124 
News from Parnassus.. .No. IX. [Sept, l r 
tress, and for which such liberal con¬ 
tributions have been raised, seem 
much more intent (so far as the public 
have the means of knowing,) upon the 
punishment of vice and imposture, 
than the relief of distress ; and the 
public papers are perpetually teeming 
with paid for paragraphs detailing their 
achievements in this way. 4 The ac¬ 
counts inserted of the proceedings of 
the 44 Mendicity and Houseless'' Poor 
Societies in the various leading pa¬ 
pers, sufficiently witness to this fact, 
and which must cost these societies no 
small annual sum. Then we have a 
loose and general statement at the end 
of their two month's winter campaign , 
of the number of wretches to whom a 
night's lodging, and a meal of victuals 
have been afforded: which would 
really seem upon the face of it to be 
the least, important feature of the ex¬ 
pense. 
And tills is all that the public, or 
perhaps even the great body of the 
subscribers themselves, know of the 
disposition of the immense funds col¬ 
lected in this instance, and which are 
said to amount to eight or ten thousand 
pounds in hand, besides their large 
annual subscriptions. Fifty thousand 
meals of victuals, is evidently meant 
for the purpose of a grand display ; for 
those who do not know that a meal of 
victuals means in this case two-pence, 
or three-pence, or even less, may very 
innocently suppose that it means a 
shilling, or perhaps more; a mistake 
which the honorary secretary seems to 
1)0 no way anxious about correcting. 
In the instances of the canting and 
hypocritical Societies for the Suppres¬ 
sion of Vice , and the misnamed Con¬ 
stitutional Association of Bridge-street, 
recent disclosures would seem to jus¬ 
tify the belief that some of the active 
agents divide the great bulk of the out¬ 
goings among themselves; and that 
they are their own pay-masters and 
auditors, with little or no controul by 
the society at large. For these reasons 
I again repeat that a more useful ser¬ 
vice could not be rendered to the pub¬ 
lic, nor to the great body of the sub¬ 
scribers to such societies themselves, 
than for some competent person or 
persons to watch the operations of these 
societies, by bringing authentic docu¬ 
ments of their accounts and proceedings 
as frequently as possible under the 
public inspection. Scrutator. 
26th July , 1821. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
NEWS FROM PARNASSUS. 
No. IX. 
DON JUAN.—CANTOS III., IV., and V * 
ORD BYRON again presents him- 
J self upon the public stage. The 
tragedy is followed up by the farce in 
due succession. Scarcely have the tears, 
shed over the doom of the unhappy 
Doge, been wiped from our eyes, when 
the noble comedian puts on his mask, 
and entertains us with a continuation 
of his serio-comic melo-dramatic harle¬ 
quinade, Don Juan: assuming for him¬ 
self the character of first jester or 
clown, and acquitting himself of his 
part with infinite promptitude and 
dexterity. As in the former cantos, he 
pours out a singular mixture of pathos, 
doggrel, wit and satire, taking a strange 
and almost malignant delight in dash¬ 
ing the laughter he has raised with tears, 
and crossing his finest and most affect¬ 
ing passages with burlesque ideas, 
against which no gravity is proof. Per¬ 
haps this style is the real transcript of 
his mind—at least if we are to believe 
him sincere in the apology which lie 
offers for the offences charged against 
the former parts of his work. 
“ Some have accused me of a strange design 
Against the creed and morals of the 1 and 
And trace it in this poem every line ; 
1 don’t pretend that I quite understand 
My own meaning, when I would be very 
fine; 
But the fact is, that 1 have nothing 
plann’d, 
Unless it was to be a moment merry, 
A novel word in my vocabulary.” 
Tile noble author in fact pursues this 
plan of making himself, or his readers, 
merry, with much greater steadiness 
than the ostensible scheme of his story- 
His digressions into every subject that 
chances to strike his fancy, and offer a 
fair mark for ridicule, are numerous 
and entertaining. Like his prototype 
in the pantomime, he has his jest ready 
for the most solemn occasions, and his 
box on the ear administered with hearty 
good will, for the gravest and most 
consequential personages. But a bitter 
truth often lurks under his best dis¬ 
sembled foolery. To some ears there 
is no jocularity in the jingle of his 
bells. Over the brotherhood of the 
lakes—indeed the notes must come, 
44 toll, toll, through the silence of 
evening.” 
“ All are not moralists, like Southey, when 
He prated to the world of “ Pantiso- 
cracy 
Or 
