Chapter 27

[78]The Hon. George Augustus North (afterwards Lord Guilford) and Lord Lewisham were two of the seven commissioners named in Fox's India Bill.[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'sMiscellaneous Writings(vol. ii. pp. 340-344), addressed to his aunt, Miss Catherine Porten.[80]His aunt, Miss Porten, and his stepmother.[81]His aunt, Miss Hester Gibbon.[82]William Woodfall, formerly assistant editor of thePublic Advertiser, was at this time editor of theMorning 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 calledThe Diary, which failed. He died in 1803. His brother, Henry Woodfall, published theLetters 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.[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.[90]An address to his Majesty was presented on February 25, 1784, asking the king to take measures for the formation of such an united administration as the House of Commons had declared to be necessary. The king replied (February 27) that he did not think the dismissal of his present ministers would promote such union. A second address, asking the removal of the present ministers, was carried (March 1) by a majority of twelve, and presented March 4. The king's answer was practically a repetition of his former reply. A representation on the affairs of the nation, addressed to the king, was carried by 191 to 190 on March 8, and, with this last effort, the opposition subsided. The Mutiny Bill passed without a division on March 10, and on March 25 Parliament was dissolved.[91]Upwards of one hundred and sixty members lost their seats, and of these almost all had supported the Coalition of Fox and North. Among "Fox's Martyrs" was Lord Sheffield. Sir Sampson Gideon, afterwards Lord Eardley, and Mr. John Wilmot were elected for Coventry, the seat previously held by Lord Sheffield and Mr. Conway.[92]Teague is the Irish servant of Hermes Wouldbe in Farquhar's play ofThe Twin Rivals.[93]Lady Charlotte Herbert, daughter of Lady Pembroke (formerly Lady Elizabeth Spencer), was born July, 1773, and died in April, 1784.[94]Prince Henry of Prussia, brother of Frederick the Great, was one of the most brilliant soldiers of the day. His relief of Breslau (1760) and victory at Freyberg (1762) were turning-points in the Seven Years' War. In the War of Bavarian Succession he maintained his position in Bohemia against the Austrian troops (1778-9). He was offered the crown of Poland in 1764, and in 1784 had been envoy at the court of Louis XVI. He died in 1802.[95]His picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds.[96]The Constitution of 1782 had not satisfied Ireland. The cry was raised for parliamentary reform, and for the extension of the franchise to Roman Catholics. Napper Tandy and his friends held meetings with French emissaries; and an attempt was made to convene a Congress of three hundred representatives at Dublin in October, 1784, backed by the volunteers. The Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Rutland, acted with vigour, and the proposed Congress collapsed. Lord Sheffield had taken part in the proceedings against the magistrates of Roscommon and Leitrim, who had called the meetings of representatives and signed the resolutions in favour of parliamentary reform during the summer of 1784.[97]Jacques Necker (1734-1804), appointed Director-General of Finance in 1777, published, in 1781, hisCompte Rendu. In the same year he was compelled to resign his office. In 1784 he published hisAdministration des Finances. He was recalled to office as Director of Finances in August, 1788, was dismissed July 11, 1789, recalled July 16 in the same year, and finally retired in September, 1790. "M. Necker est parti. Il a eu une si belle peur de la menace d'être pendu, qu'il n'a pu résister à la tendresse de sa vertueuse épouse qui le pressoit d'aller aux eaux." Madame Elisabeth à Madame de Bombelles, Sept. 6, 1790 (Feuillet de Conches, vol. i. p. 348). Necker's work,Sur l'Administration de M. Necker, par lui-même, was published in 1791. His daughter mentioned here was afterwards Madame de Staël.[98]Lord Sheffield published, in 1785, hisObservations on the Manufactures, Trade, and Present State of Ireland.[99]Sir Willoughby Aston, the last baronet, married, in 1772, Lady Jane Henley, sister of Lord Northington, and died in 1815, without children.[100]The Hon. John Hampden Trevor, second son of Lord Hampden, was British Envoy at the Court of Turin, 1783-99. He married, in 1773, Harriot, only daughter of the Rev. Daniel Barton, Canon of Christ Church.[101]Lady Clarges (néeSkrine) was the widow of Sir Thomas Clarges, third baronet, M.P. for Lincoln, who died in 1783.[102]Second Lord Northington, formerly M.P. for Hampshire.[103]Lord Spencer, who succeeded his father as second Earl Spencer in 1783, married Lady Lavinia Bingham, eldest daughter of the first Earl of Lucan.[104]The Right Hon. John Foster, Lord Oriel (1740-1828), Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland (1784), Speaker of the Irish House of Commons (1785-1800), was the author of the Irish Corn Law of 1784, the founder of the National Bank, and closely connected with Lord Sheffield by their common interests in commercial and financial questions. He was elected Speaker August 15, 1785.[105]Commissioners had been appointed to draw up a scheme for regulating the commercial intercourse of Great Britain and Ireland. Pitt's eleven propositions for the development of Irish Trade, in their original form, were practically rejected by the Irish Parliament in February, 1785. Remodelled, and increased to twenty, they were laid before the English House of Commons in May, 1785, and a Bill based on them was read the first time in July. This Bill was then introduced into the Irish House on August 12; but it was carried by so small a majority (127 to 108) that it was abandoned.[106]The Emperor Joseph II., "à qui jamais rien n'a réussi," reigned 1780-1790. His attempted reforms in the Low Countries created a revolution against Austria; the two insurgent parties of theStatistesandVonckistes,—the one conservative and aristocratic, the other commercial and resembling in their views the French Constitutionalists,—made common cause and expelled the Austrian governor, the Duke of Saxe-Teschen. "Vôtre pays," said Joseph, a few days before his death, to the Prince de Ligne, "m'a tué. La prise de Gand a été mon agonie; l'abandon de Bruxelles, ma mort."[107]Frederick II. of Prussia died August 17, 1786. He had recently endeavoured to mediate between the Republican party in Holland and the Stadtholder, who was, in 1786, deprived of the government of the Hague and of his military powers as captain-general. He had also, in 1778 and 1785, interfered to prevent Austria's designs upon Bavaria.[108]Lord Sheffield did notpublishhisObservations on the French Treaty and Commerce. [S.][109]On August 18, 1787, the Right Hon. W. Eden (afterwards Lord Auckland) was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the King of Spain; but he was at this time in Paris, assisting the Duke of Dorset in negotiating a Treaty of Commerce with France. His conduct in accepting from Pitt the mission to France was severely condemned by the old followers of Lord North. Among the numerous squibs which his action provoked, the following may be quoted:—"A mere affair of trade t' embrace,Wines, brandies, gloves, fans, cambrics, lace;For this on me my Sovereign laidHis high commands, and I obey'd—Nor think, my Lord, this conduct base."Party were guilt in such a case,When thus my country, for a space,Calls my poor skill to Dorset's aid,A mere affair of trade!"Thus Eden, with unblushing face,To North would palliate his disgrace:When North, with smiles, this answer made:'You might have spar'd what you have said—I thought the business of your placeA mere affair of trade!'"[110]In 1787 the Prince of Wales, after authorizing Fox to make a public denial of his rumoured marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert, received an additional £10,000 a year, £161,000 to pay his debts, and £20,000 for the repair of Carlton House.[111]A Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Great Britain and France was signed at Versailles on September 26, 1786, and a Supplementary Convention was signed between the same powers on January 15, 1787. Both treaties were signed on behalf of Great Britain by William Eden.[112]Jeanne Pauline Polier de Bottens, afterwards successively Madame de Crousaz, and Madame de Montolieu, was the daughter of the Pastor at Lausanne, and was descended from an ancient family in Languedoc which had emigrated at the time of the Reformation. She was a voluminous writer. One of her best-known works is a continuation of theSwiss Family Robinson. Madame de Genlis, who claims to have been theéditeurofCaroline de Lichtfield, tells the following story of Gibbon falling on his knees and proposing to Madame de Crousaz, afterwards Madame de Montolieu. She refused him. "M. Gibbon prit un air consterné, et cependant il restait à genoux, malgré l'invitation réitérée de se remettre sur sa chaise; il était immobile et gardait la silence. 'Mais, monsieur,' répéta Madame de Crouzas, 'relevez-vous donc.'—'Hélas! madame,' répondit enfin ce malheureux amant, 'Je ne peux pas.' En effet, la grosseur de sa taille ne lui permettait pas de se relever sans aide. Madame de Crouzas sonna, et dit au domestique qui survint: 'Relevez M. Gibbon'" (Souvenirs de Félicie, p. 279). Madame de Montolieu, it should be added, stated that the anecdote was entirely without foundation (Rossel,Histoire Littéraire de la Suisse, vol. ii. p. 275).The same story is told in verse by George Colman the younger in "The Luminous Historian; or, Learning in Love" (Eccentricities for Edinburgh, pp. 67-91).Caroline, par Madame de * * *, was published at Lausanne in 1786. At Paris, in the same year, a new edition appeared, under the title ofCaroline de Lichtfield, avec des corrections considérables. It was translated into English by Thomas Holcroft, and published by the Minerva Press. The Lausanne edition has on the title-page the following lines, which may allude to Gibbon:—"Idole d'un cœur juste et passion du sage,Amitié que ton nom soutienne cet ouvrage;Regne dans mes écrits, ainsi que dans mon cœur,Tu m'appris à connaître, à sentir le bonheur."(Voltaire,Mélanges de Poésies.)[113]Lord Sheffield had let his house in Downing Street to the Duchess of Gordon. "The Duchess of Gordon will dance my house in Downing Street down" (Lord Sheffield to William Eden, February 27, 1787:Auckland Correspondence, vol. i. p. 405).[114]"I went to London," writes Lord Sheffield to William Eden from Sheffield Place, on August 22, 1787, "for a few days to conduct the Gibbon to this place. The Gibbon is settled here till winter; he will reside with us in Downing Street in winter and spring. The three quartos will appear in the spring, but as to remaining in this country, he has not the slightest notion of it. I have not yet succeeded in infusing a proper political zeal into him" (Lord Auckland's Journal and Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 435, 436).[115]Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802) was Director-General of Finances from 1783 to 1787. By his advice the Assembly of Notables was convened on February 22, 1787. He laid before it the financial condition of the kingdom, and proposed, among other measures, a land tax, the taxation of the lands of the clergy, and, generally, the equalization of public burdens. So great was the clamour against him, that in April he resigned and took refuge in England. "I am entertained," writes Lord Sheffield to William Eden, November 2, 1787, "with the reception Calonne meets with in London. Lately he was the most terrible peculator" (Auckland Correspondence, vol. i. p. 444). He was succeeded by Cardinal de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, afterwards Archbishop of Sens.[116]Wilhelm de Severy, the son of Gibbon's friends at Lausanne, had, at his suggestion, paid a visit to England.[117]John Gibbon, the herald, was Bluemantle Pursuivant at Arms, 1671-1718. He died August 2, 1718.[118]M. Wilhelm de Severy.[119]Vols. iv., v., and vi. of theDecline and Fallwere published in April, 1788.[120]The preface to the last three volumes of theDecline and Fall of the Roman Empirecontained the following eulogium on Lord North: "Were I ambitious of any other Patron than the public, I would inscribe this work to a Statesman, who, in a long, a stormy, and at length an unfortunate administration, had many political opponents, almost without a personal enemy; who has retained, in his fall from power, many faithful and disinterested friends; and who, under the pressure of severe infirmity, enjoys the lively vigour of his mind, and the felicity of his incomparable temper. Lord North will permit me to express the feelings of friendship in the language of truth; but even truth and friendship should be silent, if he still dispensed the favours of the Crown."[121]Lady Sheffield's lapdog.[122]"We were kept in London about twelve days by Mr. Sheridan's speeches. One day would have sufficed me, who have heard many long speeches: but the ladies rebelled, the Gibbon supported them, and thus we were detained till towards the middle of June" (Lord Sheffield to William Eden, July 29, 1788:Lord Auckland's Journal and Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 219).[123]The trial of Warren Hastings began in Westminster Hall on February 13, 1788. Sheridan's speech on the Begums of Oudh was delivered on June 3, 6, 10, and 13. The trial was adjourned on June 14 till the following session. "Mr. Sheridan," writes Horace Walpole, June 5, 1788, "I hear, did not quite satisfy the passionate expectation that had been raised; but it was impossible he could, when people had worked themselves into an enthusiasm of offering fifty—ay,fiftyguineas for a ticket to hear him." Macaulay's account of Sheridan's knowledge of stage-effect, and of his sinking back, "as if exhausted, into the arms of Burke," is based on this letter of Gibbon. Sir Gilbert Elliot, however (Life and Letters, vol. i. pp. 206-219), gives a different account. "Burke caught him in his arms as he sat down, which was not the least affecting part of the day to my feelings, and could not be the least grateful testimony of his merit received by Sheridan. I have myself enjoyed that embrace on such an occasion, and know its value." In his speech, as reported in theMorning Chroniclefor June 14, 1788, Sheridan said that "nothing equal in criminality was to be traced either in ancient or modern history, in the correct periods of Tacitus or the luminous page of Gibbon." The story, told by Moore in hisMemoirsof Sheridan, that the orator really used the word "voluminous," is repudiated by Mr. Fraser Rae (Sheridan, vol. ii. p. 69).[124]C. J. Fox.[125]In 1788, on a by-election caused by Lord Hood's acceptance of office as one of the Commissioners of the Admiralty, Lord John Townshend won the seat against Hood. In Bond Street there was a battle between Lord Hood's sailors and the Irish chairmen and butcher-boys. Several were killed and wounded.[126]Charles James Fox married Elizabeth Bridget Cane, otherwise Mrs. Armitstead, at Wyton, Huntingdonshire, on September 28, 1795. She survived her husband. In 1799, on his fiftieth birthday (January 24), Fox addressed to her the following lines:—"Of years I have now half a century past,And none of the fifty so blessed as the last.How it happens my troubles thus daily should cease,And my happiness thus with my years should increase,This defiance of nature's more general lawsYou alone can explain, who alone are the cause."[127]Sylvester Douglas, afterwards Lord Glenbervie (1743-1823), who married, in September, 1789, Catherine, eldest daughter of Lord North. He was educated at Leyden as a doctor, a circumstance to which Sheridan alludes in the lines—"Glenbervie, Glenbervie,What's good for the scurvey?For ne'er be your old trade forgot."He became a barrister, reported in the King's Bench, and was made a K.C. After his marriage he left the Bar for a political career, and held several minor appointments.[128]Brienne retired to Italy in August, 1788, and Necker was recalled in the same month. He at once took steps for summoning the States-General which met at Versailles, May 4, 1789.[129]In the summer of 1788 George III. showed symptoms of mental derangement; but he had signed a warrant for the further prorogation of Parliament from September 25 to November 20. In that interval he grew rapidly worse, and was placed under restraint. The evidence of the king's physicians was laid before the Privy Council and Parliament, and a motion was made in the Lower House for a committee to search for precedents of proceedings in the case of the interruption or suspension of the royal authority. Pitt, on December 16, 1788, moved three resolutions: (1) that the personal exercise of the royal authority was interrupted; (2) that the two Houses have the right to supply this defect of the royal authority; (3) that it was necessary to determine the means by which, during the continuance of the king's incapacity, the royal assent should be given to bills passed by the two Houses. The resolutions were carried in both Houses. The plan of a regency was then submitted to the Prince of Wales, and five resolutions embodying the scheme were proposed and carried in January, 1789. On February 5, 1789, the Regency Bill was introduced in the House of Commons, carried, and sent up to the Lords. It was still under discussion when, on February 19, the Lord Chancellor announced the king's convalescence, and further proceedings were suspended.[130]James, first Earl of Malmesbury, the distinguished diplomatist, married Harriet Mary, daughter of Sir G. Amyand, Bart.[131]George Ellis (1753-1815) is best known for hisSpecimens of the Early English Poets(1790) and hisSpecimens of Early English Romances in Metre(1805). He was, wrote Sir Walter Scott, "the first converser I ever saw. His patience and good breeding made me often ashamed of myself, going off at score upon some favourite topic." To him Scott addresses the lines in the fifth canto ofMarmion, beginning—"Thou who canst give to lightest layAn unpedantic moral gay," etc.He had been employed in diplomatic work by Lord Malmesbury at the Hague in 1784, and accompanied him for the same purpose to the Lille Conference in 1797. He was at this time travelling on the Continent with Lord and Lady Malmesbury. The lines on Pitt in Number ii. of theRolliadare attributed to him—"Pert without fire, without experience sage,Young, with more art than Shelburne glean'd from age,Too proud from pilfer'd greatness to descend,Too humble not to call Dundas his friend,In solemn dignity and sullen state,This new Octavius rises to debate!" etc., etc.[132]De la monarchie Prussienne sous Frédéric le Grand(1788, 4o); andHistoire Secrète de la Cour de Berlin, ou Correspondance d'un voyageur Français(1789, 8o). Both books were by Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau.[133]His stepmother, Mrs. Gibbon.[134]His aunt, Miss Hester Gibbon.[135]It may be mentioned that Lord Sheffield married, in January, 1798, as his third wife, Lady Anne North, daughter of the Earl of Guilford, and sister of Lady Catherine Douglas.[136]Alluding to Sheffield Place.[137]Sir S. Porten died June 7, 1789.[138]The Comte d'Artois (1757-1836), brother of Louis XVI., and afterwards Charles X., was one of the earliestémigrés.[139]Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Duchesse de Polignac (1749-1793), was the most intimate friend of Marie Antoinette. To her and her royal mistress public opinion attributed many of the worst evils of the monarchy. When the daughter of the duchess married the Duc de Guiche (afterwards Duc de Grammont), the king gave the bride a dower of 800,000livres. "Mille écus," said Mirabeau, "à la famille d'Assas pour avoir sauvé l'État, un million à la famille de Polignac pour l'avoir perdu." (The Chevalier d'Assas lost his life in an heroic action at Klostercamp, October 15-16, 1760. The Government of Louis XV. allowed him to go unrewarded. Louis XVI., at the instigation of Marie Antoinette, conferred on his family a perpetual pension of 1000livres.) The duchess emigrated with her husband shortly after the taking of the Bastille. She died at Vienna in December, 1793, her death being, it is said, hastened by the murder of Marie Antoinette. Her second son, afterwards Prince de Polignac, was the favourite minister of Charles X.[140]Necker was dismissed July 11, 1789, and ordered to quit the kingdom.[141]Richard Price, D.D. (1723-1791), the celebrated mathematician and economic writer (Observations on Reversionary Payments, Annuities, etc., 1769;Appeal on the Subject of the National Debt, 1772), the opponent of Dr. Priestley (A Free Discussion of the Doctrine of Materialism and Philosophical Necessity, 1778), was also a voluminous political writer, a champion of the cause of American Independence, and an advocate of principles then regarded as revolutionary. HisObservations on the Nature of Civil Liberty(1776) procured him an invitation from Congress to come and reside in America. In 1789 he published hisDiscourse on the Love of our Country, severely criticized by Burke in hisReflections on the Revolution in France. His last work,Britain's Happiness, was published in 1791, the year of his death.[142]The Marquis de Castries (1727-1801), Marshal of France (1783), had served in the Seven Years' War, was Ministre de la Marine 1780-87, and in 1792 held a command in the Prussian army of invasion. He died at Wolfenbuttel in 1801.[143]Adrien Louis de Bonnières, Comte, afterwards Duc, de Guines (1735-1806), had been ambassador in England, 1770-76. As ambassador at Berlin he had been a favourite with Frederick the Great, with whom he played the flute. He emigrated at the beginning of the Revolution.[144]J. Joseph Mounier (1758-1806), the author ofConsidérations sur le gouvernement qui convient à la France(1789), was a prominent champion of constitutional liberty in the States-General and the National Assembly. He emigrated at the end of 1789.[145]Gérard, Marquis de Lally-Tollendal (1751-1830), the son of the unfortunate governor of the French possessions in India, emigrated after the events of October 5-6, 1789. Returning to France in 1792, he was arrested after August 10, and imprisoned in the Abbaye; he escaped and took refuge in England.[146]Étiennette de Montconseil, daughter of the Marquis de Montconseil, married, in 1766, Charles Alexandre Marc Marcellin d'Alsace-Hénin-Liétard, Prince d'Hénin, brother of the Prince de Chimay and Madame de Cambis, and nephew of the Maréchale de Mirepoix and the Prince de Beauvau. The princess was appointed in 1778dame du palaisin the household of Marie Antoinette. Her intimate relations with Lally-Tollendal were well known. Madame D'Arblay, who knew her well, says of her, twenty years later, that "Lally was her admiring and truly devoted friend, and by many believed to be privately married to her. I am myself of that opinion" (Diary and Letters, vii. 89). The Prince d'Hénin was captain of the body-guard of the Comte d'Artois. He played a conspicuous part in thechronique scandaleuseof the day. His affection for Sophie Arnould gave rise to the following verses of the Marquis de Louvois:—"Chez la doyenne des catinsTa place est des plus minces.Tu n'es plus le prince d'Hénin,Mais bien le nain des princes."[147]Probably Lord Sheffield's portrait, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in March, 1788.[148]Major James Rennell (1742-1832) had already published his Maps of Bengal and of the Mogul Empire. His geographical work on Africa and map appeared in 1790.[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.[152]Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) sailed with Captain Cook in theEndeavourin 1768. He was President of the Royal Society from 1778 to 1820.[153]In May, 1790, a message from the king was delivered to the House of Commons by Pitt, informing them that two British ships had been seized in Nootka Sound off the coast of California by two Spanish men-of-war, that satisfaction had been demanded, that Spain claimed exclusive rights in those waters, and was making active preparations for war. Spain, relying on the family compact, asked aid from France, and Louis XVI. communicated the demand to the National Assembly, asking that a fleet should be equipped to send assistance. Preparations were made at Brest to send assistance; but the mutinous conduct of the French sailors apparently alarmed the Spanish Government, which withdrew its claims, restored the property seized, and offered compensation. The Convention between England and Spain was signed October 28, 1790. "The first and great news is the pacification with Spain. The courier arrived on Thursday morning with a most acquiescent answer to our ultimatum" (Walpole to the Miss Berrys, November 8, 1790).[154]James Bruce of Kinnaird, F.R.S., published in 1790 hisTravels to discover the Sources of the Nile, in five quarto volumes.[155]Origines Guelficæ, quibus potentissimæ gentis primordia, magnitudo, variaque fortuna exhibentur.Opus præeunte G. G. Leibnitii stilo J. G. Eccardi literis consignatum, postea a J. D. Grubero novis probationibus instructum. (Ad finem perduxit atque edidit C. L. Scheidius. Accedit duplex index, etc., curante J. H. Jungio.) Hanoveræ, 1750-80, fol.[156]Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire(edition of 1862), vol. vii. p. 119.[157]"Mr. Gibbon writes that he has seen Necker, and found him still devoured by ambition, and I should think by mortification at the foolish figure he has made" (Walpole to the Miss Berrys, February 28, 1791).

[78]The Hon. George Augustus North (afterwards Lord Guilford) and Lord Lewisham were two of the seven commissioners named in Fox's India Bill.

[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'sMiscellaneous Writings(vol. ii. pp. 340-344), addressed to his aunt, Miss Catherine Porten.

[80]His aunt, Miss Porten, and his stepmother.

[81]His aunt, Miss Hester Gibbon.

[82]William Woodfall, formerly assistant editor of thePublic Advertiser, was at this time editor of theMorning 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 calledThe Diary, which failed. He died in 1803. His brother, Henry Woodfall, published theLetters 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.

[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.

[90]An address to his Majesty was presented on February 25, 1784, asking the king to take measures for the formation of such an united administration as the House of Commons had declared to be necessary. The king replied (February 27) that he did not think the dismissal of his present ministers would promote such union. A second address, asking the removal of the present ministers, was carried (March 1) by a majority of twelve, and presented March 4. The king's answer was practically a repetition of his former reply. A representation on the affairs of the nation, addressed to the king, was carried by 191 to 190 on March 8, and, with this last effort, the opposition subsided. The Mutiny Bill passed without a division on March 10, and on March 25 Parliament was dissolved.

[91]Upwards of one hundred and sixty members lost their seats, and of these almost all had supported the Coalition of Fox and North. Among "Fox's Martyrs" was Lord Sheffield. Sir Sampson Gideon, afterwards Lord Eardley, and Mr. John Wilmot were elected for Coventry, the seat previously held by Lord Sheffield and Mr. Conway.

[92]Teague is the Irish servant of Hermes Wouldbe in Farquhar's play ofThe Twin Rivals.

[93]Lady Charlotte Herbert, daughter of Lady Pembroke (formerly Lady Elizabeth Spencer), was born July, 1773, and died in April, 1784.

[94]Prince Henry of Prussia, brother of Frederick the Great, was one of the most brilliant soldiers of the day. His relief of Breslau (1760) and victory at Freyberg (1762) were turning-points in the Seven Years' War. In the War of Bavarian Succession he maintained his position in Bohemia against the Austrian troops (1778-9). He was offered the crown of Poland in 1764, and in 1784 had been envoy at the court of Louis XVI. He died in 1802.

[95]His picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

[96]The Constitution of 1782 had not satisfied Ireland. The cry was raised for parliamentary reform, and for the extension of the franchise to Roman Catholics. Napper Tandy and his friends held meetings with French emissaries; and an attempt was made to convene a Congress of three hundred representatives at Dublin in October, 1784, backed by the volunteers. The Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Rutland, acted with vigour, and the proposed Congress collapsed. Lord Sheffield had taken part in the proceedings against the magistrates of Roscommon and Leitrim, who had called the meetings of representatives and signed the resolutions in favour of parliamentary reform during the summer of 1784.

[97]Jacques Necker (1734-1804), appointed Director-General of Finance in 1777, published, in 1781, hisCompte Rendu. In the same year he was compelled to resign his office. In 1784 he published hisAdministration des Finances. He was recalled to office as Director of Finances in August, 1788, was dismissed July 11, 1789, recalled July 16 in the same year, and finally retired in September, 1790. "M. Necker est parti. Il a eu une si belle peur de la menace d'être pendu, qu'il n'a pu résister à la tendresse de sa vertueuse épouse qui le pressoit d'aller aux eaux." Madame Elisabeth à Madame de Bombelles, Sept. 6, 1790 (Feuillet de Conches, vol. i. p. 348). Necker's work,Sur l'Administration de M. Necker, par lui-même, was published in 1791. His daughter mentioned here was afterwards Madame de Staël.

[98]Lord Sheffield published, in 1785, hisObservations on the Manufactures, Trade, and Present State of Ireland.

[99]Sir Willoughby Aston, the last baronet, married, in 1772, Lady Jane Henley, sister of Lord Northington, and died in 1815, without children.

[100]The Hon. John Hampden Trevor, second son of Lord Hampden, was British Envoy at the Court of Turin, 1783-99. He married, in 1773, Harriot, only daughter of the Rev. Daniel Barton, Canon of Christ Church.

[101]Lady Clarges (néeSkrine) was the widow of Sir Thomas Clarges, third baronet, M.P. for Lincoln, who died in 1783.

[102]Second Lord Northington, formerly M.P. for Hampshire.

[103]Lord Spencer, who succeeded his father as second Earl Spencer in 1783, married Lady Lavinia Bingham, eldest daughter of the first Earl of Lucan.

[104]The Right Hon. John Foster, Lord Oriel (1740-1828), Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland (1784), Speaker of the Irish House of Commons (1785-1800), was the author of the Irish Corn Law of 1784, the founder of the National Bank, and closely connected with Lord Sheffield by their common interests in commercial and financial questions. He was elected Speaker August 15, 1785.

[105]Commissioners had been appointed to draw up a scheme for regulating the commercial intercourse of Great Britain and Ireland. Pitt's eleven propositions for the development of Irish Trade, in their original form, were practically rejected by the Irish Parliament in February, 1785. Remodelled, and increased to twenty, they were laid before the English House of Commons in May, 1785, and a Bill based on them was read the first time in July. This Bill was then introduced into the Irish House on August 12; but it was carried by so small a majority (127 to 108) that it was abandoned.

[106]The Emperor Joseph II., "à qui jamais rien n'a réussi," reigned 1780-1790. His attempted reforms in the Low Countries created a revolution against Austria; the two insurgent parties of theStatistesandVonckistes,—the one conservative and aristocratic, the other commercial and resembling in their views the French Constitutionalists,—made common cause and expelled the Austrian governor, the Duke of Saxe-Teschen. "Vôtre pays," said Joseph, a few days before his death, to the Prince de Ligne, "m'a tué. La prise de Gand a été mon agonie; l'abandon de Bruxelles, ma mort."

[107]Frederick II. of Prussia died August 17, 1786. He had recently endeavoured to mediate between the Republican party in Holland and the Stadtholder, who was, in 1786, deprived of the government of the Hague and of his military powers as captain-general. He had also, in 1778 and 1785, interfered to prevent Austria's designs upon Bavaria.

[108]Lord Sheffield did notpublishhisObservations on the French Treaty and Commerce. [S.]

[109]On August 18, 1787, the Right Hon. W. Eden (afterwards Lord Auckland) was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the King of Spain; but he was at this time in Paris, assisting the Duke of Dorset in negotiating a Treaty of Commerce with France. His conduct in accepting from Pitt the mission to France was severely condemned by the old followers of Lord North. Among the numerous squibs which his action provoked, the following may be quoted:—"A mere affair of trade t' embrace,Wines, brandies, gloves, fans, cambrics, lace;For this on me my Sovereign laidHis high commands, and I obey'd—Nor think, my Lord, this conduct base."Party were guilt in such a case,When thus my country, for a space,Calls my poor skill to Dorset's aid,A mere affair of trade!"Thus Eden, with unblushing face,To North would palliate his disgrace:When North, with smiles, this answer made:'You might have spar'd what you have said—I thought the business of your placeA mere affair of trade!'"

"A mere affair of trade t' embrace,Wines, brandies, gloves, fans, cambrics, lace;For this on me my Sovereign laidHis high commands, and I obey'd—Nor think, my Lord, this conduct base."Party were guilt in such a case,When thus my country, for a space,Calls my poor skill to Dorset's aid,A mere affair of trade!"Thus Eden, with unblushing face,To North would palliate his disgrace:When North, with smiles, this answer made:'You might have spar'd what you have said—I thought the business of your placeA mere affair of trade!'"

"A mere affair of trade t' embrace,Wines, brandies, gloves, fans, cambrics, lace;For this on me my Sovereign laidHis high commands, and I obey'd—Nor think, my Lord, this conduct base.

"A mere affair of trade t' embrace,

Wines, brandies, gloves, fans, cambrics, lace;

For this on me my Sovereign laid

His high commands, and I obey'd—

Nor think, my Lord, this conduct base.

"Party were guilt in such a case,When thus my country, for a space,Calls my poor skill to Dorset's aid,A mere affair of trade!

"Party were guilt in such a case,

When thus my country, for a space,

Calls my poor skill to Dorset's aid,

A mere affair of trade!

"Thus Eden, with unblushing face,To North would palliate his disgrace:When North, with smiles, this answer made:'You might have spar'd what you have said—I thought the business of your placeA mere affair of trade!'"

"Thus Eden, with unblushing face,

To North would palliate his disgrace:

When North, with smiles, this answer made:

'You might have spar'd what you have said—

I thought the business of your place

A mere affair of trade!'"

[110]In 1787 the Prince of Wales, after authorizing Fox to make a public denial of his rumoured marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert, received an additional £10,000 a year, £161,000 to pay his debts, and £20,000 for the repair of Carlton House.

[111]A Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Great Britain and France was signed at Versailles on September 26, 1786, and a Supplementary Convention was signed between the same powers on January 15, 1787. Both treaties were signed on behalf of Great Britain by William Eden.

[112]Jeanne Pauline Polier de Bottens, afterwards successively Madame de Crousaz, and Madame de Montolieu, was the daughter of the Pastor at Lausanne, and was descended from an ancient family in Languedoc which had emigrated at the time of the Reformation. She was a voluminous writer. One of her best-known works is a continuation of theSwiss Family Robinson. Madame de Genlis, who claims to have been theéditeurofCaroline de Lichtfield, tells the following story of Gibbon falling on his knees and proposing to Madame de Crousaz, afterwards Madame de Montolieu. She refused him. "M. Gibbon prit un air consterné, et cependant il restait à genoux, malgré l'invitation réitérée de se remettre sur sa chaise; il était immobile et gardait la silence. 'Mais, monsieur,' répéta Madame de Crouzas, 'relevez-vous donc.'—'Hélas! madame,' répondit enfin ce malheureux amant, 'Je ne peux pas.' En effet, la grosseur de sa taille ne lui permettait pas de se relever sans aide. Madame de Crouzas sonna, et dit au domestique qui survint: 'Relevez M. Gibbon'" (Souvenirs de Félicie, p. 279). Madame de Montolieu, it should be added, stated that the anecdote was entirely without foundation (Rossel,Histoire Littéraire de la Suisse, vol. ii. p. 275).The same story is told in verse by George Colman the younger in "The Luminous Historian; or, Learning in Love" (Eccentricities for Edinburgh, pp. 67-91).Caroline, par Madame de * * *, was published at Lausanne in 1786. At Paris, in the same year, a new edition appeared, under the title ofCaroline de Lichtfield, avec des corrections considérables. It was translated into English by Thomas Holcroft, and published by the Minerva Press. The Lausanne edition has on the title-page the following lines, which may allude to Gibbon:—"Idole d'un cœur juste et passion du sage,Amitié que ton nom soutienne cet ouvrage;Regne dans mes écrits, ainsi que dans mon cœur,Tu m'appris à connaître, à sentir le bonheur."(Voltaire,Mélanges de Poésies.)

The same story is told in verse by George Colman the younger in "The Luminous Historian; or, Learning in Love" (Eccentricities for Edinburgh, pp. 67-91).

Caroline, par Madame de * * *, was published at Lausanne in 1786. At Paris, in the same year, a new edition appeared, under the title ofCaroline de Lichtfield, avec des corrections considérables. It was translated into English by Thomas Holcroft, and published by the Minerva Press. The Lausanne edition has on the title-page the following lines, which may allude to Gibbon:—

"Idole d'un cœur juste et passion du sage,Amitié que ton nom soutienne cet ouvrage;Regne dans mes écrits, ainsi que dans mon cœur,Tu m'appris à connaître, à sentir le bonheur."(Voltaire,Mélanges de Poésies.)

"Idole d'un cœur juste et passion du sage,Amitié que ton nom soutienne cet ouvrage;Regne dans mes écrits, ainsi que dans mon cœur,Tu m'appris à connaître, à sentir le bonheur."

"Idole d'un cœur juste et passion du sage,

Amitié que ton nom soutienne cet ouvrage;

Regne dans mes écrits, ainsi que dans mon cœur,

Tu m'appris à connaître, à sentir le bonheur."

(Voltaire,Mélanges de Poésies.)

[113]Lord Sheffield had let his house in Downing Street to the Duchess of Gordon. "The Duchess of Gordon will dance my house in Downing Street down" (Lord Sheffield to William Eden, February 27, 1787:Auckland Correspondence, vol. i. p. 405).

[114]"I went to London," writes Lord Sheffield to William Eden from Sheffield Place, on August 22, 1787, "for a few days to conduct the Gibbon to this place. The Gibbon is settled here till winter; he will reside with us in Downing Street in winter and spring. The three quartos will appear in the spring, but as to remaining in this country, he has not the slightest notion of it. I have not yet succeeded in infusing a proper political zeal into him" (Lord Auckland's Journal and Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 435, 436).

[115]Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802) was Director-General of Finances from 1783 to 1787. By his advice the Assembly of Notables was convened on February 22, 1787. He laid before it the financial condition of the kingdom, and proposed, among other measures, a land tax, the taxation of the lands of the clergy, and, generally, the equalization of public burdens. So great was the clamour against him, that in April he resigned and took refuge in England. "I am entertained," writes Lord Sheffield to William Eden, November 2, 1787, "with the reception Calonne meets with in London. Lately he was the most terrible peculator" (Auckland Correspondence, vol. i. p. 444). He was succeeded by Cardinal de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, afterwards Archbishop of Sens.

[116]Wilhelm de Severy, the son of Gibbon's friends at Lausanne, had, at his suggestion, paid a visit to England.

[117]John Gibbon, the herald, was Bluemantle Pursuivant at Arms, 1671-1718. He died August 2, 1718.

[118]M. Wilhelm de Severy.

[119]Vols. iv., v., and vi. of theDecline and Fallwere published in April, 1788.

[120]The preface to the last three volumes of theDecline and Fall of the Roman Empirecontained the following eulogium on Lord North: "Were I ambitious of any other Patron than the public, I would inscribe this work to a Statesman, who, in a long, a stormy, and at length an unfortunate administration, had many political opponents, almost without a personal enemy; who has retained, in his fall from power, many faithful and disinterested friends; and who, under the pressure of severe infirmity, enjoys the lively vigour of his mind, and the felicity of his incomparable temper. Lord North will permit me to express the feelings of friendship in the language of truth; but even truth and friendship should be silent, if he still dispensed the favours of the Crown."

[121]Lady Sheffield's lapdog.

[122]"We were kept in London about twelve days by Mr. Sheridan's speeches. One day would have sufficed me, who have heard many long speeches: but the ladies rebelled, the Gibbon supported them, and thus we were detained till towards the middle of June" (Lord Sheffield to William Eden, July 29, 1788:Lord Auckland's Journal and Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 219).

[123]The trial of Warren Hastings began in Westminster Hall on February 13, 1788. Sheridan's speech on the Begums of Oudh was delivered on June 3, 6, 10, and 13. The trial was adjourned on June 14 till the following session. "Mr. Sheridan," writes Horace Walpole, June 5, 1788, "I hear, did not quite satisfy the passionate expectation that had been raised; but it was impossible he could, when people had worked themselves into an enthusiasm of offering fifty—ay,fiftyguineas for a ticket to hear him." Macaulay's account of Sheridan's knowledge of stage-effect, and of his sinking back, "as if exhausted, into the arms of Burke," is based on this letter of Gibbon. Sir Gilbert Elliot, however (Life and Letters, vol. i. pp. 206-219), gives a different account. "Burke caught him in his arms as he sat down, which was not the least affecting part of the day to my feelings, and could not be the least grateful testimony of his merit received by Sheridan. I have myself enjoyed that embrace on such an occasion, and know its value." In his speech, as reported in theMorning Chroniclefor June 14, 1788, Sheridan said that "nothing equal in criminality was to be traced either in ancient or modern history, in the correct periods of Tacitus or the luminous page of Gibbon." The story, told by Moore in hisMemoirsof Sheridan, that the orator really used the word "voluminous," is repudiated by Mr. Fraser Rae (Sheridan, vol. ii. p. 69).

[124]C. J. Fox.

[125]In 1788, on a by-election caused by Lord Hood's acceptance of office as one of the Commissioners of the Admiralty, Lord John Townshend won the seat against Hood. In Bond Street there was a battle between Lord Hood's sailors and the Irish chairmen and butcher-boys. Several were killed and wounded.

[126]Charles James Fox married Elizabeth Bridget Cane, otherwise Mrs. Armitstead, at Wyton, Huntingdonshire, on September 28, 1795. She survived her husband. In 1799, on his fiftieth birthday (January 24), Fox addressed to her the following lines:—"Of years I have now half a century past,And none of the fifty so blessed as the last.How it happens my troubles thus daily should cease,And my happiness thus with my years should increase,This defiance of nature's more general lawsYou alone can explain, who alone are the cause."

"Of years I have now half a century past,And none of the fifty so blessed as the last.How it happens my troubles thus daily should cease,And my happiness thus with my years should increase,This defiance of nature's more general lawsYou alone can explain, who alone are the cause."

"Of years I have now half a century past,

And none of the fifty so blessed as the last.

How it happens my troubles thus daily should cease,

And my happiness thus with my years should increase,

This defiance of nature's more general laws

You alone can explain, who alone are the cause."

[127]Sylvester Douglas, afterwards Lord Glenbervie (1743-1823), who married, in September, 1789, Catherine, eldest daughter of Lord North. He was educated at Leyden as a doctor, a circumstance to which Sheridan alludes in the lines—"Glenbervie, Glenbervie,What's good for the scurvey?For ne'er be your old trade forgot."He became a barrister, reported in the King's Bench, and was made a K.C. After his marriage he left the Bar for a political career, and held several minor appointments.

"Glenbervie, Glenbervie,What's good for the scurvey?For ne'er be your old trade forgot."

"Glenbervie, Glenbervie,

What's good for the scurvey?

For ne'er be your old trade forgot."

He became a barrister, reported in the King's Bench, and was made a K.C. After his marriage he left the Bar for a political career, and held several minor appointments.

[128]Brienne retired to Italy in August, 1788, and Necker was recalled in the same month. He at once took steps for summoning the States-General which met at Versailles, May 4, 1789.

[129]In the summer of 1788 George III. showed symptoms of mental derangement; but he had signed a warrant for the further prorogation of Parliament from September 25 to November 20. In that interval he grew rapidly worse, and was placed under restraint. The evidence of the king's physicians was laid before the Privy Council and Parliament, and a motion was made in the Lower House for a committee to search for precedents of proceedings in the case of the interruption or suspension of the royal authority. Pitt, on December 16, 1788, moved three resolutions: (1) that the personal exercise of the royal authority was interrupted; (2) that the two Houses have the right to supply this defect of the royal authority; (3) that it was necessary to determine the means by which, during the continuance of the king's incapacity, the royal assent should be given to bills passed by the two Houses. The resolutions were carried in both Houses. The plan of a regency was then submitted to the Prince of Wales, and five resolutions embodying the scheme were proposed and carried in January, 1789. On February 5, 1789, the Regency Bill was introduced in the House of Commons, carried, and sent up to the Lords. It was still under discussion when, on February 19, the Lord Chancellor announced the king's convalescence, and further proceedings were suspended.

[130]James, first Earl of Malmesbury, the distinguished diplomatist, married Harriet Mary, daughter of Sir G. Amyand, Bart.

[131]George Ellis (1753-1815) is best known for hisSpecimens of the Early English Poets(1790) and hisSpecimens of Early English Romances in Metre(1805). He was, wrote Sir Walter Scott, "the first converser I ever saw. His patience and good breeding made me often ashamed of myself, going off at score upon some favourite topic." To him Scott addresses the lines in the fifth canto ofMarmion, beginning—"Thou who canst give to lightest layAn unpedantic moral gay," etc.He had been employed in diplomatic work by Lord Malmesbury at the Hague in 1784, and accompanied him for the same purpose to the Lille Conference in 1797. He was at this time travelling on the Continent with Lord and Lady Malmesbury. The lines on Pitt in Number ii. of theRolliadare attributed to him—"Pert without fire, without experience sage,Young, with more art than Shelburne glean'd from age,Too proud from pilfer'd greatness to descend,Too humble not to call Dundas his friend,In solemn dignity and sullen state,This new Octavius rises to debate!" etc., etc.

"Thou who canst give to lightest layAn unpedantic moral gay," etc.

"Thou who canst give to lightest lay

An unpedantic moral gay," etc.

He had been employed in diplomatic work by Lord Malmesbury at the Hague in 1784, and accompanied him for the same purpose to the Lille Conference in 1797. He was at this time travelling on the Continent with Lord and Lady Malmesbury. The lines on Pitt in Number ii. of theRolliadare attributed to him—

"Pert without fire, without experience sage,Young, with more art than Shelburne glean'd from age,Too proud from pilfer'd greatness to descend,Too humble not to call Dundas his friend,In solemn dignity and sullen state,This new Octavius rises to debate!" etc., etc.

"Pert without fire, without experience sage,

Young, with more art than Shelburne glean'd from age,

Too proud from pilfer'd greatness to descend,

Too humble not to call Dundas his friend,

In solemn dignity and sullen state,

This new Octavius rises to debate!" etc., etc.

[132]De la monarchie Prussienne sous Frédéric le Grand(1788, 4o); andHistoire Secrète de la Cour de Berlin, ou Correspondance d'un voyageur Français(1789, 8o). Both books were by Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau.

[133]His stepmother, Mrs. Gibbon.

[134]His aunt, Miss Hester Gibbon.

[135]It may be mentioned that Lord Sheffield married, in January, 1798, as his third wife, Lady Anne North, daughter of the Earl of Guilford, and sister of Lady Catherine Douglas.

[136]Alluding to Sheffield Place.

[137]Sir S. Porten died June 7, 1789.

[138]The Comte d'Artois (1757-1836), brother of Louis XVI., and afterwards Charles X., was one of the earliestémigrés.

[139]Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Duchesse de Polignac (1749-1793), was the most intimate friend of Marie Antoinette. To her and her royal mistress public opinion attributed many of the worst evils of the monarchy. When the daughter of the duchess married the Duc de Guiche (afterwards Duc de Grammont), the king gave the bride a dower of 800,000livres. "Mille écus," said Mirabeau, "à la famille d'Assas pour avoir sauvé l'État, un million à la famille de Polignac pour l'avoir perdu." (The Chevalier d'Assas lost his life in an heroic action at Klostercamp, October 15-16, 1760. The Government of Louis XV. allowed him to go unrewarded. Louis XVI., at the instigation of Marie Antoinette, conferred on his family a perpetual pension of 1000livres.) The duchess emigrated with her husband shortly after the taking of the Bastille. She died at Vienna in December, 1793, her death being, it is said, hastened by the murder of Marie Antoinette. Her second son, afterwards Prince de Polignac, was the favourite minister of Charles X.

[140]Necker was dismissed July 11, 1789, and ordered to quit the kingdom.

[141]Richard Price, D.D. (1723-1791), the celebrated mathematician and economic writer (Observations on Reversionary Payments, Annuities, etc., 1769;Appeal on the Subject of the National Debt, 1772), the opponent of Dr. Priestley (A Free Discussion of the Doctrine of Materialism and Philosophical Necessity, 1778), was also a voluminous political writer, a champion of the cause of American Independence, and an advocate of principles then regarded as revolutionary. HisObservations on the Nature of Civil Liberty(1776) procured him an invitation from Congress to come and reside in America. In 1789 he published hisDiscourse on the Love of our Country, severely criticized by Burke in hisReflections on the Revolution in France. His last work,Britain's Happiness, was published in 1791, the year of his death.

[142]The Marquis de Castries (1727-1801), Marshal of France (1783), had served in the Seven Years' War, was Ministre de la Marine 1780-87, and in 1792 held a command in the Prussian army of invasion. He died at Wolfenbuttel in 1801.

[143]Adrien Louis de Bonnières, Comte, afterwards Duc, de Guines (1735-1806), had been ambassador in England, 1770-76. As ambassador at Berlin he had been a favourite with Frederick the Great, with whom he played the flute. He emigrated at the beginning of the Revolution.

[144]J. Joseph Mounier (1758-1806), the author ofConsidérations sur le gouvernement qui convient à la France(1789), was a prominent champion of constitutional liberty in the States-General and the National Assembly. He emigrated at the end of 1789.

[145]Gérard, Marquis de Lally-Tollendal (1751-1830), the son of the unfortunate governor of the French possessions in India, emigrated after the events of October 5-6, 1789. Returning to France in 1792, he was arrested after August 10, and imprisoned in the Abbaye; he escaped and took refuge in England.

[146]Étiennette de Montconseil, daughter of the Marquis de Montconseil, married, in 1766, Charles Alexandre Marc Marcellin d'Alsace-Hénin-Liétard, Prince d'Hénin, brother of the Prince de Chimay and Madame de Cambis, and nephew of the Maréchale de Mirepoix and the Prince de Beauvau. The princess was appointed in 1778dame du palaisin the household of Marie Antoinette. Her intimate relations with Lally-Tollendal were well known. Madame D'Arblay, who knew her well, says of her, twenty years later, that "Lally was her admiring and truly devoted friend, and by many believed to be privately married to her. I am myself of that opinion" (Diary and Letters, vii. 89). The Prince d'Hénin was captain of the body-guard of the Comte d'Artois. He played a conspicuous part in thechronique scandaleuseof the day. His affection for Sophie Arnould gave rise to the following verses of the Marquis de Louvois:—"Chez la doyenne des catinsTa place est des plus minces.Tu n'es plus le prince d'Hénin,Mais bien le nain des princes."

"Chez la doyenne des catinsTa place est des plus minces.Tu n'es plus le prince d'Hénin,Mais bien le nain des princes."

"Chez la doyenne des catins

Ta place est des plus minces.

Tu n'es plus le prince d'Hénin,

Mais bien le nain des princes."

[147]Probably Lord Sheffield's portrait, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in March, 1788.

[148]Major James Rennell (1742-1832) had already published his Maps of Bengal and of the Mogul Empire. His geographical work on Africa and map appeared in 1790.

[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.

[152]Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) sailed with Captain Cook in theEndeavourin 1768. He was President of the Royal Society from 1778 to 1820.

[153]In May, 1790, a message from the king was delivered to the House of Commons by Pitt, informing them that two British ships had been seized in Nootka Sound off the coast of California by two Spanish men-of-war, that satisfaction had been demanded, that Spain claimed exclusive rights in those waters, and was making active preparations for war. Spain, relying on the family compact, asked aid from France, and Louis XVI. communicated the demand to the National Assembly, asking that a fleet should be equipped to send assistance. Preparations were made at Brest to send assistance; but the mutinous conduct of the French sailors apparently alarmed the Spanish Government, which withdrew its claims, restored the property seized, and offered compensation. The Convention between England and Spain was signed October 28, 1790. "The first and great news is the pacification with Spain. The courier arrived on Thursday morning with a most acquiescent answer to our ultimatum" (Walpole to the Miss Berrys, November 8, 1790).

[154]James Bruce of Kinnaird, F.R.S., published in 1790 hisTravels to discover the Sources of the Nile, in five quarto volumes.

[155]Origines Guelficæ, quibus potentissimæ gentis primordia, magnitudo, variaque fortuna exhibentur.Opus præeunte G. G. Leibnitii stilo J. G. Eccardi literis consignatum, postea a J. D. Grubero novis probationibus instructum. (Ad finem perduxit atque edidit C. L. Scheidius. Accedit duplex index, etc., curante J. H. Jungio.) Hanoveræ, 1750-80, fol.

[156]Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire(edition of 1862), vol. vii. p. 119.

[157]"Mr. Gibbon writes that he has seen Necker, and found him still devoured by ambition, and I should think by mortification at the foolish figure he has made" (Walpole to the Miss Berrys, February 28, 1791).

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