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

Footnote_309_309

In May, 1775, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold surprised the Forts of Ticonderoga on Lake George and Crown Point on Lake Champlain. General Carleton, the Governor of Canada, was in command of very inadequate forces, and it was feared that the province would join the Colonists against the British.

Footnote_310_310

Addresses from the principal trading towns of England poured in, asking the king to prosecute the war with vigour. Walpole (Journal of the Reign of George III., 1771-83, vol. i. pp. 501, 502, Dr. Doran's edition) says that the addresses were bought.

Footnote_311_311

The Government endeavoured to raise a regiment of Irish Catholics; but these, says Walpole, "would not list, nor could they in the whole summer get above 400 recruits in England" (Journal of the Reign of George III., vol. i. p. 500).

Footnote_312_312

Dr. Wesley, on the other hand, published, in 1775, his Calm Address to our American Colonies, in which he urged arguments similar to those of Dr. Johnson in his Taxation no Tyranny.

Footnote_313_313

Mr. Stephen Sayer, a London banker, and one of the sheriffs of the City, was accused by one Richardson, a young American officer in the Guards, of a plot to seize the Tower, and attack the king as he went to open Parliament. The guards were trebled, and Sayer, brought before Lord Rochford, Secretary of State for the Southern Department, was committed to the Tower. Another "mad enthusiast for liberty" and "one or two dissenting Divines" were also apprehended. The meeting of Parliament, however, passed off quietly, and the temporary panic subsided. On October 28, 1775, Sayer was brought before Lord Mansfield on a Habeas Corpus, and admitted to bail. On December 13 he was discharged from his recognizances.

Footnote_314_314

The negotiations with Russia failed. But the Landgrave of Hesse, the Duke of Brunswick, and other petty German potentates supplied seventeen thousand mercenaries.

Footnote_315_315

The address was moved on October 26, 1775, by Mr. Acland (eldest son of Sir Thomas Acland), and seconded by the Hon. William Lyttleton. M.P. for Bewdley, formerly Governor of Jamaica, and minister at Lisbon, An amendment proposed by Lord John Cavendish, demanding the fullest information on the subject of America, was rejected by 278 to 108.

Footnote_316_316

Mr. Eliot, on the death of Sir J. Molesworth, was elected M.P. for Cornwall. Miss Burney, in 1781, speaks of meeting "Mr. Eliot, knight of the shire of Cornwall, a most agreeable, lively, and very clever man." He was one of the pall-bearers at the funeral of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was also a friend of Johnson, to whom he lent Defoe's Memoirs of Captain Carleton, a book which the Doctor had never seen (Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill, 1887, vol. iv. pp. 334-344).

Footnote_317_317

Colonel Gould.

Footnote_318_318

On November 14, 1775, Benedict Arnold made an unsuccessful attempt to capture Quebec by surprise. Reinforced by a considerable body of troops under General Montgomery, he renewed his attack on December 31. Montgomery was killed, Arnold wounded, and the assault repulsed. The siege was, however, continued, and it was not till May, 1776, that General Carleton was able to assume the offensive and drive the Americans out of Canada.

Footnote_319_319

Gibbon alludes to the story, that the Countess of Nottingham kept back a ring which Essex, before his execution, sent by her hand to Elizabeth. The ring, which had formerly been worn by the queen, is probably now in the possession of Mr. Francis Thynne, to whom it descended through Lady Mary Devereux. It is a cameo head of Elizabeth, cut in a sardonyx, and set in a gold ring, enamelled at the back. It has been enlarged with soft solder, as though Essex had only trusted it to a jeweller working in his presence. Walpole makes no allusion to the alleged discovery.

Footnote_320_320

The Duke of Grafton resigned the Privy Seal November 9, 1775. Lord Dartmouth succeeded him, and Lord George Germain took Lord Dartmouth's place as Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Footnote_321_321

Horace Walpole, writing November 23, 1775, says, "A Monsieur Tessier, of whom I have heard much in France, acted an entire play of ten characters, and varied his voice, and countenance, and manner, for each so perfectly, that he did not name the persons that spoke, nor was it necessary. I cannot decide to which part he did most justice, but I would go to the play every night if I could see it so acted."

Footnote_322_322

Topham Beauclerk and Lady Diana Beauclerk (see note to Letter 47).

Footnote_323_323

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, Esq. Vol. i., London, 1776, 4to, was published by W. Strahan and T. Cadell in February.

Footnote_324_324

Madame Necker, formerly Suzanne Curchod (see note to Letter 26), and her husband were at this time in London. "M. et Madame Necker se préparent à un voyage en Angleterre; ils partiront le semaine de Pâques, et ils m'assurent qu'ils seront ici de retour à la fin de mai" (Madame du Deffand to Walpole, March 17, 1776).

Footnote_325_325

The Duchess of Kingston was Countess of Bristol, her previous marriage with Augustus Hervey (afterwards Earl of Bristol) having been declared legal. See note to Letter 259.

Footnote_326_326

Sir John Russell, Bart., of Chequers, Bucks., married on October 25, 1774, Miss Carey, daughter of General Carey, and granddaughter of Lord Falkland.

Footnote_327_327

Two commissioners, Admiral Lord Howe and his brother, General Howe, were empowered, in May, 1776, to treat with the colonists, receive submissions, grant pardons, and inquire into grievances. Lord Howe reached Sandy Hook on July 12th. On July 4 the Declaration of Independence had been adopted by Congress, and the mission was too late.

Footnote_328_328

Lord Palmerston was elected a member of the Catch Club in 1771.

Footnote_329_329

Almack's Club, in Pall Mall, surpassed White's in the extravagance of its gambling. Brooks, a money-lender and wine-merchant, took up the management of the club, which was dispersed when he opened the new premises of Brooks' Club, in St. James's Street, in 1778.

Footnote_330_330

Mr. Child (The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, part iii. p. 199, Boston, 1885) says that Mallet passed off as his own, with very slight changes, a ballad called William and Margaret, a copy of which, dated 1711, has been discovered. But the resemblances between the two poems scarcely seem to justify Mr. Child's criticism, though Gibbon's statement confirms it. The writer of the article on Mallet, in the Dictionary of National Biography, throws no doubts upon Mallet being the author of William and Margaret, nor does the writer on Marvell, in the same series, lay any claim for Marvell to its authorship. Thomas, better known as "Hesiod," Cooke, who published his Life and Writings of Andrew Marvell in 1726, and who not only disliked Mallet, but characterised his William and Margaret as "trash," nowhere suggests that Mallet was not the author. The first stanza is taken from Beaumont and Fletcher's comedy of The Knight of the Burning Pestle, where old Merrythought sings —

"When it was grown to dark midnight,And all were fast asleep,In came Margaret's grimly ghost,And stood at William's feet."

In Percy's Reliques, vol. iii. p. 331 (ed. Dodsley, 1759), Mallet's poem is printed with the following note: "This Ballad, which appeared in some of the public Newspapers in or before the year 1724, came from the pen of David Mallet, Esq.; who in the edition of his poems, 3 vols., 1759, informs us that the plan was suggested by the four verses quoted above ***, which he supposed to be the beginning of some ballad now lost."

Footnote_331_331

The report of General Lee's capture was false. He was taken prisoner December 13, 1776.

Footnote_332_332

Beilby Porteus, Bishop of Chester, afterwards Bishop of London, had been chaplain to Archbishop Secker, whose Charges he published in 1769. He did not publish any reply to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Footnote_333_333

Sir Guy Carleton was gazetted K.B., July 6, 1776.

Footnote_334_334

The Hon. John Damer, son of Lord Milton, shot himself, August 15, 1776. To his widow, the daughter of General Conway, Horace Walpole left Strawberry Hill for her life.

Footnote_335_335

On August 27, 1776, General Howe defeated the Americans at the battle of Brooklyn or Long Island.

Footnote_336_336

Louisa, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Holroyd.

Footnote_337_337

An Apology for Christianity, in a Series of Letters to Edward Gibbon, Esq., by Richard Watson, D.D. (afterwards Bishop of Llandaff). Gibbon had a great respect for Dr. Watson, at this time Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, as "a prelate of a large mind and liberal spirit." He writes (November 2, 1776) to "express his sense of the liberal treatment which he has received from so candid an adversary."

Footnote_338_338

On September 15 General Howe occupied New York, which had been evacuated by the American troops; a few days later a great part of the city was destroyed by incendiaries.

Footnote_339_339

Lord Chatham boasted that he had conquered America in Germany. Wilkes, in March, 1776, had said, alluding to Lord G. Germain's misconduct at Minden and Chatham's boast, that Lord George might conquer America, though, he believed, it would not be in Germany. Gibbon apparently refers to this remark, and to Lord George's hope that he might recover his lost reputation by the reconquest of America.

Footnote_340_340

Parliament met October 31, 1776. An amendment to the address, expressing pacific sentiments, was negatived by 242 to 87, and the address carried by 232 to 83.

Footnote_341_341

The proclamation, issued September 19, 1776, was addressed to the people of America, promised a revision of recent legislation, and was designed to induce separate colonies to negotiate with the commissioners independently of Congress. It was not published in the official Gazettes, which had appeared on November 4 and 5, 1776.

Footnote_342_342

J. B. Antoine Suard (1733-1817), whose acquaintance Gibbon made at Paris in 1763, had translated Robertson's History of Charles V. in 1771, and was now at work on a translation of his History of America, which was published in 1778.

Footnote_343_343

In a letter, dated "Ferney, July 19, 1776," and addressed to M. d'Argenteuil, Voltaire wrote strongly against a projected translation of Shakespeare. He claims that he himself had first pointed out to the French some pearls which he found on Shakespeare's "enormous dung-heap." "I little thought," he continues, "that I should help to tread under foot the crowns of Racine and Corneille, in order to adorn the head of a barbarian and a buffoon." The letter was read aloud before the Academicians. Mrs. Montague, who was present, when she heard the words "énorme fumier," exclaimed, "C'est un fumier qui a fertilisé une terre bien ingrate."

Footnote_344_344

On November 22, letters arrived from Sir Guy Carleton giving an account of the destruction of the American fleet on Lake Champlain, October 11-13, 1776. Arnold, after destroying Crown Point, retired to Ticonderoga. General Burgoyne returned to England on December 9, 1776.

Footnote_345_345

Remarks on the Two Last Chapters of Mr. Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by James Chelsum, D.D. London, 1776. 8vo.

Footnote_346_346

With Lord and Lady Ossory.

Footnote_347_347

The translation, commenced by M. Le Clerc de Septchênes, and completed by other hands, passed through numerous editions in France. It was the foundation of an Italian version published at Pisa in 1779-86.

Footnote_348_348

After the battle of Brooklyn, Washington withdrew his troops to the heights of Haarlem. General Howe, towards the end of October, engaged in several skirmishes with the Americans, but made no effort to bring them to a decisive engagement. On November 16, 1776, Fort Washington was taken by the British, and 2600 of the American troops, exclusive of officers, surrendered as prisoners of war. Following up his advantage, Howe advanced into New Jersey, Washington retreating beyond the Delaware.

Footnote_349_349

General Fraser lived in Downing Street, and died there, February 8, 1782.

Footnote_350_350

Mrs. Fraser.

Footnote_351_351

General Fraser.

Footnote_352_352

On December 7, 1776, a fire broke out in Portsmouth Dockyard, and in the hemp warehouse a quantity of combustibles were found; at Plymouth an attempt to set the dockyard on fire was discovered; at Bristol several houses close to the quay were set on fire. The incendiary was "John the Painter," whose real name was Aitken. He confessed his guilt, and asserted the complicity of Silas Deane, the American agent at Paris. He was tried at Winchester Assizes, convicted, and hanged at Portsmouth.

Footnote_353_353

I.e. probably the Abigail of Mrs. Abigail Holroyd.

Footnote_354_354

John Hunter (1728-1793) began his Anatomy Lectures in 1773. Originally delivered to his pupils, they were afterwards thrown open to the public on payment of a fee of four guineas. They were delivered annually from October to April, on alternate evenings at 7 to 8 p.m.

Footnote_355_355

Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas Day, 1776, surprised two regiments of Hessians at Trenton, and in the following January again reduced the Jerseys, while Howe remained inactive at New York.

Footnote_356_356

In June, 1776, after the fall of Turgot, Necker was associated with Taboureau des Réaux, the Controller-General, in the management of the finances of France, and given the title of Directeur du trésor. In June, 1777, he succeeded Taboureau des Réaux, but, because of his religion, only received the title of Directeur Général.

Footnote_357_357

The Marquis de la Fayette, born 1757, married the second daughter of the Duc d'Ayen, eldest son of the Maréchal de Noailles, and brother of the Marquis de Noailles, the French ambassador. La Fayette came to London on a visit to his wife's uncle early in 1777, and was presented to George III. A few days later he returned to Paris, sailed from Passages with several young Frenchmen for America, landed in June, and immediately received the rank of major-general in the American army. A lettre de cachet was sent after him to Bordeaux; but he avoided it by crossing into Spain.

Footnote_358_358

On April 9, 1777, a message from the king was delivered to both Houses, asking for the payment of his debts, which amounted to £600,000. At the same time a Bill "for the better support of the Royal Household" was introduced, to increase his revenue by £100,000 a year. A motion for a committee to inquire into the accounts was rejected; the king's debts were discharged, and the Government Bill carried.

Footnote_359_359

Lord Pigot, Governor of Madras, was arrested in April, 1776, by the Madras Council for his support of the Rajah of Tanjore against the Nabob of the Carnatic, and his opposition to an iniquitous claim upon the Rajah's revenue made by Paul Benfield. He died while still under arrest, in May, 1777. The Court of Proprietors voted by a large majority for his release and restoration to his governorship. The Directors were almost equally divided upon the question. Meanwhile the Government exercised all its influence to carry through the Court of Proprietors three resolutions – one recalling Lord Pigot, a second ordering home his friends in the council, a third ordering home his enemies. These resolutions were carried. Lord Pigot's case was then taken up in Parliament, and on May 22, 1777, Governor Johnston moved several resolutions approving Lord Pigot's action, and condemning the Madras Council. The resolutions were rejected by 90 to 67. See note to Letter 371.

Footnote_360_360

The Prince of Orange, packet from Harwich to Helvetsluys, was captured by the Surprise, an American privateer commanded by Captain Cunningham, carrying four guns and ten swivels.

Footnote_361_361

This letter was begun one Sunday and finished the next.

Footnote_362_362

Marie de Vichy-Chamrond (1697-1781) married, in 1718, Jean Baptiste Jacques de la Lande, Marquis du Deffand. Separated from her husband in 1722 for her relations with the Regent duc d'Orléans, the President Hénault, and others, she lived chiefly at Sceaux till the death of her husband in 1750. In 1753 she opened her salon at the Convent of St. Joseph. A year later she became totally blind. She had stayed at La Source with Lord Bolingbroke in 1721, and since then had known some of the most distinguished men and women in France and England. But the following extracts from her correspondence with Walpole, who had introduced Gibbon to her, show her appreciation of the historian as a member of society: – "Je suis fort contente de M. Gibbon; depuis huit jours qu'il est arrivé, je l'ai vu presque tous les jours; il a la conversation facile, parle très-bien français; j'espère qu'il me sera de grande ressource" (May 18, 1777). "Je lui crois beaucoup d'esprit, sa conversation est facile, et forte de choses, comme disait Fontenelle; il me plaît beaucoup, d'autant plus qu'il ne m'embarrasse pas" (May 27). "Je m'accommode de plus en plus de M. Gibbon; c'est véritablement un homme d'esprit; tous les tons lui sont faciles, il est aussi Français ici que MM. de Choiseul, de Beauvau, etc. Je me flatte qu'il est content de moi; nous soupons presque tous les jours ensemble, le plus souvent chez moi; ce soir ce sera chez Madame de Mirepoix" (June 8). "M. Gibbon me convient parfaitement; je voudrais bien qu'il restât toujours ici; je le vois presque tous les jours; sa conversation est très facile, on est à son aise avec lui" (June 22). "M. Gibbon a ici le plus grand succès, on se l'arrache; Je ne sais pas si tous les jugements qu'il porte sont bien justes, mais il se comporte avec tout le monde d'une manière qui ne donne point de prise aux ridicules; ce qui est fort difficile à éviter dans les sociétés qu'il fréquente" (September 21).

Footnote_363_363

Gabrielle Charlotte Françoise d'Alsace-Hénin-Liétard married, in November, 1755, Jacques François, Vicomte de Cambis. She was the sister of the Prince de Chimay, and niece of the Marquise de Boufflers. She knew English well, and translated into French several of the Portraits of Lord Chesterfield. Her conquest of the Duke of Richmond was well known in Paris. Gibbon himself was her victim. "Le Gibbon," writes Madame du Deffand to Walpole, April 20, 1780, "était aussi un peu épris; elle fait plus de conquêtes à présent qu'elle n'en a fait dans sa première jeunesse; sa coquetterie est sèche, froide et piquante; c'est un nouveau genre qu'a sa séduction." The Vicomtesse de Cambis died at Richmond in 1808. Madame de Genlis, who disliked her, says (Mémoires, vol. ii. pp. 30, 31) that she was deeply pitted with the small-pox, and that "elle avoit l'air le plus dédaigneux et le plus impertinent qu'on ait jamais osé porter dans le monde."

Footnote_364_364

The Duc de Choiseul (1719-1785) was Minister of Foreign Affairs, and afterwards War Minister and Naval Minister, to Louis XV. during the ascendency of Madame de Pompadour. He was disgraced in 1770, when Madame du Barri became the royal favourite.

Footnote_365_365

Madame du Deffand describes a small party at the Neckers', where she met the Emperor Joseph II. and Gibbon.

Footnote_366_366

Louis Jules Mancini, Duc de Nivernois (1716-1798), was ambassador in England from 1762 to 1763. In that capacity he had given Gibbon introductions to leaders of Parisian society during his first visit to the capital.

Footnote_367_367

Marie Sylvie de Rohan-Chabot married, as her first husband, the Marquis de Chermont d'Amboise. Left a widow in 1761, she married in 1764, as his second wife, the Maréchal de Beauvau, fourth son of the Prince de Craon (died 1793), and was, therefore, stepmother of his daughter the Princesse de Poix. She and her husband belonged to the Liberal party, who supported the Duc de Choiseul and opposed the ascendency of Madame du Barri. For this reason she was nicknamed "la mère des Machabées." The Princesse de Beauvau, one of the most charming women of her time, wrote an Eloge of her husband. She died in 1807. Her own character is sketched in the Hommage à la mémoire de Madame la princesse de Beauvau of Madame de Luynes. "Elle étoit, a mon avis, la femme la plus distinguée de la société, par l'esprit, le ton, les manières, et l'air franc et ouvert qui lui étoit particulier" (Madame de Genlis, Mémoires, vol. i. p. 357).

Footnote_368_368

Count de Viry, the Sardinian ambassador, as Baron de la Perrière, was formerly Sardinian ambassador in England. There he married Miss Harriet Speed, a niece of Lady Cobham, and one of the heroines of Gray's Long Story who were sent from Lady Cobham's house to rid the country of the "wicked imp they call a poet." "My old friend Miss Speed," writes Gray to Wharton in 1761, "has done a very foolish thing; she has married the Baron de la Perrière, son to the Sardinian Minister, the Count de Viry. He is about twenty-eight years old (ten years younger than herself), but looks nearer forty." In September, 1777, Viry was recalled from Paris, and disgraced, because, as was alleged, his wife had been bribed by Lord Stormont to betray the diplomatic secrets of the court of Turin. Another account is given in Lescure's Correspondence Secrète sur Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, etc.: "M. le Comte de Viry, ambassadeur de Sardaigne, est rappelé à Turin. On croit qu'il y a de la disgrace" (vol. i. p. 74). A secret treaty was signed early in 1777 between Austria, France, Spain, and Sardinia against England, and the secretary of the Comte de Viry "a vendu une copie du traité à milord Stormont" (ibid., vol. i. p. 82). See also, for a third account, Dutensiana (Londres, 1806), pp. 216-219.

Footnote_369_369

"American privateers," writes Walpole, July 17, 1777, "infest our coasts; they keep Scotland in alarms, and even the harbour of Dublin has been newly strengthened with cannon." On August 7 the crew of a privateer landed at Penzance and plundered several farmers of their live stock. It was in the following year, April, 1778, that Paul Jones first harried the English and Scottish coasts.

Footnote_370_370

In The Private Correspondence of David Garrick (vol. ii. pp. 255, 256) is printed a letter from Gibbon to Garrick, written from the "Hôtel de Modène, rue Jacob, Fauxbourg St. Germain," at Paris, and dated August 14th, 1777. Gibbon begins by thanking Garrick for a kindly mention of his name. "It is pleasant to find one's-self mentioned with friendship by those whom posterity will mention with admiration. Foreign nations are a kind of posterity, and among them you already reap the full reward of your fame." "You have reason," he continues, "to envy me, for I can truly declare that I reckon the three months which I have now passed in Paris among the most agreeable of my life. My connection with a house, before which the proudest of the Gallic nobles bow the knee, my familiar acquaintance with the language, and a natural propensity to be pleased with the people and their manners, have introduced me into very good company; and, different in that respect from the traveller Twiss, I have sometimes been invited to the same houses a second time. If besides these advantages your partiality should ascribe any others to your friend, I am not proud enough entirely to disclaim them. I propose to stay at Paris about two months longer, to hook in (if possible) a little of the Fontainebleau voyage, and to return to England a few days before the meeting of Parliament, where I suppose we shall have some warm scenes. You cannot surely be satisfied with the beginning, or rather no beginning, of the American campaign, which seems to elevate the enemies as much as it must humble the friends of Great Britain.