178 BAILLY. 



the proposition of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld and of 

 the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the National Assembly 

 sent a deputation to their illustrious ex-president, to 

 thank him (these are the precise words) " for his noble, 

 wise, and firm conduct." The electoral body of Bor- 

 deaux had been beforehand with these homages. The 

 Chamber of Commerce of that town, at the same time, 

 decided that the portrait of the great citizen should deco- 

 rate their hall of meeting. The Academy of Sciences, 

 the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, did not 

 remain insensible to the glory that one of their members 

 had acquired in the career of politics, and testified it by 

 numerous deputations. Finally, Marmontel, in the name 

 of the French Academy, expressed to Bailly " how 

 proud that assembly was to count among its members an 

 Aristides that no one was tired of calling the Just." 



I shall not excite surprise, I hope, by adding, after 

 such brilliant testimonies of sympathy, that the inhabi- 

 tants of Chaillot celebrated the return of Bailly amongst 

 them by fetes, and fireworks, and that even the curate 

 of the parish and the churchwardens, unwilling to be 

 surpassed by their fellow-citizens, nominated the histo- 

 rian of antediluvian astronomy honorary churchwarden. 

 I will, at all events, repress the smile that might arise 

 from such private reminiscences, by reminding the reader 

 that a man's moral character is better appreciated by his 

 neighbours, to whom he shows himself daily without dis- 

 guise, than that of more considerable persons, who are 

 only seen on state occasions, and in official costume. 



