The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-09-21 00:00:00

THEATRICAL aiNCING.

EIS 0.1 A F11101111:11
ft is only'in the course of the last century, that
we have attained iu dancing that high degree of
petfniion, which has place.: our dancers anove a::
the Ai ti,t• of Europe. The art nt Pantomime, in
bcasted •1 by the Romans, 'vas apparently los- ;
far, trim the third centure, they were nbl,gtd
make thertisAves und-rstool, to roTit,e a man at the
edge ol the stage, who explained in a kid VOICe
lie aftion they setae ening tr perform.
We rated not notice ttte art of thocintr amnnini
the Frei ch, (runs the founantion of the unn,arcke,
to the reign Lwais ale 14 unfired!. t;+re tha
illus:: i"us epochs, it consibtei of rothing bat un;.
form inntrinents, without art, and without
llut compositional' With was quite unknown. The
science n ' dying was confined to the c. ail Lass nr
coma! y cI • CC% which were usually executed at
balls, or at tile public fines.
It is to be !wesunassl. that there was a time w'ien
inciug was by no mears a frivolous arraoerneid,
destined only for the ple..sor• of boys and girls tar,
dating many centui Ws, dat.cong made a past of e
pWalic worship, aad, in many churches, they dance
at the least of the pasYlvar, while they sang " 0
/hi, And fie . " Tor faithidi of broth saxes held
esr').ther by the hand, and 4i-ufurrnad a very ani-
mated circular dance. Every 0.. e knows that the
conw.eil of Trente was opetted by a hall, and that
the wire doitors thtie danced with much decency
wad dignity'.
fu the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, they had
ballets, but tisey nen- v,” impel-tea: by wiling",
dialogues and soldny.c.., thee explained what ails
intstided, a .J these aanitary resources very much
resembled the public criers, spoken of by Saint Au-
gu -tir..
The Greeks appear to have be-n :he only people
I.;id excelled in the art of expression, by more-
tam'', and gestures, and it was from them that the
t urostea oi art wad derie d.

Th. is, according to Plutarch. a mute
r.v:rsation. a lively and :urinated piZtate ; the
Leis. of which consist In ihe motions and the
11,,;tat3 in the pestures. .1.1m0,t all the;r dances had
a particular remit-ion, ;mended to deliorde a sen-
t ment, an affeeion, or a len...scion of the mind ;
aNI we must rot forget Lere to ren:ark, that the
dine* of the .Ce*et, so . :lebrAted, for•sinne time, gi
a hrilliast invention of Lady r.as very
well known among.. th • beatitoul ladie,••
rr,'‘i performed it wi h thAr ve.is.
if the emulation wh.cn animates our dancers
emitir.ue to soprort ai.d invigo. Ile them, we shall
iikas Attain amongst us that pelt:dim' t,allets so
replete with race and fancy, w!...ich embeldilled
the fa-4 of the Greeks. ta uhnin se bear so strong
a reienililance.

IVolnesday cssratchrs were received from Ad•
"+• :1 Cos vs. A L I.ls, off Brest. dated lioarJ the
Wsr4. est !-3 guns, the I.3th fast wl le t weie t-r-
-irw,inl to Lord Nisi.% ILL at Wimbiedln.
Lord Carno ar has been for sons: days con-
LaeJ to his room by indisposition, consequence.
RI
his great exerions in visiting and exercising the
thrPr at the diff4rent enc.anpmeuts ia lrelanJ,
duing the last two months.

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PRO Art CORR ESPONDENCI.


UPPER CAN *, DA.

_

SION ritrAT., ♦VO. 2.

I have just been upon a three months tour in
the United States of America. As, it was for the
first time I visited this pretended land of liberty and
liberality, I knew it only from the description which
I had read, and was, of course, much prejudiced in
its favour. being accustomed to the civil beha-
viour, even among the lower classes of my own
countrymen, the Cendians, the first that struck me
in the United States, were the uncommon brutality
or rudeness I experienced in conversing with its
citizens, from the governors and magistrates, down
to the lowest mechanics, or the most petty farmers,
except in the large towns, even the fair sex seemed
to want that softness of temper, delicacy of expres-
sions, and gentleness of behaviour, which, in pleasing,
commands respea, and excites admiration. Every
where I observed selfishness tied avarice, the pre-
dominant passions of one sex ; and want of educa-
tion, aad hypocrisy, the faults of the other ; the men
only calculating how to accumulate, and the wo-
men only studying, not how to please, but how to
rule, to be applanded as political oracles, or re.
vet ed as religious saints. The political as well as the re-
ligions fanaticism prevails in all the provinces of the
United States, where seas and parties are equally
intolerant ; there being hardly an example of a
Federalist, or anti-Federalist, of a Presbyterian, or
a church of England man, visiting, much less per-
mitting their families to intermarry. They are as
much at variance, as a Bonaparte and a Louis
XVI 11. ; and more so than Pius VII. and the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury. The present President, Jef-
ferson, dues not by his condua evince or inspire
more liberal sentiments. tie declares as opealy his
partiality for France now, when it is enslaved by
Napoleon the First, as he did, ten years ago, when
Robespierre the First was her tyrant. All his set
ants are Frenchmen, and his most familiar as-
sociates and friends are of the same nation. Ile
rides himself, however. upon the appellation of a
friend of universal liberty, of religious toleration,
and of philenthropy. Most of the persons appointed
to offices by him are as great Gallomen as himself,
and de every thing in their power to humiliate, to
harrass, and to persecute their opposers. They are
so much the mote obstinate in their vengeance, as,
with few exceptions, they are generally very igno-
rant, confoueding their own narrow and selfish
no; ions with the rights of ther races, and the laws
of their co Isere. ro'ravel, therefore, iu a Repub-
lic governed by such chiefs, and inhabited by such
a Ise spit, can, tberetme, not be very agreeable to a
foreigner of a benevolent disposition, of an inde-
pendent fortune, and of generous principles....
When this must he the case, what have no;
those unfortunate emigrants, from England, Scut
land, and Ireland, to suffer, who land in the
American ilepu ,!ic, as indebted vagabonds, and
whose first acts is this Lind of liberty are to sell
their persons to pay their passages; to present
themselves before apstert, and, of course, insolent
magistrates, to submit to fetters, and a transfer to
oppr, ssive masters, who often treat them worse than
their brases of burden, and, to e hem, the negroes
on mar West-India plantations are comparatively
freemen. 'live numerous examples of misery and .1
lespair which I have we nessed among these emigtant
British subjects, pierce my very heart. I have seen,
on their lauding, husbands and wives disposed of to
difeient proprietors, and their children to others.
Their prayers and lamentations to remain together
avail nothing. They separate, not seldom, meet
to meet again. or if to meet, to bewail their shame
or Fally, their dishonour or ruin. I beard many
shocking avaetclntes hardly credible in civilised Ea-
rope, where the liberty and happiness of the Ame-
rican eititeas are so often the topics of the praises of
the discnntented, of the envy of the disaffected, and
of the desire of the misled. I have beard of families
and of individuels, wito sixteen years ago sold their
liberty for five years, and sehncontintsestill, and pro-
bably for life, hi bondage, their cruel masters taking
advantage to keep them in debt, either by
giving them trl.ng sums to support sickness, want,
or extravagance. 1 have beard of others, who, in
despair, for such and worse treatment, and not
sir-
ing an end to their sufferings, have committed the
most terrible su:cides. destroying, at the same time,
themselves, ther wives, and children. Others have
run away, been taken, dogged, and worked in chains
Juries the .:ay, and are shut up in chains during the
night, as the mast culpable a criminals. Famine,
beside, often forces them to commit petty thefts,
and when discovered, to avoid publicity or disho.
nbur, or to escape punishment, subscribe new bond,
of slavery, and. for the value of a dollar, condemn
themselves to bard labour for years. They ate uni-
versally despised as outcasts of society, having re-
neunced their privileges of British subjeas, withe„r:
obtaining the rights of American citizens, A Bri-
tish minister cannot linen to t!..c:r coni4 -Leints d

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relieve thesr misery, regarded 13y the Arertiean
laws as the consequence of their refaidoey Tenon-
ciation sf t!,eir freedom. How very different is the
situation of tht'e emigrants w:.O land in Canada,
or in Nova Scotia. It they have a passage to pay
for, th?y work fur it as crediti a's, not as slaves, being
prote.led by tl c sante FAIN! i-.. 11 g.ivernment which
flutes the motiwr country ; and, as hands arc scarce,
and labour dear, a short time dears •hem !tom debts,
and, if sober and industrious, butt f..tw years are re-
quisite to
.be quietly and comfortably settled. OF
two hundred and fifty Scotch emigrants landed
fifteen months ago at Quebec, most are now cal.
tivating lands cf their own, or serving masters cf
their own choice ; not one has died; whilst in the
United States, it is generally calculated, that of
European emigrants,twenry in a hundted die within
twelve months after their landing on the American
Continent, either from hardships, or by broken
hearts, the consequence of irremediable disappoint-
ment. Besides, in British America, the climate is
healthier, and the yellow or putrid fevers entirely
unknown, and, provisions, of every description, sell
fifty to eighty per cent. cheaper than in the United
States !"