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The cottage leaves the palace far behind; What is a lordling's pomp! a cumbrous load, Disguising oft the wretch of human kind, Studied in arts of hell, in wickedness refined!

O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!

For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent! Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil

Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content And, oh, may Heav'n their simple lives prevent

From luxury's contagion, weak and vile! Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, A virtuous populace may rise the while,

And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved Isle

O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide

That stream'd thro' Wallace's undaunted heart; Who dared to nobly stem tyrannic pride,

Or nobly die, the second glorious part, (The patriot's God, peculiarly thou art,

His friend, inspirer, guardian, and reward!)

O never, never, Scotia's realm desert;

But still the patriot, and the patriot-bard,

In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard!

237.-ENGLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

PERLIN.

[DESCRIPTIONS of our own country by foreigners have always something of instruction in them. They generally mortify our vanity, which is good; they sometimes show us in what our real merit consists, which is equally good. They are seldom unprejudiced, they are occasionally ridiculous; and these circumstances ought to show us the difficulty of judging correctly of foreign habits and manners.

One of the earliest of these descriptions of England is that of Master Stephen Perlin, a French physician, who was in Great Britain in the last twe

years of King Edward VI., and saw some of the remarkable events that marked the commencement of the reign of Queen Mary. His "Description of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland" was published at Paris in 1558. The original tract is of great rarity; but it was reprinted with another Frenchman's account of England, by Gough, the antiquary, in 1775. There are few more odd books in any language; but there can be little doubt of the fidelity of his notices of what he saw. His hatred of the English seems to have been a genuine sentiment of revenge for the hatred which he saw bestowed by our people upon his own countrymen. The French reality, or affectation, of dislike to us at the present day has no such excuse.

We translate a few passages :-)

THE PERFIDIOUS ENGLISH.-Young France uses no novel term when she calls us "Les Perfides Anglais." The wars of the Edwards and Henries earned us this. But they might have saved us from the reproach of cowardice. Master Perlin starts with this general summary of our national character:-" It may be said of the English, neither in war are they brave, nor in peace are they faithful; and, as the Spaniard says, England is a good land with bad people."

NATIONAL HATREDS.-Master Stephen Perlin interlards his book with English phrases, which are not very easy to interpret. We might hope that his acquaintance with our manners was as limited as his knowledge of our language, if we had not other evidence that our excellent forefathers of the sixteenth century had some tolerably strong antipathies. "The people of this nation mortally hate the French, as their old enemies, and always call us France chenesve, France dogue, and besides they call us or son." We should scarcely guess, without an interpretation, that chenesve meant knaves. Again:

"The people are proud and seditious, with bad consciences, and are faithless to their word, as experience has taught. These villains hate all sorts of foreigners; and although they have a good land and a good country, they are all constantly wicked and moved by every wind; for now they will love a prince; turn your hand, they will wish him killed and crucified."

ENGLISH LOVE OF LETTERS.- -"In this kingdom of England there are two universities, viz., Cambruches and Auxonne, called in Latin Auxonia, Cambruche, in Latin Cambrusium. The people of the country do not frequent them at all, or very little, and

do not give themselves up much to letters, but only to vanity and ambition, and merchandise.” *** "The people are reprobates, and all enemies to good manners and letters."

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THE AXE AND THE GIBBET.-Master Perlin describes, with some curious circumstantiality, the fatal attempt to place Lady Jane Grey upon the throne. He was present at the execution of the Duke of Northumberland, which seems, as it naturally might, to have made a strong impression on him. A lamentable thing to see a man beneath whom a whole kingdom trembled, to see him in the hands of an executioner; and the executioner was lame (for I was present at the execution,) and he had a white apron like a butcher. This great lord made great lamentations and regrets at death, and said this oration in English, throwing himself on his two knees, looking up to heaven, and weeping passionately: Lorde God mi fatre prie fort ous poores siners nond vand in the hoore of our theath;' which means in French, Seigneur Dieu, mon père, prie pour nous hommes et pauvres pecheurs, et principalement à l'heure de nostre mort.' And after the execution you might have seen little children taking up the blood that had fallen through the chinks of the scaffold on which he had been decapitated. In this country they place the head on a pole of wood."

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Some pages onward the good physician makes some sensible observation on the uncertainty of life in England to the noble and the great: "In this country you will not meet with any great nobles whose relations have not had their heads cut off. Certes I should like better (with the reader's leave) to be a swineherd and preserve my head. For this affliction falls furiously upon the heads of the great nobles. For you will see these great lords in grand pomp and magnificence for a time; turn your hand, you will see them in the hands of the executioner."

The great lords had the poor privilege of dying by the axe. The gibbet did its work upon the common people. Our penal laws were the opprobrium of Europe even three hundred years ago, and yet we scarcely began to reform them till our own generation. Hear how this foreigner regarded us: "In France justice is well administered, and not tyranny, as in England, which is the pest and ruin of a country; for a kingdom ought to be gov

erned, not in shedding human blood in such abundance that the blood flows in streams, by which means the good are troubled."

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"In England there is so cruel a justice that for nothing they have a man killed; for where in France they would condemn a man to be whipped, here, without fail, he would be condemned to die. It is true, there are only two kinds of justice, namely, hanging and decapitation; and thus a malefactor gains as much by doing a great deal of evil as a little, which ought not to be; and the practice is better in France, where there are several kinds of punishments according to the crime. In this island they have no wheel, nor any other punishments than the two I have mentioned. They make the poor criminals and condemned malefactors suffer on gibbets of wood outside the city, if they are not Milords, barbarously in French Milours, whom they kill in London to terrify the people."

ENGLISH CHEER.-With all his dislike of us, the Frenchman seemed to relish our hospitality. He talks of the good cheer that he had, "unworthy as he was," at the house of the Lord Ouardon (Lord Warden). Of the commonalty he says, "The people of this place make great cheer, and like much to banquet, and you will see many rich taverns and tavern-keepers who have customarily large purses in which are three or four small purses full of money; consequently we may consider that this country is very full of money, and that the trades-people gain more in a week than those of Germany or Spain in a month. For you will see hatters and joiners, artisans generally, playing their crowns at tennis, which is not ordinarily seen in any other place, and particularly on a working day. And in a tavern they make good cheer oftener than once a day with rabbits, and hares, and every sort of food.

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"The English one with the other are joyous, and are very fond of music; for there is not ever so small a church in which music is not sung and they are great drinkers; for, if an Englishman wishes to treat you, he will say to you in his language, vis dring a quarta rim oim gasquim oim hespaignol, oim malvoysi; which means, veulx tu venir boire une quarte de vin du gascoigne, uns

autre d'espaigne, et une autre de malvoisie. In drinking and in eating they will say to you more than a hundred times drind iou; and you will reply to them in their language, iplaigiu. If you thank them, you say to them in their language, god tanque artelay. Being drunk, they will swear to you by blood and death that you shall drink all that you hold in your cup, and will say to you thus, bigod sol drind iou agoud oiu. Now, remember (if you please) that in this country they generally use vessels of silver when they drink wine; and they will say to you usually at table, goud chere. The servants wait on their masters bareheaded, and leave their bonnets on the buffet."***"They use a great deal of beer, double and single, and they drink it not in glasses, but in earthenware pots of which the handles are of silver, and the cover; and this in houses where they are rather rich. For among the poor the covers of the beer-pots are merely of pewter, and in some places above villages the beer-pots are only of wood. They use much whiter bread than in France, and it was in my time as cheap as in France; and with their beer they have a custom of using very soft cakes, in which there are raisins, and which make you find the double beer very good; and I have had formerly at the Rie, a sea-port, as good as ever I drank in any country in the world. The people of this country are very good in the furniture of their houses, as good as any people in the world."

SHOPS AND HOUSES." In this country all shops of all trades are open, like those of the barbers in France, and they have a great many openings of glass, as well in the workshops as in the higher chambers; for in the chambers you will see many windows of glass, and in almost all the houses of every town, although they belong to tradespeople; and all the houses here are like the working places of the barbers of France, as well above as below; and you will see in their workshops and windows, as often in towns as in villages, a great many flowers, and in taverns a great deal of hay on the wooden benches, and many tapestried cushions on which the travellers sit down."

"The English make great use of tapestries and of painted linens, which are well done, and on which are many magnificent roses embellished with fleurs-de-lis and lions, for you can enter but few houses where you do not find these tapestries."

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