A Residence in France, During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794, and 1795: Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady: with General and Incidental Remarks on the French Character and Manners. Prepared for the Press by John Gifford, ... In T

Front Cover
T. N. Longman, 1797 - France - 489 pages
 

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 336 - I could with difficulty fupport myfelf; but this did not prevent the reprefentant du peuple from treating me with that inconfiderate brutality commonly the effect of a fudden acceffion of power on narrow and vulgar minds. After a variety of impertinent queftions, menaces of a prifon for myfelf, and exclamations of hatred and vengeance againft my country, on producing fome friends of Mad. de , who were to be anfwerable for me, I was releafed, and returned home more dead than alive.
Page 23 - The French are volatile and material ; they are not very capable of attachment to principles. External objects are requisite for them even in a slight degree ; and the momentary enthusiasm that is obtained by affecting their senses, subsides with the conclusion of a favourite air, or the end of a gaudy procession.
Page 294 - ... by their antiquity, and are ftill permitted to exift,. through our dread of innovation. The French, however, made an attempt to improve on the trial by jury, which I think only evinces that the inftitution as adopted in England is not to be excelled.
Page 260 - ... habit is very common to all the french. The inns abound with filth of every kind, and though the owners of them are generally civil enough, their notions of what is decent are fo very different from ours, that an englifli traveller is not foon reconciled to them.
Page 348 - Under the old system, when the rank of a woman of fashion had enabled her to preserve a degree of reputation and influence in spite of the gallantries of her youth and the decline of her charms, she adopted the equivocal...
Page 259 - At the theatre» an actor or actress frequently coughs and expectorates on the stage, in a manner one should think highly unpardonable before one's most intimate friends in England, though this habit is very common to all the French. The inns abound with filth of every kind, and though the owners of them are generally civil enough, their notions of what is decent are so very different from ours, that an English traveller is not soen reconciled to them.
Page 293 - Were I not warranted by the best information, I should not venture an opinion on the subject without much diffidence, but chance has afforded me opportunities that do not often occur to a stranger, and the new code appears to me, in many parts, singularly excellent, both as to principle and practice.
Page 293 - Reafonable allowances are made to witnefles both for time and expences at the public charge — alofs is not doubled by the cofts of a profecution to recover it. In cafes of robbery, where property found is detained for the fake of proof, it does not become the prey of official rapacity, but an abfolute reftitution takes place.
Page 133 - ... short, we mistake that for a mental quality which, in fact, is but a corporeal one; and, though the French may have many good and agreeable points of character, I do not include gaiety among the number.
Page 256 - Jl.T is obfefvable, that we examine lefs fcrupuloufly the pretenfions of a nation to any particular excellence, than we do thofe of an individual. The reafon of this is, probably, that our felf-love is as much gratified by admitting the one, as in rejecting the other. When we allow the claims of a whole people, we are flattered with the idea of being above narrow prejudices, and of...

Bibliographic information