not expressed any opinion about it to the Count. With great respect we have the honour to be, sir, your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servants, [Signed] JOHN ADAMS CHAPTER XI SOCIAL LIFE IN FRANCE WITH no assistance, save the slight help furnished by his grandson, an inexperienced boy who was more familiar than he with the French language, surrounded by spies and beset by jealous and malicious foes, Franklin performed alone the varied duties of merchant, consul, commissioner, and plenipotentiary. He bought and sold ships, adjusted difficulties between rival commanders, pacified mutinous crews clamouring for prizes, purchased arms and clothing for the Continentals, recommended soldiers and sailors for the army and navy in America, made treaties with the farmers-general, influenced the policy of foreign newspapers, honoured the large and constant drafts of the Congress, and persuaded the French government to advance large sums of money to relieve the desperate necessities of America. But his life was not all toil. He lightened the burden and forgot his worries by social diversions. He was admired by philosophers and petted by society; and he found himself as much at home in the salon of Madame d'Houdetot or Madame Helvétius as in the laboratory of Lavoisier, the clinic of Vicq d'Azyr, or the cabinet of Vergennes. Never lived a man more idolized. Curious crowds followed him with applause when he walked abroad; men carried their canes and their snuff-boxes à la Franklin, fair women crowned him with flowers, and wrote him roguish letters affectionately addressed to "dear amiable Papa." A list of the names upon the visiting cards found among Franklin's private papers would be an index of the society of Paris before the Revolution. Those that most frequently appear are La Duchesse d'Enville, Duc de la Rochefoucauld, M. Turgot, Duc de Chaulnes, Comte de Crillon, Vicomte de Sarsfield, M. Brisson, of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Comte de Milly, Prince des Deuxponts, Comte d'Estaing, Marquis de Mirabeau, M. Beaugeard, Treasurer of the State of Brittany. Twice a week he dined with Madame Brillon at Moulin Joli, every Saturday with Madame Helvétius at Auteuil, and more irregularly but still frequently with Madame d'Houdetot at Sanois. He was a social creature and loved cheerful companionship, chess, conversation, and music, nor was he, maugre the gout and the gravel, in any wise averse to the pleasures of the table. His dinners at home when he entertained his friends on Sunday at Passy were carefully studied, and his household accounts speak of large and learned purchases of the best vintages of France. His appetite for sawdust-pudding belonged only to the days of his apprenticeship. At sixty he was fond of an afternoon of salt fish and brandy at the George and Vulture with Anthony Todd, and was rather proud of discomfiting Lord Clare at a claretdrinking. Ten years later he made careful collections of menus, and declared that he would rather bring back from Italy a receipt for Parmesan cheese than the rarest inscription that archæology had unearthed. A glass or two of champagne sufficed to put him in good humour, but before the dinner was over, he confessed to Mrs. Hewson, he often drank more than a philosopher should. He was particularly partial to the wines of Burgundy, and brought on access of gout with the copious draughts of Nuits with which Cabanis plied him at Auteuil. But he was also fond of Madeira, and liked to gossip with his friend Strahan over the second bottle. The brother-in-law of the Chevaliere d'Eon sent him a cask of Burgundy from that strange creature's vineyard. M. de Bays, sub-delegate of the Intendance of Bourgogne, presented him with a basket of the best Burgundy to celebrate the Treaty of Peace. David Hartley supplied him with Jamaica rum. From Thomas Jordan, the brewer, he received a cask of porter which he broached in Philadelphia, when "its contents met with the most cordial reception and universal approbation." He was very susceptible to female charms. Madame Brillon wrote to him, "You permit your wisdom to be broken against the rocks of femininity." Writing from Paris to Mrs. Partridge, he said, "You mention the kindness of the French ladies to me. I must explain that matter. This is the civilest nation upon earth. Your first acquaintances endeavour to find out what you like and they tell others. If 'tis understood that you like mutton, dine where you will you find mutton. Somebody, it seems, gave it out that I lov'd ladies; and then everybody presented me their ladies (or the ladies presented themselves) to be embraced that is to have their necks kissed. For as to kissing of lips or checks, it is not the mode here; the first is reckoned rude, and the other may rub off the paint." In America, the chief friends with whom he indulged in careless banter and frivolous correspondence were "Caty" Ray, afterwards the wife of William Greene, governor of Rhode Island, and Elizabeth Partridge, née "Betsey" Hubbard. In England he found his most cheerful diversion with Mrs. Mary Hewson and Georgiana Shipley (daughter of the Bishop of St. Asaph). Liberal portions still exist of his correspondence in France with Mesdames Brillon, D'Houdetot, Helvétius, Foucault, Forbach, and Le Veillard. It was to Madame Brillon that Franklin addressed the first of his famous bagatelles. He has told the circumstances in a letter to William Carmichael. "The person to whom it ['The Ephemera'] was addressed is Madame Brillon, a lady of most respectable character and pleasing conversation; mistress of an amiable family in this neighbourhood, with which I spend an evening twice in every week. She has, among other elegant accomplishments, that of an excellent musician; and, with her daughters who sing prettily, and some friends who play, she kindly entertains me and my grandson with little concerts, a cup of tea, and a game of chess. I call this my Opera, for I rarely go to the Opera at Paris." M. Brillon was a French official of good estate and considerable income. His wife was much younger than he, and according to Miss Adams "one of the handsomest women in France." Franklin attempted in vain to arrange a marriage between her daughter and his grandson. Every Wednesday and Saturday he visited her and in the intervening days letters were swift and intelligent between them. "Do you know, my dear Papa," she wrote to him, "that people have the audacity to criticise my pleasant habit of sitting upon your knees, and yours of always asking me for what I always refuse?" "I despise slanderers and am at peace with myself, but that is not enough, one must submit to what is called propriety (the word varies in each century in each country), to sit less often on your knees. I shall certainly love you none the less, nor will our hearts be more or less pure; but we shall close the mouths of the malicious and it is no slight thing even for the secure to silence them." In the great collection of Franklin's papers in The American Philosophical Society are one hundred and nineteen letters from Madame Brillon, sparkling with wit and full of interesting history. The rough drafts, also, of some of Franklin's letters to her exist in the same collection, some of them written in his halting French and corrected by her pen. These letters have not hitherto been printed. They illuminate the character of Franklin and show the great man in idle hours when free of the weary burden of public business. Most of them are undated, but I have tried to arrange them as nearly as possible in what would appear to have been their chronological order. MME. BRILLON TO DR. FRANKLIN THE THUILLERIE, 2nd November, 1778. The hope that I had of seeing you here, my dear Papa, prevented my writing to you for Saturday's tea. Hope is the remedy for all our ills. If one suffers, one hopes for the end of the trouble; if one is with friends, one hopes to remain with them; if one is away from them, one hopes to go to them, |