The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-11-08 00:00:00

OAKS.

88i ttoo 11 aogrit P t
Henryitvin
9 to 1 agat 31oses

12 to 1 agst Paras,,l (taken)
10 to I ag,t 110-peep
11l to 1 apt Elizabeth (take:.)
ST. Ll:6
7i to 1 agst Bedlamite I 10 to 1 agst Belzoni
8 to I sot Crusader I 25 to 1 agst Bsrefoat.
3.000 to 40 against Henry for the Oaks, and Crusader
Leger. 1,000 to 3 against naming the three winners (taker.).
A strong match was run yesterday for 100 sovereigns a-side,k.
tween Mr. Pierrepoint, a gentleman of independence at 111,:fieP
Berks. and Mr. Vest, whose pedestrian feats have been olt.n re:
corded. The match was to start at the nu mile-stone. near kral.
Mg, and make the best of their way to the park gates at lielgfts.
bridge. The wart took place before daylight. and Mr.
rook the forest road (the nearest) through Wokingliam. 11'nt,lse7
Park. Eglmen, &c. ; Mr. West went four miles tip the Bath tas..
and by the articles turned Twyford, took a course th:otrt:
the villages to Windsor, and from thence over Eghant race-coon,,
&c. Mr. Pierrepoint was four minutes ahead at Egllam, a• .15F.
West, who had superior speed, had his opponent in view v
Bedtont. Some sharp running took place over Hounslow
and Mr. West got ahead on the London side of Hamnzer•ntia;, sr
won by more than four minutes. Many bets were pending a:.,alz,t
the ground (35 miles) being performed in six hours. The it
did it in five hours and fifty-one minutes.
DEATH OF AN EXTRAORDINARY PONY.-otl the 2..,!!: U!!.
a pony, remarkable fur its diminutive size rand comparatively ens:
age, died in the possession of Consett Dryden, Esq., or I,aza Le,
near Stockton. It was only 40 inches in height, and had E.La
the age of 36 years--being a very rare instance of such exttzt):.
dinary longevity in so small an animal.

......
Sit Johi; Co'ne lost his favourite and much admired h 17:: r!
Tortoise. on Tuesday last, in a very extraordinary manna..
John had mounted him, as he thought, for a dashing run, and r
hounds:were challenging at Fence, when Tortoise gave a st:,!;:i
spring forward, dropped down, and expired. The worthy Itaro!st
was of course dismounted, but we are happy to ot,:lerNtlA
that he sustained no further injury than a few scratches trom so::
brambles.

TRADE OF RUSSIA.—As a proof of the increase
our export trade, it may be mentioned, that according to
the most recent accounts, the exportation of tallow this
year has been three million pools. The exportation ct
hemp, flax, timber, potashes, oil, copper, iron, &c., is like.
wise considerable, and the national manufactures are dame
improving. In the Baltic provinces the exportation of
corn is completely stagnant ; they begin to cultivate snore
flax, which meets with an advantageous market in Lag-
land or Portugal. The whole amount of exports from
Finland in Mt, was to the value of 5,723,311 rubles;
imports, 4,673,557. —SL Petersburg-1i Paper, Oct. 19.
CON arNaTs ox.—The combination mania has seized the
crews of the fishing boats at Gravesend, where all the vs:-
sels are fitted out, for the supply of the London marlst
with cod, salmon and lobsters from Scotland. There were
one hundred and sixty of these smacks at Gravesend the
other day, not one of which would proceed on their voyage,
until the owners consented to raise their wages.
EFFECTS or COMM Collibinatitillll of
workmen, and the consequent stagnation of business, hare
been particularly felt in the suburbs. Proprietors of house;
have much more difficulty in collecting their rents ; ass
have been considerable sufferers for come time back, frond
so many of their tenants going idle. The aprroachins
term is looked forward to with much dread by many hal!.
lords. Seine landlords have adopted the plan of collect:cis
their rents weekly, or monthly, as agreed upon ; and ontls
failure of payment the tenant instantly quits. There i;
another meritorious class who have severely suffireel by
the foolish conduct of the manufacturing population. The
teachers of the children of the poor classes have been very
ill paid, and their wages are very low. In Bridgeton, eon:-
Inising about eight thousand inhabitants, there arc eight
teachers. The school-wages of seven of these teaches; ie
3s. a quarter, and one 4s. It is evident that no teaches
can, at these wages, snake a decent livelihood, unless he
takes in more scholars than he can properly teach. lie
ought to be assisted with a salary, and be limited in the
number of his scholars. This is a subject worthy the mi•
sideration of parents.—Glasgow Chronicle.
IMPORTANT ISIEROCEMENT IN TALLOW CANDLES,—
Every one knows that innumerable attempts have been
made to refine tallow, so as to give It those desirable quali-
ties that render wax so an The great superiority of
wax consists in its melting point being considerably higher
than that of tallow, and hence the property of carrying a
much thinner wick, which does not require snuffing, eta:
bearing a brighter and more sprightly flame. After many
years of laborious study and experiments, Mr. Matthew
Grange, of Charlemont-street, has succeeded in purifying
tallow so perfectly, that his candles have been frequen:ly
substituted for wax, and havepassed for such at the partici
of people of distinction. They burn slowly and steadily.
the wicks are thin, the flame is of a lively colour, and ti:ey
show a considerable transparency towards the top. In thS
process of extreme purification of the tallow, Mr. Grans:
attained another object of great moment—the candles are
free from smell. He has, indeed, been so uncommonly suc-
cessful, that it seems to be almost impossible to make their.
approach nearer to wax.—Dahlia Freeman's J6urna:.
SWINDLING.—WC should be guilty. of a gross derelic-
tion of our duty, if we were to refrain from cautioning the
public against the practices of a nest of swindlers, who rse
busily endeavouring to extend their sphere of nefariess
action from the metropolis into every part of the country.
Their'Jaekall advertises from 19, George-street, Ade Iphi :
and offers " to gentlemen, tradesmen, and others, beans io
want of ready cash," &c. " a favourable opportunity.
They proffer to the needy and unprincipled " good n ere
eantile Bills of Exchange, which you may easily est slSe
counted at your bankers, or private money friens:s." st ary
slate, and at a certain per tentage! One of those
100/. was lately discounted at a bank in this ei:y. T, •
fellow who had purchased it, very naturally found st thee,-
sary to decamp pretty Shortly after he had realised es
cash ; but the character of the paper which he had nee, •
tiated, having been discovered in good time, he was les-
sued, and sol. of the money recovered from his pm ss •
We are in possession of one of the " &cedars" of "

L. P. G." and will give a more ample exposure of tilt
tem, of which he is an instrument, i❑ our next; mentiti.A.
we trust, that we have said enough to put " bankers- at .1
" private mono• friends" upon their guard ; if not to dd.!
persons in the most desperate circumstances ftcm re(
delusive and infamous relict' through the agency of a set
miscreants, who care not how they prey upon Aistro.s.
destroy confidence betwixt man and man.-11e; ./:rd •
pendent.

One of the Gloucester-place gang of swindlers wrs
last week at the Maidstone Sessions, and sentenced tii ikrci
months' imprisonment for various frauds committed in twit
town.—Morning Parer.
An American paper gives an account of a serpent Irra!:
been killed near Natchis which had two heads alia
tails. It is eight inches long. In other respects its ptr-
portiwn and colour are similar to those of other serFenii
Each of its heads is attached to a separate neck, aril arc
perfectly alike, as are the two tails. If the story is cell, r:.
it is to be regretted that the description was not given by
naturalist, who would have given more precise details Ma,:
those we have qucted from the Ni;;;on,../
Paprr.

i,

LITERARY GLEANINGS.

No. IXI.

ROBERT BURNS.

Robert Burns was born near the town of Avr, within a
bundled yards of " Alloa's auhl haunted Kirk," in a
c, cottage, which his father, who was a small farmer
sinl gardener, had built with his own hands. A part of
Ibis humble edifice gave way when the poet was but a
"dsas old ; and his mother and he were carries!, at
tuidnielit, through the storm, to a neighbour's house that
1"v, shelter. After having received some lessons, in
his childhood, from the schoolmaster of the village of Al-
! )3, be at seven years of age, put under a teacher of
tb, pan:: of Murdoch. who instructed him in reading and
listab,b grammar. This good man, who is ~till alive,
sad a teacher of languages in London, boasts, with a very
tlonral triumph, of having accurately instructed Burns
i„ the Ent principles of composition. At such an age,
Burns's study of principles could not be very profound ;
yet it it thle to Lib early instructor to observe, that his
prose style is more accurate than we should expect even
from the vigour of an untutored mind, and such as would
Ind us to suppose that he had been early ir.itiated in the
rules ofgramtnar. His father'sremoval to another farm in
oshire, at Mount Oliphant, unfortunately deprived him of
the benefit of Alureloch as an instructor, after he had been
about g years under his care ; and for a long time he received
I:pother:emus than those which his father gave him in writ-
eu: ar..l arithmetic, when he instructed his family by the
er:side of their cottage in winter evenings. About the
of thirteen he was sent, during a part of the summer,
to the parish school in Dalrymple, in order to improve
Li: hand-writing. In the following year he had an oppor- '
taints of passing several weeks with his old friend Mur-
doch, with whose assistance he began to study French with
intense ardour and assiduity.
At the age of nineteen he received a few manths' in-
struction in laad-surveyiug. Such is the scanty history
of his education, which is interesting simply because its
opportunities were so few and precarious, and such as
only a gifted mind could have turned to any account.
tifhisearly reading he tells us, that a' life of Hanni-
bal, which Murdoch gave him when a boy, raised the
first stirrings of his enthusiasm ; and he adds, with his
can (for std expression, " that the life of Sir William
Wallace poured:a tide of Scottish prejudices into his veins,
which would boil along there till the floodgates of life were
shut in eternal rest." In his sixteenth year lie had read
sane of the plays of Shaltspeare, the works of Pope and
Addison, and of the Scottish poets Ramsay and Ferguson.
From the volumes of Locke, Ray, Derham, and Stackhouse,
lie also imbibed a smattering of natural history and theo-
fez.. ; but his brother assures us, that until the time of his
bii'az known as an author, he contiuued to he but imper-
fectly acquainted with the most eminent of our English
writers. Thanks to the songs and superstition of his na-
tive country, his genius bad some fostering aliments, which
perhaps the study of classical authors might have fed him
to neglect. His inspiration grew up like the flower, which
ores to heaven, in a barren soil, a natural beauty and wild-
ness of fragrance that would be spoilt by artificial culture.
ile learned an infinite number of old ballads, from hearing
his mother sing them at her wheel; and he was instructed
in all the venerable heraldry of devils and witches by an
ancient woman in the neighbourhood, " the Sybilline nurse
fkii muse," who probably first imparted to him the story
el Tam o' Shanter. " Song was his favourite and first pur-
suit.- " The song-book," he says, " was my vade mecum :
I pared over it constantly, driving my cart, or walking to
hbour." It would be pleasing to dwell on this era of his
youthful sensibility, if his life had been happy ; but it was
tar otherwise. lie was the eldeat of a family, buffeted by
misfortunes, toiling beyond their strength, and living
eithaut the support of animal food. At thirteen years of
age be used to thrash in his father's barn ; arid, at fifteen,
was the principal labourer on the farm. After the toils of
the day, he usually sunk in the evening into dejection of
spirits, and was afflicted with dull headachs, the joint result
of anxiety, low diet, and fatigue. " This kind of life," (he
says) " the cheerless gloom of a hermit, and the toil of a gal-
ley-slave, brought me to my sixteenth year, when love ionic
meal:art." The object of his first attachment was al' ighland
prh. named Many Cam Pll xii., who was his fellow-reaper in
tie nme harvest-field. She died very young; and when
Burns heard of her death, he was thrown into an ecstacy
of raffering much beyond what even his keen temperament
iris accustomed to feel. Nor does lie seem ever to have
fort:etten her. His verses "To MARY in Heaven ;" his
inneation to the star that rose on the anniversary of her
death ; his description of the landscape that was the scene
of their day of have and parting vows, " where flowers
sprang wanton to be premed ; the whole luxury and exqui-
sttl passion of that strain, evince that her image had sua-
sive;! many important changes in himself.
From his seventeenth to his twenty-fourth year lie lived,
as an assistant to his father, on another farm in Ayr-
s:iire, at Lochlca, to which they had removed from Mount
traphant. By this time Beaess had formed his connexion
With JANE Amnon', who was afterwards his wife, a eon-
netion which could no longer be concealed, at the moment
When the ruinous state of his affairs had determined him
th cross the Atlantic, and to seek his fortune in Jamaica.
lie hash even engaged himself as sssistant overseer to a
Virdation. lie proposed, however, to legalize the pri-
vate of marriage which lie had made with .Jane;
though he anticipated the necessity of leaving her be-
liUld him, he trusted to better days for their being re-
wilted. But the parents of Jane were unwilling to dig-
Ps of her to a husband who was thus to be separated
from her, and persuaded her to renounce the informal
tonnage. Burns also agreal to dissolve the connexion,
though deeply wounded at the apparent willingness of
Lis mistress to give him up, and overwhelmed with feel-
.egs of the most distracting nature. He now prepared to
embark fcr Jamaica, where his first situation would, in
ail probability.have been that offs negro-driver, when, before
bidding a last adieu to hit native country, he happily
thought of publishing a collection of his poems. By this
publication he i.ained about WI., which seasonably saved
Man from intltuting himself as a servant, for want of mo-
ney to procure a passa7e. IVith nine guineas out of this
ma he had taken a steerage passage in the Clyde for Ja-
maica ; and to avoid the terrors of a "gaol, he had been
for some time skulking from covert to covert. lie had
tAlren a last leave of his friends, and bad composed the
which he thought lie should ever measure to Ca-
IL when the contents of a letter, from Dr. &se s-
i.c,cs of l'alinburgh, to one of his friends, describing
the
encouragement which an edition of his poems would
be likely to receive in the Scottish capital, suddenly lighted
up all his prospects, and detained him from embarking.
I immediately posted," be says, " to EDIFOURCII, with-
"! a tingle aciptaintance or letter of introduction. 'The
Latwful :itzr, which had so long shed its blasting influence
• once made a revolution to the nadir."
ll -7rivol in Edinburgh in 1786, and his reception there
o7t' like an aeeable change of fortune in romance,
." agreeable
event in ordinary life. His company was
nr,hsre sought for; and it was soon found, that the
nnriavn which iris' had excited was but a part of
iiiience of his mental fimul-
ind his warm and social heart
of prosperity—which, with
I a quick and versatile sym-
amen character—made him
refined anti convivial socie-
'he fashion and idol of his

iguished

when be was exhilarated, as by his own facility to lend
it. he pr.:bably deluded his own reflections, by imagining
that in every fresh excess he was acquiring a new
friend, or attaching one already acquired. But with all
the admiration and declarations of personal friendship
which were lavished on him, the only appointment that
could be obtained for him was that of an officer of
Excise. In the meantime he had acquired a relish for a
new and over-excited state of life. Ile had been ex-
pected to shine in every society ; and, to use his own
phrase, "had Leen too often obliged to give his company a
st;ec of his constitution."

In rite winter of 1793 his constitution, broken by cares,
irregularities, and passions, fell into a rapid decline. The
summer returned ; but only to shine on his sickness and
his grave. In July his mind wandered into delirium ;
in the same month, a fever, pn the fourth day of its conti-
nuance, closed his life and sufferings, in his thirty-eighth
_ _ _

Whatever were the faults of Benns, he lived unstained
by a mean or dishonest action. To have (lied without debt,
after supporting a family on 701. a year, bespeaks, after all,
but little of the spendthrift.
His death seemed to efface the recollection of his faults,
and of political differences, still harder to be forgotten. All
the respectable inhabitantsof Dumfries attended his funeral,
whilst the volunteers of the city, and two regiments of
native fencibles, attended with solemn music, and paid
'unitary honours at the grave of their illustrious countryman.
Burns has given an elixir of life to his native dialect.
The Scottish Tam o' Shouter will he read as long as any
English production of the same century. The impression
of his genius is deep and universal ; and, Viewing him
merely as a poet, there is scarcely any other regret con-
nected with his name, than that his productions, with all
their merit, fall short of the talent! which he possessed.
That he never attempted any great work of fiction or in-
vention, may be partly traced to the cast of his genius,
and partly to his circumstances and defective education.
His poetical temperament was that of fitful transports,
rather than steady inspiration. Whatever he might have
written was likely to have been fraught with passion.
There is always enough of interest in life to cherish the
feelings of a man of genius, but it requires knowledge to
enlarge and enrich his imagination. Of that knowledge
which unions the diversities of human manners, adven-
tures, and characters, to a poet's study, he could have no
great share, although he stamped the little treasure which
he possessed in the mintage of sovereign genius. It has
been asserted that he received all the education which is
requisite for a poet: he had learned reading, writing,
and arithmetic ; and he had dipped into French
' and geometry. To a poet it must be owned the three
last of those acquisitions were quite superfluous. His
education, it is also affirmed, was equal to Shakspeare's;
but, without intending to make any comparison between
the genius of the two bards, it should be recollected that ,
Shakspeare lived in an age within the verge of chivalry, an
age overflowing with chivalrous and romantic reading;
that he was led by his vocation to have daily recourse to
that kind of reading ; that he dwelt on the spot which
gave him constant access to it, and teas in habitual inter-
course with men of genius. Burns, after growing up to
manhood under toils which exhausted his physical frame,
acquired a scanty knowledge of modern books, of books
tending for the most part to regulate the judgment more than
to exercise the fancy. In the whole tract of his reading,
there seems to be little that could cherish his inventive
faculties. One material of poetry he certainly possessed,
independent of books, in the legendary superstitions of his
native country.
He meets us, in his composition, ttndisguisedly as a
peasant. At the same time, his observations go extensively
Into life, like those of a man who felt the proper dignity
of human nature in the character of a peasant.
He is the enemy of that selfish and niggardly spirit which
shelters itself under the name of prudence; but that
pharisaical disposition has seldom been a favourite with
poets. Nor should his maxims, which inculcate charity
and candour in judging of human frailties, be interpreted
u a serious defence of them, as when he says,
" Then gently scan your brother man,
Still trendier sister woman,
Though they may gang a kennan wrong ;
To step aside is human.
Who made the heart, 'tis he alone
Decidedly can try us;
Ile knows each chord, its rations tone,
Each spring its various bias."
It is still more surprising that a critic capable of so
eloquently developing the traits of Be exs's genius, should
have found fault with his amatory strains for want of
polish, and "of that chivalrous tone of gallantry which
uniformly abases itself in the presence of the object of its
devotion." Every reader must tent abundance of thoughts
in his love songs, to which any attempt to superadd a tone
of gallantry would not be
" To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
" Ur throw a perfume o'er the violet,"
but to debase the metal, and to take the odour and colour
from the flower. It is exactly this superiority to "abase-
ment" and polish which is the charm that distinguishes
Burns from the herd of erotic songsters, from the days of
the Troubadours to the present time. He wrote from im-
pulses more sincere than the spirit of chivalry ; and even
Lord litirrey and Sir I'hilip Sidney are cold and unin-
teresting lovers in comparison with the rustic Bunts.
The praises of his best pieces I have abstained from
re-echoing, as there is no epithet of admiration which they
deserve which has not been bestowed upon them. One
point must be conceded to the strictures on his poetry, to
which I have already alluded, that his personal satire was
tierce and acrimonious. I am not, however, disposed to
consider his attacks on RemBLE JOHN and Ilocv WILLI s:
as destitute of wit; and his poem on the clerical settle-
ments at Kilmarnock blends a good deal of ingenious
metaphor with his accustomed humour. Even viewing
him as a satirist, the last and humblest light in which be
can be regarded as a poet, it may still be said of him,
'• Ills style was witty, though it had some gall;
Something he might have mended—so may all."
From Cumphelrs Specimen:. of British Poets.

Ax IMMENSE KOKAN.—ME. I'EAZER, in his Anrrattve
ofaJourney intolfhorasan, lately published, mentions that at
CocHox "there are still preserved, though in a very care-
lest manner, some leaves that belonged to a koran of the
most magnificent dimensions, perhaps, of any in the world,
the history of which is not less interesting than its size is
extraordinary. It was written by lot SA N GllOlt NIFEREA,
the son of Shah Rokh, and grandson of the great Timoor,
and laid by him upon the grave of that mighty conqueror
at Samarkand, from whence it was most sacrilegiously taken
by the soldiery of Mahommed Khan, grandfather of the
present Eelkkaneh, who accompanied Nadir Shalt in his
expedition to Toorkistan ; the soldiers broke it up, and
each took what leaves he chose rearm u tebeturof his
triumph, back to his own country. Merit COONAH KII AN,
the son, collected about sixty of them, and placed them in
this imaumzadeh, where they lie upon a shelf quite ne-
glected and covered with dust. These leaves are formed of
thick wire-wove paper, evidently made for the purpose,
and, when opened out, measure from ten to twelve feet lung,
by seven or eight broad; the letters are beautifully formed,
as if they had been each made by a single stroke of a gigantic
pen. The nooktas, or vowel points, as well as the marginal
and other ornaments, are emblazoned in azure and gold;
but few of the leaves are perfect, havingbcen mutilated for
the sake of the ornaments, or the blank paper of the im-
mense margin."
NF:W MODE OE GROWING POTATOES.—Mr. Walker,
of Fermoy, has successfully practised a new and extraor-
dinary mode of cultivating this rout. It is well known to
farmers that potatoes in pits—the general mode of keeping
them in this country till they are wanted for nse—throw
out a great number of shoots in the spring. From some
of these shoots, in the beginning of lust Aptil, Mr.
Walker cut as many knots or joints as they afforded, and
planted them in drills in his garden, as if they were cut-
tings of the potato itself, or skillanes, as they are provin-
cially termed. The stalks from these joints appeared in
due time, were of uncommon size and luxuriance, and
preserved their verdure to a late period of the season. The
crop was dug out a few days since, and was very produc-
tive. This was the second experiment of the kind which
Mr. Walker had tried, and lac is so well satisfied with their
result, that he intends to cultivate an acre in the same
manner next year ; to the whole process of which he will
invite the attention of the neighbouring farmers u pub-
licly as possible.—Cark Southern Reporter.

THE BRITISH PRESS.

LTVERPOOL, SuNrity, Nov. 6.

Wind W. blowing hard.—High Water, 42 or. p. 7. P.M.
Arrived the Clyde, Thompson, from Palermo and lirombro.
Sailed yesterda, the Cortes, Da Coate, for New York; and the
Sisters, tryout, for Africa.

kfutionn. Nov. 3.
It has blown a heavy gale of wind from IV.N.W. all this morn-
ing, which caused most of the vessels in the road to drift. The
brig Jo:1n Guise, 111`..Yee, from Newport for Cork. with coals,
stint in Htibberstote Pill, where she still remains until the gale
abates. when she will be got on shore to repair. The Lady Ilan.
nnh, Ellis. front Alessrdria, with cotton, for Liverpool, Intvirg
carried away her bowsprit, and other damage, quitted the quaran-
tine station and run to Neyland for shelter ; and it is feared a good
deal of damage Les occurred among the quarantine ships. The
Hope (ship) from Alexandria- for Liverpool. with cotton. and
brig, name unkrown, have signals fur ii pilot flying, and the Wa.
talon pilot boat has gone off to their assistance.

;i:liiitcratatons
duwebt iochthledsgbut a part of
general eminence of washis mental Rim!-
' Is. His tivtund eloquence, and his warm and sccial heart
%.iiinding under the influence of prosperity—which, with
311 the priile of genius, retained a quick and versatile gym-
nith Every variety of human character—made him
Equally fascinating in the most refined and convivial socie-
I''r• for a while he reigned the fashion and idol of his
' t!ite ca;iital.
Afur he had been caressed and distinguished so much
• Eilinbingli, it was natural to anticipate that among the
individuals of public influence and respectability,
had Countenanced his genius, some means might have
iiev.,e.l to secure to him a competent livelihood in
4 Proper station of society. It was probably with this hope
to his mind that he returned to Edinburgh after his sum-
'rr a xcumi,m ; and, unfortunately for his habits, spent the
winter of 1784 in accepting a round of convivial invita-
?",:Pi The hospitality of the North was not then what it now
Refinement had not yet banished to the tavern the
:'stom or bumper-toasts, and of pressing the bottle; and
utast is of the house was not thought very hospitable
Ut less the majority of his male guests, at a regular party,
re at least half intoxicated. Burns was invited and im-
i"timed to those scenes of dissipation ; and beset at
'`1"1 as much by the desire of others to enjoy his society
• " The gloomy night is gathering fast."
_