The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1803-02-19 00:00:00

-~-T 0 7' . l 7 Fur Y .."' rir7iNgwp SPORTING INTELLIGENCE. On Tuesday last, the celebrated Col. THoRNTON passed through York, from Thornville Royal,on his way to the High Wolds of Yorkshire. He had with )iim a very large hunting-train. In the carriages were, two wolvei, two very strong and beautiful stags, with a number of wolf and stag hounds ; also greyhounds, &c. &c. There is little doubt but this spirited sportsmal will attra& much company to the Wolds, which are certainly the best grounds in the kingdom for eiiher hunting or coursing. On Monday next, at ten o'clock, Wolf and Stag hunting commences—on Tuesday coursing—on Wednesday Wolf and Stag—and so alternately for the week. The Wold Farmers and Breeders, how ever, seem much dissatisfied at the Colonel's intro ducing his French wolves amongst their deep. EPIGRAMS. ON A TOYER. 11.4 .VINO VERIT AS. Fair Truth, they say, lies in a Well, Yet who has seen her, none can tell; But Truth's in Wine then nought can cave her ; So great Jtm's search, he's sure to have her! CONTLMTCS MUNDT. Wou!d'st happy live ? spurn life, unfw'd by (car For he lives wretched, to whom life is de.u! Yesterday morning, about half-past eight o'clock, Iris MAJESTY left Buckingham-house encashed by a hors., of the Light hor. for Windsor. About twelve o'clock, her Mwat..r v, the Princesses ACGESTA, SOPHIA, and AMELIA, and two Ladies in waiting, fr.llowed in two carri ages, escorted by a party of Light-horse. The Princess MARY remains at Buckingham-house, being indisposed with a cold. The Duke of Ct . kt star. Art , spent great ;art of the day with his Royal Sister. Amongst the charities of this great town, that of the Lock Hospital and Asylum, of late, has been re duce'. It is now materially assisted by a legacy of 15001. lately received. Amongst the donations of the late eminent Mr. WALDO, we rejoice in hearing that he has so hand somely noticed the worthy and deserving Chaplain and Secretary (the Rev. Mr. PRINCE) of the Mag dalen Hospital. • A new edition of that admirable work, so long wanted, of the " Light of Nature pursued, by the late AnaA it Ass TUCKER, Esq. corrected, enlarged, and revised, together with a Biograph:cal Sketch of the Life of the Author, by Sir HENRY Sr. JOHN MI LOMA Y, Bart." is now in the press. • A new edition of that excellent work, on the State of Europe, by Professor GENTY, translated by C. J. listratts, is also in the press. Lord LANGFORD, on Thursday last, gave a din ner at his house in Berkeley-square, to a selea party of fashionables.—ln the company were, Lorth—Sydney, G. Seymour and Boyle; Cok.els—Copley, • l'onsonby ; and tarly G. Seymour. Lady LA soroni, gave a route, Upon the night of the same day.—ln the splendid and fashionable circle, were— Maithioness of Bath; Euris.—Carttampton and Digby ; Counresses--Chwe and Carhampton ; Viscountess Castlereagh; Lards—Flizhaerio, Valet's, and Euston ; Ladies—two Thynnes, Barham, Euston, and L. Curry; Sir John Shirley; Colonels —Blyth and Coleman; Monsieur De Gunter; Madame De Gunter Mears.—Tye, O'Kelly, and Churchill; .rlfistreser,— Poole and Bouverie ; Misses—Wortley, Somerville, and Vil lers. On Thursday evening, Sir LAURENCE and Lady C. PA LKF, dined with the Earl of DAstili.i:v, at his house in Berkeley-square. The Marquis of 1-11Aoroar gave an elegant din ner, at his house, in Stanhope -street, May Fair. The Marquis CoRNw A 1.1. ts is expected in town on Tuesday, at his house, in Burlington-street. Mr. MAssEv DAwsoN will give a grand Ball, at is house, in the Crescent, at Bath, on Monday next. All the people of fashion in that city are ex peeted to be present. Sir SY DNEY SMITH has taken a house in Green street, Grosvenor-square, for the sea,on. _ Lord Sun LEY gives a grand dinner this day, to a party of fashionable friends, at. his house, in Do ver-street. Lord SomEßvit.LE will entertain the Society of Agriculture, and the principal farming nentlemen, den the day of the Show of fat cattle in Smithfield, at the Free Mason's Tavern, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields, the Ist of March next. INCI.I.DON, on Wednesday, signed ar article with Mr. HARRIS for five years. He is to have 151, a week, which is 21. more than any perti.;rnier in the Theatre. Mr. HARRIS, will' his accti,to:ned libe rality, suffers him to perform at Bath the ensuing week. Prince iI:STINIANI is arrived at Paris, with the nomination of the French Cardin:lV. Tire hats will be brought by the Prelate I)6R' A, whom his Holi ness has chosen his Apostolic Envoy, and who was to have set out from Rome in ten ur twelve days after the first messenger. The Pension granted by the French Government to the dismissed - Bishops, residing in France, is fix ed at 8830 francs. The LORD MAYOR, SHERIFFS, and several Aldermen, went yesterday, in state, to Bow .Church, Che.iride ; where the annual sermon was preached by the Right Rev. Father in God, the Bishop of Coxf Ito. The following Prelates were elegantly entertained by the LORD MAYoR, at the Mansion house. The Bishops of Lonnow, Desuass, Ox- NORD, WINCHEsFER, Exersg, BATH and WELLS, ECC. &c. A curious Gams question is to be brought on at the next Norfolk Assizes, wherein the lion. T. COVENTRY is plaintiff; and Sir ROBERT H AI:D defendant. The aaion is to recover damages for the seizure of a post-chaise; well lined with bares, pariridget, pheasants, &c. supposed to have been filled upon Sir Roszax's planar, but seised by the Baronet's Gamekeeper, " with sticks ! clubs ! and staves ! in the parish aforesaid, and county afore said," rather questionably, on the manor of another person. The son of Lord DEERIit sF was of this extraordinary Storting-Party,' and will probably be the principal evidence. .N;ic•- - , • . - LETTERS UPON THE FRENCH STAGE:. I.ETTER THE SECOND. You will have known by this time, that ate French strianess, as to the unities of time and place, are not at all to my taste. Perhaps more may be said for the unity of anion. While an interesting story occupies the scene, I am persuaded, in spite of Dr. Johnson, that the feel_ ings it excites, must suffer something from the inter vention of excrescent incident, or of a collateral , plot. Thus the affair between Roeltrtgo and logo, which has no necessary relation to the jealousy of Othello, is exceptionable, and tends only to prolong the piece. But in rejening the unity of anion, on other oc casions, SHAKspEA RE has created a species of drama, which the French have not. I mean his historical, and, accurately speaking, biographical plays ; of which last his Henry,' Richard, and 11Inc&tb, are specimens : and although in these, the anion he not single, yet there is a particular interest excited of a different nature, inasmuch as general history and biography differ from single and detached tal^s. There is always the unity of design which this class requires, although there be many anions. In gene ral history, we look for the events and manners of the age it treats of ; in biography, for the exposition of an important charaner, by his sentiments and anions : and the appeal of both is rather to the mind than to the heart. Thus the judgment can not be offended at seeing, in the historical play of Henry the Fourth, alternately, the wars of the King, and the exploits of his son with the fat Knight and his companions, which belong equally to the history of the time. In Richard the Third, the murder of Henry is one anion, his passion for Lady Anne is another, his quarrel with Buckingham another ; but they all form strong features in, the portrait of his character, which is here the design of thp poet. The success of SHAKSPEAIit'S plays of this kind, skews how far they may be made agreeable, and by their means charaners and events may be drama tized, which are not of themselves of sufficien t consequence to form a play of five ans another prejuJice established by our blind respen for the ancients. On the expediency of the unity of anion, Vor.- TAME thinks at once to found a necessity for the unity of place ; " for," says he, " the same anion cannot happen in different places."—Who can gain say it ?—A man cannot eat his dinner in his dining. room, and in his drawing-room, at the same time. But if this remark is to apply to the anion of a tragedy, technically so called, it appears to me to mean nothing. If the anion, forming the subjen of a play, were bona irk the only one to be represent ed, Monsieur de VOLTAIRE would be perfealy right, and a single scene would conclude the busi ness : but it is obvious, that many anions, conneaed with the main one, must also be exhibited, or made known by narration ; and in his own " More de Ceear," the great anion itself takes place off the stage, in consideration of that extreme delicacy which forbids his countrymen the sight of assassi nations—them ones at least. It is owing to this necessity of making known to the spenators, events which are necessary to the eclaireissement of the plot, and in which they will derive no assistance from a change of scene, that the first afts of a French tragedy, and often many other occasional scenes, consist of long. recitals, which give them so insipid an Uniformity. Cinna, one of the heroes of Co R• SIEiLLE, has a narrative at one delivery of above a hundred lines, and Orestes, one of seventy. In Othello, the scene is first at Venice, and then at Cyprus ; but the story is not therefore the less simple, as what passed at the first place, must otherwise have been conveyed through the medium of a :.:dieus narrative. The rhyme is another singularity in the French tragedy, which you know I cann't bear. It is true, that the genius of tragedy cannot altogether keep the path of simple nature; but the less distant it leaves her, consistently with its dignity, the better. I made this remark to a soi-disant critic here. "ills! matv Mon,teur," lie exclaims, "la rime est ri riche !" —" T At MA nevertheless sinks it in his delivery."— C'est me des plus grander kautis de raaeur I" he re plies.—" It F., Sir, because it gives more the ap pearance of nature to what he is saying. You are sensible of this, it seems ; and you only admire the rhyme then because it is rich: that is to say, I sup pose, became it augments the labour of the poet." —Far my part, I do not like rhyme, in our own lan guage, in any heroic poem, much less in tragedy ; far from adding to its majesty, a paltry jingle of sounds appears to me to diminish it materially. Their manner of playing is subjen to a similar censure. In fan, it appears here, that in tragedy an imitation of nature is quite out of the question. All is declamation, even to the narrative; and, per haps, it is thus that they infuse into their first scenes animation enough to render them supportable. When two great men meet, each evens his head and shoulders, as if the other were a statuary, and he were placing himself in an attitude to be modelled ; and if they be not upon very familiar terms, they .. . look at each other only with a side leer. .Their voices aft iiuch &vowed by &it broad, openenun ciation. in . sE s tiouting, which sends them freely through the theatre. , • ( Conceive the puppet-stew etre& of all this upon me, who hive beheld with such delight the tempe rate and natural deportMent of KIEMBLE ill Hanna; who have been so forcibly persuaded by him, that " any thing over-done is from the purpose of play ing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hoia as 'twere the mirror up to nature,"—and of the truth of every other part of his instm&ions to the players, himself, at the same time, so ably illus trating the Poet's advice ; who have seen COOKE oc casionally so wrapt up in Richard, as to have lost all consciousness of his audience, and to have banished from his audience all consciousness of COOKE 0 lifh7U.lL The public attention lately itas been called to this subjea, by an advertisement inserted in most of the papers, intitled, 4 , A Letter to the Holders of Olnnium." Ihe writer observes-46 When the Minister, in the last Parliament, congratulated the House on the excellent bargain which he had made for the public, in the then contract fur a loan of twenty-five millions, little could you imagine that a scene of combination and counteradion was preparing for you," &c. &c. 'Row if the bargain was so triumphant to the public, it must • have been otherwise to the con tradors, The filet, however, is precisely as stated. Never had any Chancellor of the Exchequermore strxm., , grounds of triumph ; for the terms he ob tained for the public, were the admiration of the whole monied interest. Without conveying a breath of censure Upon any body, we may, however, call - to the recollection of our readers the very great disproportion in the pro posals of those gentlemen, and the other competi tors for the contria ; and we may remark, that among these rivals were some, at least, who, by long expelrienee, had acquired the art of managing a loan ; and it would be no strained inference to conclude, that such men would offer at • least within a trifle of as high terms as their expe rience of the money-market warranted. We know the highest offers of the other gentlemen fall very far below those of the Contraffors.— Where then is the phxnomenou that has occasioned such disgraceful lamentations in the most wealthy eity in the universe ? If young traders eater into speculation, at a risk beyond what the most ex perienced would dare to do, and in conse -quence become losers by the bargain, is it nece' nary to conjure up plots and combinations, and persecutions, to account for the common conse quence of their folly ?—Or are they to be sanftioned in outcries against the Bank of England, for draw ing an admirable line between indulgence and weak ness, liberality and the encouragement of folly ? SUICIDE. To the melancholy list of those who have lately committed this rash aft, we have to add the follow ing interesting and truly mournful case i Mr. 1 7 --‘, a young gentleman aged 20, the son of a man of fortune in Red-lion-square, mar ried an amiable young lady, some time since, con trary to the wishes of his family. By this conduit he incurred his father's displeasure, and he was in consequence compelled to contract debts which he could not immediately discharge. The difficulties arising from such an unhappy situation, brought on a gloomy habit of mind, which evidently increased during the last two or three days, and ultimately produced this very melancholy catastrophe. The unfortunate young Gentleman took a coach yesterday evening, about seven o'clock, in Newman street, and ordered the coachman to drive to Red lion-square. On arriving there, he gave dire6tions to proceed to his, lodgings in Devonshire-street, Que( n's-square. The coachman, having let down the steps of the coach, knocked at the door of his lodgings, and then returned to the carriage. At this moment Mr. F , in stepping out, presented a pistol to his head, shot himself; and fell into the arms of the coachman, who was covered with his blood. He was taken into his lodgings, and medical assist ance was immediately procured. The ball entered near the ear, and came out near the crown of the head ; and though the unfortunate gentleman still existed, it was thought he could not possibly survive many hours. A. letter was found in his pocket, re commending his wife to the protection of his father, and requesting of him to discharge his debts. — We shall not attempt to describe the distracted state of Mrs. F—, or of her father, who happened to be in the house at the time. POPULATION. According to the Returns, which have been col leaed pursuant to the Population Aft, the annual number of Marriages ? throughout England and Wales, from the year 1754, when the Marriage AR took place, to the present time, has been as follows : r i Avevageof 5 Years, per Ann. ending with - 1763 1763 1770 1773 1780 1785 1790 1795 1810 These numbers are somewhat less than the truth, as from about 260 places, Returns could not he pro cured ; which with the marriages of the Quakers and Jews not entered in the Parish-Registers, makes a deficiency of about 1,000 per annum. The annual amount of the Burials throughout England and Wales, as colle6ted conformably to the Population Aet, authorises a satisiallory inference of diminishing mortality since the year 1780: the num ber of Marriages and Baptisms indicate that the ex isting Population is to that of 1780 as 117 to 100, while the amount of registered Burials has remained stationary during the last twenty-one years.; the first five of which, as well as the last five years, and all the twenty-oneyears taken tonthe:, equally average about 186,000 per annum. .. _ . LA" INTELLIGNWE. • KING'S BF.NCII.—Fes. 16. Sitting: at Nisi Prins.—Aida:sex. AIM OREL L V. AC ADDOCKS. Mr. GA R ROW stated that this was an aihon for !Yazd, lodging, coal's, and other necessaries, pro vided for the Defendant's wife. He should men tion that the Defendant was not only an aging at torney himself, but was clerk m an attorney of the name of Mr. Wiley, in Basiughall-street. He un derstood the defence to be set up was, that the per son who lived with him was not his wife ; but if such a defence was had recourse to, the Jury would treat it with the contempt it merited, for it would be proved she bad lived with him for the last ten years as his wife. In fall, the probability was, he slandered her and himself too, only for the purpose of this defence. It appeared in evidence, the Defendant and his wife had lodged with the Plaintiff; during a period of nine months ; that at first they were charged five shillings a week, then six shillings, and, lastly, four shillings a week. As the witnesses could not state the particular dates of the alteration in charge, it was estimated generally at five shillings a week, amounting, with a sum for money lent, to 9L—for which the Plaintiff had a verdiet in his favor. The KING agand PII I !Airs And another. Mr. ERSKINE said this was an indiameat for an assault. The Prosecutor was 4 Mr. Semiu Patterson, a brandy-merchant, in St. Martin's-lane. On the day • stated in the indiet as he was returning home,, he observed the Dc ants near his house ; they appeared to have been erring tagethers but whe nellitt ther in jest or earnest, the Prosecutor did not know. He perceived they had broke one of his windows, and he taxed them with it; they exclaimed, " Well, what then !" "What then," returned Mr. Patterson ; " why then you must pay me for it. " Yes," said they, "we'll pay you :" and truly they did so, for they assaulted him in the most violent manner, seiz ed him by the throat, and nearly choaked him; they pinched it till he was black in the face. After this, one of them held him while the other continued beating him. They were at length secured, and taken to Bow-street, where they described themselves under false names, and gave false bail. Such was the offence for which the Defendants had been in dieted, and unless it was to be understood, that for one man, without any provocation, to beat another, was part of the antient custom of the realm, they must inevitably be found guilty. The case was proved by the testimony of one witness, besides the prosecutor. 'rho latter said, he had offered to settle the business amicably. If the Defendant had made him a proper apology, and given a certain sum to the poor of the parish, he should have been satisfied. Mr. Cuitwoon said, he had no answer in point of law to this evidence, but there were circumstan ces which he should hereafter lay before the Court in mitigation of punishment. Several prosecutions for indielments were called on, and the Defendants acquitted, in consequence of the Prosecutors not appearing. . Owing to these indiitments not being t ied, the parties in the civil suits which stood after them, ex peeting they would have occupied some time, • were not ready. Lord Et. LEN no Rouen said, this was not altogether an allowable speculation on the part of those whose causesstood ready for trial. It - appeared, however, they had speculated, and therefore he should let the causes keep their situations in the paper ; but he desired it to be understood, that hereafter whenever a cause was called on, and the parties were not ready, he should most assuredly strike it out. He was under the necessity, by a particular day, of pro ceeding to the administration of justice in another part of the town. The Court rose at a very early hour. On Thursday afternoon, as the Duke of BRInoE. WATER was passing through Berkeley-:quire, in his carriage, one of the w heels suddenly came off, and the carriage was overturned. His Grace was taken out much bruised, and led home by his servant& The following refle&ions are in the Journal der Delta:ears : " The English Journalists wish to establish in their favonr a political morality, with regard to the Governments of Europe, and to inspire a political morality with respect to the Government of their own country. If the question is to establish indemnities in Germany, they set up the old Germanic Consti tution; if it is the tranquillity of the Helvetians, they stipulate for the antient privileges of the small Cantons ; if the subjeet is the commerce be tween France and Great Britain, they invoke for mer treaties, and complain that it has not been rrea tioned in the last diplomatic treaty ; but when they speak of evacuating Malta and Alexandria, (that is to say, of executing the most solemn treaty)—that which the viflory and the courage of the French forced England to sign at Amiens, then the Lon don Journalists have neither principles, morality, or political probity. It is our duty to inform all the Powers of the Continent of those insidious counsels, and those violations of the public faith, solemnly ad vised by one of those Journals denominated Minis teriaL Such refleaions are made to excite indigna tion in the minds of those who regard as sacred the faith of fteries, and the execution of conventions founded on the basis of the rights of nations:" A melancholy accident occurred a few days since, at the house of Mr. Holmes, of Scalfore, near Lei cester:— Ile house having been repaired, a chaffing .dish, with ignated charcoal, was put into the female.. servants' room, with a stria injunaion to remove it to an adjoining room on going to bed, and to leave their door open, instead of which they kept it in their room, and shut the door. In the morning they were found in a state of suffocation, and one of them ex pired in the course of the day. A sloop from Southampton Road, bound to the Island of Jersey, was, about three weeks since, in a violent gale of wind, driven on the reef of rocks which extend themselves at the entrance of the har. bour of St. Maloes, and but for the courageous and humane efforts of four French fishermen, who, at this risk of their lives, put off, to the deliverance of the crew in so truly terrible a sityntion, the whole, cont. prising five in number, and time gentlemen passen. gers, must inevitably have perished. The vessel was soon dashed to pieces, and the cargo, lost. We are happy in being able to state, that the Gentlemen handsomely rentonerated their deriving* r e th a est iPr s s pirited and manly =eau . 'Pow 111 1 ' 0