(_l._) I suppose you know my mind about the whole by my letter.[115] M. de Calonne is exiled, so is M. Necker. What will be the result I do not know, but the notables have missed the way, and they know nothing of the matter; but public business must give way to what I make a proposal to you, it is question of nothing else but to travel together a thousand miles, without more expense but that you would spend anywhere, &c. &c. so you may go to the devil if you don’t speak well of me and my prospect. My best compliments to M. Symonds &c. &c. chiefly Lady Gage and Sir Thomas. ‘Yours for ever, ‘LY. ‘Do not forget to write and to speak about your horse, whether you will bring yours, or if we must get one for you.’ This was touching a string tremulous to vibrate. I had so long wished for an opportunity to examine France. In the survey of agriculture which I had taken in England and Ireland, of about 7,000 miles, I had calculated, from facts, the rent produce and resources of those Kingdoms, and I had often reflected on the importance of knowing the real situation of France; the effect of Government; the state of the farmers, of the poor—the state and extent of their manufactures with a hundred other enquiries certainly of political importance; yet strange as it may seem not to be found in any French book written from actual observation, all that I was before able to learn having been composed in some great city without travelling beyond the walls. I should accept a very unsatisfactory work upon sheep, written by Mons. Cartier, employed and paid by Government. I had but little time given me to consider of the proposal, but I wrote to learn if they travelled post, because I previously determined in that case not to go. And, further, I requested to know if I were to travel at any other expense than that of myself and horse. The answer was that they travelled with their own horses, and did not propose making more than twenty or twenty-five miles a day; that my expense would be merely what I stated, and mostly in a cheap part of the kingdom. This most agreeable plan I instantaneously acceded to, and soon set out for France on horseback. At Dover, being detained, I copy the following note on that expedition:—