The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1804-11-08 00:00:00

T . __ I _ 111-7______ .2a . .. ' 4 TIE Ala& TO TIM 17DITOR 01 THE ERITI/H rßtss Mr. Eel ron, If the yr-cer, " that we should speak no ill of dead"—(a precept adopted, I believe, merely ins .the heathen philosophers—a precept which ery body gravely quotes to every body ; yet no dy, I observe , ever adhe res to i n h i s own case)—. can any thing more than that we should speak thing unjustly of the dead, it is certainly a talse e, that, under a colour of generosity, would leave ice unreproached by that stigma, which, whether life or death, Virtue only has a right to be et from• A vicious life might thus run its career , safety; and the paths of society might be reseed with its wanton poisons, in spite of the few d feeble Admonitions, and still fewer and Lechler ,asthemerts, which, while justice and true charity rgently prompt modern " good manners" on the tte hand, and the laws of our country on the other, ill not suffer to be bestowed upon them. When e triumphs, therefore, of the wicked cease, this ,'se moral is to seal up the wholesome lips of • atli : the accidental exceptions that may appear • a general mass of, profligacy are to be extolled ao positive and substantial virtues; and abashed ,mesey has nothing to do but to join in the general uient to departed iniquity. It is, therefore, in my humble opinion, not so di aly contrary to reason and true magnanimity, in uch as it is agreeable both to truth and justice, At, notwithstanding the specious maxim I have ~eed, the world continues to treat the enormities the dead sinner, with as little ceremony, as it oes those of the living. Why should the memory an individual, who insulted, injured, and defied whole community, be thus tenderly spared ? Because he cannot now defend himself r His :ends then, if lie left any, may do it for him ; and ::at with mud: greater advantage. " But the man . dead !"—a reason as senseless, as inert, as dead, s the man himself ! If virtue ought to be held eth to excite imitation, why should vice be con .4lW which the same reason requires should be sally exposed, to discourage and depress imita :on. It any man will have the charity to convince that the sagacity and eloquence of one great lagistrate—the mechanical quirks and statute-ho eity of another; or the sharp industry of a third smaller organ of the same profession, said to have itely followed Death's dance to the ruse of four undred and fifteen thousand pounds sterling), are compensate the public for the injurious effects of weir monstrous avarice, and total insensibility to e miseries of their fellow -creatures; I shall be appy to tetrad my present apprehensions. But I g pardon for so much preface : I meant only to • ow a few words upon poor MORLAND. All that could die of this extraordinary painter, • find, is dead. Hie works (if we may trust that those • along them, of a certain descr:ption, will never more eiurered to iasult the public eye) must doubtless live ,r ever. Whilst any taste for natural truth and beau fill simplicity shall remain amongst men, the name -rd talents of Motland will be distinguished as ho norahle to the country which formed and prodaced them. Of his particular merits in imitative art, it may be observed, that he was the first !or at least among our countrymen, by ca the most eminent) of those who have given the true spirit and charac ter of (lin grew pa lladium—the British Oak; as well as the form and :talon of all our most familiar ani mals, in all their subtleties and varieties. The ap plause, however, that I would pay him with reaped to these particulars, is only expressed emphatically ; far he really does not appear to have undertaken any subject that he did nut treat with equal succss. Among his other rare qualifications. he appears u have been thoroughly and impartially acquainted with the complexion and bias'of his own genius, from his very boyhood; since, after that period, he is never found .• out of his element." No sooner had re dispersed the scrawls and daubing' of puerility, than, anticipating his future success, and conscious of his present powers, he retreated in silence to the free walks of nature ; contemplated deeply, reasoned accurately. and practised diligently. A few years brought him back to public notice, a finished painter of English scenery, nature, sentiments, and manners; an artist, who, having sagaciously pre scribed the limits of his pursuits, and effeeted what ever, in knowledge, or, in praltice, was essential to the purpose of tilling up those limits, had now no thing more to learn. He shrunk from no difficulty, for his choice of subjeCt lett him no difficulty to en counter. He disdained nothing that was natural and piduresque, consistently with that decorum which he bas inviolably observed in all his public works. He would never risque truth ; but would rather give twenty guine:u to have a cat stolen for him, than presume to paint one from an uncertain remem brance. He sometimes leaves the truth unfinished, 1 -at never viola:ed. He affeeted none of those whim &ars that are for eve? setting amateurs by the ears, about warm eolouriag, and cold colouring, and furciule lights, and forcible shadows, and subordina- Wog, that, to illustrate oae object, or .0 ion, would racritice nine-tenths of a piaure in a waste of sense less I saw none of these violent par touities in nature; and he scorned to please a de praved imagination by tar.tastic pretences of surpass. , ! - .1., , that which, as it is, no man can equal. His ch iraaers affea no graces r.or anti-graces, that do ant beloug to them. His lights and , s;.t.iows are mild, moderate, anti diffusive. The whole trgether rests easy upon the eye, and pleases a correCt taste as Tn , ;ch, as it would, had it surprised a vitions one , e• His choice is always good; for he chases . t in which these is nothing essential to rejtel. Ile -vcr gives us too much of a thing. lies piece is but a cantlet of piCturesque nature, neatly cut out, aid frausferred into a pidure frame. I' Ise charafter of Mot land, therefore, as a painter. appears to be remarkably equal and consistent. ( .411%ov:rough, sometimes dull, was ofier.ez capei %nu." and :Ilene:- careless; and the chasaiter o. 1% nom's landscape, seldom purely kareli.h. was ".!roo:mes mixed, aad some-tiro arisakorly but Morlarld we are sure of : I": p•atures never make a mistake—r ever iosalt fiaenaod, di.gust by affeaatioa, diaapoaica by es - • or. or teize by my! Len. was English artist, Gerrge ol , aland ; wli-• se a.oral ehar.aftcr was, at the same tousiytl.at, in tie course of twenty years, that I have hem among arts and artists, and anxious as I ever felt to esteem the pos sessor of Such splendid talents, I never heard him mentioned but with some concomitant sentiment of reluctant disgust. Eccentric as his conduet w a s, beyond all calculation, and all powers of descrip tion, it did not afford even the melancholy pallia tion of insanity; for the vigour of pis genius, and the soundness of his. judgment, never forsook him in a picture; though they scarcely ever accompa nied him in any other employment, a:tion. or sen timent of his life. Capable of the most regular and profound refleaion on every thing connected with his are—capable even of the clearest cliqinitions of moral re4litude, he never appears to have dedicated a single leisure hour to sober conversation ; to in nocent pleasantry; to anv of the endearing ifiter courses pf domestic or social life ; or to any rational purpose whatever. He is generally acknowledged to have spent all the time in which he did not paint, in drinking, and in the meanest dissipations, with persons the most eminent he could seloa for igno rance or brutality ; and a rabble of carters, hostler, butchers-men, smugg lers , poachers, and postilions, were constantly in his company. and frequently in his pay. He was found, At one time, w: are told, in a lodging at Somers -town, in the following most extraordinary circumstances : .His infant child, that had been dead nearly three weeks, lay in its coffin in one corner of the room ; an ass and foal stood munching barley straw out of the . cradle ; a sow and pigs were solacing themselves in the recess of an old cupboard; and himself whistling over a beautiful plaice that he was finishing at his easel, with a bottle of gin hung up on one side, and a live mouse, sitting (or if you please kicking), for his portrait. on the other!' With such ckoire spirits, and in cirriunstanees so unnecessarily—so preposterously disgusting—did this perverse " Soo of merry and heir of fame,: without being mad, live and aft the life of a road man ; in one continued round of painting, drinking, and extravagance! The only charafter likely to bear a parallel with Morland's seems to be that of Adrian Branwer, a Flemish painter, of great and deserred celebrity, who lived, I think, in the beginning of the six teenth century. The principal differences seem to be, that the Fleming's sabjeas were as generally nauseous, as the EnOshman's were decent and pleasing; and that Brauwer was more elabot ate, and coloured more richly, though, perhaps, not with greater truth. The latter. therefore, may pos sibly be surer of pleasing the eye, however he af feas the taste, or the understanding. The death of Brauwer, at the age of twenty-eight, appears to have been brought on by the same causes, of which accident, or a stronger convitution, protraaed the effeas in Morland twelve years longer. Peace to their ashes! S. S. On Saturdar last, MARTIII DAVV, Al D. Ma ster of Cahn donne, resigned his oifice as Vice- Chancellor of the University of Cambridge; and, on Sunday, the Rev. dons Tosatturros, 1). D. Maottr of Clare HAll, was eleded into that cffice for the y e ar ensuing.—Dr. 'lomat sorer: served the (Ace in 1783. _ _ The Seatonian Price (the subjelt Mese; •iewing the Promised Land) is this year adjudged to :he Rev. Mt. House, M. A. Librarian of Trinity College. The late Lord 6;Hruwosaa, Baron of Ched worth, in Gloucestershire (whose death we lately mentioned), was born August 29, 1934. and UK. I seeded to his uncle Fasoraicir Hsa.ev, October 178 being the son of a yenanger brother, and de signed for the profession of the law; he was edu cated in Winchester school, and at Geoid. His I.ordsl4 was a learned and entre& lawyer, a No bleman of the striaest principles, of sober and un affeaed piety, of singular humanity ; and, as SHARESPIARt says, i• a gentleman of all tem perance." As a scholar be was conversant with the G.-eeir and Roman Classics, which he read with retitled and elegant taste. His habit was nervrus, timid, and diffident.. His manners were gentle, polite, and affable. His benevolence was univer sal; his charity extensive. and conferred with such delicacy, that the ohjeas of his generosity knew not to whom they were obliged. in brief, he was a gentleman, a scholar, and a Christian. His Lordship, with abundance of great and good qualities, uncommon learning and abili:ies, had some foibles, amongst which may be reckoned his slovenliness of person, his avoiding the company of men of equal rank and situation with himself, and a perpetual dangling after some fine woman, without any criminal intention ; but which sometimes, with out reason, end angered the lady's charalte/ to some of these he may have made amends by legacies. A Gentleman, who, from his great intimacy with his Lordship, and from rendering him very paiti citiar services in the early part of his life, was ex pelted to stand foremost in the rank of legacies, had displeased him by having too frequently, and perhaps too freely, represented the impropriety of his neglea of dress, and not associating more with people in higher rank of life. His Lord : hip was very fond of the Sport at Newmarket, and an ex cellent judge in matters of the Turf; but, though a Member of the Rooms and Jockey Club, be never mixed with them at table, but generally dined and lived by himself in a very retired and obscure man ner. He was bashful and timid in the extreme. The Bat-Tack-Master of Chelmsford has received direaior.s to be imaardiately prepared to receive and ACCOMMOJACC a brig ide of Royal Artillery, con slating of four gal.., &c. now on their way thither. By letters received at Hull, on Tuesday, from Carthagena, it appears that that city suffers severely In.m the contagious disorder lately prevalent at Ma- Liza Captain Siena' a., of the brig Loyal Voir"- ire,, of that port, writes, under date of the Bth of 05tolser, that, on the preceding day, he had landed his goods for Carthage-n.l, sn the Custom House, aiid had obtained a clean bill of health to proceed to i;areelona. Aa trade was suspended all the intr. ahants and peop'.e of property bad retired into the cou:ltry ; and, on the day be wrote, the port was totally shut, and no bills of health granted. Capt. MEDLIV aids, that during his stay at the port of C irthagena, upwards of salty died daily, and that nti it tam .:. had been carried off—his crew en j eJ pertel Lra:th. The above is corroborated by letters tram the consignees of the brig Lo:sill niars (err, daied the *la, who bad fled to the town of La vii the 7tll of OCtober. LAW INTELLIGENCE. . • got RT OF KING'. BENCH..WtsrsitN.ree, Nov. 7. THE VAAL or VAEHfrET C. ROBERT SUCH, ESQ. Mr. ERSKINE moved the Court for leave to tile trim raw! ilArarthon aga inst the latter gentleman, for an Aii.t , th tipon the former. In this case, he stated, the parties were particularly circumstanced. being near relatives, and he felt great pain in being obliged to bring forward any thing relating to fa mily atrairs, before the Court; but the gentleman, against whom he made the application. had con dueled himself in such a way as obliged Lord Darn ley to resort to those disagreeable measures. Some time ago, his Lot &hip received a letter from Mr. Bligh, in which he informed his Lordship. that he should have heard from him before; had he no: lost the use of hit limbs; and after making use of several incoherent and opprobrious expressions, he told his Lordship that be was a cowardly assassin. Lord Darnley soon after received a second epistle frqn this gentleman, which was couched in the same abusive terms, stating, that his Lordship was a fiat, and the only return he should make to his Lordship, for his cuasummate impudence, when they should next meet, should be a blow. In consequence of these letters, and Mr. Bligh's general condu9 to wards his Lordship, he was under the necessity of ap plying to the Court, for an information against that gentleman ; upon which, a conditional Rule was granted ; but, in consequence of a letter his Lordship received from him, making a full apology for his condo.% and requesting that all proceedings might be stopped, and also his Lordship's own wish for many family reasons, that Rule was not made ab solute. From that time, the Earl of Darnley never had any communication whatever with Mr. Bligh, until one day, while he and the Countess of Darn ley were waiting for a change of horses at an Inn, 14 saw Mr. Bligh in the stable-yard. In accompany ing the Countess of Darnley doses stairs to the car nage, he saw Mr. Bligh standing across the threshold of the door, so as to stop the passage: Lady Darnley advanced, and gently tapping him on the shoulder, requested he would allow her to pas., which he mediately did—but, on Lord Darnley's coming up, he again placed himself across the door, and, when his Lordship attempted to pass, he dire ly threw himself into a menacing attitude, called Lord Darnley the greatest scoundrel upon earth, drew back, and struck his Lordship a violent blow, in the presence of the Countess of Darnley, and while she attempt ed to interfere. Mr. gesautta said, he should refrain from stating the particulars of this case any farther ; the parties having been so recently before their Lordships, he did not feel it necessary ; he could not, however, avoid expressing his regret, that parties, who were so near relatives as Second cousins, and also conne&- eal by marriage, should be °Wiled to resort to this method of deciding family quarrels. The Court granted a Rule to shew cause. THE KING (AT THE SUIT or a. 0. THOMAS, ESEk.) v. RICH- M. PHILIPS, Esq . Mr.Gaesow. on behalf of the prosecution, moved the Court for liberty to enter up the verdi& in this case. Mr. Philips was indiaed for sending a cLII - to the p.u.y prosecuting on behalf of the Crown, with intent to provoke him to fight a duel. The Jury found him guilty of an intent zo provoke the Prosecutor to send him a challenge. He under stood it Wa4 necessary to make an application to the Court. in order that the verdin should he entered. Gad Et.i.tiosollouou—" In this case there were two particul rr cfmnts in the iudiftment, the one for sending a challenge, and the other, charging the Defendant with an intent to provoke the Prosecutor to tight. On the ft - inner count the Jury acquitted him; hut found him guilty on the layer : it wale not necessary to apply to the Court upon this occasion ; however let the verdia be entered." DOS, ON DEMISE OF ()SORGE, V. JSUON. Mr. CLARKS moved to set aside the verdift which bad been obtained for the Plaintiff in this ca,e. The Defendant set up a title as heir at law of John Jesson, son of Thomas Jesson. It appeared upon the trial that Thomas died in 1777,1eaving his sari John, and one only daue!lrer. I: also appeared that John went filkhea, and never was heard of since. The Jury accordingly found a verdia that kr died betwrm seen and ten years, and his sister became bis heir at law. On the part of the Defendant, he contended that the Defendant having an adverse possession for 26 years, and the heir at law, John, dying under the age of twenty-one years, his sister was only entitled to a reversion of 10 years. The learned Judge who presided then ruled that she was entitled to 20 years after death of her brother; however, the point was afterwards saved for further consideration ; and the only question now before the Court was whether she was entitled to 20 years reversion atter her brother's death, or not ? The Court granted a Rule to thew cause. CLIVAINTS AND WITS 0 SleN. Mr. Grizst.ev moved to set aside the Nonsuit obtained in this cense. anion was tried at the last assizes for Devon, before Lord ELIANSO ROUGH, and was brought for an assauk upon the Plaintiff's Wife. The Excise Officer or Surveyor direfted his m-n to go and search a boat in which the Plaintiff's Wife then was; they were proceed ing to search the lady in a %Cry indecent and impro per manner, when she cried out to them, " Us • decency:" upon which the Defendant assaulted her. ' lie was an extra man in the employ of the Sur veyor, who was not present at the time, but had son , . home to his own house. The Defendant, it appeared, was not an excise man appointed by the Board, but could be paid, dis charged, or employed by the Surveyor when he pleased ; but Mr. DALLAS, on the part of the De fendant, contended that he was an officer naing under the immediate direaions of his superior ; and farther, that the a&irsn was not brought within three calendar months, according to the statute ; in consequence of which the Plaintiff was nonsuited. Mr. G. then observed, it was a very hard case upon the Plaintiff, as he should have treble costs to pay, and contended, that the extra roan had no authority to aa as he had done, the principal not being pre sent, having gone home to his own house. Lord EzzavllolloColl.—a. The reassn he did not appear was, because he was known to the parties. and would have defeated the purpose of the search By my notes, it appears he was a man usually ep- pointed to that Emilios:mem, and timninated by the Officer. He was in ail respeas coasideted as ati,c- Officer, except in not having an authority from thit Board. The question turns upon the constrnaiou of the Excise Laws ; anti as one that may Oates, some general effed. I thin!. you may have a Rule to show cause."—Rule granted. COURT 01 COMMON MEAS. iAm‘Elt a. THE EAU. OF IVAPAL — CIC. Serjeant Sexpittato moved for a Rule to thew cause why JudgMent should not be arrested in t*. case, on account of there heing.on the face of the contra& an usurious agreement. Two thousand pmnds had been borrowed from the PlaintiT ou the Defendant's bond, payable with 5 per C. 2.1!. It appeared front the contr. a, that 411:. wts ro he paid by the Defendant, exclusive of the 2,0V1. and 3 per Cent. interest, which, be contended, sees usa- Serjeant BA !LEY on the other side said, that the 4001. only meant the penalty, and that it was the usual form of all Scotch bonds.—Rule granted. POLICE. SD TWE William Smdll, a Waterman, plying at the Globe. stairs, Rotherhithe, on Monday last, was attacked by a number of idle persons, who threw a quan tity of fireworks into his pockets, which exploded.' burned his clothes, and otherwise injured hirrf. Tile principal person concerned in. this rniichie vans . business was fined in a penalty of 20e. : agreeable to AR of Parliament. S:ven .eh u's were fined under the Gunpowder Trewson Aft, in tite . reign of James I. Several Bakers were convined in the penalty of is. per us. for selling bread deficient of weight.— The bread was distributed amongst-the poor. •We understand that in the case of the Earl of Sill VINCENT against three prrsons, •In the Court , of King's Bench, on Tuesday. for a libel, ! . r. SYDNEY appeared to be implicated in the chatro merely as the printer. The 96th regiment will sail from Ireland, in a few days, for the West 'lle Officers of the 9.'411 (rifle regiment) have caused to be ereaed, in the parish church of Cheri ton, a monument to the Memory of Captain A. D. Cameron, a brother officcr of the same regiment. The design is a statuary tablet rept rsenting an Egyptian sarcophagus, sumountei by a crovim and bugle:(the insignia of the corps), on a dove-c.-i•tured marbk ground, with the following inscription : N,ar this plat are inte-to I the reruaios Alex4:.dor llutscaa Camino:l, Ca..tai:i in us di. As. 11Stli, or rest Son of Cip.airs Charles C.,m,qt,n, Licha' a-, N. B. Woo died at Siiouie ode on th • Bth day ,of Apo:, LA..O I, A t tie 22 Years. As a tribute of rmood To his mans amiable qualities, To cominetnorate the sllite of his worth; , As a gootircian and a eddies., • Thostmie 1-as bar.. ereded Ey his brother °dicers. Extra& of a letter from an Officer an board His Maje-ty's ship Butfulo, dated off i'rince of Wales's Island, in December last : "After leaving port Jackson, in 'New South Wales; bound to Calcutta. we tenched in Gun war at Am boyna and Coopang, in the [stand of Tim• r, to €ll • water and refresh the people : we sailed from theneli in September, at which time there was no Dutch naval kreb in the Soudd. About six weeks 'reforest our arrival, a Commodore, with three frigates, Old , sailed from thence forTernate; and, in enfeav• uring • to pass round the west end of the Island, the Com modore', ship was hove on shore, by the swell in calm, and totally lost ; her Ruts ai - .d part of her Stores is ate saved : the other two fiigaer, we undec stoc..l, were to go from Tl mate to Batavia. " Ani;royna was governed by pwrt of a regiment, in which, except the °thetas, were very few Euro peans. Timor we left in ()dober, its tortifications are still in a hate of ruin." "The Skewer brig, Captain AI. re, belcnging to Calcutta, is just arrived. She was .tracked in the Streights of Sincapore, by about fifty piratical prows, from Rio, ar.4 engaged them for near three hours, when he was fortunately extricated from her critical situation, by the arrival of His Mans- T Y'S sloop of ear, RIO elflike, Capt. CIANIE, when the pirates fled in every •' • . . Though it bas been reported in letters from Co penhagen, that the Russian squadron, which, in the end of August, sailed for the German sea, would soon return to winter in the iv, information has been received with the very recent arrivals from Sweden, Denmark, as well as from Holiand and Germany, of its cruise or of its certain destina tion. In the c•immunication which we lately laid before the public, we mentioned that it Lad been spoken with by one of our Baltic Traders, and. ac.ording to what the Russian- '.Hirers said, they %4 ere waiting for further instruCtions.. Slii•uld this be conio.i, the Russian fleet may be, possinly, now on its way to the Mediterranean, and not upon its return to the Baltic. It is a little extraoldinary, that none of our numerous cruisers,his met with it, and that hitherto, our Admiralty has no official ac count of its stat;-n. We know In•rfeal, •hat the smallness of this squati!on t. of iitex wxight in the scale of naval armament, oior.parcd with our own ; but, were it ordered .td nugm.-nt the Rti..ian \avy in the Mediterranean. it would not oniy be highly serviceable in co-operating a ith us, but in pre venting Bomar...lir a's attempts on neutral Stat. s and Islands, in that sea, particularly now, when Spain is arming, and probably soon wi:l be added to the num ber of independent nations, wham the Corsican ty rant has, against :heir will and interest, forced upon us as foes. Nothing better indicates the plans of intro. Acta and destruction meditated in the Mediterranean, by the revolutionary Cabinet of St. Cloud. than the minuteness with which the ilibasiesr counts and put. Lilies the arrival there of every Itussian ship ant. soldier; its hypocritical anxiety for the safety of the Turkish Empire ; its periodic= tenderness fur the inhabitants of the Sere:. Islands and of the Versa, and its false or exaggerated relations concerning the situation of Egypt. Should a war break our be tween this country and Spain, we have little doub but that the Mediterranean will be a very auftivt scene of contest. ani that, in a short time, it wil add fresh latirels to those already won by cur navy WON*