5 per Ct Imp. Bank DAILY PRICES OF STOCKS, FROM APRIL 26, 1816, TO MAY 25, 1816, BOTH INCLUSIVE. Long 3 per Ct. 3 per Ct. 14 perCt./5 per Ct. 6 257 Irish 3 per Ct Imp. Auns. Omnium. 1 pr. 66 5 6 pm 6 3 pm. 5 34 per Day! Consol Ex. Bills. for Ac. 4 pm. 622 3 9 260 262 60 1462 1753 76921 4 4 + 5 624 5 pm. 623 6 624 1 Holiday. All Exchequer Bills, dated prior to the month of June, 1815, have been advertised to be paid off, and the Interest thereon has ceased. N. B. The above Table contains the highest and lowest prices, taken from the Course of the Exchange, &c. originally published by John Castaign, in the year 1719, and now Centu AGRICULTURAL REPORT. The quantity of water THE past month commenced with very wet cold weather. that fell in the midland counties by far exceeded that of any former May within recollection; the effects of which upon agriculture are very obvious to the traveller. The low lands were inundated, and the tenacious soils so uncommonly saturated with the redundant water, as to chill the corn near the furrows, and to sadden the higher parts from which it could escape more freely. No season since 1799 has so clearly shown to the farmer the great importance of under-draining arable land, as no practice is so sure of rendering the soil certain in all seasons. The young wheat upon clay subsoils is a thin plant, but upon percolating breadths strong, healthful, and forward. The warm weather about the middle of the month caused the crop to put on a more promising appearance than it had in the preceding month. Barley is very backward in appearance, and much set upen tenacious soils from the wet cold weather; but upon the sands and light loams it has a promising appearance, though not so forward in growth as in milder seasons. Oats are also backward, but thick set upon the ground. Beans, peas, and all the leguminous species, have had a rapid growth, and promise a great and early crop. The soiling tribe are not so good as in more favourable seasons: they are thin upon the ground, and appear much injured by the cold wet weather. The brassicas, what small portion was left from the severity of the season, have not run so early as they do in warmer springs. Hops throw up a strong bine, and the orchards have the most promising appearance. From the backward state of the blossom we may expect a great fruit season. The pastures and grass upon high lands have grown much since the weather changed, and promise an early full crop. CORN EXCHANGE, MAY 27.-Wheat, foreign, 62s. to 88s.-Do. English, 66s. to 94s. Rye, 30s. to 385.-Barley, 24s. to 34s.-Malt, 53s. to 65s.-Oats, 21s. to 34s.-Fine Flour, 70s. to 75s.; Seconds, 65s. to 70s. SMITHFIELD MARKET, MAY 27.-Beef, 3s. 8d. to 5s.-Mutton, 4s. to 5s. 4d.-Lamb, 6s. to 7s. 4d.-Veal, 4s. 4d. to 6s.-Pork, 4s. to 5s. per stone of 8 lbs. ST. JAMES'S.-Hay, 31. 3s. to 51. 5s.-Straw, 21. 5s. to 21. 11s. Hops, New Pockets.-Kent, 61. 6s. to 10l. 10s.-Sussex, 51. 15s. to sl. 8s.-Essex, 71, to gl.-Farnham, 10l. os. to 161. Average Prices of Corn, By the Quarter of Eight Winchester Bushels, from the Returns received in the Week ended May 18, 1816. MARITIME COUNTIES. INLAND COUNTIES. Districts. Wheat. Rye. Barley. Oats. Wheat. Rye. Barley. Oats. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. d. s. S. d. s. d. 8. d. 827 4 26 0 26 022 0 320 4 20 11 Rutland, 76 621 9 0/22 8 0 916 8 922 Hereford, 76 3S 626 320 10 29 10/22 10 816 10 Oxford, 21 77 6 28 33 021 78 6 56 53 62 9th Cardigan, Pembroke, Carmarthen, Glamorgan, 10th Gloucester, Somerset, Monmouth, 11th Devon, Cornwall, 12th Dorset, Hants, 186 3 82 61 82 7 29 324 4 30 318 30 9.25 0 68 6 627 9 26 023 27 638 4/28 838 5/32 9 6/22 8 416 21 7 172 132 018 8 6009 AVERAGE OF ENGLAND AND WALES. | 76 | 40 5 | 289 | 217 [ 484 ] METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER. Kept by C. BLUNT, Philosophical Instrument-makes, 38, Tavistock-st. Covent-Garden Barometrical Pressure. Moon. Day. Wind. Max. Min. Temperature Mean. Max Min. Mean. Maximum, 69 24.7452 wind at SE wind at N E PREVAILING WINDS-N 0-NE 3-E 4-SE 13-S 0-SW 3-W 6-N W 1 In answer to the numerous enquiries relative to the best channel for transmitting the New Monthly Magazine to Ireland and Foreign countries, we beg leave to state that it is regu larly delivered by the Postmasters in all parts of Europe at Two Guineas per annum, or One Guinea for six months, if orders are given, and payment made To Mr. AUSTIN, General Post Office, London, for Ireland. To Mr. Cowie, General Post Office, for France, Germany, and Holland. To Mr. WILLIAM SERJEANT, General Post Office, for the Countries bordering on the Baltic and the Mediterranean, and for Portugal and the Brazils. To Mr. THORNHILL, General Post Office, for the West Indies, Bahama, Madeira, Bermuda, and Nova Scotia. To Mr. Guy, of the East India House, for the Cape of Good Hope, and all parts of India. ERRATA. Vol. IV. p. 202, col. 1, line 38, for providentially read providently. Vol. V. p. 142, col. 1, line 20, for two volumes read a large double roll; and line 21, for 69 read 169. Printed by J. Gillet, Crown Court, Fleet Street, London. A TRIP TO PARIS IN AUGUST AND SEP- proportion of the labours of society. TEMBER, 1815. (Continued from p. 389.) TO form an opinion of the French character from that of the Parisians, would I think be forming it upon a defective basis. Besides that at the present time a stranger at Paris can hardly be said to live among the French, so much is it in the possession of foreigners, the extent of France contains moe than one nation, and they may be supposed to exhibit as many different characters as they do physiognomies. Among the latter, I had long before, out of France, distinguished one particularly disagreeable to me, and which I met with in France for the first time among our postilions. This man's complexion was brown, with black rugged eye-brows, black coarse eye-lashes, the nose broad at the bottom, with large nostrils, and inclined to turn up, the mouth very large with thick lips, the head covered with black coarse hair, tied in a queue with a greasy ribbon. This character probably draws its origin from the more southern provinces. The man was constantly in a passion with his horses, or something else, during the whole stage he drove us. The many fine countenances among the men, and fair complexions among the women, met with in this place, are no doubt indigenous to the more northern parts of France. Female beauty, as far as it consists in the elegant oval contour of the head, symmetrical disposition of the bones of the face, whiteness and delicacy of skin, tinted by the pencil of health with roseate hue on the cheek and crimson on the lips, appears to me, when I remember the fair daughters of Albion, very rare, among the Parisian dames at least. The shape of their heads commonly deviates too much from the elegant figure of the oval; but where this grace is added to the beauties peculiar to the French lady's face, the result is an interest and fascination from the whole to which only the words je ne sçais quoi can be applied. The women of that class to which shopkeepers and other tradesmen belong, seem to me to bear more than their due NEW MONTHLY MAC.-No. 30. These almost exclusively manage the business of the shops; and they cannot be too much praised for their unwearied industry. Many mothers among them do not allow themselves sufficient leisure to attend to their children, who are sent into the country to nurse. The women do not confine themselves to the mere sale of the goods; in the evening, when on account of the lights the inside of the shop can be better observed, I have seen women sitting, making or repairing a watch, engraving a seal, besides others engaged upon elegant needle-work. A shoemaker, whilst in his shop he takes the measure of your foot, will call out the size to his wife, who enters it into the order-book.-Such constant occupation from early in the morning till late at night, argues at least in favour of the character of those females who, from one end of the week to the other, are thus secured from the temptations which idleness furnishes; nor has any thing fallen under my observation tending to the prejudice of the character of this class of females, unless I consider as evidence the sarcastic smiles and significant shrugs of men who, without being able to make out a case, appear only desirous to make you believe that they are among the favourites who are admitted into the arcana of the boudoirs, though neither the minds nor persons of these men seem to possess any thing to recommend them. Even the fore part of the Sunday (without adverting here to the irreligiousness of this practice) is employed by these females in the occupations of their shops; but the afternoon and evening of that day they consider as allotted for their recreation; they enjoy that opportunity to display their fashionable clothes, and to make their observations upon the taste of others. The custom of females sitting down in coffee-houses, and taking their dinner there, I am told, has obtained only since the Revolution. This exhibition, however, though novel to us, will appear much less objectionable when it is considered that these females always come attended by one or more gentlemen; VOL. V. 3 R 486 A Trip to Paris in August and September 1815. that the appearance of women being no novelty in those places, attracts no notice; and that Frenchmen drink their light wines with their meals, and do not sit afterwards over their bottles indulging in conversation, which would make it improper for females to be placed within hearing of them. Immediately after dinner Frenchmen take their coffee, and leave the house for a walk, or a place of public amusement. It seems to be generally admitted that Frenchwomen do not possess that kind of delicacy to which Sterne alludes, in that superior degree which heightens so much the charms of the British fair; and I have myself observed some ludicrous instances of this defect. This appears to be a strange anomaly in nature, considering the degree of taste and elegance in their deportment displayed by the ladies of France. This delicacy, whose existence is on occasions indicated by a blush, or expression of painful emotion, seems to me to be founded in an unconscious feeling of the mind of its purer nature than that of the body; and any idea which even by association only leads to a contemplation of the brutish nature of the body, creates a feeling of humiliation from which the unpolluted mind shrinks with aversion. So far I consider this feeling as expressed by delicacy, whilst that species of indelicacy more properly termed obscenity, I do not by any means consider as included in the charge against French females of the better classes. Yet the phenomenon of a female French artist being seen (as she was by me on more than one day) sitting before, and making a drawing from, a large male statue, totally naked, cannot be concealed, as it was seen by hundreds who visited the gallery of the Louvre at the same time. This, and some other exhibitions I witnessed, prove an unaccountable want of a sense of propriety and decency, from which in other countries the most lascivious propensities would be inferred to prevail; but here neither the individual seems to be conscious of such connexion, nor do other symptoms prove the existence of such propensities, nor do the people of this country seem to suspect them as necessarily existing with such conduct. It must appear strange that the French on their part should charge the English with want of a sense of delicacy, in being entertained with, instead of being shocked at, the indecencies and vulgarities of many of their favourite plays. With all this it must be allowed that, in many re [July 1, spects, there appears a greater propriety in the public conduct of the people her than in some other countries. No indecent writing or figuring on public buildings and walls evinces the coarse depr vity of the lower classes of the people; no filthy, no blasphemous oaths, from the mouths of drunken men or women disgust or alarm the ears of modest females passing along the streets. The play-houses and public places of amusement are not occupied by courtesans, as by a garrison, whose corps des gardes are in the lobbies; and the very prostitutes at their places of rendezvous observe a degree of decorum. Paris having ever been a court resi dence only, an external refinement of manners has been particularly cultivated here, and naturally diffused itself among the lowest classes of the people, who once at least were possessed of the ambition of being thought polite; whilst London, being not only a royal residence, but at the same time the most important seaport in the world, must naturally exhibit a greater admixture of the rough manners of those who live in habitations floating upon the ocean. Perhaps there is also something in the sturdy mind of these islanders which will not be trimmed and tied down by the silken strings of politeness. Hence the more frequent broils in the streets of London.* If here in Paris two Frenchmen run against each other, the case must appear at once very clearly against one of them, if each does not take the fault upon himself with many apologies. The nature of Frenchmen does not lead them to take occasion for quarrelling from circumstances like The ingenious writer will allow us to subjoin one remark in favour of our fellow. citizens. We are confident that whoever will take the trouble to walk through the princi pal streets of the metropolis-for instance, the great line of communication by Cheapside, Ludgate-hill, Fleet-street, the Strand, &c.-on a fine Sunday evening in summer, will need no other evidence to refute the insinuation that the people of London are of a quarrelsome disposition. For our own parts we have often witnessed with admiration the order, the decorum-nay, almost the silence which, from the absence of carriages at such times, forces itself upon the observa tion-that prevail among the crowds of per sons returning to their homes, many of them at least with spirits exhilarated by the indulgence of an extra pint or glass of liquor. Nothing can in our opinion speak more strongly than this scene in behalf of the peaceable disposition of the inhabitants of the British metropolis.-EDITOR. |