ed certain means to accomplish certain ends; and that the adopting these, in conformity to his appointment, and dependance on his blessing, seemed to be one of the cases in which we should prove our faith by our obedience. I found I had gone too far:she said, with some warmth, that she was not wanting in any duty to her daughters; she set them a good example, and she prayed daily for their conversion. I highly commended her for both, but risked the observation, "that praying without instilling principles, might be as inefficacious as instruction without prayer. That it was like a husbandman who should expect that praying for sunshine should produce a crop of corn in a field where not one grain had been sown. God, indeed, could effect this, but he does not do it; and the means being of his own appointment, his omnipotence is not less exerted, by his directing certain effects to follow certain causes, than it would be by any arbitrary act." As is was evident that she did not chuse to quarrel with me, she contented herself with saying coldly, that she perceived I was a legalist and had but a low view of divine things ! The next day, all the hours from breakfast to dinner were devoted to the harp. I had the vanity to think that this sacrifice of time was made in compliment to me, as I had professed to like music; till I found that all their mornings were spent in the same manner, and the only fruit of their education, which seemed to be used to any purpose was, that after their family devotions in the evening, they sung and played a hymn. This was almost the only sign they gave of intellectual or spiritual life. They attended morning prayers if they were dressed before the bell rang. One morning when they did not appear till late, they were reproved by their fa ther; Mrs. Ranby said," she should be more angry with them for their irregulatity, were it not that Mr. Ranby obstinately persisted in reading a printed form, which she was persuaded could not do any body much good." The poor man, who was really well disposed, very properly defended himself by saying, that he, hoped his own heart went along with every word he read; and as to his family, he thought it much more beneficial for them to join in an excellent composition of a judicious divine, than to attend to any such crude raphsody as he should be able to produce, whose education had not qualified him to lead the devotions of others. I had never heard him venture to make use of his understanding before; and I continued to find it much better than I had at first given him credit for. The lady observed, with some asperity, that where there › were gifts and graces, it superseded the necessity of learning. At tea I found the young ladies took no more interest in the conversation, than they had done at dinner, but sat whispering and laughing, and netting white silk gloves till they were summoned to the harpsichord. Despairing of getting on with them in company, I proposed a walk in the garden. I now found them as willing to talk, as destitute of any thing to say. Their conversation was vapid and frivolous. They laid 'great stress on small things. They In vindication of my own good breedseemed to have no shades in their un-ing, I should observe that, in my little derstanding, but used the strongest terms for the commonest occasions, and admiration was excited by things hardly worthy to command attention. They were extremely glad, and extremely sorry, on subjects not calculated to excite affections of any kind. They were animated about trifles, and indifferent on things of importance. They were, I must confess, frank and good-natured, but it was evident, that as they were too open. to have any thing to conceal, so they were too uninformed to have any thing, to produce; and I was resolved not to risk my happiness with a woman who could not contribute her full share towards spending a wet winter cheerfully in the country. debates with Mrs. Ranby, to which I was always challenged by her, I never lost sight of that becoming example of the son of Cato, who, when about to deliver sentiments which might be thought too assuming in so young a man, introduced his admonitions with this modest preface, Remember what our father oft has taught us. I, without quoting the son of the sagë of Utica, constantly adduced the paternal authority for opinions, which night favour too much of arrogance without such a sanction. . I observed in the course of my visit, that self-denial made no part of Mrs. Ranby's religious plan. She fancied, I believe, that it favoured of works, and of works she was evidently afraid. She talked as if activity were useless, and exertion unnecessary, and as if like inanimate matter, we had nothing to do, but to sit still and be shone upon. I assured her that though I depended on the mercy of God, through the merits of his Son, for salvation, as entirely as she could do, yet I thought that almighty grace so far from setting aside diligent exertion, was the principle which promoted it. That salvation is in no part of scripture represented as attainable by the indolent christian, if I might couple such contradictory ternis. That I had been often awfully struck with the plain declarations, "that the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence"-"strive to enter in at the strait gate"- "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might"-" give diligence to make your calling sure"-" work out your own salvation.". To this labour, this watchfulness, this sedulity of endeavour, the crown of life is expressly promised, and salvation is not less the free gift of God, because he has annexed certain conditions to our obtaining it. The more I argued, the more I found my reputation decline, yet to augue she compelled me. I really believe she was sincere, but she was ill informed, governed by feelings and impulses, rather than by the plain express rule of scripture. It was not that she did not read scripture, but she interpreted it her own way; built opinions on insulated texts; did not compare scripture with scripture, except as it concurred to strengthen her bias. She considered with a disproportionate fondness, those passages which supported her preconceived opinions, instead of being uniformly governed by the general tenor and spirit of the sacred page. She had far less reverence for the preceptive, than for the doctrinal parts, because she did not sufficiently consider faith as an operative influential principle; nor did she conceive,that the sublimest doctrines involve deep practical consequences. She did not consider the government of the tongue, nor the command of her passions, as forming any material part of the christian character. Her zeal was fiery because her temper was so; and her charity was cold, because it was an expensive propensity to keep warm. Among the perfections of the Redeemer's character, she did not consider his being "meek and lowly," as an example, the influence of which was to extend to her. She considered it indeed as admirable but not as imitable; a distinction she was very apt to make in all her practical dissertations, and in her interpretation of scripture. In the evening Mrs. Ranby was lamenting in general and rather customary terms, her own exceeding sinfulness. Mr. Ranby said, " you accuse yourself 1ather too heavily my dear, you have sins to be sure."" And pray what sins have I, Mr. Ranby?" and she turned upon him with so much quickness that the poor man started. "Nay," said he meekly, "I did not mean to offend you; so far from it, that hearing you condemn yourself so grievously, I intended to comfort you, and to say that, except a few faults" "And pray what faults?" interrupted she, continuing to speak however, lest he should catch an interval to tell them. "I defy you Mr. Ranby to produce one." "My dear," replied "he, as you charged yourself with all, I thought it would be letting you off cheaply by naming only two or three, such as-" Here, fearing matters would go too far, I interposed, and softening things as much as I could for the lady, said, I conceived that Mr. Ranby meant, that though she partook of the general corruption-" Here Mr. Ranby interrupting me with more spirit than I thought he possessed, said "General corruption, sir, must be the source of particular corruption. I did not mean that my wife was worse than other women.""Worse, Mr. Ranby, worse?" cried she. Ranby, for the first time in his life, not minding her, went on. "As she is always insisting that the whole species is corrupt, she cannot help allowing that she herself has not quite escaped the infection. Now to be a sinner in the gross and a saint in the detail; that is, to have all sins, and no faults, is a thing I do not quite comprehend." After he had left the room, which he did as the shortest way of allaying the storm, she apologizing for him, said," he was a well meaning man, and acted up to the little light he had;" but added, "that he was unacquainted with religious feelings, and knew little of the nature of conversion !" Mrs. Ranby I found seems to consider christianity as a kind of free-masonry, and therefore thinks it superfluous to speak on serious subjects to any but the initiated. If they do not return the sign, she gives them up as blind and dead. She thinks she can only make herself intelligible to those to whom certain peculiar phrases are familiar, and though her friends may be correct, devout, and both doctrinally and practically pious; yet if they cannot catch a certain mystic meaning, if there is not a sympathy of intelligence between her and them, if they do not fully conceive of impressions, and cannot respond to mysterious communi cations, she holds them utiworthy of in tercourse with her. She does not so much insist on high moral excellence as the criterion of their worth, as on their own account of their internal feelings. She holds very cheap, that gradual growth in piety which is, in reality, no less the effect of divine grace, than those instantaneous conversions, which she believes to be so common. She cannot be persuaded that, of every advance in piety, of every improvement in virtue, of every illumination of the understanding, of every amendment in the heart, of every rectification of the will, the spirit of God is no less the author, because it is progressive, than if it were sudden. It is true, Omnipotence can, when he pleases, still produce these instantaneous effects, as he has sometimes done; but as it is not his established or cominon mode of operation, it seems vain and rash, presumptuously to wait for these miraculous interferences. An implicit dependence, however, on such interferences, is certainly more gratifying to the genius of enthusiasm than the anxious vigilance, the fervent prayer, the daily struggle, the sometimes scarcely perceptible though constant progress of the sober-minded christian. Such a christian is fully aware that his heart requires as much watching in the more advanced as in the earlier stages of his religious course. He is cheerful in a well-grounded hope, and looks not for extacies till that hope be swallowed up in fruition. Thankful if he feel in his heart a growing love to God, and an encreasing submission to his will, though he is unconscious of visions, and unacquainted with any revelation but that which God has made in his word. He remembers, and he derives consolation from the remembrance, that his Saviour, in his most gracious and soothing invita tion to the "heavy laden," has mercifully promised "rest," but he has no where promised raptures. VÒL VI. But to return to Mrs. Ranby's daughters. Is this consistency, said I to myself, when I compared the inanity of the life with the seriousness of the discourse; and contrasted the vacant way in which the day was spent, with the decent and devout manner in which it was begun and ended? I recollected, that under the early though imperfect sacred institution, the fire of the morning and evening sacrifice was never suffered to be extinguished during the day. Though Mrs. Ranby would have thought it a little heathenish to have had her daughters instructed in polite literature, and to have filled a leisure hour in reading to her a useful book, that was not professedly religious, she felt no compunction at their waste of tine, or the trifling pursuits in which the day was suffered to spend itself. The piano-forte, when they were weary of the harp, copying some indifferent drawings, gilding a set of flower-pots, and netting white gloves and veils, seemed to fill up the whole business of these im mortal beings, of these christians, for whom it had been solemnly engaged that they should manfully, fight under Christ's banner. On a farther acquaintance, I was much more inclined to lay the blame on their education than their dispositions. I found them not only good humoured, but charitably disposed: but their charities were small and casual, often ill applied, and always without a plan. They knew nothing of the state, character, or wants of the neighbouring poor; and it had never been pointed out to them, that the instruction of the young and ignorant made auy part of the duty of the rich towards them. When I once ventured to drop a hint on this subject to Mrs. Ranby, she drily said there were many other ways of doing good to the poor, besides exposing her daughters to the probability of catching diseases, and the certainty of getting dirt by such visits. Her subscription was never wanting when she was quite sure that the object was de serving. As Iuspected that she a lit tle over-rated her own charity, I could not forbear observing, that I did not think it demanded a combination of all the virtues to entitle a poor sick wretch to a dinner. And though I durst not quote so light an authority as Hamlet to her, I could not help saying to myself, give every man his due, and who shall scape whipping. O! if God dealt so rigidly with us; if he waited to bestow his ordinary blessings till we were good enough to deserve them, who would be clothed? who would be fed? who would have a roof to shelter him? It was not that she gave nothing away, but she had a great dislike to relieve any but those of her own religious persuasion. Though her Redeemer laid down his life for all people, nations, and languages, she will only lay down her money for a very limited number of a very limited class. To be religious is not claim sufficient on her bounty, they must be religious in a particular way. The Miss Ranbys had not been habituated to make any systematic provision for regular charity, or for any of those accidental calamities, for which the purse of the affluent should always be provided; and being very expensive in their persons, they had often not a sixpence to bestow, when the most de serving case presented itself. This must frequently happen where there is no specific fund for charity, which should be included in the general arrangement of expences; and the exercise of benevolence not be left to depend on the accidental state of the purse. If no new trinket happened to be wanted, these young ladies were liberal to any application, though always without judging of its merits by their own eyes and ears. But if there was a competition between a sick family and a new broach, the broach was sure to carry the day. This would not have been the case, had they been habituated to visit themselves the abodes of penury and woe. Their flexible young hearts would have been wrought upon by the actual sight of miseries, the impression of which was feeble when it reached their ears at a distance, surrounded as they were with all the softnesses and accommodations of luxurious life. "They would do what they could. They hoped it was not so bad as was represented." They fell into the usual way of pacifying their consciences by their regres; and brought themselves to believe that their sympathy with the suffering was an atonement for their not relieving it. I observed with concern, during my visit, how little the christian temper seemed to be considered as a part of the christian religion. This appeared in the daily concerns of this high professor. An opinion contradicted, a person of different religious views commended, the sinallest opposition to her will, the intrusion of an unseasonable visitor, even an imperfection in the dressing of some dish at table: such trifles not only discomposed her, but the discomposure was manifested with a vehemence, which she was not aware was a fault; nor did she seem at all sensible that her religion was ever to be resorted to but on great occasions, forgetting that great occasions but rarely occur in common life, and that those small passes, at which the enemy is perpetually entering, the true christian will vigilantly guard. I observed in Mrs. Ranby one striking inconsistency. While she considered it as forming a complete line of separation from the world, that she and her daugh ters abstained from public places, she had no objection to their indemnifying themselves for this forbearance, by de voting so monstrous a disproportion of their time to that very amusement which constitutes so principal a part of diversion abroad. The time which is redeemed from what is wrong, is of little value, if not dedicated to what is right; and it is not enough that the doctrines of the gospel furnish a subject for discussion, if they do not furnish a principle of action. One of the most obvious defects which struck me in this and two or three other families, whom I afterwards visited, was the want of companionableness in the daughters. They did not seem to form a part of the family compact; but made a kind of distinct branch of themselves. Surely, when only the parents and a few select friends are met together in a family way, the daughters should contribute their portion to enliven the do mestic circle. They were always ready to sing and to play, but did not take the pains to produce themselves in conversation; but seemed to carry on a distinct intercourse, by herding, and whispering, and laughing together. In some women who seemed to he possessed of good ingredients, they were so ill mixed up together as not to produce an elegant, interesting companion. It appeared to me that three of the grand inducements in the choice of a wife, are, that a man may have a directress for his family, a preceptress for his children, and a companion for him self. Can it be honestly affirmed that the present habits of domestic life are generally favourable to the union of these three essentials? Yet which of them can a man of sense and principle consent to relinquish in his conjugal prospects? STATE PAPERS. FRANCE. FRENCH CONSERVATIVE SENATE, Sitting of the 3d of October. ADDRESS OF HIS MOST SERENE HIGHNESS THE PRINCE ARCH-CHANCELLOR OF THE EMPIRE. GENTLEMEN: His Imperial and Royal Majesty, taking in with a single glance the present situation of affairs, finds it necessary to order a levy of 36,000 men. This is the purport of the decree which is to be submitted to your deliberation, and by which the new levy is to be imposed upon the new classes of the conscription of the years 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, and 1810. Your wisdom will already have discovered the benefit of this arrangement. You will soon be assured that it is the result of a prudent foresight, and of the unceasing anxiety of his Majesty for the public interest. Whatever, Gentlemen, may be the issue of the negociations at Altenburgh, there are strong indications that the English, after having been driven back from our territories, will endeavour to prolong the war in Spain. The numerous battalions which his Majesty opposes to them in that kingdom, need only be kept up their full complement, in order to baffle all the attempts of the enemy. If the peace be renewed between France and Austria, it will be impossible, without great inconvenience, to suddenly transport the brave troops who will have conquered it, from the banks of the Danube to those of the Guadalquivir. This remark has not escaped the paternal attention of his Majesty; and let us be persuaded, that after such glorious exertions he is desirous, and with justice, that the conquerors should receive the testimonies of public gratitude and general admiration. These points, Gentlemen, will be explained to you by the orators of the council of state, and more particularly in the report of the minister of war, which the Emperor has ordered him to communicate to you. The levy required is, moreover, much less than his Majesty could draw from the classes by which it is to be supplied: besides, it will be rendered as little burthensome as possi blé. In this crisis the senate will be anxious, as on former occasions, to forward the intentions of our august sovereign, for the honour and glory of the French people, REPORT MADE TO HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR AND KING, PROTECTOR OF THE CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE, BY HIS EXCELLENCY COUNT HUNNEBOURG, MINISTER AT WAR, DATED SEPT. 15, 1809. SIRE,-Your Majesty's numerous victories, and the astonishing successes of your armies, have been gained by your wise foresight, as well as by the exertion of your genius, your deep military combinations, your personal intrepidity, and the courage of so many brave men who crowd beneath your standards. It is that foresight which has inspired you with the thought of collecting in the interior of the empire, whatever may be the course of events, the young Frenchmen destined successively to serve their country in the field: thus placing them as a guard for the safety of the state, at the same time they learned the art of war. A momentary abandonment of this system would expose the empire to some dangers. It would betray too blind a confidence in futurity, notwithstanding the present happiness and prosperity produced by the triumphs already ob tained, to empty those depots of warriors, when their numbers are called into action, and not to fill them by fresh levies. A rapid glance thrown over the situation of your armies, will enable you to perceive that the levy which I now propose will be sufficient for the occasion that gives it birth. In possession of Vienna, and of more than one half of the territory of the Austrian monarchy, your Majesty is at the head of the most formidable army which France ever sent beyond the Rhine. To form an idea of what you now could un |