Isaac Smith Jr. to John Adams, 3 September 1771
London, Septr. 3: [ 1771 ]
Dear sir
I have just returned from an agreable excursion, in the course of which I had the pleasure of receiving your favour of April last, with that of Mrs. Adams, for each of which I beg leave to return my thanks.
I am sorry to find that you have deserted Boston. You plead as an excuse, sir, –the load of public and private care, which oppress–d you.– But you would have pleased me better, if instead of changing the residence of your family; you had only shifted your own for awhile. I trust, sir, that you would both repair the health of your body, and ease the burthen of your mind by using the relaxation of a voyage to Europe, more effectually than by breathing the air of Braintree in preference to that of Boston.
About 3 months past I have spent in a visit to the adjacent Continent, and was 5 weeks in Paris, the capital of a kingdom calculated by nature for one of the finest in the world, but by the joint influence of ambition, avarice and superstition, renderd the object of commiseration to a liberal mind.
The public affairs of France are infinitely more embarrass–d than those of England. The former boasts of having a greater variety of ressources at command than the latter. Poverty however covers the face both of the public, and of individuals. The wretched state of its finances at present is a great security to our tranquillity.
A prime minister exiled–another substituted in his room, the object of public odium–parliaments one after the other dissolved and banished–and the princes of the blood (one only excepted) thrown into disgrace! If an instance of illegal violence adopted against a single member of the british parliament could raise such a clamour here, what would proceedings of such a nature occasion? A rod hung over the heads of the people in that kingdom, tho– it cannot suppress their murmurs, yet is sufficient to prevent them from carrying their complaints into action.
To so sensible a nation as the french, it must be a most mortifying circumstance, that the revolutions of their government are often dependent on the amours of their monarch. This is notorious in the late change of their administration. The history of the present Sultana of their Court 1 is curious. It seems that she is the natural daughter of a monk, and was a domestic in a family at Paris. A particular nobleman is struck with her beauty. As he had either already formed such a connection, or was afraid of degrading his dignity too far, he persuades his brother to marry her. In course of time, to serve the political purposes of a family, she is recommended to the King, who is particularly fond of bestowing his caresses on a married lady. To make herself appear in the more respectable light at Court, she claims an affinity with an ancient family of Ireland, the present possessor of whose title, Lord
Barrymore, a nobleman equally distinguished for his conjugal fidelity in London, as Madame la Comtesse de Barre for her unspotted virtue in Paris, is so very condescending as to own the relation; and she is now treated with as much respect, as if she owed her connection with the monarch to birth instead of fortune. I had not an opportunity, tho I spent a day at the Palace of Versailles, of admiring the charms of this celebrated Lady.
Of the public buildings, the Churches, the libraries, the paintings, the amusements, and the manners of Paris, I shall be able to inform you more fully, when I enjoy the pleasure of seeing you again, which I am willing to indulge the hope of doing, by the middle of November if I can get ready to leave England by the first of October as I am endeavoring to do at present. I have no inclination to breathe the impure air of L [ondon] if I can avoid it another winter; but I am in doubt whether I can finish a few excursions, which are necessary to make before I embark for B [oston] so as to accomplish my wishes of returning before winter.
In the mean time, sir, I am, with all the sincerity imaginable, Yr. very affect. & hum servt,
I. Smith jr: