GIBBON. 309 



of more correct demeanour, Sylvester Douglas, afterwards 

 Lord Gleubervie, who had in consequence left behind 

 him an universally favourable impression. On Fox, he 

 says, " the people gazed as on a prodigy, but he shewed 

 little inclination to converse with them;" and Gibbon 

 adds, that " the scandalous impropriety of shewing his 

 mistress to all Europe" had given much offence. 



During the two or three following years, the French 

 Revolution drove a number, he says " a swarm," of emi- 

 grants to Switzerland, and Lausanne was so filled with 

 them that he describes the " narrow habitations of the 

 town and country as occupied by the first names and 

 titles of the departed monarchy." Among others were 

 the Due de Guignes and Marechal de Castries; but 

 Malesherbes, the Grarnmonts, Mourner, formerly President 

 of the National Assembly, and Lally-Tollendal, were 

 those whom he allowed to cultivate his acquaintance. The 

 Prince de Conde and Calonne passed through Lausanne 

 in 1790 on their way to Italy, but he was confined 

 with the gout and another disorder, by which he after- 

 wards fell. The celebrated adversary of Calonne, however, 

 M. Necker, he visited that year at his chateau of Coppet, 

 near Geneva. " I could have wished," says Gibbon, " to 

 have shewn him as a warning to aspiring youth possessed 

 with the daemon of ambition. With all the means of 

 present happiness in his power, he is the most miserable 

 of human beings; the past, the present, and the future 

 are equally odious to him. When I suggested some 

 domestic amusement of books, building, &c., he answered 

 with a deep tone of despair, ' Dans 1'etat ou je suis je 

 ne puis scntir que le coup de vent qui m'a abattu.' ; 

 Well may Gibbon add, " how different from the constant 



