these, is to the full as equivocal as that of the men; for if they are not treated, as formerly, like idols, neither is the sex respected as in England. Their state is something between that of a useful and of an ornamental thing; not enough of the former to gratify the mind, or of the latter to make them as rapturous as their grandmothers used to be. Their posture certainly is awkward enough, and the present generation of men is not inclined to help them out of it; to pull them over towards reason, or to lure them towards pleasure. And this desertion is the more unpardonable in the descendants of so many knights errant, as the evident propensity of the ladies is to become again their bauble. Whether the present state of society in France will be lasting or not we cannot say. Whether it will make the distance between men and women habitual, and thus really improve the feeling of morality, is equally doubtful. Did we see religion and virtue increase, and probity and justice upon some most important points becoming healthy and vigorous throughout the nation, we should not hesitate to answer this question affirmatively. But there are many bad symptoms to be got over; and the fact which we have admitted is, we much fear, a mere accident in the system.

It may be necessary to say something in defence of ourselves for thus avowing the suspicion that female virtue is not held in much higher estimation in France now than formerly. There is a law, humane enough, which declares that the only son of a widow shall be exempted from drawing for the conscription. About five years ago an unmarried woman presented a petition to the chamber of deputies, praying that her natural son might be put upon the same footing as the only sons of all widows. The commission of petitions unblushingly read this demand at the tribune, and the honourable assembly heard it unmoved. Certainly so public a mark of indifference to female virtue never was given by any constituted, by any legislative authority, in the old regime. Yet the French are very fastidious upon some parts of female concerns. When the Duchess d'Angoulême, after an exile of a quarter of a century, returned to Paris, the principal thing which struck all ranks in this daughter of the Caesars, the child of a murdered king and queen, the female heir to the throne, was the smallness of her hat and the English tournure.

Formerly to speak plainly-adultery was the vice of the fashionable; it belonged too much to high life to be permitted to inferiors; and the French peasantry were pretty generally supposed to be the fathers of their own children. But, when the blast of equality levelled the mighty, this lordly privilege was invaded; and the sins of the nobility, torn with their titles from their loins, descended FF3

to

to their vassals. The bond of religion and the dread of law, the awe of superiors and the authority of parents were laid low, and every passion prowled without restraint. Marriage was no longer necessary; and those who did go through the ceremony observed but slightly its injunctions. The most unbridled license prevailed in classes who, before, had no more pretensions to unchastity, than to a coach and six; and the wives of artizans became as faithless as duchesses had ever dared to be. In these ranks of society, we lament to say, depravity is at this moment incredibly profound and common; and we shall conclude the subject by a picture, which, were it not authentic, official, issuing from a ministerial portfolio, we should not dare to present. Fabulous as it may appear, it is nevertheless a part of the annual report of the minister of the home department, on the state of the city of Paris.

NUMBER OF CHILDREN BORN IN PARIS.

1817 The returns for this year were mislaid by accident.

year

From this table it appears that, from the year 1815 to the 1824, both inclusively-and deducting 1817-the number of children born in Paris was 225,259, of whom 82,426 were illegitimate; that is to say, that, during the last ten years, thirty-six per cent. or more than one-third of the new annual population of Paris was born out of wedlock. The returns of the children deserted by their parents dated only from 1818, and include but

seven years. During that period 180,189 children were born, of whom 54,554 were illegitimate, and 49,503—an almost equal number-were deserted by their parents; that is to say, that during this period 30% of the new annual population born in Paris were illegitimate; and, or more than one-fourth, were deserted by their parents. So much then for the city which the French consider to be more moral than London, or, at least, to be more refinedly vicious. But, moreover, they hold Paris to be the seat of luxury, of elegance, of pleasure, of civilization, of intellect, of the arts, &c. &c. &c. We shall now add a table of the births and deaths, and of the places where these occurred, in order to show the advantages which all these things procure to the said city. BIRTHS AND DEATHS IN PARIS.

1817

The returns for this year were mislaid by accident.

From this it appears that, during the last ten years-1817 omitted-10 per cent. of the children born in Paris came into the world in the hospitals, and 37 per cent. of the deaths occurred in the same abodes of wretchedness. It might from this be inferred,

FF 4

ferred, that hospitals are very numerous and very excellent in Paris. They are not so, and private charities contribute little to their support. When the filth and poverty of the Salpêtrière and of the Bicêtre, the two principal receptacles for the starving, are considered, it must be confessed that the luxury of Paris is a sad succedaneum for happiness. Such a picture of depravity, and of its sure attendant misery, could not be found in any other Christian capital; yet, in none, is so much gilding so beautifully performed. It must be recollected too that this picture is not drawn by spleen or envy; nor, on the other hand, by persons who, fearing to retain any national prejudice, overstep the modesty of truth, and become illiberal from excess of liberality. It is the ingenuous report of a prefect to a minister, and from him to the public, neither of whom saw the least harm in it, or they would not have published it.

Some

To bid adieu to Madame la Comtesse de Genlis-We never met with such a work before. It is not full of such disgraceful vice and meanness as the Confessions of Rousseau, but it is as much disordered by vanity as they are by susceptibility; and we know not whether we have been more amused or disgusted by the perusal. We should be much puzzled to decide in what class of literature to place this performance; whether it belongs to fact or to fancy. The authoress is too much versed in the composition of historical romance to give it up at once; and these eight volumes certainly partake of the mongrel qualities of that hybrid walk, in so much that she is allowed never to have indulged her imagination more than on the present. occasion. persons, however, have been bolder than we wish to be; and, on account of the part which her harp plays toward her self-adulation, and a little too by reason of the inscription which La Harpe the critic-who, by the bye, without possessing a word of English, pronounced Racine to be a greater master of human nature than Shakspeare-placed upon her bust, have called these eight tomes le roman de la harpe. In the mean time we cannot but thank Madame de Genlis for giving us, in the midst of much fiction, of many reticences and embellishments, of no little filth, and some indelicacies, which we could not, even in a foreign language, hint at, an image of the manners and morals (mœurs) of her contemporary Parisians, which we must most heartily recommend to the perusal and proper study of our countrymen.

ART.

ART. VII.-Memoir of the Life and Character of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke; with Specimens of his Poetry and Letters; and an Estimate of his Genius and Talents, compared with those of his great Contemporaries. By James Prior, Esq. Second Edition; enlarged to two volumes by a variety of Original Letters, Anecdotes, Papers, and other Additional Matter. London. 1826. 8vo.

THE life of Burke is in truth the history of the period in which he flourished; and that, whether we consider it in a literary or in a political point of view, is unquestionably one of the most memorable in the whole course of English annals. His limited fortune, and still more strongly his taste, impelled him to devote the earlier portion of his years to the labours of literature and in these he ere long attained a distinction so high and conspicuous, as to render in his case the adopted pursuit of political fame more than commonly adventurous. But his very first exertions established him here also in the public opinion, and he quickly rose to be the Parliamentary Leader of the principal division of the Opposition-an eminence which, able as were his competitors, he maintained without a rival for ten busy years. During that time, and indeed to the close of his public life, his fame is connected with every interest of his country, whether in domestic or in foreign policy. On the comparative eloquence of his great contemporaries, as on their comparative fitness to govern the country, there must prevail decided and lasting divisions of opinion; but to Burke, by the admission of all, and to Burke alone, it was given to plant on his age the stamp and the character of his own genius; it was his alone to divert the attention of men from the contemplation of events, in themselves of surpassing interest, to the discussion of his opinions, to the applause or the censure of his writings and his eloquence. It was also his lot not merely to bequeath to posterity the tradition or the record of eloquence; but, unassisted by any continued possession of power, by rank, by wealth or by connexions, to leave on the free institutions of England, and on the frame of society itself, the deep and lasting impress of his labour and his wisdom. It is little to say that his life deserves to be treated as a theme of lofty and general interest; to preserve a fair and correct estimate of his principles and his services is a sacred debt of national justice, as well as of national policy. Every step which we are taking at the present day in the career of national improvement, while it confirms the sagacity of his forecast, should revive the sense of his merits, and add to the lustre of his just reputation. This mighty name may, by the malice of party,