saye, Vienne, Montauban, Nimes, &c of superb tapestry at the Gobelins in Paris; of hats at Lyons, Marseilles and Paris; of porcelain at Paris and Sevres; of cider and beer in the North, and of brandy at Cognac and Montpelier. The annual value of manufactured articles is estimated at 1,802,798,409 francs.*

7. COLONIES. The French colonies are inconsiderable.+ Since 1826, the colonies of Martinique, Guadaloupe, and Bourbon, have paid their own expenses. The others are chiefly paid from the annual revenue of 965,000 francs, which the English East India Company pays to France in consideration of certain privileges renounced by the French in their favor.

8. REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. The revenue is derived from direct and indirect taxes, sales of wood from the public forests, customs, &c, and amounted in 1829 to 979,352,224 francs. The revenue under Napoleon amounted to 1,500,000,000 francs. In 1828 the expenditures were, for the army and ordnance 196,000,000 francs; navy 57,000,000; civil list 32,000,000; administration of justice 19,641,934; department of foreign affairs 9,000,000; treasury charges 102,477,850; ecclesiastical affairs and public instruction 35,000,000; sinking fund 40,000,000; home department 92,721,400; expenses of collecting the revenue 137,512,551. The expenditure as calculated in the Budget for 1831, was 1,177,151,035 francs; the revenue 1,233,101,894 francs.

9. NATIONAL DEBT. This amounted in 1829 to 821,222,400 dollars of

* Rouen is the Manchester of France, and its proximity to Havre de Grace, the greatAmeri. can port, gives it the same advantage in point of situation, that Manchester derives from the neighborhood of Liverpool. The cotton trade of Rouen supports from 55 to 60,000 persons. The corduroy and velveteen of Troyes are well suited for laborers clothing. Caen produces cambric muslins, equal to those of Switzerland. The ginghams from the Upper Rhine are stout and well dyed; and the printed muslins of Versailles rival those of England. The delicacy and perfection of the French cambrics have long been unrivalled. The French laces are made both of silk and thread. The point lace of Alençon and Argentan has long enjoyed a great name. The parchment made in France is esteemed the best in Europe. In clocks and watches the Parisians are rivalling the Swiss. The manufacture of surgical and mathematical instruments, and of all sorts of expensive and tasteful toys, are carried to high perfection. The porcelain of Sevres has a great reputation. The glass manufacture of St Gobin retains its high pre-eminence for large and beautiful mirrors. The crystal manufactories in and about Paris are very numerous. French furniture is cheaper than English. Dyeing is carried on largely in the neighborhood of the several cloth manufactories. The waters of the Saone are excellent for scouring, and possess a soapy quality. Those of the Rhone are pure and equally fitted for dyeing. The superior excellence of the French cloth as regards color, arises in a great measure from the great purity of the waters used in dyeing. The raw cotton spun in France in 1826 amounted to 83,993,210 pounds. The wool to 102,300,000 pounds. There were 3,000 cashmere shawls, and 41,000 woollen shawls exported the same year. The value of the silk annually worked up is equal to 26,640,000 dollars of American money; more than one half the raw material is of native production. The China silkworm has long been naturalized in France, and the French white crapes now rival those of the east, so long inimitable in brilliance and purity. Red and blue embroidered stuffs have recently been largely exported to Persia and Turkey.

American money. In 1797 it was 4,440,000,000 dollars. Two thirds of this sum were annihilated by a decree of the revolutionary government, and subsequently, two thirds of the remainder. The public funds consist of bank shares and the tiers consolidé, a 5 per cent stock.

10. BANK. The Bank of France was established in its present form in 1801, with a capital of 30,000,000 francs. Its dividend has always exceeded 5 per cent. Its notes are not a legal tender, and nearly all its business is transacted in gold and silver. It is strictly a public institution, and the chief officer is appointed by the government. It is a bank of discount, deposit and circulation, but none of its notes are lower that 500 francs. Private bankers in France do not issue notes.

11. ARMY ANd Navy.* The political affairs of France and Europe are now so uncertain that we cannot conjecture what the military force of the kingdom may be in a few months. In 1828, the Budget exhibited the number of troops at 233,770 men. According to the same document, the French navy consists of 36 ships of the line; 35 frigates; 7 corvettes; 23 brigs; and above 100 smaller vessels including 8 steamboats. There is a royal marine college at Angoulême, a marine school at Brest, and several schools of navigation.

12. POPULATION. According to the official returns for 1827, the total population of France including Corsica was 31,851,545. Two thirds of this number are engaged in agriculture, and about half the remaining third are mechanics. The French empire in 1812 previous to the Russian campaign, comprised a population of 43,000,000. France has entirely recovered from the losses occasioned by the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, and was never so populous as at present.

13. INHABITANTS, CLASSES, &C. The principal part of the inhabitants are descended from the Celts or Gauls, the Romans, and the Franks, but chiefly from the latter. The Bretons who are mostly in lower Brittany, are the descendants of the people who were driven from England by the Anglo Saxons, in the fifth century. After a lapse of so many centuries, they are still distinguished from the French in dress, customs, and language. The German inhabitants of France are in part Walloons, and live for the most part in Alsace, and a part of Lorraine. The Basques are descended from the ancient Cantabrians, and dwell at the foot of the Pyrenees. The remainder of the inhabitants are Jews; gypsies, who lead a settled life on the Rhine and Moselle, and Savoyards who wander over the country.

The French are a well formed and active people. In complexion they are not so clear as the English, and they are less robust in frame; though there are many who would be considered corpulent even in England. In the southern provinces, the skin is darker, and the eye more restless and brilliant.

Hereditary peerage in France is abolished. The titles of nobility are princes, dukes, marquises, counts, viscounts, barons, and chevaliers. There were formerly no less than 365,000 noble families, though of these only 4,120 were of the ancient nobility. The most ancient order, is that of St Michael, founded by Louis XI. and conferred on distinguished artists and savans. The order of

* The mountain party originated the military conscription. Carnot the revolutionary minister at war, organised in 1794 no less than 14 armies amounting to 1,400,000 men. The decree of conscription was declared a permanent law of the republic, and afterwards of the empire, and this engine whether wielded by a Carnot or a Napoleon, like the lever of Archimedes, for a time moved and overturned the balance of the political world. The annual conscription after the incorporation of Belgium and the Italian States with the empire, averaged from 1806 to 1810, 360,000 men. By the official report of January, 1809, the French army consisted of 900,000 infantry, and 100,000 cavalry without including auxiliaries. It was afterwards still more augmented. In 1812 and 1813 France called out by extraordinary conscriptions in her own territories, 1,280,000 men; and from other countries 700,000, making a total of 1,980,000. In the beginning of 1812, when Napoleon had reached the pinnacle of his greatness, he had a standing army of 1,200,000 men, a force greater than Rome ever possessed in the zenith of her power.

the Holy Ghost, is like the last, limited to 100 chevaliers, and it includes the royal family and the princes of the blood. Louis XIV. established the order of St Louis, as a reward for military services. Under the consulate, the Legion d'Honneur was instituted, and the members were both military and civil. At the Restoration, it was reorganized. It has 80 grand crosses, 160 grand officers, 400 commanders, 2000 officers, and an unlimited number of chevaliers. There are three schools for the education of 900 of the daughters of the members.

14. DRESS. France has long been looked up to as the standard from which there is no appeal in all matters of taste or fashion, whether as regards dress or cookery; and it must be owned that the French have earned their reputation in this respect by the unremitting attention which they have bestowed upon these subjects. From the highest to the lowest individual, from the duchess to the grisette, there is a universal, and it would seem an intuitive esprit de coquetterie, which in no way displays itself more forcibly than in the frequent and tasteful arrangement of the toilette.

The 'Courrier des Dames' and the Journal des Modes,' have carried their laws through every part of the civilized world. In all the great cities, whether of Europe or America, the dress of the upper classes is an intended imitation, though often a caricature of Parisian costume; and now that these arbiters of fashion have carried their arms into the African deserts, it is probable that the Arab maidens, laying aside the white veil with its tinkling bells, will begin to sigh for blouses, and cashmeres, and Chantilly lace, and chapeaux de gaze aréophane. It is certain that an innovation has already taken place in the dress of the Algerine fair since the entry of the French heroes into their capital, and that upwards of fifty ladies were persuaded to attend a ball given by their conquerors, with the novel incumbrance of shoes and stockings.

Every event of importance, sad or glorious, a war, a revolution, or the downfal of a dynasty, is immortalized in France by a paté or a riband. When the Opera House in the Palais Royal was burned down, in 1781, the fire of which lasted for more than a week, and in which many persons perished, the Parisian elegantes displayed dresses of a flame color, entitled 'couleur feu de l'Opera!' The modistes find it advantageous to give a singular name to a color. Couleur giraffe,' had a meaning in it; but the exact couleur d'araignêe meditant une crime,' which was for some weeks the rage in Paris, could only have been imagined by the fantastic brain of a French modiste.

After the fall of Robespierre, the surviving victims of his tyranny being released from their dungeons, resolved to celebrate the tyrant's death after a truly French fashion, viz., by giving a ball! No one could be admitted who could not prove that he or she had lost a friend or relative in the late massacres. It was entitled the 'bal des victimes.' The rooms were hung with red drapery, and the dresses were couleur de sang. History does not record that any steps faltered among those who partook of this strange festivity; that the pas de bourrées were performed with less grace than usual, or the pas de valse with less vivacity.

It is related that two ladies who had been united by the sentimental bonds of female friendship, each of whom had believed the other to be among the victims of the guillotine, and who had both obtained their tickets of admission upon this unfounded report, met in the ball-room to their mutual surprise. They rushed into each other's arms; when the director observed that they had lost their right to remain, and they were requested to withdraw. Their joy was suddenly checked. 'It is charming to recover one's friend,' said one of the ladies, sighing deeply; but it is sad to lose so excellent a ball.'

6

Fashion in France is a despot whose laws are blindly obeyed. For each season there is a costume, and a deviation from the mode is looked upon as the violation of a moral duty. Indeed, a sin against etiquette is more severely visited than a sin against propriety. If the offender is a foreigner, a civil con

tempt is expressed by that ineffable shrug, which can only be executed by a French shoulder. Times are by no means altered since the days of Madame de Genlis, when a devoted lover broke off his engagement with a lady, from making the discovery that her shawl which he had firmly and fondly believed to be a real cashmere, was a peau de lapin.

When the peace that followed the restoration of the Bourbons permitted the English to visit Paris, the English ladies in their short waists, and poke bonnets excited as much consternation as the appearance of a tribe of South Sea Islanders in their skins would have caused to a less sensitive nation. Les Anglaises pour rire was an amusing caricature of English dress and manners, as they acted upon the risible nerves of the French nation at that period. Upon one occasion, when crowds had assembled according to custom to see Louis XVIII. feed in public, a titter suddenly arose among the well bred mob, gradually increasing, and terminating in a burst of laughter, such as had never before invaded the precincts of the royal ear. The cause was hastily. inquired into, and a sufficient apology for mirth was discovered in the unexpected appearance of an English poke bonnet.

The ladies in the country and in the provincial towns, follow the Paris fashions, and are more or less well dressed according to their facilities of communication with the capital. During the Bonaparte dynasty, Madame le Roi, the couturiere of the Empress Maria Louisa, presided over the empire of taste. But long waists were restored with the Bourbons, and Napoleon and Madame le Roi, fell together. Victorine became the legitimate sempstress, and still reigns nearly without a rival.

The morning dishabille of a French lady, is the perfection of coquetry or of slovenliness, according to her intention of being visible or otherwise. If the former, her peignoir, or white muslin dressing-gown, is arranged with scrupulous neatness. Her morning cap is simple, but becoming; and down to the points of her red slippers, the nicest eye can discover no fault. If the reverse, there is more ease than elegance in her toilette, and the hour of promenade in the Tuileries finds her exhibiting a personification of the grub transformed into a butterfly. Great judgment is displayed by a Parisian lady in her choice of a seat in these gardens, where the sun shall throw a becoming shade over her couleur de rose hat. The same regard for her complexion induces her to fit up her boudoir with a suitable color, according as she is a blonde or a brunette. One superlative merit must be granted to the French ladies: their toilette is the perfection of simplicity. The dress of an English or American lady would furnish materials for that of half a dozen moderate Frenchwomen.

Thus far we have been speaking of female dress. The French gentlemen instead of attempting to give the law in dress, rather affect the English fashions. The imitation, however, runs into caricature, and while the English gentlemen are the best dressed men in the world, the French are almost the worst. But it is not among the higher classes alone, that dress is considered a matter of importance in France. Every station has its peculiar costume. The wife of a shopkeeper, or a milliner's girl, wears a dress equally distinct from that of a peasant, or of a lady. It generally consists of a chintz or stuff gown, a colored fichu, black silk apron and a cap of a fixed form, ornamented with lace and ribands. A bonnet is considered as the exclusive privilege of a lady, and no severity of weather would induce a Frenchwoman to depart from

this rule.

The peasants in the different departments of France have a costume peculiar to themselves. The most remarkable variety is in that of the women in Upper Normandy, where the cauchoise cap is worn. It is made of starched muslin, and is from half a yard to a yard in height. It stands up nearly perpendicu larly, and is ornamented with long lace lappets, called coquilles. The hair is braided in front, and gathered up in a mass behind. Upon a young and handsome woman, these high caps have a pretty effect. They are called Cauch

oises, Marmottes, and Pierrots according to the height and form. The rest of the dress consists of a bright scarlet petticoat extremely short, a black jacket called an Apollon, and a colored apron; long gold ear-rings, and gold hearts and crosses, fastened either to a black velvet riband, or gold chain. In the town of Bolbec, the greatest luxury is frequently displayed by the peasant women on Sundays and fete days; not only in the lace and ornaments of the cauchoise cap, but in their gold trinkets, which are frequently of no mean value. In Lower Normandy, the peasants' dress is nearly the same, with the exception of the cap, which is low and flat in the crown.

In the other departments, there are different varieties of costume; and in some places, such as the neighborhood of Lyons, the peasant women wear a flat, round, black hat, either of cloth or velvet, and not unlike those worn in some parts of Switzerland.

The men are dressed pretty much as the laboring classes in England or the United States. The village dandy is shaved and curled on Sundays and holidays, and at other times usually wears a blouse of blue stuff, like a wagoner's frock, buckled in at the waist, and embroidered in white at the wrists and collar.

15. LANGUAGE. Two dialects grew out of the corruption of Latin; which language was introduced by the Roman conquest: the Southern one was called the Langue d' Oc, and the Northern the Langue d' Oil. The former, though much changed, is still the language of Provence, Languedoc, Catalonia, Valencia, Majorca, Minorca, and Sardinia. The literature of this language is principally in the songs of the Troubadours, which were chiefly confined to the two great themes of chivalry; love, and war.

The modern French, is derived from the Langue d'Oil, and it is so well adapted to elegance and social life that it has long been the language of courts, diplomacy, and the higher classes in many countries. A knowledge of it will carry a traveller over all civilized Europe. Besides the French, and the Provençal languages, the Bretons have their ancient British tongue, and the Germans have a corrupted German. The French however is general in all the

towns.

16. MANNER OF BUILDING. In France, are some of the most magnificent edifices in the world, but these are principally in the cities, for a country life is seldom led by the wealthy. The great power of the kings, before the Revolution, and of Napoleon, since, enabled them to expend large sums in buildings, and other public monuments. The Revolution dispersed many of the rich landed proprietors, and the class of rich merchants and manufacturers reside chiefly in towns. There are therefore few elegant and commodious country houses in France, compared with the number in England. The old chateaux are gloomy and without taste; but the cottages are generally substantial and comfortable. They are thatched, and have windows and chimneys the floors are of clay, beaten hard.

In some parts, the houses are of mud mixed with straw, which is cut into large square pieces, and hardened by drying. A house of this kind is sometimes of three stories, and has window frames of stone. The pisé is a common mode of building, and it is a process by which all kinds of earth except sand, are compressed and hardened. They are laid in mortar like stones. The cottages have invariably a garden and they are often ornamented with flowers. 17. FOOD AND DRINK. French cookery is known throughout the world, and is unrivalled in variety and delicacy. The expedients are innumerable for giving various flavors to the same material, and it frequently requires a scientific palate to discover the original nature of this material, under its various disguises. Monsieur Grimod de la Reyniére observes in his Almanach des Gourmands, There are in France, 685 ways of dressing an egg, without counting the new methods which our savans imagine daily.' At the Hotel of this gentleman a weekly meeting used to be held, called the Jury Degustateur,