So much for the arts, not the art of Phyfic-that art, fo complicated, fo difficult, fo useful and honourable when practifed with kill and integrity, that the rant of Pliny refpecting it is hardly hyperbolical, Diis primum inventors fuos affignavit medicina caloqne dicavit ;" and according to Rhafis (to whom as a profeffor fome allowance might be made when he fpeaks of his art), "Medicina tota eft Dei, & eft res venerabiliffima." I may, perhaps, in another letter, have a touch at the patients. CARBONARIUS. The Life and Adventures of Benjamin Scribble, Efq. (Continued from page 6.) ONE thing remained now to com plete my victory, which was the publication of the piece; but notwithRanding it was twice performed, there was no Irish bookfeller would run the hazard of printing it on his own account-this however, was no flop to my career, I boldly committed it to the prefs, and became refponfible for the expences; in the title page, it was faid, "Performed with diftinguished applaufe, and written by Benjamin Scribble, Efq;" Oh, that word Efquire! -what? though acquired by courtesy, the found of it was harmonious to my ravifhed ear! I now looked upon myfélf as a rival to all the Efquire-writers, Cumberland, O'Keeffe, &c. in London; but why did not I fhine? why did not I blaze with equal fplendour? becaufe, thought I, I was in a land that did not encourage merit I heard of the flattering fuc cefs, which even humble authors met with in London-I understood, from report, that merit there would receive its due reward; nor did I deem it impoffible, feeing there were fo many Thea tres Royal; befides, the dramatic productions of modern writers there, were faid to be fo flimfy, that I thought it would be no difficult tafk to "throw all my glories open to their view." I was confcious that my father, who was an entire ftranger to the means I had taken of commencing author, would by no means approve of this romantic notion-correfponding however, with a friend in London, I prevailed on him to write me a letter (which I was to fhew to my father) acquainting me that he had found a moft admirable fituation for me at an academy-advifing me by all means to accept it; for thefe reafons, that I fhould live comfortably, and form good connections. This ftratagem fucceeded, my deluded father gave me money to put the fuppofed project into practice. I took leave of all my friends and relations, giving each of them two or three couplets in order to remember me; but alas! I had scarcely put my foot into the Liverpool veffel, when an ill-looking dog, followed by another equally terrific flapped me on the fhoulder, with this comfortable news, Mr. Scribble, I have a writ against you." This being the first time and a time fo critical, that I ever experienced fuch a fcene, I fcarcely recollect what reply I made; affured I am, however, that it was fo broken, it was fcarcely intelligible. The fellows dreading my efcape, dragged me back again; the writ I found was iffued by the Printer of the Farce, for the expences, advertisements, &c. I was very near damning my own play: however, I wrote feveral notes to my comrades, and late clafs fellows, who came to condole me in the fpunging-houfe. I declared that I would amply pay any one, the fir benefit I had in London for a play that would (To be continued.) would lend me a fufficiency to extricate naturally of a temper a little impatimyself. The fum on this condition was ent: and it was not much qualified by made up, and, O Liberty! I enjoyed making a campaign or two againft the thee once again. I now entered ano- English; the firft was in a fhip of war, ther veffel, as that which I had previ- fitted out at St. Malo'sor, in other oufly chofen, was gone, and where I words, Monfieur, a privateer; for had unfortunately put all my luggage. though I was bred a failor, and loved I need not say that I took a hearty glafs fighting well enough, I was refused even with my companions ere my departure, as Enfign de vaiffeau, on board a being Irishmen, this is a thing of courfe; king's fhip, because I was not a gentlemany toafts were drank, and repeated man-My father, however, had a fucceffes to my expedition. pretty little eftate, which he inherited from his great, great grand-fatherBut he had an elder fon, and I was to fcramble through the world as well as I could-They wanted, indeed, to make me a monk; but I had a mortal averfion to that metierf, and thought it better to run the rifque of getting my head taken off by a cannon ball, than to fhave it-My first debut was not very fortunate- -We fell in with an English frigate, with whom, though it was hopelefs enough to contend, we exchanged a few fhot, for the honour of our country; and one of those we were favoured with in return, tore off the flesh from my right leg, without breaking the bone The Breton: A curious Hiftory. [From Defmond, a Novel, by Mrs. Charlotte Smith.] LETTER XIII. To Mr. BETHEL. Hauteville, in Auvergne, D'who had fomething in his air and ID I not name to you a Breton, manner unlike others of the peafantry? tion.' ་ But 'I believe, replied he, that I am The wound was bad enough, but the English furgeon fewed it up, and before we landed, I was fo well as to be fent with the reft of our crew to the prifon at Winchefter- I had heard a great deal of the humanity of the Engfish to their prifoners, and fuppofed I might bear my fate without much murmuring; but we were not treated the better for belonging to a privateer. The prifon was over-crouded, and very unhealthy-The provifions, I believe, might be liberally allowed by your government, but they were to pass through the hands of fo many people, every one of which had their advantage out of them, that, before they were diftributed in the prifon, there was but little reafon to boaft of the generofity of your countrymen. To be fure the wifdom and humanity of war is very remarkable in N O TE S Anfwering I believe to our midfhipman. a fcene like this, where one nation fhuts up five or fix thoufand of the fubjects of another to be fed by contract while they live; and when they die, which two-thirds of the number feldom fail to do-to be buried by contract-Yes! out of nine-and-twenty of us poor devils, who were taken in our little privateer, fourteen died within three weeks; among, whom was a relation of mine, a gallant fellow, who had been in the former wars with the English, and ftood the hazards of many a bloody day-He was an old man, but had a conftitution fo inured to hardships, and the changes of climate, that he feemed likely to fee many more -A vile fever that lurked in the prifon feized him-My hammock (for we were flung in hammocks, one above another, in those great, miferable rooms, which compofe, what they fay is, an unfinished palace) was hung above his, and when he found himfelf dying, he called to me to come to him.- "Tis all over with me, my friend,' faid he- N'importe, one muft die at fome time or other, but I should have liked it better by a cannon ball-Nothing, however, vexes me more in this bufinefs, than that I have been the means of bringing you hither to die in this hole (for, in fact, it was by his advice, I had entered on board the privateer) however, it may be, you will out-live this confounded place, and have another touch at thefe damned English. National hatred, that ftrange and ridiculous prejudice in which my poor old friend had lived, was the laft fenfation he felt in death-He died quietly enough, in a few moments afterward, and the next day I saw him tied up between two boards, by way of the coffin, which was to be provided by contract; and depofited in the foffe that furrounded our prifon, in a grave, dug by contract, and of courfe very fhallow, in which he was covered with about an inch of mould, which was by contract alfo, put over him, and feven other prifoners, who died at the fame time!-My youth, and a great flow of animal fpirits, carried me through this wretched fcene-And a young officer, who was a native of the fame part of Britanny, and who was a prifoner on parole, at a neighbouring town, procured leave to vifit the prifon at Winchester, and enquired me out-He gave me, though he could command veHib. Mag. Aug. 1702. ry little money himself, all he had about him, to affift me in procuring food, and promifed to try if he could obtain for me my parole, as he knew my parents, and was concerned for my fituation. But his intentions, in my favour, were foon fruftrated, for, on the appearance of the combined fleet, in the channel, the French officers, who were thought too near the coaft, were ordered away to Northampton, while, very foon after ward, a number of Spaniards, who had among them a fever of a moft malignant fort, were fent to the prifon already over-crowded, and death began to make redoubled havock among its wretched inhabitants-Of fo dire a nature was the difeafe thus imported, that while the bodies that were thrown over-board from the Spanish fleet, and driven down by the tide on the coafts of Cornwall and Devonthire, carried its fatal influence into thofe countries, the prifoners, who were fent up from Plymouth, diffeminated deftruction in their route, and among all who approached them; thus becoming the inftruments of greater mifchief than the fword and the bayonet could have executed. Not only the miferable prifoners of war, who were now a mixture of French, Spanish, and Dutch perifhed by dozens every day; but the foldiers who guarded them, the attendants of the prifon, the phyfical men who were fent to adminifter medicines, and foon afterward, the inhabitants of the town, and even those of the neighbouring country began to fufferThen it was that your government perceiving this blefling of war likely to extend itself rather too far, thought proper to give that attention to it, which the calamities of the prifoners would never have excited. A phyfician was fent down by parliament, to examine into the caufes of this fcourge; and in confequence of the impoffibility of ftopping it while fuch numbers were crowded together, the greater part of the French, whom fick nefs had fpared, were dif miffed, and I, among others, returned to my own country. I, foon after, not difcouraged by what had befallen me, entered on board ancther privateer, which had the good fortune to capture two Weft-India flips, richly laden, and to bring them fafely into l'Orient, where we difpofed of their cargoes; and X forming me, the faid Louis-Jean, that if I, at any time, dared to fish in the river, or to fhoot a bird upon the faid fief, of which it feems my little farm unluckily made part, I fhould be delivered into the hands of juftice, and dealt with according to the utmoft rigour of the offended laws. To be fure, I could not help enquiring within myself, how it happened, that I had no right to the game thus fed in my fields, nor the fish that fwam in the river? and how it was that heaven, in creating these animals, had been at work only for the great feigneurs! What is there nothing, faid I, but infects and reptiles over which man, not born noble, may exercife dominion?-From the wren to the eagle; from the rabbit to the wild boar; from the gudgeon to the pikeall, all, it feems, are the property of the great. 'Twas hard to imagine where the power originated, that thus deprived all other men of their rights, to give to thofe nobles the empire of the elements, and the dominion over animated nature! fhare was fo confiderable, that I determined to quit the fea, and return to my friends-When, in pursuance of this refolution, I arrived at home, I found my father and elder brother had died during my abfence; and I took poffef fion of the little eftate to which I thus became heir, and began to think my felf a perfon of fome confequence. In commencing country gentleman, I fat myfelf down to reckon all the advantages of my fituation--An extenfive tract of wafte land lay on one fide of my little domain-On the other, a forest -My fields abounded with game- -a river ran through them, on which I depended for a fupply of fifh; and I determined to make a little warren, and to build a dove-cote. I had undergone hardships enough to give me a perfect relifh for the good things now within my reach; and I refolved moft piously enjoy them-but I was foon difturbed in this agreeable reverie-I took the liberty of firing one morning at a covey of partridges, that werefeeding in my corn; and having the fame day caught a brace However, I reflected, but I did not of trout, I was fitting down to regale myfelf on thefe dainties, when I received the following notice from the neighbouring feigneur, with whom I was not at all aware that I had any thing to do. refift; and fince I could no longer bring myfelf home a dinner with my gun, I thought to confole myself, as well as I could, with the produce of my farmyard; and I conftructed a finall enclosed pigeon-houfe, from whence, without any The moft high and moft powerful offence to my noble neighbour, I hoped feigneur, Monfeigneur Raoul-Phillippe to derive fome fupply for my table-But, Jofeph-Alexander-Cafar Erifpoe, ba- alas! the comfortable and retired ftate ron de Kermanfroi, fignifies to Louis- of my pigeons attracted the aristocratic John de Merville, that he the faid feig- envy of thofe of the fame fpecies, who neur is in quality of lord Paramount, inhabited the fpacious manorial doveto all intents and purposes invefted with cote of Monfeigneur, and they were fo the fole right and property of the river very unreafonable as to cover, in imrunning through his fief, together with menfe flocks, not only my fields of corn, all the fish therein; the rufhes, reeds, where they committed infinite depredauand willows that grow in or near the ons, but to furround my farm-yard, and faid river; all trees and plants that the monopolize the food with which I fupfaid river waters; and all the islands and plied my own little collection, in their aits within it-Of all and every one of enclofures. As if they were instinctivewhich the high and mighty lord, Raoul- ly affured of the protection they enjoyed Phillippe-Jofeph-Alexander--Cæfar--E- as belonging to the feigneur Raoul-Phil rifpcé, Baron de Kermanfroi, is abfolute and only proprietor-Alfo, of all the birds of whatsoever nature or fpecies, that have, fhall, or may, at any time fly on, or acrofs, or upon, the faid fief or feigneury And all the beafts of -hafe, of whatfoever defcription, that fhall, or may be found upon it.' thort, fir, it concluded with in lippe-Jofeph Alexander-Cæfar-Erifpoe, Baron de Kermanfroi; my menaces, and the thouts of my fervants, were totally difregarded; till, at length, I yielded too haftily to my indignation, and threw a ftone at a flight of them, with fo much effect, that I broke the leg of one of thefe pigeons; the confequence of which was, that in half an hour, four of the gardes I felt this propofal to be inconfiftent with every principle of juftice-In this fpot was an old oak, planted by the firft de Merville, who had bought the efiate It was under its fhade that the happiest hours of my life had paffed, while I was yet a child, and it had been held in veneration by all my family-I determined' then to defend this favourite fpot; and I haftened to a neighbouring magiftrate, learned in the law--He confidered my cafe, and then informed me, that, in this inftance, the laws of Britanny were filent, and that therefore, their deficiency must be fupplied by the cuftoms and laws of the neighbouring provinces The laws of Maine and Anjou, faid he, decide, that the feigneur of the fief may take the grounds of his vaffal to make ponds, or any thing elfe, only giving him another piece of ground, or paying what is equivalent in money-As precedent, therefore, decides, that the fame thing may be done in Britany, I advife you, Louis-Jean de Merville, to fubinit to the laws, and, on receiving payment, to give up your land to Monfeigneur Raoul-Phillippe-Jofeph-Alexander Cofar Erifpoe, Baron de Kermanfroi." gardes de chaffe of Monfeigneur appeared, and fummoned me to declare, if I was not aware, that the wounded bird which they produced in evidence against me, was the property of faid feigneur; and without giving me time either to acknowledge my crime, or apologize for it, they fhot, by way of retaliation, the tame pigeons in my enclofures, and carried me away to the chateau of the most high and puiffant feigneur Raoul-Phillippe - Jofeph-Alexander-Cæfar Erifpoé, Baron de Kermanfroi, to answer for the affault I had thus committed on the perfon of one of his pigeons-There I was interrogated by the Fifcal, who was making out a proces verbal; and reproved feverely for not knowing or attending to the fact, fo uni verfally acknowledged by the laws of Britany, that pigeons and rabbits were creatures peculiarly dedicated to the fervice of the nobles; and that for a vaffal, as I was, to injure one of them, was an unpardonable offence againft the rights of my lord, who might inflict any punishment he pleafed for my tranfgref fion-That indeed, the laws of Beauvoifis pronounced, that fuch an offence was to be punished with death; but that the 'It was in vain I reprefented that I milder laws of Britany condemned the had a particular tafte, or a fond attachoffender only to corporal punishment, ment to this fpot. My man of law had at the mercy of the lord-In fhort, fir, told me that a vaffal had no right to any I got off this time by paying a heavy fine taste or attachment, contrary to the fento Monfeigneur Raoul-Phillippe-Jofeph- timents of his lord-And, alas !-in a Alexander-Cæfar Erifpoé Baron de Ker- few hours, I heard the hatchet laid to manfroi, who was extremely neceffitous, my beloved oak-My fine meadow was in the midft of his greatnefs.-Soon af- covered with water, and became the reterward, Monfeigneur difcovered that ceptable for the carp, tench, and eels of there was a certain spot upon my eftate, Monfeigneur-And remonftrances and where a pond might be made, for which complaints were in vain!--Thefe were he found that he had great occafion; and only part of the grievances I endured very modeftly fignified to me, that from my unfortunate neighbourhood to he fhould caufe this piece of ground to this powerful Baron, to whom, in his be laid under water, and that he would miferable and half furnished chateau, I either give me a piece of ground of was regularly fummoned to do homage the fame value, or pay me for it accord-upon faith and oath'-till my opprefing to the eftimation of two perfons whom he would appoint; but, that in cafe I refufed this juft and liberal offer, he fhould, as lord Paramount, and of his own right and authority, make his pond by flooding my ground, according to law. he NOTE. Game-keepers. fions becoming more vexatious and infupportable, I took the defperate refolution of felling my eftate, and throwing myfelf again upon the wide worldParis, whither repaired with the money for which I fold it, was a theatre fo new, and fo agreeable to me, that I could not determine to leave it till I had no longer the means left of playing there a very brilliant part; when that unl hour arrived, I wandered ist |