1802.] 
impofed upon the holders of thefe gaming- 
tables: they are obliged to furnith every 
body who enters any of the rooms, with 
as much table-beer as they choofe to call 
for. Waiters are therefore perpetually 
running backwards and forwards with 
overflowing tumblers of this refrefhing 
beverage ; fix or feven crowded ona tray ; 
and he is not merely a polite man buta for- 
tunate one who adheres ftriétly to the good 
old-fathioned rule ‘‘Drink what you pleafe, 
but pocket none.”’ Beer to an Englifh. 
man in Paris, to me at leaft, is nectar: 
I had tafted none fince we left Dover; 
and, although the gilaffes had received the 
homage of a hundred lips, it was impotf- 
fible to refift the temptation: taking all pof- 
fible care, therefore, to avoid all extra- 
neous matter, I ventured to indulge my 
inclination, and am now ready to certify 
before any magiftrate, that the water of 
the Sciye makes as good beer as the water 
of the Thames. 
From thefe licenfed tables we vifitedma- 
ny {cenes of unfanétioned diffipation,in di- 
vers{ubterranean chambers,where the game 
of billiards was dexteroufly played: two 
or three tables appear to be well attended 
in every room; it really makes one’s heart 
bleed to fee fo many beardlefs youths as 
there are here, and lovely females, haften- 
ing on the road to ruin! But at the Pa- 
‘Jais-royal one fees all the world in yellow, 
blue, and green, to ufe poor Yorick’s 
words, ‘* running at the ring of pleafure. 
‘The old with broken lances, and in hel- 
mets which have loft their vizards—the 
young in armour bright,which fhines like 
gold, beplumed with each gay feather of 
the Eaft—all, all tilting at it like fafcinated 
knights in tournaments: of yore for fame 
and love.” y, 
[ am interrupted, though moft agree- 
ably fo, by the receipt of your letter; it is 
this moment brought me: mine is already 
{pun out to fo untoreften a length that I 
dare not extend it, and fhall anfwer your 
queries therefore in my next. It is no 
news to us that your mail-coaches have 
been ftopped by the fnow: we yefterday 
read an Englifh paper in a Café at the 
Palais-royal, and {aw a lamentable ac- 
‘count of your fnow-covered hills and cold 
regions. — 
Why do not you dig earth-holes, and 
bury yourfelves up for the winter? We 
are enjoying {pring weather at Paris! 
even I cannot bear a great coat: it is op- 
preflive, and I have thrown it off with 
contempt; think of this and be fatisfied ; 
it mult be a wonderful confolation to you, 
‘‘wallowing,” though not ‘‘naked’’ I 
An Excurfion through France to Geneva, 
truft, ‘* in December’s fnow,”’ the ‘*think- 
ing on fantaftic fummer’s heat.”’ 
Farewell, my friend; we fhall leave 
Paris in two or three days, but I fhall 
certainly fteal an hour, and devote it to 
you before we depart. 
LETTER Ill. 
Paris, Dec. 9, 1801. 
YOU have often laughed at me for being 
{> much of an old bachelor: I fuppofe 
there is fomething very orderly about me; 
but this fomething has its ule, my good 
Friend, and I do not feel difpofed to part 
with it ju& now, but fhall proceed in my 
old fafhioned orderly manner to anfwer 
your letter of the 30th ult. as well as I 
can. 
‘ Are not the French a nation of Can- 
nibals, ‘*that eachother eat ?”” No, indeed ; 
nor of 
Men whofe heads 
Do grow beneath their fhoulders. 
I dare fay your obfervation is a juft one, 
that the people of France were, during the 
war, called after the names of fo many 
terrifying monfters, that many a grandam 
(of both fexes and all ages) really be- 
lieved that fome preternatural metamor- 
phofe had taken place among. them, and 
that a man with the paws of a lion and 
ihe tufks of a tyger is no uncommon thing 
tre! ‘ . 
199 __ 
Upon my word, you are very unrea-_ 
fonable in your inquiries: we have not 
been here a fortnight, but you expeét as 
much information about the Parifians as 
if we had lived here a twelvemonth! Our 
friend B , who, as you very well 
know, is by no means .a carelefs or an 
unprofitable obferver of men’s’ manners, 
has mingled among various ranks of 
people in this metropolis, and has, by his 
amiable difpofition and excelling talents, 
fecured to himielf a circle of literary ac- 
quaintance, among which he paffes his 
time in an agreeable and inftruétive man- 
ner. Tohim, more than to our own ob- 
fervation, which of neceflity has hitherto 
had but few and infufficient opportunities 
of adding to our ftock of knowledge, are 
we indebted for whatever we have learnt 
about the domeftic charaéter of the French. 
No one, from the general behaviour of 
the people, could have fufpeéted them 
capable of having committed, or even of 
-having fuffered the commiffion of, thofe 
horrible enormities which have ftained, 
with fo indelible a die, the hiftory of their 
revolution. Aman cannot walk. the 
fireets of London for a fingle week without 
dz being 
= 
