British Constitution as if they had been twinned together in the
womb,--_mire sagaces fallere hospites discrimen obscurum_. It may be so:
but I confess I am not yet made to it: nor is the noble author. He finds
the "elements" excellent, but the disposition very inartificial indeed.
Contrary to what we might expect at Paris, the meat is good, the cookery
abominable. I agree with him fully in the last; and if I were forced to
allow the first, I should still think, with our old coarse by-word,
that the same power which furnished all their former _restaurateurs_
sent also their present cooks. I have a great opinion of Thomas Paine,
and of all his productions: I remember his having been one of the
committee for forming one of their annual Constitutions, I mean the
admirable Constitution of 1793, after having been a chamber council to
the no less admirable Constitution of 1791. This pious patriot has his
eyes still directed to his dear native country, notwithstanding her in
gratitude to so kind a benefactor. This outlaw of England, and lawgiver
to France, is now, in secret probably, trying his hand again, and
inviting us to him by making his Constitution such as may give his
disciples in England some plausible pretext for going into the house
that he has opened. We have discovered, it seems, that all which the
boasted wisdom of our ancestors has labored to bring to perfection for
six or seven centuries is nearly, or altogether, matched in six or seven
days, at the leisure hours and sober intervals of Citizen Thomas Paine.

"But though the treacherous tapster, Thomas,
Hangs a new Angel two doors from us,
As fine as dauber's hands can make it,
In hopes that strangers may mistake it,
We think it both a shame and sin
To quit the good old Angel Inn,"