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Miss Apemode to quit his house; for we may fairly conclude, that when the cause of the evil he complains of is removed, the effect will soon cease. Let him pursue lenient measures with his wife, let him be even generous towards her cousin; but let him separate them by all means: in this one point he must be firm. I would recommend to him to procure for his wife every rational amusement within his reach, and if her heart is as good as he seems to think it, gratitude will soon make her renounce those pleasures which are inimical to his tranquillity.

THE ADVISER.

ART. VIII.—On the Merits of a Residence in France. From the (London) Monthly Magazine.

ACTIVITY OF THE WOMEN.

AT the hotel or inn where you arrive, you may find the husband in the habit of going to market, and of keeping the books; but all other business, such as receiving the travellers, adjusting the bills, superintending the servants, male and female, falls under the province of madame. Again, if you go to an upholsterer's to buy a few articles of furniture, you may observe the husband superintending his workmen in the back shop or yard, but leaving it to his fair partner to treat with customers, to manage all cash receipts, and payments, and, in many cases, to fix on the articles to be purchased out of doors. The mercer's wife does not limit her services to the counter, or to the mechanical tasks of retailing and measuring-you see her at one time standing beside the desk, and giving directions to the clerks; at another you hear of her being absent on a journey to the manufacturing towns, and are desired to suspend your purchases, not till her return, which would be remote, but for the few days necessary to let her send home marks of her progress, car madame nous fait ses envois a mesure qu'elle fait ses achats.' In short, women in France are expected not only to lend an assisting hand to their husbands in business, but to take a lead in the management, to keep the correspondence, to calculate the rate of prices, and to do a number of things that imply not merely fidelity and vigilance, but the habit of deciding and acting by herself in the most important departments of the concern. We need hardly add, that they are abundantly zealous in points so nearly connected with the welfare of their families, and that the extent of assistance thus afforded to the husband far exceeds any idea that can be formed by those who have not resided in France. But all advantages have their drawbacks, and this assistance is not afforded without several important sacrifices, among which we are to reckon the almost universal neglect of neatness in the interior of the house, and the more serious charge of inattention to the health of their children. The greater proportion of the latter are separated from their mothers at the time when parental tenderness is most wanted, and entrusted to country nurses, who are frequently very deficient in the means of preserving their health, or providing for their comfort.

If we look to the higher circles, we shall find every where examples of similar activity and address. Your readers may have fresh in their minds the multiplied letters and applications of madame Ney, and the more fortunate exploit of madame Lavalette. They will not have forgotten the courageous stand made by the dutchess of Angouleme at Bordeaux, in March, 1815, and her repeated addresses to the troops of the garrison.

MORALS.

This is a very delicate topic, and one on which I take the liberty to differ from a great number of our countrymen. In nothing does the exaggerating propensity of the French appear more conspicuous than in the tale of scandal; not that such tales are particularly frequent in this country, but, because, when they do come forth, they are arrayed in a garb that would hardly ever enter into the imagination of any of our countrywomen. On our side of the channel a rumour, whether among the fair or the mercenary part of the public, generally has probability, in some degree, for its foundation; but in France all you require is the direct allegation, the confident assertion. Nobody thinks of scrutinizing your evidence, and you are in no danger of being afterwards reminded of your fallacy, in a country where almost every thing was absorbed in the thirst of novelty. A lady in France, who may happen to have a quarrel, or or who may give rise to a hostile feeling by her vanity or affectation, is not, as with us, merely satirised for the eccentricity of her dress or manner, but is doomed forthwith to encounter the most vehement attacks on her reputation. Lovers are immediately found out for her, and the circumstances of assignations are recapitulated with as much precision as if the parties had been present at the forbidden interview; if she has eclipsed her rivals at a ball, or received the marked attentions of a leading personage, the unkindly rumour will fly from mouth to mouth, without exciting, among at least ninetenths of the public, the least doubt of its reality. It lasts, indeed, only for a few weeks, until some other female becomes equally the object of jealousy, and is made to furnish materials for a fresh series of wondrous anecdotes. It is ten to one that, at the time of the arrival of an English traveller in a French town, the haute noblesse are occupied with some precious rumour of this description, and our moralizing countryman records it in his journal with a sad conviction of the depravity of the nation.

A residence of several years in a provincial town of considerable size, and of much genteel society, has satisfied me that nine-tenths of the tales circulated against particular individuals are unfounded, and were never meant by the inventors to produce any thing beyond a temporary discredit to the obnoxious party. Common sense tells us, that in every civilized country, a woman will look for her happiness in the affection of her husband, and in the esteem of the respectable part of her sex; nor can France be accounted an exception, unless it can be shown that, by some strange peculiarity, the men in that country are indifferent to the chastity of their wives and daughters, or the women callous to every thing in the shape of

vice. Gallantry is the vice of an idle man; it is characteristic of the higher ranks in France, in the same manner, and perhaps in a somewhat higher degree than in other countries; but how small is the proportion of these idlers to the great mass of the population! The middling and the lower ranks follow the same habits of industry as with us; a married couple can find a maintenance for their family only by a cordial support of each other; and the time of the husband is occupied to a degree that leaves him very little leisure for planning projects on his neighbour's wife.

There is, however, a very marked distinction in the degree of reprobation affixed by French and English ladies to individuals of their sex, labouring under unfavourable imputations. While, with us, the exclusion from society takes place on a general scale, in France, it is only partial, owing (not as the wags will argue) to a community of impropriety on the part of those who still continue their countenance; but to a facility of temper, a wish to view things on the favourable side, a credulity in listening to the vindication of the accused party, a partiality to whoever courts protection; in short, to a variety of causes that do more honour to the heart than the head.

Parents in France are very scrupulous in regard to their daughters, and make a rule of not allowing them to go into company or to places of amusement without the protection of a relation or friend, whose age or character will prevent any loose conversation from the young or giddy part of the other sex. This, to be sure is paying but a bad compliment to the male part of the society; but it gives an English family residing in France an assurance, that their daughters may go without hazard into female society, particularly of an age corresponding to their own. Music, drawing, and dancing, form in that country, as with us, the general occupation of unmarried ladies.

PARIS.

There is a material difference between the French of Paris and the provincial towns, so that the favourable part of my picture is to be understood as applicable chiefly to the latter. Paris has always been the residence of an extraordinary number of oisifs, whether officers, noblesse, or others, who have just money enough to pay their way from day to day: and who, without being absolute adventurers, are perpetually falling into all the exceptionable habits of the inexperienced and idle. A Frenchman is the creature of habit, he has no fixed principles, and follows, with all imaginable pliancy, the example or solicitation of those with whom he happens to be connected for the moment. Such a flexibility of character must inevitably pave the way to a variety of irregularities; and eventually to vices; time is wasted at theatres, at shows, or at the more dangerous occupation of the gaming table? and, although the habitual exaggeration of the French leads them (when speaking of the vices of the metropolis) to exhibit a very outré picture, particularly in what relases to the fair sex, there can remain no doubt that Paris is a place to be avoided, and that it is the scene where, of all others, the national character of the French appears to the greatest disadvantage.

ART. IX.-Notoria; or Miscellaneous Articles of Philosophy, Literature, and Politics

The following Biographical Sketches are selected from the Dictionary of Living Authors' noticed in a former number of our Magazine.

HANNAH MORE This distinguished ornament of her sex was one of the five daughters of a village school-master in the parish of Hanham, near Bristol. Her parents were so meanly situated as to be incapable of giving her that education which she desired. The casual reading of an odd volume of Richardson's Pamela, excited a thirst of knowledge which could not be allayed, and the kindness of some ladies in the neighbourhood enabled her to gratify her inclinations. Her improvement was so rapid as to attract general notice, and among others who distinguished themselves as her friends, was the late Dr. Stonhouse of Bristol, who interested himself so zealously in her behalf as to enable her to set up a school, which prospered greatly under her management and that of her sisters. By the doctor's kindness, she was introduced to the acquaintance of Mr. Garrick, who encouraged her to write for the stage. Her performances in this line became very popular, but after some years the religious views of Miss More took so serious a turn as to produce a declaration in the preface to the third volume of her works, that she did not consider the stage, in its present state, as becoming the appearance or countenance of a Christian, on which account she thought proper to renounce her dramatic productions in any other light than as mere poems. Having realized an independence by an honourable profession and the fruits of her pen, this lady, with her sisters, retired, about twenty years ago, from Bristol to Mendip, where amongst the colliers and the labourers in the lead works, they have effected a wonderful alteration, by erecting and superintending charity schools. Even this good work, however, could not escape opposition, and sorry we are to record, that the attack came from a quarter which ought to bave provided the most prompt and zealous support to the disinterested and Christian undertaking. A sharp controversy was carried on by a neighbouring clergyman against the schools, and several others in their faFour: but, to the honour of the founder herself, she took no part in the strife,

leaving the fruits to justify both her motives and her conduct. When the education of the princess Charlotte became an object of serious attention to her illustrious friends, Mrs. Hannah More was consulted by the first lady in the kingdom, on which occasion she published a work which was deservedly stamped with the royal approbation, as well as that of the world at large. For some years past, this valuable woman has been confined almost wholly to her bed, by an exruciating illness, notwithstanding which writing is her chief delight, and in this condition she has actually produced some of her most esteemed performances, particularly a religious novel, calculated to render that species of literary amusement more serviceable to the diffusion of sound principles and virtuous practice than seems generally to have been consulted in works of fiction.

JAMES HOGG a self-taught poet, born about 1772, who received no instruction after his eighth year, and was first a cowherd, and afterwards a shepherd at Ettrick, N. B. Mr. Walter Scott is said to have interested himself so warmly in his behalf as to have obtained for him by the sale of his works a decent competence, consisting in a little farm in the Highlands.

JAMES LACKINGTON, a native of Somersetshire, of very humble origin, and originally a shoemaker, which profession he quitted and became the vender of second-hand books in Chiswellstreet. His success in this line was so great that he erected a spacious house and shop in Finsbury-square, to which he gave the name of the Temple of the Muses. Mr. Lackington was chiefly indebted to the members of Mr. Wesley's society for his success in trade, yet in his first literary performance he treated the Methodists with unwarrantable severity. At that time, however, he had become the disciple of Paine, but since his retirement from business his religious impressions have been renewed, and he has built a meeting-house for the people of his communion at Taunton, where he now resides.

Sir RICHARD PHILLIPS, Knt. was born in London in 1768, and educated

first at the school in Soho Square, and next at Chiswick. At an early period he conceived an aversion to animal food, in an abstinence from which he has continued to persevere ever since. He was brought up under his uncle, a brewer in Oxford Street, but in 1786, he became partner in the management of a school at Chester, from whence he removed, two years afterwards, to Leicester, where, in 1790, he opened a bookseller's shop and began to publish the Leicester Herald. In 1792 he distinguished himself by his concern in several canals, towards which he was a subscriber on paper, and turned his enterprizing schemes to some advantage. The following year he was prosecuted for selling Paine's Rights of Man, and having been found guilty, was sentenced to be imprisoned twelve months in Leicester gaol. In 1795 his house and printing office were consumed by fire, soon after which he came to London, and was enabled by the democratic party to set up the Monthly Magazine, which was designed to be the organ of that faction, and in which cause it has continued to operate effectually enough from the period of its commencement to the present hour. The success which the publisher experienced in this work induced him to embark pretty largely, first in the hosiery, and next in the bookselling business, so that he found it expedient to remove from St. Paul's Church Yard to New Bridge Street, where he carried on a very extensive concern. In 1807, he was chosen, by the management of his friends, one of the sheriffs of the city of London; and on going up with an address in behalf of ministers, he accepted the honour of knighthood, to the great astonishment of his republican friends. After various manœuvres to support his establishment, his name appeared in the Gazette, and for some months he led a life of obscurity at Pimlico, but on obtaining his certificate, he again burst forth as a meteor in the sphere of literature. His Magazine having been purchased in by some of his friends, he became the avowed editor of that publication.

Mrs. HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI. This lady is the daughter of John Salusbury, Esq. of Bodvel in Caernarvonshire, where she was born about the year 1744. In 1763 she married Mr. Henry

Thrale, an eminent brewer in Southwark, and for some years representative in parliament for that borough. On the death of that gentleman in 1781, his widow and four daughters went to reside at Bath, where, in 1784, Mrs. Thrale gave her hand to an Italian teacher of music named Gabriel Piozzi, with whom she visited the continent, and remained at Florence some years. Mrs. Piozzi was the intimate friend and correspondent of Dr. Johnson, whose displeasure she incurred by her very imprudent marriage; and when the doctor died, she published letters and anecdotes of that venerable character, without paying much regard to the propriety of the selection, or the verity of her relations. The late ingenious Joseph Baretti, in particular, was very severe in his animadversions on her conduct, and Dr. Wolcot published an admirable poem, in which he exposed the literary lady and her competitor, Mr. Boswell, under the appropriate titles of "Bozzy and Piozzi." In the Miscellanies of Mrs. Anna Williams, printed in 1765, is a very beautiful tale written by Mrs Thrale, entitled, "The Three Warnings," besides which she communicated many light essays and poetical effusions to other collections.

Madame DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN is the only daughter of the celebrated M. Necker, by his wife Susan Curchod, the friend and correspondent of Gibbon. She was born at Paris in 1768, and received the most liberal education under the eye of her accomplished parents.

But as Madame Necker encouraged an assembly of literary characters at her house, in which questions of morals, metaphysics, and politics, were freely discussed, the young lady, who witnessed these debates, very early contracted a disputatious and paradoxical spirit. When young, she married the baron de Stael-Holstein, Swedish ambassador at the court of France, but the union was far from being an harmonious one, as the husband soon perceived that his wife was too proud of her own intellectual powers to pay any deference to his opinions. She was besides little attentive to those graces which give a charm to the female character, and her appearance was frequently such as to create disgust by the carelessness of her dress, and the

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