J 821.] 
News from Parnassus ... No. XT. 
321 
from Bristol. From one of the settlers 
1 find also that the land is good. 
Feb. 1st. Bought to-day, a barrel of 
the finest wheat flour, weighing 106 lbs. 
net, for 4 dollars, which is about Id. 
per lb. Eels, 3 cents per lb.; shad 
fish, averaging four pounds each, two 
cents; oats, 20 cents per bushel; 
whiskey, about the quality of your 
English gin, 22 cents; one shilling a 
gallon. Bought a calve’s head, which 
dined all my family, seven in number, 
for 5d. The brewers here make nearly 
as much of their grains and yeast as 
their barley costs them, and sell their 
beer and porter for very good prices. 
Hops, 12 cents per pound; salt, less 
than one cent per lb. Horses about 
the same price as in England. I saw 
an excellent cow and calf offered for 
sale in Philadelphia, marked for 21 
dollars; the cow appeared capable of 
making, when grazed, 30 score. There 
are no wakes, revels, or pleasure fairs 
in this country, nor any wrestling, 
cudgel-playing, &c. 
In all civil suits or proceedings in 
any court within this commonwealth, 
every suitor or party concerned has a 
right to be heard by himself and coun¬ 
sel, or either of them. In this country 
the professions of attorney and counsel, 
and apothecary and physician are 
united. 
Auctions. If any person shall give or 
sell any ruin, wine, or other strong 
liquors at the time of any such vendue, 
to any person attending the same, the 
person so selling or giving any liquors, 
shall forfeit and pay for the first offence 
tour pounds: and for the second and 
every other offence five pounds. 
Property seized here by the sheriff, 
under an execution, must first be va¬ 
lued by a jury, and cannot be sold 
under the execution, unless it will 
fetch two thirds the amount of the 
valuation. 
Jan. 19th. By a self-registering ther¬ 
mometer, belonging to the chemical 
laboratory, in the medical department 
of the university, the temperature was 
this morning three degres below zeio. 
It is said that this temperature is nearly 
the coldest of this latitude ; to me it is 
fine healthy agreeable weather. 
April 14th. Very little appearance 
of spring yet. 
Women here do all the white-wash¬ 
ing and colouring of houses. They 
make a good buff colour by mixing 
bullocks blood with lime; and a sal- 
Monthly Mag. No. 360. 
mon colour by mixing a small quantity 
of green copperas with lime. 
My decided opinion respecting the 
habits, manners, and customs of the 
people of this country, is, that there is 
not half so much difference between 
them and the people of England, ge¬ 
nerally, as there is between the people 
of Bristol and Bath in England. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
NEWS FROM PARNASSUS. 
No. XI. 
THE VILLAGE minstrel, and other 
poems, by John clare, the Nor¬ 
thamptonshire Peasant. 
u Naturd fieret luudabilc carmen an arte 
Qucesitum est: ego nee studium sine divite 
vend, 
Nec rude quid prosit video inyenium : al¬ 
ter ins sic 
Altera poscit opemres , ct conjur at amice?' 
U NDER the sanction of this high 
authority, we trust it may be per¬ 
mitted us to express, without reserve, 
the reflexions that have been suggested 
by the perusal of these interesting, but 
very unequal, volumes; without being 
suspected of a wish to crush the at¬ 
tempts of any meritorious, though 
humble, aspirant to public fame, or in¬ 
curring the imputation (to use the lan¬ 
guage of the eulogimn prefixed as an 
introduction to theworkj of cherishing 
** an illiberal spirit of criticism, which, 
catching its character from the bad 
temper ot the age, has let slip the dogs 
of war in the flowery fields of poesy.’' 1 
Tile present production contains much 
that is good, and even beautiful; and 
we are disposed not only to point out 
its merits with readiness, hut to ac¬ 
knowledge them with pleasure, as sin¬ 
cere, perhaps, as that of eulogists, whose 
un disc rim mating praises have a ten¬ 
dency rather to alienate, than to conci¬ 
liate, more discerning judges. But 
considering these poems with leferenee 
only to their literary excellence, the 
meed of commendation to which some 
parts of them may he justly entitled, 
is altogether a distinct question from 
the necessity, or even the propriety of 
bringing them before the tribunal of 
the public. The latter is what Par¬ 
tridge would have termed a non sequitur. 
We are willing to give full credit to the 
motives of those, whose benevolence 
has prompted them to introduce the 
effusions of the Northamptonshire pea¬ 
sant to general notice, but we may rea- 
2 S sonably 
