country at the foot of the hills; and a fine view of the city of Paris, at the distance of six miles, completes the magnificent landscape. In the vicinity of St. Cloud, nature is every where picturesque: at Versailles, she presents an unvaried aspect. But St. Cloud is peculiarly interesting on account of its associations, and the reflections which it excites in the mind. This place was the delight of the beautiful and unfortunate Queen Marie Antoinette. I saw her forty four years ago, when she was only in the twentieth year of her age, and resembled a celestial being just descended upon our sphere. What horrible events have since taken place' How far was she then from foreseeing her tragical fate!--St. Cloud was also the favourite residence of Napoleon, who expended large sums in its decoration. Here, only a few years ago, that great, and for some time successful aspirer was seen with the continent of Europe prostrate at his feet. But how changed are the times! Every thing at St. Cloud excites serious reflections on the instability of human greatness. In viewing the palace, and wandering about its environs, we imagine that we see inscribed on every object this important lesson, Hujus transit gloria mundi !* Having been as much gratified by the sight of St. Cloud, as dissatisfied with the view of Versailles, I walked forward to Paris, and about ten o'clock at night reached the Place Vendome. After passing about two hours at the Palais Royal, I retired to my lodgings in the Rue de la Jussienne, and thus terminated one of the most agreeable and interesting excur sions that imagination can conceive, the variety of scenes and the pleasures of the mind having banished every sensation of bodily fatigue, In returning from Paris by the way of Calais, I had but little opportunity for making observations. I stepped aside, however, at Chantilly, to view the slender remains of the once magnificent chateau of the famous Princes of Conde. Here we meet with another instance of the transitory nature of sublunary grandeur. This superb palace, together with the vast domains of that family, being at the time of the revolution confiscated to the use of the republic, and sold in lots, the buildings were demolished for the sake of the materials, excepting a part of the stables, out of which is now formed a small villa, which, if I was rightly informed, is again in the hands of the original proprietors, and is all that remains of their once splendid mansion. The park, which was twenty miles in compass, is now thrown open, and a great part of it cultivated-an alteration that excites no regret in the mind of the traveller, as the game with which it abounded, was an intolerable nuisance to the neighbouring peasantry. The country between Paris and Calais, as well as throughout Normandy, is well cultivated, and the crops, especially wheat and rye, were very promising. But the villages every-where, and especially in Picardy, have a mean appearance, the farm-houses being generally covered with thatch, and the walls of many of them constructed of clay. The agriculture of France has undoubtedly been improved within the last twenty years; but the houses of the peasantry in general present the same appearance, as, • The glory of this world passeth away. in all probability, they did a century ago, a circumstance for which, on enquiry, the following causes were assigned I was told that before the revolution, all this part of France was divided amongst a number of great proprietors, many of whom, being attached to the court, and all of them generally residing at Paris, paid little attention to the embellishment of their estates in the country. When the revolution broke out in all its violence, most of those overgrown lords of the soil were obliged to emigrate; and their estates, being confiscated, were sold in small lots at low prices. The farmers, therefore, made every possible effort to purchase, especially as those who neither bought land, nor enlisted in the army, were regarded as not well affected to the revolutionary cause. But many of the purchasers were under the necessity of encumbering their newlyacquired estates with mortgages, which have rendered them unable to build better houses, or even to embellish their old ones. The same causes have also prevented inclosures, which, except in the wine districts, are yet very rare in most parts of France, and particularly in Picardy. Small inclosures may sometimes be observed near the villages; but I do not recollect seeing an inclosed township between Paris and Calais. For the same reasons, we see scarcely any insulated farms, or any country-seats, except in the vicinity of Paris. [To be concluded in our next.] ENCOURAGEMENT OF ENGLISH MANUFACTURES: To the Editor of the Northern Star. AS the wearing of Leghorn bonnets appears to be in a fair way of becoming universal with the female sex, and as in that case it will certainly be highly injurious to the prósperity of a part of the population of our native country; & statement of some circumstances which may be depended on, may perhaps prove acceptable to some of your readers, and tend to restrain the present rage for foreign manufactures. In the country where the plait is made, the inhabitants of the towns are in the proportion of three women to one man. Two of these females out of the three, are young girls, who have no dependence but on trade. Where the disproportion of their number to the other sex is so great, it cannot be supposed they are likely to get husbands, and so become happy members of This paper so perfectly accords with our own sentiments on the subject, and we think with the sentiments of every British patriot, that we gladly give it insertion, and would strongly recommend it to the attentive consideration of those who have any control over the prevailing taste and fashions of the day. We can confirm, from personal knowledge, the sentiments of our fair correspondent, as to the condition of females Among the lower orders in the plaiting counties. ED. VOL. III. Nn society. If work fails them, they have no other resource but parish-relief or prostitution; and the former, (so far different are their ideas in the agricultural part of the kingdom,) is reckoned as disgraceful as the latter. Now let us examine what this trade actually does for them.-Plait, according to the quality, and the time of year, differs in value from 2s. 6d. to 68. per score yards. They are able to plait, on an average, 2 score in a week, which brings them in from 7s. 3d. to 15s. This perhaps is very well for a woman; but the demand is not regular; so that 10s. may be considered as the medium price,—a sum barely sufficient for actual necessaries. The sewers of the bonnets (for the greater part of the bonnets are sewed in the plait countries) are allowed from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per bonnet, and they can do one a day, which is from 12s. to 15s. per week; but they only get full employment for about five months in the year. During the remaining seven, the work is very carefully divided, so that some weeks they have only one bonnet per week allowed; they may therefore be considered as worse off than the plaiters. In favour of the latter it may likewise be mentioned, that all the children are taught the art of plaiting, insomuch that a labourer who has a dozen children, may gain a tolerable livelihood by their exertions. Now let my fair country-women consider that for every straw-bonnet they do not buy, they deprive a sewer of one day's bread, even when in full employ, and a plaiter of ten or twelve days support, as it is averaged three score and a half are necessary for a bonnet, and two score and a half the average work per week. Let us judge of the number thrown into a state of starvation by the number of Leghorn bonnets worn. The evil is great and increasing. The poor girls, from their being habituated to a sedentary employment, are incapacitated for domestic service; and where the proportion of their numbers is so large, to think of getting husbands would be fruitless. Parish-relief to them is as dreadful as the idea of prostitution is to us; and yet to one, or the other, they must have recourse, for a bare existence. Their morals become debased, and the sin originates in you, my fair and virtuous country-women. From the demand for plait failing, the labourer sees his children unemployed, their health or sex does not permit them to follow their father's work, for boys as well as girls plait the straw; and with so large a family, consuming much and bringing nothing in, he is soon cast upon the parish in all the agony of reluctant pride. I am so anxious, that I scarcely know whether I explain myself explieitly; I wish to do so, I hope I have done it. The British fair are well known to be charitable. They are the first to support every benevolent institution. In this case, no call is made upon their purse. It is merely a slight hint, to change one fashion for another more becoming; to prefer the elegance of the English plait, to the gaudiness of the yellow Leghorn. I trust every female, for the future, when she goes to the show-rooms, will pass the foreign goods with contempt; that every one who is already in possession of Leghorn manufacture, will wear it out as quick as she can; and that those who can afford it, will, when they have read this paper, take a pair of scissors, and render their bonnets "things of shreds and patches," and by the purchase of an English straw one, be able to say proudly, "I too have saved a fellow creature!" THRASEA. CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF RIMINI. Non quivis videt immodulata poemata judex, HOR. To the Editor of the Northern Star. WHETHER bad poems have met with the same indulgence in England that they did in the time of Horace in Rome, is a question I shall not pretend to decide: but this is certain, that some of our modern versifiers, who write in a loose and rambling manner, have attempted to introduce a new style in poetry unbecoming its dignity, and to establish new principles of taste in order to justify this innovation and conciliate to their works the favour of the literary republic. Amongst these, the author of Rimini holds a distinguished place--distinguished for his bold attack on the poetical characters of Pope and Johnson, and for his vain and impotent attempt to substitute a model of poetry superior to that which they have left us. "I do not hesitate to say," says this modern innovator, that Pope and the French school of versifiers have known the least on the subject of any poets that ever wrote. They have mistaken mere smoothness for harmony; and in fact wrote as they did, because their ears were only sensible of a marked and uniform regularity." I have, in a former paper, vindicated Johnson from the charge ("that he was neither a poet nor a judge of poetry") brought against him by another writer of the same class with Mr. Leigh Hunt: in this, I shall defend Pope against the attack of Mr. Hunt himself, but in a different way. I propose, then, to point out some of the defects in the style and versification of Rimini, as thus it will best appear how imperfect this poem is, when compared with those nobler productions of which its author speaks so contemptuously. I shall range what I consider the great defects of this poem under the following heads:-Vulgarisms, or the introduction of phrases beneath the dignity of poetry-Extravagant images or expressions, such as are contrary to reason and common sense- -New-coined idiomatic phrases, such as are obscure or absurd Prosaic lines, and the violation of the metre of heroic verse. Under the first head of vulgarisms, or the introduction of phrases and images beneath the dignity of poetry, I think the following expressions may be justly ranged: Already in the street the stir grows loud. p. 6. Here the poet compares a young, beautiful, and accomplished prince, to a case, and puts this degrading image into the mouth of a princess! Is this making his characters speak according to their rank, or is it consistent with his own definition of poetry in his preface, where he says, "the pro per language of poety is in fact nothing different from that of real life?" for what princess would ever make use of such vulgar language as this? It is unfortunate that this classical writer should have forgotten the admonition of the Roman bard, Intererit multum, Davusne loquatur, an heros ; Your style should an important difference make De ART. POET. FRANCIS. We'll pass the followers and their closing state. p. 25. She had stout notions on the marrying score. p. 27. Is the author speaking of a fish-woman or scullion? Of neither, but a princess! A princess had "stout notions on the marrying score. elegance of style! what delicacy of idea! what consistency of character! What He kept no reckoning with his sweets and sours. p. 47. Who? The prince Giovanni! What "sweets and sours are these? one would think they referred to honey and crabs, or some such things, which Giovanni kept hoarded up in some princely cupboard or store-room in his palace: but these expressive words are employed to describe the temper of the prince, which was, in common language, sometimes sweet and sour. But this is the language of real life, and depends for "its dignity upon the strength and sentiment of what it speaks," (See Pref. to Rim. p. xv., xvi.) And asks him after all his morning's doing. p. 53. As thus they sat and felt with leaps of heart. p. 77. This last expression reminds me of a vulgar saying which I have somewhere heard," I am so overjoyed, that my heart is ready to leap out of my mouth" but even this is more tolerable in prose than the other, which seems to be its offspring, in poetry. Only he found he could no more dissemble, And kiss'd her mouth to mouth all in a tremble. p. 78. With what a delicate picture has this truly original poet here presented his readers! what a luscious kiss-" mouth to mouth!" and "all in a tremble" too! what fine exaggeration of circumstance. When compared with this description, how tame is the simplicity of the original line of Dante, of which it was intended as a noble copy : La bocca mi baciò tutto trementi. All trembling he kiss'd my mouth. After this warm description of the devouring freedom of these princely lovers, we cannot but say with Virgil, "In furias ignem que ruunt.” But a mute gush of hiding tears from one, Clasped to the core of him who yet shed none. p. 83. N.B. Core used in the new school of poetry for heart: so p. 95, "Strike me to the core." |