to propose any specific terms. You must hear the ideas of the parents
or guardians. You must consider on the behalf of your client, how far
a moderate interest may be enhanced by rank and character, how far a
deficiency (less desirable) in those qualifications may be varnished
with gold. If everything should unite, you may boldly accept; if you
hesitate you must take the matter ad referendum, and they must expect
our answer by the return of the post. You will say perhaps that the
parties may be impatient, and that delay may be productive of danger.
This I must acknowledge, nor is it only in this respect that I feel
the disadvantage of his not being on the spot.--I much regret the
M[arquis] of C[armarthen], his father the D[uke] of L[eeds] is a
fair and honourable man. Your hint of General Bude (of whom I had
never heard) shall not be neglected: when the Duchess of D. returns
to England next year, I hope she will be able and willing to assist
the young man, to whom she expressed much friendship, and whom she
appointed her chevalier sans peur and sans reproche by the delivery
of a feather and a cockade. He is now on service with his dragoons,
but will probably be soon disbanded.
Without confessing that my fears and scruples were quite so _anile_
as you are always disposed to think them, I am now in a great measure
satisfied. I wish you may find a secure mortgage at four per cent.;
but though I do not perfectly like the Debentures (which you never
explained before), I cannot think they run much risk till our next
meeting in England.
The case of my Wine I think peculiarly hard; to lose my Madeira,
and to be scolded for losing it. Please to remember that the Wine
Merchant never sent me any letter of advice, as he ought to have
done, of the time and manner of its departure; and that when I first
expressed my astonishment to you (in my great letter of at least four
months ago) you were too much engrossed with a more interesting
subject to return any answer. What could I do? my part was entirely
passive, to expect its arrival, which I still expect. Yet I have now
directed proper enquiries to be made at Basle and Ostend; the London
Merchant must trace it forwards, and the last person in whose hands
it has been must be responsible for the wine or its value. Whatsoever
may be right, I have no intention of seeking a legal remedy; but on a
similar occasion, I hope we shall never repeat the liberal confidence
of such premature payment.
*I am much indebted to Mr. Nichols for his Genealogical
communications, which I am impatient to receive; but I do not
understand why so civil a Gentleman could not favour me, in six
months, with an answer by the post: since he entrusts me with
these valuable papers, you have not, I presume, informed him of my
negligence and awkwardness in regard to Manuscripts. Your reproach
rather surprizes me, as I suppose I am much the same as I have been
for these last twenty Years. Should you hold your resolution of
writing only such things as may be published at Charing-cross, our
future correspondence would not be very interesting. But I expect and
require, at this important crisis, a full and confidential account of
your views concerning England, Ireland, and France. You have a strong
and clear eye; and your pen is, perhaps, the most useful quill that
ever has been plucked from a goose. Your protection of the French
refugees is highly applauded. Rosset and La Motte have escaped from
Arbourg, perhaps with connivance to avoid disagreeable demands from
the Republic. Adieu.*
Ever yours,
E. G.
[258] The report of the French Diplomatic Committee upon the two
treaties of October 22 and November 2 was delivered by Brissot
on November 21. It neither ratified nor rejected the treaties,
reserving the question whether a free people could bind itself
by treaties. At the same time the Convention ordered the French
troops to respect the neutrality of Geneva, if the Swiss troops
evacuated the city by December 1, 1792.
[259] The Duke of Brunswick was charged with being bribed to
retire. No ground for the accusation has ever been alleged,
except that, on the duke's return, he paid off heavy debts.
The charge was made by Talleyrand in 1802. It is repeated by
both Lacretelle and Thiers in their histories. It is omitted
by Michaud in his article on Brunswick, which appeared in the
_Biographie Universelle_ in 1812; but it is given in the articles
which the same writer contributed on Dumouriez and Drouet to
the supplementary volume (1837). It is also made by the Comte
d'Allonville in his _Mémoires Secrets_ (vol. iii. pp. 94-97).
601.
_Lord Sheffield to Edward Gibbon._
Bath, 5th Nov., 1792.
Among the whimsical events of the last three years, none is more
extraordinary than an Hebdominal letter from you. Your character
however is so bad on that head, that there is not much dependance on
your perseverance, but it produces a desire and resolution in the
Family to address you weekly as long as you give such encouragement.
[Sidenote: THREE LATE FRENCH MINISTERS.]
Here I am, not on account of my eyes (which continue very weak),
but to attend the Mayor's Feast at Bristol this day. I arrived
last night. I was but one night in London. I found the Hotel in
Downing Street occupied by the Princess d'Henin, the Beautiful
Comtesse Charles de Noailles,[260] the Pauline, the Prince de
Poix,[261] Gouvernet,[262] Lally, &c. I proceeded in the morning to
Bulstrode[263] to hold a conversation with the Duke, and from thence
I moved to this place with the Maria, whom I shall leave with Aunt
while I go through the necessary duties at Bristol, which will at
least engage me till the 13th instant. Talking of Downing Street,
I should mention the extraordinary _occurrence_ in the dining-room
there a few days since, of the three late French Ministers, St.
Croix,[264] Monciel,[265] Bertrand[266] and also Malouet,[267]
Gilliers,[268] Gouvernet, Prince de Poix and Lally. They were in
Committee on their deplorable affairs. For the sake of my eyes I
shall give this to be finished by Maria. No man has a guess at the
intentions of Gouvernment. There is not the slightest expectation
that they will take the least part in the affairs of France. All
those members of Opposition for whom you or others have respect
are seriously well disposed to a junction of parties, and I am
convinced, indeed I know, they would be very reasonable in their
expectations. Pitt has said he could act in great confidence with
Fox, notwithstanding sparrings which have taken place, and Charles
Fox has said that a junction is so right a thing, that he cannot
see otherwise than that it must take place. Yet there are great
difficulties, and I am not sanguine. I shall have no opinion of
Pitt's judgment or disposition if he does not remove them.
Poor Mrs. Gibbon was given over last week, a bilious attack. She has
miraculously recovered, but the man who has bodily care of her, says
she is so worn, she cannot pass the winter.
I should have added above that I fear Fox will be still _detestable_
on the subject of French affairs. Pitt is suspected of Democracy, and
it is said by some lately that he will himself move a Plan of Reform
next Sessions.
[Sidenote: JACOBIN SOCIETIES IN ENGLAND.]
My Lord is gone to nurse his poor dear eyes, and leaves me to inform
you of some of those extraordinary things to which I hardly expect
you to give credit, but I shall name my authorities. Mr. Batt told
us last Friday that the Attorney General had had information of the
following event at Manchester, and that the said Attorney General
had mentioned it to the _said_ Mr. Batt. A person (we did not hear
his name) at that place invited a number of people to dinner, among
others the officers of the Scotch Greys, the day of the King's
Accession, giving them notice there would be a _ceremony_. When
the company was assembled there was an Ass brought into the room,
dressed in a Blue Ribband, Crown and Sceptre, &c., which after
many ridiculous formalities was killed, cut in pieces, and sent to
different Societies in this Kingdom. I do not know if Lewes had a
portion, but I know there is a Jacobin Society there. Burke called
here yesterday evening to talk of a Plan for permanent relief of the
poor priests, giving up all hopes of their returning to their native
country. He proposed with the money in the hands of the Committee
(£10,000) if Government would give any assistance towards settling
them in the _Crimea_, Canada or Maryland,[269] as the subscription
cannot afford them subsistence in this country for three months
longer.
Mrs. Moss is arrived in England. Have you received Lally's vessel
which she sent you from Berne? How do the _Acacias_, &c., flourish
upon the terrace?
[260] The Comtesse Charles de Noailles, _née_ Nathalie de
Laborde, the daughter of the banker of that name, married in 1790
Charles de Noailles, son of the Prince de Poix.
[261] Louis Philippe Antoine de Noailles, Prince de Poix, eldest
son of the Maréchal and Maréchale de Mouchy, who were guillotined
on July 22, 1794. He commanded the Noailles Company of the Royal
Body-guard. He was arrested in August, 1792, but escaped on his
way to the Abbaye. He married Anne de Beauvau, who died in 1834.
[262] The Comte de la Tour-du-Pin Gouvernet had been aide-de-camp
to Bouillé at the repression of the mutiny at Nancy. He was
entrusted with the task of opening the plan, formed for the
rescue of the king and royal family in the early summer of
1792, to Marie Antoinette. Her distrust of La Fayette caused
its failure. "Plutôt périr qu'être sauvé par La Fayette et les
Constitutionnels!" was her well-known exclamation. Gouvernet
subsequently went to America, and died at Lausanne in 1837.
[263] The seat of the Duke of Portland.
[264] Bigot de Sainte Croix, Minister for Foreign Affairs, was
one of the agents in the schemes for the rescue of Louis XVI.
[265] Terrier de Monciel, a member of the Constitutional
party, Minister of the Interior from June 18 to July 9, 1792,
endeavoured to organize a military force for the protection of
the king which should be disassociated from the foreign allies of
the _émigrés_. It was the discovery of this and other schemes for
the king's rescue, in which Bertrand, Malouet, Mallet du Pan, and
Clermont-Tonnerre were the leaders, that led to the disbanding of
the Constitutional Guard, and the insurrections of June 20 and
August 10, 1792. Monciel died in 1831.
[266] The Marquis de Bertrand-Molleville (1744-1818) was
_Ministre de la Marine_ in 1791. He took refuge in England in
1792, and there wrote his _Mémoires_ and his _Histoire de la
Révolution de France_.
[267] Victor Malouet (1740-1814), distinguished by his
explorations and his services in the French colonies (see his
_Collection des Mémoires sur l'administration des colonies_,
Paris, 1802, 5 vols.), was a bold and skilful supporter of Louis
XVI. in the Constituent Assembly. He returned to France in 1801,
and was employed by Napoleon in the administration of the navy.
He was appointed Ministre de la Marine by Louis XVIII. in 1814.
[268] Probably the Baron de Gilliers, whose estates were
near Romans in Dauphiné, and of whom Rivarol tells a story
to illustrate the suspicion with which every aristocrat was
regarded. Suspected of a royalist plot, the baron was charged
with manufacturing cannon when he was only making drain-pipes;
his house was occupied by hundreds of armed men, and his family
narrowly escaped with their lives. He was gentleman-in-waiting to
Madame Elizabeth.
[269] Burke's plan for the settlement of the refugees in Maryland
is discussed by him in a letter to his son, dated November 2,
1792 (_Correspondence_, vol. iv. pp. 25, 26).
602.
_To Lord Sheffield._
November 10th, 1792.
*Received this day, November 9th, a most amiable dispatch from the
too humble secretary[270] of the family of Espee,[271] dated October
24th, which I answer the same day. It will be acknowledged, that I
have fulfilled my engagement with as much accuracy as our uncertain
state and the fragility of human nature would allow.
I resume my narrative. At the time when we imagined that all was
settled by an equal treaty between two such unequal powers, as the
Geneva flea and the Leviathan France, we were thunderstruck with the
intelligence that the Ministers of the Republic refused to ratify the
conditions; and they were indignant, with some colour of reason, at
the hard obligation of withdrawing their troops to the distance of
ten leagues, and of consequently leaving the Pays de Gex naked, and
exposed to the Swiss, who had assembled 15,000 men on the frontier,
and with whom they had not made any agreement. The Messenger who was
sent last Sunday from Geneva is not yet returned; and many persons
are afraid of some design and danger in this delay. Montesquiou has
acted with politeness, moderation, and apparent sincerity; but he
may resign, he may be superseded, his place may be occupied by an
_enragé_,[272] by Servan, or prince Charles of Hesse,[273] who would
aspire to imitate the predatory fame of Custine in Germany.
In the mean while, the General holds a wolf by the ears; an officer
who has seen his troops, about 18,000 men (with a tremendous train
of artillery), represents them as a black, daring, desperate crew of
buccaneers, rather shocking than contemptible; the officers (scarcely
a Gentleman among them), without servants, or horses, or baggage,
lying _higgledy piggledy_ on the ground with the common men, yet
maintaining a rough kind of discipline over them. They already begin
to accuse and even to suspect their General, and call aloud for blood
and plunder: could they have an opportunity of squeezing some of the
rich Citizens, Geneva would cut up as fat as most towns in Europe.
During this suspension of hostilities they are permitted to visit the
City without arms, sometimes three or four hundred at a time; and the
Magistrates, as well as the Swiss Commander, are by no means pleased
with this dangerous intercourse, which they dare not prohibit. Such
are our fears; yet it should seem on the other side, that the French
affect a kind of magnanimous justice towards their little neighbour,
and that they are not ambitious of an unprofitable contest with
the poor and hardy Swiss. The Swiss are not equal to a long and
expensive War; and as most of our Militia have families and trades,
the country already sighs for their return. Whatever can be yielded,
without absolute danger or disgrace, will doubtless be granted; and
the business will probably end in our owning the Sovereignty, and
trusting to the good faith of the Republic of France: how that word
would have sounded four years ago! The measure is humiliating; but
after the retreat of the Duke of Brunswick, and the failure of the
Austrians, the smaller powers may acquiesce without dishonour.
[Sidenote: ENGLAND THE LAST REFUGE OF LIBERTY.]
Every dog has his day; and these Gallic dogs have their day, at
least, of most insolent prosperity. After forcing or tempting the
Prussians to evacuate their country, they conquer Savoy, pillage
Germany, threaten Spain: the Low Countries are ere now invaded; Rome
and Italy tremble; they scour the Mediterranean, and talk of sending
a squadron into the South Sea. The whole horizon is so black, that I
begin to feel some anxiety for England, the last refuge of liberty
and law; and the more so, as I perceive from Lord S.'s last epistle
that his firm nerves are a little shaken; but of this more in my
next, for I want to unburthen my conscience.
If England, with the experience of our happiness and French
calamities, should now be seduced to eat the apple of false freedom,
we should indeed deserve to be driven from the paradise which
we enjoy. I turn aside from the horrid and improbable, (yet not
impossible) supposition, that, in three or four years' time, myself
and my best friends may be reduced to the deplorable state of the
French emigrants: they thought it as impossible three or four years
ago. Never did a revolution affect, to such a degree, the private
existence of such numbers of the first people of a great Country:
your examples of misery I could easily match with similar examples in
this country and the neighbourhood; and our sympathy is the deeper,
as we do not possess, like you, the means of alleviating, in some
degree, the misfortunes of the fugitives. But I must have, from the
very excellent pen of the Maria, the tragedy of the Archbishop of
Arles; and the longer the better. Madame de Biron has probably been
tempted by some faint and (I fear) fallacious promises of clemency to
the Women, and which have likewise engaged Madame d'Aguesseau and her
two daughters[274] to revisit France. Madame de Bouillon[275] stands
her ground, and her situation as a foreign princess is less exposed.
As Lord S. has assumed the glorious character of protector of the
distressed, his name is pronounced with gratitude and respect. The D.
of Richmond is praised, on Madame de Biron's account. To the Princess
d'Henin, and Lally, I wish to be remembered.
The Neckers cannot venture into Geneva, and Madame de Stael will
probably lye in at Rolle. He is printing a defence of the King,
&c., against their Republican Judges;[276] but the name of Necker
is unpopular to all parties, and I much fear that the Guillotine
will be more speedy than the press. It will, however, be an eloquent
performance; and, if I find an opportunity, I am to send you one,
to you, Lord S., by his particular desire: he wishes likewise to
convey some copies with speed to our principal people, Pitt, Fox,
Lord Stormont, &c. But such is the rapid succession of events, that
it will appear, like the 'Pouvoir Executif,' his best Work, after the
whole scene has been totally changed.*
Shall you never be able to place my £3000 on good Security? Was there
ever before a two years' fruitless chace after a Mortgage? We are in
hot pursuit from all quarters of my Madeira, and unless already drunk
by the Hussars it must emerge.
Ever yours,
E. G.
P.S.--*The Revolution of France, and my triple dispatch by the same
post to Sheffield-place, are, in my opinion, the two most singular
events in the eighteenth Century. I found the task so easy and
pleasant, that I had some thoughts of adding a letter to the gentle
Louisa.* And a note to the most respectable Tuft. I should not have
forgot Miss Firth, but I hear she is leaving you. Is she going to be
married? *I am this moment informed, that our troops on the frontier
are beginning to move, on their return home; yet we hear nothing of
the treaty's being concluded.*
[270] Miss Holroyd.
[271] Sheffield Place.
[272] Joseph Servan (1741-1808), author of the _Soldat Citoyen_
(1780), Minister of War in the Girondin administration (March
to June, 1792). Dismissed by Louis XVI., he was restored to his
office after August 10, 1792. He resigned his post in October,
1792, and afterwards commanded the troops which opposed the march
of the Spaniards upon Bayonne in April, 1793.
[273] Prince Charles of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rothenburg (1752-1821)
entered the French service as a young man. He was made a
lieutenant-general in 1792, and took up the command at
Besançon, where he was received with enthusiasm as the
_citoyen-général-philosophe_. He accompanied his words with
gestures which were almost convulsive in their violence, and
closed his sentences by grinding his teeth, "un tigre doué de
la parole." As a journalist (1795-99) he came into collision
with the Government, and was imprisoned for several years in the
island of Rhé. He died at Frankfort in 1821.
[274] Henriette d'Aguessau, who married the Duc d'Ayen, was, like
Madame de Biron, guillotined.
[275] Marie, Princess of Hesse-Rheinfelz, married the Duc de
Bouillon, the head, and last direct representative, of the family
of La Tour d'Auvergne. She was by her marriage connected with
the Princesse de Poix, and her cousin, the Princesse d'Hénin.
The three ladies were known as _les trois princesses combinées_.
Madame de Bouillon and her husband both died in exile.
[276] Necker's _Réflexions offertes à la nation française_
appeared in November, 1792.
603.
_To Lady Sheffield._
Lausanne, November 10, 1792.
[Sidenote: NEITHER MONSTER NOR STATUE.]
*I could never forgive myself, were I capable of writing by the same
post, a political Epistle to the father, and a friendly letter to the
daughter, without sending any token of remembrance to the respectable
Matron, my dearest My lady, whom I have now loved as a sister
for something better or worse than twenty years. No, indeed, the
historian may be careless, he may be indolent, he may always intend
and never execute, but he is neither a monster nor a statue; he has
a memory, a conscience, a heart, and that heart is sincerely devoted
to Lady S. He must even acknowledge the fallacy of a sophism which he
has sometimes used, and she has always and most truly denied; that,
where the persons of a family are strictly united, the writing to one
is in fact writing to all; and that consequently all his numerous
letters to the husband, may be considered as equally addressed to
the wife. He feels, on the contrary, that separate minds have their
distinct ideas and sentiments, and that each character, either in
speaking or writing, has its peculiar tone of conversation. He agrees
with the maxim of Rousseau, that three friends who wish to disclose a
common secret, will impart it only _deux à deux_; and he is satisfied
that, on the present memorable occasion, each of the persons of
the Sheffield family will claim a peculiar share in this triple
missive, which will communicate, however, a triple satisfaction. The
experience of what may be effected by vigorous resolution, encourages
the historian to hope that he shall cast the skin of the old serpent,
and hereafter show himself as a new creature.*
And first let me congratulate yourself and your friends on the
present happy state of your mental and corporeal faculties, of which
I have gained the pleasing intelligence, not only from the hints in
Lord S. and Maria's letters, but still more clearly from your own
long and spirited Epistle to young Severy, which he received with
gratitude and will answer with speed.
*I lament, on all our accounts, that the last year's expedition to
Lausanne did not take place in a golden period;* the more familiar
and cheerful intercourse with Madame de Severy would have opened your
hearts to each other. I should have escaped many moments of painful
though silent sympathy, and every object in Nature and society would
have appeared to your eyes with a different aspect and colour.
*But we must reflect, that human felicity is seldom without alloy;
and if we cannot indulge the hope of your making a second visit
to Lausanne, we must look forwards to my residence next summer at
Sheffield-place, where I must find you in the full bloom of health,
spirits, and beauty. I can perceive, by all public and private
intelligence, that your house has been the open hospital Azylum of
French fugitives; and it is a sufficient proof of the firmness of
your nerves, that you have not been overwhelmed or agitated by such a
concourse of strangers. Curiosity and compassion may, in some degree,
have supported you. Every day has presented to your view some new
scene of that strange tragical romance, which occupies all Europe so
infinitely beyond any event that has happened in our time, and you
have the satisfaction of not being a mere spectator of the distress
of so many victims of false liberty. The benevolent fame of Lord S.
is widely diffused.