Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

Greeks or Románs indulged a 'taste for flowers, or that they ever endeavoured to improve their own wild and indigenous plants, or imported others from foreign countries. We can only consider the florid description of the garden of Alcinous as the effusion of poetry; and those of Cicero and Pliny were only vineyards, with grottos, alcoves, and arbours. It is not, in fact, more than three centuries ago that our own gardens were superior, either in taste or products to those of the ancients: and, for most of the embellishments we now possess of flowerbeds, shrubberies, and conservatories, we are indebted to oriental countries. The vegetable treasures of the East were assembled at Constantinople, whence they passed into Italy, Germany, and Holland, and from the latter into England; and since botany has assumed the character of a science, we. have laid the whole world under contribution for trees, and shrubs, and flowers, which we have not only made our own, but improved in vigour and beauty.

June V. SUNDAY.-St. Boniface.

High Water, Morn. IV. 58 m.-Even. V. 16 m. Sunday Lessons, Morn. Josh. 10, Mark 6; Even. Josh. 23, 2 Cor. 3.

Boniface, at first called Wilfred, was a saxon presbyter, born at Kirton, in De-, vonshire. He adopted the life of a missionary, to disseminate the gospel among barbarous nations, and, while engaged in the holy office, was, on this day, killed by the pagans, near Utrecht. He obtained, the appellation of the Apostle of the Ger

mans.

June VI.-Monday.

High Water, Morn. V. 34 m. Even. V. 55 m. CHRONOLOGY. On this day, 1762, died lord George Anson, who signalized himself by his voyage round the globe, and whose merits as a naval commander raised him to the peerage. He was born at Muckborough, in Staffordshire, a. d. 1700.

June VII.-Tuesday. High Water, Morn. VI. 16 m.-Even. VI. 38 m.

CHRONOLOGY.- 1520. Anniversary of the splendid interview between Henry VIII. and Francis I., within the English pale, near Andres, in France. The costly ceremonial on this occasion is much celebrated by historians: the English were Isaid to have carried their manors, the French their forests, on their backs; and the very plain upon which the monarchs met, from the richness of the tents and pavilions, was thence called Le champ de drap d'or, "the field of golden cloth."

1779. Died the celebrated controver

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

A rather undistinguishing war is usually waged against the sparrow tribe about this time, and rewards are sometimes offered for their destruction. With the exception however of the house sparrow, this order of birds is rather favourable than otherwise to the pursuits of the farmer. The order of sparrows, however, includes no fewer than forty different kinds of birds, which do not eat a single grain of corn, but which in the course of spring and summer destroy millions of insects that would prove infinitely more destructive to the crops of the farmer. It has been ascertained, that a single pair of common sparrows, while the young ones are in the nest, destroy, on an average, above three thousand caterpillars every week.

Mackerel are now taken in great abundance. Any quantity of these fish is perceived from the shore by the rippling which they make on the surface of the sea; the fishermen immediately put off in their boats, and shoot the seine, frequently taking fifteen and sixteen thousand at a haul on the southern coast of England.

London: Printed by A. APPLEGATH Stamford Street, for THOMAS BOYS, No. 7, Ludgate Hill, to whom all Communications (free of expense) are requested to be addressed; and sold also by all Booksellers, Newsmen, and Venders in Town and Country.-Published every Saturday.,

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

HAWKING, or the art of training and flying of hawks, for the purpose of catching other birds, is usually placed at the head of rural amusements, and probably it obtained precedency from its being a pastime so generally followed by the nobility, not in this country only but on the continent. Persons of high rank rarely appeared without their dogs and their hawks; the latter they carried with them when they journeyed from one country to another, and sometimes even when they went to battle, and would not part with them to procure their own liberty when taken prisoners: for, as these birds were considered to be ensigns of nobility, no action was regarded more dishonourable to

VOL. J

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Before the aulter, he to and fro doth

wander,

With even as great devotion as doth a gander.

In comes another, his houndes at his tayle,

With lines, and leases, and other like baggage;

His dogges barke, so that withouten fayle,

The whole church is troubled by their outrage!" In the Bayeux Tapestry, earl Harold is represented approaching the duke of Normandy with his hawk upon his hand; and the ancient English illuminators have uniformly distinguished king Stephen, by giving him a hawk in the like position; which Mr. Strutt conjectures was with intent to signify, that he was nobly though not royally born, and the same reasoning applies to earl Harold. Occasionally we find that these birds usually formed part of the train of an ambassador; and the famous archbishop Becket had hounds and hawks of every kind with him, when sent on an embassy by Henry II. to the court of France.

It does not appear the ancients were acquainted with this diversion, and Strutt has not been able to trace falconry to an earlier period than the middle of the fourth century. Among the Anglo-Saxon nobility the sport was in high estimation; and the training and flying of hawks begame an essential part of the education of young men of rank. Alfred the Great has been commended for his early proficiency in this amusement; and he is even said to have written a treatise on hawking.

According to Froissart, Edward III., when he invaded France, had with him thirty falconers, on horseback, who had charge of his hawks; and " every day he either hunted or went to the river for the purpose of hawking, as his fancy inclined him." The ladies shared the diversion, and were renowned for their fondness for hawking besides accompanying the gentlemen when engaged in this sport, they frequently practised it by themselves.

The frequent mention of hawking by the water side, made by historians and romance writers of the middle ages, is a circumstance which led Mr. Strutt to

imagine that the pursuit of water-fowl

afforded the most diversion. In the poetical romance of the " Squire of Low Degree," the king of Hungary promises his daughter, that at her return from hunting she should hawk by the river side, with goshawk, gentle falcon, and other well-tutored birds: so also Chaucer, in the rhyme of Sir Thopaz," says, " that he could hunt the wild deer,

[ocr errors]

And ryde on haukynge by the river, With grey gos hawke in hand."

Hawking, was forbidden the clergy by the canons of the church; but the prohibition was by no means sufficient to restrain them from the pursuit of this favourite and fashionable amusement.

The recreation was pursued on horseback or on foot, as the occasion required. On horseback, when in the fields and open country, and on foot, when in the woods and coverts. In following the hawk on foot, it was usual for the sportsman to have a stout pole with him, to assist him in leaping over rivulets and ditches, which might otherwise prevent him in his progress. This we learn from an historical fact, related by Hall; who informs us that Henry VIII., pursuing his hawk on foot, at Hitchin, in Hertfordshire, attempted, with the assistance of his pole, to jump over a ditch, that was half full of muddy water; the pole broke, and the king fell with his head into the mud, where he would have been stifled, had not a footman named John Moody leaped into the ditch and released the king from his perilous situation: and" so," says the pious historian," God of hys goodnesse preserved him.”

Hentzner, who wrote his " Itinerary "in the year 1598, affirms, that hawking was then the general sport of the English nobility; yet so rapidly did this amusement decline, that before the time of the civil wars it was almost forgotten. This arose from the introduction and gradual improvement of the gun; which ensured a greater certainty of procuring game, and rendered all the expense of training and maintaining hawks unnecessary. An attempt to revive the diversion of hawking was lately made by some gentlemen of Yorkshire; but with what success we have not yet heard.

MR. M'CULLOCH'S LECTURES.

LECTURE XXI.

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

Population in Ireland-Utility of cheap Publications Ignorance a Source of Mobs and Violence-Education should be National, not Eleemosynary-Scotch Parochial Schools.

MR. M'CULLOCH began with referring to Ireland, as a country in which the evils arising from population increasing faster than capital, are strikingly exemplified. Wages rarely exceed eight-pence, and are

MR. M'CULLOCH'S LECTURES. 1

often as low as three-pence, or two-pence a day. The habitations of the peasantry are destitute of all the conveniences of civilized life; rarely containing any furniture, and frequently without bed-clothes.

A national system of instruction, in which the people would be made acquainted with the causes on which their condition and station in society depend, can alone preserve them from degradation. What others can do for them is but as the dust of the balance, compared with what they can do for themselves. The more important principles of social economy might easily be made familiar to general comprehension; it might be easily shown, that wages would never rise while the market is overstocked with labour, and that premature marriages entail a long train of miseries on parents and children. Poverty, like death, is equally fatal to the philosopher and the peasant: unless the poor can obtain high wages, so as to command the necessaries and comforts of life, their situation cannot be materially improved.

Mr. M'Culloch enlarged on the utility of cheap periodical publications, which had contributed greatly to the diffusion of information. Thomas Simpson, the celebrated mathematician, once said, that the "Ladies' Diaries," consisting of rebuses, problems, questions and answers, had done more to diffuse a taste for the mathematical sciences, than all the masters, and all the works published on the subject. Much might be done by diffusing the elementary principles of political economy among the great body of the people: though the chain of reasoning on which some of its principles are founded may not always be intelligible, the conclusions to which they lead, might fix in the mind, so as to become maxims for the conduct of individuals.

[ocr errors]

:

The more the people are enlightened,the better citizens and masters of families they become. Smith truly observes, that the best instructed population is always the most decent and orderly mobs are uniformly outrageous in proportion to their ignorance and their prejudices. That virtuous and enlightened statesman, De Witt, fell a victim to popular ignorance. Had the populace been more enlightened, the national character would not have been disgraced by the riots and excesses of 1780 nor could the detestable enormities of the French revolution have been perpetrated, except by the agency of a mob, debased by ignorance and oppression. So far is it from true, as some shallow sophists contend, that ignorance is the best pledge of obedience, that it is the certain source of violence and disorder,

:

[ocr errors]

871

Education ought to be national, not eleemosynary; the latter excites feelings of degradation, and tends to destroy that independence of character which it is desirable to cherish. Any provision by government, however, ought not to extend beyond the elements of instruction, as reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Mr. M'Culloch next gave a brief, but interesting, account of the state of parochial education in Scotland; the whole expense of which did not exceed 18,000.; and concluded with showing, that the diffusion of education has no tendency to overload the learned professions, the supply for which would be always regulated by the demand, and the prospect of success and remuneration.

LECTURE XXII.

POOR LAWS.

Statement of the Question-The Poor proportionally increase with the Funds for their Support Introduction of Workhouses Benefit Societies and Savings Banks.

AFTER alluding to the artificial stimulus given to population by the poor laws, Mr. M'Culloch said, that the real question to decide was the policy of a compulsory assessment, to support those who are willing but unable to procure employment. The expediency of this could not be determined by considerations of individual distress. Public utility is the only test; it is only by the tendency of the poor laws to promote the permanent and general advantage of the community that their value could be estimated.

In favour of the poor laws, it is urged, that the hardships paupers undergo in workhouses, and the difficulties they experience in obtaining parochial aid, are such as to prevent their operating as a bounty on improvidence. Stirling, however, is an example to the contrary. In no other town in Scotland is there such ample provision for the poor, yet is there no other town so burdened with paupers. So true it is, that wherever there is a supply there will be a demand; wherever the fat is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

An unemployed population can only arise from three causes: 1. disinclination to labour on the part of the people themselves; 2. want of capital to put their labour in motion; 3. a want of demand for the products of industry.

Now, the question is-are the poor laws calculated to remove any of these 2 E 2

obstacles to employment? In the first place, a gratuitous provision for the idle, as well as the industrious, must be the worst of all possible modes for overcoming an unwillingness to work. Capital is the slow accumulation of previous industry, and cannot be created by the fiat of the legislature. As little can the interference of government stimulate the demand for commodities; the only effect of its interference is to augment the glut, by the labour of the profligate and undeserving. The celebrated Daniel de Foe, in his work published in 1714, entitled "Giving Alms no Charity," noticed the tendency of the poor laws to foster the worthless at the expense of virtuous industry. Every skein of silk spun by a pauper in an hospital, takes so much employment from the really honest and independent workman.

Mr. M'Culloch next adverted to the introduction of workhouses. Prior to the reign of queen Anne, the poor were relieved at their own houses: the evils of this system were foreseen by sir Matthew Hale, in the seventeenth century, and workhouses began to be established. Parochial aid was refused to those who would not reside, the effect of which was soon visible in an immense reduction in the number of applicants. So great was the change, that one tenderhearted individual (whose name we did not catch) proposed that workhouses should be called by a softer name; so that the indigent might not be deterred from seeking shelter there.

In 1785, the justices of Berkshire brought into full effect all the evils of the poor law system. They published tables of prices, showing that parochial aid ought to vary with the price of provisions, and their example has been almost universally followed in the south of England.

Various plans have been projected for modifying the poor laws, but the best remedy is to abolish them altogether. No mode of relief is worthy of attention which has not for its object to render the ablebodied workman independent of relief. Much might be done by throwing open the corn trade, and repealing those taxes peculiarly oppressive on the labouring classes. But the poor laws ought not to be tolerated; even to mitigate them is injurious, since it may tend to render them permanent, by interweaving them in a less palpable form into our domestic policy.

Mr. M'Culloch explained, that these remarks applied only to able-bodied labourers; the aged and infirm are entitled to relief, and have a legitimate claim on the sympathy of their fellow-men.

The lecturer next adverted to the institution of benefit societies and savings' banks,

Of these he spoke in favourable terms; but contended, that the grand object is to increase the ratio of capital to population, and then to leave the working classes to themselves. Any interference with their concerns tends to diminish that national responsibility, according to which every individual should regulate his conduct,

Review and Analysis.

THE PRIVATE MEMOIRS OF MADAME DU HAUSSET, LADY'S MAID TO MADAME

DE POMPADOUR, LONDON, 8vo. pp.

182.

THE title of this little volume is not more attractive than the contents, which form a valuable addition to the scandalous chronicle of the old French court. Placed near the person of the favourite mistress of Louis XV., madame du Hausset enjoyed opportunities for observation, from which persons in more exalted stations are excluded: moreover, she enjoyed the entire confidence of madame de Pompadour ; and, such was the opinion entertained of the naïveté of the dame d'honneur, that, in the royal presence, she was considered no more than a "statue," or piece of furniture. Madame enjoyed other advantages: she was often separated from the chamber in the palace of Versailles, where resided the king and his mistress, only by a slight door, or curtain, which permitted her to hear all that was said there: and what she heard she was accustomed to commit to paper. She had for a cher ami Dr. Quesnay, who, we are told, explained to du Hausset" many things that, but for his assistance, she would have witnessed without understanding." Under such circumstances, it is not surprising the writer has been able to produce a very entertaining volume; many new facts are communicated, though no new light is thrown on that now wellknown theme, the licentious history of Louis XV.

One of the worst traits of the Bourbon government was the violation of private confidence. Clerks were employed to break open the letters at the post-office; the impression of the seals were taken with a ball of quicksilver, and when the desired matter had been extracted, they were resealed, and transmitted to their destination. All the love intrigues, and the most secret affairs of the Parisians, were thus exposed to the minions of government. The postmaster-general carried the extracts to the king on the Sunday; and "was seen going and returning

« НазадПродовжити »