But 'tis false.-* The true church we restore By our confiscatorial process; And her sons, like the Christians of yore, We make them all take up their crosses. What! shall prelates or nobles forsooth In fine cloaths shew their insolent riches, tion is undoubtedly true; for they have brought it to a state of Poverty and Persecution. Letter from Mr. Burke to Nat. Assem. 1791, p. 17. *To obviate the inconvenience resulting from the tedious forms of the old government, the regenerated rulers of France, superior to all the narrow prejudices of humanity, have adopted a summary process, which at once evinces their paternal tenderness towards the subjects of their government, and, by a judicious disposal of their persons, effectually prevents all remonstrance against the equity of Democratical Legislation. Take the following instance from Fennel, p. 457. "On the 19th of August, the Assembly, being informed that the Administrators of the Department Du Var, sitting at Toulon, (unauthorized by any existing law) had transported their refractory priests, very warmly applauded the conduct of that department; and, upon a proposition of M. Cambon, instantly decreed, that all ecclesiastics, who have never taken the oath, or who, having taken it, have afterwards retracted, shall be transported." The operation of the French Edicts resembles the operation of an infallible nostrum, whose learned vender assured his patients; "After swallowing one box of my incomparable "pills, nobody never needs take no more of nothing." And basely oppose naked truth By Philosophers taught without breeches !* * Modern Legislators of France tell the people, to comfort them in the rags with which they have clothed them, that they are a Nation of Philosophers. Burke's Reflec. 5th Ed. p. 199. Whatever veneration may be due to the paraphernalia of the antidiluvians, i. e. antidiluvian breeches, (for this genuine acceptation of the word is sanctioned by our renowed Lexicographer's elucidation: "Paraphernalia-goods in the WIFE'S disposal.") impartiality must acknowledge modern breeches to be no other than the vitious incumbrances of aristocratical refinement, and the adoption of them altogether as preposterous as the unnatural affectation, so justly reprobated by a noble author, Lord Monboddo, of walking on two legs instead of four. Since the circumstances of French philosophers have obliged them to discard these vestments of supererrogation together with all antiquated prejudices, what they have lost in florentine and fustian they have gained in soldiership and sagacity: for the most inveterate Antigallican will not venture to maintain, in their present circumstances at least, that "the heart of a "Frenchman lies in his breeches," a position fundamentally false and paradoxical. And in admitting that the causes of their posterior denudation have equally contributed to the developement of their genius, we are warranted by sound classical authority: Adversæ nudare solent. Ingenium res Hor. Sat. Dr. Johnson has ungenerously endeavoured to veil the naked Graces of French philosophy by a most opprobrious illustration No! Let us of raiment bereave All aristocratical sots, 66 99 of the word Galligaskins: "Caliga Gallo-Vasconum," i. e. Breeches of the Ancient Gascons. But this unheard-of imputation must be ascribed to that philological perverseness which gives trousers to the Erse, instead of the congenial monosyllable to which they naturally belong. (See Dictionary.) Seneca has attempted to prove breeches no impediments to prowess and manhood, by using the word " Caliga," to express the condition of a common soldier; "Marius à Caligâ ad Con"sulatum perductus est." But even these powerful authorities must yield to M. L'Abbé Spallanzani, who has demonstrated that FROGS, by which he means Frenchmen, (substituting, by learned licence, the food for the feeders, as Milton and Euripedes are said, by a Rt. Rev. Critic, to substitute effects for causes, and tears for cinders. See Note with signature (H) on the words "melodious tear," in Lycidas. Warton's second Edit. of Milton's Poems.) This accurate and humane experimentalist, I repeat, has satisfactorily demonstrated that frogs-that is to say, frog-eating Frenchmen, when breech'd, though with but so slight a texture as waxed taffety, are thereby utterly disqualified for all vigorous exertion, and rendered totally incompetent to the grand purposes of life. See Spallanzani's erudite Dissertation on the Generation of the Green Frog. Diss. v. ii. p. 12. Galligaskins-properly, Gaskins.-See Shakspear's Twelfth Night, Act. i. Sc. iv. "I am resolved on two points."— "That if one break the other will hold, "Or if both break your Gaskins fall." Leaving Dr. Johnson to fetch his small cloaths from Gascony, or from Rumford, if he chooses it, we shall pronounce Gaskin For our ancestors, Adam and Eve, Were, at first, like ourselves, Sans-Culottes But, no longer in Innocence dress'd,* Unincumber'd with Breeches or Shame.† If our counsel with scorn is repaid ‡ to be derived from the Saxon GASKINNAN, erubescere (that warlike people blushing to be seen with breeches as much as their descendants would blush to be seen without them), and not from the dorsal blushing of the Picts, who painted their posteriors with red oker. *This robe of innocence was not precisely of the same description as that of which the late Duchess of Kingston boasted in her well-known correspondence with S. Foote, who was malicious enough to insinuate that her Grace's robe of innocence might possibly be a little the worse for wear. + And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Gen. ii. p. 25. "If we consider," says that mirrour of marine oratory, M. At our bidding, to swallow your trade, Tippoo Sultan your factors shall dread; When back'd by French blades he shall fix a In Bengal, in Bahàr, and Orixa. Our ordnance affright'ning the Tagus Shall ring a Republican peal; We'll make Lisbon one grand Sarcophagus Kersaint, to the Convention, (Seance Janv. 1, 1793.) "If we consider the vast field this daring resolution opens on which to display the courage and activity of our seamen, if you fix your thoughts upon that multitude of vessels richly freighted which will be the prey of your privateers, if in a naval war, you call together those numerous and desperate adventurers which are to be found in all nations of Europe, if you adopt them, and associate them in your enterprizes," &c. "We must attack Lisbon and the Brazils, and dispatch an auxiliary army to Tippoo Sultaun." "Portugal is absolutely incapable of defence; the fleet, with which we shall penetrate the Tagus, after having exhausted the country by contributions, after having destroyed the arsenals, must terminate its successes by first taking and then liberating Brazil." |