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APPENDIX. 



the seduced soldiers, inflamed with many a bum 

 per to the health of the exile of Elba, under the 

 mystic names of Jean de VEpee, and Corporal 

 Violet, were dismissed to spread the news of his 

 approaching return. In short, from this central 

 pit of Acheron, in which are openly assembled 

 and mingled those characters and occupations 

 which, in all other capitals, are driven to shroud 

 themselves in separate and retired recesses ; from 

 this focus of vice and treason have flowed forth 

 those waters of bitterness of which France has 

 drunk so deeply.&quot; 



The slate of marriage in this country since the 

 revolution is likewise the fertile source of im 

 morality and crime. Marriage is little else than 

 a state of legal concubinage, a mere temporary 

 connexion, from which the parties can loose them 

 selves when they please ; and women are a 

 species of mercantile commodity. Illicit con 

 nexions and illegitimate children, especially in 

 Paris, are numerous beyond what is known in 

 any ofher country. The following statement of 

 the affairs of the French capital, for the year 

 ending 22d September 1803, given by the Pre 

 fect of Police to the Grand Judge, presents a 

 most revolting idea of the state of public morals : 

 During this year 490 men and 167 women 

 committed suicide ; 81 men and 69 women were 

 murdered, of whom 55 men and 52 women were 

 foreigners ; 644 divorces ; 155 murderers exe 

 cuted ; 1210 persons condemned to the galleys, 

 &c. ; 1626 persons to hard labour, and 64 mark 

 ed with hot irons ; 12, 076 public women were 

 registered ; large sums were levied from these 

 wretched creatures, who were made to pay from 



5 to 10 guineas each monthly, according to their 

 rank, beauty, or fash ion ; 1552 kept mistresses 

 were noted down by the police, and 380 brothels 

 licensed by the Prefect. Among the criminals 

 executed were 7 fathers for poisoning their 

 children ; 10 husbands for murdering their wives; 



6 wives that had murdered their husbands ; and 

 15 children who had poisoned or otherwise de 

 stroyed their parents. 



The glaring profanation of the Sabbath is an 

 other striking characteristic of the people of 

 France, especially as displayed in the capital. 

 Entering Paris on the Sabbath, a Briton is 

 shocked at beholding all that reverence and so 

 lemnity with which that sacred day is generally 

 kept in Christian countries, not only set aside, 

 but ridiculed and contemned, and a whole people 

 apparently lost to every impression of religion. 

 The shops are all alive, the gaming-houses fill 

 ed, the theatres crowded, the streets deafened 

 with ballad-singers and mountebanks; persons 

 of all ages, from the hoary grandsire to the child 

 Df four or five years, engaged in balls, routs, and 

 ilancings, the house of God alone deserted, and 

 ihe voice of religion alone unheard and despised. 

 The Sabbath was the day appointed for cele 

 brating the return of Buonaparte from Elba in 



1815. In the grand square there were stationed 

 two theatres of dancers and rope-dancers: two 

 theatres of amusing physical experiments ; six 

 bands for dancing ; a theatre of singers ; a display 

 of fire-works ; a circus where Francone s troops 

 were to exhibit ; and above all, that most delec 

 table sport called Matts de Cocagne. The Matts 

 de Cocagne consists of two long poles, near the 

 tops of which are suspended various articles of 

 cookery, such as roast beef, fowls, ducks, &c. 

 The poles are soaped and rendered slippery 

 at the bottom ; and the sport consists in the lu 

 dicrous failures of those who climb to reach the 

 eatables. Two Matts de Cocagne were also 

 erected in the square Marjury ; as also four bands 

 for dancing, a theatre of rope-dancers ; a theatre 

 of amusing experiments ; a theatre of singers, 

 &c. ; and fire- works. These amusements were 

 to commence at 2 o clock, P. M. and to last till 

 night. Along the avenue of the Champ de Ely- 

 sees, there were erected 36 fountains of wine, 12 

 tables for the distribution of eatables, such as 

 pies, fowls, sausages, &c. The distribution of 

 the wine and eatables took place at three o clock. 

 At nine o clock there was a grand fire-work at 

 the Place de Concorde. Immediately after 

 wards a detonating balloon ascended from the 

 Champ de Elysees. The detonation took place 

 when the balloon was at the height of 500 toises, 

 or above 3000 feet. In the evening all the the 

 atres were opened gratis, and all the public edi 

 fices were illuminated. Such was the mode in 

 which the Parisians worshipped the &quot; goddess o{ 

 Reason &quot; on the day appointed for the Christian 

 Sabbath. 



That such profanation of the Sabbath is still 

 continued, and that it is not confined to the city 

 of Paris, but abounds in most of the provincial 

 towns of France, appears from the following ex 

 tract of a letter inserted in the EevangelicaJ 

 Magazine for January 1833, from a gentleman 

 who recently resided in different parts of that 

 country : &quot; Could every pious reader of this 

 letter be awakened, on the morning of that sacred 

 day, as I have been, by the clang of the anvil, 

 and, on his entrance into the streets and markets, 

 observe business prosecuted or suspended accord 

 ing to the tastes of the tradesmen ; could be 

 mark the workmen on seasons of religious festi 

 val, erecting the triumphal arch on the Sabbath 

 mornin?, and removing it on the Sabbath even 

 ing ; and notice the labourers, at their option, 

 toiling all day at the public works ; could he see 

 the card-party in the hotel, and the nine-pins 

 before every public house, and the promenaders 

 swarming in all the suburbs ; could he be com 

 pelled to witness, on one Sunday, a grand re 

 view of a garrison ; and on another be disturbed 

 by the music of a company of strolling players * 

 and could he find, amidst all this profanation, as 

 I have found, no temple to which to retreat, save 

 the barren cliff or ihe ocean-cave, surely he 



