These Qualities Of The Inhabitants, The Beauty Of The Country, And The Cheapness Of All The Comforts And Luxuries Of Life, Would Make Lyons One Of The Most Agreeable Places Of Residence To A Foreigner Of Liberal Sentiments And Principles.

Cloth and silk are the staple manufactures of Lyons, particularly the latter; I accompanied my friend Mr M - - to

See his fabrique of silk which is of considerable extent and importance, and everything appeared to me, as far as one totally ignorant of the business and its process could judge, admirably regulated and rapid in its execution. The tournure of the grisettes of Lyons is very striking and they possess completely the grata protervitas, the vultus nimium lubricus aspici which Horace so much admires in Glycera.

I visited both the theatres here, viz.: the Grand Theatre, situated near the Hotel de Ville, and the smaller one called the Theatre des Celestins. At the former was some good dancing, and at the latter I was engaged in a conversation which I cannot forbear citing as it will serve to show the dislike the people have to the feudal system and the dread they have of its re-establishment, tho' they can know nothing about it except by tradition. The piece performed was called Le petit Poucet (Tom Thumb and the Ogre); but I missed my old acquaintance the Ogre and his seven-league boots of Mother Goose, and found that in this melodrama he was transformed into a tyrannical and capricious Seigneur Feodal. There was a very pretty young lady about 16 years of age accompanied by her father in the same box with me, and I observed to her, "Ou est donc l'Ogre? il parait que l'on en a fait un Seigneur feodal." "Oui, monsieur (she replied), et avec raison, car ils etaient bien les Ogres de ce temps la." I entered into a long conversation with my fair neighbour and found her well informed and well educated, with great good sense and knowledge of the world far beyond her years. She told me that she had begun to study English and that her father was a miniature painter. I took leave of her not without feeling much affected and my heart not a little "percosso dall' amoroso strale."

I must not forget to mention that there is a most spacious and magnificent building on the Quai du Rhone to the North of the bridge, which serves as a cafe and ridotto or assembly room for balls, etc. I am afraid to say how many feet it has in length; but it is the most superb establishment of the kind I have ever met with.

Fortunately for the city of Lyons, the famous decree of Robespierre for its destruction, and the column with the inscription, "Lyon a porte les armes contre la liberte; Lyon n'est plus," which was to occupy its place, was never put in execution and tho' this city suffered much from revolutionary vandalism yet it soon recovered and has flourished ever since in a manner unheard of at any former period.

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