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

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).

Footnote_445_445

Parliament met November 25, 1779.

Footnote_446_446

On December 1, Lord Shelburne in the Lords, and, on December 6, Lord Ossory in the Commons, moved a vote of censure on the Government for their conduct in Ireland. The Volunteer movement spread rapidly; a French invasion was dreaded; the cry for "free trade" rose higher and higher; a non-importation agreement was entered into; and the relief of Dissenters from the sacramental test was demanded. In consequence of this pressure, Lord North (December 13, 1779) proposed and carried a series of resolutions granting free export trade to Ireland.

Footnote_447_447

"The character of my friend (Mr. Holroyd)," says Gibbon in his autobiography, "had recommended him to a seat in Parliament for Coventry, the command of a regiment of light dragoons, and an Irish peerage." The seat for Coventry was vacant by the death of Walter Waring, M.P.

Footnote_448_448

Towards the end of 1779, and in January, 1780, Yorkshire, Middlesex, Hampshire, and many other counties petitioned the House of Commons to grant no more taxes till the expenses of Government were reduced and sinecure places abolished. The tone of several of these county meetings seemed almost to threaten Civil War. Devonshire is said to have voted a fund for buying arms. The Yorkshire petition was presented by Sir George Saville, February 8, 1780.

Footnote_449_449

In Lord Sheffield's edition of this letter (Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works, vol. ii. p. 239), the words are given as "I hear your Sussex protest gathers signatures in the country." The protest was suggested and promoted by Colonel Holroyd.

Footnote_450_450

Brooks's Club, originally in Pall Mall, was moved to 60, St. James's Street, in 1778. Gibbon, proposed by Mr. St. John, was elected in 1777. In Richard Tickell's verses celebrating the Hon. John Townshend's return for Cambridge in 1780, occur the following lines: —

"And, know, I've bought the best champagne from Brookes.From liberal Brookes, whose speculative skillIs hasty credit, and a distant bill;Who, nursed in clubs, disdains a vulgar trade,Exults to trust and blushes to be paid."

Footnote_451_451

On February 11, Burke brought forward his scheme for securing the independence of Parliament, and for Economical Reform, in a speech which Lord North said was "such as no other member could have made." Besides other reductions of expense, he proposed to abolish altogether the Board of Trade, the Civil Branch of the Ordnance, and the third Secretaryship of State. Lord North allowed the Establishment Bill to be brought in, the only member who opposed its introduction being Lord George Gordon. The House of Commons went into Committee on the Bill, March 8, 1780.

Footnote_452_452

On January 16, 1780, Rodney encountered the Spanish Admiral Langara off Cape St. Vincent, won a complete victory, relieved Gibraltar, supplied Minorca, and proceeded to the West Indies. The San Domingo (70 guns) blew up; the flagship Phœnix (80 guns), and three other ships of 70 guns, were taken. The San Julian (70 guns), after her prize crew was put on board, ran ashore. Another ship, after her officers were shifted, was totally wrecked. Four, more or less damaged, escaped into Cadiz.

Footnote_453_453

On March 13, 1780, the Board of Trade was declared to be useless by 207 to 199. Burke alluded to the literary value of the Board, which had its separate professor for every department of literature, and paid a sneering compliment to the "historian's labours, the wise and salutary results of deep, religious researches." As an Academy of Belles Lettres he held the commissioners hallowed; as a Board of Trade he wished them abolished.

Footnote_454_454

In the debate on the Army Estimates and the new Levies (April 5, 1780), Fox commented on the manner in which Colonel Holroyd had raised his Regiment of Horse. It is to Holroyd's reply, and his explanation that the regiment was raised by him for active service, and not as a "fencible corps," that Gibbon refers.

Footnote_455_455

On June 2, 1780, Lord George Gordon presented the petition of the Protestant Association against the relaxation of the Penal Laws against the Roman Catholics. The "No Popery" riots took place on the 6th and 7th, when London was for some hours in the hands of the mob.

Footnote_456_456

On Wednesday night, June 7, the riot was quelled by military force. The Northumberland Militia, which reached London on June 7 by a forced march of twenty-five miles, were led by Colonel Holroyd into the thick of the riot at High Holborn, to prevent the mob advancing westward, and to protect, if possible, Mr. Langdale's distillery. By Thursday morning the tumult was entirely suppressed. "To Colonel Holroyd, since deservedly raised to the British peerage as Lord Sheffield, the Country was eminently indebted for repelling the fury of the Mob at the Bank" (Wraxall's Historical Memoirs, 3rd edit., vol. i. p. 351).

Footnote_457_457

The session ended July 8, 1780.

Footnote_458_458

Lord Mansfield.

Footnote_459_459

Sir Henry Clinton had captured Charleston, May 12, 1780. Early in June, he re-embarked on Admiral Arbuthnot's fleet and returned to New York. Sir Henry was married to Miss Harriett Carter, a first cousin of Colonel Holroyd.

Footnote_460_460

Admiral (cr. 1794 Lord) Graves sailed, June, 1780, with six ships of the line, to reinforce Admiral Arbuthnot at Long Island, and joined him in July. The French fleet under d'Estaing was at the same time strengthened.

Footnote_461_461

Parliament was dissolved September 1, 1780.

Footnote_462_462

The Hon. Wilbraham Tollemache was elected in Gibbon's place for Liskeard.

Footnote_463_463

The newly elected Parliament met October 31, 1780. Gibbon was elected, at a by-election, M.P. for Lymington, June 25, 1781.

Footnote_464_464

Alexander Wedderburn succeeded Sir W. de Grey (afterwards Lord Walsingham) as Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, with the title of Lord Loughborough (June, 1780).

Footnote_465_465

Admiral Rodney and Charles Fox were elected for Westminster, September 22, 1780, against Lord Lincoln.

Footnote_466_466

Admiral Keppel was returned for Surrey, after being defeated at Windsor by Portlock Powney. George III. canvassed for the latter. "The pony with the powerful rider has carried away the plate" (Warner to G. Selwyn, September, 1780).

Footnote_467_467

Edward James Eliot, eldest son of Mr. Eliot, was elected for St. Germains. He was made a Commissioner of the Treasury in July, 1782.

Footnote_468_468

William Eden, M.P. for Woodstock, was appointed in October, 1780, principal secretary to the Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council of Ireland.

Footnote_469_469

Benjamin Langlois, M.P. for St. Germains in the last Parliament, made room for Mr. Dudley Long. He was made keeper of his Majesty's stores, ordnance, and ammunition of war in June, 1778, and was appointed a Commissioner for Trade and Plantations vice Soame Jenyns.

Footnote_470_470

The Gazette for December, 1780, announces that the grant of the dignity of a baron of the kingdom of Ireland was conferred on John Baker Holroyd, Esq. – Baron Sheffield, of Dunamore, in the county of Meath. "I had a long conversation," writes Miss Burney in 1781, "with the new Lord Sheffield. He gave me a long account of his Coventry affairs, and of the commitment of the sheriffs to Newgate. He is a spirited and agreeable man, and, I doubt not, will make himself conspicuous in the right way."

Footnote_471_471

At the general election in September, 1780, Colonel Holroyd's re-election for Coventry was prevented by no return being made. After a hearing before the House, the sheriffs of Coventry were committed to Newgate, and a new election ordered. The poll began towards the end of November, and remained open for thirty days. At the close, though a large majority voted for Colonel Holroyd and Mr. Yeo, Sir Thomas Hallifax and Mr. Thomas Rogers were declared duly elected. The unsuccessful candidates petitioned against the return. The first day on which a committee could be balloted for was June 26, 1781. But on the motion of Lord Beauchamp (January 23) the petition of Lord Sheffield and Mr. Yeo was referred to a committee for February 15. The return was amended by an order of the House, dated February 27, 1781, by substituting for Hallifax and Rogers the names of Colonel Holroyd (who in the interval had been created Lord Sheffield) and Mr. Edward Roe Yeo.

Footnote_472_472

Lord Buckinghamshire was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The reference is to Colonel Holroyd's elevation to the Irish peerage as Lord Sheffield.

Footnote_473_473

The Empress Maria Theresa died November 29, 1780.

Footnote_474_474

The second and third volumes of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon had presented his first volume of the Decline and Fall to the Duke of Gloucester. When the second volume appeared, it was, in like manner, presented to the Duke, who "received the author with much good nature and affability, saying to him, as he laid the quarto on the table, 'Another d – mn'd thick, square book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr. Gibbon?'" (Best's Personal and Literary Memorials, p. 68). "You will be diverted to hear," writes Walpole to Mason, January 27, 1781, "that Mr. Gibbon has quarrelled with me. He lent me his second volume in the middle of November. I returned it with a most civil panegyric. He came for more incense; I gave it, but alas! with too much sincerity; I added, 'Mr. Gibbon, I am sorry you should have pitched on so disgusting a subject as the Constantinopolitan History. There is so much of the Arians and Eunomians, and semi-Pelagians; and there is such a strange contrast between Roman and Gothic manners, and so little harmony between a Consul Sabinus and a Ricimer, Duke of the Palace, that though you have written the story as well as it could be written, I fear few will have patience to read it.' He coloured: all his round features squeezed themselves into sharp angles; he screwed up his button-mouth, and rapping his snuff-box, said, 'It had never been put together before' – so well, he meant to add – but gulped it. He meant so well certainly, for Tillemont, whom he quotes in every page, has done the very thing. I well knew his vanity, even about his ridiculous face and person, but thought he had too much sense to avow it so palpably."

Footnote_475_475

"When he ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes cruelly mortified by the reflection that the slaves who would not dare to censure his defects were not worthy to applaud his virtues" (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii. ch. xxii.). Gibbon quotes the sentiments from the words of Julian himself (Ammianus, xxii. 10).

Footnote_476_476

Probably General Sir Richard Pearson, K.B., who died suddenly at Bath of gout in the stomach, February 13, 1781.

Footnote_477_477

Mrs. Hutcheson, whose maiden name was Lawrence, married as her first husband Colonel Steward. Her second husband, Archibald Hutcheson, M.P. for Hastings, at the time of his death (1740) commended her to the guidance of William Law. She was joined by Miss Hester Gibbon, and the two ladies, in 1743, settled at King's Cliffe, in a house belonging to Law. There Mrs. Hutcheson founded a school for boys. She died at the age of ninety-one, in January, 1781, and, at her own request, was buried at the feet of Mr. Law.

Footnote_478_478

William Hayley (1745-1820) was a voluminous poet. Byron (English Bards and Scotch Reviewers) attacks him with severity —

"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."

In 1780 he had addressed to Gibbon An Essay on History, in Three Epistles. He married, in 1769, Eliza Ball, daughter of the Dean of Chichester. The marriage proved unhappy; but it should be added that Mrs. Hayley adopted her husband's illegitimate son, who, born in 1780, afterwards became the sculptor, and treated him as her own child. In 1789 Hayley was separated from his wife, whose mind had become affected. Hayley was at this time living at Eartham, in Sussex, a property which he had inherited from his father.