ed, to the
language of the _halles_: but, without being instructed in that dialect,
it was the opinion of the polite Lord Chesterfield that no man could be
a complete master of French. Their Parisian brethren called them _gueux
plumes_, which, though not elegant, is expressive and characteristic:
_feathered scoundrels_, I think, comes the nearest to it in that kind of
English. But we are now to understand that these _gueux_, for no other
reason, that I can divine, except their red and white clothes, form at
last a state with which we may cultivate amity, and have a prospect of
the blessings of a secure and permanent peace. In effect, then, it was
not with the men, or their principles, or their polities, that we
quarrelled: our sole dislike was to the cut of their clothes.

But to pass over _their_ dresses,--good God! in what habits did the
representatives of the crowned heads of Europe appear, when they came to
swell the pomp of their humiliation, and attended in solemn function
this inauguration of Regicide? That would be the curiosity. Under what
robes did they cover the disgrace and degradation of the whole college
of kings? What warehouses of masks and dominoes furnished a cover to the
nakedness of their shame? The shop ought to be known; it will soon have
a good trade. Were the dresses of the ministers of those lately called
potentates, who attended on that occasion, taken from the wardrobe of
that property-man at the opera, from whence my old acquaintance,
Anacharsis Clootz, some years ago equipped a body of ambassadors, whom
he conducted, as from all the nations of the world, to the bar of what
was called the Constituent Assembly? Among those mock ministers, one of
the most conspicuous figures was the representative of the British
nation, who unluckily was wanting at the late ceremony. In the face of
all the real ambassadors of the sovereigns of Europe was this ludicrous
representation of their several subjects, under the name of _oppressed
sovereigns_,[10] exhibited to the Assembly. That Assembly received an
harangue, in the name of those sovereigns, against their kings,
delivered by this Clootz, actually a subject of Prussia, under the name
of Ambassador of the Human Race. At that time there was only a feeble
reclamation from one of the ambassadors of these tyrants and oppressors.
A most gracious answer was given to the ministers of the oppressed
sovereigns; and they went so far on that occasion as to assign the