"There ought to be a system of manners in every nation, which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely." BURKE. FRANCE. BOOK III. SOCIETY. Woman.-Her former Influence, and actual Position in French Society.-National Characteristics. -Madame D' Houdetot.-Married Life.-Gallantry, Manners, Education.-Domestic Habits. -The Feinme de Chambre.-La Bonne.-Do mestic Servitude. - The Toilette. The Royal Trousseau. -- IN all considerations of society, whether political or moral, the mind habitually directs its views to those relations, which spring from the intellectual and physical forces of man alone. But there is a light and orna→ mental capital, crowning the massive columns of the social edifice, upon which, when the mind has estimated the depth of the foundation, and the strength of the base, it rests with pleasure and recreation. Fragile and delicate, full of grace, and replete with harmony, this last work of the almighty architect seems to typify the benevolent intentions, which originated and planned the whole structure of creation. Woman, in all regions, and under all institutions, as wife, and as mother, exercises, through the delightful medium of these sacred ties, a direct or an indirect influence on the constitution of society. And it is a curious paradox that in the country, where she has reigned with the most unlimited controul, she has been denied all chartered jurisdiction in its political government. There seems, however, to have been at all times a conventional agreement, in French society, to counteract the severe proscription of those Salic laws, which certainly were not established, on the presumption of female inability to reign;* since, under the title of REGENT, Women have governed the helm This is the ungallant supposition of Mezeray. Cardinal Mazarin declared that the Salic law was established, because it was always to be dreaded that a queen would be ruled," par des amants incapables de GOUVERNER DOUZE POULES!" with all the despotism of the most absolute monarchy, and occasionally with a tyranny, which has been justly charged against them as a reproach, by the satirists of France and of other countries. Women have never been called to the throne of elective monarchies, nor have taken any share in republican governments. Their genius, tact, and address suit best with the finesse, which rules the cabinets of hereditary and despotic monarchies. The fair Gabrielles and the Entragues had no power in the court of Henry IV. when opposed in his mind to the wisdom of his minister Sully, whose government almost approached to the vigour of republican rule. They had a very different influence upon the affairs of their royal lover, from that exercised in the courts of Louis XIV. and XV. when the women created marshals, displaced ministers, intrigued with foreign cabinets, and corresponded with imperial sovereignty.* It was * It is pleasant to consider how much the affairs of Europe must have been influenced, by the intrigues of Mad. de Pompadour. Her resentment against the Duc de Richelieu, for refusing to marry his son to her daugh ter, had nearly proved fatal to France. "Ses tracasse◄ · |