well as for the diseased in mind. In every department is an orphan school for poor children. In that of Mons there are never less than five hundred, and often many, more where they are brought up in industry, taught to read and write, and placed out as apprentices to that working trade which they prefer. There are also foundling hospitals. At Mons there are nearly a thousand children in the hospital; and the number of these hospitals being considerable, they must give a large accession of physical strength to the republic. There is also in each town a public workhouse. All kinds of works are carried on there, and a good dinner of soup and bread is provided. The poor who live in the town, inay go there for their work and their loaf, and return in the evening to their houses, with the money they have gained. All who can work are employed; and the little ones are put into a room together, where they are attended by the aged, who are past labour. From Worsley's State of France. We would add to the information contained in the foregoing extract, that the Sœurs de la Charité, whose profession leads them to attend on the sick, have lately received considerable encouragement, from the policy of Buonaparté. They are no longer to be under the controul of the supervisors of hospital establishments, like servants; nor to be obliged to sit at the same table with the servants, at if they were servants to such institutions. They are to be allowed to possess establishments of their own; with administrators of their own property and they are to be at liberty to form regulations for their own conduct. They have also obtained a few houses as settlements; and appear to be greatly favoured; but not, if our conceptions be correct, beyond their deserts. They endured both sufferings and contumely during the madness of the revolution, with constancy and proved themselves to be, even beyond their power, the friends of the destitute, and the support of the afflicted, in defiance of danger. The number of foundlings in France, is a distressing consideration to morals; and the accession of physical strength which they afford to the republic, is a nullity; as the proportion of deaths exceeds that of those who live to maturity. Had they been born in wedlock, this proportion would have been decidedly reversed. We have already stated the low salaries of the clergy under the French government. Compare Panorama, Vol. II. p. 1001. If their salaries be ill-paid, as well as scanty, there can be no wonder if, among a people so frivolous as the French, religion itself sl.ould suffer very seriously. THE GATHERER. No. II. I am but a Gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff.-WOTTON. Hyde Park. Certainly Time is the ruler of all things, as is shewn in his changing of them, and their accompaniments. The newspapers are constant in their information that the ring in Hyde Park, the walks, &c. were on such a day" crowded with all the beauty and fashion of the metropolis." Would it be thought that this rendezvous of the gay world was formerly so unpolite as to demand a fee from every person whom it admitted ? Yet we have the authority of a small manual, entitled "a character of Eugland, as it was lately presented in a Letter to a Noble Man of France," London, 1659, for affirming this: the author, a Frenchman, in London, says, our I did frequently in the spring, accompany my Lord N. into a field near the Town, which they call Hide-Parke; the place not unpleasant, and which they use, as Course; but with nothing that order, equipage and splendor, being such an assembly of wretched jades, and Hackney Coaches, as next a Regiment of Carremen, there is nothing approaches the resemblance. This Parke Nobility for the freshness of the Air, and was (it seems) used by the late King, and the goodly prospect: but it is that which now (besides all other excises) they pay for here in England, though it be free in all the World beside; every Coach and Horse which enters, buying his mouthful, and permission of the Publicane, who has purchased it, for and long Staves. which the entrance is guarded with Porters Spring Gardens. The same writer informs us, that Spring Gardens, now covered with houses, was the Vauxhall of that time. The manner is, as the Company returns, (from Hyde-Park) to alight at the Spring Garden, so called in order to the Parke, as our Thuilleries is to the Course; the inclosure not disagreeable, for the solemness of the Grove, the warbling of the Birds, and as it opens into the spacious walks at St. James's: but the Company walk in it at such a rate, as you would think all the Ladies were so many Atalantas contending with their Wooers; and iny Lord there was no appearance that I should prove the Hippomenes, ho could with very much ado, keep pace with them: But as fast as they run, they stay there so long, as if they wanted not time to finish the Race; for it is usual here, to find some of the young company till midnight; and the Thickets of the Garden seem to be contrived to all advantages of Gallantry, after they have been refreshed with the Collation, which is here seldome omitted, at a certain Cabaret in the middle of this Paradise; where the forbidden fruites are certain trifling Tartes, Neates-tongues, Salacious salted) meates, and bad Rhenish, for which the Gallants pay Sauce, as indeed they do at all such houses throughout England; for they think it a piece of frugality beneath them, to bargaine, or accompt for what they eat in any place however unreasonably imposed upon: But thus, those mean fellows are (as I told your Lordship) inriched; begger, and insu wwer the Gentlemen. I am assured that this particular Host, has purchased within few years, 5000 livres * of annuall rent; and well he may, at the rates these Prodigalls pay; whereas in France, a Gentleman esteems it no diminution to mannage even these expences with reason. Kel Anayet was the jester of Abbas the Great of Persia. His fame is still fresh in that country for his sprightly wit, his burlesque drollery, his uncouth attitudes, and his uncontroulable command over the laughing powers of all who saw or heard him. The Shah by punning on his name, called him Ketchel Anayet, Scald pate;" and suffered him to joke without danger on occasions which would have cost others dearly. Abbas was excessively fond of a white hawk, which had been sent him as a present from Mount Caucasus. Being out one day on a hawking excursion, the Shah discovered that this bird was sick. In great vexation he called his grand Faiconer, named Hossein-hec, and charged him most solemnly to take special care of this hawk: adding "whoever comes and tells me that he is dead, shall lose his head; depend upon it." Nevertheless, the bird died at the week's end. Hossein-bec in utter despondency saw Kel Anayet walking before the mews, in his way to the court. To him he told the disaster, conjuring him, with many tears, to save his life. Agreed,' said the droll, if the Shah takes off any body's his intention, he found the Shah in the greathead to day, it shall be his own." Pursuing est good humour, jast after dinner. Scald It is within the remembrance of many of our readers, that Murybone Gardens was a place of amusement, of the same descrip; tion, that is new streets; and Ranelagh Gardens, once the resort of beauty and elegance, where we have often witnessed the at-pate, where do you come from," said Abbas. tractions of novelty, and the powers of fashion, Arayet assuming the most jocose air imaginable answered, From your Majesty's falconry and pray listen with your utmost attention,, for I am going to tell you the most mar -these too are now the site of domestic resi dences. If we look a little further, the Bear Gardens, and Paris Garder, of Shakespeare's time, the Mulberry Gardens, Cuper's Gardens, and many others, have given way to the gradual extension of this immense metropolis. The present gardens at Vauxhall, in our memory constantly called" Spring Gardens," are so jostled by neighbouring "Streets," "Pla'ces," and " Buildings," that we should be far from surprized, if a short time should inform us of a plan for a spacious square, or a "Vauxhall Place," to be substituted for that region of enchantment. Of Fools, and their Wit. This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; As full of labour as a wise man's art. An instance or two may vindicate our poet's assertion, and convince, were they capable of conviction, our dashing witlings, that they have not sufficient sense to play the fool: moreover, wise fools have been of use on sundry occasions: but of what use have their foolish wisdoms been? Equal to 500 per ann. of present money. vellous!-most wonderful!-most astonish- A management not less dexterous, on a subject much more important, was employed by a jester of the French court, when the king's servants were perplexed by what means to inform their master of the defeat his formidable armament at Sluys had met with from the English King Edward, in which many ships were sunk Knowing that the bearer of. such unwelcome tidings would be ruined— they entrusted the favourite droll with the dangerous commission. He immediately e Contrast contrived by peculiar Coincidences. Contrast, is a principle resorted to by eminent painters often with extraordinary effects, when directed by skill and genius. Paul Veronese, desirous to render the complexion of a female as lively as possible, contrived to heighten the vivacity of his colours beyond their natural tone, by placing immediately before her a boy clothed in a very grave brown, behind her a man cloathed in black, and on one side of her a negro, so that by the powerful contrast of these colours with the delicate tints, and brilliancy of the favoured beauty, her complexion appeared to be actually dazzling to the eye. Has the reader never seen the power of contrast exemplified in life? in talent, in character, in management, in manners? in private parties, or in a public assembly? Name imposed by Inch of Candle. Superstition has had recourse to innumerable ways of satisfying it's ever varying cravings. Without considering what possible relation there could be between cause and effect, it has prescribed and practised ceremonies, the folly of which must have struck ány thinking mind, with contempt. Andronicus, the Greek emperor, had a daughter named Simonida, which being rather a singular appellation for a princess, historians have taken some pains to enquire into the cause of its being selected. It seems, that the Emperor had had several children, but could not rear any to maturity. A famous matron of his acquaintance advised him to have made twelve wax candles, of perfectly equal weight and size; to light them before the images of the twelve apostles, and to give to a daughter of which the Empress was newly delivered, the name of that apostle whose wax candle lasted the longest. Andronicus followed this advice; and the candle before the image of Simon having outlasted the others, the princess was called Simonida, after the apostle. The life of this lady was singularly chequered chequered with misfortune, from which her patroness Simon did not deliver her; perhaps, because he was not pleased with being indebted for his dignity, to chance, and therefore left to chance the fortunes of his protégée, notwithstanding she bore his name, SOME PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO THE FRENCH EAST INDIA COMPANY, COMMONLY CALLED THE NEW COMPANY. We shall not enter into any details upon the subject of French East-India Companies in general, but merely confine our observations to that Company which owed its dissolution to the abolition of monarchy in France. In 1785 when it was in agitation to establish a consulted merchants and others conversant in new East-India Company, M. de Calonne commercial matters, upon the subject of the said establishment, and at their instance, so formed the new Company, as to free it from the shackles which had incumbered the ancient one, at the same time extending in a surprising manner it's views and, in fact, placing it in the high road to prosperity.The fourth article of the decree of council of 14th April, 1785, enacted that the exclusive privilege of trading to the Indies, granted to the Company, should remain in force for seven years of Peace, the compu time of departure of the Company's first extation of which period to take place from the pedition.The sixteenth article fixed the capital of the Company at 20 millions of livres, or nearly £833,334 sterling which sum was divided into 20,000 shares of 100 livres each. It was soon, however, discovered that this capital would not be adequate to the extent of the Company's commercial views, and accordingly by a fresh decree dated 21st September 1786, it was augmented by 20 millions more, and divided into similar shares with the former grant; the holders of the old shares being likewise holders of the new, for not having received any dividend upon the original stock, they thought themselves entitled to a preference in the division of the second. This capital of 40,000,000 livres or £1,666,668, together with the credit of the Company, put it in a fair way of annually exporting for the Indies merchandises to the value of between 25 and 30 millions of livres, or from £1,0:1,568, to £1,250,001 sterling.-The ninth article of the last mentioned decree extends the privilege to fifteen instead of seven years of peace. All the operations of the Company were superintended by twelve directors, who were answerable for the due administration of its affairs and were obliged to hold on their own accounts, at least 250 stock shares.-The first dividend, was announced on the 21st April 1788, and the amount of it, namely 18 per cent, was decided upon in a general court of directors, the net profits of the Company having been laid before the court and duly examined. The sum to be paid upon each share was determi ned by ballot and a majority of suffrages. The expences attendant on the outfit of the Company's ships from the time of its establishment to 1st January 1789 were 19,190,599 livres or about £828,775; the number of the said ships being 33, whereof 12 were annually cleared for Pondicherry and the coast of Coromandel, 9 for Bengal and Chandernagore, 6 for China, 4 for the coast of Malabar, and 2 for Mocha.-All these vessels set out from and returned to the port of l'Orient, where they discharged their cargoes, and the Company's sales took place. -It appears from a catalogue or bill of sale now before us, that the India Company's sale at l'Orient in November 1788 was as follows, viz. 65600 lbs. saltpetre, 330950 lbs. bohea tea, 342909 lbs. congou, 221504 lbs. campoi, 123 lbs. pekoe, 148 lbs. green, 239901 lbs. superior green, 123096 lbs. green twankay, 54879 lbs. souchong, 27037 lbs. skin hyson, 141801 lbs. best hyson, 300 lbs. cinnamon, 10503 lbs. mace, 36342 lbs. rhubarb, 130 lbs. Chinese spun cotton, 750 masses of mother-of-pearl, 255,000 lbs. cowries, 173,000 lbs. pepper, 19220 lbs. of lacquer in leaves, 323127 lbs. red wood, 40,000 lbs. raw nankeen silk, 120564 pieces of porcelain, consisting of table and tea services; 58563 pieces of striped, spotted, and plain callicoes, such as ginghams, habassies, caladairis; handkerchiefs, such as foulards, koroltes, tapseils, chaperats; 739459 pieces of muslin, consisting chiefly of yellow nankeens, (to the number of 178830 pieces) anoudy, calligans, ballacors, chandesconas, bossues, &c. 82095 pieces of Patna stuffs, such as gurrahs, baftaes, chowtars, Laccowries, cushtaes, and mulmuls.. Hence it will be seen that the Company carried on a tolerably extensive traffic, but the decree of the convention, dated 1790, put a stop to it's proceedings and the trade between India and France has since remained free. BERNARDIN DE ST. PIERRE'S THEORY OF CURRENTS. The following article, by a regular correspondent of the Panoratna, has appeared in the Athenæum. As the writer has favoured us with a postscript to it, we insert it entire in order that our readers may have the whole of the subject before them. Capt. Lebozec, of the French frigate the Clorinda, threw over a bottle, containing a letter, in lat. N. 19 22 long. 55 30, W. of Paris, on the 11th of Jan. 1801. This letter was picked up on the nineteenth of This, it may not be deemed unnecessary to observe, was the largest of the Company's sales from the time of it's establishment to that of it's dissolution. March following, on the coast of Guadeloupe, at a place called Anse Patate, in the canton of Moule. Its course, therefore, had been at least two hundred leagues from N. E. to S. E. in sixty-seven days. Lescallier, in his Etudes de la Nature, published in 1784, has written on this kind The first of marine post, as he terms it. bottle was thrown over at the entrance of the Bay of Biscay, on the 17th of Aug. 1786, and picked up on the 9th of May, 1787, at sea, by a fishing boat, two leagues off the coast of Normandy. It was forwarded to the address in London.-Another was thrown over on the 15th of June, 1797, in lat. 44. 22. E. of the meridian of Teneriffe. A soldier found it on the 6th of July following, on the shore of Cape Prior, near Ferrol. It had gone above 120 leagues in three weeks, and was forwarded to the above M. Lescallier.-A third bottle was carried above nine hundred leagues in a strait course; it was thrown over two hundred leagues north of the Isle of France, by a French captain on his passage to India. It was picked up at the Cape of Good Hope, and contained an oiled let'er directed to the governor of the isle of France. Further particulars of it are not known. It is interesting to observe that, of these experiments on the theory of currents, the first was dictated by paternal affection. Au Englishman embarking at Cadiz for India, not having an opportunity of sending a letter to his sister, committed it to the waves, which, after tossing it about for nearly nine months, threw it on the coast of Normandy. M. Lescallier concludes the subject with regretting that La Peyrouse did not employ these trajectile means of giving information to his country- Great power in the hands of man sometimes produces but feeble effects, whilst these, when directed by the great author of nature, often bring about grand events. A reed of a foreign species, found by Columbus on the shores of the Canaries, led him to conjecture that a new world lay to the westward. In the Literary Panorama for Nov. last (Vol. III. p. 361.) your correspondents will meet with the account of another bottle, containing a letter to Lord William Bentinck, which was picked up on the coast of Ireland. Yours, &c. C. W. Postscript. Mons. Brard, a French painter, in his passage from Madeira to Cayenne, in 1798, threw fifty bottles into the sea: one of them addressed to M. Bernardin de St. Pierre he received. There is no account given of the others. POETRY. THE BARON OF COTTINGHAM'S AITH, A LEGEN DARY TALE. Who ever lifted up his hand against GOD, and prospered ? The Baron of Cottingham vow'd a vow, Which he solemnly swore to keep, 'Ere break of morn-'ere the cock did crowOr the breath of the rising breeze did blow, On the walls of his castle steep. For the Hessle monks have done me despight; It is my sword must do me right :- If Vengeance I forego. He instantly summon'd his merry men bold :- For each was a gallant Knight. Their twelve squires came with heedful haste; They stood the Baron nigh. Twelve yeomen followed stout and strong Which he might handle manfully. And who is that, with the bloody shield, Who stalks the Captain of the train ?— Bravely could he the faulchion wield : Distain with Christian blood the field, And raise the shout o'er warriors slain. Sir Arthur of Hareland, stout and keen, And Roger of Hareland he was there; Their cloaks I ween, of forest green; Their banner broad, of crimson sheen, Wav'd in the midnight air. They took their aith, e'er the morning ray Or, e'er the lark salute the day, So the drawbridge fell, and they hied them out: Their leaders three in eager rout, With knights and squires, and yeomen stout, Cross'd o'er the sandy plain. The Baron, on charger snowy white, With the knights of Hareland led the van; Their armour bright gleam'd sickly light, For the moon appall'd that fateful night With lustre deadly wan. Nor heeded they not the evening cold; But spurred his horse cach chieftain bold, Round Southwood they their coursers guide, Hence fast by Skidley hills they ride, With greater haste, and quicker still, Rode they the vale of Willoughby Till they view'd Kirk Ella's armed peel, And eastward of the shady hill, The fertile fields of Anlaby. But sudden as they held their course, The moon look'd burning red; Started and rear'd each foaming horse: Nor heeded the rider's skill, of force; Or soothing words obeyed. The bell toll'd from the dark Abbaye, Glittered the wand'ring meteor's glare, As the priest the blessed mass did sing ; With pious thought, with pious care, His foes in his orison share, When the Abbey bell did ring. The priests they crowd the altar's height, When they chaunted their vesper's praise. What phantom knights glide down the vale ? |