Everybody feels in their own way.  My grief is to see the ruinous Condition of the palaces and pictures.  I was yesterday at the Louvre.  Le Brun’s noble gallery, where the battles of Alexander are, and of which he designed the ceiling, and even the shutters, bolts, and locks, is in a worse condition than the old gallery at Somerset-house.  It rains in upon the pictures, though there are stores of much more valuable pieces than those of Le Brun.  Heaps of glorious works by Raphael and all the great masters are piled up and equally neglected at Versailles.  Their care is not less destructive in private houses.  The Duke of Orleans’ pictures and the Prince of Monaco’s have been cleaned, and varnished so thick that you May see your face in them; and some of them have been transported from board to cloth, bit by bit, and the seams filled up with colour; so that in ten years they will not be worth sixpence.  It makes me as peevish as if I was posterity!  I hope your lordship’s works will last longer than these of Louis XIV.  The glories of his si`ecle hasten fast to their end, and little will remain but those of his authors.

(59) “It was at this time,” says Dr. Burney, “that dancing seemed first to gain the ascendant over music, by the superior talents of Mademoiselle Heinel, whose grace and execution were so perfect as to eclipse all other excellence.  Crowds assembled at the Opera-house, more for the gratification of the eye than the ear; for neither the invention of a new composer, nor the talents of new singers, attracted the public to the theatre, which was almost abandoned till the arrival of this lady, whose extraordinary merit had an extraordinary recompense; for, besides the six hundred pounds’ salary allowed her by the Honourable Mr. Hobart, as manager, she was complimented with a regallo of six hundred more from the Maccaroni Club.  ‘E molto particulare,’ said Cocchi, the Composer; ’ma quei Inglesi non fanno conto d’alcuna cosa se non ben pagata:’  It is very extraordinary that the English set no value upon any thing but what they pay an exorbitant price for."-E.

(60) The Parliaments of Besan`con, Bourdeaux, Toulouse and Britany, were, in succession, totally suppressed by Louis xv.  New courts were assembled in their stead; most of the former members being sent into banishment.-E.

Letter 35 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.  Arlington Street, Sept. 7, 1771. (page 61)

I arrived yesterday,(61) within an hour or two after you was gone, which mortified me exceedingly:  Lord knows when I shall see you.  You are so active and so busy, and cast bullets(62) and build bridges, are pontifex maximus, and, like Sir John Thorold or Cimon, triumph over land and wave, that one can never get a word with you.  Yet I am very well worth a general’s or a politician’s ear.  I have been deep in all the secrets of France, and confidant of some of the principals of