s of hay before a row of lurid
lamps, to admire some painted men and women mincing up and down the
stage, or peer through two telescopes at forests of painted calico and
moons cut out of pasteboard, or listen to hackneyed airs which have been
sung and resung a hundred times--worn up, in short, like an old rope?

The peasant farmer or yeoman of France, who in the midst of the most
pleasing circumstances, never forgets his own interests, has also found
it desirable for the advancement of his worldly prosperity, to establish
fairs, at which he can sell his hemp and beasts, his wine and his crops;
purchase clothes for his family, and coulters for his ploughs.

These fairs, which are held once in each month in all the towns of
Burgundy and large villages of Le Morvan, attract a great concourse of
people, and as there is much variety in the costumes, head-dresses and
colours, the effect is highly picturesque. The mountaineer brings with
him for sale wild boar and venison, wood and wild fruits of the forest;
the inhabitant of the plain, the thousand productions of the
neighbouring manufactories. Second-rate jewellers arrive with their
boxes full of gold crosses and buckles, holy chaplets blessed at some
favourite shrine, and silver rings.

Book-stalls are also to be seen, kept by Jesuits in disguise, the
shelves of which are loaded with inferior literature, with a perfect
deluge of breviaries, almanacks, abridgments of the Lives of the Saints,
with "Letters fallen from Heaven," in which, "Ladies and gentlemen,"
shouts the proprietor, "you will read the details, truthful and
historical, of the last miracle at Rimini; also a new and marvellous
account, equally authentic, of several pictures of Christ that have shed
tears of blood. Buy, ladies and gentlemen, buy the history of these
astonishing miracles--only a penny, ladies, for which you will have into
the bargain the invaluable signature of our Holy Father the Pope, and
the benediction of our Lord the Bishop."

But ought one to be surprised at such announcements, at such a traffic,
or that in these so-called enlightened days, not only auditors but
purchasers should be found?--that there should, in fact, be a sale for
these printed mystifications, when officers of the government and
officers of the armed force, attest on their honour the truth of these
impudent impositions upon the credulity of mankind, affirm the accuracy
and _bona fide_ character of these winking, blinking