eufchateau as most
clearly establishing the French origin of _Gil Blas_, an intimate
acquaintance with the court of Louis XIV., and frequent allusions to the
most remarkable characters in it, are very conspicuous. But to him who
really endeavours to discover the country of an anonymous writer, such
an argument, unless reduced to very minute details, and contracted into
a very narrow compass, will not appear satisfactory. He will recollect
that the extremes of society are very uniform, that courts resemble each
other as well as prisons; and that, as was once observed, if King
Christophe's courtiers were examined, the great features of their
character would be found to correspond with those of their whiter
brethren in Europe. The abuses of government, the wrong distribution of
patronage, the effects of clandestine influence, the solicitations and
intrigues of male and female favourites, the treachery of confidants,
the petty jealousies and insignificant struggles of place-hunters, are
the same, or nearly so, in every country; and it requires no great
acuteness to detect, or courage to expose, their consequences--the name
of Choiseul, or Uzeda, or Buckingham, or Bruhl, or Kaunitz, may be
applied to such descriptions with equal probability and equal justice.
But when the Tiers Etat are portrayed, when the satirist enters into
detail, when he enumerates circumstances, when local manners, national
habits, and individual peculiarities fall under his notice; when he
describes the specific disease engendered in the atmosphere by which his
characters are surrounded; when, to borrow a lawyer's phrase, he
condescends to particulars, then it is that close and intimate
acquaintance with the scenes and persons he describes is requisite; and
that a superficial critic falls, at every step into errors the most
glaring and ridiculous. There are many passages of this description in
_Gil Blas_ to which we shall presently allude; in the mean time let us
follow the advice of Count Hamilton, and begin with the beginning--

"Me voila donc hors d'Oviedo, sur le chemin de Penaflor, au milieu
de la campagne, maitre de mes actions, d'une mauvaise mule, et de
quarante bons ducats, sans compter quelques reaux que j'avois voles
a mon tres-honore oncle.

"La premiere chose que je fis, fut de laisser ma mule aller a
discretion, c'est-a-dire au petit pas. Je lui mis la bride sur le
cou, et, tirant mes ducats de ma poch