Strasbourg 1 67 



nothing of their removing from Versailles; if they stay there 

 under the control of an armed mob they must make a govern- 

 ment that will please the mob; but they will, I suppose, be wise 

 enough to move to some central town, Tours, Blois, or Orleans, 

 where their deliberations may be free. But the Parisian spirit 

 of commotion spreads quickly; it is here; the troops that were 

 near breaking my neck are employed to keep an eye on the 

 people who show signs of an intended revolt. They have broken 

 the windows of some magistrates that are no favourites; and a 

 great mob of them is at this moment assembled demanding 

 clamorously to have meat at 5 sous a pound. They have a 

 cry among them that will conduct them to good lengths, — Point 

 d'wipSt et vive les etats. — Waited on ]\Ionsieur Herman, pro- 

 fessor of natural history in the university here, to whom I had 

 letters; he replied to some of my questions, and introduced me 

 for others to Monsieur Zimmer, who having been in some degree 

 a practitioner, had understanding enough of the subject to afford 

 me some information that was valuable. View the public 

 buildings and cross the Rhine, passing for some little distance 

 into Germany, but no new features to mark a change; Alsace 

 is Germany, and the change great on descending the mountains. 

 The exterior of the cathedral is fine, and the tower singularly 

 light and beautiful; it is well known to be one of the highest in 

 Europe; commands a noble and rich plain through which the 

 Rhine, from the number of its islands, has the appearance of a 

 chain of lakes rather than of a river. — Monument of Marechal 

 Saxe, etc., etc. I am puzzled about going to Carlsruhe, the 

 residence of the j\Iargrave of Baden : it was an old intention to 

 do it, if ever I was within a hundred miles, for there are some 

 features in the reputation of that sovereign which made me 

 wish to be there. He fixed Mr. Taylor, of Bifrons in Kent, 

 whose husbandry I describe in my Eastern Tour, on a large 

 farm; and the economistes, in their writings, speak much of an 

 experiment he made in their physiocratical rubbish, which, 

 however erroneous their principles might be, marked much 

 merit in the prince. Monsieur Herman tells me also that he 

 has sent a person into Spain to purchase rams for the improve- 

 ment of wool: I wish he had fixed on somebody likely to under- 

 stand a good ram, which a professor of botany is not likely to do 

 too well. This botanist is the only person Monsieur Herman 

 knows at Carlsruhe, and therefore can give me no letter thither, 

 and how I can go, unknown to all the world, to the residence of 



