"At the courts of Common Pleas, King's Bench, and Exchequer, in Westminster, I seated myself amongst the Lawyers; and upon my
speaking French to the two next me, neither of whom happened to understand that language, one of them rose, and brought a brother Lawyer, who, being acquainted with the French tongue, explained to me the best he could all that passed.
"At the play-houses and other public diversions, I had the same good fortune. Those that did not understand me, were eager to look for somebody that did; and my interpreter, who had taken a bottle of wine with him, never drank without afterwards presenting me with it: I made it a rule to drink, because having declined the first time it was offered, I was given to understand, that such a refusal was contrary to the laws of English politeness.
"It must, however, be observed, that this obliging behaviour is not accompanied with all those external demonstrations of civility, which are customary upon such occasions in France. If an English gentleman, who did not understand me, went in quest of an interpreter, he rose, and quitted me with an air, which seemed rather to be that of a whimsical humourist, than of a gentleman who was going to do a polite action; and I saw no more of him.
"I met with the same civility and complaisance amongst all the shop-keepers, whether great or little. The tradesman sent his son or his daughter to me, who often served me as guide, after having first acted as an interpreter: for some years past, the French language has
been taught as universally as the English, in all the boarding-schools of London; so that French will soon be by choice the language of the people of England, as it was by constraint and necessity under the Norman Kings. This is a demonstration, that the antipathy of that Nation for every thing belonging to the French is not universal and without exception.
"The French are apt to imagine, that it is on account of their country they are pushed and shoved in the most frequented streets, and often driven into the kennel; but they are mistaken. The English walk very fast: their thoughts being entirely engrossed by business, they are very punctual to their appointments, and those who happen to be in their way are sure to be sufferers by it: constantly darting forward, they jostle them with a force proportioned to their bulk and the velocity of their motion. I have seen foreigners, not used to this exercise, let themselves be tossed and whirled about a long time, in the midst of a crowd of passengers, who had nothing else in view but to get forward. Having soon adopted the English custom, I made the best of my way through crowded streets, exerting my utmost efforts to shun persons who were equally careful to avoid me.
"We should be equally in an error, if we were to imagine that the English fashions, diametrically opposite to those of France, are
contrived in the manner they are, in order to avoid all resemblance to those of our Nation: on the contrary, if the former are any way influenced by the latter, it is by the desire of imitating them. A mode begins to be out of date at Paris, just when it has been introduced at London by some English Nobleman. The Court and the first-rate Nobility immediately take it up: it is next introduced about St. James's by those that ape the manners of the Court; and by the time it has reached the City, a contrary mode already prevails at Paris, where the English, bringing with them the obsolete mode, appear like the people of another world. The little hats, for example, at present so fashionable in France, begin to be wore by the Nobility, who borrowed the model from Paris: by degrees the English will come at the diminutive size; but the great hats will then be resumed at Paris. This holds good in general, with regard both to men and women's apparel."
It has long been customary for the lower classes to hold a burlesque election at Wandsworth after a dissolution of Parliament for the choice of a Mayor of Garratt. To describe the strange proceedings of the candidates, who are always selected from the most ludicrous or most hideous of the community, or the riotous freaks of the mob, would be impossible. One vast wave of the populace rolls impetuous from London after the