1764 E/ie de Beaumont ; Marcbese Caraccioli 89 



29th of the month, when both the Due de Picquigny and he 

 attended. Walpole, though he disagreed with the philo- 

 sophy of Helvetius, came to be on terms of friendly acquain- 

 tance with him, which was renewed and strengthened two 

 years later in Paris when the English man of letters paid 

 a visit to France. 



Another notable Frenchman who dined with the Club on 

 November 8th of this year was Jean Baptiste Jacques lie 

 de Beaumont, a barrister, and man of letters who made a 

 great reputation as a forensic orator by his defence of Jean 

 Galas, a Calvinist, executed on a false charge of murder. 

 We get a vivid picture of him as a tourist in England 

 from Horace Walpole, who, writing to the Earl of Hertford 

 on gth November 1764, says of him : " He breakfasted here 

 [Strawberry Hill] t'other morning and pleased me exceed- 

 ingly : he has great spirit and good humour. It is in- 

 credible what pains he has taken to see. He has seen 

 Oxford, Bath, Blenheim, Stowe, Jews, Quakers, Mr. Pitt, 

 the Royal Society, the Robin Hood [an oratorical club in 

 Essex Street], Lord Chief- Justice Pratt, the Arts and Sciences, 

 has dined at Wildman's [the Opposition club in Albemarle 

 Street], and, I think, with my Lord Mayor, or is to do." 



The personal appreciation of lie de Beaumont on the 

 part of the Fellows of the Royal Society was shown by their 

 electing him into the Society on 25th April 1765. It is 

 deserving of remark that seventy years later a second lie 

 de Beaumont, who had made an European reputation as a 

 geologist, was similarly honoured. 



Towards the end of the year two prominent foreigners 

 were entertained by the Club. The Marchese Domenico 

 Caraccioli, born in Naples (1715), became a diplomat and 

 economist, and was successively Ambassador from Naples to 

 Turin, to England and to France. In 1781 the government 

 of Sicily was entrusted to him, a duty which he discharged 

 with enlightened and upright firmness. It was said of him 

 that though at first sight his features looked heavy, almost 

 suggesting stupidity, yet no sooner did he begin to speak 

 than his eyes grew animated, his face brightened and he 



