In the forenoon I waited on the Préfet, Monsieur Vaublanc, to whom I had letters, and who received me with the frankness and ease of a polished gentleman. He is of an antient family, and possesses those polite and affable manners for which the noblesse of France were formerly so justly praised. Monsieur Vaublanc speaks a little English, and is a great admirer of the English character. Our conversation turned on the merits of the celebrated British authors, particularly Gibbon, of whose work on the Roman Empire a new French translation had just appeared, which was considered much superior to any of the former ones.

During the revolution Monsieur Vaublanc had been obliged to emigrate into Germany, through which country he travelled as a performer on the violin, his musical talents being very considerable. He pressed me to dine with him, but having fixed on our plan of proceeding to Nancy the following day, I declined his kindness for the present, promising to avail myself of it on my return.

The remainder of the day we devoted to visiting the objects most worthy of notice; and first made the circuit of the ramparts, until we came opposite the arsenal and citadel, into which no stranger is admitted, but of which we could form a correct idea from the rampart. Their situation is low, and they appear to be completely commanded from a height of considerable extent on the left entering the town. The Préfet assured me that nothing was to be apprehended from this position, but its appearance would not permit me to give credit to the assertion. The citadel is celebrated for its vigorous defence in 1552, when commanded by the Duc de Guise. It was besieged by the Austrians, under Charles the Fifth: but the perfection to which engineering and artillery has been since brought is such, that I should suppose it could not long hold out, if besieged in form. At this time the workmen in the arsenal were busily employed in preparing and forwarding guns and ordnance stores to the army.

Metz possesses several handsome public walks, and a fine gothic cathedral, but which has lost all its former internal splendour. Here is also an academy for the education of officers for the engineers, on a large and liberal footing, extensive barracks and military magazines, and one of the finest military hospitals of France; a handsome theatre, and a public library, containing sixty thousand volumes, and many valuable manuscripts. It has also a lyceum, in which, it is said, the sciences and belles lettres are taught with success.

The streets of Metz are in general narrow, badly paved, and worse lighted, the funds for these, as well as all other municipal purposes, having been seized on by Buonaparte for his military chest. A few days previous to our being here, the Emperor passed through, and inquired in a careless manner of the Mayor, what was the strength of the city chest? The latter not expecting the result, and wishing to shew the prosperous state of the town, gave it in as considerably greater than it really was; upon which Napoleon very coolly ordered one of the commissaries of his suite to receive the amount for the caisse militaire: and the Mayor, of course, not daring to contradict his first assertion, was obliged to make up the deficiency.

Metz is considered a very antient town, having been the capital of the Mediomatrici at the period of the conquest of Gaul by Julius Cesar. It was then called Diodurum. Having fallen under the dominion of the Francs, it became the capital of the kingdom of Austrasia. After the decline of the dynasty of Carlovingians, it declared itself free, under the protection of the Emperors of Germany. In 1552, it was ceded by way of guarantee to France, and was finally united to it by the treaty of Westphalia in 1648.

Metz contains a great number of Jews, who before the revolution enjoyed a kind of separate political existence, under the special protection of royal letters patent. Their progressive multiplication affords a curious fact in the history of human propagation. In 1562, there were but four families; in 1589, eight; in 1603, twenty-four; in 1614, fifty-eight; in 1624, seventy-six; in 1657, ninety-six; in 1674, one hundred and nineteen; in 1681, one hundred and seventy-four; in 1698, two hundred and sixty-four; in 1789, five hundred and fifty. This increase will appear more extraordinary, when it is considered that they were long subject to all the humiliations that could be inflicted on them, by a people who held them in detestation. According to an ordinance of 1567, they were forced to hear mass in the churches every Sunday, under a penalty of forty sous. By another, in 1635, they were forbid to quit their houses on the sabbath; and by a third, in 1703, they were obliged to wear yellow hats. They were also subjected to the same toll duties as cloven-footed beasts. It might have been hoped that the revolution, by which the Jews were admitted to a community of rights with the other classes of citizens, would have tended to inspire them with sentiments of justice and honesty. This, however, seems as yet to be far from the case, and they universally give themselves up, as formerly, to cheating and usury.

Since the assembling of the Grand Sanhedrim at Paris in 1806, political and religious regulations have been established, which they are bound to obey, and which the chief Jews are legally authorized to enforce.