r entertainer took all opportunities of encouraging and inflaming
the contention. The first source of their difference was an unlucky
remark of the painter, who observed that the partridge, of which he was
then eating, had the finest relish of any he had ever tasted. His friend
owned that the birds were the best of the kind he had seen in France;
but affirmed that they were neither so plump nor delicious as those that
were caught in England. The governor, considering this observation as
the effect of prejudice and inexperience, said, with a sarcastic smile,
"I believe, sir, you are very well disposed to find everything here
inferior to the productions of your own country."--"True, sir," answered
the physician, with a certain solemnity of aspect, "and not without
good reason, I hope."--"And pray," resumed the tutor, "why may not the
partridges of France be as good as those of England?"--"For a very plain
reason," replied the other; "because they are not so well fed. The
iron hand of oppression is extended to all animals within the French
dominions, even to the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air;
kunessin oionoisi te pasi."--"Egad!" cried the painter, "that is a truth
not to be controverted: for my own part, I am none of your tit-bits, one
would think; but yet there is a freshness in the English complexion, a
ginseekye, I think you call it, so inviting to a hungry Frenchman,
that I have caught several in the very act of viewing me with an eye of
extreme appetite, as I passed; and as for their curs, or rather their
wolves, whenever I set eyes on one of 'em, Ah! your humble servant, Mr.
son of a b--, I am upon my guard in an instant. The doctor can testify
that their very horses, or more properly their live carrion, that drew
our chaise, used to reach back their long necks and smell at us, as a
couple of delicious morsels."

This sally of Mr. Pallet, which was received with a general laugh of
approbation, would in all probability, have stifled the dispute in
embryo, had not Mr. Jolter, with a self-applauding simper, ironically
complimented the strangers on their talking like true Englishmen. The
doctor, affronted at the insinuation, told him with some warmth that he
was mistaken in his conjecture, his affections and ideas being confined
to no particular country; for he considered himself as a citizen of
the world. He owned himself more attached to England than to any other
kingdom, but this preference was the effec