riage; the unlimited number of wives and concubines, not to mention the marriage of sisters, amongst the ancient Egyptians and Athenians, with the borrowing and lending of wives amongst the Romans of which the great Cato was a remark able instance.. "It likewise may be alledged, as some excuse for our ancestors, that by such a custom they avoided the common mischiefs of jealousy, the injuries of adultery, the confinement of single, marriages, the luxury and expense of many wives and concubines, and the partiality of parents in the education of their own children -all of which are considerations that have fallen under the care of inany famous law-givers."' This practice continued to the third century; as Dio tells us, that about the beginning of this period, when Severus invaded Caladonia, they had all their wives in common, and brought up all their children likewise, not knowing to what father any of them belonged: and to confirm this account, he relates a conversation between the Empress Julia and the wife of Argentocoxius, a British prince; in which the Empress, having upbraided the British ladies with the barbarity of this promiscuous intercourse, the other (who knew the intrigues of the Roman court perfectly well) made her the following reply- which, if it does not justify the custom, at least fully proves the existence of it. *In the latter times of villainage in England, the lord of the manor had the privilege of lying with the bride on the first night of her marriage; and this privilege was often claimed, and submitted to, without any disgrace attaching to either of the parties. "It is to you this loose conduct applies, and not to us: we Britons fulfil the work of nature much bet ter than you Romans, as we coha. bit only with the best selected men, and openty; whilst you commit your private adulteries with the busest and most unworthy." Whether she thought this answer might extenuate the British practice by retaliation, or whether she was not sensible of the disgrace from custom (which last is most likely), certain it is, that other nations at this period, had as preposterous customs. Anecdote. WHEN Foote was tried in Dub. lin for the libel upon George Faulkener the printer (whom he had dramatized as Peter Paragraph), the late Judge Robinson was one of the bench. This was an old, crabbed peevish gentleman, wore a wig of a singular shape, and had his forehead broke out in blotches, which (when in an ill-temper) he was in the habit of picking off, and throwing down upon the clerks, attornies, &c. beneath the bench. Shortly after his trial, Foote appeared upon the stage as Justice MIDAS, with a costume, wig, and countenance so exactly that of the judge, and with the blotches which be picked and distributed with ges tures so perfectly according to the model that the whole audience, by most of whom he was known (especially in the gallery), were convulsed with laughter, many crying out, Ro binson! Robinson! POETRY. POETRY: We have been favoured with the following Prologue which has spoken at the Private Theatre Kilkenny, by Mr. Richard Power. We have been pro mised more of them. Such a composition as the present coming from the pen of a Bushe, needs no apology from us, in thus rescuing it from oblivion-Mr. Power was ill a short time before he spoke it. PROLOGUE SINCE health on gehial wing returned t'impart But ah! how humble must these scenes appear, First when he reads, what joy the child receives, But hark! what storms of praise, what wonder draws, M 2 For you, from London, far more wise, more plain, Here reason need not blush when taste gives praise, HERE rests a youth unfortunately great, ALEXANDER'S FEAST: AN ODE. BY DR. WOLCOT. TIMOTHEUS now, in music handy, The couple skipp'd with nimble heel, Now did the master of the lyre On dancing exercise his fire: He sung of hops at court, and wakes, and fairs; He He praised the minuet of Nan Cately, And lumps of pudding and Moll Pately: The king grew proud, and soon began so reel, A hopping inspiration seized his heel. Bravi, bravi, the soldier croud In admiration cried aloud, The lady dances like a bold Thalestris, Such as court ladies made before the Queen. Such as the royal levee oft has seen ; They skipp'd it about, As tho' they felt the madness of the moon ; Return'd from the fire, In revenge for the Greeks that were dead, Got most horribly drunk And together went reeling to bed. Feb. 5, 1808. THE BIRTH OF WIT. AS Fancy strayed to gather flow'rs, STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS IN FEBRUARY. SWEDEN. THE romantic sovereign of this icy region, neither alarmed at the power of Russia and France, not taught by the recent and degraded state of the unfortunate princes of Sardinia, Naples, Prussia, Brunswick, Portugal, and other minor and travelling courts; deprived of ter ritories, power of refuge, seems de termined, by the assistance of a promised British ariny and 100,000 pounds per month, to try his strength with the physical force of all Europe led on by the greatest masters in the art of war, and roused by all the passions that are united in insulted ambition and impatient power. The age of chivalry is not yet extinct, it lives in the descendant of the great Gustavus, retained as the last hopes of ancient dynasties and unfortunate monarchs, at the price of one hundred thousand pounds a month, a sum so unequal to the great undertaking, that it would almost create a suspicion of the sincerity or hopes of the British minister, in any reasonable bring, who would consider the absurdity of risquing his crown for a sum not uncommonly applied by an individual in England to the support of a manufactory; for were all the gold in Europe applied to the purpose, no ray of hope could be rationally entertained, that a young man, an utter stranger to military life, whose intire country does not contain 4,000,000 of people, and so deficient in articles of the first necessity, that it is apprehended a British army destined to co-operate in the defence of Sweden, must rely intirely for their subsistance on provisions of British growth. AMERICA. The industry and resources of this new nation have placed it, within the short period of twenty-five years, in such a distinguished point of political and commercial eminence, that it now ranks as the second commercial nation in the universe, and the first for its political and religious liberty. Its successful struggle with the parent country, its first rebellion directed by the pen of a stay-maker, the diplomacy of a printer, and the sword of a farmer, have saved it from Percival and his Bishop, from the horrors and expenses of the frequent wars she should have shared in, had she continued a dependant province of Great Britain. To her firm and enlightened citi. zens she owes her present unexampled prosperity, neither the dupe of statesmen, the sport of bigots, nor the victim of mercantile monopolists. She has nearly succeeded in driving England herself from the European market, in the sale of East and West India produce. This enviable attitude of commercial and political elevation, exasperates a nation that needs the exclusive trade of the world, to assist her to pay the interest of a debt incurred by victories won and continents lost. The sullen disposition she has lately shewn, by the embargo on her own shipping, indicates nothing conciliatory towards the capturers of the Chesapeake. We are gravely told by the English news-makers, of the calamities this measure of embargo have already occasioned, they assert the populace are crying out for bread, and the English mob believe that a country two thousand miles square, is not able to maintain six million of citizens; a country that produces more of the necessaries of life |