The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-02-05 00:00:00

MANNERS OF THE CITIZENS.

The bluntness, honesty, and revived character of the
citizens of London, has always subjected them to misrepre-
sentation by foreigners, who have never done them justice,
seldom judged favourably, and often committed the most
ludicrous blunders in speaking of them. Though kind
and hospitable, the London citizens feel a conscious supe-
riority and self-satisfaction, which is often mistaken for
pride and hauttur. Your London citizen is no cosmo-
polite; it it his creed to believe no country like England.
no city like its metropolis, no point of ambition higher than
that of Lord Mayor, and day in the calendar so worthy
of observation as the 9th of November, when the tables of
Guildhall groan beneath the city banquet. "He is," says
an old writer of the time of Charles the First, " one who
loves to hear the famous arts of citizens ;" but, with all
this apparent selfishness, he has a purse always open for
works of charity, and never inquires whether the object of
it has been a friend or foe.

Foreigners, however, have entertained a very different
opinion of the London citizens, of whose real character
they have manifested a singular ignorance.
Brunelli Latini, an Italian, who visited England in the
reign of Henry the Third, gives a singular account of the
London citizens, whom he describes as "a very turbulent,
restless, and dissatisfied people; and, did not the Legate
interfere from time to time, to aid the King's authority,
they could not be kept within any proper bounds • happily
for them and the whole people, whenever the Legate
threatens them with the vengeance of the holy church,
they become more moderate, and thus the interdict of
our holy father the Pope quiets every tumult and com-
motion."

Cosmo H. the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who visited the
Court of Charles the Second, says, "the common people of
London, giving way to their natural inclination, are proud,
arroeant, and uncivil to foreigners, against whom, and
especially the French, they entertain a great prejudice, and
cherish a profound hatred, treating such as come among
them with contempt and insult. The nobility, though also
proud, have not so usually the defects of the lower orders,
displaying a certain degree of politeness and courtesy to-
wards strangers."
The gallantry of the Grand Duke elicit+ from him a
more favourable character of the ladies :—" The women of
London," he says, "are not inferior to the men, either in
stature or in beauty. for they are all of them handsome,
and, for the most part, tall, with black eyes, abundance of
light coloured hair, and a neatness which is extreme;
their only personal defect being their teeth, which are not,
generally speaking, very white. The liberty authorized
by the custom of the country dispenses with that rigorous
constraint and reservedness, which are practised by the
women in other countries, and they go w ithersoever they
please, either alone or in compiny ; and those of the lower
order frequently go so far as to play at ball publicly in the
streets.'

The writers of the present age have scarcely been more
liberal, although it might have been expected that a more
frequent intercourse with the British capital, together with
the removal of those prejudices which rendered nations so
slow to acknowledge each other's merits, might have pro-
duced a mere candid and a more cornet estimate of the
English character.
General l'illct, who knew nothing of England, but what
he had learned on board of one of our prison sl.:ps, libelled
our character sully; and yet, ignorant and scandalous as
he was, an American journalist praised his work, as exhi-
biting a very correct view of English manners.
During a season of war, and a war carried on with such
hostility as that between England and France, it could
scarcely be expected that the writers of either country
would speak very favourably of the other, yet few persons
would expect so ludicrous a picture of London as appeared
in the French official journal, the Moniker, in the year
1811 :—" To know the reduced situation of England," says
the editor, " you have only to take a view of the present
condition of her capital. The distressed merchants, con-
strained to reduce the number of their draught-horses,
now convey their merchandise on the foot-pavement in
hmurties (wheelbarrows), so that which used to be the
promenade for ladies is now become as ruinous and filthy
u the streets. Soon after night-fall almost a total darkness
prevails, from the inability of the inhabitants to pay the
oil-tax for their lamps, which, like that on windows or
daylight, is become excessive. Scarcely a midnight orgie
now enlivens their mansions of distinction; even Dover-
shire-house ( Devonshire-house, we presume, is here meant)
no longer shines with splendor, and the sounds of the lute
and harp have given way to the clangor of the watchmen's
rattles, as alarms to the affrighted housekeeper to guard his
property against the nocturnal acts of masked depredators.
All dramatic and harmonic taste is tied. The only remain-
ing theatre royal being deserted, is turned into a maiwn de
rlecrul (riffing-house), and Nlesdanies Bi islington (Billing_
ton) and Catalani sing now at the Sadler 's Wells—the
chief resort of entertainment for sailors and handicraftsmen
of the day !"
Thus was the British metropolis libelled in 1811; the
French are now, however, better acquainted with it, and
lit is to be hoped are more liberal.

A carresponCent of the Belfast News Letter states, that
a body of ribbonmen, about 500 in num ier, catntnenced
a dreadful riot at a fair in a village called Dauriestown
(alias Beragh), county of Tyrone, on the 15th ult. A
party of yeomanry was sent for to disperse the rioters, when,
unfortunately, a )oung man, named Adam Smyth, a Pro-
testant, was killed. The ribbonmen fled in all directions.

IKISII MINES AND COLLIESILS.—We see in the Dub-
lin papers the announcement of a Meeting of the Nobility,
Gentry, Merchants, and Traders, desirous to ascertain the
practicability of working with advantage any of the mines
or collieries of Ireland, and of forming a joint stock com-
pany for the purpose. There is, we believe, much field for
enterprise in a speculation of this nature, and, we under-
mild, wvU grounded hopes for success.—Cork Cut runick.