quants of cotton as they are called, and the people bear on their front that character of vice and filth which seems to be universally stamped upon all great assemblages of manufacturers. Is it that the occasional introduction of depraved wanderers among them inevitably corrupts the whole mass; or is it that daily receiving more wages than are adequate to a simple decent maintenance-abundance leads to luxury, and luxury to vice? In this case, which I believe to be the real root of the evil, may it not be questioned how far great manufactories ought to be encouraged by any legislature? And if they are to be encouraged, may we not insist upon it that the legislature, which does not encourage also every means of correcting the conta mination of the public morals which it virtually countenances, prefers but a feeble claim to the affections of the public? - Here the question arises what are the antidotes by which the poison is to be corrected? We answer, complete religious liberty. Legislators have enacted pains and penalties for this and the other irregularity and vice; and what has been the effect? Nothing.-Absolutely nothing. Well then-if the secular Aaron cannot preserve the morals of the people from contamination, let them try what religion will do; for in vain do they attempt to make good citizens without it.-Let them give equal countenance to as many as are disposed to enter the abodes of squalid wretchedness to attack vice, even in its seat of empire-to warn the thoughtless, to confirm the wavering, to reclaim the wanderer, to edify the virtuous; in a word, to plant the seeds of moral purity in the heart, and cherish them by the sanctions of the New Testament.-I say equal countenance, for every man has an equal right to form his creed for himself, and consequently an equal right to the protection of the law. If my principles make me a good citizen, the secular arm has nothing to do with me but to animate and encourage me in the prosecution of them."

In his description of the beautiful Sarthe, (Mr. H. spells it Sarte,) the same sentiment appears :

The Sarte is perhaps one of the finest rivers of equal magnitude in the universe. Its waters are limpid as the dew-drop, and as transparent as crystal. On either side it is bordered with a strip of the richest meadow, clad in almost everlasting green. On its northern shore, at the distance of perhaps one hundred yards, the marble rock pushes its dark-featured and almost perpendicular cliffs to a very considerable elevation; the bluff points of which sometimes boldly pierce through the thick foliaged copse with which its slopes are clad, and sometimes hide themselves amid the vines which climb up its rugged sides, and swing in the winds with the most wanton luxuriance. Its waves are tenanted by millions of the finny-tribes in all their customary varieties, and on its bosom the frequent barge spreads abroad its tumid sails, and courts the favouring breeze. There are few situations in France, the scenery of which is so completely enchanting as the shore of this placid stream. It is not in the power of words to paint the soft, the tranquillizing effect of an evening's saunter upon its rich luxuriant banks; every thing seems to unitein harmony; the busy bustle of the world comes not here to E 2 mingle

mingle its discord with our pensive meditations; the din of manu factories jars not on the ear, nor do their attendant vices and their inevitable consequences, squalid wretchedness, obscenity, and filth, disgust our senses-the music of the countless nightingales which tenant the declivities of the rocks, is alone interrupted by the clacking of the distant mill, the barking of the watch-dog, the trill of the snake, and the pastoral songs of the young light-hearted guileless peasantry. To become weary of scenes like these, requires a corrupt and distorted taste. There were few evenings on which we did not regale ourselves with a pensive promenade beneath the cliff, along the mazy winding shore--nor ever quitted them but with the wish to return.' As we float down the smooth unruffled bosom of the stream, the scenery becomes even more enchanting-its banks are more precipitous-the woeds more luxuriant-the villages which people its shores more frequent.-At La Roche Talbot, three miles from Sable, an estate, previous to the revolution, belonging to an English gentleman of that name, the prospect assumes such sublimity of feature, such rich luxuriance, that it is impossible to gaze on it but with rapture and extacy-I have seen nothing even in England superior to it.'

-We must not omit the author's account of the climate of the western department:

The climate of this part of France is serene as the summer's evening. The ethereal canopy is clad in almost perpetual blue; and, through the wide expanse, a cloud is scarcely, for successive weeks, to be descried; the tempests of wind and rain which keep our sky in perpetual bustle, and are for ever working up fogs and thick darkness from the surrounding ocean, are there but fleeting visitants which sweep now and then across the welkin, to temper the intensity of the summer's heat, and give moisture to the drooping herbage; for a few hours the thunder roars with tremendous explosion; the clouds discharge their contents in torrents of rain; and, in a few hours more, every thing is calm and serene again. The concave puts on its accustomed livery, and all nature smiles, refreshed by the change!'

No comfortable accommodation was experienced by Mr. Hughes till he arrived at Laval, of which he speaks in terms of approbation:

At Laval, the effects of commerce are peculiarly striking: totally unlike most of the other towns through which we pass, elegance and comfort are here conspicuous; the high lands above the river are beautifully ornamented by the country houses of the merchants and manufacturers; and, the interior fully answers to the front. An Englishman is here frequently reminded of his dear native isle, and may almost think himself at home. The apartments are fitted up in the English style, and not unfrequently with English furniture; and, to crown the whole, hospitality-that genuine hospitality which once was English, amply spreads the board, and gives zest to the enter

tainment.

• Taxation

< Taxation has not here engulphed the energies of man, nor frozen the genial current of his heart; half a dozen friends superinduced upon a family for as many weeks in England is a very serious concern; at Laval it is nothing hence the tables of its inhabitants are loaded with continual luxury, and ease and gaiety smile upon every brow.'

The road from Sable to La Flêche, in extent about 18 miles, is said to be excellent, and the country beautiful: but, in other places, the state of the roads is execrable; and this circumstance, added to the nature of the vehicles, must subtract considerably from the pleasure of a tour through the western departments:

We have before described the cabriolets of Dieppe and Rouen, The cabriolet of La Flêche and Angers in which we embarked for the latter place is totally different from them, and infinitely more detestable with them you may compromise the matter tolerably well, and posting to your account before you set out jolts and convulsions innumerable, feel tolerably at your ease with regard to the final safety of your bones.-Here the first motion of the horses is like the signal of alarm; you feel it like an electrical shock in your heart; and, if your female companions be furnished with but a very moderate quantum of that elegant English attainment commonly called “ nervous complaints," "affections of the nerves," and so on, it is succeeded by a general scream.

You have seen in Piccadilly the basket-carts which carry the mails from the post office to the coaches waiting at the Gloucestercoffee-house for them take by way of recipé one of these; let it be four feet wide and nine feet long, and of a height just sufficient to admit your head beneath the cover when it is at rest; pass two planks from side to side by way of benches, and pierce as many airholes in its side to keep its contents from absolute suffocation. Mount this admirable contrivance upon the hinder axle tree of a northcountry stage-waggon of about two-hundred weight, and attach to each extremity of it a wheel with fellies nine inches by five, and bound with iron in proportion: when all things are ready, "stow away" three passengers upon each bench, and as many upon the front and back seat, and pile up, no matter how high, their baggage upon the roof, and voila the Angers diligence ready to start!'

It was impossible to visit the scene in which the Chouans, under the name of the Christian army, committed their horrible ravages, without shedding some lamentations on this detestable warfare, and reprobating its promoters. Affecting anecdotes are related in this part of Mr. Hughes's tour, which are too long for our insertion: but his general picture of this war, and of its effects on the minds of the people, must be exhibited:

Accustomed thus from day to day, from year to year, to slaughter and desolation, we cannot wonder that the national character at length gave way the most exquisite sensibility may be rendered callous; continual convulsions will blunt the keen edge of our sensi

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bilities, and render us capable of viewing with apathy and unconcern, scenes which once could harrow up the soul-long ere the termination of the conflict, its horrid consequences ceased to shock the mind! -Destruction became the order of the day, and while the cannon were roaring on their ramparts, and platoons were momentarily firing around their walls, the theatres were crowded as in the profoundest peace! Cart loads of wounded dying soldiers, many of them their friends and acquaintances, though stretching with agony at every jolt of their rude conveyance, would scarcely attract the gaze of sympathy in the multitudes who thronged by them to the spectacles! -nay, even tender and delicate females could so far divest themselves of that which is more beautiful than personal beauty, (viz.) softness and delicacy, as even to walk to the field of battle as to an amusement, to gaze upon its horrible desolation, and even to trample upon the breathless remains of those who had been the companions of their infancy, the sharers of their youthful sports!

When we talk of war, our minds revert to the thousands who are cut off from their country, their families, their friends; but what is the destruction of thousands to mournful effects like these upon the survivors?-It is horrible when heard of from afar, when in imagination we listen to its dismal din and view the garments of our friends "rolled in blood;" but we must follow in its traces to conceive all its horror.-Never till I found myself in this hapless country had my fancy painted to me the thousandth part of its accursed deformity:I had conceived that the English prints, to fire the public indignation against the abettors of this cruel contest, had em bellished their stories with fictitious enormities ;-would to God I had found it so! Alas! they have given us but "the small dust of the balance"-they have not even collected the most atrocious features of it!"Look, (says Mons. La P-) across the Loir on which we are now standing!" My eyes swim with tears and my hand trembles while I think of this desolated department!" For twenty leagues square (says he) there is not a field in which human blood has not been shed!--Not a town, not a village, not a chateau, not a church, not a cabin, not a roof, has been spared!--In one undistinguished desolation all is laid low!--Where hospitality trimmed the chearful hearth, and loaded the smoaking board, silence and solitude alone are found-the cry of the wolf, and the screech of the ow! alone are heard! At the command of the iron-hearted, iron-fanged monster, the aged and the young, the wounded and the sick, those who were labouring in the pangs of childbirth, and those who were struggling with the agonies of death, were hurried away-a blanket the sole remnant of affluence and comfort!-the vault of heaven their only canopy!-the blaze of their burning mansions the only light which gleamed around them, alas! which gleamed to light them to despair!"

If we may credit men of temperance, men of moderation, if any one can be moderate when speaking upon such a subject, not less than 250,000 lives were here cast away partly in the field, partly in consequence of this general desolation! To crown the whole, if we may credit the same authority, 250,000,000 sterling of forged assignats

Wele

were issued at the same time by the in these and the surrounding departments; I will not vouch for the correctness of the statement, nor will I assert that it formed the data on which the downfall of the French finances was so repeatedly prophesied in the British parliament-if I mistake not, it was asserted by a great law authority, now gone to answer for his crimes, or reap the reward of his virtues, that all this was perfectly fair, and consistent with the laws of war.'

We presume not to say what degree of credit is due to Mr. H.'s authority but, though he represents his information as derived from men of temperance, their displeasure against this country has probably occasioned much exaggeration.

Mr. Hughes pays one compliment to Paris, which an Englishman would not expect to hear: In Paris, (says he,) for the first time since I quitted old England, have I seen fine beef, It is not noticed, indeed, every 20 minutes, as in the British metropolis; but that which is exhibited cannot be surpassed.'-Though he gives the filthiness of the French no quarter, from the odious congregate in their kennels to those portable dunghills, their pocket handkerchiefs, he allows them to have regard to cleanliness in the distribution of napkins.

Speaking of the effects of the revolutionary principles on the national character, the author says: As might be expected, the disposition of the inferior orders has been but little meliorated by the revolution: the perverse and preposterous notions of equality, with which the abettors of anarchy and despotism combined to din their ears, have completely poisoned the antient French mildness and urbanity, and their rudeness and incivility are intolerably offensive.'

From a divine, we might look for some remarks on the state of religion in France; and the following is a part of Mr. Hughes's report on this head:

• Practical atheists are every where to be found, and no where in greater plenty than among the late champions for social order, religion, and (to consummate the climax of blasphemy,) God. But speculative atheists, i. e. atheists in principle, are as rare in France as in Britain. Deists are innumerable: in fact, we may almost say, that all the men of intelligence, all the men of learning, are deists; so far from being atheists, they one and all believe in one God, the first cause of all things-in his providential care of his creation-in a future state, in which the immortal spirit shall be rewarded or punished according to the things done in the body. Of Jesus Christ they have a high, a respectful idea as the first of moralists-a man of the most unrivalled virtue; but, they deny the divinity of his missionthe conundrums of Calvinism, which are equally the conundrums of popery with regard to his person and dignity; and, it is very evident, that they have renounced christianity because they have never

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seen