CHAPTER XIII
RELIGIOUS TOLERATION
1771–1772
A concise journal shows the two travellers passing through France and Italy, and making observations on the agriculture and manufactures of those countries, but otherwise presents no noteworthy feature, unless it be the anecdote, how at Sens they asked a peasant if the Archbishop was "a very able man" and got for reply "Yes certainly, for he has the cordon bleu." In Italy their journey was facilitated by the letters of introduction with which they were furnished from one society of literati to another. At Milan they made the acquaintance of Beccaria. At Rome they met Cardinal de Bernis, who was now Ambassador to the Papal Court.[1] Returning to France they made a prolonged stay in Paris, and were received by Madame Geoffrin, in whose salon all that was most brilliant in French society was accustomed to gather. There Shelburne met the celebrated Madame de Boufflers, who seems to have produced as great an effect upon him as he did on Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse, the friend of D'Alembert, and the only lady admitted by Madame Geoffrin to her dîners des gens de lettres.[2] He is also
- ↑ See supra, p. 62, where there is an account of a conversation with Bernis. The Cardinal, who had been Minister for Foreign Affairs, from 1756 continued to be Ambassador till the French Revolution.
- ↑ "Madame Boufflers vint dîner chez Madame Geoffrin mercredi; elle fut charmante; elle ne dit pas un mot qui ne fût un paradoxe. Elle fut attaquée, et elle se défendit avec tant d'esprit, que ses erreurs valoient presqu'autant que la vérité. Par exemple, elle trouve que c'est un grand malheur que d'être ambassadeur, il n'im-
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