The carnival is celebrated in the same manner by the higher classes in the evening; and there is a masquerade every night at the opera house. I went there yesterday, and observed more gayety among the persons assembled, than I have yet seen in France. The pit being joined to the stage, gave a large space, which was entirely filled. The gentlemen do not usually wear masks, and their persons are only covered with a domino. It is one of the privileges of the ladies to conceal their faces, and to attack, without being known, the _beaux_ of their acquaintance. This custom takes from the splendour of the masquerade, as very few persons are fancifully dressed, and almost all are occupied in seeking adventures. Nor was the conversation livelier than on such occasions in England: the small number of individuals who pretended to assume characters, trusted to their dresses, rather than their wit, for the support of their parts. There were “english jockies,” who had never heard of Newmarket, and who could speak no language but the french; haughty dons, who could not answer a question in Spanish; actors, who could not repeat a single line either of Racine, Corneille, or Voltaire; beys of Egypt, who knew not the course of the Nile; grand signors, who heard, for the first time, that wine was forbidden by the Koran; and monks, who did not know to what order they belonged. Yet, notwithstanding these little defects, the evening was lively; and though there was no form, there was no disturbance. Whatever improprieties might have privately taken place, no indecency shocked the public eye; no drunken persons made their appearance; no woman was insulted, and no quiet inoffensive man dragged into a quarrel. This is, indeed, the great and striking characteristic of a public place in France, that it may be visited in safety; and if the parisian _spectacles_ are less amusing than those of London, the former have, at least, the negative merit of not exposing those who frequent them to riot, rudeness, or inconvenience. I am, &c. LETTER XIX. Bonaparte’s audience.—His address to the english gentlemen presented to him.—First appearance, this season, of _Vestris_.—Madame de St—l’s concert. Paris, march the 7th, 1801, (16 ventose). MY DEAR SIR,