Note 57 — NO. VII.—SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 1807.

\.] My friend Pindar, and in fact our whole junto, has been accused of an unreasonable hostility to the French nation; and I am informed by a Parisian correspondent, that our first number played the very devil in the court of St. Cloud. His imperial majesty got into a most outrageous passion, and being withal a waspish little gentleman, had nearly kicked his bosom friend, Talleyrand, out of the cabinet, in paroxysms of his wrath. He insisted upon it that the nation was assailed in its most vital part, being, like Achilles, extremely sensitive to any attacks upon the heel. When my correspondent sent off his dispatches, it was still in doubt what measures would be adopted; but it was strongly suspected that vehement representations would be made to our government. Willing, therefore, to save our Executive from any embarrassment on the subject, and above all, from the disagreeable alternative of sending an apology by the “Hornet,” we do assure Mr. Jefferson that there is nothing further from our thoughts than the subversion of the Gallic empire, or any attack on the interests, tranquillity, or reputation of the nation at large, which we seriously declare possesses the highest rank in our estimation. Nothing less than the national welfare could have induced us to trouble ourselves with this explanation; and in the name of the junto, I once more declare, that when we toast a Frenchman, we merely mean one of these inconnus, who swarmed to this country from the kitchens and barbers’ shops of Nantz, Bordeaux, and Marseilles—played game of leap-frog at all our balls and assemblies—set this unhappy town hopping mad, and passed themselves off on our tender-hearted damsels for unfortunate noblemen, ruined in the revolution! Such only can wince at the lash, and accuse us of severity; and we 163should be mortified in the extreme if they did not feel our well-intended castigation.