ssion, that
these men acted in direct violation of the principles of their religion,
and that the church is no more accountable for the delinquencies of its
members, than the courts of law for the morals of the jail.

Another repulsive feature of the period was the conduct of conspicuous
females. The habits of Germany in its higher ranks were offensive to all
purity. The Brunswick Princes had brought those habits to St James's.
Born and educated in Germany, they were regardless even of the feeble
decorums of English life, and a king's mistress was an understood
portion of the royal establishment. It is to the honour of later times,
that such offences could not now be committed with impunity. But the
example of Louis XIV. had sanctioned all royal excesses, and the conduct
of his successor was an actual study of the most reckless profligacy.
The constant intercourse of the English nobility with Paris, to which
allusion has already been made, had accustomed them to such scenes, and
persons of the highest condition, of the most important offices of the
state, and even of the most respectable private character, such as
respectability was in those days, associated with those mistresses,
corresponded with them, and even submitted to be assisted by their
influence with the king.

We shall give but one example; that of Henrietta Hobart, afterwards Lady
Suffolk. A baronet's daughter, and poor, she had married in early life
the son of the Earl of Suffolk, nearly as poor as herself. In their
narrowness of means, their only resource was some court office, and to
obtain this, and probably to live cheap, they went to Hanover, to lay
the foundation of favour with the future monarch of England. To some
extent they succeeded. For, on the accession of George the First, Mrs
Howard was appointed bedchamber-woman to Caroline the Princess of Wales.

Courts, in all countries, seem to be dull places; ceremonial fails as a
substitute for animation, and dinners of fifty covers become a mere tax
on time, taste, and common-sense. Etiquette is only _ennui_ under
another name, and the eternal anticipation of enjoyment is the death of
all pleasure. Miss Burney's narrative has let in light on the sullen
mysteries of the Maid of Honour's life, and her pencil has evidently
given us only the picture of what had been in the times of our
forefathers, and what will be in the times of our posterity.

Mrs Howard was well-looking, without the invidious attri