I heard of a great trait of Scotch nationality. At a dinner at the Chief Baron’s,[62] where Sylvester Douglas[63] was, the news, just then fresh, of Bonaparte’s seizure of the Governt. was mentioned, upon which both the Scotchmen at the same moment inquired, ‘And what did Macdonald[64] do?’
THE PRINCE’S HEALTH
The Prince of Wales is supposed to be dying: whatever his illness may be besides, revived love for Mrs. Fitzherbert has aggravated and added to the measure of it. Mde. de Coigny says it’s like a rondeau, in which variations are made ad libitum, but the return is to the first air. He had a numerous dinner last week, composed solely of parsons; whether this was fun or fear is uncertain. If he had been in a vein for the former, it might have been indulged, as no set of men abhor each other with more heartfelt hatred than those pious brethren; each is in the way of the other, like an overloaded market in Bengal of English beauties. The other night at D. House he fell back in his chair and pointed to have his neckcloth loosened; fortunately Farquhar was there, and ordered proper remedies for his recovery.
The French have played a very good trick in return for our publishing the intercepted letters. They pretend to have found hidden in the wall of a house belonging to a Chouan chief, letters written by Pitt, Windham, etc., to recommend the Royalists to make peace with the Republicans at any rate, and then break it when the English succours arrive. This may be a real correspondence, but if not, è bene trovato.
Menzini,[65] the satirist, was derided for his poverty by an insolent and haughty Cardinal, who from his balcony perceived him walking, shabbily dressed. The Cardinal expressed his contempt in the lines of Petrarch:—
Povera e nuda vai Filosofia.
Menzini, with great quickness, replied by the next line of the poet:—
Dice la turba al vil guadagno intesa.
Caraccioli said of England, ‘Que c’était un pays où il y avoit mille religions, et qu’une sauce.’
M. de Lauragais[66] said of it, ‘Qu’il n’y avoit rien de poli que l’acier, point de fruits mûrs que les pommes cuites.’