of their own benefit, and meaning, at the bottom, no earthly good to any but to themselves and their own dependants.  M. Fayette est entreprenant, hardi, avec un certain point d’honneur, et avec cela, plus consequent que le reste des Reformateurs, qui, apres tout, est un engeance si detestable a mon avis, qu’un pais ne peut avoir un plus grand fleeau.  How often will that poor country regret the splendour of a Court, and that Lit de Justice, sur lequel le Roi et ses sujets avoient coutume de dormir si tranquillement!  But when I think of ambition, it is not that of all kinds that I condemn . . .

(279) Queensberry.

(280) Mme. Piozzi, formerly Mrs. Thrale (1741-1821).  The reference is to “Her Observations and Reflections made in a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany,” which was brought out in 1789.  She is best known as the friend of Dr. Johnson.

(281) Jean Galas (1698-1762), whose unhappy story was the subject of tragedies prought out in Paris in 1790 and 1791.

(1790) July (Aug?) 7, Saturday, Isleworth.—­I hope that this letter will reach you before you set out for Cumberland, because I am impatient to tell you that the Perfection of Nature is at this instant the Perfection of Health.  I came over here in my boat to write my letter from a place where I am sure that your thoughts carry you very often, and to make my letter from that local circumstance more welcome to you.  I brought over with me two, almost the last, roses now in bloom, which I could find in the Duke’s garden; one of them would have been for you if you had been here, because I know the complexion in roses which you prefer; so I have desired Lady Caroline to smell to it sympathiquement.  I found upon my table at Richm(on)d, when I came down, as I expected, Lady Sutherland’s letter envelop(p)ee a la francoise, and in my next I will transcribe so many extracts, as it shall be the same as if I sent you the letter; but I am not sure that sending the original itself would not be illicit without a particular permission from her Excellency.  I am much obliged to her for it, and shall do my best to obtain more, although France is a country now which, if I could, I would obliterate from my mind.  Had this Revolution happened two thousand years ago, I might have been amused with an account of it, wrote by some good historian, or if it had happened but a few years hence, I should not [have] felt about it as I do; as it is, the event is too near for me not to feel as I do.  I do not like to be obliged to renounce my esteem for any individual, much less to think ill of such numbers.  The oppression suffered under the former Government, or [and] the desire of giving to mankind the rights which by nature they seem intituled to, are with me no excuse, when a people sets out, in reforming, with acting in direct opposition to all the principles which before they thought respectable, and really were so, and, to become a free people, commence by being freebooters.  However, as this savours too much of party zeal, I will have done with it; yet it is not relative to this country, which I hope will be free from these calamities and abominations, and so I need not fear expatiating sometimes upon the subject.