that is to
be found. The price of admittance is also very low. The poverty of the
people will not admit of the innumerable descriptions of amusements
which we find in every little town in England: amateur concerts are
sometimes got up, but for want of funds they seldom last long. My
subscription to one of these at the town where we resided, was five
francs per month, or about a shilling each concert. This may be taken as
a specimen of the price of French amusements.

_STATE OF RELIGION_.

THE order of the priesthood in France had suffered greatly in the
revolution. They were everywhere scouted and reviled, either for being
supporters of the throne, or for being rich, or for being _moderes_.
Napoleon found them in this condition; he never more than tolerated
them, and latterly, by his open attack and cruel treatment of their
chief, he struck the last and severest blow against the church. Unable
to bear the insults of the military, deprived of the means of support,
many of the clergy either emigrated or concealed themselves. In the
principal towns, indeed, the great establishments took the oath of
allegiance to the tyrant; but the inferior clergy and the country
curates met nowhere with encouragement, and were allowed to starve, or
to pick up a scanty pittance by teaching schools in a community who
laughed at education, at morality, and religion.

Many of the churches, convents, and monasteries were demolished; many
were converted into barracks, storehouses, and hospitals. We saw but
_one_ village church in our travels through France, and even in the
larger towns we found the places of public worship in a state of
dilapidation. I went to see the palace of the Archbishop at Aix; out of
a suite of most magnificent rooms, about 30 in number, _one miserable
little chamber was furnished for his highness_. In the rest, the
grandeur of former days was marked by the most beautiful tapestry on
some part of the walls, while other parts had been laid bare and daubed
over with caps of liberty, and groupes of soldiers and guillotines, and
indecent inscriptions. The nitches for statues, and the frames of
pictures, were seen empty. The objects which formerly filled them were
dashed to pieces or burnt.

The conduct of the people at the churches marked the low state of
religion: the higher ranks talked in whispers, and even at times loudly,
on their family concerns, their balls and concerts. The peasantry and
lower ranks behaved wi