fequently to have their interefts and their will in common with his, their fuffrage in the firft place will "not be free, and in the fecond place will not be neceffary, because the individual to whom they are attached cannot be doubly reprefented, and has no need of manifefting twice the fame will. The husband and wife are but one political perfon, and never can be any thing elfe, although they may be two civil perfons.'

"Some political Thaleftris, warring for the rights of women, would probably hefitate in admitting either the propofition or confequence of this pofition. Political right, the would obferve, is no more affected by this union than by any other civil association; nor is it certain that union of perfons conftitutes neceffarily union of will, unlefs it be, by the mode of reafoning adopted by the lady to whofe lot had fallen an hufband fhe difliked, and who, not diffembling the ennui fhe felt in his company, anfwered his reproaches by obferving, that, as fhe understood both were now one, the was extremely tired of herfelf.

"The above-mentioned Thaleftris might alfo obferve, that if civil liberty be the confequence of political liberty, it is not clear how from this union women can remain civilly fingle, and politically married; that if the reprefentation must always be vefted in one party, fince they are conftituted by nature to exift together, like the oak and the hamadryad, yet that, fociety which is faid to correct all inequalities, ought at least to leave to the choice of the tree, and the nymph, which fhould have the right of reprefentation: fhe might alfo obferve, that no provifion was made for thofe to whofe lot no fuch union had fallen, or with whom it had ceafed.-Were

fuch perfons to have no political existence, because no oak had been planted to fhade them? or were they to perifh politically when the tree had undergone its phyfical diffolution?

"These are points of cafuiftry I do not pretend to fettle, and fhall therefore return to your inquiries, whether the women approve of the late change in the government. Although the women of France have nothing at prefent to do with the Conftitution but to obey it, you may be affured that their tacit affent has been more cordially given to this new order of things, than to any by which it was preceded. If women are born to be controlled, it must be by objects fitted to captivate them. The love of glory is natural to the fex; they love it in themfelves, and in others. Many are the reafons which they might allege to juftify their former political difaffection; but there is fomething in the idea of the conqueror of kings, and founder of ftates, that excufes fuperiority, while it excites admiration. Various fymptoms of good-underftanding already difcover themfelves between the prefent government and the ladies of Paris.

"One of the amufements which the Parifians held in moft reverence, and which has been profcribed fince the revolution, has been reforted to by them-that of mafquerades, to which they flock with most unremitting ardour, and which hitherto have been attended with none of thofe inconveniences the fear of which led timid prudence or fufpicion to profcribe them. French ladies may be Grecian, but they are not Spartan dames; and it is more eafy to win them by favours than to fubdue them by force. A fair royalift is now no longer compelled, when he enters the garden of the Thuilleries,

Thuilleries, with hoftility in her heart and defiance in her eye, to hoift a flag of truce as the paffes the gates, or devife fome ftratagem as fhe approaches, to elude the microfcopic eye of the Cerberean fentineis, who, if they did not ken the national cockade, often imperceptible from its diminutivenefs to common eyes, or fpitefully placed fo as to lurk unfeen beneath the folds of a riband, fternly pronounced the ungrateful founds of Citoyenne, your cockade;' and, when no cockade was to be found, refufed to let the rebel pafs.

"These are very important conceffions on the part of government; and there is no doubt that, with a few more preliminaries of this nature, Buonaparte may fucceed in coming to a definitive treaty of peace and amity with thofe female powers.

"When the Ruffian admiral Ufchakoff, after the taking of Corfu, was informed by a French lady, that the women in France were republicans, excepting a few devotees, who were too old to change, he had the good fenfe to obferve that

if that were the cafe, the coalition was ruined, and that it would be impoffible to conquer the French.' This patriotic lady was excufeable in boating of the strength and difpofition of her forces before an enemy; and if the affertion at that period contained a little fiction, there is great reafon to hope that it will foon become real hiftory.

"While we are on the fubject of the women of France, would be unjuft indeed to forget the part they acted at that fatal epocha of the revolution during which the courage of fo many of the other fex fhrunk back appalled. It was women, who, in thofe days of horror, proved that fenfibility has its hero

ifm-and that the affections of the heart can brace the nerves with energy that mocks the calculations of danger.-It was women who penetrated into the depths of dungeons, who flew to the abodes of defpair-who were the miniftering angels that whifpered hope and comfort to the prifoner-who wiped the cold damps from the brow of the extenuated fufferer-it was women, who, in defiance of captivity and death, fought the dwellings of tyrants covered with the blood of innocence, and pleaded the caufe of the captive with that irresistible eloquence which belongs to the infpiration of the heart.

"And if the women of France knew how to fympathife in the forrows of others, who knew fo well as themselves how to fuffer and how to die?-Have we not feen the daughter, led in the bloom of beauty to the fcaffold with her parents, feeming to forget that the had herfelf the facrifice of life to make, and only occupied in fuftaining their finking fpirits?-Have we not feen the wife, refufing to furvive her husband, provoke alfo the fatal fentence, which it was her choice to fare, and mingle her blood with his under the axe of the executioner? What Roman virtue was difplayed by Charlotte Corday!--what more than Roman fortitude dignified the last moments of madame Roland!

"Since that period, new revolutions have left new memorials of female virtue. That clafs of the women of Naples who were born to elevated rank and fplendid affluence, nurfed in the lap of luxury and pleafure, whom the winds of heaven had never vifited too roughly,' thofe women have exhibited the moft fublime examples of greatnefs, generofity and courage. The

• laft

laft fighs of an handfome woman,' fays St. Evremond, are more for the lofs of beauty than of life.' Without any reflection on female weakness, we may prefume that ex-. alted rank, and the diftinctions it confers, have charms for the fex as well as beauty; of that rank the women of Naples, however, diyested themfelves, with as much indif

ference as if it had been a worn-out robe. They have endured the most cruel privations without complaint

they have borne the most horrible perfecutions without fhrinking they have nobly fuffered, or greatly died-and Naples feems deftined to exhibit at once, in the female character, the most striking extremes of vice and virtue."

66

FROM

ROM ancient I will now defcend to modern times, from that hardy race of w. like characters, which were with fo much difficulty fubdued by the English monarchs, to their prefent peaceful ftate, in which they enjoy happiness, that, in feudal times, they never experienced.

"In those mountainous or fecluded parts of the country, that are scarcely known to the English tourist, where their manners ftill retain the greatest degree of originality, the lower clafs of the inhabitants appear to poffefs an innocence and fimplicity of character unknown in the populous parts of our own country; and amongst thefe it is that we are to fearch for that native hofpitality fo much boafted of by the Wilh writers: but, wherever the English have had frequent communication, from their being in general fo profate of their money, and from the temptation that this has afforded to practife impofitions on them, I have found the people but little differing from the like clafs amongst us. On the great roads, they feem to take a 1800.

pride in over-reaching, in moft of their little bargains, their Saxon neighbours, as they denominate the English. A Wel gentleman informed me, (and in many inftances I have experienced it's truth) that it is a common practice amongst them to ask nearly as much more for an article as they mean to take; and with those who know them, it is always ufual to offer them lefs. This is the cafe in some measure in our own country, but certainly not fo frequently as in Wales.

"The Welsh people have in general a ruftic ballifufnefs and referve, which, by strangers unused to their manners, has been often mistaken for fullennefs. They are generally faid to be very irafcible. This may be fo; but I am inclined to think, that the natural rapidity of their expreffion, in a language not understood, has alone been fre quently conftrued into paffion, when there has been nothing of the kind. Perfons who form ideas from the opinions of others, without taking the pains to make ob. fervations for themfelves, are very often misled, and fuch I an confiH

dent

dent has been the cafe a thousand times, in the judgments that have been formed of this circumftance. "They have every appearance of being moft miferably poor. Their cottages are frequently conftructed of tones, whofe interstices are filled up with peat or mud; and fo careful are they of glass, that their windows are fcarcely large enough to light around their wretch

ed fheds.

"Their general food is bread, cheefe, and milk; and fometimes what they call flummery, which is made of oatmeal and milk, mixed together and then boiled. Animal food, or ale, are not among their ufual fare.

"The women in the mountainous parts are generally about the middle fize, though more frequently below than above it; and though their features are often very pretty, their complexions are for the mott part fomewhat fallow. They wear long blue cloaks, that defcend almoft to their feet; these they are feldom to be feen without, even in the very hotteft weather, owing moft probably to the fudden fhowers, which the attraction of the mountains renders them liable to be taken in. In North Wales, they have all hats, fimilar to those of the men, and they wear blue ftockings, without any feet to them, which they keep down by a kind of loop, that is put round one of their toes. In the most unfrequented parts, they feldom wear any fhoes, except on a Sunday, or the market-day, and even then they often carry them in their hands, as they go along the roads; I have feen them by fix or eight together, feated on the bank of a rivulet, after their journeys from the neighbouring villages, washing their feet, before they entered the towns. In these

journeys, if their hands are not otherwife employed, they generally Occupy their time in knitting, and I have fometimes feen that even a heavy fall of rain would not compel them to give it up. Their employment within doors is chiefly in fpinning wool.

"The Welth people are natu rally inquifitive and curious; but this is by no means a circumstance peculiar to this country. In all wild and unfrequented parts of the world it is the fame, and it is only in fuch parts of Wales that this difpofition is the most obfervable. Dr. Franklin has told us that this curiofity prevailed fo much in America, that when he travelled in that country, if he only wished to afk the road, he found it expedient to fave time, by prefacing his queftion with My name is Benjamin Franklin-by trade a printer -am come from fuch a placeand going to fuch a place; and now-which is my road? In all travels through unfrequented countries, we find it very common; and from the inquifitive difpofitions of men in general, where novelty lays fuch hold upon their attention, it would even feem ftrange were we not to find it fo.

"They are much inclined to fuperftition. But in all countries there are weak and foolish people; in England, many of our peafantry are ready to fwallow, with the moft credulous avidity, any ridiculous ftories of ghofts, hobgoblins, or fairies. In Wales it is more general, and the people are certainly more credulous than the generality of the English. There are very few of the mountaineers who have not by heart a whole ftring of legendary tales of thofe difembodied beings.

"The Roman Cavern, in Llanymynech