160

Whether it be the intention of His Majesty's Ministers to fit out more than one maritime expedition, is a question they alone can solve; the present economizing system probably prevents a desire of the kind being gratified. If so, it is not improbable that other nations may step forward and deprive us of that credit which ought alone to belong to the first maritime country in the world; a country which should be so jealous of her naval ascendency as hardly to permit others to attempt that which she had not previously executed. There are several competitors for the honour of circumnavigating America; their exertions should not be too much contemned. The two last Polar Expeditions, sent by the Russian government, have done much, and that much under On the N. W. coast of America, very disadvantageous circumstances. the Arctic expedition under Captain Vasillieff passed to the Northward as well as to the Eastward of where Captain Cook reached; while the Antarctic expedition under Captain Billingshauzen, performed the circuit of the globe in a finer style and in a higher latitude, than the immortal Cook. If our maritime attempts are to be confined to one direction, and that direction within a tract from East to West,-then I think, and so do thousands, that not only will other nations circumnavigate America before us, but we shall not circumnavigate it at all.

This parsimony in limiting the number of expeditions, this constancy of perseverance in only one line of direction, and the general want of that enterprising spirit which distinguished our commercial ancestors, induce me to call upon the speculators of the day to save us the humiliating stigma which will be cast upon our maritime reputation, should others succeed in doing that which we are barely attempting.

J. D. C.

60

THE BAPTISM OF THE BELLS.

"I began to smoke that they were a parcel of mummers."-ADDISON. "WHO has e'er been at Paris must needs know the Grêve,” says the old song; and according to the same authority we may conclude, that who has e'er been at Versailles, must needs know the Cathedral of St. Louis, though it may not be of the same universal notoriety to English visitants, that, during the period of revolutionary madness, its spacious and handsome interior was not only converted into a public corn-market, but four of its bells being suspected of having royal epigraphs engraven upon their surface, and absolutely convicted of being worth a considerable sum of money, were dismounted from the belfry, to the great dismay of all good Catholics and sincere admirers of "triple bob majors." The two that were left, albeit sadly disheartened by the loss of the companions with whom they had so often rung the merry chimes of gladness, continued, under the pious reign of Napoleon, to invite the good folks of the Quartier de St. Louis to come to church or go to be buried, until the happy period of the restoration, when it became distinctly audible to all those who had Whittingtonian ears, that they called aloud with their iron tongues for the completion of the restoration in the belfry, by procuring substitutes for their four dethroned sisters. To this affecting appeal the faithful were not slow in reply, especially as the vicar general, the grand vicar, the canons, choristers, and vergers, were all supremely scandalized, ("tantæne coelestibus iræ ?") that they should have only two bells in active service, while the neighbouring church of Notre Dame possessed its full complement. Could the want have been supplied from their own funds, I verily believe there would have been no hesitation in appropriating them to so pathetic a claim; but as they were only rich in good works, fine garments, and sounding titles, it was resolved that a subscription should be opened for the purpose, that the Curé should address a circular letter to his parishioners announcing the fact, and that the Sœurs de Charité, worthy nuns so called, and who are always foremost in every work of pious charity, should go round pour faire la Quête. In his printed missive the Curé began by noticing, in a bantering strain, the obvious tone of lamentation and ululation lately assumed by the two sisterless bells; proceeded to inculcate, with more solemnity, the imperative duty of restoring the deficient appurtenances of the church; but couched his whole letter in that character of familiar good-humour and even gaiety which accompanies all their religious exercises, and forms so striking a contrast to the austerity, gloom, and mortification of English observances. In their black flannel dresses with white stomachers, white cloth caps with long lappets, and belts round their waists supporting rosaries, crucifixes, bunches of keys, relics, lucky half-pence with holes in them, and other trumpery, the Sisters of Charity went their rounds, collecting with such unexampled success, that according to the accounts of the French, (who, however, are somewhat given to exaggeration,) they have more than once extracted ten francs from a single house, which did not perhaps contain more than a dozen respectable families. Of course the mass of the offerings assumed the less ambitious form of copper, of which humble material a sufficient quantity was collected, after a long and tedious de

lay, to authorise the casting of the bells. This happy consummation was announced to the subscribers by a little pamphlet from the Curé, informing them that the bells were to be consecrated on the 6th of January 1824, by Monseigneur l'Evêque de Versailles, and named by the King and her Royal Highness the Duchess of Angoulême-reciting the inscription upon each bell-giving a short essay upon the spirit of the ceremony and the prayers, and concluding with the following significant passage:-"On ne paiera point les chaises ni les banquettes; mais je ferai moi-même la quête, pour achever de payer, s'il est possible, le montant des cloches et les frais de la cérémonie du jour."

For fear of committing any mistake in so important a matter as the inscriptions, I shall give the exact words of the original, merely premising that they were the same upon each bell, varying only as to the name and the order of succession." Je suis la première de quatre Sœurs, qui ont été offertes à Dieu par le Clergé, la Ville et les Paroissiens de Saint Louis. J'ai été bénite par Monseigneur Louis Charrier de la Roche, Evêque de Versailles, et nommée MARIE par Sa Majesté LOUIS XVIII., Roi de France et de Navarre, et par S. A. R. Madame (Marie Thérèse Charlotte,) Fille de Louis XVI. Duchesse d'Angoulême; M. Le Bonhomme étant Curé de l'Eglise Saint Louis de Versailles, Vicaire Gal. du Diocèse; M. Lagrolé Grand-Vicaire, Président de la Fabrique; MM. Vaquier, Tardy, Picot, Chauvet, Chanoines et Administrateurs; M. le Baron des Touches, Préfet, M. le Marquis de la Loude, Maire."

After informing us that the second is named Anatole, the third Martin, and the fourth Zoe, the manual proceeds to expound that the Church being in the habit of consecrating every thing dedicated to the service of the Lord, such as the ground upon which the temples are built, the buildings themselves, the vases, crosses, altars, ornaments, images, and even the earth destined to receive our bodies, it is perfectly consistent that the bells intended to contribute to the same end should receive an appropriate benediction. All those who on account of the rarity and more imposing grandeur of this ceremonial, might be tempted to abandon themselves to it in a spirit of mere dissipation and curiosity, are invited to peruse the Latin ritual of M. De Juigné, page 414, de Benedictione Campanarum; but I have not been able to ascertain that a single individual availed himself of this courteous invitation, although every soul in the church appeared to be clearly in the predicament indicated. Having disserted very learnedly upon the spiritual and mystic meaning of these sonorous appendages of the church, which were substituted for the silver trumpets mentioned in the tenth chapter of the Book of Numbers, (which forms the first lesson read by the subdeacon in the ceremony,) the worthy Curé insists that although water, oil, and the holy chrism be employed upon the occasion, it is not a sacrament, but à simple benediction or dedication, the names of saints being engraved upon the new offerings, in order that we may obtain their intercession for us every time that we frequent the house of prayer in obedience to the summons of their metallic namesakes. A burst of loyalty driving the bells and all their sanctities out of the expositor's head, he next exclaims," It is delightful to see one of the heirs of the throne and of the virtues of Saint Louis, greater perhaps by his patience and resignation in misfortune than by the glory and splendour of his crown,-to see the

daughter of the Martyr King, the wife of the Hero of the South, of the Pacificator of the Spains, offering conjointly to the Lord these ornaments and precious stuffs as an entire oblation of their persons and property.” Reverting to the four iron-tongued sisters, we are then cautioned not to contemplate them as profane objects, but to consider the ablution and aspersion which they will receive from the Pontiff as recalling the purity which we ourselves imbibed in baptism; to view the holy chrism with which they are anointed as typical of the fruitfulness and increase of grace conferred upon us in the sacraments; and the sign of the cross made upon their surface as a reminiscence of our own similar consideration. The incense scattered inside the bell represents the good odour which a Christian ought to spread around him by his virtues; its different chimes and modulations should excite in us an earnest desire to hear the holy airs and divine canticles of the heavenly Zion; and, finally, when its slow and measured toll announces to us the death of a fellowcreature, we should recollect that to-morrow perhaps the same sound may intimate that we have disappeared from the face of the earth, and are expecting mercy through the prayers and suffrages of the brethren we have left behind us. The little address concludes with the order of the psalms to be chanted at the ceremony*, and announces that the bearer will be entitled to a place in the enclosed part of the church.

With whatever earnestness the previous portions of this exhortation were perpended by the good folks of Versailles, the latter notification failed not to excite a deep and lively impression. Happy were they who had subscribed, for to them the pamphlet was duly transmitted; and keen was the mortification of those who had hitherto hugged themselves upon their cleverness in making a point of being absent whenever the dunning Sisters of Charity had gone round with the book of contribu tions. They thought it was merely for the service of the church; had they been aware it was for an admission to a ceremony, their donation would not have been withheld, for they hated shabbiness as much as other people. It became soon rumoured, however, that tickets would still be given to new subscribers at the rate of a franc for each person: the terms were deemed high, but, as it was recollected that the spectacle was of rare occurrence, the offerings of the faithful continued to drop in up to the very morning of performance. At the moment when the writer was mounting the cathedral steps, M. de Veracques, the governor of the château, who with his lady were to be proxies for the King and the Duchess d'Angoulême, arrived in one of the royal carriages, escorted by the mounted Gendarmerie d'Elite, in their blue jackets with broad crimson facings, yellow belts, pantaloons, and gloves, jack-boots, and enormous cocked hats edged with gold lace. Following in the suite of this august personage, with his admission-ticket in his hand, he was not a little surprised when the Garde Nationale stationed at the gates informed him that he could only enter the church by the Descent from the Cross, which after a little explanation he found to be the name of one of the side-doors upon which his book was billeted. Five minutes shouldering enabling him to penetrate to the proper entrance, he was admitted into the building, the spacious cross ailes of which were hung

* The 50th, 53d, 56th, 66th, 69th, 85th, 145th, 146th, 148th, 28th. For the consecration, Ps. 76.-Sermon and prayer from St. Luke, chap. 10.

with tapestry, handsome perhaps some fifty years ago, but wearing now a most sorry, threadbare, and forlorn appearance. The company were ranged in chairs upon the pavement, leaving a passage in the middle, up and down which were perpetually passing priests, choristers, beadles, and vergers of every description; "Peel'd, patch'd, and piebald, linseywoolsey brothers," intermixed with Gardes du Corps looped round the arm with a profusion of silver cord, king's pages with their broad white shoulder-knots falling down to their wrists, and the fur grenadier caps of the National Guard, who were on duty with fixed bayonets, giving the word of command, and rattling their musquets as unconcernedly as if standing at ease upon the Place d'Armes. At the meeting of the cross ailes was a large elevated platform, carpeted, and exhibiting various little thrones for the mayor, the prefect, and all those obscure dignitaries of a country town, who endeavour to obtain by their self-importance some compensation for the insignificance of their offices; and in front of two elevated crimson arm-chairs, were seen the representatives of the illustrious godfather and godmother, suggesting, from the anniversary (Twelfth Day), the gorgeousness of their apparel, and the royal association, that they might peradventure be some gilt king and queen accidentally transplanted from a huge English twelfth-cake.

In the centre of this platform, under a baldaquin or square canopy of crimson silk, edged with broad gold fringe, and surmounted with plumes of ostrich feathers, were suspended the great objects of curiosity-the four sisters, whose sumptuous and tasteful dress justified the words of Ovid-" Non omnibus una, nec diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum." A Parisian milliner had been summoned for their equipment, to the great scandal of the Versaillian sisterhood, who, maintaining their competency to adorn belles of flesh and blood, could not understand why those of metal should be deemed beyond the researches of their art. Mary, as the eldest, was the most splendidly attired, wearing a superb petticoat of embroidered gold brocade, over another of silver tissue, festooned at the bottom, and fastened with white satin rosettes, so as to exhibit the end of the clapper, like a fairy foot, peeping out beneath. Anatole, Martin, and Zoe, were arrayed alike, in plain gold brocade over a silver tissue; and the whole four displayed much more of humanity in their appearance than certain hooped Dowagers who may be seen sideling through the rooms at St. James's on a court-day. The solemnities began with a Latin hymn to the beautiful air of " La Suissesse au bord du Lac ;" for the Catholics, like Rowland Hill, see no reason why the devil should have all the good tunes; and none of the customary splendours observed in the grand ceremonials of the church were omitted. Priests without number, and in every variety of costume, enacted their theatrical mummery; little bells were rung, little boys scattered incense, little censers of fuming frankincense were carried to and fro, the bells to be baptised were crossed by the pontiff, and anointed with the huile des infirmes, as well as with the holy chrism, until the time arrived for the sponsors to give their answers, when an expedient was adopted which, considering the responsibility they might have otherwise incurred, does infinite credit to the prudence of those august and bedizened personages. A white satin ribbon being passed from the iron-tongue of each bell to the hands of the sponsors, they gave a smart pull every time a response was required, and thus made the