The New Pronouncing and Spelling used, admissible in the language and exaggerated eulogy, which converts The New Pronouncing and Spelling writings of that day, would be consi- the tablets of our cemeteries into so Book, accompanied by a Series of dered as highly improper and immo- many fulsome orations over dust and Instructive and Interesting Lessons. ral. If we but refer back to the drama- ashes. Every allowance should be By John Bigland, Author of Letters on History,' &c. &c. pp. 160.tic authors, and even later poets, we made for the intensity of feeling, which Derby, 1820. may read them; but from the tenor of generally dictates these records; and expressions which they contain, we it is chiefly on the epitaphs of the rich should be sorry, and deviate from our and great that censure should fall, raprinciples of duty and obligation to ther than on the enlarged expressions our children, to put them into their of private feeling and affection. When hands, and entirely on this account. a man dies, whose narrow, spirit, proWhereas, the finest productions of an-verbial penuriousness, and grinding setiquity and philological research are verity on the poor, have been as notorihidden in obscurity, or but faintly ous as his possessions were extensive, seen, because the language is not tole- the eye sullens at the engraved marble, which proclaims the liberality of his rated with our ideas of delicacy. hand, the sympathy of his heart, and the boundless generosity of his habitual conduct, which procured for him the Nor is it the vulgar preesteem of all. An accurate I am led into these observatious, Sir, from a very simple, but, nevertheless, I consider, important reason. After church, last Sunday, my little girl, whom I endeavour to instruct in the judice existing against the rich in genepaths of virtue and affection, said toral, that draws forth these remarks. Prome, Father, don't you think our vidence, by a system as mysterious as clergyman is a very wicked man?' it is unerring, has instituted a distincWhy, my dear?' I rejoined. Be- tion of ranks, possessions, and enjoycause, I'm sure, he said very naughty ments; and it is only the meanest and words when he was reading the lesson most paltry envy, which can abuse the out of the Bible; and you say that is rich, only because they are rich. A a good book.' fact, however, occurred in Scotland, which may, in some measure, justify these comments; a wealthy baronet, of HAVING observed, the other day, fine the attributes of the whole book; its sentiments are moral, and its tendencies excellent. EPITAPHS. A PARENT. To the Editor of the Literary Chronicle. When some proud son of man returus to earth, Original Communications. Not what he was, but what he should have NECESSITY OF A NEW TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. been. LORD BYRON. SIR,-Inhuman, indeed, must he be who could refuse the consolation, which relatives derive for the loss of their dear connexions from the circumstances of tombstones, epitaphs, &c. To the Editor of the Literary Chronicle. There is a certain joyousness, in the SIR,-More than two hundred years midst of our tears, arising from the have rolled on since the present trans- satisfaction of having, to the extent of lation of the Bible was made. Now it our abilities, paid the last duties to demust be acknowledged that, during parted worth, in reference to the sothis period, custom and education have lemnities of interment, and in the aftended much to the alteration of words ter act of placing over their remains a in their application. Words which memento, which shall tell that once were used by old writers, and consider- they lived. It is not, therefore, of ed as intelligibly correct and strictly these interesting peculiarities which I moral, are now either obsolete, or, if, I would complain; but of that system of whom not one act of benevolence is known, died some time ago; and, after all the pomp and prodigality' of funeral honours, a monument was erected to his memory. First appeared the deceased's name and titles, then the family lineage, followed by a recital of numerous acts of liberality (now for the first time heard of upon the most shallow authority), which would raise a memorial more lasting than stone or marble. The whole was finely wound tion:- Whoso giveth to the poor lendup with the following scripture quotaeth to the Lord; and whatsoever he giveth, the same shall be receive;' underneath which was written very soon afterwards, I am, Sir, your's truly, The Family Trunk, No. III. L. BY MOSES VON MUCKLEWIT, GENT. Scripture, similar to the Sortes Virgi- Various opinions have been express It is to be lamented that, by the exknown on many occasions to have opcess of praise, which gives distate, we posed it. Thus, by a decree of the feel disinclined to give even the share third council of Valence, held in the of merit to which they are justly entiyear 855, all persons engaged in sintled. Let moderation in this, as in gle combat, even though under the other matters, be exercised; and then, sanction of a Court of Justice, were when we walk through our church-ed at different times as to the origin of anathematized and excluded from yards and cathedrals, instead of the the trial by battle, but all writers are Christian burial. A similar decree was disgust now generally excited by the agreed as to its antiquity. And, as also passed at the fourth council of empty effusions of lettered marble, we has been remarked with respect to the Lateran; and there are extant Bulls shall behold them with due solemnity English constitution, this usage may of Innocent II. and Innocent IV. in and respect, and be able fully to enter also be said to have had its birth in the 1137 and 1255, prohibiting an indulinto the feelings of Addison, when he woods of Germany. It appears, in- gence in this barbarous custom. The wrote his admirable Reflections in deed, to have been the most usual inferior orders of clergy seem, however, Westminster Abbey,' which may be mode of determining controversies to have frequently declared in its fafound in the Spectator. among the primitive northern nations. vour, and of which many instances are For we learn from Saxo Grammaticus recorded in the history of France. February, 1821. and others that it was anciently com- Thus, when Louis IX. published an mon in Scandinavia; and Velleius Pa- edict, forbidding the practice, the Priterculus informs us that all those ques- or of St. Peter le Montier obstinately tions which were decided among the determined to maintain it in his own Romans by legal trial, were deter- district. And it was even common mined among the Germans by arms. among the clergy to bring their chamAnd, upon the final subjugation by pions into the field, to contend in their SUPERSTITIOUS TRIALS. the Goths of the western portion of name, the prevalence of which prac WHEN, about three years ago, the Europe, this barbarous custom was in- tice it was that occasioned the decree subject of Trial by Battle underwent troduced into the conquered countries, of the council of Lateran already alludso much discussion, I was more than where a passion for arms, united with ed to. We are informed, too, by Selonce on the eve of communicating to the superstitious notions of the times, den, in his treatise, entitled the 'Duelthe world some of the curious informa- contributed, for several centuries, to lo,' that many instances of the same tion which my father had collected Thus we find in custom occurred also amongst the Enits preservation. On this point. A good deal, however, of Cassiodorus, a letter from Theodoric,glish clergy. Their brethreu in France, what my legacy comprised on this sub- one of the Gothic sovereigns, exhort- however, appear to have been more reject, has since transpired, from othering some of his subjects to lay aside solute in its observance; for, in order sources; and the subject itself has, be- duelling, and to have recourse to the to elude the canonical laws on this sides, lost all that interest which it de-legal tribunals for the settlement of point, they were accustomed to substirived from the temporary occurrences their disputes. This practice grew af- tute clubs and cudgels for lances and that caused its public investigation at terwards very common in Italy in the swords. the time I have mentioned. For these time of the Lombards, and which has Our Henry I., among temporal reasons, I shall not here enter into any been ascribed to the barbarous laws en- monarchs, laid some of the earliest reparticular examination of this antiquat- acted in that country during the se- strictions on this ancient practise; but ed mode of determining guilt or inno- venth century. Rotarius aud the suc- his decrees extended only to the probicence, but intend to devote this paper ceeding monarchs frequently enjoined bition of trial by battle concerning proto a general view only of those trials, single combats; and, afterwards, the perty of small value. Louis VII. of which were common to the ages of bar- French and Germans, whose laws were, France imitated his example: and he barism and superstition, and among in a great degree, founded on those of was followed by St. Louis, whose reguwhich the trial by battle held a distin- Lombardy, decreed on several occasi- lations, however, were confined to the guished place. And, in doing this, I ons that disputes should be decided by royal domains. Other kings of France shall only so far avail myself of the as- duel. The emperor Frederic II., when adopted the same course, until, about sistance of my FAMILY TRUNK, as to he published his Sicilian Constitutions, the close of the fifteenth century, when select from it the materials of this lu- declared, that the laws of Lombardy a duel was no longer regarded in that cubration, which, in all other respects, should be preferred in Sicily to the Ro-country as a judicial proceeding, but I desire may be regarded as the bond man; and, in conformity with this spi- resorted to only, as now, to avenge an fide composition of me, MOSES VON rit, he provided, amongst his decrees, injury, or to determine an imaginary MUCKLEWIT. for the particular manner in which sin- point of honour. In England, trial gle combats should be conducted. by battle, in civil matters, was finally abolished so early as the time of Henry II., by the introduction, in its stead, of the Grand Assize, a substitute which is generally ascribed to the invention of Glanville. It was reserved for our own times, however, to witness the total extinction in criminal as well as in civil matters, of this remnant of superstition and barbarism. These superstitious trials, or, as they were anciently called, the judg It was in France, however, that this ments of God, were chiefly of two sorts: practice appears to have found its most 1. Trial by battle; 2. Trial by ordeal. congenial abode, and where, nursed by The latter consisted again of three the spirit of chivalry, it long maintainsubdivisions: ordeal of hot iron-or-ed its ground. Montesquieu informs deal of hot water-and ordeal of cold water. There were, likewise, some subordinate modes of trial, as the judgment of the cross, and the judgment by us that it was even countenanced by It may not be uninteresting to state here, that St. Drausin, who had been bishop of Soissons, was long regarded in France as the tutelary saiot of duellists. It is, accordingly, observed, in some of the Breviaries of this saint, that 'all sorts of people flocked to his tomb, and that those who were under any engagement to fight implored his assistance in a more particular manner, and that such as continued a night in prayer were always wont to have the advantage in their encounter.' Nor was this superstitious usage confined only to single combatants; the shrine of St. Drausin was also frequented by military men of all degrees, and was the general resort of those adventurers, that were about to engage in the Holy Wars. We learn too, upon the authority of John of Salisbury, that Thomas à Becket made a pilgrimage to Soissons for the express purpose of ingratiating the saint on some important occasion; SCOTTISH CUSTOMS OF THE lie to each other several times, after which, upon the sound of trumpet, the encounter commenced; and, when LAST CENTURY. they had struck as many blows as were MR. Barclay, in his relation of the specified in the cartel, the judge threw most memorable things that passed in a wand into the air to apprize the cham- his father's house, from the beginning pions that the combat was at an end. of the century to the year 14, in which When it happened to last until night his father died, says, My brother was with equal success, the party accused married in the year 4, at the age of was regarded as the victor, and his au- twenty-one; few men were unmarried tagonist was condemned to the punish-after this time of life. I myself was ment assigned to the crime with which married, by my friends, at 18, which the other had been charged.' was thought a proper age. Sir James The unexpected length of this pa- Stuart's marriage with President Dalper obliges me to postpone to a future rymple's second daughter brought tooccasion, the observations I have together a number of people related to offer as to the other species of super- both families. At the signing of the stitious trials, to which I have above eldest Miss Dalrymple's contract, the alluded. year before, there was an entire hogshead of wine drank that night, and the number of people at Sir J. Stuart's was little less. The marriage was in the THE following letter against duelling, President's house, with as many of the which was written by Joseph, late Em-relations as it would hold. The bride's favours were all sewn on her gown, peror of Germany, has just found its to the world, in a work at Leipsic, from top to bottom, and round the entitled, a Collection of unpublished neck and sleeves. The moment the Letters of Joseph II.':ceremony was performed, the whole company ran to her, and pulled off the of them all. The next ceremony was favours; in an instant she was stripped the garter, which the bridegroom's man attempted to pull from her leg, but she dropt it on the floor; it was a white and silver riband, which was cut in small morsels to every one in company. The bride's mother then came in with a basket of favours belonging to the bridegroom: those and the bride's were the same with the bearings of their families; her's pink and white, his blue and gold colour.' way ON DUELLING. and the same writer adds, that it was a common opinion in his time, that St. Drausin rendered these men invincible, who spent the night at his tomb before they fought, insomuch that warriors. came from Burgundy and Italy to Count K. and Captain W. immediately. GENERAL.—I desire you to arrest Soissons on that account.' He also The count is of an imperious character, relates, that the Earl of Montfort, be-proud of his birth, and full of false ideas fore his combat with the Earl of Essex, spent a whole night at St. Drausin's shrine. I shall conclude this paper with a brief account of the manner in which the trial by battle was formerly conducted in France, as it is described in a work, published in 1713, entitled, Les Mœurs et Coutumes des François, dans les differens Tems de la Monarchie.' When the combat had been authorized by the sentence of the Court, the judge appointed a day for it. If the combatants were to fight on foot, they had only a sword and shield; if on horseback, they were armed cap-apee. The arms were carried by the judge with the sound of fifes and trumpets, and afterwards received in the middle of the field the priest's benediction, which was bestowed with great ceremony. The champions then swore, before they approached each other, that they had no charm about them, and that they would conduct themselves as loyal and worthy knights. Their swords were afterwards girt on them, and their horses and lances brought, and a proclamation was then made by the heralds, forbidding the spectators to favour either of the combatants. The champions now gave the of honour. Captain W., who is an old soldier, thinks of settling every thing by the sword or the pistol. He has done wrong to accept a challenge from the young count. I will not suffer the prac tice of duelling in my army; and I dejustify it. I have a high esteem for ofspise the arguments of those who seek to ficers who expose themselves courageously to the enemy, and who, on all occa sions, shew themselves intrepid, valiant and determined in attack, as well as in defence. The indifference with which they face death is honourable to themselves and useful to their country; but there are men ready to sacrifice every thing to a spirit of revenge and hatred. I despise them: such men, in my opinion, are worse than the Roman Gladiators. Let a council of war besummoned to try these two officers, with all the impartiality which Idemand from every judge; and let the most culpable of the two be made an example, by the rigour of the law. I am resolved that this barbarous custom, which is wor The company dined and supped together, and had a ball in the evening; the same, next day, at Sir James Stuart's. On Sunday there went from the President's house to church twenty-three couple all in high dress; Mr. Barclay, then a boy, led the youngest Miss Dalrymple, who was the last of them. They filled the galleries of the church from the King's seat to the wing loft. The feasting continued till they had gone through all the friends of the family, with a ball every night. thy of the age of Tamerlane and Bajazet, and which is so often fatal to the peace of As the baptists was another public families, shall be punished and suppres- place, he goes on to describe it thus:sed, though it should cost me half my of- 'On the fourth week after the lady's ficers. There will be still left men, who delivery, she was set on her bed, on a can unite bravery with the duties of faith-low footstool, the bed covered with ful subjects. I wish for none who do not respect the laws of the country. Vienna, Aug. 1771. JOSEPH.' some neat piece of sowed work or white satin, with three pillows at her back, covered with the same, she in full dress, with a lappit head dress, and a fan in her hand. Having informed her ac From the crystal spring fresh vigour we inhale Rosy health does court us on the mountain gale Sweet the rising mountains, &c. They are flirting all day,-they are dancing all night, quaintance what day she is to see company, they all come and pay their respects to her, standing or walking a little through the room, for there are Were I offered all the wealth that Albion yields, The crimp'd jackets behind, like the eaves of a With the countless riches of her subject seas, All her lofty mountains and her fruitful fields, Iwould scorn the change for blisses such as these. Sweet the rosy mountains, &c. AULD DOMINIE. COUNTRY VISITORS. Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll constant prove.' COWPER. (The Reply to WILFORD.-Literary Chronicle, p 110.) YOUR letter arriv'd in the Literary Chronicle, And Polly declares you 're a quiz and ironical; For aunt Debby's declaring her sweetheart's reBut Polly is cross'd in her passion as usual, fusal; As for father, he 's well, and out shooting the grouse, And for mother, she's darning the hose in the house; no chairs; they drink a glass of wine and eat a piece of cake, and then give place to others. Towards the end of the week all the friends were asked to what was called the Cummerfealls: this was a supper where every gentleman brought a pint of wine to be drank by him and his wife. The supper was, -a ham at the head, and a pyramid of fowls at the bottom, hens and ducks below, partridges at top; there was an eating posset in the middle of the table, with dried fruits and sweetmeats at the sides. When they had finished their supper, the meat was removed, and in an instant every one flies to the sweetmeats to pocket them, on which a scramble ensued, chairs overturned, and every thing on the table, wrestling and pulling at one another with the utmost noise and violence. When all was quiet, they went to the stoups, (for there were no bottles for the wine) of which the women had a good share: for, though it was a disgrace to be seen drunk, yet it was none to be a little intoxicated in good company. A few days after this, the same company were asked to the christening, which was al-Nature's odd ones come hopping and rope-dancways in the church, all in high dress, a number of them young ladies, who were called maiden cimmers; one of them presented the child to the father. After the ceremony, they dined and supped together, and the night often concluded by a ball.' Old uncle still lame and asleep in the corner O'erwearied by toil, but as happy as Horner; And I, ➡, like a bird in a desolate nest, Live without you, dear Wilford! in dutiful rest. You have strange girls in London, and dandies Who are lash'd by your satire when ferretted no doubt, out, And deserving the lashes of all of their kind, mind: When adorning their body, neglecting their But e'en at this distance, though foggy and drear, ing here, Though the hops are in Kent and the ropes in our stable, And, like Hope with their anchor, extended in cable. We've a curious old lady and daughters come down To the doctors for health, from a nook of your town; They have caused such commotion, diversion, and joke, All the heads of the parish are under their yoke; They have asses for riding, have clogs for the dew, Dress thrice in the day, and take breakfast at And to give their coarse manners the air of two; They gabble bad French while partaking each genteel, meal: E'en the footman's instructed the meaning of bread, BRITISH GALLERY.-No. II. Whence art by practice to perfection soars.' Mason's Translation of Du Fresnoy: WE Continue our notice of the British Gallery by a few observations on some of its most striking pictures. We commence with those contained in the north division of the exhibition.-Of these, the most attractive, from its novelty of idea, magnificence of conception, and splendour of execution, is J. Martin's picture of Belshazzar's Feast, No. 72. It was certainly the first time in our lives that we ever felt disposed to quarrel with genius of any kind; but we could not refrain from which we found in obtaining a view of feeling a little chagrin at the difficulty this painting in a proper light, and at a desirable distance. The concourse of circled, almost made it an impossibiamateurs, by which it was closely enlity to catch a glimpse of this performance, unless it were absolutely' à quattre occhi.' Such an opportunity, however, did occur, and it was not without feelings of great pleasure, that we beheld a performance so highly creditable both to the talents of the artist, the research and reading of the costumist, and, we think we may add, the feelings of the poet; for a similar ima ginative power must have been at work in that soul which could conceive and combine the images of sublimity and beauty, of description and of narration, tion of the spectator. The idea of the which this work presents to the attenheaven-traced characters being pourtrayed in lines of flames, and (instead of being confined to one small circlet, and dimmed by the lustre of royal magnificence,) of each sublime denunciation being girded by a ring of living fire, and stretched along the whole extent of the court of Belus, and from thence pouring forth a stream of celestial terrific splendour, such as to blast the madness of the impious rites below, is a conception, though so perfectly original, yet so grand and natural, as to force us rather to wonder that it should never have suggested itself before, than to stop at the admiration which we feel at the genius and talent which has at length embraced it, and adorned its execution by the utmost glow of imagination and the warmest perfection of skill. The superb union of the Jewish, the Egyptian, and the Indian styles of architecture, warranted, as it is in this instance, by the most authentic of inferences, that of the most indisputable history, has been made use of by Mr. Martin in a way which reflects the greatest lustre on his taste, at the same time that it takes nothing away from the promise of his judgment. with animation or thrilling with sus-picture will not be the last or best with Such are the objects which Mr. Mar- 'Still over head, the This beautiful circumstance is finely From the length to which we have unintentionally been drawn by the peculiar novelty which characterizes this painting, we are compelled to wave all further remarks on this exhibition till a future opportunity. W. H. PARRY. The Drama. DRURY LANE.-We have, of late years, been doomed to witness so many dull and heavy productions brought forward under the name of tragedies, that the mere announcement of a new one excites rather painful than pleasurable emotions. It was with some portion of this feeling that we went to 'Old Drury' on Wednesday night, to witness the first performance of Conscience, or the Bridal Night; but we were The execution of this splendid pic- most agreeably disappointed, when we ture is in general worthy of the subject: found it to be one of the purest and The gigantic sublimity of those it is gorgeous, magnificent, and sub-most classical tragedies that has been mighty halls, or rather open courts, in lime; the brilliancy of gold and silver, produced for many years, and one that which it is known that the princely the polish of the red marble, so com- surpasses the general offspring of the magnificence and ostentatious super-mon in eastern edifices, are worked up tragic muse of late, as much as the stition of Babylon delighted; the long, rapidity of instinct outstrips the tardicolossal, and ponderous, yet grand ness of instruction.' The scene of the and awe-inspiring arcades, leading to tragedy, which is purely of a domestic other halls of equal splendour, and afnature, is laid at Venice; and the plot, terwards continued till they are lost in which possesses much originality, is the infinitude of distance, are objects very skilfully managed. which astonish and bewilder the mind accustomed to dwell upon the graceful elegancies of European architecture, and unprepared to scan the appalling and super-human amplitude of Eastern gorgeousness; and all these have been brought forward by the artist in his representation of that pride-humbling dispensation by which all these have now been swept away, with the vast empire they adorned, like a mighty vessel sunk beneath the waves, overwhelmed by the very element which had seen the beautiful sublimity of his majestic course, and which had pealed to the We could have wished that the cethunders of its triumphant arms, sunk dars upon the hanging gardens had in the fathomless abyss without a warn- been marked by a more sombre and ing, without a struggle, without a ves-natural appearance; and we cannot but tige remaining of its existence. remark that the attitudes of the figures The sight, too, of a mighty multi-have, in general, too much of the the tude, the beauty, the majesty, the de-atric cast; to which we might add, fences of a victorious dynasty, such as this picture presents to us, is at any time an imposing spectacle; more especially at a moment when we reflect that, of all the hearts now bounding with a beauty which cannot but strike That sacred pile, so vast, so high, that the inspired interpreter of Heaven Upon the whole, we trust that this The hero of the piece, Lorenzo (Mr. Wallack), the last of a noble house, is dispossessed of his estate by the arts of his guardian, the uncle of Elmira (Mrs. West), to whom he is much attached. The guardian dies, leaving the whole of his ill-gotten wealth to Orsinio (Mr. Cooper), Elmira's father, who, from the situation in which he stands, conceives the most deadly hate for Lorenzo, his late brother's ward, and promises his daughter, who had been plighted to Lorenzo in marriage, to another. Elmira, on hearing the determination of her father, is driven to despair, and quits his house, marries Lorenzo, and returns to ask forgiveness of her father. Orsinio refuses to forgive her, except on the condition that she leaves her husband, a proposition which she rejects, and joins Lorenzo, who is obliged to fly the city to escape the pursuit of his numerous creditors, the consequence of profligate habits fostered by Alfero (Mr. Bromley), an unprincipled tutor. The fugitives are |