young’s travels in erance.

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freedom, that, even in the military, there is fo little fubordination, that a man is an offi-cer to day, and in the ranks to-morrow ; a mode of proceeding, that makes it the moredifficult y bring them to the point their leaders fee neceffary. Eight thoufand men inParis may be called the Handing army, paid every day 1 $f. a man ; in which number isincluded the corps of the French guards from Verfailles, that deferted to the people ;they have alfo eight hundred horfe, at an expence each of 1500 livres (62I. 15s. 6d.) a-year, and the officers have double the pay of thofe in the army.

The 5th. Yefterday’s addrefs of the National Affembly to the King has done themcredit with every body. 1 have heard it mentioned by people of very different opinions,but all concur in commending it. It was upon the queftion of naming the annual fumwhich fhould be granted for the civil lilt. They determined to fend a deputation toHis Majefty, requefting him to name the fum himfelf, and praying him to confult lefshis fpirit of ceconomy, than a fenfe of that dignity which ought to environ the thronewith a becoming fplendor. Dine with the Duke de Liancourt, at his apartments inthe Thuilleries, which, on the removal from Verfailles, were affigned to him as grandmailer of the wardrobe; he gives a great dinner, twice a-week, to the deputies, at whichfrom twenty to forty are ufually prefent. Half an hour after three v ; as the hour ap-pointed, but w r e waited, with fome of the deputies that had left the Affembly, till feven,before the duke and the reft of the company came.

There is in the affembly at prefent a writer of chara&er, the author of a very ablebook, which led me to expefl fomething much above mediocrity in him ; but he ismade of fo many pretty littleneffes, that I ftared at him with amazement. His voiceis that of a feminine whifper, as if his nerves would not permit fuch a boifterous exer-tion as that of fpcaking loud enough to be heard ; v'hen he breathes out his ideas, hedoes it with eyes half clofed ; waves his head in circles, as if his fentiments were to bereceived as oracles; and has fo much relaxation and pretenlion to eafe and delicacy ofmanner, with no perfonal appearance to fecond thefe prettinefles, that I wondered bywhat artificial means fuch a mafs of heterogeneous parts became compounded. Howftrange that we Ihould read an author’s book with great pleafure; that we fliould fay,this man has no Huff in him ; all is of confequence; here is a character uncontaminatedwith that rubbiffi v.'hich we fee in fo many other men—and after this, to meet the garbof fo much littlenefs !

The 6th, 7th, and 8th. The Duke of Liancourt having an intention of taking a farmin his own hands, to be condu&ed on improved principles after the Englilh manner,he defired me to accompany him and my friend Lazowfki, to Liancourt, to give myopinion of the lands, and of the beft means towards executing the projeft, which Ivery readily complied with. I u'as here witnefs to a feene which made me fmile : atno great diftance from the chateau of Liancourt, is a piece of u'afte land, clofe to theroad, and belonging to the duke. I faw fome men very bufy at work upon it, hedgingit in, in fmall diviftons ; levelling, and digging, and bellowing much labour for fo poora fpot. I alked the fteward if he thought that land worth fuch an expence? He re-plied, that the poor people in the town, upon the revolution taking place, declaredthat the poor were the nation ; that the wafte belonged to the nation ; and, proceedingfrom theory to practice, took poffeffion, without any further authority, and began tocultivate; the duke not viewing their induftry with any difpleafure, would offer no op-pofition to it. This circumftance Ihews the univerfal fpirit that is gone forth-; andproves, that were it pulhed a little farther, it might prove a ferious matter for all theproperty in the kingdom. In this cafe, however, I cannot but commend it; for if therebe one public nuilance greater than another, it is a man preferving the poffeffion of

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