MARIA FOOTE. foreign fands, which are correctly and regularly posted up at eleven, half-past two, and half-past four. There are coffee-rooms open for the accommodation of the public, in which may be had tea, coffee, sandwiches, ices, confectionery, fruit, &c. &c. all of the best quality, and at very moderate prices, which are affixed to the articles. As many ladies of the first rank and fashion are daily in the habit of going through this establishment, Mr. Young has found it necessary to recommend their visits to be after twelve o'clock, as the stables are seldom perfectly in order before that hour. Coaches from the Royal Exchange are coming and going every ten minutes in the day, to the end of Baker Street, which is not more than three minutes' walk from the Bazaar. A branch, for the sale of harness, saddlery, and accoutrements, is established at No. 3, Cornhill, and 89, Lombard Street. A copious prospectus, by which all persons having any transactions with this establishment are bound, and to which public attention is most particularly requested, as it contains regulations of the utmost public advantage, calculated to prevent any dispute or law-suit in purchase or sale, is to be had on the premises. AN OLD OFFICER THAT HAD A STRONG IDEA OF MILI TARY PROMOTION. It was his custom to make his children read a chapter in the Bible every Sunday afternoon. Upon mention being made of Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, coming to Jerusalem (2 Kings, XXV. 8.) he stopped the reader, and cried out in a tone of voice that shewed how much he was interested in the matter, "Good God! is that man still a captain? Why he was a captain when I was a little boy. Promotion in his regiment must have been very slow." LOUIS XIV. AFTER the battle of Senef, the great The Flowers of Literature. MARIA FOOTE. 291 About twenty-eight years ago, an actor came to Plymouth by the name of Freeman---(his real name being Foote :) ---he was of a respectable family from Salisbury; his brother being at that time a clergyman there. When on a visit to his brother, he met the sister of his brother's wife, a young creature about 17, just from a boarding-school; and, to the disgrace of all parties, they persuaded this interesting boardingschool girl to marry a man twenty-five years older than herself. He returned to Plymouth with his wife, a sweet, innocent girl. In country towns, actors are considered profligate people; and though the young creature had been educated as a lady, and was much more of one than most of the other females in the town, no genteel family paid her the least attention. She was considered the wife of a man whom nobody respected --- and notwithstanding whole town was interested in her appearance, pity was the predominant feeling whenever she appeared. the Deserted comparatively by one sex, she naturally enough threw herself into the society of the other; and certainly, in Plymouth, her good humour, fascinating manner, long silken hair, and white hat and feather, made prodigious havoc among the young bloods of the town. Her husband was too apathetic to care who flirted about with his wife, provided he was released from the trou ble, and left her too often, after the first burst of passion was cooled. Thus, without being vicious, her natural gaiety deadened all sense of discretion--and, from being shamefully slighted by the world without a cause, she became T 2 indignant and indifferent to its opinion. Her old husband, finding that she was not visited, began to neglect her himself, instead, as he ought to have done, of paying her double attention, and seeking to sooth and console an ill-used wo nan, whose feelings had never been injured till she sacrificed her youth and her prospects to him. The produce of this ill-sorted union was Maria Foote, who was daily brought up amid scenes little calculated to strengthen the sense of propriety, domestic love, or domestic happiness. From that weariness of mind, which in moments of quiet constantly presses the heart of a slighted woman, a desire for relief, which was denied her in the society of her own sex to the degree she deserved, urged the Mother to take refuge nightly in the theatre.---Daily and hourly seeing, hearing, and talking of little else but the theatre, as might have been expected, a wish to become an actress got possession of her mind. She went on her husband's stage just as her innocent child was becoming open to impressions; and thus Maria Foote, the present subject of public sympathy, was initiated, with the most innocent feelings, to undervalue those modest proprieties and delicacies of female character, which add an irresistible charm to the most beautiful, as they grace and soften the most abandoned woman. When Maria was 12 years of age, her mother was so far lost to all delicacy of mind, and her father so utterly insensible to all the duties of a father, that he suffered this only daughter to act Juliet to the Romeo of his wife! The town was disgusted-thoroughly disgusted-and whatever claims he had before to the notice of some private friends, to whom his manners as a gentleman ever made him welcome, they were now considered forfeited for ever. From this moment, a sort of reckless indifference seemed to possess the whole family. Nothing came amiss, so that money was the consequence; and under the impression of making it, Foote, who was brought up a gentleman, and whose wife had been educated as a lady, took a public inn, lost his wife's fortune, became the dupe of villains, and was ruined. Maria was at this time a most fascinating girl, and having succeeded in an experiment on a London audience, obtained an engagement at Covent Garden theatre. To those who know nothing of a the atre, it may be new to tell them, that an interesting girl is in the jaws of ruin who enters it as an actress, unless watched and protected by her family and friends with the scrutiny of Argus, without his disposition to fall asleep. Constantly exposed to the gaze of men, inflaming a hundred heads and agi. tating a thousaud hearts, if she be as Maria was, fascinating and amiable,surrounded by old wretches as dressers, who are the constant conveyers of letters, and sonnets, and notes, and flattery,- dazzled by the thunders of public applause, and softened by the incense of a thousand sighs, breathed audibly from the front of the pit or the stageboxes,---associating in the green-room with licensed married strumpets, because she must not be affected! or sup ping on the stage, after the curtain is dropped, with titled infamy or gray. headed lechery!---let the reader fancy an innocent girl, from a country-town, plunged at once into this furnace of depravity,---let him fancy her father sanctioning her by his indifference, or helping her by his example, and then let him say, if she be ultimately seduced and abandoned, whether it ought not to be a wonder she was innocent so long? In spite of an education which never cherished the best feelings of a child, Maria has yet a sounder understanding than her parents; and it is the conviction of the writer, that she will by its exercise regain at last her station in society. It is manifest, from her letters, that she begins to perceive the folly of wishing to appear vicious without actual vice---of being familiar with title however the wearer disgraces it---she begins to perceive that selfishness, ingratitude, hypocrisy; indifference to the opinion of the best part of society, and base desertion of old friends when the most has been made of them,---a love of dash and splendour, in preference to virtue and quiet,---are not, after all, the surest, or the more certain, or the most honourable methods of obtaining the respect of oneself or of society, and generally inflict on the practisers a double portion of disgrace and suffering. For her Seducer's heartless treatment of her during her distressing pregnancy, no punishment can ever be a sufficient infliction. A most passionate, ardent, endeared lover, certainly, to stay from his beloved nine months out of every year during the five she was his! that is, forty-five months out of sixty--thus spending, out of sixty months, fif teen in her arms. COLBERT, MINISTER OF LOUIS XIV. Noble creature! Romeo was a log to such a lover! And pray what did he expect during her long solitudes and agonizing suspicions? Young and fascinating, nightly exposed to public gaze, and daily liable to individual insults in consequence of her being suspected to be a secret mistress of his, what could he expect but that occasionally she would be so shockingly indelicate as to see a male friend, ---occasionally relieve the irksomeness of her situation by going to the Opera, ---occasionally she would be so infamous as to smile and forget the desertion of the world in private, a desertion brought on by his base, diabolical seduction, and anomalous treatment? (To be concluded in our next.) SINGULAR DEFENCE IN A CASE 293 silence upon him). To prove to you that he is only fit to be a scarecrow, my lords, I have only to ask you to look at him. To convince you that he is a beggar, I have only to mention that he is a painter. To manifest that he is a fool, I have only to request that the court would interrogate him. These three grand points being established, I reason thus-Seduction can only be effected by money, by wit, or by a good figure. My client cannot have effected the alleged seduction by money, since he is a beggar; he cannot have accomplished it by his wit, since he is a fool; he could not have attained the end by the fascination of a fine person, since he is one of the most ugly of men. From all of which I conclude, that he is falsely accused." These conclusions were admitted, and the painter obtained a unanimous verdict in his favour. COLBERT, THE MINISTER OF LOUIS XIV. A PAINTER, who was ugly, stupid, and poor, was greatly terrified by a girl who took advantage of these circum- THE last days of Colbert were not of a stances, and accused him of having se- nature to do honour to the king, or to enduced her. She demanded that he courage others to undertake a similar task. should marry her, or make a pecuniary The labour of his triple ministry exhausted compensation for the loss of that virtue his mind and spirits. Several little inciwhich she had in fact trafficked with dents occurred, which created a coolness for more than fourteen years. He between him and his master. With a knew not what to do, and at length re- noble zeal for toleration, he had opposed solved to consult an advocate, who was the revocation of the edict of Nantz, and renowned for his successful humour. incurred the enmity of the bigots in power. The poor painter protested that it was On a comparison of some of his expenses he who had been seduced, and offered with those of Louvois, he was found to be to explain the manner by a painting the least economical of the two, and rewhich he would display to the court. ceived a reprimand for it from the mouth This novel mode of explanation, was, of the king. These crosses, though far however, rejected. The advocate said, from indicating his disgrace, fell on his "I will undertake your case on one mind; he grew ill, and became wretched. condition, which is, that you remain When Louis sent a gentleman of his housequiet in court, and that, whatever I may hold to inquire after his health, the dying say, you will on no account open that minister said, "I do not wish to hear the ugly mouth of yours. You under- king spoken of any more; let him now stand, and unless you obey, you will be condemned." The day of trial arrived, and the cause having been called, the painter's advocate allowed his adversary to declaim amply on the inestimable advantages of modesty on the protection that ought to be given to the weakness and the frailty of the sex-and the artifices and snares which every where surround them, &c. &c. leave me quiet." He was disturbed by religious apprehensions; and with a phrase that bears a striking analogy to one which Shakspeare has put into the mouth of Wolsey, he observed, " If I had done for God what I have done for the king, I might have been saved twice over; but now (he added) I do not know what is to become of me.' The painter's advocate then rose, MRS. BAILLIE'S LISBON IN THE and said, "My Lords, I plead for a YEARS 1821, 22, and 23. scarecrow, I plead for a beggar, I plead for a fool (here the painter began to WHERE shall I find words strong enough murmur, but the advocate imposed to express the disgust of my feelings, when I reflect upon the appearance of the road; they call out," Bonito, muito, bocity in the aggregate, taking into account nito," (pretty, very pretty!) and frequently the personal appearance and customs of attempt to caress him; indeed, I have some of its inhabitants! Here, every sort once or twice been obliged to prevent them of impurity appears to be collected to from taking him up before them upon gether! You are suffocated by the streams their burinhos, as they ride to market. of fried fish, rancid oil, garlick, &c. at Three or four ancient beggars, clad in every turn, mingled with the fœtid effluvia weeds of every variety of colour, and of decayed vegetables, stale provisions, with long pastoral staves in their hands, and other horrors, which it is impossible usually spend their time, basking in the to mention---to say nothing of the filthy sun, upon a low stone wall in front of our dogs, of whom I have formerly spoken. hotel; when I mounted my burinho this Wretches of a lower and more squalid morning, my boy remained for a few miappearance than the most sordid denizens nutes in the house, not being quite ready of our St. Giles, lie basking in the sun, to join me; upon which these hoary sires near the heaps of impurity collected at inquired, with much appearance of disthe doors, while young women (and these appointment," where the little one was?" of a more prepossessing personal appear----I have met with few beggars in this ance, from whom one would naturally ex- neighbourhood, and those have never been pect greater delicacy in the olfactory troublesome or importunate; in Lisbon, nerves) hang far out of the windows however, they swarm about the door of above, as if they were trying purposely to inhale the pestilence which contaminates the air beneath! Men and women, children and pigs, dogs, cats, goats, diseased poultry, and skeleton hogs, all mingle together in loving fellowship, each equally enjoying what seems to be their mutual element---dirt! I must beg you to add to this, that the armies of fleas, bugs, mosquitos, and other vermin, are too numerous to be conceived even in idea, and the picture will be complete! THE PORTUGUESE. THE Portuguese have an amiable custom of saluting every stranger who passes them either in walking or riding---the upper classes bow courteously, and the lower generally exclaim "Viva!" which kind wish is often accompanied by a bright and friendly smile; this is beginning to decline, however, in the near neighbourhood of the metropolis. The peasantry seem remarkably civil in their manner to those above them, without any exhibition of crouching servility; a muleteer, an almocreve, or a postilion, who happens to meet you in a narrow pass, will almost always take care to annoy you as little as possible; still, I am sorry to add, that in Lisbon, they behave by no means so well. The women now and then ran out of their cottages after us, making friendly signs, and beckoning with the two middle fingers, in a manner peculiar to all the Portuguese of whatever rank; this action simply means to express, "How do you do?" some among them know as much English as to exclaim, "How do do?" of which acquirement they appear very proud. My little boy excites much good-will from all he passes upon the every shop, watching the coming out of the purchaser, whom they have followed thither for the purpose of ascertaining that he has furnished himself with small change; they then assail him like mosquitos, or hornets, and are hardly to be repulsed till they have obtained what they request. The manners of women towards each other, are remarkably caressante; the servant-girl of the hotel at Buenos Ayres kissed my maid upon our first arrival, as a matter of course, and the abigale of a senhora now staying at Cintra, in this same house with ourselves, never meets her that she does not take hold of both her hands, repeatedly kissing her upon the cheek. The laundress we employ is a Moor; her dark skin and rolling eyes have a striking effect, half veiled in the ample white handkerchief which she has adopted in compliance with the native women in her class: upon being first introduced to me as her employer, I was in bed, and she gravely walked up to me, bowing, in a courteous manner, and kissed my hand, saying, in good English, that she should take pleasure in serving my family; this custom is universal: all the servants of the house kiss the hand of the patrona (mistress), after every little absence on either side; and children, in some families, do the same to their parents, even upon quitting them for half an hour, repeating the same ceremony upon their return; there is a sort of patriarchal simplicity and cordiality in this, which is very attaching. The women wear scarcely any petticoats, even in winter, and some of the lower classes none whatever, contenting themselves with the chemise, covered only by the gown. The latter never wear nightcaps, and many still continue the ancient SPANISH CUSTOMS. fashion of sleeping in a state of nature, considering clothes, during the night, as equally unwholesome and unnecessary. Both sexes adopt this practice. My informant went one morning lately to visit a lady in Lisbon: upon entering the room, she (being still in bed) invited her visitor to sit down by her side, and arising from her pillow embraced her; the latter started involuntarily back, for the lady was perfectly unclothed !---but this, I believe, does not extend to the better educated and more refined classes of society. The nobility (unlike those of Spain, who, in the days of Cervantes, left the custom to the common people) universally eat a great deal of garlick and aniseed, and, in consequence, the courtly whisper of the highestbred Fidalgo, differs not at all from the coarse breath of the meanest mechanic or 295 She intended to go to the theatre at night, and a few minutes before the proper hour, her maid entered the apartment, with a box of jewels, from which she coolly selected what she thought most splendid, and putting them upon her mistress, chattered the whole time to the noble visitants, without appearing in the least restrained by their superior rank. As soon as her Excellency was adorned, she called for cof fee, and placing her feet upon a pan of hot charcoal (used during the winter in Spain), she carelessly turned one beautiful leg over the other, so as to display not only their own symmetry, but a pair of very rich garters, which hung down in golden tassels, and began to smoke. PORTUGUESE PRIDE. peasant---it will be easily imagined that. THE Portuguese are by no means less neither resembled the perfumed gale of proud of their city, than the Spanish proArabia! SPANISH CUSTOMS. AMONG many anecdotes of Spanish customs and manners, I will repeat the following, which will, doubtless, somewhat surprise you.---The late Baron de B. (a Portuguese) was travelling, some years since, in Spain, and passed a few days under the roof of a lady of high rank, whose husband was one of the most distinguished persons in the government. The bed-rooms there are frequently without doors, a slight curtain only covering the entrance to each. The baron was a favourite of the fair hostess. One morning as she was in her own apartment, she heard his footsteps passing along the gallery, and called out to him to come and sit down. The gentleman hesitated a good deal, surprised at her freedom of manner (for the Portuguese are far more reserved than the Spaniards in every outward appearance), and perceiving her maid standing at the entrance, he asked if her lady was dressed, and would admit him? "Dressed!" repeated the laughing damsel, "what difference can that make? come in---come in." He accordingly complied, and found, her in bed with one foot exposed to the inspection of the family-surgeon," who was preparing a pen-knife to cut her Excellency's corns! A French belle receives male visitants at her toilette, but she has too much coquetry to exhibit a disagree able spectacle to the eyes of her flatterers: how impolitic the sang froid of the other was I need not waste time in expressing. The same lady had a very large party of distinguished nobility at dinner. verb tells us that people are of Seville; indeed they seem not at all behind the Chinese in their estimation of their own capital as the metropolis of the universe, the true centre of the celestial empire.' A little satirical work, lately published (or republished, I know not which), is said to have ruffled the plumes of this self-important people, though it is questioned whether they will improve by its useful hints; its title is "Adam alive again," who is supposed to be permitted to return to earth, for the purpose of making the tour of the world. Our worthy progenitor, like many other old gentlemen, is both surprised and indignant at every change that has been introduced since his own time, considering the highest improvements in the light of innovations : he passes rapidly through England, France, Italy, Germany, and other countries, and finds nothing but perpetual subjects of annoyance; in the remote parts of Germany, indeed, he is a little comforted by perceiving some remains of venerable and primitive ignorance, but when he comes to Portugal he breathes freely. "Here," he exclaims, in a rapture," here will I take up my future abode; here are no nonsensical refinements, no learning, no science, no literature; agriculture free from modern presumptuous innovations, and so far from being pestered with what are called the fine arts,' I can scarcely perceive any appearance of what are denominated by the ridiculous philosophers of the day, useful inventions; the wise, the noble, the magnanimous Portuguese, have, in no respect, altered since I left the world, and they alone are worthy the honour of my association." |