14 DR. PARR'S STYLE. DR. PARR'S STYLE. DR. PARR seems to think, that eloquence consists not in an exuberance of beautiful images not in simple and sublime conceptions-not in the feelings of the passions; but in a studious arrangement of sonorous, exotic, and sesquipedal words; a very ancient error, which corrupts the style of young, and wearies the patience of sensible men. In the university of Benares, in the lettered kingdom of Ava, among the Mandarins at Pekin, there must, doubtless, be many men who have the eloquence of Βάῤῥους, the feeling of Ταίλωρος, and the judgment of "Qηpos, of whom Dr. Parr might be happy to say, that they have profundity without obscurity - perspicuity without prolixity ornament without glare terseness without barrenness-penetration without subtlety — comprehensiveness without digression- and a great number of other things without a great number of other things.—[E. R. 1802.] A SOMNOLENT WRITER. AN accident, which happened to the gentleman engaged in reviewing this sermon, proves, in the most striking manner, the importance of the charity for which it was preached in restoring to life persons in whom the vital power is suspended. He was discovered with Dr. Langford's discourse lying open before him, in a state of the most profound sleep; from which he could not, by any means, be awakened for a great length of time. By attending, however, to the rules prescribed by the BOOKSELLERS HACKS-FORESTALLING, REGRATING. 15 Humane Society, flinging in the smoke of tobacco, applying hot flannels, and carefully removing the discourse itself to a great distance, the critic was restored to his disconsolate brothers.-[E. R. 1802.] BOOKSELLERS' HACKS. WE suppose the booksellers have authors at two different prices. Those who do write grammatically, and those who do not; and that they have not thought fit to put any of their best hands upon this work.-[E. R. 1802.] FORESTALLING AND REGRATING. THE farmer has it not in his power to raise the price of corn: he never has fixed, and never can fix it. He is unquestionably justified in receiving any price he can obtain: for it happens very beautifully, that the effect of his efforts to better his fortune is as beneficial to the public, as if their motive had not been selfish. To insist that he should take a less price when he can obtain a greater, is to insist upon laying on that order of men the whole burden of supporting the poor; a convenient system enough in the eyes of a rich ecclesiastic; and objectionable only, because it is impracticable, pernicious, and unjust.* — [E. R. 1802.] * If it is pleasant to notice the intellectual growth of an individual, it is still more pleasant to see the public growing wiser. This absurdity of attributing the high price of corn to the combinations of farmers, was the common nonsense talked in the days of my youth. I remember when ten judges out of twelve laid down this doctrine in their charges to the various grand juries on the circuits. The lowest attorney's clerk is now better instructed.—(S. S.) NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF AUSTRALIA. In this remote part of the earth, Nature (having made horses, oxen, ducks, geese, oaks, elms, and all regular and useful productions for the rest of the world), seems determined to have a bit of play, and to amuse herself as she pleases. Accordingly, she makes cherries with the stone on the outside; and a monstrous animal, as tall as a grenadier, with the head of a rabbit, a tail as big as a bed-post, hopping along at the rate of five hops to a mile, with three or four young kangaroos looking out of its false uterus, to see what is passing. Then comes a quadruped as big as a large cat, with the eyes, colour, and skin of a mole, and the bill and web-feet of a duck -puzzling Dr. Shaw, and rendering the latter half of his life miserable, from his utter inability to determine whether it was a bird or a beast. Add to this a parrot, with the legs of a sea-gull; a skate with the head of a shark; and a bird of such monstrous dimensions, that a side-bone of it will dine three real carnivorous Englishmen; - together with many other productions that agitate Sir Joseph, and fill him with mingled emotions of distress and delight.-[E. R. 1819.] AUSTRALIAN ARISTOCRACY. The time may come, when some Botany Bay Tacitus shall recall the crimes of an emperor lineally descended from a London pickpocket, or paint the valour with which he has led his New Hollanders into the heart of China. At that period, when the Grand Lama is sending to supplicate alliance; when the spice islands are purchasing peace with nutmegs; when enormous tributes AUSTRALIAN INDEPENDENCE. 17 of green tea and nankeen are wafted into Port Jackson, and landed on the quays at Sydney, who will ever remember that the sawing of a few planks, and the knocking together of a few nails, were once a serious trial of the energies and resources of the nation? When the history of the colony has been attentively perused in the parish of St. Giles, the ancient avocation of picking pockets will certainly not become more discreditable from the knowledge that it may eventually lead to the possession of a farm of a thousand acres on the river Hawkesbury. — [E. R. 1803.] FUTURE INDEPENDENCE OF AUSTRALIA. Ir may be a curious consideration, to reflect what we are to do with this colony when it comes to years of discretion. Are we to spend another hundred millions of money in discovering its strength, and to humble ourselves again before a fresh set of Washingtons and Franklins? The moment after we have suffered such serious mischief from the escape of the old tiger, we are breeding up a young cub, whom we cannot render less ferocious, or more secure. Endless blood and treasure will be exhausted to support a tax on kangaroos' skins; faithful Commons will go on voting fresh supplies to support a just and necessary war; and Newgate, then become a quarter of the world, will evince a heroism, not unworthy of the great characters by whom she was originally peopled.-[E. R. 1803.] ATTRACTIONS OF AUSTRALIA. A LONDON thief, clothed in kangaroo's skins, lodged under the bark of the dwarf eucalyptus, and keeping с 18 EMANCIPATED CONVICTS. sheep, fourteen thousand miles from Piccadilly, with a crook bent into the shape of a picklock, is not an uninteresting picture; and an engraving of it might have a very salutary effect-provided no engraving were made of his convict master, to whom the sheep belong.-[E. R. 1823.] EMANCIPATED CONVICTS. THE history of emancipated convicts, who have made a great deal of money by their industry and their speculations, necessarily reaches this country, and prevents men who are goaded by want, and hovering between vice and virtue, from looking upon it as a place of suffering-perhaps leads them to consider it as the land of hope and refuge, to them unattainable, except by the commission of crime. And so they lift up their heads at the Bar, hoping to be transported, "Stabant orantes primi transmittere cursum, Another circumstance, which destroys all idea of punishment in transportation to New South Wales, is the enormous expense which that settlement would occasion if it really were made a place of punishment. A little wicked tailor arrives, of no use to the architectural projects of the Governor. He is turned over to a settler, who leases this sartorial Borgia his liberty for five shillings per week, and allows him to steal and snip, what, when, and where he can. The excuse for all this mockery of law and justice is, that the expense of his maintenance is saved to the Government at home. But the expense is not saved to the country at large. The nefarious needleman writes home, that he is as comfortable as a finger in a thimble! that though a fraction |