and quite unknown at the beginning of the Institution. Introduced by Dr Beddoes and Count Rumford as a very promising young man, he was engaged as professor of chemistry in the room of Professor Garnett, and, notwithstanding his provincial accent, and natural bashfulness, his merit was soon estimated. Several other eminent men deliver lectures at the Royal Institution; Mr Pond on astronomy, Mr Allen on mechanics, Dr James E. Smith on natural history. These sciences are not, however, so fashionable as chemistry; they are not susceptible of any brilliant exhibitions; there is no noise, no fire,—and the amphitheatre never fills, but for Mr Davy. The resources of chemistry, to recal or keep up the attention of a mixt audience, are infinite. A small bit of potassium thrown in a glass of water, or upon a piece of ice, never fails to excite a gentle murmur of applause. More than one half of the audience is female, and it is the most attentive portion. I often observe these fair disciples of science taking notes timidly, and as by stealth, on small bits of paper; no man does that, -they know already the things taught, or care little about them! Women alone consider themselves as neither above nor below Mr Pond or Mr Davy. In fact, public lectures are only useful to those who know little, and aspire to little. Real learning is only acquired by solitary studies; but

a taste for the arts and sciences, although superficial, is, at any rate, very desirable in all those to whom fortune gives leisure. The husband of a young lady, who is very assiduous at the lectures, said, the other day, he approved much of this taste in the sex in general; "It keeps them out of harm's way." Considering the great number of prosecutions for crim. con. recorded in newspapers, one would think that no preservative is to be neglected.

There is something ridiculous enough in this technical abbreviation of criminal conversation. It seems an awkward attempt to disguise or sof ten an equivocal expression,-which is already in itself a great softening of the moral misdemeanour it represents.

This criminal conversation is not prosecuted criminally, but produces only a civil suit for the recovery of damages, estimated in money. The jury determines the amount of these damages, by the degree of union and conjugal happiness existing before the criminal conversation which destroyed it, and by the rank and fortune of the parties. The smallest appearance of negligence or connivance on the part of the husband, deprives him of all remedy against the seducer, who owes him nothing, if he only took what was of no value to him, and which he guarded so ill. I have heard of L.10,000 sterling awarded in

some cases, which is certainly rather dear for a conversation! The husband pockets this money without shame, because he has the laugh on his side, and in the world ridicule alone produces shame. A divorce is generally granted by act of parliament in these cases; and marriage as generally takes place between the lovers. The publicity which such prosecutions necessarily occasion, and all the details and proofs of the intrigue, are highly indelicate and scandalous. The testimony, for instance, of servants, of young chambermaids, who are brought into open court to tell, in the face of the public, all they have seen, heard, or guessed at, is another sort of prostitution more indecent than the first. Morals are far from being purified by this process; but the substantial infringement is prevented. This sort of chastity resembles the probity of certain persons who are sufficiently honest not to be hanged.

Upon the whole, however, there is more conjugal fidelity in England than in most other countries; and these crim. con. prosecutions calumniate the higher ranks of society, as the celebrated book of Mr Colquhoun calumniates the lower. The merits of national, as well as individual characters, are only comparative; great allowances are to be made, and the best result to be expected is a favourable balance on the side of

morálity. I think married women are less on a footing of equality with their husbands here than in France. They appear more dependent. Unmarried women, on the contrary, are less shackled here, they go out often alone, and enjoy more liberty. This liberty produces few abuses before marriage, and rather tends to prevent them afterwards. Those who take advantage of it to do wrong before marriage, would have done so after; and it is certainly safer to take a woman who has seen the world, than one who knows only the walls of a convent, and who has never been trusted out of sight from her birth.

One thing surprises mé more and more every day; it is the great number of people in the opposition; that is, those who disapprove, not only the present measures of ministers, which have not been of late either very wise or very successful, but the form and constitution of the government itself. It is stigmatised as vicious, corrupt, and in its decay, without hope or remedy but in a general reform, and in fact a revolution. Our acquaintance, though not very extensive, is sufficiently various to afford a fair sample of public opinion. I have had an idea of making a list in three columns, whigs, tories, and absolute reformers, and it would not be difficult; for there are a few principal topics, which, like cabalistic words, it is enough to touch upon, to know at

once the whole train of opinions of those with whom you speak. It appears to me that the tories, or friends of the administration, and of all administrations, are in a small minority; of the two parties, one does not seem disposed to approve of any administration, and neither of them of the present; and, supposing the ministerial power to rest on public opinion, one might be tempted to exclaim with Basil in the Barbier de Seville, "Qui est ce donc que l'on trompe,-tout le monde est du secret !" This is a most alarming state of things, a spark might set the whole political machine in a blaze; and yet, looking around at the appearance of all things, it seems a pity that so much good should necessarily be abandoned in pursuit of better, and by the means of a revolution. Every body disclaims a revolution, à la Françoise; but who is so presumptuous as to fancy a revolution, when once begun, can be guided and stopped at pleasure? Notwithstanding their lamentations and complaints, and the avowed expectation of a dreadful crisis, the inhabitants of London live just as if they had nothing to fear; amuse themselves, and attend to their business in perfect security. It would seem as if all this clamour was only habit, a sort of plaintive mania—and yet they appear so much in earnest that I do not know what to think of it.

March 5.-It is difficult to form an idea of the