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that demands our particular cvotion, our praifes of, and thankfgivingto, the Firft Great Caufe, but have a perfonified the feafons, whom theycall by feveral glorious names, and alof them by the general appellation of Eens or Ages. The rifing age they tened Za, which is the life; and fo theproceeded to the other emanations an powers, derived from the dawning, id continued to the maturity and cline of the year, each of which the celebrat ed with particular folemnity.

ter; the Arabian in the Spring; the on the point of renovation, asa time Macedonian at the Autumnal Equinox; the ancient Athenians at the Winter Sulitice, the more modern at the Sum mer, &c.): yet we have reafon to believe, that, at whatever feafon the year was begun, it was always ushered in by fome religious ceremony; fomething, whether it was facrifices, games, donations, good wishes, or, of whatever natare it might be, fuitable to the genius of the people; fomething that impreffed upon their minds the awful reflections arifing from a renovation of time, and caused them not only to take a retrofpective view of that period which had elapfed, but to draw ufcful inferences from past events, to ferve us a guide or monitor, in future.

Pythagoras, or whoever was the author of the Golden Verfes that pafs under his name, doth not only recommend an annual or monthly examination, but particularly advised his fcholars, every night when they laid themfeives down to reft, to call themselves to an account for the actions which had paffed that day, and inquire in what they had tranfgreffed, and what good they had done.

If fuch was the advice of a heathen philofopher, an advice which numerous fects, whofe religion is founded in a great measure upon his principles, follow to this hour, would it be too much to hope, that Chriftians, who have, in the illumination which the Scriptures have diffufed, lights fo fuperior to the erratic and uncertain gleams of the ignis fatuus of the fchools, would proceed upon this felf-examination at leaft once a-year, and that they would chùfe the prefent feafon, which religion and reafon feem to point out as the most proper one to begin that work.

The Jews, in addition to seir annual feftival, had what they cred a fabbatical year; period when: was fuppofed that all nature was at eft, when the land was left untilled, at the people devoted themfelves to paicular acts of humiliation, contrition, ad repentance. The fame folemnit might be faid to prevail at every reirn of the Mahometan Hegira, and at very revolution of the Roman India.

The first day of the year,hough lefs confidered or refpected as : feftival in this country, than perhaps i any other part of Europe, was, even hee, in times far remote, ufhered in with more folemnity than at prefent.

There are, in antient Brith writers, many veftiges to be found, which denote that it was by the cour, and confequently by the people, looted upon as a day fet apart for, and dedicated to, acts of religion and benevolence; and that it was generally fpent, as a day ought to be at the feafon, wien men not only fettled their earthly accounts, but opened new ones with heaven, in devotion, liberal offices, and innocent hilarity.

It is a remark of, perhaps, the most philanthropic writer and eminent moraIt may not here be totally irrelevant lift that this century has produced, that to remark, that not only the faget he had ever confidered as a peculiar just mentioned, but Plato and the happiness to the poor, that the fellival of Chaldean philofophers, more ancient Christmas fell in the cold and dreary than either, have adverted to the pe- feafon of the year; fo that, while it riod at which all nature feems to be up

# Pythagoras. Vide Eufebius de Præparat.

|| This bears a strong analogy to the mythology of the Centoos. turned

turned en's minds to thoughts and acts of the piety and hilarity which were at that feafon fo prevalent in ancient times; nay, even our good wishes toward each other have much decreased. To greet any one with "the compliments the feafon," would now, in many companies, mark the formal addreffer as a ruftic: and to wifh any one, above the station of a mechanic," a happy new year," would be fuch a folecifm, fuch a proof of ill-breeding, as no perfon, who had the leaft regard for the reputation of his gentility, would be hardy enough to risk.

of benedence, it rendered that benevolence most doubly acceptable. In the famemanner, fince we have, in the middle ahis century, adopted the hiftorical nde of beginning the year*, which is ot only a divifion of time lefs liable to infufion, and fuch a one as, indeed, ammon fenfe feems to have pointed t, but, as Mr Addison remarks up Christmas, it brings a feftival whichnay be termed a renovation of our eanly exiftence, clofe to that when He as born that hath fecured

our eterna

It muft, to every thinking mind, be atupon the In this pint of view the hofpitality tended with horror, if it reflects of the rich the donations of the cha- enormities that have been crouded into ritable, ev the good wishes of the years that have elapfed of the last depoor, are a pre-eminent degree ap- cade of the eighteenth century; and by plicable to his feafon; as they feem to turning our eyes upon the unhappy be a reconition and combination of country that has been the fcene of them, that gener and diffufive love which ought to make us not only thankful, does in for, and ought in a still great- that, by the prudent and wholesome all the feveral measures which have been taken, we er, degree, exift among orders and claffes of mankind, living have avoided the contamination which under the ame government, enjoying might have enfued from a collifion, but the fame raional liberty, and partaking render us more attentive to thefe duties of the hapinefs which arifes from a which religion and benevolence point conftitution and laws operating equally out, and which the prefent period, and upon the rich and the poor, for the the prefent feafon, render peculiarly neprotection nd prefervation of the whole. ceffary; fo that devotion and hofpitaliThinking, as I do, of the many blef- ty, which have, in fome degree, laia tings which we enjoy, and which, I fear, dormant, may revive among us, by amany enjoy without reflecting that they dopting thofe fentiments which were fo are bleffing; it has given me pain to ob- well practifed by our ancestors, and by ferve, ever within my own memory, a following thofe examples which they vifible declenfion of that hofpitaility and have left us, to confider the clofe of the benevolence which was formerly, at the year as a feftival intended to draw the period to which I have alluded, the bond of union closer amongst Christians, pride and glory of this country. A falfe and to prompt them to acts of friendrefinement feems to have taken place fhip and philanthropy; and the renewal of it as not only the renewal of our exiftence, but of our gratitude to God, our affectiont owards our country, and K. our general good wishes to each other.

William the Conqueror was crowned on the first of January, which occafioned hiftorians, fince the Conqueft, to begin to reckon their year from that day, though the ordinary mode of computation was from the 25th of March.

ANECDOTES OF POLICE.

THE following remarkable anecdotes of the police of France, prior to the commencement of the prefent troubles, are extracted from a Treatife on the Police of London, wrote by Patrick Col

quhoun, Efq; of the Police Office, Shoreditch.

"At the commencement of the troubles in France, it is a curious fact, that the

licu

Lieutenant-general of the national police, he should have executed his orders,

as well as that of the metropolis, had spon his registers not lefs than twenty thoufand names of fufpected and deprared characters, whole purfuits were known to be of a criminal nature, and yet by making this branch of police the innediate object of the clofe and uniform attention of one branch of the executive government, crimes were much lels frequent than in England, and the fecurity extended to the public, with regard to the protection of life and property, against lawlefs depredation, was infinitely more. To elucidate this affertion, and to fhew to what a wonderful height the fyftem had advanced, the reader is referred to the following anecdotes, which were mentioned to the author by a foreign minifter of great intelligence and information, who refided fome years at the court of France.

"A merchant of high refpectability in Bourdeaux had occafion to vifit the metropolis upon commercial business, carrying with him bills and money to a very large amount.

"On his arrival at the gates of Paris, a genteel-looking man opened the door of his carriage, and addressed him to this effect: "Sir, I have been wait ing upon you for fome time; according to my notes you were to arrive at this hour; and your perfon, your carriage, and your portmanteau, exactly anfwering the defcription I hold in my hand, you will permit me to have the honour to conduct you to M. de Sartine.".

"The gentleman aftonished and a larmed at this interruption, and fill more fo at hearing the name of the Lieutenant of the Police mentioned, demanded to know what M. de Sartine wanted with him; adding, at the fame time, that he never had committed any offence against the laws, and that he could have no right to interrupt or detain him. The messenger declared himfelf perfectly ignorant of the caufe of the detention, ftating only, that when he had conducted him to M. de Sartine, VOL. LIX.

which were merely ministerial.

"After fome further explanations, the gentleman permitted the officer to conduct him to the hotel of the Lieutenant of Police. M. de Sartine received him with great politenefs; and after requesting him to be feited, to his great aftonishment, he defcribed his portmanteau, and told him the exact sum in bills and specit he had brought with him to Paris; where he was to lodge; his ufual time of going to bed; and a number of other circumftances, which the gentleman conceived 'could only be known to himself. He then put this extraordinary queftion to him-Sir, Are you a man of courage? The gentleman, still more astonished at the fingularity of fuch an interrogatory, demanded the reafon why he put such a ftrange question, adding, that no man ever doubted his courage. M. de Sartine replied Sir, you are to be robbed and murdered this night? If you are a man of courage, you must go to your hotel, and retire to reft at the ufual hour; but be careful that you do not fail afleep, neither will it be proper for you to look under the bed, or into any of the closets in your bed-chamber (which he accurately defcribed); you must place your portmanteau in its ufual fituation, near your bed, and discover no fufpiciɔn— leave what remains to me. If however you do not feel your courage fufficient to bear you out, I will procure a perfon who fhall perfonate you, and go to bed in your ftead. After fome further explanation, which convinced the gentleman that M. de Sartine's intelligence was accurate in every particular, he refufed to be perfonated, and formed an immediate refolution literally to follow the directions he had received. He accordingly went to bed, at his ufual hour, which was eleven o'clock. half past twelve (the time mentioned by M. de Sartine) the door of the bedchamber burst open, and three men entered with a dark laathorn, daggers,

C

At

and

and piftols; and the gentleman percei- be any fatisfaction, he could inform him ved that one of them was his own fer- where he had lodged, and the different vant. They rifled his portmanteau un- gaming tables, and other places of redifturbed, and fettled the plan of put- fort, which he frequented; but that he ting him to death. The gentleman was now gone. hearing all this, and not knowing by what means he was to be refcued, it may naturally be fuppofed, was under great perturbation of mind during fuch an awful interval of fufpenfe, when, at the moment the villains were preparing to commit the horrid deed, four Police Officers, acting under M. de Sartine's orders, who were concealed under the bed and in the clofer, rushed out, and feized the offenders with the property in their poff ffion, and in the act of preparing to commit the murder."

"The Ambaffador, after stating the accurate and correct mode by which the police of Vienna was conducted, infifted that this offender must still be in Paris, otherwise the Emperor would not have commanded him to make an application. M. de Sartine smiled at the incredulity of the Imperial Minister, and made a reply to the following effect-Do me the honour, Sir, to inform the Emperor your mafter, that the perfon he looks for left Paris on the 10th day of last month, and is now lodged in a back room looking into a garden in the third flory of a houfe, number 93, in

The other anecdote refpects the Emperor Jofeph Il. who eftablished what he conceived to be the best fyftem of Police in Europe. "A very notorious offender, a fubject of the Emperor, who had committed many attrocious acts of violence and depredation at Vienna, was traced to Paris, by the police establish, ed by his Majefty, who ordered his Ambaffador at the Court of France to demand that this delinquent fhould be delivered up to public juftice. M. de Sartine acknowledged to the Imperial Ambaffador, that the perfon he enquired after had been in Paris; and if it would to his own."

Street, in his own capital of Vienna, where his Majefty will, by fending to the fpot, be fure to find him. It was literally fo as the French Minifter of the Police had stated. The Emperor, to his aftonishment, found the delinquent in the house and apartment defcribed; but he was greatly mortified at this proof of the accuracy of the French police, which in this inftance in point of intelligence, even in Vienna, was difcovered to be fo much fuperior

OBSERVATIONS ON MONARCHIES IN GENERAL, AND
THE LATE MONARCHY AND PRESENT GOYERN-
MENT OF FRANCE, IN PARTICULAR.

Some

FROM MR BURKE'S TWO LETTERS TO A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. IT is often impoffible, in our politi- vigour at their commencement. cal inquiries, to find any proportion be- have blazed out in their glory a little tween the apparent force of any moral before their extinction. The meridian caufes we may affign, and their known of fome has been the most splendid. operation. We are therefore obliged Others, and the greatest number, have to deliver up that operation to mere fluctuated, and experienced, at different chance, or more pioufly (perhaps more periods of their existence, a great variety rationally) to the occafional interpofi- of fortune. At the very moment when tion and irresistible hand of the Great fome of them feemed plunged in unDifpofer. We have seen states of con- fathomable abyffes of difgrace and diffiderable duration, which for ages have after, they have fuddenly emerged. remained nearly as they have begun, They have begun a new course and oand could hardly be faid to ebb and pened a new reckoning; and even in fow. Some appear to have spent their the depths of their calamity, and on

the

the very ruins of their country, have far the most growing part of her empire. laid the foundations of a towering and In that its acme of human profperity derable greatnefs. All this has hap- and greatnefs, in the high and palmy pened without any apparent previous ftate of the monarchy of France, it fell change in the general circumftances without any of thofe vices in the mowhich had brought on their distress. narch, which have fometimes been the The death of a man at a critical junc- caufes of the fall of kingdoms, but ture, his disgust, his retreat, his dif- which exifted, without any visible efgrace, have brought innumerable cala- fect on the state, in the highest degree mities on a whole nation. A common in many other princes; and, far from foldier, a child, a girl at the door of deftroying their power, had only left an inn, have changed the face of for- fome flight ftains on their character. tune, and almost of nature. The financial difficulties were only pres texts and inftruments of those who accomplished the ruin of that monarchy. They were not the causes of it.

Such, and often influenced by fuch caufes, has commonly been the fate of monarchies of long duration. They have their ebbs and their flows. This has been eminently the fate of the monarchy of France. There have been times in which no power has ever been brought fo low. Few have ever flou rifhed in greater glory. By turns elevated and depreffed, that power had been, on the whole, rather on the encreafe; and it continued not only powerful, but formidable to the hour of the total ruin of the monarchy. This fall of the monarchy was far from being preceded by any exterior fymptoms of decline. The interior were not vifible to every eye and a thoufand accidents might have prevented the operation of what the most clear-fighted were not able to discern, nor the most provident to divine. A very little time before its dreadful catastrophe, there was a kind of exterior fplendour in the fituation of the crown, which ufually adds to government ftrength and authority at bome. The crown feemed then to have obtained some of the most fplendid objects of flate ambition. None of the continental powers of Europe were the enemies of France. They were all, either tacitly difpofed to her, or publicly connected with her; and in thofe who kept the most aloof, there was no appearance at all. The British nation, her great preponderating rival, fhe had humbled; to all appearance fhe had weakened; certainly had endangered, by cutting off a very large, and by

Going

Deprived of the old government, deprived in a manner of all government, France, fallen as a monarchy, to common fpeculators might have appeared more likely to be an object of pity or infult, according to the difpofition of the circumjacent powers, than to the fcourge and terror of them all but out of the tomb of the murdered monarchy in France, has arisen a vaft, tremendous, unformed fpectre, in a far more terrific guife than any which have yet overpowered the imagination, or fubdued the fortitude of man. ftraight forward to its end, unappalled by peril, unchecked by remorfe, defpifing all common maxims, and all common means, that hideous phantom overpowered thofe who could not believe it was poffible fhe could at all exift, except on the principles, which habit, rather than nature, had perfuaded them were neceffary to their own particular welfare, and to their own ordinary modes of action. But the conftitution of any political being, as well as that of any phyfical being, ought to be known, before one can venture to fay what is fit for its confervation, or what is the proper means of its power. The poifon of other ftates is the food of the new republic. That bankruptcy, the very apprehenfion of which is one of the caufes affigned for the fall of the monarchy, was the capital on which the opened her traffic with the world.

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