the poorest. I came by Arras and Peronne; and a sensible friend by Havre and Rouen, who reports everything favourable as to crops; for the rest, I have not had time to ask him, except as to the animation of the country, in which we both agree in the most perfect manner.
Lord W. did me the honor of an immediate visit yesterday. I have not met him since, but I suppose I shall have that pleasure at the Duke of Rochefaucauld's to-morrow. His Lordship has not been to the Assembly, where I found the debates violent yesterday; to-day milder. The Duke of Orleans, after arriving at midnight, surprized us in the Assembly this morning. The enclosed speech was read rapidly without dignity or feeling, but well received, which is the more remarkable, since, except some 6 or 8 of us, the galleries were filled with provincial deputies, and the assembly below with residents at Paris.
Count Mirabeau has behaved in an affectionate manner to me, though we have not met. The Abbé M seems brim-full of rancor at times which both injure and neglect him; but he would only open to Lord W. He seems to me likely to take nothing to heart in future but his private affairs.
Nobody dreams here of a Spanish war, which I think can only happen from a rude mode of making peace. … I saw the King walking in the Thuilleries this morning in the rain. He is still bulky, but looks broken like Lord Effingham. They have an opinion here of Mr. Fox's coming over, but I should be mortified to find Miss Fox had left me to learn the secret here. Yet one cannot but regret that there is one sufferer more, and still more when he appears to have the right of complaining.
People do not know the precise road by which they are to get out of their finance difficulties, and the Caisse d'Éscompte paper is at more than 4 per cent discount. But this is a very dangerous symptom to trust to, for I will venture to say, if the present humor lasts, which is daily increasing, that a just war, or indeed any war assented to by the Assembly, will be fought by every man, woman, and child in France, who will consider it as their own war and France as their own private family. Carthage at its last gasp was not capable of more desperate acts, nor yet Jerusalem, if we are to judge by what appears.
The national guards everywhere swarm. There are 40 or 50,000 men already in Paris of the city and provinces. I do not say all of them look like officers, but they resemble these far more than they do privates.
