es without
appeal of horses, wine, and beauty, more gentlemen of the most sensitive
and demonstrative honor, than any other Northern State.

Inspired by the instincts of his race, Barlow fancied he saw the
approach of a new era of perfection. To hasten its advent in England, he
translated Volney's "Ruins," and went to London to publish his
translation. There he wrote his "Advice to the Privileged Classes," a
political pamphlet, and became an active member of the Constitution
Society. The Society commissioned him as delegate to the French
Convention, with an address of congratulation and a gift of a thousand
pairs of shoes. The Convention rewarded him with the dignity of _Citoyen
Francais_. Barlow adopted the character, and carried it out. He sang at
a supper a parody of "God save the King," composed by himself.

"Fame, let thy trumpet sound!
Tell all the world around
How Capet fell!
And when great George's poll
Shall in the basket roll,
Let mercy then control
The Guillotine!

"God save the Guillotine,
Till England's King and Queen
Her power shall prove;
When all the sceptred crew
Have paid their homage to
The Guillotine!"

A few years before, Barlow had dedicated the "Vision of Columbus" to
poor Capet, whose destruction he celebrates so pleasantly,--with many
assurances of the gratitude of America, and of his own veneration.
"_Coelum, non animum_," would never have been written, if Horace had
properly understood Connecticut character.

Barlow's zeal was pleasing to the rulers of France. They sent him and
the Abbe Gregoire to revolutionize Savoy, and to divide it into
departments. After his return, he became rich by speculation, and lived
handsomely in the Hotel de Clermont-Tonnerre. His reputation extended to
his own country. The United States employed him to negotiate with the
Barbary pirates,--that is to say, to buy off the wretched cutthroats who
infested the Mediterranean. He went to Africa, and made arrangements
which were considered advantageous then, and would be hooted at as
disgraceful now. In the treaty with Algiers occurred a passage that gave
great offence to his friends at home, and to Federalists in general. It
was to this effect, if not in these words: "That the government of the
United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."

In 1805, after seventeen years of absence, Barlow returned to America,
buil