1756. MISERY of FRANCE. 555 land on either fide the tree level with the furface of the water) is in proportion to the diameter of the tree as to 6, and exact half the length from the top of the tree to the brink of the hither fide of the water. Quere the diameter of the tree; likewife I would know the length from the top of the tree to the edge of the water, and circumference of the island. 6.x 1,5 "Solution. Put the diameter of the tree, then as 1,5: 6::x: the breadth of the island from the tree to the water, m65, and let a the length from the top of the tree to the brink of the water, then (per 47 Eucl.) ✔ + m = 3, and per duced, gives x# 12x 9,34; wherefore a 74,72, and the circumfe rence of the island is found to be 264,08 feet. The domeftick Evils the French labour under, amidst all their Vaunts and Gasconades, are mof feelingly fet forth by the Parliament of Touloufe, in their Remonfirances to the King of the 17th of September. 68 AN we believe (fay they) that the fubjects of the fame king. In fhort, Sire, every poffible fpecies of duties and impofts are accumulated upon your fubje&s. The country people fink under them. Nothing favours them, every thing concurs to opprefs them. Befet with legal demands and undue exactions, they fee the Cenormous produce of the Twen. A fruits of their tillage and industry vanist tieth Penny, fince the peace, was not fufficient to discharge the national debt? No ; this impoft, which, like a conflagration, devours every thing in its progrefs, and which hath already been increased to be almost equal to the Tenth Penny, supported by that noble economy whereby great princes gain themselves honour, removes from you and your people the neceffity of fresh fupplies. B Be pleased, Sire, be graciously pleased to confider their diftrefs; you can do every thing, but they cannot perform impoffibilities. What burdens have been heaped upon them! The Tailles, which carry away a great part of eftates; the Capitation, that impoft of fervitude, which C means were found to establish at a time of extreme neceffity; but which even the glory of our kings is concerned to abolish for ever; the Hundredth Penny, which often abforbs the clearest rent of an inheritance; the Droits de Controles, of which the tariff is fo obfcure, and the laws relating to it fo uncertain, that they daily authorize the most grievous extortions; the Clergy's Tythes, lo fcrupulously exacted; the Rentes fonderes, the Dunanes, the Otrois, formerly granted to the cities for their relief, but now become the fruitful feeds of much vexation and abuse. out of their hands, They would think themfelves happy, if they could keep for themselves a portion equal to the tenth that is expected from them. We declare it with horror to your ma❤ jefty, that the Tenth Penny will give the finishing blow to agriculture: It declines daily. It is in vain to be bulied about improving it, when it is almoft deftroyed. The minifters who approach your perfon are deceived by curious fpeculations. The machines prefented to your majefty, and the experiments made in your presence, will not till our lands. Our fields are not to be judged of by the park of Verfailles. Give them labourers, we will answer for the harvest. If a scarcity often happens, it is because the husbandmen are difcouraged. They no longer fow or reap for themfelves; and how fhould they, if they had a mind? They are taken from the plough to be employed whole months on the roads, and treated with lefs commiferation than felons, being denied the allowance which these enD joy. Languedoc is, God be thanked, exempted from that inhuman labour; but in the other provinces of our jurif diction it is carried to the greatest excess. The groans uttered by the Corvers [men compelled by statute to work on the roads] are heard from every corner: They would have reached the throne, had they not been fifled by barbarous voices. Our remonftrances will not have that fate. Being addreffed to faithful minifters, they will be delivered to your hands. You will know, Sire, that there are Corvees, and there will no longer be any." Befides thefe burdens, common to all the people within our jurifdiction, Languedoc has fome peculiar to itself: The E Equivalent, which renders the consumption of wine and provifions fo dear; the Leuaes, of which fo fhameful a traffick is made the Gabelles, which make fuch a ftrange and odious difference between the Poetical ESSAYS in NOVEMBER, 1756. 557 Poetical ESSAYS in NOVEMBER, 1756. To Mifs S- -N, with fome Swan-Quill Pens. A with convex neck and mantling pride, And in the Trent's pellucid wave But you, fweet bloom of ripening youth, I Thou it make the fwan, tho' long fince mute An ODE, infcribed to bis Grace the Duke of UNKNO 1. NKNOWN, unread by all the laureat [mufe, fire, Directs his numbers, and exalts his lyre? 2. If acts illuftrious merit lafting praife, How just that praife which blazons Beau- If matchlefs worth demands the poet's lays 3. Where difcords reign, thofe difcords to affuage Let 558 Poetical ESSAYS in NOVEMBER, 1756. Let groundlefs fears, let jealous factions ceafe, [born peace. He comes, and with him comes mild heav'n 4. Look where religion with a folemn mein Directs her steps, and waves her spotless hand! (Faith, Hope and Charity compofe her train) She calls-and points to Abby's hallow'd land; Bids the fad eye behold her walls defac'd, Thefe, Beaufort, thefe demand thy pious care, Cloysters by facriligious hands destroy'd. 6. Time breaks his hoftile fcythe; he fighs Since these can animate the dead? There are thy works, O Sculpture ! thine to In rugged rock a feeling fenfe of woe. A fofter fcene of grief difplay'd, His fqualid hair, and galling chains; His hoary head her hand sustains ; And rife or fall by her command. While, A large monaftery of the Ciftercian order; it underwent the fate of the rest of the religious boufes in the reign of Henry VIII. The rubbish of the place was lately removed by order of the duke of Beaufort (to whom it belongs) and it deferves the notice of the curious. f Ragland-cafle was one of the laft beld out in England or Wales, during the late troubles, which the marquis of Worcester, a man of eighty-four years of age, delivered up on very good conditions, when the king bad nettber an army in the field, nor fearce a garrifon befides it in England. Socrates, who was condemned to die by poison. Seneca, born at Corduba, who, according to Pliny, was orator, poet and philofopher. He bled to death in the Bath. Semiramis, cum ei circa cultum capitis fui occu pata nunciatum effet Babylonem defeciffe; alterâ parte crinium adbuc folutâ protinus ad eam expuge nandam cucurrit: Nec prius decorem capillorum in ordinem quam tantam urbem in poteftatem fuam redegit; quocircà ftatua ejus Babylone pofita eft, &e. Val. Max, de Ira. Poetical ESSAYs in NOVEMBER, 1756. 559 While, phoenix-like, the ftatesman, bard, or fage, [age. Here, as Devotion, heav'nly queen, Behold their ardent bofoms glow! Come Science, bright ethereal gueft, Thro' Wifdom's arduous paths, to fair To the AUTHOR of the LONDON SIR, SI think your Magazine is, by no A means, a proper vehicle for fcandal; I hope the following lines will not be look- To a LADY of PLEASURE. WHIL HILE you, gay nymph! in fearch of Thro' all the haunts of gallantry and love; Make dress your study, beauty all your care, And ev'ry (parkle vanish from your eye; Alas, how loft! while thus you heedlefs run On Gen. C SEE FIDO. EE gentle C--with gout and love oppreft, Inflead of comfort heightens all his grief. And then, like Ætna, burst in flames above. • A noble ftatue of Sir Ifaac Newton, erected in Trinity-college chapel, by Dr. Smith. |