son sexe dit: "Au moins, mon révérend père, ce n'est point de notre côté." "Tant mieux, ma bonne, tant mieux," dit le prédicateur, cela finira plutôt !"

The principle and practice of the following story may not, perhaps, be quite new to some of our female readers:

"Une jeune demoiselle, qui entrait dans le monde, croyant être seule dans sa chambre, consultait son miroir, plaçait, dépla→ çait son bonnet, arrangeait ses cheveux, et parlait pour voir la grâce qu'elle avait. Elle supposait qu'elle était environnée de doucereux qui la persécutaient, elle se donnait de son éventail, tantôt sur une épaule, tantôt sur l'autre, en disant: "M. des Rochers, laissez-moi donc. Finissez, je vous prie, M. Desnoyers, quel plaisir prenez-vous à me tourmenter? Pour cela Vous êtes trop vif:" elle affectait de prendre un air à demisévère, et faisait plus de grimaces qu'il n'y en a dans le dictionnaire des mines: "Mais M. de l'Ormont," continuait-elle, "yous abusez de la complaisance qu'on a pour vous." Ce cavalier était justement caché dans la chambre, et parut en ce moment avec de grands éclats de rire; la demoiselle ne pouvant soutenir la confusion qu'elle eut à cette vue, s'enferma dans un cabinet." Marmontel is the most copious contributor to these facetious pages; and some of the passages in his works are so interesting, that we are glad to meet with them in any company. In the warfare of wit, a good defence shows incomparably more skill than an attack: for instance, "Un homme buvait à table d'excellent vin, sans le louer, le maître de la maison lui en fit servir de très médiocre." « Voilà de bon vin," dit le buveur silencieux. C'est du vin à dix sous," dit le maître," et Pautre est un vin des dieux." "Je le sais," reprit le convive; "aussi ne l'ai-je pas loué. C'est celui-ci qui a besoin de recommandation."

Here is a story which can be understood by those only who know that in Italy, as in some other countries, the day and night are divided into twenty-four hours, but, that the hours are reckoned from sun-set: "Le Pape Alex. VIII. monta sur le Saint Siège à soixante et dix-neuf ans. En trois semaines il pourvut tous ses neveux; et comme un ami lui représentait qu'il marquait trop de précipitation pour l'avancement de sa famille, il répondit: "Oh! Oh! il est vingt-trois heures et demie."

NO. II.

Aug. Rev.

VOL. I.

M

PARIS CHIT CHAT.

THE title of this work is well calculated to awaken expectations of diversified amusement. The French before that political Convulsion which has changed and deformed the moral aspect of the country, maintained the character of being the first na tion in the world for lively, elegant, and familiar conversation. At Paris, the characters of a "man of letters" and a "man of the world," were very frequently found blended in the same person; and this was owing to the constant intercourse between the nobility, and that numerous class which we term professional people-especially the superior clergy and the French gens de robe on the contrary we, when we have wished to bring together company of a superior cast, have sometimes found ourselves circumstanced like the lady in the Rambler, who having cultivated a refined taste for the manner, as well as the matter of conversation, "refused to admit scholars because they were not fine gentlemen, and fine gentlemen because they were not scholars." But that chivalrous respect for sex, age, and dignity, which characterised the French of former times, and gave lustre to their bravery and grace to their frivolity, has since the age of terror wholly disappeared. This is no doubt an evil comparatively light, when weighed against the load of public infamy and guilt which has proceeded from the same cause; yet it is a widely spreading evil, and by destroying the charm of social life, tends to narrow the heart, debase, the fancy, and paralyse the affections.

So large a capital as Paris must, however, in any period, supply abundant matter to reward the attention of the curious observer; and to the ability for placing such matter in an amusing point of view, the claims of the "Hermite de la chaussée d' Antin" are already before the public, Many of his essays have found their way into English Journals, and the original work has been pretty widely circulated in this country. The pages now under consideration continue the series of observations on men and manners; and we select part of the second number which describes the " Entry of the King," it is headed by a motto from the Henriade.

"Tout le peuple à genoux, dans ce jour salutaire, Reconnaît son vrai Roi, son bienfaiteur, son père." May 14, 1814.

"For God's sake, Madame de Montlivert, give me my neckcloth and my coat, the signal guns are firing!"

"Well, sir, there is no hurry; it is not yet eight o'clock." "What kind of weather is it ?"

"Charming indeed! the finest of May days."

"So much the better, madam. The populace are naturally but a superstitious kind of animal, and you would have some trouble in making them believe that a good king could make his entrée in bad weather-but where is Victor ?"

"He set off an hour ago to meet the king, even as far as St. Ouen."

"On foot?"

"Certainly; you well know that there is not a horse to be hired in all Paris."

"And that you had not a louis in your purse to procure him that pleasure; but you spoil your children, Madam, you really spoil them: this, however, is not the moment to reproach you with it. Do you mean we should take little Julius with us?"

"Most undoubtedly; his sister Emma is now dressing him."

"Yet she has just been to wish me a good day, and I observed her very sorrowful."

"The poor little thing is vexed and disappointed: for yesterday she ordered a hat with the lily under the protection of the Graces, and she is afraid that it will not come home in time."

"Yes, yes, we are always too late in this house, and you will see that such will be the case to-day."

Whilst I was thus grumbling at my wife in order that I might not break through a good custom, I thumbed over some old chronicles for the purpose of finding some account of the different entries of the kings into Paris that I might compare them with the circumstances of which I was about to become an eye-witness.

I found, in a memoir of the Chevalier de Jaucourt, full of curious researches into various periods of our history, that "the kings of France have always made their entry into the capital by the gate of St. Denis; that all the streets through which they passed were covered with silken tapestry, &c.; that fountains of perfumed water impregnated the air; that milk and wine flowed in abundance; and that the deputies of the six mercantile bodies carried the canopy. As to the bodies of trades, they had the duty of undertaking the dramatic parts in the great ceremony; they followed on horseback representing, in characteristic habits, the seven mortal sins, the seven virtues :

Faith, Hope, Charity, Justice, Prudence, Strength, and Temperance; Death, Purgatory, Hell, and Paradise."

After the quotation of a few parallel passages from the annals of Malingre, Mezerai, and Perefixe, the author goes on to say, "I know not in what Arabian tale it is that I have read, that when the kings of Lahor made their entry into the capital, they were preceded by three heralds; the first proclaimed the pom"O pous titles of the monarch, the second then cried out," O Prince! so great, so powerful! forget not that you must die;" when the third added, Eternal praise to him who lives and never dies!' All the moral duties of those who nations govern are concentrated in these words; there they see what they owe to their rank as kings, and what they owe to God, in whose eyes princes and their subjects are equal."

After some desultory chat in which the good man of the house explains to his children who Louis the eighteenth is, and why they ought to be glad to see him, a point which many thousands of French "children of a larger growth" have not yet been made to understand, but in which the little royalists cordially agree, the family party sets out, but the father on the way bethinks himself that he has not breakfasted, and repairs to the "saloon of one hundred and fifty covers," where he finds himself" opposite to two military geniuses; one of whom, with carotty mustachios, dressed in a green riding-coat, decorated with two crosses, and his right arm slung in a black handkerchief, looked at his comrade from time to time with an expres sion of bitter sadness.

"Monsieur appears to be wounded;" said I to him, drawing back for fear of touching his arm.

"Yes, Sir, I had my arm broken by a grape-shot at Champaubert.'

"That affair was very honorable to the French arms; you fought well."

"Just as I have fought these last eighteen years, and as I "But you shall never fight again"-replied he with a sigh. will enjoy the fruit of your toils. An honorable character is the reward of valor, and the recompence of glory."

"Honorable character!"

"Yes, the most just, the most merited. The French soldiery are all the honor of the country, and are those children who will be dearest to the heart of the King; it is for him that you have fought in supporting the glory of his people, and you have sacred claims upon his grateful remembrance."

"You are a worthy fellow!"

«So must all say of you, who look at your button holes; and you have this advantage, that it is only necessary to show yourself, in order to inspire respect."

"Confess, however, that it is very hard, after so many vic

tories

"To accept of peace, and to reconcile France, and the whole of Europe ?"

"They impose this peace on us; I wish to have conquered it."

With this declaration, which we believe to speak the universal feeling of the military in France, we close the scene of the "Sallon de cent cinquante couverts," and passing over a page or two about "triumphal arches," "floating pennants" "white. cockades," and "wreaths of flowers" we follow our guide and all the rest of the "bien pensans" who could gain admission, into the church of Notre Dame. Within these sacred walls we are told that "The King appears under a brilliant canopy, above which I can almost fancy I see hover the glorious spirits of his ancestors. At this august moment recollection checked enthusiasm; the King knelt, and all hearts united with his in addressing to heaven their silent supplications.

The first tribute being paid to the King of Kings, universal shouts hailed the monarch, even to the very moment when the priests commenced the holy canticle. Oh! how fervent must have been the prayer that the august daughter of Louis XVI, addressed at that moment to the eternal Being! The sentiments with which her soul was filled, gave the most touching expres sion to her figure," (the French word figure should have been rendered by face) "and who can doubt that heaven heard favor ably the prayers that she offered up for France!" At the present momentous crisis of affairs, after a reverse in the fortune of the Bourbons, so total and so rapid that the short-lived splendor which preceded it, is scarcely embodied in our recollections, but floats on the memory like the unreal texture of a dream, the details of the restoration of Louis the eighteenth to the throne of his ancestors, must awaken sensations of regret, and at the same time reprobation of the improvident counsels and futile precautions which "scotch'd the snake, not killed it ;" and attempted to build a temple to peace and security on the sandy margin of an angry ocean.

The remaining numbers of the first volume treat on the following subjects-Talent and Probity-Glance over Paris-The Great Stair-case-Suicide-Indecision of present Manners-The Baths-Caricatures-The Turkish Garden-Dialogue of the