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October 11, 1817.]

The iron, the woollen, the cotton, the leather, the soap, and the candle manufactures, are all stated to be rapidly increasing.

The clothing manufactures in the towns of Bradford and Trowbridge are in the highest state of activity; such a briskness of trade has not been experienced for many years.

Commerce and Manufactures.-Agriculture, &e.

at Portsmouth, Weymouth, Torbay, Plymouth, &c. the owner pretending for his health.Cornwall Paper.

It appears, from an official account of the quantity of woollen goods exported from Great Britain in the year ending the 5th of January 1817, that the total declared value of the goods of this kind exported during the above-mention

The Gazette of the 10th ult. contains a declaration, that Bristol is a fit and proper porttioned period was— for the deposit of goods imported from the East Indies, under the provision of the 53d Geo. III. cap. 55.

There has been, within these few days, a ge. neral turn out of the stocking-makers (in the cotton-branch) at Nottingham, Loughborough, &c. for an increase of wages. The numerous body of wool-combers at Liecester have also struck for the same purpose.

Fully more than one million yards of cotton cloth has been shipped on board the Mars, in the Clyde, for St Thomas, lately cleared out.It is probable, that the ultimate destination of a large proportion of these goods must be Spanish South America, as it greatly exceeds the quantity requisite for the ordinary consumption of the island of St Thomas.

The eminent mercantile house of Messrs. Franzius and Co. at Leipsic, has suspended its payments; its engagements are said to amount to upwards of three millions of Dutch guilders. Extensive speculations in the corn trade, as well as in other concerns, and the ships with the pro. duce on board not arriving in due time, in consequence of contrary winds, were the causes of this unfortunate failure. A negociation is on foot with the creditors to pay the whole of their demands by instalments, in the course of three years.

To Russia

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Norway Denmark

£.818,923 1,520 8,897 13,164

Holland

....................

Prussia ..............................

460 5,673

Germany

423,672

Holland

228,237

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Making a grand total of......

23,295 1,030,221 37,853 3,029,667

447,628 251,602

417,106 861

$,404,481

A few days ago, a foreigner of decent appearance was taken into custody in Portman-street, Portman-square, by an officer of the customs, who found on his person upwards of 400 pieces of French and Brussels lace, which he imme. diately took to the custom house. The value of the seizure is estimated at more than £.800.

The Active of 16 guns, recently arrived at Portsmouth from the Jamaica station, left Port Royal on the 31st of July. Mr Smith, assistantsurgeon, who went out in a bad state of health, is the only person belonging to her who has died since she left England. The Active left the ships on the station particularly healthy. She has brought home about 300,000 dollars for British merchants. The trade between Port Royal and the Spanish Main is in a most flourishing state. Almost every article of European manufacture now used by the South Americans is British; and, in proportion to the success of the Patriots, in breaking asunder the prescrip❘ tive rights of favoured individuals, will be the increasing interest of the British merchants.They are going on well; their cause is represent- At the late Workington Agricultural Meeted as founded upon a principle which is unconing, Mr Curwen stated, among other interestquerable.

A lady landing a few days since at Dover from the opposite coast, was observed by the custom-house officers to have increased in bulk rather in a rapid manner, since her deparrure for the continent. They therefore exercised more than usual liberties with the person of the lady; and eased her of more than £.120 worth of lace and other contraband goods.

A person residing at Guernsey, who has made several trips across the Channel of late in a vessel from that island, always carried his bedstead ashore on his arrival. Suspicion being eucited that this piece of furniture was not a mere sleeping partner, on its way from the ship to Stonehouse, last week, it was seized, and upon examination, found to contain lace, stockings, shawls, &c. to the amount of £.300, the posts and legs being hollowed out for their reception. On the following day the ship also was seized. The bedstead, it is said, has often been landed

AGRICULTURE, &c.

Mr Ellis, of Barming, the largest hop-grower in England, has this season 2,700 persons engaged in picking hops in his extensive planta. tions.

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By these means she affords an almost immediate supply of light after sunset, which is very bene. ficial for gathering in the harvest and other fruits of the earth. The sun enters Libra about the 23d of September, and the full moon which is nearest that day, is distinguished from all others by the appellation of The Harvest Moon.

At St Ninian's Fair, on Saturday se'ennight, there was but a small show of ewes, which met a very brisk sale, at a considerable advance from what had been obtained the former year. There was but an indifferent show of cattle; although there were many buyers, yet the prices were low. A poor show of horses, and no demand.

Reading fair, Monday se'ennight, was very Cheese was better in numerously attended. quality than last year, and of the thick sort there was a large supply-of the thin rather a deficiency. The sales were dull, and on an average 7s. under last year's prices.

Grub worm.-Some of the finest fields have either been totally destroyed, or much injured by the grub. Old pastures of rich clover lea were generally the places of its greatest havock. The glebe of Dunsyre was also subjected to this powerful ravager. It has been observed that the worm became a fly, and in its flying form very much resembled a trout fly, with long body and dark grey wings. It then became an object of interesting observation, where and in what manner the fly would deposit its eggs. Flowers and plants were naturally the objects of attention, as these furnish the food and form the asylum of many insects. The ragwort, or ragweed, as it is generally called, appears now to be one of its depots. At this season the flower of this plant, which is of a light yellow, begins to get black, because the seed becomes ripe it will be found that many of these decayed flowers contain a worm: the flower at the top is sealed up, and upon being opened, there is to be found a worm every way similar to the insect (if not altogether) the grub. When the substance of the flower has been exhausted, the worm makes its escape, which may be easily perceived, by a small hole in the top of the flower. One single plant of ragwort has been found to contain no less than nine of these insects.

Report from East Lothian for September.—The weather, during the whole of the month, was favourable for the farmer, with the exception of some damp days about the 22d, which were succeeded by high winds, so high as to shake ripe corns in exposed situations. The harvest became pretty general in the low parts of this county towards the middle of the month, and much of the barley and early sown wheat have been cut, and a good deal stacked. Much of the earlier kinds of oats have been cut too, but much of that crop still continues too green for cutting. The new grain that has been brought to market is generally of good quality, and has brought hitherto rather high prices. The prices of all sorts of grain declined much at the beginning of the month, but have continued nearly stationary the last two weeks. A congui-siderable quantity of wheat has been sown during the month under favourable circumstances.

ing information, the following important fact, as the actual result of his own experience:-At the Schoose farm this year, the President ex. hibited an experiment of twenty stitches of turnips, raised by three different manures; the first by dung from the midden, the second by vegetable and animal patent manure, the third by clay ashes. Those from ashes were decidedly the best, the long dung the second, and the patent manure considerably the worst.

French walnuts, of this year's growth, have been sold in Covent Garden Market, at one nea a bushel in the green husks.

The Harvest Moon.-Among many other instances of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator discernible in the motions of the heavenly bodies, is the remarkable phenomenon of the moon, during the week of harvest, rising sooner after sunsetting, and with less difference between the times of two successive risings, than she does in any other full-moon week in the year.

Report for England.—The lingering harvest, occasioned in a great measure by the unequal ripening of the wheat and soft corn crops, is nearly closed in the home and midland counties, except for beans, a great breadth of which remains abroad. In the northern districts most of these crops are still uncut for want of ripening weather. The new wheats, too, hastily got

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Caledonian Horticultural Society.—Births, Marriages.

up, and threshed out, have from their cold damp state found an unprofitable market. Many stacks thus run up in bad condition, having heated, have been taken down. The barleys that did not plant regularly shew an unequal sample. Pats are a large crop, and in most parts fine in quality. Clover seed is not likely to prove a full crop. Potatoes every where rise well. Hops will not average a tenth part of a crop. The cidercounties of Devon and Herefordshire, &c. are without fruit, except in a few warm garden grounds. The grass lands are generally short of seed, but the turnip and Coleseeds are every where abundant; and lean stock of most kinds are in consequence got up in price. Sheep and Lambs, at the late Lewes and other Southdown fairs, have advanced full 15 per cent. The wool market has experienced a sudden rise since of 6d. per pound in fine clothing fleeces.

Moryshire Farmer Club.-On Friday the 26th September, the Marquis of Huntly entertained the members of this club with an excellent din ner, at Elgin, for the purpose of making them acquainted with the celebrated agriculturist, Mr Coke of Norfolk. Lord Huntly, in proposing his health, in a very elegant address, moved also, that he might be elected an honorary member, which was instantly carried with acclamation. Besides Mr Coke, Mr Patterson, Sir James Gordon of Letterfoury, Sir James Dunbar of Boath, Sir John Leslie of Findrassie, Cairnfield, Auchluncart, Inverurie, and upwards of 130 of the most respectable farmers of the county, were present on this happy and instructive occasion.

CALEDONIAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

ON Tuesday the 9th of September, a quarterly meeting of the Caledonian Horticultural Society was held in the hall of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the Right Hon. the Earl of Wemyss in the Chair. The following report from the Council was read to the Society :

Report to the Caledonian Horticultural Society, respecting the intended Survey of the present state of Horticulture in Holland, Flanders, and the North of France. September 9, 1817. Your Council have the satisfaction of being able to inform you, that the horticultural survey of the Netherlands, which was recommended to the society two years ago, by Sir John Sinclair, is now carrying into execution.

The subscription which was set on foot some months ago, for raising one hundred guineas, with the view of defraying the unavoidable expence of this survey, had made such progress, that your council had no hesitation in making an offer of that sum to three gentlemen, who were, in their opinion, in every respect well qualified for the office, to assist in defraying their necessary expences.

The three gentlemen, who, at our request, have undertaken this important duty, are, first Mr Patrick Neill, secretary to the society, whom we consider as one of the most distinguished scientific gardeners among the class of amateurs in Britain, and whose excellent writings on horticultural subjects do him very great honour. The second is Mr James M'Donald, who has been for many years gardener to his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, at Dalkeith Park, and who has enriched your memoirs by many useful practical observations, particularly on the improved culture of currants, onions, and other

culinary vegetables, and who is justly esteemed one of the best practical gardeners in Scotland. And the third is Mr John Hay, who has for several years past been much distinguished as having furnished plans for the best new gardens, which have lately been formed in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, particularly that of Preston-hall, formed by the late Sir John Callender; that at Calder-house, where much was done, by our lamented fellow member, the late Lord Torphichen; and that at Dalmeny Park, the seat of the Earl of Roseberry, where a gar. den is at present forming in a style that will do honour to Scotland. Mr Hay is also favourably known to you, by the plan which he lately presented to our society for an experimental garden at Edinburgh, and for which our gold medal was deservedly awarded to him.

[October 11, 1817.

Your council regret much, that the state of our funds does not permit us to bestow even an adequate pecuniary indemnification on those gentlemen who have undertaken this important mission.

All we have hitherto been allowed to offer them is one hundred guineas, to aid in defraying their necessary expences. This sum we were authorized by a former meeting to of fer, for the expence of two of our members; but, as three gentlemen have, at our request, engaged in this survey, we hope the society will not object to the sum of fifty guineas to each of the three, to aid in defraying the charges of the journey; and, we trust, that a subscription of a single guinea each, from such of our members as may wish to encourage this undertaking, will be fully sufficient to cover that expence, without in any degree encroaching on the ordinary funds of the society, already pledged for other useful purposes.

From three such intelligent and discerning surveyors, your council cannot help entertaining very sanguine expectations. It is indeed true, We cannot conclude this report without menthat, of late, horticulture, as well as agriculture,tioning to the society, the very liberal conduct has made a more rapid progress in Scotland of his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch on this octhan perhaps in any other nation in Europe. casion, both by the manner in which he has But, for the commencement of our knowledge granted leave of absence to Mr M'Donald, and in gardening, we were much indebted to our by the introductions which he has furnished to continental neighbours, and particularly the the continent, for promoting the success of our Dutch. Not many centuries have elapsed, since, survey. from them, we derived not only our best seeds, roots, and fruits, but even some of our most common esculent vegetables. History informs us, that in the days of Malcom Canmore, who reigned in Scotland about the end of the eleventh century, even the common garden lettuce, which then appeared only as a rare dainty on the royal table, was entirely imported from Holland, and was not at that time cultivated in Scotland.

Since that period, indeed, such has been the progress of horticulture in Scotland, that we can now produce from gardens in the environs of Edinburgh, a dessert of fruits, which for variety of kind, and delicacy of flavour, cannot be excelled, and, perhaps, hardly equalled on the face of the globe. This, your annual festival of Pomona has repeatedly demonstrated; and we confidently trust, that, notwithstanding the present backward season, the competition of this day will afford additional proof of the skill of our operative gardeners,

Great, however, as our progress has been, much yet remains to be discovered, for in arts and sciences human invention has no bounds; and by the intelligent and discerning philosopher, useful discoveries have often been derived from observing the procedure even of the most ignorant labourer.

Your council need not, therefore, state to you the expectations which they entertain from the present horticultural survey of the Netherlands. The abilities of the men, whom they have induced to undertake this survey, are not unequal to the task; and the kingdom of Scotland does not perhaps, at present, contain three men better qualified for such an undertaking. We confidently trust, that no horticultural knowledge worth importing, from improved varieties of the most common culinary vegetables, to plans of orchards, gardens, and conservatories, on the most extended scale, will escape their disccernment. We are not, therefore, without hopes, that this survey will do honour to our society, and be materially beneficial in Scotland. Nay, we even flatter ourselves with the expectation, that by the publication of future volumes of the memoirs of our society, the benefits resulting from it may in some degree be extended to every corner of the civilized world.

Respecting the progress made by our surveyors, we can only at present inform the society, that they were safely landed at Ostend soon after leaving Edinburgh; and we trust, that at our next quarterly meeting they will be present in this room, to give you a report of the success with which their survey has been attended.

BIRTHS.

Sept. 14. At Kingsbarns manse, Mrs Wright, daughter.

17. At Crookses, Mrs Thomson, a daughter. 18. At Aberdeen, Mrs Henry Lamsden, a son. 20. In Upper Berkeley Street, Portman Square, London, the lady of the honourable Alexander Murray, brother to the Earl of Dunmore, a son. 21. At Norwich, the Lady of Captain Kennedy Clark, royal dragoons, a son.

26. At Abbey Hill, near Edinburgh, Lady Menzies of Menzies, a son.

26. At the manse of Pencaitland, Mrs Makellar, a son.

28. At Marionville, Mrs Dudgeon, a son. 29. At Crailing house, the lady of James Paton, Esq. a still-born daughter.

30. At the Croft, near Perth, Mrs Anderson, a daughter.

Oct. 2. Mrs Ogilvy, 6. Abercromby Place, a daughter.

3. At Hermand, the lady of Thomas Maitland, Esq. younger of Dundrennan, advocate,

a son.

MARRIAGES.

Sept. 4. Mr W. Ainslie, brewer, Hawick, to Miss Jessy Pringle of Easter Stead, Roxburghshire.

14. At Brora, Mr Alexander Anderson, engineer there, to Miss Maria Waters, of Caithness.

15. Alexander Downie, Esq. merchant, Glasgow, to Mary, only daughter of Alexander Buchanan, Esq. formerly of New York.

-At Liverpool, the Rev. Peter Brotherston, minister of Dysart, to Miss Elizabeth Hurry, youngest daughter of the late John Hurry, Esq. of Liverpool.

16. At Edinburgh, Mr John Van Stavern, of

October 11, 1817.]

Rotterdam, to Isabella, second daughter of the late Mr Robert Spalding.

18. At Cockermouth, John Leathley Armitage, Esq. eldest son of Edward Armitage, of Farnley Hall, in the county of York, to Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Henry Thompson, Esq. of Cheltenham.

22. At Edinburgh, by the Rev. Dr Macknight, James Roscoe, Esq. of Liverpool, to Miss Jane M'Gibbon Douglas.

23. At Edinburgh, Mr John Linnell, artist, of London, to Miss Mary Palmer, of London.

23. At Putney, Claud Neilson, Esq. only son of Claud Neilson, Esq. of Ardarden, Dumbartonshire, to Renee, only daughter of the late Charles Clifton, Esq. of Demerara.

26. At Leith, by the Rev. Dr Robertson, Captain Robert Campbell, to Miss Margaret, third daughter of the late Mr George Skinner, Cooper, Leith.

27. At Kincraig, by the Rev. John M'Donald, minister of Alva, Lieutenant John Smith, 78th regiment, to Maria, daughter of the late George Fullerton, Esq. collector of the customs, Leith.

DEATHS.

Sept. 1. At Kirkton manse, near Hawick, John Elliott, minister of that parish.

At Hawick, Mr John Renwick, merchant. 9. At Barniemains, Mrs Helen Cuthbertson, wife of Mr Alexander Brodie.

9. At Dowspuda, in Poland, Mr Joseph Read, senior, late of Caldercruix Bleachfield.

12. Thomas Napier, Esq. of Randolph Hill. In passing along one of the locks of the Canal, near Falkirk, he unfortunately fell over and was drowned.

After a short but most severe illness, Nathaniel Portlock, Esq. post captain in his Majesty's navy, and for the last nine months one of the captains in the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich.

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-At Hawick, in the prime of life, Mr William Brown, jun. of the Tower Inn.

21. At Inveresk-house, Miss Margaret Mary Baird, daughter of Sir James Gardiner Baird of Saughtonhall, Bart.

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cles of her mother. Her talents were cultivated, her taste was modelled, the bent of her mind was given, her opinions were confirmed; in short, her intellect was formed in this school; and the philosophy then prevalent in France, too often concealing dark principles under brilliant wit, and lapsing from the light of reason into the perplexities of abstract metaphysics, became the dominating principle in her nature, and imparted the tone to all her writings and life. As variety and ambition were the ruling passions of her father, so was sentimental refinement and metaphysical confusion the besetting sin of her more amiable parent, and a dis

22. At Whitehill, near Musselburgh, Mr organizing experimental philosophy the object Joseph Brown, aged 89 years.

MADAME DE STAEL HOLSTEIN.
Anne Louise Germaine Necker was the
daughter of James Necker, a Swiss, whose finan-
cial career and conduct contributed probably more
than any other cause to accomplish the over-
throw of the French monarchy, and of Susan
Curchod, of whom we know little till she be
came the wife of Necker, except that she was
the daughter of a Protestant clergyman in Swit-❘
zerland, admired by the renowned Gibbon dur-
ing his residence in that country, and at one
time a governess in the family of De Verme-
noux. Wilhelmina was born at Paris in the
year 1766, and, displaying what such parents
might well consider to be precocity of talent, was
educated entirely under their immediate inspec-
tion.

The incipient fame of her father seems
to have grown with her growth, and she must
have been about 12 years of age, when, in con-
sequence of his eulogy on Colbert (for which he
was crowned by the Academy) and other publi-
cations, he was raised to the office of Director
of the Finances. Necker, though of humble
birth, being the son of a tutor in the college of
Geneva, had previously realized a large fortune
as a partner in the Parisian banking house of
Telfusson and Co. in which he originally set out
as a clerk. His success as a private individual
was taken as an augury of success as a public
14. At Leith, Mrs Susan Hewetson, wife of minister, which was miserably disappointed by
John Paul, Esq. merchant.
the result. It is unnecessary to follow the for-
tunes of the father through the fluctuations of
his ministerial life; now dismissed, and now re-

-At his father's house, in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, Mr John Erck, în his 23d year, from loss of blood, occasioned by the lancing of his gums.

15. Mrs Mowat, wife of Charles Mowat, King's Arms Inn, Berwick.

At New Spynie, the Rev. George Mac- called; now the staunch advocate for royalty, hardy, minister of that parish.

16. At Barns, Mrs Burnett of Barns. 17. At Brock-house. in the 78th year of his age, Mr William Lees, many years tenant of that farm a man of integrity and worth. His death will be long remembered by a numerous circle of friends and acquaintance. To the poor his hospitable mansion was ever open; by them his loss will be severely felt.

At George's Place, Leith Walk, Mr
George Gibson, senior, merchant in Leith.
18. At Musselburgh, aged 37, Mr John
Kemp, merchant there, deeply regretted.

19. At Dunfermline, in the 85th year of his
age, Adam Low, Esq. of Fordel, and some time
provost of that borough; a gentleman well
known for his benevolent exertions in the cause
of humanity. Through life his character was
dis tinguished by fervent piety and undeviating
rectitude. He died expressing his hope of a
blessed immortality. His death is much lament-
ed, and will be long felt as a public loss.
19. At Culross, Miss Johnston, daughter of
the late James Johnston of Sands.

20. At his house, Castle Street, Carlisle, Hugh

and now the friend of the people; now" the
adored Minister," and now the abhorred pe-
culator; now borne in triumph from Basle to
Paris on the shoulders of an enthusiastic nation,
and now flying from Paris to Geneva amid the
curses of an enraged populace. These things
were common in France! Neither does it enter
into our design to dwell upon the literary at-
tainments of the mother-her charities and phi-
lanthropy. Suffice it to record, that while Necker
published political pamphlets, views of finance,
and statements of administration, his spouse was
no less devoted to works of benevolence, as is
honourably testified by her "Essay on precipi-
tate burials." "Observations on the founding
of Hospitals," and "Thoughts on Divorce."

Our chief, and indeed our only reason for
touching on the progenitors of Mademoiselle
Necker, is to account for her early predilection
for literary pursuits. She was educated for an
author. Her first perceptions were directed to
science and literature. Her very infant ideas
were associated with the intelligence of Mar-
montel, Diderot, Buffon, St Lambert, Thomas,
and all the learned of Paris, who formed the cir-

66

of inquiry with nearly all those who associated with her young idea," and "tender thought." To these sources may be traced almost every feature which marks the faculties or distinguishes the writings of Madame de Stael. The events of the Revolution only drew them forth; they were implanted ere it commenced.

Mademoiselle Necker was little more than fourteen years of age, when, in pursuit of his ambitious projects, her father published the memorable" Account rendered to the King of his Administration," which created so strong a sensation throughout France, and led to the resignation of the author's official situation in 1781. He then retired to Copet, a barony in Switzerland, which he had purchased, and six years elapsed before he re-appeared permanently on the public stage at Paris. In 1787, we find him in that capital, attacking Calonne; and the years 1788 and 1789 constitute the era which so intimately connected his history with the destinies of France and the annals of Europe.

It was during one of the occasional visits of the Necker family to Paris, prior to 1787, that Eric Magnus Baron de Stael, by birth a Swede, was introduced to their acquaintance by Count De Creutz, the Swedish Ambassador. He was young and handsome, and succeeded in pleasing, we know not that we can say gaining, the affections of, Mademoiselle Necker, who consented to become his wife. Count de Creutz was shortly after recalled to Stockholm to be placed at the head of the Foreign Department, and Baron de Stael was appointed his successor. Thus dignified, and with the further recommendation of being a Protestant, his marriage was not de. layed, and the rich heiress, to the chagrin of many French suitors, became baroness de Stael Holstein. We believe, however, that this union did not prove to be one of the most felicitous. The lady was wealthy, young, and though not handsome, agreeable and attractive; she was rather under the middle size, yet graceful in her deportment and manners; her eyes were brilliant and expressive; and the whole character of her counteriance betokened acuteness of intellect and talent beyond the common order. But she inherited to the utmost particle from her father the restless passion for distinction; and derived from the society in which she had lived not a little of that pedantry and philosophical jargon which was their foible and bane. Aiming more at literary fame than at domestic happiness, she was negligent in dress, and laboured in conversation; more greedy of applause from a coterie than solicitous about a husband's regard; more anxious to play "Sir Oracle," in public than to fulfil the sweet duties of a woman in private; the wife was cold and the blue stocking ardent; she spoke in apothegms to admiring fashion, but delighted no husband with the charms of affectionate con

72

versation; to be brilliant was preferred to being beloved, and to produce an effect upon the many was sacrificed the higher enjoyment of being adopted by the few. The Baron de Stael was a man, on the contrary, of remarkable simplicity of habit and singleness of heart. The opposite nature of their dispositions could not fail soon to affect connubial harmony; and though four children were the issue of this marriage, and what are called public appearances were maintained till the death of the Baron, it is generally understood that there was little of communion between him and his lady beyond the legal ties of their state. Their bodies and not their souls were united.

In August 1787, Madame de Stael was delivered of her first daughter, and immediately after accompanied her father in his exile, which was of short duration. Her other children were two sons and a daughter. Two only survive her.

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of the Baron de Stael recalled her to Paris, where she received his last sigh, and soon left the metropolis for Switzerland. After this period she published an essay "On the influence of Literature upon Society," which may be considered as a continuation of the two last-mentioned works. In 1800, Bonaparte, in passing

Necker, and, according to rumour, Madame de Stael took this opportunity to read to him a long dissertation on the course he ought to pursue for the prosperity of France. The First Consul, it is added, who did not relish the political plans of ladies, listened to her very patiently, and in the end coolly inquired" who educated her children."

Narbonne, the ungrateful Lameths, Barnave,
Vergniaud and other, characters, distinguished
for the parts they played in the Constituent, Le-
gislative, and other bodies, whose operations
nourished the germ of discontent into the tree
of liberty. As the wife of an Ambassador, she
was protected from the first violent shocks of
revolution: but the bloody ascendancy of Robe-through Geneva, had the curiosity to visit M.
spierre rendered all protection vain, and in
1793 the Baron and Baroness de Stael found it
expedient to fly together to Copet. The Duke
of Sudermania, Regent of Sweden, having ac-
knowledged the Republic, M. de Stael was ap-
pointed Ambassador, and in 1795 returned with
his lady to Paris. About this date she publish-
ed her Thoughts on Peace, addressed to Mr
Pitt;" and is believed to have exercised a power-
ful influence over the manoeuvres which dis-
tracted the Governments of several 'ensuing
years, especially as connected with the Direc-
tory. Legendre, the butcher, who, on the 22d
of June, 1795, began to declaim against the
"spirit of moderation," which he said was gain-
ing ground, more than once denounced Madame
de Stael and her party, as directing the political
intrigues of that time.

A domestic calamity varied the public tenor of her existence. She was summoned to attend the death bed of her mother, to sooth whose affliction, it is stated, she was playing on a musical instrument a few moments only before she expired. On this melancholy occasion Madame de Stael flew to her pen for consolation; a resource to which she appears always to have applied when pressed by care or grief, or smarting under the charges which party did not fail to heap upon her, or soured by the animadversions of critics to which she was uncommonly sensitive. At Lausanne she composed the first part of the essay "On the influ ence of the Passions upon the Happiness of Individuals and Nations," which was published in Paris in 1796, and the second part in 1797. This production is reckoned one of her best, and was translated, in 1798, into English; a

One of her sons lost his life in a duel. The year 1789 is designated as the epoch at which Madame de Stael embarked upon the stormy sea of literature, by the publication of her Letters on the writings and character of J. J. Rousseau." But previous to this period she was well known to the Parisian world by the composition of several slight dramatic pieces, which were performed by private amateurs, by three short novels published afterwards in 1795 at Lausanne, and by a tragedy founded on the story of Lady Jane Grey, which obtained considerable circulation among friends and admirers. Her reputation was therefore no secret, when her first public appeal was made. The letters on Rousseau met with great success, and the budding fame of the writer was attended with all the eclat usual among our Continental neighbours. This triumph was however abridged and embittered by the critical and rapid advance of the Revolution. On the 11th of July M. Necker was involved more desperately in its vortex. While seated at dinner with a party of friends, the Secretary of State for the Naval Department waited upon him to intimate his banishment from the territory of France. Ma-language in which the writer was well versed, dame de Stael, whose whole life has been erratic, accompanied her parents in their hurried exile. A new political turn recalled them by the time they reached Frankfort, and Necker was once more reinstated in the administration, in which he remained fifteen months, and was then driven from office for ever to the retirement of Copet, where he died on the 9th of April 1804.

Madame de Stael, who had gone to Copet in 1790, returned on the following year to Paris, and took an active part in the intrigues of that eventful period. Whether she plotted to save or dethrone the King is not for our present inquiry; but at this time she formed or matured intimacies with Talleyrand, Seyes, Lafayette,

as indeed she was in English literature gene-
rally, far beyond the usual acquirements of a fo-
reigner.

Madame de Stael was with her father when
the French troops invaded Switzerland; and
though he had been placed on the Emigrant list
by Robespierre, and consequently exposed to
death wherever the troops came, his daughter's
influence with the Directory was sufficient to
secure him not only safety, but respect, and the
erasure of his name from this sanguinary roll.
She then returned to Paris and her husband;
but in a few months, either tired by the perse-
cutions to which she was exposed, or prompted
by some other motive, hastened back to the re-
pose of Copet. In 1798, the dangerous illness'

HIGH WATER AT LEITH,
FROM OCTOBER 11 TO 24.

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In 1803, she revisited Paris. Whether for past or present offences is not easy to tell, but Napoleon was not slow in banishing her to the distance of forty leagues from the capital. Report says, that on this occasion the lady told him: "You are giving me a cruel celebrity; I shall occupy a line in your history." This sentence is so ambiguous that we shall not venture to pronounce whether it was a defiance or a compliment. Madame de Stael first went to Auxerre, which she left for Rouen, and with an intention to settle in the valley of Montmo rency, in search, as she gave out, of more agreeable society. But Rouen and Montmorency were within the forty leagues, and Bonaparte was not accustomed to have his prohibitions in fringed upon. She was ordered to withdraw, and journeyed to Frankfort, and thence to Prussia, where she applied herself to the cultivation of German literature. From Berlin, in 1804, she hastened to Copet, on receiving intelligence of her father's danger; but he died before she reached the place. A mortality in her family invariably consigned our subject to the occupation of the study. At Geneva, in the year 1805, issued the "Manuscripts of M, Nec. ker, published by his daughter."

Madame de Stael has twice visited England; formerly during the revolutionary conflict, when she resided in a small Gothic house at Richmond, which is visible from the river above the bridge; and again about three years ago. During her stay in London she was much courted by persons of the highest rank and of all parties. Some of her bon-mots are in circulation, but we can neither vouch for their authenticity, nor have we left ourselves space for their repetition.

The party in France with which she was most intimately connected at the time of her decease, is that known by the name of the "Constitutionel." The Mercure probably recorded the latest of her opinions and the last tracings of her prolific pen.

The publications of Madame de Stael are so well known, that we need not give a list of them.

MOON'S PHASES
For OCTOBER 1817.
Apparent time at Edinburgh.

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D. H. M.
Last Quart. 3. 2. 18. aftern.
New Moon, 10. 3. 49. aftern.

First Quart. 17. 7. 16. inorn.
Full Moon, 25. 2. 26. morn.

Printed by J. Ruthven & Sons, 69, Cowgate, Edinburgh.

No. 4.

THE

EDINBURGH OBSERVER,

OR

TOWN AND COUNTRY MAGAZINE.

cont? from piso.

Walks in Edinburgh.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1817.

der the patronage of the saint, or was
honoured with his name when it became
the faithful depositary of part of his mor-
tal remains, no notice is recorded.

PRICE 1S.

Every part of the church being now brought into view by the removal of the ST GILES'S Cathedral, with its fine buildings which formerly crowded upon tower, forms one of the most conspicuous it, and the vicinity of public edifices reobjects in the ancient part of the metro- Despoiled of its rich ornaments, it was cently constructed in a very different polis of Scotland. Of the time of its divided by partition walls; and while style, and producing a striking contrast, first erection no record remains; but it part was retained for the public duties of naturally suggest the propriety of a reis enumerated among the churches and a less obtrusive form of religious worship, form on the whole exterior of the ancient towns in the patronage of the bishop of the remaining apartments of the fabric fabric. The hints of an anonymous corHoly Island, in Northumberland, about were occupied as places for courts of respondent may not meet with much atthe middle of the ninth century; in 1466, justice, a grammar school, a town-clerk's tention from those to whom the direction in the time of James III. it became a col-office, a prison, and a kind of weaving of such matters is entrusted; but few will legiate church, under the superintendance manufactory. Looms, it seems, were venture to dispute the position, that in any of a Provost, Curate, sixteen Prebenda erected, on which the weavers were re-improvement proposed for this church, ries, and other office-bearers; and was quired to shew how much cloth a given the character of the building ought to be raised to the rank of a Cathedral when quantity of yarn would produce, in the strictly preserved, while, considering the Edinburgh was made a bishopric, in presence of inspectors, with the view of vast expenditure which the community 1633, by Charles I. Originally destined preventing the frauds and embezzlement has of late years incurred in works of for the services of religion, and through of the property of their employers, which public utility, a just regard to economy a long succession of ages exclusively de- it would appear had been liberally prac- ought to be kept in view; and fortunatevoted to sacred purposes, this edifice has tised. The degradation of this venerable ly in this case both objects are attainable.. been applied to more various and more structure, it is to be regretted, has not The simplicity of the style rejects all opposite uses than any building which been confined to the earlier periods of its gaudy and expensive decorations; and can boast of such antiquity. The inven- history. The unhallowed use to which any attempt to introduce the florid Gothic tory of the jewels, plate, vestments, and some parts of it are still devoted, perpe- which might be dictated by false taste, treasure, belonging to St Giles's church, tuates the reproach; but it is gratifying would be altogether out of place. which was drawn up after the Reforma- to learn, that the spirit of improvement, tion, with the view of bringing them to a which has of late actuated some of our sale, and which is still preserved among municipal rulers, is likely soon to extend the city records, is a curious document of itself here, and that the paltry booths on the rich furniture and utensils required the south side of the pile are to be detachin a pompous form of worship. Among ed from its walls, and the police office, other things are enumerated, the arm of when accommodation for that establish St Giles, enclosed in silver, weighing five ment can be provided elsewhere, is to be pounds, three ounces and a half; St Giles's removed to a more appropriate place. coat, with a little pendicle of red velvet, which hung at his feet; and a communion table-cloth of gold brocade. St Giles, the patron of this church, as some may be desirous to know, was a native of Greece, who travelled into France, and founded a monastery in Languedoc about the sixth century. At great expense, and with great difficulty, even with the powerful assistance of the French monarch, Preston of Gorton, a gentleman of Scotland in the time of James II. had the good fortune to procure a bone of the arm of this holy man, and on his return to his native country piously presented this precious relic to the church in Edinburgh; but whether it was previously placed un

It rarely happened that churches, or religious houses of considerable magnitude, were erected at once. Many of the stupendous edifices, exhibiting, even in their mouldering remains, an air of grandeur which excites a feeling of veneration, were the pious work of successive ages. From the little that is known of its history, the same progressive construction belongs to St Giles's church. The eastern part of it is supposed to be the most ancient; the western division was built after the middle of the 16th century; and the imperial crown, a fine specimen of Gothic architecture, which surmounts the tower, was erected in 1648.

The north and west sides of the edifice, which are most exposed, and particularly the latter, which the spectator immediately contrasts with the new buildings, imperiously require judicious improvement. As the suppression of some of the four churches now under the roof of the cathedral has been spoken of, for the purpose of erecting them in more convenient situations for the accommodation of the extending population, might it not be worthy of consideration, before any plan of improvement is adopted, to reduce the number to two, and to cut off a portion of the building at its western extremity? The advantages of this plan are obvious; an opportunity is afforded of constructing an entire new western front in an appropriate style; a larger space is acquired in front of the different buildings; and a more commodious passage is obtained into the north-west corner of the Parliament Square. When the improvements, whatever they may be, are completed, it may be farther suggested, that a low parapet wall, surmounted by an iron railing

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