200 
in spite of the advice of the brave Munich, was the 
cause of his ruin; he allowed himself to be ‘de- 
throned like a child that is sent to bed. 
“© Gatherine, crowned and free, thought like a 
young inexperienced woman, that every thing was 
ended ; such a pusillanimous enemy did not appear 
to her to be dangerous. But the Orloffs were more 
clear-sighted as well as bolder, and to prevent that 
prince being employed as a tool against theniselves, 
they dispatched him. 
«“The Empress knew nothing of thecrime, and 
learned it with a sorrow and despair that were not 
feigned; she foresaw the opinion that every one 
would form against her; for an erroneous opinion 
of this kind can never be effaced, on account of her 
peculiar position, and because she enjoyed all the 
fruits of that crime, and also, because she was 
forced, for the purpose of obtaining support, not 
only {o act without severity, but even to favour the 
perpetrators, since they alone were able to save her.” 
During a residence of five years in Rus- 
sia, Segur says, he never heard of any act 
of tyranny or cruelty. 
All the foreigners who have written on the subject, 
describe, in vivid colours, the sad effects of the des- 
potic government of Russia, and yet, it is but just 
to admit that, at the above period, we had no great 
right thus to declaim against the arbitrary power 
which weighed so heavily on Moscovy. Were not 
the Bastile, Vincennes, Pierre-en-Scize, and lettres de 
cachet, seen amongst ourselves in those days? Under 
Louis XVI. but little use was made of the latter; 
but, during the reign of his predecessor Louis XV., 
they were used with profusion, and even sold by 
the Count de Saint-Floreatin his minister. 
Voltaire saw himself shut up in the Bastile, and 
M. de Maurepas had suffered an exile of twenty-five 
years. The mosttrifling caprice of a clerk in office, 
would send any person who happened to displease 
him to Cayenne without the form ofa trial. I 
recollect on this subject that in my early youth, I 
was told the following anecdote of a young flower 
girl, remarkable for her beauty, and whose name 
was Jeanneton. 
One day, the Chevalier de Coigny met her with 
rosy checks, and full of gaiety; interrogating her on 
the satisfaction evinced by her manner, she replied, 
«©T am very happy: my husband is a scold anda 
brute; he wore out my patience by his ill-treatment ; 
I have been at the Count Saint-Florentin’s: Madame 
S***, who enjoys his good graces, received me very 
kindly, and I have got a /ettre de cachet for ten louis- 
dors, which will deliver me from my jealous hus- 
band.” 
Two years after, M. de Coigny met Jeanneton 
again, but sorrowful, thin, pale, sallow, with her 
eyes sunk in their sockets.—‘* What ! can this be my 
poor Jeanneton?” said he, ‘what has become of 
you? You arenolonger seen anywhere, I had great 
difficulty in recognizing you. What have you done 
with that fine complexion, and that cheerfulness 
which charmed me the last time I saw you ?” 
«© Alas! Sir,” she replied, **] was very foolish to 
exult : myrascally husband, having the same notion 
as myself, had gone on his side to the minister, and 
on the same day, as well as through the same agency, 
bought an order to shut me up also, so that it cost 
twenty louis-d’ors of our hard earnings to put each 
other into a prison.” 
The moral of this is, that a traveller, before cri- 
ticizing with too much bitterness, the abuses which 
strike him in the countries he may visit, ought to 
Jook. back with prudence, and see whether he has 
not left others behind in his own country, quite as 
ridiculous and deplorable as those which’ shock him 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
. ‘ 
[ Aue. 
in other places. In finding fault with others, ‘Prus. 
sians, think of Spandau } Austrians, | of’ Montgatch, 
in Hungary, and of Olnutz; Romans,,of the castle 
of Saint Angelo; Spaniards, of the. iy ae 
Dutch, of Batavia, Vrenchmen, of Caye! 
the Bastile: and even you English, of sin 
nical impressment of seamen ; finally, . all of oe of 
that slave-trade, which, after so many revolutions, 
and to the shame of humanity, it is stil so difficult, 
completely to abolish. 
In a conversation with Cartiétae, ‘in 
which she had talked of thé embatrassments 
of the French finances, and the waste and 
corruption of the court, and in which Segur 
had made something like a retort, 
*©You are both right and wrong, Count,” re- 
plied she, ‘* I am cheated like other people, ¥ ad- 
‘mit; I have sometimes satisfied myself of this by 
my owneyes, when I saw from my window, at day- 
break or at night, huge baskets leaving my palace, 
which were assuredly not empty. 
«*T remember also. that, having: been on a small 
tour to the banks of the Volga, some years ago, I 
asked the inhabitants of the surrounding country if 
they were contented with their lot. The greater 
part were fishermen. ‘ We should be,’ replied they, 
* perfectly satisfied with the fruits of our labours, 
and particularly with the sturgeon fishery, if we 
were not forced to lose a part of our profits by annualiy 
sending to your stables a large quantity of these fish 
which cost very dear. This Hogs, tribute costs us 
about two thousand rubles a year. 
** You have acted very properly by giving me 
notice,” said I to them with a laugh, ‘‘ I did not 
know that my horses ate sturgeons.” This ridiculous 
abuse was suppressed. But what I pretend to prove 
to you, is the difference that exists between this ap- 
parent disorder and the real, and much more dan- 
gerous, disorders in your country. 
«The King of France never knows precisely the 
amount of his expenditure; nothing is regulated or 
fixed before-hand; my plan, on the contrary, is 2s 
follows: I fix an annualsum, which is always the 
same, for the expenses of my table, furniture, 
theatres, and fétes, my stables, and in short, my 
whole household ; I order the various tables ia my 
palace to be served with a particular quantity of 
wine, andaparticular number of dishes. It is the 
same in all other branches of this department? 
So long as I am supplied exactly, in quantity and 
quality, with what I have ordered, and no one com- 
plains of neglect on the subject, I am satisfied; 1 
think it of little consequence whether out of the 
fixed sum I am cheated through cunning or economy, 
but I take particular care that the sum shall not be 
exceeded; and this is an advantage which few Prin- 
ces and even few private individuals can boast of.” 
Four Years in France ; or Narrative of an 
English family’s Residence there during that 
Period; preceded by some Account of the Con- 
version of the Author to the Catholic. Faith. 
1826.—We have been pleased with. this 
book. Insignificant as: almost>it is,! asva 
narrative of an Englisli family’s residence 
in France, the interest it excites’ belongs 
wholly to the writer atid ‘his’ pecwlilit cir 
cumstances. He is a péntiéman’ whose 
family and himself were well” Anown * in 
Lincolnshire. His father and, grandiath 
were prebendaries of Lincoln ;, he him: 
was destined for the church,.took deacon’s 
orders, and was very early distinguished by 
a defence of Christianity against thedgyels 
nm os¥i MM 
‘vey i 
