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Rh no real consequence. In France the dames of La Fronde were equally active with its cavaliers; every intrigue passed through their hands, and the Duchesse de Longueville's part in the drama was quite as effective as that of the Prince of Condé, her brother. The results of this feminine interference were inevitable—vacillation, absurdity, and profligacy. The northern and southern hemispheres are not more divided than those allotted to man and woman—public and private life.

There is no period of history which records the authority of the gentler sex without also recording its injurious effects. Leaving out the darker shades of the picture, are not impulse and sentiment the two mainsprings of all female action? and can aught be more mischievous in matters of politics or business? A king, the history of whose youth is that of a few insipid flirtations—a queen, weak, bigoted, and obstinate—a court rent by petty factions—a detested minister—a capital in a state of insurrection, and suffering both from inundation and famine;—such was the country, and such the state of affairs, where our young Italians expected to find all the rainbow dreamings of youth and hope realised. Something of this, however, they heard in the