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From Sir Charles Darnley, Bart, to the Marquis de Vermont.

* MY DEAR MARQUIS,

Paris.

By the assistance of your numerous and flattering recommendations, I begin to make my way in French society. I am very sensible of the obligations I owe you in this respect, for I find my countrymen are not very popular in this city; and, with the exception of a very small number of persons of exalted rank, who, by peculiar favour, are still admitted, the doors of the most respectable Parisians are shut against the English. Had I not, therefore, possessed such a talisman, as the name of your friend bestows on me, I must have been satisfied in dividing my mornings between the gallery of the Louvre, and the promenades of the Thuilleries and Bois de Bologne; and my evenings between the theatres, the Palais Royal, and the gaming-houses. Such is the manner in which two-thirds of British travellers consume their time in this town; and such, and such only, are the opportunities they enjoy of examining your national character.

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-I, on the contrary, have been hospitably entertained at several houses; and, in becoming better acquainted with the customs of the country, have already reconciled myself to many which, at first, seemed either extraordinary or improper.. For instance: finding, in the commencement of my career, that only an hour was allotted to dinner (which I confess still appears to me too short a period for that meal, if conversation and not the mere gratification of the appetite brings friends together on such occasions), and observing that your countrymen, immediately after these hasty repasts, hurried away to pay a round of visits, I began to suspect that the French were quite insensible of those pleasures from which we derive our best enjoyments, I mean the charms of a domestic circle. In acquiring a more correct knowledge of your ha

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bits, I perceive my mistake, and acknowledge, that the difference between the usages of the two nations in this respect, is more in the name than the reality. Perhaps it is true, that it happens oftener to an Englishman than to a Frenchman, to spend his evenings with his wife and children, without any company, and with only those amusements which conversation, books, or music afford. But if the soirées of a Parisian are not exclusively devoted to the inmates of his family, he does not pass them with strangers. The visitors whom he receives, or the persons in calling on whom he passes the hours after dinner, are generally either his near relations, or old and longtried friends. He seldom stays by his own fire-side, unless it is enlivened by the presence of some one whom he sincerely loves; but when he goes from home, it is to enjoy the society of those who are endeared to him by the ties of blood, or by those of the tenderest attachment, or not, as is the case too often when we go into the world in London, to mix in heartless crowds of five hundred or a thousand persons, whom vanity, and not affection, brings together.

Indeed, the manner in which the claims of kindred and ancient friendship are attended to, in this country, is highly honourable to the national character. Nothing, I am told, is more rare than a disagreement between parents and children. The remotest degrees of relationship are respectfully remembered, and the nearer ones are considered almost sacred. Indeed, it is delightful, in the centre of a dissipated city, and in the highest circles of its society, to hear those who compose them addressing each other by the primitive but affectionate titles of father, mother, uncle, aunt, or cousin.On the whole, therefore, I think it may be said, with truth, that if a Frenchman goes oftener abroad than

an Englishman, when abroad the Frenchman is more at home.-His wife and children may not occupy so much of his time, but his parents and near relations see him much oftener. Hence, too, arises another amiable trait, which I have much pleasure in remarking,-I mean the general respect which is paid to age. Instead of persons advanced in life being neglected and rarely invited into company (which I fear are faults of commission and omission equally common in England), I find them admitted into all parties in France, and received with every testimony of marked and becoming respect. The youngest and most dissipated coxcomb of Paris will offer his arm to a matron of seventy, if, in crossing the room, her tottering step betrays her need of such assistance; nor will his politeness cease, till he has led her to an armed chair, drawn a footstool near her, and placed her work-bag on the table before her. Nor have I ever seen here such scenes, as I fear you have too frequently occasion to remark at our balls in London, -I mean,two or three giddygirls leaning on the arm of their partners, and making their way to the supperroom, in high glee and spirits, while their respectable mother, alone and unprotected, seems scarcely remembered, and is left to the mercy of a fashionable, but still ill-mannered crowd. But after making these concessions, which truth and justice demand, I must be permitted to remark another trait in your national character of a different description, which I was led to observe, by being accidentally present at a curious scene, which I shall now relate:

I must now begin by telling you that I have learnt to conform myself to the usages of this country, and now make a round of daily visits with all the regularity of a London physician. On one of these occasions, while paying my respects to your friend the Countess de

I found a large party assembled, and busily engaged in a conversation, which my arrival by no means interrupted; for you know, that, in a Parisian circle, every thing is openly discussed, whether it relates to the ingredients of a medicine, or the effects which it has produced to the arrangement of a court-dress,

or to that of a wedding to the hiring of a servant or a house, or to some occurrence deeply affecting the fortunes or the affections of the parties. Well, I found that the present discussion related to a splendid gala, for which the Countess had sent out cards of invitation, and which is given in honour of the approaching nuptials of her lovely daughter with the Marquis de Now the report of this intended gala haying reached the ears of the young: Duchesse de, she became extremely anxious to obtain a ticket, because, as the company invited are to assume, on this occasion, the costume of the reign of Henry IVth she had the vanity to think that her person was particularly suited to the dress usually given in the pictures of those days to "La Belle Gabrielle."Not being known to the Countess, she applied to the Chevalier de

(who is the intimate friend of both ladies) and he willingly undertook the task, which he was now endeavouring to execute. In answer to his request of an invitation for the Duchess, the Countess rather coldly answered," that the entertainment was solely given to her intimate acquaintance, and that she had not the honour of perceiving the name of the Duchess in that list."

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“On which list ?" rejoined the i Chevalier (who would not be deterred from his object) "No person is more ambitious of appearing than her for whom I apply. 1.DE I'Ë "The Duchess is very polite, said the lady of the house." Mais " "Mais! what?" interrupted the Chevalier; "You can have no ob jection to visit the Duchess; for, though beautiful, you know her character is irreproachable."

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Undoubtedly," answered the Countess; and on any other occa sion I should be proud to have the honour of being presented to the Duchess. Mais,"

"For God's sake," again interrupting her, exclaimed the Chevalier, "give me no more of these chilling mais, but let us come to a proper understanding. I need not remind you, that with the sin gle exception of your own, the Duchess keeps the most agreeable house at Paris. Her weekly parties,

T

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are delightful, and she authorises me to say, that if you will gratify her in this particular instance, she will be happy to invite you and your fair daughter to these her regular soirées, and also to a mas querade which she is soon to give and by way of obviating every dif ficulty on the score of ceremony, before the evening of your fête, she will leave her card at your door."

The Chevalier had now touched the magic chord, (for these weekly parties had long been the subject of many an anxious wish in the bosom of the Countess) her frigid word mais was no more repeated every scruple vanished the lady smiled the ticked was signed, sealed, and delivered, and M. Le Chevalier hastened away to the expecting Duchess, not more pleased at having executed his commission than the Countess

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seemed to be at having made so profitable a bargain. Now, though there was no harm in all this, it disclosed a characteristic trait, and shews that such is the ardour of the French, in the pursuit of pleasure, that even the proudest of them are disposed to make a sacrifice of every feeling of delicacy, when amusement offers its seductive bait.

Here, in spite of the unaltered prejudices of your haute noblesse against the very name of trade, two ladies of the highest rank were seen battering ball against ball, with all the trading spirit and manœuvering adroitness which commercial men display when exchanging bales of cotton for hogsheads of claret, or loads of iron for cargoes of East or West Indian produce.

LETTER VIII.

Adieu. CHARLES DARNLEY.

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From the Marquis de Vermont to Sir Charles Darnley, Bart.

MY DEAR DARNLEY,

London.

Ir gives me great pleasure to find, both from your own letters, and from those of my correspondents, that you have already made yourself popular in those circles to which it has been my good fortune to be the accidental cause of first introducing you. My national vanity, too, is much gratified in drawing from you an acknowledgment, that if we have many foibles, we have still some virtues. In your last dispatch, you shew your discernment in observing, and your justice in admiring, the respect which is generally paid to age in France, and to all the ties of kindred attachment and ancient friendship.

As your residence lengthens amongst us, and consequently your knowledge of our habits, I flatter myself that you will discover other objects deserving your commendation; and I am persuaded, that in spite of the caricature drawn in one of your letters of the manner in which you suppose marriages to be contracted amongst us, you will discover that examples of conjugal felicity are at least as common at Paris as in London.

With regard to the negociation for an exchange of parties between two ladies, I shall only now observe, that if our belles make a trade of their amusements, I suspect, that, among the wives of the graver English, similar arrangements (though concealed and managed with more art) are by no means rare. Perhaps I shall have occasion to revert to this subject hereafter, but for the present I have other topics to discuss.

If my letters have been of any use to you, the obligation has been amply repaid by the benefit which I have received from your recommendations in London. I have already received so many invitations to the hospitable tables of your friends, that I have had frequent opportunities of witnessing the manner in which the English associate together on these occasions. I have by accident visited at the houses of persons in very different situations of life, and probably of very different fortunes; and nothing has surprized me more, than to observe in all of them a similar character. I have dined in the families of merchants, lawyers, physicians, private gentlemen, privy-counsellors, and peers, without remarking any distinguish

ing circumstance, which could have shewn the class to which they respectively belonged. Every where I find a party of sixteen or eighteen persons, who are ushered from the drawing-room to the eating-parlour with heraldric precision, according to the rank which each individual is by law entitled to claim. Every where numerous tapers, held in lofty candelabra, or lamps in classical shapes, diffuse a brilliant light. Every where champagne sparkles in the silver ice-pails, while innumerable other wines of the rarest kind, and richest flavour, are handed round in troublesome profusion. { Every where two copious services, with various removes, appear on dishes of embossed plate, or on those of the most beautiful china, and are followed by a dessert of equal magnificence. Every where the attendants are numerous and well dressed, and every where reigns that corresponding neatness and propriety which so peculiarly distinguish your establishments.

Now, though wealth is very generally diffused in this country, I cannot understand how all those persons, among whom this wealth must have fallen in very different proportions, contrive to live with equal splendour and expense. The only difference I can perceive is, that in some houses the dinner is better dressed than at others, and the servants more at home in the performance of their duty. In other respects, an almost tiresome uniformity prevails in the style of the entertainment. A propos de la cuisine, you must pardon me for observing, that the desire of adopting not only the style of our eating, but also the names of our dishes, (which is so prevalent as to become almost a rage) leads your ladies and gentlemen into as many mistakes in talking of them, as their cooks commit in the composition of these fa-vourite articles. Thus at one dinner I was asked to help the bully beef, at another I was offered a cutle of mutton, and at a third I was assured the raggoo veal was excellent, yet the persons from whose lips fell these barbarisms were, in other respects, neither vulgar nor illiterate.

After acknowledging the expensive hospitality with which stran

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gers are received in England, and the taste and elegance which the entertainments given by the higher ranks in this country display, I am sorry to say, that my praises can go no farther. The utmost care seems taken that each side of the table should present a corresponding number of plats raisonés, that the perigord pie should be matched with the vol au vent, and the cotelettes à la minute with the fricandeau In short, that every dish should fill its appropriate station as exactly as the soldier finds his in a military parade. But though such is the regularity observed in the arrangement of the festive board, very little consideration is paid to the selection and placing of the company invited to one of these costly banquets. 1 mean as to the respective qualities and dispositions of those who malgré cux are made close neighbours for three or four hours, at one of these protracted dinners. It is true, as I have already observed, that every body, who has the slightest pretension to precedence, is given the post of honour with all possible attention to his rank, and with very little regard for his wishes or inclinations; but here ends the duty of the master of the house, and the rest of his friends are allowed, pell mell, to range themselves as chance may direct.

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It does indeed seem to me most extraordinary, that, at tables where such large sums are lavished in procuring every possible gratification for the eye and appetite, no regard should be paid to the mutual taste and feelings of the guests. I see every day the most glaring incongruities of this kind at houses, the owners of which would think themselves mortified and degraded, if their servants committed the slightest deviation from received usage, in the arrangement of the various luxuries with which their table is loaded. Thus I have remarked a beautiful and lively young girl seated between a superannuated beau and a prim doctor of divinity. A blue-stocking belle, with a giddy officer of the guards on one side, and a fox-hunting squire on the other a lady of the evangelical school next a professed libertine, a talkative and speculative widow near

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a married man, (who was also deaf,) and a violent oppositionist by the side of a peer in office. I have seen an author condemned to have for his neighbour, the known writer of a critique, under the severity of which he was still smarting; and two Frenchmen placed side by side, who, though both emigrants to this country, were driven hither by the violence of their opposite opinions, the one for his unabated attachment to the fallen Napoleon, and the other for his ultra-zeal in the cause of legitimacy. In short, nothing can be more comical than the confusion produced by such ill-assorted parties, and I have sometimes been half tempted to suspect that the giver of the fête had amused himself in bringing together the persons least suited to each other.

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The natural consequence of the little attention paid to the selection of the company is, that at these great dinners there is but little conversation, and except for professed gluttons sno o real enjoyment. Indeed, I find, that while the ladies remain at table, a certain number of common place questions are so often repeated, in lieu of the sensible remarks which I expected from the well informed English, that I am no less tired of hearing them reechoed than of receiving the circular visits of the servants, who plague one almost every five minutes, with the offer of some fresh kind of beverage. The interrogations I allude to are, with little variation, as follow:

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Will you do me the honour of taking a glass of wine with me? you prefer Sauterne or Hermitage? Cliampagne or Hock? Were You at the Opera last night? What you think of the new ballet? What news have you from Paris? Do you like England? Are you going to Lady Bell Barebone's quadrille, or Lady Lappet's "At Home?"

When the moment arrives at which, according to your ungallant customs, the female part of the company disappears, those who remain become, I am ashamed to say so, more at their ease, and less disposed to formality. I must confess that I have never yet witnessed one of those Bacchanalian scenes, the dread of

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which formerly made a journey to this country appear an object of horror to the mind of a Frenchman. Still it seems strange that the absence of that sex (whose presence every where is the signal of pleasure) should here act as a charm in unbending the heart of John Bull. But though on these occasions your countrymen throw aside their gravity, they do not become either more entertaining or more decorous, and I have often heard a kind of conversation at the best tables, such as in France would only be tolerated at the mess of a garrison town, or among professed debauchees in their moments of secret and vicious indulgence.

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An English gentleman, free from all prejudices, who has often given me very valuable information, and to whom I have remarked, as I have done in this letter to you, how generally magnificent and generally dull I find the dinners at London, assures me that the one characteristic is occasioned by the other. He says that expensive entertainments are given by many who can but ill afford them, and as the grand object (next to making a display for the sake of giving themselves the appearance of men of wealth and importance) is to repay those entertainments of which they have already partaken, and to challenge similar invitations from those whom they are ambitious of visiting, they crowd together as many guests as possible, selecting them, not according to their social qualities, but as policy or vanity dictates, after examining the ledger account in which they regularly enter their parties, past, expected, and

to come.

Indeed my informant goes farther, and pretends that first and secondhand dinners are quite common in London, that is to say, two feasts are given in the same week. To the first all the highest titled and wealthiest of the donor's acquaintance are exclusively invited; and to the second (which is simply a hash of the former repast) his poorer and more distant connexions and country cousins, mixed up, perhaps, with some needy Scotch lords, or minor members of the corps diplomatique, who are reserved for the inferior banquet, in order to excite the wonder and respect of the rest of the company,

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