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ferable with it, the industrious cultivator is now often the proprietor of his farm, and always the master of his own time and acquisitions. "No longer " un peuple serf, corveable et taillable, all are alike free to offer their labour for adequate remuneration; and all now feel that this newly possessed power of self-disposal is property, in itself." Our author distributes the peasantry of France into proprietors, farmer-tenants and labourers. The agricultural surface of France, is divided," we are told," into what is called, in the language of the country, "le pays de grande, et de petite culture." In the former, the size of the farms has been little affected by the revolution: the only difference that has occurred is, that several farms belonging to one landlord may have been purchased by the farmers who formerly cultivated them, or by a small proprietor, whese exertions are confined to the ground he has bought. The possession of small plots of ground by the day-labourers has become very frequent; and it is sometimes usual in these countries to let them to the great farmers who are desirous of having them, to complete the quantity of land which the size of their establishment demands."

"The pays de petite culture is composed of small farms, for the cultivation of which the landlord finds the tenant in horses and ploughs, and divides with him the profits. Upon the large farms the condition of the tenant is very much like that of our English farmers; and in the pays de petite culture there exists a race, long disappeared from England, of poor but independent yeomen, who rear their families in a degree of comfort as perfect, as it is remote from luxury. The dwelling of a French farmer presents the same scene of rural bustle, activity, and industry, as is usually found in the English farm-houses. The women always appear full of occupation and energy, and share, in common with their bushands, fathers, and brothers, the toil and anxiety of their condition." [p. 27.]

Lady Morgan draws a very engaging portrait of the character and manners of the French villagers. She ascribes to them all those graces and virtues which appear so amiable in the shepherds and shepherdesses of Florian, and which we had never expected to find but in the creatures of fancy. There is, however, a constitutional gayety in these people, which if it be not the ebullition of that cheerfulness that innocence inspires, may easily be mistaken for it, and which at least evinces the absence of the malignant VOL. II. NO. I.

passions. It unequivocally denotes, too, their exemption from a vice which is even more prolific in crime than baneful in itself:-if the peasantry of France have retained a simplicity of mind and an amenity of disposition which are sought for in vain in the corresponding classes of society in other countries, they owe their happiness to their sobriety.

The modes of every-day life in France," says lady Morgan, "even among the peasantry and lowest classes, are powerfully influenced by the happy and genial temperament of the people. And though the peasantry are not without a certain brusquerie of manner, arising out of their condition, it is tempered by a courtesy, which indicates an intuitive ur banity, beyond the reach of art to teach, or the means of cunning to acquire; and it explains what Cæsar meant, when he declared, he found the Gauls the po litest barbarians he had conquered." There is, however, among the peasantry of the present day, as among all the lower classes, a certain tone of independence, which almost seems to claim equality with the superior person they address, and which is evidently tinged with the republican hue, so universally adopted during the revolution. A French peasant, meeting his brother peasant, takes off his hat, with the air of a petit-máitre; and I have seen two labourers argue the ceremonies of their bare-headed salutation, with as many stipulations as would go to a treaty of peace." [pp. 54, 55.]

"The domestic manners of the French peasantry," continues lady M. "like their domestic affections, are mild and warm; and the possessive pronoun, which denotes the strong binding interest of property in the object to which it is attached, is profusely given to all the endearing ties of kindred." "Notre mari," or more frequently "notre maître," is the term which the wife uses, when speaking of or to her husband; and the adjectives of "bon,” or “ petit,” are generally attached to every member of the family, according to their rank, or age. The grandsire is always "le bon papa," and all sisters and brothers are "pciite" and "petit." [p. 56.]

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It is common, lady Morgan observes, to deplore the decline of religion in France, but she advises us, before we make ourselves too unhappy on this head, to inquire what kind of religion it was that has declined. Among many instances of the stupidity of the clergy, and the ignorance and credulity of their flocks, in the age of Louis 14th, the golden age of tyranny, she quotes an anecdote from

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Madame de Sevigné to the following effect. "The Abbé de La Mousse in catechising the children of his cure, mechanically put this question to them, who is the Virgin? The children replied one after the other, The Creator of Heaven and Earth. The Abbé was not disturbed by the mistake of the children, but when he heard the men and women and even the old people taking up and repeating the same response, he was utterly confused and gave in to the common creed." Such was the religion that has decayed, and such is the religion that it is attempted to revive. Not that the identity of God the Creator and the Virgin Mary is one of the tenets of the catholic church, but that implicit faith in the priesthood is one of its requisitions, and that, in the prohibition of the exercise of reason, one absurdity is as like to be inculcated as another, and equally certain of reception with the most demonstrable truth.

Louis the 18th is a zealous restorer of the statues of the saints, and of the worship of the crucifix, and regularly exhibits himself in all the solemn processions to the chapel of Notre Dame. These mummeries, however, do not seem to suit the taste of the Parisians, notwithstanding their fondness for spectacles. Nor have the efforts to get up these fêtes in the provinces been attended with much better success. "In Boulogne-sur-mer," says our fair author, “orders were given for a procession, in honour of the Virgin, whose wrath, it was declared, had caused that abundance of rain, which threatened ruin to all the vignerons and farmers in France. Some of her festivals had not been duly celebrated, since the restoration of festivals in France, and a wellfounded jealousy had discharged itself in torrents of rain, which I had the misfortune to witness, during the greater part of my residence in the land of her displeasure. The priests, however, of Boulogne, to their horror, could not find a single Vargin, in that maritime city, to carry in procession, and were at last obliged to send a deputation into a neighbouring village, and request the loan of a Virgin until they could get one of their own. A Virgin was at last procured, a little indeed the worse for wear; but this was not a moment for fastidiousness. The holy brotherhood assembled, and the Madonna was paraded through the streets; but no devout laity followed in her train, and no rainbow of 9976 omise spoke the cessation of her wrath. The people would not walk; the rain would not stop; the Virgin was sent back, to pout in her native village; and the miracle expected to be

wrought, was strictly according to Voltaire's heretical definition of all miracles"une chose qui n'est jamais arrivée."* [p. 76.]

It is probably in the recollection of many of our readers that this city, in which, according to lady Morgan, there is not a maid to be found, is itself in the demesne of the Virgin, who was created Countess of Boulogne by one of the pious predecessors of Louis le desiré, for the magnanimous purpose of conferring upon the Saviour the dignity of hereditary nobility!

Dr. Moore, in his charming letters from Italy, mentions a friend of his, who passing a prostrate statue of Jupiter, very respectfully uncovered himself, and with a profound reverence, requested his godship, should he ever be reinstated in the government of the world, not to forget the notice he had taken of him in his adversity. An equal degree of circumspection would have saved the French of the present day from a deal of penance, and prevented a multitude of ridiculous metamorphoses which have resulted from the impatience of atonement. In the genes ral resurrection of the salats, on the return of the Bourbons, many an unworthy effigy that had slept, has received the honours of an apotheosis.

"Wherever the royal family was expected to pass," says lady Morgan, "on the occasion of the two restorations, or in their respective journeys into the interior of the kingdom, the via sacra is distinguished by the new setting-up of prostrate crosses. The crucifix, placed at the port of Dieppe when Madame landed, is, I think, for size and colouring, the most formidable image that ever was erected to scare, or to edify. And the Madonna exhibited in the church of St. Jaques, in the same town, and on the same importaut occasion, was evidently, in the hurry of the unexpected honour, suddenly transported from the bowsprit of some English trader; and had doubtless stood many a hard gale, as the "lovely Betty," or sprightly Kitty," before she was removed to receive divine honours, as notre dame de St. Jaques; where dressed in English muslin, and in a cofure à la Chinoise, to show she is above prejudice, she takes her place with Lonis the Eighteenth, who shines in all the radiance of plaster of paris, on an altar beside her." [p. 78.]

There is scarcely such a thing as mendicity, we are informed, in France. The wish of Henry the 4th. that each of his subjects might put a pullet in his pot on

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a Sunday, falls short of the luxury now enjoyed by the lowest peasant, who is able to enrich his pottage with a little flesh even on week days. The attention that is paid to dress, too, by the labouring classes, contributes much, to the appearance of comfort.

"The influence of the toilette is universal in France, and it is far from being exclusively an object of female devotion, even among the peasantry. The young farmer "qui se fait brave," is, in his own estimation, as attractive as any merveilleur of the chausseé D'Antin can suppose himself. His well-powdered head and massive queue, his round hat, drawn up at either side," pour faire le monsieur," his large silver buckles, and large silver watch, with his smart white calico jacket and trowsers, present an excellent exhibition of rural coxcombry, while the elders of the village set off their frieze coats with a fine flowered linen waistcoat, whose redundancy of flaps renders the texture of the nether part of their dress very unimportant.

"But, however tasteless or coarse; however simple or grotesque, the costume of the French peasantry may appear to the stranger's eye, it still is a costume! It is a refinement on necessity, and not the mere and meagre covering of shivering nature. It is always one, among many evidences, that the people are not poor, are not uncivilized, that they require the decencies of life, and are competent to purchase them." [pp. 94, 95.]

In introducing us into higher life, lady Morgan takes a survey of the history and materiel of French society, in which she gives full scope to her propensity to declamation. It is well known that Buonaparte was inclined to fortify his power by drawing the ancient nobility round the throne, and that he succeeded in filling his court, in a great measure, with the representatives of illustrious houses, who preferred the experience of imperial fayour to the prospect of royal gratitude. The facility with which he reversed outlawries, and the liberality with which he indemnified the losses of loyalists, gave considerable umbrage to his military no bles. It was a part of his ambition to excel the legitimate' sovereigns of Europe in regal splendour, and in this endeavour he assumed the pomp of an Asiatic monarch. The pride of the emperor in this respect was the chief motive of his lenity to emigrants, and the principai source of all those magnificent establishments which have endeared his memory to France, and which will confer on hin a more durable fame than the re

6

nown of conquest. His patronage to men of learning, and his liberal encouragement of sciences and the arts, rendered them subjects of national attention, and gave a tone to public taste which foreigners never fail to remark.

Lady Morgan has displayed all her wit, in ridiculing the royal family and their partisans. She is continually dis verted by the follies of the 'preux cheva liers' and veteran dames of the 'vielle court.' The following extract will serve as a specimen of her humour.

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Among those of the elder royalists attached to the person of the king, and believing that they contributed to his restoration, there is a sort of lifeless anima tion, resembling the organic movements which survive the extinction of animal life, and which are evidenced in the hopping of a bird after decapitation. I have frequently amused myself by following the groupings of these loyal vieilleries who, like old Mercier, seem to continue living on merely "par curiosité pour voir ce que cela deviendra.”—I remember one morning being present at a rencontre be tween two "voltigeurs* de Louis XIV. on the terrace of the Thuilleries. They were distinguished by the most dramatic features of their class;-the one was in his court-dress (for it was a levée day), and with his chapeau de bras in one hand, and his snuff-box in the other, he exhibited a costume, on which perhaps the bright eyes of a Pompadour had often rested: the other was en habit militaire, and might have been a spruce ensign, "joli comme un cœur," at the battle of Fontenoy. Both were covered with crosses and ribands, and they moved along under the trees, that had shaded their youthful gaillardise, with the conscious triumph of Moorish chiefs restored to their promised Alhambra. Their telegraphic glasses communicated their mutual approach,. and advancing chapeau bas, and shaking the powder from their ailes de pigeon, through a series of profound bows, they took their seat on the bench, which I occupied, and began, “les nouvelles à la main," to discuss the business of the day. --A levée, a review, a procession, and the installation of the king's bust, which in some remote town had been received with cries of "Vive le roi, mille fois répétés," were the subiects which led to a boundless eulogium on the royal family."

"Personal devotion to the king," con

**The name given in derision to old military men, re-established in all the rank and privileges they enjoyed before the revolution."

finues lady M." is not however exclusive-
ly confined to the elders of the privileged
classes. It was a profane maxim of a
profane French wit, that "les vieilles et
les laides sont toujours pour Dieu;" and his
present Majesty of France seems to en-
Joy a similar devotion, as a part of his
divine right. Many of the aged members,
of the middle classes of the capital, have
remained true to the good old cause; and
the petits rentiers, or stockholders of the
Fauxbourg St. Germaine (that centre of
all antiquity and royalism), assemble
morning and evening before the windows
of the Thuilleries, in the hope of seeing
the king pass and repass to and from his
morning's drive; and they remain seated
on the benches which front the facade of
the palace, among piping fawns, and
fighting gladiators. These monumental
figures contrast themselves, with peculiar
force, to the marble wonders of the chis-
el which surround them, and to the flit-
ting groups of the present age, which
glide by, turning on them looks of the
same pleased curiosity, as I have seen
bestowed on the monumens François, at
les petits Augustins. Here the costumes
of the three reigns which preceded the re-
volution are preserved and amicably unit-
ed: Here is still to be seen the "hurlu-
brelu" head-dress, the subject of so many
of Mad. de Sevigne's pleasant letters.
Here too may be found the bonnets à papil-
lons pointés and petites cométes of the du
Deffands and Geofrins, with the fichus de
souflet, and the more modern néglige of
the Polignacs and Lamballes. These
venerable votaries of loyalty, who have
so long "owed heaven a death," that they
seem to have been forgotten by their cre-
ditor, are chiefly females. They are al-
ways accompanied by a cortége of little
dogs, which, half-shorn, and half-fed, fas-
tened to girdles, no longer the gift of the
graces, by ribands no longer "couleur de
rose," are under the jurisdiction of large
fans, frequently extended to correct the
"petites folies" of these Sylphides and
Fideles, when they sport round their aa-
cient mistresses, with unbecoming levity."
[pp. 144, 145.]

One cannot help observing in reading these volumes, how invariably the fair author's opportune remarks, of which she has favoured us with a prodigious number, are addressed to Madame la Duchesse, Monsieur le Prince, Monsieur le Comte, Madame la Marquise, Madame la Vicomtesse, or Madame la Baronne. We will confess that we suspected some little affectation in this; we could scarcely imagine it Sossible. that such people should be at

"A

hand, to listen on all occasions ;--but lady
Morgan has incidentally accounted for it,
in a manner entirely satisfactory.
few years back," says her ladyship, “all
ranks and distinctions were lost in the af-
fectedly simple appellations of citoyen
and citoyenne. At present France is in-
undated with titles, multiplied far beyond
the heraldic dignities of those aristocrati-
cal days, when, according to Smollett,
"Mons. le Comte," called to his son, in
"Mons.
the business of their noble verger,
le Marquis, avez-vous donné à manger
aux cochons ?*—If nobility is so cheap in
France as her ladyship represents, it is,
to be sure, no great affair to be talking
with a count or a marquis, nor can there
be much difficulty in finding something
of the sort to speak to whenever one
has any thing to say.

Lady Morgan has so mixed herself with
all she saw or heard in Paris, that it is not
easy to select any picture from her port-
folio in which she does not occupy the
most prominent place. This desire to
show herself off is very annoying to her
readers. We shall not pretend to pick
up the opinions which she has scattered
through her Journal. They are not gene-
rally of much moment, but her judg
ment of the French character in one res-
pect, is too singular to pass unnoticed.
Lady Morgan considers the French as a
peculiarly grave people, and adduces their
profound attention at the theatre and in
the saloon as evidences of this disposi-
tion. We cannot consider the dispropor
tionate interest taken in trifling entertain-
ments or conversation a great proof of
gravity. If it be, children who can amuse
themselves alone, by the hour, with a few
billets of wood in piling them up and
pulling them down, must be wonder-
fully grave. Lady Morgan complains
of the formality that prevails in the
They
circles of the ancient nobility.
are "precise," she says, "to a degree
that imposes perpetual restraint; the la-
dies are all seated à la ronde; the gentle-
men either leaning on the back of their
chairs, or separated into small compact
groups. Every body rises at the entrance
of a new guest, and immediately resumes
a seat, which is never finally quitted un-
til the moment of departure. There is
no bustling, no gliding, no shifting of
place for purposes of coquetry, or views
of flirtation; all is repose and quietude
among the most animated and cheerful
people in the world. My restlessness
and activity was a source of great aston-

*"Mons, Marquis have you fed the hogs ?"

.

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ishment: my walking constantly in the streets and public gardens, and my having nearly made the tour of Paris, on foot, were cited as unprecedented events in the history of female perambulation." Coming in very late one night," pursues lady M. "to a grand réunion, I made my excuse, by pleading the fatigue I had encountered during the day; and I enumerated the different quarters of the town I had walked over, the public places I had visited, the sights I had seen, and the cards I had dropped. I perceived my fair auditress listening to me at first with Incredulous attention; then "panting after me in vain," through all my movements, loosing breath, changing colour, till at last she exclaimed: "Tenez, madame, je n'en puis plus. Encore un pas, et je n'en reviendrai, de plus de quinze jours ?" [p. 168.]

Now we can easily imagine that a very robust and active person might loose his breath, and change colour, during such a fatiguing detail, and that too from a sense of weariness wholly independent of sympathy. We do not wonder that her auditor entreated her to stop.

Lady Morgan gives a ludicrous description of some of her countrymen, whom she terms dandies, who attempted to play off their Bond-street airs in the Parisian circles, where she encountered them. From her account, young Frenchmen of the same rank are generally much better informed, and always better bred,

We are happy to have the assurance of lady Morgan that conjuga! fidelity is not unfrequent, and that some attention in public from the husband to the wife is tolerated, although the first is not a requisite, and the last is barely permitted. As long, however, as the frailties of a French woman of fashion are "peccate late;" lady Morgan admits, “as long as she lives upon good terms with her husband, and does the honours of his house, she has the same latitude, and the same reception in society, as is obtained by women similarly situated in England, where, like the Spartan boy, she is punished, not for her crime, but for its discovery. There, a divorce only marks the hine between reputation, and its loss: society will not take hints, and a woman must publicly advertise her fault, before she can obtain credit for having committed it. The high circles of Paris are to the full as indulgent as those of London. Lovers understood, are not paramours anvicted; and as long as a woman does not make an esclandre; as long as she is decent and circumspect, and "assumes virtus which she has not," she holds her

place in society, and continues to be, not indeed respected, but received."[p. 219,220.] But whatever latitude of conduct may be allowed, whilst external decorum ís not violated, no infringement of decency is endured. "In the lowest places of public amusement," says lady Morgan, "in the most mixed and motley assemblies, all is decency and seeming proprie ty. No look shocks the eye, no word offends the ear of modesty and innocence. Vice is never rendered dangerous by example, nor are its allurements familiarized to the mind of youth, by the publicity of its exhibitions. This propriety of exterior, this moral decency in manners, has been made a subject of accusation against the French by recent travellers, who de monstrate their patriotism, by extolling even the licentiousness, which, in England, openly presenting itself. to public observance, marks by very obvious limits the line between vice and virtue." [p.223.] We agree with her ladyship, that to escape grossness is one remove from vice, and that to keep, profligacy in awe is some preservative of virtue. Lady Morgan mentions that she was in the theatre one evening, when a young English nobleman of fashionable notoriety, having entered a box in the second tier, with a fe male equally notorious, and to use her own expression, less severely draped than custom requires, the house testified their disapprobation 30 unequivocally that the intruders were obliged to retire "It is owing to the extreme propriety and even purity of manners," says her ladyship, "preserved in all public places, ins France, that young females of every rank and condition, well brought up, may remain ignorant, as far as their own obser vation goes, that there docs exist a wretched portion of their sex, who eat the bread of shame, and live by self-degradation: But no woman of any rank or age, who has only once visited a public place, in England, can escape becoming the in voluntary witness of the most unblushing vice, of the most brutal indecency." [p. 224.]

The following extract will correct any misapprehension of an incident which has already been alluded to in the newspapers, in this country, with an evident jealousy of intentional disrespect.." It is a very singular circumstance," observes lady Morgan, "that the return of the French emigrants from England after a twentyfive years' residence in that country, has absolutely added nothing to the stock of acquirements in the English language or literature. Of the numbers whom I met in society, who had resided in England,

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