Dear Sir

Stratton Street. January 25. 1793.

Your last letter requiring no particular answer, and having been neither in health or spirits of late, I have ceased troubling you. the death of a very near Relation has not made me better, one indeed, with whom I have had little intercourse for many years past, tho' I trust I have been more sin’d against, than sinning; But Death puts an end to all controversy, and ^one must be unfeeling indeed not to be Counsell on the side of a departed Relation. I have not as yet bought your new Edition of the London, being desirous of knowing from yourself, before I begin to unmake my last Edition, whether the addenda can be had seperate, or whether they are so interwoven with the text, as to render it impossible to copy them into my book, except in Manuscript, which I would willingly do rather than pull my fine hott press’d Book to pieces, with hundreds of prints &c already inserted therein. are the Additions numerous? I wish to have your opinion in this matter e’er long, because there are but few of the large paper copies remaining unsold, & I may be left upon the Pavé,¹ should I want one.

’Tis in vain to begin upon Politics, in the hurry of a short letter. one object alone occupies the mind and opinion of every body.² I enclose the news paper, which is said to be best inform’d in respect to the affairs of France, but other Prints have a contradictory account, tho all agree in one thing, that Mons^r. Egalité, (who seems to have improv'd upon Satan himself in wickedness,) has a strong party, backed by Dumourier, ready to declare him head of the Empire, by some name, or other.

Our Royal family (I am told) are much affected, and I know the Queen was particularly so, because she left the Drawing room yesterday seemingly very ill. –’twas a good trait in John Bull’s character, that the whole audience of the play House, refused to hear any farce play’d the night the news arriv’d.

M^r Egalité's brothers are in London³ and live a good deal with some of the highest rank here, next to the King.

The Stocks fell considerably upon this news arriving, and a war is now look’d upon as inevitable; I am sorry the Empress ^of Russia is likely to be our ally upon this occasion, she is a worse Savage than Marat himself, and enough to damn any cause

It is really a piteous sight to see^behold and hear some of the Emigrants complaints, I mean those of high rank. We pass’d the Evening with four of them a short time since – Vid^t. the Duke of Luxemborgh, Mons^r. de Montmorenci, and the Prince and princess de Leon, the latter of whom were possess’d of £12,000 sterling per ann^m, & I suppose the Duke of L. of twice as much. they all went to their away together in a hackney coach to their wretched Hotel near S^t Giles. the Princess de Leon, being as pretty a creature as you can form an Idea of, did not make our feelings the less. She said, unless, some remittances arriv’d soon, they must litterally beg their daily bread, and declar’d She meant to set up a milliners shop, and make up Caps &^c for any body, who would be charitable enough to send them the materials, but with all this, they will not accept of any thing from the Subscription's raise'd for peaceable Aliens, which seems very contradictory to people, who talk’d of being starv’d. I have seen some of the Lodgings of those of the highest rank, in places you would not put your stable boys in.

My daughters⁴ are well, and beg their best remembrances to you, and yours. after such a long Scroll Scrawl, it will seem inconsistent to say, I am in a hurry, but so it is. ––--

I am yours however, at all times
very truly

Rich^d. Bull

P.S. I saw upon many doors and walls, this morning written very nicely in the same hand

no war with France.ⁱ

I doubt we have bad subjects amongst us, and I believe we have French assassins too, at least there are strange reports –

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Editorial notes

1. 'pavement'.
2. Bull refers to the news of the execution of Louis XVI on 21 January 1793.
3. It is not clear who is meant by Louis Philippe's brothers. He had two sisters, one of whom married Louis Henri, Prince of Condé (1756-1830). Condé did not live in exile in England until 1801, however. See Jones, Longman Companion to the French Revolution, pp. 334-5; Carpenter, Refugees of the French Revolution, pp. 178, 212 n. 39.
4. Elizabeth and Catherine Bull.