Chapter XLIII: Preface (5)

As the inn nearest his lordship’s park was but a very wretched one--for in this sequestered spot there was no encouragement for a good one--he took care always to send, on the arrival of strangers, the best provisions of all kinds, unknown to his friends, with orders to the landlord to make some trifling charge, lest he should offend their delicacy, by affording them entertainment when he refused them his company. His lordship’s friend was a good sort of woman: she amused herself, now and then, by giving suppers to the servants and the farmers daughters in the neighbourhood, the nearest house being five miles from the Castle. He had land stewards on his different estates; all business with whom, as with every other mortal, was transacted through the medium of John, or the housekeeper. If he had occasion to go from one quarter of the castle or garden to another, orders were previously sent to all the servants to keep out of the way; for, if he had catched any of them looking at him, he would have immediately dismissed them from his service. He had an excellent library, in which he passed a great part of his time, but into which no publication of any kind had been admitted since the year of his retirement, or sequestration from the world; being that, as already mentioned, on which he left the university, having then succeeded to the estate by the death of his father. No newspapers! no magazines! no reviews! no political pamphlets! no annual registers! No, nor any conversation concerning any political or other event that had happened in Britain, or any other part of the world, from the hour of his seclusion. He turned himself about, and cast his eyes backward, and fixed them wholly on former times. Although, he confessed, that he had often been tempted to enquire what could be the causes of the sudden and enormous accumulation of taxes.

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_For the +New-York Weekly Magazine+._

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THE CRIMINAL.

[Concluded from page 375.]

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_A LAUNCH INTO ETERNITY._

----First marched forth those that guarded the law from violation; then followed the culprit bound in a cart, attended by a clergyman, who was using his pious endeavours to smooth the passage into another world. They reached the tree. The ladder was placed, and after a few minutes spent in the solemn duties of religion, he ascended it. With the consciousness of a heart in which every virtue glowed, and with a fortitude which the virtuous only possess, he calmly surveyed the surrounding multitude, and signified his wish to be heard: they eagerly lent their attention, while he painted to them the cause of his disgrace, and the misery of his family which had led him to the act. He said he could not endure the idea of seeing them perish before his eyes; and when their distress was at its highest pitch, and when he could get no help from those who would have befriended him with all they were worth when he needed it not, he had sallied forth on the highway, determined to alleviate their distresses--but his intentions were not to shed blood--driven to desperation by experiencing a refusal, (when on his knees he solicited the boon) he had done the deed.----

The people were all attention, and when he ended, their streaming eyes spoke the sentiments of their hearts.

The moments were precious. The cord was fastened to the wood, and after a few moments spent in devotion, the curtain of life dropped.

Scarcely was the solemn scene closed, when a murmur was heard among the croud, and shortly after a female rushed to the spot. It was his wife. Heavens! what a shock for her delicate frame! She had but just recovered from an illness she had fallen into when they had dragged her husband from her arms. She saw him now when life sat quivering at his lips, and then in unison their spirits ascended to that bright world of bliss.

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----What substantial benefit, what real advantage do ye derive from dooming to death one that has perpetrated the dreadful crime of murder? Does his death restore to life the person murdered? Does it allay the grief of the distressed family?----No!----What then is it that makes you give your tacit consent to a measure which is hostile to every principle of equity--derogatory to every principle of humanity? Is it because this severe law was first given in thunderings, from Mount Sinai, to a people, who while beholding with their eyes the glory of the Deity, yet worshipped the work of their own hands? Throw aside prejudice, and that fellest tyranny, _custom_, until then you will never view things in their proper sphere.

Would not solitary imprisonment in a lonely cell, far excluded from every pitying eye, for a term of years, be more just? He might be compelled to labor, and his earnings go to maintain the family which through his means has lost its support. Thus they who have suffered by his misconduct might reap some advantage: whereas, by taking his life they must be left to pine in want and wretchedness. If after continuing in this state for some years, it be discovered that a thorough change is wrought, and the offender has become a reasonable creature, then let him be discharged--the debt is fully paid. But should he after this again imbrue his hands in the blood of his fellow men, then let rigorous imprisonment for life be the penalty--he is no longer fit to associate with human beings.

L. B.

NEW-YORK _April 4, 1797_.

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NEW-YORK.

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_MARRIED,_

By the Rev. Mr. King, Mr. JOHN M‘CARTHY, of Johnstown, to Miss ELIZA KER, daughter of the Rev. Nathan Ker, of Goshen, Ulster County.

By the Rev. Mr. O’Brien, Mr. CASIMIR DELAVIGNE, merchant, of this city, to Miss EMILIA GUIBERT, late of Port-au-Prince.

On Tuesday, se’nnight, at Bedford, on Long-Island, by the Rev. Dr. Livingston, JOHN I. JOHNSON, Esq. to Miss HANNAH LOUDON, both of this city.

On Wednesday evening last, by the Rev. Samuel Provoost, Mr. ALEXANDER S. MILLER, to Miss MARY ROGERS, both of this city.

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_METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS._
_From the 21st to the 27th inst._

THERMOMETOR observed at 6, _A.M._ 3, _P.M._
Prevailing winds.
OBSERVATIONS on the WEATHER.

deg. deg. 6. 3. 6. 3.
100 100
May 21 57 70 se. do. foggy clear calm lt. wd.
22 60 72 nw. w. clear do. lt. wd.
23 56 65 se. do. clear do. calm h. wd.
24 54 66 e. do. cly. clear calm lt. wd.
25 54 69 e. do. cly. lt. w. clear do. ra.
26 55 71 n. s. clear lt. wd. do. do.
27 55 62 e. se. clear lt. wd. cly. h. wd.

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STANZAS TO HOPE.

Oh, Hope! thou balm of human woes,
Oh! come, and lull my soul to rest;
Thy form can soothe me to repose,
’Tis thou canst calm my troubled breast.

Thou bright illusion of the mind,
Thou jewel to the human kind;
Without thy aid, man’s life would be
A long, long scene, of mis’ry!

’Tis thou that art the wretch’s stay,
When ev’ry comfort droops away;
Thy friendly voice can bear him up,
Though doom’d to drink Woe’s bitt’rest cup.

When the sad Pilgrim, with worn feet,
Longs, yet despairs, his friends to greet;
’Tis then thy heav’nly soothing ray,
Renews his steps, and chears his way.

When the poor Mariner, at sea,
Views black’ning tempests round him flee;
Thy friendly aid points out the shore,
Where tempests cease, and storms are o’er.

When the tir’d Soldier, on the plain,
Sees battle rage, and thousands slain;
Thou bidd’st his care and anguish cease,
And bring’st the welcome sound of peace.

When the poor Captive, in his cell,
Is doom’d in chearless gloom to dwell,
Thy angel Vision sets him free;
Thou giv’st him life, with liberty.

Yet not to earth’s contracted spot,
Thy boundless power can be confin’d;
For our’s would be the hardest lot,
Should all our views be here resign’d.

If in this life was all our hope,
Then wretched were, indeed, our doom;
But happy we, that thou can’st ope
A realm of bliss beyond the tomb.

When earth’s short pilgrimage is o’er,
When this world’s charms can please no more;
When life’s last pulse throbs in the heart,
And Death has aim’d his fatal dart--

’Tis then, in heav’nly robes array’d,
Thou art the dying Christian’s aid;
He views, through thy celestial eye,
The dawn of immortality.

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ON SEEING A MISER AT A CONCERT.

Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast,
To calm the tyrant and relieve th’ opprest:
The enticing Concert’s more attractive pow’r,
Unlock’d a Miser’s pocket at threescore:
O strange effect of music’s matchless force,
To extract a dollar from a full stown purse.

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THE CLOWN AND THE LAWYER.

HOB visited BRIEF, with a very long face,
Put a piece in his palm, and then stated his case.
Quoth the Lawyer--“As far as I _yet_ understand,
You are right as my nail, I declare _by this hand_:
But doctors oft differ; so, were you my brother,
I can’t answer, till _that_ too be _fee’d_, for the _other_.
Then spreading his hand, like a churchwarden’s plate,
“Come, come, my good friend, don’t stand scratching your pate!
But _wet t’other eye_, like a fool, as you ought,
Time’s too precious for me thus to waste it for mought.”
Says HOB--“Here’s the stuff! but, as I am a ninny,
I’m handing thee, now, Master BRIEF, my _last_ guinea;
So I hopes as you’ll give me the best of advice!”--
“To be sure! to be sure!” cries BRIEF, “in a trice.
Then, know, that those words which I last heard you say,
Have driv’n all at first that I told you away.
No matter what Cause, or what Lawyer, or Court,
Gold! Gold! my friend HOB, is of all the support:
With that, to each point of the compass we rove;
Without it, the devil a _limb_ of us move!
Ev’ry hope that I had, with your money, is gone;
Your cause is a bad one, and you are undone.
To _stand on_ you hav’n’t, as we say, _a leg_;
And no Lawyer, in England, for you’ll stir a peg.”
HOB look’d mighty sheepish, and mutter’d a curse,
As he saw Lawyer BRIEF put the cash in his purse.
“What you tells me,” he cried, as he slowly withdrew,
“I fears, Master BRIEF, may, for _once_, be too _true_:
But if I durst tell thee a piece of _my_ mind,
Tho’ I _have_ been main _foolish_, I a’n’t yet quite _blind_;
And you _Limbs_ of the _Law_, I now sees very plain,
Be all, as a body may say, _rogues in grain!_
Yes, ecod! had I know half I now know before,
I’d as soon enter’d hell, Master BRIEF, as your door;
And I wish I may suffer, with you, hell’s worst pain,
If ever I visit a Lawyer again!”

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SOCIAL EVENINGS.