have, in a great measure, fubfided; our state-prifoners are forgotten: the country begins to recover its old good humor and unfufpecting confidence, and the laft revolution of Paris appears to have convinced almost every body of the fatal confequences of democratical principles, which lead by a path of flowers into the abyfs of hell. I may therefore wait with patience and tranquillity till the Duke of Brunfwick fhall have opened the French road. But if I am not driven from Laufanne, you will afk, I hope with fome indignation, whether I am not drawn to England, and more especially to Sheffield-Place? The defire of embra cing you and yours is now the strongest, and must gradually become the fole, inducement that can force me from my library and garden, over feas and mountains. The English world will forget and be forgotten, and every year will deprive me of fome acquaintance, who by courtesy are ftyled friends: Lord Guildford and Sir Joshua Reynolds! two of the men, and two of the houses in London, on whom I the most relied for the comforts of fociety.

September 12th, 1792.

THUS far had I written in the full confidence of finishing and fending my letter the next post; but fix poft days have unaccountably flipped away, and were you not accuftomed to my filence, you would almoft begin to think me on the road. How dreadfully, fince my laft date, has the French road been polluted with blood! and what horrid

fcenes may be acting at this moment, and may ftill be aggravated, till the Duke of Brunfwick is master of Paris! On every rational principle of calculation he must fucceed; yet fometimes, when my fpirits are low, I dread the blind efforts of mad and defperate multitudes fighting on their own ground. A few days or weeks muft decide the military operations of this year, and perhaps for ever; but on the fairest fuppofition, I cannot look forwards to any firm fettlement, either of a legal or an abfolute government. I cannot pretend to give you any Paris news, Should I inform you, as we believe, that Lally is fiill among the cannibals, you would poffibly anfwer, that he is now fitting in the library at Sheffield. Madame de Stael, after miraculously escaping through pikes and poniards, has reached the castle of Copet, where I shall see her before the end of the week. If any thing can provoke the King of Sardinia and the Swifs, it must be the foul deftruction of his coufin Madame de Lamballe, and of their regiment of guards. An extraordinary council is fummoned at Berne, but refentment may be checked by prudence. In fpite of Maria's laughter, I applaud your moderation, and figh for a hearty union of all the fenfe and property of the country. The times require it; but your last political letter was a cordial to my fpirits. The Duchefs of D. rather diflikes a coalition: amiable creature! The Eliza (we call her Befs) is furious against you for not writing. We fhall lofe them in a few days; but the motions of Befs and the Duchefs for Italy or England, are doubtful

Ladies Spencer and Duncannon certainly pass the Alps. I live with them. Adieu. Since I do not appear in perfon, I feel the abfolute propriety of writing to my Lady and Maria; but there is far from the knowledge to the performance of á duty. Ever yours.

As

To the Same.

LAUSANNE, October 5th, 1792.

our English newspapers must have informed you of the invasion of Savoy by the French, and as it is poffible that you may have fome trifling apprehenfions of my being killed and eaten by thofe cannibals, it has appeared to me that a short extraordinary dispatch might not be unacceptable on this occafion. It is indeed true, that about ten days ago the French army of the South, under the command of M. de Montefquieu, (if any French army can be faid to be under any command,) has entered Savoy, and poffeffed themselves of Chamberry, Montmelian, and several other places. It has always been the practice of the King of Sardinia to abandon his tranfalpine dominions; but on this occafion the court of Turin appears to have been furprised by the ftrange excentric motions of a democracy, which always acts from the paffion of the moment; and their inferior troops have retreated, with fome lofs and disgrace, into the paffes of the Alps. Mount Cenis is now impervious, and our English travellers who are bound for Italy, the Duchefs of Devonshire, Ancaster, &c.

will

will be forced to explore a long circuitous road through the Tirol. But the Chablais is yet intact, nor can our telescopes difcover the tricolor banners on the other fide of the lake. Our accounts of the French numbers feem to vary from fifteen to thirty thousand men; the regulars are few, but they are followed by a rabble rout, which muft foon, however, melt away, as they will find no plunder, and fcanty fubfiftence, in the poverty and barrennefs of Savoy. N. B. I have juft feen a letter from Mr. de Montefquieu, who boafts that at his firft entrance into Savoy he had only twelve battalions. Our intelligence is far from correct.

The magiftrates of Geneva were alarmed by this dangerous neighbourhood, and more especially by the well-known animofity of an exited citizen, Claviere, who is one of the fix minifters of the French republic. It was carried by a small majority in the General Council, to call in the fuccour of three thoufand Swifs, which is ftipulated by ancient treaty. The ftrongeft reafon or pretence of the minority, was founded on the danger of provoking the French, and they feem to have. been juftified by the event; fince the complaint of the French refident amounts to a declaration of war. The fortifications of Geneva are not contemptible, especially on the fide of Savoy; and it is much doubted whether Mr. de Montefquieu is prepared for a regular fiege; but the malecontents are numerous within the walls, and I queftion whether the fpirit of the citizens will hold out VOL. I.

T

against a bombardment. In the mean while the diet has declared that the first cannon fired against Geneva will be confidered as an act of hoftility against the whole Helvetic body. Berne, as the nearest and most powerful canton, has taken the lead with great vigor and vigilance; the road is filled with the perpetual fucceffion of troops and artillery; and, if fome difaffection lurks in the towns, the peasants, especially the Germans, are inflamed with a strong defire of encountering the murderers of their countrymen. Mr. de Watteville, with whom you dined at my houfe laft year,' refused to accept the command of the Swiss fuccour, of Geneva, till it was made his firft inftruction that he should never, in any cafe, furrender himself prisoner of war.

In this fituation, you may fuppofe that we have fome fears. I have great dependence, however, on the many chances in our favor, the valos of the Swiss, the return of the Piedmontefe with their Auftrian allies, eight or ten thousand men from the Milanefe, a diverfion from Spain, the great events (how flowly they proceed) on the fide of Paris, the inconftancy and want of difcipline of the French, and the near approach of the winter season. I am not nervous, but I will not be rash. It will be painful to abandon my house and library; but, if the danger fhould approach, I will retreat before it, first to Berne, and gradually to the North. Should I even be forced to take refuge in England (a violent measure so late in the year), you would perhaps receive me as kindly as you