ther; and the influence of all its varieties upon organized bodies; with observations on the regimen to be pursued in the various diseases resulting from such changes. Now although we are far from agreeing with our author in his opinions upon all these subjects, upon some of which he has suffered his judgment to run wild, we cannot in justice deny him the credit of having written an original, useful, and very amusing volume. ART. XV. A Visit to Paris in 1814. By John Scott, Editor of the Champion. 8vo. pp. 409. 12s. 1815. We FROM the editor of a Sunday paper, we expected little worthy of our attention, and that little calling for our reprobation. were agreeably disappointed however in the present work. The views of French society and manners are in great measure origi nal, the comparison of them with the English just, and the principles unexceptionable. The following reflections upon the superior decency, as it is termed, of Paris, have more originality than any that we have seen, nor are they more original than just. After speaking of the Palais Royale, the author observes "It is very certain, that if there were any similar places of resort in London, such abominable conduct would prevail among them, that they would become insufferable nuisances ;—whereas, in Paris, there is nothing seen painfully to offend the eye, and this is enough to satisfy the Parisians that they ought not to shock the mind. But the truth is, that grossness of conduct is the natural and becoming barrier that stands between virtue and vice,-it proves that the two are kept totally distinct, that the partizans of the latter feel themselves proscribed, rejected, disowned by the respectable. They thus carry with them the brand of their infamy, the good shudder at it and avoid them,-they disgust instead of alluring,-they excite a horror which counteracts the temptations to licentiousness. It is a sign that the virtue of a nation is spurious and debased, not that its vice is scanty and unaggravated, when its manners fail strongly to mark the distinction between the worthy and the reprobate. Where morals are generally loose, where principles are unsettled, and duties ill understood and worse practised, the most vicious will assume a companionable decorum of behaviour, for they will feel that they are not much out of the common way; and, being on terms of familiarity and communion with all around them, their iniquity will help to form a generally debased standard, instead of remaining distinct and odious, as a contrast to what is pure and valuable. This is the true secret of what is termed the superior decency of Paris in some re spects: spects:-it cannot be said to exist in any one instance of supe riority in what is good;-it is not to be found in a closer regard to the nuptial contract, in a higher sepse of what is honourable in trans actions between man and man, or in abstinence from sensual indul, gences. No, in each and all of these respects, the French are notoriously less strict than the English: -but their prostitutes are better behaved, and their public assemblages are not so boisterous, -the causes of which are, that their women of the town are less a peculiar class than those of England, and that the quiet and comfort of their homes are less sacredly preserved, and fondly esteemed." P. 162. In his chapter upon the manners and habits of the French females, the same train of thought is applied in a still stronger Danner. seen. "One effect of what I have been describing is, that, amidst this general profligacy, the grosser features of vice are not frequently A woman who swerves from her sex's point of honour in England, is aware that she has committed an unpardonable offence, and the coarseness of depravity ensues from the very consciousness of the enormity of her crime. But it is very different in France. A female there who has committed adultery, regards herself, and is regarded by others, as not more culpable than if she were a little too extravagant, or too addicted to play, or rather fond of going from home. Her mind, therefore, experiences little, if any alteration, in consequence of the violation of her person; it is but little, or rather not at all, worse than it was before. It must be admitted, that this is a better state of disposition and feeling than usually exists in union with a disregard of chastity in England, but how worthless is it as a general standard of the female heart,—and is it not infinitely better to meet with instances of gross depravity, as disgusting exceptions to the general purity, than to find purity no where, and every where a dissoluteness, insulting and confounding virtue by assuming the air of decency? "This leads me again to notice what I have before referred to -namely, the boast of the French, that the appearance of vice in Paris is not so odious as in London, If it be allowed them that their wickedness is not so deformed, yet if their virtue is not so fair, the worst stigma will remain with them. Where women commit adultery, and are allowed to continue in good society, the common prostitutes will not in their behaviour shew themselves at variance with the observances of good society. Why should they? The crowd of unfortunate females in the lobbies and boxes of the English theatres, forming, as it certainly does, a display offensive to decency, is adduced sometimes as a contrast disgraceful to the, nation, against the decorum of behaviour which profligacy preserves in the public places of Paris. Be it observed, however, that no one attempts to say, that there is a less amount of profligacy collected together in the latter assemblies;-but it assimilates itself t more more to the general manners, it lives on an easier and more communicable footing with all around it. Now the truth is, that, for all the interests of virtue, this is the most fatal public symptom of the two The offensive shew in our theatres is highly disgraceful to the managers who build conveniences for this description of persons, that they may derive a profit from assisting the vicious intercourse in question,--but one of its most certain effects is to fill the breast of the youthful female, who is not corrupted, with horror, and to strengthen it against every seduction, which, by any possibility, might end in reducing her to so frightful a state of degradation. She sees the votaries of pleasure in an awful state of deformity and abandonment, and if the Greeks found it efficacious, to confirm their young men in habits of temperance, to expose slaves before them in the brutality to which drunkenness reduces, surely it must be still more admonitory and alarming to a young girl of delicate feelings and refined manners, to see her own sex exposed in loathsomeness and misery to the insolence and coarseness of the other. "The dangerous seduction is in Paris,-where the harlot sits beside the girl of virtue, pretty, demure, attentive to the play, and coquetting with the surrounding beaux. The young lady is sensible that this woman does little more than her mainma does, and she sees no difference in their carriage. The men behave alike' respectfully to both; they are both, then, entirely on an equality to the eye, and pretty nearly so to the understanding. "It is, I repeat, most essential to the preservation of virtue, that the distinction between it and vice should be strongly marked. It certainly is not so in France: they unite with each other, and this is an union which must be entirely at the expense of the best party to it, and, at the same time, promote the extension, without lessening the mischiefs of the worst." P. 252. This view of the subject is masterly and good, great credit to the sound principles of morality, views of human nature by which it is dictated. tables are described in language animated and just. and we give and the just The gaming "Gaming, in every country sufficiently injurious, in this is rendered doubly destructive from the small sums that may be staked. At the first tables with which the Palais Royal, and indeed almost every district of Paris, abounds, and to some of which females are admitted as well as men, so small a sum as two francs, or twenty pence, may be staked. The evil of this will easily be seen; every artisan who can earn, every shopman or apprentice who can purloin that sum, may try his fortune at the gaming table; and, not content with this encouragement to the spirit of play, the government provides in the course of every year, not less than about one hundred and eighty lotteries, one of which is drawn nearly every other day, and in which persons may purchase even for the small sum of six. -pence:—the consequence is, that the family of many a labourer is frequently deprived of its daily food, to indulge this vile spirit of gambling, which the vile policy of the government has created and fostered. All this evil is tolerated in order to raise a revenue which appears almost inconsiderable. The produce of the gaming-houses, and places of debauchery, for they are all taxed, do not, according to Monsieur Pichon, amount to more than fourteen millions of francs, or about 600,000l. per annum. Formerly they were farmed for twelve millions per annum. The individual who rented them, retired with a fortune of thirty millions, and now resides on a domain which he has purchased, and which once belonged to the Duchess of Bourbon. At present the tables are in the bands of the government, and may equal the whole estimate of Monsieur Pichon; but whatever may be the amount of the profit derived, there is no man who must not see, that when balanced against the loss of national morals, the sum is contemptible indeed. "On entering these horrid places, you are first startled by the preparation of taking from you your hat and stick in the anti-chamber-when you proceed into the rooms where they play, your heart is withered by anxious looks, and a heated stillness, rendered. more impressive by the small interruptions given to it by the sudden sharp click of a bit of wood, which intimates that the winner is. seizing his money. Of all popular vices, gaming is the most odious and deadly it is opposed to all social feelings,-it renders even extravagance selfish, and improvidence mean;--it stifles kindness in proportion as it encourages hope;-it gives to the disposition a sharp, edgy, contracted character, and, while it ruins the circumstances more fatally and surely than any other illicit pursuit, it throws neither pomp nor pathos around the downfall About these hellish tables, half-pay officers, private soldiers, clerks, and exemployés, are seen in a desperate contention with treacherous for tune:-the expression of the face, as the trembling hand puts down the piece of money, is awful; one piece follows another,-gold is succeeded by silver, and, from five franc coins, the unfortunate wretch is reduced to the risk of a single franc. He loses it, and leaves the room with a face that bespeaks him drained and desperate. For what atrocity is he not now prepared? The appearance of women at these tables is still more horrible:-their sex which is so susceptible of lovely appearances, natural and moral, seems equally calculated to display the features of deformity in their most revolting aspects." P. 167. We can recommend this volume to our readers as exhibiting anore perfect view of French manners and French tempers, than any book we have yet seen. The language is bold and animated, such as is dictated by an honest abhorrence of vice and treachery; and the reflections are generally marked both with originality and justice. ART. ART. XVI. The Angler's Guide. By T. F. Salter. 8vo. 300 pp. Plates. 10s. 6d. Tegg. 1815. As a practical book this is one of the very best which we have seen, and will prove a most useful companion to the young and inexperienced angler. To those indeed who have neither pa tience nor inclination to follow this occupation, the natural history of the various English fish will prove highly amusing. Every point which can concern the angler is touched upon with much judgment and skill; the descriptions of the various rivers, the acts of parliament respecting fishing, observations on the weather, and directions for the recovery of the drowned are all given in detail. The plates are excellent, and combine with the rest to make this volume a very useful and instructive work. ART. XVII. Instructions to Young Sportsmen, with a concise Abridgment of the Game Laws. 12mo. 150 pp. Johnson. 1814. A VERY useful manual of instructions for sportsmen, young and old, from which many useful hints may be derived, which cannot be found in other places. It is amusing to observe with how much earnestness the author writes; forsaking the simple didactic, he rises into the hortatory and sublime, indulging himself in the frequent use of the prosopopeia. Do not let him be alarmed at the word, it is not Greek for a poacher, it merely signifies (in sporting language) levelling your gun at a single bird, and not shooting at random. The character of our author's style will be seen in the following instructions respecting snipes and woodcocks. "A real good sportsman will feel more gratified by killing a woodcock or a few snipes, than bags full of game, that have been reared on his own neighbour's estate; and one, who is not so disposed, may be safely condemned as an errant pot hunter! "The pursuit of woodcocks may be termed the fox hunting of shooting-but that of snipes is declined by many, who plead their inability to kill them, than which, nothing may be easier acquired, by a pretty good shot. If they spring from nearly under your feet, remain perfectly unconcerned, till they have done twisting, and then bring up your gun and fire; but, if you present it in haste, they so tease and flurry, that you become nervous, and, from a sort of panic, cannot bring the gun up to a proper aim. If, on the other hand, + they |