Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-02-16


clergy always personally objects of reve-
renee. Swift writes to Stella, 81 walked
here after nine, two miles, and I found a
parson drunk fighting with n seaman, and
Patrick and were so wise as to part them,
but the seaman followed him to Chelsea,
cursing at him, and the parson slipped
into house, and know no more. 1t
mortified me to see man in my coat so
overtaken." Perhaps it might have
equally mortified the imam in my coat
to see certain portions of the Deans
writings.
Saving in exceptional times, such as
that of Scroggs and Jeffreys, the English
courts of law seem to have been always
dignified and, latter their fashion, just
After their fashion, it was for the law
was unscientifc, irrational, and barbarous
in the highest degree, All that could be
said for it was that it did aim, in its mar
row way, at upholding personal rightsann
liberties against arbitrary power. Even
the peine forte ct dure, of which Mr..
Ashton gives us hideous picture, was n
widely different thing from judicial tor
ture its object was solely to compel the
man to plead to the indictment, without
which, it was supposed, his trial could
not rightfully proceed and it ended the
moment his obstinacy was overcome.
There does not seem to have been on the
part of the English courts the eagerness
TO convict which French courts have al
ways shown. The death penalty wm
lavished with the cruel prodigality of an
aristocratic legislature reckless of the
blood of the people. Humane bubbles
often tempered the cruelty of the code
yet there were Wholesale hangings, and
they we're frightful butcheries-the cart,
not the drop being used, and the friends
of the victims pulling their legs and
striking their breasts to shorten their
agonies. The state of the prisons, also,
was hideous extortion on the part of the
keepers >conspiring with neglect Life
long Imprisonment for debt was. perhaps,
of all these barbarous pedantries the most
barbarous. The aspect of the courts
must have been much what it is in Eng
land now. Wigs were worn by the judges
aud barristers though in those days only
as a part of the ordinary dress of a gen
tlemnn, and green bags, it seems, instead
of blue, were carried. Lawyers were ac-
cused of roguery and of setting people by
the ears for their own profit, but the ac-
clsation is not peculiar to the Augustan
Age.
Medicine was mere empiricism, In the
pharmacoppia given by Mr.. Ashton were
Live Hog Lice" "Man's Skull" Leaves
of Gold" "Stone of Carp's Head, u
Frogs Livers, "White dung of Pea-
cock dried" with many other remedies
equally sovereign. 1t earned its fee by
purging and bleeding without stint. Its
chief professors, whose skill probably
| like that of our spiritualists, was moral.
made large ncomes-incomes equal to at
/ least S6O, 900 or $40, 900 in our day-rode
in coaches with six horses, and behaved
themselves like pashas. DIR. Radcliffe,
the most removed of them, was sitting
over his wine when he received message
from the Princess Anne, who had become
somewhat hypochondriacal after the death
of her sister, desiring him to come Mt once
to see her. He refused to go, aud sent
back message that it was all fancy, and
that her Royal Highness was as well ms
any one else. So Mr.. Ashton decorously
puts it, but the real message, according
to tradition, was too coarse to be repeated
| to ears polite. This cost Radcliffe his ap.
pointmcnt at court When the Queen
was dying, he was sent for but the i'm
placable old Turk answered that she had
taken physic, and could not come.
There was an outcry against him at the
time in these days he would be torn tc
pieces. He was always saying the rudes
things, and sometimes he met his match
He never would pay bill without demur
ring, and he told pavior who had beer
mending the pavement in front Of his
house andapplied for the none ythat he hat
done his work badly and covered it will
earth to hide it. Doctor" replied thu
pavior, 'mine is not the only bad worl
that the earth hides" Queen Anne as W.
know from passage in Boswell's John
son, touched for the Kings Evil strang
to say, it appears that she did it in re
sponse to Jacobite challenge to prove
her legitimate royalty, and that the re
suit was satisfactory to the public mind
80 that the condition proposed by Renal
would seem to have been fulfilled by TIN
performance of n miracle under crtica
inspection. On the part of johnson o
his parents there must have been n wan
of faith. With the treatment of children
the medical faculty would not have deign
ed to concern itself 1t was such that til
race may be said partly to have owed it
vigor to IL process of natural selection
carried on through most desperat
struggle for existence. The young Duk
of Gloucester, the heir to the Grown
having water ON the brain, and findin
himself unable to get up stairs withou
help. his royal parents, to cure him of hi
sickness, shut themselves up with hi
and gave him good whipping.
At the top of societywas a grand urbar
ity of manner, of which the paragon wa
/ Marlborough, who found it of no sma
, use to him in his diplomacy. There wa
also Il set of fops, much like the fops {
other times in their folly, their fripper.
i and their ridiculous adulation of I'll
! female sex, but distinguished from the
counteIparts in our day by brilliancy {
costume, and, above all, by their wig
I the chief care of the dandy for which in
mense prices seem to have been given, an
,, which consequently became the mark
, street n:arauders.
!, "Nor is Thy nAxon wig with safety worn;
Il High on the shoulder, in the basket borne
q Lurks the sly boy whose hand TO raplne br
g Plscks oil the curling honors OF the head.
c But social refinement had as yet extendt
It little to the country, where Squire Wes
II ern predominated, and not Mt all to ii
e lower classes. Mr.. Ashton has given l
d plenty of pictures of barbarism, such
Il riotous fairs, aifrays in taverns, and bu
3 and bear batting, for which twin colo
e Gums rose conspicuous above all Il
y other buildings in Southwark. This
n not the reproach of particular reign
Ii country it is the state of European civ
% izaton two centuries ago. Bull and be
re batting were after all not SO cruel
s. amusement as autos-de-fe. The peop
is in Annes time do not seem to have be,
.e gourmands or gluttons-they took on
le one substantial meal day, and the
l. nnokin0 wos nloin but thay drank loo