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coarse articles for sale. This is so work from their house; and they distenaciously adhered to, that it will covered a deficiency in the amount of require more trouble than an indi- their earnings, when it was too late to vidual will undertake, in the present remedy it. Twenty children might state of things, to introduce any inno- have earned, at this work, one hunvation. The master, who is gene- dred pounds a year; which is, prorally and very properly a weaver, bably, more than they now average thinks that there cannot be any thing in any workhouse in the kingso productive as the spinning-wheel, dom.

and the loom; and when he who is The visitors, guardians, and goto execute sets his face against any vernors of workhouses, ought to be new employment being introduced, compelled by the strong arm of the and puts impediments in the way to law, to avail themselves of local situarender it unprofitable, there can be tions. In the neighbourhood of linen, but little hope of succeeding with any woollen, and cotton manufactories, the children should be trained to such new plan. I will add a recent case to corrobo- branches of thein as they can easily rate what I have asserted. A gentle- learn, and readily execute; and at man I am acquainted with wanted which they can be regularly, and conNear maritime between twenty and thirty children stantly employed.

prove a self evident proposition, for they who are blind will not see any better by offering them additional light.

to spin goats'-hair, whom he could towns, where fisheries are establishemploy constantly; and he was con- ed, they should be taught the knitfident that they might earn at the ting of nets for the fishermen; they rate of one, hundred pounds a year. would gladly employ them. and it is For certain reasons he applied to the a profitable work for children. It is Committee of a neighbouring work- needless to multiply instances, to house, instead of his own; and at every meeting he found some new impediment started, to prevent the adopting of the plan; but it was at If annual officers are to be left to last determined to try the experiment. The hair was sent, and in a direct the affairs of the poor, at their short time he received a summons to pleasure, without any active power to attend the Committee, who told him advise and control, or fixed rules to that the hair he had sent filled the guide them; and if our legislators are children with vermin. He reasoned determined to suffer those evils to against the improbability, and the im- remain unmolested, which time hath possibility of what they said; but rea- brought down to us; then we may son may err, and it must yield to the judge from the passed, what we are fact. The master had provided the to expect from the future; that our committee with several lice in hair, poors' rates will increase from a dufolded up in papers, ready to shew the plicate to a triplicate ratio, and we employer. When he opened the pa- must, as long as we can, support the pers, he was obliged to yield to the burden. evidence of his senses; and they thought their triumph complete: but he said, "Gentlemen, this is not goats', but human hair; and if we call

An Enquiry respecting the late

Mr. Fox.

the children, and examine theme, a curious particulars, reHERE are always certain anecseparately, we shall soon discover from whose head the vermin were lative to the characters of eminent

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public men, about which the world is extremely eager to enquire-after it has become too late, and that nothing farther than mere probable guesses, can be formed. To obviate this difficulty, and to take old time by the fore-lock, is the object of the present address to those, who are capable of

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missed, or the circumstance being noticed, by his nearest and most familiar friends. Moreover, he is not represented by them, at any period of his life, as a studious character, otherwise than by his rapid conceptions, laying hold, quickly and with little labour, of a part of most subjects, and in such mode, attaining a sort of general knowledge, to be converted indeed to oratorial, but never intended for literary use. His well-known love of luxurious ease; of the world, in his early, and of the joys of select society in his latter days, totally precluded the possibility of literary la

It is notorious, that during two or three years last past, or longer perhaps, occasional paragraphs have appeared in the public papers, stating, that Mr. Fox was engaged in writing a History of England, or at least, a history of the country during the reign of the Stuarts, and that the book sellers had actually waited on him, at St. Ann's Hill, in order to make him an offer for the purchase of his work; and farther, that the sum offered amounted to a considerable number of bour; nor could any thing in nature thousand pounds. This undertaking, also, was assigned as the chief induce ment for Mr. Fox's last journey to France, where he might examine the archives, and consult the Stuart papers.

arouse him, but those seemingly paramount and darling objects of his soul-the command of a political party, and the pilotage of the vessel of State. Those even were but secondary; for whatever may have been his Now these paragraphs were so tim- professions in the ardour of tempoed, and came out in so peculiar a way, rary enthusiasm of debate, the whole that it is difficult to conceive they tenor of his life was a continued could be published without some proof, that for no earthly object stronger motive, than the mere idle would he compromise his personal whim of an uninformed and uninter- ease and security. These opinions of ested person; neither are such the the extent of Mr. Fox's literary acusual stuff of the common paragraph quirements are fully borne out by manufactory. The present seems his relics in verse, consisting of smooth a very proper time, for clearing up and elegant trifles; and by his single this mystery, since the thing is re- prose essay, the pamphlet addressed cent, and in every one's recollection. to the electors of Wesminster, in Perhaps the first step should be, who which critics pretended to have dis-were the booksellers alluded to?-If covered the elegant, plausible, and any will say, that ever they had such a business in hand, an important, although not decisive, part of the information required will be obtained; although it be true, that Mr. Fox might have been engaged in literary business, without having advanced so far as to have encouraged the application of booksellers.

rational effusions of moderate talent, rather than the emanations of profound and transcendant genius, His studies, during his retirement, if they ought not rather to be styled amusements, (for no proof exists that he ever studied laboriously throughout life) were chiefly. of the refined and amusing kind, in which modern triBut Mr. Fox's biographers, and I fles, under the name of novels, had find, his most intimate friends, gave no small share: and in this, although this matter up, as a thing totally with- in a less degree, he resembled his out the sphere of their knowledge; great competitor Mr. Pitt, whose toenough, one would suppose, to quash tal disuse and even aversion to learnthis story altogether: since it appears ed studies are so well known. nearly impossible, that a man, immersed as Mr. Fox always was in political business and convivial connections, could spare the hours and days necessary for the prosecution of a most laborious study, without being UNIVERSAL MAG. VOL. VII.

A strong and curious motive may be added for the elucidation of this question on Mr. Fox's supposed historical attempts. It is well known, that the vanity of authors and public men has sometimes prompted them

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to announce to the world great lite- expert, have proved themselves torary attempts, which they had not the tally incapable of profound speculaindustry, perhaps not the capacity, to tion as writers, even on those subexecute. Such a maneuvre may be jects which seem to have exercised suspected, however unjustly, in Mr. their minds through life. All statesFox. That he occasionally honoured men are not Clarendons or Bolinthe editorial columns of a certain brokes. The great orator Chatham, newspaper, with political specula- the thunder of whose eloquence retions adapted to the immediate crisis, sounded throughout all Europe, was is no longer doubted: and it is aver- the veriest driveler upon paper, a few red, that the first announcement of madrigals and letters of business exMr. Fox's historical engagement ap- cepted. His favourite son William, peared in that paper; that he saw who also raised himself to such an such announcements is out of all exalted pitch of greatness by his question. Had he disliked them, a tongue, would, for any thing that single hint from him would have has yet appeared, have been starved been sufficient; his silence proved, at least, that he did not wish to discourage such impressions on the public mind.

by his pen. The few literary scraps which are preserved of the silvertongued orator, the greatest lawyer of his age, only serve to leave us in a doubt, whether their matter or style be most execrable.

Another most curious speculation presents itself. Had Mr. Fox's inBut for such multitudinous proofs dolence of mind, or his various avocations, permitted him to write an of acuteness, it would not have been historical work of length and conse- unfair to question the sanity of that quence, what kind of a history would man's intellect, who, towards the he probably have produced? If conclusion of the eighteenth century, Johnson had much profundity of in- could write a panegyric on the feudal tellect, he surely did not evince it, system, as the wisest and most adwhen he declared that moderate ta- vantageous of political constitutions! lents only were required for histo- To cite but one more example-the The opiniated celebrated John Wilkes, the great rical compositions. Doctor probably thought with certain political oracle of his day, the writer modern booksellers, that nothing far- of witty verses, and essays in prose, ther was required in a historian, than to which both charmed and convinced transcribe the gazettes and public re- the public, and struck terror into the gisters, and tack esquire to his name. hearts of kings and ministers, found Without detracting from the proba- himself totally incapable of writing a ble literary merits of Mr. Fox, and history of his country, even in the even agreeing with the popular opi- independent leisure of a prison, and nion of his great compass and pow- therefore, with the most com menders of mind, it must be allowable able impartiality and self-denial, reto state indisputable facts. Nature, linquished the task. The historical sparing of her choicest gifts, seldom specimen left by Mr. Wilkes would bestows on an individual, a variety of do honour to the smartest newspaper talents of the first order. The ex- historian, even of the present day: amples are too recent and obvious to But it is not intended to degrade Mr. need pointing out, of great practical Fox by comparisons, only to ascer lawyers, who were yet mere pigmies tain an important feature of his chaFar less is it intended to buror infants in political or even legis- racter. lative science. As men of profound lesque his memory, by fulsome and meditation, and writers of the highest totally unappropriate panegyrics, as eminence, are often the most embar- has been lately done in the Morning rassed and uninteresting orators; so Chronicle, by an eminent writer, and on the other hand, those orators who, in some of the most insipid English, by their eloquence, have led a nation to which that writer's name was ever captife, and those public men who affixed. have been most successful and most

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Description of the Chinese Plate.

Frend, in his observations upon this

THIS plate is taken, with the con- science, took the opportunity of shewsent of the author, from a plate ing his readers the manner in which in Mr.Frend's Evening Amusements, it is taught in a very extensive emfor the present year, published last pire, and by a frame similar to that month. The work is the fourth in which accompanies his book, entitled the series of an annual publication, Tangible Arithmetic, published last to shew the appearances in the hea- year, and which he has recommended vens for every night of the year, with to, and which has been adopted by, various observations and expériments many masters for the instruction of tending to make astronomy a familiar their children in the art of numberand popular science. As the know-ing.

ledge of arithmetic is necessary in At the top of the plate is a reprefinding the places of the planets or sentation of the Chinese table or moon among the fixed stars, Mr. frame for nunmbering, which is an ob.

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long of various sizes, according to the ball stands for nothing unless it is purposes for which it is designed. moved towards the division. Thus The writer of this article has one now in the plate the bar on the left hand before him, which was used for a long shews by the white and black circles time in the counting house of an emi- what balls are moved, and what are nent Chinese merchant: it is fourteen not. The white circle near the diviinches long and seven inches wide. sion denotes, that one ball is moved, Mr. Freud designing his frame for and the bar in this position stands for children, has made it of much smaller one: the black circle standing for nodimensions; and he has given to it thing. the name of the arithmetical toy. The next bar has two white circles They are made of various dimensions; near the division, and this bar, supand one, designed for the counting posing the other to have no ball house, would be both too large and moved upon it, would denote two. too expensive for the use of schools. The next bar has three white circles In this frame is a division, as may near the division to represent the be seen in the plate, dividing it into balls moved, and this bar supposing two unequal parts, by a line parallel no balls to have been moved upon to the longer side. This division is the other bars would stand for three. of the same dimensions as the longer Four white circles upon the next bar side and through it are passed small denote four, no balls being moved pieces or bars of wood, and fixed at upon the other bars. The next bar their ends in the longer sides. These has five black balls on the lower, are seen in the plate, noted by the and one white on the upper part lines parallel to the shorter sides. with the black above it. This deUpon these bars are small balls, notes that of the upper balls, one is marked in the plate by the circles of brought down to the division, and the black and white upon them: and other bar in this case, no other balls these balls are larger or smaller ac- being moved elsewhere, stands for cording to the dimensions of the five." The reader will easily see by frame. Those on the frame upon the same process, that the next bar my table, resemble in great measure stands for six, the next for seven, the a turnip, being flat at the ends and next for eight, the next for nine. round in the middle. The diameter But in these cases we consider only of the middle is about nine-tenths of one bar at a time, without reference an inch, and the breadth of the ball to the other bars; and theu the in the middle is little more than half lower balls stand for units, the upper an inch. These balls move easily balls for fives; and, if we bring down upon the bars; as the bars which pass to the division the two upper balls, through them are much smaller in and up to the division the two lower breadth than the holes of the balls balls, then the bar denotes fifteen. through which they pass. The bars Then with seven balls, separated in are made of small slips of bamboo, the manner above described, any the sides of the frame of a hard wood number up to fifteen may be delike mahogany, the balls of a hard noted: and it is not uncommon to wood resembling box. see a Chinese boy with a skewer

In each bar are seven balls; two run through seven balls made of carhetween the division and the upper rots or turnip parings, counting his side, and five between the division and numbers up to fifteen. the lower side of the frame. The The bars hitherto have been contwo balls at one end of the bar count sidered separately, but there is aneach for tive times as much as each other and much more important way of the five balls at the other end of of considering them: and in this the bar. These, if we take the left mode, is the balls on the lower part hand bar in the plate, and suppose of one bar stand for units, then the each ball upon the larger end, when balls on the next bar in the lower moved, to stand for one, then each of part stand for tens, in the next for the two balls on the shorter end will hundreds, in the next for thousands, stand for five. Any bar at pleasure and so on. Thus suppose the single may be taken to count upon, but a white ball on the left hand of the

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