J. [ 192 ] METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER. Kept by C. BLUNT, Philosophical Instrument-maker, 38, Tavistock-st. Covent-Garden. PREVAILING WINDS-N 9-NE-E 0-SE 0-S 0-SW 1-W 8-NW 6 Mean Temp 50 33 41.5 Rain Mean temperature Maximum, 50 Minimum, 9 40'78 34.22 25.71 37'8 In answer to the numerous enquiries relative to the best channel for transmitting the New Monthly Magazine to Ireland and Foreign countries, we beg leave to state that it is regularly delivered by the Postmasters in all parts of Europe at Two Guineas per annum, or One Guinea for six months, if orders are given, and payment made To Mr. AUSTIN, General Post Office, London, for Ireland. To Mr. Cowie, General Post Office, for France, Germany, and Holland. To Mr. WILLIAM SERJEANT, General Post Office, for the Countries bordering on the Baltic and the Mediterranean, and for Portugal and the Brazils. TeMг. THORNHILL, General Post Office, for the West Indies, Bahama, Madeira, Bermuda, and Nova Scotia. To Mr. Guy, of the East India House, for the Cape of Good Hope, and all parts of India. ERRATUM. No. XXV. p. 21, col. 2, line 21 from the bottom, for publications read abuses. Printed by J. Gillet, Crown Court, Fleet Street, London. THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. 27.] MR. EDITOR, APRIL 1, 1816. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. I BEG leave to refer your correspondent CONSTANS FIDEI, Vol. IV. p. 484, of your interesting publication, who is entitled to the thanks of all the friends of civil and religious liberty, for his vigilant attention to the conduct of that disciple of Ignatius, Dr. MILNER, to a recent publication, entitled Anacreon in Dublin. It is a work of great merit, and deserves to be generally read. The following extracts will give your readers a fair specimen of it : : ODE XV. THE PILLORY. Εν ισχίοις μενιπποι. We detect the Jesuit sly Well we know him by his ears; "Couch'd in Milner's leering eye."] Dr. Milner, the resident and avowed Vicar-General of the Pope in and for Great Britain, the country whose ordinances declare all acceptance of papal authority to be HIGH TREASON. Perhaps the doctor's eye leers at the repeal of these irreverent statutes: he must take a longer squint at the abrogation of her common law. "And the proud tiara tells" τις άνδρας Εγνωρισεν τιαξαις. "The convict Peter Finnerty."] In 1797 this man was convicted in Dublin of a seditious libel, and put in the pillory. Whether it was afterwards considered an useless expenditure of disgrace, I know not; but since that time he never spoke through the board. He is now content with speaking to the board. [VOL. V. And brow and breast, and horn and hoof, Give of this breed unerring proof: Whilst his high pedigree they tell By evidence infallible. So sov'reign-like he cross'd the ocean, Tended by Europe's due devotion, This bull-of ev'ry bull the chiefWith zeal religious to imprint us, Hath surely borne some blessed brief, Or bind our faith with holy cement From Paul the Third or Pius Quintus; Of Martin, Gregory, or Clement. Behold the flashes of his ire! His nostrils glow with thund'ring fire! His voice alarms the farthest shore, And monarchs tremble at his roar! Full well I know, most holy man, He issueth from the Vatican. No other bull but this alone, Got by Pope John on Popess Joan, Would venture here his carcass fiery, Spite of Stat. Eliz. Præmunire; And Doctor MILNER will confess This bull comes from his Holiness. Notes. "Tended by Europe's due devotion."] sea. Φέρει γαρ αμφι νωτοίς Σιδωνίην γυναικα. The Sidonian maid was Europa, whom Jupiter in the form of a bull carried across the The annotator on the Vatican MS. insists, that when our quarter of the globe adopted her name, it was taurinated with the bull-pock; the virus whereof has lost none of its force under the modern Jupiter. "From Paul the Third or Pius Quintus."] Of these holy Pontiffs a short memorandum will suffice. Paul the Third let loose a most terrific bull against our eighth Henry; and Pius the Fifth a still worse against Queen Elizabeth, whereby her subjects were absolved from their allegiance, and she herself deposed and damned. The commentators have not ascertained what particular Popes Anacreon intended by their three other Holinesses. The Vatican compiler, whose opinion in the point is infallible, pronounces that the Martin whom Anacreon intends, or (what is the same thing) ought to intend, is Martin the Fifth, whose pious letter to our sixth Henry against the statute of provisors, would have been still extant, if Henry's uncle, the Duke of Bedford, had not thrown it into the fire. Here the Abbé Spaletti breaks out into an holy rapture: "Ah!" he exclaims, "those evil times have fled for ever! Our blessed PonVOL. V. 2 C 194 Dr. Milner, and Catholic Seminarics--Verdicts of Inquests. [April 1, tiff styled that law execrabile statutum; and Mr. Canning denounces its extreme rigour; neither when the Pope's letters shall again arrive, will the Duke of Bedford prove se uncatholic as to consign them to the flames!"-Pope Gregory, according to this reverend authority, may be either Gregory the Second, who excommunicated the Emperor Leo; Gregory the Seventh, who wanted to bully William the Conqueror, and who made the Emperor Barbarossa hold his stir rup; or Gregory the Ninth, who by his legates and bulls drained England* of her last penny, and repeatedly excommunicated the Emperor. Pope Clement-lucus a non lucendo may be Clement the Fifth, who excommunicated the Emperor Andronicus; or Clement the Sixth, who excommunicated the Emperor Ludovicus Quintus; or Clement the Eighth, who by his briefs endeavoured to prevent any Protestant successor to Queen Elizabeth. "No other bull but this alone, Got by Pope John on Popess Joan." Neither have the commentators agreed which of the two or three dozen Pope Johns was the sire of this illustrious bull. As Popess Joan was the dam, we should, according to strict chronology, father him on one of the seven Johns who preceded her holiness in the pontifical chair. But miracles make nothing of chronology, and infallibility makes as little of miracles; Anacreon, therefore, may represent this Jupiter Tonans as a posthumous bull, secundum computa. tionem Hibernicam, born two or three centuries before his father.-His grace the Duke of Bedford, and the other patriots "whose talk is of oxen," will take notice that I expect the gold medal at their next autumn shew for this useful improvement in the noble science of bull-breeding. The Popess, however, deserves a niche in our history. She was born at Mentz in the ninth century, though some authors insist she was of English parentage. She ran away with a monk, and passed for many years as a man, and studied and became a profound scholar. Such was her fame that, upon the death of Pope Leo IV. anno 855, she was elected pope; in which office she continued two years five months and three days, celebrating mass and performing all the other functions of the papacy, except one, which was performed for her. Going In state to the Lateran, she was taken in labour near St. Clement's, and for want of an accoucheur, and the requisite et cetera, Mrs. Infallibility died. To avoid which scandal in future, her successors have ever since kept clear of that dangerous' road; and the porphyry chair has been converted Thus speaks the wise old adage *** Roma capit Marcas, Bursas exhaurit et Arcas; Et tibi tu parcas, fuge papas et patriarchas. into a chaise-percée, for what purpose the reader must peruse Sabellica Matuanus : most assuredly so chaste a poet as Anacreon will not discredit his muse with the story; but it would furnish a charming subject for some of his translators. Seriously, the story of Pope Joan is related by 65 popish historians: but we will content ourselves with citing Platina only, who, in his "Lives of the Popes," ad vitam Johannis 8, thus speaks: Qua ideo ponere breviter et nude institui, ne obstinate nimium et pertinaciter videar omisisse, quod Had the Popess fere omnes affirmant." condescended" ponere nude," it would have saved her chroniclers much shame and trouble. "Spite of Stat. Eliz. Præmunire ; And Doctor Milner will confess."] One of the multiplied statutes which, in affirmance of the common law, make any introduction of the papal bulls into England high treason: which Mr. Canning has not yet repealed, and which Dr. Milner knows are every day violated." In addition, Mr. Editor, to the Popish seminaries mentioned by your · correspondent, there is a modern one ́established at Flass, near Durham, équal to the accommodation of 200 pupils, and adequately endowed. It is a handsome and convenient building, on a rising ground, overlooking the city of Durham, its venerable abbey, castle, churches, &c. It is to be regretted that a retorn has not been ordered by parliament to be made of all the Popish seminaries throughout Great Britain. A PROTESTANT DISSENTER. Feb. 6, 1816. MR. EDITOR, YOUR correspondent INVESTIGATOR is indignant that the coroner's inquest should so frequently pronounce a verdict of "lunacy," instead of "felo de se,” in cases of suicide; but he should also recollect that in our courts of justice for the trial of criminal causes, stolen goods to-the amount probably of ten or twenty pounds, are often brought in by the jury as being only of the value of thirty-nine shillings; and this verdict is sanctioned by the judge upon the bench, for the life. Other cases also occur in which express purpose of saving the culprit's the crime of the offender is mitigated from the same laudable and humane motive,. It does not, therefore, appear that any greater blame attaches to a coroner than to a judge; and the eensure should rather be applied to the existing laws, than to those who soften their severity by evasions of the nature al 1816.] On the Exclusion of Engravers from the Royal Academy. luded to, and who, to "do a great right, do a little wrong," The penal laws of this country would be sanguinary indeed if they did not admit of some discretionary modifica. tion; and it is satisfactory to reflect, that whenever the strict interpretation of them is departed from, it is always for the purpose of exercising the divine at tribute of mercy. But whether the criminal code of a nation ought to be immutable, and the punishment in all cases certain, is a question that would admit of much argument both for and against it, and into which I am not at present disposed to enter. As we are now upon the subject of coroner's inquests, I cannot help adverting to a verdict recently given, on view ing the body of an old woman who died at Islington through excessive drinking, and which must have excited consider able surprise. It appeared in evidence that she had been drinking gin and other liquors at different ale-houses through out the day; and that in the evening, to crown her exploits, she called for half a pint of "Old Town," and having swallowed this dose, the old beldam soon afterwards expired. A coroner's inquest was beld; and although it was perfectly evident that Old Tom" and his accomplices were the immediate cause of her death, yet they brought in a verdict that she died" by the visitation of God!!", E.T. PILGRIM. Woburn, Feb. 12, 1816. MR. EDITOR, SHOULD you consider the following worthy of a place in your entertaining magazine, it is much at your service: it is an attempt at the solution of two questions in your last relating to engravers. The first is, " On what principle are engravers prohibited from exhibiting their works at the Royal Academy." Now, Sir, it appears to me purely and simply upon the principle of their inferiority. The first and grand object of the Academy is the encouragement of mental exertion-the encouragement of efforts which are emphatically the productions of the exhibitor's own brain the encouragement of thought, fancy, invention, composition, the main pillars and foundation of art. Would it be proper for the Acadeiny, because some engravings (though copies) are very fine, and some drawings (though originals) are extremely bad, to deviate from their broad and just principle of excluding the one class and patronizing the other? In 195 fact, it is a circumstance of importance to the welfare of engravers, (who, like the rest of mankind, cannot always see their own good,) that they are excluded, both from the exhibition and honours of the Academy. By their works being shut out from the exhibition, room is given for the growth and cultivation of talent of more moment to the arts, and upon which engraving depends and subsists. By themselves being debarred from the highest honours of the art, their disconcerted ambition throws back its fires to its confined, but proper channel; and how unprofitable its exertions had it been allowed success! The crown of merit would have been placed upon the copyist's brow, and the patron and lover of the arts have languished for the bright and ever-springing beams of creative genius. The Academy being the great patron and protector of original compo sitions and ideas, how can the engraver expect its fostering influence? An engraver has nothing to do with an original but to copy it; in so doing, he enters the only proper path to extend his knowledge, and lays the foundation of a just fame. He should-ever keep in mind the adage of Sir Joshua: "He that follows must necessarily he behind:" for what would the engraver gain by attempting to get before? It is true he might obstruct and keep back his guide, but would not be so forward himself as if he had let his precursor alone, and followed humbly, yet surely, the more enlightened steps which went before him. The next question is, "On what account are engravers disqualified from becoming royal academicians?" This question turns and hinges so much upon the first, that having dispatched that, the road is shortened: for the Academy would hardly admit to its government a large class of candidates, whose works it does not consider right to spread upon its walls. 1, Sir, hold them as justified in both cases; and as I am to say on what account they are excluded from the highest honours, I answer, their deficiency in point of talent, and its cause, their want of time. It is well known what incessant application art requires, I mean the capacious and surpassing glories of it,-how then can he who is struggling with a stubborn material, who passes hours in mere manual labour, find opportunities to soar to the heights of invention, to explore the depths of information, and to fight against the difficulties of art? How then can they instruct and enlighten others, become the very 196 On the Depression of Agriculture, and on Small Farms. [April 1, apostles of art, and be the select rulers and princes of the artist world? I am fearful your querist argues from personalities, and perhaps may consider some one engraver more worthy of the honour than some one academician: but is this, or any thing like it, broad and just reasoning? I should try the merits of the question thus:-Is the class of engravers so likely to produce artist-like merit and instruction as the classes admitted? On this one point will I stake my defence of the Academy. What better, what sounder mode can be taken of advancing engravers, than by advancing their parents the painters? And now, Sir, I will conclude with expressing my most unfeigned admiration of the art of engraving, it being the means of translating and making more public the rarer and more excellent works of the pallet and the chisel. Order is Heaven's first law :-let then the Academy go on in promoting the welfare of the heart and soul of art, and in due scason the functions and the limbs will receive their proper nourishment and vigour. MR. EDITOR, J. S. IN perusing your valuable miscellany for January last, I was very much pleased with the remarks of OMEGA on the depression of agriculture and commerce. With respect to the latter, I cannot presume to be a judge sufficiently competent to estimate the magnitude of the difficulties under which it labours, but I conceive them to be very great: with these of agriculture, however, I am somewhat acquainted by experience, and most perfectly agree with your intelligent correspondent that the monopolizing of farms is one very great cause of the dissatisfaction at this time manifested in the country, and consequently of the present distress. Perhaps it is not difficult to prove that the trade in provincial towns is thereby very materially injured; for the farmer who in the late golden times (as agriculturists have falsely called them, but which are likely to prove a greater injury than benefit) cultivated an estate, whatever might be its extent, found it impossible, from the great expense of stocking a farm, and the difficulty of procuring one from so many having been swallowed up by monopolizers, to establish his sons in business as farmers in a manner agre cable to his wishes; he was, therefore, obliged to apprentice his sons to some business or profession. These sons, when their respective terms of ap prenticeship were expired, he was able to establish in their respective trades, and generally in the nearest provincial town. But the great accumulation of tradesmen in any provincial town must necessarily divide the customers who are in the habit of attending that market; and although they may all, while the agricultural part of the community could purchase their goods to so great an extent, be able to support themselves, and some of them even to acquire independence, yet now that the farmer can no longer expend any more than is sufiicient to purchase what he absolutely wants, and sometimes scarcely that, these tradesmen are driven to the brink of bankruptcy. To the quantity of acres, however, which OMEGA proposes for each of his small farms I must beg leave to state my objection, as being too small, as there could not be found a sufficient number of tenants to occupy them; for few farmers who have a sufficiency to stock a farm of 100 or 200 acres, would cultivate one of 20 or 30, and take upon themselves the whole labour, as those must do who live on farms of that size. It would also be very difficult, if not impossible, to procure tenants from the lower ranks of agricultural society who have either enough money, or are sufficiently prudent, to take upon themselves the cultivation of so many small farms. The quality of the land must likewise be taken into consideration, which in many parts of the kingdom is so indifferent, that a man, however industrious, could not procure a livelihood, even if he had no rent to pay. The expense of erecting so many cottages, with the requisite offices, (as small barns, &c. which are absolutely necessary,) ought to be considered: for suppose an estate of 1,000 acres of land to be divided into 50 small farmis, there would in many cases be 49 houses to build; the expense of each, on the most economical plan of building, would be little less than 2501., making in all a sum of 12,0001. Perhaps it would tend much more to the encouragement of agriculture, if all the good land in the kingdom was laid out in farms, in all the gradations from 15 to 250 acres for each farm; there would then be encouragement for every man to be industrious, in the hope of obtaining a farm something larger than that which he then occupied, and such an one as would enable him to pass the latter end of his life without toil; for it is impossible to attain a sufficient compe |