The National Register. — London, England, 1819-05-02 00:00:00

MAY .L TITE NATURAL CHILD. Arriving late for dinner at a certain noble Lori's, I had just time to make a kind of circular obeisance to the Countess, and to the company to whom I was known,—to receive a significant but good humoured look, with a very gentle shake of the head, from her Ladyship as much as to say, " You have lust saved your distance, as usual ; always late, , but better late than never,"—to meet the supercili ous eye of Lord C—, to acknowledge the haughty bow of Lady Avanthier, the Nabob's wife, whose smile is a sneer, and whose toss of the head, after the common inclination of urbanity', seems as if her stiff neck upbraided her fur the sgmlleat penchant of condescension, awl her curled up-lip and saucy nose mocked the forced smile which half, uncertain, would-be courtliness, had placid in their neighbour hood,-1 had just time to receive the insincere pres sure on my hand of a certain diplomatic character, so used 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 eoasider that his protection even goes as far as a Inet and the impo sition of hands—the weighinrtif two fingers, as it were confidentially on your arm, the gently touching you.= the back, which is the type of" depend upon nee," where reliance is out of the question, or an elevatima of the eyebrows. as much as to say, ".I see you and don't forget yon,"—finally, I was just long enough i the drawing-room to see the first title proudly armed out of the mom with a conscious look of self satisfaction, to behold the autumnal flowers in very high colour, cast a glance at the mirror as they passed bv, and join the Da ',bon., fentiuni of Baronet; M.P.'s, and private gentlemen, us chattering common-place, as we (I..seended the great star-sue, when I found myself placed by the side of a very lovely young woman with ajene sais snsoi of interest and melancholy on her countenance, which (to me) rather heightened her attractions. Her smile was grave, and, as 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. Most of the company knew her. I was rather asebnished, however, to perceive that she did not receive from the society that palm of preference which so mach beauty and such finished manners claimed exclusively for 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 forced production, and over blown. Dunne, dinner, she was accosted twice by the name ; and my Lord once gave her a half smile of good humour, in sending ber, unasked, half the wing of a woodcock, with a look which said, " I know you like this." As I never beard 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 saran heiress," rapturously,—and " a commoner, or a fair incognito in high life," explanatorily-, stating, " a good family, a good fortune, a person of talent, or of (what is more prised in a drawing-room) good expectancies." My Lord named Miss White with bluff simpli city, waking as little of the monosyllable as possible, as if it scarcely assented a place in his narration. " She is well named," said 1, " for she is as t:iir as ',the unsullied snow ; her beauty needs no high co :louring of praise, as it speaks for itself'; her eyes need no comment, since nature's letter of recom mendation is there written in fine impressive cha frac ter. 4. Two or three insipid' smiled mawkishly and un 'taturally. My Lord observed, " She's a nice girl," 'lad then diverted the subject. The diplomatist fOund out that she 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. NV interest increased with the neglect of merit in my cony:miens ; and I attached myself to her • . . . cinipsny as much as possible, when we returned to t he ladies. I now had recourse to a ruse de guerre, THE NA noNAL REGISTER. in order to lean, something of her histrry ; and, pacing myself next to her in the music-room, I ob served, " That I once knew a Colonel White, that he was wily particular friend abroad, and that I dis covered a likenew." To this she answered, 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 tnentittxt Lerd B— and a Baronet White, when a suffusion of deeper rose colour spread o'er her cheek, and she intbnned me that she did not know her parents, but had been educated by her patron, Lord My heart smote me fur the flush, which 1 had occasioned ; I made * lame retreat upon .r What a loss her parents must have had, in being deprived of the pridesof 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 ine if I never saw any one like her in the House of Peers ? I immediately recollected the Countess's brother. Emily was his very image! The bloated Nabob afterwards informed me, with a shrug of pity, that she was that Nobleman's na tural child, that his Lordship bad made a rich match, and had left her to the patronage of his sis ter, that our host thought it best to allow her to live in the family, being her guardian, and that she had a miserable two thousand pounds to her fortune, and wits wholly unknown to her father, who bad deserted her mother many years, and had a very jealous wife, who completely dragooned him. " 'fast minx," replied 1, " he deserves not only I to be dragooned by his wife, and to come under the lush 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 shads, is cast from the parent stem, trampled under the feet of pride. and withers beneath the cold blast of neglect, which bloomed 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, *Ai ditant foundlings, I or orphans, whose vicious and unfeeling parents live but to disgrace and to disown them! How many a beauteous creature conies 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 she pomp of heraldry cm 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 i•jS like bank tokens for 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 unfortunates, want a father 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 made for seduction ? Why so many marriages of interest, which cut off free& innocence all hopes of possessing a father ? Because the base voluptuary is a str roger to hu manity ; brutal passion knows no softer, tenderer ties ; and thus his very stamp and image (for such most often, and for obviously wise purposes—living reproaches er additional claims on the heart, natu ral children are) is allowed to be consigned to servi tude, or to intinny, whilst such a monster lolls in 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 en English land, he becomes free, and ran neither be immured, nor kept in the degraded state by any lordly master, we bear 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 consent., 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 1- occasion. Ambassadors have extraordinary privi leges. They may avoid, liar their domestic comfort, the customs and excise on the articles of splendour that they may 'choose to itttoduce, and they may protect their household from all arrest for debt, but they eturnot keep a Inman being in slavery. There were married at Manchester nriEaster Monday its I'm than smenty-entietturflet, thegreuter part whom repaired to a fair in the neighbourhood to spend the happy day. Pomp. TO AN EAGLE, IN A CAGE. Man is thy lot. pond Bird, that wont'st to soar To height untrweard by another wing Save thine I that haiiiht to whish.you rode before Gives besanatinganwee but a keener sting! Was it toseensew bosh. or. tyrant claw. Lead the barns gosh and mountain gin Which made thine appetite dons thy law Aping the realms viral ot me? Was it the lambkin's bleat of innocence When last sort pounc'd from Hain upon your prey, That rous'd your tender pole& nobler sense Of indignation at thy murderous sway ? For this, imp erial Bird! if captive thou Art doom 'd to linger thy remaining years, Then—may we hope at length that %WNW now And genders= shall dry up this world's tears: Then may we hope. that perjar'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 Bight was thine None jealous of a people's nigh' detain In hopeless • Exile, nor that • Right Divine" Hugg'd once again by fools has fined his chain! Then will I, deaf to all that's truly great. Deaf to God's voice, whose pity I Implore. Slap from *Captive Chief to bar his mate, And wish the Son to see his Sire no morel Yet—Royal tn i zEluig thee Abuses thus Hew's' nn u, No wonder, if to kindled inn. Kings tr od all *km bat thin isinu in dust! • Napoleoo who Is with Ids son dethroned by legitimate So. Tertian', detained a risoner and debarred acmes to his wife and child, as the seareao - sr, I stinole used by the Friends of l.egitimancy, alias (as now hrst ttssdl "Divine Right,"—to remind men that nations, mailer NO CN'CUMNINCek t have a right to appoint their own riders; and it appears to the Authorindeed. as absurd to think that Napoleon is iniprisopen out of nedenuss to the paw of Europe and the cause of - justice, as that an Eagle is confined in a gentlemen's pleasure-pound for lamb stealing. ARRIVAL OF THE PERSIAN AMBASSADOR AND THE FAIR CIRCASSIAN. DOVER, APRIL ts.—About 3 this afternoon His Majesty's schooner Pioneer arrived in the roads.and very shortly after the boat belonging to the Customs put off from her under a salute. She had on board the Persian Ambassador and suite, who on lauding were greeted with another salute from the guns at the heights. As the schooner bad been seen for some tisne before her ar rival, there was an amazing concourse of people assem bled OR the beach, and the novel nature of the arrival oT ten or a dozen persons habited in silks and turbans, with daggers and long beanie, in no small degree attract ed the attention of the inhabitairs, whose curiosity had been raised to the highest pitch by the difterent sectiiumi of the beauty of the fair Circassian , and had tint a enact hews provided at the water's edge, much doubt if his Excellency and suite would have reached the inn without considerable difficulty. The crowd followed to Weight's hotel nearly as fast as the carriage, it being reported by some that the fair female was in a mask, under the habit of a male 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 boat came into the har bour, and landed the Circassian beauty 1 :+iie was at tended from theschooner by Lieut. Granam, 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 conveted her to the inn. She bed on a hood, which etweeed the upper eart of her head, and a large silk shawl screened the tower part of her face, across the nose, front observation ; therefore her eyes, which are truly iseautiftil, 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 Hines., arishig front a rough passage. She was conducted to a bed-nom• bra reaching the inn, but 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'clock, at their new residence in Charles-st reet,Eerkeley-sousre, front Paris. The cavaleactertrusisted of four carriages. They entered town by V'estistinster.bridge, and passed up Parliament-street, Cockspiir-street, and down Pall mall to their destination. Hid Excellency and his com panion rode in the first . catriage, the blind) to the side windows of which were down, and most maliciously obstructed the curious eye of the passenger, eager to catch a glimpse of the fair Circassian. The last carriage in the set was an open latidatt, in whit It were seated the black eunuchs, in the CC:MIMIC ~f their country aed their calling.. Many persons in the tome stopped and gazed, uncnncinin of the persons who eotortoied the cavalcade. A few, who, front the appearance of the black eunuchs, suspected it was the . Pere.!n Aintussarior and suite, tidlowed the cavalcade to Pall-mall, expeci,ng to see it stop at Carlton-house. It is needless to add. that they were disapvoilitei. IN THE MATTE; 0? AIEXANDiR BNIJCE.—We ant informed that the Grand Jury for London ott Tue••lay found true hills of indictment for conspiracy tr, make the aisme persecuted gentleman a Bankrupt against ,John Brown, George Stott. Lionel Knowles, Den. Lionel Knowler„ jun. • John Knowles, Richard Mosel% . ,aromas Walker, Charla Webb.. • ii.r. C. Carter, J. llumnhries, ..Thomos Evans, William Seymour. ' Daniel Cox, Angus Stoorionald, John Dyer. sen. John Dyer, jun• It is reported that none of the persons found guilty of a ennspirney, at Guildhall, on Wedotsdii; , are at present in England. I :39