fize, of its monftrous wealth, of its fcandalous luxury. It fucks, it inhales money and men; it abforbs and fwallows the other cities, seeking whom it may devour." "The moral phyfiognomy of this gigantic capital" (as it is afterwards ftyled) is in many refpects equally applicable to our own; and we doubt not, that an Englishman, who fhould treat London and its inhabitans with equal freedom, would, in like manner, be admired by many whom he fatirifes, by the great vulgar and the small, just as the preachers who reprobate and execrate the depravity of the times, and confign their hearers to perdition, are fure to be the favourites of the populace.

As the chapters are unconnected, we will tranflate two or three for the amufement of our readers.

Of the great city we cannot have a better phyfiognomy than from the chapter fo named, the IVth.

"Will you confider Paris as a naturalift? Afcend the towers of Notre Dame. The city is round like a pumpkin; the ftucco, of which two thirds of its materials confift, and which is at once black and white, fhews that it is built of chalk, and that it ftands on chalk. The conftant fmoke arifing from the innumerable chimneys conceals from view the pointed fummit of the fleeples; it feems like a cloud formed above fo many houfes, and the perfpiration of the city may be faid to be fenfible.

"The river which divides it cuts it almoft regularly into two equal portions; but the buildings were, till within these few years, on the north fide.... Its climate in general is subject to the greatest inconftancy, and much more moift than celd. The Seine-water is gently purgative; and it is faid proverbially, that it comes from the thigh of an angel. The nerves there are weak and relaxed, the weight of atmosphere flackens their tone, and lively colours are feldom feen in the face.

"The moft healthy quarter is that of the fuburb St. James, inhabited by the vulgar; and the most unhealthy is that of the city.

"Why was not this fuperb metropolis placed on the spot where Tours is? befides it would have been in the center of the kingdom. The fine climate of Tourain would contribute more to its population. Situated on the banks of the Loire, it would have infinite advantages which it wants, and which riches and labour cannot give.

"Its environs are diverfified, charming, delightful; nature there is cultivated

without being choaked by art. There is a crowd of gardens, pleafure grounds and walks, which are not to be feen but near the capital, for four leagues round; every thing is adorned by the bands of opulence, and the hufbandman who cultivates its foil is not unhappy.

"But for eight or ten leagues round a gun also must not be fired. The plea. fures of the king, and the eftates of the princes, have invaded all the rights of fport. The arbitrary laws made on that fubje&t bear a stamp of severity, not to fay cruelty, which forms a contraft to the other laws of the kingdom. The killing a partridge is made a crime which the galleys only can expiate. The gamekeepers purfue poachers with more vigilance and ardour than the marechauffee purtue robbers and affaffins. At length the game-keepers kill them, and (horrible to fay!) thefe murders remain unpunished. May I venture to add, that they have been rewarded, and that by a prince who, in other refpects, is thought humane.

"Princes, in what relates to the game, are fevere, inexorable, and really tyrannical."

The following is on a subject in which, as in many others, Paris follows London, longo proxima intervallo.

Chap. XLVIII.

Fiacres, [Hackney Coaches.] "The miserable jades that draw thefe tattered vehicles come from the royal flables, and once belonged to fome princes of the blood, proud in poffeffing them.

"These horfes, difcharged before they are old, undergo the lash of the most unmerciful oppreffors. Formerly noble quadrupeds, impatient of the bit, drawing a fuperb equipage like an eafy load now wretched animals, their finews relaxed, wet with rain, dropping with filthy fweat, tormented for eighteen hours in a day by the weight of the fares that the public impofe upon them*.

"Thefe hideous vehicles, whofe uneafy place is fo tedious, ferve fometimes as an afylum for a girl efcaped for a moment from the vigilance of her Arguffes, and who ftepping in nimbly and unperceived, wishes to converse with her lover unfeen and unobferved.

"Nothing fhocks a foreigner, who has feen the coaches of London, Amfterdam and Bruffels, fo much as these fiacits and their expiring horfes.

E.

N O T "Paris," fays our author elsewhere "is ftyled by the lower people, the para dife of women, the purgatory of me. and the hell of horfes."

"Befe

"Before breakfaft the coachmen are civil enough; towards noon they are lefs manageable; in the evening they are intractable. The frequent difputes that happen are determined by the commiffio. 6 ers, who are always inclined to favour the coachman. The more drunk the coachmen are, the more they whip their harles, and you are never better carried than when they have loft their fenfes. "Some reform, I know not what, was tation a few years ago. The hackBy coachmen thought proper to go all together, to the number of eighteen hundred, men, horfes, and carriages, to Chofy, where the king then was, to prefesta petition to him. The court was much furprised at seeing eighteen hundred empty hackney-coaches, which covered the plain to a great diftance, coming to lay their humble request at the feet of the throne. This occafioned some untakness. They were difmiffed as they ame. The four representatives of the fet were imprisoned, and the speaker was at to Bicetre with his paper and his fpeech.

1

"Nothing is fo common as a fudden fracture of the braces or the wheels. You have your nose broken, or a contufica on your arm; but you are excufed paying the fare.

“The hackney coaches cannot go to Versailles, nor on the roads where there are tage-coaches, without paying for a particular licence. As foon as they are out of the barriers they are your goverBors, in fpite of the custom-house. Some are extremely complaifant, others are paffionate and infolent; it is better to appeale them with a few fols more, than to go and demand juftice, or to right onefelf; and this is the practice of all genteel people.

"If you leave any thing in the coach, as it is numbered, you go to an office to daim it, and it is generally restored. "The convenience and fafety of the public would require the hackney coaches to be less dirty, more fubftantial and better hang; but the fcarcity, the dearnefs of forage, and the heavy tax of twenty fois a day for rolling on the pavement, prevent the most defireable improve

ents."

How different are the eafe, the convetience, the neatness of our London fia, with their fprings, their glaffes, their check-ftrings, &c.! Another important point in which the English is far funor to the French capital in its paveret, of which this writer fays, in anochapter (Le Bourgeois):

"As foon as you are on the pavement of Paris, you perceive that the people there are not the lawgivers. There is no convenience for walkers; no foot-way as in London; the people feem a separate body from the rest of the ftate. The rich and great, who have equipages, have the barbarous right of crushing or maiming them in the ftreets. A hundred expire in a year under the wheels of carriages. The unconcern at fuch accidents hews, that it is thought that every thing fhould be fubfervient to the pride of the great, Lewis XV. faid, If I were lieutenant of the police, I would prohibit cabriolets." He confidered this prohibition as beneath his grandeur."

In the fame chapter our author fays:

"The populace think that the English eat their meat raw; that nothing is to be feen but people who drown themselves in the Thames, and that a foreigner cannot walk the ftreets without being knocked down.

"All the churchmen on the terrace of the Tuilleries, or in the walks of the Luxembourg, are anti-anglicans, who only talk of making a defcent upon England, of taking and burning London; and who, though thought highly ridiculous in their ideas of the English fcarce differ from the gay world.

"We cannot fspeak or write at Paris without being extravagant partifans for the freedom of the Americans, at twelve hundred leagues distance. Amidst these applaufes beftowed on civil war, we never look at home; but the neceflity of talking absorbs the Parifian, and the higheft claffes, like the lowell, are enflaved by lamentable and fhameful prejudices."

In another Chapter (Political character of the true Parilians), it is faid,

"Paris lives in ignorance of the most important hiftorical facts. This city has forgotten that the English commanded there in the XVth century; that Marlborough, in this very century, having forced the lines of Villars near Bouchain, had opened himself a paffage to this capital, and that the fuccefs of a battle preferved the metropolis of the kingdom. Its ideas of London are no more jult, than they are of Pekin."

Few chapters fuit our meridian at prefent better than that on hairdieffers (Perruquiers), e. g.

"We are no longer indeed fo tidicu lous as to bury our heads in artificial coverings; to cloath the brow of youth with an enormous load of hair. The bald and wrinkled front of age no more prefents

fents this fantaftic affortment, but the rage of hair-dreffing has seized all ranks. Apprentices, attorneys and notaries' clerks, fervants, cooks, fcullions, all pour large floods of powder on their heads, all adjust their pointed toupees and their rows of curls. The odour of effences and perfumed powder strikes you at the tradefman's in the corner, as well as at the elegant and friffed nobleman's. What a vacancy does this produce in the life of the citizens! how many hours are loft to the ufeful labours! how many hair-dreffers of both fexes faatch the moments from the fhort duration of our exift ence, &c. !"

On the poor-tax (Taxe des Pauvres) he fays,

"I think that alms fhould be demanded under the banner of religion, of which charity is the juft precept. I think that every parifh fhould take care of its poor, and be empowered to make the rich contribute to it. At London, the charities are great and inexhauftible; the donations to the wretched have not our ftamp of parfimony. There triumphs the affectionate precept of the gofpel, Children of the fame father, fuccour one another.'

"We have among us refined and charitable difpofitions; but they are few when compared with thofe on the banks of the Thames. That nation, in general, is more tender, more compaffionate to the wretched than we, and with them mifery has lost its hideous forms."

From Chap. XXXIX. Have a care. "John James Rouffeau, thrown down in 1778, on the road to Menil-Montant, by an enormous Danish dog that preceded an equipage, remained on the ground while the matter of the Berlin faw him firetched there with unconcern. He was taken up by fome countrymen and led home lame, and much hurt. The owner of the coach, having heard next day who it was that his dog had thrown down, fent a fervant to afk what he could do for him. Keep his dog for the fu

ture in a firing, replied the philofopher;

and difmiffed the fervant."

Another particular in which London excels or eclipfes Paris is its lights. The miferable lanthorns and candles, which to the number of 8000 ufed to fwing acrofs the streets, having given place indeed, within thefe fixteen years, to 1200 reverberes (or reflecters) made of polished tin, and fed with oil, but fwinging in the fame abfurd manner; and during the full moon they are not lighted, fo that before the moon rifes, and after it fets, the city is plunged in darkness; and even when it thines, the height of the houses inter

cepts its rays. The figns, like ours, a now fixed to the fide of the houses.-W fhall clofe our extracts at present with t following ftory, to exemplify what knowledge of the world (Usage d Monde).

"A lady, who had long defired to acquainted with the celebrated M. N cole, defired her confeffor to bring hi to her houfe, and even to engage him t dine with her. He came; and as n one was prefent but the devotee and he confeffor, and as the beft wines were no withheld from our two apoftles, good M Nicole, who had never dined fo well i his life, and whofe ideas were a litt confused by the champagne and mufca dine, faid, at taking leave of the piou lady; “Ah, Madam, how affected lat by your goodness and politenefs! nothin was ever fo gracious as you; indeed yo are thoroughly accomplished; and I can not enough admire your charms, and et pecially your fine little eyes." The con feffor who had introduced him, and who had more knowledge of the world, di not fail, as foon as they had left madam' apartment, and while they were going down fairs, to reprove him for his fimpli city. Know you not,' faid he, ladies would never have little eyes? if you meant to flatter her on that fubje&t, yo should, on the contrary, have told he that he had fine large eyes. Do you think fo, fir? Think fo, moft certainly,

tha

Ah! how mortified I am at my stupidity But ftay! I will go, and make amends. Inftantly before the other, could ftop him the good man runs up to the lady, make his excufes, and fiys, Ah, Madame pardon the fault of which I have just bee guilty to a perfon fo amiable as you. M worthy brother, who is more polite, ha convinced me of it. Yes, I fee that am miflaken; for you have very fine larg eyes, nofe, mouth, and feet alfu."

Character of Dick Know all.

To the Editor.

IN the course of my peregrinations.

have often met a number of ex traordinary characters; but I think have not lately difcovered a more eccet tric one than Dick Know-all. Dick ha read little, and travelled fill lefs-by his ambition is to be universally intell gent. Afk him if he knows lord D. or lo B. or fir William Any-body, he is har and glove with them. Lord D. and Dic were fellow collegians at Oxford; lo B. in the fame form at Weftminster; ar Sir William and himfelf have travell all over Europe together.

I

It is a native of the Gold Coast, and a very beautiful little animal.

The eighth is the Talapoin; and may be diftinguished as well by its beautiful variety of green, white, and yellow hair, as by that under the eyes, being of a greater length than the reft. It is fuppofed to be a native of Africa and the eaft.

The ninth and laft of the monkies of the ancient continent, is the Douc, so called in Cochinchina, of which country it is a native. The Douc feems to unite the characters of all the former together: with a long tail, Jike the monkey of a fize as large as the baboon; and with a flat face, like the ape: it even refembles the American monkies, in having no callofity on its pofteriors. Thus it feems to form the fhade by which the monkies of the continent are linked with thofe of the other.

Befides these, Mr. Pennant has defcribed a very remarkable one, of which he has alfo given a beautiful engraving. It has a fhort, black, and naked face; a fmall head; that and the fhoulders covered with long, coarfe, flowing hairs, like a full-bottomed perriwig; of a dirty yellowifh colour mixed with black; the body, arms, and legs, of a fine gloffy blacknels, covered with fhort hairs; the hands naked, furnished only with four fingers; on each foot five very flender toes; the tail very long, of a fnowy whitenefs, with very long hairs at the end, forming a tuft; the body and limbs very flender; its length above three feet. It inhabits the forefts of Sierra Leone in Guinea, and is called there Bay or King Monkey. The negroes hold its fkin in high estimation, and ufe it for pouches and for covering to their guns.

Next come the monkies of the new continent; which, as hath been faid, differ from those of the old, in the make of their noftrils, in their having no callofity on their pofteriors, and in their having no pouches on each fide of the jaw. They differ alfo from each other, a part of them making no ufe of their nails to hang by; while others of them have the tail very strong and mufcular, and serving by way of a fifth hand to hold by. Those with mufcular holding tails, are called Sapajous; those with feeble, ufelefs tails, are called Sagoins. Of the Sapajous there are five forts: of the Sagoins there are fix.

The firit of the Sapajous is the Warine, or the Brazilian Guariba. This monkey is as large as a fox, with long black hair, and remarkable for the loudness of its voice. It is the largest of the monkey kind to be found in America.

The fecond is the Coaiti; which may be diftinguished from the reft, by having no

thumb, and confequently but four fingers on the two four paws. The tail, however, fupplies the defects of the hand; and with this the animal flings itfelf from one tree to another, with furprizing rapidity.

The third is the Sajou; diftinguished from the reft of the Sapajous, by its yellowish, flesh coloured face.

The fourth is the Sai. It is fomewhat larger than the Sajou, and has a broader muzzle. It is called alfo the Bewailer; from its peculiar manner of lamenting when either threatened or beaten.

The last of the Sapajou kind is the Samiri, or Aurora; which is the fmalleft and the most beautiful of all. It is of a fine orange colour, with two circles of flesh round the eyes. It is a very tender, delicate animal, and held in high price.

Of the Sagoins there are fix kinds. The first and the largeft, is the Saki, or Cagui; to remarkable for the length of the hair on its tail, that it has been often termed the Fox-Tailed Monkey. It is of different fizes; some being twice as large as others.

The fecond of this kind is the Tamaim; which is ufually black, with the feet yellow. Some, however, are found all over brown, fpotted with yellow.

The third is the Wistiti; remarkable for the large tufts of hair upon its face, and its annulated tail.

The fourth is the Marikina; with a mane round the neck, and a bunch of hair at the end of the tail, like a lion.

The fifth is called the Pinch; with the face of a beautiful black, and white hai that defcends on each fide of the face, lik that of a man.

The laft, leaft, and most beautiful of all is the Mico, an animal too curiously adorn ed not to demand a particular defcription which is thus given of it, by Mr. Conda mine. That,' fays he, which the go vernor of Para made me a prefent of, was th only one of its kind that was feen in th country. The hair on its body was of beautiful filver colour, brighter than that the most venerable human hair while tail was of a deep brown, inclining to blac ness. It had another fingularity, more markable than the former; its ears, cheeks, and lips, were tinctured with bright a vermilion, that one could fcarce led to fuppofe that it was natural. I kept a year; and it was ftill alive when I ma this defcription of it, almoft within fight the coafts of France. All I could then was to preferve it in fpirits of wine, wh might ferve to keep it in fuch a state, as fhew that I did not in the least exaggerate my defcription.

The latt of the monkey kind are the N kies; which have no other pretenfions to