umbers whom we have ever seen attending the regular
service in any of the churches, we should think this proportion greatly
overrated. Of those whom we have seen there, at least two-thirds have
been women above fifty, or girls under fifteen years of age. In all
Catholic countries, Sunday is a day of amusement and festivity, as well
as of religion--but it is generally, also, one of relaxation from
business: in Paris, we could see very little signs of the latter in the
forenoons, but the amusements and dissipation of the capital were
visibly increased in the evenings; and the Parisians have some reason
for their remark, that their day of rest is changed to Monday, when the
effect of their last night's dissipation wholly incapacitates them for
exertion.

It is clear, that it is quite absurd to attempt altering the manner of
spending the Sundays at Paris, while the sentiments of the people, in
regard to religion, continue such as at present; but it must be
admitted, on the other hand, that their habits, as to the way of
spending Sundays, re-act powerfully on their sentiments; and that the
minds of the lower orders, in particular, are much debased by the want
of what have been emphatically called "these precious breathing times
for the labouring part of the community."

Frenchmen of the higher ranks seem, at present, generally disposed to
wave the subject of religion; but those of the middling ranks, by whom
the business of the country is mainly carried on, do not scruple to
express their contempt of it;--they applaud with enthusiasm all
irreligious sentiments in the theatres, and seldom mention priests, of
any persuasion, without the epithet of _sacres_.

We were informed in Holland, that the Frenchmen who were sent to that
country in official capacities, military or civil, manifested on all
occasions the utmost contempt for religion. A French General, quartered
in the house of a respectable gentleman in Amsterdam, inquired the
reason, the first Sunday that he was there, of the family going out in
their best clothes; and being told they were going to church, he
expressed his surprise, saying,--"Now that you are a part of the great
nation, it is time for you to have done with that nonsense."

To an Englishman, who has been accustomed to see the ordinances of
religion regularly observed by the great majority of his countrymen, the
neglect of them by the French people appears very singular, and even
unnatural. When we afte