event, and more than one public vehicle is called the Waterloo. This seems an odd application of the term; for if, instead of standing their ground so firmly, your soldiers had Bown away with half the rapidity with which these carriages perform their daily journies, you would have had little reason to be fond of the name of Waterloo. Now with respect to another sin, of which I know that your countrymen take delight in accusing mine, I mean national vanity; unless I am much mistaken, the fault is common to both nations. A Frenchman, indeed, makes no secret in avowing his sentiments; and, whenever the subject is started, he tells you that France is superior to all the world in natural and acquired advantages, and that Paris is the centre of every excellence. Your orators, on public occasions, are no less explicit in claiming for England a similar pre-eminence; and if we are to believe their assertions, in arms, science, laws, litera ture, constitution, morals, and religion, England is without a rival. In private society your countrymen, I confess, are more discreet or more polite; and a well-bred Englishman is rarely heard, in the presence of a foreigner, to use such offensive language. But though a stranger is not told that England is the first country in the world he must be stupid, indeed, not to discover that such is the opinion of two-thirds of its natives; while no opportunity is lost of drawing from the traveller a confession, that something or everything which he meets with here is superior to that to which he has been accustomed at home. Of this mode of challenging applause I find daily examples, and I remark it amongst all orders of Englishmen. If I commend the rapid pace of your horses, or the neat appointment of your carriages, some member of the Four-in-hand Club immediately says, "Ah! Sir, this is the country for cattle. Did you see my team last Sunday in the Park? I'll bet you ten to one you do not find a match in all France for my greys." If the beauty of a lovely female draws from me a tribute of merited praise, I am asked whether I do not think the English ladies the prettiest of their sex? and, perhaps, the question is put in the presence of some of them, when to hesitate in giving a reply would be the acme of rudeness. If I admire the picturesque beauty of the surrounding country when paying a visit at the seat of a friend, an eulogium is immediately pro nounced on the rural charms of England; and either the master of the house, or one of his guests, fails not to contrast your elegant villas with our dilapidated Chateaux. If, in going into a shop, I commend the manner in which any article is finished, the owner is sure to observe that manufactures are carried to the greatest perfection in Great Britain, and will probably conclude his remarks by asking, in an incredulous tone of voice, whether it would be possible, at any price, to purchase similar goods in France. If, while reading a number of the Edinburgh or Quarterly Review, I speak favourably of an article which fixes my attention, a partisan of the commended journal (for I find even literary criticism here cannot be separated from party predilections) enquires if I do not think the work in question a periodical publication of unrivalled merit; and if I hint that the Mercure de France is a competitor which it is difficult to surpass I am accused of being blinded by national prejudice. If the Elgin Marbles, the Young Memnon, and the other treasures of the British Museum are spoken of with merited respect, I am called upon to declare whether we have any thing left at Paris at all comparable to this justly celebrated colfection; and if I hint, that the two Galleries of the Louvre, as lately restored by Louis XVIII. and the jardin des plantes contain, amongst their various specimens of art and nature, much which, perhaps, the connoisseur would find no less interesting, 1 find scarcely any Englishman disposed to believe that I am only saying what I think. If I praise the eloquence of your Parliamentary Speakers I am re minded that it is only in England that extemporary harangues are heard; and that such efforts alone deserve the name of oratory; while some surprise is expressed at our having suffered the members of our Corps Legislatif in France to read their discourses. If, in paying the amount of a long bill at an inn or tavern, I complain of the charges, while in every other respect I allow that I have reason to be satisfied with the treatment received from mine host, he consoles me by saying, as he pockets my money, that the accommodations at similar establishments in England are so superior to those in France that I cannot form an idea of the capital risked, or the value of the conveniences which I have enjoyed; and, indeed, that his profits are, considering all things, extremely moderate. Such is the language of all classes in this country; Eng, lish farmers, English artists, and English mechanics, are equally confident of their respective merits. They are fond, on all occasions, of drawing a comparison between their mode of exercising professions to which they belong, and that in which it is supposed to be carried on by their continental competitors; and I need scarcely add where the preference is given. Now accuse me not of illiberality or ill-humour in making these remarks; my object in drawing such circumstances to your recollection iş to show that your countrymen are not less vain than their neighbours, though I am far from thinking that either nation would be better or happier if the epithet were not applicable. As it often happens in the case of individuals, that the fancied pos session of some virtue or talent leads those who indulge this agreeable dream to acquire the merit they effect, so those countries whose inhabitants are proudest of their ima ginary pre-eminence, and zealously labour to procure for their parent soil the praises of mankind, become by degrees the theatre of real excellence. I shall conclude by expressing a wish in which I am sure you will cordially join, that as England. and France, during a long succession of many centuries, wasted their treasures and their blood in a silly and wicked contest for military superiority, so may the only struggle from henceforth between them be to rival each other in the acquisition of use. ful knowledge, and of those purer morals which are the fore-runners of peace and freedom, and conse, quently of the improved happiness of mankind, Adieu, ever yours, SKETCHES OF POPULAR PREACHERS. (Continued from page 425.) THE REV. HENRY G. WHITE, A. M. THE REV. H. WHITE is the Curate of Allhallows, Barking, afternoon lecturer of St. Mary's Rotherhithe, and evening preacher at the Asylum for Female Orphans. This gentleman is extensively and deservedly popular; the causes which have produced this result, and the defects which mingle with his excellencies, I shall now proceed to examine. His voice may satisfy the most fastidious; deep, full, and powerful, without being monotonous; its tones are admirably calculated for the solemnities of devotional service, and for expressing the various emo tions which ought to characterize the preacher. His manner is earnest, animated, and energetic; it never for a moment degenerates into that listless insipidity which wearies the attention of a congregation, and, in a great degree; neutralizes the effect of those truths which the preacher is endeavouring to enforce. It is impossible for any clergyman to appear more completely absorbed in the sacred duties he is performing than Mr. White; this quality has in no considerable degree the effect of rivetting the attention of those who hear him. His action, though not peculiarly graceful, has to their control. In seeking for the advantage of appearing the con- motives to influence the decisions of sequence of the instantaneous and his hearers Mr. White resorts enirresistible impulse of his mind, and tirely to Christianity; he does not is necessarily a powerful ally to his trust the most inconsiderable part eloquence; for so indispensable is of his cause to secondary arguments, this characteristic to the rendering in this respect I think he is wrong; of action effective, that no previous though this extreme is infinitely study, no acquired elegance, can preferable to that of making religion compensate for the want of it. Mr. a collateral, and not a principal White has, however, a habit which motive of action; still it is an exmust be considered ungraceful, he treme, and has this injurious tenalmost constantly holds his sermon dency, that it is productive of monowith his hands, and consequently tony; and, so wayward is the human stoops very much; the position of a will, that the exhibition of every raclergyman in the pulpit should be mification of a subject opposed to perfectly erect, he ought never to its inclinations is essential to imtouch his sermon except to turn press it with practical conviction, over the leaves, and he cannot com- and, though religion must always mit too much of it to memory; how form the great unfailing fountain, ever unimportant these points may still innumerable subsidiary streams be considered they add to the gene- may be discovered by investigation, ral effect, and, therefore, should not which, united with the superior chanbe neglected. The style of this nel, may level the asperities which gentleman is eloquent and pleasing, impede its progress, and cause it but his periods are very often too finally to triumph over every oblong, which occasions obscurity, and stacle that would oppose its arrival proves a great obstacle to their at its destination. Mr. White, in his retention by the memories of his sermons on the doctrines of our rehearers. I do not think Mr. White ligion, assumes for them the high distinguished as an argumentative importance they demand, and never preacher; he frequently assumes, compromises them, either by exrather than proves; he reasons more plaining away their distinguishing discursively than closely, and occa- characteristics, or by distorting sionally raises conclusions upon them to support some particular premises too weak to support them. theory. Many people are disposed If he sometimes fails in this character, to question the utility of doctrinal he amply atones for it by his excel- discourses, but when it can be delence as a teacher of practical Chris- monstrated that action precedes tianity, of that religion which rec- thought, or that a man is more tifies the will, controls the passions, likely to act rightly for thinking and meliorates the heart; he is wrongly, then, and not till then, never satisfied with appealing to the will it be unnecessary to instruct the judgment only, but labours to en- mind in those principles which gage every power of the mind in the should regulate its minutest percause of virtue, in the service of ceptions, and give the tone to all its God. He exhorts the sinner to for- active operations. sake that path which has evanescent flowers to allure to its entrance, satiety and disgust for companions to those who proceed in it, and sorrow and despair for its termination. He urges the necessity of resigning attachments which, having their origin on earth, are destructible in their nature, and unsatisfying in their tendency; and displays the advantages of fixing the affections on those objects which, being immutable and perfect, constitute the chief happiness of those who submit The subjects, perhaps, upon which Mr. White most excels, are those of charity and benevolence; he is for the suffering and the afflicted a powerful and efficient advocate; he appears to dedicate every faculty of his mind to their service, and to be sincerely anxious for the success of his exertions; he urges with force and earnestness those arguments which have a tendency to excite compassionate feeling; he enlarges on the benefits which accrue both to the dispenser, and the recipient of the bounties of benevolence, on the pure pleasure consequent on the indulgence of a charitable disposition, on the obligation imposed on the disciples of Christianity to alleviate, by every possible means, the sufferings incident to mortality; he exhorts those who hear him to dry the tear which affliction sheds over the tomb of departed happiness, and to reconcile the despairing spirit to the dispensations of Providence, by appearing as the delegates of Heaven in relieving the distresses of the unfortunate. Mr. White enforces these topics with zeal, earnestness, and pathos; he displays talent in the selection and adaptation of his arguments, which consequently próduce on those who hear him a powerful and permanent effect. To conclude, Mr. White, though he does not concentrate in himself all the qualifications necessary to form a perfect preacher, yet combines so many of them, that he will frequently create even a powerful interest: the defects I have alluded to are not irremediable, and none of them of a nature to interpose insuperable obstacles to the reception of the truths he inculcates. CRITICUS. SKETCHES OF FRANCE, &c. MODE OF TRAVELLING AND INN KEEPERS, &c. IN my last I said something of the mode of travelling in this country, and of the exactions of the innkeepers; I must be permitted to return to the subject. There is no regular standard of charge for travelling by the diligence, it varies with the supposed means of the persons who perform the journey; I mean that it is different on the different roads, according to the character of the persons who pass along them. From Calais to Paris, the charge is forty francs by the regular road which the English take, but by another road nearly seventy miles farther, over which one Englishman in ten thousand does not think of travelling, the charge is less than thirty-five. From Paris to Bayonne by the diligence only eighty-two francs are paid, and yet the distance is three times greater than from Calais to Paris. It may' be said that the same disproportion is found in England, but then it proceeds from different causes. Here the cause, as I have already stated, is to be found only in the greater or lesser means of pillaging the public. In England, if a coach proprietor demands more than an honest fare, proportioned to the expense of his undertaking, he soon meets with opposition, but in France there is so little enterprize and so little encouragement of laudable opposition to Eur. Mag. June, 1823. fraud, that the rich rogue continues his practices with impunity; if he is opposed at all, his antagonist ends by ruining himself or falling into the wrongs of the other parties. The government do nothing to encourage public spirited men, on the contrary, every thing is done to crush them, and that only because it is the interest of the advocates of tyranny, and superstition to check every thing,which tends to a distribution of wealth, and the consequent exten-, sion of intellect. As a proof of this, I need only mention that the French ministers have it in serious contemplation, to give an exclusive privilege to the proprietors of the Mes-, sageries Royales, and to suppress all coaches now running to different parts of France from other offices; so much for coaches; of the exactions of innkeepers, a volume, aye. twenty volumes might be written, I must content myself however with a page. When I was travelling to Italy two years ago, I stopped with two friends at a small inn on the road upwards of two hundred miles from Paris to dinner; from my knowledge of the prices of provisions in that part of the country, I can declare that the whole of our dinner did not cost the landlady 28. She had the modesty, however, to charge 28 francs, 17. 38. 4d.; we were not of course fools enough to submit to such a shameful exaction, and after much altercation she agreed to take T ten francs. From that day we invariably bargained for every thing before hand, and our saving was upwards of 150 per cent.; but the reader may conceive how unpleasant it is on entering an inn, to make a contract for breakfast, dinner, and supper. I will do the French innkeepers the justice to state, that they exact now and then from their compatriots as well as from the English. The Duchess d'Angouleme went last summer to drink the waters of a famous mineral spring, in the department of the Côte d'Or; she stopped on the road at an inn which was kept by the post-master of the village. As all the members of the Royal Family when they travel take their own provisions with them, for fear of being poisoned, I suppose, at the inns, her Royal Highness ordered only some fresh hot water for herself and suite. eggs and The landlord who had perhaps heard of the story of the innkeeper, who charged George I. 101. for two eggs, observing, when the Monarch complained and asked if eggs were scarce that he charged so high a price, that eggs were more plentiful than monarchs, thought he would not offend a guest of such consequence, by charging a low price for his eggs and hot water, and consequently sent in a bill for 300 francs. Her Royal Highness paid the amount without complaining, but on her return to Paris the circumstance was mentioned to the Director-General of Postes, and the conscientious innkeeper received notice that his patent of post-master had been transferred to anotlrer inhabitant of the village. The French landlord has very rarely any fixed price. In the country a French traveller, who is known to understand things well, will sit down to a good breakfast for 15 sous; a parisian, however, is expected to pay 20; a German, Swiss, or Italian 25, not because they are richer than the parisian, but because as they travel on business and gain something by the French, it is only just that they should reimburse a little to the innkeepers; an Englishman's round hat and a Russian's pigeon-breasted coat are strong indications of gullibility to the landlord; the wearers are anonied fools, he supposes, travel [JUNE, Be ling for pleasure, and down goes prised that Mr. Kean was of the |