322 Travels in France 



n'' avoir jamais ete d'aticune societe politique particuliere ; je pense 

 que mes fonctions sont pi'bliqiies, et qu'elles peiivent aisement se 

 remplir sans associations particitlieres. He got no reply here.— 

 At night, Monsieur Decretot and Monsieur BHn carried me to 

 the re\olution club at the Jacobi7ts ; the room where they 

 assemble is that in which the famous league was signed, as it 

 has been observed above. There were above one hundred 

 deputies present, with a president in the chair ; I was handed to 

 him, and announced as the author of the Arithmetique Politique ; 

 the president standing up repeated my name to the company and 

 demanded if there were any objections — None; and this is all 

 the ceremony, not merely of an introduction but an election: 

 for I was told that now I was free to be present when I pleased, 

 being a foreigner. Ten or a dozen other elections were made. 

 In this club the business that is to be brought into the National 

 Assembly is regularly debated; the motions are read that are 

 intended to be made there, and rejected or corrected and 

 approved. ^Vhen these have been fully agreed to, the whole 

 party are engaged to support them. Plans of conduct are there 

 determined ; proper persons nominated for being of committees, 

 and presidents of the Assembly named. And I may add that 

 such is the majority of numbers, that whatever passes in this 

 club is almost sure to pass in the Assembly. In the evening at 

 the Duchess d'Anville's, in whose house I never failed of spend- 

 ing my time agreeably. 



One of the most amusing circumstances of travelling into other 

 countries is the opportunity of remarking the difference of 

 customs amongst different nations in the common occurrences 

 of life. In the art of living the French have generally been 

 esteemed by the rest of Europe to have made the greatest pro- 

 ficiency, and their manners have been accordingly more imitated 

 and their customs more adopted than those of any other nation. 

 Of their cookery there is but one opinion; for every man in 

 Europe that can afford a great table either keeps a French cook 

 or one instructed in the same manner. That it is far beyond 

 our own I have no doubt in asserting. We have about half a 

 dozen real English dishes that exceed anything, in my opinion, to 

 be met with in France ; by English dishes I mean a turbot and 

 lobster sauce — ham and chicken — turtle — a haunch of venison — 

 a turkey and oysters — and after these there is an end of an 

 English table. It is an idle prejudice to class roast beef among 

 them; for there is not better beef in the world than at Paris. 



