The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-05-03 00:00:00

DIOMAPHY-JAWSI

Ma. EDITOR.

In the midst of this politic +1 gloom, will you
find room for a few suidures coon a dubious cha-
rader, in great request 130 ea s AF,CO They may
throw, from distant rztrospCd, cans chest log light
upon our present troublous prospeds.
The charades of James ilarington, the writer of
Oceenal has of late been confusedly brought iota
discussion. The question arose tram a note affixed
to some lines of a poem, just published ; a passage
from the Orionis is there quoted with some applause.
It was remarked, that a quotation =censured from
such a work, involved the post in the guilt of conn-
tenancing the dangerods tenets of the fadiotts poli-
tician, though nut a tittle 'of the mistaken tenets
bore any relation to the cited aphorism.
The turbulent-Republic, overturned by the military
despotism of Cromwell, had set the patriotic speen-
latist upon forming his fine-spun system of a puled
commonwealth. He framed it not with that sim-
plicity and logical precision, which. he is said to
affect. What his principles really were,' he shall
answer plainly for by and bye. In the mean
• time, give an old examiner leave to preniise what
they certainly were not. They were not compatible
with a Government by military despotism—they
were not rank Republicanism, the abettor of con-
fusion and anarchy. Not a more det.rmined foe to
both could be named than Haringtnn, though at
times purposely involved in obscurity and apparent
contrarieties;. his system discoveis itself- to be not
inimical to the legitimate legal constitution of this
kti ifd*ln • • •
With respell to the exceptionable tenets of the.
Oesema, and the imputed purport of the annotation
in question, it. will be proved that the carping cline
was not acquainted with either. To the Bth page
•of ,the" Plea for a private indulgcn:c of Giief,' ate
subjoined the lines,

" Views nations in a I
.I,i/terse jailed,
" Tae recreant foe. of Comonl to confound—.
" Sworn, a disarm :4 crusade t` ensbraze mankind,
" B Eirav'n in amity Ferp:tuat bound."

" Not a hollow truce, preliminary to a fraudu-
lent treaty of peace, a preparation merely for hos-
tilities, to be renewed with redoubled strength and
fury. An opposite spirit of sincere philanthropy
ruled the councils of two excellent Sovereigns :
Henry the Great, of France, in concert with our
incomparable Elizabeth, of England. Truly be-
neficent, upon the whole, was the purport of their
corn hensive plan for the maintenance of a gene-
ral Plicific League. It was confessedly not unex-
ceptionable in all its parts. It admitted some im-
perfeetions incident to humanity ; this most de-
plorable one in particular. It would have enforced
the perpetuity of acknowledged and sorely-felt
abuses in the old establishments. It has been twice
new modelled, and applied to very diff;:rent jonc-
tares ; first by the humane Abbe St. Pierre, in his
"P-aitt d'uae Pair Perpetuellr," styled by Mon-
tesquieu, " Lee Itereria d'un lionne'r *mile ;" and
lately, in 1774, by the Cosmopolitan editor of a
memorial addressed to all the Sovereigns of Europe.
The &leas that made them all miscarry have been
1 .ng conspicuous, and the consequences of their
miscarriage most Oeeply felt. May it please Heaven
to raise up amongst us a ruling spirit, equally up-
right and benign; but more persuasive and conci-
liatory. May h endow him with abilities maturely
to form this blessed scheme, no lentier deemed
chimerical, when infinite power and wisdom shall
approve, and Divine mercy shall secure it from fu-
ture violation. One main poira, the highly fa-
voured mortal ordained to ht-come the general
peacemaker, we trust, will keep in view. Let
it be permitted here to Loll it forth to him, in an
excellent a of the profound J. Ihuington."
p. 520, la edition, 17:17.
From this aphorism, of pregnant import, well
applied, let me direct your reader to recur to his
fundamental axioms, first set down at p. $l5, and
meant to be constantly kept in view. "The errors
and,sufferings of the people are from t-eir Sove-
reigns." Understand that he acknowled?,ed no So-
vereigns, but the representatives of the constituent
whole community. Thus alone he deems them
dilly invested with supreme authority. He pro-
ceeds auspiciously to estaldish this principal point.
" The Regal Constitution of our country is a Go-
vernment by laws, not by anus," by laws imperfedi
indeed, and liable to abuse; but worki.ig peaceably
their own rt form, with.-mt blood or viokoce, and
cormolling alike all the orders of the state, from the
lowest subjeft to the Sovereign himself. Having
whitened the atrocities of the ruin of a legal ?do-
natehital form, by a turbulent misshapen Republican
one, and the overshrow of the latter by the military
tyranny of a stern Usurper ; to both I.e reledtantly
submitted. What he chiefly deprecated was the es-
trendy abjeft state of a Government raised by a ms,
ores the ruins of one by laws. " The people, having
onee felt the difference," he adds, "will eagerly em-
brace the one, and abhor the other."

Ware he living now, what would be his feelings
in ix:holding the wretched and stunning depression
under, which all ranks, or rather chaotic masses,
in France, are at this day batcly crushed beneath
a more unprincipled and lawless cermet The
more entightt•ricd and mature. judgment of the
viit Kirington would rite with a keener
indt.!nation than onr brawling mock-patriots at the
slavish nations, crouching at the feet of the trampler
upon all the rights sod securities of the dearest in-
terests, the lives and pmperties of men. With
equal disdain would he look down upon the per-
llietoll4 reptiles now stiled our Zo.glish *head's,.
[This . odious French cant term, by the bye, the
stupid abuse of sycoph Ines, Ist as discard altoge-
ther, or appropriate it to the mere Anarchist, the
desperate foe to all legal Government.] Wa.h
humbled pride he would doer- many a core-etion
obviously now descried as requisite en his visionary
perfea Commonvera!th. He severely hboored,
honest man, to reader it intelligible to hiisself, a
familiar case, sioere learning over-fed takes sot
time to dltgeot intro Pent id motley meat HOW would
he, upon better re:le:Aeon, acknowledge it to be now
approaching mucs nearur to ocrftaie,e, than he had

ever dreamt it? How would he rejoice to see dies.,
three kingdomaappily made one I Britain l—Be it
thus invariably named in future r north, south, eas-.
west, occasionally. How cordially would he hail
our sole permanent enjoyment of Civil Liberty,
under.the mild Sovereignty of one beneficent guar-
dian, of our peaceably improved and efficacious
laws? With a discovery almost new to himself, of
the wisest of his alwayswell•intended maxims, how
would he felicitate the gradually settled organisation
of those equal rights, for which he vehemently, but
too indiscriminately contended, throughout ;141 the
day subordpute rapt of our happy and beloved

country ? .1011 N DuNcAN.
Seymour-street. Bath. April 16. 180/.

BOMBAY GAZt -ALI4..UST 24, 1903,

A letter from Madeira gives the following account
Of the explosion of the 4lnt f,rn. Portuguese frigate.
on the sth of September, at half past isselve A. M.
" She had about forty casks of powder on board. I
was at the mciact.t sitting at my door with my
friends, the ship iri full view, only 500 yards off.—
Anxious to render every assistance in my power to
the sufferers, I immediately ran down to the beach,
procured a boat, and obtaining three men and two
boys, put off towards the wreck, which by this time
was enveloped in- flames. Mine was the second boat
that arrived. On inquiry, I found only two poor
fellows had escaped out of thirty-four souls on
board. They were lotted on board, and immedi-
ately taken by one of its boats on board an English
frigate. The quarter-deck, with the mizen and
main masts, were (down into the air, and the ship
fairly split in two; the ballast and guns, most of
which were stowed in the hold, went to the bottom.
The ship, by this means, was thrown on her side ;
the fire increasing, it became necessary to row the
wreck clear of the shippiug. Oi.e of the English
frigate's boats fastened a tow-line to the foremast.
We were soon joined by the boats of the other ves-
sels its the harbour, with one or ;wo ftorn the shore.
My situation was tolerably hot, as you may sup-
pose. The night, very fcrtuttately, was pert-et-ay
calm, so that not the I.t.tst injury happened to any
other vessel h the harbour. The scene, during the
night, was awful; but that which presented itself at
day-light was truly horrid. The poor wretches were
lying •in every position on board the wreck, some
with half their skulls blown off, some without a leg,
and others without arms ; several of them were afto-
ally roasting in the flames. Eighteen of their bodies
only were found. About six L got home, much fa-
tigued and distressed both in body and mind. Va-
rious opinions are circulated respefting this disaster.
The most prevalent is, that the aft was designedly
perpetrated by a desperate villainous sailor, one of
the crew, who had swore vengeance againa the
Captain, for having confined him a few days before
for malpraaices. lie belonged to Lisbon, where he
had been immured in the condemned hole for mur-
der. He was heard to declare that the ship should
never depart from this port, and the wretch was
sufficiently desperate to sacrifice his own life with his
shipmates, for mrnives of private resentment. The
ship and cargo were estimated at titt,oool. sterling."

EXTRACT OF A LETTLR FROM AN CISF:Cr.I
sukrav, DATED AT DUCK ENRIRA, Ni:AN AV.
RIINOAFAT•NI, JACCWIT 11, 1803.

" I had fixed the Theodolite, and was raking an
observation on the high hill, seen N.W. from Se-
rinimpatam, and the few country people along with
me, were sitting some distance below me, on the
right, when a Royal Tyger, having come very
near to me on the left unperceived among the rocks,
watching his opportunity, had aanally commenced
his spring. when turning round at that instant, and
having nothing el.e at hand, 1 threw my hat in his
face, which being unexpeeted, startled him, by
which he aligh about three yards short of me,
on the stone on nlch I was standing, and seem-
ingly ashamed of his ill success, he gave a hideous
roar, and disappeared among the rocks; the people
on hearing.(altho' few of them saw him) became
almost petnned. I immediately armed, and fol-
lowed him a little way, but without success. I then,
after finishing my observation, took a loaded mus-
ket, with bayonet, and a brace of pistols, and
went down half way to the bottom of the hill, al-
most alone, as few of the people would venture with
me, and gave direflicms for them to make a noise at
top, and throw stones doWn among the crags how •
ever, this, through fear, they did very clumsily, and
without effee ; when I happening to throw a stone
into a bush immediately before sne, the savage ani-
mal came out with a dreadful howl, open-mouthed.
At that critical instant, I discharged the piece, and
with such fortunate effeft, that he fell on the spot;
on his first appearance, the few that had come down
with me, fled piecipitately, except a sepoy, and a
half-cast boy ; having no means of retreat, in the
situation I was in, in case of accident, and fearing
the effects of the blow might be only a stun, I in-
stantly rushed on the monster, and lodged the con-
tents of a brace of horse pistols in his oreast, which
I also vanspierced with the bayonet at the same:
time; this finished his struggles, and his skin is
now stuffed in my posses-ion, as a trophy. He
measured 10 feet 3 inches, from the point of his tail
to his nose; and his tusks were three inches long.
He was, I imagine, an old offender, as4the bones of
a hornan hand were found almost entire in his no-

mad."

The well-known Attachment of the domestic Ro-
bin to the abodes of society is seldom evinced to be
stronger than in an instance recently occurring at
EnfieW. A pane of glass having been broken in
the green-house of Mr. !tenon of that place, a
Robin entered every morning, teceived crumbs from
the hand, of the young ladies, and at last became
so tame that it fixed its abode there. In the course
of the last week, two other Robins, bold enough to
enter the broken pane, wore attacked by the first
feathered inhabitant of the green-house, who killed
them both. after a severe conflict ; and a third has
since entered, and shsstd.i the fate of the others. The
vidorions Robin, the resolute defender of his habita-
tion, is singularly tame, and hops to the fin of
his fair feeders, from any part of the g
when called.

PRINTS BY WCPILIETT, SIR ROBERT STBANcI.
BEAUVERLFT, &e.
By Mr RPCNARDSON,
At hi Mime No di, Strand, the Corner of rdlleesatrent,
MONDAY, May the tab, A Twelve o'Cleek, by Order er
the Adoiiiiedrators,
THE genuine Colle6lion or PRINTS by Me!.
let, Sir Remit Strauge,Pl-aureriet, Will., he. S-4
Impreasions and in hoe Pre, rvathan.Cailtaiti Balli•es
Senex's Atlas, and Peakdius, of Mr. SUWON, late ...:
Winchireer, ilseess.d.
To be sewed an Satu,d3v, the Mb, and S.: a
C-dalogues use be ha.l rd Mr. Richaii.on,
awl Mr. Clarice, Bandied:ere Bond-ethet.