13 Feb y 1807

Inserendum[?]?

Letter IV

Montesquieu

But my Lord, Montesquieu with all his wit, and all his gallantry, and all his sentimentality, was a lawyer, and a fee-fed lawyer: and the longer the decreet[?], the more elegant the bijou for the Dulivia[?] of the moment: and thus it was that be the decreet[?] ever so long, there can never be enough of it. Sentimentality[?] disbarred[?] and a stack of reputation laid in, Montesquieu is always ready, you may see it throughout his book, standing Counsel for the defendant, whereas a defendant, so he be a member of the partnership and whatever be the cause.

By all accounts, an honourable and amiable man in private life: but, for us, who never lived with him, so much the worse: his book but the more mischievous.