The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-04-29 00:00:00

AMERICJN PdPERS.

J► Mc of Cl:ar!eston Pap•rs to the 30th Mardi arrived
'esterd►y, from %dd. It we make the following extracts:—
" Float HAVANNAM—Our files of Havarti:di Papers are to the
loth instant ineit,Ajvc. By the schooner Sally, a Niter received in
this city says. th-• i.ew date of two per cent. ao all provisions has
just been itopo,eti. Two British °flier's arrived at Havanrah on
the itth instant. i't his Majesty's std Kangaroo, with despatches
trait Jamaica, which have oat

LITRACT OF A LETTER raom POIINAV-PIII4CE, FED. 17.
•• There is a rancour here that the French Ooversiment is about
W WNIC a decree, by which the produce of the country will hence-
forth be considered as fo•risn productions, and pay foreign duties,
thee in French loatoms."

- -
(Fool!, the Cosner of the 23d 111areh.]
We have now b tore us a file of l/fficial Gazettea of the 'Ntrt-
mert of the Istiiiini• of Panama, to the 18th of January. We do
not perceive anything new in these repels. We learn by these
papers that the tihvernment of Colombia have, by a formal decree,
granted to Runde vad Bridge, the famous Landon jewellers, the
monopoly of the pearl fishery, to be carried on with machines on
Xll the coast betweeo Cope Cariente% and the South Sea; the con-
afelreatiosi of the ColihnOian Government is, that they are to re-
ceive one-fifth part of the produce of the fishery.
Funis 31£ • o.—A letter from Jalapa, February 11. expressesan
that an arrangement will be concluded with the
•liritish Commissioners, by which British goods will be admitted
-svaly by vessels of that nation.

PARIS.

11110111 OUR COIIatSrONDENT.I

PARIS, Aram 24.
Motsrsiuxe, whose Essays will live as long as good
humour and the love of gossiping exists in the world, ex-
tresses his great admiration of Cr ICCIARDINI, the cele-
bested historian of Italy, but is surprised that lie in no one
instate attributes any single act to ■ virtuous motive.
Montaigne was a Frenchman born, and his surprise at this
ess only be accounted fix from his having lived in the six-1
teen's century : he would have done full justice to the
philosophic estirttak of this historian had he lived in the'
present day. Guieeiartlini was a statesman and a minister,
and moved, for the greater part of hia life, in the atmo-
sphere of a court. Iles history is a detail, and an admirable
one, of the intrigues of seders and the revolutions of
states; he understood well the character of the principal
agents, he saw the springs which moved the whole political '
machinery ; and that he thoroughly understood it is proved
by the very circumstance which excites the wonder of
honest Michel de Montaigne—that he ascribes not a single
act to a virtnous motive. With the same well-warranted
scepticism as to the genuine integrity of the principal eleven,
would the same historian, had he lived in this age, have de-
veloped the sinister system of public education, which afreets,
with such extensive charity, to enlighten the rising genera-
tion. He would have considered all this outward parade
cf zeal for the interest of science, as disguising the project
of a despotic goreniment and an ambitious priesthood, to
mould the yeuthl•ul mind of the nation to its purposes; and,
while it was vet clay in the hands of the potter, to give itl
the ahrpe and direction hest fitted to tl-eir future designs.
Dtpend upon it, none of the Covernments on the Conti-
nent wish the people to improve their minds: the progress
of knowledge is the downfall of despotism ; superstition
cannot bear up against it. Church and Slate, therefore—
for the Church always takes precedency—can never sin-
e. rey wish the multitude to he enlightened. Whatever they
cretend in this way, we may be sure there is some siniver
scheire behind ; and in preportion to their zeal we are jus-
tified in -uspccting their honesty. It was the influence of
Force over the Turkish Cabinet, that, about fifteen years
since, supresatel the region! established at Heestonesa for
the Greeks ; and the French themselves, after all their en-
nouraging promises to tb_• Portuguese, fulfilled them by
suppressing all the seminaries of learning in Portugal, anti
turning adrift both m:.ters and scholars. So much for the
present rage for meti,•nn! edurgfion.

• In consequence of the painting by Rust xi, in the grand
Gallery of the Louvre. having been spoiled by some intu•
rimed Goth, who pretended thus to take revenge on the
French Governot.nt, for the loss which it had occasioned
him of 20,000 francs, both the Louvre and the Luxem-
bourg have been entirely shut up. The same vindictive
individual, it is reported, has since sent a threatening let.!
ter, intimating his determination to destroy the animals in
the Menagerie at the .b:rdia de Mantes. Rithens's picture
was destroyed by means of vitriolic acid ; it was form-
timely one of no great value. The report is, that 0-ese
magnificent galleries will not be again opened, as before,
fcr public admission. There are aome—fer this is an age
ref scepticism--who disbelieve the story of this Zoego, and
the twenty thousand francs; they suspect the whole to be'
an affair of connivance; and that this destruction of one
of Rubella's paintings was the result of a preconcerted plan,
the object of which was to afforii a pretext for refusing
admission in future to plebeians to those galleries, which
have accordingly been closed upon the public.
Yes:llday the weather was remarkably fine, and from
three till five in the afternoon the gardens of the Tuileries
and Luxembourg, and the Champs Elysees, were thronged
with fashicrt able pedestrians; while shoals of " men of ho-
noor and of cavaliers," together with a thick sprinkling of
the hart moms, bent their course towards the Bois de
Boulogne. In the evening the Great Nation seemed all in
a huz. The Boulevards, particularly des Italieas, were
studded with beauty and fashion. The garden:. of the
Car Ti-,e of which I formerly gave you a description,
which are fitted up at an enormous expense, and in style of
oriental splendor, were crowded to suffocation : upwatds of
thirty waiters were in attendance, and although they
skippe I to every call with all the litrlequin agility of
their et:rotary, a thousand invocations were unanswered,
and a thousand wants left unsatisfied, so great was
the concourse which curiosity assembled in the newly-
ea:enecl establishment. The Boideevieo's Jag 7'emple re-
mbleel a fair; fifty or sixty tables of chance, covered
with macaroons and bon-bons, together with every plebeian
ele:ieirey, down to tl•c honest but homely pile of ginger-
bread nuts, were ranged along the road-side. All the coffee- I
house; were superbly illuminated, and scarcely a seat
vacant ; thousands were making their way to the theatres—
in short, the whole scans could only be compared, for acti-
vity, to a disturbed ant's nest. You will perhaps wonder at
the cause of all this splendid bustle and contusion. It wit
SUNDAY Et'ENING ! at which time the Parisians have the
appearance of the people in the land of' Shinah, described
in the history of the tower of Ilattel, who, for their pre-
sumption. were scattered abroad upon the face of all the
earth. All thin slue:a the sober eye of an Englishman for
a time ; but by habit he gradually becomes accustomed to
ft. PALEY says--" Man is a bundle of habits," and I
perfixtly agree with the Archdeacon.

At the Catholic Association on Saturday, Mr. Clinch
gave notice of a motion for a Petition to Parliament—that
in every case of trial for murder or assault, arising from
part• quarrels or riots, the Jury should be competed
equally of Protestants and Catholics; and that every
Juryman should make oath that he was not, or ever had
tr:en, either an Orangeman or a Ribbonman, and that he
did not belong to any secret political society. iVe are cer-
tainly not in general inclined to approve of the measures
edopted at the meeting in Capel-street, but we think there
is something very fair and unexceptionlble in the object
of Mr. Clinch's Petition. We are almost hopeless that the
peace of the country will ever be restored, until the people
generally are led to have a proper confidence in the ad-
minirtration of the laws, and the decision of Juries; until
this be erected, we moat expect to find them occasionally
taking the law in their own hands; and the coas:•gnence
of suds legislation ri et arm is, need cwt be commented on.
—lrish Times.

A SINGCLAA CKlltaCTsll.—Yelteribly, about 2 o'clock,
an inquest was hell before Thatnas Shelton, nt White
Cross-street prison, upon the body of David Thomas, a
man about 40 years of age, who came by his death by
bursting a btood-vessel on Mondsy last. It appeared the
deceased was a most execntrie character, having been for
upLards of three years and a-half confined in that "Man-
-6ao of Misery," for the sum of 171., although it had
been clearly ascertained he hail changed several ritsl. notes ;
during that period, such was this extraordinary man's pro-
pensity for avarice, that he not only deprived himself of the
common necessaries of life, but cautiously avoided giving ally
due by which his family might be known. lie could have
obtained his discharge repeatedly ; hat such was the fasci-
nating power" of his residence, that he preferred the sick
ward of that prison to open air. It further appeared, that
undfr the compulsory clause in the Insolvent Act, be
v:ould have been discharged (even contrary to his inclina-
tion) next term. After the examination of Dr. li'odd, who
had previously attended him, as well as other witnesses, the
Jury returned a verdict—Died !. Me riiitalion of God.