eal of imagination, but it can give you no idea of the mode of
existence inflicted on us. The men are all merchants, and commerce may
fill the purse, but clogs the brain: beyond their counting-houses they
possess not a single idea; they never visit except when they wish to
marry. The women are occupied in _les details du menage_ and nursing
children--useful occupations that do not render them agreeable to their
neighbors. The men, being all bent on marriage, do not attend to me,
because they fancy I am not inclined to change the evils of my condition
for those they could offer me. I have been thought so _ennuyee_ as to
accept very respectable offers, but I prefer remaining as I am to
marrying a person to whom I am indifferent. My letters from Paris say
that Decaze, the minister of police, is created a peer and is to marry
Princess de Beauveau. It appears very strange to my recollections of
political feelings, but nothing is too surprising with politicians. He
is very handsome at least--not a bad thing in a husband: they say, too,
that he has talents and sensibility.... Suppose you were to come to this
country: it is becoming the fashion to travel here, and you might find
materials for an interesting work.... It is impossible for me to return
to Europe: a single woman is exposed to so many disagreeable comments in
a foreign land. Besides, I have only eleven hundred pounds a year--not
enough to support me out of my own family.... I embroider and read. Do
you remember Mme. de Stael's description of the mode of life Corinne
found in an English country town, the subjects of conversation limited
to births, deaths and marriages? My opinion on these topics has long
been decided: that it is a misery to be born and married I have
painfully experienced.... Have you a good college in Dublin? I might
send my son there in two years, as he cannot go to France, and I do not
wish him to be educated in England, where his name would not recommend
him to favor."

"GENEVA, 1819. DEAR LADY MORGAN:... I should never have ventured on
another voyage to Europe could I have found the means of education for
my son.... We have been nearly ruined by commercial speculations, and
even I have suffered.... My son's education, too, demands no
inconsiderable expense, and his father never _has_, and never _will_,
contribute a single farthing toward his maintenance. We have no
correspondence since the demand that he would pay part of his necessary
expenditu