This philofophiftical tirade is in the true ftyle of an old member of the London Correfponding Society, &c. who would fain make us believe, that the dangers which gave birth to the Loyal Affociations in 1792, and to the legislative measures of a subsequent date, were all imaginary; and that the apprehenfions entertained by all the loyal part of the kingdom was a falfe alarm! But does Mr. H. fuppofe that we have quaffed the waters of Lethe, fo foon to have forgotten those memorable events which brought the British monarchy to the very verge of ruin? No, No, philofophizing Sir, our memories are not fo treacherous; nor are your spells fo potent, as to deprive us of our fenfes. All this, however, is not for nothing; his predilection for the revolutionary heroes of France fuggefted the neceffity of affording fome palliation for their conduct, even at the expence of his own country therefore he adds,

"If a nation, whofe habits of unfufpecting intercourfe and openness of heart were thus rooted, could be fo impreffed by the terror of the times as to render the virtue of caution contemptible, and alarm lunacy, it cannot excite furprise that the fame puerile exceffes fhould exist, with increase, among a people where they had been native."

To call all the British legislature, and even the whole nation, lunatics, for the adoption of meafures, which to them, at leaft, appeared neceffary to fecure them from danger, and poffibly from deftruction, is a tolerable stretch of affurance for a modern philofopher, who is withal a profeffor of modefty, and forely afraid of giving offence. But though Mr. H. was not furprised at these puerile exceffes on the part of the French, we are very much furprised that they should be carried to fuch an unreasonable length, as to induce the French minifter not to admit our traveller's principles and connections, which, it feems, he urged with becoming energy, as fufficient to remove all his fcruples. He was not, however, kept long in fufpenfe; for a letter from Paris converted coldnefs into cordiality, and procured him the neceffary paffport.

While he was waiting for this paffport, he had an opportunity of vifiting the Hague, which fwarmed with foldiers; which circum, ftance extorted from him the following remarks:

"The place was fmall: yet why were they here? The legislative bolies held their del brations in it; and it was publicly afferted, that thefe deliberations were perfectly unawed. Surely the troops of the republic of France did not come to inftruct the lawgivers of the republic of Batavia in the principles of freedom. They were revolutionary times."-What! revolutionary times in the year 1801, when we were told from authority, which Mr. H. furely would not difpute, that Buonaparte had brought the revolution to an end!" And, in revolutionary times, I have heard the pretended partisans of freedom affert, the public preffes may be stoppe, and men tranfported, without trial; and, which is ftill more frange, to keep the guillotine at work is a revolutionary virtue. Heavens! into what exceffes will not the heat and forgetfulness of the moment lead men! The rage of

opinion

opinion prevails, common fenfe becomes ftupefied, and wisdom fands aloof bewildered.

All difficulties at length overcome, Mr. H. and his family fet forward in the diligence for Paris. In this vehicle he met with fome emigrant priests, who were returning to their native land, after a long and painful exile, fome of whom he reproves for giving vent to their feelings, and for expreffing a hope that the time for redreffing their wrongs was at hand. We can perceive nothing very inhuman, nor very unnatural, in this hope; but we beg pardon, we are not philofophers, and are therefore not competent to appreciate the feelings and the principles of those who are. Let our ftoical traveller, our philofophizing tourist, thus fpeak for himself.

"These are great frailties; vicious feelings; yet, though we cannot approve, we ought to recollect the haraffed and wretched exiftence which these poor men had endured, and pardon."-Amiable philanthropift!"None but those who are extremely ignorant of the human heart, can imagine, that, by making a man a prieft, you make him a faint. The inftitution itself fuppofes this."-Indeed, Mr. Holcroft, whence do you derive this information?" But that is the mafter vice of the inftitution, its difgrace, and will be its utter downfall. Good fenfe fhould confider the priest as a man, liable to the failings of men, and, in addition, to the failings which his false pretenfions to fuperior virtue, when he happens to poffefs only mean or ordinary talents, have made him fubject."

Ignorant, impudent, coxcomb! Read the Scriptures before you pretend to speak fo, dogmatically on fubjects which, at prefent, you do not understand and learn to display, at least, good fenfe enough, not to confound talents with virtue, nor to deem the poffeffion of the former an indifpenfable qualification for the attainment of the latter. The cause whence this confufion arifes is evident: 'Tis vanity, which is never more disgustful than when clothed in the odious garb of af fected humility.

Some paffengers, whom our travellers took up at Arras, gave a detailed account of the enormities committed in that city, by Le Bon, the infamous agent of Buonaparte's worthy predeceffor, Robespierre, of which Mr. H. feems now to have heard for the first time!

"They were well acquainted with Arras; being natives either of the town or its vicinity; and from them we heard fuch tales of cruelty, committed by the famous or infamous Le Bon, as made the heart fhudder. I know not how far their narrative was accurate."-This qualifying fuggeftion accompanies almost every account which is given. of revolutionary crimes. Neither can I faithfully repeat what they told: but, during one hour at Arras, we heard fimilar accounts, not lefs full of horror; though it was fo long fince these scenes of blood had happened."-So long fince !-We just now had the heat and forgetfulness of the moment, which prevailed in revolutionary times, urged as the caufe, if not as an excuse, for French tyranny in Holland in 1801! yet now it feems ftrange, forfooth, to Mr. H. that fcenes of

blood

blood, of which the narrators were fpectators, and probably their friends and relatives the victims, fhould not already have been obliterated from their minds !--"The records of the times do but too mournfully prove that this Le Bon was a monster. What an æra of blood has this been!" No matter, the good prevails. Why should a philofopher think of the evil which is paffed? But even here our author has a fet off at hand.

"What is the reason that a few hundred people, murdered it is true, and murdered without refifiance, at the command of a tyrant, or of the wretches his advisers; what is the reason that fuch murders fhould excite fo infinitely greater a fenie of horror than the affaffination of whole armies, when they meet in mad fury for each other's deftruction, though no one man among them has caufe, I will not fay of hatred, or of ange, but of the leaft complaint, against any other? The abhorrence of the first hand of murders cannot be too great. Why is the record fo foon forgotten, fo lightly treated, nay, fo obitinately defended? Will man, and the feelings of man, never be awake to the truth?"

On entering the territory of ancient France, Mr. H. advances a pofition which we certainly are not difpofed to contest with him: namely, that" fhould a man, travelling in a diligence, pretend dogmatically to refolve" the difference, if any, between the prefent and the former ftate of the country and its inhabitants," he would only expofe himself to derifion." Impreled with a conviction of this fignificant truth, he expreffes himself, with becoming doubt and caution, on the important queftions, whether, the long flips of land, differently cropped, which used formerly to mark the respective poffeffions of the peafants, were more or lefs in number than they used to be; and whether the "wretched mud-huts" which formerly abounded are now more or lefs numerous? The former, he thinks, appear lefs frequently; as to the latter," I believe, but dare not affirm, they are diminished." It would be the height of injuftice not to exprefs our admiration of this philofophical caution, on fuch a subject, in a man who can fpeak fo dogmatically on the vices inherent in the inftituti n of a priesthood; and on other topics of great, though not of equal, importance. But his doubts end where ours begin.

"Two things to the advantage of the prefent moment I can speak of, without any doubt or fear of misleading: the peasants are now better clothed, in general, than they were; and their looks, I will not fay ar more merry, but rather more fedate, yet more truly cheerful." Here our traveller certainly pretends to refolve the difference dogmatically, and therefore cannot be offended with us for thinking that he only expofes himself to derifion. In fact, is the general cheerfulne fs of the peasantry of any country, as compared with their cheerfulness at a former period, to be decided by a man travelling in a stage coach, which has one quality of time and tide, inafmuch as it waits for no man? Befides he not only notices the general appearance, but marks the niceft fhades of difference, and traces with philofophic precifion, the line of defcrimination between the mirth and the chear

fulness

fulne ́s of a French peasant. Surely, furely, in the fcience of phyfiognomy, Lavater was a fool to his tranflator! But to proceed, "It the large and spreading picture of poverty, I may fay of wretchedness, be not excedingly leliened, I am exceedingly deceived. The laft day of our journey was Sunday; and we faw too many of the people, both old and young, cleanly in their drefs, and with fatisfaction in their faces, for thofe igns of eafe and bitter days, to be mistaken.” He fays, the poverty, the harafled looks, the livid tints, the pictures of mifery (which) I had formerly feen, cannot be forgotten.

With what eyes Mr. H. formerly beheld the peafantry of France, we know not; but, that he faw them through the mist of prejudice, we are strongly disposed to believe; for, we suspect, that no man befides himself who knew them before the revolution, would recognize a fingle feature of theirs in the hideous picture which he has here-exhibited; and which we fcruple not to ftigmatize as the foul abortion of a diftempered brain. We fpeak upon this fubject with decifion; becaufe we did not travel through the country in a diligence, but lived in it for years. We never faw a more cheerful, a more fatisfied, or a more happy peafantry; and if cleanliness in their drefs and fatisfaction in their faces be admitted as proofs of happiness and of the exiftence of good days, they moft unquestionably exhibited these proof$ to every beholder, on all Sundays and holidays, before the revolution. What their prefent ftate may be we know not; for deriving no fecurity either from our principles or our connections, we did not venture to re vifit France during the late truce; but we are certainly not difposed to receive an account of it from one who fo flagrantly, mifre prefents their paft ftate. These observations are followed by the ufual train of philofophical reflections, of the obfcurity of which the author himself feems to be aware, fince he explains the two pages which they fill by one fentence of eight lines. We lament very much that this power of compaffion has not been more frequently exercifed.

We now arrive, with our author, in the capital of republican France; and liften to a very neceffary differtation of economy; a science which every man who goes to Paris ought to understand, But, we now learn for the first time, that it is better to be cheated and laughed at than to know how to bargain. This may appear ftrange to fome of our unphilofophical readers; but they must be told, that philofophers do not use words in their ordinary sense, but affign to them a fignification of their own. Of this we have already exhibited one notable inftance in the word toleration; and thus to bargain does not, as they might be led to fuppofe, mean to contract for the fale, the purchase, or the hire of any thing; but "to bargain is to depreciate, to invent faults, to fpeak untruths, to be fufpicious, and to be fufpected." We little imagined, indeed, that when Robespierre paffed his famous decree contre les fufpects, and against thofe even who were foupçonnés d'etre fufpects, he was only directing his rage against bargainers. But we live to learn. We cannot be expected to follow our author through all the streets and public places of Paris,

We

We can only take brief notice of fome of his obfervations on the character and manners of its inhabitants, occafionally extracting anecdotes, and making comments on his remarks where they feem to be called for. First, as to the dress of the men.

"The revolutionary spirit has not been limited to political and civil inftitutions; it has pervaded every department of life. Monks, and Abbés, with muffs, filk coats, arm hats, and all the affimilating coftume, have disappeared. The well-dreffed men are either military, or habited fo like the Englifa, as to appear almost the fame people. They are chiefly to be dif tinguished from us by difference of deportment, difference of phyfiognomy, and by an overgrown bush of hair on each cheek. Some of the English affect this difguiting appearance; which, without powder, gives a man the air of an affaffin; and, with, that of a grey baboon. Nothing but the frequency of the object can reconcile it to the eye.

"But the well-dreffed men are very few: the revolution has far from entirely corrected the propenfity of the lower orders to flovenlinefs. That the phlegmatic German, who fits, walks, or works,, with his pipe in his mouth, fhould be carelefs concerning his appearance, is but the refult of his correfponding habits: but that the great mafs of a nation with fo much vivacity, fo vain, fo continually boafting of fuperior grace, and of giving the ton to all Europe, I miftake, to the whole univerfe, that the great ma's of fuch a nation, I fay, fhould be flovenly, is a phenomenon which at first view aftonishes an Englishman, who has only heard their character from their own mouths. Long pantaloons, once put on and never changed till they are entirely worn out, linen not fit to be feen and therefore concealed, a great coat dangling to the calf of the leg, buttoned up and worn allo while it will laft, a rufty round hat, uncombed hair, fierce whiskers, a dirty chin and a handkerchief tied not under but over it, and not of muflin of filk but of coarfe coloured linen rarely washed, fuch is the figure not perhaps of the majority, but of great numbers of the men to be met of an evening even in coffee-houses. Such are hundreds of the figures that crowd together at all hours of the day, and walk the Palais Royal, fill the billiardrooms, and exhibit themselves in all public places where the entrance is free. At some even of the dancing gardens on the Boulevards, they find it neceTary to write over the door," Admittance to perfons decently dreffed."

"The French character is enterprifing, forward, impelled by curiosity, not easily repulled, and with little of that fhynefs which in the English is fometimes pride, and sometimes a foolish feeling of fhame, but often likewife a decent fenfe of propriety. It appears as if a Frenchman imagined he has only to fhew himself to be admired. If he publicly write, fpeak, or act, he alumes importance. If his portrait be painted, his head must be thrown back, his breast forward, and his air muft either be fmiling, dignified, or disdainful; in his own language, it must impose. Would he permit his numerous good qualities to act unaffectedly, and without oftentation, he would indeed be admirable! But he hides the real worth of his character, which is often great, by his open and extravagant claims to fuperiority; and, when he happens to have lefs than a common fhare of understanding, fometimes his ludicrous impertinence almost levels him with the ape.'

This is a well-drawn portrait, the accurate likeness of which must