His conversation is
gross and sarcastic, interlarded with oaths, or relieved by fits of
sullen taciturnity--such a lover as one may suppose, though rich, and the
choice of the lady's father, makes no impression; and the author has
flattered the national vanity by making the heroine give the preference
to a French marquis. Now there is no doubt but nine-tenths of the
audience thought this a good portraiture of the English character, and
enjoyed it with all the satisfaction of conscious superiority.--The
ignorance that prevails with regard to our manners and customs, among a
people so near us, is surprizing. It is true, that the noblesse who have
visited England with proper recommendations, and have been introduced to
the best society, do us justice: the men of letters also, who, from party
motives, extol every thing English, have done us perhaps more than
justice. But I speak of the French in general; not the lower classes
only, but the gentry of the provinces, and even those who in other
respects have pretensions to information. The fact is, living in England
is expensive: a Frenchman, whose income here supports him as a gentleman,
goes over and finds all his habits of oeconomy insufficient to keep him
from exceeding the limits he had prescribed to himself. His decent
lodging alone costs him a great part of his revenue, and obliges him to
be strictly parsimonious of the rest.
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