more, and that the people refuse to pay taxes. Yet I think you must be seduced by the abolition of tithes. If Eden goes to Paris, you may have some curious information. Give me some account of Mr and Mrs Douglas. Do they live with lord North? I hope they do. When will parliament be dissolved? Are you still Coventry-mad? I embrace my lady, the sprightly Maria, and the smiling Louisa.* Alas! alas! you will never come to Switzerland. Adieu,

ever vours.

Lausanne, Sept. 25th, 1789.

"Alas! what perils do environ

"The man who meddles with cold iron."

ALAS! what delays and difficulties do attend the man who meddles with legal and landed business! Yet, if it be only to disappoint your expectation, I am not so very nervous at this new provoking obstacle. I had totally forgotten the deed in question, which was contrived in the last year of my father's life, to tie his hands and regulate the disorder of his affairs; and which might have been so easily cancelled by sir Stanier, who had not the smallest interest in it, either for himself or his family. The amicable suit, which is now become necessary, must, I think, be short and unambiguous; yet I cannot help dreading the crotchets that lurk under the chancellor's great wig; and at all events I foresee some additional delay and expense. The golden pill of the two thousand eight hundred pounds has soothed my discontent; and if it be safely lodged with the Goslings, I agree with you in considering it as an unequivocal pledge of a fair and willing purchaser. It is indeed chiefly in that light I now rejoice in so large a deposit, which

* Maria Josepha Holroyd, eldest daughter of lord Sheffield, married sir John Thomas Stanley, of Alderley, in Cheshire, baronet; and Louisa Dorothea Holroyd married lieutenant-general William Henry Clinton, eldest son of general sir Henry Clinton, K.B.

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is no longer necessary in its full extent. You are apprised by my last letter that I have reduced myself to the life-enjoyment of the house and garden; and, in spite of my feelings, I am every day more convinced that I have chosen the safer side. I believe my cause to have been good, but it was doubtful. Law in this country is not so expensive as in England, but it is more troublesome; I must have gone to Berne, have solicited my judges in person-a vile custom ! The event was uncertain; and during at least two years I should have been in a state of suspense and anxiety, till the conclusion of which it would have been madness to have attempted any alteration or improvement. According to my present arrangement, I shall want no more than eleven hundred pounds of the two thousand; and I suppose you will direct Gosling to lay out the remainder in India bonds, that it may not lie quite dead while I am accountable to **** for the interest. The elderly lady in a male habit, who informed me that Yorkshire is a register county, is a certain judge, one sir William Blackstone, whose name you possibly may have heard. After stating the danger of purchasers and creditors with regard to the title of estates on which they lay out or lend their money, he thus continues:-"In Scotland every act and event regarding the transmission of property is regularly entered on record; and some of our own provincial divisions, particularly the extended country of York, and the populous county of Middlesex, have prevailed with the legislature to erect such registers in their respective districts." (Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. ii. p. 343, edition of 1774, in quarto.) If I am mistaken, it is in pretty good company; but I suspect that we are all riglit, and that the register is confined to one or two ridings. As we have, alas! two or three months before us, I should hope that your prudent sagacity will discover some sound land, in case you should not have time to arrange another mortgage. I now write in a hurry

as I am just setting out for Rolle, where I shall be settled with cook and servants in a pleasant apartment till the middle of November. The Severys have a house there, where they pass the autumn. I am not sorry to vary the scene for a few weeks, and I wish to be absent while some alterations are making in my house at Lausanne. I wish the change of air may be of service to Severy the father, but we do not at all like his present state of health. How completely, alas, how completely, could I now lodge you! But your firm resolve of making me a visit seems to have vanished like a dream. Next summer you will not find five hundred pounds for a rational friendly expedition; and should parliament be dissolved, you will perhaps find five thousand for

I cannot think of it with patience. Pray take serious strenuous measures for sending me a pipe of excellent Madeira in cask, with some dozens of Malmsey Madeira. It should be consigned to Messrs Romberg, voituriers, at Ostend; and I must have timely notice of its march. We have so much to say about France, that I suppose we shall never say anything. That country is now in a state of dissolution. Adieu.

Lausanne, December 15th, 1789.

You have often reason to accuse my strange silence and neglect in the most important of my own affairs; for I will presume to assert that in a business of yours, of equal consequence, you should not find me cold or careless. But on the present occasion my silence is perhaps the highest compliment I ever paid you. You remember the answer of Philip of Macedon: "Philip may sleep, while he knows that Parmenio is awake." I expected, and, to say the truth, I wished, that my Parmenio would have decided and acted without expecting my dilatory answer ; and in his decision I should have acquiesced with implicit confidence. But since you will have my opinion, let us consider the present state of my

affairs. In the course of my life I have often known, and sometimes felt, the difficulty of getting money; but I now find myself involved in a more singular distress--the difficulty of placing it; and if it continues much longer, I shall almost wish for my land again.

I perfectly agree with you, that it is bad management to purchase in the funds when they do not yield four pounds per cent.

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Some of this money I can place safely by means or my banker here; and I shall possess, what I have always desired, a command of cash, which I cannot abuse to my prejudice, since I have it in my power to supply with my pen any extraordinary or fanciful indulgence of expense. And so much, much indeed, for pecuniary matters. What would you have me say of the affairs of France? We are too near, and too remote, to form an accurate judgment of that wonderful scene. The abuses of the court and government called aloud for reformation; and it has happened, as it will always happen, that an innocent well-disposed prince has paid the forfeit of the sins of his predecessors; of the ambition of Louis the Fourteenth, of the profusion of Louis the Fifteenth. The French nation had a glorious opportunity, but they have abused, and may lose, their advantages. If they had been content with a liberal translation of our system, if they had respected the prerogatives of the crown and the privileges of the nobles, they might have raised a solid fabric on the only true foundation, the natural aristocracy of a great country. How different is the prospect! Their king brought a captive to Paris, after his palace had been stained with the blood of his guards; the nobles in exile; the clergy plundered in a way which strikes at the root of all property; the capital an independent republic; the union of the provinces dissolved; the flames of discord kindled by the worst of men (in that light I consider

Mirabeau;) and the honestest of the assembly, a set of wild visionaries (like our Dr Price) who gravely debate and dream about the establishment of a pure and perfect democracy of five-and-twenty millions, the virtues of the golden age, and the primitive rights and equality of mankind, which would lead, in fair reasoning, to an equal partition of lands and money. How many years must elapse before France can recover any vigour, or resume her station among the powers of Europe! As yet there is no symptom of a great man, a Richelieu or a Cromwell, arising, either to restore the monarchy or to lead the commonwealth. The weight of Paris, more deeply engaged in the funds than all the rest of the kingdom, will long delay a bankruptcy; and if it should happen, it will be, both in the cause and the effect, a measure of weakness rather than of strength. You send me to Chambery, to see a prince and an archbishop. Alas! we have exiles enough here, with the marshal de Castries and the duke de Guignes at their head; and this inundation of strangers, which used to be confined to the summer, will now stagnate all the winter. The only ones whom I have seen with pleasure are Mr Mounier, the late president of the national assembly, and the count de Lally; they have both dined with me. Mounier, who is a serious dry politician, is returned to Dauphiné. Lally is an amiable man of the world, and a poet: he passes the winter here. You know how much I prefer a quiet select society to a crowd of names and titles, and that I always seek conversation with a view to amusement rather than information. What happy countries are England and Switzerland, if they know and preserve their happiness!

I have a thousand things to say to my lady, Maria, and Louisa; but I can only add a short postscript about the Madeira. Good Madeira is now become essential to my health and reputation. May your hogshead prove as good as the last; may it not be