TASHION AND rAmisE.

Nona were the aristocratic salons of Paris more brilliant, never ,lid its fitshiot:ablc lituboutgs offer more tempting delights to the pofe:sorst of pleasure, wit, and literature, than during the letter part of the reign of Louts the Fifteenth. Then it was Brat Guano penned his celebrated eulogy on a Parisian existence— the '• lively and graceful follies," and the "perfection of that iliestionCole art which softens and refines and embellishes the inter- esiurse of social bk.." Ai this period of unbounded luxury and exceeding enjoyment of the aristocracy and fashionable men of letters. the mass of the French people were in a state of extreme distres In Paris, the canaille were tierce from want of food; but in the provinces, oppression and famine had reduced millions almost below the condition of human beings. This was but one remove, in the chain of causation, 11-om the time when the " tiger-apes" ruse to their savage repast, and appeared to the effeminate chivalry of Franc:: like devils inealuate.

it may seem odd, but it is eery true, that this reminiscence of the days when french luxury had reached its acute, and the misery of the bulk of the people hail become all but insupportable, has been stil;gestsil by an article in the pleasant pages of the Morning Post, oil so kay a subject as the " prospects of the approaching season." Aeceasling to Coe Post, London is to be toms aally brilluuat. Last st.,sun, it appears, was MI indiarent one for tile Metropolis, iv,t- w it:Ism:tiling the Coronation- 4- The foreigners arlivett were not a tithe of the English who departed 1,;f; t7 exp.:;tses which the sight of the prget,nt, cur- t;11.- of its fitir cotnp,•uaate. Ai to the great p..rsonages

who came to represent their S■wereign4., it is welt known that they hat not time to give half the fetes they intenled. On their departure, immense stocks

nits and other Mrei:_ti articles of consumption belonging to the Ambassadors were dila,,01, ed."

But the English aristocracy are prepering to exhibit extraordi- nary essA.iiiic...nce- .• .s,■VT., give. i■le 111e 11;re of houses and their einhellishment have been Fuld: heel ho ;-es are already becoming A he wen tol is not yet be.gum What

, pro3perity to tit.: trade of Lumina, is the

ries i • • • • hen.' th: .1; Dblf•A'S tr :it. in 11■,:' S!rtet4 to the .11. )6,111 l• • • . Street,. wholv since tlo!

tatildhl7 of 1h1,Jrave 1.,,rdeoctes. lo;:f.es untenantt .1 were itu- sh..ri. MEd 111.10;1 eXCCI'llingly thy, d, are now fling very quickly. Bents t peso per cent., and ten ln.uses are remaining en hand." Folitiei.tos will suspect that the prospect of the Tories' return to ',owes has had some effect upon sulky ilbm'Ll:Ct.S. The rust says tir.q " (liSt of the present order, or rat her disorder of t hi :14s," had driven the Nssessnrs of "many of the hossest establishments„

hit Ls,estso ; and thij i orn, we pre: in the full es:peilation

dy change. These may be another reason : the enormous price et' corn will furnish them with the weans of larger exponli- tore than they have possessed for several years. We know that larallortis are taking advantage of the prospect that high prices will eow'T111C, to raise their next year's rent. It is not without cause that a brilliant season is anticipated. But now tura to the provinces, and glance at the condition of' the labt uring classes. if a parallel can be traced between the

fashionable splendour and dissipation of Paris towards the close of the eighteenth century and London as it is to be in "tie season" of

183:-!, the present state of the bulk of the English population re- calls to mind the sufferings of the French peasantry under Louts the Filleenth and his successor. Not, indeed, to the same extent

has profligacy in time British capital and suffering in the provinces yet arrived; but it is noticeable that a "season" of peculiar brilli-

ancy in the "fashionable world" should be anticipated during period of unusual distress among the people. " Warm water coloured with raspings of bread," we are told, is now the common beverage of labourers in the South of England. Seven shillings is all that a peasant with a family can procure by six days' work. The rise in bread has not been balanced by an advance in wages. Everybody recollects that 1819 was a hard season for the poor. Yet the same quantity of flour could be purchased then for 2s. 9d. as for 3s. 6d. now. Potatoes are almost 50 per cent. dearer., Ani- mal food the poor scarcely ever see in their cottages ; so that when a considerable rise takes place in flour and potatoes, without a cor- responding increase of wages, we may be sure that something like starvation is in every peasant's dwelling.

And, as must be expected, the. famished are becoming reckless and desperate. Last week we had occasion to notice the open-day seizure of a quantity of corn by a gang of ten men, who went to work as coolly as a foraging-party in an enemy's country. And the philosophical Morning Chronick instructed us that the foray was nothing more than " a natural result." Here is another sample of " natural results," given in u Salisbury paper- " On Sunday night last, sonic daring thieves stole fire sacks of potatoes from Mrs. Gibbs, of Canford. The pit was close to the !wane, owl the thieves had the audacity to drier a horse and curt into the garden, in which g curried them away. And on Saturday night last, some persons carried away a quantity of wheat from a barn at Corfu, the property of Mr. Bound."

This was in the South. b the North, robberies of unwonted boldness have been executed; and the Poor-law Commissioners have been compelled to allow a return to the old plan of giving out- door relief to the able-bodied labourers, in a part of the country where the law and the people struggled for a victory, which the latter have gained.

" The Baddersfield Board of Guardians, after holding out against the Poor-law Commissioners for more titan twelve months, have at last gained the day. At the end of last week, Mr. E. Chadwick, the Secretary to the Poor-law Commis- simter, wrote to the Guardians the decision of that body, in which they allow the Board to appoint fourteen relieving-officers, at the :Juries and under the circumstances they proposed; and they also consent to the Guardians using Xeeretion as to the girl vg out-door relief to :mei, imrtles us 11:,g twig deem to" he deserving °tiled& of liwour. In consequence of these concessions, the Guardians have consented to act, and have advertised for relieving-officers."--- lhobler,ifirld Gazette.

Without this suffering of the masses, we fear that " the season" of 1839 would not be so brilliant as the Poet anticipates. It is the high price of corn which stimulates fashion and produces starva- tion. The condition of society must be alarming when the pro- sperity of the ruling class—the "landed ascendancy" of Lord JOAN

Russma.—rests upon the misery of the great mass of their fellow citizens. It' this state of things could possibly continue long enough, we might have reason to dread a repetition, in England, of much that happened within living memory in France.