12, 
{cientioufly refraining from all worldly 
purfults, our public houfes and gin-fhops 
are fuffered to be open, and are as much, 
if noc more, frequented than on any other 
day of the week: our gaming-tables are 
acceilible, our great men give dinners,’ 
and fometimes too, like thofe in lower 
life, get drunk. It feems that the occa- 
fional efforts of ufeful induftry are beheld 
with lefs complacency and toleration, with 
an eye of more jealoufy and fulpicion, 
than the habitual orgies of riot and in- 
temperance. If thefe remarks are true— 
and I fhall lend a willing ear to the dif- 
credit of them—it will not be altogether 
fo clear, as we are willing to flatter our- 
felves, on whofe fide the fcale of propriety 
and decorum in religious conduct prepon- 
derates. 
}. There is one more topic, which in an 
early part of thefe letters I promited to 
touch upon, namely, the {tate’ef the pea- 
fantry. Never having trodden on French 
ground before, I am very incompetent to 
give an opinion as to the quality or degree 
of change which this clais of people may 
have undergone: on this fubject well- 
informed and well-intentioned people dif- 
fer. I have heard a gentleman who has 
made a recent excurfion to France, and 
who had been an ocular witnels of the 
wretchednefs of the peafantry before the 
revolution,’ decidedly affert that their 
fituation isimproved. It may be fo; but 
T had almoft begun to adopt an opinion 
which one would be forry to harbour, 
namely, that the people are very little 
affected by the changes which take place 
im the government.* 
If provifions are cheaper in France than 
5 EN en ee ee 
* Tremember the following epigram, which 
was written by fome one who feems to have 
adopted this opinien in its fulleft extent. 
Poor fellows, what concern have you 
With King and Conftitution ? 
With Government you’ye nought to do, 
But pay your contribution. 
Still muft your days be fpent in toil, 
Whoever rules the nation: 
Still will the creat anes fhare the fpoil—~ 
No fear of innovation. 
The afs muft bear his daily load, 
Let who will lead or drive; 
Still he muft pace the felf-fame road— 
Nor hope for reft alive. — 
Whatever Monarch rules the realm, , 
Still Courtiers will be knaves ; 
And future P—s will guide the helm, 
And keep your children flaves. 
Though native freedom be your boaft—— 
The boaft of all the nation 5 
Yet fill, whoever rules the roaft, 
Your birth-right iseeTaxation ! 
An Excurfion through France to Geneva. 
{Feb. 1, 
they are in England, labour is propor 
tionably paid for: fo that the peaiant, 
probably, is not better off here, where 
mutton and pork are two-pence. halfpenny 
or three-pence a pound,, and the quar- 
tern-loaf is at eight-pence or nine-pence, 
than in England, where thefe, and every 
other article, are confiderably higher. 
The advantages, however, to perfons of 
fixed income, are obvious and great: the 
exchange of coin againft England is not to 
be compared with the exchange of provi- 
fions in favour of France. know nothing 
about the burden of taxat a here; houfe- 
rent is dear, however, and fuel is dear; 
whether thefe form a counterpoife to the 
advantage juft mentioned, 1 am not able 
to fay. To return to the peafantry :— 
The French are imcomparably better. 
managers of their provifion than the En- 
glith. Nothing can poflibly be more 
comfortlefs, more unfociable, more fuiky, 
if I may fo exprefs mylelf, than the man- 
ner in which the labourers of England 
take their meals. Of the counitry-la- 
bourers I fpeak, with whom I am a good 
deal converfant : with the domeftic habits 
of city-workmen, manutactory-labourers, 
&c. I am totally unacquainted. . It is the 
cuftom of countrymen to bring in their 
wallet alarge hunch (as it is emphatically 
called) of coarfe and ftale brown bread: 
this is eaten for breakfaft, fometimes with 
a parfimonious accompaniment of cheefe 
or butter, but this relifher is not always 
afforded. At dinner the treafures of the 
wallet are brought forth, and in the depth 
of winter a cold heavy dumplin, of no 
inean magnitude indeed, is produced, in 
the centre of which is alump of fat bacon, 
and perhaps a flice of apple! This, how- 
ever, does not fail to the lot of every one: 
mauy a labourer have I feen dine off a 
hard dry loaf, which he cheerle(fsly eats 
under a cart-fhed to fhelter him from the 
weather. The only comfortable meal 
which our labourers get, the only meal, 
at leaft, which gives me any idea of come 
foit, is their fupper: after his day’s 
work, if a man hasa carcful and induf- 
trious wife, he may expeét to fee a pot 
boiling over his fre when he goes home; 
he may expect fomething warm and 
nourifhing for his fupper; he may, per- 
haps, attord himfelf a pint of beer— 
tiroughout the day his thirft 1s quenched 
at the pump, unleis his mafter finds him 
a little beer—-and at laft, indeed, as that 
mott fimple and {weet fong of the ‘* Shep~ 
herd’s Wiie” fays— 
To bed he goes, as wanton then, I ween, 
As is a King in dalliance with a Queen, 
More wanton too 35 
; For 
