ame du Barri, that she had been very
handsome, and had some remains of beauty up to the period of her
death; of Luckner, who was guillotined, and as the car passed on
the people cried (as they used), 'A la guillotine! a la
guillotine!' Luckner turned round and said, '_On_ y va, canaille.'

[Page Head: POULETT THOMSON.]

We have just sent a commission to Paris to treat with the French
Government about a commercial treaty on the principles of free
trade. Poulett Thomson, who has been at Paris some time, has
originated it, and Althorp selected George Villiers for the
purpose, but has added to him as a colleague Dr. Bowring, who has
in fact been selected by Thomson, a theorist, and a jobber,
deeply implicated in the 'Greek Fire,' and a Benthamite. He was
the subject of a cutting satire of Moore's, beginning,

The ghost of Miltiades came by night,
And stood by the bed of the Benthamite;

but he has been at Paris some time, understanding the subject,
and has wound himself into some intimacy with the French King and
his Ministers. It is, however, Poulett Thomson who has persuaded
Althorp to appoint him, in order to have a creature of his own
there.

I have never been able to understand the enormous unpopularity of
this man, who appears civil, well-bred, intelligent, and
agreeable (only rather a coxcomb), and has made a certain figure
in the House of Commons, but it has been explained to me by a
person who knows him well. He was originally a merchant, and had
a quantity of counting-house knowledge. He became member of a
club of political economists, and a scholar of M'Culloch's. In
this club there were some obscure but very able men, and by them
he got crammed with the principles of commerce and political
economy, and from his mercantile connections he got facts. He
possessed great industry and sufficient ability to work up the
materials he thus acquired into a very plausible exhibition of
knowledge upon these subjects, and having opportunities of
preparing himself for every particular question, and the
advantage of addressing an audience the greater part of which is
profoundly ignorant, he passed for a young gentleman of
extraordinary ability and profound knowledge, and amongst the
greatest of his admirers was Althorp, who, when the Whigs came
in, promoted him to his present situation. Since he has been
there he has not had the same opportunities of learning his
lesson from others behind the