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Show A deputation of Hindoos once waited on Dupleix, who so nearly anticipated the work of Warren Hastings and won the empire of the East for France. The great Proconsul, however, was at that moment engaged on what he considered the most important of all business, and instead of admitting his visitors, sent them a message to the effect that "his Excellency was at dinner, and the Christian religion strictly forbade a man, when dining, to occupy himself about any other earthly affair." The deputation retired, much edified at the piety of the Governor. The French have long been our masters in the art of cookery, because they throw their souls into the business from the beginning, not without the implied approval of so severe a moralist as Johnson, who argued that dinner was the chief business of every day, and that a man who cared nothing about what he ate or what he set before his guests was a fool.<br><br> The merit of French cookery is its simplicity. Goldsmith knew nothing about the matter when he talked of "green and yellow dinners" at the French Ambassador's. In fact, he puts himself out of court in commending such a compound as stewed pig with prune sauce. Fresh pork can only be served roasted; salt pork, boiled. At the same time it must be admitted that in the north of France, in Belgium, they serve fruit sauce with sausages. The sauce is none other than gooseberry fool, made of green gooseberries rather less than ripe and unsweetened. The Belgians boast that they, of the whole Gallic race, best understand what is good. A wealthy Frenchman, now residing in the Walloon country, recently indorsed this statement. On being asked why he had expatriated himself he replied that he had tried four different lands, with a view to ascertaining in which of them the inhabitants kept the best table. "In France," he continued, "I found they ate well but drank bad wine; in Germany they drank good wine but ate the most excecrable dishes; in England the eating and drinking were alike bad; in Belgium they were both good."-London Truth. |