The National Register.
London, England, 1819-05-02 00:00:00

THE NA noNAL REGISTER.

in order to lean, something of her histrry ; and,
pacing myself next to her in the music-room, I ob
served, " That I once knew a Colonel White, that
he was wily particular friend abroad, and that I dis-
covered a likenew." To this she answered, that
she had not the honour to know any one of the
name. I was foolish enough to come back to the
charge, and to tnentittxt Lerd B— and a Baronet
White, when a suffusion of deeper rose colour
spread o'er her cheek, and she intbnned me that she
did not know her parents, but had been educated
by her patron, Lord
My heart smote me fur the flush, which 1 had
occasioned ; I made * lame retreat upon .r What a
loss her parents must have had, in being deprived of
the pridesof owning so perfect a creature ;" and I
was mute nearly the rest of the evening.
I, however, took an opportunity of inquiring
about her, of our Diplomate, who, assuming .(which
he generally did) mystery and, importance where
none was required, asked ine if I never saw any
one like her in the House of Peers ? I immediately
recollected the Countess's brother. Emily was his
very image!
The bloated Nabob afterwards informed me, with
a shrug of pity, that she was that Nobleman's na-
tural child, that his Lordship bad made a rich
match, and had left her to the patronage of his sis-
ter, that our host thought it best to allow her to
live in the family, being her guardian, and that she
had a miserable two thousand pounds to her fortune,
and wits wholly unknown to her father, who bad
deserted her mother many years, and had a very
jealous wife, who completely dragooned him.
" 'fast minx," replied 1, " he deserves not only
I to be dragooned by his wife, and to come under the
lush of general censure, but to be shot for deser-
tion, both of the mother and of the child. How
many a lovely plant perishes in the shads, is cast
from the parent stem, trampled under the feet of
pride. and withers beneath the cold blast of neglect,
which bloomed in promise, and might have flourish-
ed, an honour and an ornament to the hand that
fostered and reared it ! How many pining prote-
gees we see in noble families, *Ai ditant foundlings,
I or orphans, whose vicious and unfeeling parents live
but to disgrace and to disown them! How many a
beauteous creature conies to ruin, wholly unprotect-
ed, or educated in elegance, and scantily provided
for, by the hand of unfeeling avarice, or of selfish
extravagance! Whilst all she pomp of heraldry cm-
blazons the panels of vice's triumphant car with
ducal mantels and coronets, proclaiming royal bas-
tardy, and trumpeting kingly tribes ! and whilst the
swarthy or piebald progeny of Eastern plunderers
gild over their low origin, and i•jS like bank tokens
for sterling ore !
What a shameful contrast ! Is it not cowardly
to fix disgrace upon the innocent offspring of a pa-
rent's guilt? Why should these blushing, neglect-
ed unfortunates, want a father and a name ? Are
not many of them like accusing evidence at hea-
ven's high chancery against the unnatural authors
of their existence ? Why are so few restitutions
made for seduction ? Why so many marriages of
interest, which cut off free& innocence all hopes of
possessing a father ?
Because the base voluptuary is a str roger to hu-
manity ; brutal passion knows no softer, tenderer
ties ; and thus his very stamp and image (for such
most often, and for obviously wise purposes—living
reproaches er additional claims on the heart, natu-
ral children are) is allowed to be consigned to servi-
tude, or to intinny, whilst such a monster lolls in his
chariot, feasts on every luxury, and pillows upon
down.

An amusing as well as a highly constitutional ap-
plication to the Judges is to be made in the course
of two or three days. On the well known princi-
ple of British law, that the moment a slave, whether
black or white, sets foot en English land, he
becomes free, and ran neither be immured, nor kept
in the degraded state by any lordly master, we bear
that a Solicitor of eminence is to apply for a Habeas
Corpus to bring up the person of the fair Circassian
Slave in the suite of the Persian Ambassador, to
- learn from her own lips, whether she consent., to
the close confinement in Which she is kept; or would
prefer the liberty that •is the birthright of all?
Curiosity, at least, will be on the alert upon this
1- occasion. Ambassadors have extraordinary privi-
leges. They may avoid, liar their domestic comfort,
the customs and excise on the articles of splendour
that they may 'choose to itttoduce, and they may
protect their household from all arrest for debt, but
they eturnot keep a Inman being in slavery.
There were married at Manchester nriEaster Monday
its I'm than smenty-entietturflet, thegreuter part whom
repaired to a fair in the neighbourhood to spend the
happy day.