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which was prepared for some travellers, who had changed their mind: so I brought it, and Miss and her maid got into it, and ordered the post-boy to drive as fast as his horses would suffer him."

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Why, they say,' continued the fellow, that all was not right between Miss Cla“Drive whither?' repeated Sir William, rissa and Master Edward, and that Miss

in astonishment.

"That's more than I know,' said the man; for it was none of my business to ask, and they did not seem in any mind to tell me; so I let them go, and run off to tell my master.'

"Well, and your master,' said Sir William, what of him?'

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Why,' replied the fellow, I gave him a letter which Miss Clarissa desired me to put into his hands, and he read it.' "What was the letter about? demanded Sir William hastily and thoughtlessly.

Why, heaven bless you, young master of mine, how should I know the contents of a sealed letter? The letter I dare say was like other letters; it told all, where she was going to, and why she was going, and this is all that I know about it; and I only know this from guess.'

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Perish the infamous lye,' said the young Baronet; what do the wretches mean by such reports?'

"Nay, for my part, master, that's the same as I said; but as I said before, people will talk, and more particularly women; and it is very sure that Miss Clarissa did grow rounder than usual, and all the maids in the family said, that there was something not right, and then they would titter and smile, and make a jeer of each other. All of them would say thus, except Mrs. Lettice, my young lady's maid, and when the others would talk as I have been saying, she would fly at them, and say that Miss Clarissa was as good a maiden as herself; and that might be true, too, as your honor may perhaps know, and no great praise on Miss Clarissa either. And this is all that I know of the matter, Sir.'

"Well, proceed,' said Sir William. "Why, master, I have told you all that I know, except that after the good Doctor had read the letter, he commanded me to get his horse, and that I might lose no time, he even helped me to get it himself: and so he got on his horse, and told me that he should not return till to-morrow evening, and rode off as if a highwayman was after him. Heaven bless you all, said I to myself, what can all this be about?-Well, to be sure, gentlefolks have their troubles as well as others. Here's my master and young Miss, they have plenty of every thing which the heart could wish for, and yet they are not happy. To be sure, people do say.” "What do people say?' hastily inter-medium of consolation. rupted Sir William, awakening from a fit of meditation, which the long winded sketch and comments of the fellow allowed him to indulge.

"So saying, the fellow departed, leaving Sir William rooted to the spot, without eyes, ears, or understanding. If there be any calamity which is truly deserving of pity, but which seldom meets with any pity, it is the distress of mind of an unfortunate lover. The most unhappy man in the world was not more unhappy than Sir William at this present moment. He stood as if fixed and rooted in the ground, when his reverie was suddenly interrupted by an address from two maidenly ladies, who, hearing of the family disaster, had come to gratify their own spleen and curiosity, under the pretext and through the

"Why, master,' rejoined the fellow, 'people have tongues, and tongues will move, and every one will say what they please, and they will please to say whatever comes uppermost."

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My dear young gentleman,' said one of these females, a tall rawboned, redhaired maiden of fifty-five, is it true, what we have heard,-is it possible that it should be true? For my part I will not believe it, so do not tell me that it is true.'

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My dear Sir William,' said the other, enable me to contradict the infamous reports which are now in circulation with

them. That Sir William was so cut to the heart by the Doctor's well merited re

bed; but that after all Miss Clarissa had been alone to blame, that all the art and seduction were upon her side; that Sir William was quite a good young man, but had the ordinary passions of his youth and sex.-That Clarissa was a licentious hussey, had voluntarily thrown herself into the way of ruin, and was to be considered as the sole instrument of it.

respect to Miss Clarissa. I have told every body they are false, and as I know it is every thing to be first upon the ground, Iproaches, that he was carried lifeless to have been round with the story myself to all my friends and acquaintances; and thanks be to my sincere friendship for the Doctor and his family, half the county are acquainted with it by this time. Well, to be sure, who would have believed it; that Miss Clarissa,-she who always looked so prudish,—she whose face was scarcely visible except through the sticks of her fan. But I am resolved that I will not believe it. To be sure I thought that she grew very round of late, and I even made the observation to some of my friends, but I thought it might be the country air and new milk. But still I will not believe it. Do, my dear Sir William, enable me to contradict it.'

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"Whence is it, my dear Hymenæa, that in all disasters of this kind, indeed in all the vicissitudes of female life, women are so invariably uncharitable, and unkind towards each other; and that where a probability and a possibility concur, and the possibility only is unfavourable to their own sex, they immediately adopt it. Would not one expect that we should have a leaning towards each other.-Tell me, Hymenæa, can you account for this strange perversion of our good humour."

"It originates, in a very proper feeling," said I; "virtue, honour, and chastity, are such essential requisites in the character of a woman, that the moment she takes a decided leave of them, in the same moment she becomes worthless. Let a woman

"He seems very ill indeed,' said the be weak once, as it is called, and the other lady, the amiable Miss Blink.

“The ladies took his hand, his pulse had erased to beat, and he fell as if breathless into their arms.

"The ladies had the humanity to feel some concern; the servants were summoned, and Sir William removed into bed. Surgical remedies being applied, the young Baronet was awakened with difficulty into something like life, but still so indistinct as not to warrant the assurance of the Surgeon, that his recovery would be certain. The ladies had remained as long as there was any thing to gratify their curiosity. They now deemed it but decent to make their retreat; after a few further inquiries, therefore, from some of the female domestics they withdrew.

"On the following day, it was immediately spread over the neighbourhood that the original story was erroneous.-That Miss Clarissa was not pregnant by Edward, but by the young Baronet.-That she had eloped; and that the Doctor, after soundly rating the young Baronet, had pursued

chance is, that she will be for ever abandoned. Every woman, therefore, feels a very becoming horror at the vice of another. We have so many greater restraints, not to say greater obligations, to the most perfect purity of conduct, that a woman is not entitled to the same indulgent consideration with a man. It is an error to say that virtue and vice are the same in both. The degrees of virtue and vice depend upon the circumstances of greater or less obligations. Now, as our obligations are manifestly greater, as our temptations are manifestly less, and as the restraints opposed to us are evidently stronger, so must it require a bolder viciousness, a more powerful bad principle, to break through these restraints, than to offend where there are none such."

"Your argument is opposed by fact," said my aunt. "Is not the seduction most frequently on the side of the other sex."

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PERSIAN LETTERS.

No. 11.

FROM MULEY CID SADI, ONE OF THE SECRETARIES TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PERSIAN AMBASSADOR IN LONDON, TO OSMAN CALI BEG HIS FRIEND IN ISPAHAN.

In my last letter, friend of my youth, I gave you some account of the objects which first impressed me upon arriving in the land of Infidels. Well do I now understand the justice of your frequent precepts, that Persia was not the only land in the world in which the women were beautiful and the men wise. With the single exception of their religion, these Infidels seem nearly upon a par with Musselmen themselves.-They do not believe in Mahomet, but they are the best manufacturers in the world. Another of your precepts is almost daily and hourly exemplified, that the goods of this world are not invariably bestowed on the most worthy; these Infidel dogs possess a greater abundance of wealth and worldly prosperity, than the sons of the true faith.

A description of the house in which we live, and the mode in which it is furnished, will give you no bad idea of the manners of this people. As if persuaded that their infidelity left them no chance of another life, these Infidels expend all their time and thoughts on the provision for this. Their houses are accordingly little paradises; and though our religious books justly denominate them dogs in their habitations, the Grand Vizir of our Sovereign is not better lodged than a London grocer.

The house in which we live is situated in one of the squares, which is a large area, surrounded on its four sides with houses. The under apartments, which are termed kitchens, are for the use of the lower domestics of his Excellency's family. In the upper apartments we live ourselves.

One room, on the first floor, is termed the drawing-room; it is here that his Excellency passes the day, and in compliance with the manners of the country receives company. This room is furnished so peculiarly in the manner of this country, that a detailed description of it may perhaps interest you.

No. II. Vol. I.-N. S.

The floor is covered with a carpet which, by its pattern, I should think to be one piece, but I understand that it is not so. The English have borrowed the fabric of carpets from Persia and Turkey, and being an ingenious race of people, have infinitely improved on our invention. The English have dealt in the same way with the Chinese. They used formerly to import all their fine earthen vessels from China, but they continued this practice only till they learned the art themselves. The genius of English trade and commerce has adopted one maxim, which the philosoper Sadi has put at the head of his moral maxims to depend as little as possible upon others, to learn to stand upon our own legs, and to live upon our own bowels. It is a maxim, therefore, of English trade to sell as much and to buy as little as they can, to supply the world, and to receive the world's money in exchange.

The English, however, being in many respects still barbarians, do not recline in the manner of civilized beings. When they want to rest themselves in the day time, they do not recumb in a prostrato manner, like all the highly civilized nations of Persia, Turkey, and Barbary; but they sit on raised stools with backs to them, which they term chairs. Nothing can be more ungraceful, more disgusting, than these postures.-Yet so ignorant and barbarous are these dog-faced Infidels, that when upon our first entrance into their houses, his Excellency and myself, and some others, threw ourselves prostrate upon the carpet, our English attendants, after a stare of astonishment, broke forth into a peal of laughter. I understand, however, that there is one very respectable fraternity even amongst these Infidels who sit in the manner of civilized nations; these are a class of men whom they term Taylors; who I understand sit cross-legged by dozens on a raised floor, or board.

Mention this to our much respected
K

Ben Hali, the President of our Persian Monarch's Academy of Sciences and Antiquities, perhaps he may be enabled to deduce the cause of the peculiar refinement in this body; perhaps he may discover in the next sitting of his Society, that the English taylors are descendants from some Persian refugees, who have fled into England, and under all the varieties of climate and government have managed to retain their ancient practices and characteristic civilization.

mit and reflect the contours of figures, by returning the various rays of light which are prevented from passing through by means of quicksilver, the properties of which is to repel these rays. The effect of these glasses is very happy; they enable a woman to see herself, and to array herself in all her loveliness; they enable a man to curl his whiskers; and they enable his Excellency to assume that look of might and dignity which is necessary to awe the English Ministers and other great men. Of all their pieces of furniture I chiefly approve of their glasses; and a monkey which his Excellency brought with him from Ispahan is so delighted with them, that he passes whole days playing his antics before them, and almost keeps the women from them.

This country being a land of heavy fogs, it becomes necessary to have perpetual fires, and this is contrived by means of open ron vessels which they denominate stoves, or grates. This, too, is very useful, and the ingenuity of the English manufacturers renders it likewise very ornamental. The stove is made of polish

To how many absurdities does one absurd practice necessarily give rise? As the English do not recline but sit, as they do not naturally prostrate their bodies but unnaturally elevate them, so are they compelled to follow the same absurd practice through all its ramified consequences.Thus, for example, as they have chairs so are they compelled to have another monstrous piece of absurdity, which they term tables. These are raised small floors, standing on four legs, to correspond with the elevation of their chairs. These chairs and tables are very highly and expensively ornamented; they cost more than a whole house in Persia. The English are so riched steel, and is surmounted by marble.— that they shower their gold and silver on their most trumpery articles,-every thing is either gold or gilded. This latter is an apology for the former, and by means of it iron, lead, wood, and every other material, assumes the external appearance, and as far as the eye goes, the external effect of gold. This, in fact is one of the peculiar These are the principal articles of furarts of this people,-that they turn every niture in an English drawing-room; there thing into gold, and in its turn make gold || are several minor articles, such as instruof every thing. I understand, for example, ments for animating the fire, which they that in one great house in the kingdom, term pokers and tongs; and one for guarddenominated the Bank of England, all the ing it from the room, which they term a gold of the country is turned into paper; fender. All these are made of polished and this paper passes current for gold.-steel, and add much to the general look Really these people are a most unaccount- of magnificence and comfort. Upon my able nation, where every rag merchant word, the King of Persia himself is not may become a coiner, and every piece of better lodged than these Infidels. paper be converted into gold coin. It is not so in Persia.

I have now mentioned the chairs and tables, another prominent piece of furniture in our drawing-room is the glasses and mirrors. These are plates which ad-f

The Infidels are not without taste, and they have money at command, as you may, in fact, easily conjecture from what I have said above as to their paper. How can the people of that country want money, where every man may tear up his shirt into Bank Notes.

From London, the city of Infidels,
in the Month denominated January."

[To be Continued.]

HISTORY OF THE OLDCASTLE FAMILY.

THE HISTORY OF THE OLDCASTLE FAMILY.
AN ORIGINAL NOVEL,
[Continued from Page 16.]

THE party of their visitors returned on the following day, and Lady Beachcroft and her daughter, in high spirits. Sir George and Tony appeared as unusually grave. Lady Priscilla could not avoid demanding of the ladies what had so much exhilarated them?

"The most fortunate rencontre in nature, sister," replied Lady Beachcroft. "To please Sir George, as well as to see you, my dear Lady Priscilla, I consented to come to the Land's End; but to confess the truth, I thought we should be there buried alive; and instead of that we have found the sweetest party. But finish what I was going to say, Juliet, my dear, for I see by the opposite glass that a visit to my toilette will not be malapropos." Saying this her Ladyship shot out of the room, and Juliet gladly took up her unfinished

sentence.

“Why, you must know, aunt, that the place where the fiddlers were to be found was a very cross country road, and we had lost our way amongst fields and lanes, when we saw upon the brow of one hill, and between two others like lofty walls upon each side of it, a small thatched house, like one of those lovely fancy cottages which you see in landscapes or designs. The front of the cottage was open to the sea, between the hills. The tops and sides of the hills were thinly planted with firs and other trees. Dear me, mamma, said I, what a lovely place, who can live there? Lame my horse, if I know,' said Tony. May I be pigeoned if I can tell,' said Sir George. 'And may this pimple be my death, if I can even guess,' said my mam

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ma."

"Here's Tony come," said Miss Beachcroft; "he is famous at an explanation; Tony, tell the ladies he shall tell you. whom it was we met at the cottage."

Tony, who had never spoken ten words together in his whole life except to his groom or farrier, replied only with a laugh, and-" Ha, ha,-good efaith,—the cottage,-a d-d good thing. The devil take that eternal blockhead, he is taking the horses to water though they are as hot as if they danced a walsh; d-m him, c—e him." With these words he rushed out of the room, but not a moment sooner than Lady Priscilla wished him.

"Bless me,' said Juliet, how he swears. I believe he does it to show his teeth; but I mean to cure every body swears now. him of it if I cau, for I hate to be sworn at. But now I will tell you about the cottage. Well, we soon after met a poor fellow, and demanded of him who lived at the cottage? We could make nothing out of the fool's answer; he told us that he and his neighbours did not know what to make of them; that they were gentle folks, as he called them, who had come down to save money, and yet they spent it as fast and as idly as if they were canvassing the county; and they had come down' for solitude and retirement, to be quiet, alone, and the 'like of that, as he termed it, and yet their house was full from morning to night, and as noisy as a playhouse between the acts."

"A very good account, I think," said Lady Priscilla, "of one of those caprices of fashion called a cottage. A party no sooner grow weary of the town, that is to say, of the same place, than they resolve to try the sweets of rural life, and remove

"Well," said Lady Priscilla, “and who from the hurry, the noise, and the trouble was it, Juliet?"

"You shall hear aunt.-Well, we went forwards some way farther.-Bless me, Agnes, how handsome you look to-day; mamma has given me a box of patches, do let me put one on the right side of your lip, child,-'twill so much improve you." "Nonsense," said Lady Priscilla; "who lived in the cottage?"

of the busy world, to retire to a cottage. The cottage is found; stabling for six horses; a double coach-house, and all conveniences. An upholsterer is ordered to furnish the cottage, and executes his order for a sum that would purchase half the cottages in the kingdom. A party of about fifty, beaur and belles, young lords, young ladies, knights, and squires, set off, arrive,

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