luxurious fare he has also to pay, though invited, a sum that would have furnished the

most recherché dinner at Lointiers, or the Rocher de Cancalles. Do you not pity your compatriot, ma chère Delphine?

Read this description to Florestan, who has such brilliant notions of the advantages to be enjoyed here but tell him, also, that to the stranger who comes with a well-filled purse, Thomas's Hotel, the Clarendon, Grillon's, and some others, offer comforts not to be despised even by his and your fastidious taste.

A London season resembles the Saturnalia of Rome; during which, though a perfect liberty is professed to be allowed, the chains of the bondsmen are heard to rattle even while they dance. All here are slaves: yes, positive slaves, and to the most tyrannical of all sovereigns Fashion. Does it not appear absurd that la mode, which you in France control, and use

as an accessoire to your pleasures, we English elevate into a despot? who, like all despots, avenges on his subjects the weakness that led to his elevation, by depriving them of all volition, or, at least, all exercise of it. Endless are the sacrifices this Juggernaut exacts, and the penalties he imposes; but, in their submission to his decrees, his vassals are kept in countenance by their mutual emulation in shameless subserviency. So few, indeed, are the examples of refractoriness which occur, that these biped spaniels are seldom reminded that it is possible to rebel.

Nothing can be more indefinite than this imaginary good, yet nothing is more tyrannical than the laws it enacts, and the sacrifices it imposes. It prescribes certain quarters of the town for the residence of its votaries; certain persons, whose acquaintance, coute qui coute, must be cultivated; and certain others,

who are to be as scrupulously avoided; certain equipages in which les élégants are to appear, and certain places where those equipages are to be exhibited; certain tradespeople who are to be employed; a certain style of magnificence in dinners, which must be adopted; and certain guests, whose presence is considered to be indispensable.

Now, as a due attention to these laws entails expenses not unfrequently far exceeding the fortunes of the votaries of fashion, it is not to

be wondered at that they are often involved in embarrassments, terminating in ruin, and not unfrequently in crime, and its worst consequences. The moment they can no longer support the appearance they assumed, they are driven with ignominy from the circle, to gain an entrance into which, they sacrificed fortune and fame. Their pretension and folly are severely reprobated by those, to conciliate whom,

they incurred ruin; and they have not even the triste consolation of being followed into the retreats their poverty imposes, by the pity of their partners in error.

To propitiate this more than Eastern tyrant, his subjects form new friendships with persons they cannot esteem; and break through old ones with persons they loved. Even the ties of blood are violated at his mandate; for what daughter or son could exhibit affection towards the authors of their being, if they happened to be voted without the pale of fashion? The most reprehensible and undisguised bad conduct is tolerated, if the practiser is à la mode; the most disagreeable persons, fêtés, and the most stupid, recherchés, if once the seal of fashion be placed on their passports.

Fashion reigns omnipotent in London. Its stamp can give currency to the basest metal, and buoyancy to the heaviest dulness. Men

of bad reputation, and women without any, can, by the power of Fashion, be kept afloat in the society it patronises; and persons of high birth and station, with unsullied names, may be rejected, if this chameleon deity looks coldly on them.

The favourites of Fashion are, indeed, a motley crew. Beauty, virtue, wit, or goodness, are rarely numbered among them; but, en revanche, the vicious, the dull, the frivolous, and the impudent, abound. Lady So-and-so is cited, in the clubs and coteries, as furnishing as much cause of complaint to her admirers, individually, as to her husband. Her acquaintances in general, and her friends in particular, do not attempt to deny the justice of the accusation; but Lady So-and-so is a fashionable woman, and, consequently, is received partout. Lord So-and-so, or Mr. So