This connexion, however, be its character what it might, manifestly afforded Madame Du Cayla such opportunities of knowing Louis the XVIIIth's opinions and feelings upon most subjects, as stamps her statements, her records of conversations, her court-gossip in short, with a considerable degree of authenticity, and makes the book worth running through. Moreover, although parts of it would certainly never have been written by any Englishwoman above the condition of the Harriette Wilsons, it contains nothing so objectionable in points of delicacy, as need exclude it from the drawing-room. We have, accordingly, no hesitation in recommending, even to our female readers, Les Memoires d'une Femme de Qualité as amusing and not uninstructive; and, expecting our recommendation to be acted upon, we shall in consequence abstain from offering either an abstract of their contentswhich, indeed, is pretty nearly an impossibility--or many long extracts. We shall further take leave to decline the labour of refuting the absurd notions which the fair memorialist (as allowable a denomination, we think, as Mr. C. Butler's Reminiscent) ascribes to His Most Christian Majesty touching the perfidy and selfishness of British politics upon all and every occasion, and the excessive feudal oppression and total want of liberty we poor English groan under, and the correctness of General Pillet's accounts of English women and English manners. Neither do we intend to trouble ourselves with such a work of supererogation as the vindication of the Duke of Wellington from the extraordinary faults detected in Sa Grace by the keen eyes of the king and his belle amie, such as coxcombry, vanity, silliness, theatrical trickery, cowardice, and what not. We shall content ourselves with mentioning a few of the leading traits of the king's character, as drawn by himself in his biographer's statements, and conclude with extracting a short conversation, illustrative of his opinion of the ultra-royalists, amongst whom ranked Madame Du Cayla herself; and, as she silently gives us to understand, the royal brother, nephews, and nieces.

Louis XVIII. appears, from this account, to have been rationally convinced of the actual impossibility of restoring the ancien regime, and of the absolute necessity of conforming, partially at least, to the spirit of the age; and therefore bent upon upholding his Charte, to which he was besides attached with the blind fondness of a parent and an author; but being withal deeply imbued with the feelings, opinions, recollections, and habits of the days of absolutism, he enacted the constitutional king in a somewhat despotic vein, more diverting than is consonant with English ideas of limited monarchy. Jealous of his power,

* For the benefit of such readers as may know neither the disgusting work itself, nor the extracts given, at the time of its publication, by one of our brother periodicals, we will just mention, as a sample, that according to General Pillet, every Englishwoman who has attained to the matronly age of forty, gets more than tipsy every evening during the temporary after-dinner separation of the two sexes, and that every Englishman kills his wife with impunity when tired of her; most men thus disposing of three women a-piece, in punishment, we conceive, for their inebriety.

†Their preference of other constitutional forms to his Charte was, it should seem, în Louis's eyes, the original sin of the Spanish, Portugueze, Neapolitan, and Sardinian revolutionists; and we are not sure but we are of his majesty's opinion,

jealous of his ministers, and of their reputation, he yet appears to have been led by every favourite who, to use an expressive vulgarism, could get the length of his foot, (Decazes gained his favour, it seems, by receiving Latin lessons from his majesty,) and whom he forgot the moment he was teazed into dismissing them. His laudable ambition to be beloved by his subjects, his desire to be supposed indebted for both his restorations to their loyalty, led him naturally enough, but less laudably, to hate the allies who placed, and, while needful, supported him upon his throne, more especially George IV. and the Duke of Wellington, the last, as the commander of the army of occupation, the former, for making public a letter in which Louis had professed to owe his crown, under God, to the Prince Regent of England, which letter was meant solely for the private gratification of the British sovereign's own vanity, not of his people's. But the most original part of the picture is the king's literary vanity. Louis appears to have occupied himself in concocting articles for newspapers, to have claimed a sort of partnership concern in divers comedies and operas, to have written, corrected, polished, copied and recopied his parliamentary speeches, with a diligence worthy of Pope or Gray, and altogether without the participation of his responsible ministers, and to have bored every creature within his reach with these and all his other compositions, swallowing the grossest, baldest flattery, like mother's milk. The surest recipe for putting him into good humour was to request the gratification of hearing him read the Voyage de Paris à Bruxelles. But the most important point in Madame Du Cayla's representation is the manner in which the whole clique of ultraroyalists tormented the poor old king, if not to death, out of all the comforts of his life, in order to goad him, whom they treated as little better than a jacobin, into counter-revolutionary measures. Upon one occasion they exploded a barrel of gunpowder upon a back staircase, and accused the liberals of having designed thereby to blow up the Tuileries and its royal inmate. After public congratulations upon his escape, the belle amie presented herself, and was thus accosted :

"Do you know that your friends, whom you call my faithful subjects, give me proofs of their attachment that are any thing but agreeable to me? "How so, sire?

"Did you not hear the explosion?

"Can you suspect the royalists, whilst the jacobins"For this once are very innocent.

thinking men; a little plot to frighten me.

"Impossible!

It is a machination of your right

"For the sake of your friends' honour, would to God I may be mistaken! But ere long we shall have an irrefragable proof of their guilt.

"What proof, sire?

"That nothing will be found out concerning this plot.

"Truly an extraordinary proof!

"My dear Countess, (returned the king,) if the Jacobins, the Bonapartists, or the Liberals, are the authors of this explosion, before two days are over our heads, we shall have thirty people arrested, and a regular prosecution set on foot by M. Jacquinot and his underlings: if, on the contrary, all this is, as I I suspect, a pretty little trick of my good friends, no one will be arrested;

neither M. Jacquinot, nor his underlings, will institute any legal proceedings. If I seem angry, the Keeper of the Seals and the Minister of Police will come with downcast looks and implore me not to follow up inquiries which may disturb the public tranquillity, rekindle animosities, bring hostile parties face to face, and expose honourable names to unjust imputations. I shall be obliged to give way, the conspirators will continue to call themselves my best friends, and I-I shall not even be at liberty to tell them that I would gladly dispense with their friendship!"

Need we add, that Louis's anticipations were, upon this occasion, fully verified. We must not conclude without mentioning, that in literature Louis XVIII. was a rigorous classiciste, and that he would not have objected to M. de Chateaubriand as a politician or a minister, had he not reprobated and envied him as an author.

ART. XV.- 1. Le Gueux de Mer. 2 vols. 12mo. Paris. 1830. 2. Le Gueux des Bois, ou les Patriotes Belges de 1556; suivi de la Bataille de Navarin. 4 vols. 12mo. Paris. 1830.

3. Phillippine de Flandre, ou les Prisonniers du Louvre. Roman Historique Belge. Par M. H. G. Moke. 4 vols. 12mo. Paris. 1830.

THE innumerable works of fiction, good, bad, and indifferent, hourly littered by the Parisian press, is not the portion of our brilliant neighbours' literature to which we usually direct the attention of the British public; those only can pretend to be mentioned in our pages, that are peculiarly distinguished by genius, character, or circumstances. Upon a late occasion we reviewed at some length the productions of one of the most popular French novelists* of the present day, for the double purpose of making his style and talent known to our readers, and of guarding such of them as do not wish to sully their minds with gross images, against being tempted by his indigenous celebrity, to open any of his multifarious volumes. Our present object is the very reverse, and may be more shortly attained, being to recommend to general perusal the writings of M. H. G. Moke, whom we must however confess to be an author much inferior in brilliancy to Paul de Koch.

Moke's principal merit, in our eyes, is the having opened what we may call a new field of romance, since the very few splendid scenes that Sir Walter Scott has sketched of Netherland transactions, can scarcely be deemed sufficient to render the term incorrect. Moke has painted, and we really think to the life, the free, bold, wealthy, virtuous, and turbulent burghers and yeomen of the Low Countries, in their struggles for their civil and religious rights: and we should, at any time that we had happened to meet with them, have recommended his Romans Belges for the mere novelty and vivacity of their Flemish pictures. But we are more especially impelled to do so now, when the revolutions, bursting out around us on every side, give additional and important interest to these clever delineations of popular commotions; of

Paul de Koch, No. 10.

† Whilst we are writing, the publication of Mr. Grattan's Heiress of Bruges seems to tax us with incorrectness; M. Moke, however, was first in the Belgian field.

the humane and patriotic forbearance with which William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and his confederates, sought redress by every legal and pacific means ere they would be provoked to insurrection; of the horrors and atrocities nearly inseparable from civil war; and of the almost inevitable involvement, upon such occasions, of the best, of the most determined to refrain from violence, in bloodshed, if not in guilt. The happy choice of his subject-matter is not, however, M. Moke's sole merit. He has managed it reasonably well, and he has drawn many of his characters with vivid energy. We could, indeed, have wished that in his Gueur des Bois he had coloured less heavily the vices of the Spanish governors, commissioned by Philip the Second to establish the inquisition; but we acknowledge with pleasure that the little he has given us of the Prince of Orange and his party is good and striking. In the same work the bold and benevolent Capuchin is well opposed, not only to the intolerant and persecuting Roman Catholic priests, but to the equally worthy and conscientious Protestant zealot, himself further contrasted with the pseudo-fanatical demagogue, after whom the novel is named, who, by the criminal excesses to which he instigates his followers, gives a show of justice to the most flagitious proceedings of the inquisition. In Philippine de Flandre, the rude and half brutal soldier of fortune, the loftily chivalrous noble, are as happily painted amongst the French characters, as are the Bear of the Butchers, and the Deacon of the Drapers amongst the Flemings. Expecting that these novels will be generally read, we shall say nothing of the story of any of them, (the Gueux de Mer we as yet know only by name,) but shall try to select a short, detached scene from the last, Philippine de Flandre, such as may give an idea of our author's graphic and dramatic powers, observing however that it would require a longer and more continuous extract to do him justice.

Count William of Juliers, a warlike ecclesiastic, is escorting a damsel, wrapped in a peasant's cloak, into Bruges, which city is in a state of insurrection against Philip the Fair, King of France.

"Scarcely had he entered the city, when a barricade stopped him. < What means this?' exclaimed Count William, do the people leave their ramparts unguarded and entrench themselves in the street?"

"It is the smiths, who fortify their quarter,' said a peasant, with a flail in his hand, and a quiver on his shoulder; and by the blood of our Lord, well they may, having hostile trades to right and left! But you will find the street to your right clear, Sir Knight.'

"The young Count followed his advice, and reached the market place without impediment. Here bands of drapers and boatmen were in garrison In front of their respective stations they had erected posts, to which they had affixed barrels filled with combustibles; and the flames that rose eddying from those immense brasiers lighted the whole place. By this sinister light were seen small parties of armed men hurrying to and fro, and ranging themselves under the banners of their several guilds. The lugubrious sound of the bells, the shouts occasionally uttered by the furious multitude, the distant aspect of

We translate the French Doyen, by the Scotch name of the elder of a guild or corporation, for want of an English word.

the close columns forming in the adjacent streets, all announced an approaching and inevitable commotion,

"There was something so frightful in the whole picture that William of Juliers felt his hair bristle on his head. Let us retrace our steps,' said he to his companion,' It fits not you should brave such dangers. Perish rather the name of Flanders and the lion of our ancestors!'

"The young maiden cast upon him a severe look. Already have I sacri. ficed more than life,' she replied in melancholy accents, and nothing shall now make me turn back. And wherefore should I? Better die here than in exile.'

"A troop of pikemen, whom their blue frocks showed to be weavers, surrounded a mean-looking house. At sight of the horseman they lowered their pikes, opposing an iron rampart to his progress, whilst different voices clamoured.

"Who are you?-What do you want?-Nobody may approach Master Peter's house. Priest or devil, you pass not!

"Where is the deacon?" asked he, impatiently.

"If we did but know!' they returned, brandishing their long pikes. "But his sons? resumed William of Juliers.

"At the old castle,' replied the Flemings.

"Well then, I must speak with his wife.'

"Yes, Yes! No, no! Call the deaconess!-Cross your pikes!-Let him pass!-Drive him back!'-shouted a thousand voices.

"The house door now unclosed, and a woman appeared, whose still handsome and proud face bore the traces of deep affliction. She glanced at the equestrians, and apparently recognizing them, exclaimed; Open your ranks! It is the hope, the last hope, of Flanders!'"

The deaconess now introduces the strangers into her best apartment, and displays the warmest loyalty towards the lady, the daughter of the unfortunate Count of Flanders, who, deserted by his rebellious subjects, had been perfidiously invited by King Philip to the French court, and upon his appearing there, treacherously seized and imprisoned. The deaconess eagerly divests Philippine of her rustic disguise, and the latter anxiously inquires for the Deacon de Koning, who, in expiation of his rebellion, has devoted himself to her father's cause, and upon whose aid she relies, for gaining over the good city of Bruges, already in open revolt against French oppression.

"They were interrupted by a masculine voice that called out from the lower story, Be of good cheer, Deaconess. Master Peter is in the Count's palace, and we are going to fetch him out.'

"What mean those words?' asked the young Countess, starting up. Has the fatality that pursues our family reached to de Koning?'

"The deaconess in tears led her to an open window, and showing her a crowd of pikemen jostling each other, she said, Those are the weavers returning to town; the trades, inimical to ours, had taken advantage of their absence to throw the deacon into prison. Now they will pay dearly for it. Do you see how the arms glitter on the Place du Bourg? They are lighting the torches; they are unfolding the banners. The hour of vengeance is come!" "From the window William and Philippine saw part of the great market place, and of the neighbouring strongly fortified castle. The night was dark, the sky clouded; but the blazing casks and torches cast a ruddy and flickering light over the discoverable space. The stately edifices of the old castle and the market place presented a vague and imperfect outline, appearing to tremble as