But this is evidently the point tą been making some way in their deso which the British navy has now for tined course; their little finger was some time attained; this the source of in, their arm has already more than the anomalies and embarrassments followed, and now every thing seems which we have mentioned; and this, ready for introducing their whole boaccordingly, the light in which we rea dy, 'The officers, on the other hand, gard them. Our seamen's minds have have not, as we have already intimabeen expanding in common with those ted, been universally sensible of the of the age in which they live: they change which was going on about staggered a little at first under the them: they have borne, each his owa weight of their new found wisdom, burthen, as he might; carried along, which but ill agreed with the cir- all of them, by the stream of improve cumstances in which their ignorance ment, backing and filling in its chanhal before chiefly contributed to place nel, unconscious of their own progress, them; and their officers, on the other unless when made occasionally sensihand, are still perhaps a little per- ble of the altered bearings of the land plexed and embarrassed by those about them. And this has been forthroes of intelligence which discompose tunate for the cause, for it is of the them in that seat of authority in which very essence of human policy to rush they were once immoveable. But the too rapidly to its object; and it has worst is over, and every thing now not been unfortunate for themselves, combines to facilitate their passage for such have been the judgment and through the remainder. It is indeed temper which they have throughout a very striking subject of contempla- exhibited, scarcely one stray brother tion to consider the minute preparation has been drawn in by the eddies, or which, unconsciously on all hands, has cast ashore and wrecked amid the paved the way for this consummation, shoals of the times. But now they are The men first mutinied : -they were almost at sea, and only wait for a rennot altogether to blame for this,* but dezvous signal to make sail in concert, it fixed public attention for a while on For this has their present long relaxatheir situation, obtained an exam- tion been given them, for this their ple of relaxation in their favour, and habits of violence have been interrupto proved besides satisfactorily, that they ed, and themselves been constrained to were not yet ready for more. From study the arts of peace. To the same end that time down to the present, they are their people now subdued by cirhave been the most faithful and loyal cumstances to more regularity than of subjects ; most exemplarily patient before ; and their own clubs, Bible and persevering under many hardships, Societies, elections, and the whole apsorne discouragements, and what is paratus of civil collision in which they worst of all for men of their stamp to are involved, been provided. That bear, the ennui of protracted but inac- thus inveterate habits on both sides tive service. Yet have they always might be gradually but imperatively * a • The elements of combustion were perhaps prepared, but, dext to the agents of sedition from the shore, it was the Quota-men, as they were called, who fired the train. These were landsmen, volunteers furnished by the several counties, and lured by enormous bounties, L.25, when the best seamen that could be impressed got either nothing, or at the most L.5 ; they were mostly better educated too than the regular hands-pen and ink gentry, unaccustomed alike to labour and restraint, and consequently prepa. red to find every thing wrong. The celebrated chief delegate, Parker, was a fellow of this stamp ; contributed, we may add, by our own “gude town." We are acquainted with a gentleman still residing here, who was accidentally present when he was first brought before the sitting magistrate, charged with an intention to fly the country to defraud his landlady, to whom he owed about L.18. His address was so good, and pretensions so high, the magistrate at first scrupled to issue the warrant to detain him, although he had no bail to offer. But at length he was committed, accepted the high bounty to obtain his release ; and just eighteen months afterwards hoisted his rebel flag at the Nore. We wish very much that some of the many surviving officers who held situations of rank and responsibility at that eventful period in the navy, would now, when details could do no harin, favour the world with their recollections on the subject. We are in possession of some anecdotes ourselves relating to it, which we should not scruple to publish, were nothing better offered. But they are hearsay, and it should be an eye-witness, and even an actor, who undertook the task. broken ; and new ground occupied by rushed into it with a haste which, as each, of necessity and of course. our views opened on consideration, has It now remains then to trace the made even our title now incongruous, probable effects of so many causes, for we no longer consider the moral with their effects again, as we have and religious education at present bealready said, either as already deve- stowing on our seamen as a primary loped, or likely progressively to ap- cause of almost any thing peculiar in pear. They naturally divide them- their worldly prospects; it seems to us selves under two heads, the changes only a powerful agent in their behalf, which may thus be anticipated in the evoked among others, by the peculiarisituation, and in the character of our ties of the age, which it did noteven preseamen. And the first, strictly speak- cede in point of time. It does not aping, belongs to the present division of pear necessary, however, to break the our subject, while the second would series to remedy this. Mere title is come in more appropriately when sail- unimportant, and our objects continue ors are considered from under that substantially the same,—to trace, with eye of authority, which on board ship as steady a hand as possible, the prowill always impose some restraint on spects of a profession in which we take their natural dispositions. As we have the warmest interest, viewing them in been led, however, now into a consider- connexion with that instruction now able detail, which was not at first an- in course of dissemination among all ticipated, we shall postpone both to a its members; and to promote that disfuture occasion. semination as far as may lie in our It is in the very nature of precipi- power, by exhibiting the whole chain tation to subject those who submit of improvement, of which it now, more themselves to its guidance to confes- than ever, seems to us to form but one sion of error and mistake. Captivated link. by the promise of our present task, we E. PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART. DEAR MR NORTH, As, in the earlier Numbers of your Magazine, you gave an occasional insertion to articles relating to the exiled House of Stuart, I am induced to offer you a Birth-Day Ode, which, if it possesses no other merit, will at least tend to prove that the attachment to the fortunes of that ill-fated family, notoriously prevalent in the western counties of England in the year 1715, had not altogether subsided, when the chivalrous spirit of our northern neighbours gave more overt proofs of their fidelity. The original Ode is in the possession of the representative of a family of considerable station and consequence in this county, to whom it was transmitted by his Jacobite predecessor. The following fragment of a song, my mother, who is nearly connected with the same family, remembers often to have heard her nurse, who lived to a very advanced age, chaunt, in impotent defiance of the Usurper. The spelling is adapted to the pronunciation of our provincial patois, and will be easily recognized by a native Zummerzet. “Az I war a gwaing by the zign o' the Blue Bell, And I bid un make way for his Haniver King." It may perhaps be necessary to state, that Major Metcalfe was Chamberlain to the "Wee, wee German Lairdie.” For the style of the ballad I make no apology, as it is only offered in confirmation of the idea, that the feeling in behalf of the House of Stuart was not confined to the higher classes of society, unless indeed some deference is due to the fastidious palates of the Edinburgh Re viewers, whom I humbly beg to assure, that although I can admire, and can to appreciate the devotion of those persons who sacrificed their all to that which they held to be the rightful cause, I am by no means a “ Life and Fortune Man," on behalf of the doctrines of Passive Obedience, Divine Right, and NonResistance. Dear, Mr North, your affectionate kinsman, JOHN WEST. 3 A ODE ON THE BIRTH-DAY OF PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART, The 20th of December, 1746. Written by Dr Isaacs of Exeter. Awhile forget the scene of woe, By good unmoved, in ills resign'd, Forbid awhile the tear to flow, No change of fortune changed his mind, The pitying sigh to rise ; Tenacious of its aim ; His mind was still the same. Amidst distresses great ; But for his country's fate. Had not atoned for Britain's guilt, That gave our Hero birth, So will'd offended Heaven ; Let us invoke the tuneful Nine That yet awhile the usurping hand, To sing a theme, like them, divine, With iron rod should rule the land, To sing his race on earth ! The rod for vengeance given. How on his tender infant years But in its vengeance Heaven is just, The careful hand of Heaven appears And soon Britannia from the dust To watch its chosen care ; Shall rear her head again ; Estranged from ev'ry foe to truth, Soon shall give way the usurping chain, Virtuous affliction form’d his youth, And peace and plenty soon again Instructive, though severe. Proclaim a Stuart's reign. No sinful court its poison lent, What joys for happy Britain wait, An early bane his life to taint, When Charles shall rule the British state, And blast his young renown: Her sullied fame restore ; His father's virtues fire his heart When in full tide of transport tost, His father's sufferings truth impart, E'en memory of her wrongs be lost, To form him for a throne. Nor Brunswick heard of more. How, at an age, when pleasure's charms The nations round with wondering eyes Allure the stripling to her arms, Shall see Britannia awful rise, As she was wont of yore. But fly her happy shore. With their Protector fled : Shall rear their decent head. How, when he moved, in sweet amaze, In peaceful shades the happy swain, All ranks in transport on him gaze, With open heart and honest strain, E'en grief forgets to pine, Shall hail his long-wish'd Lord, The wisest sage, or chastest fair, Nor find a tale so fit to move Applaud his sense, or praise his air, His listening fair one's heart to love, Thus form’d with grace divine. As that of Charles Restored. How great in all the Soldier's art, Though distant, let the prospect charm, With judgment calm, with fire of heart, And every gallant bosom warm, He bade the battle glow : Forbear each tear and sigh! Yet greater on the conquer'd plain, Turn from the one the thought away, He felt each wounded captive's pain, 'Tis Charles that bids us crown the day, More like a friend, than foe, And end the night in joy. : THE MAN IN THE BELL. In my younger days, bell-ringing was the bottom of the bell coming within a much more in fashion among the young coupleof feet of the floor of lath. Atthat men of than it is now. No- time I certainly was not so bulky as I body, Í believe, practises it there at pre- am now, but as I lay it was within an sent except the servants of the church, inch of my face. I had not laid my, and the melody has been much inju- self down a second, when the ringing red in consequence. Some fifty years began.--It was a dreadful 'situation. ago, about twenty of us who dwelt in Over me swung an immense mass of the vicinity of the Cathedral, formed metal, one touch of which would have a club, which used to ring every peal crushed me to pieces ; the floor under that was called for; and, from conti- me was principally composed of crazy nual practice and a rivalry which arose laths, and if they gave way, I was prebetween us and a club attached to an- cipitated to the distance of about fifty other steeple, and which tended con- feet upon a loft, which would, in all siderably to sharpen our zeal, we be- probability, have sunk under the im這 came very Mozarts on our favourite in- pulse of my fall, and sent me to be struments. But my bell-ringing prac- dashed to atoms upon the marble floor tice was shortened by a singular acci- of the chancel, an hundred feet bedent, which not only stopt my per- low. I remembered—for fear is quick formance, but made even the sound of in recollection-how a common clocka bell terrible to my ears. wright, about a month before, had One Sunday, I went with another fallen, and bursting through the floors into the belfry to ring for noon pray- of the steeple, driven in the cielings of eers, but the second stroke we had pull the porch, and even broken into the ed shewed us that the clapper of the marble tombstone of a bishop who bell we were at was muffled. Some slept beneath. This was my first terone had been buried that morning, ror, but the ringing had not continued and it had been prepared, of course, a minute, before a more awful and i to ring a mournful note. We did not immediate dread came on me. The know of this, but the remedy was easy. deafening sound of the bell smote into “ Jack,” said my companion, “ step, my ears with a thunder which made up to the loft, and cut off the hat; me fear their drums would crack. for the way we had of muffling was by There was not a fibre of my body it tying a piece of an old hat, or of cloth did not thrill through: It entered my (the former was preferred) to one side very soul ; thought and reflection were of the clapper, which deadened every almost utterly banished; I only resecond toll. I complied, and mount- tained the sensation of agonizing tering into the belfry, crept as usual into ror. Every moment I saw the bell the bell, where I began tocut away. The sweep within an inch of my face; and hat had been tiedon in some more com- my eyes—I could not close them, plicated manner than usual, and I was though to look at the object was bita perhaps three or four minutes in get- ter as death-followed it instinctively ting it off ; during which time my com- in its oscillating progress until it came panion below was hastily called away, back again. It was in vain I said to by a message from his sweetheart I be myself that it could come no nearer lieve, but that is not material to my at any future swing than it did at first; person who called him was every time it descended, I endeavoura brother of the club, who, knowing ed to shrink into the very floor to avoid that the time had come for ringing for being buried under the down-sweepservice, and not thinking that any one ing mass; and then reflecting on the was above, began to pull. At this mo- danger of pressing too weightily on ment I was just getting out, when I my frail support, would cower up felt the bell moving; I guessed the again as far as I dared. reason at once it was a moment of At first my fears were mere matter terror; but by a hasty, and almost of fact. I was afraid the pullies above convulsive effort, I succeeded in jump- would give way, and let the bell ing down, and throwing myself on the plunge on me. At another time, the flat of my back under the bell. possibility of the clapper being shot out The room in which it was, was lit- in some sweep, and dashing through tle more than sufficient to contain it, my body, as I had seen a ramrod glide story. The а a through a door, flitted across my mind. resumed her sway, but it was only to The dread also, as I have already men- fill me with fresh terror, just as the tioned, of the crazy floor, tormented lightning dispels the gloom that surme, but these soon gave way to fears rounds the benighted mariner, but to not more unfounded, but more vision- shew him that his vessel is driving on ary, and of course more tremendous. a rock, where she must inevitably be The roaring of the bell confused my dashed to pieces. I found I was beintellect, and my fancy soon began to coming delirious, and trembled lest teem with all sort of strange and ter- reason should utterly desert me. This rifying ideas. The bell pealing above, is at all times an agonizing thought, and opening its jaws with a hideous but it smote me then with tenfold clamour, seemed to me at one time a agony. I feared lest, when utterly deravening monster, raging to devour prived of my senses, I should rise, to do me; at another, a whirlpool ready to which I was every moment tempted suck me into its bellowing abyss. As by tliat strange feeling which calls on I gazed on it, it assumed all shapes; a man, whose head is dizzy from standit was a flying eagle, or rather a roc ing on the battlement of a lofty castle, of the Arabian story-tellers, clapping to precipitate himself from it, and then its wings and screaming over me. As death would be instant and tremenI looked upward into it, it would ap- dous. When I thought of this, I bepear sometimes to lengthen into inde- came desperate. I caught the floor finite extent, or to be twisted at the with a grasp which drove the blood end into the spiral folds of the tail of from my nails; and I yelled with the cry a flying-dragon. Nor was the flaming of despair. I called for help, I prayed, breath, or fiery glance of that fabled I shouted, but all the efforts of my animal, wanting to complete the pic- voice were, of course, drowned in the ture. My eyes inflamed, blodshot, and bell. As it passed over my mouth, it glaring, invested the supposed monster occasionally echoed my cries, which with a full proportion of unholy light. mixed not with its own sound, but It would be endless were I to mere- preserved their distinct character. Perly hint at all the fancies that possess- haps this was but fancy. To me, I ed my mind. Every object that was know, they then sounded as if they hideous and roaring presented itself to were the shouting, howling, or laughmy imagination. I often thought that ing of the fiends with which my imaI was in a hurricane at sea, and that gination had peopled the gloomy care the vessel in which I was embarked which swung over me. tossed under me with the most furious You may accuse me of exaggerating vehemence. The air, set in motion by my feelings; but I am not. Many the swinging of the bell, blew over me, scene of dread have I since passed nearly with the violence, and more through, but they are nothing to the than the thunder of a tempest; and self-inflicted terrors of this balf hour. the floor seemed to reel under me, as The ancients have doomed one of the under à drunken man. But the most damned, in their Tartarus, to lie un. awful of all the ideas that seized on der a rock, which every moment seems me were drawn from the supernatural. to be descending to annihilate him,In the vast cavern of the bell hideous and an awful punishment it would be. faces appeared, and glared down on me But if to this you add a clamour as with terrifying frowns, or with grin- loud as if ten thousand furies were ning mockery, still more appalling. howling'about you-adeafening uproar At last, the devil himself, accoutred, banishing reason, and driving you to as in the common description of the madness, you must allow that the bitevil spirit, with hoof, horn, and tail, terness of the pang was rendered more and eyes of infernal lustre, made his terrible. There is no man, firm as his appearance, and called on me to curse nerves may be, who could retain his God and worship him, who was power courage in this situation. ful to save me. This dread suggestion In twenty minutes the ringing was he uttered with the full-toned clangour done. Half of that time passed over of the bell. I had him within an inch me without power of computation, of me, and I thought on the fate of the other half appeared an age. the Santon Barsisa. Strenuously and it ceased, I became gradually more desperately I defied him, and bade him quiet, but a new fear retained me. I be gone. Reason, then, for a moment, knew that five minutes would elapse a When |
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