mistaken; it is not long that the dazzle of superficial lustre can be esteemed by you in the genuine light of true merit. The glaring tinsel of the Millwoods, although you may now consider it as the sterling quality of pure gold, will soon decompose in your understanding, and leave nothing in your view but the dross of copper, and the dregs of brass. But before we proceed to this chemical process, I must acknowledge a great deal of merit and information in your preliminary remarks on their justification, for I can perceive your intention; you propose to exhibit the Moorish tyranny of the Bristol men, and then to shew, that as the Millwoods were the first to set such men at defiance, they were the first to be scandalized and hooted at as impudent and licentious girls."

Exactly, Madam," exclaimed Henry with eagerness; "they were the very first who set all Bristol at defiance; the first who wore the obie hat and transparent petticoat; the first that sported the Egyptian

robe

robe and Turkish pantaloon; and the first and the last who exhibit the Roman sandal and the Persian ridicule; the first, in short, who braved the mandates of the'Change, and to introduce fashions which were set down as contraband by the members of that commercial establishment. And they not only dealt in these contraband commodities, imported from the proscribed marts of London and Bath, but they dared to promonade them about the city, and even to pass and repass Jack's coffee-house on the very identical hours of full 'Change. You may well judge what a full mouthed cry was raised against them for every violation of this nature of the long established laws of the city, and that the men had recourse to the old hackneyed and coersive measures which before never failed of success, such as singing out shame shame! and then coming to an agreement with each other to treat them with the same indecorum and contempt that they would the commonest girls of the streets. The whole city was converted in

to

to a body of unmerciful critics, who interpreted amiss every gesture of the body, and every twinkling of the Millwood's eyes.Anonymous letters were circulated, filled with descriptions of their depravity, and a thousand imaginary intrigues, were sent into circulation for the purpose of forcing them back to a rigid obedience to the decrees of the 'Change, or to drive them out of the city as dangerous in their example to the morals, manners, and habits of the times.But the cits were foiled in all their attempts; the brave girls, once emancipated from municipal slavery, spurned at every appearance of controul; made no secret that officers and respectable strangers were of their acqaintance; professed that they would dress as they please, and walk the college and the park, and frequent the concert and the play in spite of the corporation, or any other intrusive advisers of the town, You appear surprised, Madam," continued Henry, "and perhaps wonder how they escaped being mobbed and hustled as they went along, but

I

I am assured by my friends who assisted them in breaking their chains, that this seldom happened, because, during the novitiate of their independency, a phalanx of gentlemen, interested in their triumph, walked before and behind them, and with bludgeons and menaces kept the whole city at bay-kept the Bristol men in such order, that the 'Change came to a resolution to relinquish their opposition, and to have nothing more to do with women who had the courage to despise the public opinion, and emerge from the slough of barbarism in which their other females are contentedly held?"

"It was not my intention to have interrupted you," said Mrs. Percy, as Henry came to the close of this sentence," but there is so much danger in your conceiving it a virtue in those ladies, to brave the opinion of the public, that I must make a few remarks upon it before it escapes my mind. Know from me, Henry, as it has escaped your own observation, that all women eminent for great depravity and extraordinary licentiousness,

licentiousness, began life by pluming themselves upon those very virtues which you admire in the Millwoods, and by esteeming the public opinion as an object of contempt. and reproach. I shall now, as you in a manner force me to it, confine myself to those four ladies, and convince you that a contempt for the opinion of their townsmen was the first source of all the disorders of their conduct and mind. Despising this opinion, the weakness of their head soon became instrumental to the disorders of their heart, and an indifference to the satire and scandal that were in circulation against them, made them approach the loss of reputation without a crying conscience or an ungrate ful moment. Governed by a respect for the voice of the community, they were reserved and cautious, but the instant, as you observe, that they set Bristol at defiance, they fell into folly and extravagance, and were regardless even of those common measures which the worst of women think necessary for the preservation of essential appearances.