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matter how severely. But we are speaking of society in general, as it now exists; and we say that there is vile hypocrisy in the tone in which Lord Byron is talked of there. We say, that although all offences against purity of life are miserable things, and condemnable things, the degrees of guilt attached to different offences of this class, are quite as widely different as are the degrees of guilt between an assault and a murder; and we confess our belief, that no man of Byron's station and age could have run much risk of gaining a very bad name in society, had a course of life similar (in as far as we know any thing of that) to Lord Byron's, been the only thing chargeable against him."

Here, in the first place, Lord Byron is admitted to be guilty; but the guilt in sensual cases differs, we are informed, as assault does from murder; and Lord Byron is not a murderer, but an assaulter; (this is the way I understand it ;) and that any other man of Byron's station and age, who should commit all his (gentlemanly) offences, would not gain a very bad name in society. How this excuses his Lordship, I cannot tell. When society are acting right, their conduct cannot be called hypocrisy. Their crime consists of nothing, on Lord Byron's part. It lies in the fact, that they are lenient to the errors of men of a certain station and age, when, at the same time, destitute of certain intellectual qualities.

What purposes such views of character as this can answer, I do not know. Lord Byron surely cannot, in these lights, be held up for palliation! and when, in rescuing his name from slander, we are obliged to confess that the slanderer differed from the truth only in degree, and that the true degree was a meaner, more paltry, and sneaking one than the false; it must surely be best to let the matter rest in oblivion. The only conclusion to which our author arrives, is, that other men might have been as bad as Lord Byron, and yet not have had so bad a name, a conclusion in which nothing is concluded.

This is the end of what our author says upon this part of his subject. The next sentence leads us to the consideration of Lord Byron's conduct to his wife. I have before said, that I shall leave that consideration alone;

and I have only now to direct the attention of my readers to two more opinions connected with the subject we have just considered, viz. immorality. They are both, seemingly, written by Sir Egerton Brydges; his book I have not seen, but as they are adopted by the author of the paper in question, I shall consider them as his.

"There is in the world, very generally prevalent, a strange perversion of mind and heart, which forgives to young men, who have no redeeming virtues or talents, that, as the venial folly of early life, which is branded with infamy in him who has genius, and a thousand brilliant qualities of heart, and a thousand brilliant actions, which ought to efface even great irregularities and faults."

Now, I assert, that at all times, and in all circumstances, a man is either right or wrong. If right, his rectitude can be supported by conclusive arguments. If wrong, his evil can be proved by reason founded upon rectitude. But thus to throw right and wrong together, and not to distinguish the real boundaries of each, is to confuse the subject; and when the subject is confused, the men will be so likewise. He will waver between right and wrong, till it is but reasonable to suppose that he will fall into the wrong. And what, let me ask, are redeeming virtues and talents? Is not this the same mixture of morality with intellect, which we observed before? If virtue could redeem crime, then it would of course follow, that a man could be at the same time, in one point of view, virtuous, and in another, as basely criminal, and that the one score would quit the other. This is an absurdity, and also a violation of law, for "whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, is guilty of all," James ii. 10. If talent could redeem crime, it would follow, that crime is a weakness of the understanding, instead of a transgression of law, or else redemption is paid in a different coin to that in which the debt was contracted. And the brilliancy of the qualities, the splendour of the actions, of a criminal, instead of effacing irregularities and faults, should lead us humbly to weep at human blindness, and to acknowledge our natural depravity; because, however brilliant our qualities, we may be bad still, and never to depend for redemp

tion on talent, or splendour, but ona sacrifice.

“No one can feel grand, tender, beautiful, and just sentiments, who is not virtuous at the moment of their impression."

This sentence is preceded by the following one. We will compare the two together.

"We are not mere material beings, nor will the rectitude of our material conduct ennoble us, or render us good, if, at the same time, our minds are low, base, and vicious."

If, as we are told, a man's outward conduct will not ennoble him, his words, or actions, when his heart is at the same time low, base, and vicious; how, I ask, can the grandeur, the tenderness, or the beauty, or the justness, of his sentiments,—that, is of his opinions, which he materially promulgates, prove the virtue of his heart? What has either grandeur, or tenderderness, or beauty, or justness, to do with virtue? There may be grand virtues, and tender virtues, and beautiful virtues, and fit virtues, but when separated from that particular bias, the appellations themselves do not any way approach to virtue.

There are many more sentiments in the paper under review, which are highly to be condemned; I will, however, now draw my observations to a close; in doing so, I beg leave to add two remarks.-With what evil such base subterfuges for immorality as these are attended!

is sufficient to countenance sensuality; but when we are informed, that a man of less intellect than he possessed, could do as he did, without having a bad repute-what encouragement there is for vice! But after all, what did Lord Byron's practice do for him? Mark another quotation.

"Such a perpetual tumult of violent emotions, as that in which Lord Byron lived, perhaps contributed to shorten his existence; it was a fever, which had a direct tendency to wear him out."

It was a fever. And let me ask myself, and let any of my readers ask themselves, how they would like to live in a fever? What kind of state, think you, is that which is composed of a tumult of violent emotions? Is it happy? Yea, as peaceful as the stormy sea! Is it safe to be carried away, and then torn to pieces, by our appetites? Is it reasonable to give the reins to passion, which may waft us wheresoever they will? If it were not a known fact that such a condition is miserable, and unsafe, and unreasonable, and every thing that is bad, the man who reads the sentence would think that there was something high and lofty in living always in a tumult of emotion, and always having within a fever of passion; and then he would give the reins to his passions, his appetites, and his sensual desires, and create this lofty and noble tumult, by the splutter he made, as he plunged into every puddle-hole into which he might leap.

When we see the volcano spouting forth its lava, we may admire the grandeur of the scenes which its eruptions present to the eye of an unconcerned spectator; but it would be foolish, -nay, wicked, to conceal from our minds the direful destruction it causes, and the woful effects which its streams of burning fire can produce.

Man naturally is prone to indulge in sensual pleasure; and in young minds this proneness is promoted by heated and acute passions, which, if not checked, are sure to lead astray. May I not then ask, with some reason, (when we are informed, in the first place, that talent may excuse sensuality and profligacy; and, in the second place, if a man do not become an unchecked, unprincipled, unmanly, and, let me add, an ungentlemanly seducer, and only connect himself with licentious, unprincipled, and characterless women, that no very bad accusation can be preferred against him,) may I not ask, I say, if this be not calculated to make men profligates in general, and to merge the character of the man in that of the brute? Men need so little tutoring for this purpose, that it is a pity any should be given; and Lord Byron's name alone. If Lord Byron had in his breast all

I do not accede to the following reasoning, but take it as our author's opinion of Lord Byron's character.

"The thoughts and feelings embodied in this fictitious personage's character, (Childe Harold,) must have, at some time or other, passed through Lord Byron's mind, and subsequent events decidedly proved that many of them had been too much at home there."

the restless misery of Childe Harold, was he a good, or a bad man? was he happy, or not? The fact is, would my readers choose calmness or tumult, quietness or bustle, I might say, heaven or hell? for nobility and mental exaltation, applied to these things, are but cant terms. Sensuality is a mean, low thing. Sensual vices are far beneath his attention, who has a holy religion, and reason, to guide him.

Any thing connected with a great name may be called great and exalted, but in itself the conduct of the sensualist degrades him as a man, for it debases him lower than he has any need to be.

How poor a defence has this vice to boast of!-I trust I have shewn the fallacy of some reasons which talented men have adduced on the subject. What contradictions are asserted by them! What poverty there exists in the whole of the arguments! Let us ask ourselves, are these the only reasons which sin has to offer in its favour? Is this the most plausible view in which crime can be taken? It is. When inspected through a medium of rectitude, that view is visionary shadowy;-common-sense revolts at it, and religion, in every sense of the word, declares the things represented to be dangerous and fatal, and radically and eternally evil.

It is like reasoning for danger and death, and defending misery and wo, by calling it joy and gladness.

Let us be honest. If a man can defend sin by sound argument, so be it. If not, he should (if he will persist in it,) persist in it as unreasonable, and as such ever confess it. Dudley.

A. C.

REFLECTIONS UPON CONDUCT AND ASSOCIATION, WITH SOME ADDITIONAL REMARKS UPON MR. FAUNTLEROY.

MR. EDITOR.

SIR,--Though it may be considered illiberal to animadvert upon the actions of the unfortunate, and those who are no longer able to defend themselves, yet the sentiments which ap- | peared in col. 345 of the Imperial Magazine, respecting Mr. Fauntleroy, appear to me at once praiseworthy and correct.

Whilst we commiserate both the feelings and failings of the man, we

| must carefully avoid allowing our sympathy to induce others to imitate their example; and at the same time point out the misery which necessarily arises from a perseverance in any unprincipled mode of conduct. Pitiable as was the situation of the unhappy Mr. Fauntleroy, yet the misfortunes under which he laboured were no less censurable; and it becomes the duty of the moralist to notice the contagious effect of vicious example.

Doctor Blair, in one of his admirable discourses, after expatiating upon the danger and contagion of vice, says, "He, who, in the beginning of his course, soothed himself with the thought, that while he indulged his desires, he did hurt to no man; now pressed by the necessity of supplying those wants, into which his expensive pleasures have brought him, goes on, without remorse, to defraud and to oppress. The lover of pleasure then becomes hardened or cruel; violates his trust, or betrays his friend; becomes a man of treachery, or a man of blood; satisfying, or at least endeavouring to satisfy, himself, that circumstances form his excuse; that by necessity he is impelled; and that in gratifying the passions which nature had infixed within him, he merely follows those dictates she had implanted in his bosom."

How completely is the justness of these sentiments illustrated by the ill-fated man, whose errors and misfortunes have given rise to the above remarks ! In our intercourse with the world, few circumstances are of so much consequence as a minute attention to the conduct and principles of those with whom we associate; and if there is a laxity in the one, or a want of principle in the other, we should avoid all intimacy as we would a pestilence.

In this age of refinement, pleasing and polished manners are as letters of recommendation to those by whom they are possessed; and instead of endeavouring to fathom the principles of our associates, we are too apt to suffer our friendship to be attracted by courtesy of demeanour or urbanity of address. The unfortunate man whose conduct has been expatiated upon in the above number, is allowed to have possessed this polish of address, and this attractive urbanity of manners ; and these, pleasing as they are, in all

probability led him into fashionable society and expensive amusements. Let not this remark induce my readers to imagine, that I mean, either directly or indirectly, to condemn those courtesies which association requires; and which, in our communication with the world, may not inaptly be considered in the light of letters of recommendation; or to inculcate inattention to the wants or wishes of those with whom a combination of circumstances has destined us to mix.

In that sympathy which the humane spontaneously offer the unfortunate, we ought seriously to reflect upon the effect which a similar mode of conduct might produce upon others; and in that point of view, the ill-fated Mr. Fauntleroy may doubtless be considered as a beacon! A virtuous wife treated with contempt or indifference, I consider as one of the most pitiable objects in creation, and, of all the trials to which human nature is liable, the one most difficult to be sustained. That a man, who, in the sanctuary devoted to the service of his Maker, had entered into the most sacred and binding engagement the human tongue is able to form, and had solemnly sworn to take the being to whom he plighted his affections, "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish until death did them part," that such a man, I say, should be able to set aside an engagement so sacredly contracted, and transfer his tenderness and affection to a different object, is one of the most striking proofs that can be given of the laxity or destitution of religious principles; and the example which is set by such a mode of conduct, is in the highest degree censurable.

We live in a world full of error and infirmity, and are naturally too prone to be influenced by the power of example; consequently, it becomes an imposing duty to reprobate, or at least to censure, every species of immoral conduct. In this point of view, we ought to form our opinion of the ill-fated man, whose failings and misfortunes have excited so much sympathy in the feeling breast. That the slightest infringement upon the line of duty, leads to the broad road of destruction and unhappiness, is a truth which all those who have made the

experiment will readily acknowledge. When Mr. Fauntleroy first deviated from the line of rectitude, he evidently did not foresee its consequences; and to avoid one difficulty, he plunged into an abyss of ruin and wretchedness. That he should have lived in a style of affluence so much above his fortune, is a circumstance at once to be deplored and condemned; but, alas! in this age of luxury, it is a practice too frequent amongst the sons of men.

Instead of being satisfied with making a respectable appearance, affluence and prodigality must be imitated; and the man who ought to confine his domestic expenses to hundreds, actually lives at the rate of thousands! That ruin and destruction must be the inevitable consequence, every reflecting mind must naturally expect; and though the evil may not be attended to others by similar misfortunes to those which awaited Mr. Fauntleroy, yet the end must be melancholy and deplorable. Let that unhappy man's fate, then, be a caution to the unreflecting. Let him, as from the chambers of the dead, admonish them to beware of expensive pleasures; and let us, whilst we pity his misfortunes, recollect the culpable mode of conduct which produced them.

GLEANINGS.

Chinese Saw.-A saw has been introduced into France and the colonies, which will saw the largest and longest trees when laid on the ground, and not placed on stocks, as is the common practice. This instrument, originally ofChinese invention, has not been hitherto much known; and though already found to be very useful, is susceptible of much improvement." wash muslins, or any kind of white cotton How to keep Muslin of a good Colour.-Never goods, with linens: for the latter deposits or discharges a gum or colouring matter every time it is washed, which discolours and dyes Glasgow Mechanical Magazine. the cotton. Wash them by themselves.

Danish Watchmen.-The watchmen of Stockholm, like their brethren of Copenhagen, cry the hour most lustily, and sing anthems nearly all night, to the no little annoyance of foreigners, who have been accustomed to confine their devotions to the day. These important per. sonages of the night, perambulate the town with a curious weapon like a pitchfork, each side of the fork having a spring bar, used in securing a running thief by the leg. The use of it requires some skill and practice, and constitutes no inconsiderable part of the valuable art and mystery of thief-catching.

Italian Steel Pins.-Some specimens of the common pins used by women in Italy, have

been brought to England. They consist of steel wire stems, pointed like needles, hardened and tempered, and polished. Their globular heads being formed by dipping them into melted glass of different colours; they thus form exceedingly durable pins, infinitely preferable in that respect, and in the sharpness of their points, to the English brass or copper wire ones; neither will they bend or become crooked like them. They were bought in Italy at the rate of fourteen for a farthing.

The New Bankrupt Act.-It has frequently occurred, that economical servants have suffered their wages, salaries, &c. to lie in arrear to a considerable amount, until bankruptcy overtook their principal, and their accumulated savings have been swept away by the wreck. The present act provides at least a partial remedy, as clerks and servants may be paid six months' salary in full, and be allowed to. prove under the commission, for all anterior claims, however remote.-With respect to apprentices, the act presents a most wholesome clause. It has often happened, that a needy struggling man, on the very eve of bankruptcy, has indentured an apprentice to himself, and received a fee of consideration to a large amount, which sum has been applied for general purposes; and the result has been, that the apprentice is cast upon the world without a knowledge of his business, or the pecuniary means of obtaining it. In order to obviate this evil (and a great one it surely is) the 49th clause runs thus:-"And be it enacted, that where any person shall be an apprentice to a bankrupt at the time of issuing the commission against him, the issuing of such commission shall be and enure as a complete discharge of the indenture or indentures, whereby such apprentice was bound to such bankrupt; and if any sum shall have been really and bona fide paid by or on behalf of such apprentice to the bankrupt as an apprentice fee, it shall be lawful for the commissioners, upon proof thereof, to order any sum to be paid to or for the use of such apprentice, as they shall think reasonable, regard being had in estimating such sum to the amount of the sum so paid by or on behalf of such apprentice to the bankrupt, and to the time during which such apprentice shall have resided with the bankrupt previous to the issuing of the commission."

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Wolves in Russia.-The following is the official account of the devastations committed by the wolves in the government of Livonia only in the year 1823, they devoured-horses, 1341; foals, 1,243; horned-cattle, 1,807; calves, 733; sheep, 15,182; lambs, 726; goats, 2,545; kids, 183; swine, 4,190; sucking-pigs, 312; dogs, 703; geese, 673.

Commercial Prosperity.-A Liverpool paper states, that the exports from that port are greater than those of London or any other port in the world. During the last year, they amounted to £20,662,587.

Human Skeleton.-On a hill near Brighton, towards the end of last May, a human skeleton, accompanied by an urn, was found in a grave lined with flints, about three feet beneath the surface of the ground. No indications of its age are discoverable.

Chimney-sweeping.-A society for abolishing this degrading employment by boys, and substituting machinery, has been long established,

and great improvements have recently been made in these humane contrivances. On the 27th of May, the anniversary of the above society was held at the City of London Tavern, the Lord Mayor in the chair. The meeting was numerously attended by persons of high respectability. Many able speakers strongly advocated the cause of humanity, and warmly recommended the use of machinery, which every person can now procure. We wish this institution every possible success.

Gooseberry Tree. In the garden of the late Sir R. Arkwright, near Matlock, there is a gooseberry-tree of the rough-red sweet species, 34 feet in length, and about 10 feet high, trained against a wall. In the shrubbery, some white, yellow, and red common broom, are grafted on the liburnum, and have a beautiful appearance.

The Slave Trade.-This trade goes on and prospers, to the shame of the French flag. The boats of one English frigate, the Maidstone, boarded, in eleven days of June, 1824, no less than ten French vessels, at a single spot upon the coast of Africa, the measurement of which vessels was between 1,400 and 1,500 tons, while they were destined for the incarceration -we might say, the living burial-of 3,000 human beings! La Sabine, a vessel of only 269 tons, was inspected by the British officers, who were, by the smooth-faced ruffians that manned her, shewn through every part of the ship, and found to be prepared for packing together 300 male, and 200 female Negroes! The publicity and impunity with which the French flag is thus made the cover for unheardof crimes, Commodore Bullen declares to be an evil which has a tendency to aggravation every hour. The merchantmen of France, protected with this horrible perseverance by their most Christian monarch from the right of search, the sole effectual check upon their atrocities, must be regarded by all foreign pirates as the most commodious vehicles through which the trade of blood can be circulated. As a proof to what a pitch these horrors may be ripened, we shall cite but a single fact. The schooner La Louisa, Capt. Armand, arrived at Guadaloupe during the first days of April, 1824, with a cargo of 200 Negroes, the remainder of a complement of 275, which the vessel had on board. The vessel not being large enough to accommodate so great a number of men, the overplus were consigned alive to the waves by the Captain!" Well may the humane correspondent of our government add, that "Nature shudders at such a deed." The principal owners are Messrs. De Rance and Co. and their partners Messrs. Moses Hart and Co. Pedemonte, all merchants at Pointe a Petre.

Measuring of Corn.-First, have your bushel measured by water against the standard brass bushel: having ascertained it to be correct, then measure a bushel of corn (suppose barley) off the heap in the usual way, which I consider to be a fair legal bushel of corn; then empty this corn into some vessel, say an old bushel, and pour it slowly (the slower the better for the experiment) back again into the first bushel, giving it a circular motion whilst pouring; and you will find, when you have emptied the whole of the corn, a deficiency of three or three and a half pints in the bushel. On the contrary, take again a fair bushel as at first, and empty it as quickly as possible, and there will be a

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