of a French amour, you are overpowered by words, you are adored, idolized; but in all the graceful positions [Mr. Bulwer has too much of French feeling, to say 'grimaces'] into which gallantry throws itself, as amidst all the phrases it pours forth, there wants that quiet and simple air, that deep, and tender, and touching, and thrilling tone which tell, beyond denial, that the heart your own yearns to is really and truly yours. The love which you find in France is the love made for society-not for solitude: it is that love which befits the dazzling saloon, the satined boudoir; it is that love which mixes with intrigue, with action, with politics, and affairs; it is that love which pleases, and never absorbs; which builds no fairy palace of its own, but which scatters over the trodden paths of life more flowers than a severer people find there."

Of courtezans in England, Colquhoun says that "In point of numbers they certainly exceed credibility; but although there are many exceptions, the great mass (whatever their exterior may be) are mostly composed of women who have been in a state of menial servitude, and of whom not a few, from the love of idleness and dress, with the misfortune of good looks, have, partly from inclination, not seldom from previous seduction and loss of character, resorted to prostitution as a livelihood.

"From the multitudes of these unhappy females that assemble in all parts of the town, it is that the morals of our youth are corrupted.

"These lures for the seduction of youth passing the streets in the course of their ordinary business, might be prevented by a police applicable to this object, without either infringing upon the feelings of

humanity, or insulting distress; and still more is it practicable to remove the noxious irregularities which are occasioned by the indiscreet conduct, and the shocking behaviour of women of the town and their still more blamable paramours, in openly insulting public morals, and rendering the situation of modest women at once irksome and unsafe, either in places of public entertainment, or while passing along the most public streets of the metropolis, particularly in the evening.

"To the disgrace, however, of the police, the evil has been suffered to increase, and the boxes in the theatres often exhibit scenes which are certainly extremely offensive to modesty, and contrary to that decorum which ought to be maintained, and that protec. tion to which the respectable part of the community are entitled against indecency and indecorum; when their families, often composed of young females, visit places of public resort.

"To familiarize the eyes and ears of the innocent part of the sex to the scenes which are often exhibited in the theatres, is tantamount to carrying them to a school of vice and debauchery."

It is evident that with such reasonable freedom of divorce as I have proposed-in other words, with well. assorted marriages, or the means of ensuring the society of the beings who are dearest to each other in the world, there could exist no motive for such extensive and demoralizing courtezanism.

The facility of prostitution in Africa and in some of the South Sea Islands, is evidently the result of another cause the mere barbarism of the people, and the despotism of the men.

The negresses are, generally speaking, lively, gentle, and amorous; and very universally the husbands make no opposition to their fancy for strangers, though jealous of men of their own colour.

The English missionaries to the South Seas state that, although it was night, two women swam off to them to be admitted on board, and when they found that the missionaries would not admit them, kept swimming round the vessel for more than half an hour, crying in a suppliant tone of voice, "Waheini, Waheini!" We are women, we are women! At last, they became tired, and swam to shore. Two Indians who were with the missionaries followed them, after having in vain begged of the captain to let them sleep on board: he was fearful of the consequences.

The following morning, visits were paid to the missionaries very early. Seven young girls, remarkable for their beauty, swam from the shore and passed three whole hours in swimming and playing about the vessel, crying out continually, "Waheini." During this time, some of the inhabitants of the island came on board, amongst others, a chief who requested the captain to let his sister, who was one of the swimmers, come in, which was granted. The complexion of this girl was very good, though somewhat yellowish, but it was a healthy colour, with a rosy tinge on the cheeks. She was tall and rather strongly made, but the symmetry of her features and the proportion of all her limbs were such that she would have formed a model for a sculptor. A little Otaheitan girl, who was with the missionaries, and who was very pretty, was completely eclipsed, and seemed to feel so; but she had the advantage by her mildness, gentleness and particu

larly by her modesty. Shocked to see a female naked in the midst of men, she made haste to cover her with an Otaheitan garment that became her very well. When the other swimmers saw this dress, they became still more importunate for admission. Their number kept continually increasing, and when the missionaries saw that they were determined not to return to the shore, they took pity upon them and brought them on board. The only clothing these women had was a girdle of leaves: they expected to obtain dresses like the first, but it was not possible to give to all; and even the goats that were thirsting for green leaves, despoiled these poor Indians as if on purpose.

Upon their arrival at one of the Marquesas, Tenaè, a chief, brought five young and pretty girls on board the English vessel for the Europeans, and seemed surprised and hurt the next morning, when he found that none of them had suited.

He also, to entertain his hosts, invited them to pass two or three days in a valley in the island. Mr. Cook willingly consented, but Mr. Harris, not wishing to make one of the party, Tenaè left him his wife, desiring him to treat her as his own. It was useless to protest against the arrangement; the chief's wife reckoned upon Mr. Harris's gallantry. When she found that he paid her no attention, she denounced him to the other women in the neighbourhood; and while Mr. Harris was asleep, they came in a body to see if there was not some mistake about his sex. He was so alarmed at the free manners of these women when he awoke amongst them, that he resolved to quit a country where such morality existed.

The French of Bougainville's expedition were simi

larly treated; the Otaheiteans being eager to supply them with the youngest and prettiest of their wives.

...

"The favours accorded to Europeans, we are informed, were always renumerated by presents, and the coarest hardware of Europe was as valuable as jewels on these distant shores, and easily gained the favours of the most distinguished beauties. Even the chiefs could not withstand their temptation . . . The islanders themselves appear to purchase the favours of the women, for the poorest of them are generally unmarried . . The same custom seems to exist in almost all the islands inhabited by the Malay race. In New Holland, wives sell themselves even to their husbands, and the wife of Ben-nil-long, who visited England in 1795, came to him when he returned, for a pair of European stays and a rose-coloured bonnet."

"If," says Kotzebue, "the modesty which conceals the mysteries of love among civilized nations, be the offspring only of their intellectual culture, it is not surprising that a wholly uninstructed people should be insensible to such a feeling, and, in its unconsciousness, should even have established public solemnities which it would strike us as excessively indelicate.”

"The women, however, who distributed their favours indiscriminately, were almost always of the lowest class.

"Among the higher classes, a most licentious association called Ehriori, including both sexes, existed. [This consisted of about a hundred males and a hundred females, who formed one promiscuous marriage.] Renouncing the hopes of progeny, its members rambled about the island, leading the most dissolute lives; and if a child was born among them, the laws