rights of an Englishman. There were Englishmen seemed at that time to prisons in abundance in London, and have lost their nature: to be accused why was the usual mode to be set of a crime was then equivalent to abaside, to gratify the malice of a vin- solute guilt; and they desired no court dictive minister. Suffice it, however, of justice-no trial; but called for that a number of persons were thrown nothing but punishment. Base and into this prison, and were treated as infamous times! May they, who delinquents. With very great dif- countenance them, take a lesson from ficulty, they made their grievance an apostle upon this subject:-When known to their friends on paper, ob- Paul was treated in this manner, he tained with the greatest difficulty, compelled the magistrates of the place and on which they wrote by means to come in person, and to give him of skewers and tobacco juice, or blood, satisfaction for the injurytheyhad done instead of ink. Several of these let- him; and only his goodness preserved ters were brought to a gentleman by them from a superior punishment, a person who was collecting sub- and such as they richly deserved. scriptions for the wives and children It was in vain, for a long time, that of the writers of these letters, and Sir Francis endeavoured to call the this gentleman carried them to a large attention of the house to the state of party a few days after, where he met the prison. The renewal of the susSir F. Burdett and several members pension of the Habeas Corpus act, of both houses at dinner. Here he gave him an opportunity of stating a shewed the letters as he had received fact that could not be denied. He them. They made a considerable stated it plainly before the house, impression on every one, and they "that a number of persons were produced at the moment an effect brought up to town from Manchester very favourable to the families of the loaded with irons, and thrown into distressed. A subscription was made for them, and the matter might have passed off without any farther enquiries.

The circumstance made a deeper impression on the mind of Sir Francis Burdett. A few days after he desired to see these letters; he requested information relative to the general nature of the prison, its origin, and general conduct. He determined to go himself, and be an eye-witness of the state of the prison; and to this purpose he procured the usual order of admission for himself and a friend or two, for he never went alone; and thus had an opportunity, by three visits, of making his own remarks and investigations. He would have gone a fourth time; but, as imposture dreads the light, an order was issued, that he should not go into that or any other prison in the kingdom.

He

the house of correction, in rooms un-
prepared for their reception; and on
the next day, when exhausted with
fatigue, with hands and legs swollen,
and severely galled with the weight
and friction of the fetters, they were
sent before the privy council, to be
examined on charges of which they
were ignorant, and, as it has since
appeared, completely innocent.
asked whether this was a fit and pro-
per treatment for persons apprehend-
ed on suspicion only, whose accusers
were probably men of doubtful or in-
famous character? And whether, in
that situation, they were likely to be
possessed of that calm and steady re-
collection of mind necessary to stand
before so august a body as the privy
council? Yet, while the Habeas Cor
pus act was suspended, there was no
redress for men, innocent men, how-
ever ill they were treated."

His visits had given him ample in- Upon this fact Aris the jailor was formation. He found completely examined; and he stated" that when verified the complaints that, for want these men arrived at the prison they of ink, had been written with blood. were all heavily double ironed and He was convinced that a prison so handcuffed together; that they were conducted was a disgrace to the coun- all thrown into one room during the try, and determined to bring the first night, without a bed to lie on, or whole subject before parliament. The fire to warm them, though the wearesistance he met with is incredible. ther was severe, having nothing on

which they might repose their weary so confined, as to sleep and live two limbs, but about two ton of oakum." in a space provided and adapted to one The same jailor was questioned as to person; and that, on an average, thirty his manner of treating the persons persons have always so slept and lived: committed on suspicion; to which he as there are no more than 248 bedreplied, that, from March to June, he steads in the prison, the half of these treated them in the same manner as numbers have certainly slept without those who were actually convicted of separate bedsteads, and most of them felony. The following question was probably without separate bedding. also put to this jailor. Whether for Of six apprentices, we found five who three days in a week they did not live had no other sustenance than bread entirely upon one pound of bread per and water; whilst one, having been day, and water only for drink?" To further convicted before the court on which he replied, Yes; the Man- an aggravated charge of assaulting chester people lived the same as people and wounding a fellow-servant, re under conviction; namely, meat and ceived the full meat allowance." broth four days in the week, and bread and water the other three."

On the complaints made by the committee by the prisoners of insuf The facts now began to make an ficiency of food, and want of warmth impression upon people friendly to in winter, they say, "We think these administration. Something was to be complaints were in some cases made done, and care was to be taken that on very reasonable grounds." On the it should not be done by Sir Francis general management of the prison Burdett. The friends of administra- they say, "In the course of our extion took the opportunity of his ab amination into the management of sence, and formed a committee to this prison, it was impossible not to enquire into the state of the prison. observe, and highly to blame, the ir This committee would of course view regular facility with which the punishevery thing in the most favourable ment of refractory behaviour has been light; they would not notice any thing inflicted. On occasions of important if they could possibly avoid it. Yet outrages, indeed, we remark some intheir report was such as completely stances of reference to the authority to verify every word that Sir Francis of magistrates; but we find no traces had advanced upon this subject. They of any register of punishment; nor use these words:-" We believe Mr. does it appear that any regard has at Aris to be very deficient in point of any time been paid to those limits, in obedience to those rules which enjoin point of time and circumstances, which him to execute the duties of his office the law has specifically directed."— in person, to see every prisoner, and Upon the whole the committee deto examine every cell, once at least clare, that "in the present state of in each day." In speaking of a cer- this prison, we do not hesitate to protain class of prisoners, they say, "we nounce it an improper place of con apprehend that prisoners in this situ, finement for these several descriptions ation have but too well known how of unconvicted persons; nor indeed, to suit their proposals to the wants of until its discipline, regulations, and the governor; and that in fact he has arrangements shall have undergone been sometimes tempted beyond what considerable alterations, can we conhe has had fortitude to resist." In sider it as much less improper for prianother place they observe," that the soners convicted for misdemeanors on space contained in each of the cells of indictments at common law. this prison is certainly not greater than necessarily does this conclusion appear is necessary for the healthful respira- to us to follow a view and enquiry into tion of the one person intended to be a state and management of this prison, lodged in it; to lodge two persons in that we are led to apprehend that those this space is to counteract the prin- magistrates who have acted contrary ciple and subvert the intentions of the to it, may have neglected to inspect, law." Nevertheless, it must have or otherwise inform themselves of the happened in the present year that one real situation in which prisoners are hundred and forty persons have been placed by their commitments.” [To be concluded in our next.]

So

On the ITALIAN IMPROVISATORI. tised as an improvisatore in his younger From the German.

Est Deus in nobis; agi ante calescimus illo.

Ovid.

[Concluded from p. 500. vol. v11.]

years.

Also have the lower classes, even down to mechanics and countrymen, their Dilettanti in this art.

Thus a perpetual and numerous school in this art is preserved, not only among the higher classes, but also among the lower orders, where AND here, as in all the fine arts, this talent (which seems to be almost many force themselves into the natural to the Italians) is cultivated service uncalled for. But as in the with greater or less taste and genius, exercise of this art every thing de- according to the degree of cultivation pends upon immediate success; as among them; and the idle vulgar have the work must be at once invented, their professional improvisatori as perfected, and, according to its merit, well as the more elegant votaries of prized; and as the polished Italian, the muse among the nobility. Those who knows very well the scale of ex- exercise their art in squares and cellence in this art, not easily rewards market-places. In a few moments a demerit with his approbation; so the circle is collected round the wandermadness of these uncalled poets sel- ing Homer, who delivers in about an dom lasts long, and they soon forsake hour as much poetry as will suffice to a vocation in which their incapacity secure him from hunger for the next is rendered more conspicuous by every two or three days; and such a vir new attempt, and where no pretext tuoso is the more reckless of futurity, of personal timidity or modesty, which because he is sure to find, whenever they may alledge, can conceal it from he wishes, another audience at the them. I have myself had an oppor- next square. One of the most celetunity of observing how pitiable and brated of these improvisatori was he lamentable it is to see a blockhead whom Moritz has delineated in his fruitlessly labouring in this art. The Travels in Italy. painful feeling of his fruitless exertions spreads itself by sympathy to the company, and the inward anguish of the unhappy poet bathes the brows one may see in all houses, when the of the audience with perspiration. wine has inspired animation, two As, however, the Italian language is prize singers arise and endeavour to so flexible a material, and so easily silence each other. The subject of submits to the shackles of poetry, the their verse is generally satiric; and number of Dilettanti in this art, who, such scenes are a living representation with no common capacity, and fre- of the most ancient satiric games and quently endowed with considerable alternate songs of the Sicilian sheppoetical power, dedicate their talents herds; so that the improvisatori of merely to the production of convivial the vulgar, rhyming in the highways pleasure, is by no means small; and and squares, transplant strangers back in the large towns of Italy, it would to the times of Orpheus and Homer. not be easy to find a polished company In general these songs have very little in which one or other of the guests is poetical merit; but they are often not capable of giving pleasure by the rich in nace expressions and pointed exercise of this art. Often, when ridicule; and the natural talent of the four or five possessing this talent hap- Italian, his pure aerial mind, shews pen to meet accidentally or perhaps itself here in the most advantageous by appointment, trials of skill in ex- light; and, as also to the most common temporaneous and alternate poetry Italian, poetical propriety is not wholly take place, and the company crown unknown, for they all read their cele both the conqueror and conquered brated poets and commit much of with their approbation. Even a to- their works to memory, so their most lerable genius for poetry would not inartificial extemporaneous producfind this art easy unless he had prac- tions bear commonly some marks of regularity and precision.

This interesting article was communicated to the celebrated Wieland by the Italian, Fernow.

UNIVERSAL MAG. VOL. VIII.

Often

If we place those improvisatori who carry on their art in open places before the populace, upon a level with

B

the charlatan who exercises his pro- attempted to estimate extemporaneous fession in the same place and before poetry by a scale to which it was not the same public, we must then esti- originally proportioned, if we did not mate very highly those of the higher at the same time take into considerorder, who exhibit their talents in a ation its superiority over written rime nobler manner, and before a more in the intenseness of its effect upon enlightened audience. But we must the hearers. hear a virtuosi in this art, or an eminent dilettanti of the superior classes, in order to form an adequate idea of it, whose cultivation is co-ordinate with the rank of the persons who exercise it and of the age in which it is exercised.

But when we consider it nearer, this incapacity of producing what shall bear equally the test of perusal, does not arise from the limited nature of the art itself, but from the difficulty of elevating it to such a height of perfection, and from the confined powers It is usual to object to extempo- of mind and deficiency of practice in raneous poetry: --- -that it produces those who usually exercise it. There nothing which can aspire above me- are even at present in Italy examples diocrity; that it may perhaps deceive of improvisatori who, uniting great for the moment, dazzle, and over- delicacy of mind and taste to very supower; but that it will not,stand the perior talents, and, from much extest of perusal; and that the greater ercise, having acquired a singular part of the printed improvisi confirm facility, are capable of producing unthis charge. This is indeed partly premeditated verse which will bear the owing to the very nature of such pro- ordeal of perusal, and is in every reductions; for even in the very best spect excellent. Such a one was pieces of this description we may per- (among others) the Abbé Lorenzi, in ceive incorrectness, repetitions, weak Verona, from whom Bettinelli borpassages, in a word, unavoidable traces rowed the features of the portrait of the rapidity with which they are given above; such a one is Francesco produced but we shall also perceive Gianni of Rome, who is at present as many indubitable marks of true famous, and has carried this art to inspiration, which are very often such a height of perfection as it rarely, sought in vain in the most laboured if ever, attained before, as his printed and finished productions. When, however, we consider how difficult it is, according to the confession of the greatest poets themselves, to produce a perfect poem with all the advantages of leisure, meditation, and revision; when we consider the small quantity of good poetry extant, compared to the immense quantity of middling and absolutely bad; and when, finally, we reflect that works of this kind are in no manner intended for a reading public, but entirely for immediate and instantaneous enjoyment, so that it is a special permission of the poet if he allows his verses to be copied, (sometimes indeed an effect of his vanity), and that every thing in its way may be called perfect when it attains that which by its nature it is capable of attaining, and according to its intention it ought to attain; when, I say, we consider all this, we must be indeed obdurate disciples of nil admirari, if we, on that account, would depreciate this art beneath its just level. We should be unjust if we p. 497.

improvisi sufficiently prove; such a one, too, is the Abbé Berardi in Rome, one of the most eminent dilettanti in this art, whom I have frequently heard, and by whom was communicated to me the following improvisi, whose authenticity I can the more confidently vouch for, because I myself, during its delivery, had an opportunity of committing it to paper.

II. Cinto di Venere.

Santa madre d'Amor, figlia di Giove,
Consolatrice degli umani affanni,
In queste a gloria tua novelle prove,

Deh! tu mi presta del tuo figlio i vanni;
Fa, ch'oggi 'l tuo favor m'assista e giove,
Quando alla tua divinità si cara
Come giovommi ne' più floridi anni,
Sette vacche in un di sveuai sull' ara.

Di vaga luce e di spendor dipinto;
Sacro alla gloria tua sia questo giorno
Che io ti vedrò, del braccio eburneo in-

torno,

Quel divin sfavillar leggiadro cinto.

* See Universal Mag. last Number,

Prendon d'un altro amante il dolce pianto; D'Apollo ad onta, e delle Parche a scherno