Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/84

64 the Society of Friends of the Revolution (of 1688) to a deputation from Nantes. They wrote home that he was thoroughly acquainted with all the European languages and literatures, and that on dining at his house they met the leading men of letters. The poet Rogers may have been one of the number, for he knew Stone well, and twelve months later, dining with him, met Fox, Sheridan, Talleyrand, Madame de Genlis, and Pamela, "quite radiant with beauty." In September 1792, Stone, as we learn from a letter from Bland Burges to Lord Auckland, was in Paris, whence in the following November he wrote to dissuade Sheridan from accepting French citizenship, which the Convention intended conferring on him and Fox. "Obscure and vulgar men and scoundrels"—does he include Paine?—having already received the distinction, he had persuaded Brissot to defer the proposal, especially as it would be made a handle of by the Tories. In the same month he presided at a dinner of British residents in Paris to celebrate French victories. Paine was present, as also Lord Edward Fitzgerald, whom Stone introduced to his future wife, Pamela. Stone was well acquainted with Madame de Genlis, Pamela's adoptive mother, and on having to quit Paris, she intrusted her manuscripts to him. He handed them over to Helen Maria Williams, who on the eve of a threatened domiciliary visit burnt them. The