Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 1 (of 2)

Footnote_204_204

The Cambridges, the "eloquent Nymphs of Twickenham."

Footnote_205_205

Lord George Sackville, son of Lionel, Duke of Dorset, assumed, in 1770, the name of Germain on succeeding to the Northamptonshire estates of his aunt, Lady Betty Germain (died December 16, 1769), second wife of Sir John Germain, Bart., whose first wife, Lady Mary Mordaunt, brought him the property. Lord George was dismissed from the army for his conduct at the battle of Minden (August 1, 1759). He was at this time M.P. for East Grinstead. He became Secretary of State for the Colonies in Lord North's administration, was created Lord Sackville in 1782, and died in 1785.

Footnote_206_206

The Hon. Stephen Fox, eldest son of Lord Holland, succeeded his father, July, 1774. He died December 26, 1774.

Footnote_207_207

Miss Fuller.

Footnote_208_208

The School of Wives, a comedy by Hugh Kelly (1739-1777), was produced at Drury Lane on December 11, 1773. Walpole speaks of it as "exceedingly applauded," though "Charles Fox says" it "is execrable."

Footnote_209_209

Thomas, Lord Pelham of Stanmer (afterwards first Earl of Chichester), was at this time surveyor-general of the Customs of London. He married Miss Anne Frankland, granddaughter of Sir Thomas Frankland, Bart.

Footnote_210_210

"The Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club" was founded in 1761, to encourage the composition and performance of catches and glees. Members were elected by ballot. It met every Tuesday from February to June at the Thatched House Tavern. The club still flourishes. Gibbon speaks as if he were a member; but his name does not occur in the lists of the club.

Footnote_211_211

By the death of Sir R. Ladbroke a vacancy occurred in the representation of the City. The candidates were the Lord Mayor (Bull) and Roberts. The result of the poll, by which the Lord Mayor was elected, was declared on December 4, 1773. A scrutiny was demanded on behalf of Roberts, but it was abandoned.

Footnote_212_212

James Hare, the politician and wit ("the Hare and many friends"), was M.P. (1772-74) for Stockbridge, and (1781-1804) for Knaresborough. He married (January 21, 1774) Miss Hannah Hume, sister of Sir Abraham Hume, Bart., F.R.S., the famous collector of minerals and pictures, and one of the founders of the Geological Society.

Footnote_213_213

Godfrey Clarke, M.P. for Derbyshire.

Footnote_214_214

The British Coffee-house, in Cockspur Street, was a favourite resort of Scotchmen. The Duke of Bedford, soliciting the votes of the sixteen Scottish peers in 1750, is said to have enclosed all the letters under one cover, and addressed it to the British Coffee-house.

Footnote_215_215

Garrick and Colman were managers of the two rival theatres, Covent Garden and Drury Lane.

Footnote_216_216

George Colman (1732-1794) was at this time a formidable rival to Garrick. His five-act comedy, The Man of Business, was produced at Covent Garden in January, 1774. It is, as Gibbon describes it, made up from Terence and other writers; "so full of modern lore," writes H. Walpole, "of rencounters, and I know not what, that I scarce comprehended a syllable."

Footnote_217_217

Goldsmith (1728-1774), whose play, She Stoops to Conquer, had been produced at Covent Garden under Colman's management (January, 1773), died April 4, 1774, scarcely more than two months after this dinner. Gibbon signed the Round Robin, drawn up at Sir Joshua Reynolds's by Burke, asking Dr. Johnson to write Goldsmith's epitaph in English instead of Latin.

Footnote_218_218

Probably James Macpherson (1736-1796), whose Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands were published in 1760. At this time he was settled in London, where he was engaged in historical literature, a translation of the Iliad, and political writing on behalf of the Government.

Footnote_219_219

John Home (1722-1808), the author of Douglas (1756), had helped to bring Macpherson's Ossianic poems before the public. His Douglas was played at Covent Garden (1757); his Agis (1758) and Siege of Aquileia (1760) were given at Drury Lane.

Footnote_220_220

Gibbon refers not to the essay on National Characters, but to that on Polygamy and Divorces. Hume quotes a story from Madame d'Aunoy's Mémoires de la Cour d'Espagne. "When the mother of the late King of Spain was on her road towards Madrid, she passed through a little town in Spain famous for its manufactory of gloves and stockings. The magistrates of the place thought they could not better express their joy for the reception of their new queen, than by presenting her with a sample of those commodities for which alone their town was remarkable. The major domo, who conducted the princess, received the gloves very graciously; but, when the stockings were presented, he flung them away with great indignation, and severely reprimanded the magistrates for this egregious piece of indecency. Know, says he, that a queen of Spain has no legs. The young queen, who at that time understood the language but imperfectly, and had often been frightened with stories of Spanish jealousy, imagined that they were to cut off her legs. Upon which she fell a-crying, and begged them to conduct her back to Germany, for that she could never endure the operation; and it was with some difficulty they could appease her" (Hume's Philosophical Works, ed. 1854, vol. iii. p. 205).

Footnote_221_221

Probably a reference to Lancelot Brown (1715-1783), the landscape gardener, known as "Capability Brown."

Footnote_222_222

William Parsons (1746-1817) was appointed Master of the King's Band of Music in 1786, was knighted in 1795, became instructor in music to the princesses in 1796, and acted as a stipendiary police magistrate at Great Marlborough Street.

Footnote_223_223

Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) was organist at Milan Cathedral, 1754-59. He married an Italian prima donna, and came to London, where he held the appointment of Director of Public Concerts.

Footnote_224_224

The Rev. Dr. Dive Downes.

Footnote_225_225

Two recent events had brought American affairs into prominence. The news of the attack upon the tea-ships in Boston Harbour (December 16, 1773) had just reached England, and the Privy Council had voted the Petition of the House of Assembly of Massachusetts for the recall of Governor Hutchinson and Lieutenant-Governor Oliver to be "groundless, vexatious, and scandalous."

Footnote_226_226

The Boston Port Bill was brought in by Lord North on March 14, 1774, and received the royal assent on the 31st. It was followed on March 28 by the Bill for regulating the government of Massachusetts Bay. A third Bill was introduced (April 15) for "the impartial administration of justice;" it provided for the transfer of persons accused of being concerned in the late riots for trial in England. All three Bills were passed during the session. Governor Hutchinson was superseded by General Gage, who was sent out with four regiments.

Footnote_227_227

Mrs. Horneck, wife of Captain Charles Horneck, Goldsmith's "Captain-in-Lace" ("Verses in Reply to an Invitation to Dinner at Dr. Baker's: " Works, ed. Cunningham, vol. i. p. 110), was one of the most abandoned women of the time. She eloped with her husband's brother-officer, Captain Scawen, who had in the previous year fought a celebrated duel with "Fighting Fitzgerald."

Footnote_228_228

In 1773, the East India Company at Madras and the Nabob of the Carnatic were allies: the Rajah of Tanjore, though nominally an ally, was known to be in correspondence with Hyder Ali and the Mahrattas. The Company agreed for a sum of money to reduce the Rajah and transfer his dominions to the Nabob. The bargain was fulfilled, and the news, transmitted to the Board of Directors, reached London, March 26, 1774. In October, 1773, Sujah Dowlah, Nawab of Oude, offered Warren Hastings a large sum of money if the Company would conquer and transfer to him the Rohilla country, north of his dominions and east of the Ganges. At the same time the provinces of Corah and Allahabad were sold to Sujah Dowlah by the Company.

Footnote_229_229

Captain David Roche sailed with his wife on board the Vansittart, East Indiaman, in May, 1773, in order to take up an appointment in the Company's service at Bombay. On the voyage he quarrelled with Lieutenant James Ferguson, whom he killed at the Cape in September, 1773. It was alleged that Roche had treacherously assassinated his antagonist; but, on his trial at Cape Town, it was proved that Ferguson was the assailant, and that Roche had killed him in self-defence. Strong feeling was aroused about the affair, because Roche was wrongly identified with a notorious duellist of the day. The governor of the Cape obtained a passage for Roche in a French frigate to Mauritius, whence he reached Bombay. On arrival there, he was arrested and sent home to England. Examined before the Privy Council on July 10, 1775, he was committed to Newgate. A special commission was issued (August 5) to try him, and at the Old Bailey, on December 11, 1775, he was again acquitted of the charge of murder. (See A Plain and Circumstantial Account of the Transactions between Captain Roche and Lieut. Ferguson, etc. London, 1775.)

Footnote_230_230

Lord Midleton was the son of the third Lord Midleton and his wife, Albinia, eldest daughter of the Hon. Thomas Townshend.

Footnote_231_231

Thomas Townshend (1733-1800), son of the Hon. Thomas Townshend and grandson of the second Viscount Townshend, was the "Tommy Townsend" of Goldsmith's Retaliation, in which he describes Edmund Burke as —

"Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat,To persuade Tommy Townsend to lend him a vote."

He was M.P. for Whitchurch in four successive Parliaments, and held a series of important or lucrative offices. He was created Baron Sydney in 1783, and Viscount Sydney in 1789.

Footnote_232_232

This probably refers to an attempt on the part of the English to collect sugar duties at the island of Toracola (Crabb Island) near Porto Rico, and the reply of the governor of Porto Rico that the island belonged to Spain. In the Morning Chronicle for April 12, 1774, it was reported "that the Spaniards had bombarded the town of Kingston in Jamaica."

Footnote_233_233

The masquerade was given at the Pantheon, by Boodle's Club.

Footnote_234_234

Gibbon was always careful, if not elaborate, in his dress. George Colman the younger, in his Random Records (1830), vol. i. pp. 121, 122, describes his meeting as a boy with Gibbon and Johnson: —

"On the day I first sat down with Johnson, in his rusty brown, and his black worsteads, Gibbon was placed opposite to me in a suit of flower'd velvet, with a bag and sword." The "costume," he adds in a note, "was not extraordinary at this time, (a little overcharged, perhaps, if his person be considered,) when almost every gentleman came to dinner in full dress." "Each," he continues, "had his measured phraseology; and Johnson's famous parallel, between Dryden and Pope, might be loosely parodied, in reference to himself and Gibbon. Johnson's style was grand, and Gibbon's elegant; the stateliness of the former was sometimes pedantick, and the polish of the latter was occasionally finical. Johnson march'd to kettle-drums and trumpets; Gibbon moved to flutes and hautboys; Johnson hew'd passages through the Alps, while Gibbon levell'd walks through parks and gardens. Maul'd as I had been by Johnson, Gibbon pour'd balm upon my bruises, by condescending, once or twice, in the course of the evening, to talk with me; the great historian was light and playful, suiting his matter to the capacity of the boy; – but it was done more suá (sic); still his mannerism prevail'd; – still he tapp'd his snuff-box, – still he smirk'd, and smiled; and rounded his periods with the same air of good-breeding, as if he were conversing with men. – His mouth, mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole, nearly in the centre of his visage."

Footnote_235_235

Word erased.

Footnote_236_236

Appearances proved deceitful. Amy Lyon, afterwards Emma Hamilton, became the mistress of Sir H. Featherstonhaugh at Up-Park in 1780, and was discarded by him just before the birth of her second child.

Footnote_237_237

The second son of Mr. Eliot, of Port Eliot.

Footnote_238_238

The Weald of Sussex [S.].

Footnote_239_239

Louis XV. died May 10, 1774, of small-pox. "Two of the King's daughters," writes Walpole (May 15, 1774), "though they never had the small-pox, attended him." Both the princesses caught the disease, but recovered. Louis XVI. and his two brothers were vaccinated, and the successful results did much to establish the practice on the Continent.

Footnote_240_240

Since the days of the Spectator, the Grecian, Squire's, and Serle's Coffee-house had been the resort of lawyers.

Footnote_241_241

The fête was given by Lord Stanley at The Oaks, near Epsom, in Surrey, on June 9, to celebrate his approaching marriage with Lady Betty Hamilton, June 23, 1774. The fête was the subject of Burgoyne's Maid of the Oaks, played at Covent Garden in November, 1774.

Footnote_242_242

In the list of marriages for 1774 appears the following: – "Dec. 8, 1774. Sir Stanier Porten, Knt., to Miss Mary Wibault of Titchfield St." (Ann. Register). Sir Stanier Porten, Gibbon's uncle, was in 1760 made Consul-General at Madrid. In 1772 he was knighted in order to qualify him to act as proxy to Sir George (afterwards Lord) Macartney, K.B. In May, 1774, he was an Under Secretary of State, and was appointed Keeper and Registrar of His Majesty's papers and records for the business of State at Whitehall. He became a Commissioner of the Customs, and died at Kensington Palace, June 7, 1789.

Footnote_243_243

Thomas Cadell was born in 1742, in Wine Street, Bristol. He was apprentice, partner, and ultimately (1767) successor, to Andrew Millar, the bookseller and publisher of the Strand, one of "the Gentlemen Partners" who published Johnson's Dictionary. In conjunction with Strahan, Cadell brought out the works of Johnson, Robertson, Blackstone, Henry, and other writers. He was printer to the Royal Academy from 1778 to 1793. He died in 1802.

Footnote_244_244

The Russian forces under Peter Alexandrovich Romanzow (1725-1796) drove back the Turks and surrounded their camp at Shumla, sixty miles south of Silistria, and one of the keys of Constantinople. Peace was, in consequence of these successes, signed July 21, 1774, between Russia and Turkey at Kainardji, by which Azof was ceded to Russia and the freedom of the Black Sea established.

Footnote_245_245

Mr. Holroyd proposed to stand for the county of Sussex. He apparently hoped that he might represent the eastern half, and relied on the influence of the Duke of Dorset at Buckhurst. But the Richmond influence carried both east and west, and Mr. Holroyd withdrew his candidature. The members returned were Sir Thomas S. Wilson and Lord George H. Lennox.

Footnote_246_246

The Duke of Richmond.

Footnote_247_247

Probably Lord Ashburnham, of Ashburnham Place, near Battle in Sussex.

Footnote_248_248

Probably William Hall, second Viscount Gage, who married Elizabeth Gideon, sister of Sir Sampson Gideon, afterwards Baron Eardley of Spalding, and is said to have introduced the greengage into Sussex. See Letter 210.

Footnote_249_249

Lord George Germain.

Footnote_250_250

John Frederick, third Duke of Dorset, who succeeded his uncle in 1769, was appointed Ambassador at Paris in 1783. He died in 1799.

Footnote_251_251

Probably refers to Lord George Germain, who was M.P. for East Grinstead, and possessed estates in Sussex. See note to Letter 181.

Footnote_252_252

See note to Letter 209.

Footnote_253_253

The Russian Ambassador in London.

Footnote_254_254

Probably the Cambridges of Twickenham.

Footnote_255_255

ibbon was M.P. for Liskeard.

Footnote_256_256

Parliament was dissolved on September 30, "six months before its natural death… The chief motive is supposed to be the ugly state of North America, and the effects that a cross winter might have on the next elections" (Walpole to Mann, October 6, 1774). The result of the elections was, on the whole, favourable to Lord North.

Footnote_257_257

Lord G. Cavendish and Godfrey Bagnal Clarke were elected members for Derbyshire.

Footnote_258_258

Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, with Lord G. H. Lennox, was returned for Sussex.

Footnote_259_259

On March 7, 1770, a Bill for regulating the proceedings of the House of Commons on controverted elections was introduced, and became law in April, 1770. It was subsequently known as the Grenville Act, from its chief supporter, George Grenville. The decision of controverted elections was under the Act transferred from the committee of the whole House to a select committee specially chosen for each case. Originally passed for five years, it was made perpetual in 1774.

Footnote_260_260

John Wilkes was elected Lord Mayor, October 8, 1774.

Footnote_261_261

Sir James Peachy, Bart., was bottom of the poll for Sussex.

Footnote_262_262

I.e. Mr. Isaac Holroyd and Miss Sarah Holroyd.

Footnote_263_263

The new Parliament met November 29, 1774.

Footnote_264_264

Lord Clive died November 22, 1774.

Footnote_265_265

Sir Fletcher Norton was re-elected speaker, November 29, 1774.

Footnote_266_266

James Whitshed, M.P. for Cirencester.

Footnote_267_267

The Address was carried on December 5, 1774. An amendment, claiming the fullest information on American affairs, was moved in the Lower House by Lord John Cavendish.

Footnote_268_268

David Hartley, M.P. for Kingston-upon-Hull.

Footnote_269_269

Sir W. Maine, Bart., of Gatton Park, Surrey, M.P. for Canterbury.

Footnote_270_270

Sir Thomas Miller, Bart., of Chichester, M.P. for Lewes.

Footnote_271_271

Benjamin Lethieullier, at this time M.P. for Andover, whom Gibbon met at Up Park in 1762, was brother to Lady Featherstonhaugh, and a relation of Smart Lethieullier, the antiquary.

Footnote_272_272

Israel Mauduit, pamphleteer and woollen-draper, best known for his Considerations on the Present German War (1760), was agent for Massachusetts Bay. It was on his application that Wedderburn was heard before the Privy Council, in answer to the petition for the recall of Hutchinson and Oliver.

Footnote_273_273

"Lawyer Batt," whose name often occurs in these letters, was John Thomas Batt, of Newhall near Salisbury, successively a Master in Chancery, and a Commissioner for the auditing of the Public Accounts. He was a "prime favourite" of Miss Burney, and a friend of Walpole, Lord Malmsbury, and Sir J. Reynolds.

Footnote_274_274

Delegates from eleven Colonies met at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, and constituted themselves a Congress. A Declaration of Rights was drawn up, in which it was shown that recent Acts of Parliament had infringed those rights. Resolutions were passed to suspend all imports from, or exports to, Great Britain and Ireland and their dependencies, till American grievances were redressed. An association was formed to carry out these resolutions and on October 26 Congress dissolved.

Footnote_275_275

Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts, and Andrew Oliver, Lieutenant-Governor, had corresponded with a private friend in England, Thomas Whately, formerly secretary to George Grenville. Their letters were purloined and placed in the hands of Franklin, who sent copies to the House of Assembly of Massachusetts. The House petitioned for their recall in consequence of the language they had used in these letters. The petition was dismissed by the Privy Council. Hutchinson, however, returned home early in 1774. He had already published (1764-68) two volumes of his History of the Colony of Massachusetts. He died in 1789, at the age of seventy-eight. The third volume of his history was published from his manuscripts in 1828.

Footnote_276_276

The work in question is La verdadera Hystoria del rey Don Rodrigo: compuesta por Abulcacim Tarif Abentarique. Nuevamente traduzida de la lengua Arabiga por M. de L[una]. In two parts. Granada, 1592-1600, 8vo. It was really written by Miguel de Luna, and, as Gibbon points out, the Arabic MS. is imaginary. The book was translated into English as The Life of Almanzor, translated into Spanish by M. de Luna. London, 1693. 8vo.

Footnote_277_277

Probably a nephew of Mr. Benjamin Way, of Denham, Mrs. Holroyd's brother, who married Miss Elizabeth Cooke.

Footnote_278_278

Parliament met January 19, 1775.

Footnote_279_279

Sir M. Featherstonhaugh married, in 1746, Sarah Lethieullier, who died in 1788. One of her brothers was Benjamin Lethieullier, M.P. for Andover. See note to Letter 230.

Footnote_280_280

Lord Beauchamp, at this time a widower, married, in May 22, 1776, as his second wife, Lady Isabella Shepheard, eldest daughter of the last Lord Irvine.

Footnote_281_281

Lady Mary Fitzpatrick, daughter of the first Earl of Upper Ossory, married, in 1766, Stephen Fox, second Lord Holland. She died October 6, 1778, without marrying a second time.

Footnote_282_282

Lord North proposed (February 10) a Bill restricting the trade of America with Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies, and excluding the colonists from the Newfoundland fisheries.

Footnote_283_283

The two members returned for Downton, Thomas Dummer and Thomas Duncombe, were declared not duly elected, and Sir Philip Hales and John Cooper declared duly elected.

Footnote_284_284

Sir Harbord Harbord, afterwards Lord Suffield, M.P. for Norwich.

Footnote_285_285

Efforts were made by Lord North to secure the loyalty of the province of New York, which at first repudiated the non-importation agreement of Congress, refused to print letters of the committee of correspondence appointed to carry out that policy, and declined to choose delegates to the second Congress which was to be held in May, 1775. Patriotic feeling, however, prevailed, and New York decided in April, 1775, to fall into line with the other colonies.