Page images
PDF
EPUB

projectors obtained the public confidence; treasure, which the war and our losses at at the close of the year that confidence sea had drawn out of the nation."

was refused to firms and establishments of unquestionable security. Just before Christmas, from sudden demands greatly beyond the amounts which were ready for ordinary supply, bankers in London of known respectability stopped payment; the panic became general throughout the kingdom, and numerous country banks failed, the funds fell, Exchequer bills were at a heavy discount, and public securities of every description suffered material depression. This exigency rendered prudence still more circumspect, and materially retarded the operations of legitimate business, to the injury of all persons engaged in trade. In several manufacturing districts, transactions of every kind were suspended, and manufactories wholly ceased from work.

EXCHEQUER BILLS.

To the Editor of the Every-Day Book. Sir,

As just at this time it may be interesting to many of your readers, to know the origin of Exchequer bills, I send you the following account.

In the years 1696 and 1697, the silver currency of the kingdom being, by clipping, washing, grinding, filing, &c. reduced to about half its nominal value, acts of parliament were passed for its being called in, and re-coined; but whilst the re-coinage was going on exchequer bills were first issued, to supply the demands of trade. The quantity of silver re-coined, according to D'Avenant, from the old hammered money, amounted to 5,725,9331. It is worthy of remark, that through the difficulties experienced by the Bank of England (which had been established only three years,) during the re-coinage, they having taken the clipped silver at its nominal value, and guineas at an advanced price, bank notes were in 1697 at a discount of from 15 to 20 per cent. "During the re-coinage," says D'Avenant, "all great dealings were transacted by tallies, bank-bills, and goldsmiths' notes. Paper credit did not only supply the place of running cash, but greatly multiplied the kingdom's stock ; for tallies and bank-bills did to many uses serve as well, and to some better than gold and silver; and this artificial wealth which necessity had introduced, did make us less feel the want of that real

I am, &c.
J. G.

THE CHRISTMAS DAYS.

A Family Sketch.

Bring me a garland of holly,
Rosemary, ivy, and bays;
Gravity's nothing but folly,
Till after the Christmas days.

Fill out a glass of Bucellas;
Here!-boys put the crown on my
head:

Now, boys!-shake hands-be good fellows,

And all be-good men-when I'm dead. Come, girls, come! now for your kisses, Hearty ones-louder-loud-louder! How I'm surrounded with blisses!

Proud men may here see a prouder.

Now, you rogues, go kiss your mother :Ah ah!-she won't let you?-pho!

pho! Gently-there, there now!--don't smother:

Old lady! come, now I'll kiss you.

Here take the garland, and wear it;

Nay, nay!' but you must, and you shall;

For, here's such a kiss!-come, don't fear it; If you do-turn round to the wall.

A kiss too for Number Eleven,

The Newcome-the young Christmas berry

My Alice!-who makes my girls seven, And makes merry Christmas more

merry.

Another good glass of Bucellas,

While I've the crown on my head; Laugh on my good girls, and good fellows,

Till it's off-then off to bed.

Hey!-now, for the Christmas holly,
Rosemary, ivy, and bays;
Gravity's nothing but folly,

Till after the Christmas days.

December 30, 1825.

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature ... 37 47.

[graphic][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

During the holidays, and especially on Twelfth-night, school-boys dismiss "the cares and the fears" of academic rule; or they are regarded but as a passing cloud, intercepting only for an instant the sunshine of joy wherewith their sports are brightened. Gerund-grinding and parsing are usually prepared for at the last

moment, until when "the master's chair" is only "remembered to be forgotten." There is entire suspension of the authority of that class, by whom the name of "Busby" is venerated, till "Black Monday" arrives, and chaises and stages convey the young Christmas-keepers to the "seat of government."

[graphic][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

The name of Busby !-not the musical doctor, but a late magisterial doctor of Westminster school-celebrated for severe diseipline, is a "word of fear" to all living who know his fame! It is perpetuated by an engraved representation of his chair, said to have been designed by sir Peter Lily, and presented by that artist to king Charles II. The arms, and each arm, are appalling; and the import of the other devices are, or ought to be, known by every tyro. Every prudent person lays in stores before they are wanted, and Dr. Busby's chair may as well be "in the house" on Twelfth-day as on any other; not as a mirth-spoiler, but as a subject which we know to-day that we have " by us," whereon to inquire and discuss at a more convenient season. Dr. Busby was a severe, but not an ill-natured man. It is related of him and one of his scholars,

morning, fell asleep in his memento; and when he awoke, added, with a loud voice, The king drinketh." This mal-apropos exclamation must have proceeded from a foreign ecclesiastic: we have no account of the ceremony to which it refers, having prevailed in merry England.

that during the doctor's absence from his study, the boy found some plums in it, and being moved by liquorishness, began to eat some; first, however, he waggishly cried out, "I publish the banns of matrimony between my mouth and these plums; if any here present know just cause or impediment why they should not be united, you are to declare it, or hereafter hold your peace ;" and then he ate. But the doctor had overheard the proclamation, and said nothing till the next morning, when causing the boy to be "brought up," and disposed for punish ment, he grasped the well-known instrument, and said, "I publish the banns of matrimony between this rod and this boy: if any of you know just cause or impediment why they should not be united, you are to declare it."-The boy himself called out, "I forbid the banns!" what cause?" inquired the doctor. "Because," said the boy, "the parties are not agreed!" The doctor enjoyed the validity of the objection urged by the boy's wit, and the ceremony was not performed. This is an instance of Dr. Busby's admiration of talent: and let us hope, in behalf of its seasonableness here, that it was at Christmas time.

The King drinks.

"For

An excellent pen-and-ink picture of old Froissart, the French chronicler, as Merry England"* represents honest saying of some English in his time, that fashion of their country;" whereon the they amused themselves sadly after the pourtrayer of Merry England observes, "They have indeed a way of their own. Their mirth is a relaxation from gravity, a challenge to 'Dull Care' to 'be gone; and one is not always clear at first, whether the appeal is successful. The cloud may still hang on the brow; the ice may their new character is an act of charity. To help them out in Any thing short of hanging or drowning is something to begin with. They do not

not thaw at once.

hair

enter into their amusements the less doggedly because they may plague others. They like a thing the better for hitting them a rap on the knuckles, for making their blood tingle. They do not dance or sing, but they make good cheer- eat, drink, and are merry? No people are fonder of field-sports, Christmas gambols, Blindman's buff, or practical jests. hunt-the-slipper, hot-cockles, and snapfull of laughable surprises and dragon, are all approved English games, breadth 'scapes,' and serve to amuse the winter fireside after the roast beef and plum-pudding, the spiced ale and roasted crab, thrown (hissing-hot) into the foaming tankard. Punch (not the liquor, but the puppet) is not, I fear, of English origin; but there is no place, I take it, where he finds himself more at home or meets a more joyous welcome, where he collects greater crowds at the corners of streets, the opens cheeks wider, or where the bangs and eyes or distends the blows, the uncouth gestures, ridiculous anger and screaming voice of the chief performer excite more boundless merriment or louder bursts of laughter among all ranks and sorts of people. An Engmime; nor do I believe that the gallery lish theatre is the very throne of pantoand boxes of Drury-lane or Covent-gar

where he

We recur once more to this subject, for the sake of remarking that there is an ac count of a certain curate, "who having taken his preparations over evening, when all men cry (as the manner is). The king drinketh, chanting his masse the next In the New Monthly Magazine, Dec. 1825.

den filled on the proper occasions with holiday folks (big or little) yield the palm for undisguised, tumultuous, inextinguish able laughter to any spot in Europe. I do not speak of the refinement of the mirth (this is no fastidious speculation) but of its cordiality, on the return of these long-looked-for and licensed periods; and I may add here, by way of illustration, that the English common people are a sort of grown children, spoiled and sulky, perhaps, but full of glee and merriment, when their attention is drawn off by some sudden and striking object.

"The comfort, on which the English lay so much stress, arises from the same source as their mirth. Both exist by contrast and a sort of contradiction. The English are certainly the most uncomfort able of all people in themselves, and therefore it is that they stand in need of every kind of comfort and accommodation. The least thing puts them out of their way, and therefore every thing must be in its place. They are mightily of fended at disagreeable tastes and smells, and therefore they exact the utmost neatness and nicety. They are sensible of heat and cold, and therefore they cannot exist, unless every thing is snug and warm, or else open and airy, where they are. They must have all appliances and means to boot.' They are afraid of interruption and intrusion, and therefore they shut themselves up in in-door enjoyments and by their own firesides. It is not that they require luxuries (for that implies a high degree of epicurean indulgence and gratification,) but they cannot do without their comforts; that is, whatever tends to supply their physical wants, and ward off physical pain and annoyance. As they have not a fund of animal spirits and enjoyments in themselves, they cling to external objects for support, and derive solid satisfaction from the ideas of order, cleanliness, plenty, property, and domestic quiet, as they seek for diversion from odd accidents and grotesque surprises, and have the highest possible relish not of voluptuous softness, but of hard knocks and dry blows, as one means of ascertaining their personal identity."

Twelfth-day, in the times of chivalry, was observed at the court of England by grand entertainments and tournaments. The justings were continued till a period little favourable to such sports.

In the reign of James I., when his son

prince Henry was in the 16th year of his age, and therefore arrived to the period for claiming the principality of Wales and the duchy of Cornwall, it was granted to him by the king and the high court of parliament, and the 4th of June following appointed for his investiture: "the Christ mas before which," sir Charles Cornwallis says, "his highnesse, not onely for his owne recreation, but also that the world might know what a brave prince they were likely to enjoy, under the name of Meliades, lord of the isles, (an ancient title due to the first-borne of Scotland,) did, in his name, by some appointed for the same purpose, strangely attired, ac companied with drummes and trumpets, in the presence, before the king and queene, and in the presence of the whole court, deliver a challenge to all knights of Great Britaine." The challenge was to this effect, "That Meliades, their noble master, burning with an earnest desire to trie the valour of his young yeares in foraigne countryes, and to know where vertue triumphed most, had sent them abroad to espy the same, who, after their long travailes in all countreyes, and returne,” had nowhere discovered it, "save" in the fortunate isle of Great Britaine : which ministring matter of exceeding joy to their young Meliades, who (as they said) could lineally derive his pedegree from the famous knights of this isle, was the cause that he had now sent to present the first fruits of his chivalrie at his ma❤ jesties' feete; then after returning with a short speech to her majestie, next to the earles, lords, and knights, excusing their lord in this their so sudden and short warning, and lastly, to the ladies; they, after humble delivery of their chartle con cerning time, place, conditions, number of weapons and assailants, tooke their leave, departing solemnly as they entered."

Then preparations began to be made for this great fight, and each was happy who found himself admitted for a defendant, much more an assailant. "At last to encounter his highness, six assailants, and fifty-eight defendants, consisting of earles, barons, knights, and esquires, were appointed and chosen; eight defendants to one assailant, every assailant being to fight by turnes eight severall times fighting, two every time with push and pike of sword, twelve strokes at a time; aft er which, the barre for separation was to be let downe until a fresh onset." The sum mons ran in these words:

« PreviousContinue »