To the Same.

LAUSANNE, April 4th, 1792.

FOR fear you should abuse me, as ufual, I will

begin the attack, and fcold at you, for not having yet fent me the long-expected intelligence of the completion of my mortgage. You had pofitively affured me that the fecond of February would terminate my wordly cares, by a confummation fo devoutly to be wifhed. The news, therefore, might reach me about the eighteenth; and I argued with the gentle logic of laziness, that it was perfectly idle to anfwer your letter, till I could chaunt a thanksgiving song of gratitude and praise. As every post disappointed my hopes, the fame argument was repeated for the next; and twenty empty-handed poftilions have blown their infignificant horns, till I am provoked at laft to write by fheer impatience and vexation. Facit indignatio verfum. Cofpetto di Baccho; for I must eafe myself by fwearing a little. What is the cause. the meaning, the pretence, of this delay? Are the Yorkshire mortgagers inconftant in their wifhes? Are the London lawyers conftant in their procrasti. nation? Is a letter on the road, to inform me that all is concluded, or to tell me that all is broken to pieces? Had the money been placed in the three per cents laft May; befides the annual intereft, it would have gained by the rise of stock nearly twenty per cent. Your Lordship is a wife man, a fuccefsful writer, and an useful fenator; you understand America and Ireland, corn and flaves, but your

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prejudice against the funds in which I am often tempted to join, makes you a little blind to their increafing value in the hands of our virtuous and excellent minister. But our regret is vain; one pull more and we reach the fhore; and our future corref pondence will be no longer tainted with business. Shall I then be more diligent and regular? I hope and believe fo; for now that I have got over this article of wordly intereft, my letter feems to be almost finished. A propos of letters, am I not a fad dog to forget my Lady and Maria? Alas! the dual number has been prejudicial to both. How happy could I be with either, were t'other dear charmer away. I am like the afs of famous memory; I cannot tell which way to turn firft, and there I ftand mute. and immoveable. The Baronial and maternal dignity of my Lady, fupported by twenty years friendship, may claim the preference. But the five incomparable letters of Maria! Next week, however. - Am I not afhamed to talk of next week?

I have moft fuccefsfully, and moft agreeably, executed my plan of spending the month of March at Geneva, in the Necker-house, and every circum! hance that I had arranged turned out beyond my expectation; the freedom of the morning, the fociety of the table and drawing-room, from half an hour past two till fix or feven; an evening affembly and card party, in a round of the best company, and, excepting one day in the week, a private fupper of free and friendly converfation. You would like Geneva better than Laufanne; there is much more information to be got among the men; but though

I found fome agreeable women, their manners and ftyle of life are, upon the whole, less eafy and pleafant than our own. I was much pleafed with Necker's brother Mr. De Germany, a good humored, polite, fenfible man, without the genius and fame of the ftatefman, but much more adapted for private and ordinary happiness. Madame de Stael is expected in a few weeks at Copet, where they receive her, and where, "to dumb forgetfulness a prey," he will have leifure to regret "the pleafing anxious being," which he enjoyed amidft the storms of Paris. But what can the poor creature do? her husband is in Sweden, her lover is no longer fecretary at war, and her father's houfe is the only place where fhe can refide with the least degree of prudence and decency. Of that father I have really a much higher idea than I ever had before; in our domeftic intimacy he caft away his gloom and referve; I faw a great deal of his mind, and all that I saw is fair and worthy. He was overwhelmed by the hurricane, he mistook his way in the fog, but in fuch a perilous fituation, I much doubt whether any mortal could have seen or ftood. In the meanwhile, he is abused by all parties, and none of the French in Geneva will fet their food in his house. He remembers Lord Sheffield with efteem; his health is good, and he would be tranquil in his private life, were not his fpirits continually wounded by the arrival of every letter and every newfpaper. His fympathy is deeply interefted by the fatal confequences of a revolution, in which he had acted fo leading a part; and he feels as a friend for the danger of M. de Leffart, who may be guilty in

the eyes of the Jacobins, or even of his judges, by thofe very actions and difpatches which would be moft approved by all the lovers of his country. What a momentous event is the Emperor's death! In the forms of a new reign, and of the Imperial election, the democrats have at least gained time, if they knew how to use it. But the new monarch, though of a weak complexion, is of a martial temper; he loves the foldiers, and is beloved by them; and the flow fluctuating politics of his uncle may be fucceeded by a direct line of march to the gates of Strafburgh and Paris. It is the opinion of the mafter movers in France, (I know it most certainly,) that their troops will not fight, that the people have loft all fenfe of patriotism, and that on the first discharge of an Auftrian cannon the game is up. But what occafion for Auftrians or Spaniards? the French are themselves their greatest enemies; four thoufand Marfeillois are marched against Arles and Avignon, the troupes de ligne are divided between the two parties, and the flame of civil war will foon extend over the fouthern provinces. You have heard of the unworthy treatment of the Swiss regiment of Erneft. The canton of Berne has bravely recalled them, with a ftout letter to the King of France, which must be inferted in all the papers. I now come to the most unpleasant article, our home politics. Boffet and La Motte are condemned to five-and-twenty years imprisonment in the fortress of Arbourg. We have not yet received their official fentence, nor is it believed that the proofs and proceedings against them will be published; an awkward circumftance, which it does not

feem easy to juftify. Some (though none of note) are taken up, feveral are fled, many more are fufpected and fufpicious. All are filent, but it is the filence of fear and discontent; and the fecret hatred which rankled against government begins to point against the few who are known to be well-affected. I never knew any place fo much changed as Laufanne, even fince last year; and though you will not be much obliged to me for the motive, I begin very seriously to think of vifiting Sheffield Place by the month of September next. Yet here again I am frightened, by the dangers of a French, and the difficulties of a German, route. You must fend me an account of the paffage from Dieppe to Brighton, with an itinerary of the Rhine, distances, expenfes, &c. As ufual, I just save the post, nor have I time to read my letter, which, after wafting the morning in deliberation, has been ftruck off in a heat fince dinner. No news of the Madeira. Your views of S. P. are just received; they are admired, and shall be framed. Severy has spent the carnival at Turin. Trevor is only the best man in the world.

To the Same.

LAUSANNE, May 30th, 1792,

AFTER the receipt of your peaḍltimate, eight days ago, I expected, with much impatience, the arrival of your next promired epiftle. It arrived this morning, but has not completely answered my expectations. I wanted, and I hoped for a full and fair pic