cows and sit in the shade singing of ballads,' is anything to us. Louis
and Dorothy are alike dust. A cotton-mill stands on the ruins of Marli;
and the Osbornes have ceased to dwell under the ancient roof of
Chicksands. But of that information, for the sake of which alone it is
worth while to study remote events, we find so much in the love letters
which Mr. Courtenay has published, that we would gladly purchase equally
interesting billets with ten times their weight in State papers taken at
random. To us surely it is as useful to know how the young ladies of
England employed themselves a hundred and eighty years ago, how far
their minds were cultivated, what were their favourite studies, what
degree of liberty was allowed to them, what use they made of that
liberty, what accomplishments they most valued in men, and what proofs
of tenderness delicacy permitted them to give to favoured suitors, as to
know all about the seizure of Franche-Comté and the Treaty of Nimeguen.
The mutual relations of the two sexes seem to us to be at least as
important as the mutual relations of any two Governments in the world;
and a series of letters written by a virtuous, amiable, and sensible
girl, and intended for the eye of her lover alone, can scarcely fail to
throw some light on the relations of the sexes; whereas it is perfectly
possible, as all who have made any historical researches can attest, to
read bale after bale of despatches and protocols, without catching one
glimpse of light about the relations of Governments.

"Mr. Courtenay proclaims that he is one of Dorothy Osborne's devoted
servants, and expresses a hope that the publication of her letters will
add to the number. We must declare ourselves his rivals. She really
seems to have been a very charming young woman, modest, generous,
affectionate, intelligent, and sprightly; a Royalist, as was to be
expected from her connections, without any of that political asperity
which is as unwomanly as a long beard; religious, and occasionally