France, however, is much better known than Spain, as well as far above her in what is styled civilization. And is there no monition to be gathered from her existing condition? Though under the firm and strong government of an eminently vigorous mind, in Louis Philip, what is the language of one of her most popular writers in the present age? He is a professor, a learned member of the French Institute, writing in the Capital, and what does he say?

"The question is about our Family—that sacred asylum in which we all desire to seek the repose of the heart. We return, exhausted, to the domestic hearth, but do we find there the repose we sigh for? Let us not dissemble, but acknowledge to ourselves, how things are. There is in our family a sad difference of sentiment, and the most serious of all. We may speak to our mothers, wives, and daughters, on any of the subjects which form the topics of conversation, with indifferent persons, such as business, or the news of the day, but never on subjects that affect the heart or moral life, such as eternity, religion, the soul, and God! Choose, for instance, the moment when we naturally feel disposed to meditate with our Family in common thought, some quiet evening at the family table; venture even there, in your own house, at your own fireside, to say one word about these things; your mother sadly shakes her head, your wife contradicts you, your daughter, by her very silence, shows her disapprobation. They are on one side of the table, and you on the other, and alone. One would think that in the midst of them, and opposite to you, was seated an invisible personage, to contradict whatever you may say!"

This scene our author cannot forget. He recurs to it once more." You enter a house in the evening, and sit

down at the family table, one thing will almost always strike you; the mother and daughters are together, of one and the same opinion, on one side; whilst the father is on the other, and alone. What does this mean? It means that there is some one man at this table, whom you do not see, to contradict and give the lie to whatever the father may utter. He returns, fatigued with the cares of the day, and full of those which are to come; but he finds at home, instead of repose and comfort for the mind, only the struggle with the past."

All

Oh, how ought the Parents of other nations, where no similar molestation exists, to ponder over a picture such as this? For this, let it be observed, is but a single specimen of a baneful system, spread far and wide throughout the richest, the most populous, and most civilized parts of that fine country. There, according to this author, you may see more than six hundred and twenty thousand girls training up by nuns, under the direction too of men, themselves unmarried, and therefore grossly ignorant of what a family is ! To these he adds two hundred thousand boys, six thousand Sisters of Charity, so called, and myriads of women. these youth, it will be remembered, are but single branches, young and tender branches, unnaturally torn from their parent stem, or family tree. Thus the domestic hearth of every house is daily infested by the intrusion of one man, strangely styled the Director or spiritual guide! The individual whom we are accustomed to regard as the head of the house, the Father, is treated by this intruder as a cypher. In his absence, court is paid to the Mother, the weaker vessel, and what is truly melancholy, as well as singular, we are expressly assured, the Father is generally aware that these men are bringing up his child against himself! A more fatal

invasion of God's own domestic constitution has never been framed, and so shamefully accomplished. It resembles the recorded origin of all evil. Here is the Serpent once more beguiling Eve through his subtilty. This intruder on forbidden ground, must prove "the canker worm of many a

gentle breast."

The government of France, strong as it is, appears to possess neither the power, nor the foresight, of the ancient Persian Monarch, who decreed thoughout his wide dominions, that "every man should bear rule in his own house." And M. Michelet has yet to expound more distinctly the Parental authority, or those sacred and unalienable rights of the Father, to whom the effectual remedy belongs, and with whom alone it resides. Meanwhile, he is looking wishfully to the good sense of the Chambers, to stay the fretting leprosy, while he is powerfully warning the parents of France. "If," says he, " you wish your Family to resist the foreign influence which dissolves it, keep the child at home as much as possible. Let the Mother bring up the child under the Father's direction." "Let the Family hearth become firm and strong; then the edifice of religion will gently settle down. Let it never be forgotten that that humble stone is the corner stone of the Temple, and the foundation stone of the city."

ניי

1 See "Priests, Women, and Families," by MICHELET, of which so many thousands have been circulated in France, and many of its translation in this country. Of various opinions, contained in this work, we shall not be supposed to approve; but in connexion with this deplorable state of Domestic Economy in France, the protracted attempt of the French to colonize Africa from Algiers deserves notice. After fifteen long years it has made little or no progress, and why? There is no feeling stronger in the Arab bosom than that of veneration for domestic ties. The French, it is understood, have outraged these sadly, and the result has been a loathing hatred of French habits and domination. There is still as little hope of conciliation as ever; nay, apparently no alternative, save that

Thus, beyond all question, there is a hideous system, call it by whatever name, which has been fermenting, night and day, not only in France, but throughout the European nations, for many ages. It may be detected, not only by its audacious interposition between man and his Maker, in denying to him the free and deliberate perusal of his Creator's will, in the volume of inspiration; but another baneful ingredient is manifest in this glaring and frightful violation of moral unity in the Family, by what is styled the spiritual guidance or direction of the Wife and Mother.

Parents throughout Britain, and some other lands, may now feel their blood glow at such an intrusion into the bosom of families; but is there no other source of danger or annoyance? Though there should be no prying, no creeping into houses, where they reside, is there no other risk of their being amused away from domestic duties? Can there be no seduction from without? No professedly benevolent schemes by way of relieving the monotony, or supplying the place, of those who are enjoined by divine authority to "guide the house," and to be "keepers at home?" Yet, where in Britain, in parts of Canada, or in the free States of North America, it may be asked, is there any danger? Where any risk of either neglect of home, or interference with the Family circle at present? Is there any course

of abandonment. Even African Moslemism breathes revenge for injuries inflicted on its families, and will not bow before the laxity of European French morals. "The land of France," says this author, "belongs to fifteen or twenty millions of PEASANTS, who cultivate it." There is not in Europe a nobler field for cultivating also the Family Constitution in all its virtuous power. Oh that the truth of the living God, in their vernacular tongue, were there once introduced, and there left to its own balmy influence! Powerfully combating all superstitious infringement of the Domestic Circle, the vine-covered hills of France would soon exult in the possession of "the True Vine." Such a peasantry would, before long, bring that powerful Nation to a degree of stability hitherto never enjoyed.

of action proceeding in these countries which requires to be vigilantly watched? We presume there is. In answer to these inquiries, it may be observed, that there has been, and still continues to be, in repute with many, a course of, professedly, the warmest benevolence; flattering, at the moment, to many who pursue it, but which, far from relieving or enriching, often weakens or impoverishes those to whom it is applied. It is known to all that the last forty years have been distinguished, on both sides of the Atlantic, by growing, if not gigantic efforts, in the formation of benevolent and humane artificial society. Indeed, Britain, and these states of America thus stand so conspicuously distinguished above all other nations, that both here and there, not a few appear to dream that union, voluntary union, is competent to every thing. To their eye no defect presents itself, which the charm of associated numbers will not supply; no difficulty, which this will not overcome; no neglect, for which this will not compensate. It seems as if both countries had been overrun or covered with a mirage of high promise, and too many are all abroad to witness the anticipated results of their own active goodness. All this may have been gilded by the designation of "public usefulness;" but, in such a state of things, is there no danger of neglecting those fixed obligations, on which "the almost sacred joys of Home depend ?"—No danger of forgetting that the Almighty has already, even long ago, formed the channels of his own benevolence, and clearly defined their limits? Men may multiply expedients without end, or go on to "find out many inventions," but will the Creator ever permit His own appointments to be invaded or violated with impunity? Will he ever allow them to be superseded or grow out of fashion? Certainly

never.