*I believe we may now rejoyce in our common security. All tumult has
perfectly subsided, and we only think of the justice which must be
properly and severely inflicted on such flagitious criminals. The
measures of Government have been seasonable and vigorous; and even
opposition has been forced to confess, that the military force was
applied and regulated with the utmost propriety. Our danger is at an
end, but our disgrace will be lasting, and the month of June 1780,
will ever be marked by a dark and diabolical fanaticism, which I had
supposed to be extinct, but which actually subsists in Great Britain,
perhaps beyond any other Country in Europe. Our Parliamentary work
draws to a conclusion;[457] and I am much more pleasantly, though
laboriously engaged in revising and correcting for the press, the
continuation of my history, two Volumes of which will certainly
appear next winter. This business fixes me to Bentinck Street
more closely than any other part of my litterary labour; as it is
absolutely necessary that I should be in the midst of all the books
which I have at any time used during the composition. But I feel a
strong desire (irritated, like all passions, by repeated obstacles)
to escape to Bath.* And if the summer should pass away, the autumn
shall not elapse without gratifying my wishes. As you are my sole
object, it is a matter of perfect indifference whether the place is
full or empty, but I should like to know your summer plan, and if
you have any design to climb the Welsh mountains. I am ashamed that
Midsummer day should have passed in silence, but I am not able to
get a shilling from Hampshire, and the treasury, my best support, is
uncommonly backward. Next week, however, you may depend on receiving
the proper line from me.
I am, Dear Madam,
Most truly Yours,
E. GIBBON.
[457] The session ended July 8, 1780.
396.
_To his Stepmother._
Bentinck Street, July 8th, 1780.