I know such an opinion, if publicly avowed, would be combated as false and singular; yet I appeal to those who have at all studied the French character, not as travellers, but by a residence amongst them, for the support of my opinion.  Every one who understands the language, and has mixed much in society, must have made the same observations.—­See two Frenchmen at a distance, and the vehemence of their action, and the expression of their features, shall make you conclude they are discussing some subject, which not only interests, but delights them.  Enquire, and you will find they were talking of the weather, or the price of a waistcoat!—­In England you would be tempted to call in a peace-officer at the loud tone and menacing attitudes with which two people here very amicably adjust a bargain for five livres.—­In short, we mistake that for a mental quality which, in fact, is but a corporeal one; and, though the French may have many good and agreeable points of character, I do not include gaiety among the number.

I doubt very much of my friends will approve of their habitation.  I confess I am by no means satisfied with it myself; and, with regard to pecuniary consideration, my engagement is not an advantageous one.  —­Madame Dorval, of whom I have taken the house, is a character very common in France, and over which I was little calculated to have the ascendant.  Officiously polite in her manners, and inflexibly attentive to her interest, she seemingly acquiesces in every thing you propose.  You would even fancy she was solicitous to serve you; yet, after a thousand gracious sentiments, and as many implied eulogiums on her liberality and generosity, you find her return, with unrelenting perseverance, to some paltry proposition, by which she is to gain a few livres; and all this so civilly, so sentimentally, and so determinedly, that you find yourself obliged to yield, and are duped without being deceived.

The lower class have here, as well as on your side of the water, the custom of attributing to Ministers and Governments some connection with, or controul over, the operations of nature.  I remarked to a woman who brings me fruit, that the grapes were bad and dear this year—­"Ah! mon Dieu, oui, ils ne murrissent pas.  Il me semble que tout va mal depuis qu’on a invente la nation." ["Ah!  Lord, they don’t ripen now.—­For my part, I think nothing has gone well since the nation was first invented.”]

I cannot, like the imitators of Sterne, translate a chapter of sentiment from every incident that occurs, or from every physiognomy I encounter; yet, in circumstances like the present, the mind, not usually observing, is tempted to comment.—­I was in a milliner’s shop to-day, and took notice on my entering, that its mistress was, whilst at her work, learning the Marseillois Hymn. [A patriotic air, at this time highly popular.] Before I had concluded my purchase, an officer came in to prepare her for the reception of four volunteers, whom she was to lodge the two ensuing nights.  She assented, indeed, very graciously, (for a French woman never loses the command of her features,) but a moment after, the Marseillois, which lay on the counter, was thrown aside in a pet, and I dare say she will not resume her patriotic taste, nor be reconciled to the revolution, until some days after the volunteers shall have changed their quarters.