TALBOT698

Paris -
9^th May, 1816.

My Dear Mamma,

I don't know what to think of the French - Tonight I saw Moliere's "Tartuffe" ¹ - in which an actor says: "Nous vivons sous un Prince, ennemi de la fraude". ² and - "Que jamais le mérite avec lui ne perd rien, Et que mieux que du mal, il se souvient du bien." ³ This was received with thunders of applause, as loud as you would expect in London if the King were present in person - And yet these acclamations were as liberally bestowed on Buonaparte, ⁴ this time last year - was there ever seen so versatile a nation! The war between the new & old dynasties is excessively amusing. The Government try to obliterate every trace & vestige of Buonaparte, & his system. All the streets receive back their old names - for the second time: - even where the new names contain nothing revolutionary: by some oversight however, the rue Pigale, where we live, has not had its old name "rue Royale" restored yet - Perhaps I might get a reward from the Government for the Hint. Royal is everywhere substituted for Imperial, with great diligence: as Imperial had been for National. - This occasions in many instances an amusing confusion. The change you know, cannot be at once accomplished - it must be the work of time. Thus the inscriptions on the coin are very various - The gold, as being most noble, has been first legitimatized: it bears the head of Louis 18^{th 5} in lieu of Buonaparte: tho' it is called a Napoleon, not a Louis d'or. ⁶ - The Pence are very various - I will copy some for you -

La Nation, La loi, le roi. ⁷ [illustration] L'an 4 de la liberté ⁸- 1792.

= Louis XVI roi des Francois. ⁹

Here is one of the year preceding - only - [illustration] Francia et Navarra Rex. - 1791.

= Ludov. 16. ¹⁰ D. Gratiâ. Nothing said about the Third year of liberty!

May 16^th

I have forgotten to send this letter for a week -

Good bye,

Y^r Aff^te Son
W H F T.

Have you got me a hortus-siccus? ¹¹

Lady E. Feilding
31 Sackville S^t
London