Mr. URBAN,

WE

Nov. 15. HOEVER knows you, knows that you are a friend to Truth and Justice; whoever knows certain Northern Reviewers, does not know exactly the same thing. These preliminaries being stated, I write to you for the sake of a friend, who has been misrepresented by the aforesaid wights.

The passion for ridicule is very prevalent and very strong; and if any thing ridiculous is told or said of any public man, it is sure to fly from mouth to mouth, from pen to pen, from press to press, without further examination of the original assertion. This has happened to a very good friend of yours and mine, who wrote a beautiful Poem, called "The Spirit of Discovery by Sea."

In his, fourth book he describes a pair of faithful lovers landed on an uninhabited Island (Madeira), and their interview, after having totally despaired of preservation.

The still Moon Arose-they saw it not-cheek was to cheek

Inclin'd, and unawares a stealing tear Witness'd how blissful was that hour, that seem'd

Not of the hours that time could count. A kiss

Stole on the lingering silence; never yet There heard they trembled, e'en as if [first pair That made the world, that planted the In Paradise, amid the garden walk'd.

the Power

Now, Mr. Urban, what, to any sound understanding, does this mean? but that, in the dead silence and solitude where the lovers were, the sound of their own kiss alarmed them; as if some superior Being had been listening in the shades.

The Northern Reviewers chose to represent this (why I know not, perhaps from defect of comprehension) as if the Author (Mr. Bowies) had written, that "the woods of Madeira

trembled at the kiss." This was too good a jest to be lost; and Lord Byron, writing his fine Satire called

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English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," seized it, even from his antagonists, and stigmatized the Author for it. The echo was caught by Mr. Colton, who alluded to it in one of his rambling notes, quoted in your last Number (for October) p. 333. "The walls of St. Mary's trembled at the unusual sound (of a false quantity), as Mr. Bowles informs us did the woods of Madeira, at the first kiss performed in them by a pair of lovers." And thus the story is bandied from one to another, with every recommendation but that of truth.

The plain answer to all this is, that Mr. B. never said any such thing; as you see by the quotation, where the woods are never mentioned. Lord Byron saw the passage, and confessed his mistake. Mr. Colton probably would do the same; but, unless you publish the truth, other wits and witlings may take up the error as a jest, and render it perpetual. I doubt not, therefore, that you will readily interpose, for the sake of the persons mentioned at first, TRUTH and JUSTICE. S.

Mr. URBAN,

Deal, Nov. 16.

AS your Reviewer has been pleased to notice my Essay on Redemption so favourably, I think it right to acknowledge a mistake in one of the quotations introduced there, though I cannot guess by what inadvertency it was occasioned. My constant practice was, in every quotation, either to mention the work through the medium of which it was taken, or to ascertain the correctness of it, by referring to the original. But, through haste or forgetfulness, I have introduced a quotation, in a note, in p. 308, which is incorrectly applied, without having been able to recollect where I met with it. The object of. it is to shew, with reference to

Haggai xi. 7. that the plural is not unfrequently used in speaking of one person. The words are Jeds μiv wala, from Maximus Tyrius. But when I examined the passage in the original, which I carelessly neglected to do till the work was published, I found that instead of wala being in apposition with Jeds, it is an accusative case, and has no relation to the subject. It occurs in the third Dissertation, p. 33, of Heinsius's second edition, as deos μὲν πάντα, καὶ μετὰ θεὸν, τύχη και καιρὸς τὰ ἀνθρώπινα κυβερνῶσι το ξύμTarla. It is a quotation from Plato. I can now only apologize for an error which was unintentional.

MONTAGU PENNINGTON.

Nov. 13.

Mr. URBAN, N Shakspeare's Henry V. Act 4, sc. 4. Pistol, in answer to the French soldier, who calls him " 'gentilhomme de bonne qualité," uses the following words, according to the text of the first folio.- Qualitee calmie custure me," which, from their obscurity, have turned out one of the toughest crusts for the editors and commentators of our great Bard, and have consequently given rise to a great variety of readings and supposed emendations. Although the old text had been regarded as positive nonsense, Mr. Malone having found in Clement Robinson's "Handfull of pleasant Delites," a sonnet directed to be sung to the tune of Calen o custure me, very properly conceived that the old copy might be right, and accordingly with much sound criticism and ingenuity proposed that the text should stand thus: Quality! Calen o custure me. Art thou a gentleman?" Already satisfied with this reading, I had given my feeble support to it, with a still more feeble and absurd conjecture on the words of the old song alluded to. Now as the work in which this error, among too many others, was com mitted, is not likely to be soon, if ever, reprinted, I shall feel much obligation to you, Mr. Urban, if I may be allowed to record in your volumes the discovery of the old

tune or song itself. This, though

not of equal importance with that of the hundred merry tales, will be deemed of some value by every one, and especially by those gentle readers

who hold, and frequently with_too much reason, the conjectures of all commentators in supreme contempt. It will also serve to confirm, with a slight orthographical emendation, the reading of my late worthy friend Mr. Malone, whose memory will long continue dear to all real admirers of Shakspeare.

The tune then in question is an Irish one, and for four voices. The words are very few, and as follows; Callino callino caline castore me. Eva Ee Eva Ee loo loo loo loo lee. It

occurs in one of Playford's collections; and well therefore might Pistol, who was a great adept in old tunes and ballads, perplex his modern auditors at least, commentators included, with this Hibernian jargon, which it is hoped some of your Readers skilled in the Irish tongue will do us the favour to explain: and, if in the mean time any musical amateur or antiquary should ardently long for the harmony of this old tune, I shall be most ready to afford him the desired satisfaction through the medium of the Gentleman's Magazine, with Mr. Urban's approbation, or in any other manner that may be convenient.

Mr. URBAN,

F. D.

Nov. 14. well-informed Correspondent, on N addition to your ingenious and the subject of Mr. Joseph Sanford examined for Holy Orders (p. 212); I offer one question more, put to him by Bp. Secker's Chaplain, (S. was then Bp. of Oxford.) "Quid est fides ?" "Fides est duplex, fides fidei, faith, and fides fidium, a fiddle;" upon which the Chaplain reported the examinee to the Bishop. I know of no regular portrait of Old Jo; but a very strong likeness may be seen of him, in Rubens's picture of Daniel in the Lion's Den, at the Duke of Hamil ton's in Scotland, and in the print in the British Museum, in the last Lion to the right; for both he and Archbishop Markham had strong leonine faces. Ἐπίδυσις.

striking case, tending to prove that Buonaparte is Gog. But the infallible rule for the trial of a Prophet is no less decisive in trying the interpretation of a Prophecy: "When a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing (or the interpretation) follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken." Deut. xviii. 22. Gog, be he who he may, is to " fall upon the open field," or, as the margin reads," on the face of the field;" and there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude; and they shall call it the valley of Hamon-gog," that is, of the multitude of Gog. Ezek. xxxix. 4, 5, 11. Buonaparte has not been slain and "buried;" and a Kingdom or "Nation," in which sense your Correspondent understands it, may indeed be overthrown, but cannot be slain and “buried." I forbear to advert to other conjectures, in this and a former letter by the same hand, concerning the Millennium, the first resurrection, and other points, which appear altogether untenable.

I as

sure myself T. R. wishes to discover and hold fast the truth, and nothing but the truth, as sincerely as R. C.

Mr. URBAN,

W

Nov. 18. WHO was the purchaser of the Marlborough MSS. the sale of which is announced in pp. 135, 136? The information will, doubtless, be acceptable to Mr. Archdeacon Coxe (now, as we hear, writing the Life of the illustrious Duke of Marlborough) if he does not already know it, and to others of your Readers.

Much, if not the whole of what is advanced by A. H. p. 322--326, might have been spared, as being entirely beside the question, if he had considered, what he ought to have known, that those who disapprove of the Bible Society, agree as to the object or design with those who are members of it, but differ as to the mode. They in general are already members of one or of two Societies, one of whose main purposes, ever since they were established a century ago, has been, and continues to be, to distribute the Holy Bible, at home and abroad, the Bible too without note or comment; but, if they enroll them selves in the Bible Society, to do what they are daily doing without noise or ostentation, they join Here

tics and Schismatics of all names and descriptions, those whom the Apostle injoins us to "reject" and" avoid," and to "have no company with them." Tit. iii. 10. Rom. xvi. 17. 2 Thess. iii. 14.-Whether the friends of this Society," as A. H. says, "have been the means of converting many ignorant multitudes from Paganism, Idolatry, or savage ignorance, to the light of truth," I know not. When the Heretics of early days urged this popular argument in their favour, the Fathers of the Church, with irresistible force, contended against them, that the success of any cause was, in itself, no proof of its truth. If it were possible that I could convert all the idolaters in the world by telling one lie, or doing any one act of wickedness, I am not at liberty to do it. And my conscience does assure me, beyond all doubt, that, by enlisting myself in the anomalous ranks of the Bible Society, I should violate the Apostolical precepts now alleged, and others of like decisive import. It is wise advice, "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." 1 Cor. x. 12. Yours, &c. R. C.

our arrival at the Inn, we were told that the company were just sitting down to dinner at the table d'hote, and I proposed to my fellow-travellers (the English party whom I had joined at Lille) that we should take pot-luck with our host. The mo ment we entered the room, where we found a numerous party male and female, it was evident, before we opened our lips, that we were recognized to be of British growth. I could hear some of the company whisper, Ce sont des Anglois; and the eyes of the female part of the company were very significantly directed towards the young lady who was of our party. Being aware that this page will meet that lady's eye, I forbear indulging my pen in a strain of panegyric which otherwise would be very grateful to my feelings, although I hope I may be pardoned for the application of the following beautiful couplet from Goldsmith:

To

To me more dear, congenial to my heart, One native charm than all the gloss of

art.

I have always remarked, wherever I have travelled abroad, that the name of an Englishman is of itself a sufficient passport to civility and respect; although I believe it happens not unfrequently, that our fair countrywomen are eyed by their own sex with manifest indications of envy and jealousy, more especially in France, where vanity and the love of flattery form so conspicuous a part of the female character. There is, generally speaking, in Englishwomen, an air of sedateness and modesty, or, to use a scriptural expression, of shamefacedness, which, while it is pleasing to men even of profligate habits, naturally subjects them to the sneers and ridicule of those artificial females (and such abound in France, Belgium, and the German Courts, 66 thick as Locusts on the banks of Nile") who seem to think the glory of their sex consists in a bold mien, forward looks, and pert loquacity. This thought was forcibly suggested to my mind by the behaviour of some of the female guests at our Table d'hote, from whom I obtained a happy relief after dinner in a walk round the ramparts with my fair fellow-traveller.

as

Before I dismiss the Table d'hote, however, I must observe, that I happened to be seated next to a decayed French gentleman of fashion and rank, who wore various insignia of his attachment to the House of Bourbon, and who had been many years an Emigrant in England. He had acquired a strong relish for our customs and diversions, particularly the diversion of Fox-hunting, which he considers as the noblest of all pursuits, and thought an English foxhunting squire the most enviable of all human beings. Upon finding that I came from L-c-t-sh—, his eye glistened while he thus addressed me, Eh bien! Monsieur; il faut que vous aimez la Chasse, and, grasping my hand, he exclaimed in an elevated tone of voice, Yoicks-Tally-ho

Tantivy. The company pricked up their ears at sounds so unusual, which he told them formed part of the delightful vocabulary of Messieurs les Chasseurs Anglois; and then, turning round to me, he asked the following question, Dites moi, Monsieur, qui est le premier Chasseur d'Angleterre à present? by which he meant me to understand that he wished to know who was at the head of the L-ct-sh hounds; and whether the immortal Meynell had left a successor worthy of himself: to which he subjoined, "How I envy your happiness in being within reach of the Quorndon Hunt!" "Happiness, Sir," I replied, "is a relative term; and I am so far a stranger to happiness in your estimation, that I never once, during the whole course of my life, galloped after a fox." "Mon Dieu," said he, shrugging up his shoulders with amazement, est il possible?" "But, Monsieur le Chevalier," said an English gentleman, who sat vis a vis, a great lover of the chace, "I presume I am addressing a Catholic." "Most assuredly, Sir." "Permit me then to ask you one question : What would you think of jour Father Confessor, if you were to see him mad at a fox-chase?" "Ma foi, Monsieur, c'est une autre chose; I should be shocked at such a sight." "And so should 1," replied the Englishman, "to see the Vicar of my parish bawling out Yoicks and Tally ho, and riding Tantivy with roaring lords, squires, gamblers, and grooms, amidst volleys of cursing and swearing." "But, Sir," rejoined the Chevalier, "I have seen in England black coats as eager in the chace as red coats." "And more shame for them," said the honest English squire; adding,

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you may rest assured that Clerical fox-hunters are generally held in great contempt by the thinking part of the Laity, especially when, to borrow the words of a hunting-song, "they renew the chace over the bowl;" and I am confident of being backed by the suffrages of the whole Quorndon hunt, from the premier Chasseur himself down to the whipper-in, that a Priest of that description is one of the last men upon earth to whom they would have recourse either for advice or consolation in the hour of perplexity and distress." I remarked that a considerable reformation had taken place among us in regard to

Clerical