BOULOGNE SUR MER, July 15, 1763.
DEAR SIR,--The custom-house officers at Boulogne, though as alert, are
rather more civil than those on your side of the water. I brought no
plate along with me, but a dozen and a half of spoons, and a dozen
teaspoons: the first being found in one of our portmanteaus, when they
were examined at the bureau, cost me seventeen livres entree; the
others being luckily in my servant's pocket, escaped duty free. All
wrought silver imported into France, pays at the rate of so much per
mark: therefore those who have any quantity of plate, will do well to
leave it behind them, unless they can confide in the dexterity of the
shipmasters; some of whom will undertake to land it without the
ceremony of examination. The ordonnances of France are so unfavourable
to strangers, that they oblige them to pay at the rate of five per
cent. for all the bed and table linen which they bring into the
kingdom, even though it has been used. When my trunks arrived in a ship
from the river Thames, I underwent this ordeal: but what gives me more
vexation, my books have been stopped at the bureau; and will be sent to
Amiens at my expence, to be examined by the chambre syndicale; lest
they should contain something prejudicial to the state, or to the
religion of the country. This is a species of oppression which one
would not expect to meet with in France, which piques itself on its
politeness and hospitality: but the truth is, I know no country in
which strangers are worse treated with respect to their essential
concerns. If a foreigner dies in France, the king seizes all his
effects, even though his heir should be upon the spot; and this tyranny
is called the droit d'aubaine founded at first upon the supposition,
that all the estate of foreigners residing in France was acquired in
that kingdom, and that, therefore, it would be unjust to convey it to
another country. If an English protestant goes to France for the
benefit of his health, attended by his wife or his son, or both, and
dies with effects in the house to the amount of a thousand guineas, the
king seizes the whole, the family is left destitute, and the body of
the deceased is denied christian burial. The Swiss, by capitulation,
are exempted from this despotism, and so are the Scots, in consequence
of an ancient alliance between the two nations. The same droit
d'aubaine is exacted by some of the princes in Germany: but it is a
great discouragement to commerce, and prejudices every country where it
is exercised, to ten times the value of what it brings into the coffers
of the sovereign.
I am exceedingly mortified at the detention of my books, which not only
deprives me of an amusement which I can very ill dispense with; but, in
all probability, will expose me to sundry other inconveniencies. I must
be at the expence of sending them sixty miles to be examined, and run
the risque of their being condemned; and, in the mean time, I may lose
the opportunity of sending them with my heavy baggage by sea to
Bourdeaux, to be sent up the Garonne to Tholouse, and from thence
transmitted through the canal of Languedoc to Cette, which is a
sea-port on the Mediterranean, about three or four leagues from
Montpelier.
For the recovery of my books, I had recourse to the advice of my
landlord, Mons. B--. He is a handsome young fellow, about twenty-five
years of age, and keeps house with two maiden sisters, who are
professed devotees. The brother is a little libertine, good natured and
obliging; but a true Frenchman in vanity, which is undoubtedly the
ruling passion of this volatile people. He has an inconsiderable place
under the government, in consequence of which he is permitted to wear a
sword, a privilege which he does not fail to use. He is likewise
receiver of the tythes of the clergy in this district, an office that
gives him a command of money, and he, moreover, deals in the wine
trade. When I came to his house, he made a parade of all these
advantages: he displayed his bags of money, and some old gold which his
father had left him. He described his chateau in the country; dropped
hints of the fortunes that were settled upon mademoiselles his sisters;
boasted of his connexions at court; and assured me it was not for my
money that he let his lodgings, but altogether with a view to enjoy the
pleasure of my company. The truth, when stript of all embellishments,
is this: the sieur B-- is the son of an honest bourgeois lately dead,
who left him the house, with some stock in trade, a little money, and a
paltry farm: his sisters have about three thousand livres (not quite
140 L) apiece; the brother's places are worth about fifty pounds a
year, and his connexions at court are confined to a commis or clerk in
the secretary's office, with whom he corresponds by virtue of his
employment. My landlord piques himself upon his gallantry and success
with the fair-sex: he keeps a fille de joye, and makes no secret of his
amours. He told miss C-- the other day, in broken English, that, in the
course of the last year, he had made six bastards. He owned, at the
same time, he had sent them all to the hospital; but, now his father is
dead, he would himself take care of his future productions. This,
however, was no better than a gasconade. Yesterday the house was in a
hot alarm, on account of a new windfall of this kind: the sisters were
in tears; the brother was visited by the cure of the parish; the lady
in the straw (a sempstress) sent him the bantling in a basket, and he
transmitted it by the carriers to the Enfans trouves at Paris.
But to return from this digression: Mr. B-- advised me to send a
requete or petition to the chancellor of France, that I might obtain an
order to have my books examined on the spot, by the president of
Boulogne, or the procureur du roy, or the sub-delegate of the
intendance. He recommended an advocat of his acquaintance to draw up
the memoire, and introduced him accordingly; telling me at the same
time, in private, that if he was not a drunkard, he would be at the
head of his profession. He had indeed all the outward signs of a sot; a
sleepy eye, a rubicund face, and carbuncled nose. He seemed to be a
little out at elbows, had marvellous foul linen, and his breeches were
not very sound: but he assumed an air of importance, was very
courteous, and very solemn. I asked him if he did not sometimes divert
himself with the muse: he smiled, and promised, in a whisper, to shew
me some chansonettes de sa facon. Meanwhile he composed the requete in
my name, which was very pompous, very tedious, and very abject. Such a
stile might perhaps be necessary in a native of France; but I did not
think it was at all suitable to a subject of Great-Britain. I thanked
him for the trouble he had taken, as he would receive no other
gratification; but when my landlord proposed to send the memoire to his
correspondent at Paris, to be delivered to the chancellor, I told him I
had changed my mind, and would apply to the English ambassador. I have
accordingly taken the liberty to address myself to the earl of H--; and
at the same time I have presumed to write to the duchess of D--, who is
now at Paris, to entreat her grace's advice and interposition. What
effect these applications may have, I know not: but the sieur B--
shakes his head, and has told my servant, in confidence, that I am
mistaken if I think the English ambassador is as great a man at Paris
as the chancellor of France.
I ought to make an apology for troubling you with such an
unentertaining detail, and consider that the detention of my books must
be a matter of very little consequence to any body, but to--Your
affectionate humble servant.