here I frequently find myself at fault, which subjects me to embarrassment that is yet forgiven to a stranger.'

"Mr. Austin was domesticated in the family of the Earl of Shelburne; placed under the particular protection of his chaplain, the celebrated Dr. Priestley-introduced to the present king (George IV.), then a lad, in company with Mr. Fox-was present at all the coteries of the Opposition-and was called upon to explain and defend the cause and character of his countrymen in the freedom of colloquial discussion, before the greatest geniuses of the age, amid the doubts of some, the ridicule of others, the censure of many, and the inquiries of all.

* * *

"The object of his visit to England was accomplished to the perfect satisfaction of Dr. Franklin, in whose family he continued for some time after his return to Paris. Being charged with the dispatches of the commissioners to Congress, he left France and arrived at Philadelphia in May, 1779. A very liberal compensation was made him by Congress for his services in Europe, and Mr. Austin returned to his business at Boston."*

Going again to Europe, later in the war, on public business, he was taken prisoner and conveyed to England; but his old friends of the Opposition procured his liberation, and he proceeded to the performance of his errand in Spain and Holland, as though he had merely visited England on his way. Such conduct as this, on the part of the Opposition, had been treason to the king, if the king himself had not been a traitor to the British Constitution.

CHAPTER VI.

THE TREATIES AVOWED AND CELEBRATED.

IN connection with this great fact of the alliance between the ancient kingdom and the young republic, and quickly following it, were several striking and memorable historic scenes; which serve to show us the importance attached to the event by the men of that generation.

One of these occurred in the British House of Commons, Feb

Boston Monthly Magazine, for July, 1826.

ruary 17th, eleven days after the signing of the treaties at Paris. It had been known, for a day or two, to the very selectest circle of the Opposition in London, that France had concluded an alliance with the United States; a secret too momentous to be kept by the sixteen persons-six Americans and ten Frenchmen-who had been intrusted with it. The House, on the night of the 17th, was crowded with members and peers, not one of whom, to his dying day, forgot the impressive and startling events of the sitting. No corps of reporters then sat assiduous, in a gallery replete with every convenience, to reproduce and improve the debates. If Mr. Horace Walpole had not taken the trouble to make, in his diary, a brief chronicle of what occurred, nearly all knowledge of the details must have perished with the generation that witnessed them. Amid breathless silence, Lord North rose to introduce his Conciliation Bill, which gave the colonies just what Dr. Franklin had demanded for them the last winter he was in England. The premier now owned that he and his party had been all in the wrong with regard to America, and he expressed a most earnest desire to make peace with the colonies on almost any terms. The astonishment, says Walpole, of a great majority of the House at the prime minister's confessions and proposals, was totally indescribable. The Opposition, led by Fox and Burke, promptly seconded Lord North's plan, not omitting to remind him that he then proposed only what they had advocated two years before; and every day since. The tories, though for some time dumb with mere amazement, could not but follow their leader; and so Lord North seemed likely to have an evening of triumph.

"But," continues Horace Walpole, "Charles Fox threw a bomb, that much disconcerted the minister. My cousin, Thomas Walpole, had acquainted me that the treaty with France was signed. We agreed to inform Charles Fox; but, as we both distrusted Burke (i. e., his prudence), and feared the childish fluctuations of Lord Rockingham, we determined that Fox should know nothing of the secret till an hour or two before the House met. Accordingly, . Thomas Walpole communicated the notice of the treaty to the Duke of Grafton on the 16th, and engaged him to acquaint Charles Fox but just before the House should meet next day. This was done most exactly, and Burke knew nothing of the matter until he came into the House. As soon as Lord North had opened his two

bills, Charles Fox rose, and after pluming himself on having sat there till he had brought the noble Lord to concur in sentiment with him and his friends, he astonished Lord North by asking him whether a commercial treaty with France had not been signed by the American agents at Paris, within the last ten days? If so,' said he, the Administration is beaten by ten days, a situation so threatening, that in such a time of danger the House must concur with the propositions, though probably now they would have no effect.' Lord North was thunderstruck, and would not rise.

"Burke called on him to answer to the fact of the treaty. Still the Minister was silent, till Sir G. Savile rose, and told him that it would be criminal, and a matter of impeachment, to withhold an answer, and ended with crying, 'An answer! an answer! an answer!' Lord North, thus forced up, owned he had heard a report of the treaty, but desired to give no answer to the House at that moment; he had no official intelligence on that subject. The report might be vague. Some time ago the Ministers of France had denied it. Such evasive answers convinced everybody of the truth of the report."

Another spectacle, which occurred in Versailles, a few weeks later, our grandfathers were deeply interested in. The American envoys, after the signing, pressed upon the French ministry the importance of publicly acknowledging the alliance, without waiting for the ratification of the treaties; and all France seemed impatient for the hour. But, for nearly six weeks, the government hesitated; during which the alliance was a secret, just as the authorship of Waverly was once a secret; twenty persons knew it, and, in all Europe, twenty persons may have doubted it. M. Gerard's argument against immediate avowal, was this: If we should publish the treaties in Europe, and they should then be rejected in America, how deeply humiliating it would be to France, and how exasperating to Frenchmen! "There cannot be a doubt," said Mr. Lee, one day, at the end of a long harangue on the subject, "that Congress will ratify the treaties." "Do you think so, sir ?" asked M. Gerard. Mr. Lee's comment upon this innocent inquiry, is an amusing instance of his morbid and mad suspiciousness: "M. Gerard's manner struck me with some surprise, but I now suppose it arose from the very friendly suspicions my colleagues had been endeavoring to infuse." At length, however, the envoys were notified

that the fact of the alliance would be formally announced, and that they would be presented to the king on the twentieth of March.

Vain were the attempt to convey to American readers of 1864 an adequate sense of the importance attached to this ceremonial by Europeans of 1778. I can only relate the few incidents of the august occasion which chance has preserved.

Dr. Franklin, we are informed, began his preparations by ordering a wig; since no man had yet dared to contemplate the possibility of exhibiting uncovered locks to a monarch of France. Mr. Austin used to say, that, not only was the court costume exactly prescribed, but each season had its own costume, and if any one presented himself in lace ruffles, when the time of year demanded cambric, the chamberlain of the palace would refuse him admission. Readers of Madame Campan remember her lively pictures of the intense etiquette which worried the soul of Marie Antoinette in these very years. So Dr. Franklin ordered a wig. On the appointed day, says tradition, the peruquier himself brought home the work of his hands, and tried it on; but the utmost efforts of the great artist could not get it upon the head it was designed to disfigure. After patiently submitting for a long time to the manipulations of the peruquier, Dr. Franklin ventured to hint that, perhaps, the wig was a little too small. "Monsieur, it is impossible." After many more fruitless trials, the peruquier dashed the wig to the floor, in a furious passion, exclaiming, "No, Monsieur; it is not the wig which is too small; it is your head which is too large." It was too late, continues the anonymous chronicler who recorded this anecdote, to procure another, and, therefore, the audacious. philosopher resolved to approach the presence of majesty "without a bag." "The size and appearance of Franklin's head," he concludes, "became a subject of common conversation. 'Yes, sir,' was the usual remark: 'Il a une grosse tête, et une grande tête. He has a big head, and a great head." "

Having abandoned the wig, he ventured to discard the still more indispensable sword, as well as the universal chapeau that was carried under the arm. On the morning of the great day he dressed as he would have dressed if he were going out to dine with the president of Congress--in a suit of plain, black velvet, with the usual snowy ruffles at wrist and bosom, white silk stockings and silver buckles. And a more superb costume than that has never been

worn by an old gentleman in any age or country. So General Washington was attired on occasions of state, with the addition of yellow gloves, a cocked hat and plume, and sword with steel hilt and white leather scabbard. Dr. Franklin's costume, I need not say, was a most brilliant success. Mr. Austin intimates that the chamberlain hesitated a moment about admitting him, but it was only for a moment; and all the court were captivated at the noble, welltimed effrontery of his conduct. Better for the whole tribe of chamberlains if that chamberlain had done his duty, and sent the American home for his wig. The recoil from the French Revolution (in which we are now living) has given the chamberlain class another century of life, but Franklin really announced their departure when he went to court without a court dress, amid the ecstatic applause of Europe. Mr. Deane and Mr. Lee, as was proper, conformed to the custom, and wore both wig and sword.

On the morning of the twentieth of March the three envoys, each in his own carriage, and attended by the usual train of servants, drove into Versailles, and alighted at the residence (in a wing of the palace) of M. de Vergennes, the appointed rendezvous. Mr. Izard, Mr. William Lee, and a great crowd of Americans assembled at the apartments of the minister, to whom the more important individuals were presented. A concourse of Parisians filled the court-yard of the palace. At the proper moment, Count de Vergennes conducted the envoys, who were followed by all the Americans, to the king's ante-chamber; and, a few minutes after, the doors were thrown open, and the whole crowd admitted to the king's dressing-room. The five envoys, Franklin, Deane, Lee, William Lee, and Ralph Izard, were then presented to the king, by the Count de Vergennes, the rest of the Americans looking on from behind. The king is reported to have addressed them thus: "Gentlemen, I wish the Congress to be assured of my friendship; I beg leave also to observe that I am exceedingly satisfied, in particular, with your own conduct during your residence in my kingdom." He then left the apartment. Arthur Lee records, that the king, on this great occasion, " had his hair undressed, hanging down on his shoulders; no appearance of preparation to receive us, nor any ceremony in doing it. The king appeared to speak with manly sincerity."*

Leaving the king's dressing-room, the envoys, still followed by