The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-03-25 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PRESS.

The father states that it is now about a twelvemonth vinee tha

OUTINIAN LECTURES.

boy first exhibited any sign of precocious talent, and that what first
called his attention to that circumstance was the pleasure with
which George informed him that he could " count a thousand,"
and shortly afterwards that he knew how to count a million.
lsed little -

We are persuader! that no apology can be necessary at this time,
either trom us, or tram the Society that undertakes the lectures, fur
giving publicity to an extract from them, which may be considered
nation of lett decide • , a point in science, in

At about five years of age he was w.— to exerute little pecuniary an inaitan . Mitten _ .etters to i. .‘ic upon
commissions for his mother, at a chandler's shop in the neighbour- order to increase the stock of human information.
hood, and whilst it never happened that the boy erred in the BATH, Fxs. 14. 113%.
amount reguirer for the purchase of a variety of articles of house- In this time of increasing festivities at this place, we have had
keeping, ft not Infrequently occurred that he would point out in- the Outinian lecturer, Mr. Richardson, who has given. at the Free-
accuracies in the maternal arithmetic on similar occasions. These mason's Hall, in Vork.street, for the first time, his lecture called
appear to be all the reminiscences of his parents, as to the dawn of i the " Key of Ifurke's Sublime and Beautiful," in a complete state;
that brilliant faculty, which, although yet in its infancy, surmounts and it seems to me at once to throw the necessary ligh: on that
impediments that thwart the arithmetical ambition of men of au- great man's system. The first part of the lecture states the disco.
lure years and hard-earned celebrity. very of the first edition of the " Sublime and Beautiful," try the
In person this chltd is rather diminutive, appareritly delicate In late librarian of the Royal Institution,- with a curious and impor.
his constitution, extremely restless in manner, docile in dispoi:ittin__, tam, though short, preface, which might have been lost had it not
and of a very interesting countenance. White "at work" he is for that gentleman's successful search of it, to present to the
always "at phy." running from one part of the room to another, ident of the Outinian Society. Some principal objections of
directing his immediate attention, now to the latch of a door, then to Burke, which chiefly render it curious, are there stated ; and in de.
the pattern of the carpet, and again to some other object of interest fence of them the lecturer observes—" 1 believe these objection,'
to all children of so tender an age. It may be well to observe that are far from having been convicted of futility by the metaphysical
he enjoys perfect t.ealth, possesses a wonderful elasticity of mind, writings on the same subject of the present century, but fully jail•
and requires considerably more sleep than most children of his tilled my here addressing you."
yearn. After a tninoteexamination, in the second part of the lecture, of
We understand the Phrenologists have duly investigated the or- the principles which it was the object to establish, it thus con.
ganic peculiarities of the child's pericranium, that a cast of the cludes--" On the whole, it appears to me that I have redeemed the
upper nart of the head has been taken by Mr. De Ville, and that pledge given is the first part of my lecture, of my intention of fully
the celebrated lie. Srurzheim has lectured on such proof of the In discussing the point there left unexplained ;so far succeeding, that
fallibility of his system to crowded and admiring audiences. I flatter myself that the penetrating metaphysician who hears me,
but has not given sufficient attention to this philosophy, to attempt
to arrange the sybilllne leaves from which it is to be made out in
that easily legible and intelligible order which it has been our en.
dearour to place them, may be persuaded, even through our success
in the adoption of that measure, that the trousle he has so relin-
quisliql to us was likely to be rewarded by its consequences. He
may acknowledge that, with this Key which we profess to bear,
commanding the egress of the blameless fugitive from the Gates
of Pain, opening in this enchanting work, into the awful glooms
of the Sublime, to conduct to the verdurous paradise of the Beau.
tifal, we have moved, but with no sinful spirit.
. The intricate wards ;'

THE SILE TRADE.—TheMarrehester Mercury, in reply
to the observations which have appeared in the London
Cowries aril Morning Herold, and the Macclesfield and
Manchester Couriers' respecting their statement in a for-
mer number, of the improved state of the silk trade at
Macclesfield, says, " With respect to the broad and most
important fact, however, whether the silk manufacturers
have or have not been getting up a case, to endeavour to
deter Ministers from carrying their proposed measures into
effect—we reiterate our clear, decided, and thorough con-
viction that such is the case, and this conviction, the result
of a pretty keen observation of their proceedings, is cer-
tainly not to he shaken, either by the disclaimers of that
body, even with the Mayor of Macclesfield at their head,
or the abuse of their newspaper tools."
Attempts have already been made to break the regu-
lation so recently adopted by mutual agreement, between
the fustian-cutters and their employers, for establish-
ing an uniform and fair scale of prices for cutting fustian.
The great body of the masters, however, are determined, if
possible, to maintain that scale; and we hope, for their own
sakes, the work-people will co-operate with them. At pre-
sent, we believe, they are very far from being fully em-
hloyed ; and to agree to work at reduced wages, for one
ouse, would produce no improvement as regards their
quantity of work, but it would force other masters to reduce
their prices also, m self-defence.—Manchester Mercury.
The important question respecting one of the Customs of
the Manor of Taunton Deane, which was to have been tried
last week at Exeter, stands over, with several other untried
causes, until next Devon Assizes. The ancient records
from the Exchequer, illustrative of the question at issue,
were so numerous and bulky as to require a waggon for
their conveyance, which proceeded to Exeter with its
musty load under a proper escort.
OLISTINATE LITIGATION.—On the fith instant a case,
which was an appeal from the Court of Exchequer in Ire-
land, came before the House of Lords, where the question
at issue was a matter of account, and the whole sum de-
pending 130/. The Lord Chancellor observed, that the
case had now been in litigation twenty-two years. It had
been for nineteen years in the Court of Exchequer in Ire-
land, and it had since been several times before that
House. It was melancholy to see parties persevere with so
much obstinacy, where the expenses must have amounted
to fifty times the sum in dispute. However, if the parties
persevered, he was bound to form his judgment upon it
with as much attention and impartiality as if the sum at
issue was three hundred thousand pounds. Should the
case go back again to the Court of Exchequer, as perhaps,
from the state in which it was, would be unavoidable, it
might be a very good thing for solicitors and barristers,
but it would he the most terrible blistering which could be
put upon the backs of the parties. He therefore suggested
to them, if they had not lost all common sense, to put the
papers into the hands of some sensible man, and submit
to his arbitration. If the public were to hear of these
proceedings, how they would exclaim against the adminis-
tration of justice in the Court of Exchequer in Ireland,
while in fact, not the Court, but the parties themselves
were to blame. The Counsel for the appellant expressed
his readiness to adept the suggestion of his Lordship; but
the respondent not entertaining the same views, the case I
went on.

and must gradually
' Every bolt and bar
Of massy iron, or solid rock, with care,
Us fasten.'
fie may allow first. (and others less profoundly instructed after.
wards embrace his opiuien,) that the system of criticism just exhi.
bited is calculated to indicate the principles which regulate the im-
pressions made upon our minds by the writings of Homer, Shalt-
ulnae, and Milton ; anal that even the language that we use to de-
scribe a similar pleasing influence on us from surrounding objects,
in our least studious hours, cannot easily serve our purposes better,
if we scruple to have recourse to the vocabulary furnished us by
Burke. In that approaching season of the year, when all our pre-
judices combine to wean us from the attractions which certainly
conspire, with the pursuits of business, now to detain us in the
crowded city, we sh-11 more readily turn a listening ear to the voice
of Poetry, emphatically questioning us in these words :

Oh, how can'et thou renounce the boundless store
Of charms which Nature to her votary yields,
The warbling woodland, the resounding shore,
The pomp of groves, the garniture of helds;
All that the genial ray of morning gilds,
And all that echoes to the song of even,
Ali that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields,
And all the dread magnificence of heaven ?'

" Now, while delighted with the simple pleasures here recon:.
mended to us, we turn our backs on the scenes among which our
meeting here chews it natural for us still willingly to linger, though
it should he

Where Fear, Distrust, Malevolence abide,
And impotent Desire and disappointed Pride.'
And, while reasoning on the sentiments which unsophisticated
Nature thus excites in our minds during the salutary contemplation
she encourages, let us not be led too hastily by the arguments of
the beet living philosophers, to distrust the attempts of a great man
to classify those-blending or contrasting characters, which produce
the effect of her enchanting variety. Allow a writer who has so
many claims on our respect, from the acknowledged possession of
both useful and ornamental genius, and of the most laudable ap.
plicatinn of it, that full and fair trial of the accuracy of his pro-
found and elegant conjectures, which supposes the possibility of
time, fur the reflection of iris readers, to be necessary to appreciate
them. The abuse of scientific inquiries during the course of the
last century has tended to reader unpopular that minute diacrimi.
nation and methodical arrangement against the habits generated,
by which we were not in those days sufficiently guarded; and yet
improvements in language, founded on the precision requisite
to the reasoner, have been sought perhaps with more assiduity as
well as success, during that time, than at any former period. Part
of the labours of the late Mr. Horne Tooke have been employed in
pursuit of this object, confessedly with such success as to have im.
mortalized his name. That writer had recourse to the assistance
afforded by etymology to pursue his inquiries with the judgment
here acknowledged, though certainly carrying his expectations too
far of a future advancement in science by its means. Others have
worthily followed the sumo course. Edmund Burke adopted a
similar mode of providing for his fellow creatures the similar ad.
vantage of an ameliorating expression of things by words. Not
having to propose to himself the task of tracing them learnedly to
any roots discoverable ia other languages, he exhibits rather a re-
semblance in the office prescribed to him, of that assigned to our
General Father at the first formation of language; when in the
terms of the great poet (for the origioal employment of winged
words):
the total kind
Of birds, in orderly array cn wing,
Came summoned over Eden, to receive
Their names of him.'
And when that endowment of Adam with extraordinary powers, by.
the Deity, took place, which he himself is made by the same poet
to describe in the fallowing manner
As thus he spoke, each bird and beast behold
Approaching two and two, these cowering low
With blandishment, each bird stooped on his wing;
I named them as they passed, and understood
Their nature. with such knowledge God endued
illy sudden apprehension.'
I have occasionally, also, in the course of my lecture, hinted at a
similitude between the mental operation which we are now cnntem.
plating, and that which distinguished the admirable Linnaeus, be.
mg celebrated in a passage of an elegant poem on gardening, by a
deceased poet of eminence, which is as follows :
Countless are vegetation's vernal brood,
As are the stars that stud yon cope of Heaven ;
To marshall all her tribes in ordered file,
Generic or specific, might demand
His science, womProoa Swede, whose ample mind,
Like ancient Tadator's philosophic king,
Stretched from the hyssop creeping on the wall,
To Lebanon's proud cedars.'
And if the system of the philosophical orator proves only as service.
able to, and as calculated to form a bond of union betweenonen of let-
ters,to promote the successful study ache same subject, as that of the
conprehensive naturalist, It Is not certainly, on the score of the in-
ferior difficulty of arranging general and abstract ideas, compared
with those made palpable to the senses, nor of the inferior import-
ance of the human mind to the other parts of nature as an object
of study, to direct the views of the benefactor of his fellow-creatures,
from which it will derive a limitation of its claims to respect. But
these are trifling considerations, when it is the question, as my
ar-
guments
hate just led me to render it, whether all ;that is dear to
us, whether the laws and constitution of our country, with our hap-
piness in this world and the next, are to be the victims of a false
philosophy. To return, then, to this momentans subject. IVe
are conscious (anti we act as if we were) that such employment of
our reason as would improve and perfect logic and grammar, is
what merits to be continued without scruple, till the advantages of
the ancieht and modern systems of thinking on those subjects shall
have been thoroughly investigated, and the superior claims of
either to judgment or to invention ace in consequence acknow.
ledged. To this we seem to agree, unmoved by the complaint of a
fancy-smitten critic of merit, that " the philosophical, the geome.
tricot, and systematical spirit so rau:h in vogue, which has spread
itself from the ectences even into pulite literature, by consulting
only reason, has diminished Lid destroyed sentiment ; and made
our poets write from and to the head rather than the heart." To
this statement there might have been little or no objection when
the critic wrote, or understanding the general rule in the sense lie
did himself. To observe such a medium as this, may be to culti-
vate reason and sentiment each in the just degree only, which it; re-
quisite beet to prepare mankind for the perception of rational hap.
piness, and s4pulate it to the performance of genuine duty. And,
while the idtiffilon of this method prevents our entangling ourselves
in the puulit formalities of the dry dialectician, it equally saves
us from the contrary discredit of that mixture of folly and injus.
tice. displayed by the affected contempt of the manly energies of
reason, though intliepensible to repress the ever-recurring spirjt of
mawkish sentiment. For, by restraining these energies to insure
the clue preference of the excellencies of the heart over those of the
head, we risk to divest both of their utility; while deceived by a
similarity (in a sort of warmth) between two qualities in words and
actions otherwise extremely different ; we may be said, in this
I manner, to seem to perceive, invariably, the dictates of the heart in
those of the imagination.
"And can any one have a better claim to be heard on similar sub.
jeers than he, whose zeal, after affording an unrivalled proof of his
qualification fur the task, allowed him not to remain idle in public
danger; when,untleunted by the prospect of imputed inconsistency,
he without hesitation flew to his post, for the defence of our Holy
Religion and our matchless Constittoioo ? He will be proved, by
all our lectures on the present subject, faithfully to have adhered
to the principles which then prompted his heroism. While he
points out to you all the parts of die fair edifice of Reason for
very opposite merits, in the construction of which he has deserved
the moat exalted praise, he will ever be found carefully reminding
you, to prevent any philosophical critic's plausible misrepresents.
tion of his words, as either meaning the positive and serious
assertions of a spirit of unfounded theory, in hypothetical state-
ments, pretending not to be proofs, but mere eloquent illustrations,
or testifying in other remarks that he is vain—is presumptuous
enough to describe what has been due to his contrivance in the
fabric (elaborately wrought thoug it be), as visible any where but
in the superstructure. For that, amid the officious counsels of
worlely conceit, a voice dlirerent from all others bad been dis
tihgniOtel—"rhe strain he heard was of a higher mood'—it was
the voice of his great employer ; and that (still ringing in bla ears)
pronounced the words—..' Other foundation shall no man lay.'"

It appears by the evidence appended to thiChancery
Report, that the property now vested in securities, in the
name of the Accountant-General of the Court f Chan-
cery, amounts to upwards of thirty-nine millions.
SEAMEN'S Site Nores.—Our attention has been called
by a letter to the Editor of the Liverpool Courier, to the
present system in the out-ports, of paying seamen their
advances by ship notes, which it is asserted, and we have
reason to believe with truth, is productive of inconvenience,
uncertainty, and fraud. A greater number of men are
engaged and ship notes issued than are necessary, or in-
tended to he paid ; the consequence is, tradesmen are liable
to heavy losses; seamen are charged an exorbitant pre-
mium, though seldom proportionate to the risk and loss by
ship notes; thus the honest seamen is frequently com-
pelled to make up the loss by the dishonest and unprin-
cipled. The ship note system also evidently holds out
an inducement, if not an actual bribe, for desertion from
the ship. The mariner knows a ship note is mere waste
paper, which the law does not recognise; and if he deserts
the ship, breaks his engagement with the captain, and
defrauds the tradesman, by making away with the cash
and clothing obtained for the note, not being amenable to
the laws, he can put all parties at defiance. When more
men are shipped in this careless way than are wanted, and
several sent back as superfluous, this opens the door to
fraud; and disappointment, if not disaffection, must result
from such refusal. Thus, the bond which should unite
men to their masters become loosened, if not broken and
destroyed. It is apparent to tradesmen, who have suffered
most severely by this defective and nefarious system, that
a stamped order, made payable twenty-one or thirty days
after date, signed by the merchant or ship-owner, would
remedy the present grievance. It is apparent, that such
a plan would render seamen better disposed towards their
captains, more provident of their clothing, more hound to
the ship, whether in British or foreign ports, and secure
all the advantages, without the disadvantages of the pre-
sent insecure, illegal, and vexatious mode, or of that which
is sought to be obtained by the merchants by the coercive
act, that of imprisoning deserters for three months.
Basta) or Fisit.—We have been favoured with the
following communication from a highly respect&ble Cor-
respondent, upon whose veracity we place the most unli-
mitA reliance:—

" In the winter of 1829, I stocked a new pond of mine, consisting
of four or five acres, with various kinds of tirh, amongst them nine
jack were reckoned, none of them exceeding one pound weight
etch a month or two after it was found necessary, in consequence
of the pond leaking, to takeout the fish, when, with the nine jack,
were found eighty young ones, at the time not above five Inches
long they were all turned into other ponds until the repairs were
done to that from whence they were taken. In the spring of 1821
the nine original jack, with 26 only of their produce, were turned
into the new pond, with plenty of smaller fry to feed en. I should
here state that only a very trifling increase in size was perceptible
in any of them. In the beginning of this present March, I had
the pond laid dry ; the number of jack answeted to that put into
the water, viz. 35 in all, they had neither decreased or increased in
number, but the size at them individually was very disproportionate,
and which is • curious fact. The biggest, indeed the only large
fish in the place, weighed alive sixteen pounds and a quarter, in-
creasing three pounds a_year, or fifteen during the live, whilst the
smallest hardly reached one pound and a half in the same space of
time, the remaining fish of the kind were of all sizes, but none
reached half the weight of the large one: As these facts ire well
substantiated, they may furnish interest to those who are fond of in-
birmation upon subjects of Natural Ilistory."— Taunton Cowier.
1%.1f ALE FI /I NG.—The nnmher of whale fihhing, ships
sent nut from Britain this season, it wi'l be seen by the subjoined
list, is reduced below that which has been known for many years.
The harardoun °attire of the voyage, as proved by many late casual-
ties. and the general want of success at Greenland in particular,
where the fishing almost completely failed last year. have no doubt
deter tuned many to withdraw from an undertaking which has been
found very unproductive, and fur which the frtquent reduced prices
rf oil Offered no adequate return. Only seven whale fishing ships
go to Gremlin:l; viz. two from Aberdeen, two Whitby, one Hukl,
one Greenock, and the Mary, one small brig, of Ih7 tons. from
Peterhead. The number to the Davis' Awaits Fishery is 87, viz.
thirty-one from Hull, four London, two Whitby; three Newcastle,
one Berwick, six Leith, four Kirkaldy, nine Dundee. font Mon.
trove, ten Aberdeen, and thirteen Peterhead ; making a total at
both fisheries of 94.