e. I consider Paris and Madrid as the two only points, at which Europe
and America should touch closely, and that a connection at these points
should be fostered.

We have had in this city a very considerable riot, in which about one
hundred people have been probably killed. It was the most unprovoked,
and is therefore, justly, the most unpitied catastrophe of that kind
I ever knew. Nor did the wretches know what they wanted, except to do
mischief. It seems to have had no particular connection with the great
national question now in agitation. The want of bread is very seriously
dreaded through the whole kingdom. Between twenty and thirty ship-loads
of wheat and flour has already arrived from the United States, and there
will be about the same quantity of rice sent from Charleston to this
country directly, of which about half has arrived. I presume that,
between wheat and rice, one hundred ship-loads may be counted on in the
whole from us. Paris consumes about a ship-load a day, (say two hundred
and fifty tons.) The total supply of the West Indies, for this year,
rests with us, and there is almost a famine in Canada and Nova Scotia.
The States General were opened the day before yesterday. Viewing it as
an opera, it was imposing; as a scene of business, the King's speech was
exactly what it should have been, and very well delivered; not a word
of the Chancellor's was heard by any body, so that, as yet, I have never
heard a single guess at what it was about. Mr. Necker's was as good as
such a number of details would permit it to be. The picture of their
resources was consoling, and generally plausible. I could have wished
him to have dwelt more on those great constitutional reformations, which
his _Rapport au Roy_ had prepared us to expect. But they observe, that
these points are proper for the speech of the Chancellor. We are in
hopes, therefore, they were in that speech, which, like the Revelations
of St. John, were no revelations at all. The _Noblesse_, on coming
together, show that they are not as much reformed in their principles
as we had hoped they would be. In fact, there is real danger of their
totally refusing to vote by persons. Some found hopes on the lower
clergy, which constitute four-fifths of the deputies of that order. If
they do not turn the balance in favor of the _Tiers-Etat_, there is
real danger of a scission. But I shall not consider even that event
as rendering things desperate. If the King will do