15 July 1843 Literary Notices - Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

15 July 1843 Literary Notices

An Hour during the French Revolution.

At that very hour, in the room of the jacobins, surrounded by a dozen other
patriots as remorseless as himself, sate a colossal man-his harsh features
dilated by the wine he had taken, and his aspect rude as a Breton
peasant's. The glass was lifted in his hands, and with a voice of thunder
he gave the toast, - "May the body of the last King be burnt to aches on the
funeral pyre made with the body of the last priest." - It was the terrific
Danton. The words were repeated with shouts and clamour by the party around
him. At that very moment a dwarfish man, with a huge head, a mouth marked
with the hardness of a vindictive temper, and an eye in which insipient
madness already glared - without stockings, and in a white waistcoat dabbled
with blood, sate in a cellar under the very Place du Carrousel which
afterwards beheld his drunken apotheosis, writing a recommendation that
France should massacre two hundred thousand men to the manes of her
strangled freedom, with an exact calculation of the time requisite for such
a purpose. Merciful idea! It was the sanguinary Marat. At that very
moment, two members of the assembly were perfecting a plan for the
destruction of the monarchy, and the establishment of a dictatorship. The
one was Maximilien Isidore Robespierre. He himself was to be dictator. At
that moment, in a little chamber of the Palace, at Versailles, sate a
kingly-looking old man - weeping. The father was weeping over the
backsliding of his children, at the King over the treason of his people. It
was the unfortunate Louis XVI. At that moment, in a gaily illuminated
saloon of the same Palace, two females were playing at ecarte; the one was
lovely and still youthful. The lost, and the three hundred louis were
passed to her fair antagonist, who murmured many apology, but yet took the
notes proffered her. The loser was Marie Antoinette. At the same moment
a beggar lay starving for lack of bread in the garden of the Tuillerries,
while her wasted child pressed to her shrunken nipple, and tried the breast
in vain. At that very moment a monk was unfrocking himself, never to resume
the cowl of the Benedictines. A maiden draped in far too Cyprian a style
was sitting near him; and wine and glasses were on the table - he had
discovered a better profession; and this was Talleyrand -   THE MAN of the
PEOPLE.

......

Training of the Shepherd's Dog.

When a sheep does break away and must be turned, he does not allow the dog
to bite it, but only to bark and give a bound at its head, and thus turn
it. In attempting to turn a black-faced wether in this way, the dog runs a
risk of receiving injury from its horns, and to avoid this, I have seen him
seize the coarse wool of the buttock, and hang by it like a drag, until the
sheep was turned round in the opposite direction, when he lets it go. In
short, a temperate herd only lets his dog work when his services are
actually required, he fulfilling his own duties faithfully, and only
receiving assistance from his dog when the matter cannot be so well done by
himself, and at no time will he allow his dog to go beyond the reach of his
immediate control. Dogs, when thus gently and cautiously trained, become
very sagacious, and will visit every part of a field where sheep are most
apt to stray, and where danger is most to be apprehended to befal them, such
as a weak part of a fence, deep ditches, or deep furrows into which sheep
may possibly fall, and lie awalt or awkward, that is, lie on the broad of
their back and unable to get up, and they will assist to raise them by
seizing the wool at one side and pulling the sheep over upon its feet.
Experienced dogs will not meddle with ewes having lambs at foot, nor with
tups, being quite aware of their disposition to offer resistance. They also
know full well when foxes are on the move, and give evident symptoms of
uneasiness on their approach to the sons and animals at a considerable
distance at night, and announce their approach by unequivocal signs of
displeasure, short of grumbling and barking, as if aware that those noisy
signs would betray their own presence. A shepherd's dog is so incorruptible
that he cannot be bribed, and will not permit even a known friend to touch
him when entrusted with any piece of duty." " Every shepherd's pup has a
natural instinct for working among sheep, nevertheless they should always be
trained with an old dog. Their ardent temperament requires subduing, and
there is no more effectual means of doing so than keeping it in company
with, and making it imitate the actions of an experienced sober dog. A
long string attached to the pup's neck, in the hands of the shepherd, will
be found necessary to make it acquainted with the language employed to
direct the various evolutions of the experienced dog while at work." "I may
mention, that the shepherd's dog claims exemption from taxation, and I
believe that a well trained one costs at least £3."
BOOK OF THE FARM

__________________________

Bonaparte

The German Journals contain the following sketch of the dreadful sacrifice
of human life, from the wars of Bonaparte, since 1801: First, the war of
St. Domingo, from 1801 to 1806, carried off 60,000 French soldiers and
sailors, at least 50,000 of the white inhabitants of the Islands, and 50,000
Negroes. Secondly, the maritime war with England, from 1802 to 1814, cost
the two parties and their allies at least 200,000 men. Thirdly, the winter
campaign of 1803-4, which was short, but very bloody, robbed the belligerent
powers of 150,000 men. Fourthly, the war in Calabria, from 1805 to 1807,
destroyed 100,000 men. Fifthly, the war in North, from 1806 to 1807, cost
300,000. The war in Spain, the most murderous of all, from 1807 to 1813,
carried off 2,400,000 men. It will not be rating too high the annual loss
which this last war has occasioned, as well to the French and their allies,
as to the English, the Spaniards, and the Portuguese, whether in battle or
sieges, or by contagious diseases, or assassinations, or other disasters, to
estimate it at 200,000 men. Seventhly, the campaign in Germany, and Poland
in 1809, swept away 300,000 men. Eighthly, the campaign of 1812 cost France
and her allies 500,000 men, and Russia, 300,000 men in battles, in
hospitals, in towns and villages which were burned; besides 200,000 Poles,
Germans, and French, who were victims of the contagious diseases resulting
from famine or bad nourishment. Nightly, the campaign of 1813
destroyed 450,000 men. Total, 5,800,000 men, in eleven years, which is more
than half-a-million annually. This calculation does not include a great
number of premature deaths, caused by the accidents of war, by fright,
despair, &c.

......

Batch of Senators.

That tall man with the conspicuous aquiline nose is Lord Ashley, the eldest
son of the Earl of Shaftesbury, so noted for his humane efforts of behalf of
the working classes; that other, with his spectacles, for he is very
near-sighted, is LORD SANDON, the eldest son of the EARL of HARROWBY, but
who, though a very respectable man, will never rival his father; and there
are three bald-headed men together-BERNAL:, who was for a long time chairman
of committees, and very able chairman he made; GREENE, the member of
Lancaster, his successor in office, a very assiduous man, but who, either
from want of experience or tact, or both, does not come up to BERNAL as a
chairman; and WALLACE , the member of Greenock, whose honesty of purpose is
frequently interfered with by a blundering style and dogged obstinacy.
Beyond them is that clever, gentlemanly young fellow, MILNER GIBSON, who
labours under the disadvantage of having changed sides, but will "rise" if
he takes care of himself; and walking out of the house is very tall CHARLES
BULLER, :so witty and so thin," he who went out to Canada with the late
Earl of Durham. Contrast with him little SHEIL, in whose veins mercury
still dances, and who can still scream out an electrical and rhetorical
speech, in which oddity of manner is as remarkable as the style is
startling. Not so O'CONNELL, in whose huge trunk the fire seems gradually
burning out; while SIR JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE seems destined to live on his past
reputation. What MacAULAY may hereafter be is in the book of fate; he gets
remarkably stout, and has the air of a overgrown schoolboy; but MacAULAY is
a genius, and ought to leave a reputation behind him. MONCKTON MILNES is
not a MacAULEY, but he has a very pretty poetical taste - I man that youn
man down there, with the black hair combed in one direction, and who when he
speaks talks as if he had liquorice in his mouth. Oh! mentioning poets and
geniuses, there is LORD FRANCIS EGERTON- that tall, unobtrusive man - as
amiable as he is rich, and as sensitively kind in his temper as he is
wealthy and great. He is the brother of the whig DUKE OF SUTHERLAND, but is
himself a moderate tory. You know he translated the "Faust" of Goethe, and,
like Pope with Home contrived to make his original very pretty, very
melodious, besides stripping him of some of his impiety and some of his
indecency. He exchange d his paternal surname of LEVESON GOWER for that of
his maternal kinsman, the celebrated DUKE OF BRIGEWATER, whose great canal
property he inherits.   SIR ROBERT PEEL and his ERA.

_________________

An act to Amend the Law for the Registration of Voters.
By W. Cox Esq. Q.C. Edingburgh

By Incorporating the Reform Act, and the other recent acts, with the New
Registration Act, the writer of this little work has brought under the
notice of the practitioner "all the existing statue law which the
practitioner will require in the work of registration," and which has thus
obviated the necessity of referring to other works on the subject, the
inconvenience of which is frequently so strongly felt. This is an advantage
this work possesses over all others on the subject, and from the
circumstance of its having already reached a second edition, it appears to
be one which the profession has appreciated. The introduction contains a
tabular arrangement of the franchise, with references to the particular
sections of the various acts conferring the right to vote on the voter,
which will be found exceedingly useful. Altogether we trongly recomment
this little book to all persons connected with the registration, as one of
the most useful that has been brought under our notice.

.....

Domestic Life

All the vitues of domestic life are lessons which are taught in the
christian school. It is like the sun, who, though he regulates and leads on
the yar, dispersing life and light to all the planetary worlds,yet disdains
not to cherish and beautify the flower which opens its bosom to his beam:
so the Christian religion, though chiefly intended to teach us the knowledge
of salvation, and be our guide to happiness on high, yet also regulates our
conversation in the world, extends its benign influence to every circle of
society, and peculiarly diffuseth its blessed fruits in the paths of
domestic life.    Hogg.
......

A Cockney at the Giant's Causeway.

The solitude is awful. I can't understand how those chattering guides dare
to lift up their voices here, and cry for money. It looks like the begining
of the world, somehow; the sea looks older than in other places, the hills
and rocks strange, and formed differently from other rocks and hills - as
those vast dubious monsters were formed who possessed the earth before man.
The hill tops are shattered into a thousand craggged fantastical shapes; the
water comes swelling into scores of little strange creeks, or goes off with
a leap roaring into those mysterious caves yonder, which penetrate who know
how far into our common world? The savage rock-sides are painted of a
hundred colours. Does the sun ever shine here? When the world was moulded
and fashioned out of formless chaols, this must have been the bit over -
remnant of choas! Think of that ! it is a tailor's simile. Well, I am a
Cockney; I wish I were in Pall-Mall!

Titmarsh's Irish Sketches

........

A Counterpart to Tight Lacing.

The means taken to effect the alteration of the women's feet in China are
decidedly prejudicial to the health, and frequently attended with fatal
consequences. This fact was ascertained by a clever young naval surgeon who
was for some time stationed at Chusan. It happened that during an excursion
into the country, he one day entered a house where he found a child about
eight years old very ill, and suffering under severe hectic fever; on
examination he discoverd that her feet were undergoin the process of
distortation; he was infomed that she had been a year under this treatment.
Moved by pity for the little sufferer, he proceeded to move the bindings, and
fomented the feet, which were covered with ulcers and inflammation. The
change in shape had already commenced by the depression of the toes. The
child was much relieved by, and evidently grateful for, his treatment. On
taking his leave, he warned the mother that she would certainly lose her
child if the bands were replaced; but his remonstrances were of no avail.
Whenever he returned ( and this happened frequently,) he always found them
on again; the woman urging, as an excuse, that her daughter had better die
than remain unmarried, and that without improved feet such a calamity would
be her inevitable lot. As might be expected, the child grew worse and
worse. After a longer interval than usual, he once again revisited the
house but found it untenanted, and a little coffin lying at the door, in
which he discovered the body of his poor young patient.

Loch's Campaign in China.