and he would then take his choice as to which of them he would read. He
(Mr. Necker) was to present them. He would take with him also at the same
time the beautiful specimens of the manufactures of the Africans, which I
had lent to Madame Necker out of the cabinet of Monsieur Geoffrey de
Villeneuve and others. As to the section of the slave-ship, he thought it
would affect His Majesty too much, as he was then indisposed. All these
articles, except the latter, were at length presented. The King bestowed a
good deal of time upon the specimens. He admired them; but particularly
those in gold. He expressed his surprise at the state of some of the arts
in Africa. He sent them back on the same day on which he had examined them,
and commissioned Mr. Necker to return me his thanks; and to say that he had
been highly gratified with what he had seen; and, with respect to the Essay
on the Impolicy of the Slave-trade, that he would read it with all the
seriousness, which such a subject deserved.

My correspondence with the Comte de Mirabeau was now drawing near to its
close. I had sent him a letter every other day for a whole month, which
contained from sixteen to twenty pages. He usually acknowledged the receipt
of each. Hence many of his letters came into my possession. These were
always interesting, on account of the richness of the expressions they
contained. Mirabeau even in his ordinary discourse was eloquent. It was his
peculiar talent to use such words, that they who heard them, were almost
led to believe, that he had taken great pains to cull them for the
occasion. But this his ordinary language was the language also of his
letters; and as they show a power of expression, by which the reader may
judge of the character of the eloquence of one, who was then undoubtedly
the greatest orator in France, I have thought it not improper to submit one
of them to his perusal in the annexed note[A]. I could have wished, as far
as it relates to myself, that it had been less complimentary. It must be
observed, however, that I had already written to him more than two hundred