I assure you, though you are ungrateful on your
side of the water, he is in high repute here--his works are translated--
all the Jacobins who can read quote, and all who can't, admire him; and
possibly, at the very moment you are sentencing him to an installment in
the pillory, we may be awarding him a triumph.--Perhaps we are both
right. He deserves the pillory, from you for having endeavoured to
destroy a good constitution--and the French may with equal reason grant
him a triumph, as their constitution is likely to be so bad, that even
Mr. Thomas Paine's writings may make it better!
Our house is situated within view of a very pleasant public walk, where I
am daily amused with a sight of the recruits at their exercise. This is
not quite so regular a business as the drill in the Park. The exercise
is often interrupted by disputes between the officer and his eleves--some
are for turning to the right, others to the left, and the matter is not
unfrequently adjusted by each going the way that seemeth best unto
himself. The author of the _"Actes des Apotres"_ [The Acts of the
Apostles] cites a Colonel who reprimanded one of his corps for walking
ill--_"Eh Dicentre,_ (replied the man,) _comment veux tu que je marche
bien quand tu as fait mes souliers trop etroits."_* but this is no longer
a pleasantry--such circumstances are very common. A Colonel may often be
tailor to his own regiment, and a Captain operated on the heads of his
whole company, in his civil capacity, before he commands them in his
military one.
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