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our work, tending to rescue her character from the foul aspersions cast upon her by those who had no opportunity of knowing, personally, her heroic mind and amiable affability. "One is interested that beings made

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for suffering should suffer well," as Mr. Burke has said of this Princess, and that she did so bear her accumulated wrongs" is well known. Indeed, she sustained with eminent fortitude that dignity of mind and those lofty sentiments which she derived from her mother, who was so much distinguished for her piety and courage." Would she had had as many loyal subjects near her person as those who assisted Maria Theresa ! "whose swords leaped from their scabbards to avenge her"-For when that Empress addressed, in Latin, which she spoke well, the Palatine States at Presburgh, during her great troubles, informing them, she was on the brink of ruin, and that she had no other resource but in their zeal and affection," they all instantaneously rose up, and, stopped her in the middle of her oration, and drawing "Moriemur their swords, exclaimed aloud, pro Rege* nostra Maria Theresa !”—“ We will die for our King* Maria Theresa!" and immediately brought into the field an army which re-established her on the throne of her ancestors.

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We agree with our correspondent, in his remarks on Santerre's ferocious conduct, and beg him to recollect, what he seems to have forgot, that when S. went to inform the King, at six o'clock on Sunday, the evening preceding his murder, Jan. 20, 1793, that the Convention had passed to the order of the day on his demand of a respite for three days,

HE CONTEMPTUOUSLY LAUGHED AT HIM

which gave the King occasion to say to our friend Clery, “I really thought, from San"terre's behaviour, that he came to inform me that the respite had been granted."

"

Respecting our correspondent's allusion to the conversion of M. de la Harpe to to what we Christianity, we refer him have already said, in page 1006 of Panorama, wherein we promised that the life of this celebrated writer (in which will be found many ancedotes of his contemporaries) should be given at the beginning of our next volume.

This singularity of speech is owing to the prejudice of the Palatines for their being governed by Kings.

DIDASCALIA.

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.

Jan. 28, a new Comedy was presented to the public at this Theatre, entitled ASSIGNATION, said to be written by the author of The Chapter of Accidents; and the just reputation which Miss Lee had gained by that production, occasioned an overflowing house, filled with the most respectable persons in rank and literature in town, all "on the tip-toe of expectation." But "oh, what a falling off was there!" Never was curiosity more disappointed, never was author so rapidly clouded in literary fame; for before the close of the se cond act the audience was completely tired; by a continual sameness of drawling sentiment without animation: lengthened scenes without interest, and humour (if it could be so called) without the power of exciting a laugh.

The plot exhibited a gay young rake (Sir Harry) who after marrying an Italian Marchioness, runs away from his wife, and falls in love with a sentimental young lady who is attached to another. The Marchioness, disguised in the dress of a French Abbé, follows her husband to England. The young lady, the object of Sir Harry's atten tion, happens to be the friend of his wife, and helps to produce a happy reunion, by making an Assignation with Sir Harry, and surprising him with his lady; when, in the true stile of our modern trash, called novels, the Baronet repents, and the lady for ever after reclines on a bed of roses.-In the under plot, we see a most accomplished young lady of about twenty, full of sentiment, of an immense fortune; and, of course, as beautiful as an angel, fall in love with her guardian, who is only fifty-two; but he is a peer, wears the Windsor uniform, and, though stiff as buckram, bears his star-his son too (a natural one by the bye, a Mr. Somerville) is also in love with another romantic miss. There is likewise a Lady Laura, a rich, vain, old widow, who, in every thing she does, affects to ape youth; learns to ride, sing and dance; and, that nothing may be wanting to accomplish this fair dame, we see her with a grammar in her hand learning her French lessous!

An Admiral too of the British Fleet is introduced, for the purpose of uttering, low, degraded, common place sentiments against Papishes, Popery, and wooden images :—so exclusively vulgar, that they could not have forced applause from any, except perhaps the late fanatic Lord George Gordon, of St. George's Fields' memory; -The author, who malignantly makes the stage a vehicle for abusing forms of Religion, diverse though they be from our own, deserves the severest censure: we therefore coincide with the audience, who justly marked their abhorrence. Other sentiments he likewise expressed in a manner so very coarse, plentifully

interlarded with swearing, that the audience would hardly permit him to proceed. One will suffice for example, "Champagne is "the only good thing that damn'd country "[France] produces." This was during Miss Lee's gallant admiral's sober moments; but when he came in drunk, scarcely could any person in the theatre understand one word he uttered so exasperated were the audience against him; and although he attempted to sing Rule Britannia, yet they insisted on his sheering off, expressing their contempt, by Vile! off! off! Do not disgrace the Navy!

A Philosopher was likewise introduced, and placed in the company of servants. We understand this character was thought to be an original; and in some respects it might be so, for in truth, he was a bulloon philosopher; and of so much consequence as to be employed in drinking with the lowest domestics, and in delivering to them lectures, which neither the audience nor his fellow-servants could understand. With respect to this philosopher, we have too much charity to suppose the fair author had any of the incomparable Moliere's works in view, nor can we for a moment imagine" she disfigured them to make them pass for her own."..........But, to be candid, our remembrancer hinted to us, le Maitre de Philosophie of le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and Pancrace in le Mariage Force-without any of their wit and humour.

A Postillion likewise once appeared, and only once, for the sole purpose of settling a quarrel between two of his fellow-servants, who were disputing which should have the preference in delivering a letter to their master; when, he very sagaciously took the letter from them, and dividing it into two parts presented each with a piece, advising him to carry his part. This might have told very well in Mother Goose's pantomime, but surely nothing could be more contemptible in legitimate comedy.

Though, when attending our duty at the representation of this comedy, we could hardly express our feelings in witnessing such a decline of genius from the popular piece of the Chapter of Accidents, yet we must candidly confess that in some instances the fair author was not generously used; as, at all events, she was entitled to an impartial hearing; when, according to the laws of our country, sentence should have been passedand this was granted by armistice mutually agreed on, between the audience on one side'; the author, manager and actors, on the other; when Wroughton addressed them thus: "Ladies and Gentlemen, suffer us to pursue

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our duty to the end of the play, and we "will then, with respect, obey your award." This, which was delivered in the early part of the fourth act, was unanimously agreed to; and yet in the second or third scene that followed, not a word could be understood. Although the audience might be disgusted with

Lady Laura's (Miss Pope) indelicate appearance, her attitudes, and her beautiful elbow, as well as with the Admiral's wretched character, yet still, in common justice, they ought to have heard the Comedy out, and delivered their sentence at the close; this decorum was not wanting on the other side, and at the end of the 5th act Mr. Wroughton again stepped forward, according to promise, and announced, that the author, bowing to their opinion, had withdrawn her play."

The performers, which consisted of the strength of the company, used every effort; and it is but justice to say that they exerted themselves, in proportion to the opposition they experienced; particularly Elliston-his perseverance for his Bath friend, when one word could not be heard in the "wild uproar of the storm;" reminded us of the technical language of a cricket match, Bath against all England. The epilogue (see Panorama, p. 1221.) was well delivered by Miss Duncan, we never saw her appear to such advantage in breeches as in the disguise of a French Abbé; those of our readers who were present, and have frequented the upper circles in a neighbouring country, 'ere that great point of honour, its mighty monarchy, had sunk, will vouch for the correctness of our opinion.

Feb. 19, a new Play was presented at the same Theatre, entitled THE CURFEW, announced in the bills to have been written by the late Mr. Tobin, author of the Honey Moon; and, if in the preceding article we had, unfortunately, the lot to record a decline of genius, we have the pleasure in the present instance to notice an improvement,-for we have no hesitation in asserting that The Curfew is superior to The Honey Moon.The following are the Dramatis Personæ. Normans.

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induce his commander, the baron, to stab his wife, Matilda, in a fit of jealousy; who, on recovery, fled from her husband with her son, and by a tempest was thrown on the coast of England close to the future castle of her lord, where she lived unknown, in extreme poverty, subsisting even by the robberies of her son, and from her peculiar situation regarded by the country people as a witch. Fitzharding, the better to carry on his plot against the baron, follows him to England, and puts himself at the head of banditti, who infest the neighbourhood of the castle, and at length by personating the monk Dunstan, whose garments he robs him of as he is going to confess the baron (but who had never yet seen him) he gains admission to the castle, where he finds opportunity to get three of his banditti friends also introduced under the disguise of poor itinerant minstrels,* not knowing where to get a night's lodging. The baron (very unhappy on account of his wife and son) confesses to Fitzharding all the circumstances of his life, and the Dane having contrived the last meeting with H. de Tracy in the chapel of the castle, in order to give him absolution, is on the point of assassinating him, when he is rescued by the sudden appearance of his wife, and his vassals-just after" the Curfew had toll'd the knell of part"ing day," when the whole of the gang was to have stormed the castle.

where there is so much to applaud. Some imitations of Shakespeare; some plagiarisms will be found; but they are by no means so numerous as in The Honey Moon.

Notwithstanding the Curfew is of a very serious nature, yet the author has contrived to introduce a fellow of infinite humour" called Conrade, who was well personated by Mathews. Many of his observations had a very good effect, although some were evidently too long. For instance, when asked, “what "is the meaning of the Curfew bell?" he answers" Why, it is an extinguisher invented by our great statesinen to keep the "folks in the dark"-this explanation was received with great applause, but when the metaphor was continued, and he added, “ I

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suppose the moon will be prevented from "shining shortly-nay, I should not wonder "if we had orders to confine it in a warm"ing pan"-the audience expressed a little dissatisfaction, which was the case with his too minute description of the sanguinary Herman-and with Robert's answer to Florence's enquiry" is he dead ?" "ay, and "buried too!" which appeared ludicrous. We just mention these passages, as they were the only few in which any disapprobation was expressed, hoping they will be curtailed in future representations.

-You are a robber,

Not one of the performers lost sight of the least opportunity of doing justice to the Our readers will easily perceive that the author, whom we are sorry is not alive to leading feature of the plot is not new to the enjoy the triumph of his muse. Elliston stage, and the characters of lago and Zanga was very successful. Mrs. Powell (in Matilda) will immediately recur to their minds. We was particularly impressive in her delivery of have, therefore, merely given a slight sketch the following lines to her son, describing the of the fable without alluding to the under effects of a vicious course of life, and appealing plot, as the piece, though evidently borrow-to the skeleton of a wretch hanging in chains ed, in respect to the idea, is so well contriv- near her dwelling: ed, and the interest managed with such skill, that we wish not to deprive our readers, by anticipation, of the pleasure they will receive in seeing it either represented or in reading it when published; as in the present degraded state of dramatic literature, we have no doubt they will find their time and trouble well repaid; for it abounds with good language, fine poetry, and excellent sentiments, nor does the conduct of the play ever transgress the bounds of probability. It is true that it has its faults, but we willingly overlook them, Glee composed by Atwood, sung by minstrels.

Hark! the curfew's solemn sound,
Silent darkness spreads around;
Heavy it beats on the lover's heart,

Who leaves with a sigh his tale half told:
The poring Monk and his books must part,
And fearful the Miser locks his gold.
Now, whilst labour sleeps, and charmed sorrow,
O'er the dewy green,

By the glow worm's light,
Dance the elves of night,
Unheard, unseen;

Yet, where their midnight pranks have been
The cicled turf will betray to-morrow.

And he who robs, by sharp resistance press'd
Will end the deed in blood-'twas so with him—
He once possess'd a soul, quick as your own
To mercy, and would quake as you do now,
At the hare apprehension of the act
That has consign'd him to yon naked tree,
Where every blast to memorize his shame
May whistle shrilly through his hollow bones,
And in his tongueless jaws a voice renew,

To preach with more than mortal eloquence! We never saw Mr. H. Siddons to such advantage as in the character of Bertrand; he well merited the great applause he received. when the Baron reflecting on the lowness of his birth, he rendered such justice to the author, in enthusiastically retorting,

That is, indeed, past cure! "Tis now too late
To summon back the dust of my progenitors,
And stamp it with nobility-What then?
Am I to hang my head? creep into corners,
Because my father was a hind? I know not
Why I was prest into this bustling world;
But here I am, and let my deeds proclain me.
Our actions are our heralds, and they fix,
Beyond the date of tombs and ep.taphs,
Renown or infamy.

ON THE CIVIL USES OF BELLS.

To the Editor of the LITERARY PANORAMA.

SIR,

My former letter having described some of the religious uses of bells, and illustrated the opinion entertained of their sanctity in Catholic countries, I beg leave now to request your attention to the civil uses in which they were engaged in ages long since departed.

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1. It may readily be supposed, that the information which might be communicated by the sound of a bell, in cases of alarm and danger, could not well escape the notice of those acquainted with the implement. We find them, therefore, used in forts and castles (Parthenius Erot. 7), on the walls of cities, and other places where watch and ward was kept, and garrisons were established; for so appears from Thucydides, iv. 135. and Plutarch, in his Life of Aratus. For the same purpose, those who went the rounds during night carried bells with them, as we gather from the scholiast on Aristophanes, Av. 843. 1180.; these they rang at the sentry boxes as they came to them, to see whether the guards were awake, and no doubt to keep them alert in their duty. Also, 2. Bells were used at baths, to give notice of the entry and exit of bathers, &c. (Martial xiv. 163. and Orsini, on Ciacconius de Tricl. p. 130.) and for much the same purpose, as we may suppose, they were hung behind the doors of houses of ill fame; whence, says Paulus Diaconus, "Includebant in angusto prostibula, et admittentes tintinabula percutiebant, ut eo sono illarum injuria fieret manifesta:" and they were also hung occasionally to the doors of private houses, as we are told in Suetonius, Octav. 91. and by Seneca, De Irâ, iii. 35. 3. Bells were also employed to call up the servants of a great house in the morning, to assemble the family, and to call them to table (Lucian de Merc. Cond. 24, 31).4. They were hung about the necks of animals, especially of rams, by which the flock was led, and we have, in collections of antiquities, images of rams thus decorated. Celsa cervice eminens,

Clarumque collo jactans tintinabulum. 5. Notice of the sale of provisions, especially of fish, was given by the ringing of a bell'; but Fabricius, after Mercurialis, Var. Lect. i. 25. observes, that however this might be customary among the Greeks, the Romans had not adopted it; bat sold their edibles by public outery, magna voce, as Juvenal expresses it (Sat. iv. 32.), et quadam_insignita modulatione (Seneca. Ep. 36).-Moreover, 6. Notice was given, by the ringing of a bell, that they should water the streets to lay the dust (Sextus Empiricus, viii. 193), perhaps, also, on other occasions, when a kind VOL. I. [Lit. Pan, March 1807.]

of proclamation was to be made: hence we have a Greek word signifying to chime, used in the sense of reporting, as Suidas observes, in κωδωνίσαι.

Other applications of this instrument and it might be observed, that we find among may be gathered from ancient authors;

from bells: the alarm bell, the entry bell, them the same services as modern days derive the dinner bell, the bell worn by animals, the hawker's bell, and the dustman's bell: but the parish bell, or bell-man, as a crier of lost goods, does not, I believe, occur in antiquity, though among ourselves he is a useful officer in a populous city, to say nothing of his nition, which he annually vindicates on the pre-eminence in poetry, and in moral admothirty-first of December at midnight.

We have not, that I know of, any descripbell of the modern French; neither had the tion of the ancient tocsin, the insurrection set of bells. They were not annexed to temancients any idea of the musical effect of a ples, as they now are to churches, so that, they did not then call the people to worship, rejoicings; neither could they produce a peol, neither could they ring for victories, or other as is now done by our Society of Cumberland Youths, of 5040 triple bob-majors, with the great bell at home: neither could they salute which attend the departed. Modern times alone can say (with Shakespeare) they have

a noble visitor, nor mark the solemn services

With holy bell been knoll'd to church,
or have gratified the ear of lively meditation,
such as that of Milton, when

Sometimes with secure delight
The upland hamlets will invite,
Modern times alone have felt the solemnity
When the merry bells rings round-
of evening, “in sober livery dight," when

On a plat of rising ground,
We hear the far-off curfew sound,.
Over some wide water'd shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar..

Or, as another poet (Gray) marks the time,

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
Modern times alone have taught bells to re-
mind us seriously of our passing hours :-
The bell strikes one!
We take no note of time but from its loss!
To give it then a tongue were wise in man.
It is true, that in this country some of the
superstitions connected with bells are abated,
and others are abolished: we no longer dread
the vengeance of "çlerkes,

Who mowe by lawe, as that they sain,
Us curse and dampne to hell is brinke;
And thus thei puttin us to paine

With candlis quient and bell'is clinke.
And Christ'is peple proudly emise
With brode booke and braying bell,-

2 S

...

These and many other impositions of popery we are happily rid of, never to return for this deliverance may our conduct express our gratitude!

We have no reason to conclude that the fancy for great bells obtained aniong the ancients. They would probably have stared in amazement, from more causes than one, at the great bell of Moscow, of which Hanway gives this description.-It is in diameter at bottom twenty-two feet five inches; in perpendicular height twenty-one feet four inches and a half; the narrowest diameter at the top is seven feet five inches; of course, the circumference of the mouth is sixty-two feet three inches; the ear or cannon is three feet six inches hight; it weighs near 12,327 pouds

448.772 lbs. It cost a very great sum (£65,686); for every one, ambitious of contributing something towards it, threw either gold or silver into the furnaces, where it was melted. These furnaces were four in number, and had immense cocks, which let off the metal into the mould. Well, Sir, and when it was struck, the sound of it rather deafened than delighted the inhabitants of Moscow: from its immense weight, it could not be raised to any height; but was hung as well as might be, and a pit was dug under it. A great fire happening, the beam which supported it was burnt, and the bell fell down into the pit, receiving irreparable damage in the fall. This bell greatly exceeded the famous bells at Nankin in China, on which that city prided its f nd the ring, o rset, of which being hung in a wer, brought down the edifice, and was never raised again. The largest of these was only twelve feet high, diameter seven and a half, circumference twenty-shree feet; its weight 50,000lbs. Father Le Compte, indeed, mentions seven other bells in Pekin, which weighed 120,000 lbs. each, but these scarcely exceed a quarter of the weight of the Moscow bell. Neither had the Chinese bells that power which might be expected from such enormous masses, being struck with wooden clappers: of course, their tone must have been poverty itself!

At Rouen, in France, I have seen the great be called Cardinal d'Ambois, the diameter of which is marked by a circular paving before the door of the cathedral: 'but whether this beli has survived, the revolution, I do not know. It was thus inscribed:

Je suis George de Ambois
Qui trente cinque miile pois.
Mes lui qui me pesera,
Trente six mille me trouvera.

I am George d'Ambois, the great,
Thirty-five thousand pounds in weight:
But he who weighs me carefully
Thirty-six thousand shall and me.

We had in England bells with similar inseriptions; for instance, Weever reports, that

"in the Little Sanctuary at Westminster, Edward III. erected a clochier, or belfry, and placed therein three bells for the use of St. Stephen's chapel (the present House of Con.mons); about the biggest of them were cast in the metal these words

King Edward made mee thirtie thousand weight and three;

Take mee down and wey mee, and more you sha'l fynd mee.

These bells being ordered to be removed under Henry VIII. a wag added But Henry eight

Will bate ice of my weight.

In the clochier near St. Paul's stood the four greatest bells in England, called Jests's bells against these Sir Miles Partridge staked £100, and won them of Henry VIII. at a cast of dice."

In fact, bell ringing is studied as a science in England only, and the art of ringing changes, or peals, is said to be restricted to this nation; hence Britain has been termed the ringing island. Certainly this exercise may be taken in proof of our popular attachment to music: we are, therefore, in direct variance with the Turks, who tolerate ba bells in their dominions; and the only ones extant in the Ottoman Empire are those at the monastery of Canobine on Mount Lebanon, which are far enough out of the hear ing of the Musulman fanatics.

There is another exercise of bells, in which they are struck, and played on, as an instrument of music; these are chimes: they are sometimes played by hand extempore, in which case they are capable of a variety of tunes; sometimes they are actuated by the machinery of the clock to which they are connected, and play only such pieces as that determines. I remember to have listened with great attention to the carillon at the Samaritaine, on the Pont Neuf at Paris; but, lively as French airs are usually thought to be, they were nothing equal to the wild sprightliness of those which delighted me in the chimes of St. Giles's church at Edinburgh. Yet, I think, I was never better pleased than when perambulating Blenheim Park, I heard the chimes at Woodstock strike up the famous air "Marlbroue:" a perpetual compliment this to the noble family at the mansion. I have also beard pretty chimes at Hatfield, near the seat of the Mar quis of Salisbury, and in other places. The eflect of these indications of the chearful haunts of men," after an evening's excursion, is better felt than described, especially coming over an extensive piece of water. I wish I could say any thing in favour of those which play in some of our London churches.

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