he could judge of a man's birth by the dishes he preferred; but above all, by the vegetables: truffles, morels, mushrooms, and peas, in their infancy, he designated as aristocratic vegetables; but all the vast stock of beans, full-grown peas, carrots, turnips, parsnips, cauliflowers, onions, &c. &c., he said were only fit for the vulgar.

The Spaniards have introduced a taste for garlic in Paris, and the restaurants have adopted it in many of their plats, the odour of which, fortunately, warns one in time. Apropos of garlic, somebody said that the Spaniards were so patriotic that they never forgot their country; "How can they," observed a listener, "when the taste and smell of it never forsake their mouths?"

4th.-The dinners at our hotel are execrable; and so seemed our friend, Mr. Moore, the poet, to think yesterday. I hate going to dine at a restaurateur, though it is quite à-la-mode for the English to do so here; and consequently I prefer a bad dinner at home. But it really was provoking to invite T. Moore to partake a repast so unworthy of him. A mouth that utters such brilliant things, should

only be fed on dainty ones; and as his skill in gastronomy nearly equals his skill in poetry, a failure in one art must be almost as trying to his temper, as the necessity of reading a failure, in the other: nay, it would be worse, for one may laugh at a bad poem, but who has philosophy enough to laugh at a bad dinner? A true gastronome might, on seeing one, exclaim with the good Roman Emperor, "I have lost a day;" for no substitute of côtelette-àla minute, or recherché souper, can atone for the first disappointment. As our cook is considered to be one of the most accomplished artistes, the novelty of a bad dinner abroad may be endured with Christian patience but so thought not some of our friends, who were eloquent on the abomination of charging extravagantly for fare that was only fit for those who look more to the quantity, than to the quality.

5th. I have passed the morning in descending La Montagne Russe, a very childish, but exhilarating amusement. One soon conquers the nervousness attending a first descent; after which, the extreme velocity with which one is hurried along, is so agreeable an excitement, that I am not surprised

to find that many people have frequent recourse to it. T. Moore often visits this spot, and greatly enjoys a descent. It is pleasant to observe with what a true zest he enters into every scheme of amusement; though the buoyancy of his spirits, and resources of his mind, render him so independent of such means of passing time. His is a happy temperament, that conveys the idea of having never lived out of sunshine; and his conversation reminds one of the evolutions of some bird of gorgeous plumage, each varied hue of which becomes visible as he carelessly sports in the air.

Our domestics already murmur at the hardships to which they are exposed, and begin to sigh for the flesh-pots of England. What will they think of Italy? where, by all accounts, servants live in a state nearly approaching patriarchal simplicity. After all, a certain station of life brings with it its own annoyances. The greater number of domestics one is compelled to keep, the greater are the torments they inflict; for they are so incapable of submitting to aught in the shape of hardships, and are so prone to consider every deviation from their ordinary routine of comforts, as such, that they are generally

The minds of the one class

found to be more troublesome than useful, out of England. The ladies' maids sigh for their tea and toast, and the men groan at the absence of their beef and porter. I have observed that persons accustomed from infancy to the utmost luxury, can better submit to the privations occasioned by travelling, than can their servants. being interested by novel scenes, forget, in the excitement they experience, the loss of those physical enjoyments which habit had rendered almost necessary; while the others, having no such gratification, daily and hourly feel the want of that which constitutes their principal pleasure-a luxurious table. The greater the degree of mental occupation, the less will be the fastidiousness of the palate, or the anxiety to indulge it; but those who pay least attention to the mind, are precisely those who devote the most to the body.

The English here appear to enter into the amusements with a most business-like assiduity; each tells one that he or she must go to the theatres, (bongré malgré,) for every one goes; must drive in the dusty Bois de Boulogne, or more dusty Champs Elysées, because every one drives or rides there;

must form one of the crowd at the English ambassador's on a certain evening; and do half-a-dozen other equally tiresome things: all of which they profess to detest doing, but to which an imaginary sense of necessity compels them. All this seems very incomprehensible to the French; one of whom observed to me, that my compatriots seemed to "s'ennuyer beaucoup en cherchant de s'amuser."

Here, where people are very much disposed to forget the qu'en dira-t-on, provided they please themselves, our mania, of seeking amusement as an imperative duty, or as a means of displaying our fashion, by being seen everywhere, seems a most unaccountable infatuation. Each individual of a certain station here has sufficient self-respect, amourpropre, or what you will, to consider him, or herself, in no way dependent on an association with others for the estimation to which they believe themselves entitled. Hence their conduct is not influenced that of others; and their modes of life are more easy and agreeable. They are not afraid of losing caste, if not seen in such or such circles, or if seen, in others. They are not continually endeavouring to exhibit their intimacies with people of distinction, or