of compaffion and the moft lively fympathy.

I write, with the more warmth, as I have heard of fome of our countrymen, who, during their tours through Italy, made the humble ftate to which he is reduced a frequent theme of ridicule, and who, as often as they met him in public, affected to pass by with an air of fneering infult. The motive to this is as bafe and abject as the behaviour is unmanly; those who endeavour to make misfortune an object of ridicule, are themselves the objects of deteftation. A British nobleman or gentleman has certainly no occafion to form an intimacy with the Count Albany; but while he appears under that name, and claims no other title, it is ungenerous, on every accidental meeting, not to behave to him with the respect due to a man of high rank, and the delicacy due to a man highly unfortunate.

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One thing is certain; that the fame difpofition which makes men infolent to the weak, renders them flaves to the powerful; and those who are moft apt to treat this unfortunate perfon with an oftentatious contempt at Florence, would have been his most abject flatterers at St. James's.

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LETTER LXXIV.

Florence.

Na country where men are permitted

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to speak and write, without restraint, on the measures of government; where almost every citizen may flatter himself with the hopes of becoming a part of the legislature; where eloquence, popular talents, and political intrigues, lead to honours, and open a broad road to wealth and power; men, after the first glow of youth is paft, are more obedient to the loud voice of ambition than to the whifpers of love. But in defpotic ftates, and in monarchies which verge towards defpotifm, where the will of the prince is law; or, which amounts nearly to the fame thing, where the law yields to the will of the prince; where it is dangerous to speak or write on general politics, and

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death or imprisonment to cenfure the particular measures of government; love becomes a first, instead of being a secondary object; for ambition is, generally speaking, a more powerful paffion than love; and on this account women are the objects of greater attention and respect in defpotic than in free countries. That fpecies of addrefs to women which is now called gallantry, was, if I am not miftaken, unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans; nothing like it appears in any of Terence's comedies, where one would naturally expect to find it, if any fuch thing had exifted when they were written. It now prevails, in fome degree, in every country of Europe, but appears in different forms according to the different characters, cuftoms, and manners, of the various countries.

In the courts of Germany it is a formal piece of business; etiquette governs the arrows of Cupid, as well as the torch of Hymen.

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Hymen. Miftreffes are chofen from the number of quarters on their family coats of arms, as well as from the number of their perfonal charms; and thofe ladies who are well provided in the first, seldom are without lovers, however deficient they may be in the second. But though many avenues, which in England lead to power and distinction, are fhut up in Germany, and the whole power of government is vefted in the fovereign, yet the young nobility cannot beftow a great deal of their time in gallantry. The military profeffion, which in the time of peace is perfect idleness in France and England, is a very serious, unremitting employment in Germany. Men who are continually drilling foldiers, and whofe fortunes and reputations depend on the expertness of the troops under their command, cannot pay a great deal of attention to the ladies.

Every French gentleman must be a foldier; but fighting is the only part of the business

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