As we are mutually convinced of each other's sentiments, words,
compliments, assurances would be as idle as they are useless: yet it
would be incumbent on me to employ them, if they became either of
us; since I am so unfortunate as to be reduced to those equivocal
marks of regard, whilst I receive from you the most solid and
substantial proofs of that friendship and real affection which I
have invariably experienced above twenty years.--You ask me why I
should wish you to wait till Easter, and you seem desirous of an
explanation of the latter part of my letter. It is for that very
purpose of an explanation that I desired that delay, as it includes
a variety of circumstances which I ought not to trust to paper or to
the post. I can only say in general that from the assistance of a
very powerful friend I have room to hope that I may soon be placed in
an honourable and advantageous post[424] either at home or abroad,
which would enable me to satisfy my duty as well as inclination
by making your residence at Bath easy and comfortable to you in
the manner you yourself have calculated your expences. I am not of
a sanguine temper, and I am very sensible that besides the usual
grounds of doubt and distrust, there are many circumstances which it
is impossible for me to explain, that may either forward or delay or
entirely disappoint the most rational expectations. Last week things
seemed to draw so very near a crisis that I suspended my letter in
hopes of making it more satisfactory to you and to myself. At present
they are rather thrown back, and for aught I know the present Session
of Parliament may end in darkness and uncertainty. Yet, I think the
chance is worth waiting for a few months, perhaps somewhat longer;
the difference of your income and expence cannot be very important,
and if you do not wish me to make a difficult effort, I cannot
see any great mischief in your eating a little deeper into your
principal. I am the more anxious that you should not hastily quit a
place which upon the whole must suit you better than any other; not
only because I hope it will not be necessary, but as I am sure in
your indifferent state of health, the unpleasant removal would be
attended with fatigue of body and anxiety of mind which might be very
prejudicial to you.
I am much flattered by your approbation of my pamphlet.[425] It was
a disagreeable but a necessary step, after which I take my absolute
and final leave of controversy. My second volume advances, and I hope
will be finished within the _ensuing_ year (1780). You were right as
to the benefit I have derived from the first; under the pressure of
various difficulties, it proved a seasonable and useful friend; but
if it supported, it did not enrich its author. I did not send a copy
of my vindication to Port Eliot, nor indeed to any person except to
yourself. Eliot must be in town in a fortnight to a very severe call
of the House. I have meditated a letter to him, or rather to Mrs. E.,
above three months without success.
I am, Dear Madam,
Ever yours,
E. GIBBON.
[424] Gibbon was on July 1, 1779, made a Lord Commissioner of
Trade and Plantations--a place which he retained until 1782,
when the Board was abolished, the work being transferred to
the Secretaries of State. He had at one time hoped to obtain
the Secretaryship to the Embassy at Paris (see Letter 476).
The following lines were written on his acceptance of the
Commissionership by, it is said, Charles Fox:--
"King George, in a fright
Lest Gibbon should write
The story of England's disgrace,
Thought no way so sure,
His pen to secure,
As to give the historian a place.
"But the caution is vain,--
'Tis the curse of his reign
That his projects should never succeed;
Though he wrote not a line,
Yet a course of decline
In the author's example we read.
"His book well describes
How corruption and bribes
O'erthrew the great empire of Rome;
And his ratings declare
A degeneracy there,
Which his conduct exhibits at home."
[425] In 1778 appeared _An Examination of the Fifteenth and
Sixteenth Chapters of Mr. Gibbon's History_, etc., by Henry
Edward Davis, M.A., of Balliol College, Oxford. The author
charged Gibbon with inaccuracy and plagiarism. He replied early
in 1779 with his _Vindication of some Passages in the Fifteenth
and Sixteenth Chapters of the History of the Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire_. Walpole calls it "the quintessence of
argument, wit, temper, spirit, and consequently of victory."
[Sidenote: COURT-MARTIAL ON KEPPEL.]
367.
_To J. B. Holroyd, Esq._
February 6th, 1779.
*You are quiet and peaceable, and do not bark, as usual, at my
silence. To reward you, I would send you some news; but we are
asleep; no foreign intelligence, except the capture of a frigate;
no certain account from the West Indies; and a dissolution of
parliament, which seems to have taken place since Christmas. In the
papers you will see negociations, changes of departments, &c. and I
have _some_ reason to believe, that those reports are not entirely
without foundation. Portsmouth is no longer an object of speculation;
the whole stream of all men, and all parties, runs one way. Sir Hugh
is disgraced, ruined, &c. &c.;[426] and as an old wound has broke
out again, they say he must have his leg cut off as soon as he has
time. In a night or two we shall be in a blaze of illumination, from
the zeal of Naval Heroes, Land Patriots, and Tallow-Chandlers; the
last are not the least sincere. I want to hear some details of your
military and familiar proceedings. By your silence I suppose you
admire Davis, and dislike my pamphlet; yet such is the public folly,
that we have a second Edition in the press; the fashionable style of
the Clergy, is to say they have not read it. If Maria does not take
care, I shall write a much sharper invective against her, for _not_
answering my Diabolical book. My lady carried it down, with a solemn
promise that I should receive an _unassisted_ French letter. Yet I
embrace the little animal, as well as Mylady, and the _spes altera
Romæ_. Adieu.