Resting to be accounted for 194,245
----------
£9,249,096
Expense of management, £505,014. But allowances, Exports, Bounties,
&c., reduced the nett payment into the Exchequer to £7,689,973;
notwithstanding this ample amount, the net increase of the excise for
the year ending 5^{th} Jan^y, 1792, will not be less than £1,200,000,
of which £800,000 are old, and £400,000 are new duties. The general
expence of collecting all the Taxes is £5 13_s._ 7_d._ per cent. I
understand the expence of collecting the Revenue in France previous
to the Revolution was £11 17_s._ 0_d._ per cent.
You recollect that we ought to have been ruined by the Independence
of America--_selon tous les regles_, except mine and a few
others--yet since 1773, when the troubles in America began, the
export of British manufactures have gradually increased upwards
of four millions annually. British built commercial tonnage has
increased since that period 318,522 tons, which is more than
three-fourths of the whole Commercial tonnage of France. Thanks to
that illustrious writer the Lord Sheffield. The total of French
commercial tonnage is 426,121. Total of English, 1,527,240, English
coasting tonnage 3,711,135, French ditto 1,004,729. There is more
Foreign than French shipping employed in the trade of France. When
their silly and crazy patriots have ruined their West India trade,
they will have little occasion for sailors. Such considerations are
beneath such elevated minds.
[Sidenote: MASSA KING WILBERFORCE.]
We are going to send 300 dismounted Light Dragoons to Jamaica and
600 foot from Nova Scotia. Hitherto all has been quiet there, but
3000 Negroes assembled in the parish of Westmoreland to celebrate
Massa King Wilberforce's Birthday,[208] lately raised some alarm.
Happily they were quietly dispersed. Have you observed that the
estimated expence of France for the last year was about 26 millions
sterling, and the Ways and Means about 24 millions? (It is rather
awkward to set out with a deficit of 2 millions.) On the 31st October
last, only about 2,700,000 had been received, and it was not even
supposed then that more than 2,400,000 more would be paid before the
end of the year. The Arrear of Taxes since the Revolution is about
70,000,000. The Land-tax however is not to be considered as all lost.
The imperfect receipt of it arises from an incomplete arrangement, I
understand, as to the mode of collection. About 12 millions of that
tax are behind.
I have not thought so bad of your taste, since I heard the vile
unmeaning masses are removed from your Terrace, and I hope most of
the vulgar flower-pots. You have not given a tolerable reason for
preferring a bed-chamber which cannot have a good approach, without
indeed a very great expence. What I propose, may be done without
spoiling your Library, and without disturbing you in that comfortable
room.
I have not forgot your poultry, I could have done the needfull for
£7, instead of £70. You did not want a menagerie. The alteration of
the staircase would do away the most awkward entrance I ever saw
into an House at a very small expense--but if the French Revolution
is not checked, I must flatter myself your Books will be used for
cartridges. As to the letters, I thought you expressed indifference
about them before I left you. I shall examine, altho' I do not
believe there are many except of a late Times. Assure the Duchess
of Biron[209] (she is a great favourite here) that the parcel for
Madame de Cambis was received safe.
[203] A commission presided over by M. Fischer, supported by
two or three thousand militia of the Canton of Berne, was sent
to inquire into the attempts to introduce the principles of the
French Revolution into the Pays de Vaud. Several persons were
arrested, and secretly examined. MM. Rosset and La Motte were
confined in the Castle of Chillon, and being afterwards condemned
to a long period of imprisonment for correspondence with the
French, were transferred to the Castle of Arbourg, whence they
escaped.
[204] Lally's tragedy of _Strafford_, in five acts and verse,
was printed at London in 1795. His _Essai sur la vie de Thomas
Wentworth, Comte de Strafford_, was published at London in the
same year. Madame d'Arblay, in February, 1792, speaks of Miss
Fanshawe having heard "the famous M. Lally Tolendahl read a
French tragedy upon an English subject written by himself! The
subject was the death of Strafford." Lally was probably attracted
to the subject by the circumstances of his own father's execution.
[205] Marie Antoinette was born November 2, 1755.
[206] Bouillé, warned by a messenger from Choiseul that the
king was detained at Varennes, rode from Dun-sur-Meuse, about
twenty-two miles from Montmédy, to within sight of the village,
but could not cross the Aire; thousands of the National Guard had
mustered, and the king was already on his return journey to Paris.
[207] The Comte de Damas, who was stationed on the Ste. Menehould
side of Varennes, joined the king at Clermont-en-Argonne, where
the road westward from Ste. Menehould strikes to the north to
Varennes and Montmédy. The Duc de Choiseul and his hussars, who
had been posted on the Montmédy side of Varennes, also joined the
king at Varennes. But their troops refused to act against the
National Guard. The relays were stationed at the further side of
the bridge over the Aire, which had been blocked by Postmaster
Drouet.
[208] In Westmoreland County, Jamaica, "particularly in the
parish of St. Elizabeth, there have been nightly meetings of the
Negroes, where they have not hesitated to call Wilberforce their
King, by the name (in their way) of _King Wilberforce_." (Extract
from a letter quoted in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for February,
1792, vol. 62, p. 174.)
[209] Amélie de Boufflers, only daughter of the Duc de Boufflers,
was born in 1751. J. J. Rousseau speaks enthusiastically of her,
when he saw her as a girl at the house of her grandmother, the
Maréchale de Luxembourg. She married, in 1766, Armand Louis de
Gontaut, Duc de Lauzun, who succeeded his uncle as Duc de Biron.
Dissolute and a spendthrift, the duke hated the king and queen
because he had not been appointed to succeed his uncle as Colonel
of the Guards (_Souvenirs et Portraits_, par le Duc de Lévis, pp.
191-201). He joined the extreme revolutionary party. His wife,
who had lived apart from him for many years, in 1791-2 passed
some months at Lausanne. She returned to France from England in
November, 1792, was arrested and released at the intercession of
her husband, whom she had not seen for fifteen years. In England
she lived with the Princesse d'Hénin till October, 1793, when she
again returned to France. She was arrested and guillotined in
1794. The Duc was executed in December, 1793.
586.
_To Lord Sheffield._
Lausanne, April 4th, 1792.
*For fear you should abuse me, as usual, I will begin the attack,
and scold at you, for not having yet sent me the long-expected
intelligence of the completion of my mortgage. You had positively
assured me that the second of February would terminate my worldly
cares, by a consummation so devoutly to be wished. The news,
therefore, might reach me about the 16th; and I argued with the
gentle logic of lazyness, that it was perfectly idle to answer your
letter, till I could chaunt a thanksgiving song of gratitude and
praise. As every post disappointed my hopes, the same argument was
repeated for the next; and twenty empty-handed postilions have blown
their insignificant horns, till I am provoked at last to write by
sheer impatience and vexation.
_Facit indignatio versum. Cospetto di Baccho_; for I must ease myself
by swearing a little. What is the cause, the meaning, the pretence,
of this delay? Are the Yorkshire Mortgagors inconstant in their
wishes? are the London lawyers constant in their procrastination? Is
a letter on the road, to inform that all is concluded, or to tell me
that all is broke to pieces? In sober truth I am out of humour to
think of all the dinners that the Goslings have given at my expence.
Had the money been placed in the three per Cents last May, besides
the annual interest, it would now have gained by the rise of stock
nearly twenty per Cent. Your Lordship is a wise man, a successful
writer, and a useful Senator; you understand America and Ireland,
Corn and Slaves, but your prejudice against the funds, in which I am
often tempted to joyn, makes you a little blind to their encreasing
value in the hands of our virtuous and excellent minister. But our
regret is vain; one pull more and we reach the shore; and our future
correspondence will be no longer tainted with business. But shall I
then be more diligent and regular? I hope and believe so; for now
that I have got over this article of worldly interest, my letter
seems to be almost finished.
A propos of letters, am I not a sad dog to forget My Lady and Maria?
Alas! the dual number has been prejudicial to both. How happy could
I be with either, were t'other dear charmer away. I am like the Ass
of famous memory; I cannot tell which way to turn first, and there
I stand mute and immoveable. The Baronial and maternal dignity
of My Lady, supported by twenty years' friendship, may claim the
preference. But the five incomparable letters of Maria!--Next week,
however.--Am I not ashamed to talk of next Week?
[Sidenote: A MONTH WITH THE NECKERS.]
I have most successfully, and most agreeably, executed my plan
of spending the month of March at Geneva, in the Necker house,
and every circumstance that I had arranged turned out beyond my
expectation; the freedom of the morning, the society of the table
and drawing-room, from half an hour past two till six or seven; an
evening assembly and card-party, in a round of the best company, and,
except one day in the week, a private supper of free and friendly
conversation. You would like Geneva better than Lausanne; there is
much more information to be got among the men; but though I found
some agreeable women, their manners and style of life are, upon the
whole, less easy and pleasant than our own. I was much pleased with
Necker's brother, Mr. de Germani,[210] a good-humoured, polite,
sensible man, without the genius or fame of the statesman, but much
more adapted for private and ordinary happiness.
Madame de Stael is expected in a few weeks at Copet, where they
receive her, and where, "to dumb forgetfullness a prey," she will
have leisure to regret the pleasing anxious being, which she
enjoyed amidst the storms of Paris. But what can the poor creature
do? her husband is in Sweden,[211] her lover is no longer Secretary
of War,[212] and her father's house is the only place where she
can reside with the least degree of prudence and decency. Of that
father I have really a much higher idea than I ever had before; in
our domestic intimacy he cast away his gloom and reserve; I saw a
great deal of his mind, and all that I saw is fair and worthy. He
was overwhelmed by the hurricane, he mistook his way in the fog,
but in such a perilous situation, I much doubt whether any mortal
could have seen or stood. In the meanwhile, he is abused by all
parties, and none of the French in Geneva will set their foot in
his house. He remembers Lord Sheffield with esteem. His health is
good, and he would be tranquil in his private life, were not his
spirits continually wounded by the arrival of every letter and
every newspaper. His sympathy is deeply interested by the fatal
consequences of a Revolution, in which he had acted so leading a
part; and he feels as a friend for the danger of Mr. de Lessart,[213]
who may be guilty in the eyes of the Jacobins, or even of his judges,
by those very actions and dispatches which would be the most approved
by all true Lovers of his Country.
[Sidenote: THE MARCH OF THE MARSEILLAIS.]
What a momentous event is the Emperor's death![214] In the forms of
a new reign, and of the Imperial election, the Democrates have at
least gained time, if they knew how to use it. But the new Monarch,
though of a weak complexion, is of a martial temper; he loves the
Soldiers, and is beloved by them; and the slow, fluctuating politics
of his uncle may be succeeded by a direct line of march to the gates
of Strasburgh and Paris. It is the opinion of the master-movers
in France, (I know it most certainly,) that their troops will not
fight, that the people have lost all sense of patriotism, and that on
the first discharge of an Austrian cannon the game is up. But what
occasion for Austrians or Spaniards? the French are themselves their
greatest enemies; 4000 Marseillais are marched against Arles and
Avignon, the _troupes de ligne_ are divided between the two parties,
and the flame of civil war will soon extend over the southern
provinces.[215] You have heard of the unworthy treatment of the Swiss
regiment of Ernst. The canton of Bern has bravely recalled them, with
a stout letter to the King of France, which must be inserted in all
the papers.
I now come to the most unpleasant articles, our home politics. Rosset
and La Motte are condemned to five and twenty years imprisonment in
the fortress of Arbourg. We have not yet received their official
sentence, nor is it believed that the proofs and proceedings against
them will be published; an awkward circumstance, which it does not
seem easy to justify. Some (though none of note) are taken up,
several are fled, many more are suspected and suspicious. All are
silent, but it is the silence of fear and discontent; and the secret
hatred which rankled against Government begins to point against the
few who are known to be well-affected.
I never knew any place so much changed as Lausanne, even since
last year; and though you will not be much obliged to me for the
motive, I begin very seriously to think of visiting Sheffield-place
by the month of September next. Yet here again I am frightened, by
the dangers of a French, and the difficulties of a German, route.
You must send me an account of the passage from Brighton, with an
itinerary of the Rhine, distances, expences, &c. As usual, I just
save the post, nor have I time to read my letter, which, after
wasting the morning in deliberation, has been struck off in a heat
since dinner. No news of the Madeira. The views of Sh.-pl. are just
received; they are admired, and shall be framed. Severy has spent the
Carnival at Turin. Trevor is only the best man in the World.*
[210] Louis Necker (1730-1801), elder brother of Jacques Necker
the statesman, assumed the name of de Germanie on succeeding to
an estate of that name which he inherited from his father. He had
made a fortune as a banker at Marseilles.
[211] The Baron de Staël-Holstein was Swedish Ambassador at Paris
from 1783 to 1792.
[212] M. de Narbonne-Lara was Minister of War from December,
1791, to March, 1792. Born in 1755, he is said to have been
the son of Madame Adelaide and the Comte de Narbonne, her
chamberlain. He was one of the few persons who, according to
Talleyrand, were completely in the confidence of Mirabeau. "Le
Comte Louis de Narbonne est enfin ministre de la guerre, d'hier,"
wrote Marie Antoinette to Count Fersen. "Quelle gloire pour
M^{me} de Stael, et quel plaisir pour elle d'avoir toute l'armée
... à elle!" (Klinckowström, _Le Comte de Fersen et la Cour de
France_, i. 269). After the insurrection of August 10, 1792,
Narbonne was saved by Madame de Staël and M. Bollmann, and took
refuge in England.
[213] Antoine de Lessart, Minister of the Interior and of Foreign
Affairs (1791-2), was accused of corresponding with the _émigrés_
and the emperor, tried before the High Court of Orleans for
treason, and murdered in the September massacres of 1792.
[214] The Emperor Leopold II. died March 1, 1792, and was
succeeded by his son Francis Joseph, who, pending his election as
emperor, took the title of King of Bohemia and Hungary.
[215] Taine traces to the action of Marseilles in the autumn
of 1791 the first crop of the "arbre révolutionnaire" (_La
Révolution_, vol. ii. c. vi.). Marseilles, in fact, became a
Republic which undertook the conquest of southern provinces.
In February, 1792, four thousand Marseillais marched upon Aix,
and disarmed and pillaged the Swiss Regiment of Ernest. In
the following March, they made themselves masters of Arles.
Their troops, "vraie Sodome errante," pillaged the country,
and plundered, outraged, or massacred peaceful inhabitants.
Avignon, which with the Comtat Venaissin was united to France
in September, 1791, was the next object of their attack. It had
been, in October, 1791, the scene of the horrible massacres of La
Glacière perpetrated by Jourdan _Coupe-Tête_ and the "Brigands
of Avignon." Jourdan's cruelties had produced a reaction. But in
April, 1792, he was carried in triumph by the Marseillais through
the streets of the city, and restored to his usurped position as
governor and commander-in-chief. Jourdan, it may be added, was
guillotined in May, 1794.
587.
_Lord Sheffield to Edward Gibbon._
Downing Street, 18th April, 1792.
You will readily guess that I do not write to you because the
Mortgage was not finished, but I cannot readily guess the cause
of your not answering my letter, which according to the best of
my recollection was long and amiable. Be assured that you are a
worthless fellow.
When the Yorkshire business is finished you will have £20,000 as well
placed as can be. N.B. The Buriton interest is not yet paid, but I
suppose will in a few days. I have been at Sheffield Place near a
fortnight during Easter.
I am engaged in numberless matters before the Commons, British
business is not slack. I have been all night at a Ball. I am just
returned from a Congress with Mr. Secretary Dundas on the subject of
his Slave Bill.[216] He and I are likely to agree. The innocence
of Captain Kimber[217] will be made as clear as will the extreme
rascality of his surgeon who accuses. Louisa settled at Bath with
Aunt about the middle of Febry. It was the best that could be done.
Mrs. Moss set out this day for the neighbourhood of Geneva, where she
is to pass the summer. She carries a letter to you in case she should
pass thro' Lausanne, that you might show such attention to her as
you can by selfe, Levade, or De Severy. She carries also 14 of your
letters of the years 77, 78, 79.
[216] In April, 1792, Wilberforce brought forward his annual
motion for the abolition of the slave trade. Pitt made one of
his most eloquent speeches in its support. Dundas moved as
an amendment a gradual measure of abolition. His amendment,
though opposed by Fox, was carried (April 2) by 193 to 125. He
subsequently (April 23) moved a series of resolutions to effect
a gradual abolition. These were taken up by Pitt, and, with some
amendments, carried. In the Lords a proposal to receive evidence
on the subject was carried (May 8), and there for the time
proceedings stopped. The Bill for the general abolition of the
slave trade received the royal assent in March, 1807.
[217] On June 7, 1792, Captain John Kimber was tried at the Old
Bailey for the murder of a negro girl on board the _Recovery_. He
was acquitted, and two of the witnesses for the prosecution were
committed for trial for perjury. On February 19, 1793, Surgeon
Dowling, the principal witness against Kimber, was convicted of
perjury. The charge against Kimber was urged by Wilberforce in
his speech of April 2, 1792.
588.
_Lord Sheffield to Edward Gibbon._
Downing Street, 14 May, 1792.
[Sidenote: AN ASYLUM AT BERNE.]
The Plot thickens. Some information induces me to think that
Switzerland, till lately the happy and peaceful, may be disquieted,
especially the countries bordering on France. I can conceive it
possible that the insane discontents of the Pais de Vaud may render
Lausanne not altogether an eligible and comfortable residence to
you. We hear that the National Guards have assembled on the borders
towards Geneva and are trying to perform some manœuvres. I can
suppose it reasonable for you to think of this Isle sooner than you
intended,--that the border may be disquieted and travelling for
such an unweildy creature neither commodious nor delightful. It is
possible the Borders may be less tempting for Travellers at present
than some time hence. In such case, if anything like turbulence
should exist at Lausanne, Berne may afford you the best Asylum
till the journey to old England may be safe and sure, that is void
of embarrassments which might annoy you, altho' they might appear
only curious events and agreeable Episodes to me and some others. I
apprehend that a journey by Germany, unless you make a great detour,
would be troublesome.
When we joked last Autumn about whiskers and Jacobins and the great
utility of books for making cartridges, I did not think you so near
disturbance as you possibly may be. The annihilation of your books
might be a proper judgement upon you for the damned, parson-minded,
inglorious idea of leaving books to be sold. A trumpery fellow, that
after having made a good collection had not the idea of keeping
them together by leaving them to Sheffield Place, where they would
involve the books already there, and the whole be handed down _seris
nepotibus_ as the Gibbonian Library! I could hardly contain my
indignation when you mentioned your sniverling notion. I have often
fully and duly anathematized you since, but I do not flatter myself
that barbarism is as yet arrived at the trouble of attacking the
Library of an Aristocrate.
You will discover that I want to hear of you. At such a time a few
lines might have been expected even from you--or anything ten times
worse than you. How are the De Severy's? I should have attempted
to make amends for my Lady's neglect of writing, if I had not been
bothered in the extreme. I wish also to write to Levade. Is Mrs.
Moss arrived? Altho' the new French art of War tends to enable to
fight another day, yet it is to be hoped the execrable troops will
not take that trouble. After I left you and had seen those warriors
in Alsace, &c., I transmitted my opinion that they would take the
very first opportunity of running away and murdering their officers.
Our Associations here have now received a good brush. Your idea of
signing Declarations would be adopted by many, if there was not an
apprehension that Democrates would represent it as an Aristocrate
Association against the People. Your Yorkshire Mortgage draws towards
a conclusion. I have had an excellent letter of many pages from Lally
at Paris which I must forthwith answer.
589.
_To Lord Sheffield._
Lausanne, May 30th, 1792.
[Sidenote: DEMOCRATIC PROCESS IN ENGLAND.]
*After the receipt of your _penultimate_, eight days ago, I expected
with much impatience, the arrival of your next-promised Epistle.
It arrived this morning, but has not compleatly answered my
expectations. I wanted, and I hoped for a full and fair picture of
the present and probable aspect of your political World, with which,
at this distance, I seem every day less satisfied. In the slave
question you triumphed last session; in this you have been defeated.
What is the cause of this alteration? If it proceeded only from an
impulse of humanity, I cannot be displeased, even with an error;
since it is very likely that my own vote (had I possessed one) would
have been added to the Majority. But in this rage against slavery,
in the numerous petitions against the Slave trade, was there no
leaven of new democratical principles? no wild ideas of the rights
and natural equality of man? It is these I fear. Some articles in
newspapers, some pamphlets of the year, the Jockey Club,[218]--have
fallen into my hands. I do not infer much from such publications; yet
I have never known them of so black and malignant a cast. I shuddered
at Grey's motion,[219] disliked the half-support of Fox, admired the
firmness of Pitt's declaration, and excused the usual intemperance of
Burke. Surely such men as* Grey, Sheridan, Erskine, *have talents for
mischief.