Part 3
On that very night came the news of the strange reverse the Allies have experienced, 19,000 Austrians and Russians captured and slaughtered, Zurich retaken, and many other places in Switzerland; Hotze, the Austrian General, killed;[40] Suwarrow had crossed the St. Gothard to relieve that army, and when they were defeated he was advancing to assist. Ld. Macartney has just brought me the further news, which is that the cruel, bloody Suwarrow is totally defeated and probably taken prisoner. The monster who in cold blood cut the throats of women and children in Warsaw and the suburbs, and who exceeded his orders to make them more barbarous at Ismail, will not excite my pity even under the most rigorous captivity. There let him groan. The day of retribution ought to be in this life, to convince one that punishment is not withheld to a dubious period. These famous Russians, who have been so puffed since they have been subsidised, turn out to be the only fit food for powder, as nowhere do they fight; in Italy all the glory of the expulsion of the French from thence is due to the brave Austrians. Thus has this mighty horde of barbarians dwindled to a handful of tattered, ill-disciplined, worse-officered, half-starved savages.
[Sidenote: PARIS FASHIONS]
Ld. Macartney was present at the debate; he said Ld. H.’s reply was excellent, that it proved him to have very superior abilities, but he altogether disapproves so much of the line he has taken that he cannot be hearty in any praise.
Bonaparte has gained a great victory at Aboukir;[41] the tower is defended, but must fall. It is supposed Sr. Sidney Smith is in it. When he is Bonaparte’s prisoner it is to be hoped he will assist him to correct his narrative of the affair of Acre, as Sr. Sidney’s rhodomontades do not accord much with probability. It was an unnatural state of things that Bonaparte should have for a moment such a buskin hero for a competitor; whilst he was eclipsed, one might say:--
An eagle tow’ring in its height of pride Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at, and killed.
I went yesterday morning to see a milliner who is just arrived from Paris; she brings strange dresses and fashions, and some sumptuous, costly to a degree that she cannot get a purchaser. She complains that a Deputy’s wife at Paris spends more upon her attire than a duchess does here. She has veils that cost 50 guineas, morning head-dresses 20, and so on in proportion. She says Paris never was yet at such a pitch of luxury and _recherche_ in dress as at present.
_Saturday, 19th._--On Sunday last Mr. and Mrs. Stuart and Dr. Hager dined here. On Monday we went to the play with the Stuarts. On Tuesday Ld. Macartney, Calonne, James, and the Fish dined, very tolerably pleasant. On Wednesday I went to see Mr. James’s pretty room and fine books; he has given in to the luxury of splendid editions, broad paper, and sumptuous bindings. The collection is as complete as possible for the sort of thing, but the expense is enormous, and hardly answers in point of enjoyment, tho’ one is not sorry to see fine specimens of the various arts of printing, papermaking, bookbinding, etc., etc. He has contrived to spend 5000_l._ upon articles that lie in a very small compass.
The Bessboroughs, who have just returned from ye Isle of Thanet, dined with us; they brought Ld. Boringdon. There was besides Mr. Wm. Smith,[42] an Irish orator, who made a fine speech and wrote a good pamphlet in favour of the Union. He is uncommonly bashful, an infirmity not peculiar to his nation, but one which impedes his being reckoned as able as he is to common observers.
The whole Dutch expedition has failed, and the troops are coming back forthwith, tho’ there are great apprehensions entertained as to their being able to withdraw without immense loss; they calculate upon losing their rearguard of 3000 men.[43] Out of evil there is good: Lds. Morpeth and G. Leveson had offered their services, and were upon the point of going. Ld. G. is raising a regiment, and is appointed Lt.-Col. I am sorry he throws away very excellent abilities upon a profession where so little is required--at least, as it is practised in this country; and I believe as a good patriot one ought to hope it may for ever remain as insignificant as it has done hitherto. Parliament is adjourned until January. We went to the play, Tierney, Mr. Hoare, and Capt. Murray. Confirmation of the French accounts of the losses of the Allies in Switzerland, etc., etc.
[Sidenote: PRICE OF SUGAR]
_Sunday, 20th, ’99._--The whole day I was confined to my own den by a most villainous cold. After we had finished our dinner Ld. Morpeth came to dine. He arrived in town only the preceding evening.
The immense price of sugar has defeated the avarice of the proprietors of it; various experiments have been made, first, to extract sugar from saccharine vegetables, and then to grow it in different climates. In Prussia they obtain 8 lbs. weight of good sugar from 100 lbs. of beet root. In America a settlement called the Notches, above the river Ohio, has grown a large quantity from the sugar cane. The price is only kept up by some commercial artifice winked at by the Government. The revenues of the West Indians will be considerably diminished, and tho’ I ultimately may suffer I confess I should feel very little sorrow if they had been at 0 for the last four years; then _he_ would not have added another example to the many--that injustice thrives.
_25th, Friday, Money Hill._--On Sunday, 20th, Curran[44] dined with us. He was intimidated at the sight of the tables as he passed through the room, and told Mr. Tierney he feared he should not be able to speak. He kept his word, as he did not utter three sentences during dinner. We had, besides, Mr. Grey, ye Bessbro’s, Mr. Weld, Mr. George Ponsonby[45] (the Irish orator), and the Duke of Bedford. On Monday Mr. Wm. Smith, the Irish Unionist, Mr. Hoare, whom I knew at Sherborne, and Calonne. Calonne slept. He gave us a most interesting narrative of the assembling of the Notables, and many particulars of the latter event during his Administration; if ever I have patience I believe I would detail the account. We went the next day to Money Hill, where we found the Smiths. They stayed till Thursday, on which day Ld. Bor. came. He went on Friday; we returned home on Saturday....
On Tuesday the Beauclerks went. She wished very much to stay, as her health required repose; the motion of the carriage disagrees with her always, and she was not recovered from the journey of the day before. This consideration, added to her being far advanced with child, had no effect upon Beau.; he was positive. I fear he is disposed to be peremptory in trifles. I do not like to give way to all my fears upon the score of his temper, but she is all sense and gentleness. Ld. Morpeth and Dumont dined, a very pleasant dinner. Ld. M. stayed, and _cause’d_ late; Dumont slept. Ld. M. is very amiable in a small party, where he is quite at his ease.
Bonaparte is returned with his staff to Paris. The cause of his return is involved in mystery as yet.[46]
[Sidenote: A MIXED PARTY]
_7th November._--I have just begun La Harpe’s _Cours de Littérature_; they are lectures upon _les belles lettres_, delivered at the Lycée. On Friday, 1st Nov., a remarkable pleasant day, Ld. Ossory, Macartney, Morpeth, Calonne, Fish Craufurd, Tierney. The youth of Ld. M., and the Jacobinism of the latter did not promise to accord with the years and gravity of the rest of the party, but the singularity gave a zest, and everybody was delighted. Tierney won so much upon Ld. Macartney, that I am sure he might be made coadjutor to any outlandish embassy Ld. M. may be appointed to: he boasts of being _homme à tout plat_. Ld. Ossory was very happy, notwithstanding my Lady’s prohibition of his being so within these walls.
The Smiths came in the evening. We were to have taken them next day to my mother’s in Suffolk, that Mrs. S. might visit her father at Newmarket, but during the night Ld. H. was seized with some sharp twinges of the gout, which obliged us to delay our journey, much to my disappointment, as by it I lost the sight of my dear little Harriet. Saturday alone with the Smiths. Sunday Dr. Hager came; Smiths went away. Ld. H. continued ill; not so bad as the fit last autumn. It is curious that the pain seized him almost the day twelvemonth.
_10th Nov. Sunday._--The failure of the Dutch expedition has created at the time a great sensation, but the public mind is absorbed in the expectation of another enterprise upon the French coast. All parties disclaim having projected it. Pitt’s friends say it was all Dundas’s scheme; he again lays it to the Queen and Princess of Orange; and they to the _map-makers_ for placing dry land where there ought to be swamps. The only person who uniformly disapproved of the undertaking was the Stadtholder.
Public affairs everywhere have assumed a gloomy aspect. The badness of the season has destroyed the corn in many counties, and the increased price of provisions in the setting in of a threatening winter announces misery to the wretched poor and perhaps no small clamour from them, as certainly the corn sent to Holland must have taken considerably from the stock here, besides that the transports employed to convey the troops were chiefly North-country colliers. Thus the price of coals is at an unknown height, 60 shillings the chauldron. (In December 1799, 6 _guineas_.)
I have been reading _Joseph Andrews_. It is, in point of interest, inferior to _Tom Jones_. There are scenes where the wit is even more excellent, but the _nature_ of his characters are sacrificed to a love of buffoonery. Parson Adams is frequently put into situations so extravagant that the ludicrous is destroyed by the impossibility of the events. Fielding had a model, his tutor, a Dr. Young,[47] who was full of learning and simplicity. There is a story of him whilst he was chaplain to one of the Duke of Marlborough’s regiments. The enemies were encamped near each other expecting to be engaged; the _distrait_ chaplain walked out, and was so absorbed in the perusal of his _Æschylus_ that he passed the lines. A sentinel seized him for a spy, and carried him to the general. During his examination he stated so naturally that without thinking of anything one foot followed the other, and brought him without his knowledge where he was, adding that he assured his Excellence he was no spy. ‘Ah, mon ami, I sincerely believe you. The D. of M. ne vous aurez jamais choisi pour espion, mais vous resterez dîner.’ He was sent off, fully acquitted of the suspicion.
[Sidenote: CALONNE]
I have endeavoured to persuade Calonne to write his _Mémoires_. Even those of his own life would be interesting; but the period of his Administration, and his generous sacrifices to the Princes subsequent to their emigration, would fill up a period in the history of the Revolution which can only be well done by him. He set the best machine of revolt in motion. His own story is that when at the head of the Finance he found that for many years the expenditure of the Government had exceeded its receipts, and that Necker’s _compte rendu_ was a false assertion upon false fact: that to remedy this deficit he had persuaded the King to let him propose an equal taxation to the Noblesse and Clergy; that the Queen also was got over, till the night before he was to make his speech to the Notables, when she joined the faction headed by the Archevêque de Sens.[48]
A _bon mot_ of Mirabeau upon him. He was a rash, impetuous man, without conduct or judgment. ‘L’Archevêque de Sens est toujours hors de son diocèse.’
I am reading the Arabian History in the most methodical way, too laborious to continue. I read Marigny, and refer to Ockley, the _Universal History_, and Gibbon. The latter I shall read when I have finished the others, because to read Gibbon one must understand the history he writes of _à fond_--at least so from his summary way of describing one should infer he thought it necessary for his readers.
Sunday, we had a very pleasant party, Hare, Fitzpatrick, Ld. Robert, Mackintosh, Mr. Scarlett, Smiths, Dumont. Mackintosh talked very pleasantly: his efforts to please were guided by good taste. His memory is very correct and retentive; he illustrated literary criticisms with lively quotations, particularly from Burke and Gibbon. Mr. Scarlett[49] is a rising man at the Bar; his profits are more upon the circuit than in the King’s Bench, but when Erskine and some few of the monopolists are removed he will distinguish himself there. He has an uncommonly benevolent countenance; his heart seems full of mild virtues; tho’ very unassuming, he yet is agreeable in a mixed conversation. Smith’s boisterous yet superior intellect did not dominate; Hare’s keen wit and the General’s discerning taste subdued his usual propensity to overpower with clamour and dispute for victory alone. He was temperate and entertaining.
Hare was in full glee; they had all dined at the Lord Mayor’s Feast the day before. Combe[50] is an Opposition man, and the _patriots_ were received with acclamations in the City; Fox was dragged by the populace, so was the Duke of Bedford. The whole civic festival went off with triumph to the _party_.
Whitbread, the _arch-seceder_, is disposed to return to his duty in Parliament, and measures are to be taken to persuade Mr. Fox to do the same. God knows whether they will succeed. It is a matter of very little consequence whether they do nor not, as the prejudice in the country is too strong to be conquered even by the misconduct and failure of Ministers. The General stayed all night.
[Sidenote: DUMONT]
This morning, Monday, 11th, Dumont left. I was sorry to lose him, as he is _facile à vivre_ and full of amusement to me. He is very universally liked by all who have the least relish for literature and good conversation. We had rather a motley mixture at dinner: Hare, Fitzpatrick, General Dalrymple,[51] Capt. Murray, and the Duke of Bedford. The latter is in very bad health; his spirits are visibly affected. On ye 12th the General left us to make some alterations at Sunning Hill; Hare, only, to dinner. On Wednesday Ld. H. went out for the first time. Lewis dined: he repeated some verses he wrote this last summer in Scotland, ‘Reflections in a Royal Burying-ground.’ They are the best of his, quite in a grand style; there are parts full of philosophy and feeling. In the evening a very comfortable gossiping coze with Hare.
The price of porter is raised; the augmentation has been admitted without clamour. Every article of _first necessity_ is alarmingly dear.
_14th Nov., ’99._--I continue reading the Arabian history with interest, especially in Ockley, whose style is plain and manly, tho’ criticism might be busy detecting vulgarisms. A comical observation of Gibbon’s upon himself in his _Memoirs_ just occurs. He says, ‘Ye year 1770 was particularly favourable to the growth of my _intellectual_ stature.’ The expressions are uncommonly ludicrous, combining it with the recollection of his misshapen, grotesque figure; for he was a monster, and so filthy withal that one could not endure being close to him.
On Thursday, Tierney, Dumont, Sr. Lionel, and Hare to dine; very lively and pleasant. Tierney bore a very equal share in the task of amusing with Hare, who is unique in excellence.
Friday alone. Saturday Mr. Morrice came to stay. Went to the play, where I gained a violent _migraine_ and additional cold; brought the Smiths home.
_Sunday, 17th._--Sick with headache. Hare to dinner, Duke of Bedford, Robinson, Major Hare, Hare’s son. Laughed so immoderately at Hare’s liveliness that my head was much worse, and I went to bed seriously ill. The Duke of Bedford looks infinitely better. I am in great hopes he will recover. He is in better spirits.
_12th January, 1800._--A variety of little circumstances and frequent illnesses have prevented me from continuing regularly my notes. I went in the course of the month of December to Dalham.[52] I saw my dear child. Mrs. Smith went with us. Our visit did not exceed four days; we returned by the way of Cambridge, Ld. H. Petty and Mr. Debarry dined with us there. I was curious to ascertain whether the Gothic architecture of Henry VII. [_sic_] chapel would please me now, as it did many years ago, long before I saw the wonders of Italy: I found time and comparison had not in the least diminished my admiration of it.
[Sidenote: NAPOLEON’S LETTER]
Bonaparte returned suddenly from Egypt to France. He has overthrown the Directory, and the then form of Governt., and established a constitution at the head of which he is placed as Grand Consul. Should it be a permanent usurpation I will learn with accuracy the outlines, but the revolutions have been as variable as chemical nomenclature or systems of metaphysics. He opened a negotiation for peace lately by writing a letter _directly_ to the King: his offer was rejected upon frivolous and peevish pretexts. The reply was made in the most barbarous language, crabbed, ungrammatical, and incomprehensible.[53] The joke of the day was that each of the Ministers who were present contributed their phrase: Mr. Pitt, ‘ye limited possibilities’; to Mr. Windham, ‘the line of hereditary Princes’; Ld. Grenville, ‘rapine, anarchy, and plunder’; nor were Lds. Westmoreland and Camden forgotten by giving ‘their explicit acquiescence’ to all that was done.
I went to a Harlequin farce on ye 28th December after dining in Cavendish Square; a gun was fired off, which frightened me, and on the morrow I was taken ill. I was very weak and confined to my bed many days; this day is ye 13th, and I am still indisposed.
During my confinement I have been reading among other things multitudes of novels, most of them sad trash, abounding with the general taste for spectres, hobgoblins, castles, etc., etc. Godwin has added to his publications; critics say, not to his reputation. In his preface he announces that he has not abided by the principles contained in his _Political Justice_, as he throughout the work shows that the greatest calamity is to loosen the ties of social confidence and domestic love.[54] Poor Mr. Weld, who dined here occasionally, dropped dead at the Tower, playing at whist with Ld. Thanet. He died under great pecuniary embarrassments. Marsh came to us the first day of the vacation; Ly. Lucy and the Dss.[55] were in the house, but it so happened by Ly. L.’s illness and sure management on our part that they never met.
_13th Jan._--Monsieur de Bouillé se plaignant de la Révolution dit, ‘Ce sont nos gens d’esprit qui nous ont perdu.’ ‘Ah, Monsieur, que ne nous sauviez-vous’ [_sic_], said Mde. de Coigny.
Quand le mariage de Lord Paget fut remis à cause de l’accident qu’il eut en se tirant la botte, elle dit, ‘C’était un mariage remis àpropos de bottes.’
Une personne, attaquée de paralisie à mi-corps, étant depuis grosse, elle dit, ‘Elle accouchera donc d’un profil.’
Lorsque Monsr. d’Épremesnil perdit sa popularité, il demanda à Mde. de Coigny pourquoi le même peuple qui l’avait couronné de laurier l’accablait d’injures et le brûlait en effigie. ‘C’est,’ dit-elle, ‘que rien ne brûle plus vite que le laurier dépêché.’
Allant dîner oû elle comptait s’ennuyer, elle dit, ‘Ce dîner me pèse sur le cœur avant de me peser sur l’estomac.’
A _polacre_ conveying dispatches from Alexandria to France was taken off Toulon, carried into Minorca, and the dispatches, which did not sink when thrown overboard, have been forwarded by General Fox to the Governt. They contain minute details of the military colony, and complaints of their being in total want of ammunition, etc., etc. The official letter is from Kléber; he conveys a sort of censure upon Bonaparte for his having quitted the army. He encloses Bonaparte’s letter to the army upon his quitting Egypt, in which various reasons for his departure are given; among them is _l’obéissance_. There is also a letter from the _Contrôleur des Finances d’Égypte_. He complains bitterly of the difficulty in levying the taxes, and the stubbornness of the Turks, who, sooner than pay will submit to stripes and even death. These letters and many private ones are to be made public and commented on by the mild spirit of Mr. Gifford.[56] They will be published in a few days, before the meeting of Parliament, in order to give the proper cue to those country members whose warlike spirits may have been subdued at the sight of the universal suffering throughout the country--a suffering aggravated, if not caused, by the horrors of war.
There can be nothing more contemptible than the personal pique all Ministerial people seem to feel towards him. The object in publishing these letters is merely to gall him by an expression or two, and for this gratification they shabbily put in the names of individuals, which may be the means of much private ruin. They say, ‘Aye, this will do him up!’
[Sidenote: LORD ANDOVER’S DEATH]
Poor Ld. Andover![57] Unfortunately, in giving his gun to his groom the piece went off, and the whole contents were lodged in his body: he retained his senses 7 hours after the accident, and died shortly after. His wretched wife! What must her feelings be! Each most tenderly attached to the other. It is the only tie which when dissolved makes the vast world a wilderness. How can piety, fortitude, or reason bear up against such a dreadful calamity? Indeed, one cannot wish it should prolong the existence of the miserable relict. That direful separation alone can shake the love of life so deeply rooted in us all. Canning says Ld. Andover used to remind him of Ld. H. at times. Great heavens! how far beyond a remedy must be her sorrows. Without knowing any of the parties, the despair of the situation quite overcomes me, and draws tears of unfeigned pity from my eyes; how fortunate for her should she never awaken to her wretchedness, but die in the agonies of delirium. Oh! in mercy let such be my close if I am doomed to the--oh! I cannot with calmness suppose the case.
Ye Friday party[58] did very well, dissimilar as are the opinions of the parties. On Saturday Ld. Wycombe brought a Spaniard,[59] who is just come from Paris, and is in England without the knowledge and against the consent of the Ministers. He has resided in Paris during the last four years, and he has adopted the principles of Revolution _con amore_. He calls the Church Establishment an infamous institution, and appears quite ripe to back his principles by his practice.
Mr. Fox was persuaded to come and attend the House of Commons on the day the subject of the negotiations was discussed. He always must speak well, but I should have preferred an oratorical, philosophical survey of the events that had arisen during the secession to a mere debating speech, which he made.