any who dislike either his person or government, and certainly none either high or low express the cannibal wish that I heard some English country gentlemen and London merchants utter for the destruction of Paris and of the French people, nor would it be easy to find here men of the humane and generous sentiments professed by some of our aldermen and contractors when they welcomed with ferocious acclamations of joy and were ready to embrace the Baschkir or Cossack who told them that he had slaughtered so many French with his own hand; nor would the ladies here be so eager to kiss old Blucher as was the case in London.

This city is filled with British and Hanoverian troops.  Their conduct is exemplary, nor is any complaint made against them.  The Highland regiments are however the favourites of the Bruxellois, and the inhabitants give them the preference as lodgers.  They are extremely well behaved (they say, when speaking of the Highlanders) and they cheerfully assist the different families on whom they are quartered in their household labour.  This reflects a good deal of credit on the gallant sons of Caledonia.  Their superior morality to those of the same class either in England or in Ireland must strike every observer, and must, in spite of all that the Obscuranten or Chevaliers de l’Eteignoir and others who wish to check the progress of the human mind may urge to the contrary, be mainly attributed to the general prevalence of education a la portee de tout le monde.  Wherever the people are enlightened there is less crime; ignorance was never yet the safeguard of virtue.  As for myself I honour and esteem the Scottish nation and I must say that I have found more liberal ideas and more sound philosophy among individuals of that nation than among those of any other, and it is a tribute I owe to them loudly to proclaim my sentiments; for though personal gratitude may seem to influence me a little on this subject, yet I should never think of putting forth my opinion in public, were it not founded on an impartial observation of the character of this enterprising and persevering people.  A woman who had some Highlanders quartered in her house told me in speaking of them:  “Monsieur, ce sont de si bonnes gens; ils sont doux comme des agneaux.”  “Ils n’en seront pas moins des lions an jour du combat,” was my reply.

I have amused myself with visiting most of the remarkable objects here, but you must not expect from me a detail of what you will find in every description book.  You wish to have my ideas on the subjects that most strike me individually, and those you shall have; but it would be very absurd and presumptuous in me to attempt to give a catalogue raisonne of buildings and pictures and statues, or to set up as a connoisseur when I know nothing either of sculpture, of architecture or painting; nor am I desirous of imitating the young Englishman, who, in writing to his father from Italy, described so much in detail, and so scientifically, every production, or staple, peculiar to the cities which he happened to visit, that he wrote like a cheese-monger from Parma, like a silk mercer from Leghorn, like an olive and oil merchant from Lucca, like a picture dealer from Florence, and like an antiquarian from Rome.