The argument of the Garde
du Corps was espoused, but soberly, by one of the passengers who was a
mathematical professor at one of the Lyceums; he was not by any means an
Ultra, but he supported the Bourbons, with moderate, gentlemanly and I
therefore believe sincere attachment. This professor seemed a well informed
sort of man; he told me that he was acquainted with Sir James M., formerly
recorder at Bombay. On our arrival at the _Bureau des Messageries_, the
whole company forgot their disputes and parted good friends; and the young
man who was partisan of the young lady in the political dispute took care
to
inform himself of her abode in Paris.
* * * * *
Remarks on the various dramatic performances which I witnessed at Paris,
with opinions on the French theatre in general.
In my ideas of dramatic works I am neither rigidly classic nor romantic,
and I think both styles may be good if properly managed and the interest
well kept up; in a word I am pleased with all genres _hors le genre
ennuyux_,[43] and tho' a great admirer of Shakespeare and Schiller, I am
equally so of Voltaire, Racine and Corneille; I take equal delight in the
pathos of the sentimental dramas of Kotzebue as in the admirable satire and
_vis comica_ of the unrivalled Moliere, so that on my arrival at Paris I
was not violently prejudiced either for or against the French stage, but
rather pre-occupied, to use a gentler term, in its favour; and I have not
been at all disappointed, for I think I can pronounce it with safety the
first, perhaps the only stage in Europe.
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