334 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
F you have not determined to stifle 
so unimportant a dispute, I would 
just intimate to your ingeniovs philo- 
logical correspondent, who, in your 
Number for June (volume xxii. page 
447), has made some further remarks on 
the word resign, that I have no contro- 
versy with him concerning the original 
meaning or meanings of that word. I 
ought not, he says, to reckon as primary 
meanings more than the two significa- 
tions which he sets down as such: for 
that to yield up, to transfer, is not the 
primary import of the word in question, 
which becomes, when used in that sense, 
a metaphor. This I will not deny: but 
beg, however, to remark, that the meta- 
phor, being commonly, and, as your cor- 
respondent admits, very justifiably used 
in many cases, (see Monthly Magazine, 
vol, xx, p. 111) I cannot understand 
why the religious appiication of it should 
be more objectionable than any other. 
Not theelogians only, as I before ob- 
served, but poets, novelists, and writers 
of every kind speak of resignation to the 
will of God. In the course of a single 
volume of a novel which I was lately 
reading, the heroine is mentioned, at 
least half a dozen times, as bearing her 
hard fate with patience and resignation. 
fiew surprised would Mrs. Charlotte 
Smith have been, had some hypercritic 
informed her that, unless she wished her 
writings to smell of the conventicle, she 
must never attribute resignation of mind 
to the personages of her story, but merely 
say that they submitted with equanimity 
to their misfortunes? Why should the 
language be deprived of a very expres- 
sive word? What word equally expres- 
sivé can be substituted in its room? 
The tutile reasoning, or rather quib- 
bling with which this writer’s observa- 
tions are concluded, is scarcely worthy of 
notice. It is obvious that the objection 
urged agamst resign, when used in a 
pious sense, on account of its analogy to 
exdorse, applies equally to all the other 
éustomary forms of employing that word: 
and therefore if such objection be well- 
founded, the term ouzht to be exploded 
altogether. Your correspondent might, 
with as much propriety, have argued 
thus: “‘ Suppose I were to say, ministers 
have tadorsed their places; I indorse my 
chair to you, would not such expressions 
be deemed 'verv absurd? Yet to use thé 
word résign, in these cases, is not less 
ridiculous.” 
On the Word resign. 
(Nov. 1, 
With thanks to the Contributor to En- 
glish synonymy, for the various instruc- 
tive enquiries and remarks which his 
learning and ingenuity have enabled him 
to make, and for which your readers are 
much indebted to him. : 
Your's, &c. 
worcester. TREBOR. 
se 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
JOURNAL of a VOYAGE performed in the 
INDIAN SEAS, 0 MADRAS, BENGAL, 
CHINA, §¢., &¢., im HIS MAJESTY’S 
SHIP CAROLINE, inthe YEARS 1803-4-5. 
Communicated by ant OFFICER Of that SHIP, 
UR attentions were now once more 
directed to the represeatation, 
which was evidently historical, and seem- 
ed to be taken from that period of their 
history, in which the Tartar princes 
mounted the throne of China; for to- 
wards the end of the play, a most bloody 
battle was fought between the Tartars and 
Chinese, in which prodigies of valour and 
agility, or rather deception, were per- 
formed. Heads were here seen dissever- 
ed in a manner from the bodies, and 
dangling by a small piece of skin, while 
the combatants were carried off the field ! 
Some were transfixed with darts and ja- 
velins, the points of which we could 
plainly perceive projecting at the oppo- 
site sides of their bodies; while others 
again, with battles-axes wedged into their 
sculls, seemed to deluge the field with 
gore. How they managed to perform 
these deceptions so well, I confess I could 
not make out; yet the actors were ail 
young lads. 
This sham-fight lasted alout a quarter 
of an hour, accompanied with the most 
savage martial music; after which, the 
play terminated, and tumbling commen- 
ced. The Chinese boys, fromthe flexibi- 
lity of their joints and muscles, and from 
their being brought up to it from their 
infancy, are famous at this kind of diver- 
sion; and indeed I did not think the hu- 
man frame capable of bearing the distor- 
tions and exertions which these little fel- 
lows practised with surprising adroitness. 
They would pile themselves up in the 
formas of castles, turrets, pagodas, &c.; 
and while we were gazing at them in asto- 
nishment, these figures would all at once 
vanish from our sight! With this part of 
the entertainment, therefore, we were 
highly gratified. 
When the tumblers had finished, we 
withdrew for half an hour, to take some 
refreshment, and on our return to the 
theatre, 
