beauty of the abbe's person. The ill-bred courtiers of that base-minded vulgar King burst out into loud laughter at his appearance; but Galiani, without being at all disturbed by this, said to Louis, "Sire, vous voyez à present l'échantillon du secrétaire, le secrétaire vient après."

The readiness of his repartees, his searching sarcasms, the originality and comprehensiveness of his mind, soon made the abbé one of the lions of Parisian society, and brought him acquainted with all the most celebrated French philosophers, economists, and wits of that period; among whom it was found that, though speaking a foreign language, he could beat most of the beaux esprits who used their own.

Not long after, he showed that he could write French even better than he spoke it, and that he could be as witty with his pen as with his tongue. The French economists having got up a furious contest on the question of the liberty or restriction of the corn-trade, Galiani entered the arena incognito; and, in a little work in the form of a dialogue, contrived not only to treat the solemn subject in a more correct and convincing manner than any of his contemporaries, but to render it amusing and attractive to all the world by the gaiety and wit with which, to the surprise of every body, he invested its usually repulsive dryness. For several weeks all Paris could talk of nothing else, but it was never suspected at the time that so much wit and such French could proceed from any one but a Frenchman. Voltaire, who was certainly a great judge of wit, says of these Corn Dialogues, in a letter to Diderot, "Dans ce livre il me semble que

Platon et Molière se soient réunis pour composer l'ouv→ rage ... On n'a jamais raisonné ni mieux, ni plus plaisamment ... Oh le plaisant livre, le charmant livre, que Les Dialogues sur le Commerce des Blés !"

Frederic the Great, of Prussia, was equally enchanted with the wisdom and spirit of the Dialogues: but Galiani, who had thrown them off, currente calamo, almost without an effort, used to wonder that people should find them so extraordinary. The little hump-backed abbé became a star of the first magnitude even in the eyes of the ladies of beauty, rank, and fashion; and it was in speaking of him that the Duchess of Choiseul used to say, "En France il y a de l'esprit en petite monnoie, et en Italie en lingots."

When interrogated by a great talker, who wanted to know how it was that he had so much wit constantly at command, the.abbé lifted his shoulders, and said: “I don't know that I have what you give me credit for; but if I have any wit, it is because I don't seek for it.”

In the correspondence of Grimm, the quondam friend of Rousseau, frequent mention is made of Galiani, who was held in singular estimation by the society of the Baron d'Holbach, and the other scientific and literary coteries which Grimm most frequented.

On returning to his native country, in 1770, the witty abbé was made counsellor of the Chamber of commerce; and he was afterwards promoted to a high post in the finance department. He had a good hearty relish for life, and lived prosperously and happily; but this did not hinder him from dying cheerfully. When his last moment was approaching, he took leave of his friends

with these words: "You must excuse me, gentlemen, sent me a card of invitation for their

but the dead have conversazione."

He died on the

year of his age.

31st of October 1787, in the 59th Ugoni, tom. ii. art. 7. Ugo Foscolo,

Orig. e Uffic. della Letter. Corniani, &c.

XXVII. EPITAPH IN THE CHURCHYARD OF
MORETON-IN-MARSH.

Here lie the bones of Richard Lawton,
Whose death, alas! was strangely brought on
Trying one day his corns to mow off,
The razor slipped and cut his toe off;
His toe, or rather what it grew to,
An inflammation quickly flew to,
Which took, alas! to mortifying,
And was the cause of Richard's dying.

XXVIII. SEDAN-CHAIRS.

THIS curious mode of conveyance, which was once in such general use among the rich and fashionable, is now very rarely seen in the streets of London. In the time of Hogarth it was considered as a courtly vehicle, and in one of his plates of the "Modern Rake's Progress" we see his man of fashion using it to go to St. James's. It continued to be used at a much later period, and does not appear to have been generally laid aside until the beginning of the present century. About five-and-twenty years ago, a sedan was very commonly seen in the hall

or lobby of gentlemen's houses, no longer used, but laid up like a ship in ordinary.

It is still used rather extensively in Edinburgh, where the chairmen are all Highlanders born, and a very curious and humorous body. It is pretty commonly seen in the streets of Bath, and not unfrequently. in those of Cheltenham, Brighton, and our other watering-places. In Brighton, however, it is being superseded by a vehicle called a "Fly-by-night,' which is made in the body like a sedan-chair, but goes upon wheels, and is dragged by

ENGLISH HORSES INTRODUCED INTO FRANCE. 185

It is far from being uninteresting to mark the introduction of these things; as they become curious in afterages and give a clue to past habits and manners.

The sedan-chair was first brought into England, from Spain, by Prince Charles, afterwards Charles the First, who, as everybody will remember, went to Madrid for a Spanish wife, whom, eventually, he did not obtain. On his departure, Olivarez, the prime minister and favourite of Philip the Fourth, gave the Prince a few Italian pictures, some valuable pieces of furniture, and three sedan-chairs of curious workmanship.-See Mendoza's "Relation of what passed in the Royal Court of the Catholic King, our Lord, on the departure of the Prince of Wales."

We learn from another contemporary that, on his return to England, Charles gave two of these sedan-chairs to his favourite the Duke of Buckingham, who raised a great clamour against himself by using them in London. The popular cry was, that the Duke was thus reducing freeborn Englishmen and Christians to the offices and condition of beasts of burden.-See Memoirs of Court of England, by Bassompierre, the French ambassador.

XXIX. INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH HORSES INTO FRANCE.

A CURIOUS gambling anecdote informs us that our horses were introduced into France, and became fashionable there, about the year 1608, during the reign of Henri Quatre. That dissipated monarch was almost as much addicted to gambling as to gallantry; and during