11 
have chosen that private walk which you embellish 
with all the endearing* characteristics of social life ; 
the protector of the poor, and encourager of industry, 
throughout your extensive influence. On this delight- 
ful theme I will not expatiate, hut you must allow 
me to say, that the amiable owners of Wilbury House 
present a bright example of those days when gene- 
rosity, urbanity, and hospitality, dignified the charac- 
ter of an English Country Gentleman, and the 
maternal virtues and charities of life were deemed the 
most brilliant female ornaments. 
Your reasons for preferring otium cum dignitate 
are known to your friends j they also can estimate 
the public loss from your not occupying a seat in 
the British senate : because you possess patriotic zeal 
and virtue worthy of those illustrious ancestors who 
adorn the history of our country in three of its most 
distinguished periods — the battle of Hastings, the 
signing of Magna Char! a, and the civil wars during 
the reign of Charles the First. 
Notwithstanding my promise to the National 
Institute at Paris, and through it to the French 
government, as mentioned in the ensuing preface ; 
and notwithstanding what 1 once thought a duty to 
