his advice in respect to the empress of all the Russias.

Damned the duke of Tuscany for giving such bad coffee.

Wished the prince of Piedmont at the devil, for betraying him in an affair of gallantry.

Convicted of fourscore superlatives, in forty minutes, beginning with a declaration upon oath that the Sultana had the softest hand of any woman in Europe.

Toasted his friend the Prince Bishop.

An extraordinary meeting was held this morning, to consider whether our candidate did not come under the statute of exclusions, on the score of infidelity; as something like the present atheistical doctrines, which have helped to bring such misery upon Europe, was observed to run through his conversation. Mr. Allworth was deputed to wait upon the traveller this morning, that, by talking with him more freely, he might bring him to some explanation on these matters.

I cannot help thinking, that there is more than common danger in sending our sons abroad, in the present condition of the Continent; and that, not because I am apprehensive for their persons, but because I judge that in the present inverted order of things-in that fermentation of folly and enthusiasm by which so many heads are turned-in the general dissolution of that solid frame of piety, without which neither politics nor morality are more than names— there is danger lest the mind be thrown off its balance, and lost in a stupifying whirl of unintelligible ideas, or, what is worse, be degraded into a vehicle for the importation of a part of that wretched produce into this our happy island. If, at any time,

travelling brings our virtue into peril, must it not at a time so critical as the present? and if it ever be necessary that we should be qualified with a certain proportion of experience and ability for the undertaking, does not that necessity strike us in the present posture of things?

Long before travelling was attended with such risks and such trials, the following sentiment occurred to La Bruyere on the subject, which I shall spare myself the trouble of translating, as, in this travelled age, every son of a topping shoemaker is supposed to understand the French. "Quelques-uns achèvent de se corrompre par de longues voyages, et perdent le peu de religion qui leur restoit. Ils voient de jour à autre un nouveau culte, diverses mœurs, diverses cérémonies. Ils ressemblent à ceux qui entrent dans les magasins, indéterminés sur le choix des étoffes qu'ils veulent acheter: le grand nombre de celles qu'on leur montre les rend plus indifférens ; elles ont chacune leur agrément, et leur bienséance; ils ne se fixent point, ils sortent sans amplette."

I am seriously concerned to find, by the minutes of my mother's society, that the travelled part of the female world are in a very unimproved condition. How they can expect to derive any lessons of advantage, either to their minds or manners, amidst such scenes of atrocity as are now acting on the Continent, is to me a perfect mystery. Far be it from British bosoms, either male or female, to indulge so sanguinary a curiosity as to cherish a wish to be present at that transaction with which a deluded, accursed people are about to crown their iniquity. Does there live a woman so viciously constructed, so destitute of the common attributes of the sex, and the common charities of human nature, as to contemplate without horror, without feeling her heart die

within her, the eminent sorrows of that great lady, upon whom, for four sad years, has been exhausted the collected malice of millions of beings calling themselves men! who, for four sad years, has suffered all that sensibility can endure, and all that cruelty can invent! outraged in all the feelings of her nature! as a queen, as a mother, as a wife, as a woman, ingeniously abused! unconsoled by one pitying eye among the wretches that surround her, and supported by nothing but that mental majesty which no traitors can wrest from her, and that mournful solace derived from the prospect of an ignominious death? Let the gates of the city be shut on its own abominations, and let the horrid transaction be covered with its own gloom! let no eye witness it that has ever dropped a tear; let no ear hear it that is not deaf to the voice of nature; "let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it; let it not be joined to the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months!"

I have a letter by me, which I think I cannot produce upon a better occasion. I insert it, with a humble hope that it may strike the individual whose particular case it represents; but if it miss of its mark, it may at least hold out an useful caution to married couples.

"To the Rev. Simon Olive-branch. "Rev. Sir,

"I shall make no apology for troubling, with a detail of my distresses, a man whose concern is with every thing that appertains to man. I wish, however, you had been married, that my case might have touched you more nearly, and called down upon a practice which has so disturbed my repose as that of which I am going to complain, the severest tones

of your displeasure.-I have been married twelve years, ten of which have been spent in that placid harmony by which happy unions are distinguished. The two last have been disquieted by an event, from which one would not readily have predicted the consequences which have flowed. A party was formed, in the summer before last, among the relations of my wife, to visit the Spa; and, as our manner of living had hitherto been extremely domestic, we were persuaded to join them, because it would vary the scene.' Now this varying the scene may be a good argument for locomotion with couples that have nothing to risk; but there is certainly great folly in all fresh experiments where a reasonable proportion of felicity has once been obtained. Our visit to Spa gave us all such a taste for travelling, that, during a calm interval at Paris, we were actually induced to extend our journey to that wretched theatre of discord and absurdity.

"My wife has by nature a warm heart and vivid imagination, and can take up no notions with indifference that concern in any way the happiness of her fellow-creatures. She is always very enthusiastical in her first impressions; and accident having given her mind a bias towards democracy, she has, somehow or other, been carried away by the mania with which so many good heads have been turned. It is impossible to tell you how completely all our conjugal happiness has been destroyed by this political fury of my poor wife. I verily believe there was not a more peaceful woman in the world about two years ago; and at present I am sure there is not to be found a more determined wrangler. She is resolved to dispute through the day; and if I hold my tongue, she will dispute with me for not disputing

so that, finding no quarter is to be given me, I do all in my power to sell my opinion as dearly as I can. You will agree, that a very pretty kind of warfare is commenced between us; and as it is the nature of hostility to draw into a vortex all the standers-by, we have collected around us a tolerably tumultuous scene, with the help of friends, relations, children, servants, parroquets, and puppy-dogs.

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Beginning with the rights of man, my wife is now come to the rights of women; and my boys and girls have begun, as might well have been expected, to maintain the rights of children. All the peaceful regulations of my family have given place to anarchy. My youngest boy calls his mother a fool, and I am told by my wife that I am crazy. In the midst of all this, I have had the mortification of observing, that a certain captain in a marching regiment has so successfully adopted my wife's opinions, as to convince her that he knows a vast deal more than myself. Where a woman holds the scales, a soldier's feather has a prodigious weight.

"But another serious part of my history still remains. To foreign fury my wife has contrived to join a considerable portion of foreign effrontery. She receives male visitors in her bed-chamber, in imitation of French courtesy; and harangues on politics in the drawing-room, in defiance of English decorum. I believe I am a fool for confessing so much, but the captain has actually drunk coffee with her in her bed-room-a circumstance which I did apprehend would have rendered the faction more violent, and almost have ended in the guillotine; but, contrary to all expectation, the captain has ever since been extremely softened towards me, and has even promised to do his endeavour towards bringing