3 1 4 Travels in France 



not allow; on the contrary, they believed that no government 

 could in future be secure that did not grant to the people more 

 extensive rights and privileges than they possessed under the old 

 one. Dine with my brother traveller, the Count de Nicolay; 

 among the company, as the count had promised me, was Mon- 

 sieur Decretot, the celebrated manufacturer of Louviers, from 

 whom I learned the magnitude of the distresses at present in 

 Normandy. The cotton mills which he had shown me last year 

 at Louviers have stood still nine months ; and so many spinning 

 jennies have been destroyed by the people under the idea that 

 such machines were contrary to their interests, that the trade is 

 in a deplorable situation. In the evening accompanied Mon- 

 sieur Lazowski to the Italian opera, La Berbiera di Seviglia, by 

 Paiesello, which is one of the most agreeable compositions of 

 that truly great master. Mandini and Raffanelli excellent, and 

 Baletti a sweet voice. There is no such comic opera to be seen 

 in Italy as this of Paris, and the house is always full: this will 

 work as great a revolution in French music as ever can be 

 wrought in French government. What will they think by and 

 by of Lully and Rameau ? And what a triumph for the manes 

 of Jean Jacques ! 



12th. To the National Assembly: — a debate on the conduct 

 of the chamber of vacation in the parliament of Rennes con- 

 tinued. Monsieur I'Abbe Maury, a zealous royalist, made a 

 long and eloquent speech which he delivered with great fluency 

 and precision, and without any notes, in defence of the parlia- 

 ment: he replied to what had been urged by the Count de 

 Mirabeau on a former day, and spoke strongly on his unjustifiable 

 call on the people of Bretagne to a redoubtable denombrement. 

 He said that it would better become the members of such an 

 assembly to count their own principles and duties, and the fruits 

 of their attention, to the privileges of the subject, than to call 

 for a denombrement that would fill a province with fire and 

 bloodshed. He was interrupted by the noise and confusion of 

 the assembly, and of the audience, six several times ; but it had 

 no eflFect on him; he waited calmly till it subsided and then 

 proceeded as if no interruption had been given. The speech 

 was a very able one and much relished by the royalists ; but the 

 enrages condemned it as good for nothing. No other person 

 spoke without notes ; the Count de Clermont read a speech that 

 had some brilliant passages, but by no means an answer to I'Abbe 

 Maury, as indeed it would have been wonderful if it were, being 

 prepared before he heard the Abbe's oration. It can hardly be 



