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Title: The Enquirer Issue 11 of 12 (March 1822)

Date of first publication: 1822

Author: Robert-Anne d’Estimauville (editor)

Date first posted: Dec. 26, 2020

Date last updated: Dec. 26, 2020

Faded Page eBook #20201262

This eBook was produced by: Marcia Brooks, David T. Jones, John Routh & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net




No. 11

 

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AND THREE PENCE TO NON SUBSCRIBERS

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THE

ENQUIRER,

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A

MONTHLY PERIODICAL

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IN WHICH VARIETY IS TO BE THE

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CONSISTING OF

ESSAYS

 

On every Subject that can embrace the INSTRUCTION and

Entertainment of the Reader.

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at least sixteen Pages and which will be

encreased in proportion to the encouragement the

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PRINTED BY G. H. SHADGETT, AT THE NATIONAL AND BRITISH

PRINTING OFFICE, HOPE STREET.

MY OWN LIFE.

Continued from page 152.

Marie Antoinette at an early age, exchanged the restraints of etiquette under which she had been educated for the gaieties of a French Court. On her first appearance in her new Country, all the hearts flew towards her; and indeed it was almost impossible to fly from bondage. Tall and majestic in person, nature seemed to have formed her to wear a Crown. If her features were not regular enough to constitute a perfect beauty, the expression of goodness and condescension, heightened by the most beautiful complexion (that beamed on her countenance) did not leave at liberty to scrutinize details which were irresistibly absorbed in the impression made by the tout ensemble on every beholder.

On the arrival of that Princess, the Court in which she was to perform so conspicuous a part were composed of rather heterogeneous elements. The old and serious strictly adhering to the formalities of etiquette, composed of the sisters of the then reigning King and their antiquated attendant—the profligate who followed that prostitute who disgraced the old age of Louis XV, and was then the channel of court favor; and lastly the Dauphin and his brothers and sister. The Dauphin himself was by nature little inclined to the noisy pleasures of youth. Being rather of phlegmatic disposition, his amusements consisted principally in the study of some science or art and in the sports of the fields. The Comte de Provence, afterwards Monsieur, and now Louis XVIII was likewise of too studious turn of mind to seek his pleasure in routs and public amusements: but the Comte d’Artois, the third brother entered, with all the ardour of youth in all kind of diversions. As to the Princess Elizabeth the fourth and youngest of them she was yet under the government of her Great aunts, and had not yet had an opportunity to display those virtues and that magnanimity that have since immortalized her name. Such was the Court in which the beautiful, lively ingenuous and august Maria Antoinette was introduced. She had difficult cards to play. There was very little congeniality between her taste and that of the husband with whom State policy alone had united her. Happily, far from putting any restraint on her youthful gaiety, the Dauphin allowed her full liberty of enjoying those pleasures of her age, provided he himself was not compelled to join in them: and as, of all the three brothers the inclination of the Comte d’Artois alone was congenial with hers, it was very natural for him to become the constant attendant on his sister-in-law. But that intimacy far from having any thing criminal in it, ought rather to have been a shield against the shafts of slander, for State policy and self interest would have induced the Prince to be the stern guardian of the honor of his brother, rather than seducer of his wife, since a spurious progeny would have marred the prospect of his own children ascending the Throne, the Comte d’Artois being then the only one of the three brothers who had children. The Princess however, by her entering too spiritedly in the pleasures of her age, drew upon her the censure of her Great aunts who reproached her with a levity unbecoming to her high station, and so derogatory of that etiquette the departure of which was, according to their antiquated notions highly reprehensible. Finding her insensible to their reproofs they applied to the King, but she had already by her winning ways and her affectionate conduct towards him, obtained such an ascendancy over that prince that a kiss and a smile from her, soon obliterated from his mind any unfavorable impression left on it by the complaints of his sisters. They were no more successful in their appeal to the Royal Husband. She had there also a powerful advocate in the love he bore her, and nothing could remove her from the strong hold she had taken on the hearts of all by whom she was surrounded and whose idol she was.

Far from me to deny, that perhaps the exuberant spirits of the young Princess did not lead her to that degree of levity deserving of censure in her elevated station. On the contrary, that removal of every kind of that restraint which keeps the subject at a proper distance from the Sovereign, and prevents that familiarity too easily leading to a want of due respect has perhaps, hastened the French Revolution. After all, Sovereigns are mere men, liable like others to the infirmities of human nature. The nearer they suffer themselves to be approached and to be pried into in their unguarded moments, the more the illusion of their superiority weakens; the Royal mask falls off and the supernatural being sinks to the level of his fellow creatures. But let the degree of censure which perhaps that amiable and captivating Princess has deserved, be attenuated by the circumstances in which she found herself at once situated, in the gayest and most gallant of all the Courts, and which for several years past having been bereft of those pleasures promoted and courted by youth was sunk into the gloom of old age and concomitant rigidity of manners. We shall therefore pass over that portion of the life of Maria Antoinette in which she may have erred but not sinned. We must however not omit to say here, that her whole time was not so engrossed by pleasurable pursuits as to preclude her from dedicating part of it to less dazzling but more lasting enjoyments, namely those of relieving distress. She did not wait to be sought by the sufferer, but often laying aside all the trappings of state she has been seen entering the humble cot and administering relief and comfort to its destitute inmates. Let us now consider that august Princess in her capacity of wife, mother and queen.

It would perhaps have been advantageous for Maria Antoinette if she had had children soon after her marriage. At least we may conjecture so from the alteration in her manners from the moment she became a mother. It is generally known and acknowledged that she filled the duties of that sacred character with exemplary attention, and altho’ she did not at once leave off those pleasures in which she had hitherto seemed to indulge even to excess, they never interfered with the delights of maternity, and thus she went on for several years accounted for the happiest of human beings, and so she deserved to be. She has been reproached with having squandered immense sums for her pleasures, and that not satisfied with the ample provision allowed her, she constantly extorted from a fond husband additional gifts to bestow on her minions and favorites. It is true that she had a regular and ample monthly allowance, but it did hardly ever reach her, being always before hand appropriated to benevolent uses; and what nobler employ could she make of it? It was on that penury in which she was constantly known to be thereby reduced that the infamous transaction of the Diamond Necklace was planned. It is true that she had more than once made use of her influence over the King to extricate the Comte d’Artois from his pecuniary embarassments; but as for herself or for any favorites nothing has been alleged and still less proved in support of the charge at the time when her accusers were all-powerful. Allegations of the nature of those exhibited against her ought not to be admitted on the bare assertion of revolutionary scribblers.

But will it be asked, who was the principle of that hatred that has dictated all the foul calumnies that have so profusedly been circulated against that most injured Princess? Here it is. That infamous Egalité, for I cannot reconcile myself to the idea of giving to that Conger of vices, a title formerly borne by a Louis XII, that spurious scion ingrafted on the Royal trunk, if we believe that which he has had the baseness to proclaim himself, had dared to whisper the impure desires which he dignified under the name of Love; but offended virtue and majesty needed only the magic of a look to crush the reptile. He shrunk back and from that moment hatred and revenge took their seats in his bosom. Alone however he could not have succeeded in his endeavours to injure the character of the Queen. His own was generally held in such a contempt that his praise of her would have proved rather a curse than a blessing; he therefore sought the assistance of others, and his immense fortune enabled him to purchase it. His views then were only the gratification of his hatred and revenge against the Queen, and he thought to succeed in exciting the jealousy of the King, spreading by means of his associates in iniquity the most injurious construction on that fraternal intercourse that subsisted between the Comte d’Artois and the Queen. But whatever credit that rumour might have gained in the public, always inclined to lend a favourable ear to the scandalous chronicle, it missed its aim in regard to the King. He was too well persuaded that two persons so virtuous as his sister the Princess Elizabeth and the Princess of Lamballe were known to be, would not have countenanced the misconduct of Maria Antoinette by their intimate acquaintance with her.

But altho’ so far foiled on that score Egalité was not beaten off the field, and a new incentive to his exertions was soon added to the two former ones; namely ambition.

The sect of the Economists having coalesced with the Philosophers of the day had already greatly shaken those principles of loyalty which had for so long a time been the most honourable characteristic of the French. Their united efforts had already been directed even against the person of the King, well knowing that the surest means to pull down royalty was to batter down its surest prop, namely the respect for the individual invested with it. It was therefore their interest to support the scandalous reports spread against the Queen and to attribute to an unpardonable and despicable weakness of mind the little attention the King paid to her conduct, and to imbecility his passive submission to the criminal defilement of the Royal bed. These aspersions gained so much the more credit that, by an inexcusable excess of lenity, they were neither contradicted nor their authors prosecuted. Then it was that Egalité conceived the hope if not to succeed to the Throne at least to be placed at the head of Government as Lieutenant General of the kingdom. From that moment the monster courted and purchased popularity and his largesses and the praises of his agents soon proclaimed him the best and most patriotic of men.

Egalité soon got a powerful accession of associates in his wicked designs. The sect of Illuminate had hitherto remained concealed in the dark abodes formerly occupied by those sanguinary and secret tribunals whose judgments and sentences made the very sovereigns tremble on their thrones. No less sanguinary than those to whom they had succeeded, the improved state of society throughout Europe did no longer permit those regular armed associations which for so long a time were the terror and scourge of the greatest part of Germany as the executioners of those secret dispensers of retributive justice, and thus the decrees of the Illuminati were not yet either promulgated or put in execution. Hitherto therefore they had limited their operations to lay down their plans and to prepare the ways of success. Their design was neither more nor less than a total renovation of man and of social institutions on the most utopian principles. It appears that they had a regular kind of Hierarchy, not of rank, but of initiation in their mysteries. In their order they admitted only men who could be useful to the attainment of their end either by superior talents, by riches, by power, or by any other means of influence. It appears likewise that very few were admitted to their secret Committees, which were composed of the most crafty and insinuating manners. These had under them a kind of emissaries, who were every where dispersed to propagate their doctrines and to look out for proselytes. They were so much the more dangerous that far from showing any kind of superiority they had always the appearance of seeking information from him with whom they conversed. Thus they soon entered into his principles and got acquainted with the probable utility he might be for the order. Was he thought a useful acquisition? They contracted an intimacy with him and having so far succeeded in ranging him under the banners of the order, he was presented and introduced. In this manner they had spread far and wide and affiliations were extremely numerous especially in Germany and in Italy, where they had the way of connecting themselves with some Free-Mason’s Lodges against the positive institution of this Fraternity which prohibit any interference either with religion or politics.

At that epoch they had not yet dared to introduce themselves into France. They knew that the Argus eyes of a strict police would soon have discovered their haunts and put a stop to their philanthropic scheme of restoring mankind to that pristine state of blessedness lost by the eating of an apple. But they did no sooner perceive that the reins of the Empire were held by a weak or what is tantamount to it, by too lenient a hand and that in consequence the police springs were so relaxed that its action was almost stopt, than they rushed into that unhappy Country as the probable fairest field for the trial of their extensive schemes.

To be continued.

QUI TROP EMBRASSE MAL ÉTREINT.

He who grasps too many things at once secures none.

In the Edinburgh Review[1] we find some reflections on the propensity of theorist schemers who in general miss the end of their otherwise benevolent exertions by extending their views far beyond their means, and as we have been long e’er now of that opinion we hail the opportunity of supporting it under the sanction of such an authority, in presenting the following extract of the work of an eminent writer which appears to our readers to be speculations on the “Civil and Christian economy of large Towns.” That extract runs thus.

“Voluntary associations have come forward in the cause of Education without waiting for any such signal. And if to look confidently forward to a proposed end, with feeble and disproportioned means, be to incur the character of visionary, then we fear that this imputation must be made to rest upon them also. They have all been greatly less efficient than they might have been from their neglect of the principle of locality. There are many associations which by their resources, could have done that permanently and substantially for a district of the town, which they have vainly attempted, and have, therefore, done partially and superficially for the whole. The money which could have built a local school, and emanated enough of interest, for ever to have kept it in repair, and provided the teacher with a perpetual salary, has been dissipated in transient and ineffectual exertions for the accomplishment of an universal object. The error is, to have been led away, by the splendour of a conception, far greater than it was able to realise. It is this ambition, to plan beyond the ability to execute, which has involved in failure and misdirection, so many of the efforts of philanthropy. And they who have so precipitately counted on any general result, that would be at all sensible, from the proceedings of any one Society however magnificent in its scale, and however princely the offerings that were rendered to it have evinced themselves well entitled to the characters of Visionaries.”

It appears that the mode of generalising ideas is the ruling fashion of the day and that without waiting for the sanction and the lessons of experience; a dazzling scheme is no sooner conceived than it must be tried on an extensive scale. We have more than one example of this in this Country. Our philanthropists and encouragers of paltry instruction to which they give, very improperly the general name of Education, have of late found the means of raising by subscription the immense sum of £150 a £200 Currency. Immediately we have seen the gigantic prospect of erecting schools throughout the whole Province with means not even sufficient to make a fair trial in miniature in the very place wherein these means have been raised. Not discouraged by the ill success of former attempts they persist in taking the cow by the wrong horn and must at last not only throw some ridicule on schemes of that nature but even tend to their total discredit. Had the money spent on these attempts of forcing a gift on people who do not appear as yet to appreciate its value, been bestowed on schools of industry, the earnings of such schools would in a short time have most probably covered the expences, and they would maintain themselves by their own resources. We have a striking example of this in the new Lanark in Scotland, wherein alone we find the education of children of the labouring class go hand in hand with instruction. Next to this establishment which reflects an immortal honor on its founder Mr. Robert Owen, we may offer as models those of the Herrenhuters or Moravian brothers, no less distinguished by the regularity of their morals than by their industry.

The same remarks are no less applicable to our measures for the encouragement of and the improvements in agriculture. The sums already thrown away on that object and which may be said not much better than lost, by their diminutive repartition, might have been much more efficiently employed in establishing experimental farms, which would now support themselves and point out to the meanest perceptions the advantages resulting from a better management and thereby excited the exertions of agricultural industry, its reward being as evident as certain.

Lastly, whatever claims there might have been on our praises and gratitude to those gentlemen who have taken in their hands the relief of the poor emigrants, who have of late years resorted to this Country in the hope of bettering their condition, we cannot help complaining that too much of their time has perhaps been bestowed on mere partial and momentary means. It was evident from the very beginning of the emigration that its tide had taken that direction and would persevere in it. Their powerful influence in this country might have succeeded in rendering that influx of external population, truly beneficial to this part of His Majesty’s Dominion, by obtaining from his Government the means of employing the industry of these emigrants on their immediate landing, and to form an establishment which in its origin might have been rather expensive, but would in a few years have amply repaid both capital and interest.

We remember to have seen on the formation of the first association for the relief of emigrants, a scheme proposed by one of the gentlemen of the association which would have thrown the first expence on speculative stockholders, and would have induced many people to speculate upon it, whereby a sufficient capital might have been raised to institute a substantial establishment to the uncertain and inefficient provision arising from subscriptions exacted too repeatedly from benevolence. Since that time another plan of relief and assistance was submitted to the proper authorities, but being too powerfully opposed for motives well known to the promoters, it fell naturally to the ground. However it appears to us that the three great and important objects introduced in this essay might very easily be made subservient to and contribute in promoting the success of each other if properly combined.


34th vol. Page 236 and 237.

FRENCH GALLANTRY.

Continued from page 160.

“On whose side is the fault we shall not pretend to decide. We wish even to shun an investigation for fear of discovering that the fairest portion of the creation has had its share in removing that veil through which we could but look on them as Angelic beings destined to confer on man the greatest blessings of life. But let us return to our Author.

“St. Elme enters the drawing-room, a slight inclination in which his vertebral column has hardly bent to the twelfth portion of a circumference is the sole salutation performed by him.

“Fifthly, people must be satisfied with this act of collective politeness. Murville, who follows him, his thumb negligently stuck fast in the sleeve of his waistcoat, bows still less and the whole tribe of masculine youth whom I see enter the room in succession, do not impose upon themselves a more rigorous ceremonial. The gallants of former times used in society to creep slyly behind the chair of the ladies to pour in their ears some of those pretty nothings which they like to listen to; but the young men of the day, otherwise inspired, flock together without any ceremony before the ladies, whose morals, dress and attractions become by turn the object of their wit, if not that of their better censure.”

The author then relates a discussion held by our young sparks on a lady present, to determine whether she was to be ranked among the old dowagers or keep her place among the belles of the day and the majority gave a verdict of guilty against a young woman hardly twenty-five years of age. During the discussion one of the orators happened to tread on the toes of a lady who was walking behind him, but he preferred the stigma of rudeness to the trouble of an apology.

The author follows our young fashionables in the ball-room in which the same slight is shewn to the sex, and concludes by addressing them thus: “Undoubtedly, young sparks, you will find this picture of your behaviour a great deal too dark; it is however a faithful one. What should you say then if I was to exhibit your ways in your private intercourse with women—— but be easy I will not do it—— and you ladies, who regret that delicate, attentive and constant gallantry which is, unluckily, no where more to be found but in romances, I grieve with you for that loss, but confess that it may be a little your own fault.”

On our part, far from finding the above picture too dark, we call it rather a flattered one. A great deal stronger might have been the features of the present manners of our fashionables. We have no time for the present to enter deeper into the subject; we cannot however resist to protest against certain indecent position of the hands exhibited even in the drawing-rooms, when surrounded by rank and beauty.

The thumb stuck in the waistcoat’s sleeve is but ridiculous, but the position here alluded to would formerly have been looked upon as a gross insult and as such resented by the husbands, fathers and brothers of the ladies present and the culpable forever banished from good society.

CLASSICAL EDUCATION.

We had hitherto entertained the idea that the most essential requisites to be admitted into Holy Orders were, a true calling, irreproachable morals, a decent education and at least as much instruction as might be necessary for the understanding of the original Sacred Writings, which instruction seems naturally not to extend farther than the Hebrew and the Latin languages. The former being that of the Old and New Testament and the latter that of the Fathers of the Christian Church. It is therefore with no small surprise that we learn that now-a-days no admission to the holy functions of a minister of the Gospel can be obtained without a perfect knowledge of those languages transmitted to us in the fabulous mythology of Homer, in the love instructor Horace, in the lascivious Tibulus and Catulus, in the indecent Petronius, in the gross ribaldry of the Greek and Roman comics and satirists, in the voluptuous Anacreon; in a word, in those works which must necessarily be put for that purpose in the hands of candidates for that profession at an age when these youths are under the most powerful and less guarded influence of human passions and which works have therefore the most pernicious tendency. It appears to be farther required that this classical education be completed by a regular attendance in those grand seminaries of learning wherein the dangers already resulting from the above cause are still heightened by the numerous reunion of young men naturally inclined to follow the impulse of these thus already theoretically excited passions. What a Seminary! what a preliminary for a preacher of that divine doctrine on which rests solely and absolutely the temporal and eternal happiness of man! What a contradiction between the object in view and the means to obtain it! But does a misconduct rather too natural to young men surrounded by so powerful temptations, exclude the candidate from the prospect of a fat living? No! after his expulsion from college he gives £500 a year to a favored clergyman with whom he boards in order to finish his education; refrains for a short time from any glaring deviation from common morality, improves himself in Greek and Latin and at the end of one or two years of tribulation, be presents himself thus white washed and absolved before his metropolitan, he is ordained and in proper time takes possession of his share of the fishes and loaves. That this is the case appears most unequivocally from the contents of an answer lately received to enquiries on that subject, in which we read this. “You are little aware of the expence of private tuition and you will hardly believe me when I tell you that young X. who has the fine living of——— has been giving £500 a year to a Clergyman to prepare for orders in consequence of his being expelled from——— in consequence of some juvenile indiscretions; for he is by no means deficient in abilities, being on the contrary a good scholar; and he hopes to be ordained in the Spring by his Bishop.” It is true that in the Roman Catholic religion absolution washes away former sins, but it is well understood that such an effect is totally subservient to true repentance and a sincere and resolute intention of amendment.

That such classical acquirements are, to say the least, unnecessary in general is evident from the very choice which the Divine Author of our religion made of those who were to be intrusted with the dissemination of its doctrine. No one can deny that he might have gone to Gamalial school and there picked up the most eminent of his classical scholars to call them to the sublime functions of leading man to temporal and eternal happiness. But no, he searches and finds his disciples and apostles amongst the most ignorant cast; nay more, against the classical Doctors of the law as well as against the proud hypocrisy of the Pharisees, He, who was a God under the humble disguise of a man, directed his simple tho’ forcible eloquence as well as his awful but just judgments. But as these uninstructed beings thus chosen by him were directed to go and preach his divine doctrine amongst strangers, and as there were then neither Lancastrian nor Bell’s schools, neither endowed Seminaries nor Colleges in existence to which he could send them to learn the Heathenish languages, it became necessary to make use of the Almighty power of Him who had sent him, to obviate the obstacle to the success of their mission arising from their ignorance of foreign tongues. And surely there could be no more important, no more urgent necessity of that display of that omnipotence, by deviating from that unchangeableness which is one of the infinite and absolute attributes of God, than on the occasion. A miracle was necessary, and those poor and illiterate men were, by the mere will of God, suddenly gifted with universal language and probably with that extent of knowledge required for the success of their mission. That miraculous gift has lasted no longer than its necessity, and since that cessation it is but just to confess that sciences and knowledge have for several centuries almost been in the exclusive possession of the ministers of the Altars. But this was not from an absolute condition of admission in the sacerdoce but rather proceeded from the recluse and ascetick life which was then led by those who professed it. We may therefore assign that condition sine quâ non of classical education to a modern and very modern date. We find a proof of this in those endowed schools in the north of England wherein from time immemorial poor youth receive a cheap education and from whence they are admitted into holy orders without the ordeal of matriculation. It might be, that the reason for which that prerogative is not entirely abolished is that those out of Alma Mater children are necessary to relieve these numerous incumbents of rich livings from the insufferable burthen of parochial duties. Out of those northern Seminaries issue the most useful class of stipendary Curates at £30, 40 or 50 a year who take upon themselves the charge of the souls of two or three Parishes in order to afford the daily bread craved by a numerous offspring and of masters of Grammar schools who add to the scanty endowment the benefit of pupils, and of one or two curacies in their neighbourhood. If in that class of Clergymen we find many useful labourers in the vineyard and instructors of youth altho’ they never had their heads adorned with the collegiate cap nor their shoulders with the academic gown, what is the use and still less the necessity of a classical education; unless it be to enable our young M. A. to divide their leisure hours between the manufacturing of amatory verses and the numerous diversions within their reach; and the old double D’s. to display their learning and profound education in comments and explanations which being read leave the understanding as perplexed and often more so as before, or the floridity and critical purity of their style in polemical sermons for the most part read by those the least calculated to comprehend them.

Far be it from our intention to cast any reflection injurious to the respectable and truly learned body of the Anglican clergy. It contains too great a number of the most conspicuous models of human and Christian virtues not to be intitled to a large portion of indulgence for the proportionable few amongst them whose conduct is not strictly professional. The present object is not to censure that body, but only to shew that a classical education is in no ways absolutely necessary to exercise becomingly the sacred functions, even in so enlightened a country as England. But in a country like this, this classical education is not only unnecessary but also its enforcement may stop the progress of the dissemination of those doctrines so essential to guide its inhabitants in their moral and religious duties. This we will further illustrate in our next number.

C. D. E.

ANSWER TO THE EPISTLE TO THE WEDDED.

In the 10th No. of the Enquirer.

Were I a man, I would indite the writers

That dare to turn such infamous backbiters;

But as I am, I know my sex’s merit,

And shall resent it with becoming spirit.

 

I know you’ll say “qui capit illa facit,”

But ’tis to my account alone you place it;

So in defence of all my married neighbours

I thus shall castigate your spiteful labours.

 

Pretty comparisons indeed you make,

For those who give their persons for your sake;

Who leave their homes, a father and a mother,

To please the whims and fancies of another.

 

Methinks such sacrifices as we render,

Would make the man more gentle, kind and tender;

But you for fear some gentleman may spoil us

Must join with Peter Pindar to revile us.

 

But I would have you Poets keep in view

That women can write rhymes as well as you;

Aye and as apt comparisons can draw,

For know, both male and female lobsters have a claw.

 

The pippin you say, meliorates the crab,

I now reply, the man who weds a drab

Is rightly served for wedding such a mixen,

And must expect her to turn out a vixen.

 

But grant, as is most commonly the case,

He is of meaner, she of nobler race;

He like the crab is knotty, sharp, and sour,

’Tis then the sweeter pippin shows her pow’r.

 

Here nature yields indeed to cultivation,

Just as the donkey yields to education;

But crop him as you will in tail and ears

His stubborn nature still at times appears.

 

Thus will the pippin soon degenerate

And without care resume the crab’s estate;

The mule if left alone untrimm’d at grass

Quickly proclaims his lineage from the ass.

 

So may the rose that blushes in the bow’r

Reform the wildness of the bramble’s flow’r;

But soon the straggling suckers shall proclaim

The humble origin from hence it came.

 

No more my muse, and now thy moral send

In imitation of thy caustic friend;

Let him remember when our sex he scorns

The rose and bramble both can boast their ——!

 

CONJUX.

An enquiry after a new species resembling the
Orang Outang and the Human kind.

Mr. Editor,

Having been several times favoured with the company of one of the race I will in a few lines attempt to describe them.

Their size doth vary much like that of man,

But this one’s height is five feet and a span;

His head is rather large for human kind;

His mind the most obscure which we can find.

It hath perception such as Locke doth say

With beasts is common, even those that prey.

In this one’s scull, abstraction hath no place,

Wherefore they differ from the human race.

But as they live in cities and in towns

Men we would call them did they not wear gowns.

As to their shape, this looketh much ’tis true,

Like D**** ill formed and of an ugly hue.

The sample which I give is often seen

In scarlet and in blue but never green.

The color his; but th’ office he dislikes,

In consequence of cannon balls and spikes;

From this we can by ’nalogy conclude,

The race is peaceful and easily subdued.

E. G.

Original Sources of Health, Reason, Morality and Religion.

When the Author of Nature gave being to man, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of animal life: And he gave him a second species of life, the life of love: With this he swelled and sweetened his heart; he bestowed on him also when come to the highest pitch of maturity another life, of honor and glory. And he gave him the life of reason for the government of these gifts.

The first of them is unequally possest by men at the present day; some enjoy existence greatly more than others, and resist the hardships of various Climates accordingly.

The second life is little less diffused thro’ nature than the former: It has existed in all ages and nations, forming their principal social concerns. In the Savage state it is very strong among their friends and relatives, and in the refined Nations of the present day it is probably not less so, and it assumes the name of Society or Circles, where it is mingled with the love of amusements and recreations.

The third species of life, honor and glory exists also from the savage to the highest state of advancement yet known. The love of glory is most visible in the first ranks, from the chief of the Indian tribe to the first leaders of the interests of the most polished Nations, and it is designed as one of the most powerful incentives of action. Unless these different gifts are well attended to and their claims complied with, the happiness of the individual nor of the society is not complete. In attending duly to them all, it is as much so, as it can be, if assisted by the life of religion, which is a fifth species of life given to man, and is his free sentiments and apprehensions concerning his state after death. Man, ought, indeed, have existed without this knowledge or apprehensions of his future state; but by those ideas the Author of his being who has so essentially distinguished him from, and elevated him high above every other animal, many of which, have memory and sagacity in common with him, but none can have the least idea of a future state, if they had they would probably have had language to express it. Man has those ideas and that language given to him by nature, and nature is too great to have given them in vain. We shall reflect on these five species of existence in succession.

The first animal life or life of the body includes that vigorous performance of all its functions which is called health. It contains a great many very natural pleasures and passions relating to their enjoyment, which with the passions and pursuits relating to our accommodation and our vanity constitute what is commonly called our interest. It requires observation and knowledge to preserve these functions of health; too much indulgence in the pleasures is noxious to it, and these should be guided and restrained by the claims of the other lives, honor, reason and religion all of which will be gradually lost if the animal life only, be attended to.

The life of love may be called the life of that great foundation of life, the heart. It greatly aids the life of the body, increasing its powers and acquirements, and giving it grace and energy. Love is divided into many parts, according to the object it relates to. When it relates properly to our connexions with society, that is to our friends, our relations, our fellow citizens, our country and mankind, it is called general love, love of society and humanity, and it forms the character of a good and great man, as it is more or less assisted and adorned, by high station, and the talents of the mind. When it relates to the female sex, it becomes a powerful source of action, if guided by the lives of honor, reason and religion, without which it often proves destructive to happiness. But this passion being usually formed of the two first species of lives, is apt to run into excess, absorb the claims of the other species of lives, and it is then injurious and should be corrected by the care for health, by the claims of general love, and by true love, which wishes the happiness of its object; and, above all, by the life of honor.

The life of reason may be called the life of the brain or mind; it should be powerful enough to support and guide all the other lives, but not to prevent their action. It is by far the most glorious gift of Heaven; and must partake very much of the Divine Nature. It penetrates into all the regions of Creation, and into the hearts, minds, and actions of men, and is continually adding to our knowledge in all these departments of nature, and to our wonder and admiration by the discoveries it makes of the wisdom of its Author. And as it has more or less influence in restraining and directing the passions of our own, and other minds, it forms the character of superior minds.

The life of honor may be termed the life of the soul, or heart and mind. It is necessary for the well being of society, both for its protection and that its members may respect each other and live in harmony, and its effects are then powerful in assisting and vigorating conduct.

The life of religion, without which, in one shape or another, few Nations have yet existed has produced many wars; but they were owing to its being blended and made subservient to the selfish passions of interest and ambition.

True, religion infuses great serenity into the heart and mind. It includes all our virtues, because it teaches us that the Author of our being has given them to produce our happiness, and this is the strongest, proof of its Divine origin. The life of religion, also, includes all the thoughts of men as to their future state, and it is this chiefly, which makes men at certain periods of their lives, consider it of so much importance. In retired situations it has sometimes occupied the minds of men with too much seriousness, and it ought to be guided by, and restrained by social duty and by reason,

B. N. AMERICAN.

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QUEBEC, PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY W. H. SHADGETT

AT THE NATIONAL AND BRITISH PRINTING OFFICE.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY,
Saturday, 13th February, 1819.

ORDERED That the Rule established bye the House on the third day of February, one thousand eight hundred and ten, concerning the notices for Petition for private Bills, be printed once monthly in the public newspapers of this Province, during three years.

Attested by Wm. LINDSAY,

Clk. Assy.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY,
Saturday, 3rd February, 1810.

RESOLVED, That after the close of the present session, before any Petition is presented to this House for leave to bring a private Bill, another for the erection of a Bridge or Bridges, for the regulation of the Common, for the making of any Turnpike Road, or for granting of any individual, or individuals, any exclusive right or privilege whatsoever, or for the alteration or renewing of any Act of the Provincial Parliament for the purpose of notice of such application shall be given the Quebec Gazette, and in one of the newspapers of the district, if any is published therein, and also by a notice affixed on the Church Doors of the Parishes that such application may affect; or in the most public place, where there is no Church during two months, at least, before such Petition is presented.

Attested by Wm. LINDSAY,

Clk. Assy.

The Printers of the Newspapers of this Province are requested to insert the above Resolution in the manner directed by the first. Their accounts will be paid at the end of the year at the Clerk’s Office, House of Assembly.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY,
Monday, 22nd March, 1819.

Resolved, that after the present Session, before any petition paying leave to bring in a Private Bill for the erection of a Toll Bridge be presented to the House, the person or persons purposing to petition for such Bill, shall, upon giving the Notice prescribed by the Rule of the 2rd day of February, 1810, also at same time and in the same manner, give a Notice stating the rules which they intend to ask, the extent of the privilege, the Right of the action, the interval between the abutments or piers for the passage of rafts and vessels, and mentioning whether they purpose to erect a Draw-Bridge or not, and the dimension of such Draw-Bridge.

Ordered, that the said Rule be printed and published at the same time and in the same manner the Rule of the 3rd February, 1810.

Attested Wm. LINDSAY, Jr, Clk. Assy.

CHAMBRE ASSEMBLÉE,
Samedi, 13e. Février, 1819

ORDONNE, Que la Règle établie le trois Février, Mil huit-cent-dix, concernant les notices pour les requêtes pour des Bills privés, soit imprimée une fois par nous dans les papiers publics de cette Province, pendant trois années.

Attesté WM. LINDSAY,

Gref. Assée

CHAMBRE d’ASSEMBLÉE.
Samedi, 3e. Février, 1810.

RESOLU, Qu’après la fin de la présente session, avant qu’il soit présenté à cette Chambre aucune Pétition pour obtenir permission d’introduire un Bill privé pour ériger un Pont ou des Ponts, pour régler quelque Commun, pour ouvrir quelque Chemin de Barrière, ou pour accorder à quelqu’individu ou à des individus quelque droit ou privilège exclusif quelconque, ou pour altérer ou renouveller quelque Acte du Parlement Provincial pour de semblables objets, il sera donné notice de telle application qu’on se proposera de faire, dans la Gazette du Québec, et dans un des papiers Publiés du District, s’il y en a, et par une affiche posée à la porte des Églises des Paroisses qui pourront être intéressées à telle application, ou à l’endroit le plus publié, s’il n’y a point d’Église, pendant deux mois, au moins, avant que telle pétition soit présentée.

Attesté, WM. LINDSAY.

Gref. Assée.

Les Imprimeurs de Papiers-nouvelles en cette Province sont priés d’insérer les Résolutions ci-dessus, en la manière ordonnée par la première. Leurs comptes seront payés à la fin de l’année, en par eux s’adressant au Bureau du Greffier de la Chambre d’Assemblée.

CHAMBRE d’ASSEMBLÉE.
Lundi, le 22 Mars, 1819.

RESOLU, Qu’après la présente Session, avant qu’il soit présenté à cette Chambre aucune Pétition pour obtenir permission d’introduire un Bill privé pour ériger un Pont de Péage, la personne ou les Personnes qui se proposeront de pétitionner pour tel Bill en donnant la Notice ordonnée par la Règle du 3e. Février 1810, donnera aussi en même tems et de la même manière un Avis notifiant les taux qu’elle se proposeront de demander, l’étendue du privilège, l’élévation des Arches, l’espace entre les Butées ou Piliers, pour le passage des Cageux, Cages et Bâtiments, et mentionnant si elles se proposent de bastion Pont Levis ou non et les dimensions de tel Pont Levis. Ordonné, Que ladite Règle soit imprimée et publiée en même tems et de la même manière que la Règle du trois Février, 1810.

Attesté, WM. LINDSAY.

Gref. Assée.

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Cheap Impenetrable Painting.

D. Reader from London, late foreman to R. Gain, House, Sign and Ornamental Painter, Glazier, &c. Respectfully informs the public, that he has removed to 25, St. Ann street, near the Gaol. D. R. is enabled by a process (which has been approved of by the Royal Society at London) to render Fish Oil superior to Linseed Oil for all kinds of work exposed to the weather, as being far more durable, and at 25 per cent lower than the usual prices.

Chairs and all other furniture painted to any pattern, Maps and Prints varnished, Gilding, &c. &c.

Quebec, August 1, 1821.

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Liberal Education

BY Mr. SHADGETT,

From London.

Mr. Shadgett’s Academy is now open for the reception of youth at his residence No. 1 Hope Street, Upper Town.

Mr. Shadgett is known to the public, as having been selected and sent expressly from England, to introduce the Schools on the National Principle and the New mode of Tuition into this Country; and as having received the approbation of several Gentlemen and Scholars, well qualified to decide, who have honoured by inspection the Schools which have been formed by him.

The Academy now Opened will be found peculiarly adapted to the more respectable and advancing classes of youth, embracing (by a rational, explanatory and easy mode of conveyance) all the higher branches of an Academical instruction.

Young Gentlemen, (and Ladies) whose education has been neglected, or, whose Parents have hitherto regarded them as dull and unpromising, may be secure of advancement in this School.

Parents and Guardians of the higher order of CANADIAN youth, desirous of perfecting them in a thorough and intimate acquaintance with the English Language and its just pronunciation, will have every facility afforded them by Mr. S. who is a native of London.

The Terms are moderate.

Entrance to the School Room 2nd Door on the right from Hope Street or St. Famille Street, corner of Joseph Street.

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FOR SALE,

FOR EVER!

GRANTS OF LAND,

ON THE NEW SETTLEMENT.

Tickets for a further Grant of the unconceded parts of the Seigniory of BEAUPORT, subdivided into an English Settlement, are now filling up, and may be obtained, on paying the price of the Location ticket and subscribing to the required conditions by those only, in future, who will bind themselves instantly on the survey to proceed to perform the Settlement duty. Apply to

Mr. SHADGETT,

At his Printing Office, Hope Street.

The Situation is undeniable for farms: Affording almost daily access, at all Seasons, to the Quebec Markets, and lying North and North West of the City may be considered protected and safe from despoilation in case of future War.

Stones, common to this part of the Country will be found frequent on the surface, but the Land is possest of a Soil sure of produce and adapted to the Climate, with excellent timber.

The Stones for the greater part may be removed, as in the neighbouring Settlement of St. Michael which by perseverance and some labour on the part of the Canadian Settlers, now afford profitable farms, producing Grain, Pulse, &c. in abundance.

The Nos. of the lots to be determined by drawing, and to prevent misunderstanding shall be inspected prior to their being put in the Bag, and must be drawn for in one day in the presence of the majority of the Ticket Holders.

Persons choosing to pay the whole expence attendant on the Survey of single Lots, have no occasion to wait the event of drawing but proceed to select their spots.

The Expence of the Location Ticket will be five Dollars each Lot. Seignieurs dues not to commence for three Years.

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Quebec General Agency Office.

The Register Established last year for Emigrants &c. will be continued at the Quebec General Agency Office, adjoining the National Printing Office, Hope Street. Persons in want of Servants, Mechanics Labourers &c. can be supplied.—

Charge for every separate Registry, 1s. 3d.

To be Paid at the time of Entry.

All possible attention will be given to the Character of Individuals; though the proprietor cannot be answerable for such.

Sales and Transfers of land and every description of business transacted by Commission.

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FOR SALE,

Several Lots of excellent land directly on the line of the road called Craig’s Road, in the Township of Ireland, the situation most eligible for the erection of Stores, Taverns &c. Purchase Money 20l for each lot of 100 Acres. Apply to

COL. BOUCHETTE,

Land Surveyor General.

Or the Printer.

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Advertisements inserted at the following rates—
In one Language,

For 1st insertion six lines and under,2s. 6 d.
each subsequent insertion,7½d.
  
First insertion, ten lines and under,3s. 6 d.
each subsequent,10 d.
  
First insertion, above ten lines, per line,4 d.
each subsequent,1 d.

In both Languages, Double the above rates.

N.B. Every 1st insertion must be paid in Advance.

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TRANSCRIBER NOTES

Mis-spelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.

Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors occur.

When nested quoting was encountered, nested double quotes were changed to single quotes.

Space between paragraphs varied greatly. The thought-breaks which have been inserted attempt to agree with the larger paragraph spacing, but it is quite possible that this was simply the methodology used by the typesetter, and that there should be no thought-breaks.

Advertising copy has been consolidated at the end of the magazine.

[The end of The Enquirer Issue 11 of 12 (March 1822) edited by Robert-Anne d’Estimauville]