SHOULD THE LADIES LEAVE TFIE TABLE BEFORE TEl E GENTLEMEN
?
WE were somewhat surprised to find, in a work which we have already characterized as sensible, and which we have some reason for thinking is written by a lady, the followine. passage.
" As soon as the gentlemen were left to themselves, a loose was given to all the boisterous conviviality which prevailed so much in England at this cera ( 715, and nowhere to greater extent than amongst the gentry of Northumberland. Of late it has been the fashion to stigmatize this sort of after-dinner indulgence, both as irrational in itself and ungallant towards the fair ; and to laud, in its stead, the cold ca./ and /ninny/fie tri- fling of the Continental salon. We, however, are antediluvian enough to confess a predilection for the hearty old English custom ; which, far from injuring the cause of beauty, paves the way for its ultimate victory. Then as to the alleged irrationality—what other allotment of the day's duration produces a tithe of the eloquence and wit this seldom fails to clevelop."—Denconitraler ,Vol. 1. p.
If the entertainment after time departure of the ladies is not irra- tional, why should they not stay ?—for they either can or ought to be able to fake a share in what is rational, and enjoy it. To send ladies out of the room at a signal like the servants, may be gallant or ungallant. lf it be wished to set on foot conversation which they would be offended in hearing, it is better that they should be turned out than still more grossly insulted. It is here attempted to depreciate the Continental system of manners, by givin,, it a disagreeable epithet—" the cold car: and limonade trilling of the Continental salon." If heat were to decide the question, coae is hotter than wine, though not so heating: but what has the thermometer to do with the matter? We all know what hearty old English custom means : it is something that the indi- vidual using the phrase happens to like either in himself or in another. How the " caue of beauty" is to be benefited by a man's getting drunk, the lady nutst inform us : does she mean that sprawling under the table is "paring the way the victory —of the cause of beauty." Northumbrian beauty must be st ronelv nerved, to prefer a reeling, stemming, caldron of fermenting wine, to a steady though perhaps sedate gentleman in his senses. As to all the wit and eloquence spoken .of, it is a libel on the women to say that it flows only in their absence.
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