have no objection. Since I have again opened my letter, I will ask
you how the property of an Ecclesiastical differs from that of a lay
Corporation, and whether you think Parliament could legally seize and
appropriate the lands of the City of London. If either Corporation
was mischievous, Government might indeed extinguish it in time, by
prohibiting a supply of new members, and the vacant property would
perhaps devolve to the public. No change of events or opinions in
France: next month will be critical from the Provincial Assemblies.
551.
_To Lord Sheffield._
Lausanne, May 15th, 1790.
[Sidenote: LEGAL FORMS BENEFIT LAWYERS.]
*Since the first origin (_ab ovo_) of our connection and
correspondence, so long an interval of silence has not intervened, as
far as I remember, between us.* Yet on the present occasion neither
is materially to blame, nor has either been materially injured.
My conscience was easy, since my last letter, I felt myself in the
proud security of a creditor, and though after a certain space I
waited every post for an answer, yet I waited with little impatience
and no anxiety, in the firm persuasion that Lady-day would finally
settle the whole transaction of the mortgage and the payment. I now
find that the delay is involuntary and indefinite, and that it is
not so easy to escape even from the amicable grip of the Court of
Chancery. Can such superstitious forms be of any use except to the
Lawyers? whose bill I much apprehend. Might not such an obsolete
deed which I had perfectly forgot, have been thrown into the fire
with the consent of all parties? However we must follow the stream,
and I trust that neither Sussex nor Africa, nor Reading nor Bristol
will relax your diligence in the cause of your friend. In the winding
up an arrangement of twenty years, it is vexatious to be stopped by
a little knot: but otherwise my nerves are not so much discomposed
as you might suspect. As I believe the purchasers to be honest and
sincere, the difference is only between the rent and the interest:
the tenant deserves no mercy, and I hope your orders are absolute
for distraining the next day on failure of payment. I trust that the
£8000 mortgage is settled with Sainsbury, nor do I dislike your last
resolution of pouring the whole residue into the funds.
*From my silence you conclude that the moral complaint, which I had
insinuated in my last, is either insignificant or fanciful. The
conclusion is rash. But the complaint in question is of the nature of
a slow lingering disease, which is not attended with any immediate
danger. As I have not leisure to expatiate, take the idea in three
words: "Since the loss of poor Deyverdun, I am _alone_; and even in
paradise, solitude is painful to a social mind. When I was a dozen
years younger, I _scarcely_ felt the weight of a single existence
amidst the crowds of London, of Parliament, of Clubs; but it will
press more heavily upon me in this tranquil land, in the decline of
life, and with the encrease of infirmities. Some expedient, even the
most desperate, must be embraced, to secure the domestic society of
a male or female companion. But I am not in a hurry; there is time
for reflection and advice." During this winter such finer feelings
have been suspended by the grosser evil of bodily pain. On the ninth
of February I was seized by such a fit of the Gout as I had never
known, though I must be thankful that its dire effects have been
confined to the feet and knees, without ascending to the more noble
parts. With some vicissitudes of better and worse, I have groaned
between two and three months; the debility has survived the pain,
and though now easy, I am carried about in my chair, without any
power, and with a very distant chance, of supporting myself, from
the extreme weakness and contraction of the joints of my knees. Yet
I am happy in a skilful physician, and kind assiduous friend: every
evening, during more than three months, has been enlivened (except
when I have been forced to refuse them) by some chearful visits, and
very often by a chosen party of both sexes. How different is such
society from the solitary evenings which I have passed in the tumult
of London! It is not worth while fighting about a shadow, but should
I ever return to England, Bath, not the Metropolis, would be my last
retreat.
Your portrait is at last arrived in perfect condition, and now
occupies a conspicuous place over the chimney-glass in my library. It
is the object of general admiration; good judges (the few) applaud
the work; the name of Reynolds opens the eyes and mouths of the
many; and were not I afraid of making you vain, I would inform you
that the original is not allowed to be more than five-and-thirty.
In spite of private reluctance and public discontent, I have
honourably dismissed _myself_.[149] I shall arrive at Sir Joshua's
before the end of the month; he will give me a look, and perhaps a
touch; and you will be indebted to the president one guinea for the
carriage. Do not be nervous, I am not rolled up; had I been so, you
might have gazed on my charms four months ago. I want some account
of yourself, of My lady, (shall we never directly correspond?) of
Louisa, and of the soft, the stately Maria. How has the latter since
her launch supported a quiet Winter in Sussex? I so much rejoice
in your divorce from that b---- Kitty Coventry,[150] that I care
not what marriage you contract. The second City in England would
suit your dignity, and the duties of a Bristol Member, which would
kill me in the first session, would supply your activity with a
constant fund of amusement. But tread softly and surely; the ice is
deceitful, the water is deep, and you may be soused over head and
ears before you are aware. Why did not you or Elmsly send me the
African pamphlet[151] by the post? it would not have cost much. You
have such a knack of turning a nation, that I am afraid you will
triumph (perhaps by the force of argument) over justice and humanity.
But do you not expect to work at Beelzebub's sugar plantations in the
infernal regions, under the tender government of a negro-driver? I
should suppose both My lady and Miss Firth very angry with you.
As to the bill for prints, which has been too long neglected, why
will you not exercise the power, which I have never revoked, over
all my cash at the Goslings'? I have no further claims either for
quarto or octavo copies, but I am persuaded that Cadell's liberality
will credit your applications in my name for one of each. The
Severy family has passed a very favourable winter; the young man is
impatient to hear from a family which he places something above the
Holy family: yet he will generously write next week, and send you a
drawing of the alterations in the house. Do not raise your ideas;
you know _I_ am satisfied with convenience in architecture, and some
elegance in furniture. I hear nothing decisive either from Sir Ralph
Payne about Madeira, and if I do not receive a supply in the course
of the summer, I shall be in great shame and distress. I would write
to the Bath Knight if I knew his address. That is serious business,
but I admire the coolness with which you ask me to epistolize Reynell
and Elmsly, as if a letter were so easy and pleasant a task; it
appears less so to me every day.*
[149] His portrait.
[150] At the general election for 1790, Lord Eardley and John
Wilmot were returned for Coventry, and the Marquis of Worcester
and Lord Sheffield for Bristol. Lord Sheffield sat for Bristol
from 1790 to 1802, when he was summoned to the British House of
Peers.
[151] Lord Sheffield's pamphlet, _Observations on the Project for
Abolishing the Slave Trade_, was published anonymously in 1790.
The second edition (1791) bore the author's name.
552.
_Lord Sheffield to Edward Gibbon._
Sheffield Place, 28th July, '90.
[Sidenote: LORD SHEFFIELD RETURNED FOR BRISTOL.]
I wish I had better paper, but this is good enough for a foreigner.
At length I have obtained an attested copy of Hester's Will, but no
further letter or information from Mr. Law.
I find the Will was made in November, 1786, and is of considerable
length, altho' her nephew Edward Gibbon takes up not much more than
two lines of it. The rest says much about the family of Law, and
the heirs of the Rev. Wm. Law. It gives the Sussex Estate to Edward
Gibbon and his heirs for ever, and one thousand pounds to the said
Edward, and one hundred pounds to her niece Lady Eliot, but the _chat
d'enfer_, by a codicil dated 18th February, 1788, when her nephew
resided in Downing Street, took the trouble of reducing the thousand
pounds to one hundred pounds, to be paid within 12 months after her
decease. When there is an opportunity I shall send the composition
to you. And now you are once more a landed man. But I wonder I
have not had a summons lately to attend Messrs. Sainsbury and
Rhodes to conclude the Buriton business. I have furnished them with
every paper, &c., they have desired, and I verily believe they are
proceeding, yet it seems in a truly Chancery style. They plagued me
lately about a deed for which it was necessary to ransack the boxes.
My last letter was from Clifton near Bristol (I believe) after
my return from Coventry, and I also believe I therein mentioned
Proceedings at Reading, Bristol, and Coventry. I was detained some
time among my constituents for the purpose of incorporating a due
quantity of Turtle, and on leaving them I subscribed somewhat above
£300 to Infirmary, Magdalens, Small Debtors, &c. but that was all my
expence at Bristol. I suppose I mentioned in my last that my expences
at Coventry did not exceed £150.
Sir Joseph Banks[152] and family have been here several days, and
inquired much after you. They are just gone, and Batt is just
arrived, and stays till Brighthelmstone Races next week. Lord North
and family are at Tunbridge Wells, and will make a visit here as soon
as we are settled after Races.
[Sidenote: HESTER GIBBON'S WILL.]
Perhaps it may be needful to mention to you that the rent of your
Newhaven, alias Meeching Farm, is £225. The Manor is considerable,
the quit-rents and profits above £40--the latter uncertain. The
deductions on account of Land-tax and Sackville College rent and
expenses of collecting quit-rent about £29. I shall not readily
approve of your selling it, but if you should be desperately
disposed to increase your income, what do you think of taking double
or treble the clear rent for your life, for the said Estate? I
suppose about £550 per annum, which allows for outgoings, including
repairs of sea-walls and every deduction but moderately--they have
been of late years somewhat immoderate.
If you do not think of making little ones, it may suit you and it
would me, although I am poor, because it would be a very respectable
addition to my Sussex Estate. It would give me marshland of which I
have none, also the mouth of the River Ouse, &c.: and perhaps a small
house on the sea-shore. I do not know that it would be a good bargain
for you and your heirs, but I think it would be a good one for the
House of Holroyd, except that I should not like to be benefitted by
the Devil taking you--yet I do not suspect I should wish it. In case
of his taking me or not, you would have a collateral security besides
that of the Estate itself. The best argument for your doing it is
that I shall with-hold my consent to your selling it. On this subject
you will give your mind without ceremony. It will furnish you with
subject matter for a letter.
Yours ever,
S.
Remember us to the house of Severy.
[152] Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) sailed with Captain Cook in
the _Endeavour_ in 1768. He was President of the Royal Society
from 1778 to 1820.
553.
_To Lord Sheffield._
Lausanne, August 7, 1790.
*I answer at once your two letters; and I should probably have taken
earlier notice of the first, had I not been in daily expectation of
the second. I must begin on the subject of what really interests
me the most, your glorious election for Bristol. Most sincerely
do I congratulate your exchange of a cursed expensive jilt, who
deserted you for a rich Jew, for an honourable connection with a
chaste and virtuous matron, who will probably be as constant as she
is disinterested. In the whole range of election from Caithness to
St. Yves, I much doubt whether there be a single choice so truly
honourable to the member and the constituents. The second Commercial
city invites, from a distant province, an independent Gentleman,
known only by his active spirit, and his writings on the subject
of trade; and names him, without intrigue or expence, for her
representative: even the voice of party is silenced, While factions
strive which shall applaud the most.
You are now sure, for seven years to come, of never wanting food--I
mean business; what a crowd of suitors or Complainants will besiege
your door! what a load of letters and memorials will be heaped on
your table! I much question whether even you will not sometimes
exclaim, _Ohe! jam satis est!_ but that is your affair. Of the
excursion to Coventry I cannot decide, but I hear it is pretty
generally blamed: but, however, I love gratitude to an old friend;
and shall not be very angry if you damned them with a farewell to all
eternity. But I cannot repress my indignation at the use of those
foolish, obsolete, odious words, Whig and Tory. In the American War
they might have some meaning; and then your Lordship was a Tory:
since the coalition, all general principles have been confounded;
and if there ever was an opposition to men, not measures, it is the
present. Luckily, both the Leaders are great men; and, whatever
happens, the country must fall upon its legs. What a strange mist of
peace and war seems to hang over the ocean! We can perceive nothing
but secrecy and vigour; but those are excellent qualities to perceive
in a Minister. From yourself and politics I now return to my private
concerns, which I shall methodically consider under the three great
articles of mind, body, and estate.* And first, as Aristotle says, of
the first.
[Sidenote: COMFORTLESS STATE OF DOMESTIC SOLITUDE.]
*1. I am not absolutely displeased at your firing so hastily at the
hint, a tremendous hint, in my last letter. But the danger is not so
serious or imminent as you seem to suspect; and I give you my word,
that, before I take the slightest step which can bind me either in
law, conscience, or honour, I will faithfully communicate, and we
will freely discuss, the whole state of the business. But at present
there is not any thing to communicate or discuss; I do assure you
that I have not any particular object in view: I am not in love with
any of the Hyænas of Lausanne, though there are some who keep their
claws tolerably well pared. Sometimes, in a solitary mood, I have
fancied myself married to one or other of those whose society and
conversation are the most pleasing to me; but when I have painted
in my fancy all the probable consequences of such an union, I have
started from my dream, rejoyced in my escape, and ejaculated a
thanksgiving that I was still in possession of my natural freedom.
Yet I feel, and shall continue to feel, that domestic solitude,
however it may be alleviated by the world, by study, and even by
friendship, is a comfortless state, which will grow more painful
as I descend in the vale of years. At present my situation is very
tolerable; and if at dinner-time, or at my return home in the
evening, I sometimes sigh for a companion, there are many hours,
and many occasions, in which I enjoy the superior blessing of being
sole master of my own house. But your plan, though less dangerous,
is still more absurd than mine: such a couple as you describe could
not be found; and, if found, would not answer my purpose; their
rank and position would be awkward and ambiguous to myself and my
acquaintance; and the agreement of three persons of three characters
would be still more impracticable. My plan of Charlotte Porten
is undoubtedly the most desirable; and she might either remain a
spinster (the case is not without example,) or marry some Swiss of
my choice, who would increase and enliven our society; and both
would have the strongest motives for kind and dutiful behaviour. But
the mother has been indirectly sounded; and will not hear of such a
proposal for some years. On my side, I would not take her, but as a
piece of soft wax which I could model to the language and manners of
the Country: I must therefore be patient.
2. Young Severy's letter, which may be now in your hands, and which,
for these three or four last posts, has furnished my indolence with
a new pretence for delay, has already informed you of the means and
circumstances of my resurrection. Tedious indeed was my confinement,
since I was not able to move from my house or chair, from the ninth
of February to the first of July, very nearly five months. The first
weeks were accompanied with more pain than I have ever known in the
Gout, with anxious days and sleepless nights; and when that pain
subsided, it left a weakness in my knees, which seemed to have no
end. My confinement was however softened by books, by the possession
of every comfort and convenience, by a succession each evening of
agreeable company, and by a flow of equal spirits and general good
health. During the last weeks I descended to the ground floor, poor
Deyverdun's apartment, and constructed a chair like Merlin's, in
which I could wheel myself in the house and on the terrace. My
patience has been universally admired; yet how many thousands have
passed those five months less easily than myself. I remember making
a remark perfectly simple, and perfectly true: "At present," I said
to Madame de Severy, "I am not positively miserable, and I may
reasonably hope a daily or weekly improvement, till sooner or later
in the summer I shall recover new limbs, and new pleasures, which I
do not now possess: have any of you such a prospect?" The prediction
has been accomplished, and I have arrived to my present condition of
strength, or rather of feebleness: I now can walk with tolerable ease
in my garden and smooth places; but on the rough pavement of the town
I use, and perhaps shall use, a sedan chair. The Pyrmont waters have
performed wonders; and my physician (not Tissot, but a very sensible
man) allows me to hope, that the term of the interval will be in
proportion to that of the fit.*
3. And so Aunt Hester is gone to sing Hallelujahs, a glory which
she did not seem very impatient to possess. I received the news of
this dire event with much philosophic composure: she might have
done better, she might have done worse, and I was always prepared
for the worst. By this time you have probably a copy of the Will,
and will take (as I suppose you are authorized) the proper and
necessary steps. I most wish to learn whether she has left me the
fee simple, the absolute disposal of her Sussex estate; the power of
selling or the necessity of keeping that costly piece of property
will make a wonderful difference in the value of her gift. From
a motive of curiosity I wish to learn what she has done with her
personal fortune; her four copper shares were worth at least five
or six thousand pounds. Has she given them to the Laws? If in the
bequeathing what was absolutely in her power she has postponed
relations for friends, I think her determination both honourable
and wise. If in the entailed estate she has preferred a poor though
unbelieving nephew to a rich niece, she was likewise right. I speak
with the impartiality of a third person.
And now let me seriously address you on the most important of my
temporal concerns, Buriton. You will do me the justice to allow that
I have not been either impatient or nervous: but the Estate was sold
in April, 1789: this is now August, 1790, and the money is not yet
paid, nor the purchase concluded. Is Lord Stawell perfidious, is he
poor, is he unwilling? is the delay only produced by the ingenious
forms of the lawyers? How many terms do they require for an amicable
suit in Chancery? In the meanwhile I lose interest, the estate must
suffer by neglect, and what will be the event? Exert your vigour,
argue, persuade, consummate! On the 10th of November next my father
will have been dead twenty years: let it not be said that with the
counsel and aid of such a friend, I have not been able to settle
my affairs in twenty years. What can I say more? the conclusion an
Indian Epistle.
Yes, I have more or rather nothing more to say about the disposal of
the money. I hope the Buriton mortgage for £8000 still holds: nothing
else can be so easy or good. The remainder you will throw into the
funds, and I wish we could take advantage of the present fall, but if
a sure bond or neat mortgage from £2500 to £4000 should offer itself,
I should be very well pleased.
[Sidenote: SWISS SENSIBLE OF THEIR HAPPINESS.]
*Have you read in the English papers, that the Government of Bern is
overturned, and that we are divided into three Democratical leagues;
true as the Gospel: true as what I have read in the French papers,
that the English have cut off Pitt's head, and abolished the house
of Lords. The people of this country are happy; and in spite of some
malcontents, and more foreign Emissaries, they are sensible of their
happiness.*
My MADEIRA is almost exhausted, and I must receive before the end
of the Autumn a stout cargo of wholesome exquisite wine with proper
_previous_ notice which may prevent all accidents at the Custom
House. Your Bristol connection must give you great advantages, but
(if I could procure his direction) I would not neglect Sir Ralph
Payne's favours.
*Inform My lady, that I am indignant at a false and heretical
assertion in her last letter to Severy, "that friends at a distance
cannot love each other, if they do not write." I love her better than
any woman in the world; indeed I do; and yet I do not write. And she
herself--but I am calm. We have now nearly one hundred French exiles,
some of them worth being acquainted with; particularly a Count de
Schomberg, who is become almost my friend; he is a man of the World,
of letters, and of sufficient age, since in 1753 he succeeded to
Marshal Saxe's regiment of Dragoons. As to the rest, I entertain
them, and they flatter me: but I wish we were reduced to our Lausanne
society. Poor France! the state is dissolved, the nation is mad!
Adieu.*
554.
_Lord Sheffield to Edward Gibbon._
Sheffield Place, 21st Sept., '90.
I approve your observations on the Bristol Election, and I do not
believe you heard the Excursion to Coventry pretty generally blamed.
I knew nothing of an Opposition till two days after the Poll began. A
man who had been useful to me in the same line being concerned, I had
no difficulty nor hesitation as to what was to be done.