Paris 325 



agreeable, or even tolerable. In dress they have given the ton 

 to all Europe for more than a century; but this is not among 

 any but the highest rank an object of such expense as in England, 

 where the mass of mankind wear much better things (to use the 

 language of common conversation) than in France : this struck 

 . me more amongst ladies who, on an average of all ranks, do not 

 « dress at one half of the expense of English women. Volatility 

 and changeableness are attributed to the French as national 

 characteristics, — but in the case of dress with the grossest 

 \ exaggeration. Fashions change v/ith ten times more rapidity 

 I in England, in form, colour, and assemblage; the vicissitudes 

 of every part of dress are fantastic with us : I see little of this in 

 France; and to instance the mode of dressing the gentlemen's 

 hair, while it has been varied five times at London it has remained 

 the same at Paris. Nothing contributes more to make them a 

 happy people than the cheerful and facile pliancy of disposition 

 with which they adapt themselves to the circumstances of life : 

 \this they possess much more than the high and volatile spirits 

 which have been attributed to them; one excellent consequence 

 is, a greater exemption from the extravagance of living beyond 

 their fortunes than is met with in England. In the highest ranks 

 of life there are instances in all countries ; but where one gentle- 

 man of small property in the provinces of France runs out his 

 fortune, there are ten such in England that do it. In the blended 

 idea I had formed of the French character from reading, I am 

 disappointed from three circumstances which I expected to find 

 predominant. On comparison with the English, I looked for 

 great talkativeness, volatile spirits, and universal politeness. I 

 think, on the contrary, that they are not so talkative as the 

 English, have not equally good spirits, and are not a jot more 

 1 polite: nor do I speak of certain classes of people but of the 

 I general mass. I think them, however, incomparably better 

 tempered ; and I propose it as a question whether good temper be 

 not more reasonably expected under an arbitrary than under 

 a free government ? 



\c)th. My last day in Paris and, therefore, employed in 

 wailing on my friends to take leave ; amongst whom the Duke de 

 Liancourt holds the first place; a nobleman to whose uninter- 

 rupted, polite, and friendly offices I own the agreeable and happy 

 hours which I have passed at Paris, and whose kindness con- 

 tinued so much to the last, as to require a promise that if I should 

 return to France his house, either in town or country, should be 



