ALARMING DECISIONS.
SOME late decisions of Commissions of Lunacy have spread con- siderable alarm among large classes of his Majesty's subjects. Very lately, it was held that a gentleman who imagined every woman in love with him, laboured under a degree of delusion which rendered him in the eye of the law incompetent to the management of his affairs. The opinion, which, if acted upon, would nearly unofficer the Hussar Regiments, was regarded with unspeakable dissatisfaction by all the genus dandy. We have another case now before us, which is calculated to extend the fear through other orders. Nostra res agitur, must be the sentiment widely excited by the perusal of it. Premising that the party was declared lunatic, we shall proceed to instaree some of the prominent manifestations on which that decision was formed, suppressing the mention of the name as immaterial, and as it might occasion pain to the friendS of the individual, but assuring our readers that we lake the facts verbatim from a law report.
It is stated of the gentleman, that
" He was exceedingly high .minded, and assumed almost the altitude of dancing when walking."
The newspapers teach us every thing, and from these two lines we learn- the new and ur suspected truth, that there is a necessary connexion between dancieg altitudes and a high mind. A pointed toe thus indicates an aspiring intellect. What exaltation of senti- ment should he found in the opera ballet ! But these observations are beside our present matter. To proceed with our subject- " He had a great opinion of himself as a poet ; but his effusions were of the most absurd description."
Now if this be a sympton of insanity, Bedlam betide all the tuneful race Parnassus at this rate will be in St. George's Fields;
And as they seem upon the Greens, they appear to be very green." mouth.
over the hedge of Parnassus, while another may play therein all the ' DIARY OF A LOUNGER IN A FRENCH CABINET pranks of Din Quixote in the Black Mountain. Compare WORDS- DE LECTURE.
wonTH's " Idiot Boy," with the " Oh Betty, Betty Foy," hurthen, Feb. 5th.—Though there are no penny-a-line men attached to the press in or COLERIDGE'S " toothless mastiff bitch •' in Chri stabel—both France, the journalists recognize the maxim, that a good story may not only studied productions—with the extempore lines of our ill-used poet, be set off to advantage in the telling, but told oftener than once. I have cer-
and we will answer for it, the last will be acknowledged to have lion is amusing, and to many wilt be just as good as new. the advantage in intelligence and truth, however they may all At Sarquimines, in the Lower Rhine, a wealthy and very pious lady short in accuracy of metre. was praying in the church with great devotion : when she arose fiorn kueel- " Upon being questioned respecting his property, he said, he had about Peter would sup with her that night, and bring her intelligence respecting a thousand guineas, and when he could obtain possession of it he should her husband, who was lately dead. The good lady dared not entertain the spend it in purchasing his wife ; and he intended to provide for her an ex- least suspicion of fraud. She prepared a splendid entertainment ; and scarcely cellent establishment, horses, carriages, 4c. which would cost him many mil- ions a year." was it ready when a knock at the door announced the arrival of the saint. With a capital of a thousand guineas he intended to set up es- A robust form made his appearance, wearing a long beard, and having a tablishments which would cost many millions a year ! Good. If great iron key suspended by his side. The Apostle saluted the old lady with an air of benignity, sat flown, and told her several extraordinary things of this man be mad, then take up the West end of the town, and forth- the other world, and more particularly painted in glowing colours the felicity with clap it in Bedlam. We never saw a resolution more com- of her late spouse. They seated themselves at table, and the servant was pietely accordant with the way of the world and the usages of only permitted to bring the dishes to the door of the apartment. good society. The Commissioners ought indeed to have seen from " The servant on the same evening happened to have an apostle of her it alone, that the gentleman was a subject for Almacks instead of a own : he was a gendarme. Surprised to see the activity which reigned in lunatic asylum. . the cooking department, he asked the cause. ' We have a very extraordi- " He persisted that his writings surpassed Shakspearc ; and taking up wears a long beard : but I have only had a glance at him, for they forbade the paper with the above lines on it, he said, `they are Milton's." How me to enter.' The gendarme followed the servant when she went to the can they be Milton's (said the Commissioner) when Milton has been dead chamber, pushed open the door, and entered. ' Who are you, Monsieur,' so many years ?'—' Sir, (said he,) they are Milton's—I wrote them, and without ceremony, ' where is your passport ?' "The saints,' answered
I am a second Milton.' " the stranger, ' need no passport. I am St. Peter—here is my key." Oh, Here is what is called the confidence of genius, accompanied that will do,' said the gendarme, and retired—but only to inform his chief with an ingenuous wit. He has but betrayed nature in undress, of the . adventure. The brigadier, accompanied by several of his followers, and said, what oft is thought, but not so plain expressed. concealed themselves in the house of the old lady. A few minutes afterwards The ablest critic (need we name the Rev. SYDNEY SMITH ?) in another knock was heard : the door opened, and four more apostles entered. the Edinburgh Review has remarked, that the surprise of an un- The gendarmes, however, immediately laid hold of them, as well as upon St. Peter himself. They were searched; each of the saints was armed with expected comparison or association of ideas is essential to wit; poniards, knives, pistols, and whistles. The whole of the five apostles were and in illustration he instances this jeu d esprit. handcuffed and sent to Metz, where the tribunal will decide their claim to " Louis XIV. being extremely harassed by the repeated solicitations of beatification."
a veteran officer for promotion, said one day, loud enough to be heard, Gth. A report is made by the Athenee des Arts at Paris, on the merits of ' That gentleman is the most troublesome officer 1 have in my service:— a more perfect waterproof preparation than has hitherto been invented. The `That is precisely the charge (said the old man) which your Majesty's idea appears to have been originally English, but the adopters have carried enemies bring against me.'"
Upon this the critic remarks, that the pleasure of the hearer pro- pressed together by the intervention of a thin layer of caoutehoue. The ceeds from the discovery of the relation that subsists between the fabrique is perfectly pliable, and is exposed to none of the inconveniences of object the veteran had in view, and his assent to an observation so oilskin or other waterproof preparation. This is a desideratum in re vestiaria : unfriendly to that end. In the first rapid glance which the mind to wear a suit of waterproof superfine, would render a man independent of throws upon his words, he appears by his acquiescence to be plead- rain, which is the great extinguisher of pleasure and exercise in England. ing against himself. The speech of our ill-used example tallies with M de MONTLOSIER, the Ultra noble, is again attacking the Jesuits this description of wit. When he says the lines were written by with his former vigour, skill, and ingenuity. He is far from thinking that MILTON, we set him clown as lunatic ; but when he goes on, with the change of Ministry and the change of tactics has relieved France from the turn of Louis's veteran, to affirm himself a second MILTON, we the chance of clerical domination. His last book on the subject is entitled see that he is only a poet of the average conceit—nay, we are stating " On the Origin, Nature, and Progress of Ecclesiastical Power in France." too much in that proposition for in rating himself second to any
;
genius whom the world has ever produced, he discovers a degree " Blessed are the bowels that bore our Lord, and blessed are the teats that of modesty by no means common among the pretenders to literary gave him suck,"—he asks if this be a suitable sentence in a religious cere-
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