prisoner at Milan.[239] I believe, even in his confinement, he has
contrived to make some miserable. He bribed his guards to let him
escape, and when the moment was ripe for flight, he was unable to
move, and several who were involved in his scheme were instantly shot
upon being detected. He is very clever and full of quickness and wit,
and his reply to Voltaire was not bad. He went to see him at Ferney.
Voltaire, who did not know his profligacy, and could not let the
opportunity go by of saying something distressing to an ecclesiastic,
stood upon his _perron_, and, pointing to a theatre on one side,
and to a temple dedicated to God on ye other side, said: ‘Où joue
t’on la plus grande farce?’ ‘C’est selon les auteurs,’ replied ye
Bishop. He called old, shrivelled Sr. Wm. Hamilton a piece of walking
_verd-antique_.
_31st Jan., ’99._--At half-past seven on Friday morning, ye 18th
January, I was safely delivered of a nice little boy, who is going
on perfectly well. Mr. Croft attended me. He had passed 4 nights and
days in the house previous to the crash. Mrs. W. stayed, too, but was
obliged to go to her eldest child, who was ill. I was sufficiently
recovered by Sunday to receive company, and have every day since seen
all who have called.
Ld. H. is this day gone down to attend the H. of Lds. If Ld. Grenville
brings on the discussion of ye Union, he will speak.[240] Probably the
last proceedings in ye Irish Parlt. will deter Pitt from pressing the
measure here, altho’ it is one he pledged himself to most irrevocably,
and one he is strongly attached to from motives of ambition and vanity.
I shall say but little on ye subject, as it has so frequently worn out
my patience lately.
The conquest of lovely Naples is added to the proud list of Republican
triumphs. The Court have fled to Sicily on board of Nelson’s fleet. The
happy States of Tuscany will soon fall, and all Italy pass under the
despotic thraldom of the Directory.
[Sidenote: SHERIDAN AND TIERNEY]
Sheridan was expected to have made a capital speech in the H. of
Commons on the Union last week, but it was reckoned very inferior to
his usual style of excellence. He offended the seceders by announcing
that the standard of Opposition would soon be unfurled.[241] He
introduced it at the conclusion of an attack upon Ld. L., who had, he
said, ‘cut a clumsy caper over the grave of party.’ (In his speech at
the beginning of the session, he said, ‘Thank God, party is dead and
buried.’) He pursued a strain of irony, apparently levelled at Ld.
L., but, in fact, intended for Tierney, who had, in a late speech,
declared that he considered himself as an individual belonging to no
set of men. Sheridan said, he did not wonder party was denied, for it
required strong intellect to command, and great virtues to attach for a
man to become the leader of party, and great humility and sense to fall
as a subaltern into the ranks of party. Sheridan hates Tierney. That
hatred was roused at T.’s making a most excellent speech on ye Income
Bill. It was so good that everybody praised it. S. was at Brooks’s,
and was so incensed at the applause that he went to Tierney’s house,
whom he found just getting into bed, insisted upon seeing him, and then
said he was quite shocked to hear that a part of his speech had given
great offence, that part where he hinted at the necessity of squeezing
the corporations, who were ‘wallowing in wealth.’ This was said to
worry Tierney, who is weakly alive to all unpopularity. T. told me this
himself.
Ld. Lansdown is just returned from Bath. He was full of what Miss Fox
calls _effusion_ to Ld. H., who had said that he regretted the
probability of their voting against each other upon the subject of the
Union. ‘Never mind,’ said Ld. L., ‘vote, speak against me, abuse me. Do
what you will. I should say, this is what I can’t hear, I can’t see;
I won’t see it. You are like my sons who can’t offend me, for I won’t
quarrel with them.’ In short, he was all tenderness and warmth.
Sheridan offended the Prince extremely in his last speech. I do not
know precisely what he said, but it was a quotation from Secretary
Cooke’s pamphlet. He certainly intended it as complimentary, but
it was not probably faithfully reported by P. Ernest to ye Prince,
and before S. could tell his own story, the Prince, with his usual
intemperance and violence, abused him, calling him ‘rogue, liar,’
etc. This _mal-entendu_ will vex S. beyond measure, for he has
ever since the Regency courted the P., and anticipated in imagination
much influence in a future reign; besides that he has wished to be
considered as being as much the organ of the P. in the H. of Commons
as Ld. Moira is in the House of Lords. I have malignity enough in my
disposition not to feel much sympathy for his afflictions. He has
afflicted so much real distress upon others, and one being dear to
me, that I have not a spark of compassion to bestow. His defenders
(and their number is but slender) say that all his bad conduct has
proceeded from his struggling against the meanness of his origin and
the littleness of his means. He attempted to efface the first by
distinguishing himself, not only in the career of wit and politics, but
also in that of gallantry and fashion; for such was his lust of praise
that:--
* * * * *
Women and fools must like him or he dies;
The wond’ring Senates hung on all he spoke,
The Club must hail him Master of the Joke.
* * * * *
Enough if all around him but admire.
I shall note down a few anecdotes about him by-and-bye.
[Sidenote: ‘PRODIGY’ POLLEN]
Ld. H. met at Sheridan’s, one day lately, Mr. Pollen, the man who
dreaded invasion for the sake of the chastity of the ladies: he
had never seen him before. Ld. H. was telling a story to prove the
openness of the Irish character, and how little suspicious they were
of trusting their lives to a person of tolerable character. The story
was told him by Ld. Wycombe as having happened to an acquaintance of
his--a Mr. Henry. A man arrested him in the streets, and, without much
prefatory discourse asked him if he would be of the _Executive_,
adding, he was a United Irishman, and was delegated by those sitting in
Dublin to ask him. Upon which Mr. Pollen immediately said: ‘The same
thing precisely occurred to me at Perth. A United Scotsman proposed
the same question, altho’ I was in my regimentals, and he knew I was
quartered with my regiment.’ The coincidence was remarkable, but tho’
Scotsmen are more wary than Irishmen, yet it was possible there might
be an indiscreet Scot. They then talked of poor Ld. Lauderdale, who
is dreadfully ill. His complaint is a horrid one, a local dropsy,
which he will not submit to have properly treated, upon which Mr.
P. said, ‘There are two modes of treating the disease: there is the
palliative and the radical. I first tried the palliative, but it
was troublesome, and ever since I used the radical I have felt no
inconvenience.’ Ld. H. said he began to stare at two such extraordinary
things having been mentioned, and that both should have happened to
him. He is not above 25 or 26, and that disorder is generally in old,
worn-out constitutions, and, if one may judge from Gibbon’s averseness
to mention the complaint, is not one that men are apt to boast of
having.... Ld. H. was all astonishment at these stories, but upon
inquiry he found Mr. Pollen’s nickname was ‘Prodigy’ Pollen.
_Wednesday, 13th. Feb._--On Sunday, ye 10th, Mr. Hare[242] came to
pass a few days. On Wednesday Bor. and Amherst dined. On last Sunday
Hare returned. Grey and Tierney dined. Miss Fox stayed from Saturday to
Monday.
Hare was full of wit and pleasantry. I was expressing surprise that a
man so universally extolled for his conversation and talents should
not, to my taste, be pleasant, for the fact is, I never received the
smallest entertainment from Sheridan’s convivial abilities. Hare said
what is true enough, that before women he is always playing a game.
His forte is at a club over wine, and in debate. Among many things he
told us of a reply of S., in debate, to Dundas, who had asserted a
falsehood for a fact, and supported it by some well-known trite joke.
S. complimented the honble. gentleman upon his abilities, especially
upon possessing to a remarkable degree a _retentive memory_ and
_fertile imagination_, but that those faculties unfortunately
were perverted, as his memory was directed to works of imagination,
and his imagination to facts. S. himself, however, is less tenacious
about facts than he ought to be. There is a story of his offering
some stories to Mr. Fox, to assist him in argument, but the latter,
who is very strict as to what he asserts, asked if they were well
authenticated, and, finding they depended upon report, declined using
them; upon which S. said, ‘He is so d----d _surly about facts_.’
S. was to have dined here on Sunday, but did not; probably to avoid
meeting Tierney and Grey, as he hates the former, and is displeased at
not being supported by the latter. His motion very nearly failed, as
nobody seconded it for full 10 minutes, and then an obscure man jumped
up and did it. All their squabbles are diverting, for as to any good
they can do, it is a farce to suppose any can be done. This Union,
they say, is to be carried at all risks. Ld. H. is gone this morning
to arrange with Ld. Fitzwilliam, but the subject is so tiresome, and
I have heard so much of it, that I cannot enter into the merits or
demerits of the case.
[Sidenote: LEWIS’ VERSES]
The ‘Monk’ Lewis consulted me whether he should dedicate his
translation of the 13th Satire of Juvenal to Mr. Fox. I said he would
take it as a compliment. It was published yesterday, but is not so good
as most of his other verses; 28 of the best lines are by Wm. Lamb,[243]
a rising genius, who is to dine here for the first time to-day. Those
imitations of Juvenal[244] by Ld. H. crept into the newspapers. I
was extremely frightened and got Mr. Hare, Tierney, etc., to exert
themselves to get the remainder suppressed, as I really feared Ld.
Minto’s being wrong-headed.
_24th Feb._--I have contented myself with skimming carelessly
enough over Lewis’ paraphrase. The undertaking seems above his means,
and was done, as I understand, at the request of his father, who
was anxious that he should give a classical turn to his literary
reputation, as he laments his ballad and green-room tastes. Several of
the lines are wofully bad:--
From morn’s first languish to the death of day,--
but enough of what I have really found too dull to read through.
I thought young Lamb pleasant, though supercilious, as he shut himself
up in his own thoughts as soon as he saw Ld. G., Morpeth, Boringdon. He
affects to hold them cheap for being Anti-Jacobins, an affectation he
has caught from ye D. of Bedford. On the following Sunday we had many
of the same party, with ye addition of the Bessboroughs, Canning, and
Frere. Wycombe, being present, annoyed Canning, and put him out of his
natural bias of ease and pleasantry. In the course of this week we had
several numerous parties of the Bessboroughs, Fish Crawfurd,[245] etc.,
etc., Hare, Fitzpatrick.
_Sunday, 3rd March._--Jekyll, Hare, Tierney, and Fitzpatrick are
now in the house. They dined here. The latter has lost such a great
portion of his ill-gotten pelf in the same way as he acquired it, viz.,
at the gaming-table. There is no one poison in the human breast that
operates so powerfully to the exclusion of every good feeling, as that
of gambling. It produces misanthropy, meanness, and avarice, and I do
not know a real amateur and practitioner of the vice in favour of whom
an exception can be made. Hare has genuine, quick feelings, and his
sensibility has not been totally blunted; but I can hardly admit as an
apology for his inveterate pursuit of fortune at the Hazard table his
necessities. But I am perhaps illiberally intolerant; the example in
Ld. H.’s family, and the scandalous expedients a certain Duchess has,
to my knowledge, been able to bring herself to resort to, have inspired
me with horror and contempt for the class.
The news arrived to-day of Mr. Grenville’s safety.[246] The frigate
is lost, and 15 persons, but he and his suite got over the ice. As no
mails are come (14 now are due), the particulars are not known. It
will be highly gratifying when he hears how universal and sincere the
sorrow has been.
[Sidenote: LORD LAUDERDALE]
_5th March,’99._--Mr. Fox is come here to-day to dine at the Whig
Club; he returns to sleep. Ld. Lauderdale is so much better that he
walks about. He told the D. of Bedford that, being kept awake one night
from pain, he diverted himself by composing a speech and a _reply_
for him upon the Union. ‘I can understand,’ said the Duke, ‘that you
may write a man’s speech for him, but how you can make a reply which
must notice points in the debate I cannot guess.’ ‘Why, the speech I
intend you shall make is calculated to put old Grenville into a rage;
he will get up and abuse you, and lug in France, French principles,
localities, and all the old story. Then you must answer him, and begin
by an apology to the House for the long speech you have been the
occasion of their hearing, as you know it must be very disagreeable
to the House; but that, for yourself, it is of no consequence, as you
are used to _noise_, for in your agricultural pursuits you are
accustomed to the _bellowing of beasts_.’ This is what Ld. L.
calls excellent raillery, and I only note it down as a specimen of
his talents in that line; no one so excellent as he is at a coarse
joke, but polished wit he not only cannot furnish, but is incapable of
relishing. Sheridan said, ‘Don’t tell Lauderdale, for a _joke_ in
his mouth is no _laughing matter_.’
_10th._--Mr. Fox dined at the Whig Club; in the speech he made
he did not supply materials for fresh attacks. We sat up very late
with him; his conversation is always instructive and entertaining. He
shuns politics as much as I could wish. Criticism, literature, and
observations upon character are ye chief topics. It is astonishing
what a storehouse of knowledge his mind is of every sort, from a fairy
tale up to a system of philosophy. A novel was mentioned, upon which
he launched forth upon a discussion on the different merits of the
novelists, in which he displayed as great a range of reading as a miss
who reads from a circulating library could do. He knows, in short,
every production of the sort that has appeared. He professed liking
fairy tales, romances, novels, etc. The only sort he admitted were
dull are the old French ones of Mlle. Scudéri--_Le Grand Cyrus_,
etc.--tho’ he made a few exceptions, especially for ye _Princesse de
Cleves_,[247] as well he might, for that is very pretty. He set off
early the next morning. Mrs. Armstead disapproves of his absence being
extended beyond the time she fixes.
On the 6th we dined at Lansdown House. Ld. L. received me with
cordiality. _I_ hope his terrors of my _machinations_ are
dissipated. Ld. Wycombe is gone to Ireland. Thursday.--Dined with
Mrs. Wyndham. Friday.--Lds. Bor. and Digby, Mr. Adderley and General
Fitzpatrick dined. Saturday.--Mrs. W.
Ld. and Ly. Macartney called this morn. It is the first time I have
seen him since his return from the Cape. He looks well, tho’ he
says he is _confiscated_. The climate of the Cape, he says, is
unfavourable to a gouty habit. He told me the people at the Cape
look upon Vaillant[248] as a vagrant, lying sort of a gentleman, who
undertook to describe places he never saw, and boast of friends he
never had: his secretary is going to publish his travels, and has
annexed an accurate map he made himself to the work.
[Sidenote: LORD MACARTNEY]
Ld. M. is remarkable for a retentive memory. He remembers the minutest
circumstance, tho’ I half-suspect he plays tricks, and frequently makes
his recollection dwell upon strange objects, that as you find he
remembers them, you may give him credit for knowing the commonest. When
he went Minister to Russia, Mr. Grenville, in giving him instructions
upon commercial arrangements, advised him to take the Navigation Act,
as it might be of service to him. ‘To avoid encumbering myself, as I
knew its use, _I have learnt it by heart_,’ and true it was he
could say every tittle. Louis XVIII. is remarkable for a strong memory;
when Ld. M. went to Verona, somebody said, ‘Ah! quels assauts de
mémoire il y aura entre eux.’
_14th March._--Sunday. Dumont[249] came and slept. He has all the
good, and none of the bad qualities of a _Génevois_. A sarcastic
person might ask, ‘What are the good qualities of a _Génevois_?’
To be candid, I protest I know of none but their enthusiastic
admiration of Rousseau, and when I made that _éloge_ of Dumont by
giving them to him, I meant in truth to say he was a Frenchman; for
all the _agréments_ I bestow on him are the due of an amiable,
enlightened, polished _homme de lettres_ of Paris.
Tuesday, we dined with Mrs. W. and went to the play: I found Lewis in
my box. Mrs. W. in her quaint manner asked him, ‘How he could have
such a horrid imagination with such a comical face?’ Thursday, Dr.
Ash and Mr. Moore dined here. To-day, the weather has been horrible,
and we have not seen a soul, but have stayed snugly alone at home. I
read two acts of Buonarotti’s _Tancia_. It is very difficult,
and to a foreigner has no merit but simplicity and poetry. Its wit
and truth are lost where the language and allusions are unknown, and
the names ideal; for the _vera lingua Fiorentina_, as spoken
by the peasants, is a distinct idiom from the common Italian, and
the proverbs are local, nor is it possible for a foreigner resident
in the country to obtain so exact a notion of the rustic manners of
the _contadini_, as to be able to judge of the justness of the
picture. I have been reading several of Hurd’s[250] _Dialogues_;
his style is frigid, and, though correct, insipid. It was of him and
Warburton that Dr. Parr said, ‘_He_ has blundered into sublimity;
_you_ have refined into littleness.’
_22nd March._--On Friday, 15th, we had an uncommonly pleasant
party--Mrs. W., Lds. Mor., Bor., Thanet, General Fitz., Lord Robert,
Mr. Hare, and (by chance) little Lewis.
_25th March,’99._--On Sunday, 17th, Ld. H. dined with Mr. Francis.
Mr. Marsh and Hamilton[251] dined here with me. At Francis’s they drank
a good deal of wine. The joke was to exhaust his cellar. It succeeded,
much to the mirth of Ld. Thanet, who is the promoter of all fun and
mischief. On Monday Ld. Bor., Misses Fox and Vernon came to sleep, and
some others.
[Sidenote: DEBATE ON THE UNION]
On Tuesday the House of Lds.; Miss Fox and I dined at home with Hodges
only. Ld. H. and Marsh went to the H. of Lds. The debate was upon the
Union. It was conducted, as Ld. Carlisle said, in a very gentlemanlike
manner, which in plainer language means dully. Ld. L. spoke. The tenor
of his speech was ambiguous, and none could judge how he would have
voted had the question come to a division. He deprecated the principle
of confiscation, and urged strongly the injustice of the Fitzgerald
Attainder Bill. He illustrated his argument by several political
cases, one of which the world say he intended for his own situation;
but he certainly did not. He said any of their Lordships might be
cursed with a Republican son, and by this system of confiscation their
grandchildren would be beggars. Ld. H. spoke, but out of good nature he
let the others speak before him, so that he was obliged to curtail his
arguments on account of the lateness of the hour. We did not get to bed
until 6 o’clock.
The next day we dined at Mr. Crawfurd’s. He had all our own friends
to meet us, Ld. and Ly. B., Mr. Canning, Ld. Mor., Bor., Amherst,
Ossory, and M. de Calonne.[252] The dinner was pleasant and cheerful;
the Fish said something slighting of Ld. Fitzwilliam,[253] which made
Ld. Bessborough redden, and Canning in his flippant way took it up,
but _à force_ of winks, shrugs, and nods, we made them shift the
subject. ’ Canning had on that day left the Foreign Department for
a sinecure under Dundas in the Board of Control. I called on Ld. L.
for five minutes, then went to ye Dss. of Leinster, and afterwards
supped at Ld. Bessborough’s. On Thursday we dined alone. On Friday
Ld. Robert,[254] Ld. Granville, Sir Lionel Copley,[255] and Sir
Gilbert[256] dined. Sr. Lionel was, as usual, Jacobinical and tiresome.
His only merit in conversation (for in conduct he has many) is that he
surprises his audience by the extreme accuracy of his knowledge of all
the epochs in the Revolution, the stations of the armies, and the names
of the members of the different councils.
On Saturday (23rd) we had a very numerous party, and one person who
never came before, who diverted us all by his manner. I invited him, as
I knew him to be good-natured, and, therefore, likely to be of service
about my seeing my children. I knew him at the period of my solitary
confinement in Sussex: his name is Fuller. His vulgar bluntness excited
much mirth; he thought the laugh was raised by his waggery, so was
delighted. The others were Boringdon, G. Leveson, Lorne, Amherst,
Digby, Mr. Cornewall Lewis, Hamilton, Adderley, Marsh, and little
Lewis. The day went off extremely well. On Sunday we had Ld. Mor.,
Bor., G. Leveson, and some strange people, Don Roberto Gordon, Baron
de Baje, Mr. Hodges, American Smith,[257] etc., etc. Dr. Drew came to
stay; in the evening Ly. B. came. On Monday I was 28 years old!!! Alas!
Alas!
[Sidenote: LORD LORNE]
The Dss. of Leinster and family came yesterday to stay some days. She
is in very tolerable spirits and health. Mimi[258] is ill, but is to
come to-day. I was vexed at her not being here yesterday, because
Beauclerk is come on purpose to see her. I abhor the character of a
meddler, but I should be delighted at succeeding in bringing two such
delightful persons together. Ld. Lorne is a very old acquaintance
of mine. He is very handsome, well-made, and like a gentleman; his
manner is remarkably simple and unaffected, and tho’ his abilities are
not of the most brilliant order, yet he does not appear in the least
deficient. He has in his disposition an uncommon share of indifference,
almost to apathy, and tho’ in the possession of every requisite for
happiness, it does not appear that he enjoys anything.
_26th March,’99._--Ld. Thanet[259] is in great alarm at the approaching
trial. He is indicted with Mr. Denis O’Brien, Fergusson,[260] and
Brown,[261] for attempting to rescue Arthur O’Connor in the court at
Maidstone. He is apprehensive of imprisonment, and, indeed, it is
generally thought he will be condemned to it. I really do not believe
he was at all riotous. The only strong fact against him is his having
said, when Judge Buller expressed surprise at such an idle attempt
being made, ‘Oh, he may as well have a run for it!’
Poor Ld. Edward’s little boy is here.[262] He is a remarkable child;
I cannot look at him without feeling strongly. His pretty manner and
liveliness saved the poor Dss.’s life; her whole mind is occupied with
him. When he was two years old, after eating heartily, he asked for
more. His maid told him he had had enough. ‘No, no, Eddy does not like
enough; Eddy likes too much,’ a sentiment he inherited from his poor
father, I fancy.
Mr. Dumont told us of a trick his friend Chauvet played a German Baron
at Geneva. The German came from the heart of Germany, ‘To adore,’ he
said, ‘le grand homme,’ and had brought letters of recommendation. It
struck Chauvet that it would be a good joke to make the Baron go away
without seeing Voltaire. Chauvet told him that the philosopher was so
pestered with visitors that, unless they were introduced by some of
his own friends, he did not receive them cordially. To make the story
short, he personated Voltaire, and put many ridiculous questions to the
Baron. One was, ‘M. le Baron, avez-vous lu mon histoire par Rollin?’
‘Avec le plus grand plaisir, Monsr.’