young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

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edly cod the King his life: and fo changed is the national chara&er, not only in point ofaffection for the perfon of their prince, but alfo in that foftnefs and humanity, for whichit has been fo much admired, that the fuppofition is made without horror or compunc-tion. In a word, the prefent devotion to liberty is a fort of rage ; it abforbs every otherpaflion, and permits no other object to remain in view than what promifes to confirm it.Dine with a large party at the Duke de la Rochefoucauld ’s ; ladies and gentlemen, andall equally politicians; but I may remark another effeCl of this revolution, by no meansunnatural, which is, that of leffening, or rather reducing to nothing, the enormous in-fluence of the fex; they mixed themfelves before in every thing, in order to governevery thing : I think I fee an end to it very clearly. The men in this kingdom werepuppets, moved by their wires, who, inftead of giving the ton , in queftions of nationaldebate, mud now receive it, and mud be content to move in the political fphere offome celebrated leader—that is to fay, they are, in fad, finking into what nature intendedthem for; they will become more amiable, and the nation better governed.

The 1 ith. The riots at Verfailles are faid to be ferious ; a plot is talked of, for eighthundred men to march, armed, to Paris , at the indigation of fomebody, to join home-body ; the intention, to murder La Fayette, Bailly, and N -:ker; and very wild andimprobable reports are propagated every moment. They have been fufficient to induceMonf. La Fayette to iffue, yederday, an order concerning the mode of affembling themilitia, in cafe of anyfudden alarm. Two pieces of cannon, and eight hundred men,mount guard at the Thuilleries every day. See fome royalifts this morning, who afferr,that the public opinion in the kingdom is changing apace ; that pity for the King, anddifgufl: at fome proceedings of the Affetnbly, have lately done much : they fay, thatany attempt at prefent to refcue the King would be abfurd, for his prefent fituation isdoing more for him than force could effect, at this moment, as the general feelings ofthe nation are in his favour. They have no fcruple in declaring, that a well concertedvigorous effort would place him at the head of a powerful army, which could not failof being joined by a great, difgufted, and injured body. I remarked, that every honedman mull hope no fuch event would take place; for if a counter-revolution Ihould beeffected, it would eftablifh a defpotifm, much heavier than ever France experienced.This they would not allow ; on the contrary, they believed, that no government could,in future, be fecure, that did not grant to the people more extenfive rights and privi-leges than they poffeffed under the old one. Dine with my brother traveller, the Countde Nicolay; among the company, as the count promifed me, was Monf. Decretot, thecelebrated manufacturer of Louviers , from whom I learned the magnitude of the dif-treffes at prefent in Normandy . The cotton mills which he had Ihewn me, laft year, atLouviers , have flood ftill nine months; and fo many l'pinning jennies have been de-ftroyed by the people, under the idea that fuch machines were contrary to their interefts,that the trade is in a deplorable fituation. In the evening, accompanied Monf. Lazowfkito the Italian opera, La Berbiera di Sevjglia, by Paiefello, which is one of the mod agreea-ble compofitions of that truly great matter. Mandini and Raffanelli excellent, and Ba-letti a fweet voice. There is no fuch comic opera to be feen in Italy, as this of Paris ,and the houfe is alu r ays full: this will work as great a revolution in French mufic, asever can be wrought in French government. What will they think, by and bv, of Lully and Rameau ? And what a triumph for the manes of Jean Jaques!

The 12th. To the National Affembly a debate on the conduct: of the chamber ofvacation in the parliament of Rennes, continued. Monf. l’Abbe Maury, a zealous roy-alill , made a long and eloquent fpeech, which he delivered with great fluency and pre-cifion, and without any notes, in defence of the parliament: he replied to what had

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