[Footnote 1: Rousseau was always ready to believe in plots to mortify
and injure him; and he was so much annoyed by this composition of
Walpole's, that, shortly after his arrival in England, he addressed the
following letter to _The London Chronicle_:--
"WOOTTON [IN DERBYSHIRE], _March_ 3, 1766
"You have failed, Sir, in the respect which every private person owes to
a crowned head, in attributing publicly to the King of Prussia a letter
full of extravagance and malignity, of which, for those very reasons,
you ought to have known he could not be the author. You have even dared
to transcribe his signature, as if you had seen him write it with his
own hand. I inform you, Sir, that the letter was fabricated at Paris,
and what rends my heart is that the impostor has accomplices in England.
You owe to the King of Prussia, to truth, and to me to print the letter
which I write to you, and which I sign, as an atonement for a fault with
which you would doubtless reproach yourself severely, if you knew to
what a dark transaction you have rendered yourself an accessory. I
salute you, Sir, very sincerely,
"ROUSSEAU."]
The Princesse de Ligne, whose mother was an Englishwoman, made a good
observation to me last night. She said, "Je suis roi, je puis vous
procurer de malheurs," was plainly the stroke of an English pen. I
said, then I had certainly not well imitated the character in which I
wrote. You will say I am a bold man to attack both Voltaire and
Rousseau. It is true; but I shoot at their heel, at their vulnerable
part.
I beg your pardon for taking up your time with these trifles. The day
after to-morrow we go in cavalcade with the Duchess of Richmond to her
audience; I have got my cravat and shammy shoes. Adieu!
_A CONSTANT ROUND OF AMUSEMENTS--A GALLERY OF FEMALE PORTRAITS--MADAME
GEOFFRIN--MADAME DU DEFFAND--MADAME DE MIREPOIX--MADAME DE
BOUFFLERS--MADAME DE ROCHFORT--THE MARÉCHALE DE LUXEMBURG--THE DUCHESSE
DE CHOISEUL--AN OLD FRENCH DANDY--M. DE MAUREPAS--POPULARITY OF HIS
LETTER TO ROUSSEAU._