' See _ante_, ii. 177.
[325] Mme. Riccoboni wrote to Garrick on May 3, 1769:--'Vous conviendrez
que les nobles sont peu menages par vos auteurs; le sot, le fat, ou le
malhonnete homme mele dans l'intrigue est presque toujours un lord.'
_Garrick Corres_, ii. 561. Dr. Moore (_View of Society in France_, i.
29) writing in 1779 says:--'I am convinced there is no country in Europe
where royal favour, high birth, and the military profession could be
allowed such privileges as they have in France, and where there would be
so few instances of their producing rough and brutal behaviour to
inferiors.' Mrs. Piozzi, writing in 1784, though she did not publish her
book till 1789, said:--'The French are really a contented race of
mortals;--precluded almost from possibility of adventure, the low
Parisian leads gentle, humble life, nor envies that greatness he never
can obtain.' _Journey through France_, i. 13.
[326] He is the worthy son of a worthy father, the late Lord Strichen,
one of our judges, to whose kind notice I was much obliged. Lord
Strichen was a man not only honest, but highly generous; for after his
succession to the family estate, he paid a large sum of debts contracted
by his predecessor, which he was not under any obligation to pay. Let me
here, for the credit of Ayrshire, my own county, record a noble instance
of liberal honesty in William Hutchison, drover, in Lanehead, Kyle, who
formerly obtained a full discharge from his creditors upon a composition
of his debts; but upon being restored to good circumstances, invited his
creditors last winter to a dinner, without telling the reason, and paid
them their full sums, principal and interest.
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