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LETTER XXXIII.: To the Abbé Count de Guasco. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 4 Familiar Letters; Miscellaneous Pieces; The Temple of Gnidus; A Defence of the Spirit of Laws [1777]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 4.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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LETTER XXXIII.

To the Abbé Count de Guasco.

MY dear Count I had already learned from Lord Albemarle that you were not drowned in crossing over from Calais to Dover, and the kind reception which you met with in London. You will be still more happy in your acquaintance with the duke of Richmond, Lord Chesterfield, and Lord Granville. I am sure that on their sides, they will seek every occasion of having you as much with them as they can. Speak often and much to them of me. But I do not insist upon your toasting so often when you dine at the duke of Richmond’s. Assure Lord Chesterfield that nothing can flatter me so much as his approbation, and that since he honours my work with a third reading, he will be the better able to tell me what parts of it want to be corrected or altered. How useful and instructive to me would his observations and criticism prove!

You, Sir, ought to be very vainglorious for having your work perused by a monarch, and who approves all you have said concerning England. I cannot hope for such high and mighty suffrages; and of all mankind, kings are perhaps the last that will read, and what is not improbable, perhaps they will not even look into the book. There is however one sovereign in this world who has read it, and I have been informed by Mr. de Maupertuis, that he said there were some places concerning which he differed in opinion; my answer to Maupertuis was, that I would lay a wager, I could put my finger on those places. I must also tell you, Sir, that the Duke de Savoi has begun a second reading. I am very much pleased with what you tell me about the approbation of the English; and I hope that the translator of The Spirit of Laws will acquit himself as well, as did the translator of The Persian Letters. You have done very right (notwithstanding Miss Pit’s advice to the contrary) to deliver your recommendatory letters to Lord Bath. You have nothing to do with the disputes of party, as a travelling stranger is not to take on with any, but to see every body. I am not surprized at the acts of friendship you meet with from those you had known in Paris, and am persuaded that the longer you continue in London, the more you will receive. But it is to be hoped, Sir, the kind proceedings of the English, will not make you forget your friends in France, at the head of whom, you know I pride myself to be. In order that you may be well received here on your return, I will communicate to all my acquaintance that article of your letter, where you say that in England the men are more than men, but the women less women than in any other country. Since the Prince of Wales deigns to honour me with his remembrance, present my most respectful sentiments to him, and with all humility. Your friend embraces you.

Paris, March 12, 1750.