whole, been an advantage to the patriots. There have been markets twice
a week at the frontiers of each garrison-town, where the Corsican
peasants have sold all sorts of provisions, and brought in a good many
French crowns; which have been melted down into Corsican money. A
cessation of arms for a few years has been a breathing time to the
nation, to prepare itself for one great effort, which will probably end
in a total expulsion of the Genoese. A little leisure has been given for
attending to civil improvements, towards which the example of the French
has in no small degree contributed. Many of the soldiers were excellent
handi-craftsmen, and could instruct the natives in various arts.
M. de Marboeuf entertained himself by laying out several elegant pieces
of pleasure ground; and such were the humane and amicable dispositions
of this respectable officer, that he was at pains to observe what things
were most wanted in Corsica, and then imported them from France, in
order to shew an example to the inhabitants. He introduced, in
particular, the culture of potatoes, of which there were none in the
island upon his arrival.[154] This root will be of considerable service
to the Corsicans, it will make a wholesome variety in their food; and as
there will thereby, of consequence, be less home consumption of
chestnuts, they will be able to export a greater quantity of them.
[Footnote 154: About the year 1750 potatoes were not commonly known in
Kidderminster, as I know from an anecdote recorded by my
grandfather.--ED.]
M. de Marboeuf made merry upon the reports which had been circulated,
that I was no less than a minister from the British court. The "Avignon
Gazette" brought us one day information that the English were going to
establish Un Bureau de Commerce in Corsica. "O Sir," said he, "the
secret is out. I see now the motive of your destination to these parts.
It is you who are to establish this Bureau de Commerce."
Idle as these rumours were, it is a fact that, when I was at Genoa,
Signor Gherardi, one of their secretaries of state, very seriously told
me, "Monsieur, vous m'avez fait trembler quoique je ne vous ai jamais
vu. Sir, you have made me tremble although I never saw you before." And
when I smiled and assured him that I was just a simple traveller, he
shook his head; but said, he had very authentick information concerning
me. He then told me with great gravity, "That while I travelled in
Corsica, I was drest in scarlet and gold; but when I payed my respects
to the Supreme Council at Corte, I appeared in a full suit of black."
These important truths I fairly owned to him, and he seemed to exult
over me.
I was more and more obliged to M. de Marboeuf. When I was allowed by my
physician, to go to his Excellency's table where we had always a large
company, and every thing in great magnificence, he was so careful of
me, that he would not suffer me to eat any thing, or taste a glass of
wine, more than was prescribed for me. He used to say, "I am here both
physician and commander in chief; so you must submit." He very politely
prest me to make some stay with him, saying, "We have taken care of you
when sick, I think we have a claim to you for a while, when in health."
His kindness followed me after I left him. It procured me an agreeable
reception from M. Michel, the French chargé d'affaires at Genoa; and was
the occasion of my being honoured with great civilities at Paris, by M.
L'Abbé de Marboeuf conseiller d'etat, brother of the Count, and
possessing similar virtues in private life.
I quitted Corsica with reluctance, when I thought of the illustrious
Paoli. I wrote to him from Bastia, informing him of my illness, which I
said, was owing to his having made me a man of so much consequence, that
instead of putting me into a snug little room, he had lodged me in the
magnificent old palace, where the wind and rain entered.
His answer to my first letter is written with so much spirit, that I
begged his permission to publish it, which he granted in the genteelest
manner, saying, "I do not remember the contents of the letter; but I
have such a confidence in Mr. Boswell, that I am sure he would not
publish it if there was any thing in it improper for publick view; so he
has my permission." I am thus enabled to present my readers with an
original letter from Paoli.
"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.,
"OF AUCHINLECK, SCOTLAND.
"STIMATISSIMO SIGNOR BOSWELL.
"RICEVEI la lettera che mi favori da Bastia, e mi consolo assai colla
notizia di essersi rimessa in perfetta salute. Buon per lei che cadde in
mano di un valente medico! Quando altra volta il disgusto de' paesi
colti, ed ameni lo prendesse, e lo portasse in questa infelice contrada,
procurerò che sia alloggiata in camere più calde, e custodita di quelle
della casa Colonna in Sollacarò; mà ella ancora dovrà contentarsi di non
viaggiare quando la giornata, e la stagione vogliono che si resti in
casa per attendere il tempo buono. Io resto ora impaziente per la
lettera che ha promesso scrivermi da Genova, dove dubito assai che la
delicatezza di quelle dame non le abbia fatto fare qualche giorno di
quarantena, per ispurgarsi di ogni anche più leggiero influsso, che
possa avere portato seco dell' aria di questo paese; e molto più, se le
fosse venuto il capriccio di far vedere quell' abito di veluto Corso, e
quel berrettone, di cui i Corsi vogliono l'origine dagli elmi antichi,
ed i Genovesi lo dicono inventato da quelli, che, rubando alla strada,
non vogliano essere conosciuti: come se in tempo del loro governo
avessero mai avuta apprensione di castigo i ladri pubblici? Son sicuro
però, che ella presso avrà il buon partito con quelle amabili, e
delicate persone, insinuando alle medesime, che il cuore delle belle è
fatto per la compassione, non per il disprezzo, e per la tirannia; e
cosi sarà rientrato facilmente nella lor grazia. Io ritornato in Corte
ebbi subito la notizia del secreto sbarco dell' Abbatucci nelle
spiaggie di Solenzara. Tutte le apparenze fanno credere che il medesimo
sia venuto con disegni opposti alla pubblica quiete; pure si è
constituito in castello, e protesta ravvedimento. Nel venire per
Bocognano si seppe, che un capitano riformato Genovese cercava compagni
per assassinarmi. Non potè rinvenirne e vedendosi scoperto si pose alla
macchia, dove è stato ucciso dalle squadriglie che gli tenevano dietro i
magistrati delle provincie oltramontane. Queste insidie non sembrano
buoni preliminari del nostro accomodamento colla republica di Genova. Io
sto passando il sindicato a questa provincia di Nebbio. Verso il 10
dell' entrante anderò per l'istesso oggetto in quella del Capocorso, ed
il mese di Febrajo facilmente mi trattenerò in Balagna. Ritornerò poi in
Corte alla primavera, per prepararmi all' apertura della consulta
generale. In ogni luogo avrò presente la sua amicizia, e sarò desideroso
de' continui suoi riscontri. Frattanto ella mi creda.
"Suo affettuosissimo amico
"PASQUALE DE' PAOLI."
"PATRIMONIO, 23 Decembre, 1765."
"MUCH ESTEEMED MR. BOSWELL,
"I RECEIVED the letter which you wrote to me from Bastia, and am much
comforted by hearing that you are restored to perfect health. It is
lucky for you that you fell into the hands of an able physician. When
you shall again be seized with a disgust at improved and agreeable
countries, and shall return to this ill-fated land, I will take care to
have you lodged in warmer and better finished apartments than those of
the house of Colonna, at Sollacarò. But you again should be satisfied
not to travel when the weather and the season require one to keep within
doors, and wait for a fair day. I expect with impatience the letter
which you promised to write to me from Genoa, where I much suspect that
the delicacy of the ladies will have obliged you to perform some days of
quarantine, for purifying you from every the least infection, which you
may have carried with you from the air of this country; and still more
so, if you have taken the whim to show that suit of Corsican velvet[155]
and that bonnet of which the Corsicans will have the origin to be from
the ancient helmets, whereas the Genoese say that it was invented by
those who rob on the high way, in order to disguise themselves; as if
during the Genoese government publick robbers needed to fear punishment.
I am sure however, that you will have taken the proper method with these
amiable and delicate persons, insinuating to them, that the hearts of
beauties are formed for compassion, and not for disdain and tyranny: and
so you will have been easily restored to their good graces. Immediately
on my return to Corte, I received information of the secret landing of
Abbatucci,[156] on the coast of Solenzara. All appearances make us
believe, that he is come with designs contrary to the publick quiet. He
has however surrendered himself a prisoner at the castle, and protests
his repentance. As I passed by Bogognano, I learnt that a disbanded
Genoese officer was seeking associates to assassinate me. He could not
succeed, and finding that he was discovered, he betook himself to the
woods; where he has been slain by the party detached by the magistrates
of the provinces on the other side of the mountains, in order to
intercept him. These ambuscades do not seem to be good preliminaries
towards our accommodation with the republick of Genoa. I am now holding
the syndicato in this province of Nebbio. About the 10th of next month,
I shall go, for the same object, into the province of Capo Corso, and
during the month of February, I shall probably fix my residence in
Balagna. I shall return to Corte in the spring, to prepare myself for
the opening of the General Consulta.[157] Wherever I am, your friendship
will be present to my mind, and I shall be desirous to continue a
correspondence with you. Meanwhile believe me to be
"Your most affectionate friend
"PASCAL PAOLI."
"PATRIMONIO, 28 December, 1765."
[Footnote 155: By Corsican velvet he means the coarse stuff made in the
island, which is all that the Corsicans have in stead of the fine velvet
of Genoa.]
[Footnote 156: Abbatucci, a Corsican of a very suspicious character.]
[Footnote 157: The Parliament of the nation.--ED.]
Can any thing be more condescending, and at the same time shew more the
firmness of an heroick mind, than this letter? With what a gallant
pleasantry does the Corsican Chief talk of his enemies! One would think
that the Queens of Genoa should become Rival Queens for Paoli. If they
saw him I am sure they would.
I take the liberty to repeat an observation made to me by that
illustrious minister,[158] whom Paoli calls the Pericles of Great
Britain. It may be said of Paoli, as the Cardinal de Retz said of the
great Montrose, "C'est un de ces hommes qu'on ne trouve plus que dans
les Vies de Plutarque. He is one of those men who are no longer to be
found but in the lives of Plutarch."
[Footnote 158: The Earl of Chatham. It appears from a letter published
in the correspondence of the Earl of Chatham (vol. ii., p. 388) that
Boswell had an interview granted him by Pitt. Boswell writes:--"I have
had the honour to receive your most obliging letter, and can with
difficulty restrain myself from paying you compliments on the very
genteel manner in which you are pleased to treat me.... I hope that I
may with propriety talk to Mr. Pitt of the views of the illustrious
Paoli."--ED.]
THE END.
APPENDIX A.
Under the head of learning I must observe that there is a printing-house
at Corte, and a bookseller's shop, both kept by a Luccese, a man of some
capacity in his business. He has very good types; but he prints nothing
more than the publick manifestoes, calendars of feast days, and little
practical devotional pieces, as also the "Corsican Gazette," which is
published by authority, from time to time, just as news are collected;
for it contains nothing but the news of the island. It admits no foreign
intelligence, nor private anecdotes; so that there will sometimes be an
interval of three months during which no news-papers are published.
It will be long before the Corsicans arrive at the refinement in
conducting a news-paper, of which London affords an unparalleled
perfection; for I do believe an English news-paper is the most various
and extraordinary composition that mankind ever produced. An English
news-paper, while it informs the judicious of what is really doing in
Europe, can keep pace with the wildest fancy in feigned adventures, and
amuse the most desultory taste with essays on all subjects, and in every
stile.--Boswell's "Account of Corsica," page 197.
APPENDIX B.
There are some extraordinary customs which still subsist in Corsica. In
particular they have several strange ceremonies at the death of their
relations. When a man dies, especially if he has been assassinated, his
widow with all the married women in the village accompany the corpse to
the grave, where, after various howlings, and other expressions of
sorrow, the women fall upon the widow, and beat and tear her in a most
miserable manner. Having thus satisfied their grief and passion, they
lead her back again, covered with blood and bruises, to her own
habitation. This I had no opportunity of seeing while I was in the
island; but I have it from undoubted authority.--Boswell's "Account of
Corsica," page 221.
APPENDIX C.
Having said so much of the genius and character of the Corsicans, I must
beg leave to present my readers with a very distinguished Corsican
character, that of Signor Clemente de' Paoli, brother of the General.
This gentleman is the eldest son of the old General Giacinto Paoli. He
is about fifty years of age, of a middle size and dark complexion, his
eyes are quick and piercing, and he has something in the form of his
mouth which renders his appearance very particular. His understanding is
of the first rate; and he has by no means suffered it to lie neglected.
He was married, and has an only daughter, the wife of Signor Barbaggi
one of the first men in the island.
For these many years past, Signor Clementi, being in a state of
widowhood, has resided at Rostino, from whence the family of Paoli
comes. He lives there in a very retired manner. He is of a Saturnine
disposition, and his notions of religion are rather gloomy and severe.
He spends his whole time in study, except what he passes at his
devotions. These generally take up six or eight hours every day; during
all which time he is in church, and before the altar, in a fixed
posture, with his hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, with solemn
fervour.
He prescribes to himself, an abstemious, rigid course of life; as if he
had taken the vows of some of the religious orders. He is much with the
Franciscans, who have a convent at Rostino. He wears the common coarse
dress of the country, and it is difficult to distinguish him from one of
the lowest of the people.
When he is in company he seldom speaks, and except upon important
occasions, never goes into publick, or even to visit his brother at
Corte. When danger calls, however, he is the first to appear in the
defence of his country. He is then foremost in the ranks, and exposes
himself to the hottest action; for religious fear is perfectly
consistent with the greatest bravery; according to the famous line of
the pious Racine,
"Je crains DIEU, cher Abner; et n'ai point d'autre crainte."
"I fear my GOD; and Him alone I fear."
--A FRIEND.
In the beginning of an engagement he is generally calm; and will
frequently offer up a prayer to heaven, for the person at whom he is
going to fire; saying he is sorry to be under the necessity of depriving
him of life; but that he is an enemy to Corsica, and Providence has sent
him in his way, in order that he may be prevented from doing any farther
mischief; that he hopes GOD will pardon his crimes, and take him to
himself. After he has seen two or three of his countrymen fall at his
side, the case alters. His eyes flame with grief and indignation, and he
becomes like one furious, dealing vengeance every where around him.
His authority in the council is not less than his valour in the field.
His strength of judgement and extent of knowledge, joined to the
singular sanctity of his character, give him great weight in all the
publick consultations; and his influence is of considerable service to
his brother the General.--Boswell's "Account of Corsica," page 222.
REVIEWS.
DR. JOHNSON:
HIS FRIENDS AND HIS CRITICS.
BY GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L.[159]
[Footnote 159: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1878]
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
"Seldom has a pleasanter commentary been written on a literary
masterpiece.... What its author has aimed at has been the reproduction
of the atmosphere in which Johnson lived; and he has succeeded so well
that we shall look with interest for other chapters of Johnsonian
literature which he promises.... Throughout the author of this pleasant
volume has spared no pains to enable the present generation to realise
more completely the sphere, so near and so far from this latter half of
the nineteenth century, in which Johnson talked and taught."--SATURDAY
REVIEW, _July 13th, 1878_.
"Dr. Hill has written out of his ripe scholarship several interesting
disquisitions, all tending to a better understanding of the man and his
times, and all written with the ease and the absence of pretence which
come of long familiarity with a subject and complete mastery of its
facts."--THE EXAMINER, _July 27th, 1878_.
"Dr. Hill has published a very interesting little book.... All the
chapters are interesting in a high degree."--WESTMINSTER REVIEW,
_October, 1878_.
"We think Dr. Hill has succeeded in bringing before his readers, vividly
and exactly, both the College of Johnson's youth and the University of
his later years.... We think he clearly establishes that Boswell,
Murphy, and Hawkins were all alike wrong in supposing that the
celebrated passage in Chesterfield's letters describing the 'respectable
Hottentot' refers to Johnson.... He devotes a chapter each to Langton
and Beauclerk, in which he gathers together the various scattered
references to them by Boswell and other biographers of Johnson and
combines them into admirable sketches of each of these friends of
Johnson."--WESTMINSTER REVIEW, _January, 1879_.
"With great industry Dr. Hill has illustrated the condition of Oxford as
a University in the last century.... His first chapter ... embodies, in
a lively and entertaining form, a highly instructive picture of the
University, the materials for which only laborious industry could have
collected."--THE SPECTATOR, _August 17th, 1878_.
"The glimpses which these essays give us of the great men of the days of
Burke, Reynolds, and Goldsmith, of Oxford, of London, and of the
country, are as full of interest as the most powerful romance. The
opening paper on the Oxford of Johnson's time is one of the longest,
best, and most original of the whole set."--THE STANDARD, _August 12th,
1878_.
"Dr. Hill is at his best in examining the views of Johnson's critics.
Macaulay's rough and ready assertions are subjected to a searching
criticism, and Mr. Carlyle's estimate of Johnson's position in London
society in 1763, if not altogether destroyed, is severely damaged."--THE
ACADEMY, _July 27th, 1878_.
"Dr. Hill's book is, in fact, a supplement to Boswell, is brimful of
original and independent research, and displays so complete a mastery of
the whole subject, that it must be regarded as only less essential to a
true understanding of Johnson's life and character than Boswell
himself."--THE WORLD, _July 17th, 1878_.
"Dr. Hill's 'Johnson: his Friends and his Critics' is a volume which no
reader, however familiar with Boswell, will think superfluous. Its
method is, in the main, critical; and even so far it possesses striking
novelty from the tendency of the writer's judgment to obviously juster
estimates than those of previous critics, both friendly and
unfriendly."--THE DAILY NEWS, _August 24th, 1878_.
"The charming papers ... now published by Dr. Hill, under the title of
'Dr. Johnson: his Friends and his Critics,' will be, to admirers of the
great eighteenth century lexicographer, like the discovery of some new
treasure.... It is not too much to say that it is a volume which will
henceforth be indispensable to all who would form a full conception of
Johnson's many-sided personality."--THE GRAPHIC, _August 3rd, 1878_.
"Dr. Hill's work is certainly not the outcome of any sudden itch to give
forth a fresh estimate of the great lexicographer, but the result of
long and careful studies and researches; very natural indeed in a member
of Johnson's College at Oxford, Pembroke, but not such as any man, that
was not gifted with the kind of genius which is patience, would be
inclined to undertake. The first chapter, 'Oxford in Dr. Johnson's
Time,' is one of the most admirable summaries of the kind we have ever
read--doubly admirable here, as forming so fitting and illustrative an
introduction to his work, which is very complete and thorough."--THE
BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, _October, 1878_.
"Dr. Hill has produced an entertaining and instructive book, based on
careful and minute research, which has been prompted by keen interest in
his subject. The introductory sketch of Oxford in Johnson's time is
admirably executed."--THE SCOTSMAN, _August 8th, 1878_.
"Every reader who would be fully informed about the period of English
literature, and the men and women who then figured in society, must read
Dr. Hill's volume, or miss much that is essential to a full
comprehension of it."--THE NONCONFORMIST, _August 28th, 1878_.
"This work is the result of long study, has been accomplished with care
and diligence, and is not only in itself a piece of very pleasant
reading, but tends to place before us, in a truer light than anything
that has before been written, the character of a man who did so much for
the English language, and who deserves better than to be forgotten by
his countrymen."--THE MORNING POST, _October 15th, 1878_.