paid in bills of state, and that thefe capitals had been converted into fhares of the western company; and in a word, that the king was become fole proprietor of all the fhares of the bank. Mr. Law was appointed director to it, under the authority of his majefty and the ords of the regent. An Account of the Chevalier d'Eon. T From the fame. HIS Chevalier d'Eon, who has fince been transformed into a woman, and who probably partakes of both fexes, deferves to be more particularly known. She relates her history in the following manner:-Born at Tonnerre, Mademoifelle d'Eon, a lady according to her own confeffion, was in the tendereft age endowed with a prudence capable of feconding the political views of her parents, who made her pass for a boy. She was fent to Paris, and placed at the College Mazarin, where we may conceive how much difguft, labour, and fatigue, fhe must have experienced, to go through the feveral exercifes of body and mind, without betraying the fecrets of her fex, which was never fufpected. To the ftudy of the belles lettres, fucceeded that of the laws. She was received Doctor in Civil, then in Canon Law, and afterwards counfellor. Already known by feveral works, fhe had an opportunity of introducing herself to the Prince of Conti, who honoured her family with a particular protection. Ruffia was then at variance with France; it was an important matter to reconcile thefe two courts: a myfterious agent was wanted without a title, and yet capable of infinuation, and of fulfilling the delicate commiffion he was to be charged with. The Prince of Conti thought he had found in Mademoiselle d'Eon all the neceffary qualifications, and propofed her to Lewis XV. who was fond of fuch mysteries. He readily accepted the female negociator; who upon her approach to Petersbourg, affumed the drefs of her real fex, and fucceeded fo well in her bufinefs, that his majefty was pleased to fend her a fecond time into Ruffia, with the Chevalier Douglas. She had then refumed her manly drefs, and went through this fecond character with ftill more fineffe, fince it is affirmed, that he was not even difcovered by the emprefs. The aim of her negotiations was, to determine Ruffia to form an alliance with the Courts of Vienna and Versailles, rather than with Pruffia. When the treaty was figned, Mademoiselle d'Eon was commiffioned to carry the news to the king. She broke her leg upon the road. This accident, however, did not ftop her, and the arrived at Verfailles fix-and-thirty hours before the courier who had been difpatched from Vienna at the inftant of her departure. The king, delighted, ordered his furgeon to take particular care of Mademoiselle d'Eon, and gave her a lieutenancy of dragoons, which the defired. She ferved in the laft campaigns, then re-entered the career of politics, and was fent fecretary of an embaffy to London, where she made herself fo agreeable to that court, that his Britannic majefty, contrary to custom, cuftom, chofe her to carry to Verfailles, and to the Duke of Bedford his ambaffador at Paris, the ratification of the treaty of peace concluded between the two nations. It was upon this occafion, that the king gave her the cross of Saint Louis. He had already bestowed two penfions upon her. It must indeed be acknowledged, that she is the most extraordinary perfon of the age. We have feveral times feen women metamorphofed into men, and doing their duty in the war; but we have feen no one who has united fo many military, political, and literary talents. Character of the French. "Α of their actions, and the fplendour of their principles, kindle the most noble paffions in our minds; and, when we come to be men, the nature of our government feeds this flame, and we glow with a certain internal ardour, which occafionally breaks out into ac*tion, and which is neither known nor comprehended but in the dominions of Britain. I do juftice here to my country; and my foul feels happy, that I am able to give her, with truth, a fuperiority over the univerfe in genius and magnanimity. But if from this I fhall be underftood to think meanly of the French, because they are the rivals and enemies of this nation, From it would indeed be to mifinterpret me much. Though I do not think that people equal to this in greatness, I think them a very great people. And if the English are fuperior to the French in all the more elevated qualities which dignify and ennoble humanity; fo the French furpass the English in all the milder and gentler virtues, which grace and adorn it. Frenchman," fays the Earl of Chefterfield, "who, with a fund of learning, virtue, and good fenfe, has the manners and good-breeding of his country, is the perfection of human nature." I am not an enemy to the French; but I do not think this affertion true. In my opinion, the following would have been jufter: An Englishman, who joins manners and good-breeding to the folidity, energy, and greatness of mind, which characterize his country, is the perfection of human nature. I do not mean to compliment. But fentiments and actions are upon a more elevated fcale here than can be found in any other nation in the world. There are no effects without caufes; and the caufes of this are very obvious. We pafs our youth with the Greeks and Romans. Their great examples expand our fouls; the brightnefs In England the French have few friends. But they have one; and that one am I. They could not, I acknowledge, have a feebler advocate; but while I have a tongue to fpeak, or a pen to write, wherever I go I'll do them juftice. Let every man who knows that nation speak of it as he found it; if he lived in their intimacy for years (as I did), and if he found them ill-natured, ill-mannered, treacherous, and cowardly, let him fpeak his mind. I quarrel with no man who judges for himfelf, and who fpeaks the truth. But But let the indulgence I grant, be granted to me again; and let me be permitted to tell the world, that, however other men may have found them, I found them goodhumoured, good-natured, brave, polished, frank and friendly. the British fleet, that every Enga lithman has in exerting all his powers to annihilate the navy of France. If a blaft of my breath could fend all the fhips fhe has to the bottom of the fea-PuffThey were funk, before you could finish this period. But is it a rea They were my friends, faithful and juft to fon I fhould hate or defpife the me; But Brutus fays they are perfidious; I fpeak not to difprove what Brutus fpoke; I found them all animated with a defire to please, and always ready to do me every fervice in their power. I owe them a thousand obligations. I had faults; they corrected them: I wanted knowledge; they informed me: I was rough; they foftened me: I was fick; they vifited me: I was vain; they flattered me: I had need of counfel; they gave me the best advice: every man has need of agreeable company, and every man may be sure to find it in France. I could be lavish in praise of this nation; but I am forry to fay, that too many people here have prejudices against them, as ridiculous as they are ill-founded. They defpife the French as if they were beings without either fenfe or fentiment; though their writings and actions fhew they are full of both. Because two states have different interefts, is that a reafon that every individual belonging to thofe ftates fhould promote, to the utmost of his abilities, the intereft and glory of the country to which he belongs? It certainly is. And therefore, every Frenchman has the fame merit in labouring with all his might for the destruction of French, because I am naturally and neceffarily the enemy of France? you The best way I think to judge this matter is to take two other rival nations; Auftria and Pruffia; Athens and Sparta. Here you are difpaffionate; your judg ment will be juft. Do think it the duty of a liberal-minded Pruffian to despise an Austrian? Or, fhould a well-born Athenian deteft a Lacedæmonian, because he is equally animated by the fame noble flame that warms himself, the love of his country? The nation which is able to rival another, proves herself worthy the admiration of that nation even by her rivality; and had I no other reason to confider the French as a great people, befide their being able to contend with England, that proof for me would be fufficient. But the French are perfidious in politics. I deny that they can be perfidious with the English. They may be treacherous, for aught I know, with the Auftrians and the Spaniards. There they profefs friendfhip. They are of the fame religion, frequently intermarry, and have frequent alliances. With England, France has no connection. She may overreach her in politics; but the never can deceive her by perfidy ; because she is her uniform enemy. There is not an infant that does not not know that France ever was, and ever will be, the enemy of England. The making a peace is not making a friendship; and the French will not be more the friends of England when this peace is made, than they were five years before the war began; or than they are now. The rivality between the two nations will laft while the nations laft. They are littora litteribus contraria, oppofite in every thing. It is the duty of France to deprefs England as much as the can. It is the duty of England to keep down France as much as is in her power. It is the duty of both to do juftice to the other. This juftice the French do render the English. I am forry I cannot fay the English do the fame by them. Every clafs of men in France praife the people of this country: fome, the folidity of their understanding, and the extent of their genius; others, the energy and vigour of their character; many, their magnanimity and benevolence; and all, their courage and good faith. While here-but I blush for numbers, and am afhamed to finish my period. Character of the French Ladies compared with that of the Englith. From the fame. fay fomething about fo confider able a part of it, the fubject must appear mutilated and imperfect. As brevity is the foul of wit, I shall be brief; and I fall only touch on the principal points in which the women of France differ from those of other countries. When a French lady comes into a room, the first thing that ftrikes you is, that the walks better, holds herself better, has her head and feet better dreffed, her cloaths better fancied, and better put on, than any woman you have ever feen. When the talks fhe is the art of pleafing perfonified. Her eyes, her lips, her words, her geftures, are all prepoffeffing. Her language is the language of amiablenefs; her accents are the accents of grace. She embellishes a trifle the interefts upon a nothing; the foftens a contradiction; fhe takes off the infipidnefs of a compliment by turning it elegantly; and, when the has a mind, the fharpens and polishes the point of an epigram better than all the women in the world. Her eyes fparkle with fpirit; the most delightful fallies flafh from her fancy; in telling a story, fhe is inimitable; the motions of her body, and the accents of her tongue, are equally genteel and eafy; an equable flow of foftened fprightlinefs keeps her conftantly WOMEN are a fubje&t upon good-humoured and chearful: and which fo much has been faid and written by fo many men of abilities, that it is not eafy to imagine a new light to fhew them in; or to place them in an attitude, in which they have not been already placed. But, talk ing of a nation, if one did not the only objects of her life are to pleafe, and to be pleased. Her vivacity may fometimes approach to folly; but perhaps it is not in her moments of folly the is leaft interefting and agreeable. English women have many points of fuperiority over the French; the the French are fuperior to them in many others. I have mentioned fome of these points in other places. Here I fhall only fay, there is a particular idea in which no woman in the world can compare with a French-woman; it is in the power of intellectual irritation. She will draw wit out of a fool. She ftrikes with fuch addrefs the cords of self-love, that the gives unexpected vigour and agility to fancy; and electrifies a body that appeared non-electric. I have mentioned here the women of England; and I have fland justly enough for an em blem of French women. I have decided the queftion without intending it; for I have given the preference to the women of England, One point I had forgotten; and it is a material one. It is not to be difputed on; for what I am going to write is the opinion and fentiment of the universe. The English women are the best wives under heaven-and fhame be on the men who make them bad hufbands! the fame. done wrong. I did not intend it Character of the Italians. From when I began the letter. They came into my mind as the only women in the world worthy of be EDIOCRITY is rare here; ing compared with thofe of France. ME To fettle the refpective claims of the fair fex in those two countries, requires an abler pen than mine. I fhall not dare to examine it even in a fingle point; nor prefume to determine whether, in the important article of beauty, form and colour are to be preferred to expreffion and grace, or whether grace and expreffion are to be confidered as preferable to complexion and fhape. I fhall not examine whether the piquant of France is to be thought fuperior to the touch. ant of England; or whether deep fenfibility deferves to be preferred to animation and wit. So important a fubject requires a volume. I fhall only venture to give a trait. If a goddess could be fuppofed to be formed, compounded of Juno, and Minerva, that goddefs would be the emblem of the women of this country. Venus, as he is, with all her amiableneffes and imperfections, may every thing is in extremes. No where is fo fine mufic to be heard; no where (except at the opera of Paris) are the ears fo cruelly tortured: the eyes are charmed and tormented alternately by the most superb and most deteftable pictures and ftatues. No citizens; an exceffive luxury amongst individuals; and the people in the most abject mifery. It is the fame in regard to religion; you will fee nothing but a blind fuperftition or determined atheists. But of all the extremes the moft ftriking are those which are obferved in the character of the nation. The Italian, in general, is exceedingly good, or wicked to a degree. There are excellent hearts in this country; but, like the great pictures, they are scarce. Men are born there with ftrong paffions, and, not receiving any education, it is not aftonishing that they often commit great crimes. Under a cold ex |