refidence may not have effects equally obvious; but they will be no lefs fure in the end, and in all refpects beneficial to every clafs in the ftate.

The duke of Liancourt being prefident of the provincial affembly of the election of Clermont, and paffing feveral days there in bufinefs, afked me to dine with the affembly, as he said there were to be fome confiderable farmers prefent. These affemblics were to me interesting to fee. I accepted the invitation with pleasure. Three confiderable farmers, renters, not proprietors of land, were members, and prefent. I watched their carriage narrowly, to fee their behaviour in the prefence of a great lord of the first rank, confiderable property, and high in royal favour; and it was with pleasure that I found them behaving with becoming ease and freedom, and though mode, and without any thing like flippancy, yet without any obfequioufnefs offenfive to English ideas. They started their opinions freely, and adhered to thein with becoming confidence. A more fingular spectacle was to fee two ladies prefent at a dinner of this fort, with five or fix-and-twenty gentlemen; fuch a thing could not happen in England. To fay that the French manners, in this refpect, are better than our own, is the affertion of an obvious truth. If the ladies be not prefent at meetings where the converfation has the greatest probability of turning on fubjects of more importance than the frivolous topics of common difcourfe, the fex muft either remain on the one hand in ignorance, or on the other, be filled with the foppery of education, learned, affected, and forbidding. The converfation of men, not engaged in trifling purfuits, is the beft fchool for the education of a woman.

The political converfation of every company I have feen has turned much more on the affairs of Holland than on thofe of France. The preparations going on for a war with England are in the mouths of all the world; but the finances of France are in fuch a state of derangement, that the people beft informed affert a war to be impoffible; the Marquis of Verac, the late French ambaffador at the Hague, who was fent thither, as the English politicians affert, exprefsly to bring about a revolution in the government, has been at Liancourt three days. It may eafily be fuppofed, that he is cautious in what he fays in fuch a mixed company; but it is plain enough, that he is well perfuaded that that revolution, change, or leffening the Stadtholder's power; that plan, in a word, whatever it, was, for which he negociated in Holland, had for fome time been matured and ready for execution, almoft without a poffibility of failure, had the Count de Vergennes confented, and not fpun out the bufinefs by refinement on refinement, to make himself the more neceffary to the French cabinet; and it unites with the idea of fome fenfible Dutchmen, with whom I have converfed on the subject.

During my stay at Liancourt, my friend Lazowski accompanied me on a little excurfion of two days to Ermenonville, the celebrated feat of the Marquis de Girardon. We paffed by Chantilly to Morefountain, the country-feat of Monfieur de Morefountain, prevoft des merchands of Paris; the place has been mentioned as decorated in the English ftyle. It confifts of two fcenes; one a garden of winding walks, and ornamented with a profufion of temples, benches, grottos, columns, ruins, and I know not what; I hope the French who have not been in England, do not confider this as the English tafte. It is in fact as remote from it as the most regular style of the last age. The water view is fine. There is a gaiety and cheerfulness in it that contrast well with the brown and unpleafing hills that surround it, and which partake of the waste character of the worst part of the furrounding country. Much has been done here; and it wants but few additions to be as perfect as the ground admits.

Reach

Reach Ermenonville, through another part of the Prince of Condé's foreft, which joins the ornamented grounds of the Marquis Girardon. This place, after the refidence and death of the perfecuted but immortal Rouffeau, whofe tomb every one knows is here, became fo famous as to be reforted to very generally. It has been defcribed, and plates published of the chief views; to enter into a particular defcription would therefore be tiresome; I fhall only make one or two obfervations, which I do not recollect have been touched on by others. It confifts of three diftin&t water fcenes; or of two lakes and a river. We were firft fhewn that which is fo famous for the fmall ifle of poplars, in which repofes all that was mortal of that extraordinary and inimitable writer. This fcene is as well imagined, and as well executed as could be wifhed. The water is between forty and fifty acres; hills rife from it on both fides, and it is fufficiently clofed in by tall wood at both ends, to render it fequeftered. The remains of departed genius ftamp a melancholy idea, from which decoration would depart too much, and accordingly there is little. We viewed the scene in a still evening. The declining fun threw a lengthened fhade on the lake, and filence feemed to repose on its unruffled bofom; as fome poet fays, I forget who. The worthies to whom the temple of philofophers is dedicated, and whose names are marked on the columns, are Newton, Lucem.-Defcartes, Nil in rebus inane.-Voltaire, Ridiculum.-Rousseau, Naturam. And on another unfinished column, Quis hoc perficiet? The other lake is larger; it nearly fills the bottom of the vale, around which are fome rough, rocky, wild, and barren fand hills; either broken or spread with heath; in fome places wooded, and in others fcattered thinly with junipers. The character of the scene is that of wild and undecorated nature, in which the hand of art was meant to be concealed. as much as was confiftent with ease of access. The last scene is that of a river, which is made to wind through a lawn, receding from the house, and broken by wood; the ground is not fortunate; it is too dead a flat, and no where viewed to much advantage.. From Ermenonville we went, the morning after, to Braffeufe, the feat of Madame du Pont, fifter of the Duchefs of Liancourt. What was my furprife at finding this Viscountels a great farmer! A French lady, young enough to enjoy all the pleasures of Paris, living in the country, and minding her farm, was an unlooked-for spectacle. She has probably more lucerne than any other perfon in Europe-two hundred and fifty arpents. She gave me, in a moft unaffected and agreeable manner, intelligence: about her lucerne and dairy; but of that more elsewhere. Returned to Liancourt by Pont, where there is a handfome bridge of three arches, the conftruction uncommon, each pier confifting of four pillars, with a towing-path under one of the arches for the barge-horses, the river being navigable.

Amongst the morning amufements I partook at Liancourt was la chaffe. In deer fhooting, the fportfmen place themselves at diftances around a wood, then beat it, and feldom more than one in a company gets a fhot; it is more tedious than is easily conceived; like angling, inceffant expectation, and perpetual disappointment. Partridge and hare fhooting are almost as different from that of England. We took this diverfion in the fine vale of Catnoir, five or fix miles from Liancourt; arranging ourselves in a file at about thirty yards from person to person, and each with a fervant and a loaded gun, ready to prefent when his mafter fires; thus we marched across and across the vale, treading up the game. Four or five brace of hares, and twenty brace of partridges were the fpoils of the day. I like this mode of fhooting but little better than waiting for deer. The beft circumftance to me of exercife in company (it was not fo once) is the feftivity of the dinner at the clofe of the day. To enjoy this, it must not be pushed to great fatigue. Good fpirits, after violent exercise, are always,

II

always the affectation of filly young folks (I remember being that fort of fool myfelf when I was young), but with fomething more than moderate, the exhilaration of body is in unifon with the flow of temper, and agreeable company is then delicious. On fuch days as these we were too late for the regular dinner, and had one by ourselves, with no other dreffing than the refreshment of clean linen; and these were not the repafts when the duchefs's champaigne had the worst flavour. A man is a poor creature who does not drink a little too much on fuch occafions: mais prenez-y-garde: repeat it often; and you may make it a mere drinking party, the luftre of the pleafure fades, and you become what was an English fox-hunter. One day while we were thus dining à l'Anglois, and drinking the plough, the chace, and I know not what, the Duchefs of Liancourt and fome of her ladies came in fport to see us. It was a moment for them to have betrayed ill-nature in the contempt of manners not French, which they might have endeavoured to conceal under a laugh;—but nothing of this; it was a good humoured curiofity; a natural inclination to fee others pleafed and in fpirits. Ils ont été de grands chasseurs aujourd'hui, said one. Oh! ils s'applaudiffent de leurs exploits. Do they drink the gun? faid another. Leurs maitresses certainement, added a third. J'aime à les voir en gaiété; il y a quelque chofe d'aimable dans tout ceci. To note fuch trifles may feem fuperfluous to many; but what is life when trifles are withdrawn? They mark the temper of a nation better than objects of importance. In the moments of council, victory, flight, or death, mankind, I fuppofe, are nearly the fame. Trifles discriminate better, and the number is infinite that gives me an opinion of the good temper of the French. I am fond neither of a man nor a recital that can appear only on ftilts, and dreffed in holiday geers. It is every-day feelings that decide the colour of our lives; and he who values them the moft plays the beft for the stake of happiness. But it is time to quit Liancourt, which I do with regret. Take leave of the good old Duchefs d'Eftiffac, whofe hofpitality and kindness ought ever to be remembered.51 miles.

The 9th, 10th, and 11th. Return by Beauvais and Pontoise, and enter Paris for the fourth time, confirmed in the idea that the roads immediately leading to that capital are deferts, comparatively speaking, with thofe of London. By what means can the connection be carried on with the country? The French must be the most stationary people upon earth, when in a place they must rest without a thought of ing to another; or the English must be the moft reftlefs; and find more pleasure in moving from one place to another, than in refting to enjoy life in either. If the French nobility went only to their country feats when exiled thither by the court, the roads could not be more folitary.25 miles..

go

The 12th. My intention was to take lodgings; but on arriving at the hotel de la Rochefoucauld, I found that my hofpitable duchefs was the fame perfon at the capital as in the country; fhe had ordered an apartment to be ready for me. It grows fo late in the feason, that I fhall make no other stay here than what will be neceffary for viewing public buildings. This will unite well enough with delivering fome letters I brought to a few men of fcience; and it will leave me the evenings for the theatres, of which there are many in Paris. In throwing on paper a rapid coup d'œil of what I fee of a city, fo well known in England, I fhall be apt to delineate my own ideas and feelings, perhaps more than the objects themselves; and be it remembered, that I profefs to dedicate this careless itinerary to trifles, much more than to objects that are of real confequence. From the tower of the cathedral, the view of Paris is complete. It is a valt city, even to the eye that has feen London from St. Paul's; a circular form gives an advantage to Paris; but a much greater is the atmosphere. It is now fo clear, that

one

one would fuppofe it the height of fummer: the clouds of coal-fmoke that envelope London, always prevent a distinct view of that capital, but I take it to be one-third at leaft larger than Paris. The buildings of the parliament house are disfigured by a gilt and taudry gate, and a French roof. The hotel des Monoies is a fine building; and the façade of the Louvre one of the moft elegant in the world, because they have (to the eye) no roofs; in proportion as a roof is feen, a building fuffers. I do not recollect one edifice of diftinguifhed beauty (unless with domes) in which the roof is not fo flat as to be hidden, or nearly fo. What eyes then muft the French architects have had, to have loaded fo many buildings with coverings of a height deftructive of all beauty? Put fuch a roof as we fee on the parliament houfe or on the Thuilleries, upon the façade of the Louvre, and where would its beauty be?-At night to the opera, which I thought a good theatre, till they told me it was built in fix weeks; and then it became good for nothing in my eyes, for I fuppofe it will be tumbling down in fix years. Durability is one of the effentials of building: what pleafure would a beautiful front of painted pafteboard give? The Alcefte of Gluck was performed; that part by Mademoiselle St. Huberti, their first finger, an excellent actress. As to fcenes, dreffes, decorations, dancing, &c. this theatre is much fuperior to that in the Hay

market.

The 13th. Acrofs Paris to the rue de blancs Manteaux, to Monf. Brouffonet, fecretary of the Society of Agriculture; he is in Burgundy. Called on Mr. Cook from London, who is at Paris with his drill-plough, waiting for weather to fhew its performance to the Duke of Orleans: this is a French idea, improving France by drilling. A man fhould learn to walk before he learns to dance. There is agility in cutting capers, and it may be done with grace; but where is the neceflity to cut them at all? There has been much rain to-day; and it is almoft incredible to a perfon used to London, how dirty the ftreets of Paris are, and how horribly inconvenient and dangerous walking is without a foot-pavement. We had a large party at dinner, with politicians among them, and fome interefting converfation on the prefent ftate of France. The feeling of every body seems to be that the archbishop will not be able to do any thing towards exonerating the ftate from the burthen of its present situation; fome think that he has not the inclination; others that he has not the courage; others that he has not the ability. By fome he is thought to be attentive only to his own intereft; and by others, that the finances are too much deranged to be within the power of any fyftem to recover, fhort of the ftates-general of the kingdom; and that it is impoffible for fuch an affembly to meet without a revolution in the government enfuing. All feem to think that fomething extraordinary will happen; and a bankruptcy is an idea not at all uncommon. But who is there that will have the courage

to make it?

The 14th. To the Benedictine abbey of St. Germain, to fee pillars of African marble, &c. It is the richest abbey in France: the abbot has 300,000 livres a year (13,1251.) I lofe my patience at feeing fuch revenues thus beltowed; confiftent with the fpirit of the tenth century, but not with that of the eighteenth. What a noble farm would a fourth of this income establish! what turnips, what cabbages, what potatoes, what clover, what fheep, what wool!-Are not thefe things better than a fat ecclefiaftic? If an active English farmer were mouned behind this abbot, I think he would do more good to France with half the income than half the abbots of the kingdom with the whole of theirs. Pafs the Baftile; another pleasant object to make agreeable emotions vibrate in a man's bofom. I fearch for good farmers, and run my head at every turn against monks and ftate prifons.-To the arfenal, to wait on Monf. Lavoi

VOL. IV.

T

Lavoifier, the celebrated chemift, whofe theory of the non-existence of phlogiston has made as much noife in the chemical world as that of Stahl, which established its exiftence. Dr. Priestley had given me a letter of introduction. I mentioned in the course of converfation his laboratory, and he appointed Tuesday. By the Boulevards, to the Place Louis XV. which is not properly a fquare, but a very noble entrance to a great city. The façades of the two buildings erected are highly finished. The union of the Place Louis XV. with the champs Elifees, the gardens of the Thuilleries and the Seine is open, airy, elegant, and fuperb; and is the most agreeable and beft built part of Paris; here one can be clean and breathe freely. But by far the finest thing I have yet feen at Paris is the Halle aux bleds, or corn market; it is a vaft rotunda; the roof entirely of wood, upon a new principle of carpentry, to defcribe which would demand plates and long explanations; the gallery is one hundred and fifty yards round, confequently the diameter is as many feet. It is as light as if fufpended by the fairies. In the grand area, wheat, peafe, beans, lentils, are ftored and fold. In the furrounding divifions, flour on wooden ftands. You pass by ftair-cafes doubly winding within each other to fpacious apartments for rye, barley, oats, &c. The whole is fo well planned, and fo admirably executed, that I know of no public building that exceeds it either in France or England. And if an appropriation of the parts to the conveniencies wanted, and an adaptation of every circumftance to the end required, in union with that elegance which is confiftent with use, and that magnificence which refults from ftability and duration, be the criteria of public edifices, I know nothing that equals it :-it has but one fault, and that is fituation; it fhould have been upon the banks of the river, for the convenience of unloading barges without land carriage. In the evening, to the Comedie Italienne; the edifice fine; and the whole quarter regular and new built, a private fpeculation of the Duke de Choifeul, whose family has a box entailed for ever.-L'Aimant jaloux. Here is a young finger, Mademoiselle Rénard, with fo fweet a voice, that if the fung Italian, and had been taught in Italy, would have made a delicious performer.

To the tomb of Cardinal de Richlieu, which is a noble production of genius: by far the finest statue I have feen. Nothing can be imagined more eafy and graceful than the attitude of the cardinal, nor can nature be more expreffive than the figure of weeping fcience. Dine with my friend at the Palais Royal at a coffee-houfe; well dreffed people; every thing clean, good, and well ferved: but here, as every where elfe, you pay a good price for good things; we ought never to forget that a low price for bad things is not cheapnefs. In the evening to l'Ecole des Peres, at the Comedie Françaife, a crying larmoyant thing. This theatre, the principle one at Paris, is a fine building, with a magnificent portico. After the circular theatres of France, how can any one relish our ill-contrived oblong holes of London?

The 16th. To Monf. Lavoifier, by appointment. Madame Lavoifier, a lively, fenfible, fcientific lady, had prepared a dejeuné Anglois of tea and coffee; but her converfation on Mr. Kirwan's Effay on Phlogifton, which fhe is tranflating from the English, and on other fubjects, which a woman of understanding, who works with her husband in his laboratory, knows how to adorn, was the beft repaft. That apartment, the operations of which have been rendered fo interesting to the philofophical world, I had the pleasure of viewing. In the apparatus for aerial experiments, nothing makes fo great a figure as the machine for burning inflammable and vital air, to make, or depofit water; it is a fplendid machine. Three veffels are held in fufpenfion with indexes for marking the immediate variations of their weights; two, that are as large as half hogfheads, contain the one inflammable, the other the vital air, and a tube of 6

commu