rleans, and by the gross profligacies of Louis XV. To relieve the
exchequer, the States General were summoned; and from that _moment_
began the Revolution. The European war was the result of a republican
government, and the conquest of the Continent the result of placing
Napoleon on the throne of the empire. What further results may be still
preparing are beyond our knowledge; but it can scarcely be conceived
that the chain is yet finally broken.

But before we take leave of California, we must do it the justice to
speak of San Barbara, which, as the author _rather_ emphatically
expresses it, is to Monterey "what the parlour is to the kitchen."

The bay is an unfavourable one, being exposed to the "worst winds of the
worst season." But the town having been selected as the favourite
retreat of the more respectable functionaries of the province, Santa
Barbara exhibits the charms of aristocratic manners. The houses,
externally, are superior to any others on the coast, and, internally,
exhibit taste in their furniture and ornament. The ladies excite the
author's pen into absolute rapture; their sparkling eyes and glossy
hair, are, in themselves, sufficient to negative the idea of tameness or
insipidity, while their sylph-like figures exhibit fresh graces at every
step. This is supported by the more important qualities, of "being by
far the more industrious half of the community, and performing their
household duties with cheerfulness and pride."

The men are a handsome race, and the greatest dandies imaginable,
completely modelled on the Andalusian Majo, and displaying the finest
linen, the most embroidered pantaloons, and the most glittering jackets
in the western world. Of course, it cannot be expected of any Spaniards
that they should do much, and beaux so fine cannot be expected to do any
thing. Accordingly, his day is spent in riding from house to house, on a
horse as fine as himself, a living machine of trappings, and the nights
in dancing, billiard-playing, and flirting.

In all countries where serious things are habitually turned into
trifles, trifles become serious things. "The balls, in fact, seem more
like a matter of business than any thing else that is done in
California. For whole days beforehand, sweetmeats are laboriously
prepared in the greatest variety, and from beginning to end of the
festivities, which have been known to last several successive nights, so
as to make the performers, after wearing out t