I beg your pardon for this digression. I return to the bois de Boulogne; when the day is fine, the _promenade_ is very lively; and the grotesque figures produced by the unnatural union of french finery, and english simplicity, serve to distinguish it from every thing else of the kind in Europe. In returning from this motley scene, at four o’clock to day, I heard the sound of cannon: I learnt soon after, with inexpressible joy that the news of the signature of the definitive treaty was just arrived. Happy day, which gives peace to all the world; may you long be remembered, and may many, many years pass over, before you have a successor! at six, the whole _façade_ of the Thuilleries, its garden, “les Invalides,” and the hotel of the minister of marine, were all (as if by magic), splendidly illuminated. It grieves me to add, that this important intelligence has produced no effect at Paris. It has scarcely been mentioned in society, and I have walked about, the whole evening, admiring the taste with which the public buildings were lighted; and heartily joining in the satisfaction which occasioned them, without meeting one single group of french spectators. Indifference is “the order of the day;” and I really believe, that no subject of any kind could animate the parisians, or rouse them from the stupid apathy, into which they have fallen, on the subject of politics. If “_spectacles_” have lost their attraction, it is in vain to try any other method; for these are the “penates” of the inhabitants of this great city. I hope and trust, that the peace will be received in England, in a very different manner. All good men will unite in rejoicing at the termination of a war, which, whether “just and necessary,” as some assert, or wantonly undertaken as others represent, was attended with such an unusual waste of public money, private happiness, and human blood. I sincerely congratulate you, my dear sir, on this, the happiest event, which England has known for many years. I remain, &c. LETTER XXII. The palais du _Luxembourg_.—_Théâtre d’Odéon._—The pantheon or St. Généviève.—Tombs of Rousseau and Voltaire. Paris, april the 1st, 1802 (11 germinal). MY DEAR SIR,