114 VISIT TO PARIS. [1814. 



ended, after a couple of weeks at Brougham, I went 

 over to France, where I had never been both my 

 former visits to the Continent, in 1799 and 1804, 

 having been made during the war. My mother and 

 my brother William went with me. 



When I look at the facilities and speed which steam 

 and railroads have given in these days to travelling, 

 so that I can leave Brougham after dinner on Monday, 

 and dine at Cannes on Wednesday at six, performing 

 a journey of nearly 1200 miles in forty-four hours, it 

 seems incredible that our journey to Paris, including 

 a good deal of night-travelling, should have taken 

 more than eight days ; yet so it was. We slept at 

 Dover, and, there being no steamboats, made a bargain 

 with a sailing-vessel to take us, our courier, and car- 

 riage across to Calais. The charge was twelve guineas ! 

 We arrived at Paris at a late hour, and drove about 

 from hotel to hotel before we got lodged at the Hotel 

 d'Espagne, Kue St Marc, considerably after midnight. 

 The rapid journey was too much for my mother, who 

 became seriously ill so ill that all the pleasure I anti- 

 cipated, and all I had looked forward to of my visit to 

 Paris, was entirely destroyed. 



I had not very long to remain there, as it was ne- 

 cessary that I should be back in London for Michael- 

 mas term. I could only hope to see the chief things, 

 and some of the most eminent men there. The Duke 

 of Wellington was our ambassador, and from him I 

 received the greatest kindness ; and we had some im- 

 portant conversations upon several subjects, particu- 

 larly the slave-trade, respecting which his views were 

 quite sound and temperate, as he saw the great diffi- 

 culties of the French Government in its peculiar posi- 



