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li eee ace oe 7 FRUE LIBERTY, WHEN FREEBORN MEN—HAVING TO ADVISE THE PUBLIC, MAY SPEAK FREE.” —Evnipipes. Vou. r) CHAI LOTTETOWN, P. E. ISLAND, MONDAY, JANUARY 1, 1849. {No. 74. ann necimaniai ™ ethene _ a

From Ch 's Edi ciate [ ambers’s Edinburgh Journal, Dec. 2, 1848.] the gallery, however curous or edifyiug the spectacle the city of Jerusalem appeared, with all its towers

FEASTS. may be; but dining is the recognized demonstation of;lined with Saracens. The ship approached the city; Tua institution of feasts is one of the few customs the modern Englishman. ‘The more showy but unsub-|the Christians landed, and began the assault; the be- earrent in all nations, savage and civilised, from the stantial fete has long been the favourite method in sieged made a good defence; several scaling-ladders Londoner’s Christmas dinner to the Kamskatkadale’s France, perhaps from its pageant-like character being were thrown down; but at length the city was taken. glorification over mushroom wine in the first days of better suited to the theatrical genius of the people; but! pe difficulty of executing such a festive design in @eptember. Every people have their feasts, The de-/@V€ there the dinner-giving doctrine has recently an age when mechanical science was so little under- tails may and do differ considerably, as inthe cases/€#ned ground jand it cannot be forgotten that gover stood, may be imagined; but it is a proof to what ex- cited, but the principle of feasting appears to be the|™€St opposition toa reform banquet was the drop that pense and trouble the men of those days were willing

;

same throughout the world; its origin evidently rests eee ihe ste hy a late revolution ; and Louis-| ty go for their feasts’ sake, and, as the chronicler adds,

among the peculiarities of human conduct and history,|* !!!Ppe may be fairly said to have lost his crown for|< made all who heard of it admire, and delighted the ‘ 7 ' . sai : o

a9 no species but ourown in the wide creation has been |SPoling @ dinner. oe __ /emperor between the two great courses of fish and fowl.’

observed to appoint assemblies, or make preparations The greatest displays of this festive kind made iN The feasts of old Europe in their most costly days

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for the purpose. Some of them have indeed been too Britain of late years have originated in political zeal. | were, however, but feeble imitations of those by which

often feasted at the expense of man—such as wolves The great banquet by which the passing of the Reform |the fastern monarchs rejoiced the Kearts and lightened sod ravens in great battle fields; and the old poets were Bill was celebrated, and some of the dinners given to| the purses of their subjects about, the same period. The

accustomed to represent them as calculating the chan.|0 Connell in the zenith of his popularity, are remark-| festive details in the ‘ Arabian Nights, so dazzling to

ces, and rejoicing in the prospect of war; but this was|*»!e examples. They had no rivals in their line, except the early imaginations of most readers, are, incredible an the style of the court jester, who, when a quarrelsome|°"® °F two coronation banquets, and the fete given by as jt may seem, far outshone by some real affairs of the prince of Hungary, just come to the throne, inquired George IV., when Prince Regent, to the allied sove-' kind which have found place in authentic history. The why 80 many carrion crows appeared in the neighbour-|"'S"S at Carlton House. : ‘marriage feast of the Caliph El-ma-Moon continued for hood of Presburg, informed him that they were assemb-| _/ he preparations for this royal ‘blow out’ were com- nineteen days, the father of the bride entertaining on ling to congratulate each other on his majesty’s happy |Pleted some weeks previous to its occurrence, and ex- the banks of the Tigris crowds which no palace could accession, as there would soon be plenty of provisions hibited to the public, with no small profit to the regent's contain; and by way of variety, between the courses eu either the German or Turkish frontier. servants. ‘’Ave you been at Carlton ’Ouse?’ is said showers of gold coins, bags of ambergris, and at length

to have become a standing inquiry among Cockney pats of musk, were scattered among them, the latter

Religion, politics,and socia] habits have contributed ENE GE st A ad

te the number and variety of the world’s feasts; and : Gace oF " Be SIGE Deing Tegarder as scarce'y I~‘ enclosing small papers, each of which was a ticket for

those of religious institution, however perverted fom} erior to the Christmas pantomime. But even kings! some of the different kinds of disposable property most

their original design, are generally found to have the)" princes no longer feast as of old. What are our) yajued in Asia—lands, slaves, and horses; the fortunate Innere wi ; nate s — : , ‘

most continuous hold on popular memory. A monk, mouer dinners, with al] their toasts and speeches (the: scrambier being made aware by proclamation that im-

some centuries ago, obliged the world with a treatise | atte by the way, being a luxury or infliction UNKDOWN) mediate possession should be given of whatever was

entitled ‘The Feasts of all Times,’ which he dinitn Al's our ees onan to the ies chronicled inscribed on the paper. The chef d’wuvre of this feast

é : . ... {among the doings of past generations:

suto the special andthe stated. Under the first division | " * 9

were comprehended great banquets, for the celebration, The coronation feast of Edward 1H. cost a sum in| which burned in a golden lantern in front of the palace, i - ‘ . | . . .

of particularly happy occasions, or at least those that tPose days equivalent to about £40,000 of the present/and a trayful of pearls, which the baide’s grandmother

|was a candle of ambergris, weighing eighty pounds,

. * } . :. - “ae > ~ 9; > ] ¢ > , il rea aa }t ‘ 7 2 ;

were so considered; and under the last, the fixed and Currency; andus the church caine little behind the ‘emptied upon her and the caliph as they sat in state. annual festivals that always return with their seasons, CfOW® in either ability or expense in that feasting period, After this pattern wedding, we are informed that El-mm- ‘he monk’s volume must have been entertaining. though @t the installation of Ralph, abbot of St. Augustine, Moon bestowed upon his father-in-law the revenue of x : . : : by ‘, : 2 . . ss “ed ‘ : Pini duns ile iil il : . ? , int ine, its eubject is now considerably out of date, for part of Canterbury, in 1300, six thousand guests were enter- Persian province for a year, in order that that munificent tained with a dinner consisting of three thousand dishes.' satrap might have an opportunity of reimbursing hism- That these dishes must have been tolerably substantial, self, the taxes being completely in his power to increase ispresumable from the fact, recorded on most respect- or diminish ; and it ig not probable that he adopted the able authority, that at the marriage feast of Alexander latter arrangement.

the book was occupied with directions, as the author said, for the government of feasts in general, according to the wisdom of the ancients, and the old approved. rules of festivity. Whether it is that our times are too! prudent and business-like to countenance the consequent IL. of Scotland, and the Princess Margaret, daughter: This present-making fashion was a frequent attend- expense of time and funds, that the daily wants and Of Henry HL. of England, which was solemnised at’ ant on ancient feasts, and by no means unknown in wishes of civilised mankind have increased to such a York, the archbishop of that city presented the English Rurope ; but sums of money and rich dresses seem to degree as to engross their entire energy and attention, king with sixty fat oxen, which were all consumed oD have been the approved offerings in western Janda, and till all work and no play has become the description the occasion. Some portions of those profuse entertain- are often mentioned as bestowed by sovereigns on their ments would create something more than surprise in the suests, A curious and somewhat characteristic mode

4

of these latter days, or that the nations, having out-. ' |‘ grown their childhood, no longer place their chief joy mind of a modern diner-out: for example, the flesh of of presentation was once adopted by a Chinese emperor in plumecake and holidays, it were difficult to decide ; Cranes, herons, and hawks, puapered in various fashions, | n+ 9 creat feast given to celebrate the birth of his son. but the glory of feast and festival has waned from a-| Ve accounted delicacies. Great pieces of whale and ‘The utensils with which each guest was provided for mong us, and, like the rest of the old world’s customs, YOUNZ porpoises are mentioned in terms much higher the occasion were according to the rank of the user, now presents but feéble and fading memorials, which than those employed by a fishmonger of to-day in des-' jhe Jowest of goid, and those in the ascending scale or- every year diminishes. cribing his new turtle even to a London alderman, ‘namented with gems of more or less value; and a public

‘The special feasts or banquets which formed such an| Though it does not appear that the ‘feast of reason crier in the midst of the entertainment announced that important item in the expenses of earlier times, are in-!and the flow of soul,’ so often referred to since its mem- they had his majesty’s permission to carry them home deed still worthily represented by our great public din-| tion by the original poet, formed any considerable part: when the assembly broke up. Asia is indeed the native wers. A French tourist has remarked that everything of the great old banquets, provision for their mental re- soil of feasts, where they have expanded to the greatest mo England begins and ends with a dinner; and the zeal freshment was notentirely neglected; but the apparatus magnificence. The diminished power and wealth of #f no party could be satisfactorily demonstrated without for that purpose now reads rather strangely, especially, its princes no longer enable them to emulate the wed- the play of knives and forks, as ifthe highway tothe’ when we find mimics, and bards, and fools, together ding of El-ma-Moon ; but they stil] maintain the feast- sympathies of the nation led through the digestive or-| with morris-dancer3, tumbiers, and moralities, described ing fashion of their ancestors, with all the remnants of gans of its people. These observations were never! as appearing between the courses under the title of expense and splendour they can muster; and so essen- more strikingly verified than in the present day. The|* Interneats :’° amusements so called were among the ‘tial is a feast on felicitous oceasions considered to the dinner is an affair of all-work, and does duty on every| most expensive and peculiar supplies necessary for great respectability of private life, that families of even the eecasion: the tribute of admiration to the genius of a feasts of the middle ages. ‘The French particularly ex- inferior castes in Hindoostan have been known to ex successful poet, of sympathy with a disappointed politi-| celled in therm. Ata dinner given by their king, Char. pend not only the savings of years, but their entire cian, and of confidence in a popular minister, is a din jles V., to the emperor of Germany, towards t'ie end of means of subsistence, in furnishing forth a single wed- ner., By this events are commeworated, political parties|the fourteenth century, the following ingenious device ding. It has even been urged as an excuse for the in- sirengthened, and mercantile companies cemented ; in} was exhibited:—A ship with masts, sails, and rigging fanticide of female children, in former times more fre- short, interest, resolution, and enthusiasm, al! come out! was seen first; site had for colours the arms of the city | quent among them, that the expense of marriage feasts jw the shape ofa dinner. Balls are at times produced |of Jerusalem; Godfrey de Bouillon appeared on deck, would thereby be spared to the family. So much for by the same causes, but they generally come as after- pieces, in consideration of the ladies, al! of whom are net likely to be éatiefied by seeing ‘the lions feed’ from

accompanied by several knights armed cap-a-pie ; the) Pastern providence! ship advanced into the middle of the room or hall, without. ‘To use an American phrase, the further we ‘advance the machine which moved it being perceptible, Then! backward’ in civilisation, the importance and magnitude