d
business, and their printed letters will not be quoted as models of
composition. Lord Bolingbroke may have published in French a sketch of
his Reflections on Exile: but his reputation now reposes on the address
of Voltaire, "Docte sermones utriusque linguae;" and by his English
dedication to Queen Caroline, and his Essay on Epic Poetry, it should
seem that Voltaire himself wished to deserve a return of the same
compliment. The exception of Count Hamilton cannot fairly be urged;
though an Irishman by birth, he was educated in France from his
childhood. Yet I am surprised that a long residence in England, and the
habits of domestic conversation, did not affect the ease and purity of
his inimitable style; and I regret the omission of his English verses,
which might have afforded an amusing object of comparison. I might
therefore assume the primus ego in patriam, &c.; but with what success
I have explored this untrodden path must be left to the decision of
my French readers. Dr. Maty, who might himself be questioned as a
foreigner, has secured his retreat at my expense. "Je ne crois pas que
vous vous piquiez d'etre moins facile a reconnoitre pour un Anglois que
Lucullus pour un Romain." My friends at Paris have been more indulgent,
they received me as a countryman, or at least as a provincial; but they
were friends and Parisians. The defects which Maty insinuates, "Ces
traits saillans, ces figures hardies, ce sacrifice de la regle au
sentiment, et de la cadence a la force," are the faults of the youth,
rather than of the stranger: and after the long and laborious exercise
of my own language, I am conscious that my French style has been ripened
and improved.

I have already hinted, that the publication of my essay was delayed till
I had embraced the military profession. I shall now amuse myself with
the recollection of an active scene, which bears no affinity to any
other period of my studious and social life.

In the outset of a glorious war, the English people had been defended
by the aid of German mercenaries. A national militia has been the cry of
every patriot since the Revolution; and this measure, both in parliament
and in the field, was supported by the country gentlemen or Tories, who
insensibly transferred their loyalty to the house of Hanover: in
the language of Mr. Burke, they have changed the idol, but they have
preserved the idolatry. In the act of offering our names and receiving
our commissions, as major