the preference to a sincere and sensible friend; and though you are
not acquainted with half his merit, you will believe that Deyverdun
answers that description. Perhaps two persons so perfectly fitted for
each other were never created by Nature and education. Our studies,
occupations, and reflexions have been sufficiently various to ensure
a constant fund of entertainment; the lights and shades of our
respective characters are happily blended; freedom and confidence are
the basis of our union, and a friendship of thirty years has taught
us to enjoy and to support each other. You have often read and heard
the descriptions of this delightful Country, the banks of the lake
of Geneva, and indeed it surpasses all description. A stranger is
struck with surprize and admiration, and it is endeared to me by the
remembrance of my youth and the lively attachment which I have always
retained for the place and the people. Our autumn has been beautiful,
and the winter has not hitherto been severe, but the season of rural
enjoyments is for some time suspended and our comforts are confined
to the fireside. M. Deyverdun's house is spacious and convenient, and
his garden, which spreads over a various and extensive spot, unites
every beauty and advantage both of town and country. But into this
paradise we are not yet introduced; the family to whom he had lent or
let the larger part of the house have started some difficulties about
the time of their removal, and till the month of March or April we
are obliged to content ourselves with a convenient ready furnished
lodging. When to this disappointment I add that my boxes of books
which were sent through France still loiter on the road, you will
confess that my felicity in the approaching year is more likely to
encrease than to diminish.
[Sidenote: DAILY LIFE AT LAUSANNE.]
With regard to the daily enjoyments of life, which rolls away in
a quiet uniform tenor, they are made to be felt rather than to be
related. I rise before eight, and our mornings are commonly invisible
to each other. At two (an hour somewhat too early) we dine, one,
two, or three agreably very often enliven our board, which is served
with decent elegance. From four to between six and seven we read
some amusing book, play at chess, retire to our rooms, look into the
Coffee house, or make visits. The assemblies are numerous, and I
play my three rubbers at shilling or half-crown whist with tolerable
pleasure. They end between nine and ten, and a bit of bread and
cheese, with some friendly converse, sends us to bed about eleven.
This sober plan is indeed interrupted by too frequent suppers,
which I want resolution to refuse, though I behave with exemplary
temperance. Instead of lolling in a coach I walk the streets at all
hours wrapped in a fur Cloak--the exercise is wholesome, and in my
life I never enjoyed more perfect health and spirits. May you be
able to say as much! If vanity and Deyverdun do not deceive me, I am
already a general favourite, and as likings or dislikes are commonly
mutual, I am pleased with the manners of the place, and the worthy
and amiable characters of many individuals of both sexes.
Believe me, My dear Madam, I never cast a look on the politics or
the amusements of London. The mob of political connections or casual
acquaintance are unworthy of the regret of a rational mind. But in
the midst of a very pleasant life and society I am not insensible of
my separation from yourself, the Sheffields, and two or three real
friends. If their zeal should succeed in procuring me any adequate
office which I could accept with propriety and exercise without
disgust, if Government should find any situation in which I could do
them service and myself credit, I would quit (perhaps with a sigh)
this agreable retreat, and obey without hesitation the calls of
friendship, of honour, and of my Country.
[79] This letter, as printed here, was written by Edward Gibbon
to his stepmother; a similar letter, in which some of the same
phrases are repeated, is printed in Lord Sheffield's edition
of Gibbon's _Miscellaneous Writings_ (vol. ii. pp. 340-344),
addressed to his aunt, Miss Catherine Porten.
489.
_To Lord Sheffield._
Lausanne, January 24th, 1784.
*Within two or three days after your last _gracious_ Epistle, your
Complaints were silenced, and your enquiries were satisfied, by an
ample dispatch of four pages, which overflowed the inside of the
cover, and in which I exposed my opinions of things in general,
public as well as private, as they existed in my mind, in my state
of ignorance and error, about the eighteenth or twentieth of last
month. Within a week after that date I epistolised, in the same rich
and copious strain, the two venerable females of Newman-street and
the Belvidere,[80] whose murmur must now be changed into songs of
gratitude and applause. My correspondence with the holy Matron of
Northamptonshire[81] has been less lively and loquacious. You have
not forgotten the Atheist's vindication of himself from the foul
calumnies of pretended Christians; within a fortnight after his
arrival at Lausanne, he communicated the joyful event to Mrs. G.
She answered _per_ return of post, both letters at the same time,
and in very dutiful language, almost excusing her advice, which was
intended for my spiritual, as well as temporal, good, and assuring me
that _nobody should be able to injure me with her_. Unless the Saint
is an hypocrite, possible enough, such an expression must convey a
favourable and important meaning: at all events, it is worth giving
_ourselves_ some trouble about her, without indulging any sanguine
expectations of inheritance.
[Sidenote: DELIGHT IN LORD SHEFFIELD'S LETTERS.]
So much for my females. With regard to my male Correspondents, you
are the only one to whom I have given any signs of my existence,
though I have formed many a generous resolution. Yet I am not
insensible of the kind and friendly manner in which Lord Loughborough
has distinguished me: he could have no inducements of interest, and
now that I view the distant picture with an impartial eye, I am
convinced that (for a Statesman) he was sincere though not earnest
in his wishes to serve me. When you see _him_, the Paynes, Eden,
Crauford, &c., tell them that I am well, happy, and ashamed. On your
side, the zeal and diligence of your pen has surprized and delighted
me, and your letters, at this interesting moment, are exactly such as
I wished them to be--authentic anecdotes, and rational speculations,
worthy of a man who acts a part in the great theatre, and who fills a
seat, not only in the general Pandæmonium, but in the private council
of the princes of the infernal Regions. With regard to the detail of
Parliamentary operations, I must repeat my request to you, or rather
to Miss Firth, who will now be on the spot, that she will write, not
with her pen, but her Scissars, and that, after every debate which
deserves to pass the Sea and the Mountains, she will dissect the
faithful narrative of Woodfall,[82] and send it off by the next
post, as an agreeable supplement to the meagre accounts of our weekly
papers.
The wonderful revolutions of last month[83] have sounded to my ear
more like the shifting scenes of a Comedy or Comic Opera, than like
the sober events of real and modern history; and the irregularity of
our winter posts, which sometimes retarded, and sometimes hastened,
the arrival of the dispatches, has encreased the confusion of our
ideas. Surely the Lord has blinded the eyes of Pharaoh and of his
servants; the obstinacy of the last spring[84] was nothing compared
to the headstrong and headlong madness of this Winter. I expect
with much impatience the first days of your meeting: the purity
and integrity of the Coalition will suffer a fiery tryal; but if
they are true to themselves and to each other, a Majority of the
House of Commons must prevail; the rebellion of the young Gentlemen
will be crushed, and the Masters will resume the Government of the
School. After the address and answer,[85] I have no conception that
Parliament can be dissolved during the Session; but if the present
Ministry can outlive the storm, I think the death Warrant will
infallibly be signed in the summer. _Here_ I blush for my Country,
without confessing her shame. Fox acted like a man of Honour, yet
surely his union with Pitt affords the only hope of salvation. How
miserably are we wasting the season of peace!
[Sidenote: THE SALE OF HIS SEAT.]
I have written three pages before I come to my own busyness and
feelings. In the first place, I most sincerely rejoyce that I left
the ship, and swam ashore on a plank; the daily and hourly agitation
in which I must have lived would have made me truly miserable, if I
had obtained a place during pleasure, Storer's for instance. On the
first news of the dissolution, I considered my seat as so totally
and irrecoverably gone, that I have been less affected with Sir
Harry's obstinacy.* Yet his absolute refusal to treat throws us
at least for the present into a very uncomfortable situation, and
besides the danger of shipwreck, every day's voyage diminishes the
value of the ship and cargo. You say you are schemeless. I can think
only of two expedients.
1. You know or can know Sir Andrew Hammond, who is a fair and
honourable character. Talk over the business and kinsman fairly with
him, and tempt him to exert himself by the lowness of the price. I
should consider even five or six hundred pounds as so much saved
out of the fire, and a part of that sum would be most deliciously
employed in the embellishment of my new habitation.
2. The other scheme is somewhat more delicate, yet I cannot esteem
myself as bound to sacrifice my essential interest to that motley
crew surnamed a Coalition, nor does this superiority in Parliament
depend on the loss of _half-a-vote_. Perhaps the new Minister would
give Sir Harry for his relations those scandalous jobs which our late
friends more conscientiously refused, and many a Candidate would
purchase their effectual recommendation by giving me the £1000 or
£1200. On this occasion remember you are acting for a _poor_ friend;
dismiss a little of the spirit of faction and patriotism, and stoop
to a prudential line of conduct, which in your own case you might
possibly disdain. If you attempt the negociation you will easily
find the proper instruments, but I should think James Grenville,
the Lord of the Treasury, a safe and convenient channel, and I am
persuaded that he would embrace the opportunity of serving his party
and obliging _me_ at the same time. In the business of Lenborough you
may be active, but I can only be passive to convey a fair Estate, and
to receive a miserable pittance of three thousand and some pounds.
I hope nothing will happen to perplex the title or to delay the
payment, and that the sum will be safely lodged for my account and in
Gosling's hands before the end of February.
*Perhaps you will abuse my prudence and patriotism, when I inform
you, that I have already vested a part (30,000 Livres, about £1300)
in the new loan of the King of France. I get eight per Cent. on
the joint lives of Deyverdun and myself, besides thirty tickets
in a very advantageous Lottery, of which the highest prize is
an annuity of 40,000 Livres (£1700) a year. At this moment, the
beginning of a peace, and probably a long peace, I think (and the
World seems to think) the French funds at least as solid as our
own. I have empowered my Agent, M. de Lessart, a capital banker at
Paris, to draw upon Gosling for the money two months hence; and
to avoid all accidents that may result from untoward delays, and
mercantile churlishness, I expect that you will support my credit
in Fleet-street with your own more respectable name.* Moreover
when Lenborough purchase money is paid, I wish it were possible to
withhold £1000 or 1500 of their mortgage on our joint bond; I could
employ it to my satisfaction at present, and should certainly repay
it in three or four years on the conclusion of my History. Perhaps
you will be better reconciled to my pecuniary arrangements by the
proposal which I seriously make of purchasing Lee's farm at Buriton,
if it can be obtained for 25 years' purchase after deducting the Land
Tax. My interest without principal will be compensated by principal
without interest (you remember Soame Jenyns's definition), and
whatever becomes of my French Creditor, my Hampshire acres will be
safe, compact, and in due time clear of all incumbrances. You may
consult with Hugonin, propose and conclude.
*What say you now? Am I not a wise Man? My letter is enormous,
and the post on the wing. In a few days I will write to my Lady
herself, and enter something more into the details of domestic life.
Suffice it to say, that the scene becomes each day more pleasant
and comfortable, and that I complain only of the dissipation of
Lausanne. In the course of March or April we shall take possession of
Deyverdun's house. My books, which by some strange neglect, did not
leave Paris till the 3rd of this Month, will arrive in a few weeks;
and I shall soon resume the continuation of my history, which I
shall prosecute with the more vigour, as the completion affords me a
distant prospect of a visit to England.* A-propos, if the box which I
left in Downing Street for the Swiss Carrier be not already departed,
I hope Elmsley and yourself will give it a speedy and vigorous shove;
when you see Elmsley ask him whether he has answered my letters: he
is almost as lazy as myself. To my Lady's taste I shall entrust the
Wedgewood's ware, which in the course of the spring or summer may
accompany some other boxes of plate, linnen, books which I shall
probably invoke. Adieu. I embrace my Lady and Infants.
Ever yours,
E. G.
[80] His aunt, Miss Porten, and his stepmother.
[81] His aunt, Miss Hester Gibbon.
[82] William Woodfall, formerly assistant editor of the _Public
Advertiser_, was at this time editor of the _Morning Chronicle_.
He was called "Memory Woodfall" from his accuracy in remembering
the speeches in Parliament, of which no notes were then allowed
to be taken. He was, it is said (_Auckland Correspondence_, vol.
iii. p. 165), for many years paid £400 a year, "for giving the
speeches of Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan much more at length and
better than he did those of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas." He was
afterwards editor of a paper called _The Diary_, which failed. He
died in 1803. His brother, Henry Woodfall, published the _Letters
of Junius_.
[83] The fall of the Coalition. See note to Letter 487.
[84] The long delay in accepting the Coalition Cabinet. See note
to Letter 487.
[85] The House of Commons, after deferring the third reading of
the land-tax Bill, and addressing the king against dissolving
Parliament, adjourned from December 26 to January 12, 1784.
490.
_To Lord Sheffield._
Lausanne, February 2nd, 1784.
BARON!--
*After my last enormous dispatch, nothing can remain, except some
small gleanings, or occasional hints; and thus in order: I am not
conscious that any of your valuable MSS. have miscarried, or that I
have omitted to answer any essential particulars. They stand in my
Bureau carefully arranged, and docketed under the following dates;
September 23, October 23, November 18, December 2, December 15,
December 19, December 23, December 29, January 16, which last I
have received this day, Febr. 2nd. For greater perspicuity, it will
not be amiss (on either side) to number our future Epistles, by a
conspicuous Roman character inscribed in the front, to which we may
at any time refer. But instead of writing by Ostend, the shorter
and surer way, especially on all occasions that deserve celerity,
will be to direct them to my Banker, M. de Lessert, at Paris, who
will forward them to me. Through Germany the passage by Sea is more
uncertain, the roads worse, and the distance greater: we often
complain of delay and irregularity at this interesting moment.
[Sidenote: A FACTIOUS OPPOSITION.]
By your last I find that you have boldly and generously opened a
treaty with the Enemy, which I proposed with fear and hesitation.
I impatiently expect the result; and again repeat, that _whatever_
you can obtain* for the seat, *I shall consider it as so much saved
out of the fire, &c. &c.* I shall then have completely secured a
tranquil though humble station, and my personal happiness will no
longer hang in suspense upon every change of Ministry, and every vote
of Parliament. I am not surprized that you grow sulky: your free and
liberal spirit must disdain a set of Men, whose aim is their own
restoration to power, and whose means may affect the principles of
the Constitution.[86] *Do you remember Dunning's motion[87] (in the
year 80) to address the Crown against a dissolution of Parliament? a
simple address we rejected, as an infringement on the prerogative;
yet how far short of these strong Democratical measures, for which
you have probably voted, as I should probably have done: such is the
contagion of party. Fox drives most furiously, yet I should not be
surprized if Pitt's moderation and character should insensibly win
the Nation, and even the house, to espouse his cause.*
Lenborough is a melancholy and unpleasant subject. I am grateful for
your endeavours, and lament that your reflexions on the value of
land and money are but too true and sensible. Greatly as I have been
disappointed in the price, I should now be sorry that anything should
happen to break the bargain or to delay the payment. The surmise of
such a possible event obliged me to repeat my commands that you would
instruct Gosling (in your own name) to accept M. de Lessert's draught
on the 20th of March for 30,000 French Livres (about £1300). Whatever
you may think of my economical measures, the deed is done, and my
honour is now pledged for the performance. The other sum, £1000
or 1500 of the Lenborough price which I wished to deduct from the
mortgage, is a more indifferent speculation, which should only take
place as far as it is agreable to all parties.
[Sidenote: ARRIVAL OF HIS LIBRARY.]
*Unless when I look back on England with a selfish or a tender
regard, my hours roll away very pleasantly, and I can again repeat
with truth, that I have not regretted a single moment the step which
I have taken. We are now at the height of the Winter dissipation, and
I am peculiarly happy when I can steal away from great assemblies,
and suppers of twenty or thirty people, to a more private party, of
some of those persons whom I begin to call my friends. Till we are
settled in our house little can be expected on our side; yet I have
already given two or three handsome dinners; and though everything
is grown dearer, I am not alarmed at the general view of my expence.
Deyverdun salutes you; and we are agreed that few married Couples
are better entitled to the flitch of bacon than we shall be at the
end of the year. When I had written about half this Epistle my books
arrived; at our first meeting all was rapture and confusion, and two
or three posts, from the 2nd to this day, the fourteenth, have been
suffered to depart unnoticed. Your letter of the 27th of January,
which was not received till yesterday, has again awakened me, and I
thought the surest way would be to send off this single sheet without
any farther delay.
I sincerely rejoice in the stability of Parliament;[88] and the first
faint dawn of reconciliation, which must however be effected by the
equal balance of parties, rather than by the wisdom of the Country
Gentlemen.[89]*
MISS FIRTH,
After due salutations I trouble you with three or four Commissions,
which I should not presume to offer to the greatness of the Baron
or the delicacy of My Lady, but which I am persuaded you will
chearfully undertake to oblige an old and sincere friend. 1. The
employment which I have already hinted of your scissars in carving
and despatching occasional debates from Woodfall's paper. 2. You are
desired to call on Elmsley to ask him from time to time when he wrote
to me last, and to urge him about taking and sending a Catalogue of
my library with all convenient or inconvenient speed. 3. As many
things will be deficient and as carriage will be less expensive than
purchase, I propose sending for my plate, linnen, and China which
now lye in Downing Street. My Agent Prendergast, an honest Cabinet
maker, has received his instructions from Caplen, and I only desire
that when he calls for that purpose he may have free permission to
examine, pack, export, &c. A list was entrusted to Lord Sheffield
which might be compared, copied, signed by him and transmitted by the
post to me.
MY LADY!--
But it would be highly incongruous to begin my letter at the bottom
of the page. Adieu, therefore, till next post.
[86] As soon as Parliament reassembled after the Christmas recess
(January 12, 1784), the House of Commons resolved itself into
a committee on the state of the nation in order to prevent an
immediate dissolution. Two resolutions were carried: (1) that to
pay out public money before the same was appropriated by Act of
Parliament was a high crime and misdemeanour; (2) that the Mutiny
Bill be postponed till February 23. It was further resolved,
that an Administration, which commanded the confidence of the
House, was peculiarly necessary in the present situation of the
kingdom, and that the late ministerial changes had been preceded
and accompanied by reports and circumstances which alienated
the confidence of the House. On January 14, Pitt proposed his
India Bill, which was rejected (January 23) by 222 to 214. On
January 16 a resolution was carried, by 205 to 184, that the
continuance of the present ministers in office was "contrary to
constitutional principles and injurious to the interests of his
Majesty and his people."
[87] Dunning's motion, here referred to, was proposed April 24,
1780, and rejected by 254 to 203.
[88] On December 22, 1783, Mr. Bankes, M.P. for Corfe Castle,
an intimate friend of William Pitt, assured the House that the
Government did not intend to advise the king to dissolve or
prorogue Parliament, and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
if such advice were offered, would oppose it, and, if it were
accepted, would resign.
[89] On January 16, 1784, Mr. Powys, M.P. for Northamptonshire,
proposed a compromise by a coalition between the contending
parties. Fox, however, declared that no compromise was possible
till Pitt had resigned. The idea of a compromise was taken up on
the 20th by the "country gentlemen." Stormy scenes took place on
January 23, when Pitt declined to make any statement as to the
advice which he might offer the king. But on Saturday, January
24, he stated that, while refusing to pledge himself further,
the House should not be dissolved till it had met on Monday, the
26th. Advantage was taken of this statement to call a meeting,
attended by seventy members of the "country gentlemen" party, at
the St. Alban's Tavern, to consider the possibility of compromise
on the basis of a "Broad Bottom administration." The plan proved
futile, and was abandoned February 18. The proceedings closed
with a dinner given to the seventy members at Carlton House by
the Prince of Wales on March 10, 1784.
491.
_To Lord Sheffield._
Lausanne, March 2nd, 1784.
Your despatch of Feb. 13th arrived safe yesterday, March 1st, and
notwithstanding the winter obstacles of seas and roads there is, upon
the whole, more delay than danger in the transactions of the posts.
I am glad that my last appearance in Downing Street put an end to a
course of abuse; but in spite of my profound veneration for dreams
and omens, I flatter myself that the silence of _one month_ will not
always be interpreted as a certain testimony that I no longer exist.
Before I quit the subject of dispatches, one word on Miss Firth's
scissors whose operation you have so prudently checked. Their use was
not intended to be daily but occasional, on some great and memorable
debate in the Pandemonium. Such occasions might occur twenty or
thirty times in the winter, and at one shilling each time the annual
expence might have exceeded _one_ Guinea. I had computed that such
expence might be supported; but if you persist in a contrary opinion,
I must submit.