portant than dinner; and partly because they would consider it bad economy to pay for a meal without eating as long as they possibly could, besides pocketing some of the relics. This disposition I accounted fortunate; first because like themselves I consider a hurried mastication as neither pleasant nor profitable; and secondly because it gave me half an hour's start of the vehicle, which in an uneven country, and according to the French rate of travelling secures the enjoyment of a whole day's pedestrian exercise, should the traveller be inclined for it. I had wandered on in this way when night overtook me beyond Donzerac, and I entered a cottage by the road side to request leave to sit down, and wait the arrival of the Diligence: the owner, however, very coolly told me that there was an auberge not far off, where I might wait if I chose it. The proverb says one swallow makes not summer.' I considered it unsafe to conclude any thing generally against the hospitable character of the French peasants from this single specimen; so I went on to another cottage and seated myself on a stone bench near the door; but I had scarcely done so when the owner of the house came out and invited me to enter. I found a roomy cottage which seemed, however, to consist but of the single apartment in which the family was collected: the floor was of earth, uneven enough: above were bare rafters which served as a store-house for a variety of domestic utensils and lumber: there were two large beds, with curtains; one near the fire, the other at the farther end of the room: a bench and two stools were round the hearth, on one of which I was requested to seat myself. It was supper time; a coarse cloth was spread on a narrow wooden table, on which were arrayed as many pewter porringers as equalled the number of the members of the family, who were to share the meal: a large brown loaf was taken from a shelf, and cut into slices, with the only knife with which the cottage seemed to be furnished: a large three legged pot was next taken from the fire, and each por

ringer filled with a soup very much like gruel, poured over the bread. The father of the flock, his wife, two sons, and as many daughters, placed themselves at table; the old grandam sate in the chimney corner, and as she was in ill health had a few spoonfulls of wine mixed with her porridge: I was invited to join the party: after the gruel, a large kettle of chestnuts was served out, which concluded the meal. I found I understood very little of the Patois spoken by my host, who, on his part understood so little of French as to be ignorant, from my pronunciation that I was a foreigner. When the Diligence came up I wished the family good night, and was lighted to the coach door, that I might not step in the mud round the cottage!'

Notwithstanding the limited nature of his opportunities, the shortness of his stay in France and the apparent wants of introduction to any society-he does not hesitate to entitle a chapter of the French Character,' and to state with entire positiveness his views of the morality, religion and manners of the French people. Of course the opinions of such a judge can have but little weight-we will nevertheless attempt an epitome of them.

1. The French are a parsimonious people. A respectable Frenchman will haggle an hour for a sou, give the waiter of a coffee-house a half sou, and pocket the overplus sugar after sweetening his cup of coffee. In their travelling, in their amusements, in their whole social system economy is the dominant principle.'

The Lieutenant does not cite any facts to support this charge, but accounts for the existence of the fault by supposing that frequent political changes must produce a feeling of insecurity and as a consequence the desire of hoarding. The absence of commercial enterprize with its concomitant rapid gains and lavish expenditure he considers also as a chief cause.

2. The domestic virtues, he says, are not supposed to be highly cultivated in France-the prevalence of conjugal infi

delity is universally admitted.-For this, he asserts, he has the authority of females whom he has questioned-perhaps his favourites of the Palais Royale-and he attributes the vice to the numerous forced marriages.

·

3. A want of simplicity is, he thinks, a remarkable feature in the French character- An end seems valued in proportion to the complexedness of the means used to produce it.' The police system, the constitutions got up' during the Revolution, and the plan of obliging all who pass from one part of the country to another to procure passports and have them countersigned daily-a system that he reprobates as tyrannous and oppressive to the French while it is entirely nugatory as to the ends proposed-are the supports for this part of his theory.

4. The military and their imitators have a taste for low company and vulgar debauchery.-The Bourgeoise, he allows, 'both look and feel more rationally than their forefathers.' A degree of commendation sadly overbalanced by the following censures: Indisputably there are many Frenchmen of sufficient honour to resent an indignity offered to their noses, but that moral delicacy which shrinks from the contagion of meanness is, I fear to say, little known among our Gallic neighbours,' If the old school of French manners be justly charged with professing much and meaning little, the new is more disgustingly characterized by coarse familiarity amounting to a levelism far more radical than is to be found in the United States of America, where each man respects his fellow citizen, because he respects himself, but in France nothing is respected but a gendarme." And we are told soon after that gentlemen are very rare in France.

Bonaparte spoiled Parisian society, the Lieut. thinks, and assures us his remarks are borne out by unexceptionable testimony-by his system of espionage which occasioned con

versation to lose its freedom, and a talent for silence to be the most valued possession.

5. Religion has no chance of a revival, nobody goes to church but a few old fashioned people—the remnant of the old nobility and gentry;—the Catholics still advertise indulgences and Volney is read. In fine, the Lieutenant seems to think the French are not much better than they should be, and fit for nothing in the world but to supply materials for a book of travels.

ART. V.-American Manufactures.

1. The Remonstrance of the Virginia agricultural Society of Fredericksburgh, &c. to the Congress of the U. S. 2. Memorial from the general meeting of delegates from the united Agricultural Societies of Virginia, remonstrating against the protection of manufactures.

3. Three Letters on the present calamitous state of affairs, addressed to J. M. Garnet, Esq. President of the Fredericksburgh agricultural Society. By M. Carey, Philadelphia, 1820.

When the Missouri question shall have received a decision and the excitement now caused by it shall have passed away, the attention of our rulers in Congress will probably be called to an earnest inquiry into the policy of giving further and more effectual encouragement to American manufactures. And, whatever may be the determination finally adopted on the subject, it can scarcely fail to agitate the public mind much more seriously than the discussion which now occupies the national legislature.

The prevention or the permission of a traffic in human flesh throughout the widely expanded regions of the west, considered as an abstract question of humanity and national glory, touches indeed the sensibilities and awakens the interest of the patriot and the philanthropist, while it involves

also some points of local politics deeply in the result. But the sphere of all these sympathies is very small compared with the wide circle of varied interests concerned in the adoption of a new scheme of national industry, or a continuance in the system hitherto pursued. If slavery with all its horrors aggravated into tenfold deformity should be allowed to brood like a gigantic incubus on the fair bosom of the western vales;-sincere and universal would be the regret among the well informed population of those states, within whose limits the miseries of human bondage are unknown. The feeling, however, like all earthly griefs founded on pure disinterestedness would be very evanescent; we should lament the event as a misfortune to human nature, and perhaps execrate it as a national disgrace, but yet no hearts would break, and few slumbers would be less sound. But when the nation is fully roused to an investigation of the proposed plan of fostering our home manufactures-far different will be the anxiety awakened-and infinitely more dangerous the exasperation that will probably be excited.

Instead of a generous sorrow at the propagation of human misery in its worst shape, certainly, but still in a form from which the sorrowers are secure, there may then be the bitter disappointment of thousands that have looked forward to a change of system as their only means of escape from actual want. Instead of mortification to national pride, there may be the destruction of every hope of individual happiness.How wide will be the limits of this influence, it is not easy to calculate nor encouraging to consider; but when we look on the present situation of the middle and eastern states, with regard to their share in the profits of the national industry, and then turn an eye to our southern neighbours, and look at the course of their trade-it is difficult to avoid a belief that it will require all the ingenuity and all the public spirit of our legislators to keep the opinions of these two sections in perfect unison with each other. It is impossible to be blind