342 
bourer be. guilty of fome ra/biefs, who 
will bring on himfelf the care of a fa- 
mily ? What poffible inconvenience can 
there follow, from allowing two young 
peafants to marry, on an hour’s notice, 
without the expence of a licence, which- 
they cannot afford? ‘They have no for- 
tunes to lofe, orto win. They have no 
rifk to run, but the very fame as they 
muft run, if it were pothble for them to 
take a century to deliberate ; for their 
lot is, to eat their bread by the fweat of 
their brows. Perhaps, they have no pa- 
rents toconfult; but, if they have, their 
confent is foon obtained. ‘Their parents, 
having nothing to give them, leave the 
matter, in general, to themfelves, as they 
mutt fight their own way through the 
‘world. ‘There is no family pride to be 
mortified, or pleafed ; the blood isin no 
danger of corruption from meaner cun- ' 
nections ; nor are the feeds of matrimo- 
nial unhappinefs now fown, by a nice 
adjufiment and fettlement of the /eparate 
interefts of thofe who are to become one 
ficfe. On what poihible pretence, there- 
‘fore, are thefe laws to be extended to 
-peafants ? 
It is whifpered, indeed, that it is not 
the intereft of government to check the 
increafe of baftards; becaufe they are 
“ready and numerous reinforcements for 
armies and navies. But if any one of 
‘your readers, feeling more powerfully 
the interefts of virtue, and of the hu- 
man fpecies, will engage to bring this 
fubjeét before parliament, at the next 
general election, he may command the 
vote and intereft of 
A WELCH FARMER. 

* Tothe Ed:tor of the Monthly Magazine. 
STR, 
reve very learned and ingenious Gil- 
bert Wakefield, in his life, quotes 
fome verfes, beginning 
J drearat that bury’d in my native clay, 
Clofe by my fide a neighb’ring beggar lay ; 
&c. 
He fays, he knows not the author, and I 
believe there are’ very few who do, 
‘though the lines are very well known, 
and highly deferving of being {till more 
{o. By accident, I have difcoyered the 
writer, and believing fome of your read- 
ers may be as defirous of feeing their 
origin as I myfelr have been, Ihave 
trqubled you with this'‘letter, . ~ 
The name of the writer was PreERRE 
PATRICE, born fo ‘early asthe year 
#583, at Caen, and a follower of Gafton 
Author of a popular French Poem. 
[ May,‘ 
d’Orleans. The following is the copy 
of the lines in the original: 
Je fongeois, cette nuit, que de mal confumé, 
Coté a coté d’une pauvre on m’ayoit inhumé ; 
Mais que n’en pouvant pas fouftrir le voifinage, 
En mort de qualité je lui tins ce Jangage : 
Retire-toi, coquin ! va pourrir loin @ici, 
I] ne tappartient:pas de m’approcher ainfi. 
Coquin ! ce/me dit-il, d’une arrogance extréme, 
Va chercher tes coquins ailleurs ; coquin toi- 
méme. 
Ici font tous égaux ; je ne te dois plus rien; 
Je fuis fur mon fumier, comme toi fur Je tien, 
Every body knows the Englith poeti- 
cal verfion; but for thofe who, not un- 
derfianding French, wifh to have the 
exact interpretation, I have fubjoined a 
plain profe tranflation : Phi: 
I dreamt, laft night, that, being dead of ill- 
nefs, I was buried fide-by-fide with a beggar ; 
but my pride not being able to endure fuch 2 
neighbourhood, I thus addyeffed him, like a 
corpfe of quality: Rafcal, :etire ! and rot at a 
diftance; thou haft no title thus to approach me. 
Rafcal! returned he, with extreme arrogance, 
go feek thy rafcals elfwhere ; rafcal thyfelf ! 
Here al! are equal; I owe thee nothing; J am 
upon my dunghill, as tiow art upon fine. 
J. R. JAHONEY. 

- Io the Editor of the Monibly Magazine. 
SIR, 
{F you think the following account cf © 
a fingular phenomenon, which I re- 
céived from Godalming, in Surrey, the 
4th of April, 1794, merits a place in 
your ufeful Mifcellany, it is much at 
your fervice. 
** On Friday laft (March 28) between 
eleven and twelve o'clock, there was a 
very uncommon noife in the air, which 
at firft appeared like thunder, and was 
fucceeded by three regular explofions, 
like foldiers exercifing ata little diftance: 
its motion was from NW.to SE. The 
wind fhifted, about this time, above nine- 
ty degrees. ‘The fun fhone exceedingly 
bright, and not a cloud was to be feen; 
but there was fomething of a pale fmoky 
appearance, which feemed to be attracted 
by the fun. 
It was heard diftincétly at Portfdown- 
hill, Chichefter, Midhurft, Haflemere, 
Chidingfold, Godalming, Guildford, and 
near * Dorking. At Chidingfold it ap- 
peaced in the zenith.”’ . 
ee eee UE ee 
* The lineal difance from Portfdown-hill 
to Dorking, I find, by calculation, to be about 
48 Englith miles. Ft 
A firilar 
