The National Register. — London, England, 1819-05-03 00:00:00

MAY S. THE NATURAL CHILD. Arriving late for dinner at a certain noble L , rd's, I had just time to make a kind of circular obeisance rte the Countess, and to the company to whom I was known,—to receive a significant but good hnmoured look, with a very gentle shake of the head, from her Ladyship as much as to say, " You have just saved your distance, as usual; always lute, but better late than never,"—to meet the supercili ous eye of Lord C—, to acknowledge the haughty Idle of Lady Avanthicr, the Nabob's wife, whose smile is a sneer, and whose toss of the heati, after the common inclination of urbanity, seems as if her stiff neck upbraided her for the smallest penchant of condescension, and her curled up-lip and saucy nose mocked the forced smile which half, uncertain, would-be courtliness, had placed in their neighbour hood,—l had just time to receive the insincere pres sure on my hand of a certain diplomatic character, usel to assumed importance and to pseudo amia bility, that it seems to inform you that you may live on promise as long as you like, and consider that his protection even goes as far as a look and the hapo sition of hands—the weighing of two fingers, as it were confidentially on your arm, the gently touching yeu on the back, which is the type of" depend upon me," where reliance is out of the question, or an elevation of the eyebrows, as much as to say, " I see you and don't forget you,"—finally, I was just long enough i t the drawing-room to see the first title proudly armed out of the room with a corscioes look of self satisfaction, to behold the autumnal /lowers in very high colour, cast a glance at the snirsor as they passed by, and juin the Dii minorum gentian: of Baronets, M.P.'s, and private gentlemen, in chattering common-place, us we descended the great stair-case, when I found myself placed by the side of a very lovely young woman with a jeer sail gaol of interest and melancholy on her countenance, which (to me) rather heightened her attractions. Her smile was grave, and, us it were, dubious; her deportment timid, yet dignified ; her voice more soothing than sprightly; and her dress rather neat than showy. Yet, as she advanced in her short table acquaintance with me, she gained ground consider ably in the interest which she inspired. She was sensible, highly polished, and modest to a charm. !lost of the company knew her. I was rather astonished, however, to perceive that she did not receive from the society that palm of preference which so much beauty and such finished manners claimed exclusively fin. her; for, when put in par rallel with her titled and other female companions, who seemed fur the most part to eye her with in difference, she was like the fairest lily, the most balmy rose, or the freshest violet, planted in a cor ner, and surrounded by gaudy tulips, poppies, and ranunculuses, of firced production, and over blown. Daring dinner, she was accosted twice by the name of Emil. ; and my Lord once gave her a half Awl! at good humour, in sending her, unasked, halt' the wing of a woodcock, with a look which said, " I know yen like this.'' As I never heard her called any thing but Emily whilst at table. I took an opportunity, after the ladies had withdrawn, to ask Lord what her family name was. " White," replied his Lordship; and he uttered the name as if it were a complete blank in the beau monde; for it is not uncommon, when a man names •his friends (if perchance, hap pily, he have any,) or his acquaintance, or guests, to mention a little proudly,—" a person of high public character," significantly,—" a beauty or an heiress," rapturously,—and " a commoner, or a fair ineognito in high life," explanatorily, statieg, " a good family, a good fortune, a person of talent, or of (what is more prized in a draw•ing.roout) good expectancies." My Lord named Miss White with bluff simpli city, making as little of the monosyllable as possible, as if it scarcely merited a place in his narration. Shc is well named," said 1, " for she is as Lir as :be unsullied snow ; her beauty needs no high co louring of praise, us it speaks fur itself; her eyes need no comment, since nature's letter of recom akendation is there written in fine impressive cha racter. 11 Two or three insipids smiled mawkishly and un naturally. My Lord observed, " She's a nice girl," and then divested the subject. The diploma:the tOutul out that the wanted usage du monde, which proved his want of judgment ; and the Nabob thought her too light, not in conduct, but in purse, to merit any more than, " She's very fair, but too cold and grave." This he could n t say of his broad passion flower of a wife. My interest increased with the neglect of merit in my companions; and I attached myself' to her company as much as p‘shible, when we returned to the ladies. I now had recourse to a ;wreck gaerrc, THE NANONAL REGISTER. in order to learn something of her history ; and, 'placing myself next to her in the music-room, I ob served, " That I once knew a Colonel White, that he was my particular friend abroad, and that I dis covered • likeneu." To this she anawered, that she had not the honour to know any one of the name. I was foolish enough to come back to the charge, and to mention Lord B— and a Baronet White, when a suffusion of deeper rose colour spread o'er her cheek, and she informed me that she did not know her parents, but had been educated by her patron, Lord ---. My heart smote me for the flush, which I had occasioned; I made a lame retreat upon " What a loss her parents must have had, in being deprived of the pride of owning so perfect a creature ;" and I was mute nearly the rest of the evening. I, however, took an opportunity of inquiring about her, of our Diplomate, who, assuming (which he generally did) mystery and importance where none was required, asked me if I never saw any one like her in the House of Peers P I immediately recollected the Countess's brother. Emily was his very image ! The bloated Nabob afterwards inflamed me, with a shrug of pity, that she was that Nobleman's na tural child, that his Lordship had made a rich match, and had left her to the pa►ronage of his sis ter, that our host thought it hest to allow her to live in the tinnily, being her guardian, and that she had a miserable two thousand patinas to her thrtune, and was wholly unknown to her father, who had deserted her mother many years, and had a very jealous wife, who completely dragooned him. " Tans mime," replied 1, " he deserves not only to be dragooned by his wife, and to come under the lash of general censure, but to be shot for deser tion, both of the mother and of the child. How many a lovely plant perishes in the shade, is cast from the parent steal, trampled under the feet of pride, and withers beneath the cold blast of neglect, which blaamed in promise, and might have flourish ed, an honour and an ornament to the hand that fostered and reared it! How many pining prote gees we see in noble families, soi disant foundling•, or orphans, whose vicious and unfeeling parents live but to disgrace and to disown them! How many a beauteous creature comes to ruin, wholly unprotect ed, or educated in elegance, and scantily provided for, by the hand of unfeeling avarice, or of selfish extravagance! Whilst all the pomp of heraldry em blazons the panels of vice's triumphant car with ducal mantels and coronets, proclaiming royal bas tardy, and trumpeting kingly tribes! and whilst the swarthy or piebald progeny of Eastern plunderers gild over their low origin, and pass like bank tokens lin sterling ore ! What a shameful contrast ! Is it not cowardly to fix disgrace upon the innocent offspring of a pa rent's guilt? Why should these blushing, neglect ed unthrtunates, want a . fisther and a name ? Are not many of them like accusing evidence at hea ven's high chancery against the unnatural authors of their existence ? Why are so few restitutions lit seduction ? Why so many marriages of interest, which cut off from innocence all hopes of possessing a father ? Because the base voluptuary is a str nger to hu manity ; brutal passion knows no softer, tenderer ties ; and thus his very stamp and image (fhr such most often, and for obviously wise purposes—living reproaches or additional claims on the heart, natu ral children are) is allowed to be consigned to servi tude, or to infamy, whilst such a monster lolls is his chariot, feasts on every luxury, and pillows upon down An amusing as well as a highly constitutional ap plication to the Judges is to be made in the course of two or three days. On the well known princi ple of British law, that the moment a slave, whether black or white, sets foot on English land, he becomes free, and can neither be immured, nor kept in the degraded state by any lordly master, we hum that a Solicitor of eminence is to apply for a Habeas Corpus to bring up the person of the fair Circassian Slave in the suite of the Persian Ambassador, to learn from her own lips, whether she consents to the close confinement in which she is kept, or would prefer the liberty that is the birthright of all ? Curiosity, at least, will be on the alert upon this occasion. Ambassadors have extraordinary privi leges. They may avoid, for their domestic comfort, the customs and excise on the articles of splendour that they may choose to introduce, and they may protect their household from all arrest for debt, but they cannot keep a human being in slavery. . _ 'There were married at Manchester on Easter Monday no fen than seventy-nine cooks. the greater part of whom repaired to a fair in the neighbourhood to spend the happy day. Pottrp. TO AN EAGLE IN A CAGE. Rain is thy lot, proud Bird, that wont'st to ow To height untravell'd by anotner wing Save thine ! that height to which you rode Won Gives to remembrance but a keener sting! Wu it thy ravenous beak, or, tyrant claw, Lord of the barren rock an d mountain glen! Which made thine appetite alone thy law Aping the reckless tyranny of men P Was it the lambkin 's bleat of innocence When last you pounc'd front Heav'n upon your prey, That rotted your tender gaoler's nobler sense Of indignation at thy murderous sway P For this, imperial Bird! it captive thou Art doom d to linger thy remaining years, Then—may we hope at length that virtue now And gentleness 61)441 dry up this world's tears! Then may we hope, that perjur ' d vows, above Recorded yet shall render Europe free, That Monarchs shall but seek their subjects' love, And the world's Tyrants seal our liberty! Then may I deem that him whose flight was thine! None jealous of a people's righ. detain In hopeless • Exile, nor that '• Right Divine" Hugg'd once again by fools has forg'd his chain! Then will I, deaf to all that's truly great, Deaf to God's voice, whose pity I implore, Help Prom the Captive Chief to bar his mate, And wish the Son to see his Sire no motet Yet—Royal Bird—if, mr.n encaging thee Abuses thus Ileae'ns delegated trust. No wonder, if to kindred titles true, Kings tread all titles but their own, in dust! • Napoleon. who is with his son dethroned by legitimate so vereigns. detained a prisoner and debarred access to his wife and child, as the scarecrow, I suppose, used b 7 the Friends of Legitimancy, alias on now in effect used) "Divine Right."—to remind men that nations, under No circumstances, have a right to appoint their own rulers; and it appears to the Author indeed. as absurd to think that Napoleon is imprisoned out of tenderness to the peace of Europe and the cause of justice, 11 s that an Eagle is confined in a gentleman's pleasure-ground for lamb stealing. ARRIVAL OF THE PERSIAN AMBASSADOR AND THE FAIR CIRCASSIAN. aivre, APRIL 25.—About 3 this afternoon His Majesty's schooner Pioneer attired in the roads,and very shortly after the boat behnignig, to the Customs put off front her under a witty. Site had no hoard the Persian Ambassador and suite, who on landing were greeted with another salute from the guns at the heights. As the schooner had been seen for some lime before her ar rival, there was an amazing concourse of people assem bled on the beach, and t h e novel "attire of the arrival of ten or a dozen persons habited in silks and turbans, with daggers and long beards, in no small der attract. ed the attention of the inhabitants, whose curiosity had been raised to the highest pitch by the different accounts of the beauty of the fair Circassian, and had not a coach been provided at the water's edge, I much doubt if his Excellency and suite would have reached the inn without consiikrable difficulty.. The crowd followed to Wright's Hotel marly as fast as the carriage, it being reported by some that the fair female was in a mask, under the habit of a ni de attendant, whilst others stated that she would not be landed till the middle of the night. In about half an hour, however, after the arri val of the first boat, a second bait came into the har bour, and landed the Circassian beauty! She was at tended from the schooner by Lieut. Graham, of the pre ventive service, and two black eunuchs. She was scarcely seen; for the instant she landed she was put into a coach, which conveyed her to the inn. She hid on a hood, which covered the upper part of her head. and a large silk shawl screened the lower part of her face, across the nose, from observation ; therefore her .eyes, which arc truly beautiful, and part of her forehead, were the only parts of her beauties that could be seen. She is of the middle stature, and appeared very interest ing. Her look was languid from illness, arising from a rough passage. She was conducted to a bed-room on reaching the inn, bin no one was allowed to attend her but the eunuchs. The Persian Ambassador and his fair Circassian and suite arrived on Tuesday afternoon, about five o cloc;‘, at their new residence in Charles -street, Berkeley-square, from Paris. The cayslentle consisted of four camages. They entered town by Westminster-bridge, and passed up Parliameut•street, Cockspur-street, and down Pall mall to their destination. His Excellency and his corp. 'union rode in the first carriage, the blinds to the side windows of which were down, and most maliciously obstructed the curious eve of the passenger, ea3er to catch a glimpse of the lair Circassian. The knit carriage in the set was an open landau, in whir h were seated the black tunnel's, in the costume of their country and their callimg. Many persons in the tome stopped and are 1. (((( s of the persons who conmposed the e ,s,deule, A few, who, from the appearance of the black eunuchs, suspected it was the Persian Ambassador and suite, billowed the cavalcade to Pall-mall, expecting to see it stump at Carlton-Minx.. it is needless to add. that they were disappointed. IN THE MATTER OF ALLEANDER BRE:CR.—We are informed that the Grand Jury for London on Tuesday found true bills of indictment for conspiracy to make the above persecuted gentleman a Bankrupt against John Brown, George Sant, Lionel Knowles, sea. Lionel Knowles, jun. John Knowles, Richard Merely, Iberian Walker, Charles Webb, W. G. Carter. J. Humphries, Thomas Krems, William Seymour. Daniel Cox, Angus Macdonald, Jobe Dyer. sem John Dlw, kidi• it is reported that none of the perarius fund guilty of a conspiracy, at Guildhall, on Wednesday, are at present iu Eni,lantl. i::0