Hager dined here. On Monday we went to the play with the Stuarts.
On Tuesday Ld. Macartney, Calonne, James, and the Fish dined, very
tolerably pleasant. On Wednesday I went to see Mr. James’s pretty room
and fine books; he has given in to the luxury of splendid editions,
broad paper, and sumptuous bindings. The collection is as complete
as possible for the sort of thing, but the expense is enormous, and
hardly answers in point of enjoyment, tho’ one is not sorry to see fine
specimens of the various arts of printing, papermaking, bookbinding,
etc., etc. He has contrived to spend 5000_l._ upon articles that
lie in a very small compass.
The Bessboroughs, who have just returned from ye Isle of Thanet,
dined with us; they brought Ld. Boringdon. There was besides Mr. Wm.
Smith,[42] an Irish orator, who made a fine speech and wrote a good
pamphlet in favour of the Union. He is uncommonly bashful, an infirmity
not peculiar to his nation, but one which impedes his being reckoned as
able as he is to common observers.
The whole Dutch expedition has failed, and the troops are coming back
forthwith, tho’ there are great apprehensions entertained as to their
being able to withdraw without immense loss; they calculate upon
losing their rearguard of 3000 men.[43] Out of evil there is good:
Lds. Morpeth and G. Leveson had offered their services, and were upon
the point of going. Ld. G. is raising a regiment, and is appointed
Lt.-Col. I am sorry he throws away very excellent abilities upon a
profession where so little is required--at least, as it is practised in
this country; and I believe as a good patriot one ought to hope it may
for ever remain as insignificant as it has done hitherto. Parliament is
adjourned until January. We went to the play, Tierney, Mr. Hoare, and
Capt. Murray. Confirmation of the French accounts of the losses of the
Allies in Switzerland, etc., etc.
[Sidenote: PRICE OF SUGAR]
_Sunday, 20th, ’99._--The whole day I was confined to my own den
by a most villainous cold. After we had finished our dinner Ld. Morpeth
came to dine. He arrived in town only the preceding evening.
The immense price of sugar has defeated the avarice of the proprietors
of it; various experiments have been made, first, to extract sugar
from saccharine vegetables, and then to grow it in different climates.
In Prussia they obtain 8 lbs. weight of good sugar from 100 lbs. of
beet root. In America a settlement called the Notches, above the river
Ohio, has grown a large quantity from the sugar cane. The price is only
kept up by some commercial artifice winked at by the Government. The
revenues of the West Indians will be considerably diminished, and tho’
I ultimately may suffer I confess I should feel very little sorrow if
they had been at 0 for the last four years; then _he_ would not
have added another example to the many--that injustice thrives.
_25th, Friday, Money Hill._--On Sunday, 20th, Curran[44] dined
with us. He was intimidated at the sight of the tables as he passed
through the room, and told Mr. Tierney he feared he should not be able
to speak. He kept his word, as he did not utter three sentences during
dinner. We had, besides, Mr. Grey, ye Bessbro’s, Mr. Weld, Mr. George
Ponsonby[45] (the Irish orator), and the Duke of Bedford. On Monday Mr.
Wm. Smith, the Irish Unionist, Mr. Hoare, whom I knew at Sherborne, and
Calonne. Calonne slept. He gave us a most interesting narrative of the
assembling of the Notables, and many particulars of the latter event
during his Administration; if ever I have patience I believe I would
detail the account. We went the next day to Money Hill, where we found
the Smiths. They stayed till Thursday, on which day Ld. Bor. came. He
went on Friday; we returned home on Saturday....
On Tuesday the Beauclerks went. She wished very much to stay, as her
health required repose; the motion of the carriage disagrees with her
always, and she was not recovered from the journey of the day before.
This consideration, added to her being far advanced with child, had
no effect upon Beau.; he was positive. I fear he is disposed to be
peremptory in trifles. I do not like to give way to all my fears upon
the score of his temper, but she is all sense and gentleness. Ld.
Morpeth and Dumont dined, a very pleasant dinner. Ld. M. stayed, and
_cause’d_ late; Dumont slept. Ld. M. is very amiable in a small
party, where he is quite at his ease.
Bonaparte is returned with his staff to Paris. The cause of his return
is involved in mystery as yet.[46]
[Sidenote: A MIXED PARTY]
_7th November._--I have just begun La Harpe’s _Cours de Littérature_;
they are lectures upon _les belles lettres_, delivered at the Lycée.
On Friday, 1st Nov., a remarkable pleasant day, Ld. Ossory, Macartney,
Morpeth, Calonne, Fish Craufurd, Tierney. The youth of Ld. M., and the
Jacobinism of the latter did not promise to accord with the years and
gravity of the rest of the party, but the singularity gave a zest, and
everybody was delighted. Tierney won so much upon Ld. Macartney, that
I am sure he might be made coadjutor to any outlandish embassy Ld. M.
may be appointed to: he boasts of being _homme à tout plat_. Ld. Ossory
was very happy, notwithstanding my Lady’s prohibition of his being so
within these walls.
The Smiths came in the evening. We were to have taken them next day
to my mother’s in Suffolk, that Mrs. S. might visit her father at
Newmarket, but during the night Ld. H. was seized with some sharp
twinges of the gout, which obliged us to delay our journey, much to my
disappointment, as by it I lost the sight of my dear little Harriet.
Saturday alone with the Smiths. Sunday Dr. Hager came; Smiths went
away. Ld. H. continued ill; not so bad as the fit last autumn. It is
curious that the pain seized him almost the day twelvemonth.
_10th Nov. Sunday._--The failure of the Dutch expedition has
created at the time a great sensation, but the public mind is absorbed
in the expectation of another enterprise upon the French coast. All
parties disclaim having projected it. Pitt’s friends say it was all
Dundas’s scheme; he again lays it to the Queen and Princess of Orange;
and they to the _map-makers_ for placing dry land where there
ought to be swamps. The only person who uniformly disapproved of the
undertaking was the Stadtholder.
Public affairs everywhere have assumed a gloomy aspect. The badness of
the season has destroyed the corn in many counties, and the increased
price of provisions in the setting in of a threatening winter announces
misery to the wretched poor and perhaps no small clamour from them, as
certainly the corn sent to Holland must have taken considerably from
the stock here, besides that the transports employed to convey the
troops were chiefly North-country colliers. Thus the price of coals is
at an unknown height, 60 shillings the chauldron. (In December 1799, 6
_guineas_.)
I have been reading _Joseph Andrews_. It is, in point of interest,
inferior to _Tom Jones_. There are scenes where the wit is even
more excellent, but the _nature_ of his characters are sacrificed
to a love of buffoonery. Parson Adams is frequently put into situations
so extravagant that the ludicrous is destroyed by the impossibility
of the events. Fielding had a model, his tutor, a Dr. Young,[47] who
was full of learning and simplicity. There is a story of him whilst
he was chaplain to one of the Duke of Marlborough’s regiments. The
enemies were encamped near each other expecting to be engaged; the
_distrait_ chaplain walked out, and was so absorbed in the perusal
of his _Æschylus_ that he passed the lines. A sentinel seized him
for a spy, and carried him to the general. During his examination he
stated so naturally that without thinking of anything one foot followed
the other, and brought him without his knowledge where he was, adding
that he assured his Excellence he was no spy. ‘Ah, mon ami, I sincerely
believe you. The D. of M. ne vous aurez jamais choisi pour espion, mais
vous resterez dîner.’ He was sent off, fully acquitted of the suspicion.
[Sidenote: CALONNE]
I have endeavoured to persuade Calonne to write his _Mémoires_.
Even those of his own life would be interesting; but the period of his
Administration, and his generous sacrifices to the Princes subsequent
to their emigration, would fill up a period in the history of the
Revolution which can only be well done by him. He set the best machine
of revolt in motion. His own story is that when at the head of the
Finance he found that for many years the expenditure of the Government
had exceeded its receipts, and that Necker’s _compte rendu_ was
a false assertion upon false fact: that to remedy this deficit he had
persuaded the King to let him propose an equal taxation to the Noblesse
and Clergy; that the Queen also was got over, till the night before he
was to make his speech to the Notables, when she joined the faction
headed by the Archevêque de Sens.[48]
A _bon mot_ of Mirabeau upon him. He was a rash, impetuous man,
without conduct or judgment. ‘L’Archevêque de Sens est toujours hors de
son diocèse.’
I am reading the Arabian History in the most methodical way, too
laborious to continue. I read Marigny, and refer to Ockley, the
_Universal History_, and Gibbon. The latter I shall read when I
have finished the others, because to read Gibbon one must understand
the history he writes of _à fond_--at least so from his summary
way of describing one should infer he thought it necessary for his
readers.
Sunday, we had a very pleasant party, Hare, Fitzpatrick, Ld. Robert,
Mackintosh, Mr. Scarlett, Smiths, Dumont. Mackintosh talked very
pleasantly: his efforts to please were guided by good taste. His memory
is very correct and retentive; he illustrated literary criticisms
with lively quotations, particularly from Burke and Gibbon. Mr.
Scarlett[49] is a rising man at the Bar; his profits are more upon
the circuit than in the King’s Bench, but when Erskine and some few
of the monopolists are removed he will distinguish himself there. He
has an uncommonly benevolent countenance; his heart seems full of
mild virtues; tho’ very unassuming, he yet is agreeable in a mixed
conversation. Smith’s boisterous yet superior intellect did not
dominate; Hare’s keen wit and the General’s discerning taste subdued
his usual propensity to overpower with clamour and dispute for victory
alone. He was temperate and entertaining.
Hare was in full glee; they had all dined at the Lord Mayor’s Feast the
day before. Combe[50] is an Opposition man, and the _patriots_
were received with acclamations in the City; Fox was dragged by the
populace, so was the Duke of Bedford. The whole civic festival went off
with triumph to the _party_.
Whitbread, the _arch-seceder_, is disposed to return to his duty
in Parliament, and measures are to be taken to persuade Mr. Fox to
do the same. God knows whether they will succeed. It is a matter of
very little consequence whether they do nor not, as the prejudice in
the country is too strong to be conquered even by the misconduct and
failure of Ministers. The General stayed all night.
[Sidenote: DUMONT]
This morning, Monday, 11th, Dumont left. I was sorry to lose him, as
he is _facile à vivre_ and full of amusement to me. He is very
universally liked by all who have the least relish for literature and
good conversation. We had rather a motley mixture at dinner: Hare,
Fitzpatrick, General Dalrymple,[51] Capt. Murray, and the Duke of
Bedford. The latter is in very bad health; his spirits are visibly
affected. On ye 12th the General left us to make some alterations at
Sunning Hill; Hare, only, to dinner. On Wednesday Ld. H. went out for
the first time. Lewis dined: he repeated some verses he wrote this
last summer in Scotland, ‘Reflections in a Royal Burying-ground.’ They
are the best of his, quite in a grand style; there are parts full of
philosophy and feeling. In the evening a very comfortable gossiping
coze with Hare.
The price of porter is raised; the augmentation has been admitted
without clamour. Every article of _first necessity_ is alarmingly
dear.
_14th Nov., ’99._--I continue reading the Arabian history with
interest, especially in Ockley, whose style is plain and manly, tho’
criticism might be busy detecting vulgarisms. A comical observation
of Gibbon’s upon himself in his _Memoirs_ just occurs. He
says, ‘Ye year 1770 was particularly favourable to the growth of my
_intellectual_ stature.’ The expressions are uncommonly ludicrous,
combining it with the recollection of his misshapen, grotesque figure;
for he was a monster, and so filthy withal that one could not endure
being close to him.
On Thursday, Tierney, Dumont, Sr. Lionel, and Hare to dine; very lively
and pleasant. Tierney bore a very equal share in the task of amusing
with Hare, who is unique in excellence.
Friday alone. Saturday Mr. Morrice came to stay. Went to the play,
where I gained a violent _migraine_ and additional cold; brought
the Smiths home.
_Sunday, 17th._--Sick with headache. Hare to dinner, Duke of
Bedford, Robinson, Major Hare, Hare’s son. Laughed so immoderately
at Hare’s liveliness that my head was much worse, and I went to bed
seriously ill. The Duke of Bedford looks infinitely better. I am in
great hopes he will recover. He is in better spirits.
_12th January, 1800._--A variety of little circumstances and
frequent illnesses have prevented me from continuing regularly my
notes. I went in the course of the month of December to Dalham.[52] I
saw my dear child. Mrs. Smith went with us. Our visit did not exceed
four days; we returned by the way of Cambridge, Ld. H. Petty and Mr.
Debarry dined with us there. I was curious to ascertain whether the
Gothic architecture of Henry VII. [_sic_] chapel would please
me now, as it did many years ago, long before I saw the wonders of
Italy: I found time and comparison had not in the least diminished my
admiration of it.
[Sidenote: NAPOLEON’S LETTER]
Bonaparte returned suddenly from Egypt to France. He has overthrown
the Directory, and the then form of Governt., and established a
constitution at the head of which he is placed as Grand Consul. Should
it be a permanent usurpation I will learn with accuracy the outlines,
but the revolutions have been as variable as chemical nomenclature or
systems of metaphysics. He opened a negotiation for peace lately by
writing a letter _directly_ to the King: his offer was rejected
upon frivolous and peevish pretexts. The reply was made in the most
barbarous language, crabbed, ungrammatical, and incomprehensible.[53]
The joke of the day was that each of the Ministers who were present
contributed their phrase: Mr. Pitt, ‘ye limited possibilities’; to Mr.
Windham, ‘the line of hereditary Princes’; Ld. Grenville, ‘rapine,
anarchy, and plunder’; nor were Lds. Westmoreland and Camden forgotten
by giving ‘their explicit acquiescence’ to all that was done.
I went to a Harlequin farce on ye 28th December after dining in
Cavendish Square; a gun was fired off, which frightened me, and on the
morrow I was taken ill. I was very weak and confined to my bed many
days; this day is ye 13th, and I am still indisposed.
During my confinement I have been reading among other things multitudes
of novels, most of them sad trash, abounding with the general taste
for spectres, hobgoblins, castles, etc., etc. Godwin has added to
his publications; critics say, not to his reputation. In his preface
he announces that he has not abided by the principles contained in
his _Political Justice_, as he throughout the work shows that
the greatest calamity is to loosen the ties of social confidence and
domestic love.[54] Poor Mr. Weld, who dined here occasionally, dropped
dead at the Tower, playing at whist with Ld. Thanet. He died under
great pecuniary embarrassments. Marsh came to us the first day of
the vacation; Ly. Lucy and the Dss.[55] were in the house, but it so
happened by Ly. L.’s illness and sure management on our part that they
never met.
_13th Jan._--Monsieur de Bouillé se plaignant de la Révolution
dit, ‘Ce sont nos gens d’esprit qui nous ont perdu.’ ‘Ah, Monsieur, que
ne nous sauviez-vous’ [_sic_], said Mde. de Coigny.
Quand le mariage de Lord Paget fut remis à cause de l’accident qu’il
eut en se tirant la botte, elle dit, ‘C’était un mariage remis àpropos
de bottes.’
Une personne, attaquée de paralisie à mi-corps, étant depuis grosse,
elle dit, ‘Elle accouchera donc d’un profil.’
Lorsque Monsr. d’Épremesnil perdit sa popularité, il demanda à Mde.
de Coigny pourquoi le même peuple qui l’avait couronné de laurier
l’accablait d’injures et le brûlait en effigie. ‘C’est,’ dit-elle, ‘que
rien ne brûle plus vite que le laurier dépêché.’
Allant dîner oû elle comptait s’ennuyer, elle dit, ‘Ce dîner me pèse
sur le cœur avant de me peser sur l’estomac.’
A _polacre_ conveying dispatches from Alexandria to France was
taken off Toulon, carried into Minorca, and the dispatches, which did
not sink when thrown overboard, have been forwarded by General Fox
to the Governt. They contain minute details of the military colony,
and complaints of their being in total want of ammunition, etc., etc.
The official letter is from Kléber; he conveys a sort of censure upon
Bonaparte for his having quitted the army. He encloses Bonaparte’s
letter to the army upon his quitting Egypt, in which various reasons
for his departure are given; among them is _l’obéissance_. There
is also a letter from the _Contrôleur des Finances d’Égypte_. He
complains bitterly of the difficulty in levying the taxes, and the
stubbornness of the Turks, who, sooner than pay will submit to stripes
and even death. These letters and many private ones are to be made
public and commented on by the mild spirit of Mr. Gifford.[56] They
will be published in a few days, before the meeting of Parliament, in
order to give the proper cue to those country members whose warlike
spirits may have been subdued at the sight of the universal suffering
throughout the country--a suffering aggravated, if not caused, by the
horrors of war.
There can be nothing more contemptible than the personal pique all
Ministerial people seem to feel towards him. The object in publishing
these letters is merely to gall him by an expression or two, and for
this gratification they shabbily put in the names of individuals, which
may be the means of much private ruin. They say, ‘Aye, this will do him
up!’
[Sidenote: LORD ANDOVER’S DEATH]
Poor Ld. Andover![57] Unfortunately, in giving his gun to his groom
the piece went off, and the whole contents were lodged in his body:
he retained his senses 7 hours after the accident, and died shortly
after. His wretched wife! What must her feelings be! Each most tenderly
attached to the other. It is the only tie which when dissolved makes
the vast world a wilderness. How can piety, fortitude, or reason bear
up against such a dreadful calamity? Indeed, one cannot wish it should
prolong the existence of the miserable relict. That direful separation
alone can shake the love of life so deeply rooted in us all. Canning
says Ld. Andover used to remind him of Ld. H. at times. Great heavens!
how far beyond a remedy must be her sorrows. Without knowing any of the
parties, the despair of the situation quite overcomes me, and draws
tears of unfeigned pity from my eyes; how fortunate for her should she
never awaken to her wretchedness, but die in the agonies of delirium.
Oh! in mercy let such be my close if I am doomed to the--oh! I cannot
with calmness suppose the case.
Ye Friday party[58] did very well, dissimilar as are the opinions of
the parties. On Saturday Ld. Wycombe brought a Spaniard,[59] who is
just come from Paris, and is in England without the knowledge and
against the consent of the Ministers. He has resided in Paris during
the last four years, and he has adopted the principles of Revolution
_con amore_. He calls the Church Establishment an infamous
institution, and appears quite ripe to back his principles by his
practice.
Mr. Fox was persuaded to come and attend the House of Commons on the
day the subject of the negotiations was discussed. He always must speak
well, but I should have preferred an oratorical, philosophical survey
of the events that had arisen during the secession to a mere debating
speech, which he made.
The intercepted letters are published with a preface avowedly by
Canning; the notes are certainly by another hand. During the debate
which Mr. Fox attended Canning launched out with his usual flippancy
of tongue against the D. of Bedford, and said he would not lose his
time in replying to arguments brought forward from a man of _such_
an intellect. Fox gave him the retort _un_courteous and made the
little great man shrink. In going out he asked him if he seriously
thought he could persuade the country that the D. of B. was an idiot.
‘No, I don’t; but why did he attack my publication?’ ‘My publication!’
And such a thing it is; the prophecies announcing the Messiah could not
usher him in with more awful pomp than he does these letters to the
notice of the public.
[Sidenote: LORD KING]
It was lucky that the first time Mr. Fox heard his nephew speak,
should be when he spoke the best. Tho’ his terror was excessive, yet
he possessed himself, and made upon the subject of the negotiation a
very able speech. On the Dutch inquiry, moved by Ld. H., Ld. King spoke
uncommonly well. Ld. H. was the more pleased, as it was merely out of
friendship to him that he prevailed upon himself to conquer his dread
of addressing a public assembly. He is a very young man, very handsome,
very awkward, and very shy, but very full of most excellent qualities.
He is a good son, a warm and generous friend. His principles, political
and religious, are inimical to the actual state of those in force. The
first are moderated: he was a lover of liberty even to democracy, and
still abhors religion to impiety, but the experience that has corrected
him of one excess will cure him of the other, and doubtless he will
become very like other people.
When the division was coming on, Ld. Liverpool and Ld. Malmesbury
and many others called out, ‘Pooh, pooh! you won’t divide! Why, you
will have but three. Pooh, pooh! Don’t think of it!’ ‘Aye, but I will
divide!’ cried Ld. H. ‘If I am single I will have a division’; when, to
his great surprise and pleasure, the Duke of Somerset and Ld. Mansfield
divided with him, besides King and Bessborough. Ld. Camelford did the
same, but pique against Ld. Grenville explains his conduct.
From several conversations I had alone this summer with the D. of
Somerset I collected that he was, tho’ not disposed towards Opposition,
yet averse to Ministers. He is a sensible man, inclined to act upon
his own judgment: his manner, from shyness, is against him. I suspect
that he has a love of fun in him, for he told me that he was occupied
in persuading Lewis to write a book on moral philosophy, as he was
certain from the opinions he heard from Lewis that it would be at least
entertaining. ‘For,’ says he, ‘he calls _virtues_ what the world
holds in abhorrence as great vices, and these paradoxes he maintains
so strangely that I cannot illustrate them stronger than by telling
you that he confesses himself surprised that Wilberforce should have
published his book after _The Monk_. He thinks it great want of
taste to give a system of morality in a dry, forbidding form, whereas
“_mine_ is given in a popular, pleasing manner, which diverts
whilst it instructs, annner to upbraid him for his vote the night
before, but hed is adapted to every capacity.”’ Yesterday when he
came in to dinner Lds. Boringdon and Amherst lifted up their hands in
a ma rather showed an unwillingness to be tutored. Again, during a
dinner, Ld. B. leant across me to tell him he was a rival to Julian.
I immediately said, ‘I see no apostasy in being guided by good sense
and not biassed by interest.’ Ld. B. said no more, and the Duke looked
thanks for the reproof. Again Ld. B. asked how he meant to vote upon a
question which is coming on. The question is improper to ask, and the
Duke replied very well, ‘I shall decide when I hear the arguments on
both sides.’