* Small public houses in the vicinity of large towns, where the
     common people go on Sundays and festivals to dance and make merry.

This is another evil arising from the circumstances of the times.  All people of property have begun to bury their money and plate, and as the servants are often unavoidably privy to it, they are become idle and impertinent—­they make a kind of commutation of diligence for fidelity, and imagine that the observance of the one exempts them from the necessity of the other.  The clubs are a constant receptacle for idleness; and servants who think proper to frequent them do it with very little ceremony, knowing that few whom they serve would be imprudent enough to discharge them for their patriotism in attending a Jacobin society.  Even servants who are not converts to the new principle cannot resist the temptation of abusing a little the power which they acquire from a knowledge of family affairs.  Perhaps the effect of the revolution has not, on the whole, been favourable to the morals of the lower class of people; but this shall be the subject of discussion at some future period, when I shall have had farther opportunities of judging.

We yesterday visited the Oratoire, a seminary for education, which is now suppressed.  The building is immense, and admirably calculated for the purpose, but is already in a state of dilapidation; so that, I fear, by the time the legislature has determined what system of instruction shall be substituted for that which has been abolished, the children (as the French are fond of examples from the ancients) will take their lessons, like the Greeks, in the open air; and, in the mean while, become expert in lying and thieving, like the Spartans.

The Superior of the house is an immoderate revolutionist, speaks English very well, and is a great admirer of our party writers.  In his room I observed a vast quantity of English books, and on his chimney stood what he called a patriotic clock, the dial of which was placed between two pyramids, on which were inscribed the names of republican authors, and on the top of one was that of our countryman, Mr. Thomas Paine—­whom, by the way, I understand you intended to exhibit in a much more conspicuous and less tranquil situation.  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!