If An English Protestant Goes To France For The
Benefit Of His Health, Attended By His Wife Or His Son,
Or both,
and dies with effects in the house to the amount of a thousand
guineas, the king seizes the
Whole, the family is left destitute,
and the body of the deceased is denied christian burial. The
Swiss, by capitulation, are exempted from this despotism, and so
are the Scots, in consequence of an ancient alliance between the
two nations. The same droit d'aubaine is exacted by some of the
princes in Germany: but it is a great discouragement to commerce,
and prejudices every country where it is exercised, to ten times
the value of what it brings into the coffers of the sovereign.
I am exceedingly mortified at the detention of my books, which
not only deprives me of an amusement which I can very ill
dispense with; but, in all probability, will expose me to sundry
other inconveniencies. I must be at the expence of sending them
sixty miles to be examined, and run the risque of their being
condemned; and, in the mean time, I may lose the opportunity of
sending them with my heavy baggage by sea to Bourdeaux, to be
sent up the Garonne to Tholouse, and from thence transmitted
through the canal of Languedoc to Cette, which is a sea-port on
the Mediterranean, about three or four leagues from Montpelier.
For the recovery of my books, I had recourse to the advice of my
landlord, Mons. B - . He is a handsome young fellow, about twenty-five
years of age, and keeps house with two maiden sisters, who
are professed devotees. The brother is a little libertine, good
natured and obliging; but a true Frenchman in vanity, which is
undoubtedly the ruling passion of this volatile people. He has an
inconsiderable place under the government, in consequence of
which he is permitted to wear a sword, a privilege which he does
not fail to use. He is likewise receiver of the tythes of the
clergy in this district, an office that gives him a command of
money, and he, moreover, deals in the wine trade. When I came to
his house, he made a parade of all these advantages: he displayed
his bags of money, and some old gold which his father had left
him. He described his chateau in the country; dropped hints of
the fortunes that were settled upon mademoiselles his sisters;
boasted of his connexions at court; and assured me it was not for
my money that he let his lodgings, but altogether with a view to
enjoy the pleasure of my company. The truth, when stript of all
embellishments, is this: the sieur B - is the son of an honest
bourgeois lately dead, who left him the house, with some stock in
trade, a little money, and a paltry farm: his sisters have about
three thousand livres (not quite 140 L) apiece; the brother's
places are worth about fifty pounds a year, and his connexions at
court are confined to a commis or clerk in the secretary's
office, with whom he corresponds by virtue of his employment. My
landlord piques himself upon his gallantry and success with the
fair-sex: he keeps a fille de joye, and makes no secret of his
amours. He told miss C - the other day, in broken English, that,
in the course of the last year, he had made six bastards. He
owned, at the same time, he had sent them all to the hospital;
but, now his father is dead, he would himself take care of his
future productions. This, however, was no better than a
gasconade. Yesterday the house was in a hot alarm, on account of
a new windfall of this kind: the sisters were in tears; the
brother was visited by the cure of the parish; the lady in the
straw (a sempstress) sent him the bantling in a basket, and he
transmitted it by the carriers to the Enfans trouves at Paris.
But to return from this digression: Mr. B - advised me to send a
requete or petition to the chancellor of France, that I might
obtain an order to have my books examined on the spot, by the
president of Boulogne, or the procureur du roy, or the sub-delegate
of the intendance. He recommended an advocat of his
acquaintance to draw up the memoire, and introduced him
accordingly; telling me at the same time, in private, that if he
was not a drunkard, he would be at the head of his profession. He
had indeed all the outward signs of a sot; a sleepy eye, a
rubicund face, and carbuncled nose. He seemed to be a little out
at elbows, had marvellous foul linen, and his breeches were not
very sound: but he assumed an air of importance, was very
courteous, and very solemn. I asked him if he did not sometimes
divert himself with the muse: he smiled, and promised, in a
whisper, to shew me some chansonettes de sa facon. Meanwhile he
composed the requete in my name, which was very pompous, very
tedious, and very abject. Such a stile might perhaps be necessary
in a native of France; but I did not think it was at all suitable
to a subject of Great-Britain. I thanked him for the trouble he
had taken, as he would receive no other gratification; but when
my landlord proposed to send the memoire to his correspondent at
Paris, to be delivered to the chancellor, I told him I had
changed my mind, and would apply to the English ambassador. I
have accordingly taken the liberty to address myself to the earl
of H - ; and at the same time I have presumed to write to the
duchess of D - , who is now at Paris, to entreat her grace's
advice and interposition. What effect these applications may
have, I know not: but the sieur B - shakes his head, and has told
my servant, in confidence, that I am mistaken if I think the
English ambassador is as great a man at Paris as the chancellor
of France.
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