or Gallican, the hydrophobia is intense with which he views the jonglerie of priests, together with the mummery of forms and ceremonies which have extinguished every semblance of rational religion. No man gets credit with these hypocrites for the smallest pretensions to being a Christian, who refuses to perform his round compliment of pater nosters and confessions: if he does this, he has absolution to do what else he likes: I was going to say he might rob a church; whereas he would be at liberty to rob any thing else, the priesthood here, I believe, being no less tenacious of any thing belonging to themselves than the clergy of any other country.

In the substantial interior accommodation of their houses, Paris certainly falls as far behind London, as in their exterior they surpass us in grandeur and durability. And, with all their fancy and finery, one soon discovers that mirrors, gilding, and splendid hangings, are but a sorry set-off, in a cold winter day, against the misery of wood fires, pyrolignic-acid fumes, and bare floors, however well they may be polished.

I have already had salutary caution, how

necessary it is to be on one's guard speaking a foreign language among natives. An English lady this morning, in my hearing, utterly confounded a French gentleman by remarking, that a friend of hers going to St. Cloud, had preferred travelling in a chaise percée (read coupée) to his own carriage. The Frenchman, too well bred to take advantage of the mistake, merely said, “Mais, madame, c'étoit une préférence bien drôle." This is no travelling story, but a literal fact.

A very intolerable bore is the being obliged to bargain for every thing one purchases; and yet, after the most persevering asseverations to the contrary, the seller will often come down to one half of what he first demanded as le plus bas prix. This we should call something very like cheating; and yet such casuists does habit make of us, the thing is not considered unfair. But if we come to the strict letter of fairness in the matter of buying and selling, even our own immaculate countrymen must, I fear, not be too forward to boast. It is true we may not practise the same policy

for a Frenchwoman, a furious imputation on our repulsive incivility-one of the severest wipes she could aim at our bad breeding.

The Scotch are prodigious favourites, and Sir Walter's novels almost as familiar to every body as with us. It is not uncommon to hear Scotland called le pays de Scott, and the plaid is worn by all ranks. So much for auld lang syne. Would only that the Scotch did not return the compliment, and copy certain of their habits too faithfully, which I think it unnecessary to particularize.

Just returned from a long and interesting conversation with the celebrated Ignace Pleyel, a venerable old man of about 74, very animated, of middle size and thin, with a head of hair as white as snow, and dark, intelligent, penetrating eyes. He received me in his own apartment with great kindness. I told him my motive for taking the liberty of calling, was the pure satisfaction of seeing a composer to whom I had been indebted for a very large share of the enjoyment of my early life. The passport was admitted without a moment's

hesitation, and he became all at once as affable as if we had been old acquaintances. When I complimented his compositions, he answered, with a shrug of modest self- approbation,

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Mais, monsieur, ma musique est ancienne à present." At the mention of Haydn, his eyes sparkled, and he spoke of him with enthusiasm. Haydn, said he, was the father of us all, (notre papa): he and Mozart monopolized all the genius of their age, and were among the last great masters who felt, and made others feel, that the end of music is to touch the heart. Beethoven he allowed to be a man of first-rate talent, but on many occasions deficient in originality; copying both his great predecessors, but especially plundering Mozart. He was quite of my opinion, that Beethoven has been the cause of generating the present vicious school of music-run-mad, by begetting a mania for imitating his abstruse and complicated harmonies, to the utter extinction of every thing like sentiment or air. At present, said he, "il n'y a point de phrase." In place of this, the composer thinks he has " attained all,

in the sale of our muslins; but I ask, whether there are many men who would implicitly trust the first bishop in the land with putting his own price on a horse, for the possession of which the said bishop might be tempted to break the tenth commandment? Indubitably not: and this is decisive, when it is considered that the morality of a bishop stands so much above that of the lay population, of which the member for Aberdeen will tell you there can be no question at all. Thus the standard of morals has varied in different ages and countries, and probably will for ever vary. In Sparta thieving was a virtue, as long as it remained undetected. Here you would be visited by a gen-d'arme for the smallest pilfering; and yet that very gen-d'arme, I have no sort of doubt, would most conscientiously cheat you to your face, if he had an opportunity of doing it under shelter of a sale.

The French frequently complain of the law of conscription, as one of the worst legacies entailed upon the nation by Buonaparte. But is it less reconcilable with the natural rights