Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

attended with as many little tricks on the part, even of the fair traders, in beneficial chances.

A very difgufting account is given in chapter XXII. of the favage amufements, known in the fouthern itates, particularly Georgia and the Carolinas. Some perfons having denied that thefe are any longer known, our author relates feveral initances, fome of which he witneffed himfelf. We give the following fpecimen of his anecdotes upon this topic, premifing, that though we were to admit their accuracy, they by no means difprove the opinion generally entertained, that the practices in queftion are gradually wearing out.

[ocr errors]

Paffing, in company with other travellers, through the ftate of Georgia, our attention was arrefted by a gouging-match. We found the combatants, as Morfe defcribes, faft clenched by the hair, and their thumbs endeavouring to force a paffage into each other's eyes; while feveral of the bystanders were betting upon the firft eye to be turned out of its focket. For fome time the combatants avoided the thumb ftroke with dexterity. At length they fell to the ground; and in an inftant the uppermoft fprung up with his antagonist's eye in his hand!!! The favage crowd applauded, while, fick with horror, we galloped away from the infernal fcenc. The name of the fufferer was John Butler, a Carolinian, who, it seems, had been dared to the combat by a Georgian; and the firft eye was for the honour of the ftate to which they respectively belonged.

The eye is not the only feature which fuffers on these occasions. Like dogs and bears, they use their teeth and feet, with the most savage ferocity, upon each other.

A brute in human form, named John Stanley, of Bertie county, North Carolina, fharpens his teeth with a file, and boafts of his dependence upon them in fight. This monfter will alfo exult in relating the account of the noses and ears he has bitten off, and the cheeks he has torn.

A man of the name of Thomas Penrise, then living in Edenton, in the fame state, attempting at cards to cheat some half drunken failors, was detected. A scuffle enfued; Penrise knocked out the candle, then gouged out three eyes, bit off an ear, tore a few cheeks, and made good his retreat. P. 301, 302.

Among the various subjects introduced, rather than treated of, by Mr Janfon, in order to catch the eye of idle readers, may be mentioned that of Advertisements.' He has filled a chapter with fpecimens of this kind of compofition, collected from the American newspapers. In none of thefe is there any thing ftriking; and they furnish not the flighteft colour for an opinion prejudicial to the tafte of the country. The London newspapers of a fingle week, and the provincial papers of England any one day, would fupply a much longer chapter of eccentric advertife

[blocks in formation]

ments'

ments' (as our author calls them), and furnish better reafons for doubting the good fenfe or correct tafte of this country, to fuch as fhould be thoughtlefs enough to argue upon a general queftion by examining the fingle clafs of exceptions. It is fcarcely necef fary to add, that we urge this only against the inference from the American advertisements, and by no means as a denial that tafte, in the United States, muft neceffarily be at a low ebb.

If a confideration of the peculiar circumftances of thofe communities could leave any doubt refpecting this point, it would be removed by attending to the few fpecimens of the finer arts which from time to time come across the Atlantic. The collection of excerpts and anecdotes now under review, furnishes fome additions to our previous knowledge of this fubject. The poetry of Dr Dwight, for example, is evidently the growth of a country where only the coarfer forts of induftry yet flourish. We extract the following lines as a fample.

Say, mufe indignant! whofe the hand
That hurled the conflagrative brand,
A foe to human feelings born,
And of each future age the fcorn
TYRON achieved the deed malign,
TYRON, the name of every fin.
Hell's bafeft fiends the flame furveyed,
And smiled to fee deftruction spread;
While Satan, blushing deep, looked on,

And Infamy difown'd her fon.' p. 163.

[ocr errors]

Mr Feffenden, we are told, (p. 200) is the Hudibras of Ame rica;' and the following are a few of the neat and pointed lines quoted by our author from that great man's lays.

Few good and great men can be nam'd
Your fcoundrel hip has not defam'd
And scarce a rogue who ought to hang
Who is not number'd with your gang.

Doft thou remember much about a
Droll 'scape of thine once at Calcutta ;
When erft invited to a breakfast,

In noose you nigh had got your neck faft?'

P. 201.

One of the fpeeches of Mr Randolph is well known in this country. With great force of argument, it abounds in examples of the worst taste. Mr Janfon quotes another oration, beginning with these words, upon a bill having been rejected, to which Mr Randolph was hoftile, I fall live ten years longer.' The only notice of American painters, contained in this book, is that of Mr Peale and his family. They are all artists, and all named

[ocr errors]

after

after eminent painters. We have Mr Rembrandt Peale, and Mr Titian Peale. Mr Titian is a celebrated portrait painter;' and he showed our author portraits of several public characters, which he immediately recognized.' This art, therefore, whatever some people may think, has made a certain progress in America. With the writers of the New World we are rather better acquainted; but the works of Dr Ezra Stiles, president of Yale College, are not sufficiently known and prized in this country. His book on the History of the Three Judges,' formerly alluded to, seems in every way deserving of notice. It was published in 1795; and the following specimen of its style is given by Mr Janson.

• What I have before narrated, is delivered upon fure documents. I shall now narrate what is only conjectural, and leave it to every one's judgement; only observing, that if it ever did take place, no one will doubt but that Dixwell was concerned in it. There is fomehow preferved, not in universal or general, but in particular and ftrong lineal tradition, at Newhaven, which is to be confidered more largely hereafter, that another of the regicides, befides Dixwell, lies buried in our burying-place, and that this other was Whalley. This is particularly preferved among the fextons or grave diggers, who, it feems, for many years, and perhaps ever from the time efpecially of Dixwell's death, have fhewn the ftone marked E. W. for Whalley, as they have that marked J. D. for Dixwell. I have not found the leaft tradition of Goffe, till I myself conjectured it, January 1793, inferring in my own mind, without a doubt, that if Whalley, who certainly died at Hadley, was afterwards removed here, Goffe must be here alfo. But of this, 1 mean as to Goffe's being here alfo, I can find no tradition; yet I find it tenaciously adhered to, especially in the line of the grave-diggers, that Whalley is here. I have often examined the E. W. ftone; but consider the matter without proof; yet poffible, but by no means certain. Nor do I wifh, and leaft of all attempt, to gain any one's credulity to it, leaving every mind perfectly free and unprejudiced. But as I know that whoever takes the pains that I have done, to trace out, and collect, and digeft the traditions in Newhaven, will find this among others, however it originated among us; fo, after this precaution and notification, I fhall proceed.' p. 54, 55.

Unlimited abuse of private characters is another characteristic of the American press; and into this practice, we are sorry to find that Mr Janson has been initiated by his residence in the United States. He drags individuals into notice without scruple or ceremony. Sometimes he tells what he has picked up concerning persons whose names never found their way into print ; sometimes he offers, as his excuse, that the American journalists have already told the story, which is, in truth, no justification whatever. As for his endless invectives against Mr Jefferson and

H 2

his

his party, they belong to another class of wrongs, and only obtain their share of the dignified contempt by which that eminently wise ruler has consigned to oblivion all the spoken and written scurrility of his enemies.

ART. VIII. A History of Ireland, from the earliest Account to the Accomplishment of the Union with Great Britain in 1801. By the Rev. James Gordon, Rector of Killegney, &c. 2 vol. London. 1806.

THE HE author of this book is already known to the public by a geographical work called Terraquea, and an account of the late Irish rebellion. He states it to be the object of the present book, to give a clear and succinct account of Irish history, divested of all fabulous and nugatory details, and comprehending whatever is really important and interesting, from the first authentic accounts till the late Union.' A history of Ireland upon this plan, if executed by a writer of adequate talents, would certainly prove an useful work. How far Mr Gordon has succeeded in the undertaking, our readers will be able to judge, from the following account of his book.

The author justly observes, that, previous to the invasion of Henry II., there is little authentic in the annals of Ireland, and nothing to give credibility to that splendid antiquity, rising to the first ages of the postdiluvian world, in which the good Irish, instructed by their O'Flahertys and O'Hallerons, so fondly believe. But it must be observed, that while our author professes to reject from his page whatever is fabulous or uncertain, he, at the same time, ventures to entertain his readers with a very misty discussion about the migrations of the Celta and Goths, which contributes about as much to the truth of his history as his intrusive philippic against bull-baiting, and recommendatory advertisement of his own Terraquea, do to its propriety. In this part of his work, he takes occasion to speak of the Gael, and of the bard of Morven; and he rejects the poems which bear his name, in a manner the most peremptory and consequential. We can, however, give the admirers of the Caledonian bard the comfort of assuring them, that if his fame shall survive the more redoubtable attack of the learned editor of Macpherson, it does not seem to be in great danger from the telum imbelle of the good rector of Killegney. The religion of the antient Irish is matter of as great uncertainty as their origin; but our author conjectures it may have been Druidism ; and accordingly seizes the opportunity of enlarging upon the te

nets

nets and discipline of that antient superstition. He treats also of the manners and literature of the antient Irish. In speaking of the former, he makes a transition to modern times, and communicates, upon his own authority, a piece of information with which we think our readers cannot fail to be highly gratified. 'I have seen,' says our chaste historian, when a boy, a family dining on curds and butter, a piece of the butter being laid upon each spoonful of the former, which was recommended as an antient and most wholesome food by a priest who was one of the company. The author speaks soberly upon the subject of literature, not giving much credit to the reality of those losses which some credulous writers believe the world of letters to have sustained from the ravages of Turgesius, the Omar of the Danes, upon the libraries of the Irish. The middle ages, however, according to our author, produced many suns of science, who went forth from this land of saints and scholars to enlighten the darker regions of Europe. We are particularly called to notice Virgilius Solivagus, a worthy, who, it seems, was persecuted by one Pope, and recompensed with canonization by another; upon which the author thus expresses himself, printing in italics, in order the more securely to mark the dignity, as well of the sentiment as the occa

sion.

• Thus are, in all ages, men of fuperior knowledge, benevolence and candour, envied by the ungenerous, traduced by fycophants, perfecuted by men contemptible in understanding but formidable in power; and, after their deaths, revered, and followed in opinion by the judicious and well-informed.' I. 50.

Before we leave the subject of literature, we must communicate, from our author, a piece of very pertinent information, which, we greatly suspect, will be as new and interesting to most of our readers, as it certainly was to ourselves, that the old Irish chronicle of the Monks of Innisfallen has lately been translated into English by Mr Theophilus O'Flanegan, a literary gentleman, eminent in the knowledge of the Irish tongue, who keeps an academy at Blackrock, near Dublin.' I. 52.

[ocr errors]

By this time our readers will have discovered, that the Reverend Mr Gordon is not eminently endowed with talents for history, and that his digreffive propenfities are not very favourable to the compofition of a history of Ireland upon the plan which he himfelf propofes. The account of the English invafion under Henry II. is prefaced, not with a view of the ftate of England at that time, but with a fummary of the whole of its hiftory, beginning with the etymon of the name. We expected that Pope Adrian's bull would, in like manner, have introduced an account of the origin and progrefs of the Papal power; but the author lets us off, upon this occa

H 3

fion,

« AnteriorContinuar »