2o6 Travels in France 



asked them in which of their wars they had wanted men. I 

 demanded whether they had ever felt any other want than that 

 of monev. And whether the conversion of a milUon of men into 

 the bearers of muskets would make money more plentiful. I 

 asked if personal service was not a tax. And whether paying 

 the tax of the service of a million of men increased their faculties 

 of paying other and more useful taxes. I begged them to inform 

 me if the regeneration of the kingdom, which had put arms into 

 the hands of a miUion of mob, had rendered industry more 

 productive, internal peace more secure, confidence more enlarged, 

 or credit more stable. And lastly, I assured them that, should 

 the English attack them at present, they would probably make 

 the weakest figure they had done from the foundation of their 

 monarchy : but, gentlemen, the English, in spite of the example 

 you set them in the American war, will disdain such a conduct ; 

 they regret the constitution you are forming, because they think 

 it a bad one — but whatever you may establish, you will have no 

 interruption, but many good wishes from your neighbour. It 

 was all in vain ; they were well persuaded their government was 

 the best in the world ; that it was a monarchy, and no republic, 

 which I contended; and that the English thought it good 

 because they would unquestionably abolish their house of lords, 

 in the enjoyment of which accurate idea I left them. — In the 

 evening to Lille,^ a town which has lost its name in the world 

 in the more splendid fame of Vaucluse. There can hardly be 

 met with a richer or better cultivated sixteen miles; the 

 irrigation is superb. Lille is most agreeably situated. On 

 coming to the verge of it I found fine plantations of elms, with 

 delicious streams, bubbling over pebbles on either side; well 

 dressed people were enjoying the evening at a spot I had con- 

 ceived to be only a mountain village. It was a sort of fairy 

 scene to me. Now, thought I, how detestable to leave all this fine 

 wood and water, and enter a nasty, beggarly, walled, hot, stinking 

 town; one of the contrasts most offensive to my feehngs. What 

 an agreeable surprise, to find the inn without the town, in the 

 midst of the scenery I had admired ! and more, a good and civil 

 inn. I walked on the banks of this classic stream for an hour, 

 with the moon gazing on the waters that will run for ever in 

 mellifluous poetry: retired to sup on the most exquisite trout 

 and craw fish in the world. To-morrow to the famed origin. — 

 i6 miles. 



2()th. I am delighted with the environs of Lille; beautiful 



* L'Isle-sur-Sorgues. 



