Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-05-21 00:00:00

mracters of thi

us to the law,
were the

wont to show as many
shapes as ,Proteas in order to escape detection.
Sometimes, we aro informed, they exhibited the gay
attire and fashionable:hearing of a gallant; and
it would appear that the part
.was admirably played
by these reverend masqueraderg.

Men

l,
The practice. of cunning chicaneryand
however,
together with liCentionsnes and levity,belongs n gs more
especially to the reign of Charles the
does to that of James'. 'The restoee°lld, than it
former to the Throne of England, brroaiti°n of the
is fact, an innundation of all the debauchery with it,
French Court, in which he and his followers of
the
bad
spent their exile; so that gallantry had become
h
grand predominant spirit of the age, ~ No
to love !»
exclaims a writer, " was not to be ;I'l. and; therefore, all
were lovers, from the half-fledged school-boy to the

hoary veteran whose dim eyes could scarcely discern
the charms with which his heart was smitten.
Foppery in dress was the natural result of this
overweening desire to please, and gallants,
we learn, endeavoured to make themselves irresis-
tible by the newest cut of a French suit, or an
enormous periwig. Trifling and silly as all this may
be considered, the same phrases cannot be extended
to other things. The language used at Court was of
the most coarse and offensive character. Thus, on
one occasion, Charles, on quarreling with Lady
Castlemaine, called her a jade, she in return calling
him a fool; while the first English phrase which the
Queen learned, and afterwards applied to her
husband, was " You lie !" Sanctioned and encou-
raged by Royal example, it is not to be wondered at
that the upper and lower classes fell into the most
immoral practices. Swearing, which during the
Commonwealth had been punished by a fine—this
and profligate conversation were so prevalent under
Charles the Second, that a man of family was
accounted no gentleman, nor person of any honour,
who had not, in two hours' sitting, invented some
new oath, or made lampoons on the sacred Scriptures
themselves ! (3). Gaming—the terrible vice of every
age—became, in the absence of nobler excitements, a
fashionable phrenzy. The Zero of gambling heat
was certainly displayed at this period, when as we
are informed, the Duke of Saint Albans, who,
although more than eighty years of age, and com-
pletely blind, used to frequent the gaming-table,
having a man beside him to tell him the name of
each card !

' A spirit of licentiousness is generally combined
with cruelty and recklessness of life ; and the rage
' for duelling during the reign I am now reviewing
had increased beyond all former precedent, so that
fatal encounters were of daily occurrence. One
atrocious instance which is handed down to us was
in a duel fought between the Duke of Buckingham
and the Earl of Shrewsbury. The Duke, after
having wronged the Earl, we are told, in the
"nicest point," encountered and slew his antogonist,
the Countess standing by the while, in the disguise
of a page, and holding the horse of her paramour ;
after whose victory, she welcomed with open hands
the blood-stained murderer of her husband.

the privilege of further publica

!o himself

Lion or translation.]

(3.) Thus exclaims one of the characters in Dryden's
" Wild Gallant" " He swears at the rate of £2,000 a-year,
if the rump act were stil'

1 in being."

--0--

DR. THOMSON AND THE POOR-LAW BOARD

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES,

SIR,—As the letter from the Poor-law Board, read at the
meeting of the West Derby Board of Guardians, on Wed-
nesday last, relative to an informality in my appointment
as medical officer of Garston, may seriously prejudice my
position, I beg to state that I am a legally qualified and
registered doctor of medicine, a Member of the Royal

Collez

>fSurei

service of twenty

of the fey

ns, and a medical officer in her Majesty's

'-three years standing, as well as being one

:ed by the Admiralty and the Presidents of

1 Surgeons of London as a

.ecipient of the Diane distinction, for being one of " the

heal officers who have particularly distinguished thorn-
.os in the- exercise of their profession." Such, however,

s the order of the P

A, in their regulation of

nedical qualifications, that scarcely any leading consulting
Ihysieian, or surgeon, of London or Edinburgh, would be

bible fora Poor-:

For several years past, I have had a great portion of the
work among the poor of the district, gratuitously, and with
3onstant demands on my time and pocket ; and when I was

nted by the West Derby board, I accepted it, because
s entitled to the emolument as well as

considered I v

the trouble. --I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Thos. It. HEYWOOD THOMSON
Beechwood-road, Aigburth, May 20th, 1859.

HOW TO PREITE

WAR

Put the Royal R

How TO 'SETTLE THE DISPUTE-
Let them do as Norman William proposed to Harold before the

battle of listiAgs

GOOD MEDICINE!
C HEA P COFFINS!!

YELLOW BUTTER!!!
A very worthy old Lady has written to the Butterman—prot
against "the mixture as ((bore," which has lately appearec

the papers

Butter and you will not require either of

the oth

A DVICI

articles,

BULL

TO di OH"'