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of the houses I have built. A change of ministry inFrance has deprived my colony of all the advantages Ihad obtained; and the good I have done my new coun-try has turned to mischief. I put the last drop of myblood into this useful establishment, without any viewexcept that of doing good — my blood is lost, and allI have to do is to die of a consumption.” He wrote toanother friend : “ Ferney, which you saw a wretchedvillage, .has become a pretty town. I scarcely knowhow this has been brought about; but I know that ithas ruined me. It was ridiculous in so insignificant aman as me to build a town.”

The correspondence which this undertaking necessi-tated was immense. To this occupation he added adispute on the merits of Shakspeare, in which an en-tire want of taste and of knowledge, and a superfluityof flippancy and insult, qvere the prominent features. Itraised a laugh among a few, but did no honour eitherto his cause or himself.

What, at its outset, seemed a more tranquil andhappy reign, had begun in France . The latter daysof Louis XV. were utterly disgraceful. He had dis-persed the parliament, it is true, which, by its preju-dices and injustice, had become odious; but it wasreplaced by another, which reformed no abuse, while itwas conspicuous only for servile submission to the royalauthority. Enlightened and popular ministers—Choi-seul and Turgot — were exiled to make room for menof the old leaven, who had no apprehension of thegrowing necessities of the times; while his thrustingupon the court a low-born and infamous mistress, com-pleted the degradation of the king’s position: and thesociety of Paris , opposed to that of the court, acquiredinfluence and dignity. The first acts of Louis the Six-teenth’s reign, being to recal the disgraced and popularministers, and to exhibit every token of sympathy forthe distresses of the subject, inspired hope. Voltaire ardently desired to revisit the capital, to feel himselfamong his friends, and to enjoy the sensation which hisH 3