their courteous, but, perhaps, rather slow ancestors, in all the details
of daily life.

The principal houses of reception in those days were those of the Montmorencys,
the Richelieus, Birons, Rohans, Goutaut Talleyrands, Beauffremonts,
Luxemburgs, Crillons, Choiseuls, Chabots, Fitzjames, Grammonts, Latours
de Pin, Coislins, and Maillys. Most of these mansions are now occupied
as public offices, or Jesuitical schools, or by foreign Ministers.
Those who are now supposed to be the great people of the Faubourg St.
Germain are nothing more than actors, who put on a motley dress and
appear before the public with the view of attracting that attention
to which they are not entitled; it is, therefore, an error to suppose
that the modern faubourg is anything like what it was during the days
of the Bourbons. At the present moment the only practical aid the inhabitants
of this locality can accord to the legitimist cause in Europe, is by
getting up subscriptions for the Papacy, and such exiled Sovereigns
as Francis II.; and, in order to do so, they generally address themselves
to married women and widows: in fact, it is from the purses of susceptible
females, many of whom are English, that donations are obtained for legitimacy
and Popery in distress.

It is to be regretted that the most renowned and ancient families of
France have, in society and politics, yielded their places to another
class. That refinement of perception, sensitiveness, and gentle bearing,
which take three or four generations to produce, are no
longer the characteristics of Parisian society. The gilded saloons
of the Tuileries, and those magnificent hotels whose architects have
not been geniuses of art, but the children of Mammon, are occupied by
the Jew speculator, the political parasite, the clever schemer, and
those who - whilst following the fortune of the great man who rules