fashionable colours of the month; their form is a simple frock, fastened up behind with small fancy silk ornaments; and the body, which is made to fit the shape without any fulness, is composed of ribband net to correspond in colour with the dress; or if the frock is white, the body and sleeves are of any of the fashionable colours for the month. The sleeve, which is short and full, is not novel, but it is extremely tasteful, its form is an epaulet, and is finished, as is the bottom of the dress, with scolloped floss silk fancy trimming of peculiar beauty, which is laid on round the bottom of the skirt in waves. This tasteful little dress has all that jaunte air so peculiar to the French fashions, without any of that glare which so often distinguishes them; on the contrary, it is simply elegant. Some alteration has taken place in the manner of dressing the hair since our last Number; it is worn much fuller on the temples, and in large loose curls. Some elegantes also adopt the perfect Grecian style of braiding it on the forehead, and twisting it up behind. We have to observe that either style of dressing the hair can 1 be becoming only to those ladies who are critically beautiful. In half-dress, small lace caps, ornamented with a fancy flower, or lace handkerchiefs twisted among the ringlets of the hair, are very much worn; as is also little cottage caps, made of intermingled ribband and lace. In full-dress, tiaras of diamond or pearl, are, we think, higher in estimation than any || other ornament. Turbans made of gauze or crape handkerchiefs, embroidered in silk or silver, are also much in request for matronly belles. Peart sprigs and artificial flowers are in very high estimation for our juvenile fair ones. In jewellery we have nothing new to announce. Dress and walking shoes and boots continue the same as last month; but we have to remark that the form of dress slippers is certainly very far from appropriate, they are too much over the instep. Fashionable colours for the month continue the same as the last, with the exception of the pigeon's wing, a beautiful colour in shot silk; it is blue and pink, and forms one of the most striking colours we have seen. MONTHLY MISCELLANY, INCLUDING VARIETIES, CRITICAL, LITERARY, AND HISTORICAL. THE THEATRES. HAYMARKET.-A new piece,or Harlequinade, called Doctor Hocus Pocus, was produced at this Theatre on Friday night, Aug. 12, which drew together a large audience, under the expectation that it proceeded from the pen of Mr. Colman. We believe the expectation to have been well founded. upon ground hitherto set apart for other purposes. Farce, undoubtedly, allows extravagance. Its very character is oddity; its existence is drawn out of caricature. But life itself is so distorted by folly, and depraved by affectation, that it is easy to obtain all that Farce requires, within the compass of real existence.—But to the piece before us. It was preceded by a Prologue of some humour, (which is subjoined,) written by Mr. Colman, and delivered by Mr. Terry. — This actor, by the way, is not much known to the public: he is a man of great talents and advanc Mr. Colman is an author of very brilliant powers, and he is unquestionably at the head of the comic writers of the day; but, of late, he has exhibited a melancholy propensity to relinquishing reputation, but he seems to aim to form himthat more polished and legitimate humour which shines forth in many of his comedies, for a kind of low slang and buffoonery, which discredits both the stage and himself. He has been desirous to substitute waggery for wit, and to extract a laugh out of such coarse materials as we should have thought would disgust a classical taste like his.-Nothing, we should conceive, is more easy than to contrive humour, if a writer impose no The first scene of this piece presented the restraint upon himself; if he chooses to exercise study of Doctor Hocus Pocus, embellished with himself in an unbounded range, and, trespassall the apparatus of necromancy, and appearing self too much after the model of King, and thereby becomes hard and morose.-King had a mind of canine humour peculiar to himself.-Terry, in his attempt to imitate it, becomes rigid and dry. -The severity of King, mixed up with the mellowness of Munden, would make a good comedian; something between the Diogenes and Momus. to be a fit laboratory for the conjuror of a Pantomime. In this workshop of magic, Harlequin appears asleep on a couch, the Doctor having administered to him a narcotic, consisting of a chapter and half of a modern novel, and ten lines of a modern epic poem. Harlequin is now roused from his slumber, and ordered by the Doctor to proceed to the house of Sir Peter Pantaloon, for the purpose of relieving Angeletta," a warbler in love," from durance, and delivering her to her lover Leander. The Doctor, it seemed, was not instigated by gallantry, but by the desire of triumphing over his great rival Doctor Conjurocus, whose power, as a magician, by some miraculous relation of cause and effect, depended upon Angeletta's continuing a maid. Harlequin is in love with Columbine, who is in the house of Sir Peter Pantaloon; and as the lady had some scruples in allowing his addresses because he was black, the Doctor determines to have him washed white. For this purpose the globe is transformed into a washing tub, the telescope into pieces of soap, || and the sphynxes into two robust laundresses.— Harlequin thus passes through every process of ablution and mangling, and at length, in the person of Mr. Matthews, appears completely whitened. Several devices are contrived for the escape of the fair captives from Sir Peter Pantaloon, an exceedingly ludicrous personage. The beginning went off with complete success. Mr. Gomery and Mr. Tokely, in Pierot the servant, and Sir Peter, and Scaramouch the companion of Harlequin, and servant of Hocus Pocus, were extremely amusing. Mr. Matthews, in Harlequin, had not a sufficient scope for his peculiar powers. He found it necessary to use a stick, which must have somewhat lessened the effect. In one scene, where he disguised himself as "Jackey long legs," it was impossible to conceive any thing more perfect than the modification of his voice, in imitating a child six years old. One scene represented the bridge and pagoda in St. James's Park, together with the ascent of a balloon and parachute, the latter bearing off Sir Peter, very much to his distress, and the entertainment of the audience. The first scenes were extremely lively and ludicrous, and the dialogue contained many sharp hits at the reigning follies of the day; but, as the piece advanced, the audience became partially discontented. The conclusion of it was received with marks of disapprobation. By compressing the scenes, and omitting a few very flat tricks, it might be made an amusing piece. Thee we invoke;-not thee, her silly twin, Our Poet, loth dull Safety's path to plod, LYCEUM.-On Tuesday, Aug. 16, was produced at this Theatre a Piece entitled Harlequin Hoax; or, a Pantomime Proposed. It is said to be the composition of Mr. T. Dibdin, a gentleman long accustomed to the stage, and whose writings abound in that kind of grotesque humour, which is the delight of the present day. Harlequin Hoax is written upon the plan of Sheridan's Critic. The design is to shew the humours of a Pantomime rehearsed, and to open to the audience a little of the secret history which passes behind the scenes: and, above all, to set forth in a ludicrous light some of the vexations and difficulties of a Manager's office in a theatre. This piece is put together with a great deal of humour, and as the actors appear in their natural characters, there is a degree of novelty produced which is extremely entertaining. The Pantomime itself, which is rehearsed on the Stage, gives an opportunity for some excellent dialogue between Raymond, Liston, and Knight; the latter of whom performs the part of Patch, the author of the Pantomime.-The dialogue is not the ordinary stuff which is expected in such pieces-It soars much above it, and now and then ascends into the regions of true wit and humour. There is an excellent medley song given to Miss Kelly, and a whimsical imitation PROLOGUE TO DOCTOR HOCUS POCUS, of Braham by Liston.-We must not omit to BY GEORGE COLMAN, THE YOUNGER. And Thee, who many a Scribbler's suit has heard, Dear NONSENSE! Goddess of the sweet Absurd! speak of the scenery of this Pantomime, which furnishes a kind of panorama picture of the late festivities in London: namely, the Procession to St. Paul's, the Naumachia in Hyde Park, and the Fire-works in St. James's Park.-A balloon is likewise let off.-The concluding scene, in which the fire-works are exhibited on the stage, is excellent. We had no conception that there was a capacity for it in this theatre. Upon the whole, this piece is likely to be a constant source of attraction to the theatre during the remainder of the season.-It is truly (in the language of the play-bills) performed nightly to overflowing audiences, and received with the loudest applause. We must not here omit a passing word to Mr. Raymond, the manager, and principal performer in the piece. That part, which Raymond performs so well behind the curtain, he exhibits with great spirit and nature upon the stage in this piece. He submits with great good humour, and good sense, to a number of personal jokes upon himself. His merits, however, in every province, are so well appreciated by the town, that this condescension tends more to advance than to diminish them. A lady has in the press, a work on the Theology and Mythology of the Heathens, in a duodecimo volume with several plates. The Exile, a Russian poem, written in Eng. land, and translated from the original MS. of the author, who fell in the battle before Dresden, will soon appear. Baron Daldorf has nearly ready for publication, in four volumes, Castle de Courcy, or the Vicissitudes of Revolutionary Commotion. The Rev. William Bingley, already distin guished by his literary labours, has undertaken the History of Hampshire, and is pursuing it with assiduity, Picturesque Views of Public Edifices in Paris, with appropriate letter-press, will soon appear, in medium quarto; containing about twenty views drawn by Messrs. Testard and Segard, and engraved by Mr. Rosenberg. Mr. J. Faithorn, formerly surgeon in the East India Company's service, will soon publish, Facts and Observations on Liver Complaints and Bilious Affections in general; deduced from long practice in various climates, and illustrated by cases. Sermons selected from the manuscripts of the late Rev. Samuel Palmer, of Hackney, are printing in an octavo volume. The Codex Alexandrinus is about to be printed in fac-simile, by order of the House of Commons, at the public expence. MANNERS OF THE FRENCH. (Continued from our last.) M. Duterrier, my next door neighbour, is one of the most original characters that can be conceived; he is abstraction personified, if I may so express myself; he profoundly nourishes that principle, (happily without imparting therefrom any thing of consequence,) that evil spreads through the world, as the elements which are ne cessary in the composition of that world; that good is merely accidental, and an anomaly in the order of things. With an excellent heart, which every moment defeats his systems, his mania is to prove that every thing is reduced to numerical science; and that the chance of virtue, vice, or passion, may be calculated like a game of tennis or chess, in the latter of which he excels. It is right to observe that his character has nothing to do with these ideas; and that this man, so mistaken in his moral system, so phlegmatic, so obstinate in his discussions, is a good citizen in the oldest and best acceptation of the word; and is so firm a friend, that he does not allow himself, in his conduct towards others, the smallest error which is inimical to that sacred character. I often delight in opposing him to M. de Clenord, whom nature seems to have formed expressly to be his contrast. This gentleman, with the most mild and conciliating manners, and the most affectionate behaviour, with an amiable deport Mr. J. D'Alton, of Dublin, will soon publish,|| in a quarto volume, Dermid, or Erin in the days of ment, and a sterling and natural wit, is, though Boru, a romance in twelve cantos. Mr. Myers, of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, has in the press, a Practical Treatise on finding the Latitude and Longitude at Sea; translated from the French of M. de Rossel, with additional tables and other improvements. Mr. Jamison has a work in the press on the Nature of the Terrestrial Globe and Maps, the Principles of Projection, and the Construction of Maps; systematically arranged, and scientifically illustrated by eighteen plates of diagrams. Mrs. Hanway, author of Ellinor, &c. has in the press Christiabella, the Maid of Rouen, a story founded on fact. || sixty years of age, a most perfect model of what having passed his youth at court, and having was once styled, a man of the first fashion. After been the owner of an immense fortune, which he enjoyed with elegance, and which he as elegantly lost, he lives now on the moderate income of two thousand livres a year, without seeming to regret the past, otherwise than by that strain of irony and ridicule which he disseminates willingly enough on the present order of things. Our fourth acquaintance, with whom we are very intimate, is named F remenville, a relation of my wife's, a little giddy man of about fortyfive; occupying, without filling it, a place of about a thousand crowns a year at a banker's, his relation, who is probably rich enough to have a clerk who does nothing. Fremenville pretends to be the man of fashion: he never fails to go every morning to his counting-house on horseback, booted, in spurs, and a whip in his hand: the language of the young men who frequent the Coffee-houses, is what he speaks the most readily, though he has both sense and education sufficient to adopt much better. He treats the most serious subjects as he would a common jest; and never speaks seriously, except it is on Italian music, of which he is passionately fond; though he can never distinguish it from any other, except by the names of the composers ending in i or o. In order to be acquainted with the chief personages which compose our little society, I must add to those I have already named, M. Moussinot, the landlord of the house which linhabit,and who comes every fortnight to invite me to sup with him in order not to derogate from his accustomed habit of going to bed every night precisely at ten. This M. Moussinot, whose regard for his tenants is always according to their exactitude in the payment of their rent, has conceived a very high opinion of me, and for which my wife ought to take the sole credit. Nature has given to this good man a great desire to talk much; but has taken from him the most requisite faculty, as he has a singular impediment in his speech, which causes him to be a long time in expressing himself, so that he is continually interrupted. Last Sunday our little table was completely filled; my wife, who could not go to chapel that morning, to hear the mass performed in honour of the King, was rather out of humour; Fremenville thought he perceived, that as she was dressing the sallad, she did not know what she was about; he remarked it. "That is my business, cousin," replied she : "if every one did what they ought, or acted according to what they know, things would go on better." Duterrier.-Madame de Montliver has pointed out the exact cause of all our disorders; very few people act up to what they know, and there are yet fewer who do what they ought. Dubuisson.-If places are not well filled, it is the fault of those who have the giving them away, for they might chuse better; competitors are not wanting. Duterrier.-No, by my faith; if competitors for places were only such as were qualified to fill them. You see I exclude nine-tenths of those who are on the list, when I say talent and probity are the sole requisites, from the candidates for the ministry to the youngest clerks of a compt ing-house. has talent when he defends an ill subject well. Independently of this common kind of probity, there is another, a relative talent for every position in which a man may chance to be placed. The probity of a man of law implies the most rigorous justice, an inflexible character, an irreproachable conscience; his talent must shew itself to proceed from a sound judgment, an enlightened mind, the love of truth, and an aptitude in discovering it. Suppose we speak of an employment given to a man of letters,: let the pretenders to literature never have cause to blush at their success; let them never be given to plagiarisms; let them never sell their principles, so as to offer incense to the idol that they have disparaged but the day before: let them not make use of the art of combining flowery sentences with harmonious cadences, producing only insipid periods, in order to supply the place of imagination and ideas. Moussinot. I know very well what talent the owner of a house ought to have, it is to make his lodgers pay regularly; and thank God, I acquit myself pretty well; but as to his probity: Fremenville.It is to keep his house in good repair, to prevent his apartments from smoking before he lets them; and not to wait to raise the rent of a lodger till that lodger is at some unavoidable expence. What do you say, M. Moussinot, are you possessed of that probity? Moussinot.-Every one ought to make the best of what he has. Clenord. Even of what belongs to the public; this is what some people understand wonderfully well. Duterrier-And even without losing the character of an honest man in the world's opinion: remark that. I know a certain man at the head of a public office who enjoys an excellent reputation, and who only has to circumvent adroitly, to be thought devoted to public good. There is more than one upright judge who would throw a man out of the window who would dare to offer him a bribe; but nevertheless, justice would be nothing in the balance with him, against the tears or the smiles of a pretty woman; nay, even the credit of a man in power would turn the scale. This want of probity is seen amongst every class; your cookmaid, whom you allow to spend what money she pleases for the kitchen, does not scruple to make a perquisite on every article she purchases in the market. Madame de Montliver.-And boast too with her sister cooks that she has done it, while she spends with them, what she calls, the market penny. M. Guillaume-As to such people they merit only contempt; but Duclos was right, when he M, Guillaume.-I did not think talent and pro- said, "A man who sells his honour, sells it always bity were so scarce. for more than it is worth." Duterrier-Because we never gave to those terms more than half their value. We are apt to say a man has probity, because we dare leave a trunk unlocked in his presence; and that he Duterrier. That is one of those moral truths, which is only applicable to dangerous paradoxes. A man sells me his conscience for one hundred thousand crowns; but this merchandize causes me to gain six hundred thousand francs; therefore the bonour of that man is worth more than he sold it for. For the interest of society, I think our moralist should have set a higher price upon honour, instead of lowering it. If every one speculated in this kind of traffic,-if every one estimated his honour more than it was worth, fewer people would be desirous of setting a price on it. Fremenville. It is competition which spoils the trade. Clenord.-Reform is wanted both in morals and in the state; I would only mention one, which made may lead to another. I would write the words, honour, probity, talent, on the door of every institution or establishment, and on that of every public office. Fremenville.-That is an Utopian device. Clenord.-No, for no one should be able to procure a place, that could not apply this device to himself. Fremenville-Mercy on us! how many people are you going to turn into the street? M. Guillaume.-Fortunately for them they are generally Lclieved on their bare word. Duterrier,—I would only desire of them to give as a chief guarantee for the confidence of government, the consideration they hold in their own families. Madame de Montliver.-Gentlemen, the desert is on the table: so no more argument nor reasoning, I forewarn you; cousin Fremenville, it is your turn to speak. The remainder of the evening passed in that kind of conversation from which, I believe, Plutarch could not find any thing worth selecting. GUILLAUME THE FREE SPEAKER. GRAND NATIONAL JUBILEE ON THE FIRST OF AUGUST, 1814.'' It would appear, that the conductors of the Fete entertained some alarms respecting the possible conduct of the populace in the Parks, which occasioned them to issue the following public notification on Monday morning, (1st August) which was posted round the scenes of mirth and merriment : "August 1st is the day fixed for a Grand National Jubilee, being the Centenary of the accession of the Illustrious Family of Brunswick to the Throne of this Kingdom, and the Anniversary of the Battle of the Nile. "Hyde Park, in which there will be a Grand Fair, is entirely open to the people. "The Green Park will also be entirely open to the people. "The Mall of St. James's Park, and Constitution-hill, will also be open to the people, to enter by Spring-gardens and New-street gates. "The Lawn in St. James's Park, and the Birdsage walk, will be devoted to those who have purchased tickets.” || Then follows a description of the accommodation prepared for the public. The conclusion ran thus: "Let not the people, therefore, listen to those who would poison their minds-to those who are the constant enemies of all public joy. Let them be assured, that the object of the peaceful festival is to give to all ranks and orders, a grateful occasion to indulge in that full participation of happiness to which their perseverance, in a most sanguinary and trying contest, crowned with unprecedented success, has so richly entitled them." DESCRIPTION OF THE FETE. Never, perhaps, in the annals of this vast metropolis, has the curiosity of hundreds of thousands of the public been more eagerly and anxiously excited than by the annunciation of the festival of Monday the 1st of August. Great perplexity seemed to have been caused by the extenbeen sufficiently forwarded during the stay of the sive preparations for this occasion not having Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, and the long train of royal, princely, and illustrious personages, who paid this country the honours of their visit. It was at first understood, that it was to be combined with some grand plan of entertainment to be given by the Prince Regent on that occasion. After their departure for the Continent, different days were mentioned, but still it was to be in celebration of the peace so happily accomplished under the auspices of his Royal Highness. Day after day had been named, and anxiety had been still kept on its full stretch. Delay did not appear to diminish expectation, or cool desire; which seem, on the contrary, to have even increased under deferred hope. Whatever political or moral criticisms may have been employed on this subject, it is an indisputable fact, that so immense a number of the people at large were never brought together in any previous instance, by any description of public rejoicings on any of the great events which have so often gilded the page of British story, Monday being positively fixed, no farther fears were entertained, save from the caprice of the elements. A showery day was an accident against which no human precaution could provide; and notice was given, early on Monday morning, that in the event of unfavourable weather, farther postponement would be necessary. Monday morning came, and, at an early hour, its appearance covered many a fair countenance with the gloom of disappointment. The sky was darkened and the rain descended, and the expected pleasures of the day were given up for the moment as lost. Sunday had been uncommonly fine; the eve of the festal day had in a manner commenced the entertainment, and thousands promenading the Parks had almost outwatched the moon. The apprehension of disappointment was, however, suddenly relieved; for between |