I conclude that you have very authentic accounts at Whitton of what is passing at Paris, as I hear Mr. Hobhouse has been there for some time. All reports seem to agree that the late Revolution is felt very much as a conquest, and that there is a considerable anti-Bourbon party. This circumstance affords the only chance of a new Constitution, in the stability of which I have no confidence. Already is the liberty of the Press suspended, and the Executive Government, in settling the new rates of
1 “The Wanderer,” begun in 1802, for which she was to receive £1,500 in a year and a half, and £3,000 on the sale of 8,000 copies. She said that 3,600 copies were sold at the rapacious price of two guineas. The book was apparently never read by anybody. (“Dictionary of National Biography.”) |
55 |
French Politics |
I am afraid you will hardly see Madame de Staël; her Friday evening parties are at an end, and she is going in a short time to Paris. She paid her respects to Louis XVIII., and it is said that she made him a long speech, which was not very favourably received. Lord and Lady Lansdowne set out for Paris to-morrow, but they are not to be absent for more than three weeks or a month.