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[Illustration:
_P. Battoni. pinx^t_ _J. Cook, sc._
_Augustus Henry_,
THIRD DUKE OF GRAFTON.]
London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1845.
MEMOIRS
OF THE REIGN OF
KING GEORGE THE THIRD.
BY HORACE WALPOLE,
YOUNGEST SON OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD.
NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINAL MSS.
EDITED, WITH NOTES,
BY SIR DENIS LE MARCHANT, BART.
VOL. IV.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
1845.
LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY, WILSON, and FLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
CONTENTS
OF
THE FOURTH VOLUME.
CHAPTER I.
A. D. PAGE
1769. Victories of the Russians 2
Altercation with France 2
Position of the Duc de Choiseul 4
Madame du Barry 6
Opposition to her Presentation at Court 12
General Dislike of the new Favourite 16
Cabal against Choiseul 18
His imprudent Conduct 22
Project for restoring the Finances 24
Trial of the Duc d’Aiguillon 25
Anecdote of the Prince of Beauvau 26
Extraordinary Letter of Louis the Fifteenth 29
CHAPTER II.
1770. Irish Parliament prorogued 32
Public Feeling 33
Opening of the British Parliament 34
Lord Chatham moves an Amendment to the Address 34
Debates on the Election of Lutterell 37
Daring Conduct of Burke and Saville 38
Lord Camden loses the Seals 44
Dismissal of the Earl of Huntingdon 45
Resignation of Lord Granby 47
Charles Yorke refuses the Seals 48
Death of Sir John Cust 48
Yorke accepts the Seals 51
His Death 52
Sir Fletcher Norton elected Speaker 54
Disinterestedness of Conway 55
Motion to inquire into the State of the Nation 57
Jan. 22. Duke of Grafton determines to Resign 59
Jan. 25th. Hostile Motion of Dowdeswell in the House
of Commons 62
Interview of Conway with the Duke of Grafton 65
Jan. 27th. Resignation of the Duke 68
His Character 69
CHAPTER III.
1770. Jan. 29th. Lord North appointed First Lord of the Treasury 75
His Character 78
The other Ministers 83
Feb. 2nd. Debate in the Lords on the State of the Nation 87
Feb. 12th. Motion of Lord Chatham 90
Quarrel between the Speaker and Sir William Meredith 91
Debate in the Lords 93
Lord Chatham attacks the Influence of the Court 94
March 5th. Repeal of the American Duties 95
Bold Conduct of the City Authorities 97
March 14th. Remonstrance presented to the King 98
Debates on the Civil List 100
Lord Chatham attacks the Duke of Grafton 101
CHAPTER IV.
1770. Debate on the City Remonstrance 103
Loyal Address carried 107
Bills introduced by Mr. Herbert and Mr. Grenville 110
Conversation on Secret Influence 112
City Dinner to the Opposition 115
Curious Phrase employed by Lord Chatham 116
April 17th. Termination of Wilkes’s Imprisonment 117
Riots at Boston 119
April 28th. Death of Marshal Ligonier 121
Debate on the Irish Parliament 122
State of Parties 123
Burke’s _Thoughts on the Present Discontents_ 129
Influence of Lord Bute 132
Pelham Administration 136
Diminution of the Privileges of Members of Parliament 147
May 8th. American Affairs 149
Middlesex Election 150
CHAPTER V.
1770. May 23rd. Bold Address of Beckford to the King 153
Address on the Birth of a Princess 155
June 21st. Death and Character of Beckford 156
Voyage of the Princess of Wales to Germany 161
Eccentric Conduct of the Queen of Denmark 163
Suit of Lord Grosvenor 164
Trial of the Kennedys for Murder 166
Conduct of Mr. Horne 167
Licence of the Press 168
Libel on the King of Spain 169
Dispute on the Falkland Islands 170
The Adelphi 173
Promotion of Lutterell 174
October 20th. Death and Character of Lord Granby 175
Vacant Regiment bestowed on Conway 175
Meeting of the Inhabitants of Westminster 181
Imminence of a War 183
Diplomacy of Lord Weymouth 184
Lord Mansfield’s Timidity 187
Death and Character of Mr. George Grenville 188
CHAPTER VI.
1770. King’s Speech 191
Debate on the War 192
Speeches of Barré and Lord Barrington 193
Wilkes’s Opposition to Pressing 195
Conduct of Sir Walter Blacket 197
Nov. 22nd. Motion for Papers on the Falkland Islands 198
News from Spain 203
Intemperance of Charles Fox 207
Lord Chatham attacks the Administration 208
Dec. 10. Lord Mansfield delivers a Copy of his
Determination in Woodfall’s Trial 215
Remarkable Scene 217
Dec. 11th. Debate on Lord Mansfield’s Paper 220
Dec. 13th. Debate on the Ejection of the Commons 228
Scotch Nationality 234
Dec. 16th. Resignation of Lord Weymouth 235
Downfall of the Duc de Choiseul 246
The Duc d’Aiguillon and the Parliament of Bretagne 247
Persecution of La Chalotais 248
The Duc retires to Chanteloup 253
CHAPTER VII.
1771. Jan. 9th. Lord Sandwich appointed to the Admiralty 257
Haughty Tone assumed towards Spain 258
Jan. 14th. Death of the Duke of Bedford 259
Law Preferments 262
Declaration of Spain on the Falkland Islands 265
Jan. 25th. Panegyric on Choiseul by Chatham 267
Quarrel between Wilkes and Maclean 271
Feb. 11th. Motion in the Lords to remit Pressing 272
Close Struggle on the Nullum Tempus Bill 273
Feb. 13th. Discussion on the Spanish Declaration 275
Scheme of Wilkes 278
Conduct of the Queen of Denmark 280
March 4th. Bill to allow the East India Company to raise
a Regiment in England 281
The Irish Parliament 283
March 12th. Resistance to the House of Commons 284
Lord Mayor attends the House 292
Revelation respecting Barré’s attack on Mr. Pitt 292
Protracted Conflict with the City 293
Spain demands the restitution of the Falkland Islands 296
Character of Dr. Johnson 297
Famine in Bengal 297
CHAPTER VIII.
1771. March 15th. The Lord Mayor attends the House 299
Alderman Oliver sent to the Tower 301
March 27th. Riot and Attack on Lord North 302
Lord Mayor committed to the Tower 304
March 30th. Lord Rockingham visits the Lord Mayor 306
Weakness of the Opposition 308
Conduct of the Court 310
Education of the Prince of Wales 311
Character of Mr. Smelt 312
Debate on the King’s Friends 314
Alderman Oliver declines to stand as Sheriff with Wilkes 316
Dissolution of the French Parliaments 317
April 23rd. Bill for an East Indian Regiment rejected 319
April 28th. Bill for Triennial Parliaments 320
May 1st. Motion of Lord Chatham tending to a Dissolution 321
Lord Chatham and the Pynsent Estate 322
Instances of the Partiality of both Houses 323
May 9th. Close of the Session 324
Controversy between Horne and Wilkes 325
Duke of Grafton accepts the Privy Seal 327
Visit of the Prince of Wales to Gravesend 327
Wilkes and Bull elected Sheriffs for Middlesex 328
“Adventures of Humphrey Clinker” 328
Chevalier d’Eon supposed to be a Woman 329
State of Affairs in France 330
Character of Maupeou 331
Disgrace of the Bishop d’Orleans 333
The Abbé du Terray 334
Madame du Barry 335
Popularity of the Duc de Choiseul 338
Dissolution of the Parliaments of Bourdeaux and Toulouse 339
Bold Conduct of Choiseul 342
Disturbed State of France 342
General Dislike of the Mistress 343
CHAPTER IX.
1771. Movements of the Pretender 347
Conduct of Lord Townshend in Ireland 348
Lord Rockingham and his Party give over their Opposition 353
Illness of the Princess Dowager 355
Duke of Cumberland’s Private Marriage with Mrs.
Horton 356
APPENDIX.
I. Character and Influence of Lord Bute 367
II. Dr. Thomas, Bishop of Winchester 370
III. George the Third and Mr. Mackenzie 371
IV. Libel on the King of Spain 372
V. Extracts from the Life of the Duke of Grafton 376
MEMOIRS
OF THE REIGN OF
KING GEORGE THE THIRD.
CHAPTER I.
Victories of the Russians.--Altercation with France.--Position of
the Duc de Choiseul.--Origin of his Power.--His Character.--Madame
du Barry.--Her Influence opposed to that of the Duc.--Opposition
to her Presentation at Court, which is at last effected.--General
Dislike of the New Favourite.--Cabal against the Duc de
Choiseul.--His Imprudent Conduct.--Projects for Restoring the
Finances.--Trial of the Duc D’Aiguillon.--Anecdote of the Prince of
Beauvau.--Extraordinary Letter of Louis the Fifteenth.
1769.
Thus ended the year 1769, leaving a prospect of very gloomy scenes
at hand. In the last reign the House of Lords had acquired a great
ascendant in the legislature; at the beginning of the present, the
Crown had aimed at, and well nigh attained, an increase of the
prerogative. The people were now grown formidable both to the King
and Lords, and openly attacked the House of Commons, their best real
support. Against all the branches of the legislature the contest
was certainly unequal, but the vibrations of the balance proved how
nicely the constitution was poised. Yet so tremulous an equilibrium
made it the more to be feared that one or other of the scales might
preponderate. The union of all three against the people, by the Lords
and Commons being sold to the King, was still more formidable. I shall
conclude the history of the year with what relates to foreign politics.
The tide was turned in favour of the Russians. The victorious Grand
Vizir, who had checked their success, was removed by an intrigue of
the Seraglio; and his successor rashly venturing to give battle, was
defeated with great loss: Choczim was taken, and Prince Gallitzin, who
had been recalled on a notion of having failed, destroyed the Turkish
army before he received the news of his disgrace. France and Spain
were tempted to molest the Russian fleet as it should pass through the
Mediterranean; and, as it was received and favoured in our ports, it
was not improbable but the three powers would be drawn into the vortex
of the war. We had actually subsisting with France a quarrel that
disposition to a rupture would easily have blown up into very serious
discussion. A French ship had come into one of our ports, but refused
to lower her pendant. On being fired at, the French captain continued
to refuse striking the pendant, but declared himself our prize. France
presented a strong memorial, and threatened reprisals. A parallel case
had happened in Sir Robert Walpole’s time, who had yielded the point
by breaking the captain for one day, and promoting him the next. At
this time a vigorous answer was returned, and in harsher terms than Mr.
Conway thought necessary, who asking Lord Weymouth at Council if he had
looked into the former case, he replied, No--and sent away the memorial
without examining it. Lord Weymouth, as will appear hereafter, was not
apt to avoid hostile measures.[1] Two thousand sailors were ordered to
be raised: but so inattentive were the Ministers to any system, and
so impossible was it for naval commanders, or West Indian governors
to obtain the shortest moments of audience, that this fervour of
flippant resolution seemed a mere tribute to national clamour, not the
consequence of any methodical determination.
The situation of the Duc de Choiseul dispelled those clouds. Prone as
he was to attack us, and impatiently as he wished for occasions of
signalizing his ambitious genius, his master’s pacific and indolent
humanity, the embarrassed state of the French finances, and the
storm ready to burst on his own head, left Choiseul neither means
nor power of embroiling Europe farther. Their funds were deficient,
their army not paid, and the Prime Minister was too extravagant and
too volatile to attend to details of economy, or to strike out any
considerable plans of frugality. He could neither find resources, nor
men who could find any. D’Invau,[2] an honest man, whom he had made
Comptroller-General, fairly abandoned the trial in less than a year.
It was a strange succedaneum on which the Duke pitched, and which in
a man less mercurial would have spoken despair. He refused to select
a new Comptroller, and told the King that the Chancellor ought to
choose one,--thus screening himself from blame if the successor should
fail, as was most probable; but at the same time certain, that a man
placed by his enemy would not, if successful, prove a friend to one
that had not recommended him. Maupeou, the Chancellor, was a very able
man, as false as Choiseul was indiscreetly frank, and had long been
that Duke’s most shameless flatterer.[3] The Duke’s true friends had
warned him against raising Maupeou from the post of Vice-Chancellor
to that of Chancellor. Choiseul did not deny that there was danger in
it, but said, no other man was fit for the post. Choiseul presumed on
maintaining ascendant enough to control him. Maupeou, too, did not want
confidence, but his was backed by art and method. Choiseul despised his
enemies--Maupeou despised nothing but principles.
The Duc de Choiseul, denying all hostile intentions in his Court,
offered to allow us to send a person to Toulon to see that no
preparations for war were carrying on there; and before the end of the
year, the Comte du Châtelet returned to England to confirm the pacific
assurances that had been given.
As the interior of the Court of France is scarce known in this country,
a short account of the intrigues at the time I am describing, may be a
present not unacceptable to posterity. I passed many months at Paris
in four different years, had very intimate connections there with
persons of the first rank, and of various factions; and I spent five
evenings in a week with the Duchesse de Choiseul and her select friends
in the summer of 1769. The Duke was often of the party; and his levity
and her anxiety on his account let me into many secrets, and explained
enough of the rest to make me sufficiently master of the critical
situation of the Minister at that time. I must take up his story a
little farther back to make it perfectly intelligible.
Madame de Pompadour, who to the end of her life governed Louis XV. by
habit, by which he was always governed, had established the Duc de
Choiseul in the Ministry, and left him in possession of the chief share
of power. Cardinal de Fleury and she had been successively absolute:
but the King had never resigned himself entirely to anybody else. The
Duc de Choiseul had quick parts, and dispatched business with the
same rapidity that he conceived it. His ambition was boundless, his
insolence ungoverned,[4] his discretion unrestrained, his love of
pleasure and dissipation predominant even over his ambition. He was
both an open enemy and a generous one, and had more joy in attacking
his foes than in punishing them. Whether from gaiety or presumption, he
never was dismayed. His vanity made him always depend on the success
of his plans; and his spirits made him soon forget the miscarriage of
them. He had no idea of national or domestic economy, which being a
quality of prudence and providence, could not enter into so audacious
a mind. He would project and determine the ruin of a country, but
could not meditate a little mischief, or a narrow benefit. In private
his sallies and good humour were pleasing, and would have been more
pleasing if his manner had not been overbearing and self-sufficient.
The latter created him enemies; the former, friends.[5] Among the
first were the Maréchal de Richelieu and the Duc d’Aiguillon. To the
impertinence of a fashionable old beau,[6] Richelieu added all the
little intrigues and treacheries of a Court, having tried every method
but merit to raise himself to the first post. At past seventy he still
flattered himself with the vision of pleasing women[7] and governing
the King, because the King at near sixty had not done being pleased
with women. The Duc d’Aiguillon[8] was universally abhorred. His
abominable tyranny and villany in his Government of Bretagne had made
him dreaded; and his ambition being much superior to his abilities, he
had betrayed the badness of his heart before he had reached the object
to which he aspired.[9] The Duc de Choiseul despised Richelieu, and had
kept down d’Aiguillon. They were connected before; their resentments
and views united them more intimately, but it was the contemptible one
that shook their antagonist’s power.
There was a Comte du Barry, said to be of a noble family.[10] It was
much more certain that he was a sharper and a pimp, nominally to the
Maréchal, frequently so to the young English that resorted to Paris,
where he furnished them with opera girls, and drew them into gaming.
Two years before he was known for loftier intrigues, the Lieutenant
de Police civilly warned some English lords not to haunt Du Barry’s
house, lest he should find them there when, as he expected, he should
be forced to visit a place so scandalous. Du Barry, in quest of a
more plentiful harvest, came to London, and exercised his vocation at
taverns. In his Parisian seraglio, was a well-made girl of the town,
not remarkably pretty, called Mademoiselle L’Ange. After passing
through every scene of prostitution, this nymph was pitched upon by
the Cabal for overturning the ascendant of Choiseul. To ensure her
attachment to them, and to qualify her for the post she was to occupy
in the State,[11] they began with marrying her to the brother of her
pander, Du Barry. The next step was to prevail on Belle, the King’s
first valet de chambre, and first minister of his private hours, to
introduce her to the Monarch. After such a succession of beauties as
he had known, and no stranger to the most dissolute, too, the King
was caught with such moderate charms, which had not even the merit of
coming to his arms in their first bloom.
At first a sort of mystery was observed. But the fair one gained
ground rapidly, and Solomon soon began to chant the perfections of
his beloved. The Court was shocked to hear to what an idol of clay
they were to address their homage. They were accustomed to bow down
before a mistress--but took it into their heads that the disgrace
consisted in her being a common girl of the town. The King’s daughters,
who had borne the ascendant of Madame de Pompadour in their mother’s
life, grew outrageous, though she was dead, at the new favourite, for
being of the lowest class of her profession; and instead of regarding
this amour as only ridiculous, treated it with a serious air of
disobedience, that would have offended any man but so indulgent and
weak a father, or a very wise one. The poor King blushed, and by turns
hesitated and exalted his mistress. In private the scene was childish:
his aged Majesty and his indelicate concubine romped, pelted one
another with sugarplums, and were much oftener silly than amorous. The
Faction did not sleep: the next point was that Madame du Barry should
be presented publicly. The King promised: her clothes and liveries were
made.
Instead of attempting to remove or buy the new mistress, the Duc de
Choiseul’s conduct was as imprudent and rash as the King’s was pitiful.
He spoke of Madame du Barry publicly, without decency or management;
which being quickly carried to her, and she complaining of it, he
said at his own table, before a large company:--“Madame du Barry est
très mal informée; on ne parle pas de catins chez moi.” The King’s
irresolution and the Minister’s insolence, suspended the abjection of
the courtiers. Even the men avoided the mistress; and when the King
proposed to carry any of them to her, they excused themselves, slipped
away, or were silent. Had they never been mean, such conduct had been
noble.
In this suspense, inquiry was made for some lady of great rank to
present the new Countess. Not one could be found that would stoop to
that office. Maréchal Richelieu was forced to fetch an obscure lady
from Bordeaux. The presentation, however, was delayed. Madame, the
eldest of the King’s daughters, took to her bed, and protested she
would not receive the mistress. This stopped it for some time. The Duc
de la Vauguion, Governor of the Dauphin, a great bigot and partisan
of the Jesuits, went to Madame, and advised her to be civil to the
Countess. She asked him if he came by the King’s orders? He said, No,
but as a well-wisher to her Royal Highness. She bade him instantly
quit the room: and the hypocrite reaped nothing but the shame of
having prostituted himself to so scandalous an office for the good
of the Church--the zealot party hoping everything from the rising
Cabal--and, in fact, as despotism soon took such strides under the new
influence, enthusiasm had reason to flatter itself with a restoration,
too, under a doating Prince, a common strumpet, an old debauchee, and
a profligate swindler, aided by such adjuncts as the Head of the Law
and D’Aiguillon, who breathed the very spirit of the Inquisition. This
junto soon called a female saint to their counsels, the Carmelite
Louisa, the King’s youngest daughter; and the poor Monarch divided his
leisure between Capreœ and Mount Carmel.
In the meantime the Duc de Choiseul went so far as to talk of
resigning, if the presentation took place. Arrogant as he was, this
bravery was not solely of his own growth, but inspired by the women
of his connection. Of all human kind, there were not two beings so
insolent as his own sister, the Duchesse de Grammont, and her friend,
the Princesse de Beauvau.[12] These amazons took it into their heads to
brave the King and his mistress; and, though the creatures of favour,
were so transported by this imaginary heroism, that they urged the Duke
to resign in defiance. This impertinence in Madame de Grammont was
absurd beyond measure. Subsisting but by her brother’s power, abhorred
for her haughtiness, suspected of many gallantries, and notorious for
one that ought to have been the most secret, what could she expect from
his fall but universal neglect? The Princess, no Penelope, was hurried
on by equal impetuosity, and by rancour, to another person, whom I
shall mention presently: yet, divested of their passions, both these
viragos had uncommonly good understandings. There was a third person,
who it was more surprising took the same line, though regulated by
the same decency that governed all her actions. This was the Duchesse
de Choiseul, a woman in whom industrious malice could not find an
imperfection, unless that charming one of _studying_ to be a complete
character. She was too virtuous to fear reproach or contagion from
civilities to the mistress, and should have left it to the Duchess and
Princess to be disdainful prudes.[13] Yet in a quiet style she was not
less earnest than they in soliciting her husband not to bend to the
ignominy of the hour. The King, who, by a singular situation, opened
all letters, having the chief postmaster his own creature, and not the
Minister’s, read the Duchesse’s importunities with her husband; and as
he had expected more duty from her, resented her behaviour more than
that of the two other dames.
After an anxious suspense of three months, and when the public began
to think the presentation warded off, it suddenly took place. The King
returning from hunting, found (no doubt by concert) Maréchal Richelieu,
who was in waiting in the outward room with a letter in his hand. The
King asked what it was? “Sire,” said the Duke, “it is from Madame du
Barry, who desires the honour of being presented to your Majesty.”
“With all my heart,” replied the King; “she may come to morrow, if
she pleases.” This was said aloud. The Duc de Choiseul and Versailles
learnt the news at the same moment. Next day all Paris was there to see
the ceremony.
Notwithstanding such indications of the Cabal being possessed of the
King’s confidence without the privity of the Minister, the faction
of the latter had established such a tone, that the person of all
France who seemed most in disgrace, was the new mistress. The men,
indeed, began by degrees to drop their visits at her apartment, and
then sparingly to appear at her toilet. The women shunned her as they
do an unhappy young damsel, who has fallen a victim to a first and
real passion. At Marly, in the very salon with the King, it was a
solitude round his mistress: and one or two of the ladies attending
the Mesdames deigning to leave their names at her door, were scratched
out of the list for Marly by _Madame_. On the other hand, the Duchesses
de Choiseul and Grammont and the Princesse de Beauvau, refusing to
stoop even to that piece of form, were totally excluded from the King’s
suppers. Instead of being mortified, they engaged all their female
relations in the same insult.
It became necessary for the King to form a new set of company; yet all
his authority could assemble but five or six women of rank, and those
of the most decried characters, except the last I shall mention. There
was Madame de l’Hôpital, an ancient mistress of the Prince de Soubize;
the Comtesse de Valentinois, of the highest birth, very rich but very
foolish, and as far from a Lucretia as Madame du Barry herself. Madame
de Flavacourt was another, a suitable companion to both in virtue
and understanding. She was sister to three of the King’s earliest
mistresses, and had aimed at succeeding them. The Maréchale Duchesse
de Mirepoix[14] was the last, and a very important acquisition. No
man, no woman in France, had a superior understanding; and it was as
agreeable as it was profound. Haughty, but supple, she could command
respect even from those that knew her; and could transform herself
into, or stoop to, any character that suited her views. All this art,
all these talents, were drowned in such an overwhelming passion for
play, that though she had long had singular credit with the King, she
reduced her favour to an endless solicitation for money to pay her
debts. Her constant necessities were a constant source of degrading
actions. She had left off red, and acted devotion to attain the post
of Dame d’Honneur to the Queen; the very next day she was seen riding
backwards with Madame de Pompadour in the latter’s own coach. In one
of her moments of poverty she had offended Choiseul by matching her
nephew, the Prince d’Henin, with the daughter of Madame de Monconseil,
a capital enemy of the Prime Minister, but rich and intriguing.[15] To
accelerate the Prime Minister’s ruin, to secure her own favour, and in
opposition to her sister-in-law, the Princesse de Beauvau, Madame de
Mirepoix now united herself strictly, not only with the mistress, but
with Maréchale Richelieu, who, having killed her first husband, the
Prince of Lixin, thirty years before in a duel, had been obliged, as
much as possible, to shun her company. But in all this scene of hatred
and intrigue, nothing came up to the enmity between the Maréchale and
the Princesse. That the latter boasted of it was not surprising. The
former, as cool as the Princesse, was outrageous--confessed it too. The
first fruits of her complaisance, was a gift of an hundred thousand
livres from the King. One day she attempted to explain away this reward
to her niece, Madame de Bussy. “It was promised to me,” said Madame de
Mirepoix, “a year ago; but from the disorder of the finances I did not
obtain it till now; but it was not in consideration of my attention to
Madame du Barry.” “No surely, Madam,” replied the other; “it would not
have been enough.”[16]
The King having gratified his mistress, was very desirous of preserving
peace; and, as usual, unwilling to change his Minister. The Duc de
Choiseul availed himself of this indolence, and, to re-establish the
appearance of his credit, obtained the recall of the Parliament of
Bretagne, the deepest wound he could inflict on the Duc d’Aiguillon.
The latter returned the blow. The Duc de Chaulnes was dying;[17]
D’Aiguillon treated with him for the purchase of the Chevaux legers,
and secretly, by the mistress’s influence, obtained the King’s
consent. The Duc de Choiseul laboured to defeat it, but in vain. Now
again to prop his credit, he procured to have the Procureur-General
du Châtelet sent to the Bastille, for announcing that he was to be
Comptroller-General in four days. This was an able man, and a creature
of the Cabal. The King, too, was prevailed on to say in council, that
he heard there were reports of an approaching change in the ministry,
and did he know the authors, he would thrust them into a dungeon. To
revive their hopes, the mistress herself carried the Duc d’Aiguillon
his new patent.
At the same time, probably by the King’s direction, in hopes of some
accommodation, the mistress sent for the Duc de Choiseul. He replied,
If she wanted him, she might come to him. She sent again that she was
not dressed, and must see him. It was to ask preferment for that very
postmaster that was his enemy. The Duke went; and though he staid
an hour and a quarter with her, came away refusing her request; and
leaving her, who had been only an instrument of the Cabal, an offended
principal. The weakness of this conduct was the more remarkable, as
he had the example of his immediate predecessor, the Cardinal de
Bernis, before his eyes.[18] From an indigent, sonnet-writing abbé,
Madame de Pompadour had raised Bernis to the Cardinalate, and to the
office of Prime Minister. In six weeks he refused to wait on her in
her apartment, as if incompatible with his sacred dignity--and as if
ingratitude was compatible with it! In six days she sent him to his
bishopric.[19]
At Fontainebleau, hostilities were carried very high, but came to no
decision. It was known, that though the Duc de Choiseul had staid so
long with the mistress, he had rather exasperated than softened her.
When they were partners at whist with the King, she made faces and
shrugged up her shoulders at the Minister. The King disapproved this,
and forbade it. One night after the Court’s return to Versailles,
the Maréchal de Soubize, playing against her, said to her on her
scoring two by honours, “Non, Madame, vous n’aviez pas les honneurs;
vous n’aviez que le roi.” The King laughed, and so did the mistress
violently; it being said without design, by Monsieur de Soubize, who
was extremely decent, and not hostile to her. Had he been her friend,
he could have decided the contest at once to the ruin of Choiseul; for
Soubize was better than any man with the King; and, had he not wanted
ambition, might have been minister himself.
With all her antipathy to Monsieur de Choiseul, Madame de Mirepoix
had too much parts not to be sensible of his, and of his engaging
vivacity. One day, that to please her Madame du Barry was railing at
the Duke, she caught herself, and said, “Mais comprenez vous, Madame,
qu’on puisse tant hair un homme qu’on ne connoit pas?” Madame de
Mirepoix replied, “Je le comprendois bien moins, Madame, si vous le
commissiez”--as flattering and genteel a compliment as could be made by
an enemy.
The desperate state of the finances brought the Duke as near to his
ruin as the Cabal could do. His new Comptroller-General, to whom he
paid unbounded court, to give him spirits, could, as everybody had
foreseen, produce no effectual plan; and though he offered one, it was
rejected by the majority of the Council. The man, who was upright,
desired leave to retire, said he had done his best, and had neither
enriched himself nor his friends. The King ordered Choiseul to name
another. Aware of the difficulty, and to avoid furnishing his enemies
with a new handle for accusing him of miscarriage, he threw the burthen
off himself, saying, it was the Chancellor’s business. Maupeou, the
Chancellor, named the Abbé du Terray, who immediately set out, with a
violence and rigour beyond example, not only lessening pensions and
grants by the half, but striking at the interest on the debt; and was
on the point of blowing up the credit of France entirely, especially
with foreign countries. Choiseul probably inflamed the bankers of
the Court; and then harangued so ably in Council against such breach
of faith, that he carried it against the Comptroller, to make good
their foreign engagements, the King himself saying, every man must tax
himself, and that he himself had two thousand louis-d’ors, and would
give them to support public credit.[20] This victory, and the clamours
of the sufferers, endeared Choiseul more than ever to the nation. At
the same time he gave a dangerous wound to his capital enemy, the Duc
D’Aiguillon, who, perceiving the horror he had raised, or that had
been raised, by the story propagated of having attempted to have La
Chalotais poisoned, petitioned the King to allow him to be tried for
his conduct in his government of Bretagne. Choiseul, under pretence
of justifying him, prevailed on the King, not only to consent, but to
order the trial in his own presence at Paris, whither the Parliament
was ordered to repair and be prosecutors,--a measure big with a cruel
alternative; as, if guilty, the Duc D’Aiguillon would not be able to
conceal his guilt from the King; and, if acquitted, the novelty of
the trial, and the known partiality of his master, would seem to have
screened him from conviction. The Parliament was very averse to this
new mode, but was obliged to acquiesce; and so great vexation did the
accused undergo, that at the very beginning of the trial it threw him
into a jaundice. After the trial had gone on for many weeks, the King
suddenly put a stop to it, forbade all further proceedings, declared
his approbation of the Duc d’Aiguillon’s whole conduct, and that the
latter had done nothing but by his orders, and for his service--a
sentence, that left the public at liberty to surmise the worst, when
the criminal did not dare to trust his cause even to so partial a
protector! The sequel of these intrigues will appear in the following
years.
I shall add, as notes to the foregoing account of the Court of France,
some remarkable passages that will throw more light on it. I have
mentioned the friendship of the Duchesse de Choiseul for Madame du
Deffand. The Prince de Beauvau was so attached to the latter that he
scarce ever missed seeing her one day when he was in Paris: and as I
had known him above thirty years, and came so often to Paris and lived
so much with them, he and the Princess talked their politics before
me without reserve. One day in particular, after the Duc de Choiseul’s
fall, and the removal of the Prince from his government of Languedoc
in consequence, Madame du Deffand was expressing her fears to the
Prince and Princess, that he would be removed also from his post of
Captain of the King’s Guard. “Oh!” said the Prince, “the King will not
take that from me for his own sake.” Madame du Deffand asked what he
meant? “Why,” replied the Prince, “he would not think his person safe
if I was not the Captain of his Guard. When Prince Charles passed the
Rhine, I asked leave to go thither as a volunteer. The King would give
me no answer for three days, and then refused me leave: he was afraid
to be without me.” In short, they said such strong things, that I
feared they would, on reflection, be sorry they had gone so far before
a foreigner, and therefore, and that they might not think me curious,
I rose and went into the next room. When I returned, the Princess, who
was exceedingly quick-sighted, suspected my motive, and questioned me
whether she had not penetrated me. When I owned she was in the right,
“Now,” said she, “you think you have done a very civil thing, but you
have done a very rude one; for if you thought these things that we have
said too strong for you to hear, it is telling us that they were too
strong for us to utter.”
With all this good sense, her haughtiness and violence were extreme. In
1775, on the Princesse de Lamballe being placed above the Princesse de
Chimay in the Queen’s family, the Prince and Princesse de Beauvau would
have had their niece, Madame de Chimay, quit her place rather than
submit. Madame du Deffand disputed the point with them. I said nothing.
When they were gone, Madame du Deffand asked me on which side I was. I
said on her’s. “Then,” said she, “how could you be such a flatterer to
them as not to take my part?” “Because,” said I, “you argued only on
their duty to the King and Queen; but my reasons were too strong to be
given. Monsieur de Beauvau, whose mother was mistress, and he himself
a natural son of only a Duke of Lorraine, thinks it below his niece to
give place to the Princesse de Lamballe, whose husband’s grandfather
was a natural son of Louis Quatorze!”[21]
But the most extraordinary anecdote was the following letter, which
Louis the Fifteenth, when he was endeavouring to pacify the civil war
in his Court between Madame du Barry and the Duc de Choiseul, wrote
to the latter. It is so extraordinary, his Majesty even hinting a
possibility of his _marrying his mistress_, that I must give an account
how it came into my hands. It was read to Madame du Deffand by the Duc
or Duchesse de Choiseul, but they would not give her a copy. However,
as she heard it more than once, she dictated to her secretary as
many of the passages as she could remember, but disguised the names
under Persian names for fear of losing the paper or having it found
in her possession. That copy she gave me, which I here set down, I
solemnly protest, word for word as I received it. It is a striking
picture of that Monarch’s character, full of weakness, good-humour,
frankness;--and still more of his love of quiet and disinclination to
change a Minister he was used to.
* * * * *
“Anecdotes Persannes.
“Sapor, Sultan de Perse, écrivit une lettre fort singulière à son
Atemadoulet, dont voici quelques fragmens:
“‘Vous connoissez mal la personne que j’aime; vous êtes environné de
gens qui vous préviennent contre elle: ne les ecoutez point, il y a
long tems qu’ils me déplaisent. Je vous promets de vous mettre bien
avec celle que j’aime, et de détruire toutes les préventions qu’on
veut lui donner contre vous. Je vous dirai confidemment que je ne puis
me passer de femmes. Celle ci me plait, et si je l’épousois, tout
le monde tomberoit à ses genoux. Le Mogol,[22] voulant se marier,
et voulant épouser une belle femme, fit plusieurs voyages sans
rencontrer ce qu’il cherchoit. Je vous le répète, je ne puis me passer
de femmes; mais il m’en faut une belle. La sœur du Mogol,[23] que
je pourrois épouser, ne l’est pas. La personne, avec qui je vis, me
plait; consentez à bien vivre avec elle; rien n’est plus aisé, et vous
m’obligerez infiniment.’
“L’Atemadoulet resista; et quelques mois après il fut disgracié.”
Madame du Deffand adds, “J’oubliois un trait de cette lettre; ‘je ne
veux point une femme de qualité: je ne veux point non plus à l’exemple
de Thamas,[24] mon ayeul, une matrone.’”
Perhaps it will not be thought very wise in the Duc de Choiseul to
have resisted such a letter. Should the original ever appear, as is
not impossible, it will corroborate the truth of the rest that I
have related. I trust much to collateral evidence for confirming the
veracity of these Memoirs.