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all his private virtues and honest intentions, he did nothing to avert the fatal doom, and perished himself in the catastrophe which had been prepared by the follies and crimes of his predecessors.

What more is required to show that the French people were amply justified in overthrowing a government which debarred them from the pursuit of happiness, and was fast driving the nation to irretrievable ruin? The facts are undeniable, and in the enumeration of them we have only been the faithful echo of history. We might stop here; but we cannot refrain from presenting to the reader some particulars which will give him an insight into the manners of the French Aristocracy, and show what vexations and contumely were heaped upon the commoners by the privileged classes, which, however servile to the sovereign, were arrogant in the extreme to their inferiors.

The particulars we give below have a special reference to the town of Brest, and are borrowed from the memoirs of a man who played a conspicuous part in the great revolutionary drama.* Anxious to be fair, and not to produce an exaggerated impression on the reader's mind, we must observe here that Brest was particularly circumstanced for the full display of aristocratic insolence, and that such vexations could not well be carried to the same excess in French towns not similarly situated.

The town of Brest had a naval school, which was almost exclusively reserved to young men of titled families. This school, whose discipline was extremely relaxed, was for Brest a perpetual cause of disorders. Nothing controlled those vain and spoiled youths, who, after being accustomed, in the paternal manor, to the servile complaisance of trembling vassals, were suddenly cast, with a uniform and sword, into the licentiousness of a sea-faring life. Their vanity knew no bounds; they made it a point of honour to be insolent, and never found themselves odious enough.

Accordingly they had taken, as it were, possession of the town, and deported themselves as conquerors. Any one who did not, like them, wear the scarlet breeches and stockings, was, in their eyes, an enemy. The civilians had to endure not only their overbearing airs, but also the most teasing annoyances, which were repeated often enough to exhaust the strongest patience.

Indeed it was not in one's power to avoid such annoyances, for they victimized you everywhere, on the public walk, at the play, in your very house. At night especially, no one might think himself out of their reach. Oftentimes, when fast asleep, you would be aroused by a lamentable voice calling your name, you would open your window, and your head was scarcely out, when a brush painted your face in oil, amidst the bursts of laughter of the young rascals who held the ladder. Sometimes, at your rising, you would find no doors nor windows to your ground floor; all had been walled up during the night. At one place, the signs had been substituted for each other, so that the sign of a midwife was found under the balcony of a young ladies' school; at another, the street lamp had been let down into the public well, whilst the bucket had been hoisted to the top of the lamp post.

Nor was the insolence of the Navy Guards, as they were styled, limited to such anonymous and individual insults; sometimes it had for an object the whole population. One day, for instance, they would agree that there should be no play in the evening, and when you arrived with your wife or daughter, for the purpose of seeing the new piece, you would find two of these gentlemen (read: blackguards) stationed at the door, sword in hand: "No admit

*This document was brought to light by Emile Souvestre; a writer of high standing.

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tance to-night," they coolly said to you, at the same time pointing the weapon at your face. Another day, it was a promenade that was thus prohibited. To such as presented themselves, they would cry from afar: "The Navy Guards are taking their walk, sir;" and you had to retrace your steps.

In former times, their audacious license had been carried further still; the superior officers themselves had set an example. In the streets, nets were laid in which they caught young maid servants, as they went out to fetch their mistresses, nor did they release them until the next morning. Even the middle class ladies could not show themselves at dark, without being exposed to outrageous insults. A shopkeeper's daughter was carried away on coming out of church, and when, a week afterwards, restored to her family, she was raving mad! This time the affair caused an uproar; the people groaned; the chiefs, finding that the frolic had been carried too far, wanted to make an example of the four officers who had perpetrated the crime. What do you think the punishment was? Why, a mere trifle, considering the guilt; the officers were confined for a while in their apartments, and compelled to keep the victim at their expense in a lunatic asylum.

It was at the same period that the captain of a frigate starting for India, assembled his creditors on boardship, ordered the anchor to be weighed, and never consented to land them until he was fifty miles off Brest, and had exacted a full receipt from each one of them. But "le quart d'heure de Rabelais" (the day of reckoning) came at last. The haughty and licentious nobility of France were tossed about like chaff during the revolutionary storm, and wandered for years in foreign lands, some of them in a beggarly condition, and the most part with the crushing verdict of their conscience that they had deserved their fate. And when they returned to their native country, it was to find their ancestral estates cut up into parcels, and in the hands of that "Jean Bonhomme,"* whom they held in such a scorn. Nor

have they regained possession of them; and now-a-days there is but a nominal nobility in France, many of them are only noble beggars, whose titles are not worth a sou, since their is no privilege attached to them.

Now, for the conclusion, we will put a few queries: Is the French Revolution to be ascribed to Infidelity, or were the grievances sufficient to warrant even the most christian community in rising up in arms against their oppressors? Or, does christianity make it binding upon the faithful to bend their necks and tamely submit to such indignities? Were it so, were Infidelity alone capable of redressing such wrongs and thus bettering the condition of mankind, then indeed we might say that Infidelity was good for something. never heard that the American colonists and the English people were charged with Infidelity, because they upset one form of government to establish another. And yet the grievances which these two communities alleged for resorting to arms, were but trifles, compared with the wrongs and contumely inflicted upon the French people.

But we

Dauphiné.

AN EXCITING VISITOR.

Recently, the inhabitants of that favourite watering place, Weston-superMare, were all on the qui vive, it having been rumoured that during the previous night a saloon carriage had arrived at the station containing some

• An appellation of contempt applied to the peasant by the nobles.

important personages, one of whom was supposed to be either Prince Alfred, or some other scion of the Royal house. The party consisted of three persons-an elderly gentleman, a young gentleman in naval uniform, and a valet.

The party took up their quarters at the Bath Hotel, where, of course, every attention was paid to them by mine host. As the morning wore away the rumour gained force, and people began to collect in the vicinity of "the Bath," to get a glimpse of the supposed royal occupant. One tradesman, in the exuberance of his loyalty, sent a bottle of scent, with a request that his Royal Highness would be pleased to accept it. Another hoisted a flag in honour of the occasion, and the bells were also set ringing. Inquiries were made at the hotel, and much was the surprise of the valet when questioned as to whether the younger gentleman was his Royal Highness Prince Alfred. It was no use his saying, no; the public would not believe it. It must be him, only he wishes to maintain his incognito. The party finding the position in which they had been placed by the credulity of the public, ordered a carriage to take them to the train which leaves at 3.30, thinking that the best way to escape further annoyance, but this did not exactly succeed, as the fly-proprietor, labouring under the delusion that he was patronized by royalty, harnessed four greys to his best carriage, and turned them out with two "spicey" postillions to honour his patrons. This only added to the previous excitement, and clenched the rumour more firmly. Crowds collected to see them start, followed the carriage, and besieged the station to catch sight of the supposed prince. At the station, however, a gentleman who stated that he had received a telegram from a lady in London, informing him that the elder gentleman of the party was only recently released from a lunatic asylum, and was still of unsound mind, proceeded to take steps to detain him, and caused him to be locked up in the waiting-room. This gave a new phase to the proceedings, and led to a warm debate, in the course of which it came out that the telegram further stated that the Commissioner in Lunacy had discharged him as perfectly sane, and accountable for his actions. gentleman was of course annoyed, and threatened the party with legal proceedings. The upshot was that the gentleman was liberated, and proceeded by the train, thus ending one of the most laughable "sells" by which the usually "cute" Westonians have ever been enticed out of their propriety.

NOTES OF OLD TIMES-1761.

The

March 21st. (Cambridge.) On Wednesday night the 24th inst. upwards of 300 persons assembled in a barn of Laurence Cooke's, at Bottisham Load, a hamlet belonging to Bottisham, in this county, to hear one Broun, a methodist preacher, who was some time since a shepherd. About nine o'clock in the evening fire was cried; the hurry and confusion were so great, that many were trampled under foot, who were pulled out of the barn for dead, but some time after recovered; great numbers were hurt and bruised, and carried home in carts the next day; they lay near six foot deep one upon another. The men lost hats, wigs, and shoes; the women their short cloaks, part of their gowns, pockets, stockings, and shoes, and were used with many other indecencies. The author of this fright, some say, was a person on the outside of the barn, who broke a hole in the clay wall behind the preacher, through which he put a pipe, filled with tobacco lighted, and puffing it, the smoke was perceived, which occasioned the alarm of fire.

June 27th. (Bourn, Lincolnshire.) On Thursday last, about half an hour before five it began to rain very large drops, having been black and cloudy for two hours or more in the west, which was followed by very large hailstones, and in five minutes it increased and was mixed with large pieces of ice (a more proper appelation, we think, than hail stones) of extraordinary size, and irregular shapes: some were taken up and measured eight inches in circumference, numbers five inches and a half, and bushels might have been gathered in the streets as big as pigeons' eggs; the consequence of which was, that in less than five minutes all the windows on the western aspect were entirely broke to pieces, the damage whereby, upon the nearest calculation, will not be repaired for 1507. Several dozen of pigeons have been killed by the hail-stones; all our fruits and flowers are destroyed, the trees being stript of their small branches and leaves: but what is much worse, our corn fields are demolished entirely, the principal part of the storm falling on them; so that the damage is prodigious. It came in a line about three miles wide, but was most violent here, and in the fields on each side of us. Four sheep were killed by the lightning, which was accompanied with the most dreadful thunder claps that were ever heard. In short, 'tis impossible to describe our situation; it can only be imagined by those who have seen or suffered by such a terrible misfortune.

Aug. 5th. A most violent storm of thunder and lightning, attended with hail, did incredible damage to the corn in the neighbourhood of Benfield, in Northamptonshire. Many of the hail-stones, or rather pieces of ice, weighed a pound each, and broke the windows wherever they fell.

Aug. 7th. A navigation being completed from Lynn to Northampton, the same opened this day, and 38 barges, laden with coals, &c. preceeded by a band of music, and adorned with flags and streamers, came up with the greatest ease to the public wharf, at the south bridge.

Aug. 8th. A dispute having happened between the farmers of KingsLangley and the Irish reapers, about wages, the royal foresters, quartered at Watford, were sent for, and a great skirmish ensued, in which several were wounded. Six were taken and committed to St. Alban's jail, and the rest were dispersed. Some of these afterwards made a riot in the isle of Ely.

Oct. 31st. A man lived in the island of Ely, in the 104th year of his age. As he was a few days before driving a cart, his son, who was aged about 70, being too near the shafts, was thrown down, and the wheels going over him he was killed upon the spot. This accident so affected the father as to cause his death.

ANECDOTE.

An aged couple in New York, were, in the severe winter of 1783, reduced to their last stick of wood. Their only daughter, by whose industry alone they had long been supported, had no means of procuring her parents fuel or food. In this distressing emergency, she thought of the expedient of going to a dentist, with the resolution of disposing of her fore-teeth, knowing that he had advertised to give three guineas for every sound fore-tooth, provided only that he was allowed to extract it himself. On her arrival, she made known the circumstances which induced her to make the sacrifice; which so affected the dentist, that he could not forbear shedding tears. He made her a present of ten guineas; with which, with a heart full of joy, she hastened home to relieve her parents.

LEO MYRON. (Continued from page 178.)

CHAPTER VI.

A murder, and its result.

We will now pass over an interval of some few months, as nothing of interest to the reader occurred during that period. It is now the middle of summer, and the season is as delightful as can be desired.

Mrs. Eastman, since her confinement, had been in a weak state of health, and the baby was so indisposed that its life was despaired of. The medical attendant most strenuously recommended a change of air and scene, and spoke in terms of praise of the south coast of England. Mr. Eastman constantly shook his head at these suggestions, and the more eagerly they were pressed upon him, the more violently would he shake it. His wife listened to them with an attentive ear, which to the quick perception of the medical man, betokened encouragement for him to proceed in his recommendatory remarks. She lamented in the most affectionate terms the pain it would cause her to leave her husband, and her home, for so long a period as a few weeks; but still there was a great consolation in thinking that her dear husband's own health would be materially benefited by a few days' change, and she knew he could very well come to her when she was settled in lodgings, and was sure he would be particularly delighted with the seabathing. The subject of emigration to the south-coast for a fortnight Mr. Eastman believed to be an inexhaustible subject. It was brought under his notice the first thing in the morning, before he had risen from his bed. Marine views, and delightful landscapes were vividly presented to his imagination, in which himself and his son figured among the most striking objects. It was again casually reverted to twenty times during the day, and after supper, a variety of scenes were again drawn in bold outline, and attractive colours. To these continuous assaults, Mr. Eastman at last submitted, and the house now became a scene of bustling excitement, from the preparations which were going forward, prior to the departure of Mrs. Eastman, the baby, and its nurse

When they were gone, the contrast was strikingly apparent; you could not ascend the stairs without awakening a hundred echoes in every corner of the house; and did you but stand still, you became aware of the fact that silence is sometimes oppressive. Leo and Manchap missed Mrs. Eastman, particularly at meal-times, for she was very sure, on these occasions, to raise a laugh at the expense of someone.

or something. She was naturally possessed of a candour of disposition, and lightness of heart, which had, however, become considerably tainted since her marriage. Mr. Eastman had trained her to play the hypocrite, and had made her so great an adept in deceit, that she frequently outwitted even himself.

A letter now arrived for Mr. Eastman, acquainting him with his wife's being comfortably settled in lodgings, facing the sea, at thirty shillings a week, and desiring him to write immediately, and say when she might expect him, He could not make up his mind for two or three days, but at last he came to a determination: he posted a letter to his wife, informing her that he should leave the next day, by the "Royal Mail," which he accordingly did.

On arriving at the end of his journey, he was somewhat annoyed at Mrs. Eastman's not meeting him at the coach office. On enquiry he soon discovered where she was lodging, and he immediately hastened to the place. The nursemaid caught sight of him, as he was approaching the house, and hastened to inform her mistress. "Lor missus, master is a coming!" And the lady was not a little surprised at this sudden arrival of her husband, without previous announcement by letter, that she might be better prepared to receive him. It occasioned no less surprise, at first, to Mr. Eastman, on learning that his appearance was quite unexpected; but the matter in the course of an hour, was cleared up entirely to the satisfaction of both parties, by Mr. Eastman's letter being delivered into the hands of his wife; which it is almost unnecessary to mention, had through some negligence been delayed at the post office.

It now becomes necessary to acquaint the reader that in the rear of Mr. Eastman's residence, there was an extensive walled garden, to which the worthy apothecary paid particular attention, in the cultivation of certain favourite vegetables and fruits. His neighbour (Eastman's was a corner house), was a woollen-draper, who had two sons between seventeen and twenty years old, and three or four young men as assistants. To these young men, Mr. Eastman's walled garden was an object of solicitous attention, and such it had been for many years to the successive batches of assistants who had been employed by the woollen-draper.

Mr. Eastman had forbidden all parties in his household, with the exception of his wife, and Mr. Abram, to enter the garden during the fruit season. Strictly as this order had been observed, on his return from the watering-place (where he had remained three days), he discovered, to his

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