To the Editor of Exfhaw's Magazine. S&, SEND you Paris, May 10, 1785. some account of the royal fa queftions, that will never be recorded book of wisdom. I would not, howe infinuate, that his Majefty wants fenfe; whole tenor of his reign has proved the coutrary; but it was neceffary for him, in order Imily. Laff Sunday I went to Verfailles, to divert the eyes of the fpectators from him for the purpose of seeing them. Every Sun- felf, to fpeak to fome of his courtiers; and as he had no particular subject of converfation, it could not otherwife happen, than that most of his questions should be of a frivolous nature: they had, however, the defired effect; for the moment his Majefty addreffed any gentleman, the eyes of all the fpectators were turned, to fee who was the happy man, who had attracted the notice of the grand monarque. On each fide of the table, but at fome diftance from it, fat fix ducheffes on tabourets, or ftools; and occafionally they used all to rife, and fit, together like fo many automatons in the hand of etiquette. The Duke de Chartres, notwithftanding his relation to the throne, ftood behind the King's chair, and took charge of his napkin, when his Majefty rofe from table. Each of the King's brothers dined in public, in the fame manner, in their refpec tive apartments; but though their conforta attended at dinner, ftill they did not dine in public, but referved their appetites to partake of the Queen's dinner in private. Befides the grand and petit couvert, the court etiquette has established two other modes of dining-the petit and the grand apartment, at the former, fuch of the nobility as the King is pleafed to invite may fit down with their Majefties; but at the latter, none but the princes of the blood of Bourbon.Much is faid about the etiquette of the court of Spain; and some of the best writers have exercifed all the powers of ridicule to run it down, and explode it in doing this, nonc have been more induftrious than the French; and yet their own court is just as much under the dominion of etiquette, as that of Spain, for the courtiers of Versailles, think, move, eat, drink, and walk, only as etiquette directs them: nay, the very monarch himfelf, who rules the nation with an abfolute fway, is not exempt from the dominion of this plaguy etiquette: does he wish to hunt at one of his country feats, or travel from one palace to another, he cannot indulge his fancy, until it is firft determined whether it is perfectly confiftent with etiquette: if it is, then the journey is to take place; and this is all decided in full council, after the moft ferious and folemn deliberation: but you must not imagine that the business ends here, on the contrary, a ftill greater difficulty remains: the etiquette prescribes the number of perfons who are to attend upon the court in the different journies; the nu ber of those who afpire to this honour is moft infinite; each has pretensions which is thinks indifputable, and fupports them with all his intereft; and to decide which are the best founded, often cofts a minifter more trouble than the fettling preliminary articles of peace between half a dozen belligerent powers. There is another honour, to which every man who attends the court never fails to afpire; and that is, to be admitted into the king's carriages, and to go a hunting in them, with his majefty. The merit which entitles the candidate to this honour is birth; and, therefore, proofs must be given, that the perfon who looks for it has been nobly born, of a family that has been ennobled for at leaft four generations paternally and maternally; there is a genealogift appointed by the King, who is the fupreme judge in thefe matters, and to whom all the deeds, records, patents, &c. relative to the ennobling of the family must be fubmitted; and, perhaps, there is not in the world a judge who has fo much bufinefs, or fo troublesome an office: the applications to his tribunal are innumerable in a country where the nobleffe forms an immenfe body; for you must not imagine that the word nobility means precisely the fame thing in France, that it does in England. In the latter, we count those only noblemen who are honoured with the peerage; whereas, n France the nobleffe includes the gentry, juft as much as the dukes and peers; and a little lordling of a village, with 10l. fterling a-year, or even without a fhilling, may be called noble, as much as my lord duke, if his family had been diftinguifhed from the common clafs of fubjects by letters patent, or by bearing fome commiffion which time immemorially conferred nobleffe on the poffeffor; and, by ennobling his blood, upon his defcendents. You may, therefore, conceive that this poor genealogift has not a moment to fpare; proofs of nobleffe must be given by those who want to get admiffion into the ecole militaire, who make intereft for commiffions in the army, who intrigue for a blue ribbon, or for the honour of fitting in the King's carriages: judge then of the multiplicity of bufinefs through which he muft wade, and, from the infipidity of it, guefe how irksome fuch an employment muft be to a man of fenfe; and blefs God that you live in a country, where you may be an officer, a lord of the bed-chamber, a peer of parliament, and the King's companion in his ftate-coach, without being under the neceffity of reforting to the merits of ancestors, or proving that you ever knew the Chriftian afname of your grandfather. A TRAVELLER. Account of the Greenland Fishery. (Continued from Page 309.) With the fifth of a series of Plates engraved to illuftrate it. W E have feen in the laft three plates, the manner of striking the whale, and his endeavours to escape, when wound, ed. It hath been fhewn, that at first he fwims with incredible fwiftnefs, when firft ftruck; and that the men are obliged to be ready to cut the rope with their axes, when the animal runs beyond their range of line, to avoid the deftruction of their boats. It hath been also seen that the fame precaution is neceffary when the whale dives under the ice. When the fea is openit fometimes dives to the bottom, carrying with it the harpoons with which it is wounded, and the length of detached cord. Altho' the fifh dives and is detached, it cannot remain long under the water in its wounded state; it foon rifes again, and the boats hover about in readiness to furround it when it rifes (as mentioned in our laft) to complete their victory with their lances, as fhewn in the annexed plate; which is a farther illuftration of that part of the fishery. (To be continued) Account of a Novel just published, in 4 Vols entitled, Anna ; or, Memoirs of a Welch Heirefs. Interspersed with Anecdotes of a Nabob. for the rife of performances which are fictitious, from the natural and inherent dignity of the human mind. The affairs of the world, he conceives, are too limited to afford to man a complete satisfaction. He muft make excurfions into the regions of fancy; and he muft feek to improve upon nature. The theory of this great man, is ingenious; and perhaps it is well founded. But it is to be inferred from his reafonings, that fictitious writing would be the more perfect in propor tion to their extravagance, and their diffimilitude from real life. This, however, is by no means the cafe. For though it is permitted to the novelift to employ a high colouring, and to exhibit a more perfect or a more depraved nature than confifts with exact juftnefs, the charm of his work must ever confift in a happy probability, and a fortunate refemblance to real life. ORD BACON endeavours to account The performance before us exceeds in no common degree the mass of novels which are every day obtruded upon the public. It deferves, on this account, to be more particularly diftinguished. The author avoids those gigantic inventions which can only furprize. He employs himself to move and agitate the affections, by a fable which holds out imitations of living manners, and which difplays characters which are frequently to be met with. His relations, drawn from obfervation and experience,inftruct while they amuse. We feel all the emotions which actually operate in fociety; and applaud, in the furvey of a full and connected picture, that tafte, capacity, fenfibility, and knowledge, which have been poffeffed by the artist. But while we bestow a general approbation upon the volumes before us, it is our duty to remark, that they furnish every where leffons of virtue; that they inculcate a pure morali ty; that the author, fuficiently rich in his natural refources, had no occafion to excite the intereft of his readers, by addreffing himfelf to the imagination and the fenfes. The youth of both fexes may receive from the prefent performance an entertainment that is at once tender and moral. As a fpecimen of thefe volumes, we fhall lay before our readers the firft or introductory chapter. nifhed with directions, he fet off in hafte, accompanied by the apothecary, and Mrs. Clarke was beginning to fcrape acquaintance with her little charge, when her attention was called to a buftle at her door, where the met, to her furprize and concern, Mr. Linton, the apothecary, returning, affifted by fome accidental paffengers, with the lifelefs body of her new lodger. A vein was immediately opened, but without effect, a fit of apoplexy had put a period to his exiftence; he breathed no more. The confufion fuch an event raised in the houfe, reached the fick perfon, and the nurse incautiously telling her the cause, it threw her into faintings, from which she never recovered fufficiently to speak to be understood, although the lived three days. < The latter end of September, Mrs. Clarke, a widow woman, whofe narrow circumftanees obliged her to let lodgings, was fo fortunate (as the hen termed it) to have her apartments taken at her own price, by a very Among others whofe curiofity was excit good-looking middle-aged man; who, to obed by this awful and fatal circumftance, was viate any doubt that the might have refpect- the Rev. John Dalton, a popular preacher, ing his being a tranger, advanced a month's belonging to a methodist conventicle in the rent, and preparing her to receive a fick wo neighbourhood. Mrs. Clarke as well as the man and a child, defired her to provide a nurse were his conftant hearers, and begged nurfe for the former, as fhe engaged to fuper- his prayers with the dying woman; who, intend all the attendance he wished for him- a fhort time before the expired, gave proofs felf and the latter: and having given her a fhe was fenfible of his facred function and her couple of guineas, to lay out in what neceffa- own fituation, by making figns to have the ries might be immediately wanting, left her, infant and trunk brought her, both which to fetch the woman and child. The put into his hands, and appearing then more compofed and refigned, was, in a few moments releafed out of her pain. The ftranger had dropped no hint that the perfon who was to occupy the apartments was his wife, neither had he faid he was not fo. Mrs. Clarke was fcrupulous and particular in her own principles; but her lodgings were empty; they had unluckily been fo all he fummer: the winter was approaching; during that feafon fhe had feldom tenants fer them, and neceffity rendered her lefs inquifitive than in more eafy circumstances she would have been; he was prevented afking questions, by the fear of having them anfwered in a way that would oblige her to forego an advantage she could not well do without. In two hours from the time he left her, a hackney coach fet down at her door an eldery woman, in the laft ftage of a confumption, a pretty little girl of three or four years old, a portmanteau, a fmall trunk, and the aforefaid gentleman. Luckily, Mrs. Clarke was 2 woman who made a point of fulfilling her engagements; for the affiduity with which The had prepared their rooms, and procured a nurfe, was rendered neceffary by the extreme weakness of the poor invalid, who was directly got to bed, and a neighbouring apo thecary fummoned to her affiftance. The gentleman, with apparent concern, waited his decifion, and on a phyfician being recommended, begged (being, as he faid, a franger) the apothecary would give him the addrefs of the most eminent adding, that he would go himself to procure his im*ediate attendance. As foon as he was fur The trunk appeared heavy enough to quiet in fome meafure the apprehenfions of the reverend teacher; otherwife, the facred bequeft, and the folemn manner in which it was made, would not have been the most acceptable thing in the world to him. Poor Mrs. Clarke, as foon as the found fhe could not difturb the dying woman, began loudly to lament, herself, at having a couple of people to bury, of whofe names, connections, and even country, fhe was ignorant, and whofe baggage was too trifling to answer the funeral expences, which would half ruin her to defray, having a very fmall penfion, as a widow of a carpenter of a man of war, and what fhe could make of her lodgings, to fupport herself and daughter, who she had put apprentice to a milliner. This reflection fuggefted the idea of fearching the pockets of both the deceased: in the man's was found a gold watch and chain, with three feals, viz. a coat of arms, a creft, and a cypher, H. T. feven guineas, fome filver, and a fmall key, which Dalton took as belonging to the trunk, and having half opened it, he fhut it again immediately, declaring it was full of old paper, which he would look over when he got home, and as it had pleafed the Lord thus fignally to deprive the innocent child of its natural friends, he would take the prefent care of her himself. To be fure, he had a large family of his |