The Queen is regarded by the law in a very important point of view, as the mother of the royal issue. Its provisions in this case are framed with the greatest caution, in order to ascertain the royal offspring beyond the possibility of doubt. To hold adulterous intercourse with the Queen, is the same description of offence with compassing the King's death. The most complicated acts of adultery between subjects are not punishable at all, by the secular code. But such connexion with the Queen is High Treason in both parties. To compass! the Queen's life is also as criminal as to compass the King's. In order to prevent a supposititions issue from being imposed upon the country, the Queen, ( as also the wife of the Heir Apparent) is carefully watched da ring the last stages of pregnancy, and is actually delive red in presence of some of the great State Officers, and other eminent persons. The marriage of the King with his Consort is a public act, an act of state and in no respects resembles marriages contracted between common persons imagmt for boob sud The ceremony of crowning the Queen resembles that of crowning the King, except only that no allegiance is sworn to her, and she does not take an oath, and has no orb put into her hand. But she is anointed-has a sceptre put into her hand, and takes the sacrament with the King The Queen has a constitutional right to be crowned with the King Many persons enjoy by immemorial usage, the privilege of performing certain offices about her person at the ceremony, and of receiving perquisites connected therewith. Some manors and lands have been holden by the tenure of rendering such services to the Queen's person on this occasion. Her coronation is considered in law as a public recognition of the right of her offspring to the monarchy.* SECTION * Vide. Inquiry into the Constitutional Character of the Queen Consort of England. Unfinished things, one knows not what to call Their generation's so equivocal. We are thankful for the following literary communications, signed L'homme des champs, and shall make no other remark upon them, than to recommend to the Author a stricter attention to unity of design in any future contributions with which he may favor us. SIR, With reference to your ingenious disquisitions on the Sublime, I beg leave to remind you that Longinus devotes one section of his Book to a topic which he terms Phantasies or Visions, as furnishing materials for the sublime in composition. His examples of its effects are adduced from the Greek Tragedians: but Homer affords many admirable specimens particu larly the reappearance of Patroclus to Achilles in the twenty third Iliad. And above all might be quoted the sublime description of a vision in Job, in the fourth Chapter. "In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men; fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: it stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof; an image was before my eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, shall mortal man be more just than God?-&c. I may add the 10 Chapter of Revelations, respecting the descent of an Angel from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a " rainbow was on his his head" &c. a vision so much admired by the learned Sir William Jones, as we read in his works.* If the present humble and desultory contribution should prove worthy of insertion in your pages, it may be only introductory to future communications, more fortunately selected, and partaking more of that unity of design, which is an essential property of every deliberate and finished production. Quintilian remarks that Virgil was singularly enamoured of Antiquity. In the Georgics, Virgil has translated into Latin verse certain parts of Xenophon's Greek treatise intitled Economics. Many of the sweets, originally extracted by the Attic bee' from the flowers of Hymettus or the banks of Ilyssus, were transfused into this most exquisite production of the Roman bard "nursed, (as he says) in the bosom of sweet Parthenope" and flourishing in the enjoyment of studious leisure, near the shades of Vesuvius, or the delicious shores of Baiæ. *On "Phantasies or Visions" a modern chapter might be written, which we conceive would much exceed in length as well as in the value of its matter, the ancient section of Longinus. Shakespeare, Dante, Collins, Ossian, Joanna Baillie, with many others, form a mine of riches, on this subject. Should our friend, L'homme des champs, have leisure or inclination for such a research, he might bring to light specimens of the purest kind, and entertain us by the hour together with visionary terrors, and importations from the world of spirits. We perceive that he is a man of reading, and earnestly recommend the task to him. At the same time we cannot but repeat our desire, that he may be less desultory and inaccurate in the connection of his discourse, and that he may never forget, what he has himself said, that unity of design is "an essential property of every deliberate and finished production." Baia. The Georgics were finished by the Author at Naples. Theocritus, the Poet of Syracuse, likewise transposed into his Idyls some passages from the work of the Athenian sage: Cicero, the prince of Roman orators, acknowledges that he translated the whole of the Economics; and a fine specimen of his translation is preserved in his Cato or Dialogue on Old Age. It relates the conference that past at an interview between the younger Cyrus, and Lysander of Lacedæmon. Xenophon had served in the army of Cyrus during his expedition into Persia with a view to wrest the imperial crown from Artaxerxes Mnemon, his elder brother; and after the failure of this attempt, on the death of Cyrus in the field of battle, he conducted the unparalleled netreat of the ten thousand Greeks from the Euphrates to the Euxine sea; thus suggesting to his countrymen the practicability of invading the Persian empire, which was subsequently overthrown by Alexander of Macedon. Lysander related that when he had brought presents to Cyrus from the confederate states of Greece, he was received in the most gracious manner by the Prince, who conducted him into a spacious garden or paradise, at Sardis. Lysander admired the regularity and beauty of the plantations, the majestic height of the trees, the elegance of the walks and borders, and the variety of sweet odours, with which they were regaled by the shrubs and flowers. Expressing his admiration not only at the beauty of the scene, but above all at the masterly skill with which the whole of it had been planned and laid out, he was answered by Cyrus, who as sured him, that he had laid out every part of the ground himself, and had planted many of the trees with his own own hands. Lysander was astonished at this reply from a Prince, whom he saw arrayed in the most costly apparel, decorated with the richest ornaments, and graced with the most refined luxuries of the East. Then he exclaimed "Oh Cyrus! I am convinced that you are justly intitled to the happiness that you enjoy; since your prosperity is the attendant of your beneficence."+ Columella, in his work on Agriculture, and on Trees, is indebted for many observations to the Economics. Xenophon gives a definition of Economy as the method of regulating domestic affairs. The management of the interior concerns is intrusted to the mother of the family, while exterior avocations in the field or in commercial transactions are the province of the father of the family. The Author is very eloquent in his praise of Agriculture; which he deemed by no means unworthy a Monarch's attention. He was of opinion, that the most valuable inhabitants of any land whether for prosperity or security, are in the class of Agriculturists ;agreable to the Spanish proverb, "El mejor soldado viene del arado." the best soldier comes from the plough. The most distinguished of modern Economists, Adam Smith, remarks that since the downfall of the Roman empire, the policy of Europe has been more favorable to arts, manufactures and commerce, the industry of towns, than to agriculture, the industry of the country. I shall close this communication respecting that ancient treatise on Husbandry, with the well known apostrophe of Virgil O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, which + Recte veró te, Cyre, beatum ferunt, quoniam virtuti tuæ for. tuna conjuncta est. Cic. |