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

"At this time of year, the society of the Turk's-head" (in Gerrard Street, where the Literary Club met) "can no longer be addressed as a corporate body, and most of the individual members are probably dispersed; Adam Smith in Scotland; Burke in the shades of Beaconsfield; Fox, the Lord or the devil knows where, &c., &c. Be so good as to salute in my name those friends who may fall in your way. Assure Sir Joshua, in particular, that I have not lost my relish for manly conversation and the society of the brown table. I hope Colman has made a successful campaign. May I beg to be remembered to Mrs. Garrick? By this time she has probably discovered the philosopher's stone; she has long possessed a much more valuable secret, – that of gaining the hearts of all who have the happiness of knowing her.

"I am, dear Sir, most affectionately yours,"E. Gibbon."

Footnote_371_371

Françoise Lambertine, daughter of Baron Kolbel, married, September 1, 1767, "a rich West Indian," Ralph Payne (knighted in 1771), a son of the Governor of St. Christopher's, and himself Governor of the Leeward Islands (1771-75). Sir Ralph represented various constituencies in Parliament from 1768 to 1799, and, with his wife, was prominent in London society. He was created Viscount Lavington. Lady Lavington survived her husband, who died in 1807, as Governor of Antigua and a bankrupt.

Footnote_372_372

The Hon. Fred. Cornwallis, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Footnote_373_373

Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench.

Footnote_374_374

General (afterwards Sir William) Howe defeated Washington at Brandywine on September 11, 1777, and took possession of Philadelphia on the 27th.

Footnote_375_375

The Parliamentary session opened on November 18.

Footnote_376_376

Lord Chatham, in the House of Lords, moved an amendment to the address, that the army should be recalled, the late Acts rescinded, and every effort used to reunite with America. The same motion was made in the Lower House. But the amendments were rejected by large majorities in both Houses. On December 2, Fox moved for a committee of the whole House to inquire into the state of the nation, including the expenses and resources of the nation, the loss of men, the state of trade, the present situation of the war, our foreign relations, and the progress made by the Commissioners in bringing about peace. Lord North accepted the motion, and the committee sat for the first time on February 2, 1778. Parliament was adjourned from December 11, 1777, to January 20, 1778.

Footnote_377_377

General Burgoyne, after capturing Ticonderoga, pushed forwards towards the Hudson River, intending to invade the United States from the side of Canada. His supplies began to fail. The American forces gathered at Saratoga, and after several days' fighting, surrounded the British troops, whose strength was reduced to three thousand five hundred men. On October 17, 1777, Burgoyne surrendered to General Gates.

Footnote_378_378

Simon Fraser had served under Wolfe at Quebec with the Fraser Highlanders, and commanded a brigade during Burgoyne's campaign. Mortally wounded on October 7, 1777, he died October 8, and was buried, under a heavy fire, in one of the British redoubts.

Footnote_379_379

John Dyke Acland, best known by the devotion of his wife, Lady Harriet, was wounded and taken prisoner at Saratoga (October 9). He died in October, 1778, from a cold caught at a duel on Bampton Down, in Devonshire. He was then M.P. for Callington, in Cornwall.

Footnote_380_380

Wedderburn.

Footnote_381_381

Stephanie Félicité Ducrest de St. Aubin (1746-1830) married, in 1761, the Comte de Genlis. Through her aunt, who was secretly married to the Duc d'Orléans, she became "gouvernante" to the duke's children by his first wife, a daughter of the Duc de Penthièvre, – Madame Adelaide, Louis Philippe, and three others. She was a voluminous and versatile writer. Her Adèle et Théodore was published in 1782. "J'eus une liaison assez intime," she says in her Mémoires (ii. 351), "avec M. Gibbon, auteur de la chute de l'empire romain, ouvrage anglais que nos philosophes ont beaucoup loué, parce qu'il renferme de très mauvais principes, mais qui est, a tous égards, un mauvais ouvrage, très diffus, sans vues nouvelles, et fort ennuyeux."

Footnote_382_382

William Melmoth (1710-1799), "Pliny" Melmoth, as Miss Burney says he was nicknamed, was an author, commissioner of bankrupts, and a good classical scholar. In 1753 he published Cicero's Ad Familiares; in 1773, the De Senectute; and in 1777, the work referred to in the letter, De Amicitia.

Footnote_383_383

Lady George Germain (formerly Miss Diana Sambrooke) died of the measles, January 15, 1778.

Footnote_384_384

Gibbon voted against the Government (February 2) for Fox's motion, "That no more of the Old Corps be sent out of the Kingdom." The motion was rejected by 259 to 165.

Footnote_385_385

Probably, A Reply to the Reasonings of Mr. Gibbon, etc., by Smyth Loftus, M.A., Vicar of Coolock. Dublin, 1778.

Footnote_386_386

The Bills proposed by Lord North were: (1) "For removing all doubts and apprehensions concerning taxation by the Parliament of Great Britain in any of the Colonies;" (2) for the appointment of five commissioners to treat with the Colonies. By the first the claim of taxation was abandoned. A third Bill, for the express repeal of the Massachusetts Charter Act, was also supported by the Government. The three Bills received the royal assent on March 11, 1778. Walpole, writing to Mason, February 18th, 1778, says, "You perhaps, who have all ecclesiastical history at your finger-ends, may recollect something approaching to the transaction of yesterday, the 17th of February, a day of confession and humiliation that will be remembered as long as the name of England exists. Yesterday, Feb. 17th, did the whole Administration, by the mouth of their spokesman, Lord North, no, no, not resign; on the contrary, try to keep their places by a full and ample confession of all their faults, and by a still more extraordinary act, by doing full justice both to America and to the Opposition, – by allowing that the former are no cowards nor conquerable, – that they are no Rebels, for the new Commissioners are to treat with the Congress or anybody, and, by asking pardon by effects, i. e. the cancelling all offensive acts, and by acknowledging the independence of the 13 provinces, not verbally yet virtually."

Footnote_387_387

A solemn fast was kept on February 27, 1778.

Footnote_388_388

The treaty was also one of friendship. It was signed on February 6.

Footnote_389_389

Mr. Powys moved a clause to repeal expressly and by name the Massachusetts Charter Act. This clause was opposed by Lord North, and on a division was rejected. Lord North, however, supported a separate Bill for the attainment of the same object.

Footnote_390_390

The five commissioners, appointed on April 13, 1778, were Lord Carlisle, Lord Howe, Sir W. Howe, William Eden (afterwards Lord Auckland), and George Johnstone (ex-governor of Florida).

Footnote_391_391

M.P. for Cambridgeshire.

Footnote_392_392

The note formally announcing the Treaty of Commerce and Friendship between France and the United States, was delivered to Lord Weymouth on March 13, 1778. "On Saturday," writes Sir Gilbert Elliot to Lord Malmesbury, March 20, 1778, "all the French in London were sent to the opera, plays, clubs, coffee-houses, ale-houses, and spill-houses, to publish the intelligence, which they did with all their natural impertinence."

Footnote_393_393

On March 19 Fox moved three resolutions: (1) that the Canadian expedition was ill concerted, (2) that it was impossible it should succeed, (3) that no sufficient instructions to co-operate had been sent to General Howe. The resolutions were lost by 164 to 44. Fox then tore up the paper on which he had written the fourth resolution, a censure on Lord G. Germain.

Footnote_394_394

M. de Noailles left London at six in the morning to avoid insults. He and his wife were pelted by the mob as they passed through Canterbury; but the Government ordered a salute to be fired in his honour as he left Dover.

Footnote_395_395

David, seventh Viscount Stormont, who succeeded (1793) his uncle as second Earl of Mansfield, was at this time ambassador at Paris. In October, 1779, he was made one of the Secretaries of State. He was afterwards President of the Council under Pitt. He died in 1796.

Footnote_396_396

The three American deputies were presented to Louis XVI. on March 21, 1778, by M. de Vergennes, the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Footnote_397_397

On December 30, 1777, the Elector of Bavaria died. With him was extinguished the male line of his house. Austria took the opportunity of occupying portions of Lower Bavaria, and the King of Prussia supported against her the claims of the elector's general heir and nearest male relation, the Elector Palatine of the Rhine. War began in July, 1778; but before negotiations were abandoned, Bohemia, Silesia, and Saxony were occupied by the forces of Austria and Prussia.

Footnote_398_398

Mr. Holroyd served as major in the Sussex Militia under the Duke of Richmond. The militia was in 1778 organized as a permanent force for the defence of the country.

Footnote_399_399

Miss Sarah Holroyd.

Footnote_400_400

Apparently an allusion to Dr. Delacour, Mrs. Gibbon's doctor at Bath.

Footnote_401_401

The Comte d'Estaing with the French fleet left Toulon on April 13, and arrived off Sandy Hook on July 8, 1778.

Footnote_402_402

General Burgoyne was refused admission to the royal presence. The Court of Enquiry was not held, as the general officers reported that they could not take cognizance of the conduct of an officer who was a prisoner on parole to the Congress. A court-martial was on similar grounds refused. Finally, on May 26, a motion was proposed for a committee of the whole House on Saratoga, which gave Burgoyne the opportunity of defending himself. The motion was opposed by the Government and rejected.

Footnote_403_403

Counsel and evidence were heard on Irish trade; but, by a compromise between the opponents and supporters of the projected bills for the relaxation of the commercial code, and in consequence of the opposition of English traders, Lord North's projected concessions were reduced to the smallest proportions and carried without divisions.

Footnote_404_404

Lord Chatham died May 11, 1778. The body lay in state in the Painted Chamber on the 7th and 8th of June, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on June 9. Parliament was adjourned from June 3 to November 26.

Footnote_405_405

Admiral Keppel, who left Portsmouth early in June, fell in with two French frigates, the Licorne and the Belle Poule, on June 17, 1778. The first he captured, the second was driven ashore. This action began the war with France.

Footnote_406_406

Summer encampments were established at Salisbury, Bury St. Edmunds, Winchester, Warley, and Coxheath in Kent. At the last-named place were stationed the 1st battalion of Royals, 2nd, 14th, 18th, 59th, and 65th Regiments of Foot, the 1st Regiment of Dragoons, and twelve regiments of militia. Coxheath was visited by the king and queen in November, 1778.

Footnote_407_407

Papers captured on a French frigate showed Keppel that a fleet superior to his own lay in Brest harbour. He therefore retired to Portsmouth. "And now," writes Walpole, July 4, 1778, "Mr. Keppel is returned, we learn that the East and West Indian fleets, worth four millions, are at stake, and the French frigates are abroad in pursuit of them."

Footnote_408_408

Lord Thurlow became Lord Chancellor in June, 1778, succeeding Earl Bathurst.

Footnote_409_409

William Gerard Hamilton ("Single-Speech"), at this time M.P. for Wareham, lived in Upper Brook Street. He was a brilliant talker. If Dr. Johnson was unwilling to part with a friend, he accompanied him down the first pair of stairs in hope of his return. With Hamilton he went as far as the street door. "Single-Speech Hamilton has been giving suppers to all the fine ladies," writes Storer to George Selwyn, April, 1779.

Footnote_410_410

After a fruitless search for the French fleet, Admiral Keppel returned to Portsmouth. "Admiral Keppel is very unlucky in having missed them, for they had not above twenty-five ships" (H. Walpole, October 8, 1778).

Footnote_411_411

War was declared in June, 1779, between Great Britain and Spain.

Footnote_412_412

Sir Charles Hardy, already over sixty years of age, as governor of Greenwich Hospital had retired from active service. He had not been to sea for many years, till he was now placed in command of the fleet.

Footnote_413_413

Wedderburn succeeded Thurlow as Attorney-General when the latter was made Chancellor (June, 1778).

Footnote_414_414

"The court of Denmark, when they gave orders for the release of our ships taken by Paul Jones, were very explicit in their declaration in our favour against America" (C. Townshend to G. Selwyn, October, 1778).

Footnote_415_415

Parliament met November 26, 1778. Gibbon refers to a pamphlet called Anticipation, which appeared the day before the opening of Parliament, and gave a summary of what would be said by the chief speakers. The author was Richard Tickell, grandson of Addison's contemporary, and a dependent of Lord North.

Footnote_416_416

The outbreak of a war with Holland at this time seemed probable. At the close of 1778 a number of petitions were presented from Dutch merchants to their High Mightinesses the States-General of the United Provinces, protesting against the right of search for contraband of war which was exercised by the British ships. In September, 1780, an American packet was captured, on board of which was Mr. Laurens, President of the Congress. A box of letters, which he threw overboard, floated, and was found to contain a draft treaty between the United States and Holland, and various letters from the "patriotic party," showing that Amsterdam at least wished for alliance as early as August, 1778. A memorial reciting these letters was delivered to the States-General in November, 1780, but no answer was returned. In December the British ambassador was recalled, and the Dutch ambassador left London, December 30, 1780.

Footnote_417_417

Ragoba or Ragonaut Ráo, an exiled Peshwah of Poonah, was supported by the English, and an expedition to reinstate him was despatched by Warren Hastings in the autumn of 1778.

Footnote_418_418

Pondicherry had already (October 17, 1778) surrendered to Sir Hector Munro, and Chandernagore had also fallen.

Footnote_419_419

Sir Henry Clinton, who had succeeded Sir W. Howe in the chief command in America, had sent five thousand men in October, 1778, to the Indies with Commodore Hotham.

Footnote_420_420

William Wildman, second Viscount Barrington (1717-1793), was succeeded as Secretary at War by Charles Jenkinson in December, 1778.

Footnote_421_421

The Admirals referred to were Sir Hugh Palliser and Admiral Keppel, both members of Parliament; Keppel being a Whig and opposed to Lord North, Palliser a staunch supporter of the Government. The dispute arose over the battle of Ushant. The English fleet under Keppel had met the French fleet under Count d'Orvilliers off Ushant on July 27, 1778. An indecisive engagement was fought. Keppel signalled to Sir Hugh Palliser to come up and renew the battle next morning; but Sir Hugh, whose own ship had suffered severely, was unable to do so. The French retired on the 29th to Brest, and Keppel to Portsmouth. Palliser made charges against Keppel, which led to a court-martial on the latter. The charges against him were pronounced to be malicious and ill founded, and his conduct was declared to have been that of a brave and experienced officer. Similar charges were made by the Comte d'Orvilliers against the Duc de Chartres, who commanded the Blue Squadron of the French fleet, and did not obey the signal of his superior officer.

Footnote_422_422

The expedition against Poonah failed. The English were surrounded, and the Convention of Wargaum restored to the Mahrattas all territory acquired since 1756, and Ragoba was given up to Scindiah (January, 1779).

Footnote_423_423

In November, 1778, the French fleet sailed for the West Indies. But St. Lucia was successfully defended by the British forces.

Footnote_424_424

Gibbon was on July 1, 1779, made a Lord Commissioner of Trade and Plantations – a place which he retained until 1782, when the Board was abolished, the work being transferred to the Secretaries of State. He had at one time hoped to obtain the Secretaryship to the Embassy at Paris (see Letter 476). The following lines were written on his acceptance of the Commissionership by, it is said, Charles Fox: —

"King George, in a frightLest Gibbon should writeThe story of England's disgrace,Thought no way so sure,His pen to secure,As to give the historian a place."But the caution is vain, —'Tis the curse of his reignThat his projects should never succeed;Though he wrote not a line,Yet a course of declineIn the author's example we read."His book well describesHow corruption and bribesO'erthrew the great empire of Rome;And his ratings declareA degeneracy there,Which his conduct exhibits at home."

Footnote_425_425

In 1778 appeared An Examination of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of Mr. Gibbon's History, etc., by Henry Edward Davis, M.A., of Balliol College, Oxford. The author charged Gibbon with inaccuracy and plagiarism. He replied early in 1779 with his Vindication of some Passages in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Walpole calls it "the quintessence of argument, wit, temper, spirit, and consequently of victory."

Footnote_426_426

The court-martial held at Portsmouth entirely acquitted Admiral Keppel on February 11. The news reached London that night. It was treated as a triumph for the Opposition. Ladies appeared at the opera in caps à la Keppel, and blue cockades bearing the Admiral's name were worn. His "Head" became a favourite alehouse sign. Houses were illuminated; guns discharged; bells rung; the windows of the houses of Sir H. Palliser, Lord North, Lord G. Germain, and Lord Sandwich were broken. Sir H. Palliser resigned his seat for Scarborough as well as all his employments, and asked for a court-martial, which acquitted him from any charge of misconduct. He underwent the operation to which Gibbon alludes. "Here are the exact, and all the words which the King said to him, the first time he was at Court afterwards – 'Sir Hugh, how does your leg do?'" (Warner to Selwyn, May, 1779).

Footnote_427_427

The Opposition used every effort to make political capital out of the dispute between Keppel and Palliser. Motions were proposed by them on December 11, 1778, for the trial of Sir Hugh Palliser; on February 19, 1779, for the dismissal of Sir H. Palliser from the Navy; March 3, for a censure on the Admiralty for sending out Admiral Keppel with too small a force; on April 19, for the removal of the Earl of Sandwich from the Admiralty.

Footnote_428_428

The Sussex Militia were ordered to Exeter.

Footnote_429_429

Admiral Pigot, M.P. for Bridgnorth, brother of Lord Pigot. See Letter 311.

Footnote_430_430

Mr. Stratton was a member of the Madras Council, by which Lord Pigot was arrested.

Footnote_431_431

The House resolved on an address to the Crown for the prosecution of Stratton and other members of the Council. The case was tried in the Court of King's Bench, before Lord Mansfield, Wedderburn being for the prosecution and Dunning for the defence. The jury convicted (December 20, 21), and on February 10, 1780, Messrs. Stratton, Brooke, Floyer, and Mackay were fined £1000 apiece.

Footnote_432_432

In the daily papers of May 15, 1779, it was announced that "fourteen ships of the line" had sailed from Brest to attack Admiral Arbuthnot, who lay with a much smaller force at Torbay. Orders were sent to Portsmouth to fit out every available ship for his support.

Footnote_433_433

Sir Joshua Reynolds, in May to July, 1779, painted a portrait of Gibbon. But the picture here referred to is probably that by Wharton.

Footnote_434_434

On June 21 Lord North proposed a Bill for doubling the militia. The Bill was read a third time on June 24. The Lords (June 30) threw out the second clause, which empowered his Majesty "to direct the number of private men to serve in the militia to be doubled." On recommitment to the Commons, it was argued that the amendment was a breach of privilege, as the Bill was a Money Bill. Eventually the amendment was accepted, and the Bill, as amended, received the royal assent on July 3.

Footnote_435_435

Bamber Gascoyne, M.P. for Truro, was made a Commissioner of the Admiralty.

Footnote_436_436

M.P. for Lanarkshire.

Footnote_437_437

His colleagues were Soame Jenyns, Lord R. Spencer, Hon. Charles Greville, William Eden, and Thomas de Grey.

Footnote_438_438

Sir Francis Wronghead, of Bumper Hall, M.P. for Guzzledown, in The Provoked Husband; or, A Journey to London (Vanbrugh and Cibber).

Footnote_439_439

I.e. as a Commissioner of Trade.

Footnote_440_440

Mrs. Gibbon had recently paid a visit to Abergavenny.

Footnote_441_441

Major Holroyd had raised a regiment of horse, called the Sussex, or 22nd Regiment of Light Dragoons, of which he was colonel.

Footnote_442_442

Lord Macartney (1737-1806) was at that time Governor and Captain-General of the Caribbee Islands, and was at his post at Grenada in July, 1779, when that island was attacked, and, after a gallant defence, was captured by the French. Macartney was carried as prisoner of war to France, but was soon exchanged. Count d'Estaing's terms were that he should hold Macartney personally responsible for all the consequences of his refusal to surrender. Such of the inhabitants as were taken in arms would irrecoverably lose their estates and properties, and the free coloured people would be reduced to slavery.

Footnote_443_443

The ladies, returning from Spa, embarked at Ostend on the Fly sloop for Calais. On the voyage the sloop was attacked (September 17) by two French cutters. After a long engagement the French were beaten off.

Footnote_444_444

In 1779 a Mémoire Justificatif was put forth both at Paris and Madrid to explain the zeal of two despotic monarchies for the new-born republic of the United States. Gibbon was requested by the Lord Chancellor and Lord Weymouth, then Secretary of State, to vindicate, against the French manifesto, the justice of the British arms. His Mémoire, written in French, was approved by the Cabinet, and delivered as a State Paper to the courts of Europe. The Mémoire is published in English in the Annual Register for 1779 (pp. 397-412), preceded by translations of the Spanish and French manifestoes. Beaumarchais wrote a reply to the Mémoire, which he attributes to Lord Stormont (Observations sur le Mémoire Justificatif de la cour de Londres. Œuvres de Beaumarchais. Edition 1809, vol. v. pp. 1-50).