in society were indeed _sui generis_ and quite
unrivalled) had before him.

But Mr. Morris was possessed of greater qualities than those necessary
to make him shine in the vapid, corrupt society of the fashionable
world. He was a brilliant, yet sound, thinker, and his earnest
convictions, his practical statesmanship, and his shrewd business
abilities were quickly appreciated. Indeed, it was difficult to tell
whether ladies of fashion or troubled statesmen found him most
satisfactory. He could rhyme a delicate compliment for the one or draw
up a plan to aid France's crippled revenues for the other, with equal
dexterity. His opinion was sought upon the weightiest matters, and,
being unfettered by official obligations, as was Mr. Jefferson, he was
free to give it, and soon became associated with some of the greatest
gentlemen in the kingdom and intimately identified with many schemes for
the strengthening of the monarchy. For Mr. Morris, while a most ardent
republican in his own country, was a royalist in France, convinced that
a people, used from time immemorial to an almost despotic government,
extremely licentious, and by nature volatile, were utterly unfitted for
a republic. In many of the drawing-rooms where indiscriminate and
dangerous republicanism was so freely advocated, he was held to be trop
aristocrate. With amazing good-humor and keenness he attacked the closet
philosophers and knocked over their feeble arguments like tenpins,
urgently proclaiming that it was the duty and best policy for every son
of France to hold up the king's hands and strengthen his authority. It
was almost amusing to note the consternation his views caused among
those who, knowing him to be a republican of republicans, a citizen of
that country which had so lately and so gloriously won its civil
liberty, had expected far different things from him. Indeed, he ran foul
of many of the noblesse, with whom 'twas the fashion to be republicans
of the first feather, and of none more completely than Monsieur le
Marquis de Lafayette.

Monsieur de Lafayette, who had got himself elected from the noblesse in
Auvergne, had come back to town in March and was a frequent caller at
the Legation, having there a warm friend and ally in Mr. Jefferson. He
was unaffectedly glad to see Calvert after such a lapse of time and to
meet again Mr. Morris, whom he had also known in America. His admiration
and respect for Mr. Morris's qualities were very great, and it