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VICTORIA.

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AUTHOR OF

BLION

HECA

BY MRS. SHERWOOD,

THE ORPHANS OF NORMANDY,' ""THE FAIRCHILD
FAMILY," &c. &c.

LONDON:

J. HATCHARD AND SON 187, PICCADILLY.

1833.

249.

is, of persons who profess to take the Holy Scriptures as their rule of life; and again being mixed up in one household with Roman Catholics, which last are persons bearing indeed the name of Christian, but having many of the errors of the heathen, together with the pride and selfrighteousness of the Mussulmaun. In all these situations it has been my pleasure to study the characters of children, and to observe their various trials and circumstances of life; and these observations have led me to conclude that many and terrible evils accrue to them from their intercourse with servants, and especially with servants in countries where the national religion is false, and the language different from that commonly used by their parents.

I have already given examples of this kind in my Narratives of Indian Life. It is now my intention to bring forward another example which has come to my knowledge during my residence in a place much nearer home; and I should rejoice to find that the instance which I am about to adduce is a singular one; that it is not so, I have reason however to fear; but I trust, that the history which I propose to bring forward, will induce Christian parents to watch more carefully than many have hitherto done,

respecting the characters and religious opinions of those to whom they entrust their little ones.

Victoria is the name of the little girl whose history I am about to relate; it is the name also of our little princess, on whom may the Divine blessing descend! we are bound to pray for her, because she may one day be our queen. It may perhaps be thought too fine a name for any but a princess, and scarcely fit for one descended from a family which is neither royal nor noble, but this will presently be explained.

There is little question, but that you, my young reader, have heard of the town of Nice. A person travelling from the south of France into Italy, and having crossed the rivar Var, enters at once into a small province under the king of Sardinia, to which the name of Niké, now Nice, was given, by an ancient Grecian colony this colony took possession of it from Marseilles, above three centuries before the birth of our Lord. It lies on the shores of the Mediterranean sea; and the Alps, that range of mountains which extend from the sea into Germany, and which in this place are called the Maritime Alps, so inclose this territory by their various branches, as to form of it a little world of itself. This city of Nice, which was founded,

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