Observations.

Charlotte," My dear brother, what must he have been if he had not attended her home?"

66

Duchess, this girl reads novels, I think," said the Marquis of Waltham : "She appears to have some strange unfashionable ideas." Heaven knows," replied her Grace, "where she has imbibed them." "Oh! she will know better bye and bye," said the Marquis; "I do detest all women till they become the property of another man; none but married women can please me."

Such were the sentiments of the Marquis of Waltham, and such we are sorry to say seem prevalent in this century; as a learned character in the law justly observed in a late interesting trial; "Curiosity is no longer seen with out-stretched neck, to catch at a whisper;" so of ten are actions brought against an illicit lover for the seduction of, we are sorry to remark, a too often injured wife.

A Portrait.

The Marquis of Waltham, only heir to the titles and estates of the Duchy of Pyrmont, aged eighteen only, was already a mature sprig of fashion; fast living, and a knowledge of most of the health-sapping vices, had given to his naturally effeminate countenance an old and sallow appearance; an hollow eye, a concave cheek, a spindle form, and prominent chin, and an under-sized figure, completed the tout-ensemble of a mean looking meagre being. He had a good natural understanding, cultivated by a finished education; but he was superciHious, assuming and slanderous, and besides the darling of his mother, who weak, vain-minded and trifling, envisaged vice, if supported by fashion, not only with-out merited horror, but with a sense of approbation..

Several suitable matches had been pro posed for her daughter; but the Duchess was sure to make some plausible objec

A French Count.

tion to all; dreading the horrid idea of becoming a grandmother.

Her dressing-room and breakfast-table were the hot-bed of fashionable anecdotes, prepared and detailed, with numerous and well-timed additions, by an emigré nobleman, who never could be grateful enough to his dear Duke, nor sufficiently admire the "superbe beauty," of Madame la Duchesse; and this indigent French Count contrived, by his flatteries and well-laid schemes, to fill his own coffers, and realize a considerable property, while he was the Duke's humble friend and factotum : and has even been able to lend a needy nobleman, sub rosá, the sum of five or six thousand pounds, at exorbitant interest; while this man made himself agreeable to all; sighed at the feet of the Duchess, and talked in the praise of virtue and sentiment with Lady Charlotte; laughed at religion with the Duke and Duchess, and con

Speak well of the Dead.

verted men and maids to the catholic faith, he fed well, and laughed and grew fat; knew when, at proper seasons, to ridicule his own country, and declared he was now become one complete Jean Bull!

"And so," continued the Marquis of Waltham, taking up a newspaper, "The pretty little Lady Ashton is dead! she expired immediately after..."--"Cease, brother, I beg of you," said the amiable Lady Charlotte; "When we speak of the dead, (as my favourite author remarks,) we should tread softly over their graves. If her life was not irreproachable, her end was most awful!"

The Duchess of Pyrmont was possessed of an high share of ancient family pride; and though it is universally allowed, that a man always raises a woman to his own dignity, be her former situation in life ever so obscure; yet title and family

Observations.

on both sides, were requisite to obtain a passport to an intimacy with her Grace.

Why, Philip," said she, do you entertain me with detailing the actions of such little creatures as Lady Ashton? What else could Sir George expect, when he took her from her father's shop, to the rank of a Baronet's lady? Such ele vations, when young women are possessed of vanity, make them know not where to stop; and they think they are true imitators of the great, if they do but adopt their vices *.”

*This observation of the Duchess of Pyrmont is but too true; and there is, in those sorts of undermatches, a hidden tendency to that levelling system which being destructive of the long settled distinctions of ranks and families, must be in its essence inimical to social order. Grace Gregory may ride the dickey with her coachman, but would never consent to be led by him to the altar.