91 BEWARE of committing a first || of conduct which had created an inimprudence," said the aged Merton to his children." Though poverty steep you to your very lips, and would stimulate you to mischief, beware of committing one fault, lest another and a worse succeed it. You see in me," he said, addressing himself to à son and daughter, who had not long plighted their faith at the altar of Hymen," however honourable I may be at present, a fatal instance of one departure from probity, plunging into an enormity at which I even now shudder. I might have kept this secret locked in my bosom; the divulging of it may rob me of your respect: but you would probably after my death have heard an exaggerated history, of my wanderings, and the moral is too good to be lost. Thus I throw myself on the goodness of your hearts for the conse quences. "Not a very long period, Caroline, after I had married your mother, I departed from that good line terest in my favour in her bosom; and to rid myself of accumulated debts, incurred by idleness, plunged into all manner of gambling transactions. But here I was unlucky, and became so much the more involved in debt. It was in vain that I would have borrowed money to satisfy the claims of my landlord; he at length threatened to levy a distress, and starvation looked all of us in the face. I had apparently no alternative but to go to prison, when some demon whispered in my ear, that there were many persons revelling in riches, who ought to spare me a little, to which indeed I had a just right; and that as entreaty had failed to procure this, force in such a case as mine might be resorted to. Something must be done, and instantly. I therefore pretended to take a journey, under the pretext of visiting and soliciting pecuniary assistance from à relative; but arriving at A, I purchased a wig, a long coat, and other I "We are willing to believe what we wish; and my dear wife blessed the kindness of my relation over and over again. I now began as I con habiliments, to disguise my person, || had indeed only borrowed of him. and to these adding a pair of pistols, As soon as he was out of sight I tied all up together in a parcel. returned to the field, and restoring rose early the next morning, and myself to my usual appearance, threw having paid my reckoning overnight, my disguise into a ditch, and profound that my whole stock of pro- ceeded homeward. perty amounted to a few shillings only. I turned out of the public road, and changing my dress, loaded my pistols, and prepared to prey on the first passenger who should pre-ceived earnestly to repent of my sent himself to my view. Yes, my children, your looks betray your horror of my crime: what then must have been the state of my mind, when the contemplation of a robbery sunk in comparison with the wretchedness to which I had reduced my family? guilty life, and seriously to set about redeeming the past. Every morning I eagerly perused the newspa pers, in the hope that some situation might present itself. I determined to be very humble; but if I found not the intelligence I wanted, I found another: this was an account of the robbery which I had committed, a description of my then dress, and the offer of a reward for my appre hension. This gave me no very great alarm, as I viewed myself in a glass, and saw no traces of resemblance with the description. But my crime was not to be so easily glossed over. "I had not proceeded far when I encountered a substantial-looking tradesman, of whom I immediately demanded his money. It required|| all the threatening position of my pistol to assist my courage, and I was in reality as much alarmed as the unfortunate subject of my attack. He informed me, that he had himself been collecting money to pay his "A few days afterwards, as I was debts, and if I robbed him of all engaged in copying a reference to a that he had about him he should place which I thought might suit be a ruined man. I counted out a me, my eye was arrested by a parahundred pounds from his pocket- graph in the next column, couched book, while he several times, coward in the following words: We are as he was, urged by despair, seemed happy to inform our readers, that half-determined to strike the pistol the person who robbed Mr. Stevens from my hand, while he continued last week was apprehended yesterpassionately imploring me to spare day, and fully committed to take his him. Thirty pounds was all I wanted trial at the next assizes. When charg for present use: this I told him my ed with the robbery, he stoutly de circumstances compelled me to ap-nied the fact; and when the prosépropriate to myself; and to his great cutor identified him, the fellow predelight, I returned him the rest, tak-tended that he had found the clothes ing his address, and assuring him, in a ditch tied up in a bundle, and that should Fortune prove favourable, that he put them on for a frolic. So I would certainly restore him the paltry a defence was not sufficient to rest, which he might imagine that I prevent the worthy magistrate, who knew him for an old offender, from fully committing him for trial.' "Here then, my children, was the dreadful punishment of the crime which I had committed. I became responsible for the blood of a fellowcreature about to be shed for a crime of which myself only was guilty. I could not rest either night or day until I had formed a resolution to save his life, even at the loss of my own. No sooner had I come to this determination than I became easier in my mind, and acquainting myself with the name of the judge who was to preside at the assizes, I had the courage to obtain an interview with him. I threw myself at his feet; my distress witnessed for my sincerity, while I implored him to have compassion on one who dreaded an ignominious death, but much more dreaded the horrible alternative of allowing another to suffer for a crime of which he was the only perpetrator. The worthy judge endeavoured to compose my mind, in order to be made more fully acquainted with the facts of the case; and I retired from his presence, if not myself perfectly assured of an acquittal, yet certain that the blood of the innocent would not lie on my conscience. "At length the awful day of my trial as well as that of the innocent man arrived. It was in vain that the poor wretch, a victim to the love of dress, endeavoured to prove an alibi. Mr. Stevens swore to his person, his dress; and, to my indignation, the man who, when I encountered him, had not the courage to defend his all, was now loud and courageous, and materially aggravated the case by setting up a false defence of his person, and declaring that he had nearly overpowered the robber when his pistol luckily flashing in the pan intimidated him. The jury were about to leave the box, while the idea of guilty seemed to pervade the court. At length Stevens was once more asked by a counsel if he could swear to the man; and again he answered in the affirmative. It was now my turn to act the part set down for me by the worthy judge. On his making the sign agreed upon with his finger, I came forward from my hiding-place, and placing myself by the prisoner, attracted the attention of Stevens. He now became staggered in his opinion, and still more when I spoke to him, which I did by order of the court in my natural voice. My senses were now in a whirl: yet I recollect, that the jury, without leaving their box pronounc ed a verdict of acquittal, and the innocent man, overcome with joy, sunk into a swoon, and the acquitted and myself were both conveyed out of court more dead than alive. "All this affair was but a nine days' wonder. I contrived to convey myself and family into a distant county. I laboured hard, and Providence blessed my exertions. Not very many years after the occurrence took place I was enabled to send Stevens his 30%. A subscription had been raised in court for myself and the innocent man: of this I could not partake. The tale of my wanderings, my dear children, is finished. Withdraw not your respect from a parent who has bitterly suffered for his crimes; and, oh! remember how nearly a single error had hurried him into the crime of blood-guiltiness!" No. IX. - I MUST absolutely return home; for these people, in spite of their idleness, contrive to keep up such an appearance of perpetual bustle, that it is impossible for a quiet lounger like myself to be comfortable among them. One is so incessantly called, upon to wonder or to admire, to be shocked or enchanted, that there is no preserving any thing like tranquillity. Every thing that happens, no matter whether it is great or insignificant, creates a sensation, and every sensation must be expressed with all the violence and exaggeration of a hero in a ranting tragedy. A Frenchman is never sorry or glad; these are words much too weak to convey his feelings he must be either delighted or in despair. This perpetual parade of sensibility, always disagreeable to the quiet part of mankind, is particularly so to one like myself; for, as I can't take the trouble to feign a corresponding sentiment, I know, that in spite of the politeness with which I am treated, I can never be cordially liked by a people who have no other standard of feeling than an exaggerated expression of it. Notwithstanding this fault, and in my eyes it is a very grave one, they are an amiable people, frank, lively, and good-natured. As to the politeness which they are universally allowed to possess, I am ready to give the middling and lower classes, generally speaking, credit for it; but among the higher, politeness is too frequently made a flimsy covering to vanity and ostentation; and the English are not always grateful for their attentions, when they find that the སྐྱུT༥༨ཉྩ༩ tfi,9 price they are expected to pay for them is an unqualified admiration of all they see and hear. John Bull's uncourtly sincerity does sometimes, it must be confessed, come too roughly in contact with monsieur's amour propre, and very great circumspection is requisite to avoid wounding it. I experienced this the other day on the following occasion, 2015! On my first arrival, I renewed my acquaintance with a French gentleman with whom I had been formerly intimate in England. He volunteered to shew me the lions; and to do him justice, a more assiduous Cicerone could not be found: for, in his zeal to do the honours of his country, he fairly persecuted me into seeing every thing worth notice and not worth notice. The Chambers of Peers and Deputies were then both shut, but permission was easily obtained to view them; and my friend, in the triumph of his heart, could not help glancing a little at the su periority of these buildings to our poor old St. Stephen's Chapel,.... When the Chamber of Deputies opened, I was surprised at his not offering to accompany me to the gallery; for I thought that he would have been at least as eager to display the oratory of his countrymen, as the beauty of their senate; but to my great surprise he evaded going till he found I intended to go without him, and even then he tried to dissuade me, at least for that day. Not being able to succeed, he accompanied me, but with a dissatisfied air, which I could not then account foreslaur We entered the gallery at a moment when a member, having just descended the tribune, five or six | auditors, that he brought to the de " bate a mind free from prejudices, and fully prepared to treat the subject with the greatest coolness and impar The subject, however, was one which, it must be confessed, it was rather difficult to discuss with temper: it was the reduction of the in terest of the national debt, a measure in which all classes of the people are deeply interested. Jacobins and royalists join in execrating it: the former assert, that it is a violation of the charter; while the latter, consigning the charter to the devil, declare, that if there never had been a charter, such a measure as this could not have been thought of. others rose at the same time, and However, though the dissatisfac tion appears general, it is not those who will really suffer the most that are the loudest in their regrets. In Paris, as every where else, people who are really poor are not apt to descant upon the badness of their circumstances; folks seldom complain of being obliged to make retrenchments, but for the pleasure of shewing you how well they can afford to do it. Thus one cannot feel much pity for the Marquis de T-, who laments that he can now only afford to expend two hundred and fifty thousand francs in beautifying his country-seat,instead of three hundred thousand, which he meant to have laid out upon it; neither can one join very heartily in the regrets of the Vicomtesse S-, who is overwhelmed with sorrow at the idea of being able to give a grand ball only once in every five weeks, instead of once a month. I was much amused yesterday at the calculation which the dashing D |