PREFACE.

In presenting the following pages to the public, something may be justly due in the way of apology.

More accustomed to the cultivation and the practice of those arts and employments which may strictly be termed feminine, the writer claims no literary fame; but she has sought to disarm criticism, by carefully avoiding the affectation of superior acquirements: and would fain secure indulgence by the purity of her intentions and the simplicity of her purpose.

Truth has guided her pen, and that which she believes to be common sense.

The result of much observation, and a practical knowledge of those duties which she has sought to advocate, have dictated her senti

ments.

With this avowal she commits herself and her performance to the world: neither in

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different to its censure, or to its approval, but with well-founded hopes of submitting even to the more dreaded doom of total neglect; which, from the unpopular nature of her performance, and from the want of skill in its execution, she may most reasonably expect.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.

It is generally considered as unbecoming in our sex to take any part in, or even to offer an opinion on, the subject of public or political affairs. No one can, more than myself, perceive and acknowledge the wisdom and the propriety which has established these limits to our duties and our exertions; it is, therefore, with considerable timidity and unaffected hesitation that I venture thus publicly to declare an opinion, which has suggested itself to me in reflecting upon the present deranged state of both public and domestic society.

But, as some apology for departing from those established rules, which I so readily admit to be founded in wisdom and in a true regard to our best interests, I must hasten to declare that my views are so entirely of a domestic nature, that they could present themselves only to the mind of a female.

B