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was to be done. But, of whatever use your journey might be to your countrymen, I am sure it would be of none to yourself: and a person, destined to do as much good as I sincerely believe you are, ought to be allowed a little to consider what effect any measure he may take is likely to have on his own character. A person who sets out on such a mission as that on which your friends desire you to go to Geneva assumes to himself a degree of importance which, however well you may be entitled to it, it is not in your temper to assume, and which, if such an expedition prove fruitless, cannot fail of covering him with ridicule. I admit, however, that all this and much more ought to be risked, if there were a prospect of rendering any important service to your country; but I cannot persuade myself that this is the present case. The disinclination you have to going to Geneva is alone sufficient to convince me that you would be of little service there; and though I cannot blame the zeal of your friends, who importune you to surmount that disinclination, and to sacrifice your own ease to an object which they think important, yet, in fact, it is much easier to recommend sacrifices than to make them. The truth is, that we never know what the sacrifices are which we recommend; and that which we look upon as only a slight inconvenience may be to the person whom we would persuade to submit to it a very serious evil. I say all this merely to convince you that you alone are the proper judge what you ought to do. Trust to your own judgment alone. Regard no part of the letters which you receive from Geneva but the facts they contain, and the opinion which is entertained of your abilities and your virtues, and from those data decide whether you ought to go or not. To undertake such a journey, on such an occasion, merely from deference to the opinions and wishes of others, is a weakness hardly excusable. Trust to yourself, and I have no doubt of your doing right.

I dined two days ago with Trail, who was in town for a day. He is very much pleased with Mirabeau's two speeches on the family compact and the assignats,' and has conceived a higher opinion of him than he ever had 1 See Moniteur for 1790, Nos. 240 and 241.

before, at finding he can do so much when deprived of the assistance to which he owed so great a part of his former reputation.

Erskine is returned from Paris a violent democrat. He has had a coat made of the uniform of the Jacobins, with buttons bearing this inscription, “Vivre libre ou mourir,” and he says he intends to wear it in our House of Com

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I thank you for your good news, and congratulate you upon it most cordially. I will venture to cast the nativity of your little daughter, and to pronounce that she is infallibly destined to be happy; for the education she will receive cannot fail of rendering her so. You promise me that she is by and by to be my very good friend; in the mean time, however, I foresee that the little damsel will do me a great deal of mischief, and will engross moments that otherwise perhaps would be employed in writing some of those letters which I always expect with so much impatience, and read with so much pleasure. Pray tell Made. G―, however, that I shall never admit the validity of such an excuse; and since she has received her morality from me, tell her that I hold it to be an indisputable principle in morals that there are no incompatible virtues, and that therefore she may be a good mother and a good correspondent too; and, much as I wish well to my little new-born friend, I cannot consent to sacrifice to her the very few hours in the year which I have any claim to. In short, tell her that I shall not believe she is perfectly recovered till I see a letter from her under her own hand.

At the same time that you tell me you won't speak of public affairs, you let me discover very easily what your opinion of them is; but I really think that, if you are disappointed at the turn which the Revolution has taken, it

is because you expected too much. I will admit all the violence, and, if you will, even the interestedness, of the leaders in the National Assembly; but that men should act from the pure motive of procuring good to others, without any regard at all to themselves, is, I am afraid, more than one is entitled to expect, even under the most perfect government that human wisdom could desire, much more under such a government as that under which the characters of all the men who are now acting any public part in France have been formed. Notwithstanding the vanity and ambition of some individuals, and notwithstanding the injustice which the Assembly itself has been guilty of in several instances, it must be admitted that no assembly of men that ever met since the Creation has done half so much towards promoting the happiness of the human species as the National Assembly. Don't imagine that I judge of what is passing in France merely from the accounts in our English papers; I constantly read four French papers; and among them the Gazette Nationale, and the Journal des Débats et des Décrets. Our English papers indeed affect to treat everything which is done in the National Assembly with contempt; but it is the contempt of the contemptible.

Our parliament is to meet on the 25th of next month; and we shall then learn, it is to be hoped, why we have been making such expensive preparations for war. There are, I think, about 150 or 160 new members in the parliament; some of them certainly will take part in the debates. Erskine is, I think, the most remarkable of these, though his eloquence, which certainly is very great, was not displayed to much advantage when he was formerly in parliament. Another new member, who will probably speak, is Sir Elijah Impey, the East India Judge, the friend of Mr. Hastings, and the man against whom the last parliament were very near voting an impeachment. As to Mr. Hastings himself, his partisans pretend that the dissolution of the parliament has put an end to his impeachment; and it is said that even the Chancellor maintains that opinion. It is an opinion, however, for which the principal members of the House of Commons

insist there is not the least foundation, and there will probably be some violent debates on the subject in both houses. If, on the pretence of a dissolution, an end should be put to the trial, I should not be at all surprised to see Mr. Hastings dignified with a peerage, and taking his seat among his judges, as his friend Sir Elijah Impey has taken his among his accusers.

Pray remember me very affectionately to Made. Dand to all her family.

Yours, &c.

SAML. ROMILLY.

LETTER LXXIV.

FROM MADAME G

Paris, 3 Nov. 1790.

Nous venons de recevoir, Monsieur, votre obligeante lettre, et je ne laisserai pas partir M. Smith sans quelques lignes qui vous prouvent mon parfait rétablissement, puisque vous ne voulez y croire qu'à cette condition.

Nous sommes bien aises que vous considériez encore notre révolution et notre position sous un aspect un peu favorable. Votre opinion nous redonne du courage. Peut-être notre différence de manière de voir tient-elle à ce que vous ne voyez que les résultats des opérations de l'Assemblée, et que nous, qui sommes sur le lieu de la scène, nous sommes blessés du spectacle du jeu des passions dans tous leurs excès, des fureurs de la cabale, de l'intrigue, uniques ressorts qui conduisent dans ce moment nos af

LETTER LXXIV.

Paris, Nov. 3, 1790.

We have just received your obliging letter, and I cannot allow Mr. Smith to leave us without a few lines which may satisfy you as to my complete recovery, since you will believe it on no other condition.

We are very glad that you still view our revolution, and the posture of our affairs, in a somewhat favourable light. Your good opinion gives us fresh courage. Perhaps the difference in our mode of viewing arises from your seeing only the results of the proceedings of the Assembly, whilst we, who are on the spot, are shocked by beholding the working of passions in all their excesses, and the raging of cabals and intrigues, the only springs which now direct

faires. Quelquefois on ne peut s'empêcher de craindre qu'une si grande dépravation, dans les esprits et dans les caractères, ne nuise et n'empoisonne totalement tout le bien qu'on avoit lieu d'espérer de la révolution. Voilà la cause du découragement des honnêtes gens, qui gémissent de voir tous les jours se reculer davantage l'époque du retour de l'ordre et de la paix au milieu de nous.

LETTER LXXV.

FROM THE SAME.

M. D. G.

Paris, 18 Février, 1791.

Nous aurions dû répondre bien plutôt, Monsieur, à votre obligeant envoi, et à la lettre qui l'accompagnoit, que M. Dumont nous a remise. Nous nous sommes procuré le plaisir de parler beaucoup de vous avec lui: nous avons tâché d'arranger que vous fissiez bientôt un voyage ici, et nous trouvons que vous ne pouvez pas vous en dispenser. Pensez bien, Monsieur, au plaisir que nous aurons à vous voir, à tous les objets d'intérêt que la France peut vous offrir, et vous serez de notre avis. Nous vous rendons mille graces des pamphlets que vous nous avez envoyés: ils nous sont fort agréables; car on met ici un très grand intérêt à ce que vous dites et pensez de

our movements. Sometimes one cannot help fearing lest so great a depravation of mind and disposition should neutralise, or entirely poison, all the good one had reason to expect from the revolution. This it is which discourages right-minded men, who lament to see the time when order and peace may be restored to us becoming every day more distant.

LETTER LXXV.

Paris, Feb. 18, 1791.

We ought, Sir, to have acknowledged much sooner your obliging packet, and the letter which accompanied it, and which M. Dumont delivered to us. We indulged the pleasure of talking much of you with him. We endeavoured to settle for you the plan of a journey to Paris, which we really think it is incumbent on you to put into early execution. Consider well the pleasure we shall have in seeing you, all the interesting objects which France offers to you, and you will agree with us. We return you many thanks for the pamphlets you have sent us: they were very welcome; for we feel a strong interest in all that you say and think about us.

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