a villainous chasm of about
half an inch between the floor and the skirting-boards. Then we have so
many corresponding windows, supernumerary doors, "and passages that lead
to nothing," that all our English ingenuity in comfortable arrangement is
baffled.--When the cold first became so insupportable, we attempted to
live entirely in the eating-room, which is warmed by a poele, or German
stove, but the kind of heat it emits is so depressive and relaxing to
those who are not inured to it, that we are again returned to our large
chimney and wood-fire.--The French depend more on the warmth of their
clothing, than the comfort of their houses. They are all wadded and
furred as though they were going on a sledge party, and the men, in this
respect, are more delicate than the ladies: but whether it be the
consequence of these precautions, or from any other cause, I observe they
are, in general, without excepting even the natives of the Southern
provinces, less sensible of cold than the English.

Amiens, Jan. 30, 1795.

Delacroix, author of _"Les Constitutions Politiques de l'Europe,"_ [The
Political Constitutions of Europe.] has lately published a work much
read, and which has excited the displeasure of the Assembly so highly,
that the writer, by way of preliminary criticism, has been arrested. The
book is intitled _"Le Spectateur Francais pendant la Revolution."_ [The
French Spectator during the Revolution.] It contains many truths, and
some speculations very unfavourable both to republicanism and its
founders. It ventures to doubt the free acceptance of the democratic
constitution, proposes indirectly the restoration of the monarchy, and
dilates with great composure on a plan for transporting to America all
the Deputies who voted for the King's death. The popularity of the work,
still more than its principles, has contributed to exasperate the
Assembly; and serious apprehensions are entertained for the fate of
Delacroix, who is ordered for trial to the Revolutionary Tribunal.

It would astonish a superficial observer to see with what avidity all
forbidden doctrines are read. Under the Church and Monarchy, a deistical
or republican author might sometimes acquire proselytes, or become the
favourite amusement of fashionable or literary people; but the
circulation of such works could be only partial, and amongst a particular
class of readers: whereas the treason of the day, which comprises
whatever favours Kings or