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GAIETY AND FRIVOLITY.

The Place Vendôme during the Regency and at the time of Law-The calamities of that time darkening every thing else, did not darken the gaiety of France -Saying of M. de Rennes-Is gaiety happiness?— Why the French were formerly so frivolous-Little change in manner till the restoration-Character of the Directory-Aim of Bonaparte-Warlike gaiety of the empire-The return of the Bourbons-The Constitutional Government established the first great change-Tables of Dupin-The French character changed, but not so much changed as he would infer-The institutions of a country cannot change its former character, without that character operating upon existing institutions-The influence of climate and race-' —The French, if they do preserve a constitution, will still be gay-Wise legislators improve what is good rather than eradicate what is bad in the character of a people-Montesquieu in one extreme; Bentham in the other.

AN old soldier is now standing by the column of the Place Vendôme, and the carriage of a deputy is traversing the Square-the carriage

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rolls along quickly, for the deputy expects to be too late for the budget. I think I could paint the Place of Louis le Grand' in livelier colours :-Lo! there are tents: not the tents of war—the canvass is too white and delicate— There are tents-beneath the canopy of which you will find the cups of Venice, and the chains of Malta, and the cloths of Persia, and the silks of Ind; and the avenues between are soft to the feet, for they are spread with the richest and most moss-like carpets, and at every corner you are offered the juice of the orange and the citron; and if your pulse flag it may be stimulated by the vintage of Champagne, and if your lip be feverish it may be cooled by the ice of the Pyrennees; and by night and by day the musician, and the courtezan, and the juggler forbid the festivity to repose; and the gay 'seigneurs' and the gentle and graceful ladies of the riotous court of France form part of the many-coloured group, which, reader-I would bring before you !

What is the business for which these tents are pitched?—what cause has collected this crowd of musicians, courtezans, and jugglers?--and why are the great ladies and the high dignitaries, who in days of state are to be seen in the royal chambers of the regent, among the indolent loun

gers and the noisy speculators of yon unhallowed place? Yea, speculators--for that scene, gay and brilliant as it appears to you, is the sombre and fatal spot from which bankruptcy is departing to every corner of the kingdom: it is there that, already degraded by a frantic avarice, a once chivalric people-amidst all the symbols of mirth and wealth, and flushed with the shameful passions of the Stock Exchange* are witnessing, like the Hunchback's brother in the Arabian story, the transformation of their gold into dry and withered leaves, which the wind, as so many signs and tokens of an avenging Providence, will soon scatter over the most fertile provinces of France. Thus was it :-but the nation had not merely to regret its gold;the honour, which Montesquieu calls "the education of a monarchy," and which, of such a monarchy as that of the French, was the vital principle, the only moral and enduring force-that honour sunk beneath the projects of Law, and the sentiment-which was the fortune of the ancient régime-never ceased to languish after being

During the infatuation of Law and towards its decline, the stock exchange,' to use a modern term, was transferred from the Rue Quincampoix to the Place Vendôme, which exhibited a scene similar to that I have painted.

exposed to the infection which breathed amidst the flowers and the festivities of that voluptuous and terrible bazar.

So much for ancient France-for France during the elegant reign of tyranny and pleasure. So much for France when she was careless and gay in all times and in all places; treating the lightest matters with an air of importance, the gravest with a passion for amusement. So much for France with her joyous dance and her dark Bastille, her bankrupt exchequer and her shameless court. Then was the moment to have known her! Then was the moment to have known her-if you wish to have known a country which, already bound to the altar, was decorated with the garlands of the victim. Then was there wit and gaiety, but neither virtue, nor character, nor greatness. The majesty of the monarchy had followed the independence of the nobility-both were gone. The martial enterprize of the League no longer mingled with the masked debauch—a cold system of licentiousness had succeeded the valiant follies of the French. Dead was the chivalry of that intoxicating time, when the smile of beauty was the graceful incentive to rebellion; when the conflict was sought rather to vary the amusements of society than to change the destinies of

the people; while the art of the Roman gladiator rose to its perfection, and death was studied for the purpose of dying-in an agreeable position. The reign of the regent emasculated the character, chilled the enthusiasm, blunted the honour-but, black as were the wings of pestilence and ruin-it did not for an instant darken the gaiety of the French. Amidst all her changes, that gaiety remained the characteristic of olden France, and with that gaiety there was a frivolity, which sate naturally on the philosopher as on the fop-which was in manners even where it was not in ideas-which was on the surface of society where it was not at the core. Never was France more gay than when our graceful and plaintive poet* wandered with his pipe by the banks of the Loire. But are gaiety and happiness terms necessarily synonymous?

Madame de Sévigné gives us her conversation with a certain M. de Rennes, who did not choose to trim his beard until a trial which affected him was decided. "I should be a great fool," said the gentleman, "to take any pains about my head until I know whom it belongs to. The king disputes it with me; when I know whose head it is, then indeed, if it be

* Goldsmith.