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which all their faculties again are taxed to supply. This class of individuals have, by a sad mistake in our nomenclature, been called useful, and hence, in some degree, may arise the unpopular reception which this valuable word is apt to meet with in female society.

"It does not require much consideration to perceive that these are not the women to give a high moral tone to the national character of England; yet so entirely do human actions derive their dignity or their meanness from the motives by which they are prompted, that it is no violation of truth to say, the most servile drudgery may be ennobled by the selfsacrifice, the patience, the cheerful submission to duty, with which it is performed. Thus a high-minded and intellectual woman is never more truly great than when willingly and judiciously performing kind offices for the sick; and much as may be said, and said justly. in praise of the public virtues of women, the voice of nature is so powerful in every human heart, that, could the question of superiority on these two points be universally proposed, a response would he heard throughout the world, in favour of woman in her private and domestic character.

"Nor would the higher and more expansive powers of usefulness with which women are endowed, suffer from want of exercise, did they devote themselves assiduously to their domestic duties. I am rather inclined to think they would receive additional vigour from the healthy tone of their own minds, and the leisure and liberty afforded by the systematic regularity of their household affairs. Time would never hang heavily on their hands, but each moment being husbanded with care, and every agent acting under their influence being properly chosen and instructed, they would find ample opportunity to go forth on errands of mercy, secure that in their absence the machinery they had set in motion would still continue to work, and to work well.

"But if, on the other hand, all was confusion and neglect at home-filial appeals unanswered-domestic comforts uncalculated-husbands, sons, and brothers referred to servants for all the little offices of social kindness, in order that the ladies of the family might hurry away at the appointed time to some committeeroom, scientific lecture, or public assembly; however laudable the object for which they met, there would be sufficient cause why their cheeks should be mantled with the blush of burning shame, when they heard the women of England and their virtues spoken of in that high tone of approbation and applause, which those who aspire only to be about their master's

business will feel little pleasure in listenz ing to, and which those whose charity has not begun at home, ought never to appropriate to themselves."

Mrs. Ellis proceeds to consider, in a series of chapters, all written in a healthy spirit of sober good sense, the educa tion, dress, manners, and conversation of young Englishwomen of the present day. She goes on to dilate, at consi derable length upon the duties of con sideration and kindness in domestie intercourse, and of cultivating womanly habits of seeking home happiness by making others happy, rather than pursuing it directly in and for itself. Of the sort of knowledge too commonly acquired at female boarding-schools our author thus truly speaks :

"It is a case of by no means rare occurrence, that the young women of England return home from school more learned in the modes of dress, and habits of conduct, prevailing amongst the fa shionable and wealthy, than in any of those systems of intellectual culture in which they have been instructed. Or if their knowledge has not extended to what is done in fashionable life, they have at least learned to despise what is done amongst the vulgar and the poor, to look upon certain kinds of dress as impossible to be worn, and to regard with supreme contempt every indication of the absence of fashionable manners. So far as their means of information could be made to extend, they have laid down, for the guidance of their future lives, the exact rules by which the outward conduct of a lady ought to be regulated, and by these rules they determine to abide.

If this determination was applied exclusively to what is delicate, refined, and lovely in the female character, they would unquestionably be preparing themselves for being both esteemed and he loved; but unfortunately for them, their attention is too often directed to the mode of dress worn by persons much higher than themselves in worldly prosperity, and to all the minutiae of look and mauner which they regard as indications of easy circumstances and exemption from vulgar occupation.

"Nor is the school itself, or the mode of treatment there, to be regarded as the source of these ideas and conclusions. The customs of modern society, and the taste of modern times, are solely in fault. And wherever young ladies are congregated, with the same means of commu nication as at school, the same results must follow, until the public taste undergoes a material change, or until the wo

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men of England have become learned in a higher school of wisdom.

With the preparation here alluded to, our young women enter upon social life; and as years roll on, the habits thus acquired of making custom and fashion the rule of their lives, strengthen with the establishment of their character, and become as parts of their very being. What then is the consequence of such habits in the day of their adversity, when the diminution of their pecuniary means leaves them no longer the power of conforming to the world they have so loved? The consequence is, that along with many real privations, their ideal sufferings are increased a hundred-fold by the fact that they must dress and live in a manner different from what they have been accustomed to-in short, that they must lose

caste.

"How little has the mere circumstance of relinquishing our luxuries to do with the distress attendant upon the loss of worldly substance. We find every day that persons travelling expressly for enjoyment, joining in social excursions, and even seeking the invigoration of their health, and the refreshment of their spirits, from the sea-breezes, or in places of customary resort for the summer months, voluntarily resign more than half their habitual indulgences, and subject themselves, without a murmur, to the occupation of apartments which they would scarcely think possible to be endured for a single day in their native town; and all the while they are perhaps more happy and more cheerful than in their elegant drawing-rooms at home.

"It is evident, then, that it cannot be their individual share in the gratification of artificial wants, which they find it so heart-breaking to resign. It must be that a certain number of polite and refined individuals having combined to attach a high degree of importance to the means of procuring the luxuries of life, all who belong to this class, when compelled to exhibit in public a manifest destitution of such means, regard themselves, and expect to be regarded by others, as having become degraded in the sight of their fellow-creatures, and no longer entitled to their favour or regard.

"It is of no use asserting that we all know better than to come to this conclusion that mankind are not so weak, or so unjust-that we appreciate the moral worth of an individual beyond the luxuries of his table, or the costliness of his dress. It is easy to say this; but it is not so easy to believe it, because the prac tical proof of experience is against it. If, for instance, we cared for none of these things, why should the aspect of human

life present such a waste of time, and health, and patience, and mental power, and domestic peace, in the pursuit of wealth, when that wealth is expended, as soon as gained, in maintaining an appearance of elegance and luxury before the world?"

This is indeed a grave subject. Every thing beyond the absolute necessaries of bare existence is in England so enormously dear, and the established habits of comfort and of luxury lay a familyman under so many extravagant obligations, that an Englishman is compelled to look upon the possession of wealth as a great object of life; too happy if ceaseless, anxious toil, and continual restraint upon all acts of individual expensiveness, enable him to preserve his family from losing caste in the society in which his lot is thrown. This, we own, appears to us an evil which hath increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished. We have heard the Irish described as a people of few and simple wants-strangers to the spirit of trade-imaginative castlebuilders-without forethought-convivial with their equals aspiring to familiarity with their superiors-reckless pics in their whimsical contempt of of danger-Stoics in endurance-Cyappearances-Epicureans in their relish of the passing hour-and full of airy, buoyant spirits, which shoot up the more vigorously for the pressure of some incumbent weight. There are features in this character which it is much more easy to recognise than to approve; but taking it for all and all, we think it happier and better, as well as more natural, than that wretched slavery to outward appearances, that carking care and calculating anxiety which we are led to believe in England waits upon the perpetual straining to keep pace with wealthier associates in habits of expense-the ambitiosa paupertas, which at this hour is sapping the happiness and ruining the integrity of many and many a family in England. Once more, on this head, permit us to call Mrs. Ellis into court:

"It may seem unimportant to those who have no experience in these affairs, to speak of the private and domestic disputes arising out of artificial wants, on one side, and inability to provide the demanded supply for them, on the other. Yet what family, in moderate circumstances, has not some record of scenes, alike humiliating to human nature and destructive to human happiness, in which

the ill-judged request, or the harsh denial the importunate appeal, or the agonizing reply the fretful remonstrance, or the bitter retort, have not at seasons cast a shade over the domestic hearth, and destroyed the peace of the circle gathered around the social board."

"It is easy to class these sources of disquietude under the head of absurdities, and to call them unworthy of rational beings; but I do believe, there is more real misery existing in the world at the present time, from causes like these, than from all those publicly acknowledged calamities which are more uniformly attributed to the dispensations of Providence.

"I do not mean that these miseries arise directly from, or are by any means confined to, our personal appearance, or the furniture of our houses; but when we contemplate the failure of pecuniary means, as it is regarded by the world, and attempt to calculate the immense variety of channels through which the suffering it produces is made to flow, in consequence of the customs and habits of society, I believe they will be found to extend through every variety of human life, to the utmost range of human feel ing. Is it not to escape this suffering that the man of unsound principles too frequently applies himself to dishonourable means that the suicide prepares the deadly draught-and that the emigrant sometimes forsakes his native land, and consigns himself to the solitude of unpeopled wilds?—In short, what more remains within the range of human capability, which man has not done, with the hope of flying from the horrors attendant upon the falling away of his pecuniary

means?

“When the reality of this suffering is acknowledged, as it must be by all who look upon society as it exists at the present moment, the next subject of importance is, to consider how the suffering can be obviated, and its fatal effects upon the peace and happiness of society prevented.

"The most immediate means that could be made to operate upon woman would unquestionably be, by implanting in her mind a deeper and more rational foundation of thought and feeling-to put a stop to that endless variety of ill natured gossip which relates to the want of elegance, or fashionable air in certain persons' dress and manner of living; so that there should be no more questioning, What will be thought of my wearing this dress again?' What will Miss P. or Mrs. W. say, if they see our old curtains?' What can the Johnsons mean

by travelling outside?' What will the people at church or chapel say, when they see your shabby veil? I positively don't believe the Wilsons can afford a new carpet, or they would surely have one; and they have discontinued their subscription to our book-society.'

"It is neither grateful nor profitable to pursue these remarks any farther than as they serve for specimens of that most contemptible of small-talk, which yet exercises a powerful influence over the female mind-so much so, that I have known the whole fabric of a woman's philosophy entirely overthrown, and her peace of mind for the moment destroyed, by the simple question, whether she had no other dress than the one she was so often seen to wear."

A very instructive and well written disquisition naturally follows this, on integrity and thriftiness in the hus banding and management of domestic pecuniary resources; and the volume closes with a chapter on the employment of time, moral courage, and right balance of mind. We very cordially recommend the work to the attentive perusal of all young ladies, married or single, and of all who are interested in their welfare and happiness.

One characteristic of the women of

England, or rather two, we had almost

omitted to mention. We do not find it in Mrs. Eilis, but it is the fact, first, that they habitually swallow oceans of physic, and mountains of pills. Secondly, and whether propter hoc as well as post hoc, it is not for us to say, If Miss they are unable to walk. Smith of Cavendish-square wants to call-upon Miss Brown of Harley-street (the localities standing in the same relationship as Stephen's-green to Dawson-street) on a fine summer's day, to borrow the last new song, she must have the carriage, as the feat is impracticable on foot. Or if "Pa" does not keep a carriage, she must have a job coach-hacks being unknown entities, except for carrying female servants to their new places, or fever patients to the hospitals. To be in tolerable health, so as not to stomach draughts and boluses diurnally, or to be able to walk two miles on end without being laid up two months from fatigue and exhaustion, are in London (among womankind) rather equivocal symptoms of being "low-bred," or of quite an Irish constitution."

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There is, too, a disease particularly prevalent in those parts, which, as far

as we know, is common and peculiar to the ladies of London-it is called "a sinking." None of the fair natuTalists of whom we have diligently inquired, could ever afford us any very satisfactory information on the nature of this fleshly evil; but as far as we could judge, the symptoms somewhat resemble those of that comprehensive Irish complaint, "an all-overness."

In sober sadness, it is greatly to be feared that very many of the women of England, whose station places them above the necessity of labouring with with their hands, live in ill-health, and prematurely die from the combined effects of bodily inertness, very high living, (at least what Irish ladies would consider so,) and the consequent visitations of the apothecary.

CONTINENTAL GOSSIPINGS.

CHAP. I.

BY HARRY LORREQUER.

PARIS-LOUIS PHILIPPE-POLITICS-MAISONS DE JEU, THEIR RISE AND FALL.

"You might go there for five pounds: you could start to-morrow: you would Te delighted with the trip: you should only be a few days: and you ought to see it. Well then, since I might, could, would, should, and ought—then hey tor Paris.” Mathews.

ERE railroads and the newspapers shall have completed the work they have so vigorously and successfully engaged in—of levelling every national trait and distinction from Norway to Naples, let us note down a few of the trifies which are passing before our eyes; and which, if preserved within the sanctuary of your pages, may be historical a few years hence.

To ourselves, who remember the continent since the happy era, when we eat brown bread and sour claret as prisoners at Verdun-the whole array of modern discovery in steam and manufactures appears as little, compared with the mighty changes effected in society since that period.

When we think of our natural enemies-these French, as we were wont to call them and read of the paternal embraces which the Dukes of Wellington and Dalmatia have been so profusely interchanging, we are half tempt ed to believe that old age has been practising its deceptions upon us, and that our memory is fast becoming as frail as our ancles.

Of political changes we take no cognizance. France, whether under the rule of Louis dix-huit, Napoleon, the restoration, or its present monarch, was always a delightful country, and we hold with Talleyrand, that "no government is too bad to live under." Revolutions, thank God, have little influence upon climate; and the riots in Paris, never prevent our good neighbours in Strasburg, from manufacturing "foie gras ;" so that in many

essential points, the old familiar features of the land remain. Yet it is not uns worthy of remark, how much farther the reign of Louis Philippe has contributed to work greater alterations in the social system of his countrymen, than the great and glorious career of Napoleon, with all its upsetting influences and uprooting doctrines; and we shall find, that the changes which have been brought about since the "three days," are not only more numerous, but many of them (socially considered) are more important than those which the whole life and reign of Napoleon effected.

French quickness and impulse have gradually been exchanged for the dogged sternness of John Bull. English dress, English reserve, English domestic economy, and, strangest of all, the English language, have all made great progress among them; and from the debates in the "Chamber" to the demeanour in a Café, you may trace a close imitation of their friends' "outre mer." That Louis Philippe has personally contributed much towards this, we are well disposed to believe: but we also see ample ground to suppose that he has narrowly watched the tendency of such changes, and profited by them; and strange as it may appear, and almost paradoxical as it may seem, to this Anglomania among the Parisians do we attribute the success of that first and greatest stroke against their liberties which the last half century of French rule has witnessed-we mean the project familiarly known as the Bastilling" of Paris, or the surround

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ing the city with a chain of forts upon commanding eminences, quite sufficient in a moment of revolt or rebellion to reduce it to ashes.

However singular it may seem at first, that any imitation of their English neighbours should have prepared Frenchmen for a successful invasion of their liberties, yet a little consideration of the subject, will go far to establish it. Liberty in France and England have been always differently interpreted and understood. From the greater habit in the former country of living together in their cafés, their restaurants, and their estaminets, such being in fact much more their homes than their own dwellings, the liberty of the mass has been always the great subject of contention, and while the Frenchman would individually have submitted to an infringe ment of his personal freedom, his rights as one of the many he never could have surrendered. The reverse is the case in England. The Englishman's house is his castle-not as Madam de Stael explains it, "by the difficulty to get admittance"-but in the sacred feeling, of the protection it affords him ; as the great orator expressed it "the rain may enter; and the storm may enter; but the king cannot enter." This it is, which only those who have lived in England can well understand. Yet while this is so, Englishmen will submit to restrictions upon their liberty in the mass, provided that thereby their personal freedom may be guaranteed to a greater extent; instance the severity of our whole penal code, which, whether successful or not, has for its object the protection of private right and property; while, on the other hand, the prosecutions of the press, which may be considered as attacks upon the many, whose feelings and prejudices it advo cates and espouses, have always attracted more interest in France than in England.

Taking this view of the matter, we can readily trace the steps by which Frenchmen gradually adopting the sentiments and opinions of their neigh bours, have consented to regard these fortifications less as infringement upon their liberty, than bulwarks for its protection, and guarantees for its permanence; and hence we find at the present time in France, what we are not aware of ever having previously existed there-a large party, consisting of men of various shades of political opinion-members of the "centre," the "gauche," the "extreme

gauche""legitimistes," "Buonapartists," and innumerable others, under whatever difficult denomination they may be classed, all uniting in one object, the support of the present system as such, not because it fulfils their expectations, or satisfies their views, but simply because it appears to offer, and with reason too, a greater show of resistance to change; and a greater prospect of protection to private rights and property, than any which has lately preceded, or in all likelihood might now succeed it.

Turning from this, let us look for a moment at some of the changes which a few years of the present government has effected, changes which no influence upon the part of the rulers themselves could ever have accomplished, had not the minds of the people been gradually prepared for them. And first of all, whether we regard the boldness of the design, or its mighty results, comes the closing of the gambling-houses.

Had we been asked, what act of the government would have brought down more censure upon it than any other, as affecting the habitudes of Life in Paris, we should certainly have said this one; and yet, not only has it passed the legislature, but not a voice has been raised in objection, nor any influential newspaper has attempted a defence of the long established maisons de jeu. Without stopping to consider how far the measure in question is calculated to suppress the practice of gaming, or render it more dangerous, because more secret, we must still hail the act as an earnest of a growing feeling of respect for the external observance of decorum, which it was rather the boast of France in former days to sneer at and despise.

That such was the motive which led to this important enactment, no one can doubt, for, every thing considered, the loss to the revenue of the country is estimated at several millions of francs yearly; and whatever may be the sins of the present rulers of the French, any undervaluing contempt for financial profit, or any undue neglect of econoiny, cannot enter into the catalogue.

As these establishments, which for so many years exercised so powerful an influence upon French society, have now ceased to exist, it may be interesting to note down some few facts concerning them, ere the recollection be lost to the present generation.

The licensed gaming-houses of Paris were seven in number, of which

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