My father poured out a brimming glass for my good master, Monsieur l’Abbé Coignard, and for Monsieur Nicolas Cerise, and forced them to clink their glasses, which they did right heartily, for they were good fellows. VI THE NEW MINISTRY Mr. Shippen, who practised the trade of a locksmith at Greenwich, dined every day, during his short stays in Paris, at the _Sign of the Reine Pédauque_, in the company of his landlord and of my good master, Monsieur l’Abbé Coignard. That day, at dessert, having called for a bottle of wine as was his custom, lighted his pipe, and drawn from his pocket the London Gazette, he set himself peaceably to smoke, drink, and read; then folding his paper, and placing his pipe on the edge of the table, he said: “Gentlemen, the Government is defeated.” “Oh!” said my good master, “it is of no consequence.” “Pardon me,” said Mr. Shippen, “it _is_ a matter of consequence, for the former ministry being Tory, the new one will be Whig, and moreover, everything that happens in England is of importance.” “Sir,” replied my good master, “We have seen greater changes than that in France. We have seen the four officials known as Secretaries of State replaced by six or seven Councils of ten members apiece, and the Secretaries of State hewn in ten pieces and then re-established in their original shape. At each of these changes there were some who swore that all was lost, and others that all was saved. And rhymes were made about it all. For my part, I take little interest in what is done in the King’s cabinet, for I notice that the course of life is in no way changed, and after reforms men are as before, selfish, avaricious, cowardly, cruel, stupid and furious by turns, and there is always a nearly even number of births, marriages, cuckolds, and gallowsbirds, in which is made manifest the beautiful ordering of our society. This condition is stable, sir, and nothing could shake it, for it is founded on human misery and imbecility, and those are foundations which will never be wanting. The whole edifice gains from them a strength which defies the efforts of the worst of princes, and of the ignorant crowd of officials who assist them.” My father, who, larding-pin in hand, was listening to this conversation, made this amendment with deferential firmness: that good ministers are to be found, and that he could remember one, who had recently died, as the author of a very wise regulation protecting cooks against the devouring ambitions of butchers and confectioners.