: most indispensable, is that nice and extreme sensibility, which instinctively shrinks from whatever can give the smallest offence to the most refined delicacy and which acts as the vigilant centinel-the jealous guardian-not only of the citadel itself, but of the remotest outworks of female chastity. What then shall be said of those women, who, instead of displaying any symptoms of those delicate feelings, set decency itself at defiance, and prove themselves to be destitute of all sense of shame? How dare she claim to be considered as virtuous, who gives the most glaring proof that she is not even a modest woman? That this is a just description of the fashionable females of the present day, no one, who is witness to the indecent exposure which they make of their persons, can pretend to dispute. So scandalously indecent is that exposure, that to judge from appearances, virtuous women seem now to have less modesty, than belonged to the prostitutes of former times. Justice, however, requires a distinction between the blooming but unfortunate maid, whose native blushes are over powered by the influence and example of a venal mother and the chaste matron, who, by a wanton exhibition of her person, shows that she is incapable of a blush. The former is an object of compassion; and still more so than she would be, if her life were to become a sacrifice to the brutal rage of her from whom she received it. The latter displays the female character in the most odious form which it is capable of assuming. She is even more odious and detestable on account of her pretensions to chastity. The monstrous and unnatural alliance, which she endeavours to establish between virtue and helplessness, tends not only to bring the former into contempt, but to endanger its very existence, by depriving it of its natural and necessary defence. Compared with such a woman, the female who has fallen a victim to temptation, and who hides herself in retirement from the disgrace which she can never wipe away, is an object of commiseration. - Nay, compared with such a woman, the bold and abandoned profligate, who, with dauntless effrontery, appears publicly in her true character, is less disgraceful to her sex, and less injurious to society." The above quotation (the importance of which must apologize for its length) is taken from a pamphlet, intituled, Remarks on Modern Female Manners, as distinguished by indifference to character, and indecency of dress: extracted from "Reflections, Political and Moral, at the Conclusion of the War: by John Bowles, Esq." Octavo, price 6d. Rivingtons, 1802. As a further recommendation of this tract to public notice, the just praise bestowed on it in the British Critic is added for the reader's perusal. “This is a striking extract from a work which we have formerly praised, on the female modesty so little consulted in the present fashionable modes of dress. The influence of the female character on the great interests of society, is here ably displayed; and the British fair are reminded into what degradation they plunge themselves, by condescending to adopt the appearance of wantons. That which has most surprised us, on many occasions, is, that parents themselves of strict characters, should suffer their unthinking daughters, even in their presence, to make an appearance which they surely cannot contemplate without a blush.”—British Critic for October, 1802. From the above citation, it appears that the politician and moralist concur with the theologian in reprobating the corruption of the present æra. It may be remarked, that no notice has been taken of the extravagance in the expenditure of money which prevails, respecting dress, furniture, and other things, in the present day. The silence which is observed in the dialogue on this subject arose, not from the infrequency or innocence of profuse and luxurious habits, of which the gratification of pride and vanity is the aim; but from the multiplicity of other objects which demanded censure. It will not, however, be improper to observe, that this kind of vanity is as much a breach of our baptismal vow, as any other instance of it which has been specified; and that it is, moreover, a breach of more than one commandment. It is a transgression of the first, since it is a surrender of the heart to the world, which Jehovah claims as wholly his own. Of the sixth; as thereby we withhold from our poor neighbour, that which might contribute to the comfort of his life, or even save him from perishing by cold or hunger, and so become accessaries to his death; while neither our necessities nor our accommodations demand the surplusage we desecrate to the pomps of the world. Of the eighth; since we thereby unjustly alienate from the poor that which is their due, the superfluities of our income not being ours, but theirs. It would be easy to show, by a just deduction of consequences, that several other commandments are infringed by profuseness in the expenditure of our money, and that the whole second table of the law is thereby violated; since it requires us to do unto others, as we would they should do unto us. Bishop Beveridge, in the resolutions he formed for the conduct of his life, writes thus: " I am |