CHARACTERS. 



767 



lion; the Frenchman an eagle ; the 

 ' Italian a fox ; aud the Spaniard an 

 elephant. 



" In the sciences, the German is 

 a pedant ; the Englishman a philo- 

 sopher ; the Frenchman has a smat- 

 tering of every thing: the Ifalian is 

 a professor; and the Spaniard a 

 profound thinker. 



^Magnificence — In Germany the 

 princes ; in England the sliips ; in 

 France the court ; in Italy the 

 churches; in Spain the armories; 

 are magnificent. 



" Husbands (make the conclu- 

 sion). in Germany they are masters ; 

 in England servants ; in France 

 companions ; in Italy schoolboys ; 

 and in Spain tyrants." 



I will readily grant yon, my dear 

 madam, that one-third of these sin- 

 gular characteristics is untrue, and 

 sometimes absurd; but the other 

 two thirds I could vouch to be true. 

 With regard to us Germans, we 

 have the least reason to complain of 

 ihe painter ; if he had but omitted 

 the horrid libel that we do not un- 

 derstand how to love, and that 

 among us husbands are masters, we 

 might then be well satisfied with 

 him. 



Now let us, if you please, walk 

 further up this library suspended by 

 threads; it borders on another of 

 musical productions, which is foU 

 lowed by a third, consisting' of pic- 

 tures : among the musicals, you find 

 all the new ariettas, duets, .kc. from 

 the most popular French and Ita- 

 lian operas: among the pictures, a 

 reprcsentalion of every thing that is 

 most interesting to the I'arisians ; 

 for example, Fanchon, the lute girl ; 

 the fine drum-major of the consular 

 guard, with his t-nchanting whiskers ; 

 the first consul's superbly dresst-d 

 jnamcluke^ aud ol course, the iir!>t 



consul himself, in a thousand dif- 

 ferent attitudes, especially with his 

 drawn sword in his hand, replant- 

 ing tiie cross, Faith presenting him 

 with a palm branch, and the other 

 two consuls by his side ; or the 

 beautiful madame Recamier, with 

 her face half veiled. 



Plenty of caricatures are like- 

 wise to be met with here, and the 

 king of England is at present the 

 general mark at which the French 

 direct the shafts of their satire ; for 

 wliich they are, however, not only 

 more abundantly, but even more 

 wittily, requited by their transma* 

 rine neighbours; for it must be con- 

 fessed, that among twenty French 

 caricatures, there is scarcely one 

 that has any claim to wit. Here 

 you see the king between his good 

 and evil genius, throwing himself 

 into the hands of the latter ; there 

 an Englishman riding upon a Cal- 

 cutta turkey ; on the pommel of the 

 saddel are wine-hampers with bot- 

 tles, and below is written, " the at- 

 tack." The companion to this 

 print is the defeat, where the same 

 Englishman is seen flying on a fleet 

 stag, losing his hat and tobacco- 

 pipe. Here the duke of C — m- 

 br — ge is driving the Hanoverian, 

 post-waggon, and behind it is a 

 cask, on which is written Hanove- 

 rian blood; there an army of frogs, 

 whose general wears British regi- 

 mentals, and rides on a lobster, 

 M'hile a Frenchman takes up one 

 frog after the other, and cuts them 

 in two with his broad sabre. At 

 other times, an elephant is laying 

 hold of the king's cup, and dashing 

 it with his trunk into a well ; oil 

 the cup is to be read this inscrip- 

 tion, " Thou must go to pieces af- 

 ter all." 



In some of these wretched pro- 

 ductions, 



