GENERAL SOCIETY. 



47 



those delicate attentions which elsewhere 

 adorn and refine the sentiment; and when 

 we observe how little attention is here paid 

 to women before marriage, we cannot be 

 surprised at the total neglect which ge- 

 nerally succeeds that ceremony. To the 

 same cause might, in some degree, be at- 

 tributed the preference shewn by the ladies 

 to foreigners, did not their unquestionable 

 attachment to the laws of hospitality afford 

 a solution more agreeable to their native 

 admirers. 



At these parties, refreshments are handed 

 round, consisting of sweetmeats, to which 

 all the partakers help themselves with the 

 same fork, — of water in large silver tankards, 

 and sometimes chocolate. Little or no play 

 takes place on such occasions ; yet gaming, 

 although discountenanced by the legislature, 

 is carried on by the men in places appro- 

 priated to this vice, to a ruinous extent; and 



