WANT OF ENERGY. 61 



any decision being arrived at. It would not pay; markets 

 would fall y expenses were constant, and would be heavy ; 

 these and similar views were put, and answered, and rc-put 

 and reanswered, and so the matter remained suspended. 

 Meanwhile, a proposal was made to an English company. 

 Within a week an answer was received ; in another week 

 appeared the steamboat herself, her own advertiser ; mer- 

 chandise flowed in from all quarters ; and the boat took full 

 cargoes each voyage ; and they are now going to place a 

 second boat on the station ! I once visited a mercantile 

 friend to inquire whether a ship he had freighted to England 

 with corn, had arrived. I found him grave, and said, " Well ! 

 is your ship returned ? " " Yes, she is returned." " And 

 has made a good voyage ? " I replied. " A very bad one 

 indeed; she has made une perte enorme,^^ and he sighed 

 heavily. I regretted this much, but on inquiry found that 

 the '^ jperte enorme" consisted in having lost about eight 

 pounds by the voyage ! Dreadful affair, eight pounds to a 

 speculative man. What would Liverpool say to that ? But 

 there is no generosity among the French. They are called 

 brave, clever, and polite, but I never heard them called 

 large-minded or generous. In the five years which I have 

 spent in the country, we have given about five parties, for 

 each one we have been invited to. Still our friends profess 

 great friendship for us, always come when we ask them, 

 talk much of pleasures to come in the return visits we are 

 to pay, and as pleasures to come they remain. In Eng- 

 land, we should call this mean ; here, it is general. No 

 seeking out strangers to do the honours of the country to 

 them, no reciprocity even, but enjoying all cheaply and no 



