ill the lady whom he wishes to serve look very
kindly on a man who treats his own wife with unpoliteness. _Che cuore
deve avere!_ says she: What a heart he must have! _Io non mene fido
sicuro_: I shall take care not to trust him sure.

National character is a great matter: I did not know there had been such
a difference in the ways of thinking, merely from custom and climate, as
I see there is; though one has always read of it: it was however
entertaining enough to hear a travelled gentleman haranguing away three
nights ago at our house in praise of English cleanliness, and telling
his auditors how all the men in London, _that were noble_, put on a
clean shirt every day, and the women washed the street before his
house-door every morning. "_Che schiavitu mai!_" exclaimed a lady of
quality, who was listening: "_ma natural mente fara per commando del
principe_."--"_What a land of slavery!_" says Donna Louisa, I heard her;
"_but it is all done by command of the sovereign, I suppose_."

Their ideas of justice are no less singular than of delicacy: but those
are more easily accounted for; so is their amiable carriage towards
inferiors, calling their own and their friends servants by tender names,
and speaking to all below themselves with a graciousness not often used
by English men or women even to their equals. The pleasure too which the
high people here express when the low ones are diverted, is
charming.--We think it vulgar to be merry when the mob is so; but if
rolling down a hill, like Greenwich, was the custom here, as with us,
all Milan would run to see the sport, and rejoice in the felicity of
their fellow-creatures. When I express my admiration of such
condescending sweetness, they reply--_e un uomo come un altro;--e
battezzato come noi_; and the like--Why he is a man of the same nature
as we: he has been christened as well as ourselves, they reply. Yet do I
not for this reason condemn the English as naturally haughty above their
continental neighbours. Our government has left so narrow a space
between the upper and under ranks of people in Great Britain--while our
charitable and truly Christian religion is still so constantly employed
in raising the depressed, by giving them means of changing their
situation, that if our persons of condition fail even for a moment to
watch their post, maintaining by dignity what they or their fathers have
acquired by merit, they are instantly and suddenly broken in upon by the
wel