The

Chocolate?
She instantly con-

chooses coffee? Fa cenno di no. like. Punch? Fa cenno di si. sents;—and conceiving himself to have now completely ascertained that she is his countrywoman, he immediately procures Punch from the adjoining CoffeeHouse; which she proceeds to tipple in the open street,* very frankly; and (as the Author no doubt supposes,) very characteristically withall; for the above scene is manifestly intended as a picture of English manners.

With another--and far more disgusting-sample of utter failure in foreign writers, to portray us, Algarotti!—the elegant + Algarotti! shall supply me. In perusing his Congresso di Citera, mentioned by Gray with approbation, I,-with no small astonishment,—met a passage, to which I will rather guide, than directly refer my Reader. Miladi Gravely, the British Representative at this congress, having deplored the profligacy of the Youth in England, and roundly expressed the hopes in which she once indulged, that those maladies § which were the con

* Volete caffè? Fa cenno di no.
Volete poncé? Fa cenno di si.
(al Caffettiere :) sedete, sedete.
beve.)

+ As, unquestionably, he is.
In a letter to Mr. How.
§ Quei Malori,

Cioccolata? Fa cenno di no. Oh! è Inglese! Portate Ponce: (Le portano il poncé, ed essa

sequence of their depraved intercourse with the abandoned of her sex, would recal them from these excesses, and restore the true spirit and ritual of amorous worship,-proceeds to state her disappointment, with allusions too indelicate and gross for me to quote; though they be such as no modest female could understand.-For a conclusion to this half-reference, I am disposed to borrow the words of Lear: "Fye, fye, fye! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of "civet, good Apothecary, to sweeten my imagina"tion."

In lieu of civet, I will refer, for purification, to the elegant, interesting, moral, and pious works of Madame de Genlis; which, notwithstanding their various merits, furnish instances of failure to paint British manners with resemblance, or success.

I might allude to Miss Bridget;-the name selected for the English Governess of Adele;-to passages easily discoverable in Les Vœux témeraires;-or to Albert's letter from England, to Pauline.* But I choose rather to refer to Les Souvenirs de Felicie.

There, the Authoress informs us-that having declared "qu' elle feroit volontiers un grand voyage, 66 pour aller voir deux personnes, amies depuis long temps, par une veritable amitié,-he bien, Ma"dame, reprit Lord Castlereagh,† allez à Langolen:

* In the admirable work, entitled Les Méres Rivales. + Thus I translate " M. Stuard, Fils ainé de Lord Londondery."

vous verrez là le modele, &cet. &cet. &cet. "Vou"lez vous" (his Lordship most obligingly continues,) sçavoir l'histoire de Lady Eleonore Buttler, et de "Miss Ponsonby ?*-J'en serai charmée. Je vais 66 vous la conter.-A ces môts, nous nous appro"chons de M. Stuard: nous formons un petit cercle "autour de lui: il se recueille un moment ;+ ensuite "il reprend la parole, à peu près dans ces termes : Lady Eleonore Buttler, agée aujourdhui de” (fye, mylord!) " ans, naquit à Dublin. Orpheline "au berceau, riche heritiere, aimable et jolie, elle "fut," &cet. &cet. &cet. The known warmth and animation of Lord Castlereagh's eloquence (in which there is so much heart and enthusiasm,) prevailed. "Il fut décidé, dans cette même soirée, que nous "partirions incessamment pour Langolen."-They accordingly set off; arrived; and were happier than I can tell. As for the Authoress, after having past a most agreeably sleepless night,-kept awake by an Æolian Harp, which she tells you she mistook for the mere harmony of a Welch Storm,§—she refreshed

*Sœur du fameux Orateur du Parlement d' Irlande." Note de l'original.

+ One can well believe this of Lord Castlereagh; even though the Recueillement were for plus d'un moment.

Here his Lordship tells a story of some pages. I mean some pages' length.

§ This is no exaggeration, (of mine I mean;) See the Origi nal.

herself in the morning, by a walk with "les deux "Amies." I shall not dwell on the "immenses 66 prairies," or " amphitheatre de collines," which this promenade afforded; and which my Readers have (or might have) seen a hundred times, on their road from Holyhead to London; but, passing these undescribed, shall come reluctantly,* to what they have never seen; and what I fear the fair visitors of miladi Eleonore can have but dreamed of. "Toute " cette côte solitare etoit, sans doute, jadis florissante "et peuplée: maintenant elle est livrée à la seule "Nature. On n'y voit plus aujourdhui que des ❝ troupeaux de chêvres, et quelques Pâtres dispersés, "assis sur les rochers, et jouant de la harpe."+

Readers, have you ever seen, or heard, these melodious Apparitions, on any of the rocks of Denbighshire? I must admit, that Gray beheld a Bard upon a rock; and even heard him "strike the deep "sorrows of his Lyre." But to accomplish this, he had more to do, than make a journey to Llangollen, or Llanroost: he had to antedate himself; and be come the cotemporary of the victorious and politick

* For I greatly admire the beauty and tendency of the works of Madame de Genlis.

+ In the original it is "de la harpe Irlandaise." But what I dwell on incredulously (and am content to be confined to this,) is the circumstance of hearing these Pâtres harping on the rocks at all. Madame de Genlis would not falsify!-Je m'y perds.

Edward the First. And when, after all, he saw "the Poet," he was indebted for this vision to his Imagination; which bodying forth the forms of things unknown, he turned them to shapes,-beyond the ken. of miladi Eleonore, or her romantick Guests;-unless we suppose these to have also drawn upon their Fancy.

But foreign Nations cannot be more unacquainted with the character of the English, than these latter are (in general) ignorant of the manners which distinguish Ireland. This ignorance, and the (I am sorry to be obliged to term it narrow and conceited) prejudice, from which it springs, have in our time been mischievously and provokingly fomented, by the appearance of the celebrated, or rather notorious Castle Rackrent;-a professed copy, whose original I have rarely, if ever, had a glimpse of: where I have, it has been an original-which this work grossly, and at the expense of all just similitude, caricatures and yet what thus at best is but an exaggerated and buffoon portrait of manners, lurking in our remotest provinces, and confined to our inferior orders, is--if not exhibited, at least received in England, as a sketch of our general habits; and a picture, not of a past, but of the present time; not of the dregs, but of the higher classes of our people ;-whilst the Irishman, who presumes to expostulate against this notion, is supposed to be blinded by his prejudice; or to be more patriotick than veracious.