Yet, in the midst of this total and voluntary retreat from public life,
a new honour, as little expected by Dr. Burney as, from concomitant
circumstances, it was little wished, sought, in 1810, to encircle his
brow.
M. le Breton, _Secretaire perpetuel de la Classe des Beaux Arts de
l’Institut National de France_, had, some years previously, put up the
name of Dr. Burney as a candidate to be elected an honorary foreign
member of the Institute: but the interrupted intercourse between the
two countries caused a considerable time to elapse, before it was known
whether this compliment was accepted or declined.
Not without much disturbance, from such a doubt, passed that interval
in the breast of the Doctor’s absent daughter. She was deeply sensible
to a mark so flattering of the literary fame of her father, which she
could not but consider as peculiarly generous, the long and public
hostility of the Doctor against French music, being as notorious as his
passion for Italian and German.
But, on the other hand, knowing the excess of horror conceived against
the French, Nationally, though not Individually, by Dr. Burney from the
epoch of the Revolution, she was full of apprehension lest he should
reject the offering; and reject it with a contempt that might involve
her husband and herself in the displeasure which such a species of
requital to offered homage might excite.
So keen, indeed, was this alarm upon her mind, that when M. le Breton
called upon her to announce, with good-humoured exultation, tidings
that he naturally imagined must give her the proudest satisfaction,
she involuntarily shrunk from the communication; and, though she
ventured not positively to decline, she procrastinated being the organ
for conveying the purposed favour to England. M. le Breton was too
observant not to perceive her embarrassment, though too well-bred to
augment it by any remark.
He soon, however, for he had means and power, found a more willing
coadjutrix[86] to forward his proposal to Dr. Burney; who, after a
short pause, accepted this new tribute to his renown with due civility.
The parental motives by which this acquiescent conduct was influenced,
his daughter could not doubt; but she had the comfort to know how much
his repugnance to his new dignity must be lessened, in considering his
respected and intimate friend, Sir Joseph Bankes, as his colleague in
this new association.
These preliminary measures, with all that belonged to the honour of
the offer, passed in the year 1806; but it was not till the year 1810
that Dr. Burney received the official notification of his election;
which he has thus briefly marked in his last volume of Journal:—
“_Nov. 23, 1810._
“Received from the National Institute at Paris, with a letter
from Madame Greenwood Solvyns, my diploma, or patent, as a
Member of the Institute, _Classe des Beaux Arts_.”