 all animals
within the French dominions, even to the beasts of the field and the fowls of
the air. Kunessin ownoisi te pasi.« »Egad! (cried the painter) that is a truth
not to be controverted: for my own part, I am none of your tit-bits, one would
think, but yet there's a freshness in the English complexion, a ginseekeye, I
think you call it, so inviting to a hungry Frenchman, that I have caught several
in the very act of viewing me with an eye of extreme appetite, as I passed; and
as for their curs, or rather their wolves, (for by jingo they are more liker the
one than t'other) whenever I set eyes on one of 'em, Aha! your humble servant
Mr. son of a bitch, I am upon my guard in an instant. The doctor can testify
that their very horses, or more properly their live carrion that drew our
chaise, used to reach back their long necks and smell at us, as a couple of
delicious morsels.« This sally of Mr. Pallet, which was received with a general
laugh of approbation, would, in all probability, have stifled the dispute in
embrio, had not Mr. Jolter with a self-applauding simper, ironically
complimented the strangers on their talking like true Englishmen. The doctor
affronted at the insinuation, told him with some warmth, that he was mistaken in
his conjecture, his affections and ideas being confined to no particular
country; for he considered himself as a citizen of the world. He owned himself
more attached to England than to any other kingdom, but this preference was the
effect of reflexion, and not of prejudice; because the British constitution
approached nearer than any other, to that perfection of government, the
democracy of Athens, which he hoped one day to see revived: he mentioned the
death of Charles the first, and the expulsion of his son, with raptures of
applause, inveighed with great acrimony against the kingly name; and in order to
sanction his opinion, repeated forty or fifty lines from one of the Philippicks
of Demosthenes. Jolter hearing him speak so disrespectfully of the higher
powers, glowed with indignation. He said his doctrines were detestable and
destructive of all right, order and society; that monarchy was of divine
institution, therefore indefeasible by any human power; and of consequence those
events in the English history, which he had so liberally commended, were no
other than flagrant instances of sacrilege, perfidy, and sedition; that the
democracy of Athens was a most absurd constitution
