To MR. BANNATYNE.
EDGEWORTHSTOWN, Nov. 14, 1827.
I send the letter you wished for—not to Clery, who is dead, but to
Louis Bousset, who was the Abbé Edgeworth's servant, and after his death
was taken into Louis XVIII.'s household, accompanied the Royal family to
Hartwell, returned with them to France, and now lives on a pension from
the French Government and his wife's income; she was widow to the King's
saddler. They showed much respect, my brother Sneyd says, to our pious
cousin the Abbé Edgeworth's memory, and he was much edified by their
manner of living together, Bousset and his wife—he a Catholic, and she
a German Protestant, "perfect Christian happiness thoroughly existing
between two persons of different Churches, but of the same faith."
Though I admire the instance and exception to general rules, I should
not wish a similar experiment to be often repeated, being very much of
Dr. Johnson's opinion, that there are so many causes naturally of
disagreement between people yoked together, that there is no occasion to
add another unnecessarily.