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 LETTERS 
 
 FROM 
 
 PARIS, 
 
 DURING 
 
 THE SUMMER OF 
 
 Liberte, liberte, a Paris on t'a raife ; 
 D'un Roi le voifinage eft fouvent dangereux : 
 Prefide a tout etat ou la loi t'autorile, 
 Et reftez-y, fi tu peux. 
 
 VOLTAIiE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTRD FOR J. DEBRETT, PICCADILLY, AND 
 W. CLARKE, NEW BOND STREET. 
 
 M.DCC.XCII.
 
 DC 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 114, laft line, prefix , . 
 147, L 5, read to Monf. 
 149, 1. 12, r. le juger. 
 155, 1. I, r. Pba-dria. 
 
 1.8, r.bifi. 
 
 448, 1. 13, r. camne un adverbs. 
 77f * 3> r. bun. 
 a88, I. 17, r. /n*j. 
 336, L 12, r 
 337> 1' 4>
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 JL HE following Letters were 
 written at Paris in the months 
 of June, July, Auguft, Septem- 
 ber, and O&ober, during the time 
 between the King's flight from 
 his capital, and his iigning and 
 acceptance of the new Conftitu-^ 
 tion. All the interim, between 
 the Monarch's abfence and his 
 return, it was conceived in gene- 
 A ral,
 
 [ vi ] 
 
 ral, would be fo big with tumult 
 and difturbance, that few ftran- 
 gers were hardy enough to think 
 of going to Paris, though it were 
 to be eye-witnefles of fo novel 
 a fight, as that of a Grand Mo- 
 narch brought back to his capi- 
 tal, like a wild beail in a firing, 
 amidft the groans and hifTes of 
 an indignant populace. 
 
 The tumults, however, and 
 commotions, which it was natu- 
 rally fuppofed would take place 
 in the French metropolis on the 
 abdication of royalty, exifted 
 more in the imaginations of fo- 
 reigners than within the walls of 
 
 Paris ;
 
 [ vii ] 
 
 Paris ; that illuftrious capital fuf- 
 fered not the nature of an in- 
 furre&ion on the feceffion of its 
 Monarch. Within four-and- 
 twenty hours of his flight, the 
 wits began to make epigrams on 
 the vacant Throne, and the 
 Knights of the Palais Roial, to 
 return with perfect ferenity to 
 the contemplation of their fa- 
 vourite colours, rouge 6f noir. 
 This was the cafe even before 
 it was known that the King was 
 taken, but as foon as that fa& 
 was afcertained, they began to 
 pafquinade his Majefty for want 
 of courage, and the following 
 A 2 verfes
 
 verfes were handed about among 
 many others : 
 
 Dame nation joue au piquet avec la noblefTe, 
 Celle-ci joue de guignon, 1'autre triche fans 
 
 cefle ; 
 
 Mais malgre fon malheur pour elle je parie, 
 II ne lui faut qu'un Roi de coeur pour gagner Ic 
 
 partie. 
 
 Louis Seize was taken in his 
 coach by the Mayor of Vareh- 
 nes, through the great refem- 
 blance of his Majefty to the royal 
 portrait on the national paper. 
 The fugitive Monarch was caught 
 moil unfortunately en founder e, 
 in the precife manner that his 
 royal brother-in-law recommend- 
 ed to General Dalton, to take 
 
 his
 
 his difobedient and rebellious 
 fubjefts. But ftill, it ftiould 
 feem, had his Majefty even here 
 put on the King, and made the 
 flighteft ftand on getting out of 
 the carriage, and called to his 
 horfe to fupport him, " A moi 
 " Dragon" all his followers, to 
 a man, infifl upon it, that he 
 might ftill have reached the fron- 
 tier: but fortunately for the 
 country, however otherwife for 
 his brothers and coufins, the King 
 made no reflftance, and quietly 
 ordered his coachman to turn his 
 horfe s heads back the fame way 
 that they came. 
 
 A 3 His
 
 His Majefty had no fooner 
 pafled over his own bridge, (for 
 he came by the way of the new 
 Boulevards, purpofely to avoid 
 the crowds aflembled on the old) 
 and was fafely lodged in the 
 Thuilleries, than the Party be- 
 gan to try experiments, weave 
 plots, and have recourfe to ftra- 
 tagems for his enlargement. 
 
 The city of Paris, however, 
 was kept in hot water all the 
 time between his Majefly's un- 
 gracious return, and his gracious 
 acceptance of the new Conftitu- 
 tion, which conferred on him 
 more power, I may fay, and more 
 
 in-
 
 influence, than he ever before 
 was in pofleffion of. He was 
 guarded, neverthelefs, as if he 
 had been in a Baftile, or the 
 dungeon of Vincennes, before 
 the arrival of the important mo- 
 ment when he was to pronounce 
 on his own future deftiny. 
 
 But I fay no more, left I be 
 found tranfcribing the Letters in 
 the Introdu&ion to them ; iince 
 they are too fhort to permit of an 
 epitome, and too few to fuffer 
 an abridgement. 
 
 A 4 CON-
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Page 
 
 Dover Pi&urefqut Beauty Julius 
 Ctefar's 'Tower Dover Cajlle, i 5 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Calais Deffeirfs Garden Convents 
 Garden of the Capuchins 6 12 
 
 L E T T E R III. 
 
 Country from Calais to Ardres Le 
 Champ du drap d'Or St. Omer's, 
 
 I 3 1 ? 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 'CaJJel Change of Manners LJJle 
 News of the King's Flight Fran- 
 tic Exultations on the News of the 
 King's Capture, 18 26 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Convent of Mont St. Otyentin Arras 
 Sadly Peronne, 2 7 3 1 
 
 LET-
 
 [ xiii ] 
 
 Page 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Maury Bijhop of Beauvais 
 Church of France 3^-^37 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 plants near Peronne Pont St. Max- 
 ence Chateau of M. de Vlllette * 
 Sen/is 38 43 
 
 LETTER yiii. 
 PARIS -The King Particulars of his 
 
 Efcafe, &c. 44 50 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Bankers National AJjembly Mar- 
 quis de Eoullles Letter, 51 56 
 
 LETTER X. 
 Cathedral of Notre Dame Ancient 
 
 Chafub.!eLe Chevalier du B 
 
 5763 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 fexier Theatre de la Nation 
 Learned Men Monf. de Villoifon 
 De la Rochette L? Archer Coray 
 r Cla'viere 63 6.9 
 
 LET.
 
 [ xvi ] 
 
 Page 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 ffncennes Louis XI7. & Mad. de la 
 Valkre Dancing Peace rejlored, 
 
 152158 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 W- du Veyrier Comte d'Artois, &c. 
 
 159163 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 Money Comte cTEfc/iniac, &c. 164 168 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 Stands Climate Comte d'Artois* 
 Gardens Arijlocrates >Mobs, 
 
 169174 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 Almanack des Mufes L'Efc/ave Fa- 
 lulijle, Conte ; with a 'Tranjlation, 
 
 175 180 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 Account of the Riots at Birmingham 
 Dr. Priejlley Emigrants, 1 8 1 1 8 6 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 New Coinage Publication of the New 
 Conjlitution, 187 192 
 
 a LET-
 
 Page 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 Republicans and Monarchy-men Bois 
 de Boulogne Piroits Defcripticn of 
 a WoodComte d* Artoi? Villa 
 Comparifon with the >ueerfs Gar- 
 dens at Trianon, 1 9 3 1 9 9 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 Ranelagh M. de Calonnc, 200 205 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 Singular PuniJJment of a Procurefs 
 M. Santerre Mont de Piete 
 Streets of Panis Manufactures 
 M. Bail/i y 206 2 1 2 
 
 LETTER XXXVIL 
 Priefts theatre Fifteen Sous-piece 
 Mad. du Barrels Diamond^ 
 
 213218 
 
 LETTER XXXVIIL 
 Mr. Burke s Book Obfervations on 
 the Stile, 219 224 
 
 L E- T T E R XXXIX. 
 Fete de St. Louis Scaliger Academy 
 of Infcriptions Falfe Alarm 
 Kings Guards 225 237 
 
 LET-
 
 [ xviii ] 
 
 Page 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 Mayor dc Varennes Jacobins M. 
 Gamache J. J. RouJJeau, 233 238 
 
 LETTER XLI. 
 
 Gaming Marq. dcPaulmys Library, 
 
 239243 
 
 LETTER XLH. 
 
 Royal Bon Mot Kings Aunts 
 Luxemburgh Gardens M. Bar- 
 nave, 244 249 
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 Horfes Abbe Joitbert, 250 255 
 
 LETTER XLIV. 
 ffo' Kings Acceptance of the Ne<w 
 Conjlitution fhuitteries thrown 
 open M. Camus K. James 20*. 
 
 256 262 
 
 . LETTER XLV. 
 Bread Scarcity of Corn Englijh 
 and French Stage Abbe M. 
 Abbe Boyfmont, &c. 263 268 
 
 LET-
 
 C xix ] 
 
 Page 
 LETTER XLVI. 
 
 King's Vlfit to the National Ajfembly 
 fgns the New Conjlitutlon Great 
 Applaufe, 269 274 
 
 LETTER XLVII. 
 
 Difcontents of the Anjlocrates, 276 280 
 
 LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 Fete on the Completion of the Conjli- 
 tutlon King and Queen vift the 
 Opera Arrival of the New Mem- 
 bers, 281285 
 
 LETTER XLIX. 
 M. Malouct Finances Religion, 
 
 286 291 
 LETTER L. 
 
 New Parliament Exhibition of Pic- 
 tures in the Louvre Painting 
 Palais de Ihermes, 292 296 
 
 Qbfervations on the Finances, 2 98 3 1 o 
 
 PARISIANA. French RevolutionCha- 
 racter of the French, 311 Enemies, 
 
 312
 
 3 1 2 Finances, 3 1 jj Donations, &c* 
 314 Buffbn ; Montefquieu, 3 1 5 
 Petites Proprietes ; Panegyric, 3 1 6 - 
 Church ; Arguments for the Abolition of 
 the Church Lands, 3 1 7 Lands of the 
 Clergy, 3 1 9 Dinner Hour ; y. J. 
 Rouffeau, 320- Iron Cages ; y. jf.- 
 Rotiffeau, 321 Fable, Revolution, 322 
 - .L<? Dwr ^? Richelieu ; !,<? NobleJJe, 
 326 Pen/ton Lift ; Kings of France, 
 327 French Academy, 328 Bajlile ; 
 Singularities in the affairs of Europe 
 1789, 32 9 Banque Nationale ; Money, 
 330 Bourreaux ; Public Executions, 
 332 >'//#, 333 jBtf# M?/ ; Af^w ^ 
 Letters, 334 Cardinal Fleury ; Learn- 
 ed Men, 335 Fernet, 337 P^m ; 
 Ctf^, 338 UOrgie dc la Cocarde, 339 
 Sermon ; JLf J Cordeliers, 340 Cltoyen 
 du Monde.; Elm, 341 Monajlery ; 
 Arlflocratk ; Revolution, 342 L'Eve- 
 que de Baycux ; Lantcrne, 343 Z./- 
 terte \ Defpotifm, 344 Chanfon de 
 i 740 ; sljfignats, 345 Mir a be an, 346* 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTERS, &c. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Dover, June 1/91. 
 
 1 O begin a letter to a friend, with 
 whom we have been accu domed to live 
 in the habits of intimacy, is no more 
 than to continue a converfation, how- 
 ever long it may have been interrupted, 
 or at whatfoever diftance of time or fpace 
 taken up. The laft words of a favourite 
 voice ftill hang upon the ear, and bring 
 back to your recollection every thing that 
 preceded them, in the whole, or in parts, 
 Jike the perfect air, which Roufleau tells 
 B us,
 
 as, having once heard with the advantage 
 of a full band, he carried away with him r 
 and repeated at pleafure in his clofet. 
 O ! that I could have prevailed upon you 
 to have accompanied me I but I forbear 
 to reproach, though you rouft allow me 
 to fay, how much I lofe in loiing your 
 fociety ; and to what a fad expedient I am 
 reduced, to be obliged to commit to paper 
 obfervations which owe their merit to 
 furrounding circumftances, to accidents 
 which cannot be preferved, and to lights 
 and {hades that cannot be delineated. 
 Thus it will happen, that what de- 
 lighted me more than any thing I have 
 feen, may pleafe you lefs, were you to 
 viiit the fpot with my letter before 
 your eyes. I remember well, hearing of 
 ibme one being very much difappointed, 
 that he found fo little reiemblance be- 
 tween the painted fcenery of the Wye, 
 
 and
 
 t 3 1 
 
 and the real. " Why furely," fays he, 
 with Gilpin's book in his hand, " the 
 "man has never been here; the lights, 
 " the fhades, the diftances are all at va- 
 " riance ; it is not the fame thing : no, 
 " certainly not ; Claude, or Roufleau, 
 *' or any good obferver of naturc, could 
 " have told him, that all the elements 
 " are different at different hours of the 
 " day, and in different flates of the at- 
 " mofphere." 
 
 I arrived at this place lafl night, and 
 put off my paflage till to-day at noon, 
 wiming to take a curfoiy view of the 
 fortifications, (begun by one Board of 
 Ordnance, and finimed by another) which, 
 J fuppofe, it is poffible to demonftrate, 
 are very fit and proper for their place, 
 though it is lefs apparent to a vulgar 
 eye. The remains of the old tower, 
 B 2 called
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 called the Tower of Julius Caefaf, 
 me infinite fatisfa6lion ; it is built with 
 layers of {tone and tile, and the tile is 
 grooved or fcored on the under fide, ill 
 order to receive the mortar on which it 
 is laid. I (hall fay a word more on this 
 fubject, probably, before I have done, in 
 order to found a conjefture on the age 
 of this relic of antiquity. 
 
 The curiofities of the Caftle are chiefly 
 baronial ; the horn, the bell, the fword 
 of ftate, the fpurs, &c. the vertebra? of 
 of an animal, were found nearly at the 
 bottom of the well, or within two fa- 
 thoms of the fea more. The plants that 
 occur at this time in the neighbourhood- 
 of the Cafile are interefting to a botaniil:, 
 efpecially if he can find any of the fcarce 
 ones in his fhort excurfion from the inn, 
 before the tide ferves to carry him over ; 
 
 for
 
 t 5 ] 
 
 for it is never worth while to rifk loilng 
 fight of the grand objeft for the fake of 
 a digreffion, which may be made as well 
 at another feafon ; kft you ihould re- 
 ferable the man, who, with fome diffi- 
 culty, having clambered to the top of a 
 high mountain to fee the fea, and a fleet 
 of mips, fuffered his eyes to be rivetted 
 to the ground in fearch of a fcarce and 
 diminutive objeft of nature, till the fleet 
 was out of fight. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 B 3 LET-
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Calais, June 1791. 
 
 J HAD a very plealant pafTage to this 
 place of four hours, and got to Calais in 
 good time to dine in the garden, and on 
 the ground-floor; I need not tell you, 
 that there is no dining-place with us 
 more delightful in a fine day than Def- 
 fein's garden, whether at Shuter's-hill, 
 or Salt-hill, or any of the hills, I know 
 of none that can compare with it. There 
 is not the fmallefr. idea of an inn in this 
 charming place ; an air of magnificence 
 and private property reigns through the 
 whole ; you appear to yourfelf to be 
 paying a vifit to a great Prince, who has 
 
 attatted
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
 allotted you a fuite of apartments that 
 look upon a pleafant parterre, fuch as 
 Jean Jacques defcribes, frais, vert, p#rt, 
 orne, fauri, arrost ; in fhort, le lout du 
 monde paroit etre a votrt porte, you feem 
 to have touched at the Hefperides, and 
 wim to let up your fraff, at leaft for a 
 week. Such is the impreffion this en-> 
 chanting fpot had made upon me, when 
 I was. roufed from my fit of admiration, 
 by the found of fiddles and a drum, and 
 ran out into the flreet to inquire what it 
 meant, and at the gate of the outer 
 court I found four blind men, three 
 violins and a drum, in proceffion round 
 the town on the ve of the Ftte-Dieu ; 
 the muficians were all of one family, 
 and all brothers, and their conductors 
 collected farthings and halfpence for 
 them from the crowd that followed them. 
 I returned back again into my apart- 
 33 4 mcnt.
 
 merit, and walking towards the Theatre, 
 which faces the garden-front of the 
 Hotel, I found there was no play till 
 the next day, and I had nothing to do 
 but to go round the town, and call at the 
 convents, and walk into every religious 
 houfe I mould find open. The French 
 houfes are at this feafon very agreeably 
 decorated with parterres, which, you 
 know, are, for the moft part, at their win- 
 dows, and, like the gardens of Adonis, 
 in pots, tranfportable to any part of the 
 houfe. The articles that compofe thefe 
 are of the choiceft kind ; double pome- 
 granates, double neriums, myrtles, pink- 
 flowering, coxcomb, and bird's neft ; bede- 
 trees, with fpikes of flowers at leaft 
 twelve inches long, and fweet-fcented 
 gales. Thefe you may find every where, 
 indeed the grenadiers, and the lauriers- 
 rofes, appear to thrive even at Calais much 
 
 better
 
 t 9 1 
 
 better than with us, and are much eafier 
 to propagate, if we may judge from the 
 quantity we fee of them, and the mo- 
 derate price they bear in the flower-mar- 
 kets. Having made the tour of the 
 ramparts, T went to the convent of the 
 Capuchins ; on the ramparts I found an 
 alley of elms, which had been planted 
 but five years, and feemed to have grown 
 altogether as fail: as poplars ; the leaf is 
 large, and very rough, and is diftinguifhed 
 vulgarly by the elm a groffes feullles : I 
 have feen this elm very commonly in 
 nurferies, but I never had an idea of the 
 quicknefs of its growth. The foil is a 
 light fand. 
 
 I went to the Capuchins to vifit the 
 lafl man of the fociety, the Warden 
 (Garden}, who having feen all the 
 orders out, leaves the houfe the laft, 
 
 lie
 
 [ 10 ] 
 
 He has one brother with him, who fol- 
 lows his fortunes, and flays or goes with 
 his commanding officer. 
 
 I went next to a convent, where 
 there has been no change of perfbns, 
 with the change of politics, but folely 
 of property. The fair pofleflors are not 
 quite fo well endowed as they were 
 ibme little time ago ; and yet not one 
 of thefe Dominiquin ladies chufe to quit 
 their hold of the monaftery, but wifh 
 to remain penfioners of Government, in 
 the perfect enjoyment of their religious 
 habits, tranquil and undiflurbed, with 
 full liberty 
 
 *' To count their beads, to live in cloifters damp, 
 ^ To faft and pray, and trim the midnight lamp.'*' 
 
 In the garden of the Capuchins, which 
 was rented by an inhabitant of Calais, 
 
 I found
 
 J found a number of fcarce hot-houfe 
 and greeu-houfe plants, which came 
 from Gordon'* and other nurfery-cnen in 
 London, The pofleflbr feemed to take 
 great delight in cultivating them, and 
 wifhed much to propagate his favourites, 
 which were fuchfia, and heaths of various 
 forts. Againft the walls of the convent 
 was an immenfe cherry-tree loaded with 
 fruit, but good for nothing, and perfectly 
 abominable : the tree had been raifed 
 from a ftone, (admire the induftry and 
 intelligence of the Monks) and never 
 grafted. Surely this tree is an emblem of 
 the order, that grows fail, moots luxu- 
 riantly, runs to leaf and to branch, but 
 bears no fruit that can be eat, pro* 
 duces no timber that can be ufed. The 
 previous queftion mould have been, 
 alked long ago, Why cumber eth it the 
 
 earth ?
 
 [ '*; ] 
 
 tarth f Cut It down. Adieu. To-mor- 
 row I go to St. Omer's, as foon as the 
 gates fhall be open, that is, after the pro- 
 ceffion. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 t '3 ] 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 St. Omer's, June 1791; 
 
 BEFORE I left Calais, the news of 
 the King's efcape from the Thuilleries 
 was arrived, and I thought proper to 
 haflen my departure, left, in cafe of its 
 being confirmed, I might be detained two 
 or three days at Deffein's againft my in- 
 clination. The rumour was, however, 
 as yet but faint, and no orders were if- 
 fued, and I met with no interruption. 
 Between Calais and Ardres the road is 
 flat, and the corn lands and the meadows 
 diverfify the face of the country but 
 little, though their relative ftate and con- 
 dition is totally different, according to the 
 
 zeal
 
 t *4 ] 
 
 2eal and induftry of the different pro^ 
 prietors : fometimes, for a mile to- 
 gether, you ride through corn lands 
 without a weed, and fields which feem 
 to moot under your eye like the grafs 
 at Rofea ; in other places the wheat is fo 
 overgrown with poppies , fo interfperfed 
 with blue bottles, and the meadows fo 
 choaked with wild botany, that they have 
 more the appearance of lands in a ffote 
 of nature, than in a ftate of cultivation* 
 Le Champ du drap d'Qr is on the left 
 hand before you get to Ardres. It is im- 
 poflible to pafs this fpot of gallant chi- 
 valry, which is now no more, without 
 a variety of pleafing reflections ; for in- 
 ftance, you think immediately of Burke, 
 and the Antiquarian Society : the firfr, 
 flatters the imagination, the fecond fa- 
 tisfi<rs the judgement ; the one prefcnts 
 you with all the riches of the memory, 
 
 for
 
 C '5 ] 
 
 for poetry is allied to chivalry, the other 
 teaches you the art which is the mafter- 
 piece of hiftory, L? Art de verifier les 
 dates. With the one you riot in the 
 harmonious images of yIla, with the? 
 other you become acquainted with Ceol- 
 wolf and Tatwallin. Utrum mavis ac~ 
 cipe. Between Ardres and La Recoufle 
 the lands are manured with marl, and 
 look rich and fat. 
 
 I faw nothing more worthy of re- 
 mark, till I arrived at the long alley 
 which conduces you into the prifon- 
 city of St. Omer's ; for fo I think all 
 fortified places, and all frontier towns, 
 may fairly be called : when you are 
 within, and the bridge is 1st down, you 
 are baftilled, if I may be allowed the 
 cxpreffion, at leaft for the night, and, in 
 timei of dread and fufpicion, for the day 
 2 loo*
 
 toot St. Omer's is fomething like Ox- 
 ford, if you can fuppofe that Oxford had 
 two other flreets parallel to its high 
 flreetj of equal dimenfions. The breadth 
 of the great ftreet at St. Omer's is nearly 
 twenty paces ; its length is very confider- 
 able, and it has fomething of that fine 
 bend in it which we fo much admire 
 at Oxford. The churches of all the re- 
 ligious houfes are mut up, and the courts 
 are for the moft part overgrown with 
 grafs the turrets begin to moulder, and 
 the picture is altogether as the author of 
 the Concubine paints it : 
 
 lt On Defmond's mouid'ring tow'r, 
 " The trembling rye-grafs, and the hair-bell blue.'* 
 
 This throws one back two hundred 
 years, and the abbeys of Tintern and 
 Glaftonbury rufh into your mind, and rile 
 up before your eyes perfect in all their 
 
 parts*
 
 [ '7 3 
 
 parts. The foft fenfations of melancholy 
 throw a pleafing calm over the fenfes, 
 while you are occupied in contemplating 
 the great changes of things, and are an 
 cye-witnefs of the operations of fortune, 
 
 " That Goddefs blind, 
 Who (lands upon the rolling, reftlefs ftone." 
 
 As an uninterefted fpeftator in a place 
 of fafety, you may contemplate the 
 troubled fea at your eafe, but mould you 
 be, like Virgil's hero, pars magna, as 
 well as an ocular witnefs of a great Re- 
 volution, you will find that it will re- 
 quire no fmall degree of fortitude to 
 ftand the mock, and no inconfiderable 
 mare of virtue to preferve a confident 
 character, and merit the praife of an- 
 tiquity ; 
 
 Virtutibus ille 
 
 Fortunatn domuit. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 C LET-
 
 t '8 ] 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Lifle, June 24. 
 
 JT ROM St. Omer's, where I was well 
 fed and well lodged, my road lay through 
 Caffel, which is fituated on an eminence, 
 and poflefles an extenfive and command- 
 ing view of the French and Englifh coafl, 
 the Channel and Dover Cattle, and many 
 of the fortified places in Flanders. In- 
 deed, it is almoft the only mountain, pro- 
 perly fo called, in the whole of this country 
 belonging to the French. I faid, I was 
 well fed and well lodged, this is generally 
 the cafe, as the French excel in cookery, 
 and in every thing that relates to the 
 kitchen, they are always at home. The 
 
 pro-
 
 C '9 ] 
 
 proverbs fays, frois Francois, deux cuifi- 
 mers. The price, however, in the pro- 
 vinces of a decent table, is no longer fur- 
 prifingly cheap. At St. Omer's, fymp- 
 toms appear of a change of country ; the 
 figns are here and there in Flemifh, and 
 the fhort pipes put you in mind of Hol- 
 land. Your hear Flemifh fpoken conti- 
 nually on the road to Lifle, though not 
 one word when you get thither. The 
 only figns I could perceive as yet of the 
 Revolution, were in the big look and 
 fierce regard of the civil foldier, the na- 
 tional recruitj and the municipal officer ; 
 all thefe gentlemen were exacl: and fcru- 
 pulous in the exercife of their office, not 
 to fay rude and officious in the difcharge 
 of their duty ; the contrail: was great be- 
 tween the ftile and addrefs of the old and 
 new fyftem ; between the flattery of a 
 qul al je Fhonmur de parler, and the bruf- 
 C 2 querk
 
 t 20 ] 
 
 querie df votre now, d*du venez vous, 6it 
 allez vous ? Then on the road you were 
 fbre you were in a country newly fet up, 
 and proud of its liberty ; can you believe 
 i't ? The peafants refufed to turn out for 
 the poft royal, and would not even touch 
 their hat to the pofiillion^ I own I was 
 fhocked at this, much as I hate defpotifm, 
 and the only comfort I have to give you 
 is, that thefe inftancesof extreme verfati- 
 lity were not of conftant occurrence. 
 
 CarTel is a tedious ftage from St. Omer% 
 but you are repaid when you get to the 
 top of the hill. There is fomething of an 
 epigrammatic turn in the inhabitants of 
 this eminence, one would think the height 
 of their fituation made them fee things in 
 a new light. The landlord, for inftance, 
 faid that Caffel was the highefl moun- 
 tain in the world, a rexception aelle- 
 
 mme ;
 
 r i 
 
 ; et la flic corrvenoit qu'ellc etolt trh 
 /0//V, quand elk etolt touts feule. The 
 jiews of the King's flight having reached 
 St. Omer's before I left it, I was obliged 
 to obtain a permiffion to leave the town, 
 arid before I got to Caflel I was flopped 
 by the patrole, which fuffcred me to go on 
 without a parTport to Caffel and Bailleul ; 
 but here I was obliged to fue humbly, 
 though not in vain, for a power to pro 
 ceed. The municipality detained me 
 only an hour, and then fent me on to 
 Lifle. The road the whole way to Lifle 
 is through broad avenues terminated by 
 parim-fteeples, the trees are limes, elms, 
 poplars, willows, and in the lands on 
 both fides are poppies-, corn, and cabbage, 
 that is Colfat, which is a Braffica or 
 Choux, and furnimes oil for the lamp. 
 Pigeons are extremely rare in this coun- 
 try ; the firft flock I faw was on the other 
 C 3 fide
 
 Tide of Lifle. Sheep are by no means 
 abundant, now and then you fee a wretch- 
 ed flock feeding on the (hort bite by the 
 fide of the ditch. Nothing, however, can 
 exceed the beauty of the road the whole 
 way to Lifle, whither I arrived at the 
 moft critical point of time poffible, juft 
 when it was fufpe&ed that the caftle had 
 been ibid, and was to be delivered to the 
 King's friends ; and at the moment, when 
 they knew the King was fled, and before 
 they had received the news of his being 
 flopped. As foon as I came to the fub- 
 urbs, I delivered my pafiport at the firfl 
 guard-houfe, and was fufFered to pro- 
 ceed to my inn with two foldiers, one on. 
 each fide of the carriage ; I could fee, as I 
 paffed through the town, that the ferment 
 of the people was very great. It was 
 now five o'clock, and on getting ou of 
 my carriage at the inn, I was required to 
 
 attend
 
 attend the municipality at the town-hall, 
 and the mafter of the inn was obliged to 
 accompany me. Here my paflport was 
 examined in two or three different com- 
 mittees, and I was told that no new one 
 would be granted me to continue my 
 journey, even to Paris, unlefs fome one 
 would anfwer for me. The mafter of 
 the inn knew nothing of me, and I was 
 obliged to acquiefce and retire. At eight 
 arrived a courier to fay that the King was 
 detained at Varennes. The face of affairs 
 was now materially changed, and on a fe- 
 cond application I had no difficulty to 
 obtain permiffion to leave Lifle the next 
 day, and proceed on my journey, provided 
 I went to Paris. 
 
 There never was a greater change work- 
 ed in the courfe of five minutes in the 
 C 4 looks
 
 looks and geftures of any people, than in 
 the inhabitants of this place on the arri- 
 val of the meffcnger from the National 
 Affembly. The whole town I may fay, 
 that is, an immenfe crowd, was colle&ed 
 together in the great fquare before the 
 town-houfe, all apparently fallen, and 
 difcontented, and full of fufpicion, endea- 
 vouring from time to time to force their 
 way into the court of the Hotel de Ville, 
 which the guards at the gates had fame 
 difficulty to prevent. The great fear of 
 the people was, that the caftle would be 
 furprized, and the affignats fall 50 per 
 cent, before the next day. But as they 
 had no diflinc~t idea of what was to befal 
 them, their trepidation was the greater, 
 major eft ignotarum rerum tlmor. I was 
 contemplating this reprefentation to the 
 life of a troubled city, when on turning 
 
 my
 
 t *5 3 
 
 my head round I faw a courier advancing 
 through the crowd towards the town- 
 fa oufe, as faft as the waves of the people 
 could retire on both fides to make a lane 
 for him. The meflenger rode immedi- 
 ately into the court of the Hotel de Ville, 
 and very foon after the municipality came 
 put to declare that the King was flopped 
 . at Varennes, and on his road back to 
 Paris. But the courier had told the talc 
 long before, and the tranfition from the 
 deepeft dejeclion to the higheft elevation, 
 had already taken place. The whole 
 fquare formed itfelf into a ring, and 
 danced round like an Indian tribe, with 
 a hoop and a halloo. All at once you 
 faw five hundred hats in the air, and the 
 place re-echoed with fcreams of joy. 
 Thefe frantic exultations continued till 
 eleven at night, and the town was in a 
 
 blaze,
 
 C 26 ] 
 
 blaze, illuminated through all its ftreets. 
 
 7 O 
 
 I retired to bed well pleafed at the turn 
 things had taken in my favour. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 JL HE road from Lifle to Peronne ia 
 through avenues and corn fields, inter- 
 fperfed with the auguft and impofing re- 
 mains of Benedictine Convents, the one 
 more magnificent than the other : St. 
 Vas a Arras, St. Troye, and the Convent 
 a Mont St. Quentin near Peronne. The 
 traveller is always delighted when one of 
 thefe magnificent edifices burfts upon his 
 yiew with all its old hereditary trees and 
 welcome ihades, and cannot but feel a 
 regret, when he fees the inftruments of 
 <3eftriition hanging by a thread over 
 their heads, and threatening immediate 
 demolition. But, unfortunately for the 
 
 tribe
 
 t *s ] 
 
 tribe of painters, poets, and theorifts of 
 fentimental feelings, the cafe is not exadl- 
 ly the fame, as when avarice difmantles, 
 or when extravagance ftrips off the lead 
 from the paternal roof, or robs the dryads 
 of their made. The unalienable rights of 
 monachifm mould long ago .in every 
 country have been branded in the fore- 
 head with a public advertifement, and 
 pafled like the field of Achiemenides into 
 the hands of Menippus. The French 
 have been called good architects at pulling 
 down, or more intelligibly, architects of 
 deflruction, but in every thing that re-r 
 lates to monaftic demolition, they un- 
 doubtedly deferve the praife of their fa- 
 vourite Voltaire in his Guerre de Ge- 
 neve. 
 
 Batir eft beau, mais detruire eft fublime. 
 
 I The
 
 C 29 1 
 
 The approach to Arras is very fine* 
 and the entrance into the city will be 
 much more commodious than it formerly 
 was ; for it is not yet quite fmifhed ; over 
 the gate is an infcription, 
 
 Quand les Anglois prendront Arras, 
 Les fouris mangeront les rats. 
 
 The refemblance of this place to its anci* 
 ent name of Atrebatum is but fmall, and 
 not greater than to itfelf in former times, 
 when it gave its name to a manufacture 
 of tapeftry, of which it was the inventor. 
 Thus it is with Delft, and with D'Ypres, 
 whofe ingenious difcoveries in pottery, 
 and the art of making table-linen, (on 
 which Swift is fo unfeafonably pleafantj 
 have been furpafled long fmce by other 
 rival cities, which have carried off all the 
 glory, and left nothing but the lhade of 
 
 a name
 
 t 3 2 
 
 a name to tlie invention. On entering 
 the town I was conducted by a guard to 
 the Hotel de Ville in order to be paffed on 
 to Peronnei , 
 
 I faw nothing remarkable here but the 
 livery of the committee^ which made me 
 fmile on account of its refemblance to the 
 favourite game which prevails in this 
 country, rouge et noir. The feam of the 
 back divided the colours like a field in 
 heraldry, party per pale, and hence I 
 prefume comes the compound epithet 
 party-coloured, by which we diftinguifh 
 our footmen. The flate of the houfes in 
 this country is laid in a fuperior ftyle of 
 beauty and durability, and looks more 
 like teflellated work on an inclined plane, 
 than any other fort of covering. At 
 Sailly, which is the laft poft before you 
 come to Peronne, is a religious houfe of 
 
 confi-
 
 t 3' ] 
 
 confiderable extent, finely fituated, be- 
 longing to the Auguftin friars, which no 
 doubt will fell well, when it comes to the 
 hammer. Peronne is in fight, 2nd I am 
 now patting a convent of Benedictines 
 lituated on a rifing ground, which com- 
 mands the town. The fetting fun is 
 playing on the waters that furround and 
 protect this fortification, which has ever 
 been impregnable, and on which Spain, 
 in all its attempts, could make no im- 
 preffion ; it has been faid, becaufe me did 
 not know how to attack it. The ram- 
 parts are peopled with ladies who are 
 walking or fitting beneath the trees 
 planted on the baftion. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 3* J 
 
 LETTER VL 
 
 Peronne. 
 
 AMONG other diftintions and high 
 titles of impregnable and invincible, Pc- 
 ronne claims the honour of having for its 
 deputy, a great though unfuccefsful ora- 
 tor, a man of conftant courage and un- 
 wearied zeal, the Abbe Maury. For firm- 
 nefs no ftoic e'er furpaffed him. Not the 
 Thirty Tyrants, not the National Aflem- 
 bly, not the voice of Mirabeau thunder- 
 ing from the tribune, could ever ihake 
 him from his purpofe. The caufe in 
 which he was engaged, though his own, 
 afforded him no fupport, it was weak 
 and tottering, and derived no prop from 
 
 its
 
 [ 33 ] 
 
 its own intrinfic worth, but had been 
 held up too high upon the ftilts of pride 
 and credulity > ignorance and fuperftition. 
 It required no voice from heaven to fore- 
 tell that fuch a foundation mufl be wam- 
 ed away whenever the ftorm mould fall 
 upon it : and wafhed away it fairly is, fo 
 that it is now not eafy to fay where it 
 flood. The mitred front that was exalted 
 in the prefence-chamber, is banimed to 
 its own palace, which, in order to eke 
 out a wretched pittance, it is obliged to 
 mare with the public. (The Bifhop of 
 Beauvais has lately petitioned the Na- 
 tional Aflembly to permit him to let put 
 a part of his epifcopal palace) But it is 
 not the Bimop only and the Archbifhop 
 that have been thus humbled and reduced 
 from forty lacqueys to four ; there is no- 
 thing wrong, eflentially wrong in this, 
 and we may fay in fome cafes a la bonne 
 D he-iire.
 
 C 34 ] 
 
 j encore pajje ! But the mifery is that 
 the degradation is general, where the ex- 
 altation was only partial ; they are all 
 degraded, but they were not all preferred, 
 for I muft call it a degradation to have 
 their lands taken from them, though 
 they may he penfioned in return with a 
 few pounds more than their own impro- 
 priation might have produced ; and I fee 
 no difference between the claim of Ahab 
 to the vineyard of Naboth, and the right 
 of any Aflembly to the arbitrary purchafe 
 of a life-eitate far a price. 
 
 The church of France, without all 
 doubt, wanted a thorough reform, and 
 as the benefices of the church became 
 vacant, they fhould have been retrenched ; 
 but to- read the fentence nrft, and hear the 
 eaufe afterwards, is too much like the 
 judgement of Rhadamanthus to be en- 
 2 dured
 
 [ 35 ] 
 
 dured in an age of freedom, and under 
 the banner of liberty, and yet without 
 this fummary procefs^ there could have 
 been no Revolution in France. Grant, if 
 you pleafe, that fome good may accrue to 
 fome individuals, and by this refnmption 
 of ecclefiaftic property, here and there 
 the repartition may increafe a certain in- 
 come five, ten, or twenty pounds a year ; 
 yet there is no indemnification for the lofs 
 of the fig-tree and the vineyard which I 
 called my own; for I cannot call the 
 houfe which has been thrown back reluc- 
 tantly, or the garden which has been 
 yielded with a bad grace to the prayers of 
 importunity ; I cannot look on this or 
 that, I fay, as any thing more than the 
 petty privilege of the penfioned tenant of 
 every alms-houfe. For the property is all 
 gone, the lifehold, copyhold, the freehold 
 is no mote, and you have no hold left, 
 D2 but
 
 but the hold of a petitioning beggar uporl 
 a man who wants what he has engaged 
 to give you, to pay his own houfehold, 
 and then the chaplain is always forgot, 
 If all this fail, and you are moved by 
 no-lie of my arguments^ you muft 
 allow that the hardfhip is great, where 
 any one, who has been bred up in ha- 
 bits of liberality and independence, has 
 fpenthis own property to obtain an inde- 
 lible profeflion, mall, by an ex poft faElo 
 law, be deprived of that independence? 
 and ftill be prevented from acquiring any 
 other by a change of profeffion. It would 
 be better to be even the gaudy Swifs, the, 
 door-keeper of a church, than an officiating 
 minifter on fuch terms. Why {houlci 
 the church, which is the eldeil filler, 
 (onclion a part) be thr.ufr. down below 
 law and phylic ; it is not' poiiible 'for- tho 
 mrn of the church, vvho'has pqid fog hisf 
 
 edu-
 
 education, is no child of charity, and has 
 equal pretentious to wealth and celebrity 
 with other profeffions, to vault like a rhy- 
 ming poet in fpite of his fetters ; poverty 
 frauds in his way, and is the eternal link 
 which will chain him to the duft, and ef- 
 feftually prevent his rifing, though eyer 
 ib ilowly : ad4 to all this, that misfortune 
 will make him ridiculous, and ridicule in 
 its turn will make him uri for tun ate. 
 The dilemma is equally wretched on both 
 fides. In this capucinade for the church 
 I have loft fight of the Abbe, but I truft I 
 fhall find him again at Paris. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 D 3 LET-
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 VJ PON coming out of Peronne I thought 
 myfelf in a cyder country, as the road 
 on both fides were lined with apple-trees, 
 but without fruit ; I am told that the cy- 
 der of Picardy is better than that of Nor- 
 mandy. The variety of apples is, cer- 
 tainly, they fay, greater in Normandy, 
 which ought to make the cyder better, 
 but the (kill in aflbrting the fweets and 
 the fours makes a total difference in the 
 manufacture. The corn-fields in this 
 country are bordered with Venus' s look- 
 ing-glafs, an Englifh plant, which pro- 
 duces an effect infinitely more gay and 
 Jefs formal than thrift or daily, or Sibe- 
 rian
 
 [ 39 ] 
 
 rian primrofe. In the fame place I ob- 
 ferved a toad-flax of a deep pompadour 
 colour, which, without any additional 
 culture, might be introduced in its prer- 
 fent flate into the richeft parterre. The 
 different fpecies of this plant are very 
 common in our gardens, but I never 
 recollect to have feen any fo ornamental 
 in its natural ftate as the one in queftion. 
 This plant particularly engaged my at- 
 tention, as it was the firft I had feen by 
 the road-fide, (which is all the traveller 
 can fee) between Calais and Roye, thaf 
 was not of Englim production, a diftance 
 
 yi^T' ,' ~ 
 
 of, at leaft, one hundred and twenty* 
 five or thirty miles. Between Bois 
 le Liheu and Pont St. Maxence, I 
 faw, for the firft time, a hedge-row 
 of oa^s, fince I left my own country ; 
 for the avenues are planted with limes, 
 elms, and poplars, and this tree, to which 
 P 4 we
 
 [ 40 ] 
 
 we are fo much accuftomed, is not often 
 found in the high roads. At Pont St. 
 Maxen ce is the chateau of Monf. De 
 / Villette ; the grounds are laid out a F An- 
 gloife, and though a dead flat, and a deep 
 fand, they appear to want neither variety 
 nor fertility : near the houfe is a very 
 thriving little vineyard on a fand hill, 
 which is the only rifing ground I could 
 fee within a confiderable diftance of the 
 maniion, I could not help thinking my- 
 felf for a moment in the gardens of Count 
 Bentinck at the Hague. The entours of 
 the houfe are planted with tafte, and 
 the offices well hid ; near the houle, 
 perhaps, the pruning^knife might be ap- 
 plied to advantage, particularly on the 
 fouth-eafr, fide. The garden and the 
 poultry-yard, I make no doubt, are highly 
 productive, and, as the pofleflbr refides at 
 Paris, a green cart full of poulardes, 
 
 vegeta.-
 
 vegetables, fruit, and much game, goes 
 loaded every Saturday to the Quay des 
 Theatins. The principal front of the 
 houfe has a charming view of the new 
 bridge at Pont St. Maxence, and the am- 
 phitheatre of hills beyond it ; the grounds 
 round the houfe produce abundance of 
 monk's hood, and fcarce any other plant. 
 The (Jiftance from this place to Paris is 
 nearly thirty miles, the road lies through 
 Senlis, which the expeditions of the 
 Court from Verfailles to Cpmpiegne kept 
 conitantly alive, and raifed the price of 
 its eatables. In the prefent dearth of 
 royal cuftom, the place is reduced to the 
 ufual cafualties of other lefs noble tho- 
 roughfares ; to its manufacture of Sabots, 
 to its miraculous fountain, which has the 
 fingujar property of rendering thofe who 
 drink its waters habitually, toothlefs, owing 
 
 to
 
 C 4* ] 
 
 to a caufe which remains to be examined | 
 it mould feem, however, that the inn^ 
 keepers never drink of this water but 
 fparingly, as they have always retained 
 the faculty of nibbling at every traveller 
 who flops at their houfes. Juft before 
 I arrived at Senlis, I faw fome fine 
 beeches for the firft time fince I left 
 Dover. The road from Paris to Senlis 
 is not better ferved than from Peronne to 
 Senlis, and though the pofls are faid to 
 be fhorter, you gain no advantage in time. 
 The approach to the capital from the 
 north is much embellifhed by the new 
 St. Genevieve, the French Pantheon, with 
 its beautiful cupola, and its fine infcription 
 in the manner of the ancients. 
 
 Aux grants homines la Patrie reconnoiflimte.
 
 C 43 3 
 
 I am now arrived at the gate of St. 
 Martin, and at length fet down at my 
 hotel. Adieu. 
 
 Ever yourY 
 
 LET-
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Paris, June *8, 
 
 .HERE I am at Paris, the emporium 
 of novelty, in laws, manners, and re- 
 ligion. The firfl thing I did was to fend 
 to the Rue RouJJeau ; but alas ! no letters. 
 The King is come back, and the thou- 
 fands that went out to meet him, but 
 the poft is not arrived that tells me you 
 have not forgot me. Comment done - 
 
 Vous ne m'ecrivez pas : vous avez oublie 
 Qu'une lettre fouvent confole de 1'abfence. 
 
 ConvienNil dope a 1'amitie 
 
 De garder un trifle filence ? 
 L'Armtie, comme femme, a le droit de jafer, 
 Et fon babil d'ailleurs tient a fon ame : 
 
 L' Amour eft different, fon eloquente flamrnc; 
 
 Au grand jour craint de s'expofer, 
 
 But;
 
 t 45 ] 
 
 But no delay of your's, no neglec~l {hall 
 feduce me from that charming duty, 
 which is the refuge of the unfortunate, 
 and the Certain confolation of the exile* 
 I make no doubt, but that your firfl letter 
 will tell me, over and over again, that I 
 am mad to go to Paris in the dog-days, 
 where Sirius rules the Iky in good earneft, 
 not as with us, in the almanack only, 
 where he may be miftaken now and 
 then for Aquarius. But to have done 
 with all that, and much more that might 
 be faid on the fubject ; for inftance, that 
 the flreets are narrow, that the houfes 
 are nigh, that every door has its dung- 
 heap, and that the people are no longer 
 amiable. I do not mean to anfwer thefe 
 objections in detail, but fhall only ob- 
 ferve, that there are parts of this crowded 
 city, with its narrow ftreets and high 
 houfes, where a flranger might cry out 
 
 with
 
 [ 46 } 
 
 With Livy, Non me urbem vifurUtn, fed 
 quandam ccell part em , autfragmentum de- 
 lapfum-* that the heat is as eafily kept in 
 fubjeclion here as elfewhere, and the coy 
 nymph Aura will come if me be courted 
 that I fpeak of the bridge that bears 
 me, as I ought, and that I have no hatred 
 for a French metropolis. The King came 
 back yefterday, with his thre body- 
 guards on a coach-box, in a ftate of per-* 
 feel: freedom, neither chained nor tied* 
 as probably you may hereafter be told. 
 His Majefty was alked, how they mould 
 be difpofed of, and he faid, "Put them 
 " on the box." It does not appear, that 
 many people were in the fecret of the 
 King's efcape ; the three guards compofed 
 the whole of his fuite, and yet it is not 
 a little fingular, and worth obferving, 
 that the Journal^ V Ami du Roi ceafed the 
 21 ft of June, the day the King went off 
 
 at
 
 E 4? ] 
 
 at two in the morning, and did not aj^ 
 pear again till the ipth, the day or two* 
 after his return. The Mayor of Varennes 
 had never feeii the King but on a crown, 
 and an affignat, the refemblance on this 
 laft was flrong enough to tell him that 
 he was fure of his man. C'eft //, dit-il, 
 c'ejl lui-metne. Her Majefty in fitted on it^ 
 before the Mayor, that me by no means 
 meant to leave the kingdom. Ca peut- 
 ttfe Madame, a repondu le Malre, mais ji 
 k pled de votre majejle avoit glifse, nous 
 auriez toinbe, dans le paijs etranger. The 
 King, the Queen, and the Dauphin, it 
 feems, for this is not very wefl known, 
 elcaped from the Thuillejries at different 
 times, and at different doors. The Queen 
 palled out through the apartment of Ma- 
 dame de Rochefeuille, and Monf. le Due 
 de Villequier by the Cour des Princes. 
 The King followed the Queen and Daw- 
 
 phin,
 
 C 48 ] 
 
 phin, and they all met at a garden in ther 
 road to the Bois de Boulogne, where 
 they Tupped, and fet out for Bondy, the 
 rfl poft to Metz, by a circuitous road 
 at the back of Montnlartfe. It appears 
 alfo, that the King patted out through 
 the apartments of Monf. De Villequier, 
 Eight days before the royal flight, his 
 Majefty rode up to Montmartre on horfe- 
 back, in order to reconnoitre the road 
 he was to take, I think it very pro- 
 bable, that this grand project might have 
 fucceeded, if the pofKllions had not been 
 too well paid, fmce it was undoubtedly 
 the gold that was given them, and the 
 marked impatience of the donors, that 
 railed the firft fufpicions, and put the 
 people on their guard. The difcovery, 
 however, was mofl fortunate for hu- 
 manity, fmce it has probably laved a de- 
 luge of blood, and numberlefs fouls, 
 
 which
 
 [ 49 ] 
 
 which would have been otherwife maf 
 facred, as Voltaire fays very finely, 
 
 " Sur les flcurs du printemps," 
 
 and I am perfuaded to no purpofe, for 
 all would have been loft (%ui perd un em- 
 fire perd tout) ; and I make no exception, 
 though the army of the Emperor had 
 joined the handful of men collected by 
 the Princes of the blood, and though 
 the King of Sweden, the great hero of 
 modern times, had taken the command, 
 and been Generaliffimo. In the firft 
 place, at the very firft brufh of hoftilities, 
 I very much doubt if a fourth part of 
 the imperial troops would not have de- 
 ferted to the French ; then, unlefs every 
 thing could have been done by a coup de 
 main^ all refource muft very foon have 
 faikd, and whatever fellow feelings 
 crowned heads may be fuppofed to have 
 E for
 
 t So ] 
 
 for a brother in diftrefs, Louis XVI. 
 would foon have been fent, like James It. 
 to St. Germains ; they would have al- 
 lotted him fome caftle for his refidence, 
 and there they would have left him, a 
 dandlner & fa forge ', boire, et s'hebeter tout 
 a fon alfe. Excufe this prolixity, and 
 believe me, 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 ' 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 July i. 
 
 HE firft vifit you have to make at 
 Paris is to your banker, in order to pro- 
 duce your credentials ; the fecond is to 
 your Ambaflador, in order to obtain pro- 
 tection, and the third to the National 
 Aflembly. The race of bankers is, at 
 this moment, the moft amiable fet of men 
 in the world, becaufe they give you a 
 hundred and twenty-five pounds for a 
 hundred ; this twenty-five per cent, pays 
 your journey to Paris and back again, fo 
 that it cofts you nothing to go or to 
 some. But what is infinitely more fla- 
 'tering,'-is their attachment to your in- 
 E z tereft
 
 [ 5* } 
 
 tfirefr. and your convenience ; their great 
 civility, and their warm reception : all 
 this is mod pleafant, dukh inexpertis ; 
 then the dinners they give entirely win 
 you, and you are perfectly carelefs whe- 
 ther you fpend a hundred more or lefs, 
 fuch is the eafe of procuring it. Bank- 
 ingj as it is managed at Paris, is a lot- 
 tery ticket, which generally comes up a 
 great prize, and feldom fails, unlefs you 
 have too much wit, or too much fpecu- 
 latioiij or are unfortunate in the choice 
 of a miftrefs, who miflakes bank notes 
 for Bonbons. I went firft, then, to my 
 monied friend, who offered me every 
 thing he could furnifh me with, gold, 
 iilver, or paper ; I chofe fome of each, 
 and took my leave, in order to deliver 
 my letters at the AmbafTador's, and 
 from thenc* to go to the National Af- 
 
 fembl.y,
 
 [ 53 ] 
 
 fembly, for which I was provided with 
 ticket, 
 
 The Aflembly is fo well reprefentec} 
 at Covent Garden, or Drury Lane, I do 
 do not recollect which, that I was {truck 
 with the great refemblance of the copy 
 to the original ; but the appearance, upon 
 the whole, difappointed me. On the right ^ 
 hand of the Prefident I faw no oppolition ; 
 I aiked why ? Where are the troops of the 
 Abbe" Maury ? Where are the ariftocratic 
 forces ? I fee nothing but the leaders. 
 Oh ! they are all gone over, like the 
 children of Ifrael, or drowned with Phar 
 raoh and his hoft. Pedlbus Itur In fen- 
 tentlam. The reciprocity, then, is as in 
 the treaty of England with America, all 
 on one fide. No, they faid, that was 
 not the cafe, the Abbe" Maury was ftill 
 fjrnn and unfhaken, though he fat filent; 
 - indeed,
 
 t 54 ] 
 
 indeed, fince the death of Mirabeau, he 
 had fpoken but little, and now, fmce 
 the departure of the King, he was air 
 moft left alone. The fubjet of the day 
 was a dry one, on the colours of the re- 
 gimentals ; Monf. Menou enlivened his 
 ijpeech by a happy allufion au cafqw 
 ornt dc plumes blanches de Henri IV. 
 *' Suivez mon Panache, vous le trouverez 
 " toujours dans le chetnln deThonneur, etde 
 "la viftoire." I faw feveral of the fa- 
 mous fpeakers, and heard fome of them. 
 Lameth, Robertfpierre, Barnave, &c. 
 Barnave is a very extraordinary young 
 man. The Affembly was more peaceable 
 to-day than ufual, indeed there was little 
 Jo agitate it, except the letter of Monf. 
 <Ie Bouille, ligned Marquis, predicting 
 the downfall of Paris, like the downfall 
 of Jerufalem, where there was not left 
 one ftoae upon another. This letter 
 
 was
 
 [ 55 ] 
 
 was- received with the fentiments it in- 
 ipired, contempt and ridicule : it exhi- 
 bited a menace of vengeance and re- 
 fenfment, in a fituation which makes 
 courage doubtful, and conduct problema- 
 tical. It Hated, that the King left Paris, 
 and his throne, in order to tranfport 
 himfelf to the frontiers, for the pur- 
 pofe of mediating between France and 
 her enemies. The Aflembly generally 
 rifes about three, and fits again after 
 dinner : fhall I tell you my idea of this 
 famous Houfe of Parliament, and the 
 judgement I formed of it ? I will in three 
 words, omnia in cunis. Before I leave 
 Paris, perhaps, I may change my opinion. 
 I cannot fay, I think the Prefident's bell 
 has a happy effect: in producing filence, 
 but, on the contrary, increafes the con-? 
 fufiqn ; and as to the Huiffiers, or walk- 
 ing Gentlemen Ufhers, as we pronounce 
 
 E 4 them.
 
 [ 5 3 
 
 them, they may, three parts of their 
 time, as well whittle to the winds, as 
 think of quieting the ftorm by a fimple 
 hufti, or a gentle waving of their hands, 
 like the rifing lark. I make no doubt, 
 however, that time may do fome good in 
 reforming thefe fmall faults, and reftoring 
 calm to the boifterous main, whenfoever 
 It fhall be violently agitated, either by 
 the oil of perfuafive eloquence, or the 
 awe of fome great chara&er, fuch as 
 Mirabeau's, who put to filence the thirty 
 voices by a word, 
 
 Silence aux trente voix ; qu'on eccmte. 
 
 LET-
 
 [ 57 ] 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 I BURN with impatience to tell you, 
 that your long letter of to-day has entirely 
 made your peace, and that my gratitude 
 knows no delay amidfr. the numberlefs 
 avocations of duty and pleafure, amufe^ 
 ment and inft,ruction, which this che^ 
 quered city holds out to all its vifitors. 
 I left my bed an hour fooner this morn- 
 ing than ufual, to be ready for the pofl 
 at one o'clock. As you are no flranger 
 to Paris in its reformed ftate, I fpeak 
 of the improvements of the Palais Royal, 
 I need enter into no details on the fubjecl: 
 of that place particularly, or any other 
 of the common objects of refearch, by 
 
 every
 
 C 58 3 
 
 every traveller on his firfr. vilit to this ca- 
 pital. My intention is to write as con- 
 ftantly as I can find time, and make the 
 the occurrence of the day the fubjeft of 
 my letter. I walk out in a morning, or 
 rather fally forth in fearch of adventures, 
 from eleven till three. As my way lay 
 to-day towards the city, I called in at 
 Notre Dame, who is at this moment 
 abandoned by all her canons. Not one of 
 them having taken the civic oath, they 
 come no more to officiate, and on great 
 days ftrangers and hirelings occupy their 
 places. This cathedral might well be 
 .called, la Cathedrale des Rois, as its prin- 
 cipal front prefents you with the ftatues of 
 .twenty-eight French Kings from Childe- 
 ric to Philippe Augufle, in whofe reign 
 the building was begun, towards the end 
 of the twelfth century. None of the 
 cathedral churches in Italy, France, o.r 
 
 Eng-
 
 t 59 ] 
 
 ^England, were begun before the eleventh 
 century, that is, before the Millennium 
 was complete, becaufe it was thought there 
 would be no ufe for them. See the EC- 
 
 .1 * 
 
 clefiaftical Hiftorians and after Hiftorians 
 Church Hiftories. I know you do not wifh 
 me to fay any thing of the pictures that 
 adorn the body of the church, though le 
 Sueur and le Brun be among the painters. 
 Indeed the Sacrifty was the only thing that 
 attracted my curiofity, where I found fome 
 good portraits of the Archbtfliops of Paris. 
 The magnificence of the treafury, too, 
 {truck me confiderably in parts, which is 
 a good deal to fay, if you have feen Lo- 
 retto. But the piece of furniture that 
 jnade the greateft impreffion upon me 
 was a Chafuble, or Prieft's robe very fine- 
 ly wrought, but much better preferved, of 
 the year eight hundred and eighty-eight ; 
 making this ancient part of the officia- 
 ting
 
 ting minhter's drefs older than the ta* 
 peltry at Bayeux, on which is King Wil- 
 liam's expedition to England, and I can 
 affure you, in much finer prefervation : 
 they referable each other in one] thing, 
 they have both been lined. The date is 
 in figures 888 on the Chafuble, the truth 
 of which is very fufpicious. On exami- 
 ning the robe a fecond time, I find the 
 date 888 is only a copy in figures of what 
 the copyift conceived to be the original 
 in numeral letters. The original ftands 
 thus DCC o ; between the fecond c and 
 the third o there was formerly fomething 
 which is effaced, as the threads of the 
 mbroidery are worn bare. I conceive 
 it to have been an i, and then the date 
 will be more reafonable, for inftance, 
 DCC ID, which will fhnd for the year ele^ 
 yen hundred. 
 
 The
 
 { 6i ] 
 
 The greateft curiofity I have yet feen 
 appeared yeflerday at the Palais Royal; 
 it was Le Chevalier du B - , who was 
 brought in a fort of litter, jufl when he 
 was at the laft gafp, to die, as it were, 
 upon the ftage. When they carried him 
 off, I believe he was gone, for his jaw fell, 
 and his head hung, as if did not belong to 
 him, upon his Ihoulder. This extraor- 
 dinary man, not a fortnight before, was 
 the flower of France, in beauty, grace, 
 ftrength, and activity. At times, indeed, 
 when high in blood, he had a tendency 
 to grow unruly, and would not be con- 
 trouled. Bars and bolts could not hold 
 him, and he would get away from a dozen 
 peace-officers. He was much addidled 
 to gaming, and committed excefles in 
 confequence of his lofles : he had always 
 a pack of cards before him, to gratify his 
 ruling pafTion to the lafl ; and when his 
 
 ftr
 
 t 62 1 
 
 phyfician had told there was no hope, 
 then faid he, " a louis upon the red doc- 
 tor." The immediate caufe of his death 
 was a complaint he had contracted, for 
 the cure of which he was obliged to un- 
 dergo an operation : after this, impatient 
 to appear, he came out too foon, and was 
 reduced to the flate in which I have de- 
 fcribed him. The rapid change of this 
 man's health feemed to have made fome 
 feeble impreffion even on the inhabitants 
 of the Palais Royal, who are infenfibility 
 itfelf, and though they flare at every 
 thing, flay to reflect on nothing. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 - 
 - 
 
 . - 
 
 LET:
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 July 1791. 
 
 NOTHING can be fo different as 
 the French language differently pro- 
 nounced, I mean in the mouths of the 
 Parifians themfelves ; you may have 
 heard Texier all your life, where you 
 never lofe a word, and think you mould 
 underftand any one elfe in the fame part ; 
 but I doubt, if you would catch one half 
 of what was faid, till your ear was ufed 
 to the difference of inflexion between the 
 two voices. Whofoever comes here to 
 attend the theatres will foon be convinced 
 how perfectly well Texier plays all his 
 parts, and what a thorough good con* 
 
 ception
 
 ception he has of every thing he reads ; 
 and that he is alone worth a whole troop 
 of moderate comedians. I do not mean 
 this as a puff, becaufe if I had fuch an in- 
 tention, it would be of no ufe, for I 
 know you have no partiality for the cha- 
 rade r. 
 
 The theatre called le theatre de la Na- 
 tion is a very fine thing, and what every 
 Granger muft admire. The pieces they 
 play here have often too much reference 
 to the Revolution, and tend to infpire a 
 general dread and horror at the very name 
 of a cloifter. For inftance, fes Fiff'tmes 
 Chitrks is fo dreadfully fine in the hands 
 4>f Fleury and Clairval, that it is impofli- 
 jbile to fee it twice ; it produces the effect 
 even upon the French women of the lu- 
 ries of zEfchylus, Or the fcreams of Sid- 
 .dous. Mademoifelie Rancour et Made- 
 2 moifelle
 
 moifelle Contat are by no means fond of 
 playing parts which are full of pointed al- 
 lufions to the Revolution, and excuie 
 themfelves whenever it is poffible for them 
 to get off. All Moliere's plays are charm- 
 ingly a&ed on the national ftage, and par* 
 ticularly the Medecin malgre lui. When 
 the mock doctor receives his fee, he fays, 
 mat's font Us touts de po'uh ? this will do 
 for our ftage better than for the French 
 at prefent, where the practice of weigh- 
 ing the louis d'or is difcontinued. In De- 
 ftouches's play of the Joueur, a female 
 ufurer is introduced, who accommodates 
 the gamefter with a loan. The charac- 
 ter is tare with us, but I believe you can 
 name me a lady or two in London who 
 carry on this golden branch of buiinefs, 
 at a very low rate, at one per cent, but as 
 the mifer fays in the Deux ^vares 9 c'ejl 
 . far heure. 
 
 F I have
 
 I have been introduced to day to a mart 
 whom I was very ambitious of feeing, 
 one of the firft Grecians and the politeft 
 icholars in Europe. Monfieur d'Anfle de 
 Villoifon ; I believe you are acquainted 
 with his Daphnis and Chloe of Longus, 
 through the medium of a French tranf- 
 kticn, and I think you ufed to be much 
 pleafed with it. He has given us befides 
 other things a very curious Homer in 
 folio ; but his great work is frill on the 
 anvil, I mean his Antiquities on the Gre- 
 cian Iflands, or his Journey through 
 Greece, in which he has decyphered the 
 infcriptions that his predeceflbr could not 
 read, to which no one who has feen 
 his dictionary of Homer will fcruple. 
 to give immediate aflent* Moniieur de 
 Villoifon has viiited the monaftic library 
 of Mount Athos, and every other he could 
 find in his road or out of his road; There 
 
 are
 
 t 67 ] 
 
 are many other amateurs here at Paris, 
 who are employed in the ftudy of the 
 ancients, like Scaliger during the maflacre 
 of the Huguenots, fecure in their elevated 
 fituations, and undiflurbed by the mo- 
 tions of the Palais Royal. Monfieur de 
 la Rochette is preparing an edition of the 
 Greek Anthology, in which the whole is 
 to be included. It will bs publimed in 
 fix volumes in octavo, with a very curi- 
 ous index, in which the Greek words will 
 be explained, and the different fenfes 
 fhown in which they are ufed not only 
 in the Anthology in general, butalfo in its 
 different parts. Monfieur TArcher, whofe 
 notes on Herodotus are fo learned and fo 
 full of information, is at work on the 
 Etymologicon Magnum, a book that de- 
 ferves to be well edited : he has ready by 
 him an edition of Orion Thebanus on 
 this fubjedh There is now at Paris a re- 
 F 3 markable
 
 C 68 ] 
 
 rnarkable man, a Monfieur Coray, a learn- 
 ed Greek phyfician from Smyrna, who 
 lives with a Monfieur Clavier, cl devant 
 Confelller ait Chatelet. Monfieur] Coray, 
 who is not rich, could not have made a 
 better acquaintance than Monfieur Cla- 
 vier, in who-fe houfe he is lodged. Mon- 
 iieur Clavier is very much at his eafe, has 
 an excellent library, is an ingenious and ele- 
 gant fcholar, and well informed in many 
 branches of ancient and modern learning. 
 Monfieur Coray, ~Dotteur en Medecme, is 
 at prefent employed in collating the ma- 
 nufcripts of the Septuagint for Mr. 
 Holmes, but this is not what he likes beft ; 
 his favourite author is Hippocrates, whom 
 he has corrected all through in the mofl 
 mafterly manner, and of whom he will, it 
 is to be hoped, publim an edition. The 
 London phyficians mould fet this on foot, 
 for the thing is fo well done, that I think it 
 z would
 
 would reflect great credit on the order. 
 In the courfe of Monfieur Coray's cor- 
 re&ion of Hippocrates, he has reftored 
 Sophocles and Euripides, and the poets in 
 Athenasus in the happieft manner^ as Po* 
 litian fays, 
 
 Magna eruens fe.nia e penu vatum. 
 
 I could not help paying this tribute to 
 merit, which I know is not loft 
 you. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 F 3 LET-"
 
 E T T E R XII. 
 
 J d y '79 1 - 
 
 L HE lamp of the law and the light of 
 tjie church were both extinguifhed in the 
 National Aflembly by the death of Mira- 
 beau, and the filence of the Abbe Maury. 
 They tell you, indeed, that it was a fortu- 
 nate thing for Mirabeau that he died when 
 he did, becaufe had he lived a month 
 longer, it muft have come out that he 
 was fold. Thus much I believe, that he 
 would undoubtedly have fupported the 
 monarchy againft a republic, and have 
 thrown his voice into the fcale to have 
 made the King's fide preponderate. The 
 monarchical form of Government, under 
 
 certain
 
 [ 7' ] 
 
 certain checks and reftraints, is no doubt 
 the only adminiftration that can be adopt- 
 ed, and the only one under which France 
 will ever flourish, or maintain her rank 
 and reputation in commerce or in politics. 
 In all violent alterations in politics, there 
 is great danger of a relapfe, which makes 
 it advifeable in many cafes to retain the 
 form of Government though you change 
 the fubftance. Auguftus thought proper 
 to preferve the name and office of conful 
 and tribune, when they were no longer 
 neceffary, but for a blind, as the power 
 was all lodged in his own nomination, and 
 the fhadowy ghofts of liberty could create 
 no difturbance in the breaft of defpotifm 
 by their apparitions. The figure of ma* 
 jefty upon this principle mould be retain- 
 ed in France, when it is no longer pof- 
 iible for it to repeat its former excerTes, 
 but may have, neverthelefs, an undif- 
 F 4 pute4
 
 [ 7* J 
 
 puted title to every kingly virtue that 
 ever graced a throne, courage and gene- 
 rality not excepted. The death of Mira- 
 beau, it appears, was accelerated by want 
 of proper attention to his cafe, and the 
 application of imaginary or pre-fuppofed 
 remedies, where palliatives were more 
 immediately required. His phyfician was 
 probably unacquainted with his conftitu- 
 tion. Mirabeau, it feems, was fubjecl: to 
 a floating humour, which fometimes 
 fhowed itfelf in his e^es, and fometimes in 
 his head ; thjs humour was unfortunately 
 locked up, and could not be brought out : 
 the confequence was fatal, and Monfieur 
 Petit was called in too late. The zeal of 
 the people was great, who crowded round 
 his door, and offered him the beft of their 
 blood. At the fale of his furniture and 
 wardrobe, this zeal, I make DO doubt, 
 will (how itfelf confpicuoufly ; his books, 
 
 how-
 
 [ 73 3 
 
 however, are not to be fold till Decem- 
 ber, with his cameos and entaglios. His 
 houfe is by no means a houfe to (how, 
 and yet many go to fee it as having be- 
 longed to a great man. The books which 
 are difperfed above flairs and below, all over 
 the apartments, are very fine, and often 
 fuperb both in condition and in binding. 
 The ftreet is called after his name, and is 
 become a very famionable refidence. The 
 houfe of Mademoifelle Guimarre is in this 
 ftreet. You know the ftile of thefe ele- 
 gancies with which Paris abounds, where 
 every apartment is finifhed like a fnuff- 
 box. Mademoifelle Guimarre's houfe 
 was built by fubfcription, and difpofed of 
 by lottery. It is fuppofed to have coft 
 the Prince de Soubife, Monfieur de la 
 Borde, and fomebody elfe, about twenty- 
 eight thoufand pounds. It was put into 
 a lottery of two hundred livres a ticker, 
 
 and
 
 [ 74 ] 
 
 and won by Monfieur le Marquis d'AHe* 
 mand, and fold to its prefent poflcffor for 
 fbmething more than fix thoufand pounds. 
 Adieu, 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET.
 
 [ 75 1 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 1 HE Baftile, with all its dungeons, is 
 not yet completely demolifhed, and there 
 (till remains enough to trace the difpo- 
 fition of the whole, and its parts ; you 
 may ftill defcend into the fubterraneous 
 prifons, and fee where the irons were 
 fattened, that chained the unfortunate 
 perfons who were the objects of deten- 
 tion. You have an accurate reprefenta- 
 tion at one of the theatres, on the Boule- 
 vards, of the manner of treating great 
 prifoners at the Baftile ; the character of 
 the Governor is indeed a little exaggerated, 
 and the fcene is blacker and more hor- 
 yid than the reality, but the great fea- 
 tures
 
 [ 76 ] 
 
 tures are, probably, too much like the 
 original. The Baftile, neverthelefs, was 
 a much more comfortable place than 
 thofe who were the objects of its perfe- 
 cutions have ever been willing to allow, 
 It was warm in winter, and cool in 
 fummer ; thanks to the thicknefs of its 
 walls, it preferved the temperature of a 
 cellar, and. was ever in the fame ftate, 
 independent of the external air in great 
 meafure, and unaffected by the great ex- 
 tremes of heat and cold. But a palace 
 that detains a man againfl his will, with- 
 out affigning a caufe, and without the 
 judgement of his Peers, though its floors 
 are of fatin-wood, and its walls of ala- 
 bafter, is the feat of horror and abomina- 
 tion, and mould be confecrated to de- 
 ftrudtion. 
 
 The
 
 t 77 1 
 
 The caufes of imprifonment were 
 fometimes perfectly groundlefs, and often 
 frivolous and vexatious. I know of none 
 more fo than the following. Monfieur 
 Rene Augufte Conftantius de Renneville 
 was thrown into the Baftile May 16, 
 1702, and kept there till May 16, 1713, 
 for an innocent parody on fome verfes 
 on France and Spain in alliance with 
 Auftria., in which there was an allufion 
 to the terms of the game of piquet. 
 The verfes were as follow, in which 
 S^ulnte et Quatorze mean Philippe the Fifth 
 c and Louis the Fourteenth. 
 
 Centre Quinte et Quatorze on n'a jamais beau jeu, 
 On eft meme allure de perdre la partie : 
 Des plus fages confeils toute la force unie, 
 
 Ne fert de rien, ou fert de peu ; 
 Peuples qui vous liguez, qu'avez vous qui balance, 
 
 Ou votre perte ou votre gain ? 
 
 Combattant 1'Efpagne et la France, 
 Yous trouyerez toujours Quinte et Quatorze en main. 
 
 Monfieur
 
 C ? ] 
 
 Monfieur de Renneville wrote an 2n- 
 fwer to thefe verles, which procured hint 
 the honours of the Bailile during eleven 
 years. The parody is very ingenious, and 
 ihould have been rewarded, and not pu- 
 nifhed. 
 
 Centre Quinte et Quatorze on peut faire beau jeu, 
 
 On eft meme aflure de gagner la partie ; 
 
 Aux plus fages confeils notre force eft unie ; 
 
 Votre Quatorze eft nul, votre Quinte eft trop petf, 
 Le ciel qui voit ce jeu fait pencher la ballance. 
 
 Pour votre perte, et notre gain. 
 Nous ferons xm repic, et PEfpagne, et la France 
 Se trouveront Capot, Quinte et Quatorze en main. 
 
 Now the Baftile Is removed, there is 
 nothing but the river to prevent the 
 junction of the old and new Boulevards, 
 arid you may walk from the bridge of 
 Louis XVI. to the fame point, almoft the 
 whole way through an avenue of tall 
 
 trees.
 
 [ 79 ] 
 
 ti'ees. The circuit is confiderable, and 
 more than the beft walkers can perform 
 with eafe in a day. The new inclofure, 
 though a wretched political expedient, 
 and defervedly much abufed, is, no 
 doubt, a very fine thing in its execution, 
 I am fbrry to hear that it is to be pulled 
 down for the fake of the materials. This 
 nouvelle enceinte^ as it is called, pafles at the 
 foot of Montmartre, and takes in the 
 fliburbs of Saint Anthony and the village 
 of Chaillot, which made them all fub- 
 je& to the droits d* entrees, that now exift 
 no longer ; therefore the new wall is ufe- 
 lefs. The Calembourg made upon the 
 inclofure at the time I remember to have 
 heard, and very good it was in its way. 
 
 Mur-murant Paris, 
 Rend Paris murmurant. 
 
 The
 
 t 80 ] 
 
 The immenfe firms of money fpent ort 
 this wall, might have been employed to 
 better account by making foot-paths in 
 the great ftreets, by dreffing up a little 
 the ragged banks of the Seine, and veil- 
 ing the mouths of the great drains, and 
 carrying off the foil by an increafe of? 
 {bream. When the Conftitution mall 
 once be completed, and it is certain that 
 the King will remain at Paris, and reign 
 over his fubjecls, I imagine the inhabi- 
 tants will turn their thoughts towards 
 the interior works of ornament and de- 
 coration* 
 
 When a great man comes upon the 
 carpet, every thing that is known is 
 related of him ; fmce Monf. de Bouilli's 
 letter, his converfatidn with the King of 
 Pruffia is come out. II y a, Sire, etje les 
 
 connois,
 
 t i ] 
 
 connois, 25 entrees a la France, ca peut 
 
 lien fare dlt k Rot, mah je ne connoh point 
 dejortie. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 * 3 
 
 LETTER XIV, 
 
 P AR. IS eft le bureau d* Invention, or the 
 fource of originality in patterns, and in 
 plays. No new fafhion ventures to ap- 
 pear, for the firft time, elfewhere, and 
 though the French feem to copy us 
 ibmetimes, yet the imitation is chiefly 
 confined to boots, breeches, and beef- 
 fleaks. I faw laft night a comedy called 
 L* Intrigue Epiftolairc, which I fliould not 
 be furprized to find upon thfe Englifh 
 ftage next winter, with certain references 
 to a recent tranfaction ; indeed, I think 
 that the principal actor in that buiinefs 
 might be at this moment well employed 
 in a liberal tranflation of the French 
 
 piece.
 
 piece. No one, moft certainly, is bet- 
 ter qualified, or more able to do juftice 
 to an original work on epiftolary in- 
 trigue, for the reafon that D'Alembert 
 gives in his Eflay on Men of Letters. 
 // en eft du merite de rhomme comme de 
 fes ouvrages : Perfonne ne pent mieux les 
 juger, que //, parce que perfonne ne les a. 
 vus de plus pres, m de plus long terns. 
 But, ferioufly, the Epiftolary intrigue may 
 be acted on the Englim ftage, with fewer 
 alterations than it is in general found 
 neceffary, in prefenting the comic mufe 
 of France by John Bull in an Englim drefs. 
 The piece has had a great run here, and 
 depends more on trick than on acting or 
 decoration. At a time when the town 
 and all its. eleven theatres are full of re- 
 publican pieces, this little incident of 
 common life is a very feafonable relief; 
 and more particularly fo at the moment 
 G ^ when
 
 when a tragedy called Wafhington has 
 been announced, and many others of 
 Roman ftory ; fo that we are fure to be 
 gorged with the Majefty of the people. 
 At the theatre of Monfieur, where the 
 Italian operas are reprefented, I was 
 charmed with the diftribution of the 
 houfe, and all its parts, where every one 
 fees equally well, with fome very few 
 exceptions. The lightnefs of the pillars, 
 and the elegance of the arabefques, 
 throw an air of enchantment over the 
 whole, and ycru conceive yourfelf in Italy. 
 The manner of lighting the houfe is alfo 
 very ornamental, and produces a clear 
 and fufficient illumination without any 
 partial glare. The French piece I faw 
 here has a rich and attractive title 
 UHiftoire Umverfe/Ie, or Every Man's 
 Cafe. We are all difcontented, but 
 without any caufe. An Englifhman might 
 
 learn
 
 [ 85 ] 
 
 learn fomething from it, efpeeially from 
 the burden of the fong, which fays, // 
 faut perir, II faut perir, mats il riy a fas 
 de quoi. 
 
 A Frenchman who, when he has fpent 
 all his money, lives upon the women, 
 and for their fakes only, can never fee 
 any reafon to deftroy himfelf, becaufe 
 his life is a burden to him ; the inftances 
 of fuicide are rare, except in Normandy, 
 where the inhabitants are found hanging 
 now and then on their own apple-trees. 
 The truth of this opinion appears clearly 
 by the verdift pafled not long ago on a 
 Parifian, who had killed himfelf : the 
 verdift of the Coroner was Mart far 
 exces de liberte. The blame, therefore, 
 is to be laid on the new fyftem, for 
 liberty was the terra incognita of the old 
 Government. Women are certainly va- 
 G 3 luable
 
 [ 86 ] 
 
 luable where they preferve the lives of the 
 men, and they do more in this country, 
 they command them ; fince, in fpite of 
 the Salique law, they contrive to be al- 
 ways on the throne. At this moment, 
 however they may appear to be commit- 
 ted in the difgrace of their chief, they 
 are by no means fo opprefTed, or fo 
 humbled, as to be incapable of recover- 
 ing their univerfal afcendency, let mat- 
 ters take what turn they wilL 
 
 This is the day of the expofttion of 
 the King's garde meuble^ which is under 
 one of the colonnades of the place Louis 
 XV. It confifts of armour, tapeftry, 
 and 'horfe furniture, given to the King 
 of France by Said Mehemet; and of a 
 great variety of agates, jafpers, diamonds, 
 pearls, and other precious flones, to a 
 yery considerable amount, with fome 
 2 pther
 
 t 8 7 1 
 
 other antique cameos, and intaglios, and 
 fmall bronzes. The armour of Henry IV. 
 is very interefting to an admirer of that 
 great man ; he wore it thirty years, c'ejl 
 a dire, pendant 30 ans, il fut prefque tou- 
 jours a cfoval, et k hands fur le dos* 
 but he wore it a day too little, for on the 
 fatal fourteenth of May, dans la rue de la 
 Feronnerie, he had no protection againft 
 the knife of the aflaffin. 
 
 * L' Amour de ffcnri IV. pour kskttres, p. ipo, 
 notes. 
 
 G 4 LET-
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 A WA S happy to fee, by your letter of 
 to-day, which is only the fecond I have 
 received fince I left you, that the heat 
 does not incommode you, though I really 
 pity your climate, which is ftill too cold 
 to permit you to enjoy the evening whif- 
 per till midnight ; when, at Paris, we 
 have it, for this year at leafr, in as great 
 perfection as in the Corfo at Rome. 
 
 A match broke off may be great news, 
 
 but fad intelligence, unlefs it be abfo- 
 
 folutely true, Qtfil y a toujours quelque 
 
 chofe dans les malheurs de nos meilkurs amis 
 
 i qui
 
 qui ne nous deplait pas. God forbid ! 
 for mould I once conceive it to be To, I 
 might not, probably, look upon the man, 
 (you know him) to be fo great a madman, 
 who goes about faying, " The bell thing 
 " is not to be born, but if you are, the 
 " next beft is to die as early as poffible." 
 Rochefoucault, with all his fagacity, feems 
 to have been an ill-natured fellow, and faw 
 every thing blacker than it was, and, one 
 would think, had to do with nothing but 
 villains and fcoundrels. For my own 
 part, I confefs to you, though you have 
 no right to exal it, that every other man 
 I meet has as many good points, as bad, 
 and that poor human nature is fadly libelled 
 and degraded, when the heart is de- 
 fcribed univerfally as a lump of intereft 
 and defign, as full of brains as the head, 
 and the index of its love, charity, and 
 affe&ion, is made to point only to itfelf. 
 
 There
 
 [ 90 ] 
 
 There is a good exhibition in wax of 
 Mirabeau on his death-bed, at the en- 
 trance of the Palais Royal, which does 
 pot fail to catch all comers ; over it is 
 written, uivre libre ou mourlr ; which is 
 like Salluft, melius liberum mori quant 
 fervum vivere. You have been told, that 
 Mirabeau was fubjecl: to violent paflions ; 
 nothing is fb true. When he was much 
 inflamed, and a little thing would do it, 
 he was like a mad bull, and his neck 
 fwelled till the finews cracked with {train- 
 ing : at thefe moments it was impoffible 
 to approach him, and his fervants all got 
 out of his way, and though he ftormed 
 and bellowed, no foul would come near 
 him for five minutes, when his paflion 
 fubfided, and he became meek as a lamb, 
 and mild as Marmontel's hero, aprh le 
 gain (Tune batailk* 
 
 I (hall
 
 [ 9' 3 
 
 I fhall enliven this letter by a fliort 
 copy of verfes from the Almanack des 
 Mufes y addrefled to a Lady, who had fent 
 her correfpondent a kifs in a letter: 
 
 Vous m'envoyer fur le papier 
 Un baifer qui bien peu me touche j 
 Baifer qui vient par le courier, 
 Pourroit-il chatouiller ma bouche ? 
 Votre chimerique fa-veur 
 Me laifle froid comme du marbre ; 
 Et ce fruit n'a point de faveur, 
 (iuand il n'eft pas cueiili fur 1'arbre. 
 
 Par 3VJ. M * * 
 
 IMITATION. 
 
 A kifs in vain your lips imprefs, 
 Which ne'er arrives at its addrefs ; 
 A kifs that's fent us by the poft, 
 E'er it can reach the mouth, is loft, 
 No thanks are due for fuch a boon, 
 Which leaves one colder than a ftone f 
 Rifles are taftelefs fruits, you know, 
 Unlefs they're gathered where they grcnr, 
 
 Adieu. Ever your's,
 
 L 9* J 
 
 /LETTER XVI, 
 
 1 HERE arc more ftrange fights at Paris 
 than any where elfe, and, what in Shake- 
 fpeare's time was called odd fifties, from 
 all parts of the world. Befides the grand 
 couvert on the Boulevards, and Mirabeau, 
 Roufleau, and Voltaire ; befides Mirabeau 
 tonneau ; befides all the deputies at the 
 Palais Royal ; you have every nation un- 
 der the fun, from Siam to California, in 
 the ftreets, in their proper habiliments. 
 Turks and Armenians in petticoats, Hey- 
 ducs abundant, and HufTars without num- 
 ber ; with every third man a Jew, a Pan- 
 der, a Coffee, a Paul Jones, a nephew 
 of Franklin, or a deferter from the rebel 
 
 Princes,
 
 [ 93 ] 
 
 Princes, Monfieur Bouilli, or the Turkifh 
 army. Then comes an equeftrian or- 
 donnance from La Fayette, for which eve- 
 ry thing muft turn out ; or a dafhing Ca- 
 briolet, which runs over every thing ; and 
 as all thefe things are curious, and objects 
 of attention, it is natural to take a view of 
 them ; but the moment you look back* 
 you are loft, for if you do not advance, 
 you are fure to retreat, and be carried 
 away by the flood ; it is not poffible to 
 flarid frill and flare. Nor, indeed, can you 
 do this in London, even where you are 
 protected by a foot-path from horfes and 
 carriages ; but in London the temptation 
 is not the fame, and Gay's rules for walk- 
 ing the ftreets would not apply at all to 
 a Parifian. But the care that every 
 body takes, who is at all praclifed in the 
 thing, to protect the head, which is dreffed 
 for all day t and the heels that are not to be 
 
 foiled,
 
 [ 94 3 
 
 foiled, is fufficient to keep both in order $ 
 provided the weather is aufpicious, dry 
 over head and under foot, for a French 
 curl will ftand any thing fhort of a hurri- 
 cane. You knew a Frenchman formerly 
 by his (hoes, which were badly cleaned, 
 and often clumfily made, but now every 
 fhoe mines like a poliihed mirror, and 
 defies duft and dirt, and is fo highly va/- 
 nifhed, that water will run off from them. 
 This is no Englim blacking, but a mining 
 competition of their own, which is di- 
 agreeable to the eye, and looks as if your 
 fhoe had been dipt in boiling pitch. The 
 figns at Paris are often curious where one 
 can flop to read them. One man writes 
 over his door, Caffe du prophets E/ie; ano-r 
 ther, U hotel du petit Moyfe ; a third, a bar- 
 ber, lei on rajeunit. Upon the quay de la 
 Grew, the fign reprefents a fmitrf s fliop ; 
 upon the anvil is the head of a woman, 
 
 upon
 
 upon which two men are at work with 
 their hammers : in the nre is another 
 head, and in the corner of the fhop is a 
 bafket full. Beneath the picture is an 
 explication as follows : 
 
 Malt re Ltiflucru a ircuve k fecret de re- 
 forger ', e t potir les tetes des femmes acaria- 
 tres, criardes, diableffes, fantafques, glori- 
 eufes, infupportableSy mechanics, teflies, pi- 
 griecbes : les riches en pay ant > les pauvres 
 gratis. 
 
 This is what Voltaire fcmewhere calls 
 Fefprit Jait fur I'enclume ; I wonder the 
 fifh women have not long ago pulled 
 down the man's houfe, but the truth is, 
 that they do not feem to take the affront, 
 though there is quite room enough for 
 offence : the fign is large, and the picture 
 is by no means a daubing ; on the contrary,
 
 E 96 1 
 
 it is fo well done, as to be horrid and di- 
 gutting in the extreme ; conceive an afs 
 loaded with two baikets full of female 
 heads raw and bloody. I am tinder the 
 neceflity of obliging every body to 
 whom I tell this ftory, to go and fee, or 
 they would never believe. Adieu, 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 [ 97 ] 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 July 1791. 
 
 W E are at prefent in a flate of great 
 tranquillity, and live very peaceably for 
 the mofl part, if you except the commo- 
 tions and inward workings occafioned par 
 le levain de la fulte du RoL There are 
 now on fale fome very fine books of a 
 Monfieur Mel de St. Ceran, by de Bure, 
 but no bargains are to be had, and the im- 
 patience, I am told, of the bidders for the 
 fine articles is fo great, that if you are re- 
 folved to have any thing, you muft give 
 an exorbitant price. For inftance, they 
 pufhed the Aldus Plato to three hundred 
 And fixty livres, and Gli Ragionamenti di 
 H Aretino
 
 t 98 ] 
 
 Aretino to feventy-feven livres, only be- 
 caufe it was in Morocco; I could have 
 bought a fine one, the fame edition, in 
 lefs fplendid binding, for thirty-five, I be- 
 lieve for lefs. There is a Monfieur Ren- 
 noi here, who has collected fine books for 
 many years, and has fome very curious 
 things. The famous library of the Mar- 
 quis de Paulmy is ftill at the arfenal, and 
 the property of the Comte d'Artois. It 
 will probably come into the hands of the 
 creditors of his Highnefs. The hour of 
 fale of Monfieur de St. Ceran's books is 
 at fix in the evening, when it is not pofii- 
 ble to attend ; orders, however, are eafily 
 given, when you wifh to have a thing ; 
 and as I have fent you the catalogue, I 
 am perfectly at your difpofal in that and 
 every other commiffion. The prettied 
 theatre at Paris is the theatre of Made- 
 moifelle Montanfier ; here they play Le 
 
 Sourd,
 
 t 99 ] 
 
 Sourd, which is much better imagined 
 than our Deaf Lover, though the ways 
 and means are the fame in both pieces. 
 In the French piece the pleafant charac- 
 ter is a ridiculous buffoon, that fays a 
 hundred good things and is the fupport 
 of the farde. By the addrefs of the pre- 
 tended deaf lover, this buffoon is cheated 
 of his dinner and his bed, and as the inn 
 is full, he is obliged to make himfelf a 
 bed of chairs, with the afTiftance of nap- 
 kins for meets, and an extemporary night* 
 cap from the fupper-table* He does this 
 very adroitly, and keeps the houfe in a 
 roar the whole time. At length) every 
 thing being ready, he lies down in his 
 cloaths, andamidft the thoufand and one 
 projects which he forms for his future 
 happinefs, his great defign is to marry his 
 aunt, who is old and ugly, but rich. 
 Thus^he talks himfelf to fleep ; his voice 
 H 2 fal-
 
 falling gradually, and the curtain defcend- 
 ing (lowly, the nrft act concludes. But 
 the cream of the jeft is his reflection at the 
 end of his project, with which the curtain 
 drops and he falls afleep. On veut dit //, 
 que fepouferois une grande tante que fai, 
 qui ejl trcs riche ; mats une petite reflexion 
 que je viens de falre rtfempeche ; f j^poufe 
 ma tante ) je feral done men oncle. 
 
 You know we had heard before I left 
 England, of the fracas that happened at a 
 certain houfe at Paris the night that Mi- 
 rabeau was buried, how the Poiflardes 
 made a forcible entry, and (tripped the 
 females, ill ufed them, and left them 
 naked. By what I can find, every parti- 
 cle of the report is exactly true ; and 
 though it may feem an unpleafant reflec- 
 tion that your houfe is not your caflle, 
 and that you cannot do as you will with- 
 in
 
 in your own walls, yet the indifcretion, 
 you will allow, is extreme, to open a 
 houfe of feafting in the face of a funeral 
 proceffion for the firft man in the country, 
 to infult the folemn dirge with jigs an4 
 cotillions 
 
 *' And mock the patriot wpe 
 " With midnight dances, and a public Ihovv." 
 
 Here is, I am told, at Paris, at j:his mo- 
 ment, an agent who wants to borrow forty 
 thoufand pounds for an heir to a great 
 eflate, but in the name of wonder how is 
 he to borrow money at five or fix per 
 cent, which fells for twelve ? Will any 
 ariftocrate lend his money to a foreigner 
 at half price, becaufe he expe&s to feQ 
 the affignats at ninety per cent, difcount ? 
 I cannot be perfuaded that three men in 
 Paris ferioufly entertain fuch an opinion. 
 H 3 The
 
 The fpecie has difappeared, that is mod 
 certain, and we know the reafon why ; 
 it is gone to the emigrants ; it is remitted 
 to pay debts in commerce ; it is fold 
 daily, and immenfe fortunes have been 
 already made by the traffic ; it is locked 
 up in the coffers of the timid, who do 
 not chofe to truft the ftate-paper. Thefe 
 are the people of whom you muft borrow, 
 and fome poflibly you may find, who 
 will lend at five or fix per cent, on good 
 fecurity, fooner than buy aflignats at 1 3 
 per cent, advantage* 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 July 1791. 
 
 1 HE funeral pomp of Voltaire is juft 
 over ; I cannot fay I think it was a fine 
 thing ; but as a tub to the whale, a la 
 bonne heure ! encore pajje ! You know Vol^ 
 taire was no favourite of mine, but as a 
 fine writer and a great poet ; there was 
 nothing in the man that deferved to be fo 
 recorded ; for what was he but an abettor 
 of. tyranny and encroaching defpotifm, 
 when he complimented Catharine the 
 Second with the title of the Northern 
 Star, and named himfelf the high prieft of 
 her temple, and for what ? For difmem- 
 bering Poland, partitioning its provinces, 
 H 4 and
 
 [ 104 ] 
 
 and banifhing to Siberia the brave confe- 
 derates, whom fhe is pleafed to call the 
 mutineers of Poland. The remonftrances 
 againfl his deification were very ftrong on 
 the fide of all ferious men, and well- 
 wiihers to good manners and uncorrupt 
 integrity. But the people muft be amufed. 
 The French are given much to make 
 gods of their heroes ; they made Veftris 
 the god of dance, with which I find no 
 fault, as it was fans ceremonie. Now the 
 pageant of Voltaire was a ferious evil to 
 the country in the prefent impoverifhed 
 ilate of its finances, and, after all, not well 
 executed. The argument from Calonne 
 is a weak one, and does not apply. What, 
 fay the Journalifts, (hall the nation pay 
 twelve thoufand pound s pourfaire coucher 
 Calonne avec une coquine, and refufe to 
 pay one thoufand pour falre coucher Vol- 
 iaire avec une fainte \ for he was buried 
 
 by
 
 by the fide of Mirabeau chez la Ste. Gene- 
 vieve. The National Affembly paid ex- 
 traordinary honours to the Abbe TEpee, 
 pour avoir cree des organes aux fourds et 
 aux muets ; and to Mirabeau, becaufe he 
 had been the principal pillar of the Re- 
 volution ; but to Voltaire (till greater, be- 
 caule he had taken the lead in writing 
 down the monaftic orders, though at the 
 fame time that he fired upon the monks, 
 he levelled his artillery againft every fa- 
 cred inttitution, and endeavoured to 
 laugh the world out of its religion. As 
 to his fervices to the flate, in preaching 
 liberty, and the downfal of defpotifm, 
 RoufTeau deferved a greater recompence 
 than he at the hands of his country, and 
 had more zeal and more eloquence, and 
 was what Voltaire himfelf fays of a bro- 
 ther poet, 
 
 " Precheur adroit, fabricateur des oracles." 
 
 I at-
 
 C "6 ] 
 
 I attended the pageant of the poet of 
 Ferney, but it was fpoilt in great meafure 
 by a wet day, and owed much of its fai- 
 lure of fuccefs to the badnefs of the wea- 
 ther. The people were a little out of 
 humour with the rain. The women faid 
 the Bon Dieu was ariftocrate, and the 
 Journalifts in fpeaking of the fete fay, 
 La nation devant le theatre de la nation de- 
 volt produire plus d'ejfits ; mais la plule qui 
 "jeut fare abfolument de toytes les fites na- 
 tionales obtigea le cortege de fe preclp'iter 
 vers Ste. Genevicve. I cannot, however, 
 praife the triumphal car ; as a machine a 
 rantique, it was incorrectly conceived, as 
 a piece of modern production, it was hea- 
 vy and clumly. The horfes, twelve in 
 number, were beautiful in the extreme ; 
 they were white, and eight of them came 
 from the {tables of Monfieur, the King's 
 brother, and four from Beaumarchais. 
 
 The
 
 t 10 7 ] 
 
 The figure of Voltaire lying upon its back 
 on the car produced but a forry effeft, 
 efpecially when, on account of the un- 
 evennefs of the pavement, it could not be 
 keptfteady ; the right arm too was diflo- 
 cated by the repeated joltings of the car- 
 nage, and hung down like the arm of a 
 malefactor broke upon the wheel. The 
 mow, neverthelefs, gave univerfal fatis- 
 fa&ion, and did not arrive at the cloifter 
 where the body was to be interred, till 
 after nine o ? clock at night : I fay the bo- 
 dy, but more properly what was left of 
 the body. It feems that Voltaire had ex- 
 preflly defired, that a quantity of quick 
 lime mould be put into the coffin at his 
 burial, and when the coffin was opened 
 at Romilly, in order to fee what ftate he 
 was in, they found him all confumed, and 
 nothing left but a bone or two, perhaps, 
 and the duft which the wind blew into 
 
 theit
 
 their eyes. They ihut up the cafe and 
 reported the poet in excellent preferva- 
 tion. I cannot fay of Voltaire at his 
 death, as has been faid of fome great men, 
 that he was the object of my conftant en- 
 vy, or of my perpetual imitation. There is 
 one thing, however, peculiar to this great 
 and renowned martyr to celebrity, if I 
 may fo call him, in which every man 
 would wifh to referable him ; he flept 
 away his life, and died without a pang ; 
 having drank more coffee than ufual in 
 order to give him a flow of fpirits and 
 imagination, for the finishing the tragedy 
 which he had in hand ; he thought it 
 proper to correct the heat of the coffee 
 by an increafed portion of opium, accord- 
 ingly he took a double dofe, fell afleep, 
 and never waked again. 
 
 Ever yonr's. 
 
 LET-
 
 io 9 ] 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 t KINGS, you obferve, are mightily 
 changed in this country ; it is very true, 
 there is neither province nor baillage, or- 
 der nor nobility, in their ftead you have 
 department, fe&ion, equality, and citizen- 
 fhip. The rule of the Medes and Perti- 
 ans does not obtain here, the language is, 
 Volumus leges Francis mutari ; and I con- 
 fefs that in the mod eflential matters, it 
 was not before the amendment was want- 
 ed that the change took place. But in 
 many points that concern the clergy, the 
 nobility, and all rank and order in the 
 ftate, I really think that the nous avom 
 2 change
 
 t 
 
 change tout cela betrays the ignorance of 
 the mock doctor without the pleafantry. 
 The Government, if it may fo be called, 
 is at prefent un fer hochepot^ a wretched 
 jumble of half and half parties ; for fmce 
 the filence of the cote droit in the AfTem- 
 bly, the cote gauche begins to divide, 
 and the fierce republicans are left to 
 quarrel among themfelves. You alk me 
 what is become of the King's friends; 
 where are the Princes ? Why, in Ger- 
 many, debating like Prince Volfcius, 
 Duke of Ormond, in one boot, whether 
 it is beft to fall on, or to come in. The 
 Prince of Coride has good reafon to return, 
 and if he could once get a little cool, I 
 mould imagine his loffes in the Clermon- 
 tois and his government of Burgundy, 
 of fifty thoufand a year fterling, would 
 bring him to his fenfes, and make him 
 come back to fave the remnant. The 
 i only
 
 C in ] 
 
 only fenfible Prince is the Prince of* 
 Conti, and he has been long returned 
 from his error into the bofom of his 
 country ; and reafons well, that once a 
 Prince always a Prince; this confbles 
 him for lofs of title* but had he remained 
 with the rebels, the cafe would have been 
 different ; once Lord Paramount is not 
 always Lord Paramount, for he is well 
 acquainted with the proverb and the truth 
 of it. Nul Seigneur fans terre. Then 
 again the Abfentee-tax, which is juft 
 parTed, comforts him anew, fince a triple 
 contribution is no trifle whether the pro- 
 perty be large or fmall. The Duke of 
 Orleans, you know, is here at Paris, and 
 attends his duty in Parliament, and votes 
 per fe moft popularly. The fketch or 
 bare outline of this great man's conducl 
 cannot be drawn in a fingle letter ; we 
 muft talk him over. 
 
 They
 
 They have a pleafant way of changing 
 Englifti prints in this place, and giving 
 them new names. For inftance, Gar- 
 rick between tragedy and comedy, is a 
 hero entre le vice et la vertu y and Bunbu- 
 ry's print of the barber's fhop is the po- 
 litical barber, who {haves the three 
 efhtes. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XX, 
 
 JL HE caftle of St. Germain en Laye ia 
 curious in the eye of an Englifhman, 
 becaufe it was the refidence of James 
 the Second, and his Court, after his ab- 
 dication. The fituation is very fine, and 
 puts you in mind of Windfor ; the Mall 
 and the Bowling-green, which you find 
 here, were both, I imagine, defigned to- 
 amufe the laft unhappy royal vifitor; 
 the great terrace is confiderably more 
 than a mile long, and about eighty or 
 ninety feet wide : you have a fine <liftant 
 view of Paris on the fide of the river 
 from the caftle, which the King gave 
 to the Comte d'Artois, who has fold it. 
 I It
 
 It is a pleafant excurfion to this place by 
 the poft ; you muft fet out early i-n the 
 morning, and return late, to have the 
 whole Jay at your difpofal, which is not 
 too much for the object in view. As 
 the Thuilleries are at this moment (hut 
 tip, even to the paflage of the Deputies, 
 when you return to town, the cooleft 
 place to drive to in an evening, is the 
 Palais Koial, where you are fure to find 
 a feat, and be amufed with the buz of a 
 well drefled crowd; well and ill, it mould 
 be faid, for of all the figures that inhabit 
 the purlieus of the Fleet, and of all the 
 fhabby genteels of the King's Bench Pri- 
 fon, none can furpafs the rags and the^ 
 filth, the greafe and the fnufF of the 
 Palais Roial, and that too carelefsly af- 
 fociated with the premier elegant du jar- 
 din. It was formerly enough to have a 
 Ivindow and a chimney in the capital. 
 z Madame-
 
 C "5 ] 
 
 Madame de Staal tells us, that (he had 
 an apartment, un recoin, where fhe could 
 not ftand upright, but it was at Paris* 
 Now, indeed, the great felicity is to look 
 into the Palais Ro'ial ; a wretched garret 
 that commands a view of this palace of 
 pleafure, is hired at a high price, and 
 taken as ibon as it can be procured with 
 the greateft avidity. The attachment of 
 all ranks to this link of corruption, can 
 be equalled by nothing fhort of the af- 
 feftion of a Mexican for his capital, who 
 bargains with his confeflbr for a window 
 in Heaven to. look at Mexico 
 
 Una vent ana di cielo per mirar Mexico. 
 
 Formerly you were fure to fee feme of 
 the beft company in Paris between one and 
 two o'clock in the great alley of the Palais 
 Ro'ial ; at prefent, even if the fame com-
 
 t 
 
 pany exifted, no body would come for 
 the fame purpofe, becaufe the tufted 
 trees are laid low, and the faplins have 
 no head ; the heat of the weather, and 
 the reflexion from the new buildings, 
 has {tripped almoft every other tree of 
 its leaves, and killed every third. The 
 place too is fo choaked with fhops, of 
 which every other is, ferved by females, 
 who fell every thing even to themfelves, 
 that the air you breathe is fcarcely pure. 
 A fmall fhop, with a room of the fame 
 fize behind, about ten feet by fix, lets for 
 eight louis d'ors a month. Three tides of 
 the Palais Ro'ial contain two hundred ar- 
 cades, which are reckoned to bring in 
 from the garret to the cellar, one hun- 
 dred guineas a year each. In this ac- 
 count the barracks, or extemporary wooden 
 buildings, which are built for ten years 
 only, are not included. Here a fmall 
 
 fhop,
 
 [ "7 ] 
 
 fhop, ten or twelve feet by feven, lets for 
 a hundred livres a month : thefe barracks 
 complete the fquare of the gardens. 
 Monfieur d'Orleans, it feems, has dif- 
 pofed of the perpetuity * of this eftate, 
 and has referved nothing to himfelf but 
 his own palace, of which he can hardly 
 command the approach. In rilling up 
 the grand alley with houfes, he has only 
 done what Cardinal Richlieu did before 
 him, who let the garden-grounds of his 
 town houfes upon building leafes. 
 
 The Palais Ro'ial is the centre of po- 
 litics as well as of pleafure, and is often 
 fo extravagant in both, that the military 
 police is obliged to interfere in order to 
 preferve peace and propriety : the groups, 
 however loud and outrageous, it mufl be 
 
 * That is, for ninety years, far ua bail ampbitbeo- 
 
 tique* 
 
 I 3 faid
 
 [ "8 ] 
 
 faid to their credit, are eafily difperfed 
 and fwept away by the patrole, and I 
 never faw the leaft attempt at refinance 
 to the fixed bayonet: To talk about it, 
 -and about it, feems the great motive to 
 aflemble in knots and circles, where the 
 fame people will fometimes remain from 
 nine in the morning till five in the af- 
 ternoon without ftirring ; and if you af- 
 fift for five minutes at any time at their 
 debates, you will be fure to hear Pordre 
 du jour called for, though frequently to 
 no purpofe: for my part, I believe 
 they vote themfelves the National Aflem- 
 bly in miniature, and are amufed in dif- 
 cuffing the matter over again that pafled 
 the day before. As to plots or counter- 
 plots, they feem, whatever they may 
 form, to execute none of them. In the 
 infancy of a new Government every man 
 is a ftatefman, and thinks himfelf fit {o 
 
 be
 
 C "9 ] 
 
 be at the helm, and is defirous of prao 
 -tifing on his own circle ; for in thefe 
 groups you will obferve fome one man 
 liftened to during the whole day, and 
 this is he who has the good fortune to 
 begin firft, and never flop. 
 
 The .character of the French, and th 
 prefent times, is well defcribed by fome- 
 body in the following lines : 
 
 Ces terns heureux marques par la license, 
 
 Ou la folie agitant fon grelot^ 
 
 D'un pied leger parcourt toute la France, 
 
 Ou nul mortei veut etre devot, 
 
 Ou Ton fait tout excepte penitence j , 
 
 jLe bon Regent de fon Palais Ro'ial, 
 
 Des voluptes donne a tons le fignal. 
 
 Ever your's, 
 1 4 LE T-
 
 LETTER XXL 
 
 I DON'T know if you ever vifited the 
 Scots College when you were at Paris : 
 it is ftill in exiftence, and ftands erecl 
 amidfl the cruih of other monaftic orders ; 
 the redtor's name too is Gordon, though 
 not the fame man that was reftor when you 
 were laft here. This College is now more 
 curious than it ever was, and a greater 
 object of refearch, becaufe, by interfe- 
 rence and protection it has, with fix or 
 feven conventual houfes, Englifh and 
 Irifh, outlived the Revolution. It is, in- 
 deed, very poor, having been ruined in 
 the year forty-five, when it fed and 
 lodged its five thoufahd daily for a con- 
 i fiderable
 
 t **I ] 
 
 fiderable time, an expence which nothing 
 lefs than a miracle, and not of the Abbe 
 Paris, could fupport. The curiofities of 
 this collegiate houfe have been much 
 dwelt upon by hiftorians, and much ufe 
 has been made of them. There is one, 
 however, that I ftiould like to have 
 turned out upon the world, if not the 
 whole, at leaft in part, and that is a Per- 
 (ian tranflation of Homer of an early 
 date. I wim fome Parifian Orientalift, 
 who is no politician, would give us a 
 literal veriion of the fir ft book. 
 
 The Scots nation may be called the 
 favourite of France, fince it was excepted 
 from the Droit d? Aubaine^ and permitted 
 to inherit from Grangers who happened 
 to die in France. Albanus, a Scotch- 
 man, was the firft inftance of the ex- 
 ception, and from him came the name 
 
 of
 
 of the law, Drolt d'Aubame, by that 
 fort of figure which calls a thing by its 
 contrary or oppofite, per antlphrajin^ like 
 lucus a non lucendo, et mortmain quia manu* 
 non morltur^ parcte quia non parcunt. 
 From Alb anus viz have Albanaglum, which 
 confirms the truth of the etymology. 
 
 I forgot to tell you, in fpeaking of 
 Voltaire's funeral pomp, that I was placed 
 on the Boulevards, in order to fee it pafs, 
 in the neighbourhood of two remarkable 
 houfes, one the refidence of Beaumar- 
 chais himfelf, who has erected a temple 
 and a ftatue to his divinity, Voltaire; 
 and the other, the retreat of the Abbe 
 de.la Chaife, Confeffor to Louis XIV. 
 It is hardly worth while to carry you 
 back to this point, if it were not for the 
 fatisfaction of feeing where men who are 
 much talked of live or die. , 
 
 The
 
 [ "3 3 
 
 The jottrnalifts compare the leaders of 
 the emigrants to Pompey, who bound 
 himfelf by an oath, to treat all thofe as 
 enemies who hefitaced to embrace his 
 eaufe : but Caefar, that favourite of for- 
 tune, who was born to controul the events 
 
 
 of chance and hazard, gave out that 
 
 he (hould confider all thofe as fish tin 2 
 
 o o 
 
 for him, who did not fight againft 
 him ; and Caefar's party was victorious. 
 With fome of you in England, I am 
 told, that the firft queftion is, if La 
 Fayette is not hanged yet ? and the firfl 
 toaft after dinner is, Confufion to the 
 Mayor of Varennes. But it .does not 
 fignify, the die is caft, and the Revolu- 
 tion muft ftand, in fpite of any efforts to 
 the contrary beyond the Rhine ; the feeds 
 of ruin and diflblution, if they ever fpring 
 up, will grow at home. The royal caufe, 
 however, has more active friends here 
 than, there, and many, who fee the mif- 
 
 chiefs
 
 [ 4 1 
 
 chiefs of a Republic, are refolved to re- 
 inftate the King, with certain checks and 
 reftraints, that fhall fetter him," to^the 
 utter prevention of all vaulting in future. 
 We (hall be better judges when the Con- 
 ftitution, or Magna Charta, is once finifli- 
 ed, and the whole that relates to his Ma- 
 jefty, fhall be prefented in one com- 
 prehenfive point of view. Then will 
 come the revifion, and many things, no 
 doubt, will wear an entire new face be- 
 fore they are propofed for acceptance. 
 Nothing can fhmp the a&s of the Af- 
 fembly with greatnefs, but the certain 
 expectation of their durability. 
 
 Rjen n'eft grand fans Pefpoir de I'immortalitc. 
 
 It is to no purpofe, but for the rhyme, 
 that Monf. de la Harpe tells us, in his 
 Eloge of Voltaire, 
 
 Le peuple eft eclaire, 1'homme penfc, il eft libre, 
 Terns les droits ont leur jufte equilibre j 
 
 When
 
 t 5 3 
 
 When nothing is duly balanced ; or that 
 the people are enlightened, when they are 
 blind with rage ; or that they think, 
 when they follow a mad leader, or that 
 they are free, when they are at the beck 
 of one tyrant, or of thirty. Apropos 
 to the fubjeft, a man has been juft now 
 thrown into the bafon of the Palais 
 Ro'ial, for attempting to read fomething 
 in extenuation of the conduct of the 
 King. They call this ceremony bafjlmr 
 vn Arlflocrate. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET- 
 
 r
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 J A M juft now returned from the 
 Champ de Mars, and the Federation, 
 which tells you the day of the month. 
 There is fomething very pleafant in a 
 date, and yet I am not irreproachable 
 on this head, as I often omit it. The 
 ceremony was performed with great ec/af, 
 the affembly numerous, and the efplanade 
 before the ecole nulitaire, with its amphi* 
 theatr, and the Altar of Liberty in the 
 centre, prefented altogether a fight truly 
 great and magnificent. From the Mili- 
 tary School to the bottom of the Champ 
 de Mars, that is, to the commencement 
 
 of
 
 of the amphitheatre, is nearly half a 
 mile. I cannot pretend to fay what 
 number of people were prefent at the Fe- 
 deration, but whatever it was, it did 
 not exceed one half of the numbers of 
 the laft year, w T hich, you know, was 
 the year of its inftitution. The four- 
 teenth of July was a very pleafant day, 
 and by no means too hot, but there was 
 a good deal of wind, which made it dif- 
 ficult for the officiating prieft to keep the 
 hoft upon the plate, as the lightefl breeze 
 would have blown it away, and then the 
 cmbarraffment would have been great 
 kideed ; he covered it, however, with 
 the patelle, and removed the difficulty. 
 In Cafe, at any time, of the hofl's fall- 
 ing, it mufl be covered with a napkin, 
 till water qan be got to warn the place, 
 as foon as the feveral parts of the confe- 
 
 c rated
 
 [ .,8 J 
 
 crated wafer have been carefully colle&ed ; 
 then the floor muft be fcraped, and licked 
 with the tongue, fo that every particle, 
 even the fmallef}, may be taken up. It 
 happened, not long ago, that a box full 
 of holy wafers was let fall on the pave- 
 ment at the St. Euftache, and fcattered to a 
 confiderable diftance on the floor ; in con- 
 fequence of which an acl: of purification 
 took place, which lafted the whole day. 
 
 All ranks feemed to be highly de< 
 lighted with the civil and religious cere- 
 mony of this day, and waited with great 
 patience for the Deputies from the Na- 
 tional Aflembly, who arrived about two 
 o'clock. The people had been on the 
 ground at leafl five hours before the cere*, 
 mony began. Monf. de la Fayette, and 
 his friend, an Englifhman, were the moil 
 
 con-
 
 [ "9 ] 
 
 confpicuous figures ; the Englishman, 
 who was mounted on one of Monf. de 
 la Fayette's horfes, accompanied the 
 General through the lines, and remained 
 with him the whole day ; the General 
 bimfelf rode three different horles that 
 day, a white, an iron-grey, and a cream 
 colour. The numbers, at leaft the com- 
 puted numbers, prefent the firft year at 
 the Champ de Mars, were three hundred 
 thousand, befides fixty thoufand pro- 
 vincial troops, and forty thoufand Parifian 
 guards, which you are to divide by two 
 for the prefent year. I cannot lay, I 
 believe at all in this calculation, but it is 
 not poffible for an unpradlifed eye to judge 
 of numbers with any fort of accuracy. 
 
 I returned home at four o'clock very 
 
 well fatisfied with my expedition, but not 
 
 K without
 
 [ '3 ] 
 
 without fome apprehenfion, that in a few 
 years the priefts would be left to fay Mafs 
 to the troops and the Deputies. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 [ '3' ] 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 July 1 8. 
 
 1 HERE is always fomething that goes 
 wrong here every fourteen or fifteen days, 
 and fometimes much oftener. We were 
 all laft Friday turned out of the Italian 
 theatre, which was ordered to be fhut 
 by a crowd of vagabonds, who amufed 
 themfelves by running about the town, 
 and alarming every body, becaufe the 
 National Aflembly had thought proper to 
 decree, that . the King was inviolable. A 
 guard comes into the playhoufe, grounds 
 his firelock, and cries, Ilfaut cejjer ; the 
 company immediately ran out of the 
 houfe, and left Zemire and her filters to 
 K 2 enjoy
 
 [ '3* 3 
 
 enjoy the <ronfufion, and the holiday. 
 As foon as we got into the flreet we found 
 the alarm was ridiculous, and without 
 foundation ; but the players had, with a 
 precaution moft laudable, (hut their doors 
 upon us, and put off our return, fo that 
 we were fairly frightened out of our 
 amufemeiit. The fame thing happened 
 at another houfe the next night, when 
 a letter was thrown upon the frage, and 
 the audience infifted on its being read : 
 it was accordingly read aloud by the 
 principal aclor, and its contents were, 
 that in the prefent fituation of affairs, 
 the only piece that could be reprefented 
 with propriety on that, or any other 
 ftage, was La Mort de Cefar. The reader, 
 in compliance with this demand, faid, 
 the piece was got up, and would be 
 played in a day or two. A voice from 
 the pit cried, the letter did not exprefs 
 
 the
 
 [ '33 ] 
 
 the fentiments of the company prefent, 
 but had been thrown on the flage by 3, 
 perfon who had left the houfe as foon as 
 he had done it. The piece was accor- 
 dingly only promifed, and never after-, 
 wards announce^ 
 
 The idea of a republican form of go-*, 
 vcrnment was treated with ridicule in the 
 National AfTembly by Barnave ; andA,mer 
 rica, with its immenfe forefts and unin- 
 habited plains, ihewn to have no points 
 of comparifon with France, where the 
 manners were polifhed and corrupt, and 
 where the enemy was at the gates. A 
 republic was not ma.de for a country fo 
 fituated, and to fet up fuch a govern- 
 ment was to fuppofe a political romance, 
 whiph could be confidered in no other 
 light than as vifionary and chimerical. 
 France rnufl be governed by a King, and 
 
 he
 
 [ '34 ] 
 
 <w 
 
 he muft be inviolable , if the King is not 
 inviolable, he is no longer King, fince 
 every citizen has it in his power to ao 
 cufe him, and call him to account. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 [ '35 ] 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 July 1 8. 
 
 .F ARIS is at this, moment in a ferment ; 
 the Palais Renal is full of motion-makers, 
 and every night the guards are obliged to 
 parade from eight till ten, in order to dif- 
 perfe the groups which form themfelves 
 again, as foon as the patrole is pafled 
 through them. They demand that the 
 King fhould be put upon his trial, and in- 
 lift that the eighty-three departments 
 fhall be confulted on the occafion, and 
 that the National Aflembly is inefficient 
 of itfelf to difpofe of the King. They 
 hold their meetings at the Altar of the 
 Champ de Mars, and have a petition to 
 K 4 ^
 
 be figned by the whole body ready drawn 
 np for the purpofe of gaining time, and 
 preventing the Aflembly from pronoun- 
 cing decifively on the fate of the King. 
 The AfTembly, apprehenfive of being in- 
 terrupted in its debates and broken in 
 upon by the mob, have ordered two 
 pieces of cannon to be placed before the 
 principal entrance of the houfe ; the can- 
 nons are loaded with nails and old iron, 
 and the matches are ready lit. Two 
 men were this morning found concealed 
 under the Altar of the Champ de Mars, 
 on the information of a bafket woman, 
 who iits on the flep : fhe faw the point 
 of a borer in the interftices of the frones 
 making its way out. She alarmed the 
 guard, who immediately went down into 
 the room beneath the Altar, and difcovered 
 an invalid and a hair-drefler, with a fmall 
 provifion of bread and wine, and a bar- 
 rel,
 
 [ '37 ] 
 
 rel, as they fuppofed, of gun-powder, 
 though this was never proved, and the 
 barrel is faid pofitively to have contained 
 nothing but water ; but the circumftances 
 were ftrong, and the men were dragged 
 away to the firft municipality, and one 
 was hanged and one had his throat cut ; 
 the invalid with his wooden leg was 
 hanged, and the barber was difpatched 
 by the knife, but both long before they 
 got to the municipality. The fuppofi- 
 tion was, that thefe men meant to blow 
 up the Altar and the three thoufand peti- 
 tioners who were aflembled on it. The 
 circumftances were very fufpicious, and 
 quite ftrong enough for the people. 
 
 The next day the crowd was fo great 
 at the Champ de Mars, and fo mutinous, 
 that the Mayor was called on to read the 
 riot-ad, and difplay the red flag, which 
 
 he
 
 [ '3* ] 
 
 he did accordingly, and was attacked at 
 the head of his troops, he and the General 
 La Fayette, with innumerable vollies of 
 Hones, and other ofFeniive miifile wea- 
 pons, from the high banks on both fides 
 of the entrance to the field of Mars ; in. 
 ihort, this attack was fo brilk, that there 
 was no time for one, two, or three no- 
 tices, but thev were obliged to fire in their 
 * * o 
 
 own defence, which they did, and killed 
 about thirty-five, and wounded about fe- 
 venty or eighty. There was no other 
 way of difperfing the mob but this, which 
 was effectual. At night a double guard 
 paraded the Palais Ro'ial with bayonets 
 fixed and prefented ; the iron gates of the 
 arcades were all mut at nine o'clock, and 
 the garden was cleared before ten. At 
 the Champ de Mars they fired twice in 
 the air before they levelled their pieces. 
 The murder of a chafieur, who was mot 
 
 in
 
 [ '39 ] 
 
 in his rank, enraged the foldiers a good 
 deal, and made them more violent and 
 determined in their reprifals. Sunday the 
 1 7th, the Champ de Mars was ftiut up, 
 that is, the entrance from the invalids, 
 and defended by fix pieces of cannon. 
 At night a Jacobin was fent to the Corps 
 de Garde from the Palais Roial for incen- 
 diary motions, and a fecond turned out of 
 the garden. One Ephraim, a Jew, was 
 taken up for correfponding with the 
 King of Pruffia, and a bookfeller of 
 Hambourg, who had been introduced to 
 the friends of the Conftitution the day 
 that the decree of the inviolability of the 
 King had patted in the Aflembly. Many 
 members took their names out of the 
 club of the Jacobins. The man who 
 had aimed at Monfieur de La Fayette in 
 the Champ de Mars, and whofe piece 
 i miffed
 
 miffed fire, was taken, and would have 
 been hanged, but for the interceffion of 
 the General, who nobly procured him his 
 pardon : this uncommon act of genero- 
 fity raifed a fufpicion in the breads of the 
 democrates, that the General and the cul~ 
 prit underftood one another ; but in that 
 cafe, the mock aflaffin might very poffi- 
 bly have found himfelf in an unfortunate 
 and ridiculous dilemma ; had the juftice 
 of the National Afiembly prevailed over 
 the clemency of the offended party, he 
 muft have been hanged for the credit of 
 his employer. Thefe quick meafures 
 were inftru mental in reftoring tranquil- 
 lity, and it is incredible how foon the pa- 
 trole ceafed to parade in the Palais Ro'ial 
 for the purpofe of difperfing the crowds 
 of plotters and debaters. The drapeau 
 rouge ilill continues to fly at the Hotel 
 
 de
 
 t 4i ] 
 
 de Ville, but the people are already fub- 
 dued, and you cannot fee three together 
 either in the Champ de Mars, or the Pa- 
 lais Roial. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 
 LET-
 
 [ 4* 3 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 jT\.S to your queflion whether the fpecie 
 will return with the peace, when there is 
 nothing to fear from without, and when 
 the King fhall have accepted the Confti- 
 tution and fworn to maintain it ; that is, 
 when it (hall not be any longer worth any 
 party's conlideration to circumvent his 
 Majefty, by a feries of intrigue induce 
 him to break his oath, and violate the 
 fpirit and the letter of a government to 
 which he has engaged folemnly to con- 
 form ; then probably will be the breath- 
 ing time of peace ; when the taxes fhall 
 be efficient, and the country, by growing 
 
 com-
 
 [ '43 ] 
 
 commercial, (hall grow rich enough to 
 replace that part of its coin which has 
 been fold for bullion in foreign markets, 
 and of courfe fent to the melting-pot : 
 but then to obtain this end the emigrants 
 mutt all come back, the people muft be 
 all united, the army eftablimment mufb 
 be reduced one half, and the fwords muft 
 be turned into ploughfhares, and the guns 
 into fowling pieces. At the prefent mo- 
 ment there are no figns of thefe beneficial 
 meafures in any part of the kingdom. 
 At Paris, the money is getting fcarcer 
 and fcarcer, and the affi gnats are daily 
 falling in value, almoft without a check ; 
 their declenfion is regular, and their courfe 
 retrograde ; they are very rarely found to 
 look up. Then the Aflembly is broke 
 into parties, and the army is ever mow- 
 ing figns of the leaven that is pervading 
 it. The fear of Conde and foreign pow- 
 ers
 
 [ 144 ] 
 
 ers is ever hovering over the inhabitants, 
 and they fee nothing but hoftilities in the 
 Englifh fleet againfl: France and her ports. 
 All thefe dreadful appearances may only 
 laft for a feafon, but it is moil evident 
 that they muft all vanim without leaving 
 a fear or a madow of apprehenfion behind 
 them, before the finances of the country 
 can receive the fmalleft improvement, or 
 a fingle crown piece be reduced to fix li- 
 vres. The only way left to prevent the 
 exportation is, to debafe the coin and re- 
 duce the value of the fpecie ; but that 
 this is a dangerous manoeuvre, and con- 
 trary to good policy, I imagine, may ea- 
 fily be mown ; fomething, however, 
 mould be done, for the paper-fpirit is gone 
 forth in the city of Paris, and every pa- 
 rifh has its coinage, and though the Af- 
 fembly of the nation has decreed that no 
 man is obliged to take this money, yet 
 2 necef-
 
 C '45 1 
 
 I 
 
 neceffity makes it pafs, and gives a mo- 
 mentary credit to the Section des Lom- 
 bards, and the Filles de St. Thomas. All 
 this inundation of paper contributes to 
 drive the fpecie more and more out of the 
 country, and makes you fancy yourfelf 
 in the papal territories, where the motto 
 of the Prince of the country is " Silver 
 " and gold I have none, but what I have 
 " I give unto thee." 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 L 
 
 L E T I 4 E R XXVI. 
 
 July 25. 
 
 1 THINK I hear you complain, and not 
 without reafon, that my letters of late 
 have been uncommonly dull and heavy ; 
 I plead guilty, and make the heft excufe 
 I can, in faying, that I thought you would 
 wifli to hear a little of every topic that 
 engages the public attention, and every 
 topic is not lively. You are acquainted 
 with the character of Monfieur Bailly, the 
 Mayor of Paris, a man of letters as well 
 as a civil magiflrate ; you remember his 
 book on Aftronomy and his notion of the 
 Pyramids, that they are the productions 
 of Antediluvian artifls, which founds 
 i like
 
 I 147 3 
 
 like a crazy tale, when compared with the 
 very probable ideas concerning them 
 thrown out of late by fbme ingenious tra- 
 vellers. The prettieft compliment that 
 could be paid by Monfieur Bailly, would 
 be- to compare him with Pofiidonius, at 
 whofe door the conqueror of Afia laid 
 down the confular fafces in order to fhow 
 the greateft refpect poflible to philofophy. 
 Monfieur de la Fayette, as a conqueror in 
 America, muft here play the part of the 
 Roman General. There is fomething 
 pretty in this idea, but I fear you will 
 think the drefs too fine for the part. 
 You know I am lodged on the Louvre- 
 fide of the water, and I have frequent oc- 
 cafion to crofs the bridges, and whenever 
 I pafs by the Thuilleries, I cannot help 
 thinking of the poet Matthieu, who was 
 ligueur fanatique, and fold to the houfe of 
 Lorraine. He wrote a tragedy called La 
 L 2 Gui-
 
 t '48 } 
 
 Guifiade, in which he makes a courtier 
 fay to Henry the Third- 
 
 * Sire, Ton vous menace 
 
 ' Que le peuple mettra un Dauphin a votre place. 
 " Qu'on vous enfermera conime inutile et fof, 
 " Lefecond Childeric, dafls Un cloitre devot?'" 
 
 In the original it is, " de Guife a votre 
 " place." During the difturbances at the 
 Palais Royal, there was Sieur Brun, who 
 was carried to the Corps de Garde for fay- 
 ing, that if any one would follow him he 
 would aflaffinate both the King and 
 Queen.* The Jew Ephraim and the 
 Hamburg bookfeller were faid to be the 
 creatures of Pitt and the King of Pruffia. 
 Every thing is now perfectly ftill and 
 quiet, and there is neither motion nor 
 movement of any fort in any part of Pa- 
 
 * This man called himfelf un hommc de. Ioi 9 but 
 it appeared that he was zfans culote. 
 
 ris.
 
 [ 149 ] 
 
 ris. The applaufe at the theatres is very 
 loud every night at the mention of the 
 King's name, which is not fo much in. 
 the favour of the King, as a marked op- 
 pofkion to republicanifm that fo lately 
 called aloud for " the death of Caefar." 
 Jf there be any alluiion at any time in the 
 piece to the ftate of the King's fituation, 
 it is never fuffered to pafs without the 
 mofl diftinguimecj approbation, as the 
 line in Semiramis : 
 
 " Le foin de la juger n'eft pas notre partage." 
 
 The fineft thing in Voltaire's funeral 
 pageant, if you recollect, I thought, was 
 the horfes. The rernark of Henry IV- 
 qn feeing a poet in his coach and fix fine 
 horfes, is applicable even to the Lord of 
 Ferney : " Janiais, dit k Prince en riant, 
 *' II neut fait un Jt beau Sixain, que celul 
 " qui le tire?" I omitted to mention in 
 LS my
 
 my letter on the affair of the i6th, that 
 martial law had been proclaimed two 
 hours at the Hotel de Ville before the 
 Municipality made its appearance at the 
 Champ de Mars ; at half an hour after 
 feven o'clock in the evening the Mayor 
 and his fuite entered by one of the hol- 
 low ways between two high banks of the 
 amphitheatre, from whence they were 
 affaulted with mowers of ftones. The 
 foldiers firft fired powder, but without 
 any effect. The crowd had placed the 
 women and children in the front of the 
 battle to deter the civil and military from 
 proceeding to extremities ; but here re- 
 fpeft to the fex, or companion even for 
 the innocent, could not make juftice break 
 her fword in fuch circumftarices, after a 
 feries of the moft daring provocations. 
 I mention thefe fads as I come to the 
 knowledge of them, for fear they mould 
 
 efcape
 
 efcape me in the rapid fucceffion of events 
 in this place ; where it is one day war, 
 and the next peace ; bellum pax rurfum ; 
 one day they kifs and are friends, the 
 next they hurl Philippics at each other's 
 head in the National Aflembly. 
 
 Ever your's. -p 
 
 L 4 LET-
 
 LETTER XXVIL 
 
 THE numberlefs places on the Seine, 
 in the neighbourhood of the capital, 
 within a fhort diftance, that have been 
 witnefles of extraordinary fcenes, well 
 repay any pains you may be obliged to 
 take to become acquainted with their 
 hiftory. The environs of Paris abound 
 in magnificent old caftles, of which the 
 details are more than commonly intereft- 
 ing, when you recollect the feries of 
 events which have pafled within their 
 walls under a variety of reigns, and in 
 a long lift of Kings, from Louis the Se- 
 venth to Louis the Fifteenth. 
 
 It
 
 [ ?53 3 
 
 It was about a league from the gates of 
 Paris, at Virjcennes, a place fo called 
 from the purity of its air, vie falne^ that 
 St. Louis held a court of juttice under a 
 famous oak, which was ttill in exittence 
 in the Sixteenth century. In 1537 the 
 cattle, which ftill remains, was begun to 
 be built by Philippe de Valois, and was 
 firufhed by Charles the Fifth, who was 
 born at Vincennes. In 1422, Henry the 
 Fifth of England, who fucceeded to the 
 Crown of France, inftead of Charles the 
 Seventh, died here ; as alfo did Charles 
 the Ninth, of tragic memory ; and Louis 
 the Fifteenth patted the firft year of his 
 reign in this cattle. 
 
 Loujs the Fourteenth made additions 
 to the cattle, and in the Park firtt faw 
 Madame de la Valiere, of whom he be- 
 came enamoured in the following man- 
 ner :
 
 [ '54 3 
 
 ner j La Valiere, with three other la- 
 dies, was in the Park of Vincennes, en- 
 gaged in converfation on a hall given 
 at Court, when her companions were 
 loud in the praifes of the dancers : But 
 how you could look at any one elfe, 
 when the King was prefent, replied La 
 Valiere, to me is matter of furprize ? 
 The King, who was within hearing, but 
 concealed behind a tree, felt all the force 
 of this pure and difinterefted compliment, 
 and was delighted with the idea of hav- 
 ing infpired a paffion on the merit of his 
 own perfonal charms ; and the love of 
 himfelf paved the way for the love of La 
 Valiere. 
 
 The French, for the mod part, arc 
 taxed with volatility and inattention to 
 every thing but the prefent moment, fo 
 that you can find no nine days wonder 
 
 in
 
 [ '55 ] 
 
 in Paris. The totum triduum of Phaedra 
 is an age ; eight-and-forty hours are in 
 general the extent of their memory, for 
 things even out of the common routine 
 of events ; one thing completely drives 
 out another, where the fucceffion is at 
 all rapid. At a reading club the other 
 day, where hhTed filence is for the mofl 
 part religioufly obferved, a fubfcriber takes 
 up Gorfas's Journal, and feeing thefe 
 words, L'avant dernier e nuit. Comment 
 dlt II tout haut Favant dernier nuit, gui 
 peut fe reflouvenir de ca ? 
 
 In France, you know, that dancing 
 is carried to a very high degree of per- 
 fe&ion on the ftage ; and though it is 
 neither profitable nor creditable for a man 
 of fafhion to dance too well, as the pro- 
 verb fays, 
 
 Qui
 
 Qui hien chante, et qui bien dapfe. 
 Fait un tne;ier qui peu avance, 
 
 yet the cafe is by no means the fame, 
 where i r t is ftudied as a prpfeffion. The 
 French laugh at all other dancers but 
 their own, and will not allow that other 
 nations have the proper difpofitions for 
 acquiring the high degree of grace and 
 elegance to which it is poffible to carry 
 the art ; and if you tell them that Veftris 
 is an Jtalian, and Heinel a German, they 
 will anfwer with a farcafm, Exceptto pro- 
 bat regulam. jf'ai connu un Alhmand qui 
 avoit de Pefprit. 
 
 A complete change has taken place in 
 the Palais Royal fmce laft Sunday, and 
 all owing to the firmnefs of the Mayor, 
 and Monfieur de la Fayette ; now, if a. 
 round or two of mufquetry will bring 
 
 the
 
 t 157 ] 
 
 the republicans fo foon to their fenfes* a 
 few cannon balls, one would think, 
 would make them monarchy-men for the 
 .reft of their lives. The blame in all 
 great difhirbances muft lie at fomebody's 
 door ; they name an agent of a great 
 Duke for a principal in breeding the late 
 riots ; the accufation, however, feems to 
 deftroy itfelf; they fay, he bribed the 
 people to rife, but no one believes that 
 his Grace has any money for fuch pur- 
 pofes, whatever he might have had at 
 another period. Be that as it may, no 
 one that comes to Paris by accident at 
 this moment can believe, that five days 
 ago it was hardly fafe to be in the ftreets, 
 and really dangerous to be found any 
 where between the Palais Royal and the 
 Champ de Mars, on account of the mul- 
 titude of fwords, and bayonets, and can- 
 nons, which might as eafily difpatch the 
 
 innocent
 
 t -58 ] 
 
 innocent and curious, as the guilty and 
 feditious. The fcene is now fhifted, and 
 the olive branch fucceeds to the fire- 
 brand. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 [ 159 ] 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 IN a letter from the Emprefs of Ruffia 
 to the King of Sweden, which is evi- 
 dently forged, is an extract from a letter 
 of Voltaire to the Emprefs : whether the 
 extrad exifts in Voltaire's correfpondence 
 with her Majefty, or no, I have not ex- 
 amined : Voltaire mecrlvit un jour, dlt 
 rimperatrice, Quelquefois je fuis tenu de 
 crolre que Pefpece de liberte dont nous jou~ 
 ons en France, eft preclfement celle qui nous 
 consent : malheur a nous Ji jamah nous 
 nous avifons de couloir ctre libres, comme 
 a la manlere d* Athene S, ou a Londres. 
 The fame Journal that gives us this 
 quotation, makes us a farther prefent of 
 
 an
 
 C 'to ] 
 
 ati epitaph on the fame author. Cy git 
 I* enfant gate du Jieck quil gdta. 
 
 Monfieur Duveyrler, who was fent 
 upon a fpecial meffage from the National 
 Aflembly to the Prince de Conde, the 
 fifteenth of June, is but juft come back* 
 Every body has been very uneafy about 
 him, and it was reported, that it was all 
 the Auftrians could do to fave him from 
 the fury of the French officers, on which 
 even the Ariftocrats of the Aflembly cried 
 out fhame ; and one in particular ven- 
 tured to fay, that if his fon were in the 
 number of thofe who dared to infult an 
 Ambaffador, he would immediately dif- 
 inherit him. Monlieur Duveyrier does 
 not make the {lory quite fo black ; he 
 fays, that whilft he was detained at Lux- 
 emburgh, he ran the gauntlet through 
 the French officers, who loaded him with 
 
 farcafms,
 
 fafcafms, and exhaufted the whole traiii 
 of their raillery on him and his employ- 
 ers. Making his way, he fays, through 
 the crowd to get at the Prince, was like 
 paffing through the zodiac; one looked 
 on him like a lion, another like a fcor- 
 pion, and the third like a bull ; and every 
 one had fomething difagreeable to fling 
 in his teeth. In mort, as foon as he had 
 his anfwer from the Prince, who re- 
 fpe&ed him as he ought to do, he took 
 no regular leave of his countrymen, but 
 made the beft of his way by night from 
 Luxembourgh by a crofs road. 
 
 The Comte d'Artois, it is faid, re- 
 ceives all fugitives with open arms who 
 fly to his ftandard ; but then they muft 
 be of good families, and bring undoubted 
 marks of noble anceflry with them, or 
 their reception is cold, and their advance- 
 M ment
 
 ment flow. I can give a good gudfs 
 what will be the end of all this recburfe 
 to the Emperor, and refuge in Germany ; 
 when the Prince of Conde's diamonds 
 are fold, and the money fpent, and all 
 the Comte d'Artois' refources are ex- 
 haufted, the Emperor and the King of 
 Pruffia will be the firfl to advife them to 
 make the beft terms they can w r ith the 
 French nation, through the mediation of 
 the moft powerful Courts. This is, pro- 
 vided always, that the King does not 
 cfcape, and after he has accepted the 
 Constitution, abandon his kingdom ; 
 then, indeed, they might be induced 
 to {land out ilill longer, but in that cafe 
 all return would be impracticable. The 
 King is fo watched, that he cannot fly till 
 he ihall be at liberty, and if he does 
 then, it is at his peril. 
 
 As
 
 As to any affiftance to be given to the 
 Princes by the Court of London, towards 
 their carrying on an oppofition of any 
 fort to the mother country, the idea, 
 you will agree with me, is perfectly ri- 
 diculous, and the expectation vifionary. 
 All that England could, or would do, I 
 mould conceive, might amount to a junc- 
 tion with Pruffia in making peace, and 
 reconciling the parties, which it is de- 
 monftrably not againft her commercial 
 intereft to do. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET.
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 .vti-fr?:.'; ,' not;c.C/*p',o 
 
 " "cMl-'o-;/ 10 /\":/; 
 
 1 HE French crowns, both fmall and 
 great, are growing fcarcer, and bear a 
 higher price than when I fpoke of them 
 laft ; the money is hoarded by one, and 
 fold by another, and exported by a third ; 
 thofe who are known to keep much mo- 
 ney by them, have now, however, an 
 additional motive for getting rid of it, as 
 the fans-culotes begin to rob and break 
 through {lone walls and iron doors, to 
 get at the cam, wherever they fufpecl: it 
 to be concealed ; and the great mifery at- 
 tendant on thefe robberies is, that the 
 perfon robbed generally lofes his all, which 
 2 he
 
 he keeps in his fecretaire, unwilling to 
 put any confidence in Government, or 
 any public fund. Hence it is no un- 
 common thing to find, on the deceafe 
 of an obfcure individual, a large fum 
 in fome odd corner, where no one 
 would go directly to look for it. When 
 the Comte d'Efcliniac died in the Rue 
 St. Honore, there was found in a recefs 
 in his apartment nearly half a million 
 fterling in gold and filver, which was 
 carried away in carts to the notary's 
 the notaries keep the money in Paris as 
 the bankers with us. It muft be told, 
 at the fame time, that the Comte d'Ef- 
 cliniac had married the widow of a fi- 
 nancier. The number of families who 
 have loft their all by the Revolution, 
 and are reduced from affluence to want, 
 is confiderable, becaufe all thofe places 
 which were conferred, immediately by 
 M 3 royal
 
 t '66 ] 
 
 royal benevolence, or were the fruits of 
 political intrigue, and for which no mo- 
 ney was diiburfed, are abolilhed without 
 recompence, and if you did not buy, you 
 cannot fell : there is nothing unjuft in 
 this proceeding, when once you allow 
 the propriety of a Revolution, one of the 
 ends of which is to correft the abufes of 
 prodigality, by a reduction of the extra- 
 vagance it has occafioned, and an ex- 
 tinction of all its unneceffary expences. 
 As war begets taxes, fo prodigality begets 
 places, and it is ufelefs to attempt to re- 
 form either the one or the other without 
 firft making peace, or creating oeconomy; 
 for inftance, a Minifter wants to ferve a 
 friend, and he has no poft to give him, 
 the lift is full; what does he do? he 
 makes one, he conftitutes and appoints 
 him an officer of the King's kitchen, 
 pour hater k diner du Rot, with a hand- 
 
 fomc
 
 fome falary : the confequence is, that 
 this new-created being marries the heirefs 
 of the culjinier en chef, begets an elegant 
 progeny of charming daughters and ac- 
 complimed fons, all born and bred in the 
 air of a Court, and early habituated to great 
 fituations. Then comes the change, a 
 cruel change, which rolls them all down 
 at once from the height of their hopes 
 and their grandeur, and leaves them with- 
 out a fpoon or a fork. It is impoffible 
 that thefe people mould be reimburfed, as 
 it would be defraying the very end of 
 the Revolution, and cutting the branches 
 of the old Government inftead of killing 
 the root. A friend of mine, who is the 
 Deputy of a province, boarded, when 
 he firft came to Paris, with one of thefe 
 elegant families in their reduced flate ; 
 but he was foon obliged to change his 
 head-quarters, on account of the conftant 
 M 4 abufe
 
 [ '68 ] 
 
 abufe which the miftrefs of the houfe 
 poured eternally forth againft him, and 
 his aflbciates at the National AfTembly ; 
 loading them with every injurious epithet 
 ihe could invent, calling them a gang of 
 mercilefs reformers, who had over- 
 whelmed the world with poverty, and 
 drenched it with tears* 
 
 Ever yourV 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 i HE members of the National Aflem- 
 bly dine together in clubs for the moft 
 part, and at a moderate expence, The pay 
 they receive, which was once the cafe 
 with us, enables them to get through the 
 day tolerably well and very creditably, as 
 they are not charged quite fo much for their 
 beef-fteak and claret as at the Houfe of 
 Commons. Eating at Paris is not fo dear 
 as at Covent Garden, where, without 
 melon, apple, or orange, you do not dine 
 well for five fhillings. A printed bill of 
 fare is brought you at Paris, a lift of wines 
 and confectionary, and you order what 
 
 you
 
 you like. In this lift or bill of fare, the 
 names of the dimes are exceedingly cu- 
 rious and perfectly new ; for inftance, 
 there are Cotelettes de vcau panes a la Salnte* 
 y and tniffepail, mince-pie, and 
 ^ Sandwich, fet down under the 
 article dejeune a fAnglaife. As no entrees 
 or duties are paid yet in this place, every 
 thing ought to be very cheap, which is 
 really not the cafe, and when the taxes 
 are laid on and collected, every thing will 
 be very dear. 
 
 I cannot but think that the climate of 
 Paris is much hotter, and more genial lo 
 cultivation of all forts, than its petition to 
 the South mould feem at firft fight to au^ 
 thorife. There is, moft certainly, no com- 
 parifon between the fruits and flowers of 
 this country and any part of England, 
 and it never happens here, which occurs 
 
 perpe-
 
 [ '7' ] 
 
 perpetually with us, that two or three 
 days rain fhall break up the weather to 
 fuch a degree, that from a ftate of great 
 heat, the air fhall become cold and chilly 
 in four and twenty hours, and not reco- 
 ver its tone again till after ten days con- 
 ftant funfhine. Paris and its fuburbs 
 abound with gardens, nurferies, and no- 
 rifts, and they have many articles in flow- 
 er in a tender Aate, which require a num- 
 ber of years to bring to that perfection 
 with us. For inftance, the Biguonia Ca- 
 talpa, which, though a foreigner, is 
 known in all our grounds laid out in the 
 modern tafte, and rich in exotic trees and 
 ihrubs. This tree is now in flower in 
 the Comte d'Artois's garden at the Tem- 
 ple, and only four feet high from the tub 
 in which it is planted. It requires in ge- 
 ten or twelve years, and a height of 
 
 at
 
 at leaft ten or twelve feet, to produce the 
 fame efFec~l with us. 
 
 The clan of Ariftocrates in this place 
 by no means condemn the whole of the 
 procefs of the Revolution ; they fay, even 
 that the National ArTembly is full of ho- 
 nourable men and mining characters, but 
 that there are Judafes among them, for 
 whom the wheel and the rack is no ade* 
 quate punimment. Then one man re- 
 grets the downfal of the church, another 
 mourns only for the lofs of his nobility, 
 a third for his Lord Paramount authority, 
 and a fourth for the favours of the court. 
 They fay, that the country was not in- 
 tended to be free, that the lower orders 
 of the French nation always were cruel, 
 favage, and ferocious, and ought to be 
 kept in perpetual fubordination. The 
 manners of the people, under the fplen- 
 
 dor
 
 t '13 1 
 
 dor of a long monarchy, they obferve, 
 have acquired a fmooth exterior, but when 
 provoked, they have appeared in their ori- 
 ginal barbarity, and not unlike the canni^ 
 bals of the North and South, who having 
 flrfl difpatched their enemy, proceed to 
 eat him afterwards. The natural difpofi- 
 tions are not changed by a long courfe of 
 politenefs and good breeding, but when- 
 ever violently enraged, will mow them- 
 felves in their native cruelty and feroci- 
 oufnefs. There is a great deal to be faid 
 on this fubjecl. Mobs are for the moft 
 part fierce and fanguinary, witnefs the 
 Dutch who tore out the hearts of the De 
 Wits at the Hague and devoured them : 
 if there is an exception, it is in England, 
 where the mad multitude is infinitely 
 more mifchievous than cruel ; if they 
 tread a man under foot, no rage or fury 
 againft his perfon will, that I know, in- 
 duce
 
 C '74 3 
 
 duce them to mutilate his body. But to 
 have done with this bloody fubjeft, and 
 to confole you for having dwelt fo long 
 on it, I promife to drop it entirely, and 
 in my next to endeavour, at leaft, to dedi- 
 cate myfelf wholly to your amufement. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 irregu- 
 
 1 MET the other day with feme 
 Jar verfes in the Almanach des Mufes for 
 this year, which endeavour to mow that 
 liberty is not a ftate of eafe or indolence, 
 but a ftate, on the contrary, of vigilance, 
 and activity, if you with to preferve it en- 
 lire and pure from all infringement. You 
 may turn to the French at your eafe, or 
 on fecond thoughts, as I recollect you 
 have not the original, I will take the 
 trouble to tranfcribe it, and the liberty to 
 add my traniladon or imitation, as an ac-* 
 companiment. 
 
 L'ES-
 
 [ '7* J 
 
 L'ESCLAVE FABULISTE, 
 
 APOLOGUE ou CONTE. 
 
 Un petit Anglo is, 
 Dans fon palais, 
 Vivoit gaiment a la Fran^aife : 
 Tromp par les catins, flattc par les bonffbns j 
 Proflituant fon cceur, et dlflipant ies fonds, 
 II s'hebctoit tout a fon aife. 
 
 On lui dit que fon parlement 
 Surl'Inde, fur la Chartre, et femblable fadaife* 
 
 .Se debattoit violemraent. 
 Le pacifiquc Lord, etendu mollement 
 
 Sur fa chaife, 
 
 Difoit : " moH Dieu ! que je fuis las 
 " De ces dcbats 
 *' Si longs, fi plats. 
 
 '* Les noms de Fox, de Pitt fatiguent mon oreille : 
 ** Sur notreliberte le monde s'emerveille ; 
 <( Quel fruit recueillons nous de cctte liberte ? 
 '* Un trouble interminable, une longue anarchie j 
 " N'efperons de tranquillite 
 " Qu'avec 1'entiere monarchic. 
 
 " Dieu!
 
 [ '77 ] 
 
 " Dieu t donnez nous un fouverain 
 
 " Qui maintienne la paix, et finifle le train.** 
 
 Un Indien, efclave fidele, 
 Efclave ingenieux, etoit pres de Milord : 
 
 Milord, dit U, permettez mon zele 
 De vous faire un recit parle A Chandernagor, 
 
 " Pays de lacs, et de montagnes, 
 ct Des orages frequens alarment les campagnes : 
 * Auflitot que 1'eclaira fillone les cieux, 
 *' Le peuple de fremir, de recourir aux dieux, 
 
 " Un jour qu'au bruit de la tempete, 
 
 " Devant J'idole il prioit a genoux, 
 " Sur 1'autd ebranle parut le Dieu Vifnoux : 
 '-' Pacifiant les airs d'un mouvement de tete, 
 
 ** Peuple, dit il, que voulez vous ? 
 
 " Le plus hardi (non le plus fage) 
 
 Cria : Grand Dieu ! nous demandons 
 
 " Qye le Nabab de nos cantons 
 
 " Ait le droit d'empecher 1'orage. 
 " Ce droit, reprit leDieu, vous couteroit trop cher ; 
 <{ Car (i votre Nabab peut empecher 1'orage, 
 *' U ofera bientot vous intercepter 1'air." 
 
 Frappe de 1'avis falutaire, 
 
 Le noble et parefleux Anglais, 
 Courut au parlement lut, et fit des pamphlets, 
 Intrigm, ie li^ua, vit qu'il eft neceflaire 
 
 N De
 
 De parler, de crier fur les lois, les impots j 
 Et que la liberte n'etoit pas le i epos. 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 With fump'tuous fare 
 Ah Englifh heir 
 
 Liv'd gayly like a Prince of France ; 
 By harlots gull'd, 
 And flatterers lull'd, 
 He fteeped his fenfes in a trance. 
 In vain they tell him of the ftate, 
 And Parliamentary debate ; 
 Of India, and its barter, 
 Of England, and her charter : 
 Damn'd fluff! long fpeeches, how I hate, he cries, 
 As gently ftretch'd upon the couch he lies. 
 For Fox, or for Pitt 
 I care not a whit j 
 Let Fox ftill propofe, 
 And Pitt ftill difpofe. 
 Nay Fox be the man, 
 Rout Pitt and his clan. 
 Yet do what we will, 
 We never are ftill, 
 
 Till
 
 [ '179 3 
 
 The parties will jar. 
 And wage wordy war* 
 For we ne'er can be quiet, 
 Till it ends in a riot. 
 Then (hall mad liberty's eternal cheer, 
 With three times three fatigue the deafen'd ear, 
 Alas ! the world's deceiv'd^ no peace we know, 
 Our boafted freedom is an empty fhow.' 
 To check thefe growing ills, kind heaven, we pray, 
 Send us a righteous king with fovereign fway. 
 A faithful flave of India's fliore, 
 A (lave of parts from Chand'nagore, 
 (Rich in high mountains, lakes, and wood) 
 In fupplicating poilure flood) 
 And crav'd permiffion with a good intent 
 To tell his tale---his Lordfhip nods aflent. 
 " When lightnings rend the eaftern Iky, 
 " The frighted peafants proftrate lie. 
 " One day a ftorm the low'ring clouds foretell, 
 " Low on the bended knee the pious people fell 
 
 " Before the altar of their God ; 
 " The altar trembled and the God appeared, , 
 " His feet on earth, his head to heaven upreared, 
 
 " And calm'd the tempeft with a nod. 
 " What, faith the God, doth mortal man require? 
 " The boldeft cries, but not the wifeft, Sire ! 
 
 N 2 Grant
 
 t{ Grant to our Sovereign Lord, we pray, the power 
 V To calm the ftorm, and quench the fiery fhower* 
 '* The God replies, there's room to fear 
 ** You'll buy this precious boon too dear : 
 * For he, who ftills the ftorm, may dare 
 *' Next to monopolize the air." 
 Struck with the hint, the noble Lord 
 Ran quickly to the council-board ; 
 There fpoke, debated, and intrigued, 
 And with the oppofition leagued, 
 Convinced 'twas freedom to maintain, 
 To put no truft in any reign. 
 Refolved, each minifter to teafe, 
 For liberty's no ftate of eafe. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XXXIL 
 
 JL HE accounts you give of the riots at 
 Birmingham are truly alarming. Dif- 
 turbances often break out in the quarter 
 where they are not looked for: every 
 one here expe&ed to be told that London 
 had been the fad fcene of tumult and dif- 
 order : when, lo ! the mad voice of riof 
 begins in the region of mild philofophy, 
 and at the very gates of fcience. It is 
 very hard, fays Do&or Prieftley, to be 
 fo treated, after fourteen years of quiet 
 refidence with the inhabitants of Birming- 
 ham ; but in the name of patience, is it 
 not equally hard that any one rnan who 
 N 3 has
 
 [ ,8*- ] 
 
 has lived peaceably for the fpace of four- 
 teen years in any neighbourhood, mould 
 \vilh to diflurb the peace of that neigh- 
 bourhood, and look forward to the down- 
 fall of that fociety which has afforded him 
 a conftant protection for fo long a period. 
 I do not mean to excufe any acts of vio- 
 lence or popular tumult ; and I regret as 
 much as any one the lofs which fcience 
 has fuftained in the demolition of Doctor 
 Prieftley's houfe, and the deftruction of 
 his books and papers ; at the fame time I 
 think the country has as juft a caufe of 
 complaint againft Doctor Prieftley, as he 
 can have againft the rioters. 
 
 The reports of the forces of the rebel 
 army are perpetually kept up, and it is faid 
 they want but three things to be in per- 
 fect readinefs to begin their campaign ; 
 yft. money,- zd. ditto, ^d. money. I 
 
 fear
 
 C '83 ] 
 
 tear if they begin at all they will not wait 
 for the King's joining them, as he is, I 
 imagine, too tick of his laft expedition to 
 wifh to repeat it. They fay his Majefty 
 amufes himfelf at billiards and forgets his 
 misfortunes ; his friends fay, he is very 
 well informed of the ftate of his king- 
 dom and its finances ; that he reads a great 
 deal, and has a prodigious memory, and 
 knows all the old Englifh families ; the 
 firft part of his character, that he knows 
 what pafles in France, does not agree too 
 well with his own teflimony on his re- 
 turn from his fruitleis expedition ; when 
 he declared in his fpeech to the National 
 Aflembly, that he was now convinced 
 the people were enamoured of the new 
 Conflitution. The idea of the infuffici^ 
 ency of the Princes to diflurb the peace of 
 Paris, and their ridiculous gafconades, is 
 reprefented at one of the new theatres in 
 N 4 the
 
 [ '84 ] 
 
 the rue St. Martin, with the greateft fuc- 
 cefs, under the title of the review des 
 armees blanches et noires. The army paf- 
 fes in review before the Prince of Conde, 
 and/eceives the benediction of the Cardinal 
 de Rohan, who promifes them they fhall 
 be as invincible, as the Pope is infallible. 
 The troops confift of Bifhops, Monks, 
 Nuns, and AbbefTes, and a few handfulls 
 of grenadiers and privates, with a regi- 
 ment of officers. Should the Emperor at 
 any time think ferioufly of attacking 
 France in defence of his fifler, he mufl 
 be very cautious how he difturbs the hor- 
 nets of his own houfehold, which it is 
 more than probable might be the cafe, 
 and then France would not fit ftill a quiet 
 fpe&ator, like England, but think itfelf 
 juftified in making reprifals. 
 
 We
 
 We are now arrived at the decree which 
 is lately pavled for the abolition of all or- 
 ders, the King, however, ftill wears his 
 blue ribbon, and if the King, then the 
 Minifter will do the fame thing, and for a 
 good reafon, becaufe the Conflitution is 
 not yet begun, and does not exifr, for his 
 Majefty till he has accepted it. All emi- 
 grants, it is alfb decreed, mufl return in 
 a month from the firft of Auguft, or pay 
 triple taxes. This was before determined 
 on, but not decreed till now. 
 
 Much pleafantry circulates from time 
 to time at the expence of his holinefs the 
 Pope, and ancients and moderns are quoted 
 to mow that Rome cannot be faved. 
 
 ' Semper fub fextis perdita Roma fuit." OVID. 
 
 " Le Pape enfin perdant fes droits accumules j 
 " On brulera celui qui nous a tant hrule, 
 " On le feflera meme, et ce dieu ridicule 
 " Attmdra vainement qu'on lui baife fa mule." 
 
 The
 
 The refraftory priefts in the pays de 
 Caux have been banifhed to the diftance 
 of ten leagues from their own parifhes. 
 This is only placing the evil a little far- 
 ther off. A change of country will not 
 produce a change of difpofition. 
 
 *' Coelum non animum." 
 
 Ever your's,
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 Auguft. 
 
 VV E wait with impatience for the 
 new pieces of fifteen and thirty fous, 
 which have been promifed for fome time. 
 We are to have alfo, at the fame time, 
 fbus of bell-metal, which will be, they 
 fay, of the colour of pale gold, and not 
 very unlike a double louis d'or. Spe- 
 cimens of each have been circulated, and 
 only fpecimens ; for although the coin- 
 age is finifhed, and delivered, it does not 
 make its appearance in public ; and I am 
 told you may buy as many as you pleaie ; 
 that is, if you will give eighteen {bus for 
 a piece of fifteen. This is a mofl fhame- 
 
 ful
 
 ful impofition on the people, but it is fo 
 in every thing. 
 
 *' Car on vend tout ici jufqu' a. I'honneur." 
 
 A louis in gold is worth four livres, an 
 ecu de fix francs is worth vingt fous, and 
 fo on to the fmall money ; thirty livres 
 in fmall change coft three livres; then 
 the aflignats of 200, 100, and down- 
 wards, to the five livres of the patriotic 
 bank, are all fold in proportion to their 
 relative values, and the fmall bills are 
 the deareft. A hundred livres, in bills 
 of five each, were worth, at one time, 
 three livres in exchange with aflignats of 
 cent francs. Bills on England have been 
 worth thirty per cent, paid en gros af- 
 fignats of a thoufand livres, which, were 
 you obliged to change into money, it 
 i would
 
 would coft you feventeen or eighteen per 
 cent, to negociate. 
 
 The project of Calonne* to call in the 
 gold, recoin it, and, I fuppofe, confidera- 
 bly debafe it, and, perhaps, the filver 
 alfo, is the only means of preventing its 
 being exported, and yet the National Af*- 
 fembly has never thought proper to adopt 
 it, probably, becaufe the thing was con- 
 lidered as equally difhonourable as im- 
 politic-; and yet the late King of Pruffia 
 faw nothing wrong in it, though, had 
 he heard of its being done elfewhere, he 
 might, probably, have broke forth as he 
 did on other lefs inviting occafions : 
 
 O fagefle des Deux ! Je te crois tres profonde, 
 iMais a, quels plats tyrans as tu livre le monde ! 
 
 The
 
 t 
 
 The ConfHtution is this moment pub- 
 lifhed, adorned with the figure of liberty 
 and her attributes. Neither the clergy, 
 nor the church-lands, are mentioned in 
 it : it is not even faid, that the property 
 which was in the hands of the priefts has 
 been refumed by the nation, and can 
 never pafa back again to its laft pofleflbr : 
 this has appeared to be a ferious omiflion 
 in the eyes of the Democrates ; but with 
 fubmiilion, the matter would have been 
 out of place, had it been mentioned here, 
 juft as much as a detail in a chapter of 
 generals, or a by-law in a bill of rights. 
 
 The Conftitution will undergo an im- 
 mediate revifion, and then be prefented 
 to the King for acceptation : there is no 
 time to be loft in this bulinefs, as until 
 it mall be fmimed, no explanations can 
 be entered into with foreign Powers, no 
 
 royal
 
 royal functions can be exercifed, and no 
 proper foundation can be laid for a mutual 
 confidence between the Sovereign and the 
 people ; and the National Aflembly, and 
 the departments, without a previous 
 eftablifhment, and explicit declaration, of 
 the bafis on which that confidence mail 
 be repofed. In the happieft of all poffible 
 worlds, and under the beft of all imagina- 
 ble conftitutions, if the people are in debt, 
 and have no money to pay that debt, 
 they will have no credit ; and if they 
 have no credit, they will have nothing 
 to eat, and, however they may be confH- 
 tuted and appointed, they muft flarve. 
 Not, however, to lay too much ftrefs on 
 hypothecs, I believe it to be a fad!:, that 
 the royal domains, and the lands of the 
 clergy, have been calculated from the pro- 
 ducts of the good years, and from the 
 revenues of the beft eftates, in the moft 
 2 abundant
 
 t '<?* 3 
 
 abundant and the moft fruitful provinces, 
 fo that every part of the kingdom muft 
 be equally productive, in order to verify 
 the calculation, and make up the fum 
 total* The AfTembly, however, which 
 has no time to go into details, has ap- 
 plauded and confirmed the labours of 
 Monf. Camus. If thefe things are fb, a 
 confiderable deficit in the product of the 
 church^lands may be the confequence. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 [ '93 3 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 Auguft 8. 
 
 1 HREE days are fcarce ever permit- 
 ted to pafs without fome fierce engage- 
 ment between the Republicans and the 
 Monarchy men. On Friday laft a Che- 
 valier, of the order- of Cincinnatus, was 
 attacked by a famous journalift, in one 
 of the numberlefs paflages near the Palais 
 Royal, and. rolled in the kennel, to the 
 great diverfion of the mob, who were 
 apoftropfiffed by the republican writer 
 of a newfpaper, A mol patriot es, c'ejlun 
 Arljlocrate. Both the parties tell the 
 ftory, and each makes the other the ag- 
 greflbr. Le Chevalier is famous for his 
 O frill
 
 (kill in fencing and firing, and the Jour- 
 nalift, it feems, for the life of the 
 bludgeon. The origin of the mifunder- 
 ftanding appears very flight to a common 
 fpe&ator or looker on, but to the actors 
 in the drama, and abettors of the good 
 caufe, on either (ide, fully fufficient to 
 juftify a ferious quarrel, and an unpro- 
 voked attack. The crime of Monfieur 
 Le Chevalier was, as he tells us himfelf, 
 four avoir applaudi h quelqtfun qui por- 
 tolt la fante du Roi. For this he was 
 abufed in a flaming paragraph, and nearly 
 demolifhed at noon-day in the public 
 flreet. The other party tells the ftory 
 differently. One thing is, however, cer- 
 tain, that the beft fwordfman and the moft 
 accomplished FIRER at a mark, cannot 
 always infure himfelf from being caned. 
 
 Of
 
 t 195 ] 
 
 Of all the excurfions from Paris in the 
 fine feafon, there is none that can com- 
 pare with the drive to the Bois de Bou- 
 logne ; I do not pretend to defcribe this 
 enchanting place in profe, it is impoffible, 
 but if you will allow me the liberty of 
 having recourfe to the poets, I will 
 quote Piron's defcription of a wood, 
 which looks as if it were made for this 
 feat of delight, that is an object of at- 
 traction at all hours, whether in the 
 morning, or at noon, or in the evening 
 of a fine day. 
 
 Bois d'une beaute complette, 
 Trifle et charmant a la fois, 
 Bois ou 1'amour a des armes, 
 Ou 1* auflere pudeur 
 Se foummettroit fans alarmes : 
 Bois ou meme avec douceur, 
 Dans les plus cruels malheurs, 
 L'Amant verferoit des larmes : 
 Bois ou tout jufqu' a 1'horreur. 
 
 O z Pour
 
 I '9 ] 
 
 Pbur un coeur tendre a des charmes. 
 La, dans le fein du repos, 
 L'ame s'egare et s'oublie ; 
 Sa douce melancholic 
 Transforme des lieux fi beaux, 
 Et n'en fait qu'un feul enclos, 
 D'Amathonte, de Paphos, 
 Be Cythcre et d'Idalie. 
 
 On the fkirts of this wood is a beauti- 
 ful villa belonging to the Comte d'Artois, 
 which begins to want the matter's eye 
 in order to keep it in the ftate of elegance 
 that it deferves : it is laid out in the 
 beft poffible manner, and made to appear 
 of double the extent of ground that it 
 really occupies. Its decorations are all 
 in the befl tafie, and form altogether the 
 prettiefl gem in the neighbourhood of 
 Paris ; add to this Deflifle's verfes, which 
 Ihould be read under a tree on the fpot. 
 The flatue of a nymph, in the veftibule 
 
 of
 
 [ '97 ] . 
 
 of the maifonnette, looks, for the eafe of 
 its attitude, like an antique repaired, it is the 
 flatue of a Roman nymph, with a bafket of 
 fruit on her head, which (he holds with 
 one hand, and with the other an earthen pot 
 of an elegant form, with a lemicircular 
 handle acrois its mouth, not unlike an. 
 antique fire-pot, though fomewhat too 
 long. In the eafe of this figure Monf. 
 Moineau has trod clofe on the heels of 
 the ancients, as alfo in the birds, fifties, 
 and animals on the vafes, that are difr 
 perfed here and there in the grounds, 
 ibme of which are on the triangular bafes 
 of the antique Candelabra. A garden 
 drefled up with altars, gods, and great 
 men, and adorned not with flraight line 
 terrafles, flower-pots, and paved alleys, 
 but with the inequalities of Nature' in 
 full beauty, and the various charms of 
 verdure, woods, and water, unites all the 
 O advan-
 
 advantages of antiquity with all the im- 
 provements of modern art, and is, in a 
 word of a great poet, 
 
 Le merite de 1'art foumis H la nature. 
 
 The French who refide near Verfailles 
 tell you, this garden is nothing in com- 
 parifon of the Queen's gardens at Tria- 
 non, and elfewhere, and not to be named 
 on the fame day with many others : but 
 then they forget the river, the village of 
 Puteau, and the bridge of Neuilli, which 
 belong to the Comte d'Artois's grounds, 
 - and feem to touch every part of them ; 
 whfcreas the gardens of the Queen and 
 Moufleaux are rich parterres in chalky 
 defarts. 
 
 The French, Italians, and Germans, 
 in general, do not like nature, except fhe 
 
 be 
 

 
 [ 199 ] 
 
 be curled and buckled. I remember a 
 foreigner of high rank in London, who 
 propofed to cut down all the trees at 
 Blenheim, and to turn the river at Green- 
 wich Hofpital ; and who preferred le fays 
 plat et k poijjbn doux to the heights of 
 Mount Edgcumbe, and the John Dory's 
 of Plymouth. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 O 4 LET-
 
 [ 200 ] 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 IN the neighbourhood of Bagatelle is 
 Ranelagh, or Ranelack, as it is called, 
 clofe to the royal hunting-box of Muette, 
 and at the entrance of the Bois de Bou- 
 logne from the village of Pafly, the re- 
 fide nee of Franklin, and the fpot from 
 which Pilatre de Rozier firfl afcended 
 in his balloon. Ranelagh was built for 
 a ball-room at the time when the whole 
 Court, feven or eight years ago, were 
 fhut up at Muette for fix weeks ; I fay 
 fhut up, becaufe they muft have been 
 well packed in fo frpall a place for fo large 
 a company. The Queen then attended 
 
 the
 
 [ "I ] 
 
 the balls given every Saturday at Rane- 
 lagh, and was a fubfcriber ; the com- 
 pany of courfe was choice. The fub- 
 fcription ftill continues, but is now fallen 
 into the dregs of wretched times, for the 
 dancing cavaliers are all fled, and the high 
 plumed dames are left without partners 
 of the right fort. The beauty of the 
 fcene ftill draws numbers, and you are 
 not admitted without a fubfcriber's ticket, 
 which is eafily procured. But no one 
 wifhes to breathe the air of a hot ball- 
 room in a fummer-evening, when he can 
 be ftretched at his eafe on a fine turf. 
 The ball fuffers a good deal by the Revo- 
 lution in quality, but not in numbers, 
 the room is always full. Tityrus re- 
 mains, but the Knights are fled, crying, 
 
 Nos patriae fune?, et lampada linquimus altam. 
 
 The
 
 [ 202 ] 
 
 The red flag, which has been flying 
 at the Hotel de Ville fmce the affair of 
 the Champ de Mars, is now taken down, 
 on account of the refbration of perfect 
 tranquillity to the city of Paris. The 
 National Aflembly has been lately in- 
 formed, that nothing could have pre- 
 vented the feventy-eighth regiment from 
 paffing over to the emigrants, but the 
 rmnefs and vigilance of the Lieutenant- 
 Colonel. The ftory of the day is the 
 King's anfwer to Monf. de la Fayette, 
 who told him, that very fhortly his Ma- 
 jefty would be at liberty to take the air 
 at St. Cloud, or Compeigne, a la bonne 
 heure, dlt le Roi, " Je vous prendral pour 
 " mon geoher, mais non pas pour mon me- 
 " deem" The people grow impatient for 
 the opening of the Thuilleries, but they 
 muft wait ftill a little longer : the wicked 
 wits are for fending the Royal Family to 
 i the
 
 [ 203 1 
 
 the ecole militaire, and the National Af- 
 fembly to the invalids, that they may en- 
 joy the made of the tall trees of the 
 Thuilleries, which is not to be had at the 
 Palais Royal. 
 
 There is nothing that feems to keep 
 up the fpirit of antipathy fo much be- 
 tween the 'Tiers Etat, and the Nobility 
 and Miniftry, as the recollection of the 
 immenfe fortunes made by the latter, 
 efpecially, as it were, in a moment of 
 time. 
 
 A Minifter, for inftance, who is well 
 known to be by no means over- rich, 
 takes the direction of affairs, and, after 
 a few years in the Cabinet, dies with the 
 reputation of being worth twenty-two 
 millions, which, if you reduce to fifteen, 
 to make due allowance for the exagge- 
 
 ratiou
 
 C 204 ] 
 
 ration of envy and calumny, will amount 
 to more than half a million flerling. The 
 Treaty of Commerce, indeed, which was 
 made during this adminiftration, deferved 
 fomething of England, as it has never 
 been good for any thing to France. To 
 explain this would be to attempt to dive 
 too deep into the projects of Government, 
 which, when they fucceed, fufficiently 
 explain themfelves. Cafes, however, oc- 
 cur much ftronger than the one alluded 
 to, where the provocation of the gooie 
 is (hewn to be more justifiable, in pro- 
 portion as the plucking has been more 
 fevere, 
 
 Monfieur de Calonne, they fay, began 
 his political career at the head of arrairs 
 one million and a half in debt, and in a 
 very fhort fpace of time entered into a 
 contract to purchafc, round his own 
 
 houfe,
 
 3 
 
 houfe, an extent of country valued at 
 twelve millions of livres. For the truth 
 and certainty of thefe matters I do not 
 pledge myfelf, and I think it probable' 
 that they are much exaggerated. 
 
 It was by this fort of proceeding, that 
 the annual deficit arrived at laft, as de- 
 monftrated by the National Affembly, to 
 two hundred and fixty-five millions, when 
 the territorial impoft was proje&ed, and 
 attempted to be laid on by the Archbifhop 
 of Brienne, the failure of which was the 
 immediate caufe of the Revolution. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 [ 206 ] 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 A WOMAN has been punifhed lately 
 before the Court of the Palais Royal in 
 a fingular manner, for debauching young 
 girls of thirteen and fourteen years old, 
 and felling them to pimps and procurers. 
 The lady is exhibited aftride an afs with her 
 head towards the tail ; fhe rides in this 
 humiliating pofition, and, if you believe 
 Monf. Galand, after the oriental fafhion, 
 towards the pillory, where flie remains 
 for three quarters of an hour, or more, 
 and then returns to the Salpetriere in the 
 fame order that (he arrived. There is no 
 pelting, on this oecafion as with us, no 
 
 ftones,
 
 ftones, no rotten eggs ; on the contrary, 
 a collection is made among the crowd 
 during the ceremony, for the confolation 
 even of fuffering vice, and almoft every 
 one gives fomething. 
 
 The guard round the caftle of the 
 Thuilleries has been doubled of late, 
 owing to fome information given of a 
 plan, by a Monf. Santerre, to fet the 
 King free, and afford him an opportunity 
 of eicaping during a temporary rior, which 
 was to be raifed by fetting fire to different 
 parts of Paris at the fame time. A de- 
 tachment was fent to Monf. Santerre's 
 houfe to take him into cuftody, but he 
 was fled. Since that, letters and addrefles 
 to the citizens have appeared at the cor- 
 ners of the ftreets, figned Santerre, de- 
 nying the fad, or any knowledge of it, 
 which confirmed many in their fufpicions 
 
 of
 
 of its reality, and that Santerre was the 
 contriver of it. 
 
 In a ferious difpute the other day at 
 an ariitocratical coffee-houfe in the Pa- 
 lais Royal, one of the parties, who had 
 a defect in his elocution, fet the room in 
 a roar in attempting to anfwer his ad- 
 verfary. After he had turned about his 
 mouth for fome time, and made a fcries 
 of frightful grimaces, he fluttered out at 
 length, Fi-Ji-Ji-de votre conftitution, elle 
 fait pi-pi-pi-tie, die refemble au ca-ca-ca- 
 hos. Things of this kind happen daily, 
 and do no harm where they break no 
 bones, or cut no throats. 
 
 I continue flill to amufe myfelf in the 
 mornings on the fhady iide of the flreet, 
 in hunting after curiofities. I was the 
 other day at the Mont de Pietc, where 
 
 the
 
 the unredeemed pledges are fold once a 
 year. The Mont de Piete confifts of aa 
 immenfe building round two courts, where 
 all the brokers' fhops of the city feem to 
 be united in one fpot : the courts were 
 filled with people of the loweft clafs, 
 and the pledges, which appeared of little 
 or no value, could never have raifed two 
 guineas on any one article' that I faw fold, 
 of watches or trinkets. They fay at 
 Paris, that if you can walk the ftreets 
 without being run over, or knocked 
 down, for twenty years together, without 
 fra&ure, bruife, or contufion, you de- 
 ferve the Croix de St. Louis. Indeed the 
 taik is very difficult, and, in fpite of all 
 your precaution, you muft fometimes 
 find yourfelf between a cart and a hack- 
 ney-coach, fo fituated as to be in danger 
 of an embrace on one fide or the other : 
 P it
 
 it is the fafhion, neverthelefs, to walk, 
 and the firft people run about in boots 
 and great coats, with fhort clubs in their 
 hands, that is, when the feafon will per- 
 mit, for at this moment a can* mere coat 
 is too thick. 
 
 The French manufactures have of late 
 had full employment, and been in con- 
 ftant exercife, owing to the depreflion of 
 the affignats, and the high price of fpecie, 
 which has made it impoffible to remit 
 bills to London, or Madrid, or elfewhere, 
 on France, where the exchange is fo dif- 
 advantageous, as to occafion a lofs of 
 twenty-five and thirty per cent, whereas 
 the lofs on manufactures is not more than 
 twelve or fifteen at the moft. This turns 
 the fcale againft England, arid mews, 
 that when things are at the worft, they 
 
 will
 
 t HI ] 
 
 vrill fometimes correft themfelvcs. It 
 now becomes the intereft of the neigh- 
 bouring countries to raife the exchange 
 with France. 
 
 Monf. Bailli, the Mayor, was yefter> 
 day at the Palais Royal, to reprefs the 
 infolence of the Ariftocrates at the Cafe 
 de Foy ; he ordered a ftandard to be 
 raifed before the marquee of the coffee- 
 houfe, crowned with a cap of liberty, 
 and adorned with a flag of three co- 
 lours, on which was infcribed, on one 
 fide, Je naifait que pafse, Us n'etoient plu* 
 deja ; on the other, Us ont ose lever leur 
 front audacieux. This had the effect of dra- 
 peau rouge on the mal-contents, and they 
 were inftantly difperfed for a day or two. 
 The next day appeared an advertifemeat 
 by way of pafquinade on the national 
 guards. 
 
 P 3 Ma-
 
 [ II, ] 
 
 Magazin de Fayence bleue 
 Dont les plats ne vont pas au feu. 
 Ceux qui voudront fairc emplette 
 S'adrefleront a la Fayette. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 t "3 3 
 
 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 Auguft 1791. 
 
 J[ HE refractory prfffts have driven one 
 of their brethren mad, and the poor man, 
 in a fit of defpair, has thrown himfelf 
 out of a garret window into the ftreet : 
 his name was Monjellard, Cure de Barjols, 
 and Depute de Toulon. The nonjurors 
 obliged him to retracl: the civic oath he 
 had taken to be faithful to the Law and 
 the King. " Non tulh hoc praful" This 
 was too much for his confcience to bear, 
 and in order to get rid of the load he 
 threw himfelf out of a window, and died a 
 martyr to the fpirit of verfatility and inde- 
 ciiion. The clergy, who are much in- 
 P 3 feded
 
 [ "4 I 
 
 fected with what the Democrates call the 
 Patrician leprofy, or the luxuries of a good 
 living, leave no ftone unturned to per- 
 fuade rfieir flock that the National Af- 
 fembly is a gang of Atheifls. One of 
 them preached to his flock lately " Les 
 " jflthees de F AffembUe Nationale, mes 
 " ouatl/es, out aboil k droit de Seignettr 
 " Jefus Chrtft ; Us ont attente a la dhlmte 
 " de noire S. J. C : plus.de Seigneur, mes 
 " 'ouailles" This is not unlike the flory 
 of the countryman who pafled through 
 Covent Garden during the poll for Weft- 
 minfter, when he faw a man on the hulk 
 tings haranguing the electors, who, they 
 told him, was the Minijfter He the Mi- 
 nifter, fays the booby, why he has got a 
 tail, our Minifler has no tail. 
 
 The French theatre has a great fupe- 
 riority over every other in its fcrupulous 
 "- ', " adhe-
 
 t *'5 3 
 
 adherence to the coftume of every coun* 
 try and every chara&er which it exhibits 
 upon the flage. The mofl {hiking ex- 
 ample I can produce of the truth and ex- 
 actnefs of this remark , is in the Me- 
 nechmes Grecs, which is brought forward 
 on the French theatre, called les Varietes. 
 Nothing can be more pleafing than to fee 
 the drefs of the father and the fon, the 
 courtezan and the matron, the matter and 
 the Have, the phyfician and the artizan, 
 conformable to what you know, or have 
 great reafon to believe, was the drefs of 
 the character in real life and exigence. 
 The fcenery alfo and the decorations of 
 the houfes, the ftreets and the porticos, 
 all lend a pleafing illufion, and throw 
 you back into the very times of the fable, 
 and place you at Athens or at Thebes, 
 juft as the ftory requires. A hint may 
 be borrowed from this fchool for the 
 P 4 greater
 
 greater perfection of the Weftminftcr 
 play, which in its prefent flate is a fier 
 auchefot of modern drefs and ancient 
 manners, like the hat of Harlequin on the 
 head of Auguftus, or Grecian architecture 
 in a Gothic cathedral. 
 
 The great fcarcity of money has at 
 length produced the pieces of fifteen fous, 
 but none of thirty ; the former of fifteen 
 fous are very convenient, as eight of them 
 make exactly fix livres. The execution 
 of this coin is very good. The head of 
 the King is a great likenefs, around it is 
 
 Louis XVI. Roi des FranQois 1791. 
 
 On the reverfe is a figure with wings en- 
 graving on a pillar the word Constitution, 
 around it is Regne de la Lot, on one fide 
 is 1 5, and on the other, Sous. In the 
 exergue UAn 3 de la Likerte. Thefe 
 
 pieces,
 
 [ a , 7 
 
 pieces, it is true, are iflued, but ftill fo 
 fcarce, that there is but one place, which 
 is at the French theatre, where they will 
 give them in exchange for the fmall bills 
 of the patriotic bank. 
 
 I mentioned in a former letter a robbe- 
 ry in which fome one had loft all he had, 
 becaufe it was unfortunately all together in 
 one place. The fufferer was an Huiflier 
 of the National Aflembly, a Mr. Rofe, of 
 Scot's extraction ; the AfTembly, which 
 is very liberal, it is to be hoped, will re- 
 drefs him in fome way or other. There 
 is no Fielding or Wright in this town to 
 aid you in recovering loft property, and 
 if you do not wim to be robbed, you 
 muft either keep your treafure well 
 concealed, and not all in one purfe, or 
 keep none at all. Madame du Barre, it 
 feems, has found her diamonds in Eng- 
 i land
 
 land which fhe loft at Lucienne^ though 
 I fhould imagine at a confiderable ex- 
 pence, having been under the neceffity of 
 employing fo many fpies and emiflaries, 
 and feeing fo many lawyers ; but to get 
 back the value of forty or fifty thoufand 
 pounds, who would not willingly expend 
 four or five, and make the loweft bow 
 to the police of the country that had 
 been instrumental in the recovery ? 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LE-T-
 
 [ 2I 9 ] 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 JVlR. Burke pafles at Paris in certain 
 circles for the greateft politician fince the 
 days of the prefident Montefquieu, and 
 it is infifted on, that-his predictions al- 
 ready begin to be accomplifhed. Of this, 
 however, you will be a competent judge 
 very (hortly, and before I mall finim this 
 correfpondence. The beauties of Mr. 
 Burke's book on the French Revolution 
 have many enthufiaftic admirers in this 
 place, independently of the doctrine it con- 
 tains, and purely on the fcore of a fine 
 composition. Others, indeed, talk of it 
 as a difgufting libel, full of declamation 
 2 and
 
 [ **> ] 
 
 and fcholaftic eloquence : they deny eve- 
 ry idea of ufurpation, and infift upon it, 
 that the cafe perfectly analagous to the 
 change of Government in France, is the 
 getting rid of a bad manager or a faithlefs 
 {reward by eje&ment, who had racked 
 out the eftate, and ruined the tenants by 
 laying greater burdens on them than they 
 could bear ; and that to fo great a degree, 
 that they were on the point of letting 
 the lands go uncultivated, as one half of 
 the product went to the fteward, and the 
 other half to the labour and the feed. It 
 was time, therefore, to take the farm into 
 your own hands when it was in danger of 
 lying fallow, and making no returns 
 whatfoever. They fay alfo that the cafe 
 required a radical cure, and that checks 
 and reftraints were but at bed temporary 
 palliatives, on which no dependence could 
 be had that there would not be a relapfe 
 
 in
 
 in the diforder, and then all remedy be too 
 late, and the evil for ever incurable. On 
 thefe confiderations it was thought proper 
 to give up the dignity of the crown, once 
 fo dear in their eyes, in order to preferve 
 its exiftcnce; to lower to the duft the 
 exalted front of the Tiara and the mitre ; 
 and, finally, to facrifice all rank and order 
 to the fpirit of level and licentioufiiefs. 
 
 Adieu cercle a 0eurons de Marquis et de Cointe, 
 Et ces larges mortiers a grands bordi abattus, 
 
 Adieu 
 
 On me voit plus ici la grandeur impofante, 
 
 Portant de 1'epaxile au cote 
 
 Un ruban que la vanite 
 
 A tiflu de fa main brillante. 
 
 As to the necefiuy of thefe harfh mea- 
 fures, that fuccefs can only juftify, I leave 
 you to determine ; as to the propriety and 
 fitnefs, the event muft decide : there is no 
 
 dan-
 
 danger, I imagine, of the crown's reco- 
 vering its luftre, if the King can be fatisfied 
 with being the firfl man in his domi- 
 nions ; the nobility too will no doubt raife 
 its head, and order and ribband revive, 
 provided the birth and diftin&ion fhall 
 think it no derogation of their honour to 
 be on a level with the peafant and the 
 manufacturer in contributing to the ne- 
 ceflities of the ftate. As to the clergy, 
 if they rife, it muft, be like the branching 
 palm againfr, oppreffion ; their wings 
 have been cut clofe with a defign that 
 they mould not grow again too fart, and 
 yet enough has been left to enable them 
 to foar in the great Affembly of the na- 
 tion above other orders, if their talents and 
 their integrity will bear them up. 
 
 The time is now almofl expired, when 
 it will be required of the prefent members 
 
 of
 
 of the National Affembly to retire and 
 make room for their fucceffors. The 
 greatefl part of them after three years of 
 clofe attendance are, no doubt, " weary of 
 conjectures," and wifh to enjoy the con- 
 clufion. But then the idea of ferving 
 your country in the infancy of her efta- 
 blimment, when me wants your good of- 
 fices, moft certainly keeps up the fpirits, 
 and never fuffers the attention to flag. 
 Add to this, that you are paid, and it is 
 your duty to be worthy of your hire. 
 The Princes of the blood, it is decreed, 
 are capable .of being employed as acYive 
 citizens, but in no offices on the nomina- 
 tion of the people, or the department of 
 the miniftry. They may command, 
 however, the army or navy in cafe the 
 King mall propofe them formally to the 
 National Affembly, and they (hall be 
 duly authorized by the legiflative power. 
 
 The
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 The Ariftocrates could have carried the 
 point, had they pleafed, and made the 
 Princes eligible Members of the Aflem- 
 bly, but the emigrant powers did not in- 
 flruct them on this head, feeing that the 
 Duke of Orleans and the Prince of Coiui 
 only, would have reaped the more imme- 
 diate benefit of the fuccefs of the mea- 
 
 fure, 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 I "5 3 
 
 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 Auguft. 
 
 THE Fete de St. Louis pafled off this 
 year unobferved. The King would re- 
 ceive no bouquet either from the Acade- 
 my, or Les Dames de la Halle ; and of 
 ourfe, I imagine, the ladies loft their 
 annual prefent of a hundred louis. I own 
 I was delighted with the King's fpirit, 
 and highly pleafed that the gentle dames 
 were touched upon fo tender a part, and 
 yet they bore it fo well as not to force 
 the caftle and demand juftice at the foot 
 of the throne. The academy of infcrip- 
 tions held its public feffion as ufual on 
 this day, and though there never was a 
 
 time
 
 time when there were fo many premiums 
 to beflow fmce its infHtution, yet there 
 never were fewer claimants to receive 
 them. A poetical fprize of the year 1 790 
 was obliged to fland over to the year 1 792. 
 This is the more remarkable, as the 
 choice of the fubjecl: was left to the au- 
 thor : but politics abforb every idea both 
 in town and country ; all France is in 
 one general agitation and univerfal tu- 
 mult, and it is impoffible to write verfes 
 in a hurricane. Scaliger, indeed, fays 
 he compofed his dithyrambic ode in the 
 night of the maflacre, but then I imagine 
 the cries of the dying Proteflants either 
 did not exift for him, that is, did not 
 reach him, which is improbable, or his 
 vain glory, which is more likely, got the 
 better of his veracity. 
 
 The
 
 [ "7 3 
 
 The panegyric or life of Franklin not 
 having been written flnce it was propofed 
 as a prize fubjeft, is referved for ninety- 
 two* The eloge of Jean J. Roufleau is 
 in the fame circumflances. The gold 
 medal of twelve hundred livres, for want 
 of a candidate, is propofed again for the 
 next year. 
 
 The prize founded by the Abbe Raynal, 
 is now become of triple value, and is ac- 
 cordingly divided into two medals of twelve 
 hundred each for the year 1 792. The fub- 
 jefts are, An hiftorical Effay on the Reign 
 of Louis the Eleventh, and the Influence 
 of the Difcovery of America on the Mo- 
 
 \S 
 
 rals, Politics, and Commerce of Europe. 
 
 Monfieur de la Harpe read a paper in 
 which he gave fome account of the prin- 
 cipal poets and verfe- writers from the time 
 Q 2 of
 
 t 
 
 o^Auguftus to the prefent reign of Louis 
 Seize. 
 
 Monfieur Delifle read to the Academy 
 
 p 
 
 an extract from his poem on the imagi- 
 nation. I fend you an epigram by way 
 of confolation for this dearth of genius, 
 that appeared yeflerday, and is perfectly 
 new to me, on fome unfortunate apoftate 
 who thought proper to accept of a com- 
 miffion in the national guards, though he 
 had been heard to fay but the day before, 
 that a man muft be both fool and knave 
 to ferve in the new corps. 
 
 Damon dilbit hier, et difoit avec eclat, "* 
 Qu'il faudroit etre un fot, un lache, un fcelerat,"; 
 Pour prendre maintenant un emploi militaire ; 
 11 1'acceptc aujourdhui, la confequence eft claire. 
 
 You remember the famous note of a 
 con fum mate politician and orator in the 
 
 blank
 
 [ "9 D 
 
 blank leaf of a fplendid Roman hiftory ; 
 that you know was in profe, this is in 
 verfe, which makes the only difference 
 between them. I like the epigram much, 
 and think it neatly turned. 
 
 The account that the Ariflocrates give 
 of the National Affembly is, that it con- 
 fifts of four parties, Monarchy, Anarchy, 
 Republic, and Corps Federatif, and in this 
 way of divifion you may make fourteen, 
 if you will ; not more than thirty, they 
 fay, have made fortunes, and all the reft 
 have got nothing but their trouble and 
 their pay. This is faid to flatter them- 
 felves into a belief that nothing fo hetero- 
 geneoufly compofed can ever be long 
 lived ; but fhould this body politic, by a 
 proper courfe of phyfic, purge itfelf of its 
 bad humours, the time may probably
 
 be not far diftant, when thofe who now 
 hold it in abomination, will give fome- 
 thing to belong to it. 
 
 The guard was turned out at two o'clock 
 this morning by a foldier who dreamt that 
 the King was making his efcape, and 
 cried out in his deep, Le Rolf eft echappe, 
 k Rol eft parti. This was immediately 
 communicated from poft to poft, and the 
 centinels were all on the qui vive in an 
 inflant. The Queen, hearing a rjoife, put 
 her hea4 out pf the window, and alked 
 what wa the matter, when it was difco- 
 yered from what quarter proceeded the 
 falfe alarm. 
 
 The National Aflembly has given 
 twelve hundred foot, and fix hundred 
 horfe-guards to t(ie King, which has 
 
 moved
 
 moved the bile of the mal-contents or the 
 petty journalifts to a violent degree. Pi- 
 fiftratus, they fay, had but fifty body- 
 guards when he began to play the tyrant ; 
 Peter the Great had but fifty, when he 
 conceived the plan of fubduing his coun- 
 try. But although Louis XVI. is neither 
 a Pififtratus nor a Peter the Great, ne- 
 verthelefs the Dauphin may poflefs both 
 the tyranny and the enterprize of the one 
 and the other. Confidering, however, 
 the extent of the malfon royale in former 
 times, eighteen hundred is a moderate 
 number. The malfon royale confifted of 
 twelve thoufand troops who followed the 
 court. There were the moufqyetaires 
 nolrs et les moufquetaires gris ; les cbe- 
 vaux legcrs, la prevote, les gardes Fran- 
 colfes et les gardes SuiJJes, et les gardes de la 
 , les cent Sui/es, &c. The King is 
 Q 4 to
 
 t 
 
 to pay his eighteen hundred troops out of 
 his allowance, and they will coft him a 
 confiderable fum. 
 
 Ever your's, 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 JL HE Mayor de Varenues has fent word 
 to the National Aflembly, that he beg$ 
 leave to decline the honour of the reward 
 which they have voted him of fix thou- 
 fand livres for his patriotifm in arrefting 
 the King, and preventing his Majefly 
 from abandoning his country : at the fame 
 time the Mayor defires the money may 
 be employed in charity, and diftributed to 
 the national guards. This act of difmte- 
 refted regard for his country has raifed 
 him very high in the opinion of the great 
 Affembly of the nation. I am told, and 
 I believe I never hinted any thing to you 
 
 of
 
 of the fort in any former letter, that it 
 was the intention of the Princes, as foon 
 as they fhould be in pofTefiion of the King, 
 to declare his Majefty unfit to govern his 
 kingdom, and to appoint a regent. It 
 looks as if Louis Seize had heard fome- 
 thing of this defign, for he is not at all 
 forry to get back again to Paris, and 
 makes very light of his prefent ftate of 
 captivity. They have not yet done with 
 the Baftile at the play-houfes, they have 
 brought it out again at the French thea- 
 tre iu the Palais Roial, but without any 
 great effect ; for as foon as the firing be- 
 gins, every thing is enveloped in a cloud 
 df fmoke, and you can fee nothing plain. 
 J am furprifed they did not give us the 
 reprefentation of the ingenious manner in 
 which the befiegers mafqued the cannon, 
 that they brought to bear upon the caftle, 
 and actually carried away by the firfl (hot 
 
 the
 
 the chain that fupported the draw-bridge. 
 They placed in the real fiege a cart full 
 of ftraw and combuftible matter, at a pro- 
 per diftance, before the cannon, which 
 they fet on fire, and the fmoke prevented 
 the befieged on the walls from feeing 
 from what quarter the balls were directed. 
 
 The oppofite parties of the King and 
 the Jacobins balance one another for the 
 moil part pretty exactly ; fometimes one 
 gets the afcendant, fometimes the other. 
 
 At the Jacobins the other day, in a fit of 
 fuperiority, a member made the following 
 flaming motion : a la Cromwell pour defa- 
 crer le Rot To lay the regalia on the 
 table of the National Affembly ; to keep 
 the King a clofe prifoner for two years, 
 and then to reconfecrate him. Fortu- 
 nately for the mover, this motion was not 
 
 feconded.
 
 feconded. Complaint was made a day or 
 two ago to the National Affembly, that 
 Monfieur de Gamache had demanded, in 
 a letter opened at the poft-houfe at Paim- 
 boeuf, three thoufand five hundred livres 
 of his correfpondent for aiding aad affifr.- 
 ing the King in perfon to make his efcape 
 and joining his fuite. The Aflembly, 
 though not quite unanimoufly, deter- 
 mined, that no notice could be taken of 
 Monfieur Gamache ; and that no infor- 
 mation obtained by an illegal violation of 
 private correfpondence, could become the 
 grounds of accufation againft any indivi- 
 dual. 
 
 The queftion concerning the fete to be 
 given to Jean Jacques RoufTeau is deter- 
 mined, and his afhes are to be tranfported 
 to the new Ste. Genevieve, and to repofe 
 with Voltaire and Mirabeau ; becaufe the 
 2 remains
 
 C -37 3 
 
 remains of all great men are the property 
 of the nation ; and although both Voltaire, 
 Mirabeau, and Roufleau had requefted on 
 their death -beds to be buried according to 
 their own direction, yet this is no reafon 
 why their country fhould not Ihow them 
 all the honours they deferve ; and no in- 
 fringement of private property to take 
 their bodies out of the hands of their 
 friends and teftators, in order to place 
 them beneath the dome which their coun- 
 try has raifed for the purpofe of fhowing 
 its gratitude to its firft and greateft bene- 
 factors. 
 
 I am furprized that no one, in his 
 boundlefs zeal for Jean Jacques, has ne- 
 ver adopted his plan for writing rnufic, 
 in which the four lines are reduced to 
 one. The temporary inconvenience the 
 muficians mufl fuffer from this innova- 
 tion,
 
 tion, muft no doubt be very great, but 
 what is that to the lovers of enterprize 
 and of great men ? 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XLI. 
 
 Auguft. 
 
 1 HE beft place to illuftrate the pofitions 
 of Burke and Gibbon on the fubjeft of 
 gaming is at Paris, and particularly in 
 the Palais Ro'ial, the epitome of Paris, 
 or a great city in miniature. " Gaming," 
 fays the hiftorian of the Roman empire, 
 and the great Burke, " is a principle 
 " inherent in human nature, we all have 
 '* it ; M which is literally true in this 
 place; they all have it, from the man 
 who died the other day with a bet upon 
 his tongue, to the man who cannot deep 
 for the bet in his head. The child of 
 
 gambling
 
 gambling is duelling, who grows in pro- 
 portion as the parent grows, and fits 
 clofe behind him on the fame horfe, as 
 the poet might have faid, 
 
 Le Duel monte en croupe, et galoppe avec lui. 
 
 I met, the other day, with a finking 
 inflance of this ruling paflion under the 
 arcades. A man of a decent appearance 
 was distributing tickets of admiffion, at 
 thirty fous a day, at the door of a gam- 
 bling-houfe, and addreffing the paflengers 
 " Walk in, walk in, Gentlemen, a 
 " very choice fociety." Not being ac- 
 cuftomed to this fort of invitation, I 
 thought at firft, that it was a collection 
 of wild hearts that he propofed to fhow 
 me, or the King and Queen, and Philip 
 le Roux, in wax, or fomething as extra- 
 ordinary. Upon inquiry, however, at the 
 
 next
 
 next mop, whither I was going, I found 
 it was a gaming-table to which I was in- 
 vited, and that the man who now dif- 
 tributed the tickets of admiffion had been 
 a great fufferer, and loft his all in this 
 fink of perdition, which was the con- 
 fiderable fum of fixty thoufand livres, 
 or two thoufand five hundred pounds. 
 It feems that he was the fon of a mop- 
 keeper at Paimboeuf, who had left him 
 the above fum at his death, which the 
 heir had brought to Paris, and there lefc 
 it behind him. I muft fay fo much of 
 him, that he appeared to me to be per- 
 fectly infenfible of his lofs, and not at all 
 dhTatisfied with his employment, which 
 the proprietor of the gaming-table had 
 given him on a principle of companion. 
 Inftances of this kind muft be not un- 
 common in a place where the rage of 
 play prevails fo univerfally, but the re- 
 R refigna-
 
 fignation and the philofophy of the ex- 
 ample occur but rarely. In order to 
 make the paffion for play as convenient 
 as poffible, and as palatable as women and 
 wine can render them, the apartments 
 of the gaming clubs are fpacious, the 
 dinners are delicious, the fuppers exqui- 
 fite, and the women enchanting. In 
 fhort, nothing is wanting to excite the 
 paflion and feed the delufion. The chances 
 in favour of the dealer, at thirty-one, or 
 rouge et noir, arc confiderable and ex- 
 elufive ; every time he turns thirty-one, 
 he takes half the depofit of every flake. 
 The rapidity with which the bufinefs is 
 conducted is alfo another fource of ad- 
 vantage, as the fortunate hazard returns 
 the oftener. There is as much difference 
 between a good dealer and a bad one, as 
 between a Pruffian foldier, who fires fix 
 times in a minute, and a French national 
 
 guard,
 
 C 243 3 
 
 guard, who flops to ram at every charge. 
 But let us have done with this extravagant 
 
 The Marquis de Paulmy's library, 
 which belongs to the Comte d'Artois> 
 confifts of collections for the hiftory of 
 France, romances, and theatrical pieces 
 of all countries. Sixty volumes have 
 been publifhed by the Marquis himfelf, 
 under the title of Melanges cfune grande 
 Bibliotheque. It is faid, that fhould the 
 Comte d'Artdis ever return to Paris, he 
 has a defign of making it public. The 
 library coft a hundred thoufand crowns, 
 or twelve thoufand five hundred pounds, 
 and is at' this moment {till at the arfe- 
 naL 
 
 Ever your's. 
 R z LET-
 
 244 
 
 LETTER XL1I. 
 
 1 FEAR you will foon begin to cry our, 
 Paris and the National Affembly tire after 
 fo much repetition, come home, or get 
 farther off; I want fomething new. You 
 certainly have reafon to complain, and I 
 promife to have done as foon as the King 
 fhall have accepted the Conflitution, and 
 the matters (hall be fo far arranged, as to 
 be put in a train to advance of them- 
 felves, without the intervention of ex- 
 traordinary powers. The King is very 
 quiet with his family at the Thuilleries, 
 and no new alarm has difturbed her Ma- 
 jefty at midnight. The day after his 
 
 Majefty's
 
 [ 245 ] 
 
 Majefty's return from Varennes, on look- 
 ing into the garden, he faw four tents 
 pitched in the front of his apartments on 
 the terrace below, for the purpofe of 
 preventing the royal efcape by the way 
 of the window; upon which he called 
 to the Lord in waiting, and alked him, 
 Qrfeft ce que cejl que ces quatre machines, 
 Id bas f The Lord in waiting anfwered 
 with a fmile, Elles font apparemment les 
 t antes de votre Majejle qul font revenues. 
 Je croyois, dlt le Rot, qifil ny av&lt que 
 deux. Apropos to the King's aunts ; they 
 call them at Rome Les Haquenees. They 
 fay, the King of France has done more 
 for the Pope than his brother of Naples ; 
 France has fent him two Haquenees, 
 whereas Naples would hardly fend him 
 one. Madame le Brun, who is at Rome, 
 is occupied in painting Les Mefdames, by 
 R 3 order,
 
 t 246 ] 
 
 order, perhaps, of her Commander in 
 Chief, 
 
 As it is not pofiible to get into the 
 Thuilleries, and as the Palais Roial, like 
 other good things, fatigues without fa^ 
 dating, I now and then pay a vifit to 
 the Luxemburgh gardens, where France 
 is as fhe was in the plenitude of the old 
 fyftem, in bag and fword, and hat of 
 three corners. Here you are fure to meet 
 the difappointed band, and the whole 
 tribe of the counter-reyolutionifls : it is 
 here only that they hold up their heads, 
 and difplay their orders. Clergy, Nobi- 
 lity, Monks of all colours, and Friars of 
 all fixes : every order knows its place, 
 and falls naturally into the rank to which 
 it belongs the Clergy excommunicate in 
 the Alley des Chartreux, the Nobles and 
 the Military plafi their battles in the alley 
 
 of
 
 [ 347 ] 
 
 of the Cannes, and figure to the laft with 
 their ribands of red and blue. 
 
 Befides thefe, you have the difcontented 
 regiment of foreigners and outlaws, who 
 having done every poffible mifchief to 
 their own country, by ferving againft it, 
 by plotting and countermining it, retire 
 to this place hi fearch of a little chance 
 fociety, which it is impoffible for them 
 to find in their own neighbourhood ; for 
 were they to look for it where they arc 
 known, the anfwer would be, as it al- 
 ways has been, 
 
 Quaere peregrinum, vicinia rauca reclamat. 
 
 It was upon Barnave's motion the other 
 
 day, that the National Aflembly decreed, 
 
 that no change mall be made in the Con- 
 
 ftitution before the Third Legiflature. 
 
 R 4 The
 
 The National Aflembly has the power of 
 reviling the Conftitution, but it does not 
 think proper to exercife it before that pe- 
 riod arrives. The wits are perpetually 
 firing at Barnave ; they call him Janus, 
 and reprefent him with two faces, black 
 and white, you fee him at the Wax- 
 work in the Palais Ro'ial : but this is not 
 all ; they define him, and cut him up 
 into the following parts : 
 
 <Fun grand homme fur k & 
 reau de Monf. Barnave ; 
 
 Eloquent, Un adverb. 
 
 Precis, Une parenthefe. 
 
 Harmonieux, Une conjunction. 
 
 Vajle, Comme un point, 
 
 Draft, Une Virgule. 
 
 Etonnant, Une note d'admiration, 
 
 C/air, Une charade. 
 
 Profond, Un pyjits, 
 
 I do
 
 t 249 ] 
 
 I do not exactly fee the merit of the 
 laft comparifon, as a well is proverbially 
 deep ; it fhould have been profond comme 
 me furface. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 Auguft. 
 
 _L HE feafon flill continues unclouded ; 
 the fruits are very fine and full of fla- 
 vour ; there is not a bad peach to be 
 bought. The proverb too, that compares 
 melons to friends, of which only one in 
 fifty is good for any thing, lofes its 
 force this year, fince the whole race is 
 excellent. Not fb in friendmip, which 
 is an exotic in all climates ; it bloflbms, 
 indeed, freely in moft countries, but fel- 
 dom ripens its fruit in any. The laft 
 thing a Frenchman does before he goes 
 home to dinner, after his walk in the 
 Palais Ro'ial, or the Thuilleries, is to 
 
 buy
 
 buy a melon : you very often fee a fine 
 gentleman, with his hair nicely appoint- 
 ed, a Manchefter cloth coat, a fpotted 
 waiftcoat, and harlequin breeches, with 
 his hat in his hand, and a melon under 
 his arm, No elegant Parifian will wear 
 a filk coat in the hotteft day, though the 
 fafhionable cloth frock is much dearer. 
 The Revolution has produced no fimpli- 
 city of manners ; for the moft part, the 
 French are ftill better polimed than in-r 
 {hutted. 
 
 The news of the day is, that every 
 thing is fettled for an invafion the fh'ft of 
 October t what feems to give fome little 
 credit to this report, is the eagernefs with 
 which the horfes are bought up at this 
 moment ; there has not been a horfe ad- 
 vertifed theie three days. The Englifh 
 jobbers, they fay, have monopolized the 
 
 article,
 
 article, and the whilkeys and the demi- 
 fortunes are let down in the gutter. It is 
 certain, that fome great order for horfes 
 has been given from fome quarter or 
 other, which has drained the market ; 
 fince the Revolution they have been very 
 fcarce, for two reafons ; none are now 
 imported from England, and none are 
 bred in France. Three or four years 
 hence horfes, no doubt, will abound in 
 this country, as the breeders will have 
 no fear of the King's haras before their 
 eyes, whither they were obliged to fend 
 any or every horfe they might breed, 
 that the King's grooms approved, at the 
 price of thirty livres for a one-year old 
 colt, notwithftanding they had paid for 
 covering. This royal prerogative exifts 
 now no longer, and the breed of horfes 
 in France will, no doubt, foon feel the 
 
 benefit
 
 t 53 1 
 
 benefit of it. The French are accufed, 
 and but too juftly, I believe, of riding 
 very hard in the field, and on the road, 
 and turning their horfes into the ftable 
 without taking proper care of them. Many 
 a fine beaft was killed in this way when 
 the King fled, not fo much by hard riding 
 as by hard ufage. If any one brings 
 horfes into this country, he fhould bring 
 his groom with him, or probably he may 
 not carry them out again. You are fond 
 of horfes, or I mould not have faid (b 
 much on the fubjedt. 
 
 The flownefs of the proceedings, and 
 want of energy, in the Committees, is 
 a general caufe of complaint. It is often 
 mentioned in the Aflembly, but hitherto 
 without redrefs. The mode of admiffion 
 to places in the civil and military depart- 
 ments
 
 ments is, it feems, very difficult to de- 
 cide upon, and the candidates for pofts 
 in either are obliged to wait three or four 
 months at Paris, after every thing has 
 been in a manner determined. The truth 
 is, that till the Conftitution has been ac- 
 cepted, nothing will be concluded. Paris 
 is at this moment at the difpofal of the 
 feveral Committees of the National Af- 
 fembly, and under their immediate de- 
 pendence* The afleflment of the feveral 
 taxes is alfo a work of fo much nicety, 
 that it has been lately decreed, that they 
 mail in many inftances be received upon 
 the old rates till farther orders. It has 
 been decreed alfo, that the King may 
 reject the Conftitution, or accept it, as 
 he pleafes, but without any conditions 
 whatfoever. This alternative is imperi- 
 ous, but wife beyond all doubt. The 
 2 Abbe
 
 [ 255 ] 
 
 Abbe Joubert, Bimop of Angouleme, upon 
 this decree put a queftion to the Houfe 
 In cafe of an abdication de falt^ ou de 
 droit, what was to become of the King ? 
 become of him, anfwers a Member from 
 the oppolite fide, // feroit maltre cTecole & 
 Corinthe* 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XLIV. 
 
 September. 
 
 1 HAVE great news to fend you ; the 
 ConfHtution is fmifhed, and prefented to 
 the King by fixty Members. His Ma- 
 jefly received them moft gracioufly, and 
 told them, he would examine the Con- 
 ftitution which they had laid before him, 
 in the fhortefl time that a matter of fuch 
 importance could pofiibly be conlidered ; 
 and farther, that it was his intention not 
 to quit Paris, and that he would give 
 immediate orders to the Commander in 
 Chief for the formation of his own body- 
 guard. This is, as it were, the death- 
 blow to Democrate, and Ariflocrate, and 
 
 the
 
 the fignal of re-union to all parties, un- 
 der the King and the Conftitution. 
 
 The Deputies returned from the King 
 perfectly fatisfied with their reception, 
 and the populace cried inceflantly, Long 
 live the King and the Conftitution. The 
 gardens of the Thuilleries are now open, 
 and the Royal Family mew themfelves 
 perpetually at the window. Madame de 
 la Tourzelle, the Dauphin's Governefs, is 
 permitted to walk an hour in the day oa 
 the Terrace, or elfewhere in the gardens. 
 The King received the Deputies in the 
 Council-chamber {landing ; the Minifters 
 were behind him ; Monf. Montmorin 
 wore his blue riband, which he has a 
 right to do, becaufe the abolition of the 
 Order does not takes place till the accep- 
 tance and ratification. Monf. Thou ret was 
 the Prefident of the deputation, and pre- 
 S fe.nted
 
 fented the Conftitutional Act. The King 
 read his anfwer, and gave it to the Pre- 
 fident. The Prefident prognofticated the 
 end of the Revolution from the comple- 
 tion of the Conftitution. 
 
 Whilft the Conftitution was printing, 
 Monf. Camus made a very material dif- 
 covery of a fingular omiffion, which he 
 immediately communicated to the Aflem- 
 bly : the Aflembly had decreed, that the 
 Conftitution was totally and entirely fi- 
 niflied and completed ; this decree was" 
 fupprefled, which was the feal of the let- 
 ter, for without this it might be opened 
 and altered at pleafure by the fucceeding 
 Legiflature. The ArTembly immediately 
 ordered the following paragraph to be 
 added to the Conftitution after the figna- 
 ture of the Preildent and Secretaries ; and 
 
 the
 
 t 
 
 the fignature of the Prefident, &c. to be 
 repeated at the end, as thus : 
 
 UAffemblee Nationak ay ant entendu la 
 lefture de r Atte Conftitutlonnel ci dej/'uf, 
 et apres I' avoir approuve y declare que la 
 Confutation eft terminee, ct-qtfeUe ne peut 
 y rlen changer. 
 
 II f era nomme a rinjiant, une Defuta* 
 *on de foixante Membres, pour offrier dans 
 lejour, rAfte Conftitutionnel au Roi. 
 
 SJgne 
 VERNIER, Prefident. 
 
 Pougeard Couppt, Mallly Chateaure- 
 naud, Challlon Aubry^ Evfyues du 
 Department de la Meufe, Darche, 
 Secretaires. 
 
 82 So
 
 [ 260 ] 
 
 So much for the famous Constitution^ 
 which is now in the head of Jupiter, and 
 will come out, it is to be prefumed, 
 mortly, armed aft all points, a fecond 
 Minerva. We will leave it for the pre- 
 fent where it is, and try to find fome 
 other epiftolary matter ; I muft add, how- 
 ever, that the acceptance is confakred as 
 a matter of courfe, and although the 
 Republicans dread the thing, they by no 
 means doubt it. The general remark 
 is, that the kingdom of France is cer- 
 tainly worth im coup de plume. The in- 
 terim is, neverthelefs, dreadful to fome, 
 and unplealant to all. The Jacobins lofe 
 rio time in putting the people in mind of 
 the plan concerted and intended to be put 
 into execution, in cafe the King had 
 reached x the frontiers. On the return of 
 his Majefly triumphant, after he fhould 
 
 have
 
 have fubdued his rebellious fubjects, and 
 re-eftablifhed the Governcaent which his 
 brothers and his Ministers (hould have 
 di&ated to him, a general amnefty was to be 
 publifhed, with an exception of fixty-four 
 perfons. The defign of this fuggeftion is 
 evident, but, probably, it will not have 
 the defired effect, as it is already faid, that 
 on Monday next the King will finally 
 accept and fign it. 
 
 An article in the Englifh newfpapers, 
 copied into the French, fays, that the 
 Royal Efcape, in which James the Second 
 took his flight, when he abdicated and 
 abandoned his three kingdoms for a mafs, 
 is now taking to pieces at Deptford; 
 upon which the French Democrates in- 
 fift, that the precedent is a good one, 
 and the carriage in which Louis Seize 
 S 3 ran
 
 ran away to Varennes, fhould be treated 
 in the fame manner, that no monument 
 may exift of any vehicle that had been 
 proftituted to fo cowardly a purpofe. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XLV. 
 
 Sept. 
 
 1 HE badnefs of the bread at Paris makes 
 every body, who knows how fore the 
 people are on this article, apprehenfive for 
 the peace of the inhabitants. Monfieur 
 Bailli being threatened the other day 
 with the lamp-poft, was under the necef- 
 fity of making his way from the corn- 
 market back to the town-hall with fome 
 precipitation; fince that the facks have 
 been vifited in the magazines, and one in 
 twelve has been found unfit for ufe. The 
 Pariiians, that is, the lower clafs, live as 
 it were by bread alone, from whence it 
 may be eafily conceived how neceflary it 
 84 is
 
 is that it mould be good and palatable, not 
 nafty and difgufting, as it has been, and 
 now really is. It was this that firft /// 
 the flame of murmur and difcontent three 
 years ago, and will not fail to do it again, 
 if the fpirit of monopoly is not checked, 
 and the iniquity of the corn-factors en- 
 tirely repreiied. The muftinefs of the 
 corn is owing to this caufe folely : the 
 dealers who buy up great quantities and 
 profit by the artificial famine which they 
 create, are not always careful to keep their 
 ftore-houfes well vifited and examined 
 from time to time ; and when the corn 
 is not turned, or is crowded into too nar- 
 row a compafs, it muft fpoil : add to this, 
 that the factors are afraid of a difcovery 
 which might lead them to the lantern. I 
 make no doubt but that the bad corn 
 which is mixt with the good, is as old as 
 the laft famine. One reafon for the fear- 
 city
 
 city of corn at this feafon is a natural one, 
 it is the feed-time ; another is, that the 
 new corn is not yet hrought to market, 
 fince from the want of wind and water, 
 neither the water-r*ills nor the wind-mills 
 can work. 
 
 It is a fact well known, that the Eng- 
 lifh ftage is a great copier of the French, 
 and that we have few entire comedies that 
 owe nothing of their plot or their lan- 
 guage to French pieces. I faw lately at 
 the French theatre a play called La Fat/J/e 
 jlgnes, of which Foote's Maria in the Ci- 
 tizen is a fervile copy. La Fauffe dgnes 
 affects idiotcy in order to difgufl a lover, 
 who is not of her own choofing. Foote 
 came to Paris every year in order to catch 
 the manners living as they came into 
 birth, and (hoot folly on the wing, that 
 he might exhibit her in the Hay- market 
 
 new
 
 [ 266 ] 
 
 new fluffed and in her own feathers, 
 while the glofs was yet upon them. Vol- 
 taire fays, that the Engliih are the moft 
 credulous people in the world ; they will 
 go to the play to fee ft man put himfelf 
 into a quart bottle. This is undoubtedly 
 very true, and he might have added in 
 fpch numbers, that a great man loft his 
 fword in the crowd. The French, too, 
 are exceedingly curious, and I make no 
 doubt, that were you to advertife the fame 
 thing at this inftant, they would all go 
 till the houfe could hold no more. 
 
 The Abbe M is at this moment 
 
 the fcape-goat of the party, no one will 
 Jiften to him, and after repeated trials, it 
 is but very lately that he has been able to 
 make himfelf heard from the tribune. 
 At length he has fpoken for two hours as 
 the Pope's advocate, but to no purpofe. 
 
 The
 
 t 267 3 
 
 The Aflembly have determined that 
 Avignon belongs to France, and fhall be 
 no longer the property of his holinefs, 
 upon this ground only, that the inhabi- 
 tants, that is, the French party, have of- 
 fered the country to the National Aflem- 
 bly, and the Aflembly have defired the 
 King to name commiflioners to treat for 
 the exchange. The Abbe Maury is call- 
 ed the man of eight hundred farms. I 
 underftand his priory of Lions is divided 
 into a number of farms for the convenience 
 of the renters, and is worth forty-two 
 thoufand livres a year, and is now reduced 
 to fix, that is, the Abbe receives fix thou-r 
 fand from the nation. This living was 
 refigned to him by 1'Abbe Boyfmont, 
 when he was at the laft gafp, in order pro- 
 bably to make fome proviflon for a mif- 
 trefs and a valet de chambre, who were to be 
 faddled on the new incumbent ; a thing,
 
 they fay, not more uncommon in this 
 
 country than eliewhere. L'Abbe N * 
 
 and Monfieur P 1, a phyfician of great 
 
 practice in this town, are two twin fons 
 of adventure, they both arrived together 
 tt Paris k baton a la main, and^both made 
 fortunes in the capital by their talents and 
 their perfeverance* 
 
 Ever yp\ir's.
 
 LETTER XLVI. 
 
 Sept. 
 
 IHE Aflembly has abolifhed the place 
 of commander in chief, and ordered that 
 the duty fhall be done by the captain of 
 each of the fixty divifions in their turn. 
 
 The King went yefterday to the Na- 
 tional Aflembly to accept the Conftitution 
 and to fign it. The Aflembly received 
 him on their legs till he was feated, but as 
 foon as he got up to read his acceptance of 
 the ConfKtution, they fat down. When 
 his Majefty had finimed, he looked round 
 and faw every body feated but Monfieur 
 Malouet, upon which the King took his
 
 feat as one of the Houfe. This mark of 
 condefcenfion loft nothing of its effeft 
 on the Aflembly, who were loud and in- 
 ceflant in their applaufe. Monfienr Ma- 
 louet was of another opinion, but could 
 make no profelytes. The Prefident then 
 rofe, and bowing to the King, fat down 
 again a"nd read his fpeech. The King's 
 letter, which had been fent to the Nation- 
 al Aflembly the day befofe, is much liked, 
 and is faid to be very well written. The 
 weak part of it is the excufe his Majefty 
 attempts to make for not facing the ftorm, 
 and leaving Paris, becaufe the laws were 
 weak, and the licentioufnefs of opinion 
 was ftrong ; had you, fays he, prefented 
 me the Constitution at that time, I mould 
 moft certainly have rejected it. After 
 paying the Aflembly many compliments 
 on the happy progrefs they had made 
 iince that period in order and difcipline ; 
 
 he
 
 [ *7< 3 
 
 he adds farther, that truth and fincerhy 
 require, he fhould tell them, how much 
 energy was ftill wanting in the adminif- 
 tration of the kingdom and the execution 
 of every law which could give firmnefs 
 and unity to the feveral parts of the vaft 
 empire of France ; and fmce the opinions 
 were fo much divided on the means pro* 
 per for the acquifition of order, juftice, and 
 univerfal harmony, he was apprehenfive, 
 that nothing ihort of experience could de- 
 cide finally upon the fubjecl:, and adjuft 
 the merits of the feveral modes propofed 
 for the attainment of the end. His Ma- 
 jefty concludes by recommending a gene- 
 ral reconciliation and univerfal amnefty, 
 that every one, who, by an attachment to 
 his fovereign, fhall have incurred the dif- 
 pleafure of the nation, may be at liberty 
 to return to his country unqueftioned and 
 unmolefted ; and that thofe who have. 
 
 levelled
 
 levelled the excefs of their refentment par- 
 ticularly againft him, and on that account 
 have become obnoxious to the laws, may 
 experience a pardon, and find that he is 
 equally the King of all who bear the name 
 of Frenchmen. In this letter he accepts 
 the Conflkution, and pledges himfelf to 
 maintain it, and contribute to its execu- 
 tion with the whole of his power. In a 
 poftfcript his Majeiiy obferves, that he 
 thought it his duty to ratify this engage- 
 ment, and to uphold the Conftitution in 
 the very place which had given it birth, 
 for which reafon he propofed to meet ihe 
 Affembly of the nation the next day at 
 noon. 
 
 The reading of the letters as frequent- 
 ly interrupted by repeated applaufe from 
 the left fide of the Prefident, and fome 
 members on the right feemed to forget 
 
 for
 
 [ '73 ] 
 
 for a moment their antipathy to the Con- 
 ftitution, by joining in the general fatis- 
 faftion ; but all the reft of the right fide 
 knit their brows with evident marks of 
 difapprobation, and looked at one another 
 with confufion and defpair. The joy 
 within was foon communicated to the ea- 
 ger expectations of the crowd without, 
 and the friends of the Conftitution tefti- 
 fied their fatisfaction by fhouts of applaufe 
 upon the fpot, and by univerfal illumi- 
 nations at night. The King went, as I 
 have told you, the next day in ftate to 
 the Aflembly, and the Prefident, as foon 
 as his Majefty had figned, told his 
 Majefly, that through the fuppreflion of 
 abufes, the empire had been re-eftablimed 
 upon the moft folid bafts by the National 
 Affembly ; that the nation at large had ra* 
 tified what the Aflembly decreed ; that 
 the very men who were blinded by fub- 
 T fitting
 
 C 
 
 fifting prejudice, and paft prerogative, be- 
 came the unwilling teftimonies of the 
 truth that he advanced. The attachment 
 of the people, Sire, is the fafe- guard of 
 royalty-^but the chief fupport of the 
 faireil crown in the univerfe is the ne- 
 ceffity of an HEREDITARY MONAR- 
 CHY for the Government of a great na- 
 tion. 
 
 The tone and ftrength of this language 
 appeared to give the fame fatisfaction to 
 the Honfe, that the letter of the King had 
 done the day before. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XLVIL 
 
 1 HE difcontented at this prefent mo- 
 ment are thofe who call themfelves the 
 friends of the King, and whom the peo- 
 ple call Ariftocrates. The conduct of his 
 Majefty they think too humiliating in the 
 firft inftance, and in the next place, they 
 cannot but confider it as an eternal bar to 
 the golden vifion of a happy refloration, 
 under abfolute power, unchecked, and 
 uncontrouled ; in fliort, fay they, we are 
 betrayed. The King has liftened to the 
 Queen, flie has made peace at our expence. 
 Th&povernment neverthelefs, notwith- 
 ftanding all murmur and all oppofition, 
 T 2 is
 
 is well planned, and wants nothing but a 
 fpeedy execution. The people on the 
 other fide are for the union of the mo- 
 narchical with the democratical, and are 
 ready enough to fay fo on all occafions. 
 They ihewed their temper pretty clearly 
 the other night at the Italian theatre, 
 where the Deferter was played, when 
 one louder than the reft was fingled out 
 by the boxes for crying, Vive le RoL 
 The Ariftocrat.es wifhed to turn him out, 
 and voted him a nuifance ; but the pit 
 faid, if you defire to have him turned out, 
 you mult come down and do it yourfelves, 
 for we reprove no one for applauding the 
 King. 
 
 On the fubjecl: of theatrical exhibitions 
 one might ealily be eloquent, would the 
 matter alvvays fupport the writer or the 
 ipeaker. New pieces are continually 
 
 brought
 
 C 
 
 brought forward, which, for the mod 
 part, are not longer lived than the Ephe- 
 merides, that but for twenty-four hours, 
 and die a natural death. The Imprudent 
 Wife is a new comedy, which has been 
 played feveral times, and has, I believe, 
 the merit of circumftantial and local truth, 
 fmce the ftory, they fay, is the author's 
 own cafe, who has been divorced from 
 his wife, He has been mpre fqrtunate 
 in his play than in real life ? as he has not 
 been able to re-unite himfelf with his lady, 
 though he has brought hero and heroine 
 together again at the end of the fifth act, 
 and much too in the manner of Lord and 
 Lady Townly. The moft remarkable 
 Revolution has taken place that can be 
 conceived, within thefe few laft days, on 
 the national ftage, or theatre of the na- 
 tion. Since the King accepted the Con- 
 T 3 flitution,
 
 flitution, the fame people that command- 
 ed Brutus, ou la libcrte conqulfe^ have or- 
 dered Gafton and Bayard ; every one 
 who recollects the applaufe with which 
 the following verfe was received, 
 
 ** Si dansl e fein de Rome, il fe trouvoit un traitre," 
 
 muft be the more aftonifhed to find the 
 fame audience hear with compofure and 
 even acclamation, the Filmerian and pa- 
 triarchal dictates of Gaflon and Bayard, as 
 for example : 
 
 *' Dieu dit a tout fujet grand il lui donna 1'etre, 
 *' Sers pour me bien fervir ta patrie, et ton maitre, 
 ** Sur la terre a ton Roi j'ai remis tout pouvoir, 
 " Vivre et mourir pour lui c'efb ton dernier devoir,'* 
 
 What fay you to thefe inconteflable 
 
 marks of fudden revolution in fentiment ; 
 
 I are
 
 t 
 
 are you not convinced that the French love 
 a King, and are fond of putting their truft 
 in him ? It is fortunate, however, that 
 they have bound him with chains, which 
 he cannot eafily break ; they have paired 
 the nails, and drawn the teeth of the lion, 
 and made him perfectly harmlefs ; and 
 yet, for all this, though the direct ave- 
 nues to expence are blocked up, though 
 the extravagance of power is clogged with 
 checks and reflraints, yet it will require 
 great vigilance and perpetual attention in 
 the virtuous Members of the National 
 Affembly, to counteract all the bafe obli- 
 quities of corruption. And it ought to 
 be remembered, that toreprefs the excefles 
 of a court which is ever tending to extra- 
 vagance, is the only fure way to prevent 
 the horrors of a reign being acted over 
 a~ain, which have fo lately reduced the 
 T 4 garden
 
 [ 280 ] 
 
 garden of the world, and its amiable in- 
 habitants, to a howling defart and inhu- 
 man favages. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 Sept. 26. 
 
 A.N univerfal fete was ordered to cele^ 
 brate the happy reftoration of royal liber- 
 ty, and the completion of the Conftitu- 
 tion on Sunday lafl, and repeated again 
 with flill greater eclat yefterday. A 
 French ode was compofed, fet to mufic, 
 and executed by the royal band on the al- 
 tar of the nation in the Champ de Mars. 
 At night the tranfparencies and illumina- 
 tions were exhibited in the moft magnifi- 
 cent manner all over Paris, and particular- 
 ly in the Thuilleries and the Elyfian fields. 
 The King, and Queen, and Dauphin, 
 made their progrefs through the people 
 
 from
 
 t 
 
 from nine till eleven, with Monfieur dc 
 la Fayette and the royal guards, and were 
 moft gracioufly received in all parts. The 
 coup d'ceil from the center of the Thuil- 
 leries to the Barriere, and from the Grille 
 de Chaillot to the bridges, was the moil 
 magnificent thing poffible. The expencc 
 of lighting the Thuilleries and the Ely- 
 fian fields was defrayed by his Majefty and 
 charged to the civil lift at the King's ex- 
 prefs defire. The joy feemed moft general, 
 and no act of miftruft or want of perfect 
 confidence appeared, but in one laughable 
 inflance, where a cobler had illuminated 
 his ftall with two candles, and a tranfpa- 
 rency, on which was the following de- 
 vice: 
 
 Vive le Roi, 
 
 S'il eft de bonne foi.' 
 
 At
 
 [ 2*3 ] 
 
 At fix o'clock on the eighteenth, Mon- 
 fieur Saint Croix afcended, with a plea- 
 fant breeze, from the Elyfian fields in a 
 cock boat, or a little bark in the mape of 
 a cock attached to a balloon, and defcend- 
 ed at nine, or, perhaps, fomevvhat later, 
 at Garfius de Brie, fifteen leagues fronv 
 Paris. 
 
 The King and Queen went the next 
 day to the opera on the Boulevards, and 
 were welcomed with perpetual acclama- 
 tions. The interval of filence during the 
 performance were awful and majeftic. In 
 the ballet, the torches of the demons in 
 Caftor and Pollux illuminated the King's 
 box, and brought forward the royal figures, 
 as it were, from the picture ; at that mo- 
 ment there was a burft of applaufe for 
 fome minutes. 
 
 The
 
 The King and Royal Family were yef- 
 terday at the national theatre to fee the 
 Governante, which was ordered on ac- 
 count of Madame Elizabeth. The curi- 
 ofity in all this, I find, is to fee the King, 
 which makes nothing too dear for a place. 
 His Majefty never was at the play before. 
 during his reign, but incognito, and in a 
 a loge grillee. It is fuppofed that he will 
 vifit the other theatres in their turn, at 
 leaft the principa.1 ones. Between the 
 acts, the famous quatuor in Lucile was 
 played : " Ou peut on fore mieux" k 
 Cbceur ^Iphlgenle^ f H$ue d'attralts^ que 
 de Majejiel rouverture des deux pages. 
 Chant ons un Rot quon alme, qtf-on aimepour 
 lui-mcme. Le Chceur d 1 Iphi genie. Chan- 
 
 ) celebrons notre reined 
 
 The King's name begins n.ow to be, re- 
 frored to the figns, hotels, and academies, 
 
 wh ere
 
 where he prefided, and Paris feems a new 
 creature. The influx of foreigners is at 
 this inftant beyond all credibility ; there 
 never were fo many Grangers of all na- 
 tions in this capital as at this prefent time. 
 The National AfTembly are fluttering on 
 the wing, and ready to take their flight 
 on Saturday next, the firft of October. 
 When they want to get rid of 4 a queftion, 
 they put it off to the firft of Oftober, 
 which is ad Gr^cas Calendas, fne die. 
 The new Members are for the moft part 
 arrived and ready to take their feats. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET-
 
 [ 286 J 
 
 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 September. 
 
 MONSIEUR Malouet has demanded 
 an account of the National Affembly 
 of all monies that have been expended 
 lince its eftablimment. I mould have 
 told you, that Monf. Montefquieu has 
 jead a Memoir, in three parts, on the 
 paft and prefent ftate of the finances, of 
 which I will give you fome details in 
 another letter. The Affembly fay, in re- 
 ply to Monf. Malouet and the Abbe 
 Mauri, that it is true the orders were if- 
 fued from them, for the feveral fums of 
 the public money, but that the cam has 
 
 not
 
 not pafled through their hands, and, as 
 an adminiftrative corps, they are not ac- 
 countable* Monfieur Malouet, {till in- 
 filling on the details of every part of the 
 payments, and the receipts, and vouch- 
 ers, was referred to an enormous pile of 
 papers, which, on account of the extra- 
 ordinary expence of the imprefllon, could 
 not be made public, but might be exa- 
 mined in the Committee of Finance. 
 Monf. Montefquieu had already confulted 
 thefe papers, and had found that the ac- 
 count which he had printed tallied with 
 the accounts on the table. Monf. Ma- 
 louet accufed the Committee, the Mi- 
 nifter, and the Academy of Sciences,, of 
 grofs ignorance in all thefe matters ; upon 
 which Monf. Charles Lameth remarked, 
 >ue ji le comite, la commijjion, k mini/Ire, 
 ft r Academic des Sciences font des ignorant, 
 il ny a que le Pere-eternel qut put nous 
 
 eclairer.
 
 eclair 'er. Pajjom ci I'ordre du jour. Monl. 
 Malouet faid a few words, that he did 
 not wifh to excite any tumult ; that if 
 the Affembly allowed the ftate of the 
 finances publimed by Monf. Montefquieu 
 to be true, that was the account which 
 muft be delivered down to their fuc- 
 ceflbrs. Thus this .bulinefs fell to the 
 ground, in ipke of the incendiary adver- 
 tifements, and anonymous menaces, that 
 denounced vengeance on all citizens and 
 national guards, that did not aid and affift 
 in detaining the Afiembly at Paris, till 
 they had given in their accounts. The 
 queftion, however, was not got rid of 
 before the Prefident Thouret had called 
 the whole cote dr oh ' des inflames ;' and not 
 before the Abbe Mauri had been driven 
 .from the tribune ; and, in fpite of the 
 moft Stentorian exertions for the fpace of 
 two hours, had been reduced to filence 
 
 by
 
 [ 2*9 ] 
 
 by official authority. The inflammatory 
 papers were figned by one man only, 
 and he was an Ariftocrate. 
 
 The AfTembly has changed its opinion, 
 and decree concerning the body of Rouf- 
 feau, and now think, that the attachment 
 of Monf. Girardin to his illuftrious friend 
 ought to be fo far refpe&ed as to leave 
 him in pofleilion of his ames. A monu- 
 ment is to be erec~led in the new Pan- 
 theon to the memory of the author of the 
 Social Contracl. The Archbifhop of 
 Paris informed the Aflembly, that he fo- 
 licited the attendance of the Deputies at 
 the cathedral of Notre Dame to hear the 
 T*e Deum, or thankfgiving for the com- 
 pletion of the Conftitution : his Grace 
 flattered the Aflembly on its piety, L *Af- 
 femble (dit il) ay ant donne tant de preuves 
 eclatante s da fa profonde piete. I think the 
 U Aflembly
 
 Aflernbly muft have fmiled, for profound 
 piety in a country, 
 
 Ou nul mortel veut etre devot, 
 
 muft be a non-exifting entity. The re- 
 ligion of France has ever been at the 
 drum-head ; the pious fraud of the cloif- 
 ter, and monaftic endowment, ferved but 
 for an exemption from patriotic contri- 
 bution, and to the prejudice of national re- 
 venue : but as foon as it was clearly per- 
 eeived that -the body politic was ruined 
 and undone, whilft the body ecclefiaftic 
 rolled in abundance, it was immediately 
 determined, without a diflentient voice, 
 that a religious profeffion was no title to 
 exclufive affluence, on any fcore of pre- 
 tended piety, or affected godlinefs. This 
 is no new cafe ; Cicero tells us> that the 
 Roman tax-gatherers would not fuffer 
 
 any
 
 [ 9 3 
 
 any lands to be tax-free, becaufe they be- 
 longed to the immortal Gods ; they faid, 
 there was no fuch thing as immortal 
 Gods, who had been mortal men ; 
 Noftri quidem publicani, cum effent agri in 
 Bteotia deorum immortalhtm excepti lege 
 cenforid, negabant immortales ejje u/Ios, qui 
 aliquando homines fulffent. The misfor- 
 tune, however, is, that the true religion 
 is involved in the difgrace of the falfe 
 one, and no pains are taken to diftinguifh 
 the one from the other. 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 LET*
 
 t 292 ] 
 
 LETTER L. 
 
 October i, 
 
 1 NOW take my leave, having led you, 
 and, I hope, like Montaigne, par des 
 paijs plus agr cables que je ft* ai promts, from 
 the King's evafion, and difailrous flight, 
 to his happy return, and peaceful reftora- 
 tion. 
 
 I have brought you alfo to the con- 
 clufion of the firft Legiflature, which 
 took place yefterday, when the King 
 went to the Houfe pour la cloiure de /' 
 Affemblee. This day the new Parliament 
 meet, and take their feats. 
 
 In
 
 In order to enable you to judge of the 
 finances of the country, I have added 
 feme obfervations on the ftate of its 
 debt, and the provifion there is to pay it. 
 In addition to the eighteen hundred mil- 
 lions of aflignats already ifliied, one hun- 
 dred millions more have been decreed. 
 It is faid, that the fecond Legiflature in- 
 tend to lay fome additional burdens on the 
 Civil Lift. 
 
 The Sallon, or exhibition of the works 
 of the French artifts, has been open thefe 
 three weeks; it ha.8 been determined 
 lately, that no exclufions mpuld operate 
 to the prejudice of any one, and that 
 all, from the higheft to the lowed, Aca- 
 demician or not, were at liberty to hang 
 up their pictures in the Louvre. The 
 confequence of this permiflion is a fu- 
 perabundant influx of very moderate and 
 U 3 moft
 
 moft wretched performances ; but the 
 new fons of liberty fee nothing wrong in 
 this, and cry, fant mieux ; on na pas 
 done a rcdouter la monotonte de la perfection. 
 The good pictures are by David, Madame 
 le Brim, Boze, and Hue, a painter of 
 landfcape, and another whofe name is 
 Claffic, Monf. le Sueur. I like the French 
 fculpture much better than their paint* 
 ing. 
 
 I fhould riot omit a picture of Sufanna 
 and the Elders by Monf. Fabre, which 
 has confiderable merit, efpecially in the 
 female figure, a copy, if I miftake not, 
 of Guide's St. Sebaliian in the Capitol at 
 Rome. Monf. Fabre's picture is No. 
 35- 
 
 No. 375 is an incomparable view of 
 the Fim-market at Rome, by Monf. Ro- 
 bert,
 
 [ 2 95 ] 
 
 bert, an Academician, who lives in the 
 houfe of Moliere at Auteil, a village near 
 Pafly ; Boileau's refidence was alfo in this 
 neighbourhood* 
 
 >.'"' ' 
 
 Before I dole my correfpondence, I 
 mufl fo far fulfil my promife, as to fay 
 a word on the only relict of antiquity 
 now exiting at Paris ; the Palais de 
 Thermes, or the Palais Julien. The in- 
 fide and outfide of the walls are compofed 
 of a certain number of rows of fquare 
 flones, and then four rows of flat Roman 
 bricks, which referable the bricks em- 
 ployed in the Tower, called Juliug Cas- 
 far's, at Dover, and the manner of con* 
 ftruclion in both buildings feemed to me 
 nearly the fame. The Palais de Thermes 
 was built, it has been faid, after Seve- 
 rus's time, aod therefore mjght be what 
 U 4 it
 
 it is called, a part of the Emperor Ju- 
 lian's palace. 
 
 The news of the day is, that a Milord 
 Anglois has loft one hundred and thirty 
 thoufand livres at billiards at the Polonefe 
 club ; they played the whole night, and 
 before twelve o'clock Milord had won 
 feventeen thoufand livres ; but a fad re- 
 verfe took place in the morning, 
 
 L'jvxrmoj^ji sifiwo:!; 
 
 Ever your's. 
 
 
 Lsibl . OBSER- 

 
 OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 FINANCES. 
 
 ONZE cents millions out etc employes, 
 foit aux rembourfemens de 1/89, 90 & 
 9 1 , foit a venir au fecours du trefor pub- 
 lic. 
 
 Deux milliards trois cent millions font 
 neceflaires pour Tacquittement de la dette 
 
 exigible. 
 
 Liv. 
 Total 3,400,000,000 
 
 Voici
 
 Voici les reffources de la nation pour 
 faire face a cette fomme. 
 
 Domaines nationaux. 
 
 1. Les biens vendus fur Liv. 
 
 414 diftricts ont monte a 735,034,753 
 II faut ajouter, pour 104 
 
 diftricls, fur les 130 qui 
 
 n'ont pas donne d'etats, 
 
 le quart de cette fomme 183,758,688 
 Pour les 26 diftrifts reftans, 
 
 le quart de cette derniere 
 
 fomme 45,939,672 
 
 Total des biens vendus 964,733,113 
 
 2. Les biens a vendre fur 
 414 diftri&s font evalues 
 a 647,614,298 
 
 3 Pour
 
 [ 2 99 3 
 Pour 104 diftri&s fur les 
 
 1 30 qui n'ont pas fourni 
 
 d'etats, le quart dc cette Llv. 
 
 fomme - 161,903,574 
 
 Pour les 26 diftri&s reftans, 
 
 le quart de cette derniere 
 
 fomme 40,475,893 
 
 II s'agit a prefent d'evaluer 
 ce que produiront a la 
 vente, des biens eflimes 
 
 8 49993>7 6 5 liv - 
 On ne peut encore fe regler 
 
 que par Inexperience que 
 
 nous avons. Jufqu'ici 
 
 les biens vendus ont de 
 
 pafse reftimation de plus 
 
 de deux tiers ; ne met- 
 
 tons que les 3(5 e . & nous 
 
 aurons 509,996,259 
 
 Total des bien a vendre 15359,990,024 
 
 3. Les
 
 [ 3 ] 
 3*. Les biens dpnt la vente 
 
 eft fufpendue, font efti- Liv. 
 
 mes 167,875,734 
 
 Pour 104. diftri&s fur les 
 
 130 qui n'ont pas fourni 
 
 d'etats, le quart de cette 
 
 fomme 41,968,433 
 
 Pour les 26 diftri&s reftans, 
 
 le quart de cette derniere 
 
 fomme 10,492,108 
 
 220,336,375 
 
 On ne portera la plus va- 
 lue de cette partie qu'au 
 quart, au lieu des 3 cin- 
 quiemes 55335 6 9 
 
 Total des biens dont la ven- 
 te efl fufpendue 275,369,844 
 
 Les
 
 Les bats. 
 
 Le compte de 414 diftri(Sls Ltv. 
 
 les porte a 299,007,359 
 
 Pour 104 diftri&s fur les 
 
 130 qui n'ont pas fourni 
 
 d'etats, le quart de cette 
 
 fomme 74,751,839 
 
 Pour les 26 reftans, le quart 
 
 de cette derniere fomme 18,687,959 
 
 Total des bois 392,447,158 
 
 II eft connu que cette eftimation ne 
 monte pas a la moitie de la valeur des 
 bois. Nous n'entrons dans aucuns de- 
 tails a ce fujet, parce que nous ne com- 
 prenons pas le bois dans notre evalua- 
 tion. 
 
 Objets
 
 t 3 02 ] 
 Objets non compris dans let etats* 
 
 Les anciens domaines de la Liv. 
 
 couronne 200,000,000 
 
 Le rachat des mouvances 
 
 feodales tant du domaine 
 
 de la couronne, que de 
 
 eelui du clerge, & les 
 
 rentes dues au domaine 300,000,000 
 
 500,000,000- 
 
 La creance americaine, celle 
 du due de Detix-Ponts, 
 & les reprifes du trefor 
 public fur les comptables 1 00,000,000 
 
 600,000,000 
 
 Enfin fur les forets, il fe- 
 roit poflible fans alterer 
 Timportance de la referve 
 nationale de tons les corps 
 de forets, de difbaire les 
 
 taillis epars de trois & 
 
 quatrc
 
 [ 303 ] 
 
 quatre cents arpens ; il 
 
 s'en trouveroit pour plus Liv. 
 
 de 300,000, ooa 
 
 Total general, 3,500,000,000- 
 
 Nous avons eu un double but en pre- 
 fentant ces etats. Le premier, de faire 
 connoitre aux amis & aux ennemis de la 
 France 1'ctendue de fes moyens. Le 
 fecond, d'apprendre aux reprefentans de 
 la nation qu'il n'y a pas un moment a 
 perdre pour la perception des contribu- 
 tions ; que les recettes & les depenfes 
 doivent etre mifes au niveau, puifque la 
 caifle de i'extraordinaire ne pourroit plus 
 fournir au trefor public fans detruire le 
 gage des creanciers de Tetat. 
 
 OBSER-
 
 34 
 
 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 JN OUS avons donne hier Tetat des de- 
 penfes que les affignats etoient deftines a 
 couvrir, et le tableau de la valeur des 
 biens qui font le gage des affignats, & 
 nous avons demontre qu'ils fe balancoient 
 reciproquement. Aujourd'hui, nous pre- 
 fentons le tableau des recettes & des de- 
 penfes, a deux epoques difFerentes. 
 
 La premiere, depuis le premier Mai 
 1789 juiqu'au premier Janvier 1791. 
 
 La feconde comprend le femeflre de 
 cette annee. 
 
 Pre-
 
 [ 35 
 Premiere epoque. 
 
 Pour fournir a tous les paiemens fairs 
 au trefor public, relatif au fervice ante- 
 rieur au i e r. Janvier 1791, il a ete re^u 
 
 Liv. 
 
 1,437,001,153 
 
 & depense 1,400,331,233 
 
 Qu'ainfi il devoit refter en 
 
 caifle 36,669,920 
 
 Ce refte en caifle eft efFefti- 
 
 vement le premier article 
 
 du compte des recettes de 
 
 1791 
 La depenfe eft composee de 
 
 trois articles, 
 i. Les depenfes ordinaires: 
 
 elles montent a 883,345,226 
 
 2. Les depenfes extraordi- 
 
 naires: elles; montent a 105,278,143 
 X 3. Les
 
 t 306 ] 
 
 3*. Les rembourfemena faits 
 
 dire&ement au trefor pub- JJv. 
 Jic : ils moment a 41 1,707,864 
 
 Total comme ci-defTus 1,400,331,233 
 
 La recette eft composee de 
 
 quatre articles, 
 i. Les recettes ordinaires : 
 
 elles montent a 663, 563, 372 
 
 2. Les recettes provenant 
 
 d'emprunts, dons patrio- 
 
 tiques: elles montent a ^0,920,362 
 3. Les recettes des billets 
 
 de caifle en 1 789 & 1 790, 
 
 & d'aflignats en O&obre, 
 
 Novembre & Decembre 
 
 1790: elles montent a 524,095,000 
 4. Les recettes en aflignats, 
 
 payes dans le premier fe- 
 
 meftre 1791, pour ac- 
 
 quitter le refle des de- 
 
 penles
 
 [ 3*7 1 
 
 penfcs de 1 790 : elles Liv. 
 montent a 188,422,419 
 
 Total comme ci-deflus 1,437,001,153 
 
 Or, I . les depenfes ordinaires ont ete 
 inferieures de 2,500,000!. a celles d'un 
 terns egal anterieur a rAflemblee na- 
 tionale. 
 
 2. Les depenfes extraordinaires (but 
 prefque toutes une fuite des ordres don- 
 nes par Tancienne adminiflration. Ce 
 font les travaux des ports, les achats des 
 grains, les atteliers de charite ; il n'y a de 
 relatif a ces derniers terns que les achats 
 de numeraire, les frais de rAflemblee 
 nationale, qui ne font places que de- 
 puis le i er . Janvier de cette an nee au 
 rang des depenfes ordinaires, & les avances 
 X a qu'il
 
 qu'il a fallu faire pour accelerer le paiement 
 du cuke de 1 790. 
 
 3. Les rembourfemens auroient etc 
 faits a la caifle de 1'extraordinaire, fi cettc 
 caifle cut exifte plutot. Us Font ete au 
 trefor public, 5c ils ont du Tetre ainfi. 
 La dette qu'ils ont acquittee etoit bien 
 reellement dette de 1'etat. Elle feroit 
 encore due fi elle n'avoit pas ete payee. 
 Get article eft done a Tabri de toute cri- 
 tique. 
 
 Deuxieme e'poque. 
 
 Les depenfes ordinaires doi- 
 
 vent monter, fuivant le 
 
 decret, a 291,350,000 
 
 Jufqu'ki elles leur font in- 
 
 ferieures. 
 
 Les
 
 Liv. 
 
 Les fecondes montent a 27,262,185 
 
 En fupplement de folde 
 pour Faugmentation de 1* 
 armee. 
 
 Total 319,209,099 
 Les recettes de cette annee 
 
 confiftent, 
 
 i. En recettes ordinaires 146,287,453 
 2. En aflignats pour fup- 
 
 pleer au vuide des re- 
 
 cettes 145,062,547 
 
 3. En affignats pour payer 
 
 les depenfes extraordi- 
 
 naires 27,262,185 
 
 Et Idem pour le fupplement 
 
 de folde de Faugmenta- 
 
 tion de Farmee 596,914 
 
 Total, fomme pareille 319,209,099 
 X 3 La
 
 t 3'P ] 
 
 La reunion des recettes & 
 des depenfes de 1789, 
 1 790 & fix premiers mois 
 1791, donne Liv. 
 
 En reeettes 1,756,210,252 
 
 En depenfes 1,719,540,332 
 
 En caifle, * 36,669,920 
 
 PARI-
 
 P A R I S I A N A. 
 
 French Revolution. 
 
 1HE French Revolution may be jufHy 
 confidered as the moft extraordinary event 
 of the eighteenth century. General Paoli 
 fays, in a letter to his friend at Paris, 
 " A Revolution fo fudden, and fo uni- 
 *' verfal, Homer, with the aid of all his 
 " gods, could never have hoped to have 
 " brought about." 
 
 Character of the French. 
 
 Montefquieu, in defcribing his coun- 
 trymen, fays, they have une humeur fo- 
 X 4 dale,
 
 [ 3" ] 
 
 dale, unc ouverture de cceur, une joie dans 
 la vie, tin gout, unefacilite a communiquer 
 fes pensees, vive agreeable, enjouee, quel- 
 quefois imprudente, fouvent indifcrete ; du 
 courage, de la generojite, la franchife, un 
 certain point d'honneur ; // ne faudroit pas 
 gener fes mameres par des loix, pour ne 
 point gener fes virtus. What a pity it 
 is, poor human nature ! that repeated 
 .ads of the moft cruel outrage, and the 
 moft favage barbarity, fhould ever be laid 
 to the charge of fb amiable and fo ac- 
 compliftied a people ! 
 
 Enemies. 
 
 The four enemies of the new infant 
 State of France are, La Metaphyfque, 
 La Fanite, L? Ambition, La Vengeance. 
 Metaphyfics make a country romantic, 
 and its government Utopian ; Vanity a 
 
 public
 
 [ 3 1 3 ] 
 
 public fpe&acle ; Ambition a field of bat- 
 tle ; and Vengeance a defert, 
 
 Finances. 
 
 At the clofe of the firft National Af- 
 fembly, Monf. Montefquieu informed the 
 Houfe, that the receipts had been, from 
 the firft of May 1789, to* the firft of 
 May 1791, thirteen hundred and four- 
 teen millions, and the expences twelve 
 hundred and feventy-eight millions, of 
 which three hundred millions were ex- 
 pended in putting the frontiers in a ftatc 
 of defence. Thirteen hundred and four- 
 teen millions, he added, were ten millions 
 lefs in two years than- under the old efta- 
 blifhment. 
 
 Dona-
 
 [ 3'4 3 
 
 Ehnations, 
 
 Donations of pious perfons to the 
 Church are in this manner : 
 
 " I give to God and St. Martin my 
 * 6 lands and hereditaments," but never 
 is it faid, to the Clergy or any of its 
 members. Now, as the faints are no 
 more, and God is out of the queftion, 
 the legacy mutt lapfe, and the nation, as 
 univerfal refiduary legatee, takes out let- 
 ters of admin ift ration to the whole of 
 the real and perfbnal eftate, of the de- 
 ceafed. 
 
 Difiiotwaire de T Academic. 
 
 Le Dlttionnaire de F Academic eft k 
 
 grand regulateur de la pensle Francotfe : 
 
 i //
 
 [ 3'5 3 
 
 // rta marque qu'un pareil Uvre ft la tour 
 de Babel. 
 
 Buffon. 
 
 Monf. Buffon is fo poetical in his profe, 
 that when Voltaire was afked his opinion 
 of the ftyle of BufFon's Natural Hiftory, 
 his anfwer was, " Not fo natural." 
 
 Montefquieu. 
 
 There was no majefty, fays Monte f* 
 quieu, in the laws of the lower empire, 
 becaufe they were made by lawyers and 
 rhetoricians. 
 
 Car tout rheteur en difant ce qu'il faut, 
 Ne croit jamais s'elevcr aflez haut ; 
 C'eft en difant ce qu'il ne faut pas dire, 
 Qu'il s'eblouit, fe delefte, et s'admire. 
 
 Pethes
 
 Petites Proprietes* 
 
 France depends fo much on its fuccefs 
 in agriculture, that it becomes daily more 
 and more expedient for her to multiply 
 fmall farms, and deftroy the right of pri- 
 mogeniture. 
 
 Panegyric. 
 
 Panegyrifb, biographers, and literary 
 portrait-painters, have all their particular 
 defects : the emphatical tone of the pane- 
 gyrift, the drynefs of the biographer, and 
 the rage for antithefis in the portrait- pain- 
 ters, are equally tirefome and difguiling. 
 
 Church
 
 [ 3'7 1 
 
 Church. 
 
 The church is the enormous and glut- 
 tonous branch of the political tree, which 
 has drawn to itfelf all the fap, and dried 
 up and impoverished the trunk which 
 gave it birth. 
 
 Arguments for the Abolition of the Church 
 Lands. 
 
 The public utility is the only fuprerae 
 law which ought to be univerfally re- 
 cognized. Too much refpecl: ought not 
 to be fliewn to the intentions of fuperfti- 
 tious founders. Ignorant individuals con- 
 fined in their views of futurity, and nar- 
 rowed in their understandings as to the 
 paft and the prefent, fhould not be per- 
 mitted
 
 mitted to bind by the caprice of their wills 
 nations unborn, and generations not yet in 
 exigence. If foundations, multiplied by 
 vanity, were fuffered to remain for ever* 
 they would abforb all property ; we 
 ought, therefore, to be enabled to deftroy 
 them; for if every man had a monument, 
 DO place would be left for the ploughfhare 
 Or the reaping-hook, and in order to make 
 provifion for the living, you would be 
 obliged to remove the tombs of the dead. 
 
 Thefe arguments are good againft all 
 monadic inftitutions, but by no means 
 apply to the defence or excufe of the in- 
 vafion of church property* in which, 
 though every man had his mound, there 
 would be ftill fufficient room to plow and 
 to foWj without difturbing the afhes of the 
 deceafed. 
 
 Lands
 
 [ 3'9 1 
 
 Lands of the Clergy 
 
 Belong, neither to the clergy nor to the 
 nation. To whom then do they belong ? 
 Why to nobody ! By an axiom in law, 
 Res univerfitatis funt res nut/ius, what be- 
 longs to every body belongs to nobody, 
 and yet it was decided by '568 againfl 
 346, that the lands of the clergy were na- 
 tional lands* and at the difpofition of the 
 nation. Forty members gave no vote on 
 the queftion< 
 
 Gaming. 
 
 Gaming at prefent in Paris is the hinge 
 on which all fociety turns. There is 
 none without it. 
 
 Dinner-
 
 [ 3* 1 
 
 Dinner-hour. 
 
 An author, in the year 1779, wrote 
 twenty pages in the French Mercury, to 
 prove the expediency of putting off the 
 the dinner-hour. 
 
 J. J. RouJJeau. 
 
 The Baronefs de Stael, daughter of Mr. 
 Necker, has given us a portrait of Rouf- 
 feau, which is full of contradictions : // 
 " avoit beaucoup de douceur dam Fame^ et 
 * c d'acretedansThumeur; beaucoup d'aban- 
 " don et defiance ; de grandeur ', et de peti- 
 46 tejje : fes aftions etolent quelquefois bajjes, 
 *' mats fes fentimens toujours dhins" 
 
 Iron
 
 t 3*' ) 
 
 Iron Cages* 
 
 Guillaume Farancourt was the inven* 
 tor of cages of iron ; he was Bifhop of 
 Verdun, and, like Perillus, was the firfl 
 who was (hut up, during fourteen years, 
 in his own work, at the caftle of Angers. 
 
 'J. J. Rouffeau* 
 Bofluet poffeffed more fire than Rouf- 
 
 Fenelon more fweetnefs* 
 Montefquieu more political knowledge* 
 BufFon more fagacity. 
 Voltaire more grace, more eafe, more 
 tafte. 
 
 Y Bur
 
 C 3" ] 
 
 But for the charm of expreffion of the 
 obvious, the (imple, and the natural, no 
 one ever yet furpaffed him. 
 
 Fable. 
 
 The moil perfect fable of antiquity is 
 Horace's Country Moufe, and City Moufe ; 
 De La Fontaine in his imitation has fallen 
 infinitely mort of his original. 
 
 Revolution. 
 
 The troubles of Paris in the year 1356, 
 after the battle of Poitiers, have fome re- 
 femblance to the difturbances occafioned 
 by the prefent Revolution in France. 
 
 After the battle of Poitiers between the 
 armies of the Prince of Wales and the 
 
 French
 
 [ 3*3 1 
 
 French King, in which King John was 
 taken prifoner arid led captive to Bour- 
 deaux ; the Dauphin, Prince Charles, 
 who had not yet attained his twentieth 
 year, fummoned the States General to 
 meet him at Paris. The youth and inex- 
 perience of the Dauphin j and the cowar- 
 dice of the nobility at the battle of Poi- 
 tiers, prompted Robert le Goqs, Bifhop 
 of Laon, and Stephen Marcel, Mayor of 
 Paris, (to whom Mifabeau alluded in 
 his compliment to Bailly, * 'fu Marcellus 
 * ens') 'to feize on the Government and 
 its Council, and to make themfelves maf- 
 teis of the Dauphin; As fbon as the 
 truce was figned at Bourcleaux, John or- 
 dered his fon to refeind all the a&s of 
 the convocation i but it was impoffible 
 to obey the mandate, on account of the 
 great afcendant which Robert le Coqs and 
 the Mayor of Paris had gained in all pub* 
 Ya lie
 
 3*4 ] 
 
 lie affairs, and by the acceffion of 
 
 the Lord of Picquigni, had created a mofk 
 
 formidable triumvirate. 
 
 John of Navarre^ who had been impri- 
 foned by the French King, was by their 
 authority fet at liberty, and brought from 
 his dungeon in triumph to Paris. Charles 
 was under the difagreeable neceffity of re- 
 ceiving him with open arms, and the moft 
 perfect reconciliation. But this mow of 
 friendmip could not fecure the Dauphin 
 from the fufpicions of the King of Na- 
 varre, who pretended that the troops of 
 the Dauphin were levied againft him, 
 and made this pretext an occafion of tak- 
 ing up arms. 
 
 The cap or chaperon, red and blue, was 
 the fignal, and Marcel was the irir. to 
 adopt it, in which he was loon followed 
 
 by
 
 C 3*5 ] 
 
 by all the citizens of Paris, It was to no 
 purpofe that Charles endeavoured to gain 
 the hearts of the people : all thofe who 
 were attached to the Dauphin, became 
 immediately fufpe&ed by the triumvirate ; 
 and the Lord of Conflans, the Marechal 
 of Champagne, the Lord of Clermont, 
 and the Marechal of Normandy, were af- 
 faffinated in the Dauphin's prefence by 
 the orders of the Mayor, who guided the 
 hands of the murderers, and had the info- 
 lence to allure the Dauphin that he had 
 nothing to fear for his own life. The 
 Prince, lefs indignant at the infult offered 
 him, than affe&ed with the bloody fpefta- 
 cle of the murder of his friends, accepted 
 the cap of Marcel, as a protection againft 
 the mob, whilfl the Mayor bore off in 
 triumph the hat of the Prince, as a fpoil, 
 
 which attefted his victory. V. FAcad. 
 
 des Infer iptions, v. 1 6. 
 
 Y 3 Le
 
 [ 3*6 1 
 
 Le Due de Richelieu 
 
 Had the fecret of curing his foldiers of 
 their drunkennefs, whilft he lay before a 
 town which he was befieging, by 'prohi- 
 biting thofe who perilfted in getting 
 drunk, from the honour of fcaling the 
 walls on an affault. 
 
 La Noble/e. 
 
 Nobility ought to be perfonal and not 
 hereditary, in all catholic countries : the 
 church of Rome teaches its votaries to 
 give the dead credit for the virtues of the 
 living, but the nobility invert this order, 
 and apply the merits of the dead to the 
 living. 
 
 fbc
 
 ( 3*7 J 
 
 The Penfon-lift. 
 La legende doree. 
 
 Kings of France. 
 
 Lewis the Twelfth was honefl and juft, 
 but weak and ignorant. 
 
 Francis the Firft was miles gloriafus, 
 a hoafter, cruel, and an aimer at wit. 
 
 Henry the Fourth was brave and mag- 
 nanimous, but too much addicted to wo- 
 men ever to become a philofopher. 
 
 Lewis the Fourteenth was at once the 
 
 greateft and the leaft of the Kings of 
 
 France. The flave of pride and vain- 
 
 , Y4 glory,
 
 [ 3* I 
 
 glory, and the vi&im of flattery : drunk 
 with the infatuation of power, he was 
 ferved, feared, and obeyed like an idol ; 
 hated, mortified, and abandoned ; ho 
 lived like a Sultan, and died like a wo- 
 man* 
 
 fhe French Academy. 
 
 Richelieu founded the French Acade- 
 my in order to divert his countrymen 
 from politics to objects more inoffenfive 
 and lefs important. He was deceived, 
 however, in his calculations, fince from 
 this fchool of unimportant purfuits, phi- 
 fofophers have come forth who have en- 
 lightened mankind on the moft ferious of 
 all fubjefts, the Government of their 
 country. Neither Roufleau, however, nor 
 Raynal, nor Mably, were members of the 
 Royal Academy. The Due de la Roche- 
 % foucault
 
 t 
 
 foucault wifhed to abolifh the title of ho- 
 norary, and to admit all the nobility of 
 France as members without any ballot ; 
 but he couid not carry his point. 
 
 Bajlllle. 
 
 Monfieur d'Angivillers got his fervant 
 fent to the Baftille, like a ftate-prjfoner, 
 for robbing him of a picture, as if the Cha- 
 telet would not have done juft as well ; 
 like a man who works a common fura 
 by Algebra, when divifion and multipli- 
 cation in plain figures will anfwer all his 
 purpofe, 
 
 Singularities In the affairs of 'Europe In the 
 Tear 1789, 
 
 The houfe of Auftria was fuppreffing 
 its religious eflablifhments. France was 
 
 com*
 
 [ 33 3 
 
 compelling the church to lays its fpoils 
 upon the altar of liberty. 
 
 The patriots of Holland were taking 
 refuge in Brabant, and the patriots of Bra- 
 bant in Holland. England, Pruffia, and 
 Holland, were forming a Proteflant aflb- 
 ciation for the defence of the Catholics. 
 
 Banque Nationak* 
 
 rr 
 
 f ' '. '.-' ;/'.*.., 1 rj i 
 
 Pour falre une banque nationals il faut 
 \out redulre a la JimpHcite (Pun livre de 
 compte, drejfe par k bom fens, et garde 
 par la bonne foi. 
 
 Money. .. 
 
 The French King, who was fo very 
 
 lately both the fountain and refervoir of 
 
 all the coin in his dominions, can now 
 
 i com-
 
 t 33' 3 
 
 command no more gold or filver than hig 
 Holinefs the Pope, whofe traffic is in pa- 
 per. This is no new cafe ; Horace has 
 handed down to pofterity a certain King 
 of the Cappadocians, who abounded in 
 fubjects, but had nothing to pay them. 
 
 " Mancipiis locuples eget aeris Cappadocum Rex." 
 
 Thus Louis Seize is full of paper-money, 
 but in hard cafh is wretchedly deficient. 
 
 Had Carle Vanloo, who was a pretty 
 painter, but a bad accomptant, lived in 
 this dearth of fpecie, he might probably 
 have been brought to underftand that fifty 
 louis d'ors were more than twelve hun- 
 dred livres : the ftory they tell of Vanloo 
 is, that when he went to receive his pen- 
 fion, he was paid fifty louis d'ors, which 
 he threw back, faying, he knew nothing 
 
 9?
 
 [ 33* 1 
 
 of fifty lows d*ors ; that his penfion was 
 twelve hundred livres, and infifled upon 
 having them. 
 
 Bottrreatt* 
 
 The office of a public executioner is 
 ufelefs and inhuman, why Ihould we not 
 fubflitute a machine ? 
 
 Public Executions, 
 
 The inutility of thefe bloody fcenes is 
 already too well known. The lame thing 
 takes place after a public execution, as af- 
 ter the exhibition of any other public fpec- 
 tacle. The mifer goes back to his hoard, 
 and the oppreflbr returns to his injufKce, 
 
 Sylla,
 
 [ 333 ] 
 
 Sylla. 
 
 The chara&er which the French feem 
 fo juftly to have acquired for Ravage bruta- 
 lity and unexampled cruelty, belonged 
 probably to their anceftors in the times of 
 ancient Rome. Sylla punifhed a foldier 
 with death, who refufed to cut down hi 
 comrade, by rlrft cloathing him in a fe- 
 male drefs and then throwing him into 
 the Tiber. Sylla ever preferred the Gauls 
 as foldiers for their wonderful difpatch in 
 pulling a body to pieces, a depecer un ca- 
 davre, " mire in corpora feviebant" See 
 Plutarch and the Hiftorians. 
 
 Ben
 
 [ 334 ] 
 
 Eon Mot 
 
 Tfune dame a V AJfembUe Natlonate qui 
 dlfoit en voyant le clerge bien aglte fur Id, 
 quefllon de la vente de leur biens : Mef- 
 Jtfurs 9 on vous rafe^ Ji vous remuez tant 
 vous Jerez couph. 
 
 Man of Letters. 
 
 Cardinal Bernis being alked which he 
 would prefer^ if he might have his choice, 
 
 to be Minifter or Man of Letters, an- 
 
 < 
 
 fwered, Man of Letters, ever when I am 
 alone.
 
 [ 335 ] 
 
 Le Cardinal de Fleury 
 
 Said, he had feen the two ends of the 
 world, La Trappe and the Court ; but 
 had he lived in thefe days, he would have 
 feen more, he would have feen the two 
 ends meet and the monks at court. 
 
 Learned Men. 
 
 When I had occafion to fpeak of Mon- 
 fieur Clavier in my Eleventh Letter, I 
 faid nothing of the edition of Petronius 
 which he is about to publi(h. He fhowed. 
 me fome corrections of the text that I 
 thought very ingenious and not lefs true ; 
 and which, I have not the fmalleft doubt, 
 will appear in the fame advantageous light 
 to every good judge of ancient literature. 
 
 As
 
 [ 336 ] 
 
 As I have faid thus much, I will produce aft 
 inftance, and one inftance of Mr. Clavier's 
 ingenuity publifhed before its time, will 
 do no detriment to a work, ' ubi plura? 
 The place I allude to is in the twenty* 
 eighth chapter of the quarto edition, p* 
 99. Burman : * fres latraliptte In confpec* 
 tu ejus ^Trimalchioms'^ falerniim potabant : 
 et cum plurimum rlxantes effunderent, fri- 
 malchlo hoc fuum propmajjc dicelat? The 
 meaning of the word proptnajfe is by no 
 means an ealy word to guefs at. Some 
 are for inferting genium after fuum, others 
 would read froplttajje. But if you be- 
 lieve Monfieur Clavier, the reading is 
 PROPE NASCI, which means, that the 
 wine Trimalchio drank grew on his own 
 eftate ; and, indeed, it is faid fomewhere, 
 that he had every thing within himfelf. 
 Qmnia prope nafci, i. e. domh See ch. 38.
 
 t 337 1 
 
 Vermt. 
 
 Vernet, the famous painter of fea- 
 pieces, lived to fee the fecond year of 
 French liberty, and died at the advanced 
 age of feventy-fix, under the Revolution, 
 indeed, but during a fort of interregnum, 
 between the dregs of the old Government 
 and the fcum of the new. 
 
 ^ 
 
 This remarkable painter was much at- 
 tached to his profeilion and loved his art ; 
 of which the famous ftory of his being 
 tied to the mail: in a florm of lightning is 
 a fufficient proof. He began early to 
 paint fea-pieces behind the chaifes a por- 
 teur, on which his father was at work. 
 His pictures in his firft eflays are faid to 
 have mown no marks of infancy, or in 
 his laft, of old age. 
 
 Z Man-
 
 [ 333 ] 
 
 Manglare was Vernet's mailer at 
 Rome, \vhofe excellence confirmed in 
 painting fine Italian Ikies, foft breaks of 
 morning light, and the pomp of the fet- 
 ting fun. His genius was of the piftu- 
 refque kind, as Pouflin's was of the poeti- 
 cal. 
 
 Parjf. 
 
 The moft impofing fcene at Paris for 
 its grandeur is the key of the Louvre, 
 where to the right is the Seine a regret 
 fugitive, and to the left are vafl palaces, 
 and fuperb caftles, majeftic avenues, and 
 magnificent gardens. 
 
 Caen 
 
 Is a city become famous for its riots and 
 
 difturbances, of which no notice is taken 
 
 i by
 
 t 339 ] 
 
 by the magiftrates, and no punifhment 
 iriflided on the culprits. A Democrate 
 being aflced at Paris, what he would do 
 if he were found guilty of fetting fire to 
 a caftle ? Do, fays he, why I would go 
 to Caen, where there is neither judge, 
 
 juftice, or lamp-poft. 
 ^~ >-. 
 
 UOrgle de la Cocarde. 
 
 The famous dinner at Verfailles called 
 L'Orgie de la Cocarde, was not paid for 
 lafr. year, and moft probably ftill remains 
 undifcharged. The dinner was ordered 
 for 150 at 26 livres a head without in- 
 cluding wine, liqueurs, or coffee. It 
 would be fomewhat fingular, no doubt, 
 if the National Aflembly were petitioned 
 to pay for this military feftival. 
 
 Z 2 Scr-
 
 I 34 3 
 
 Sermon. 
 
 A prieft in the pulpit at Chaillot, ap- 
 pearing to the audience to bear hard upon 
 the Revolution and the prefent times ? 
 was filenced and pulled down from his 
 roftrum, and his fermon taken from him ; 
 when the difcourfe came to be examined, 
 it was found to mean no fuch thing, and 
 bore marks of remote antiquity in its yel- 
 low ink and early date. 
 
 Les Cordeliers. 
 
 The diilrid of the Cordeliers being quef- 
 tioned, why they had detained a waggon 
 going to Limoges loaded with gold and 
 filver in ingots, faid, They did it to pre- 
 vent the fpecie being exported to the 
 frontier towns. 
 
 a-
 
 Citoyen du Monde. 
 La prophetic de Goldfmith. 
 
 "fandis que Ics Suedois marchcnt fans s* en 
 douter vers le defpotifme, les Francois recou- 
 -vrent infenjiblement leur liberte. Son genie 
 cjl dans ce moment deguife ; four peu qifil 
 y ait encore deux ou trois. miniftres dljjipa- 
 teurs, ou foibles ) Us fe forcer ont fe montrer ^ 
 decouvert ; et les Francois renaiiront & la 
 liberte, et au bonheur. 
 
 Elm. 
 
 The elm planted by Henry the Fourth 
 is in the Luxemburg gardens on the 
 right hand above the marble flair-cafe. 
 
 Z 3 Mo-
 
 [ 342 ] 
 
 Monaflery. 
 
 My imagination pleads ftrongly for the 
 low cloifter, and the high garden-wall, 
 but my reafori condemns all monaftic 
 institutions. 
 
 Arijlocrate. 
 
 The anagram of this difgraced and 
 perfecuted word is Ifcariot. 
 
 Revolution. 
 
 Voltaire foretels, that the Revolutio- 
 nifts fhall drink the coftly wines of the 
 Monks, and coin the gold crowns of the 
 Saints, but the Frenchmen complain, 
 
 that
 
 [ 343 ] 
 
 that the fwans of the poets are all geefe, 
 and their gold bell-metal. 
 
 Boit le mufcat des peres Beraardins, 
 Frappe en ecus Tor qui couvre les faints. 
 
 UEveque de Bayeux. 
 
 The Bifhop of Bayeux, in the fecond 
 year of the Revolution, protefted againft 
 the a&s of his clergy, becaufe they had 
 not elefted him their Deputy in the Na- 
 tional Aflembly, upon which he was 
 called the firft Proteftaut Bifhop. 
 
 Lanterne. 
 
 Lanterne de Diogene 
 
 C'eft en vain q\je Tantiquite t'eleve ! 
 Malgre ta reputation, 
 Tu n'es rien en comparaifon 
 
 De la lanterne de la Greve. 
 
 Z 4
 
 [ 344 ] 
 
 Alberts. 
 
 Liberty is by no means that brilliant 
 chimajra of perfect equality which fome 
 men have falfely conceived it to be, but 
 the fubmiffion of all orders to their head 
 or chief, and a refignation to the laws 
 which are made equally for all. 
 
 Defpotifm. 
 
 Defpotifm degrades its victims till they 
 lick the hand that opprefles them ; and 
 the magic of the fine arts blots out the 
 image of freedom till nothing remains 
 but the name, which, like Libertas on 
 the chains of the galley- flaves, adds in- 
 
 fult to fervitude. 
 
 _ 
 
 Chan-
 
 [ 345 ] 
 
 Chanfon de 1740 quand le pain etoit a 
 4 fous | et a 5*. la livre. 
 
 Richlieu, Mazarin, & Fleuri, 
 
 Miiiiftres empyriques, 
 De tous nos maux nous ont gueri 
 
 Par diverfes pratiques. 
 Richlieu faignoit ; Mancini 
 
 Purgeoit a toute entrance ; 
 A la diete celui-ci 
 
 Reduit fon ordonnance. 
 
 AQlgnats. 
 
 We bear continually of the burning 
 of affignats, but never of the plates 
 being deflroyed. 
 
 Le moule exifte toujours. 
 
 Mira-
 
 [ 346 ] 
 
 Mirabeau 
 
 Died infolvent, and Monf. Frochot 
 came to the National Afiembly to an- 
 nounce it, in quality of the executor of 
 Mirabeau. The relations were not pleafed 
 with Mr. Frochot, and thought fuch a 
 declaration added no luftre to the de- 
 ceafed, or his family. Mirabeau's debts 
 amounted to five hundred and fifty thou- 
 iand livres, and his effects, it is calcu- 
 lated, will produce five hundred and 
 twenty-three thouiand. The following 
 is an accurate ftatement of the whole of 
 Mirabeau's property : 
 
 La Bibliotheque vaut fans L/v. ' 
 
 folie - 90,000 
 
 Maifon du Marais a deux 
 
 lieues de Paris 140,000 
 
 Affignats
 
 C 347 1 
 
 Affignats trouves a fa mort 
 Chevaux vendus 
 
 Item Garderobe et linges 
 Argenterie & bijoux 
 Baguier 
 
 Sa legitime (en difpute) dont 
 
 il n'a rien recu depuis 
 
 1777 
 
 Ses pendules & meubles 
 
 pas encore vendus 
 
 22,000 
 I2,OOO 
 I5,OOO 
 30,000 
 IO,OOO 
 
 194,000 
 
 IO,OOO 
 523,000 
 
 FINIS.
 
 BOOKS 
 
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