Paris. His fame had
preceded him, and he received the cordial but discriminating welcome
which _the ancien regime_ at that time specially reserved for _gens
d'esprit_. Madame du Deffand writes to Walpole, "Mr. Gibbon has the
greatest success here; it is quite a struggle to get him." He did not
deny himself a rather sumptuous style of living while in Paris.
Perhaps the recollection of the unpleasant effect of his English
clothes and the long waists of the French on his former visit dwelt in
his mind, for now, like Walpole, he procured a new outfit at once.
"After decking myself out with silks and silver, the ordinary
establishment of coach, lodgings, servants, eating, and pocket
expenses, does not exceed 60_l._ per month. Yet I have two footmen in
handsome liveries behind my coach, and my apartment is hung with
damask."

The remainder of his life in London has nothing important. He
persevered assiduously with his history, and had two more quartos
ready in 1781. They were received with less enthusiasm than the first,
although they were really superior. Gibbon was rather too modestly
inclined to agree with the public and "to believe that, especially in
the beginning, they were more prolix and less entertaining" than the
previous volume. He also wasted some weeks on his vindication of the
fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of that volume, which had excited a
host of feeble and ill-mannered attacks. His defence was complete, and
in excellent temper. But the piece has no permanent value. His
assailants were so ignorant and silly that they gave no scope for a
great controversial reply. Neither perhaps did the subject admit of
it. A literary war generally makes people think of Bentley's
incomparable _Phalaris_. But that was almost a unique occasion and
victory in the history of letters. Bentley himself, the most
pugnacious of men, never found such another.

And so the time glided by, till we come to the year 1783. Lord North
had resigned office, the Board of Trade was abolished, and Gibbon had
lost his convenient salary. The outlook was not pleasant. The seat on
the Board of Customs or Excise with which his hopes had been for a
time kept up, receded into a remote distance, and he came to the
conclusion "that the reign of pensions and sinecures was at an end."
It was clearly necessary to take some important step in the way of
retrenchment. After he had lost his official income, his expenses
exceeded his revenue by something li