"THE present volume may be considered as no improper Supplement to Mr. Taylor's and Mr. Thomson's publications; as exhibiting, in an official form, from authentic sources, Claims made at several of the Coronations of our Kings, from Richard II. inclusive, to that of George II.; with the Auswers of the Court, and their reasons for allowing or rejecting the Claims." Though the splendid ceremony is postponed, it is not so, we earnestly hope, sine die, or for any length of time. Meanwhile the present Work will afford much solid information to all those who are curious in matters of so interesting a nature; of this we have in a former number (see p. 6) given a good specimen, in an extract relative to the office of Great Chamberlain. As this publication is not the ephemeral production of a day, but is founded on authentic documents, it will be a perpetual guide on all future occasions, and such must occur; but long, very long, may the auspicious reign of George the Fourth preclude the necessity of a new edi tion of Works like the present. 46. The Athenian Oracle abridged, containing the most valuable Questions and Answers in the original Work, on History, Philosophy, Divinity, Love, and Marriage. 8vo. pp. 280. Nichols and Son. IT is the fashion of the day to reprint our old authors, and this Work has been selected with peculiar judgment. Not only does the Athenian Oracle (to use the words of the preface) comprise a rich treasure of useful knowledge for the Theologian, the Historian, the Philosopher, and the Lover," but it has a higher and distinctive character. It is an Encyclopædia of valuable solutions in GENT. MAG. September, 1820. reference to most knotty and difficult questions. These last are professedly what is called curious, and cannot be resolved, but by persons of high information and sound judgment. The Authors were men of the first character, one of whom is known to have been Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, a circumstance which we mention, because his name is not in the preface. There is another merit attached to this work, beyond that of amusement or instruction. It contains arguments, of a form strictly logical, which cannot be found elsewhere; and which no mind can anticipate. It is with Books, as with the Drama. The pleasure is lost if we can guess what is to come next: and it is the soul of good writing, that it be not obvious. Whoever takes any one of these questions, cannot tell what the matter is, which the answer contains. He may conceive, that it is something merely essayish or sermonizing; but precise and scientific, containing mathe finds it, not vague or general, but ter strictly applicable to life and business: and that, in reference to things, of which nine hundred and ninetynine men in a thousand are unable to give even an opinion. Most essays are mere illustrations of a thesis or undisputedpoint; but here are unsettled topicks, and the gratification is novel. marriage are those, upon which we The questions concerning love and cannot be adequately informed elsewhere. We shall select the following, as very masterly and curious: "Quest. Is absence best for Love? "Answ. Not in the beginning of an amour, but when it is confirmed and settled. It is dangerous at first, because it gives a Rival opportunity to make addresses; and it is in loving, as it is in racing-where if once a horse gets the start, it is not so easily recovered. But when the main dispute is once over, and the heart fairly won, the case is much altered; then, perhaps, being always present is one of the most dangerous, though desired, things that can befail a lover. As acquaintance grows more intimate, our lovers are still less upon their guard; they do not shew their best side to one another, as at first. Faults will daily be found, unlucky accidents will fall out, such things will be discovered as would never have been suspected nor believed; a thousand little quarrels and piques will arise, which at least produce vexation, of tentimes 1 tentimes final parting. But in absence, it is quite the reverse; we willingly forget the faults of those we love, and magnify their excellencies; we embrace and cherish their dear ideas and memories; we are daily expecting and wishing to hear from them; and, if we hear, especially by letters, our love is extremely increased by those little subtle messengers; there is all the soul, and more to be seen in them. We say therein, whatever we please, without being put to the trouble of a suitable repartee, or seeking for a kind and yet discreet answer. All our thoughts are there exhibited at the best advantage, and we may give them just what turn we please. The man may write with as much passion as he pleases: he may set his adorable before him, dressed in as many beauties as his fancy can form, without having the original present to confute him; and write, according to the new found excellence of his ideal mistress, and bring in all the fine things he thinks of. The lady may, with all the caution she pleases, answer him again, and let as much love as she will, look out through her prudence; make what promises she pleases, yet with such restrictions and modifications, as shall bind her no more than ropes of sand. And when they come once to meet again, there is such ado, with transports, raptures, and the rest, that, in a word, we dare think no longer of it." p. 225. This is not inferior to Sir William Scott's fine delineation of matrimonial quarrels, as delivered in Court at Doctors' Commons. The following upon happiness after marriage, is admirable. "Love those, who have something to recommend them besides beauty, wit, or fortune; any of which alone are but mean companions, when we are to have no other society all our lives. To all those let good humour be added." p. 239. Now we are decidedly of opinion, with the celebrated traveller and no velist, Dr. Moore, that everlasting good humour is the chief charm in a wife; but unfortunately it is destroyed in this way. Good managers find the lucidus ordo in housekeeping perpetually infringed by petty vexatious circumstances, of certain occurrence, unless, which is impossible, an equal interest with that of the mistress, can be created in servants, or others; nor has nature proved any other remedy for little teazing things than busy occupation in a present or expected pleasure, which is a matter rarely of contemporary coincidence. Correction there fore of a propensity to ill humour, or anger, or peevishness, ought to be an affair of principle (for nothing else can apply to the case); as much as a resolution, not to drink or swear; and a bad temper should be deemed, as in truth it is, very unfeminine. In short, all classes may find in this book, something conducive to their pleasure and improvement. 47. An Inquiry into the Law relative to Public Assemblies of the People. By Sir C. E. Carrington, knt. Hatchard. THE events which produced the pamphlet now before us, must be still fresh in the minds of our Readers; the petitions which were in consequence presented to the Sovereign breathed nothing but disorder and sedition; tumultuous assemblies were summoned in despite of the civil authorities, in various parts of the kingdom; not with the idea of a fair and impartial deliberation concerning the melancholy event, but inspired by an intemperate resolution to condemn every measure pursued for the safety of the realm, and to desire Royalty itself, in the most imperious terms, to punish its defenders as enemies to its welfare. "See the world's glory once, here sits forlorn Exposed to foreign and domestick scorn; Her sons, most damnably religious grown, "In a country governed by law (observes the author), with a representative body to watch over the interests of the people, have the demagogues of the present day the right they so loudly assert, and so perilously exercise?" p. 5. The prints called Rudical, as well as that class which hang like Mabomet in the air, have set out with a firm persuasion that the right of meeting and passing resolutions for the purpose of petitioning for the redress of some supposed grievance, is vested in the people. What we are to understand by the term “people” is not perfectly clear, although Mr. Cobbett has defined it to mean 66 persons qualified to serve in the National Militia:" the qualification, however, required, is that only which relates to age and bodily proportion. We find it enacted (17 Rich. II.) "That as soon as the Sheriffs, and other the King's Ministers,' under which words, as Sir Edmund Carrington observes, all Justices of the Peace, and even constables, are clearly to be included,' shall hear of a riot, rout, or other assembly against the peace, they, with the power of the county, where such case shall happen, shall disturb such malice with all their power, and shall apprehend all such offenders, and put them into prison, until due execution of the law be made of them; and that the Lords, and other liege people of the realm shall attend, with their whole strength and power, the Sheriffs and Magistrates aforesaid." pp. 27, 28. Thus we see that our ancestors had the same fears of a tumultuous rabble as ourselves; but meetings for the sake of "petition" seem not to have been in requisition till the reign of Charles 1.: the evil then grew beyond all bounds, till committees were actually appointed "under pretence of receiving petitions against Clergymen;" one of which was presented by Alderinan Pennington, and alleged to be subscribed by twenty thousand men, inhabitants of the city of London, who required in plain terms nothing less than "the total extirpation of episcopacy t." "Their mode of procuring so many signatures was as remarkable as dishonest, and continued ever after in the like addresses:" they first prepared a petition containing some reasonable request, which was proposed at a public meeting, where they had be fore contrived that it should be well received: as soon as the sheet of paper whereon the petition was written, was filled with names, many more were annexed" for the reception of the number, which gave all the credit, and procured all the countenance to the undertaking:" the original petition was then "cut off" and a new one drawn up, suitable to their design, and joined to the list of names subscribed to the former one. When these disgraceful proceedings came to light, several Ministers declared that they signed a petition totally different from that which was delivered in their name; and the noted Stephen Marshall (to whom the papers had been entrusted), finding that they intended to vindicate themselves from that calumny, endeavoured by promises and threats to prevail upon them to pass by this "indirect proceeding." Notwithstanding the vigour with which the Rebels and Sectaries carried on their infamous proceedings, there were not wanting men, who by modest and loyal petitions endeavoured to check the course of sedition. The county of Rutland drew up one for Episcopacy, November 18, 1641, signed by 840 freeholders and clergy: "Though the number seem but small, yet the county is so too, and certainly the reasons which they offered were great, and altogether unanswerable.-The press now began to break loose, as indeed every thing that looked like order, seemed to be wholly abandoned to libertinism both in Church and State, for daily complaints were made of abusive pamphlets, against both particular persons and the Government Civil and Ecclesiastical *." Little is wanting to compleat the analogy between those times and our own; we have seen a triumphant, yet disorderly mob march through the streets of London, with wicker wands and laurel boughs, to celebrate the victory of sedition over reason: happily that triumph began and closed in the same day, but the same cannot be said of the conquest obtained over Royalty, when the factious men of Buckinghamshire † rode into the City with Hampden at their head, and carrying printed copies of their petitions in their hats. Among the 66 King's Pamphlets" in the British Museum is to be found an engraving of this remarkable event. But while we lament that a similar has happened in our time, we must rejoice that a loyal person has stepped forward from that same county to blot out by his exertions in this age, the defection of his neighbours in a former. On December 31, 1641, Sir Richard Guerney, bart, Lord Mayor of London, called a Common Council at Guildhall, where, among other resolutions, it was agreed, "That this Court (as the Representative of the body of the whole City) doth promise from henceforth their best endea* Nalson. + See Grey's Hudibras. vours to prevent and suppress in time as his ing of arms, or otherwise, for the safety and preservation of this City; to which this Court, and all the members thereof, promise all due and cheerful obedience. *" It is almost incredible how the cacoethes supplicandi had spread over the kingdom, for even "The Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common-council men, many of whom were loyal men, yet in this epidemical petitioning time, they were also seized with the petitioning disease, for however warrantable modest petitioning may be, yet this sort of it was really the effect of a distempered and crazy state, and did extremely promote all the ensuing mischiefs, and that state calenture, for which England was forced to bleed so severely." Nor were the Sheriffs without their share of the infection, for they courted "The people like Absalom, endeavour-ing to steal their hearts from their Sovereign by flattering speeches, with the same intention that he did those of his King and father †.” But supposing no one of the objections against assemblies for the sake of petitioning to be valid, of what do the Radicals complain? Under what real grievance do they labour? unless the barrier opposed by the laws to their courses be so denominated. There is, however, a legislature from which mortals have no appeal, and to which "the Atheist must bow;" but when the mind has outstepped the pale of religion and moral rectitude, will it yield to precepts divine or human? Besides, have our new legalists considered in what manner they are qualified to attempt a reform in the boasted constitution of Great Britain ;-there is not one, amongst this "servum pecus,” on whose judgment and opinion we can depend concerning the right of assembly, or the necessity of pelition; how, then, can we for a moment imagine that a collected body of such men can be of greater weight (physical force excepted) than one single uninformed Radical? Another recurrence to the history of the unhappy times of Charles I. will shew that they were the forerunner of ours: nothing was more common with the disaffected party than to distribute seditious songs and pamphlets, some of which produced a wonderful effect upon the weak minds of the rabble; while on the other hand several loyal writers had the courage to publish what they conceived to be an antidote to this mischief: Dr. Nalson has preserved a curious specimen of their composition, but we have only room for the insertion of a few lines: "From those that dare work ill in every And are so far from sanctity or reason, From them which nothing but false ru mours rear, And likewise those which had such men Who publish for a truth all which they It may perhaps be interesting to the collectors of Radical Vestigia, that Barnard Alsop was the Hone, and "the free-born John Lilburn" the Hunt, of his day; Marchmont Needham, who was at first a writer for the Loyalists, and afterwards having shifted his ground, conducted the Mercurius Britannicus, prototype of our unbought and equally unchangeable William Cobbett: "when you hear (as this last-mentioned writer has observed) a man complain of the severity of the laws, always set him down for a rogue."—" Out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee, wicked scribbler *." But to return to the subject before us-Sir William Blackstone ob *See Warburton's Notes on the "Dunciad." serves, serves, that in Russia a law was es tablished by the Czar Peter, that no subject might present a petition to the throne, till he had first addressed two Ministers of State. The restrictions on petitioning in England, although of a different, are of a salutary nature, and while they tend to promote peace and order, are pro ductive of no check whatever upon the real liberty of the subject: "That assemblies for the purpose of tumultuous petitioning are illegal, has been clearly shewn; that they ought to be prevented, and may be forcibly suppressed, has also been satisfactorily explained; but it is said that the people do not, in their modern meetings, mean to petition, or to remonstrate," but "to assemble at the requisition of any private individual, to take into public consideration or discussion any public topic; to collect and promulgate the sense of the meeting, in the shape of resolutions, addresses, or appeals to the people at large." This right our author manfully denies; but as we have given no definition of a riotous meeting, we will lay that by Hawkins himself before our Readers: "An unlawful assembly, according to the common opinion, is a disturbance of the peace, by persons barely assembling together with an intention to do a thing, which, if it were executed, would make them riotors, but neither actually executing it, nor making a motion toward the execution of it. But this seems to be much too narrow a definition, for any meeting whatever of great numbers of people, with such circumstances of terror as cannot but endanger the public peace, and raise fears and jealousies among the King's subjects, seems properly to be called an unlawful assembly; as where great numbers complaining of a common grievance, meet together, armed in a warlike manner, in order to consult together concerning the most proper means for the recovery of their interests; for no one can foresee what may be the event of such an assembly *." We have already extended this discussion beyond our limits, but the subject was not one which we could lightly pass over; we regret, therefore, that we cannot follow our loyal author through his work; for to extract particular passages from it would be doing an injustice to his talents: till Sir Edmund Carrington *Hawkins, b. 1. p. 24, 25. 66 stepped forward, no writer or orator had dared to take the bull by the horns and define the right of petition." From the treatise before us, we can hardly be mistaken, if we pronounce him to be, as Honest Tom D'urfey has expressed it *, "A Royalist by Nature, not by Art, That loves his prince and country at his heart; Addresses loves, to all mankind is civil; But hates Petitions as he hates the devil." Enough of Petitioners; but what shall we say to the projected reform among the women? Would to heaven that this were literally true : sent Twelve Oldham matrons into Parliament; The dames of Rochdale at your levee press, Three Stockport virgins wait with an Address.'" We had finished this article, when we met the following sentence in the best book that ever was written in defence of Christianity, and which we offer to our Readers' notice, if they will permit us to adapt a divine subject to one of the most profane. "Qui Jesu legem amplexi sunt, viri erant Dei timentes, vitæ simplicis: convenit autem Deo, ut tales neque sermonum præstigiis, neque specie prodigiorum, decipi patiatur. At qui Mahumetismum primi susceperunt prædones erant, homines ab humanitate ac pietate alieni t." 48. Observations on means of deriving from Flax and Hemp manual Employment for Labourers of every Age. 8vo. pp. 67. London and Exeter, 1819. UNDER a constitutional Monarchy, the chief situations are occupied by men of rank and property, as, from superior education and greater stake in the country, is, upon the whole, deemed most safe: but such methods of proceeding exclude from office the leaders of factions, whose only qualifications are speechifying, caballing, and bustling. Re Prologue to the "Royalist," a Comedy, 1682. + Grotius de Veritate Rel. Christ. lib. 6. c. 6. striction |