SENTIMENTAL USE OF GUNPOWDER.
Loosnan back on the records of the Queen's tour, from the start at Woolwich till the circle was completed at the same point, her Majesty appears to have been swept along amid the whirlwind roar of stentorian voices and salvoes of cannon. Everywhere her appear- ance was the signal for vollies of hurrahs, that could only be tran- scended in loudness by the clamorous throats of the artillery heard roaring above all. Royal ears must be differently constructed from those of other people if they can stand this for upwards of a fortnight without injury. It would not surprise us were her Majesty to prove deaf for the rest of her natural life in consequence—to the unspeakable annoyance of petitioners and memorialists of all grades and professions. It is a curious physiological fact this universal propensity in men to give vent to their emotions in loud inarticu- late bellowings. In the nursery, any uncommon occasion of happi- ness is sure to produce a degree of bawling and clattering that end in driving papa and mamma distracted, and perform that good service for visiters much earlier. Savages uniformly give vent to their ecstacies in noise : the Sioux or Pawnee raises the war- whoop as he tipples the " fire-water" of the Whites ; the Irish- man flourishes his shillelagh and halloos at the top of his voice when dancing at Donnybrook, with a cask of whisky on one hand and a fiddle on the other ; the Scotch Highlander cracks his lingers and howls as reels and strathspeys are dashed off by some modern NEIL Gow in hotter and hotter haste ; and the Kentucky half-horse half-alligator crows and screeches and vows be is a screamer. As savages express all unwonted emotions by laughter, and tender souls weep for excess of happiness, men of all sorts make a noise to express all kinds of feelings; and when their own sweet voices come short of their ineffable enthusiasm, eke them out with all kinds of instrumental accompaniments. Gunpowder is the most recherche invention upon which man has yet fallen for making a noise; and gunpowder accordingly is used to express all sorts of emotions—loyalty, love of liberty, devotion, &c. Other Monarchs, as well as our own, when they make progresses, are peripatetic bnstocks, causing cannon to go off' whenever they approach. In America, on the 4th of July, the universal atmosphere of the United States is tremulous from the repercussion of great guns. And when a Pope is elected, or the slid Pope condescends to cele- brate mass in full state, all Rome is vocal with the brazen throats of cannon. These certainly are as innocent employments as can be devised for instruments of carnage, and it could be wished that they were never worse employed. Some moderation in the use of them, however, would not be amiss. The great lesson of re- finement and high-breeding is to restrain too exuberant an ex- pression of our emotions. It is deemed vulgar and like an Alder- man to express too fervidly the slobbering ecstacies of a stomachic orgasm : the excessive tenderness of a new-married couple is a standing joke : when will the passions that require gunpowder to rye them voice speak in a whisper?
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