions and expressions, may be found in poetry; and how far its effects may extend it is impossible to conceive. The poetical fire has given motion to the minds of the greatest learned men, warriors, and kings, and discovered innumerable objects unseen to common eyes." Buckingham. MR. EDITOR, G. G. SCRAGGS. THE mischief produced by the numerous fairs held in the neighbour hood of London is very great; during the time they last, intemperance, riot and profligacy, know no bounds. For want of better regulations, nocturnal dances succeed to the dissipation of the day, and prove a copious source of immorality and misfortunes. Such fairs are, indeed, nuisances of the very worst description. They draw together in swarms those dissolute and disorderly persons who always abound in a great metropolis, and who, on these occasions, sally forth to defraud the unwary, and to corrupt the inexperienced. The following is a list of fairs in the vicinity of the metropolis, with their duration. Peckham fair, days 3 Ham Battersea Brook Green Edmonton fa. days 3 Do. Whitsuntide 3 3 3 3 3 Fairlop 2 3 3 1815.1 Letter from the King to Pope Clement XIV. ment for the hospitality his brothers had experienced from him.-"E il Re d'Inghilterra medesimo gli scrisse nella maniera più affettuosa per ringraziarlo della magnificenza, colla quale aveoa ricevuto i suoi fratelli, e gli mandò i più bei regali. Oite di questo accettò ancora la sua mediazione per riconciliarsi col Duca di Cumberland." It would furnish a very interesting addition to your valuable cabinet of anecdotes of the house of Hanover, if any of your correspondents could supply a copy of this letter. Such a communication would be still more valuable, if at the same time supplying the particulars of the conciliatory mediation of this celebrated Pope alluded to in the foregoing quotation. One cannot help naturally feeling a deep concern in every incident and event of the domestic life of a sovereign, no less endeared to his people by his personal sufferings, than by virtues indelibly impressed on the hearts of a grateful and revering nation. Jan. 1. 1815. SCRUTATOR. P. S. An elegant editor of some of the Tuscan classics (Mr. Zotti) is at this time engaged in the republication of the original letters of the learned Ganganelli (Clement XIV.) And it is to be hoped that this able editor will be induced, besides a full memoir of the author, to supply the desideratum of literary and his torical notices relative to the persons addressed, and topics discussed in this interesting correspondence. It would also form a valuable appendix to his projected work, if Mr. Z. were to annex an Italian translation of the letters which were written in Latin, and numbered, though not inserted, in the Paris edition.† MR. EDITOR, IT is always desirable to believe the good intention of those who propose reforms of any kind. Though therefore the letter of a Pancratian answers no sentence of mine, excepting my invitation of coming among us to gain better information, and assist us by his advice, yet I will endeavour to frame an answer in different words from my last. His first remark in its present form is, that my admission of the too great size of the house, strengthens his argument against its continuance with its present designation. As long as small-pox conCaraccioli Vita del Sommo Pontifice Clemente XIV. p. 65. + In 2 vol. 12mo. edited by Caraccioli, in 1777, the only correct and authentic edition, I believe, now in existence. 121 tinues, and as long as truth is desirable, a small-pox hospital is necessary; nor can such an establishment have any other designation. Does the too great size of the house prove that no house is necessary, or make any difference in its designation? 2ndly. The reduction of the establishment, it is added, confirms the objection, and the extensive practice of vaccination within its walls brings the point to a demonstration, by shewing the necessity which once called for such a charitable foundation has now ceased." The reduction of the establishment shows the attention of the committee to every means of economy. But what connection has this with the latter part of the same sentence-coupled with" and the extensive practice of vaccination," &c.? This extensive practice shows how ready those benevolent individuals who first established this foundation for the relief of suffering bumanity, are to avail themselves of every means by which they may prevent what at one time they only attempted to assuage or relieve. But does it show that there is no longer a necessity for any receptacle for those who, by the imprudence of their parents, or from other causes not necessary to mention, are still afflicted with this dreadful malady? Nay, is it not universally demanded by the most zealous vaccinators, that such objects should be removed from the danger of spreading the disease in confined and populous neighbourhoods? This indeed has been a reason that has retarded the diligence of the committee in disposing of a part of their premises, conceiving it probable that if Lord Borringdon's bill should be passed, their house might be made a receptacle for a considerable district. "If," says a Pancratian, "the smallpox is to be perpetuated amongst us, let inoculation be confined to a place exclusively appropriated to that blessing, but do not, by a refinement of hypocrisy, carry on vaccination under the same roof." What can this writer mean by hypocrisy? Do men of liberal character sacrifice their time and part with their mouey" to disperse a poison and antidote with the same hand." Sir, this mode of calling names has always a bad appearance. The writer knows very well that no poison is bere dispersed; that all who are inoculated reinain in the house till all danger of infection is over. Vaccination I admit needs no hospital. 122 Small-pox Hospital-Title of Esquire. vaccination. I shall not enter into the question how far such a prejudice may be well founded, but this is well known, that until Dr. Woodville adopted this grand discovery the public mind never was reconciled to it. To this day mothers come not only from all parts of the town, but from remote parts of the kingdom, to procure vaccination at this hospital for children, who would probably never be vaccinated if the practice were discontinued here. But what objection can an honest vaccinator have to "the extensive practice of vaccination within the walls of this edifice?" Should he not rejoice at every facility which renders the adoption of such a blessing more general? Let us hear no more of the disgrace to the British nation at the existence of a small-pox hospital. If seclusion is a means of lessening the spreading of an infection, such an hospital is the only means; and whether it is or not, as long as the disease exists, and chiefly among the poorer orders, such an asylum is necessary. Should the poor sailor, picked up in the street, after having sold all he possessed, except the clothes which cover him, be left to die in the street and to infect the child of every compassionate mother or nurse who turns round to pity him? But it is impossible to reason on a self-evident proposition. A Pancratian goes on to confound our establishment with general inoculations; but this, like his charge of hypocrisy, is, I fear, only with a view of writing something hostile to the good intentions of good men; for whether these inoculators may be in the vicinity of the hospital or at a distance, this can have nothing to do with the regulations of that house. To conclude, sir, if a Pancratian will tell us what he really means, we shall have some clue to answer him, but the above is all I can make of his desultory letter, which must be my apology if my answer is not so well connected as I could wish. A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE, &C. MR. EDITOR, I HAVE been much amused lately by the clamourous complaints of the opposition party respecting the extension of the Order of the Bath, and by their lamentations at the declaration that the Companions of the Order shall take place of all esquires. In short, sir, they seem dreadfully afraid that the real esquires of England will feel degraded by a few military and [March 1, naval officers taking precedence of them, and yet it is very curious that these sensitive gentlemen never winced at the more degrading fact of so many individuals having been impudently placed upon a par with them.. It is not many years since the "Monthly Mirror" presented us with a portrait of "I. H. D'Egville, esq." and much about the same time, a child having been worried near the Obelisk in Surrey, by a bear, the papers told us that the ferocious animal was the "property of J. Bradberry, esq. clown at the Circus."Yet, neither the Gazette of the party, nor the beknighted Magazine ever noticed this approximation of what the law calls vagabondism to rank and talents. I mean not however to confine myself to absurdity at home, but to look at its effects abroad, and that too in a particular point of view which has never yet been considered. All titles of honour flow from the king, as the fountain of honour; he creates dukes, and dubs knights, who again appointed their esquires in former times. It is not indeed my intention at present to investigate closely the title of esquire; but this is evident, that in England there were no esquires until there were knights, though the title, after being a title of office, and of military tenure, became one of respect. Legal esquires are either those whom the king creates, or whom the law supposes him to have created; and esquires by courtesy are those who assume and who receive the title in imitation of that which is strictly legal; but in either case the title is a stream from the royal fountain, and if the legal title ceased to exist, the one by courtesy must cease also. Not so, with regard to the appellation Mr. or master, which is merely a term of respect through courtesy, not a title of honour. But to the point; when America was colonized from England, the settlers carried with them all rights and titles proceeding from the crown, and they also carried with them the obligation to allegiance; the former being a right, the latter a duty; and the two so closely interwoven, as not to be separable. In process of time, the settlers and their descendants acquired additional rights either by law or courtesy; some becoming esquires by the royal commission in civil offices, and others, as rising in opulence, becoming so in courtesy; but the title in both cases still remaining a stream of the royal fountain, for though 1815.] American Esquires-Abuse of Franks. the people may call, they cannot create esquires! But, sir, when the United States threw off their allegiance to their king, they, of necessity, gave up all rights and claims to his favour, and of course all titles of honour, which, till then, emanated from him, necessarily ceased to exist on their own declaration of independence, or at least on the ratification of that declaration by his Britannic majesty. Up to that period, the esquires in America were British esquires; they then ceased to be so! But still they did, and still they do, call themselves esquires! and how?-upon what right? British esquires they are not-esquires by courtesy cannot exist where there are no knights! The American government or executive, has not passed a law, nor issued an order in council, nor a fiat from the Herald's College creating their American esquires. James Madison, who calls himself an esquire, has not yet professed himself a maker of esquires; indeed, he might with equal right create dukes, and earls, or dub knights, for these are all feudal titles, and cannot exist by courtesy where the legal title is wanting. It is true, that during the negociations at the close of the American war, as well as at later periods, they called themselves esquires, and we gave them the same title; but they are not British esquires, and I defy them to produce any public document for their being American ones. If it is only by courtesy they claim it, then they are not esquires, and even their president has no right to the title; if they claim a right, let them produce the authority. If the ipse dixit of the Americau government, or if the courtesy of the American people can give one feudal title, there is nothing to prevent them from giving another; yet the people of America, as well as of the rest of the world, would be startled either at the confirming or the assuming of the titles of the higher orders of nobility by Mr. James Madison and his adherents. A republic cannot grant feudal titles; that is, of right; but it may empower its head to grant them, perhaps; though I must confess I am rather doubtful of the fact. America, however, has not yet by any legal act empowered the president to grant, or even to assume the title of esquire; as applied even to him therefore, it is a mere nonentity, but an absurdity which has not before been noticed. CAMDEN, MR. EDITOR, 123 MY attention has been much excited by the perusal, in a recent newspaper, of a court-martial held on some officer for availing himself of the immunity enjoyed by privates and non-commissioned officers from the payment of any postage beyond the sum of one penny, and which was effected by corresponding under cover to a corporal.-For this offence the officer has been severely censured and dismissed his majesty's service. I do not dispute the propriety of the sentence, but on considering it, as most sentences should be, with a view to some little self-examination, I must own it raised some doubts in my mind how far I could stand acquitted in a court of honour, for, in point of fact, a more compleat fraud on the revenue, by availing myself of an acquaintance with a member of parliament and prevailing on him to direct my letters to my friends, or his permitting them to address me under cover to him. That upon close investigation, and on a high moral principle, these practices cannot be justified I am thoroughly satisfied, nor could I be convinced of the contrary, although a second Dr. Paley might arise to excuse or palliate the practice by reference to the world's law. I am well aware that an equal, if not a greater degree of blame attaches to the peers and members of parliament who thus prostitute their privilege, and convert to private purposes and friendship what was granted as a mere protection from the expense of correspondence with constituents or others on public business of the state, or private grievances. In my view of the transaction the privi lege should not be exercised in any other case, and I see no shade of difference between a member franking his own private correspondence and that of any of his friends." I am old enough to remember the time when the member's signature alone on the direction was sufficient. The privilege was unlimited. Covers were then publicly sold by the waiters at the fashionable coffee-houses; and an eminent banker was amply repaid all expenses of obtaining the privilege by the loads of franks which were consumed on his counters in Lombard-street. This shameful abuse was gradually diminished by the measures adopted by Mr. Pitt, to its present limited condition; but its waste to the revenue is out of all proportion to the gain of any individual by it; asendependent of the loss 124 Returns of Non-resident Clergy. to the revenue, may be added the positive expense of a great many clerks in different departments to sort the franks, and check the weight, signatures, and amount. In the public offices, a greater degree of culpability obtains, for every person there, from the chief clerk to the messenger, and all the rabble rout of dependents and retainers on them are indulged with covers, which are unlimited in number as well as weight; and many trinkets, or pieces of bridecake, or valentines, have travelled to all parts of the kingdom and colonies on his majesty's service, to the no small disservice of his majesty's revenue. Indeed, I recollect an instance of a young man in one of the public offices occasionally thus sending a fashionable pair of shoes to his sister in the country. My object in calling the attention of the public, through the medium of your widely circulating magazine, to the consideration of this subject, is to induce a calm and dispassionate discussion of it, by which the legislature may be roused to a sense of its impropriety; and while the whole kingdom is justly clamorous against the renewal of an oppressive but productive source of revenue, its loss may in no small measure be relieved by a renunciation of the privilege in ques tion. AS the period is approaching for returning the annual lists of the non-resident clergy for the use of parliament, I beg leave to suggest some remarks on the defective mode in which these returns are drawn out, and which has been long the subject of just and serious complaint. According to the existing plan of making up these lists, a large number of incumbents appear to be non-resident, who either are really not so, or if not resident in their parishes, are effectively discharging their duties. For instance, a considerable class, indeed the chief part, of those included in the case of non-residents by exemption, are actually living upon other benefices, or attending other professional charges; and a great number included under the case of licensed absentees are merely living out of their parishes from having no parsonages, or from having private family houses, while they are, at the very time they are so returned, actually discharg [March 1, ing their own duty! The consequence, therefore, of making the returns in this vague and undefined manner is swelling out the annual lists in a way that must impress the mind of any cursory observer with the idea of a much greater prevalence of the evil of non-residence than really exists. To obviate this well-founded objec tion, and it is surely but an act of justice due to a profession the great bulk of which is eminent for its exemplary conduct, talents, and usefulness, it would only be necessary to adopt a more descriptive distribution of the cases of non-residents, discriminating the actual absentees from those who though nonresident in their parishes or houses (if any) are still the performers of their own duty. Through the means of your maga zine, as the most probable channel to convey this feeling of the clergy to“ those in authority," I request leave to propese what appears to me a very simple method of correcting the evil complained of, and at the same time also of more com pletely answering the parliamentary object of the returns themselves. At present the arrangement of the cases is drawn out as follows. 1. Non-residents by exemption. 2. Do. by licence. 3. Do. by absence. 4. Miscellaneous cases, including vacancies and sinecures. Now in lieu of this method, I would propose the following distribution : 1. Non-residents by exemption, but performing other duties. 2. Do. by licence, on livings having no houses. 3. Do. by do. dwelling in other houses. 4. Do. by do on livings having houses, and entirely absent. 5. Do. by wilful absence without licences. 6. Sinecures and miscellaneous cases. In class 4, it must be observed, will be included a number of cases of absentees licensed on account of ill health, and constitutional inability to reside in the country from the nature of the climate. Of these it might perhaps be but fair to form a separate class in the annual distribution. At all events, however, common justice demands that an evit in many cases unavoidable, much as its existence is to be regretted in any, should not be represented in a greater or more aggravated shape than it really does exist. Feb. 3, 1815. V. M. H. |