Last night I found a note from Gosling that he wished to see me this
morning. In my reply I submitted it to him whether it might not be
better to wait a few days for our common friend. He answered me that
he had no objection to talking about Bucks when you came, but that
my Estates being intermixed with Lord Verney's seemed to him an
_insuperable_ objection, So that I fear there is an end of our sheet
Anchor. I wait impatiently for your arrival. What is to be done?
Aubrey whispered me last night, that Sir Sampson Gideon[391] was
purchasing everything in that part of Bucks. Excuse my writing meerly
about my own affairs, I am really out of spirits. Monday night, if
there is anything stirring, I will give you a letter of news. Adieu.
[391] M.P. for Cambridgeshire.
340.
_To his Stepmother._
March 7th, 1778.
E. G. is alive, well, but much ashamed of himself. In two or three
posts he intends to write somewhat more at large. The H.'s will come
to him next Sunday.
[Sidenote: WAR WITH FRANCE.]
341.
_To J. B. Holroyd, Esq._
Saturday Night, ten o'clock, 14th March, 1778.
Enclosed I send Arthur Young's character. You will judge, but I
should not be satisfied with it. Your polite footman shall be sought
for. This moment Beauclerck, Lord Ossory, Sheridan, Garrick, Burke,
Charles Fox and Lord Cambden (no bad set you will perhaps say) have
left me. It is reported that M. de Noailles has signified to Lord
Weymouth the treaty of France with the united and independent States
of America, with the cold modification that it is not of a hostile
character.[392] We have had hard but dull work. Monday will be a
great day,--the enquiry and the orders given by Lord George for the
Canada expedition.[393]
Dr. Robertson is in town. I shall dine with him to-morrow. Adieu. I
have given directions for La Fontaine's fables.
[392] The note formally announcing the Treaty of Commerce and
Friendship between France and the United States, was delivered
to Lord Weymouth on March 13, 1778. "On Saturday," writes
Sir Gilbert Elliot to Lord Malmesbury, March 20, 1778, "all
the French in London were sent to the opera, plays, clubs,
coffee-houses, ale-houses, and spill-houses, to publish the
intelligence, which they did with all their natural impertinence."
[393] On March 19 Fox moved three resolutions: (1) that the
Canadian expedition was ill concerted, (2) that it was impossible
it should succeed, (3) that no sufficient instructions to
co-operate had been sent to General Howe. The resolutions were
lost by 164 to 44. Fox then tore up the paper on which he had
written the fourth resolution, a censure on Lord G. Germain.
342.
_To J. B. Holroyd, Esq._
Almack's, Saturday night, [March 21st, 1778].
*As business thickens, and you may expect me to write sometimes,
I shall lay down one rule; totally to avoid political argument,
conjecture, lamentation, declamation, &c., which would fill pages,
not to say volumes; and to confine myself to short, authentic pieces
of intelligence, for which I may be able to afford moments and lines.
Hear then--The French ambassador[394] went off yesterday morning,
not without some slight expressions of ill humour from John Bull.
Lord Stormont[395] is probably arrived to-day. No _immediate_
declaration expected on our side. A Report (but vague) of an action
in the bay, between La Motte Piquet and Digby; the former has five
ships and three frigates, with three large store ships under convoy;
the latter has eleven ships of the line. If the Frenchman should sail
to the mouth of the Delawar, he may possibly be followed and shut
up. When Franklin was received at Versailles,[396] Deane went in the
same character to Vienna, and Arthur Lee to Madrid. Notwithstanding
the reports of an action in Silesia, they subside;[397] and I have
seen a letter from Eliot at Berlin of the tenth instant, without any
mention of actual hostilities, and even speaking of the impending
War as not absolutely inevitable. Last Tuesday the first payment of
the loan £600,000 was certainly made; and as it would otherwise be
forfeited, it is a security for the remainder. I have not yet got
the intelligence you want, about former prices of stock in Critical
times. These are surely such. _Dixi. Vale._ Send me some good news
from Bucks; In spite of the War, I must sell. We want you in town.
Frazer is impatient: but if you come without Mylady, every door will
be shut.
[394] M. de Noailles left London at six in the morning to avoid
insults. He and his wife were pelted by the mob as they passed
through Canterbury; but the Government ordered a salute to be
fired in his honour as he left Dover.
[395] David, seventh Viscount Stormont, who succeeded (1793) his
uncle as second Earl of Mansfield, was at this time ambassador at
Paris. In October, 1779, he was made one of the Secretaries of
State. He was afterwards President of the Council under Pitt. He
died in 1796.
[396] The three American deputies were presented to Louis XVI.
on March 21, 1778, by M. de Vergennes, the Minister for Foreign
Affairs.
[397] On December 30, 1777, the Elector of Bavaria died. With
him was extinguished the male line of his house. Austria took
the opportunity of occupying portions of Lower Bavaria, and the
King of Prussia supported against her the claims of the elector's
general heir and nearest male relation, the Elector Palatine of
the Rhine. War began in July, 1778; but before negotiations were
abandoned, Bohemia, Silesia, and Saxony were occupied by the
forces of Austria and Prussia.
[Sidenote: HIS PRIVATE AFFAIRS.]
343.
_To J. B. Holroyd, Esq._
Bentinck Street, March 30th, 1778.
The short delay of my answer, you must ascribe on this occasion not
to lazyness but to despondency. What a melancholy prospect of public
and private affairs. Excuse my saying anything of the former (indeed
there is nothing fixed or certain), I am too much engaged by the
latter.
What can I say about Fleet Street? The remittance they mention from
Hugonin, with another of a halfe year's rent from Bucks, will
diminish though not discharge the accruing interest which indeed must
always gain upon me, unless I could live upon air. With regard to the
principal, as they are in very affluent circumstances, I did flatter
myself that instead of urging me to dispose of the dearest part of
my property, the new River share, at the most unfavourable season,
they would have allowed me the chance of another summer to dispose
of Lenborough which would ease me at once of principal and interest.
I beg you would make that earnest request to them, I mean to Clive,
and manage it with all the zeal and dexterity of your friendship.
Let me know, whether I can second it by any steps of politeness and
propriety. I had rather write than speak.--Should they still be
inflexible and rigourously exact the immediate sale of the New River,
give me your advice and assistance. Your _advice_ whether in honour
and prudence, I may dispute the point and gain time by the dilatory
and expensive resources of the law. If I ought to yield, your
_advice_ as to the best method of Sale. Sure they cannot insist on my
selling it much below its value. I fear you must run to town for two
or three days. With regard to Buriton. Hugonin has sent me a letter
for you unsealed. I have kept it some days, without having courage to
read it. Is it very bad? I was much satisfied with your conference
with Winton, but can we depend on his promises? What security have we
between this time and Michaelmas for the intentions of an attorney
and the conduct of a madman.
Adieu, my dear friend. My disposition is chearful, my wants not
extravagant, my amusements within my own power, and connected with
the amusement of many. But the scene before me is horrid, unless you
can shew me some ray of comfort. Adieu.
Mrs. G. presses me; I think of going about the 15th of next month and
staying a fortnight at Bath.--I have got a Groom for you, but am not
yet assured of his Character.
344.
_To his Stepmother._
Bentinck Street, April the 6th, 1778.