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tradesmen, is of course much increased by their dread of the day of
reckoning; and is therefore ultimately the consequence of their poverty.

It happened that an English nobleman, who lately visited France, had
shewn much kindness to one of the _ancienne noblesse_ during his stay in
England. For upwards of a year, he had insisted on his living with him
at his country seat. Upon the eve of leaving England for France, he
wrote to his old acquaintance, desiring him to take suitable apartments
for him in Paris. The Frenchman returned a most polite answer,
expressing how much he felt himself hurt by the idea that his Lordship
should dream of taking apartments, whilst his hotel was at his service.
The English nobleman, accordingly, lived for two months at the hotel;
but to his astonishment, upon taking his departure, Monsieur presented
him with a regular bill, charging for every article, and including a
very high rent for the lodgings. This is hardly to be credited by those
unacquainted with the present condition of France; but I am induced to
believe the story to be in every particular correct, as the authority
was unquestionable. This excessive poverty amongst the higher classes,
their being often unable, from their narrow circumstances, to support a
house and separate establishment, their living in miserable lodgings
when they are low in purse, snatching a spare meal at some cheap
restaurateur's, and being unaccustomed to the comfort of regular meals
in their own house, is the cause that they are all devotedly and
generally attached to good eating, whenever they can get it, and that to
such an excess, that a stranger, in attending a ball supper in France,
or treating a French party to dinner, will be astonished at the
perseverance of their palates, and the wonderful expedition with which
both sexes contrive to travel through the various dishes on the table.
The behaviour of Sancho at Camacho's wedding, when he rolled his
delighted eyes over the assembled flesh-pots, is but a prototype of what
I have witnessed equally in French men and French women upon these
occasions.

At a ball supper, where it is often impossible in England to prevail
upon the ladies to taste a morsel, you may see these delicate females of
France, regale themselves with dressed dishes, swallow, with incredible
avidity, repeated bowls of strong soup, and after a short interval, sit
down to potations of hot punch, strong enough to admit of being set o