Part 25

[218] It was written by Nathaniel Hooke, who is said to have received 5000_l._ for his assistance. David Mallet, a writer of plays and miscellaneous poems, was selected by the Duchess a short time before her death to write a life of the Duke in collaboration with Richard Glover. She left 500_l._ to each in her will to continue the work, but though Mallet accepted the money he never carried out his contract, and the task was practically uncommenced at the time of his death.

[219] The seat of Frederick, fifth Earl of Carlisle (1748–1825), who succeeded to the title on his father’s death in 1758. He held the posts of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland 1780–82, and Privy Seal 1783. He married, in 1770, Margaret Caroline, daughter of Granville, first Marquess of Stafford. He was a well-known figure in society, and if his verses are not of the highest merit, they were well spoken of at the time. His eldest son, Lord Morpeth, who succeeded him, is frequently mentioned in these pages.

[220] A cast iron bridge uniting Monkwearmouth with Bishopwearmouth. It was commenced in 1793, and was opened by the Duke of Gloucester in 1796.

[221] Comte d’Artois, afterwards Charles X. He came over to England in 1795, and lived at Holyrood for some years. Besides this residence he received a sum of 24,000_l._ from the British Government. Most of this money was expended in intrigues and secret endeavours to recover the throne of France for the Bourbons.

[222] The Hon. Henry Erskine (1746–1817), second son of Henry, tenth Earl of Buchan, and brother of Thomas Erskine, the Lord Chancellor. He held the post of Lord Advocate in the Coalition Ministry, and again in 1806.

[223] George William, Marquess of Lorne (1766–1839), who succeeded his father as sixth Duke of Argyll in 1806.

[224] Thomas Beddoes, M.D. (1760–1808). Reader in chemistry at Oxford for some years. He resigned the post in 1792. The last years of his life were spent at Clifton, where he became a fashionable physician.

[225] The Battle of the Nile was fought on August 1, with the immediate consequence that the French force in Egypt was obliged to fall back upon its own resources and those of the country.

[226] The official letters were published in the course of the year, but the private portions of the letters here quoted have no place in the series.

[227] Joseph Bonaparte. Bourrienne relates (i. 187) that he was the eyewitness of a conversation between Napoleon and Junot on the subject of Josephine’s infidelities at Messoudiah in February 1798. It seems doubtful, however, whether Junot was then with the army. Bourrienne says that Berthier left Egypt for France in January.

[228] John James, ninth Earl and first Marquess of Abercorn (1756–1818), who succeeded his uncle in 1789, was raised to a Marquisate the following year. He married, first, in 1779, Catherine, daughter of Sir Joseph Copley, Bart. She died in 1791, leaving two sons and three daughters, and he married, secondly, in 1792, his first cousin, Cecil, daughter of Hon. and Rev. George Hamilton. This lady, here alluded to, ran away with (and subsequently married after the divorce) Joseph Copley (who succeeded his brother in the Baronetcy in 1806), brother of Lord Abercorn’s first wife. He married, thirdly, in 1800, Lady Ann Hatton. He received the nickname of ‘Blue Beard.’

[229] Wraxall states she had four sisters older than herself.

[230] In _Les Muses Rivales_, or _L’Apothéose de Voltaire_, published in 1779.

[231] Lloyd, first Baron Kenyon (1732–1802), appointed Master of the Rolls, 1784, and Lord Chief Justice in 1788.

[232] Thomas Pelham was first appointed Chief Secretary by Lord Camden when he became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1795. Owing to ill-health he was often absent, and early in 1798 Lord Castlereagh temporarily took his place. Pelham finally resigned the post on November 2.

[233] See _ante_, p. 12.

[234] Mrs ‘Bobus’ Smith. Lady Warwick was her sister (see _ante_, p. 163).

[235] In February 1797, when owing to the scarcity of specie the Ministers issued an Order in Council prohibiting cash payments until measures had been taken by Parliament to restore the credit of the country.

[236] On December 11, in favour of concluding peace with the French Republic, whenever a suitable opportunity should occur. Pitt called the speech ‘one of the best ever heard on any occasion.’

[237] Lord Lauderdale in a letter, written in 1809, to Lord Holland, strongly upholds this view, and gives an amusing story of Sheridan’s groom’s opinion of Canning. ‘Sheridan’s groom being told by his butler many years ago that he had laid a plate too few at table, enumerated the company he supposed was to dine, and on being informed that he had forgot Mr. Canning, said, “D--n that fellow. He has impudence for anything! What! Come here and dine with my master after deserting all the principles that you and I have heard him so often hold forth upon”’ (Holland House MSS.).

[238] Charles Rose Ellis (1771–1845), son of John Ellis, of Jamaica, and Elizabeth, daughter of John Pallmer, also of that island. He entered Parliament in 1793 and sat continuously for various seats until his elevation to the peerage, by Canning’s influence, in 1826, as Baron Seaford. He married, first, in 1798, Elizabeth Catherine, only daughter of John Augustus, Lord Hervey, and grand-daughter of Frederick, Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry. Their son succeeded his great-grandfather in the title of Lord Howard de Walden.

[239] He was placed in confinement by the French, into whose hands he had fallen, and at the same time a valuable collection of antiquities which he was about to despatch to England was confiscated.

[240] On January 22 a message was presented to both Houses of Parliament from the King suggesting that their immediate attention should be directed to measures for obtaining a closer and more satisfactory connection between the kingdoms of England and Ireland. A few days after, a proposal for a Union was laid before the Irish Parliament, but was rejected, Pitt, in the debate in the House of Commons on the 31st, stated that he thought it proper to unfold his proposed scheme, though he was fully aware that there was no chance of its adoption unless the Irish Parliament were willing to alter their present views.

[241] On January 22. ‘The banner of party is furled, but it is not beaten down. I trust that it will again be displayed and that it will assemble round it the steady friends to true liberty, hostile alike to despotic rule, and to wild innovation.’

[242] James Hare (1749–1804), son of an apothecary at Winchester, and grandson of Francis Hare, Bishop of Chichester. He was brought up at Eton and Oxford, and there became intimately acquainted with Charles James Fox and many others of the Whig circle. He married, in 1774, Hannah, only daughter and heiress of Sir Abraham Hume. He sat in Parliament for many years, but only once addressed the House. He was sent as Minister-Plenipotentiary to Poland, 1779–82.

[243] Hon. William Lamb (1779–1848), afterwards Prime Minister, son of Peniston, first Viscount Melbourne, whom he succeeded in the titles in 1819.

[244] Imitations in verse of two satires of Juvenal, which were entitled _Secession_ and _The Yeoman_. The subject of the latter, which was addressed to Lord Wycombe, was the excesses of the military in Ireland.

[245] Lord Minto mentions him in Paris, in a letter dated 1793. ‘Fish Crawfurd, with whom Madame du Deffand, being blind, was in love, was of the party the other day’ (_Life and Letters of Sir G. Elliot_).

[246] The Right Hon. Thomas Grenville (1755–1846), second son of George Grenville and brother of Lord Grenville. He was sent on an embassy to Berlin in order to persuade the King to join England against the French. He left Yarmouth on January 29 in the _Proserpine_ frigate, but in attempting to ascend the Elbe the ill-fated vessel was driven ashore. Abandoning the ship the passengers and crew escaped across the ice to Cuxhaven with only the clothes in which they stood. An interesting account of their hardships is given in the _Annual Register_ for 1846. The delay proved fatal to the object of Mr. Grenville’s mission, for Sieyès arrived in time to persuade Frederick William to remain neutral.

[247] By Madame de la Fayette.

[248] François le Vaillant (1753–1824), author of _Voyage dans l’intérieur de l’Afrique par le Cap de Bonne Espérance_, and _Second Voyage_, &c.

[249] Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont (1759–1829), born at Geneva. His family was French, but had fled to Switzerland in the sixteenth century to escape religious persecution. He became a preacher, and came to England about 1783 to superintend the education of Lord Lansdown’s sons. He there made the acquaintance of Bentham, whose secretary he became later in life. He espoused the cause of the French Revolution with enthusiasm at its commencement, but became terrified by its excesses, and left France soon after his friend Mirabeau’s death.

[250] Richard Hurd, D.D. (1720–1808), Bishop of Lichfield (1774), and of Worcester (1781). He was offered the Primacy in 1783, but refused to take it. The _Dialogues_ were published in 1759, and introduce historical persons, who are made to discuss the themes under consideration.

[251] Mr., afterwards Lord Archibald, Hamilton (1770–1827), youngest son of Archibald, ninth Duke of Hamilton and sixth Duke of Brandon, by Harriot, daughter of Alexander, sixth Earl of Galloway. He was a close friend and frequent correspondent of Lord Holland.

[252] Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734–1802), Louis XVI.’s Minister of Finance. His system of taxation was so arbitrary and unbearable, and his statement of public accounts in 1787 so unsatisfactory, that he was deprived of his honours, and banished to Lorraine. He came to England, where he remained until 1802. Bonaparte then granted his request to return to France, but he died almost immediately upon his arrival in that country. Lord Holland relates in his _Foreign Reminiscences_ that Calonne’s death was due to mismanagement, and that he wrote in pencil to his doctor when no longer able to speak, ‘Tu m’as assassiné, et si tu es honnête homme tu renonceras la médecine pour jamais.

[253] Lord Bessborough’s brother-in-law. He married Lady Charlotte Ponsonby in 1770.

[254] Lord Robert Fitzgerald (1765–1833), sixth son of James, first Duke of Leinster, and Emilia Mary, daughter of Charles, second Duke of Richmond.

[255] Sir Lionel Copley, Bart., of Sprotborough. He was born about 1767, succeeded to the title in 1781, and died in 1806.

[256] Sir Gilbert Affleck, Lady Holland’s stepfather.

[257] A friend of Lord Wycombe, who introduced him to Lord Holland.

[258] Emily Charlotte (_d._ 1832), the Duchess’s daughter by her second husband, William Ogilvie. She married, in 1799, Charles George Beauclerk (1774–1846), only son of Topham Beauclerk and Lady Diana.

[259] Sackville Tufton, ninth Earl of Thanet (1767–1825), son of Sackville, eighth Earl, and Mary, daughter of Lord John Sackville. He married, in 1811, a Hungarian lady, Anne de Bojanowitz.

[260] Robert Cultar Fergusson (1768–1838), son of Alexander Fergusson, of Craigdarroch, Dumfriesshire. He was called to the Bar in 1797, and was counsel to Allen, one of O’Connor’s fellow prisoners at Maidstone. After his release from prison he went to Calcutta, where he became Attorney-General. He obtained a seat in Parliament in 1826, and became Judge-Advocate-General in 1834.

[261] Gunter Browne, Esq.

[262] Edward Fox Fitzgerald (1794–1863). He was educated by his grandmother, the Duchess of Leinster, and served in several cavalry regiments. He married a daughter of Sir John Paul in 1827.

[263] Lady Lucy Fitzgerald, the Duchess of Leinster’s daughter. She married Admiral Sir Thomas Foley, G.C.B., in 1802, and died in 1851.

[264] Son of Thomas Adderley, Esq., of Innishannon, Co. Cork, and Margaretta, daughter of Edmund Bourke, Esq., of Urrey. His mother married, secondly, in 1792, Robert, Lord Hobart.

[265] Charles, third Duke of Richmond (1735–1806), Lady Lucy Fitzgerald’s uncle.

[266] The Protest was signed by Lords Holland, Thanet, and King. It remains on the records.

[267] Robert, Lord Hobart (1760–1816), son of George, third Earl of Buckinghamshire, whom he succeeded in 1804. He married, in 1792, Margaretta, daughter of Edmund Bourke, Esq., of Urrey, and widow of Thomas Adderley, Esq. She died in 1796, leaving one daughter, and Lord Hobart married, in 1799, Eleanor, daughter of William, first Lord Auckland.

[268] Called in the _Annual Register_ for 1799 the battle of Ostrach.

[269] Louise Marthe de Conflans d’Armentières, the wife of François-Marie-Casimir, Marquis de Coigny. She was celebrated for her wit and quickness of repartee, and many anecdotes are told of her curious tastes, and the hold she maintained on society at the time. Marie Antoinette once said that she was only Queen of Versailles, but Madame de Coigny was Queen of Paris.

[270] Right Hon. Lord John Townshend (1757–1833), second son of George, first Marquess Townshend. Lord of the Admiralty 1782–1783. He married, in 1787, Georgina Anna, daughter of William Poyntz, Esq., of Midgham, Berks, the divorced wife of Everard Fawkener, Esq. His second son, John, succeeded to the Marquisate in 1855.

[271] Henry Richard, Lord Brooke (1779–1853), son of George, second Earl of Warwick, by his second marriage with Henrietta, daughter of Richard Vernon, Esq., and Evelyn, first Countess of Upper Ossory. Lord Brooke succeeded his father as third Earl in 1816.

[272] Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, fifth Baronet (1772–1840), son of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn (who died in 1789), and his second wife, Charlotte, daughter of the Right Hon. George Grenville.

[273] _Alonzo the Brave_, first published in _The Monk_ (vol. iii.).

‘A warrior so bold and a virgin so bright Conversed, as they sat on the green; They gazed on each other with tender delight; Alonzo the Brave was the name of the knight, The maid’s was the fair Imogene,’ etc.

[274] The Hon. and Rev. Augustus George Legge (1773–1828), youngest son of William, second Earl of Dartmouth.

[275] John Fitzmaurice, Viscount Kirkwall (1778–1820), only son of Hon. Thomas Fitzmaurice (brother of William, first Marquess of Lansdown), and Mary, Countess of Orkney in her own right. He married, in 1802, Anna Maria, daughter of John, Baron de Blaquière, of Ardkill, but predeceased his mother, who died in 1831.

[276] Jane, daughter of Sir William Maxwell, and first wife of Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon, whom she married in 1767. She died in 1812.

[277] Lord Boringdon.

[278] He said that ‘her creation betokened a “glorious mood” in her creator’ (Sichel’s _Emma, Lady Hamilton_).

[279] Compare _Letters of Sir Gilbert Elliot_, ii. 364, 365. ‘With men her language and conversation are exaggerations of anything I ever heard anywhere, and I was wonderfully struck with these inveterate remains of her origin, though the impression was very much weakened by seeing the other ladies of Naples.’

‘We had the _attitudes_ a night or two ago by candle-light; they come up to my expectations fully, which is saying everything. They set Lady Hamilton in a very different light from any I had seen her in before; nothing about her, neither her conversation, her manners, nor figure announce the very refined taste which she discovers in this performance, besides the extraordinary talent that is necessary for the execution; and besides all this, says Sir _Willum_, “she makes my apple pies.”’

[280] The Hon. Charles Francis Greville (1749–1809), second son of Francis, first Earl of Warwick, of this creation, and Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Archibald Hamilton and sister of Sir William Hamilton.

[281] Frere succeeded Canning as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs early in 1799.

[282] The actor.

[283] Elizabeth, daughter of Charles, second Duke of Marlborough, who married Henry, tenth Earl of Pembroke, in 1756, and died in 1831. She was Charles Beauclerk’s aunt. Her son, George Augustus, who succeeded as eleventh Earl of Pembroke in 1794, married, in 1787, Beauclerk’s sister, Elizabeth. She died in 1793.

[284] Lord Lansdown.

[285] Edward Law (1750–1818), afterwards created Lord Ellenborough; appointed Attorney-General in 1793.

According to the published account of the trial, Law in his questions to Sheridan tried to obtain the admission that in his opinion Thanet and Fergusson meant to favour O’Connor’s escape. This Sheridan refused to answer, and he was justified in doing so. He stated, however, most clearly that he saw nothing which would lead him to that conclusion, though perhaps they may have ‘_wished_,’ for the escape.

The fracas took place after judgment was delivered, which was not until 1.30 A.M. Sheridan, in a letter to his wife, written at the time, says that O’Connor had no thought of escaping himself, but that ‘three or four injudicious friends’ were responsible for the attempt to hustle him away. He also mentions that he himself was the means of preventing ‘some serious mischief’ after ‘the soldiers got in,’ for which conduct he was thanked by the Judge.

[286] The French fleet lying in Brest was able to escape from the rigid blockade maintained by the Allies, and appeared in the Mediterranean. There they remained until the beginning of June, when they returned to Brest with the Spanish fleet, which had joined them off Cadiz.

[287] Claire Hippolyte Legris de Latude, better known as Mlle. Clairon, the celebrated French actress. Born in 1723; died in 1802.

[288] Benjamin Flower, of Cambridge, a printer.

[289] Lady Anne Fitzpatrick, Lord Upper Ossory’s daughter.

[290] A political association founded under the guidance of Major Cartwright to promote reform.

[291] The French plenipotentiaries were assassinated on April 19 just outside the town of Rastadt by some drunken hussars of the Austrian regiment of Szeckler, only one of them escaping with his life.

[292] Sir Francis Burdett married, in 1793, Sophia, daughter of Thomas Coutts (1735–1822), founder with his brother James of the banking-house, and banker to George III. Sir Francis’ advanced and independent views on all the political questions of the day are well known.

[293] Sir James Mackintosh (1765–1832), the celebrated writer and conversationalist. It was a visit to Burke in 1797 which cooled his revolutionary ardour, and led him to change his views so completely upon the course of events in France.

[294] William Sturges-Bourne (1769–1845), a follower of Canning. A Lord of the Treasury 1807–9, and Home Secretary 1827.

[295] Sir Philip Francis (1740–1818), the reputed author of the _Junius Letters_. He was son of the Rev. Philip Francis, a _protégé_ of Henry, first Lord Holland. He commenced life as a clerk in Government offices, and in 1773 obtained a seat on the East India Council. On his return to England he obtained a seat in Parliament (1784), and became a staunch supporter of the Whigs. He was twice married, first, in 1761, to Elizabeth Macrabie; and secondly, in 1814, to Emma Watkins, daughter of a Yorkshire clergyman.

[296] Sir Lionel Copley. His brother, Joseph, succeeded him in the Baronetcy, and died in 1838.

[297] Probably fifth son of William Markham, Archbishop of York, who was preceptor to the Prince of Wales from 1771 to 1776. Robert Markham became rector of Bolton Percy, Yorkshire, and Archdeacon of York. He died in 1837.

[298] Lord Henry Spencer, who died in 1795.

[299] Robert, Viscount Belgrave (1767–1845), only son of Richard, first Earl Grosvenor, and Henrietta, daughter of Henry Vernon, Esq., of Hilton Park, Co. Stafford. He succeeded his father as second Earl in 1802, having married, in 1794, Eleanor, only daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Wilton. He was created Marquess of Westminster in 1831, on the occasion of William IV.’s coronation.

[300] Thomas Sheridan (1775–1817), only son of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He served for some time in the army, and died at the Cape of Good Hope when holding the post of Colonial Treasurer. He married, in 1805, Caroline Henrietta, daughter of Colonel James Callender, and had four sons, and three daughters--the three noted beauties, Mrs. Norton, Lady Dufferin, and the Duchess of Somerset. Mrs. Sheridan wrote several novels which received favourable notice.

[301] Richard Porson (1759–1808), classical scholar. This is evidently the occasion mentioned by Lord Holland in his _Miscellaneous Recollections_. ‘When I asked him to my house he peremptorily declined coming; on my repeating my invitation, he sent me word that he had “broken his leg and could not come,” though he was frequently met about the same time walking in the streets. Perhaps he was affronted at my sending the invitation by a common friend, instead of calling myself, or perhaps he was on that, as on other occasions, extremely jealous of being invited as a show.’

[302] An architect, who superintended structural repairs to Holland House which were found necessary a few months later, and was afterwards constantly staying there.

[303] Colonel Harvey Aston was wounded in a duel with Major Allen, and died a week later, having fought with Major Picton the preceding day, on account of the same affair. Several stories of him are related in _Recollections of the Table Talk of Samuel Rogers_.

[304] William Wickham (1761–1840), Minister to the Swiss Cantons, 1794–97. He was appointed Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department in 1798. He went abroad again, while still retaining his post at home, in June 1799 as special envoy to Switzerland and the allied armies, and did not return until 1802.

[305] Frederick Augustus, fifth Earl of Berkeley (1745–1810), who married Mary, daughter of William Cole, of Wotton-under-Edge, co. Gloucester. The case came before the House of Lords in 1811, after Lord Berkeley’s death. Lady Berkeley then swore that the marriage took place at Berkeley in 1785, eleven years previous to the public marriage in 1796. Little evidence, however, was forthcoming, and as the entry in the Register was not in its right place, and was in the opinion of several witnesses almost entirely in Lord Berkeley’s own handwriting, the marriage was disallowed. William Berkeley, the eldest son (afterwards created Earl Fitzhardinge), was therefore debarred from succeeding to the titles.

[306] Sir Robert Adair (1763–1855), son of Robert Adair, surgeon to George III., and Lady Caroline Keppel, daughter of William, second Earl of Albemarle. He was an intimate friend of Charles James Fox, and was employed by him on a diplomatic mission in 1806.

[307] She married, in 1816, the Hon. Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew (afterwards K.C.H., and Rear-Admiral), second son of Edward, Viscount Exmouth. She died in 1849.

[308] Lady Anne and Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick, Lord Upper Ossory’s daughters.

[309] In the House of Lords on June 11.

[310] John Hookham Frere and his brother Bartholomew.

[311] John or Joseph Smith is mentioned in Lord Holland’s _Miscellaneous Reminiscences_ as a contributor to the Etonian publication, the _Microcosm_, in conjunction with Frere, Canning, Bobus Smith, and others. Lord Holland mentions that he was known by the nickname of Easley, and that he died in 1827.

[312] Charles Richard Fox (1796–1873), born in November 1796; Lady Holland’s favourite child. He entered the navy in 1809, but was later transferred to the army, in which service he rose to be General. He married, first, in 1824, Lady Mary FitzClarence, second daughter of William IV. and Mrs. Jordan; and secondly, in 1865, Katherine, daughter of John Maberley, Esq. He sat in Parliament for some years, and held several minor posts in the Ordnance Department. He collected coins, and the result of his labours formed a most valuable addition to the treasures at the Royal Museum at Berlin, by which the collection was acquired after his death. He died at his house in Addison Road, after a long illness, in 1873.

[313] See _ante_, p. 170.

[314] Published in 1781. Compare Lord Byron’s _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_:--

Behold!--ye Tarts!--one moment spare the text, Hayley’s last work, and worst--until his next; Whether he spin poor couplets into plays, Or damn the dead with purgatorial praise, His style in youth or age is still the same, For ever feeble and for ever tame. Triumphant first see ‘Temper’s Triumphs’ shine! At least I’m sure they triumphed over mine.