22
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF THE LATE
par la quelle je vois avec plaisir vofre arrivee a Amiens , et l’csperance ouyous etes de faire quelque affaire avec Monsieur Mortier.”*
“ George Macintosh, Esq. Glasgow , to Charles Macintosh , Esq.
“ Glasgow , 18th January, 1787.
“ * * Papillon has now left us entirely.t We could not manage
his unhappy temper. I have made a great improvement in his process. Idye in twenty days what he took twenty-five to do, and the colour better.We paid him his salary up to October, so as to he quite clear of him.”
“ John Finlay, Esq. to Charles Macintosh , Esq.
“Whitehall, 6th April, 1787-
“ My Dear Charles, —I had the pleasure of receiving your letter of the25th of March, the day before yesterday, and do assure you that no cir-cumstance has for a long time given me so much satisfaction as the findingfrom it that you were in perfect health and spirits, and that even my appar-ent ingratitude, in not writing to you since you left England, has not beenable to efface the place I flatter myself I hold in your friendship. I callmy ingratitude apparent, because I am convinced you yourself would holdme acquitted, if you knew the hurry in which I am always kept, and thekind of life I am obliged to lead. I came to London last winter a few daysafter you left it, and was almost instantly hurried to Plymouth. A con-tinued series of travelling for some time after, deprived me of the pleasureof writing to you, and afterwards I felt half ashamed, and half uncertainwhether my letter would reach you, if sent according to the direction youhad given me. Your letter relieved me from that difficulty, and yourgenerosity in not reproaching me for what must have had the appearanceof want of attention, has prompted me to take advantage of the first leisuremoment to convince you of my sense of it.
“ I am glad you dislike Paris ; it confirms me in what people call a pre-judice against the French . I only mean their vanity, in extolling, abovemeasure, everything that belongs to them.
« I was much pleased to see your name mentioned with great commenda-tion, in the last number of Curtis’s Flora Londonensis, on account of your
* Mr. Mortier was at this time a merchant at Amiens . He had previouslyvisited Scotland on commercial business, and spoke English fluently. Soon after-wards, he entered the French army as a volunteer, and rose in the wars of theEmpire to be a Marshal of France, and was created Due de Treviso. He was fora short time Minister of War, under Louis Philippe , and fell by the hand of theassassin Fieschi, by the side of that monarch, in the streets of Paris.— Ed.f See Appendix No. 1.