PAL ATS ROYAL. 453 



(Company Is more variable than the former, and indeed 

 more entertaining. There is no fubjedl which is not 

 here brought into difcourfe, and well difcuffed ; as no 

 age and no fyftem has any prefer iptive right of chela- 

 tion over others. Politics, as often as I have been 

 there, made the main fubject of all converfations ; and 

 this fmall circle is properly the oracle and exemplar 

 of all the others, which, during the revolution, have 

 fhewn themfelves rjioff bufy and impetuous in words and 

 actions. 



Another fociety likewife poffeffes feveral rooms on 

 this flory ; which bear the name of Salons des Arts. 

 You here meet with men of letters, with artifts and 

 dilettanti of every denomination ; and I have conftantly 

 found their converfation brilliant, witty, and impro- 

 ving. Every brochure that comes out, is brought 

 hither and read ; and in a gallery apart, the neweft 

 productions of good artifts are placed for exhibition. 

 To foreigners, this and the 1 aft-mentioned fociety 

 are the moft agreeable of all, in regard both to infor- 

 mation anpl amufement. 



Befides thefe there is frill a Societe Militaire, moftly 

 compofecl of veteran ftafT-officers ; and none are ad- 

 mitted but military men. Laftly, there is a Societe 

 des Colons, intQ which none are received who have 

 not a pofTeffion on one of the american illands. For a, 

 ftranger, who is neither a foldier nor a planter, thefe 

 are the leaft inilruclive or amufing ; but to aperfon 

 that is either jthe one or the other, they afford great 

 fatisfaclion. 



You fee, how even thefe mottley inftitutions tend to 

 the improvement of the mind ; fo that there is no field 



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