beau a éprouvé un échec, dernièrement; il était en concurrence avec M. Pastoret, pour être ProcureurSyndic de notre département. Danton a fait un discours pompeux, pour prouver aux électeurs qu'il devoit être élu, mais cette fois l'éloquence a eu le dessous, et M. Pastoret l'a emporté.

Vous avez mille choses de tous les individus de notre famille. Notre petit enfant prospère à merveille, et nous procure déjà beaucoup de bonheur. Recevez l'assurance de la sincère et inviolable amitié de mari et femme.

Dear Dumont,

LETTER LXXVI.

TO M. DUMONT.

London, April 5. 1791.

I make you no apology for not writing sooner, because you deserve none. I own I have been much disappointed, after all your promises, to have received only one letter from you since your departure. The only way in which I can account for it is by supposing that you intend to return very shortly, the end of this month or the begin

rebuff; he was opposed to M. Pastoret as candidate for the place of Procureur-Syndic of our department. Danton made a pompous speech to prove to the electors that he ought to be elected; but, for this once, eloquence had the worst of it, and M. Pastoret carried the election. Every member of our family unites in kind regards to you. Our little child thrives wonderfully, and is already a source of much happiness

to us.

Yours, &c.

ning of the next, as you at first intended. The politics of Geneva at least will not delay you, as I understand every thing is finally settled. I cannot give you my opinion of that settlement, as I am not sufficiently informed of the circumstances that relate to it.

Kirkerbergher*, I am afraid, is quite forgotten by you. I have written a few letters for him since you went, but he will not be able to go on with spirit till you return. We have been anticipated in our design by a real Kirkerbergher. A man of the name of Wendeborn, who has published a book in two volumes 8vo., entitled, A View of England towards the Close of the Eighteenth Century. I have only seen the accounts which the Reviews give of it, and it seems accurate, and not devoid of merit; but I do not believe that we shall find he has often taken the same ground as we take. I thought K. had been a name of our own invention, but I find Rousseau, in his Confessions, mentions a Bernese of that name who made him a visit at the Isle de St. Pierre.

There have been several answers to Burke since

*It appears from preceding letters that Mr. Romilly had been very urgent with M. Dumont to write a History of the French Revolution. This suggestion was never acted on to the extent which Mr. Romilly had hoped that it might; but a series of historical letters on the events of the four months from April to September, 1789, of which he had been an eye-witness, were written by M. Dumont, and translated into English by Mr. Romilly. To this translation were added several original letters of Mr. Romilly, on subjects connected with the manners and institutions of England, and the whole was published in one small 12mo. volume, in 1792, under the title of Groenvelt's Letters, which name was substituted for that of Kirkerbergher, which they had at first intended to give to this work. It is afterwards referred to under the letter K. Various circumstances, which it is unnecessary to state, prevented the intended continuation of this work.

you left us, but none that have much merit, except one by Paine*, the author of the famous American Common Sense. It is written in his own wild but forcible style; inaccurate in point of grammar, flat where he attempts wit, and often ridiculous when he indulges himself in metaphors; but, with all that, full of spirit and energy, and likely to produce a very great effect. It has done that, indeed, already; in the course of a fortnight it has gone through three editions; and, what I own has a good deal surprised me, has made converts of many persons who were before enemies to the Revolution. As you are not likely to see it soon, I will give you a specimen of his manner. He is speaking of the law of primogeniture. "The nature and character of aristocracy shows itself to us in this law. It is a law against nature. Establish family justice and aristocracy falls. By the aristocratical law of primogeniture, in a family of six children, five are exposed. Aristocracy has never more than one child; the rest are begotten to be devoured. They are thrown to the cannibal for prey, and the natural parent prepares the unnatural repast. All the children which the aristocracy disowns (which are all except the eldest) are in general cast, like orphans, on a parish, to be provided for by the public, but at a greater charge. Unnecessary offices and places in governments and courts are created, at the expense of the public, to maintain them." He speaks of titles of nobility with true republican contempt, and says that "they afford no idea," that

* Rights of Man.

"no such animal as a Count or an Earl can be found any where but in imagination."

Bentham leads the same kind of life as usual at Hendon; seeing nobody, reading nothing, and writing books which nobody reads. His brother, who is a colonel in the Russian army, and a great friend of Potemkin's, is on his road to England, on a visit. My brother and sister desire to be remembered to you.

Yours sincerely and affectionately,
SAMUEL ROMILLY.

LETTER LXXVII.

FROM MADAME G

Paris, 7 Avril, 1791.

Nous avous reçu ces jours derniers encore un paquet de vous, Monsieur, contenant les réflexions de M. Bentham sur notre ordre judiciaire, une esquisse du règne de George III., et une réponse à M. Burke. Nous vous rendons mille grâces de ces marques d'attention, fort agréables en elles-mêmes, et qui ont de plus le mérite de nous assurer de votre souvenir. Vous devez trouver

LETTER LXXVII.

Paris, April 7. 1791.

We have received within the last few days another packet from you, containing the observations of Mr. Bentham on our judicial establishment, a sketch of the reign of George III., and an answer to Mr. Burke. We return you many thanks for these marks of attention, very agreeable in themselves, and which have the additional merit of assuring us that we are not forgotten by you. You must think that VOL. I.

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que nous y répondons bien mal, car nous n'avons pu vous envoyer aucune brochure ni nouveauté qui fût digne de vous. Nous avions pensé un instant à vous faire parvenir les Mémoires de Franklin, dont nous avons ici une traduction informe et incomplète, mais nous avons présumé que vous connoissiez, peut-être, déjà le manuscrit, et qu'ils ne devoient pas tarder à paroître en original à Londres. Nous avons lu l'ouvrage de M. Paine en réponse à M. Burke; c'est la folie inverse; cependant il y a des idées assez piquantes, et assez neuves, et qui sont assez au niveau de celles qui remplissent les têtes Françoises, actuellement.

la

Vous aurez sûrement pris part à la perte que France vient de faire par la mort de Mirabeau.* L'impression que cet évènement a produite seroit seule une preuve suffisante que la révolution est complète et achevée jusques dans les dernières classes de citoyens; que les titres, les rangs, les places ne

we make a very poor return, for we have not been able to send you any pamphlet or new publication worthy of you. We had at one moment thought of sending you Franklin's Memoirs, of which we have here an imperfect translation; but we presumed that you were, perhaps, already acquainted with the MS., and that the original would shortly be published in London. We have read Mr. Paine's work in answer to Mr. Burke; it is the opposite extreme of madness; it contains, however, ideas somewhat new and striking, and which are pretty much on a level with those which at present fill the heads of Frenchmen.

You will, no doubt, have felt for the loss which France has just suffered by the death of Mirabeau. * The impression which this event has produced, would alone be sufficient proof that the revolution is complete, and that its effects extend even to the lowest classes of the people; that titles, rank, and office no longer dazzle us; and that

* Mirabeau died on the 2d of April, 1791.