Caution against Innovation in the Church. cumbent fhould be refident accord- curates. But, granting the evil of non-refidence actually to exift, who ought to be the proper judges of the offence, the parishioners themselves, or an infamous qui tam informer? I affirm, Sir, that no man has a right to intrude himfelf between a clergyman and his parishioners. If the majority of a veftry determine that the non-refidence of an incumbent is an evil or an abuse, let him be profecuted-with all my heart; but no other man has a right to judge for a whole congregation; it is an ufurpation on the one hand, and a tyranny on the other. It is aftonifhing, fuppofing our Julers in Church and State infenfible to the dangers of the Church, that the Clergy do not meet and claim for themfelves the protection of the Legiflature. The act in question ought no more to disgrace our Statute-books than that which makes it felony without benefit of clergy to be feen one month in company with gypfies. The Clergy, if they would exert themfelves, would not be deftitute of friends. It is even more the intereft of the lay patrons than theirs; for, if things continue in the present state, advowson is not worth one farthing I have heard, Sir, of remedies in agitation which favour much of quackery. I hope the respectable heads of our Church will beware of INNOVATION, a name ever fatal to an establishment. If they begin, they will find architects of ruin who will readily lend a helping hand. The late curates' act, I atfirm, provides amply for every ne ceflity of the Church. Let them, therefore, if they value its exiftence, not join in the oppreflion of the Clergy, but confine themfelves to the fimple repeal. A TRUE CHURCHMAN. Clofe of Sarum, "Now, now tis time to banish care; Creech's Horace, Book I. Ode 37. PERMIT me, by your means, to congratulate our numerous friends upon the return of this Come forward then, all ye whom Providence hath bleffed with am ple, or even with competent for tunes, tunes, and fhew us by your example, that your hearts overflow with gratitude towards the Giver of them! Let benevolence be the guide and ornament of your lives, and let the laborious (and at this time the diftreited) poor feel the hand of your bounty. No feafon can be more proper than this, to exert your liberality, and to teftify that, although English hofpitality and religious obfervances may perhaps, in this our day of modern refinement and modern philofophy, be growing out of fafhion; and the former may be fomewhat damped by the alteration and the exigence of the times; fhe is not yet at the eve of her departure. Let us be merry, but let us be wife; a great deal of focial good-huinour may be confiftent with fobriety, decency, and even with economy itself. The hofpitable board, the fprightly fong and dance, the fober rubber, the mirthful paftimes, and all the enlivening fallies of wit, may be fo conducted as not to offend against the laws of God, or even against the moft rigid moral duties. In devotion, as in every thing elfe, we fucceed moft happily when the more ferious duties and the innocent amufements of life, like day and night, fucceed each other. We cannot always infure happinefs to the new year, but we may be allowed to wish for it ; and it is poffible that a few gentle hints, if well attended to, may bid fair to promote it. Take them therefore as they rife, and make the beft ufe of them. In religious duties be ever in good earneft; enjoy the blerings of Providence to the utmoft, and be thankful. Bear up against the prefent national calamities, and under the croís accidents of life, with becoming fortitude. Be fair and open in all your dealings; be courteous and affable to every human being; affect not fuperficial greatness; live within the bounds of your in ally. Make no friendship with fools; beware of pride and low cunning; and defpife the fupercilious hypocrite, who fmiles in your face whilft he hates you. Tell no tales of others, and keep your own feerets; be contented to let every man go on in his own road; and ftudy to be quiet, and to mind your own bufinefs. And now, my worthy friends, my bolt is fhot: but I cannot take leave of you without ftopping for a moment, bell-man like, juft to with you a happy new year; and may the happiness of the new year continue to the laft moment of our lives! Let us with refignation and hope look forward to better times; trusting that our Legiflature (when they can do it with fafety, honour, and propriety,) will obtain us Peace, and that Heaven will in due time give us Plenty. Of this, indeed, we already have a happy prefage, from the late favourable feafon for fowing, the great and unufual quantity of corn fown, and the prefent propitious appearance of the forthcoming crops. The prefent fyftem of œconomy and temporary privation, which we have prudently adopted, will at any rate tend to augment our future plenty; whether the prefent idea of fcarcity be real, or whether it be fallacious, as I have pretty good grounds to fufpect. Be this, however, as it may, let the rich be frugal, and let the poor be thankful that every thing is doing for their relief, and that their prefent fufferings are not aggravated by the rigours of a fevere winter; and, finally, let us hope, that, under every circumftance, peace, unanimity, happinefs, and goodwill, may prevail in this our happy ifle, as long as Chriftmas, and the adorablė Object of its inftitution, fhall be acknowledged and remembered amongst us! BENEVOLUS. Mr. URBAN, Jan. 8. come, and pay your debts punctu-TC's remembrance of me (vol. T. LXX. p. 718.) is fo obli ging, ging, that it roufes my lumbering pen, which, lefs active than my perception of natural objects, keeps not pace with my obfervations; but I hope T. C. will fupply the naturalift's place in your Magazine, that various circumftances have compelled me to defert; as your valuable work fhould comprise records of natural hiftory, as well as of political, antiquarian, and other fubjects. Respecting the barrennefs of the hawthorn laft fummer, I inform T. C. that in four different Southern counties that I vifited in the course of last year, I obferved the fame circumftance as he did, and that without any furprize, as, from the very extraordinary profufe and productive blow of the year 1799, I expected that there would be but a weak and partial one in 1800; for I have always remarked, that when trees of any particular kind produce extra-abundantly one year, they always prove deficient the next; and T. C. will probably fee this remark verified next fummer in refpect to plumbs, cherries, currants, and goofeberries, which, he may recollect, were particularly plentiful laft feafon; and, on the other hand, I imagine we fhall have abundance of apples and nuts next autumn, as they run fhort the latt. I never faw a more beautiful difplay than was on the hawthorns during the fine fortnight in June, 1799, when every buth appeared as if covered with pieces of white or of pink callico; for, in the county I happened to be in at that time, Jirge buthes of pink hawthorn grew fpontaneously in the hedges, like the white. This is a variety that has its bloffoms of a damaík-role hue from their firft opening, and which is propagated in the nurfe ries by grafting; though I have not the leaft doubt but its haws would produce the fame fort again, as it is an original diftin& variety, proceeding from nature without the ad of art. The flowers on many items of the common white-flow ering hawthorn, change to pink when declining; but thofe of the true pink thorn poffefs their roseat colour throughout the whole time of their duration; and therefore I recommend it to every lover of a garden, to plant a tree of this fpecies in fight of his parlour window, and allow it space to fhow itself in. The beauty of many a good fhrub is loft, by its being crowded into a promifcuous fhrubbery in fome neglected or diftant part of a garden; for people are more apt to form fhrubberies for the fake of hiding difagreeable objects, than with a view to the enjoyment of the beauties of the fhrubs; and for this reafon they buy more fhrubs than they need, and plant them fo thick, that many of them can neither have air, rain, or fun, to make them grow; nor room to expand their boughs or fhew their bloffoms. But this practice is fashionable, and therefore must be correct; fo I will return to my original fubject, and mention an affertion that is worth inveftigating, viz. that hogs will greedily devour haws, and fatten on them. The haws that followed the fine blow I have alluded to, were' fo numerous, bright, and large, that the public prints advifed that they fhould be applied to that ufe; but I had not my felf either the opportunity of trying the experiment, or of knowing whether it was tried. That fame year, the cockpur and the evergreen thorns alfa flowered profufely, and were likewife both nearly barren in 1800. As to confidering a plenitude of haws as a prognoftication of a fevere winter, I think it would be giving undue credit to an old fuppofition, that was probably adopted before botanifts had difcovered, that the bloffoms of the year in fucceflion are, on moft trees, formed in embryo during the time of the bloffoms of the year prefent being in perfection; which fact is vifible to the moft careless obferver, in the inftance of the whitebean, or cratagus aria, (which abounds in the chalkey chalkey counties) on which tree may be plainly feen the flower-buds of the year to come, at the fame time as thofe of the year prefent are in full bloom; the tomentous or woolly appearance of which buds make them very striking all winter; and therefore, in addition to the other four forts of cratagus I have mentioned in this letter, I recommend particular attention to this. I A SOUTHERN FAUNIST, Mr. URBAN, Molefey, Jan. 9. IN the winter and fpring of last year, the Robin-red-breaft was a merry little fellow; and fo he now is. He is fure to be feen where they have been digging, will occafionally fly acrofs your approach, then falute you from the neareft buth. If you whittle to him, he turns his head, and joins in concert. Such tentions foon make him know his friends as well as pigeons or poultry do with them too he will feed in his own way, hopping off with a fraggling grain, and returning again and again to his falutary repaft. I have often, both in verfe and profe, fpoke my regard for him; but, as I think I fhall do it now rather in a new light, I proceed. I had not the preceding year a Nightingale near me, and was very careful and attentive to my Robins, feldom traverting my garden without a red-breafted companion; they were iny feathered favourites. Though other birds chirped, and cheered me for fall treafures of grain I fcattered in retired places, frequented by the Blackbird, Thrufh, &c. we cannot draw thefe into the intimacy of the Robin. Besides, they exert not their efforts the day long; while our favourite opens his ftrains with the dawn, and clofes with the day. Early in fpring, a fteep wooded bank of thick underwood, which had long been a natural aviary for Nightingales, was grubbed up. Being fome hundred yards from my premiles, I never expected benefit from the change; but was one day charmed to hear a Nightingale in a wooded bank of my own.. In a few days others followed, and convinced me, that a fimple alteration in another man's property had filled mine with a prefent moft "melliftuous." I was fo over bustle with joy at my welcome ftrangers, I probably never for fome days thought of my ROBINS; but, as old friends foon regain their ufual confideration, I fearched for them in vain ; a folitary one was neither to be heard or feen, though, previous to the Nightingale's fudden approach, they were, and had been the year long, active and loud. Whether they were all ear (no bird hearkens to closely to another's exertions, or loves his own more), or their notes were overpowered, and gradually diminished to filence, by the divine tones of the Nightingale, is not for man to fay; but, until the matchlefs mufick of that bird had itself perifhed, or was rather worn away, and was fupplanted by a perpetual croak, the Robin remained mute. But on this diforganized change he burfts from his retreats, affumes his confequence and old haunts, is bolder in fong, and feems to have ftolen a note or two from the late Paramours of Night, whofe fuperiority of melody had driven him from the face of day. The Nightingale came laft year the 12th of April, and was very rich for near two months. When we confider her unremitting exertions, we must be furprized her little body can fo long hold together. Probably her powers are in force till her young be fledged, and the lotes them when the part of increafe is fulfilled, and confequently commits her offspring to their induftry. The ear cannot undergo greater extremes than in the fweetnefs this bird thrills the heart with, and the violent harfhuefs of her doleful complaints before the leaves those banks and those trees she had filled with harmony. To a contemplative mind they ae are fubjects of invaluable confideration, and, like the lilies of the valley, are here to-day and gone to morrow. The opportunity fo unexpectedly conferred was not thrown away. I watched them with a parent's care, and am convinced they like, as múch as the Robin does, to gain the notice of man. We may occafionally whiftle with the Red-breaft, but all the human Rofignol monfters of Italy cannot equal a fingle Nightingale. Sometimes, buried amidit foliage, they remain unfeen, though close to us, on first coming they are fo very fhy. Having built their nefts in fafety, they will often fhew themfelves, and pour out the most exquifite melody when you are within a few yards of them. An invaluable friend and obferver and I were one morning led to an open bufh by the "juk! juk! juk!" and we were allowed to approach a moft melodious little being. We faw the fwelling of the throat, and the bill in full action. You must guefs at our admiration after the "juk! juk!" which was clofe to us, to perceive the breaft lalouring; yet the found appeared not to flue from the bird; it was the call, and feemed to echo* to us from a distance, and acted like enchantment on our minds, for we inftantly declared the found proceeded from the powers of the very bird before us, and at the fame moment pronouneed that it was A VENTRILOQUIST." Yours, &c. 46 A RAMBLER. By the fide of Old Parr, and nearly oppofite to Handel's monument, in Westminster abbey, a ftone has lately been laid down, with the following infcription: "To the memory of MARY-ELEANOR BOWES, Countess of Strathmore, only child of George Bowes, Efq. of Streatham Caftle, and of Gibfide, in the county of Durham, who died 28th April, 1800, ́aged 51 years." Dr. Johnfon derives nightingale from night and galan, Sax. to fing;" and adds, that "galm, Teutonick, is a found, or echo,” I The following very curious communication has accidentally been long miflaid. Mr.URBAN, Mofco, Dec.28,1797.O.S. AM very doubtful whether the following little anecdote is worthy of replete with inftruction and entertaina corner in a Mifcellany, which is fo ment; particularly to us, who have pitched our tents in this hyperborean region; but, as it ferves to fhew in what point of view our new fovereign looks upon French principles, French manners, and above all, la coftume Françoife dominante, I thought it might not be altogether unacceptable. Madame du V. a French lady, who refided at Mofco a few years ago, was a demirep of the very first ton, and equally remarkable for the beauty of her perfon, the elegance of her dress, and the licentioufnels of her conduct. Having paid a vifit to her native country, the returned to St. Petersburg about the beginning of this winter, and appeared in public in a drefs entirely à la fuff, made fo as to fit clofe to the guillotine, that is to fay, in a fcarlet body, with pantaloons defcending to the fole of the feet, and covered with a flight tranfparent gauze; the breasts entirely bare, as well as the arms up as high as the fhoulders; the hair from behind drawn back very tight, and fattened emblematically on the top of off, the new lord chamberlain, who the head. At a ball given by Strogofucceeds Shoualloff, lately deceafed, in that office, three Ruffian ladies of the firft quality, ftruck with the novelty, thought proper to exhibit their charms in this very drefs. The confequence was, that they were all conducted home by the officers of the police, with orders to keep their houses for a certain number of days, and an injunction never to appear in public in fuch a drefs again. Madame du V. being known to have introduced it, was immediately fent out of the country, with pofitive orders never to fet foot in it again on pain of receiving the knout; and, to complete the misfortune, two French merchants, one of whom had been fpeculating to a great amount in thefe Antimonarchical trappings, arriving in St. Petersburg about the fame time, were both arrested, their goods confifcated, and, by the clemency of the emperor, had the good fortune to be conducted to the frontiers, instead of being fent to pass the remainder of their lives in the mines of Siberia. MOSQUENSIS. |