like avoiding him—­like one of our countrymen, who changed horses at Paris, and asked what the name of that town was?  All the other civilities you have received I am perfectly happy in.  The Germans are certainly a civil, well-meaning people, and, I believe, one of the least corrupted nations in Europe.  I do not think them very agreeable; but who do I think are so?  A great many French women, some English men, and a few English women; exceedingly few French men.  Italian women are the grossest, vulqarest of the sex.  If an Italian man has a grain of sense, he is a buffoon.  So much for Europe!

I have already told you, and so must Lady Ailesbury, that my courage fails me, and I dare not meet you at Paris, As the period arrived when the gout used to come, it is never a moment out of my head.  Such a suffering, such a helpless condition as I was in for five months and a half, two years ago, makes me tremble from head to foot.  I should die at once if seized in a French inn; or, what, if possible, would be worse, at Paris, where I must admit every body.—­I, who you know can hardly bear to see even you when I am ill, and who shut up myself here, and would not let Lord and Lady Hertford come near me—­I, who have my room washed though in bed, how could I bear French dirt!  In short, I, who am so capricious, and whom you are pleased to call a philosopher, I suppose because I have given up every thing but my own will—­how could I keep my temper, who have no way of keeping my temper but by keeping it out of every body’s way!  No, I must give up the satisfaction of being with you at Paris.  I have just learnt to give up my pleasures, but I cannot give up my pains, which such selfish people as I who have suffered much, grow to compose into a system that they are partial to, because it is their own.  I must make myself amends when you return:  you will be more stationary, I hope, for the future; and if I live I shall have intervals of health.  In lieu of me, you will have a charming succedaneum, Lady Harriet Stanhope.(129) Her father, who is more a hero than i, is packing up his old decrepit bones, and goes too.  I wish she may not have him to nurse, instead of diverting herself.

The present state of your country is, that it is drowned and dead drunk; all water without, and wine within.  Opposition for the next elections every where, even in Scotland; not from party, but as laying Out money to advantage.  In the head-quarters, indeed, party is not out of the question:  the day after to-morrow will be a great bustle in the city for a Lord Mayor,(130) and all the winter in Westminster, where Lord Mahon and Humphrey Cotes oppose the court.  Lady Powis is saving her money at Ludlow and Powis Castles by keeping open house day and night against Sir Watkin Williams, and fears she shall be kept there till the general election.  It has rained this whole month, and we have got another inundation.  The Thames is as broad as your Danube, and all my