OBSOLETE CHARACTERS. No. II. THE COUNTRY BOOR. BISHOP EARLE has touched this homely subject with singular point and spirit. "A plain country fellow is one that manures his ground well, but lets himself lye fallow and untilled. He has reason enough to do his business, and not enough to be idle or melancholy. He seems to have the punishment of Nebuchadnezzar, for his conversation is among beasts, and his tallons none of the shortest, only he eats not grass, because he loves not salads. His hand guides the plough, and the plough his thoughts, and his ditch and land-mark is the very mound of his meditations. He expostulates with his oxen very understandingly, and speaks gee and ree better than English. His religion is a part of his copyhold, which he takes from his landlord, and refers it wholly to his discretion; yet if he give him leave, he is a good Christian to his power, that is, comes to church in his best clothes, and sits there with his neighbours, where he is capable of only two prayers, for rain and fair weather. His compliment with his neighbour is a good thump on the back, and his salutation commonly some blunt curse. He is a niggard all the week, except only market-day, when, if his corn sell well, he thinks he may be drunk with a good conscience. For death he is never troubled, and if he get in but his harvest before bad weather; let it come when it will he cares not." Herald. LIVERY SERVANTS. "Mark their badges, then tell me, are they men ?” TEMPEST. THE livery servant, like those who wear the colours of the Holy Alliance, is a kind of vermin that "crawls offensive to my sight," and I could wish for some good Hubert to hand him out. Not that I object to honest service, or that the needy should be domestic servants to the wealthy; but I hold the livery in utter detestation. Kings, it is true, are the servants of the public (amply justifying the universal outcry against the morals and conduct of servants), and on great days they wear their livery-but this is not much to the point, and for example we should not chuse to look to that quarter. In their case it is certain that the livery, or state dress, is of infinite importance. Louis XVIA and Marie Antoinette lost their places, and their heads too, through negligence in this particular. See Mad. Campan. Kings are servants by election or otherwise, and their freedom is, as in the case of all servants, restrained; and the liberties they take, as in the case of servants in general, often very improper, militating most injuriously against the duties they have to perform. ་་ "Who rules o'er freemen, should himself be free;" has been ridiculed by that staunch Tory, Dr. Johnson, in the parody, "Who drives fat oxen, should himself be fat;" and certain it is, that however fat he may be, whatever the condition of the bulls he drives, an equal freedom is out of the question. Law; etiquette, many curbing rules and ordinances shackle him both in body and mind. These, the livery of robes, and the duties of office, are serVitude. Stars are badges, garters, chains: but they are by courtesy called honours. Homer has said, ημισυ γαρ τ' αρετης-that a man loses half his virtue the day he becomes a slave-and I agree with him; but there is a marked distinction between a slave and a livery servant. I feel every kindly impulse mix with my pity for a slave in chains, but I despise and turn with disgust from a servant in livery-the slave wears his chains by compulsion, the servant his livery by his own base consent. It has happened to us to hear some persons exclaim-" Did you ever hear of such impudence! a fellow came after my place this morning, and when we had agreed upon every thing, he refused to wear a livery!" And where, I would ask, was the impudence in this? Is it not enough to be an honest servant-why stigmatize him with a badge?" Sufferance is the badge of all the tribe"-why add an useless and degrading one to gratify a vile, tasteless, unmanly vanity? The refusal was honourable to human nature. We are then told of the pride of livery servants. Pride is often the offspring of a consciousness of demerit, and affability and condescension are avoided, because they throw the party open to an examination which they cannot bear. A livery is sure to excite this contemptible pride, founded on a feeling of disgrace, and as a means of keep ing familiarity and its dangerous consequences at a distance. Again, they are insolent, and we say, Quid Domini facient, audent cum talia fures? or, what will masters do when servants thus presume? Why, the same; for, as Addison observes, "Servants are not all rogues, but are what they are, according to the example of their superiors. And you have in liveries, beaux, fops, and coxcombs in as high perfection as among people that keep equipages." But, independent of this very natural mimicry, their insolence and impertinence are affected and encouraged to prevent comparisons, and to carry off with the best possible countenance, the disgrace which is sensibly felt to attach to a livery. You will enter a hall, where you may see half a dozen servants in splendid liveries, lounging on the hall chairs with an apparent contempt of all comers-I say apparent, because they have no real contempt but for the exhibition which they themselves are making. It is a bullying to cover cowardice. If it should chance that among these you behold one out of livery, it is a little Goshen-a sunny spot, on which the eye reposes as on the light of freedom amidst the shades of slavery: I am perfectly of that author's opinion, who says, "To be naked is to be much nearer to the being a man, than to go in livery."-HOMO, Chronicle CATCHING THE TARTARS. AMONG the first settlers of Brunswick (Maine) was Daniel Malcolm, a man of undaunted courage, and an inveterate enemy of the Indians, who have given him the name of Sungurnumby, i. e. very strong man. Early in the spring, he ventured alone into the forest, for the purpose of splitting rails from the spruce, not apprehensive of the Indians so early in the season. While engaged in his work, and having opened a log with small wedges about half its length, he was surprised by Indians, who crept up and secured his musket, standing by his side.—“ Sungurnumby," said the Chief, "now me got you; long me want you; -you long time speak Indian, long time worry him; me have got you now; look up stream to Canada."--" Well," said Malcolm, with true sang froid, "you have me, but just help me to open this log before I go." They all, five in number, agreed. Malcolm prepared a large wooden wedge, carefully drove it, took out his small wedges, and told the Indians to put in their fingers to the partially cleft wood, and help to pull it open; they did; he then suddenly struck out his blunt wedge, and the elastic wood instantly closed fast on their fingers, and he secured them. 1 Herald. EPIGRAM ON JOSEPH HUME, M. P. Unluckily having no sense of his own, He's always for taking the sense of the House. Post. |