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Title: The Enquirer Issue 10 of 12 (February 1822)

Date of first publication: 1822

Author: Robert-Anne d’Estimauville (editor)

Date first posted: Dec. 25, 2020

Date last updated: Dec. 25, 2020

Faded Page eBook #20201261

This eBook was produced by: Marcia Brooks, David T. Jones, John Routh & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net




No. 10

 

PRICE,

ONE SHILLING TO SUBSCRIBERS; ONE SHILLING

AND THREE PENCE TO NON SUBSCRIBERS

———————

THE

ENQUIRER,

———————

A

MONTHLY PERIODICAL

WORK;

IN WHICH VARIETY IS TO BE THE

PREDOMINANT FEATURE,

CONSISTING OF

ESSAYS

 

On every Subject that can embrace the INSTRUCTION and

Entertainment of the Reader.

———————

The Subscription is fixed at twelve Shillings per

Annum for this City; for twelve Numbers containing

at least sixteen Pages and which will be

encreased in proportion to the encouragement the

Conductors may meet with.

———————

The Subscription Money to be collected

quarterly.

———————

Quebec,

PRINTED BY G. H. SHADGETT, AT THE NATIONAL AND BRITISH

PRINTING OFFICE, HOPE STREET.

TO THE PUBLIC.

This address by right ought to have appeared a month sooner, and will now probably be considered as what the French call de la moutarde après dîner: But when we sent to the Printer the materials for composing our No. 9, we forgot that it was to issue out of his fair hands on the day dedicated by long usage to complimentary effusions, not often of the heart, but most times of selfish motives. Oh! dear flattery! how sweet is thy voice! Why then do we not hear it oftener in our praises? Why? man! for very good reasons, namely: that yours is never its language: because you never sacrifice on its altars: because you are—— stop, stop! it is enough, and we are satisfied with those few, guessing well the other very powerful reasons that might be added against any pretensions to flattery. It is true, but too true, that we cannot stoop to make use of its language. Even at this very moment that we address our friends, and particularly our subscribers, we feel at a loss how to express our feelings. If we consult that charity, on which are built our happiness on earth and our eternal felicity when our immortal soul, being released from its coarse abode, shall have resumed its station in the bosom of HIM from whom it emanates, if we consult, we say, that so forcibly recommended by the divine Author of our Kingdom, we readily become its amanuensis and under its positive dictates, we wish to all the world, without distinction of subscribers and non-subscribers, of friends and foes, of high and low, of rich and poor, every blessing that can be the lot of mortal man. We wish that all the monarchs and sovereigns of the earth might like ours, possess the affection of their subjects and the respect even of their enemies, and that their subjects under their paternal care, might enjoy true liberty: We wish that those in authority might derive true happiness from their exertion to promote that of others: We wish to the ambitious, undisturbed nights; to the intriguer, the just reward of his toils; to the flatterer, a gracious smile. May that modest and beautiful virgin, who after having caught a sly look from the object of her love, try to hide under her fan the suffusion on her fair cheek occasioned by it if there be yet such ones, soon plight her faith on the Hymeneal alter to that very object: May all the married experience all the days of their lives, the same felicity that was their lot on the day that they became one: May the old batchelors, renouncing that unnatural state, feel the inexpressible happiness of relieving the distress of old maids by converting that horrible qualification into that of respectable matrons: May, at last, for we are afraid to have already tired the patience of our readers by the multiplicity of our most disinterested wishes; may, at last, poor widowers be taken in pity by amiable widows, and give and receive mutual consolation for past losses.—— Disinterested? Mr. Editor, hold your peace you babbler.

But enough of generals, and let us drop to particulars; and after having obeyed the dictates of universal charity, let us listen to the voice of gratitude. Gratitude is the utmost possible equivalent for favors received. It is a debt which must be returned with a certain additional interest, which however, must be calculated not so much after the real benefit derived from the favor conferred than after the manner it is conferred. So that a gracious smile from a great man, a slight notice in public from the man in power, a squeeze of the hand accompanied with an “how fare ye my dear fellow” from a fashionable, certainly deserve our gratitude, as be great altho’ not very substantial favors, and as such we beg to offer friends as full an equivalent, the compliment of the season; to wit, many happy returns of the now past days. But a little more is due to our subscribers, who, however we must divide into two classes; the one composed of those who after having favoured us with their worthy names are not at home or have no change when our messenger carries to them our quarterly No. to which is annexed a little scrap of paper in the shape of a receipt for the trifling sum of 3s. The other class comprehends those who readily honour that little scrap, and thereby give us a substantial proof of good will.

But here again we must make a subdivision in the former class namely, those who having the will, have not the means; and to those who having the means, are lacking in will. We do not think being greatly indebted to the latter, at least the interest of our debt to them must be a very trifling fraction indeed. May they enable us in future to calculate that interest in whole and round numbers, and let them be sure that our exactitude in paying the balance shall certainly equal, if not surpass, theirs.

Now to our real and substantial friends who add the deed to the will and means, we can but give in return our most unfeigned thanks for their generous support; regretting however that their small number does not permit as yet the increase of these lucubrations, our memory monthly reminding us that there is a trifling difference between £5 15s costs, and £3 receipt, and as every one must have his due, we must bon gré mal gré square the two sums, not by adding them together and dividing the sum by two, but by the more simple altho’ infinitely harder operation of adding enough on the lesser side to bring it up to the level of the greater. If therefore, our real good friends would add to their past favors that of doubling the receipt, not by doubling their disbursements, but by each of them enticing one of their friends to become a subscriber, then our gratitude would encrease in a square ratio, and we should prove it by redoubled exertion to please.

It is with pleasure that we hear from our Printer that he will soon receive the characters and accents necessary to print in the French language. We hope then to be able to gratify the wishes often expressed, by those friends who are not conversant enough in the English, and to induce them to become subscribers to this Miscellany, renewing the promise that, so soon as their number shall be sufficient to cover an increase of expence we most readily shall increase the bulk and content of it.

MY OWN LIFE.

Continued from page 135.

Thus directed by the history of their own Country, the framers of our now existing constitution did not recur to any system of government founded on Utopian principles. They very wisely availed themselves of the pusillanimous flight of James II. to declare it a voluntary act of abdication, whereby the hereditary succession was determined. It was therefore necessary to proceed by way of election. To refer that election to the people at large, would besides the loss of time, have incurred the risk of anarchy, and therefore they constituted themselves into a National Convention. They as such, laid down the conditions on which they should bestow the crown, and offered it on those conditions, to the next heir in the Protestant line, of the family in which the Crown had been hitherto acknowledged as hereditary. They went farther, and confirmed that hereditarily in the same family, so long as there would be members of it professing that religion.

I had another advantage derived from my residence in divers countries, and under different forms of Governments, sufficiently protracted in each, to enable me to make comparisons and deduce consequences. In Holland there was a constant conflict between the Republican party, headed by the descendants of the De Witt and Oldenbarnevelt, and the Aristocratic, at the head of which was the Stadtholder, which conflict at last broke out into open hostilities, and which might have been fatal to the Princes of Orange, had it not been for the timely interference of Prussian bayonets. In that state of things, I could not but perceive the everlasting seeds of civil commotions and disturbances which threatened at every instant to see the renewal of those proscriptions that have disgraced the famous Republic of Rome, and which are in themselves, sufficient to instill in the breast of every lover of order, a strong prejudice against a form of Government, in which the mass of the people has too great a share. On the other hand, the security, the peace, and the liberty I had enjoyed, in common with the rest of my then fellow subjects, under the absolute sway of the Great Frederic of Prussia, were powerful motives to persuade me that absolute power was neither Despotism nor tyranny when in the hand of one single man not absolutely destitute of human feelings, and was on the contrary, conducive to the individual, as well as general welfare of his Country, when swayed by a Sovereign like him. In France I found again, a country, in which all the powers were re-united in a single man, and nevertheless, the mass of the people was far from being deserving of pity. That there existed abuses, that in some instances power was made subservient to the gratification of private purposes, cannot be denied: but that this was carried to that excess, justificative of the horrors of a revolution, is what no man whose mind is not totally surrounded by the thick mist of prejudice, or who never having had the opportunity of seeing and observing by himself, has adopted as indubitable truths, all and every absurd canting, and heart rending tale of modern philanthropy can maintain, a Nation composed of beings whose daily labour was constantly enlivened by songs, and whose resting moments were spent in dancing, can on no account be said to have felt very grievously the weight of that yoke, represented as so unsufferably oppressive. I repeat it, abuses existed, but they were of such a nature as to be easily remedied and removed. More of this in another place.

My mind was therefore powerfully biased in favor of monarchy; and assuredly, I would have strenuously supported that kind of Monarchy, the good effects whereof I had witnessed in England. But how far the British Constitution, such as it was, could be at once adopted, without modification, and successfully transplanted in a soil, without considering its fitness to admit such an exotic was a problem replete with great difficulties. I may be permitted here to anticipate a little and relate a conversation on that subject which I had with a well known British character, namely Sir Robert Herries. That gentleman held a distinguished rank in the Mercantile world, both as a Merchant and a Banker. As such his letters of credit and of introduction were equally attended to, and honored in any town on the Continent, wherein British trade (and where it had not?) found access. He had Branches in several Cities, and amongst the rest in Paris, where he often resorted, and where he at last resolved to reside, and on his application for letters of naturalization, he not only obtained them, but also, as having had the honor of Knighthood conferred on him by his Sovereign George III, he was admitted as one of the Nobility of France.

It was then as one of that class that, on being summoned to meet, in order to choose the Electors who were to name the Representatives of the Noble cast, in the then convened General States, I met Sir Robert at the section of Petits Peres, in the Place des Victoires in which we had both our residence. Some money transactions I had had with him in England, and having then received some civilities from him, naturally led me to enter into conversation with him on the subject of our meeting, and amongst other topics I expressed the wish of seeing the British Constitution introduced in France. British Merchants of that class are very well known not to be limited, in point of knowledge, within the pales of their counters, and on the contrary to be conversant in the highest branches of political economy, and such he showed himself by his reply. “As a British subject by birth,” said he, “I can but be proud of the superexcellence of the Constitution of my native country and certainly, were it possible I wish that it could be introduced in every Country. But that possibility is inadmissible, especially into France. There are two insurmountable difficulties peculiar to this Country: the one arising from the very locality; the other arising from the National character of the French. As to the locality, the distances from the extremities of the Kingdom to the seat of your Parliament, which naturally would be Paris or Versailles, would certainly prevent men of business from courting or even accepting the honor of being your Representatives; that which is not the case in England, where a member of Parliament within the course of a week can easily reach home and after having done his business be back without being missed in his place. So that you would be obliged to chuse your Representatives in that class only of private country gentlemen and the interests of trade, commerce, arts and manufactures would be left entirely at the mercy of men in no ways connected with or conversant in them, and thereby these so important branches would be entirely sacrificed to the landed interest. As to the other obstacle, namely, the national character of the French, their talkativeness, their volatility, the facility of raising their enthusiasm are too well known and ascertained to allow the supposition of their adopting in deliberating assemblies that necessary steadiness and regularity without which nothing useful can be expected from their deliberations.” Much more was said on that subject, and a sad experience has proved the propriety of these objections. But let us return to that confusion of ideas created by every thing I saw, heard, or read.

That some alteration for the better was necessary was admitted by all. The grand question was “how?” Every one suggested his schemes, and all had for motto le bien public: for the great word liberty and still less that of equality were not yet openly pronounced. However there was then a remarkable feature in all the pamphlets, or public discussions on the grand object of reform namely, that when the Chiefs of the numerous parties in which the public opinion was divided, were the object of the most unbounded praises of their followers, no voice was raised in favor of the virtuous Louis XVI. On the contrary he was already spoken of as a man of inferior qualifications. Even slander itself could not go a step farther. Indeed few human beings have carried the strict observance of religious and moral duties farther than this Prince; and he is an instance that virtue carried to an excess is productive, especially in a Sovereign, of consequences at least as baneful to mankind as depravity. In a less exalted situation Louis would have been brought forth as a pattern of attainable human perfection. To the soundest judgment he added extensive acquired knowledge. His personal courage was sufficiently put to the most trying test. What did he want then to be a great Prince? Nothing but confidence in himself. Always afraid of doing wrong by following the dictates of his own mind, he yielded too easily to the advices of others, especially when coercive measures were in question. The fear of committing an injustice towards individuals prevented him to do justice to the public by the repression of public injuries, and we will see him ready even to descend from a throne, his just and lawful inheritance, rather than to oppose the will of a set of factions, because they called themselves the Nation. This excessive timidity, assuming the character of irresolution was represented by them as proceeding from weakness and served their purpose of rendering Royalty despicable by debasing the man invested with its insignia.

Far different were the weapons directed against his august Consort Mary Antoinette. They knew that this Princess had inherited with the blood the soul of that Maria Theresa, who single handed knew how to support the just rights of her son yet infant, against the unjust pretentions of powerful neighbours. Here is the chance of vindicating the character of an illustrious victim of the atrocious machinations of monsters in the shape of men, who have sought by the most diabolical aspersions to blast it.

It is a trite and well known aphorism that, “il n’y a pas de héros pour son Valet de Chambre;” the hero vanishes before his nearest and constant attendants, and the man with all his human infirmities remains naked before them. It is no less generally acknowledged that the attendants on the Great are most of them as many, whose curiosity pries in their most secret thoughts and whose malignity and envy are always ready to divulge their errors or weaknesses.

In time, the number of these attendants being proportioned to the exaltation in rank and riches, a queen has very little chance to escape the incessantly active vigilance of the numerous tribe that surrounds her. From these therefore we can only receive true information concerning the character, disposition and conduct, as well private as public of such exalted personages. It might be therefore sufficient for repelling all the calumnies and infamous aspersions so professedly published against that true heroine, to remark that, no one of these numerous witnesses or spies, has ever come forward to substantiate or corroborate by his testimony any one of the charges alleged against her; especially at a time when such witnesses might have expected the amplest reward for so doing. But so general a plea cannot satisfy the justice we owe to the most injured of all the most innocent beings against whom malignity has pointed the whole battery of its venomous weapons. Our personal knowledge of the Princess, and our intimate connexion with many of her attendants, enable us to come boldly in vindication of a personage, who in fact and reality, was the very reverse of the picture made of her.

To be continued.

THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE LOWER PROVINCE,

CONSIDERED.

WITH A VIEW TO THE RECOMMENDATION OF A BETTER SYSTEM.

Continued from page 124.

Hoping therefore, this important advancement in the Agriculture of the Province will begin where it should do among the best informed and respectable people in it. I shall now consider how far the duties and the interests of the Legislature, the Clergy and the Seigneurs or great Land-Holders are concerned in promoting them by their influence and example.

With respect to the interests of the Clergy being concerned there can be no doubt, for their revenues are in proportion to the yield of the land. On referring to No. 5 of this Enquirer, Pa. 74 and 5, and to No. 7, Pa. 105, it will appear that corn crops may be nigh doubled in this Province, as have been the great and good effects of the improved mode of Agriculture in Scotland.

This is not however the only or chief reason which interests the Clergy in promoting an attention to, and introduction of a beneficial improvement. The moral character of my Canadian countrymen, I am truly pleased to find on my return have been yet preserved in a considerable degree of purity, and that this is owing in some measure to the vigilant care of their Clergy, I think will be allowed; it is in the preservation which this Clergy must wish of these moral habits that we are to look for their principal inducements to promote among them an inclination for agricultural improvements, their proper business, and which have a great tendency to create habits of increased industry.

In the present times, with what caution are those who wish to preserve the path of wisdom and happiness, obliged to proceed. Folly abounds in the world to mislead them from it. Wise men apply to business, and the practice of every duty; good men to the consolations of virtue and religion; social men, to the enjoyment of cheerful society to escape its errors, whilst it will probably be found that the combined union of these are necessary for this good end. The endeavours of wise and good men have been of late much exerted to direct our desire of pleasure to wise purposes, and I feel persuaded, that the success of a great portion of our institutions, for education, for public charities, and for great national undertakings, has been much owing to the proper direction of these sensations. Men who have continued for some time in promoting the Public good or in conducting any of their institutions, their attention is superior to employing the intents of their minds and inclinations of their hearts in their advancement and accomplishment. Among these pursuits, none has, probably produced better moral effects than a zeal for the practice of modern agriculture. A very numerous class of men, who in former times were considered as the hinds and drudges of Society, are now accustomed to see the labours and the products of the fields, occupy the attention, the talents, and the pursuits of some of the first men in the Empire. And there is no doubt, the late great improvements in agriculture in Great Britain, have been thus owing to the diffusion of this zeal among the various classes of persons concerned in farming. But when people are fond of their pursuits, they are certainly less likely to stray into vice and folly, and more likely to pursue their undertakings and improvements with steady attention.

That the Habitant Farmers of this Province have in general a sufficiency of the mere means of existence, I believe; but that their comforts, and those of their families, might be nigh doubled by the improved system, is, I believe no less certain; and I have no doubt that this reason will have its due influence with their Pastors, especially when I trust it will appear that a love for the practical extension and advancement of agriculture will prove a great safeguard against the intrusion of vice and folly.

With regard to that respectable class of men the Seigneurs of the Province, I have heard it indeed said, that it was not their interest to encourage improvements among the owners and occupiers of Concessions; in order, they should be in necessity of making frequent transfers or sales thereof. This appears so preposterous, that it is hardly possible to be a general case, for if the occupier is obliged to sell the land, on account of his being unable to gain a living on it, under the present practice of husbandry, none but a farmer who can practice a better mode, will find it worth his while to purchase; but it is hardly possible, a class of people, so comparatively well informed as the Seigneurs of this Province must likely be, can find it for a moment not their interest to encourage the increase of the produce,[1] and thereby the increase of the value of the lands they have conceded, as well as those they have yet in their own possession, for undoubtedly, the value of these lands must rise in proportion to the value of the products they can be made to yield, by a superior mode of agriculture. This is seen on a slight view, but on more reflection, when it appears, that the additional quantity of food, yielded by the improved system, must tend greatly to increase the facility of population, and the means of supporting it; the great interests, the holders of wood lands must have! thus to promote the rearing of a numerous race of skilful and industrious cultivation; that is enough.

It is however to be added, and I trust there are prospects should this Province rise to a proper zeal for, and practice of, a more plentiful system of agriculture, that Government, finding the produce steadily on the increase, and nigh competent to supply our Colonial markets, will be induced to secure them to it, and by this means an introduction of Capital, to be employed in the settling of wood lands, and an influx of well informed husbandmen will take place.

With respect to the Hon. Legislature of the Province, a great proportion of the Upper House are, I understand, the Seigneurs, whose inducements to promoting agriculture, are above considered, and, in their Legislative capacity, it seems as if, at this moment all the honorable and interested motives of action were combined to induce them to raise the character and the interests of the Province in this particular. On the one side, they must see the lands of their Country have been suffering, by a debilitating mode of husbandry since the first settlement of it, until many of them are now nigh exhausted, whilst neighbouring Countries are endeavouring, by every means to advance their agriculture, and I believe, with much success. On the other side, are the discoveries actually made and practised in our mother Country by which a great portion of it, namely Scotland, has been within some years, raised from the same low state of cultivation, in which this Province now is, to its present splendid state of agriculture.

The present is now a time of profound peace, and the increase of commerce and of wealth must be chiefly looked for, in the advancement of the agriculture of the old, and settlement of the wood lands of the Province. This is also a sure mode of increasing the means of defence, in case of war, and considering the accumulating state of a neighbouring nation, it appears a paramount interest of the Hon. Legislature, to take speedy and effectual means to extend the settlement and population of the Province.

To do this, however, no mode can be more effectual than pasturage and tillage, well combined on the same farms or lands, both assisting each other, and tending to produce the greatest quantity of food; which forms a leading feature in the character of modern agriculture, and which has been greatly occasioned by the system of alternate rotation crops.

It will also appear, that our Representatives are nigh equally interested in the restoration of the lands, by the improved mode of agriculture: They are deputed by their constituents (for the general good) who are the owners of these lands, but who are unacquainted with the sum of wealth, and with all the comforts they might be brought to produce; and, who are, in consequence of their defective and low state of agriculture, unable to supply even their own markets. It is therefore to their Representatives, to whom we properly look for promoting this requisite change, and advance in the agriculture of their Country, and by which they will richly merit its gratitude and admiration when its good effects shall appear.

In this they will no doubt be powerfully assisted by his Excellency, the Commander in Chief, who adds to a considerable knowledge of modern agriculture, a steady and uniform perseverance in promoting it in the countries under his Government.

It appears therefore a high duty of the Hon. Legislature, to embrace these combined opportunities, for the welfare of the Province; to incite by its influence and countenance, the commencement of a better system of agriculture; which shall produce the restoring of the old and worn lands, and continue to preserve them in good and fertile order; which shall remove from this fine and extensive Province, the reproach of being unable to supply its own markets, and of being dependent on a foreign Nation for that supply; which shall by thus increasing the products of the soils, tend greatly to procure the settlement and population of its forest lands, and thereby the increase of its diminished commerce and revenues, and which shall therefore present to its Hon. Legislature, the most speedy means of strengthening its defence, and promoting its prosperity.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN.


It has been above shown, that the quantity of corn is likely to be much increased by a better mode of agriculture, and as it may happen, in that case that the exportation of ground corn, or wheat may be more frequent in this Province, the profits of the Corn Mills would be increased in proportion.

NOSES.

“As a friend to noses of all denominations, I must here enter my solemn protest against a barbarous abuse to which they are often subjected, by converting them into dust-holes and soot-bags, under the fashionable pretext of taking snuff, an abomination for which Sir W. Raleigh is responsible, and which ought to have been included in the articles of his impeachment. When some ‘Sir Plum,’ of amber snuff-box justly vain after gently tapping its top with a look of diplomatic complacency, embraces a modicum of its contents with his finger and thumb, curves round his hand so as to display the brilliant on his little finger, and commits the high-dried pulvilio to the air, so that nothing but its impalpable aroma ascends the nose, we may smile at the custom as a harmless and not ungraceful foppery, but when a filthy clammy compost is perpetually thrust up the nostrils with a voracious pig-like snort, it is a practice as disgusting to the beholders, as I believe it to be injurious to the offender.—The nose is the emunctory of the brain; and when its functions are impeded, the whole system of the head becomes deranged. A professed snuff-taker is generally recognisable by his total loss of the sense of smelling by the snuffling and snorting—by his pale, sodden complexion—and by that defective modulation of the voice called talking through the nose, though it is in fact an inability so to talk, from the partial or total stoppage of the passage.—Not being provided with an ounce of civet, I will not suffer my imagination to wallow in all the revolting concomitants of this dirty trick; but I cannot refrain from an extract, by which we may form some idea of the time consumed in its performance. ‘Every professed, inveterate, and incurable snuff-taker,’ says Lord Stanhope, ‘at a moderate computation takes one pinch in ten minutes. Every pinch, with the agreeable ceremony of blowing and wiping the nose, and other incidental circumstances, consumes a minute and a half. One minute and a half out of every ten, allowing sixteen hours to a snuff-taking day, amounts to two hours and twenty-four minutes out of every natural day, or one day out of every ten. One day out of every ten amounts to thirty-six days and a half in a year. Hence if we suppose the practice to be persisted in forty year, two entire years of the snuff-taker’s life will be dedicated to tickling his nose, and two more to blowing it.’ Taken medicinally, or as a simple sternutatory, it may be excused; but the moment your snuff is not to be sneezed at, you are the slave of a habit which literally makes you grovel in the dust; your snuff-box has seized you as Saint Dunstan did the Devil, and if the red hot pincers with which he performed the feat could occasionally start up from an Ormskirk snuff-box, it might have a salutary effect in checking this nasty propensity among our real and pseudo fashionables.”

THE TAILOR AND ATTORNEY.

Mr. Editor,

An unfortunate Tailor who had committed some law-business to the hand of an Attorney, well practised in his profession, had a bill delivered to him containing such a variety of unexpected charges, that he thought himself fleeced most unmercifully—The only satisfaction which occurred to him was, to prevail on the conscientious Attorney to have a suit of Cloaths from him, for which he in his turn gave in something like the following Bill.—

To measuring and taking orders for a Suit of Cloaths,£068
Warrant and instructions to my Foreman for executing the same,68
Going three times to the Woolen-Drapers,100
Fees to the Woolen-Draper,440
Cutting out the Cloth,68
Materials for working,1160
Trying the Suit,134
Alterations and amendments,1119
Entering it in my Day-Book,106
Posting it in my Ledger,68
Engrossing the same,134
Writing to the Button-Merchant,68
Filing his Declaration— 16 sheets,169
Fees to Button-Merchant,2129
Removing the suit from my House to the Court-House,150
Removing it by Certiorari from Court-House to your Country House,160
Writing out a Receipt,100
Filing the same,68
Service of the same,50
Ditto eight times more,200
------------
£20122

By this Bill, he contrived to have a sufficient set-off against his Attorney, and acted no doubt, on principles of at least equal fairness.

———————

FRENCH GALLANTRY.

We have read with pleasure in the Canadian of the 2nd of January last a short Essay on the subject of French gallantry. The style of it is very appropriate, and most readily should we give a translation of this Essay if there were any possibility to cloth in the English language that light wit or rather esprit which in general constitutes the greatest merit of that kind of light compositions. The French esprit, is far from answering to the word wit in English and without entering into a philological discussion, we will confine ourselves in comparing the former to those light dishes which delightfully affect the palate but do not assuage the cravings of hunger, and the latter to those substantial joints which altho’ not so sweetly relishing are far preferable restoratives. We shall therefore present to the reader an extract of that Essay rather than an exact translation.

The Author begins by regretting the loss of the core of that French gallantry, so highly praised all the world over, without being able to be imitated any where else. Even tradition, says he, has weakened that “classical” perfection which was the object of great appreciation. He expresses the hope and the wish that some gallant emeritus may take upon himself the reduction of a new digeste of gallantry to be four or five codes and which, says he, ‘would not be the least consulted by them,’ when it should be immutably settled “those so sweet and necessary relations between both sexes, the one whereof is become so much of his pre-eminence, whilst the greatest fault of the other consists perhaps, in forgetting those virtues which are the brightest ornament of women, in order to exhibit agreements which often compromise their dignity.”

Our Author then goes on and traces the origin and progress of French gallantry. “Ignorance,” says he, “covered our fair Country with its gloomy wings; even love was unknown there: Cupid, instead of a flambeau, held in his hand a torch borrowed from the furies; to his delicate arrow was constituted a huge falchion which he brandished at the command of his unruly passions: in a word, women left without admirers, found in men only masters, when chivalry and gallantry made their appearance then these amiable twins were carefully nursed on the lap of France which had just begotten them.”

“Gallantry like every other growing passion, was soon carried to fanaticism and at once exercised over men a power equal to that of love. In those remote times, Paladins did not pour in the ears of the fair these insipid compliments, these deceitful protestations which in latter days have tried or seduced then: they did not scatter before them the pale flowers of the Madrigal or of the Acrostic; no! but it was the cask on their head and the lance in their hands that they knew how to pay them homage and to protect them. No Knight would have hesitated then to go to the extremity of the earth to fight and bleed in support of the fame of a fair lady, of whom, often, he had had no more than a single glimpse through a jealous veil. Happy times when the brave shed more blood to uphold the honor of women, than our modern heroes waste perfumes to contrive their dishonor.”

The Author proceeds in the history of the several revolutions and in the description of the different characters which gallantry assumed. He tells us that the fervor of that kind of worship grew fainter and fainter in proportion to the easy access that men had to beauty; and “this last, lost almost all the attributes of its divinity so soon as those offerings that hitherto had been laid at its feet only were permitted to be deposited on its knees.” To that stern gallantry succeeded the more pleasing and seducing intercourse of volupty; this was the age of the crafty d’Etampes, of the handsome Diane de Portiers, of the tender d’Estrees, of the fair penitent Lavalliere, of the artful Maintenon, not forgetting the famous Ninon, whose “Grey hairs were yet encircled with myrtles and for whom the sand glass of time pointed at the same moment twelve lusters and the hour of pleasure.”

We come at last to that period which may be called that of frivolity, and distinguished by our Author by the name of otto of roses gallantry. “The epoch,” says he, “of which I am speaking is that which has produced those charming Colonels mustering their regiments en battant des entrechats (cutting capers); crossed steel humming a song and sat working on the embroidery frame with their swords on their side.”

“Would it be believed,” continues our Author that “this frivolous intercourse be that gallantry which is the object of universal admiration: that it is its language that the Englishman over a glass of punch attempts to balbutiate: that it is its expression that the heavy German tries to convey to his mistress through the thick atmosphere with which his smoaking pipe surrounds both.

“But whilst strangers exert themselves to follow the example they have received from us, let us see how far we have persevered in it. Let us judge from that which we witness in those brilliant societies which regulate the manners, in what consists now a days that so renowned French gallantry. We are afraid that in the description of actual French manner, many of our Colonial friends will find the originals whom they have taken for their models. We must confess that being ourselves one of the old school and most disinterestedly, preserving for the fair sex that affectionate respect which the revolution of years has compulsorily substituted in us to tenderer and more ardent devotion, we cannot help grieving at the sad alteration which we have witnessed in the intercourse between both sexes.”

C. D. E.

To be continued.

MARRIAGE.

AN EPISTLE TO THE WEDDED.

The sages say this sacred institution

Is formed to bless the human constitution,

To keep folks constant to their solemn pledges,

And fence the couple with religious hedges.

The thought is good, and wisely ’tis ordained

That passion’s rank luxuriance he restrain’d;

So on the acid crab, we graft the pippin

And the fruit answers to the graft we slip in.

All nature yields to human cultivation

And man may form a novel generation;

Thus from a horse and ass a mule proceeding,

Still by his ears and tail proclaim his breeding.

But ’tis the will of nature’s great first cause

That nothing shall usurp her destin’d laws;

Which like the quills of porcupine defend her,

And no man yet could make a mule engender.

The case is obvious for the union’s strange

And all the feelings suffer by the change;

Art may produce a monster, but we find

No art can make it propagate its kind.

So ’tis in human life, and int’rest snatches

At wealth and pride to make uneven matches;

And oft so wide from nature’s laws does ramble

As to engraft the rose upon the bramble.

Thus do we often see a wedded couple

She stiff as iron, he as leather supple;

She rules the roast with nought but roar and thunder

And forces all about her to knock under.

Others with biting satire keep the rule

And inly born, tho’ to appearance cool;

Thus in diluted vitriol, heat lingers

And he who touches it must burn his fingers.

Sometimes indeed a prodigy we find

That men and women both are of a mind;

But this is commonly on passions side,

And both are striving which shall most preside.

With pride the wife, with rage the husband burns

And all contentment into discord turns;

Each mourns the lot that made them man and wife

And join’d two jarring elements for life

This moral follows, now my song is ended.

Nothing’s so bad in art as can’t be mended

This maxim holds man is the proper lord;

Remember woman claims the firstborn’s reward.

NEMO.

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QUEBEC, PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY W. H. SHADGETT

AT THE NATIONAL AND BRITISH PRINTING OFFICE.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY,
Saturday, 13th February, 1819.

ORDERED That the Rule established bye the House on the third day of February, one thousand eight hundred and ten, concerning the notices for Petition for private Bills, be printed once monthly in the public newspapers of this Province, during three years.

Attested by Wm. LINDSAY,

Clk. Assy.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY,
Saturday, 3rd February, 1810.

RESOLVED, That after the close of the present session, before any Petition is presented to this House for leave to bring a private Bill, another for the erection of a Bridge or Bridges, for the regulation of the Common, for the making of any Turnpike Road, or for granting of any individual, or individuals, any exclusive right or privilege whatsoever, or for the alteration or renewing of any Act of the Provincial Parliament for the purpose of notice of such application shall be given the Quebec Gazette, and in one of the newspapers of the district, if any is published therein, and also by a notice affixed on the Church Doors of the Parishes that such application may affect; or in the most public place, where there is no Church during two months, at least, before such Petition is presented.

Attested by Wm. LINDSAY,

Clk. Assy.

The Printers of the Newspapers of this Province are requested to insert the above Resolution in the manner directed by the first. Their accounts will be paid at the end of the year at the Clerk’s Office, House of Assembly.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY,
Monday, 22nd March, 1819.

Resolved, that after the present Session, before any petition paying leave to bring in a Private Bill for the erection of a Toll Bridge be presented to the House, the person or persons purposing to petition for such Bill, shall, upon giving the Notice prescribed by the Rule of the 2rd day of February, 1810, also at same time and in the same manner, give a Notice stating the rules which they intend to ask, the extent of the privilege, the Right of the action, the interval between the abutments or piers for the passage of rafts and vessels, and mentioning whether they purpose to erect a Draw-Bridge or not, and the dimension of such Draw-Bridge.

Ordered, that the said Rule be printed and published at the same time and in the same manner the Rule of the 3rd February, 1810.

Attested Wm. LINDSAY, Jr, Clk. Assy.

CHAMBRE ASSEMBLÉE,
Samedi, 13e. Février, 1819

ORDONNE, Que la Règle établie le trois Février, Mil huit-cent-dix, concernant les notices pour les requêtes pour des Bills privés, soit imprimée une fois par nous dans les papiers publics de cette Province, pendant trois années.

Attesté WM. LINDSAY,

Gref. Assée

CHAMBRE d’ASSEMBLÉE.
Samedi, 3e. Février, 1810.

RESOLU, Qu’après la fin de la présente session, avant qu’il soit présenté à cette Chambre aucune Pétition pour obtenir permission d’introduire un Bill privé pour ériger un Pont ou des Ponts, pour régler quelque Commun, pour ouvrir quelque Chemin de Barrière, ou pour accorder à quelqu’individu ou à des individus quelque droit ou privilège exclusif quelconque, ou pour altérer ou renouveller quelque Acte du Parlement Provincial pour de semblables objets, il sera donné notice de telle application qu’on se proposera de faire, dans la Gazette du Québec, et dans un des papiers Publiés du District, s’il y en a, et par une affiche posée à la porte des Églises des Paroisses qui pourront être intéressées à telle application, ou à l’endroit le plus publié, s’il n’y a point d’Église, pendant deux mois, au moins, avant que telle pétition soit présentée.

Attesté, WM. LINDSAY.

Gref. Assée.

Les Imprimeurs de Papiers-nouvelles en cette Province sont priés d’insérer les Résolutions ci-dessus, en la manière ordonnée par la première. Leurs comptes seront payés à la fin de l’année, en par eux s’adressant au Bureau du Greffier de la Chambre d’Assemblée.

CHAMBRE d’ASSEMBLÉE.
Lundi, le 22 Mars, 1819.

RESOLU, Qu’après la présente Session, avant qu’il soit présenté à cette Chambre aucune Pétition pour obtenir permission d’introduire un Bill privé pour ériger un Pont de Péage, la personne ou les Personnes qui se proposeront de pétitionner pour tel Bill en donnant la Notice ordonnée par la Règle du 3e. Février 1810, donnera aussi en même tems et de la même manière un Avis notifiant les taux qu’elle se proposeront de demander, l’étendue du privilège, l’élévation des Arches, l’espace entre les Butées ou Piliers, pour le passage des Cageux, Cages et Bâtiments, et mentionnant si elles se proposent de bastion Pont Levis ou non et les dimensions de tel Pont Levis. Ordonné, Que ladite Règle soit imprimée et publiée en même tems et de la même manière que la Règle du trois Février, 1810.

Attesté, WM. LINDSAY.

Gref. Assée.

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Cheap Impenetrable Painting.

D. Reader from London, late foreman to R. Gain, House, Sign and Ornamental Painter, Glazier, &c. Respectfully informs the public, that he has removed to 25, St. Ann street, near the Gaol. D. R. is enabled by a process (which has been approved of by the Royal Society at London) to render Fish Oil superior to Linseed Oil for all kinds of work exposed to the weather, as being far more durable, and at 25 per cent lower than the usual prices.

Chairs and all other furniture painted to any pattern, Maps and Prints varnished, Gilding, &c. &c.

Quebec, August 1, 1821.

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Liberal Education

BY Mr. SHADGETT,

From London.

Mr. Shadgett’s Academy is now open for the reception of youth at his residence No. 1 Hope Street, Upper Town.

Mr. Shadgett is known to the public, as having been selected and sent expressly from England, to introduce the Schools on the National Principle and the New mode of Tuition into this Country; and as having received the approbation of several Gentlemen and Scholars, well qualified to decide, who have honoured by inspection the Schools which have been formed by him.

The Academy now Opened will be found peculiarly adapted to the more respectable and advancing classes of youth, embracing (by a rational, explanatory and easy mode of conveyance) all the higher branches of an Academical instruction.

Young Gentlemen, (and Ladies) whose education has been neglected, or, whose Parents have hitherto regarded them as dull and unpromising, may be secure of advancement in this School.

Parents and Guardians of the higher order of CANADIAN youth, desirous of perfecting them in a thorough and intimate acquaintance with the English Language and its just pronunciation, will have every facility afforded them by Mr. S. who is a native of London.

The Terms are moderate.

Entrance to the School Room 2nd Door on the right from Hope Street or St. Famille Street, corner of Joseph Street.

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FOR SALE,

Fire Wood.

A CONSIDERABLE SAVING IN THIS EXPENSIVE

ARTICLE.

The Managers of Public bodies—Overseers of Churches, Chapels, or other extensive establishments in constant consumption of Fire Wood, may have any quantity a few miles from Town, on the Road to the New Settlement and near the proposed English Village.

The saving will be considerable to such as keep horses and prevent any anxiety in not having laid in a sufficient quantity from Rafts, the first cost Per Load on the Land being but Four Shillings. Every Cord or Stack must be paid for in advance and the name of the purchaser to be fixed to the same and no part to be removed unless in the presence of the foreman who holds the check.—Apply to Mr. Elstob, near the Neptune Inn, Lower Town.

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Quebec General Agency Office.

The Register Established last year for Emigrants &c. will be continued at the Quebec General Agency Office, adjoining the National Printing Office, Hope Street. Persons in want of Servants, Mechanics, Labourers &c. can be supplied.—

Charge for every separate Registry, 1s. 3d.

To be Paid at the time of Entry.

All possible attention will be given to the Character of Individuals; though the proprietor cannot be answerable for such.

Sales and Transfers of land and every description of business transacted by Commission.

———————

FOR SALE,

Several Lots of excellent land directly on the line of the road called Craig’s Road, in the Township of Ireland, the situation most eligible for the erection of Stores, Taverns &c. Purchase Money 20l. for each lot of 100 Acres. Apply to

COL. BOUCHETTE,

Land Surveyor General,

Or the Printer.

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Advertisements inserted at the following rates—
In one Language,

For 1st insertion six lines and under,2s. 6 d.
each subsequent insertion,7½d.
  
First insertion, ten lines and under,3s. 6 d.
each subsequent,10 d.
  
First insertion, above ten lines, per line,4 d.
each subsequent,1 d.

In both Languages, Double the above rates.

N.B. Every 1st insertion must be paid in Advance.

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TRANSCRIBER NOTES

Mis-spelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.

Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors occur.

Advertising copy has been consolidated at the end of the magazine.

[The end of The Enquirer Issue 10 of 12 (February 1822) edited by Robert-Anne d’Estimauville]