Part 18
Mr. Fox came and slept here on ye 4th December to attend the Whig Club. He made a speech which has, if possible, added to his unpopularity. He was, in a way, called upon by a man who talked of the _deceptions of O’Connor_, to say something with regard to the evidence he gave at Maidstone. What he said as to that point was liberal and manly, but he unnecessarily added some sentences upon the application of those principles of liberty (which he professed maintaining in common with O’Connor) against the Governt. in Ireland. Very few of his friends attended; Grey and ye D. of Bedford would not go, thinking that as they did not take an active part in Parliament, it was wrong to do anything out of it. Ld. H. wishes, if possible, to abolish the Whig Club, more especially as the reason for which it was instituted subsists no longer, as Mr. Fox has completely seceded.
[Sidenote: GREY AND SECESSION]
Grey is the man who is placed in the most awkward situation. He now regrets the secession, yet to him, ye D. of Bedford, and Whitbread, is it owing, but most especially to him. He was the first suggester of it, and when Mr. Fox balanced (for he adopted the measure unwillingly, and now thinks it was very injudicious) he urged it vehemently. At present he is tired of inactivity, and wishes to attend, yet he feels a difficulty in doing so after all he has declared upon its inutility; besides that to the world it will always have the appearance of being a most deceitful line of conduct, to have gotten Mr. Fox pledged to absence, and then become a leader. Unless I knew him to be of an honest, open, warm-hearted character, I should myself suspect a little fraud, but I fully acquit him.
Grey, Tierney, Mr. Nicholl, and Francis dined here.
_18th Dec._--The Jesuits, who kept in a register notes upon the character and abilities of those whom they educated in order to govern the world, said in the margin on Crébillon the father, ‘Enfant plein d’esprit, insigne vaurien.’ He belied the prediction, as he was an excellent man in private life. His early passion for poetry, especially dramatic, disposed the judicious _procureur_, under whom he was placed to study the law, to encourage his natural taste in cultivating the Muses, instead of drudging through a mass of black-lettered folios. His first piece was tolerably received, tho’ ‘le caustique Despréaux’ said it was the work of ‘Racine ivre.’ Sarcastic as he intended the observation, it was flattering to a young author to have his name in any way coupled with that of the harmonious Racine. Many years afterwards he presented a tragedy to the theatre; it was objected to, as being too harsh and not suited to the public taste, and they advised him to adopt the style of Voltaire, which pleased everyone. He said, ‘Monsr. de Voltaire travaille en or moulu, et moi je jette en bronze.’ _Rhadamiste_ is one, if not quite the best of his tragedies, tho’ it is rugged in its versification, and turgid in expressions. The famous lines,
La Nature, marâtre en ces affreux climats, Ne produit, au lieu d’or, que du fer des soldats,
are very fine, and have been happily imitated by Goldsmith in his _Traveller_ on Switzerland,
No product here the barren hills afford But man and steel--the soldier and his sword.
On Sunday Marsh came. He intends staying a few days only. He is one of the most excellent men I know, and one towards whom I feel the most sincere friendship. The extreme simplicity of his character is very delightful. With a very good understanding and great information he is as unassuming as the most modest youth could be; but he has some violent prejudices that are very diverting. They are chiefly owing to the French Revolution. He has so great a dread of _French principles_ that he condemns everything that his ardent imagination can torture into a tendency towards them. His fancy is so good-humoured that it is more a scene of mirth than disputation when he gets upon the subject of politics. Yesterday the Bessbro’s dined here, Ld. Boringdon, and G. Leveson; Beauclerk came in ye evening and slept.
[Sidenote: MR. CANNING]
The Ministerialists praise Canning’s speech in reply to Tierney’s motion[236] to the skies, but it is the fault of friends to overrate, for as La Harpe says somewhere, ‘On affaiblit toujours tout ce qu’on exagère.’ Canning is very lively, writes pretty verses, and has a good deal of _local wit_, but I should suspect upon grave subjects which require depth and argument he is a _très petit monsieur_. The Opposition, who have not forgiven his desertion of them, exclaim at the venality of his politics.[237] I think they are unjust in accusing him of desertion, and he was wrong in point of judging the thing for his own reputation to make a bargain so soon. It was hard upon him that he was intimately connected with Sheridan, who chose to announce him to the world as his _élève_ in politics, and as a confirmation of his principles, repeated strong expressions and youthful sallies of his, saying that he should be pledged to Opposition before he was well of an age maturely to decide. Principle, I believe, did not sway him much. He found the party in a desperate, languishing state, himself full of ambition and life, and that in that party he must have contented himself with a very subaltern post; whereas the reputation that Sheridan, in his over-zeal, had anticipated for him made him an object worth getting to the others. He is, in his heart, the veriest Jacobin there is, and would, if he were not in power, manifest his principles in a most dangerous, innovating Opposition. He abhors titles, and the aristocracy of hereditary nobility; the lowness of his own extraction first made him envy, then wish to destroy, those whom chance has raised above him. The worst part of his character is his love of intrigue and management. He has made a little detached party out of the great party, that peculiarly belong to him. Over them he exerts an almost despotic sway, not only in their votes, but their opinions and conduct in the minutest concerns, such as who they must see and live with.
In this little set there is a want of wit, and as the topics are generally allusions to old jokes and practical witticisms that have occurred among themselves, they are quite unintelligible in mixed societies, where, unless the catch-word is known, two-thirds of the company must see them laugh without feeling the smallest tendency to share in their mirth. The Ellis’, Frere, Mr. Legge, Sneyd, Mr. Sturges, Ld. G. Leveson, and a few others, complete the select squad. Ld. Morpeth is of it also, but he wisely chooses to conduct himself without being interfered with, so he is not quite one of ye Elect.
Charles Ellis’[238] marriage was a blow upon his power; he ventured not only to fall in love, but to make his proposals without a previous consultation with the young Cato, the authority of whose little senate was infringed upon by such an overt act. There were fifty little ridiculous circumstances about that marriage that made one laugh at the time. The ceremony was absurdly pompous; carriages full of her relations accompanied them to the church. As soon as the ceremony was finished, the bride, who had, according to etiquette, been crying all the time, was kissed round by the family to be wished joy. Ld. ---- went up and consoled her, saying ‘Do not be frightened any longer, for now _all_ is over,’ upon which the jokers say Ly. ---- burst out into a flood of tears, recollecting but too well that _all_ finished there with her, for Ld. ---- has two projects, equally impracticable, that of marching at the head of a victorious army to Paris, and the other equally desperate, that of obtaining a son. It is a bold undertaking in C. Ellis to marry a Hervey, for they still keep up their strangeness of character that made a celebrated wit class mankind under the generic appellation of _men_, _women_, and _Herveys_.
[Sidenote: LORD BRISTOL]
That abominable, wicked old fellow, Lord Bristol, is still kept prisoner at Milan.[239] I believe, even in his confinement, he has contrived to make some miserable. He bribed his guards to let him escape, and when the moment was ripe for flight, he was unable to move, and several who were involved in his scheme were instantly shot upon being detected. He is very clever and full of quickness and wit, and his reply to Voltaire was not bad. He went to see him at Ferney. Voltaire, who did not know his profligacy, and could not let the opportunity go by of saying something distressing to an ecclesiastic, stood upon his _perron_, and, pointing to a theatre on one side, and to a temple dedicated to God on ye other side, said: ‘Où joue t’on la plus grande farce?’ ‘C’est selon les auteurs,’ replied ye Bishop. He called old, shrivelled Sr. Wm. Hamilton a piece of walking _verd-antique_.
_31st Jan., ’99._--At half-past seven on Friday morning, ye 18th January, I was safely delivered of a nice little boy, who is going on perfectly well. Mr. Croft attended me. He had passed 4 nights and days in the house previous to the crash. Mrs. W. stayed, too, but was obliged to go to her eldest child, who was ill. I was sufficiently recovered by Sunday to receive company, and have every day since seen all who have called.
Ld. H. is this day gone down to attend the H. of Lds. If Ld. Grenville brings on the discussion of ye Union, he will speak.[240] Probably the last proceedings in ye Irish Parlt. will deter Pitt from pressing the measure here, altho’ it is one he pledged himself to most irrevocably, and one he is strongly attached to from motives of ambition and vanity. I shall say but little on ye subject, as it has so frequently worn out my patience lately.
The conquest of lovely Naples is added to the proud list of Republican triumphs. The Court have fled to Sicily on board of Nelson’s fleet. The happy States of Tuscany will soon fall, and all Italy pass under the despotic thraldom of the Directory.
[Sidenote: SHERIDAN AND TIERNEY]
Sheridan was expected to have made a capital speech in the H. of Commons on the Union last week, but it was reckoned very inferior to his usual style of excellence. He offended the seceders by announcing that the standard of Opposition would soon be unfurled.[241] He introduced it at the conclusion of an attack upon Ld. L., who had, he said, ‘cut a clumsy caper over the grave of party.’ (In his speech at the beginning of the session, he said, ‘Thank God, party is dead and buried.’) He pursued a strain of irony, apparently levelled at Ld. L., but, in fact, intended for Tierney, who had, in a late speech, declared that he considered himself as an individual belonging to no set of men. Sheridan said, he did not wonder party was denied, for it required strong intellect to command, and great virtues to attach for a man to become the leader of party, and great humility and sense to fall as a subaltern into the ranks of party. Sheridan hates Tierney. That hatred was roused at T.’s making a most excellent speech on ye Income Bill. It was so good that everybody praised it. S. was at Brooks’s, and was so incensed at the applause that he went to Tierney’s house, whom he found just getting into bed, insisted upon seeing him, and then said he was quite shocked to hear that a part of his speech had given great offence, that part where he hinted at the necessity of squeezing the corporations, who were ‘wallowing in wealth.’ This was said to worry Tierney, who is weakly alive to all unpopularity. T. told me this himself.
Ld. Lansdown is just returned from Bath. He was full of what Miss Fox calls _effusion_ to Ld. H., who had said that he regretted the probability of their voting against each other upon the subject of the Union. ‘Never mind,’ said Ld. L., ‘vote, speak against me, abuse me. Do what you will. I should say, this is what I can’t hear, I can’t see; I won’t see it. You are like my sons who can’t offend me, for I won’t quarrel with them.’ In short, he was all tenderness and warmth.
Sheridan offended the Prince extremely in his last speech. I do not know precisely what he said, but it was a quotation from Secretary Cooke’s pamphlet. He certainly intended it as complimentary, but it was not probably faithfully reported by P. Ernest to ye Prince, and before S. could tell his own story, the Prince, with his usual intemperance and violence, abused him, calling him ‘rogue, liar,’ etc. This _mal-entendu_ will vex S. beyond measure, for he has ever since the Regency courted the P., and anticipated in imagination much influence in a future reign; besides that he has wished to be considered as being as much the organ of the P. in the H. of Commons as Ld. Moira is in the House of Lords. I have malignity enough in my disposition not to feel much sympathy for his afflictions. He has afflicted so much real distress upon others, and one being dear to me, that I have not a spark of compassion to bestow. His defenders (and their number is but slender) say that all his bad conduct has proceeded from his struggling against the meanness of his origin and the littleness of his means. He attempted to efface the first by distinguishing himself, not only in the career of wit and politics, but also in that of gallantry and fashion; for such was his lust of praise that:--
* * * * *
Women and fools must like him or he dies; The wond’ring Senates hung on all he spoke, The Club must hail him Master of the Joke.
* * * * *
Enough if all around him but admire.
I shall note down a few anecdotes about him by-and-bye.
[Sidenote: ‘PRODIGY’ POLLEN]
Ld. H. met at Sheridan’s, one day lately, Mr. Pollen, the man who dreaded invasion for the sake of the chastity of the ladies: he had never seen him before. Ld. H. was telling a story to prove the openness of the Irish character, and how little suspicious they were of trusting their lives to a person of tolerable character. The story was told him by Ld. Wycombe as having happened to an acquaintance of his--a Mr. Henry. A man arrested him in the streets, and, without much prefatory discourse asked him if he would be of the _Executive_, adding, he was a United Irishman, and was delegated by those sitting in Dublin to ask him. Upon which Mr. Pollen immediately said: ‘The same thing precisely occurred to me at Perth. A United Scotsman proposed the same question, altho’ I was in my regimentals, and he knew I was quartered with my regiment.’ The coincidence was remarkable, but tho’ Scotsmen are more wary than Irishmen, yet it was possible there might be an indiscreet Scot. They then talked of poor Ld. Lauderdale, who is dreadfully ill. His complaint is a horrid one, a local dropsy, which he will not submit to have properly treated, upon which Mr. P. said, ‘There are two modes of treating the disease: there is the palliative and the radical. I first tried the palliative, but it was troublesome, and ever since I used the radical I have felt no inconvenience.’ Ld. H. said he began to stare at two such extraordinary things having been mentioned, and that both should have happened to him. He is not above 25 or 26, and that disorder is generally in old, worn-out constitutions, and, if one may judge from Gibbon’s averseness to mention the complaint, is not one that men are apt to boast of having.... Ld. H. was all astonishment at these stories, but upon inquiry he found Mr. Pollen’s nickname was ‘Prodigy’ Pollen.
_Wednesday, 13th. Feb._--On Sunday, ye 10th, Mr. Hare[242] came to pass a few days. On Wednesday Bor. and Amherst dined. On last Sunday Hare returned. Grey and Tierney dined. Miss Fox stayed from Saturday to Monday.
Hare was full of wit and pleasantry. I was expressing surprise that a man so universally extolled for his conversation and talents should not, to my taste, be pleasant, for the fact is, I never received the smallest entertainment from Sheridan’s convivial abilities. Hare said what is true enough, that before women he is always playing a game. His forte is at a club over wine, and in debate. Among many things he told us of a reply of S., in debate, to Dundas, who had asserted a falsehood for a fact, and supported it by some well-known trite joke. S. complimented the honble. gentleman upon his abilities, especially upon possessing to a remarkable degree a _retentive memory_ and _fertile imagination_, but that those faculties unfortunately were perverted, as his memory was directed to works of imagination, and his imagination to facts. S. himself, however, is less tenacious about facts than he ought to be. There is a story of his offering some stories to Mr. Fox, to assist him in argument, but the latter, who is very strict as to what he asserts, asked if they were well authenticated, and, finding they depended upon report, declined using them; upon which S. said, ‘He is so d----d _surly about facts_.’
S. was to have dined here on Sunday, but did not; probably to avoid meeting Tierney and Grey, as he hates the former, and is displeased at not being supported by the latter. His motion very nearly failed, as nobody seconded it for full 10 minutes, and then an obscure man jumped up and did it. All their squabbles are diverting, for as to any good they can do, it is a farce to suppose any can be done. This Union, they say, is to be carried at all risks. Ld. H. is gone this morning to arrange with Ld. Fitzwilliam, but the subject is so tiresome, and I have heard so much of it, that I cannot enter into the merits or demerits of the case.
[Sidenote: LEWIS’ VERSES]
The ‘Monk’ Lewis consulted me whether he should dedicate his translation of the 13th Satire of Juvenal to Mr. Fox. I said he would take it as a compliment. It was published yesterday, but is not so good as most of his other verses; 28 of the best lines are by Wm. Lamb,[243] a rising genius, who is to dine here for the first time to-day. Those imitations of Juvenal[244] by Ld. H. crept into the newspapers. I was extremely frightened and got Mr. Hare, Tierney, etc., to exert themselves to get the remainder suppressed, as I really feared Ld. Minto’s being wrong-headed.
_24th Feb._--I have contented myself with skimming carelessly enough over Lewis’ paraphrase. The undertaking seems above his means, and was done, as I understand, at the request of his father, who was anxious that he should give a classical turn to his literary reputation, as he laments his ballad and green-room tastes. Several of the lines are wofully bad:--
From morn’s first languish to the death of day,--
but enough of what I have really found too dull to read through.
I thought young Lamb pleasant, though supercilious, as he shut himself up in his own thoughts as soon as he saw Ld. G., Morpeth, Boringdon. He affects to hold them cheap for being Anti-Jacobins, an affectation he has caught from ye D. of Bedford. On the following Sunday we had many of the same party, with ye addition of the Bessboroughs, Canning, and Frere. Wycombe, being present, annoyed Canning, and put him out of his natural bias of ease and pleasantry. In the course of this week we had several numerous parties of the Bessboroughs, Fish Crawfurd,[245] etc., etc., Hare, Fitzpatrick.
_Sunday, 3rd March._--Jekyll, Hare, Tierney, and Fitzpatrick are now in the house. They dined here. The latter has lost such a great portion of his ill-gotten pelf in the same way as he acquired it, viz., at the gaming-table. There is no one poison in the human breast that operates so powerfully to the exclusion of every good feeling, as that of gambling. It produces misanthropy, meanness, and avarice, and I do not know a real amateur and practitioner of the vice in favour of whom an exception can be made. Hare has genuine, quick feelings, and his sensibility has not been totally blunted; but I can hardly admit as an apology for his inveterate pursuit of fortune at the Hazard table his necessities. But I am perhaps illiberally intolerant; the example in Ld. H.’s family, and the scandalous expedients a certain Duchess has, to my knowledge, been able to bring herself to resort to, have inspired me with horror and contempt for the class.
The news arrived to-day of Mr. Grenville’s safety.[246] The frigate is lost, and 15 persons, but he and his suite got over the ice. As no mails are come (14 now are due), the particulars are not known. It will be highly gratifying when he hears how universal and sincere the sorrow has been.
[Sidenote: LORD LAUDERDALE]
_5th March,’99._--Mr. Fox is come here to-day to dine at the Whig Club; he returns to sleep. Ld. Lauderdale is so much better that he walks about. He told the D. of Bedford that, being kept awake one night from pain, he diverted himself by composing a speech and a _reply_ for him upon the Union. ‘I can understand,’ said the Duke, ‘that you may write a man’s speech for him, but how you can make a reply which must notice points in the debate I cannot guess.’ ‘Why, the speech I intend you shall make is calculated to put old Grenville into a rage; he will get up and abuse you, and lug in France, French principles, localities, and all the old story. Then you must answer him, and begin by an apology to the House for the long speech you have been the occasion of their hearing, as you know it must be very disagreeable to the House; but that, for yourself, it is of no consequence, as you are used to _noise_, for in your agricultural pursuits you are accustomed to the _bellowing of beasts_.’ This is what Ld. L. calls excellent raillery, and I only note it down as a specimen of his talents in that line; no one so excellent as he is at a coarse joke, but polished wit he not only cannot furnish, but is incapable of relishing. Sheridan said, ‘Don’t tell Lauderdale, for a _joke_ in his mouth is no _laughing matter_.’