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rarely be made ufe of. They knew the contrary to be true; and they had taken good care, that the laws thould be well feconded by the manners. Their law of divorce, like all their laws, had not for it's object the relief of domestic uneafinefs, but the total corruption of all morals, the total disconnection of social life.

tract. It was one of their ordinary an hope, that the permiffion would as tricks, to put their fentiments into the mouths of certain perfonated characters, which they theatrically exhibited at the bar of what ought to be a ferious affembly. One of thefe was brought out in the figure of a proftitute, whom they, called by the affected name of "a mother without being a wife." This creature they made to call for a repeal of the incapacities, which, in civilized states, "are put upon baftards. The proftitutes of the affembly gave to this their puppet the fanction of their greater impudence. In confequence of the principles laid down, and the manners authorised, baftards were not long after put on the footing of the iffue of lawful unions. Proceeding in the fpirit of the firft authors of the conftitution, fucceeding af femblies went the full length of the principle, and gave the licence of divorce at the mere pleasure of either party, and at a month's notice. With them the matrimonial connection is brought into fo degraded a state of concubinage, that, I believe none of the wretches in London, who keep warehouses of infamy, would give out one of their victims to private cuftody on fo fhort and infolent a tenure. There was indeed a kind of profligate equity in thus giving to women the fame licentious power. The reafon they affigned was infamous as the act; declaring that women had been too long under the tyranny of parents and of husbands. It is not neceffary to obferve upon the horrible confequences of taking one half of the species wholly out of the guardianship and protection of tired, and found the proportions ftill the other.

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The practice of divorce, though in fome countries permitted, has been dif couraged in all. In the Eaft, polygamy and divorce are in difcredit; and the manners correct the laws. In Rome, while Rome was its integrity, the few caufes allowed for divorce amount ed in effect to a prohibition. They were only three. The arbitrary was totally excluded; and accordingly fome hun, dreds of years paffed, without a fingle example of that kind. When manners were corrupted, the laws were relaxed; as the latter always follow the former, when they are not able to regulate them, or to banish them. Of this circumftance the legiflators of vice and crime were pleafed to take notice, as an inducement to adopt their regulation; holding out VOL. LVIII.

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It is a matter of curiofity to obferve the operation of this encouragement to disorder. I have before me the Paris paper, correfpondent to the ufual regifter of births, marriages, and deaths. Divorce, happily, is no regular head of regiftry among civilized nations. With the Jacobins it is remarkable, that divorce is not only a regular head, but it has the poft of honour. It occupies the first place in the lift. In the three firft months of the year 1793, the number of divorces in that city amounted to 563. The marriages were 1785; so that the proportion of divorces to marriages was not much less than one to three; a thing unexampled, I believe, among mankind. I caused an inquiry to be made at Doctor's Commons, concerning the number of divorces; and found, that all the divorces (which, except by fpecial act of parliament, are feparations, and not proper divorces) did not amount in all thofe courts, and in an hundred years, to much more than one fifth of those that paffed, in the fingle city of Paris, in three months, I followed up the inquery relative to that city through feveral of the subsequent months, until I was

the fame. Since then I have heard that they have declared for a revisal of these laws; but I know of nothing done. It appears as if the contract that renovates the world was under no law at all. From this we may take our cftimate of the havoc that has been made through all the relations of life. With the Jaco bines of France, vague intercourse without reproach; marriage is reduced to the vileft concubinage; children are encouraged to cut the throats of their parents, mothers are taught that tenderness is no part of their character; and to demonftrate their attachment to their party, that they ought to make no fcruple to rake with their bloody hands in the bowels of those who came from their own.

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To all this let us join the practice of 5 0 canni

cannibalism, with which, in the proper terms, and with the greatest truth, their feveral factions accufe each other. By cannibalism, I mean their devouring, as a nutriment of their ferocity, fome part of the bodies of thofe they have murdered; their drinking the blood of their victims, and forcing the victims themfelves to drink the blood of their kindred flaughtered before their faces. By cannibalifm, I mean alfo to fignify all their nameless, unmanly, and abominable infults on the bodies of those they flaughter.

As to thofe whom they fuffer to die a natural death, they do not permit them to enjoy the laft confolations of mankind, or those rites of fepulture, which indicate hope, and which meer nature has taught to mankind in all countries, to foothe the afflictions, and to cover the infirmity of mortal condition. They difgrace men in the entry into life; they Vitiate and enslave them through the whole courfe of it; and they deprive them of all comfort at the conclufion of their dishonoured and depraved exiftence. Endeavouring to perfuade the people that they are no better than beafts, the whole body of their inftitution tends to make them beafts of prey, furious and favage. For this purpose the active part of them is difciplined into a ferocity which has no parallel. To this ferocity there is joined not one of the rude, unfashioned virtues, which accompany the vices, where the whole are left to grow up together in the ranknefs of uncultivated nature. But nothing is left to nature in their systems.

The whole body of this new scheme of manners in fupport of the new fcheme of politics, I confider as a ftrong and decifive proof of determined ambition and fyftematic hoftility. I defy the moft refiring ingenuity to invent any other caufe for the total departure of the Jacobin republic from every one of the ideas and ufages, religious, legal, moral, or focial, of this civilized world, and for her tearing herself from its communion with fuch ftudied violence, but from a formed refolution of keeping no terms with that world. It has not been, as has been falfely and infiduously reprefented, that thefe mifcreants had only broke with their old government: They made a fchifm with the whole univerfe; and that fchifm extended to almoft every thing great and fmall. For once, I wish,

fince it is gone this far, that the breach had been fo complete as to make all intercourfe impracticable; but partly by accident, partly by defign, partly from the refiftance of the matter, enough is left to preserve intercourfe, while amity is deftroyed or corrupted in its principle. This violent breach of the community of Europe, we muft conclude to have been made (even if they had not expressly declared it over and over again) either to force mankind into an adoption of their fyftem, or to live in perpetual enmity with a community the most potent we have ever known. Can any perfon imagine, that in offering to mankind this defperate alternative, there is no indication of a hostile mind, because men in poffeffion of the ruling authority are fupposed to have a right to act without coercion in their own territories? As to the right of men to act any where according to their pleasure, without any moral tie, no fuch right exifts. Men are never in a state of total independence of each other. It is not the condition of our nature: nor is it conceivable how any man can pursue a confiderable course of action without its having some effect upon others; or, of course, without producing fome degree of refponfibility for his conduct. The fituations in which men relatively ftand produce the rules and principles of that responsibility, and afford directions to prudence in exacting it."

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POETRY

POETRY.

FOR THE SCOTS MAGAZINE.

THE HAIR DRESSERS HUMBLE

PETITION,

While fteering thus my courfe precarious
My fortune ftill has been to find,
Men's hearts and difpofitions various,
But gentle Woman ever kind.

UNTO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MR PITT. Alive to every tender feeling,

May it pleafe your honor,
FOR myfel an' brethren I do plead,
O Sir, we ftan' in muckle need.
We fcarcely now can mak bare bread
By our profeffion.
Ye tax'd fae fair the powthert head,
The ither feffion.

May I remind ye Sir, that now
The barn-yards are a heapet fu'
The whisky fouks begin to brew

The aquavitæ.
Yet barbers ftarve, Oh Sir, 'tis true
The mair's the pity!
We beg Sir ye will break the ack,
(O' plenty now there is nae lack,)
O' your honor's time it winnie tak
Up ha'f a fecond;
In minits five ye did it mak;

Its eafier breakin't.

Syne for your honor we will pray,
That ye may ftan out mony a day,
Ay, e'en till ye hae ne a fae

In a' the warl.

An' than ye'l be Sir, I may fay
A gay auld carl.
JOHN FRIZZEL

Edinburgh 15th Nov.

POSTCRIPT.

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Yet darna ufe the little art,
To mak them braw and young and smart,
It really does gang to the heart

O' mony ane.
(That canna wi' the guinea part)
Frae fifty to fifteen.

I think ye might exemption make,
For the young bonny laffes fake,
Nor mooft nor guinea frae them take
Their pride to humble.
It maks their tender heartie's ake

And grain and grumble.
LEDYARD'S PRAISE OF WOMEN *.
THROUGH many a land and clime a ranger,
With tortfome fteps, I've held my way,

A lonely unprotected stranger,

To all the ftranger's ills a ptey.
* From Dr Aikin's « Evenings at Home,"

To deeds of mercy always prone;
The wounds of pain and forrow healing,
With foft compaffion's fweetest tone.
No proud delay, no dark fufpicion,

Stints the free bounty of their heart;
They turn not from the fad petition,
But cheerful aid at once impart.
Form'd in benevolence of nature,

Obliging, modeft, gay, and mild;
Woman's the fame endearing creature
In courtly town and favage wild.
When parch'd with thirft, when hunger
wafted,

Her friendly hand refreshment gave;
How fweet the coarfest food has tasted!
What cordial is the fimple wave!

Her courteous looks-her words-carreffing,
Shed comfort on the fainting foul;
Woman's the stranger's general bleffing,
From fultry India to the Pole.

ON FRIENDSHIP *.

HOW sweetly Frienship cheers the pensive hours

Of her true vot'ries, under forrow's fmart! With tender skill the balm of confort pours

Into the drooping and desponding heart!
When a friend's care difpels a bofom grief,
Or plucks out disappointment's deadly
fting,

In the full heart, that tastes this glad relief,
A fudden overflow of joy will spring;
No lefs a tranfport fills the noble mind

Of him whofe fpirit cold distress can warm:
Thus grateful fentiments add actions kind

A ftrong and undiffembled friendship form.
Compliant tempers, mutual fix'd esteem,
Congenial fouls in closest bands unite:
Thrice happy union! animating theme!
The very thought yields exquisite delight.
Pleafures, imparted, give a double zeft;
Fond intimates their joy together share :
Their forrows though they wound the trou
bled breast,

Affection leffens, and divides their care.
In these fad times how weak its credit grown!
Old English honefty-how rarely found!
The feeds of bafe fufpicion, widely fown,
Too rankly vegetate in British ground.

* Given as a specimen from Poetical Essays, By William Wainhouse, M. A.

How many put on Friendship's fair outfide! Mark their fine words, and fmiles ferenely gay!

Save Buzzard's nofe and visage thin, And Hawk's deficiency of chin, Which I, while lolling at my cafe, Was wont to draw instead of Pleas;

In your affliction let their truth be tried,
Bright flattery's funshine quickly fades a- My chambers I equipt complete,

way!

Give me a friend, that's honeft, gen'rous, true, Who can the little paffions well command: My virtues praise, my faults with candour

view,

And open to distress his heart and hand. Hail, Friendship! fource of pleasure, love, and

mirth!

From thee all focial gifts and bleflings flow, That man's expanded heart enjoys on earth : 'Tis Heav'n alone can purer blifs bestow.

LABOR IPSE VOLUPTAS. 'TIS not the fplendour of the place, The gilded coach, the purfe the mace Not all the pompous train of state, The crowds that at your Levee wait, That make you happy, make you great: But whilft mankind you ftrive to bless With all the talents you poffefs; Whilft the chief pleasure you receive Comes from the pleafure which you give; This takes the heart and conquers fpite, And makes the heavy burden light, For pleasure rightly understood Is only-labour to be good.

}

THE LAWYER'S OUTSET.*
WHOE'ER has drawn a Special Plea,
Has heard of old Tom Tewksbury,
Deaf as a post, and thick as Mustard,
He aim'd at Wit, and bawl'd and bluster'd,
And died a Nifi prius Leader-
That Genius was my Special Pleader-
That great Man's office I attended
By Hawk and Buzzard recommended,
Attorneys both of wonderous skill
To pluck the Goose and pluck the Quill;
Three years I fat his fmoky room in,
Pens, paper, ink, and pounce consuming,
The fourth, Effoign Day begun,
Joyful I hail'd th' aufpicious fun,
Bade Tewksbury and Clerk adieu,
(+ Purification, Eighty-two)

Of both I wafh'd my hands; and though
With nothing for my cash to fhow,
But Precedents fo fcrawl'd and blurr'd,
I fcarce could read one fingle word,
Nor in my books of Common Place
One feature of the Law could trace,

* Given as a specimen of "The Pleader's Guide," a Didactic Poera in two books, containing the conduct of a fuit at law, &c. For affault and battery at a late contefted election. -Book firft only published.

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+ Purification-The morrow of the Pulification of the Bleffed Virgin Mary is one of the return days of Hilary Term.'

Made Friends, hired books, and gave to eat 3
If hap'ly to regale my friends on,
My Mother fent a haunch of Ven'fon,
I moft refpectfully entreated,
The choiceft Company to eat it
To wit, old Buzzard, Hawk, and Crow,
Item, Tom Thornback, Shark, and Co,
Attorneys all as keen and staunch;
As ere devour'd a client's haunch,
Nor did I not their Clerks invite
To tafte faid ven'fon hash'd at night,
For well I knew that hopeful Fry
My rifing merit would defcry,
The fame litigious courfe purfue,
And when to fifh of prey they grew,

+ By love of food and conteft led,

Would haunt the fpot where once they fed; Thus having with due circumfpection Form'd by profeffional connexion,

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My defk with Precedents I ftrew'd,
Turn'd critic, danc'd, or penn'd an ode
Studied the Ton, became a free
And eafy man of Gallantry:
But if while capering at my Glass,
Or toying with fome fav'rite Lafs,
I heard th' aforefaid Hawk a-coming,
Or Buzzard on the ftaircafe humming
At once the fair angelic maid
Into my Coal-hole I convey'd,
At once, with ferious look profound
Mine eyes commencing with the ground,
I feem'd like one eflrang'd to fleep,
"And fix'd in cogitation deep,'
Sat motionlefs and in my hand I
Held my Doctrina Placitandi,
And though I never read a page in't,
Thanks to that fhrewd well-judging Agent,
My fifter's husband, Mr Shark,
Soon got fix Pupils and a Clerk,
Five Pupils were my ftint, the other
I took to compliment his Mother;
All round me came with ready money
Like Hybla bees furcharg'd with honey,
Which as they prefs'd it fo genteelly,
And begg'd me to accept fo freely,
Seem'd all fo fond of Special Pleading,
And all fo certain of fucceeding,
I, who was always compliance,
As well to Pupil as to Clients,
Took as genteely as they paid it,
And freely to my purfe convey'd it;
That I might practically fhew,
And they in special manner know,

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Egit omor Eapis atque Pugnæ. HOR.' Doctrine Placitandi, 66 or the art and led, where and in what Cafes and by what fcience of Special Pleading, a book fo intitPerfons, Pleas as well real as perfonal, and mixed, may be properly pleaded."

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