This is Lower _Languedoc_, you know, and the province in which ten
thousand pounds were lately distributed by the sagacious Chancellor of
England, among an hundred French peasants; and though I was _weak
enough_ to think it _my property_, I am not wicked enough to envy them
their good fortune. If the decision made one man wretched; it made the
hearts of many glad; and I should be pleased to drink a bottle of wine
with any of my fortunate cousins, and will if I can find them out; for
they are my cousins; and I would shake an honest cousin by the hand tho'
he were in wooden shoes, with more pleasure than I would the honest
Chancellor, who put them _so unexpectedly_ upon a better footing. I
think, by the _laws_ of England, no money is to be transported into
other kingdoms; by the JUSTICE of it, it may, and is;--if so, law and
justice are still at variance; which puts me in mind of what a great
man once said upon reading the confirmation of a decree in the House of
Lords, from an Irish appeal:--"It is (said he) so very absurd,
inconsistent, and intricate, that, in truth, I am afraid it is really
made according to law."




LETTER IX.

NISMES.


On our way here we eat an humble meal; which was, nevertheless, a most
grateful _repas_, for it was under the principal arch of the _Pont du
Gard_. It will be needless to say more to you of this noble monument of