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these Elysian scenes of rural innocence and tranquillity. We have already transcribed a few sentences from this part of the work, which may serve to give the reader some idea of the felis city of this numerous class. But we have our doubts of its continuance, when we are told that many of these petits proprietaires have not land enough to find entire occupation for a plough and team; and that the independent lord of an acre is seen " trailing a sort of ploughing machine, resembling a harrow, over his small territory, with one small donkey, the scrub of the farm. Still, however, this man is an independent proprietor," &c. But what will his sons be when this domain shall be equally divided amongst them, as the Code Napoleon requires it to be?

"National idiosyncrasy," says Lady Morgan, at the beginning of the second book, (on SOCIETY,)

"must always receive its first colouring

from the influence of soil and of climate; and the moral characteristics of every people be resolvable into the peculiar constitution of their physical structure. Religion and government, indeed, give a powerful direction to the principles and modes of civilized society, and debase or elevate its inherent qualities, by the excellence or defect of their own institutes. But the com

plexional features of the race remain fixed and unchanged, the original impression of nature is never effaced."

And a little afterwards, in the middle of an indignant and pathetic diatribe against Louis XI. and Louis XIV. we are told, that, "in the history of civilized society, there is perhaps no parallel for the moral degradation which enveloped France during the whole of the eighteenth century." By what means French Society has risen from this unparalleled moral degradation to the no less unparalleled elevation which we have seen it has reached, at least among the inhabitants of the country, and this, in spite of "the influence of soil and climate, and physical structure," which, we may suppose, have not experienced any considerable alteration, could not but form a very interesting subject of inquiry; if it were not clear as daylight, that government and religion, or the want of both, according to Lady Morgan, have been the sole causes of both these extremes, and that soil and climate, and physical

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structure, have nothing to do in the matter. But it is not our business to dwell on trifling inconsistencies in such a splendid exordium.-Further, all the crimes of the Revolution are ascribed to the training given to the population under the despotism of the old government, when it seems the question or torture was a thing of every day occurrence;" but, upon Buonaparte's elevation to the imperial dignity, "by the unanimous election of the people," the moral character of the whole nation seems to have undergone a radical improvement. Not only were crimes punished, by the sword of justice, wielded by so powerful an arm, or prevented by the vigilance of his police, but the vices and follies fostered by the corruptions of the old regime, were banished from society by means of the excellent example set before his subjects by this eminent person himself; -upon whom Lady did eulogium, contrasting, for the sake Morgan now pronounces a very splenof effect, the better parts of his character with the fooleries and imbecility of some other crowned heads. As to the old nobility, who are treated on all occasions with very little ceremony, the modérés and ultras differ chiefly in this, that the former have attached themselves to the king, and the latter to the princes; in other respects, they are much upon a level, as is fully established by the following elegant passage:—

"Balanced in the measure of their talent, and equally careless of the consequences of their conduct, these two factions occupy the foreground of the scene, and intimately associated, yet fiercely opposed, avowing one principle, yet pursuing different measures, they seem to imitate the warfare of the monkey tribes, who make war on their own species, and threatening vengeance from their opposite trees, grind their teeth, and chatter, and grimace, in expectation of that moment when they claw, and to exterminate." may commence with safety to bite, and

It was the peculiar felicity of Lady Morgan to be well received, and even treated with confidence, by the most opposite political parties. "It has frequently occurred to me," she informs us, "to have witnessed the most opposite discussions, and listened to the most contradictory opinions in the course of the same evening; assisting at a royalist dinner, drink

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ing ultra tea, and supping en republicaine." Besides these extraordinary opportunities of procuring the most accurate knowledge of the state of public opinion, Lady Morgan, either for the sake of her rank, or her talents, or of both, seems to have found a ready access to the most distinguished characters of every party, and of every profession. It is impossible not to perceive that she was upon very intimate terms with the emigrant nobility in particular; and, indeed, an ill-natured critic might suggest, that it must have been from them that she has learned to dignify her pages with so exclusive an exhibition of family and high rank. We cannot read a few sentences without being convinced, that her Ladyship had been suddenly raised above her natural level, and set down, as if by magic, on the very summit of French society, from whence, as is usual in such remarkable cases, she disdains to recognise those whom she has left below. With the exception of her literary footman, she holds no communion with inferior people. The ease and freedom of the arrangement of her materials, as well as the grandeur of her conceptions, and the energy of her language, no less than the profusion of splendid names which dazzle the eye in every page, may be held as a sufficient refutation of those who would charge her with republican principles, and allowed to prove, that she is no less ambitious to attain than qualified to adorn, the high station to which for a moment she had been elevated.

One of our own corps to whom we had expressed an opinion similar to what we have just stated, insists, that Lady Morgan's pretensions to intimacy with so many celebrated characters, can only be admitted with very considerable qualifications. After crying out fudge for three times, with a very peculiar tone of voice and a most significant movement of features, he observed more gravely, that if it be true that she assisted at royalist dinners, drank ultra tea, and supped en republicaine, the true explanation of the fact is, that she was treated by all parties, with merely that civility with which strangers of any note are received in polished society, but that, in fact, she was admitted by none of them to witness any other discussions

than such as are held at table in the presence of their own domestics.-But we shall put it in the power of the reader to judge between us in this important question, upon the answer to which depends the credibility of half the book. We may begin with our author's acquaintance among the royalists, and lay before him their vindication of a much abused establishment under the old regime.

"A very clever and intimate friend of mine at Paris, with considerable talent and some wit, had gotten deeply entangled with the royalistes enragés; and was herself indeed enragée, to a point that was sometimes extremely amusing. We were chatting one morning, when a royalist acquaintance joined us, and mentioned an ordinance of the king's, which directed the formation of a new military school, after the model of that instituted in 1750, for the education of the young nobility. I could not help remarking, that I doubted whether this new school, upon old rules, would assimilate in its systems with the tactics of the military and polytechnic seminaries, formed during the revolution. My little enragée flew into a paroxysm of loyal indignation, and interrupted me with mais, ma chère, ne me parlez pas de vos écoles polytechniques, those hot-beds of jaIt is our wish cobinism and brigandage. (nous autres) that the rising generation should be shut up, and educated in a profound ignorance of all that has happened for these last thirty years; and that, on coming forth into the world, they might find every thing in statu quo, as it was in the beau siècle de Louis XIV?

"And the Bastille ?" I asked. "Eh, mais oui, ma chère; et la Bastille aussi."

"The Bastille, she added, was a sort of maison de plaisance, when men of rank were sent to it, for having incurred the displeasure of the king; as in the instance of

the Duke de Richelieu, who was visited there

by all the beautiful princesses of that day, who were éperdument in love with him. That for the lie du peuple, it was, if any thing, too stately and too noble a place of confinement; and as for the iron cages and subterraneous dungeons, they were only for state criminals, who spoke against the king and his government, et tout cela, c'étoit très juste.' But I insisted on the facility with which a lettre de cachet might be

procured, to shut up such suspected crinounced them guilty. minals, before any form of justice had pro

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"She shrugged her shoulders, and replied: Pour les lettres de cachet, on en peut dire autant de bien que de mal! tenez ma chère! Suppose I had a brother whose conduct disgraced our family, would you

have us to expose his shame, and throw an odium on our house, by suffering him to come into a court of justice? No, there was a time, when, under such circumstances, the honour and dignity of a noble family was saved; and a lettre de cachet got rid of the mauvais sujet, and buried together the criminal and the crime. Eh bien il faut toujours espérer que le bon tems reviendra ! ! !'”

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Lady Morgan's intercourse with the royalists, however, certainly was not so intimate as with what she designates the "unclassed but suspected order," which comprehends all who are not royalists, either purs or exagerés. "With what pleasure," she exclaims, "have I flown to some forbidden ground, where, in the hallowed circle of amity and confidence, wit and genius exercised their proscribed witcheries." We should be glad to transcribe some of these fine things for the gratification of our readers, but our author, having once narrowly escaped the Bastille herself, and the iron masque, and the fate of Wilson, Hutchinson, and Bruce, becomes more guarded, and does not venture to disclose the mysteries of this forbidden ground; unless on one occasion, where she presents us with a song of which she heard the first stanzas in the antiroom while she was 66 unshawling." As it probably was not meant to be a great secret, we may venture to give a few lines of it as a specimen of the "proscribed witcheries" of the " pected class."

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"Il voudrait régner sur la France Ce roi, qui parmi es Français, Osa dire avec insolence:

"Je dois ma Couronne aux Anglais." We suspect, after all, that Lady Morgan was not often admitted behind the curtain; for, though she abounds in small incidents, and seizes on every opportunity to hold up the ultra-royalists to derision or suspicion, we can find very little about the constitutionalists and Buonapartists except what is enveloped in general, but certainly very pathetic, reflections.

She appears much more at home when she aims at delighting us, by exhibiting such traits as the following, which are meant to possess the further recommendation of exposing her own countrymen to ridicule, though perhaps but too well merited :

"I was one evening in the apartment of the Princesse de Volkonski, (a Russian lady,) awaiting the commencement of one of her pretty Italian operas, when one of these fashion-mongering boys,' as Beatrice calls them, newly arrived in Paris, appeared at the door of the salon, flushed with the conscious pride of the toilette, and reconnoitring the company through his glass. I had the honour to be recognised by him; he approached, and half yawned, half articulated, some inquiries, which he did not wait to be answered, but drawled on to somebody else, whom he disA very pleatinguished with his notice. the Comte de L-s-ge, was talking to me, sant little French woman, the daughter of when my English merveilleux joined us. Mad. de V. stared at him with unsated curiosity and evident amusement; and when he had passed on, asked, mais qu'est-ce que cela veut dire ?' I answered, "C'est un dandi !'

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"Uu dandi !' she repeated, un dandi ! c'est donc un genre parmi vous, qu'un dandi?'

"I replied, "no; rather a variety in the species. I endeavoured to describe a dandy to her, as well as it would bear definition; asking her, whether there was no pendant for it in French society? • Mais, mon Dieu, oui,' she replied; " nos jeunes duchesses sont á-peu-prés des dandis.”

"A few days after this exhibition of dandyism, I met with another of the tribe in the hotel of the Baron Denou. He was a young diplomatist, and added the weight of official solemnity to the usual foppery of a merveilleux. Associating only with his own spy-glass, he passed with languid indifference from one object to another, in the splendid collection he had been brought to see; but without once noticing, by word or look, the eminent and celebrated person, who was so much more worthy of attention, than even the treasures he possessed. M. Denou, too much amused to be hurt

by this want of good manners in his guest, followed him, with a look of pleased attention. I could almost trace in his eye a desire to place this modern curiosity among his Chinese josses, and bamboo pagodas. When this rare specimen of quaint fashions of the times' took his leave, Mons. Dexclaimed with a smile, and a shrug of the shoulders: • Quel drôle de corps qu'un dandi!' I was surprised to find that the Egyptian traveller had so far extended his study of the human character,

as to discover at once an English dandy, from her fears, and restored to her illby its generic character."

Ex his disce omnes. We can now only look in upon what remains of Lady Morgan. The third book, having, like the former, the title of "Society," is entirely occupied with the influence and characteristics, and domestic habits of her own sex ; but it is an article not very well calculated for family consumption in this country; and we rather think it should have been, like French laces and other prohibited wares, seized as the lawful perquisite of the custom-house officers at the place of its importation. There is something in the following passage, however, amusing enough, to which, though we have not the name, it is not improbable that parallel cases might be found in our own country.

"The suivante of the young married lady, frequently becomes in time la bonne of the matron; and to her care the children are entrusted; even the first rudiments of their education are committed. La bonne is a charming character, peculiar to France; something between the Grecian nurse and the Spanish duenna; with all the affectionate devotion of the one, and all the of ficial dignity of the other. Respected by the servants, beloved by the children, and treated with consideration by her employers, la bonne generally remains in the family, after her young charge is consigned to the care of superior instructors taire is said to have submitted to the jurisdiction of his bonne, at the moment that he exercised an absolute authority over the opinions of more than one half of literary Europe.

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"In one of the many delightful conversations I had with Madame la Marquise de Vilette, on the subject of Voltaire, her adopted father, she related to me pleasant anecdotes of the influence which Barbara, or, as he called her, Babu, his ancient bonne, held over him. Barbara was

some

an old Savoyard, peevish, irritable, and presuming; but devoted to her illustrious charge, and watching with maternal solicitude over those infirmities of his age, which

her own was exempt from. One day,' said Mad. de Vilette, during my residence at Ferney, while I was making my toilette, I was startled by the violent ring

Je

ing of Voltaire's bell. I flew to his apartment, while Barbara (who always sat in his antichamber) hobbled after me. sonne món agonie!' vociferated Voltaire, as we entered together. Je me meure,'— he then explained to us, that he had drank a cup of rose water by mistake, and was almost poisoned. Comment donc !' exclaimed the provoked Barbara, released

temper.

"Comment donc ! Il faut être la bête des bites, pour faire une telle sottise.'

"Bete, ou non,' replied Voltaire, with the subdued tone of a chided school-boy, 'il n'est guere plaisant d'être empoisonné même par l'esprit de rose !'"

"Paris" stands at the top of the fourth, fifth, and sixth books, of which the first is chiefly occupied with a description of the pleasures of the table; the second with an account of the public buildings, and works of art; and the third with a very flattering picture of the industry, civilization, and morals of the "street population.' One short extract from the last one may suffice to establish either the credulity or the credibility of our author, and she may hereafter choose her own

alternative.

"All the laws in France, directed against mendicity, were rigorously put in force under the imperial government, and the effect of that wholesome discipline still remained. But the best, and surest law, that militates against its existence, is the universal sobriety, the natural industry of the people, and the decrease of the fatal influence of a religion, which inculcates the virtue of beggary, as an article of faith, and the maintenance of idleness, as a pious duty. No mendicant friar-no begging monk, pale, mild, and interesting, now sets the example of idleness and social degradation to the populace of the streets of Paris, nor way-lays the sentimental traveller, with a dramatic air, and representing sanctity. And though it has been asserted by a modern traveller, who spent a few days in the capital of France, visiting the Palais Royal, and walking in the gardens of the Thuilleries, that from the view of society there presented to him, it appeared, that France was wholly un changed by the event of the Revolution ;' yet, even to his impartial observation, it must have appeared, that there is less misery, less want, less beggary, in the streets of Paris, than is described by any traveller of former times, to have existed in that capital, before the Revolution. In fact, he

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must have observed that there is none whatever.

We must pass over the seventh book, which treats of the "French Theatre," and bring the present article to a close with one or two short notices of the eighth and last, which professes to make us acquainted with the" eminent and literary characters" of that country. The more prominent parts of its contents, besides the

usual abuse of the old regime-the tyranny of Louis XIV., and the servility of men of letters in his reign, are the National, afterwards the Imperial Institute, and now the " Institut Royal de France," with some account of one of its meetings, at which Lady Morgan was present-the oftenremarked longevity of the literary characters of France the unworthy treatment of many of them since the Restoration, and their elegant and contented retirement from public life -the tone of indiscriminate eulogy in which she speaks of all those who had distinguished themselves during the Revolution, or had been honoured with the notice of Napoleon; and, above all, the self-complacency and obtrusive vanity of the author herself, who is quite familiar with them all, and evidently wishes to appear the most distinguished personage amongst them. There is, indeed, a rather interest ing narrative of a visit which she made to La Fayette, at his chateau of La Grange; yet we see little more than the exterior of this eminent person, no distinctive lineaments by which he may be known from a thousand others, who live, die, and are forgotten.

Among the many great men who make a figure in the pages of Lady Morgan, it may have excited some surprise that his Holiness has not hitherto been honoured with her notice, especially as she has allotted a reasonable portion of her work to the Catholic superstition, and the "Christian mythology.” But here he is at

last.

"The Bishop of Blois, however, as he himself assured me, was not the only Catholic prelate who had advocated the cause of liberty, and drawn his arguments in its

favour from the same source where he had

sought them. Here,' he said, one morning, taking a pamphlet from the drawer of his writing-desk, here is a singular and interesting sermon, in favour of civil liberty, as intimately united with Christian faith, composed by citizen Cardinal Chiaramonti, bishop of Imola; and addressed to the people of his diocese, in the Cisalpine Government, in the year 1797. Speak ing, however, of the union of Christianity and civil liberty, I allow that he goes beyond the line of mere constitutional prin ciples, when he observes- oui mes chers freres, soyez tous Chrétiens, et vous serez d'excellens democrates.' It was impossible not to smile at the simplicity and gravity with which this was uttered; and I ob

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served, your citizen Cardinal has, I suppose, long since paid the forfeit of this imprudent profession of faith. No,' replied the bishop gravely, the sentiments of Christian faith, and paternal tenderness, which breathe through the whole of this excellent homily, (some exaggeration in evitably to that day of exaltation excepted,) terms and principles which belonged inhave been carried by the excellent bishop of Imola, from his see in Cisalpine Gaul to the throne of the Christian world; and the present successor of St Peter is worthy of the high place he fills.' The citizen Cardinal Chiaramonti is now the venerable Pope Pius VII.”

Charles Morgan, we think a great Of the appendix, written by Sir deal better than of the work itself. with the present state of affairs in Though he is far from being pleased France, yet he writes with candour and moderation, and entertains apparently liberal views of the very important subjects of which he professes to treat. It is a curious circumstance that Sir Charles never appears to have borne a part in the coteries, in which his learned lady was so highly distinguished. We do not recollect an instance of his addressing, or having been addressed, in these circles of else; nor is there a story or a single amity and confidence," or anywhere bon mot reported upon his authority.

lebrated work will descend to the In a few months, perhaps, this cevale of oblivion; yet all of it, indeed greater part of it, need not then perish. It does not, perhaps, contain much

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pour servir a l'histoire, but the materials are excellently adapted to another purpose, and are already more than half prepared for it. Let the author listen to the advice of her friends in time. Sir Charles will explain to his lady the importance of the medical adage, venienti occurrite morbo. As soon, therefore, as these tomes begin to indicate their approach to the quiescent pupa state, no pains should be spared to promote their speedy resuscitation, in their last stage of existence,-when borne aloft upon the wings of fiction they may flutter, like their gaudy and ephemeral prototypes, for another season, to the delight and admiration of a much more extensive and less fastidious circle of readers than she can hope to attract towards the present flippant and ambitious performance

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