DURING Edgeworth's stay in England in 1792 and 1793 he paid
frequent visits to London, and he used to describe to his children a
curious meeting which he had in a coffee-house with an old
acquaintance whom he had not seen for thirty years: He observed a
gentleman eyeing him with much attention, who at last exclaimed, "It
is he. Certainly, sir, you are Mr. Edgeworth?"
'"I am, sir."
'"Gentlemen," said the stranger, with much importance, addressing
himself to several people who were near him, "here is the best
dancer in England, and a man to whom I am under infinite
obligations, for I owe to him the foundation of my fortune. Mr.
Edgeworth and I were scholars of the famous Aldridge; and once when
we practised together, Mr. Edgeworth excelled me so much, that I sat
down upon the ground, and burst out a-crying; he could actually
complete an entrechat of ten distinct beats, which I could not
accomplish! However, I was well consoled by him; for he invented,
for Aldridge's benefit, The Tambourine Dance, which had uncommon
success. The dresses were Chinese. Twelve assistants held small
drums furnished with bells; these were struck in the air by the
dancer's feet when held as high as their arms could reach. This
Aldridge performed, and improved upon by stretching his legs
asunder, so as to strike two drums at the same time. Those not being
the days of elegant dancing, I afterwards," continued the stranger,
"exhibited at Paris the tambourine dance, to so much advantage, that
I made fifteen hundred pounds by it."
'The person who made this singular address and eulogium was the
celebrated dancer, Mr. Slingsby. His testimony proves that my father
did not overrate his powers as a dancer; but it was not to boast of
a frivolous excellence that he told this anecdote to his children;
it was to express his satisfaction at having, after the first
effervescence of boyish spirits had subsided, cultivated his
understanding, turned his inventive powers to useful objects, and
chosen as the companions of his maturer years men of the first order
of intellect.'
He also took the opportunity while in England of visiting his
scientific friends--Watt, Darwin, Keir, and Wedgwood; and it was now
that his friendship began with Mr. William Strutt of Derby, with
whom he became acquainted by means of Mr. Darwin.
It was about this time that he lost his old friend Lord Longford.
Maria says of him: 'His services in the British navy, and his
character as an Irish senator, have been fully appreciated by the
public. His value in private life, and as a friend, can be justly
estimated only by those who have seen and felt how strongly his
example and opinions have, for a long course of years, continued to
influence his family, and all who had the honour of his friendship.
The permanence of this influence after death is a stronger proof of
the sincerity of the esteem and admiration felt for the character of
the individual than any which can be given during his lifetime. I
can bear witness that, in one instance, it never ceased to operate.
I know that on every important occasion of my father's life, where
he was called upon to judge or act, long after Lord Longford was no
more, his example and opinions seemed constantly present to him; he
delighted in the recollection of instances of his friend's sound
judgment, honour, and generosity; these he applied in his own
conduct, and held up to the emulation of his children.'
Doubtless Edgeworth felt, as Charles Lamb expresses it: 'Deaths
overset one, and put one out long after the recent grief. Two or
three have died within the last two twelvemonths, and so many parts
of me have been numbed. One sees a picture, reads an anecdote,
starts a casual fancy, and thinks to tell of it to this person in
preference to every other; the person is gone whom it would have
peculiarly suited. It won't do for another. Every departure destroys
a class of sympathies. There's Captain Burney gone! What fun has
whist now? What matters it what you lead if you can no longer fancy
him looking over you? One never hears anything but the image of the
particular person occurs with whom alone almost you would care to
share the intelligence. Thus one distributes oneself about, and now
for so many parts of me I have lost the market.'
The departure of Edgeworth and his family from Clifton in the autumn
of 1793 was hastened by the news that disturbances were breaking out
in Ireland. Dr. Beddoes of Clifton, who was courting Edgeworth's
daughter Anna, had to console himself with the permission to follow
her to Ireland in the spring, where they were married at Edgeworth
Town in April 1794.
It was not till the autumn of 1794 that the disturbances in Ireland
became alarming; and in a letter to Dr. Darwin, Edgeworth writes:
'Just recovering from the alarm occasioned by a sudden irruption of
defenders into this neighbourhood, and from the business of a county
meeting, and the glory of commanding a squadron of horse, and from
the exertion requisite to treat with proper indifference an
anonymous letter sent by persons who have sworn to assassinate me; I
received the peaceful philosophy of Zoonomia; and though it has been
in my hands not many minutes, I found much to delight and instruct
me. . . .
'We were lately in a sad state here--the sans culottes (literally
so) took a very effectual way of obtaining power; they robbed of
arms all the houses in the country, thus arming themselves and
disarming their opponents. By waking the bodies of their friends,
the human corpse not only becomes familiar to the sans culottes of
Ireland, but is associated with pleasure in their minds by the
festivity of these nocturnal orgies. An insurrection of such people,
who have been much oppressed, must be infinitely more horrid than
anything that has happened in France; for no hired executioners need
be sought from the prisons or the galleys. And yet the people here
are altogether better than in England. . . . The peasants, though
cruel, are generally docile, and of the strongest powers, both of
body and mind.
'A good government may make this a great country, because the raw
material is good and simple. In England, to make a carte-blanche fit
to receive a proper impression, you must grind down all the old rags
to purify them.'
His daughter adds: 'The disturbances in the county of Longford were
quieted for a time by the military; but again in the autumn of the
ensuing year (September 1796), rumours of an invasion prevailed, and
spread with redoubled force through Ireland, disturbing commerce,
and alarming all ranks of well-disposed subjects.'