The following trait of the French character, in the frivolous, good-natured Count d'Erfeuil, deserves attention.

I appear to you frivolous,' said the Count to Nelvil; it is. well; nevertheless, I will bet that in the conduct of life I shall be more reasonable than you.' In fact, there is often much egotism in frivolity, and this egotism can never lead to errors of sentiment, to. those in which one almost always sacrifices himself to others. Frivo lous men are very capable of becoming able, in what concerns their> own interest; for, in all that is called diplomatic science, in private or public life, persons succeed oftener by qualities which they have. not, than by those, which they have. Want of enthusiasm, want of opinion, want of sensibility, a little genius combined with this nega← tive treasure, and social life properly so called, that is, fortune and rank, succeed or maintain themselves sufficiently well."

The description of the Neapolitan dance, although expressed in affectedly lofty terms, is not less voluptuous than the Portu guese fandango. The view of Italian manners presents some real features of this degenerate race.

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"On going to supper, every cavaliere servente hastened to seat~ himself by the side of his mistress. A stranger arrived, and finding no seat, no man, except Lord Nelvil or Count Erfeuil, offered him his. It did not proceed from want of politeness, or egotism, that nos Roman rose; but from the idea which the grandees of Rome have of i honour and duty, not to leave neither a step, nor an instant, their mistress. Some not being able to sit down, stand behind the chairs. of their ladies, ready to serve them on the least sign. Ladies speak but to their beaux, and strangers wander in vain round the circle, where no one has any thing to say to them. For, the women in Italy know not what is coquetry, what is in love but an excess of self-love; they desire to please only those whom they love; there is no seduction of the mind before that of the heart or the eyes; and the most rapid commencements are sometimes followed with a sincere → devotedness even of very long duration. Infidelity in Italy is blamed!! more severely in a man than in a woman. Three or four men, undere different titles, follow the same woman, who carries them with her sometimes without giving herself the trouble to tell their names to the master of the house in which they are received... One is the favorite, another aspires to be it; a third is called the sufferer; (il patito) the latter is entirely despised, but he is nevertheless permitted to per form the duty of adorer; and all these rivals live peaceably together. The common people only have preserved the custom of using the dagger. There is, indeed, in this country, a strange mixture of simplicity and corruption, of dissimulation and sincerity, of good ~ nature and revenge, of weakness and vigour, which may be explainedá by one observation ;-it is, that the good qualities arise because there is nothing done from vanity; the bad, because much is done from self- › interest, whether it relates to love, ambition, or fortune. Distinctions

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of rank have, in general, little effect in Italy; but it is more from the easiness of character, and familiarity of manners, than from philosophy. The indifference for public opinion induces the women to proclaim their being inamorata. This publicity is not caused by any extraordinary passion, as several attachments thus succeed each other, and are equally known. The women use so little secrecy in this respect, that they avow their connections with less embarrassment than English women would in speaking of their husbands. No profound or delicate sentiment is mixed with this mobility without modesty. Thus, in a country where people only think about love, there is not a single romance, because love is there so rapid, so public, that it will bear no kind of developement, and that to give a true picture of the general manners in this respect, it would be necessary to begin and finish on the same page. Infidelity in England is even more moral than marriage in Italy."

Madame de Stael's remarks on the literature of Italy and France, are not the least valuable part of this novel. The Italians have no theatre, no national drama; and, notwithstanding their acuteness in discovering characters in their commerce of life, their poetry and polite literature display none of the secrets of the heart, or traits of the mind, and only consist of inflated and artificial effusions of the imagination. The Fiammetta of Boccacio, according to our author, is the only romance which depicts their national character, at least their passion of love. Alfieri, like the French, always gives his own colours to every subject of which he treats. Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet, is considered the author who has best described the passions and ardent imagination of the Italians. After observing that "in the combats of sentiment, who has not often experienced some secret superstition, which makes us take what we think for a presage, and what we suffer for a warning from heaven," the author describes the ridiculous tricks practised by Italian preachers, with a crucifix or bonnet in the pulpit. She also represents the image or woman-worship of the Italians, and their Madona in terms not very flattering to bigotted papists. It is, indeed, as Madame S. remarks, surprising that the discourse and gestures of the preachers do not turn into ridicule the most serious subjects. The Neapolitans are represented as not civilized, yet not vulgar in the manner of other people. The author has also adopted Buonaparte's heraldry, in placing the figure of a leopard on the caps of English seamen. There is more truth in the observation, that "when one is capable of knowing himself he rarely deceives himself on his fate; and presentiments are mostly but a judgment on himself, which is not wholly avowed." We cannot say the same of another aphorism; "when women do

not fear to employ tears to subjugate strength to their weakness, they almost always succeed, at least for a time." It would be more correct to say that they almost always fail eventually by the use of such means. "There must be harmony in the sentiments, and opposition in the characters, in order that love may spring at once from sympathy and diversity."

We have already expressed our opinion of this work, and cautioned all young persons from paying any attention to it: we shall here only add, that Corinna, like Mrs. Wolstonecroft, offered to live with Lord Nelvil during her life without marriage.

Memoirs and Letters of Marshal de Tessé.

(Concluded from the Appendix to vol. 31)

We have now to notice the conduct of this intriguing soldier in Spain, when he was sent to support Philip V. against the House of Austria, in 1704. Tessé complains as much against the slowness and indecision of Philip's court, as Peterborough did against that of Charles. The following particulars will show the rooted and insuperable aversion of the Spanish. from French domination, even a century ago, as well as at the present day.

"The object of the Spaniards is rather to see a general revolution, than to see themselves governed by the French; they submitted at the beginning, but they will do so no longer. The president of the council of Castille, who has a principal part in affairs, appears to have good intentions, provided that every thing passes through the council, which is considered as the guardian not only of the kingdom, but also of the king. I have seen orders and private letters from him to the mayors and justices, totally contrary to what had been settled in the despacho (or cabinet council,) so that he opposes almost always what the cabinet has ordered, and even that which is agreed to, generally finds obstacles in its execution. The king of Spain will never be truly king, while the authority of this council is undiminished. This could easily be effected; but the king, naturally timid, is tardy in speaking, and neither does speak nor will speak. It is the president of Castille who nominates almost all the mayors, so that being appointed by him, he receives their reports, and nothing is done in the cities but by them; it is, therefore, the spirit of the council of Castille which reigns in Spain, and this council, protector of the king and the kingdom, keeps both in a state of guardianship. At Madrid it matters not whether Philip or Charles is king, provided that they have one who will do nothing but what they wish: And, except half a dozen persons at most, who would in honour follow the king, if a general insurrection took place, I know not one there who would not kiss the hand of the Archduke."

Marshal de Tessé considers that Cadiz could not have resisted the English army, attacking it by sea and land, in 1705, particularly the island of Leon, which he declares was untenable, except by a great force, and that the loss of the island necessarily involved the fall of the fortress. Three hundred pieces of cannon and five months provisions he deemed necessary to its defence, against the meditated attack by the English, which he had learned from a spy about Lord Galway. The French marshal, indeed, was disgusted with his disastrous and ineffectual siege of Gibraltar, and sought rather to depreciate than defend Spain. The want of unanimity between the English, Portuguese, and Spanish commanders, however, made their operations so slow, that he was afterwards enabled to defend Badajos more successfully. Still his exclamation was, that "lethargic Spain had done nothing." Of the mystical conspiracy of the Marquis of Leganes, in favour of Charles, we have here nothing new. This noble Spaniard died a prisoner' in France, merely on suspicion of his being friendly to the house of Austria, and his scorning to make any mean concessions to the French government, which treated him so unjustifiably.

The dispositions of the Arragonese, and particularly the people of Zaragosa, is well manifested in the following incidents:

Marshal de Tessé left Madrid to join the army in Arragon, and cut off all communication between Barcelona and Valencia. To execute this plan, he had to divide his troops in two divisions, to occupy each bank of the Ebro. A regiment of cavalry, conducting some peasants who had killed two French soldiers, arrived in Zaragosa, on the 26th January, 1706. The court of justice demanded them from the commanding officer, who refused to deliver them. Immediately the populace, to the number of 3 or 4000 men flew to arms. The viceroy liberated the prisoners, and tranquillity was restored. Two days after a regiment of French infantry appeared before the city. The captain of the citizens, who were on guard, shut the gate. Marshal de Tessé, accompanied with the viceroy, went to. open it, and the regiment entered with fixed bayonets; but, scarcely had they advanced into the streets, when the people fired on them from the windows, and the disorder ́` became general. The equipage of the regiment was pillaged; three of M. de Tessé servants, as well as several officers and soldiers, were killed. The marshal taking refuge with the viceroy, who, with great difficulty, prevented the baggage from becoming the prey of the people, wished to make the army advance to plunder the city: but the nobles and city officers interfered, with success, to appease the tumult.

"Tessé, disgusted with his residence at Zaragosa, moved to Pina, about ten leagues below the city on the left bank of the Ebro, in order to be more tranquil. Another adverse incident however occurred. At Guerrea, nine leagues beyond Zaragosa, two French battalions which were lodged there, having marched out of the town to continue their rout to Catalonia, halted near the gate until all the officers and soldiers should join them. On assembling, it was discovered that a lieutenant was missing. A detachment was sent to seek him, and he was found stabbed in his bed. The troops returned into the town, erased the house in which the murder was committed, and established themselves at free quarters among the inhabitants, to whose succour the peasants in the environs hastened in great numbers. The French, however, getting before them, put them to flight, after killing several. All these excesses testify the aversion from the French, and little affection for Philip V."

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In several other letters Marshal de Tessé "represents Spain as discontented and disposed to change its government." projects formed at Madrid by Philip, he considered as "visions. of drowning persons." "Consider Spain," said he, to Mr. Chamillart," as a country where it is necessary to have almost an army in each province, and you will not be deceived." How often has France experienced the truth of this remark during the last twelve months.

The pious fraud practised on the people of Barcelona by the priests and the king, in consulting the virgin, and her pretended appearance, accompanied with two angels, is here related nearly in the same terms as by Capt. Carleton. "A miracle was proclaimed," observes the marshal, "and the exhortations of the priests and monks sustained the courage of this silly populace, where the women served with as much courage as the men. The priests and monks of Barcelona almost all took arms against Philip V. but among these monastic heroes, the capuchins were particularly remarkable by fantastically tying up their long beards with knots of divers coloured ribbons." When the French army raised the siege of Barcelona, "abandoning an immense store of provisions, their artillery and their sick, the generous Lord Peterborough (it is honorably acknowledged) caused them to be attended with great humanity."

As a proof of the liberty which prevailed in France under Lewis XIV. when contrasted with the tyranny of Napoleon, we shall extract some of the satires against that monarch and his generals, which were published at the time in a large volume. The following will sufficiently evince the spirit of satire and irony in which the whole were composed.