FKANCE AND BELGIUM. 167 



observe, in all his movements in France and Belgium, a 

 striking verification of the truth of Solomon's declaration, 

 that, "a soft answer turneth away wrath." As far as 

 our own experience goes, we have uniformly found the 

 country people on the banks of rivers exceedingly civil 

 and obliging, and anxious at all times to furnish us with 

 information, and afford us every facility in the pursuit of 

 our amusement. We have sometimes experienced the 

 kindest attention from the cottagers, who have willingly 

 shewed us the best path through their little gardens ; and 

 in more than one instance, they have actually broken 

 down their own newly-reared fences, to enable us to 

 approach the stream with greater ease and convenience. 



When it is otherwise, we are sorry to be obliged to 

 confess, the cause is fairly traceable, nine times out of ten, 

 to the conduct of the English themselves. Thoughtless 

 boys, with a disregard of propriety perfectly unintelligible 

 to the natives, break through their fences, plunge across 

 their meadows under process of irrigation, and perambu- 

 late the whole country accompanied by great dogs, that 

 gallop about amongst the cropping, to the annoyance and 

 injury of the cultivators; and thus they excite the ill-will 

 of the proprietors, and in some instances provoke them to 

 combine for the purpose of shutting up the water. 

 Children, too, of a larger growth are not altogether 

 exempt from similar follies: the contemptible trick of 

 setting night-lines in trout-streams, and the suspicious 

 practice of carrying large casting nets, for the ostensible 

 purpose of catching minnows, are no very powerful 

 recommendations to the proprietors of fishable waters. 

 For our own part, we repeat, with a sense of grateful 

 obligation, we have found the French occupiers, with 

 very rare exceptions and those confined to the drunken 



